Grasshopper

*"Did you really think you could stop me?"*

Base by Fizzy filled by Winter Jam

## Personality

Grasshopper can be quite outspoken. They don’t really care about what others think of them, and believe in their opinions very deeply. He is not commonly a friend to anyone, usually becoming friends with someone to gain something. However, occasionally he makes an actual friend. He is very loyal to dragons he cares about, and will usually take drastic measures to protect them. He treats his job like a game, always looking for ways to make hunting dragons more fun. Grasshopper came out of the forest. His parents were criminals, trafficking goods and dragons, but they wanted more, and Grasshopper was their plan to get it. They trained him, doing ***whatever it takes*** to make him into the best assassin they could. And they succeeded! Grasshopper gave them credibility with his skills, taking out high profile targets, and allowed them to expand into the business. However, it didn’t go great for Grasshopper. He was gaslighted into being sadistic, being taught to enjoy playing with his food before he ate it. He relished in the night, in cover, in stealth and the perfect quiet takedown. Did…..he enjoy it? He didn’t know.

When Darkstalker took over, he enjoyed the new power he had because of the class system. He slowly weaseled his way into Darkstalker’s little gang, enjoying the power and keeping order.

He’s friends with Ember, a Sandwing. He keeps this hidden, as it would be imprudent for someone that high up to be friends with that. He’s quite friendly with his lessers, gaining their loyalty. He kind of resents taking orders from others, and sometimes just disregards them, but deals with it.

## Backstory

*This is compiled from an old, encrypted file on Grasshopper from our generous [REDACTED]. Some parts may be unclear or corrupted because of this. Furthermore, Grasshopper is incredibly secretive of his past. The following should be taken with a grain of salt.*

He grew up on Pyrrhia with his family, who were deeply rooted in crime, predominantly with smuggling illegal items and dragons, being one of the major players in the scene. Their base of operations was the rainforest, being easy to hide stuff in.With a background like this, of *course* their only child would grow up to be just like them!

No, actually.

His family wanted to branch out of their one buisness. And Grasshopper was how they were going to do it.

They invested lots of time and money into turning him into the ideal assassin, using him to show everyone that they were serious about it. They had good reasons, but they didn't really know how to say it to Grasshopper, and they never told him the reasons why.

It wasn't exactly fun for Grasshopper though. His parent's philosiphy was do w*ha**te**ve**r i**t **t**a**kes*** to train him to be the best assassin he could.

"Training exercises" were everywhere, all with horrible consequences for failure. At every turn, he was afraid he would be attacked by his family and friends, all part of "training" him.

He was taught to love causing pain, to enjoy stealing the life from dragons. He didn't like it initially, but after some gaslighting, he eventually developed a sadistic streak he could never lose.

He was fairly miserable without question, but did as he was told, or else he would be handed a big portion of pain. His mental state degraded significantly during this time. He started to think of his weapons, tons of balisongs, as his only friends, and was frequently seen talking to them when alone.

Quickly, with said rigorous training, he acquired prodigious skill, and at 5, his parents deemed him ready. He was handed his first assignment, kill a rainwing who had found some stuff out.

He completed the task with ease, with no one finding out until over a day after he was gone.  But while he was out there, no one was watching them, and he started to think for himself for once-

He ran. Away from his problems, away from his friends, away from everything. Execpt his balisongs, which he kept a big collection of.

He was declared missing for over 5 days. During those days, he was the happiest he'd ever been.

However, one day he was much too reckless, and one of his parent's age*n**ts f̷̦͚̀̀ó̷̜̄ų̸̘̊ņ̷̇d*** took him fO̶̼͔̍rcefullȳ̷̠̫̚, cha̵̺͚͘ning and a̵̺͚͘b̴̼̣̅ų̸̦̊sin̵͈͂͐g him for the next couple of days.

Eventually, Grasshopper was able to pick the lock on his chains, steal back his butterfly knives, and kill the agent, just a day before his family was set to collect him.

He started freelancing targeted assassination, and racked up quite a list of sucessful missions.

He eventually sucessfully completed a high level target many others had tried and failed.

Ironically, the original plan worked, and his family was able to get a bunch of other dragons to work under them using Grasshopper's skills, even though he hated them.

During the time when he was captured, he vowed to hide away his past, broken self, and created a confident, arrogant, non-caring personality to replace it, imitating everything he wanted to be.

During these numerous missions, he got triggered by various things and reverted back to his previous personality, nearly getting him killed on mulitple occasions.

Each time he tried to fix it somehow, but he never could. He kept improving his facade of a personality.

However, he started thinking about everything, and frequently had breakdowns over who he was. The facade was meant to fool other dragons, but it was also meant to fool Grasshopper himself.

After being caught and abused for a week, he sucessfully broke out again. While inside, he had a lot of time to think about himself.

He decided The "facade" was him. That's who he always was. That's who his parents wanted him to be. That's who he was meant to be.

But this hides his greatest fear.

That he's wrong. That he's turned out wrong, and the crazy, broken, insoluable dragon hidden inside him was him.

## Relationships

Ember: Good friends, trusts them.

Steel: Great friends, frequently turns to them for advice.