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Name: Diryas ibn Hanan Castaneda al-Baksh, Ph.D. // (DIp + pRay + YArn + Sit) + (fELL - BOX + SHell)
Nickname: Dise (deece) (because your professor mushmouths your name ONE TIME…)
Age: 35
Birthday: October 29th, 1988
Sign: Scorpio
Gemstone: Opal
Blood Type: A+
Fav. Food: Tree fruit. Pears, peaches, bananas, apples, citrus, all of these. He likes berries and shrub/vine fruit well enough, but if it grows on a tree, chances are he adores it.
Hated Food: He’s lactose intolerant, so a lifetime of forced digestive conditioning has made him dislike how milk/cheese/etc. tastes.
School: Diryas went to Destiny City University and graduated with a doctorate in chemistry, specifically organic and biochemistry. Nowadays he works as a toxicologist with adjunct professorship at the university.
Hobbies:Jigsaw Puzzles - And the harder the better. He won't typically consider anything less than 10,000 pieces a proper challenge and prefers to work on landscape, celestial, or aquatic themed pieces. When he's finished, he tends to glue them together and frame them for display or sell the finished puzzles through private sales.
Keyboarding - His parents insisted he learn at least one musical skill, and he chose the keyboard. He’s not at a level that could be considered competitive, but he’s competent enough to play intermediate pieces and compose some of his own. He doesn’t care much for a traditional piano, however, feeling it lacks versatility compared to his electronic keyboard.
Botany - If not winding down with a puzzle or music, he’ll be tending to a small garden of plants, the majority of which live on his balcony. This is where he supplements some of his fruit, especially the berries. He keeps a couple other plants that aren’t, well, remotely edible, but keeps them well away from the edible ones. These are carefully tended, and he sometimes brings them to class if lecturing on nature not being all warm and fuzzy.
Virtues: Patient - If there is something he wants, he'll get it; it's just a matter of time. It's relatively rare that he gives up on something purely due to how long it’ll take to obtain/accomplish. Instead, it usually has to be dangerous, impractical, expensive, that sort of thing--something that makes it not worth the trouble. His patience also extends to social situations, making it easier for him to navigate them despite being fairly introverted. Trying his patience typically involves people not taking the “hint” when he blatantly ignores them, blatantly tells them to go away, or blatantly leaves.
Self-Sufficient - Diryas doesn’t generally need other people. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t like other people, prefer the company of friends and loved ones, or strongly desire the presence of certain others. But he doesn’t need to be surrounded by people, and he won’t feel lonely if he goes days or even weeks without a friend checking in--though he might be concerned if that’s unusual behaviour for that friend or loved one. When he was a child, his tendency to play by himself did raise some eyebrows, but school counselors concluded he was fine, just quiet, so he was eventually left alone to do as he pleased.
Unflappable - He is very hard to bother, and showing him something to see his reaction to the shock factor is probably only going to end in disappointment for the person trying to shock him. This extends into more contentious arenas, and Diryas doesn’t debate politics because it’s pointless to him. What do people think they’re going to convince him of, anyway? You want to be paleo? Sure, cool, he doesn’t care. Your job takes you into the red-light district? Stay safe! He might see you there later! You need help getting to the clinic for your E or T? He’ll give you bus fare. Now, if someone’s actively getting hurt, then he’ll do what he can, and there’s been a couple times the bus fare was to a shelter (after which he placed an anonymous 911 call), but in general Diryas stays level. He can, after significant time and pressure, be pushed to losing his temper, but the effort it takes to do so isn’t something people tend to want to invest.
Studious - It’s not just that he’s observant, but also that he has good powers of recall. It wasn’t that he didn’t have to study in school--anyone who says they don’t need to study the TCA cycle is a liar--but moreso that he can pick up changes in body language, intonation, that sort of thing, and notice very quickly when someone’s having a bad day if they’re someone he knows reasonably well. He can follow connections and pathways of thought to quickly reach a conclusion and move onto the next problem that needs solving. He doesn’t need to rely on as much rote memorization as long as he has the time to properly devote his attention to a topic.
Flaws: Mischievous - Diryas is just over five feet of bad science jokes. His 'keep calm and carry on' exterior hides a mischievous streak many miles wide and he tends to tease mercilessly with people who will tend to recognize the banter for what it is. Pranks, traps, these are all things he enjoys and will quite happily go along with most things of that nature. It can get him into trouble, though, as even people closest to him can misunderstand a light-hearted comment as an act of spite, or just not appreciate the timing of a joke. As he never breaks an 'act' to grin reassuringly or wink, he is very easy to take seriously when he doesn't mean to be. He has lost friendships due to it, especially when he was younger, and this was very distressing to a boy who didn’t have many of them to begin with. He will certainly apologize if someone lets him know they’re bothered, but that hasn’t always happened.
Self-Contained - Diryas does not emote much, open up much, or lean on others much. For those who need to be able to read the other person to be comfortable talking to them, he is not an easy conversation partner, and not just because he’s not given to conversating. He doesn’t like to talk about what’s going on in his life unless he knows the other person very well, well enough that they honestly probably don’t actually need to ask because they were probably there. However, even still, he doesn’t like to feel “burdensome”, and he has to be reminded that there are people he can come to when he needs it. It does take a measure of watchfulness on the part of his loved ones, because Diryas just isn’t likely to say anything, himself.
Quiet - He is not shy in the least. People close to him would laugh at the notion. However, because Diryas isn’t someone who talks much, people can assume he’s shy. This usually has one of two outcomes: either someone thinks he’s shy and tries to baby him because of it (his least favourite is when they try to speak up for him without establishing that he’s okay with it) or they try to push him around because, mistaken premise or no, they equate quietness with shyness and shyness with timidity. He’s perfectly capable of advocating for himself, thanks, and he doesn’t appreciate the insinuation that he can’t take care of himself. Being talked over is just generally frustrating and tends to make him quite grouchy--especially when the other person won’t stop talking for five seconds so Diryas can flatly tell them off.
Focused - On the surface, this would be a good thing. However, Diryas can easily lose himself in his work, forgetting to eat or sleep. More extreme cases can involve him forgetting about other people around him. He has to finish what he’s doing, he has to solve the proof, he has to calculate the molarity of a very specific, niche solution. It's been remarked that he would never hear a fire alarm. He simply is not thinking on the 'present' plane when he does this, and rarely ignores someone out of malice or annoyance, and almost never even remembers someone trying to get his attention. However, even after he’s made aware of someone trying to talk to him, he has occasionally brusquely dismissed them. No insult intended, of course--he’s busy! He can talk to them later--it’s probably not even that important. He’s learned to moderate this somewhat, because his job does necessitate working in teams sometimes, but it’s all too easy to fall back into his own little world when working.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Eyes: [
Garnet]
⓿⓿⓿⓿⓿ and almond-shaped
Hair: [
Red Dahlia]
⓿⓿⓿⓿⓿ from the root, fading into
⓿⓿⓿⓿⓿ towards the ends ([
Cerise]). His hair is chest-length in the front and shoulder-length in the back as well as slightly curly/wavy.
Face: A medium warm tan at base, he can get several shades darker if exposed to the sun frequently.
⓿⓿⓿⓿⓿ (#B5684C); he has light facial hair growth, thankfully not patchy, along his jawline. His facial structure is not the most masculine, but he's really only androgynous from behind due to his height. A reasonably good face-claim is [
Imran] [
Abbas].
Clothes: When not at work, Diryas prefers denim shorts and cotton t-shirts. Due to only being 5’3” and 125 lbs, Diryas occasionally (often) has to shop in the boys’ section, leaving him with a somewhat eclectic array of graphic tees. He also wears a pair of silver thin-framed glasses and a gold wedding band in the shape of a serpent wrapped nose-to-tail.
Knight Title: Imhotep, Squire of Mercury
