Byte

**Byte Brounev Richards**was a contestant on *Total Drama: Rule Britannia* and *Total Drama: Anarchy*. He was a member of the Delightful Daisies and the Woolly Beavers. He debuted alongside Red.

## Appearance

Byte is a very short teenager, with spiky, multi-colored hair going from brown to white in various angles. He wears an outfit for his racing persona at all times, which entails a domino mask, a t-shirt, minor bits of armor across his torso holding fur tufts, as well as fingerless gloves and shin guards as accessories. Notably, Byte has a large sword on him at all times. This sword is a fair bit over half Byte's height in length, clocking in at a little over three feet. The sword itself is fully grey, with a few purple and blue accents across it. Byte holds it in a sheath that, quite comically, also can contain various other items, most notably minor crafting materials and various notepads for Byte's writing efforts. Byte's movements are fast and exaggerated in a style reminiscent of a cartoon character.

## Personality

On the surface, Byte can be summed up quite quickly as 'kid who doesn't know what he's in for'. It is certainly an understandable belief: the decked out costume, the replica sword he always carries, cartoonish expressions and gestures, and a one-track optimistic outlook, Byte appears to be one of the most childish competitors in the whole season. However, looking past the surface level shows off a different personality than is immediately seen.

Byte is well aware of this image and attempts to keep it in place himself. Even in rare moments of open emotional vulnerability, Byte is quick to cover it up and go on like nothing of note happened. While he will open up to people if he feels it's important, he generally doesn't make an effort to seek people out to help him with his own problems, fearing it may damage what people see him as. This leads to people still seeing Byte as a happy-go-lucky kid, which in turns, starts the cycle over again.

Byte deems himself a friend to all, even those who have been mean to him in the past, and vies for their attention and admiration. He will often go out of his way to be kind with people and avoid pushing them past their limits; in the area of genuinely helping people with their relationships and own problems, such as with Rafe or Elliot, he is arguably the most consulted and dedicated male competitor in the entire season. Because of this, Byte's list of enemies is practically, if not outright, non-existent.

Unfortunately for Byte, his sense of optimism makes him weak in the area of competitive gameplay. While he has managed to prove himself skillful in direct challenges, such as landing the final elimination on Eddie in Episode 9 of *Rule Britannia*, he is less skilled in actual game analysis, typically making either extremely brash or dangerous moves, or not making any moves at all. His lurking senses of suspicion are more focused on direct social relationships, and as such, he expends more effort on helping people than getting ahead in the game, making multiple mistakes - such as tying loyalty down too hard, or being exceedingly blunt - in doing so. While one might think his lack of enemies would be a safe factor for him, his general blindness to most politics on the island makes him either an easy and safe target or a (generally) unwitting pawn in most strategies. His poor language skills also hinder him: he cannot explain a lot of things, ranging from game analysis to personality quirks, and relationship advice to plain old ideas, easily. This means he's prone to messing up what he means, and having a message come out the wrong way.

His relationship with Red is a trait best exemplified early on in the series, with him playing a role akin to an annoying younger brother. While she's annoyed by him often, she humors him more than not, and he reciprocates the efforts by helping her whenever necessary. Her elimination prompts him to become more strategic in the game, and Byte does indeed make strategies, plans, and alliances later on due to this as opposed to keeping his more childlike attitude in main priority.

While Byte indirectly touts his innocence, he also has his own shady history and behavior. He's managed to create various torture devices through dark curiosity - a trait admired by one of his closest friends on the show, Elina - and has (formerly) had a stint in street racing under the moniker of 'Shadow Savior', a persona he slips back into on rare occasions. Notably, over the course of the series, he becomes slightly more psychotic due to his interactions with Elina and the other contestants, compromising his optimistic outlook on a semi-regular basis and becoming more open and expressive with violent, hateful, and depressed emotions, though he still attempts to keep a positive attitude and intent as best he can.

Unfortunately, Byte's attempts to connect with more people and become more emotionally mature also break his facade much harder, resulting in him accidentally revealing his severe issues with dependency and fear of losing people - which explains his extremely personal relationship with Red in a ***much*** less positive way. It also makes him weaker on the surface, due to his repressed emotions often coming out in excessive bursts during dangerous or generally intense situations that reveal how truly developmentally immature he is with his 'stay positive at all times' view on both the inside and the outside.

## Skills

### Physical

* **Swordfighting:** Byte is a skilled swordfighter, able to use his sword in combat to take down enemies consistently and with notable skill in precision and strength. He rarely uses it with intent to genuinely hurt people, either in an attempt to fake people out or throw them off their guard, like he does when fighting Orion and Andrew in the lighthouse, or when fighting Red during the talent contest. While he often tries to avoid being violent towards people, he will gain an intent to harm if need be, such as when fighting animals or people who he feels he can't outwit in combat. Generally, his most successful fights end quickly, with his opponents usually backing off after one or two stronger injuries.
* **Wood carving:** Byte can wood carve with decent skill, able to create various things - with cabin replicas, statues of people, and basic abstract structures being some examples - with his sword. Notably, he is not skilled at other forms of carving such as marble, being used to his more erratic sword-focused style as opposed to a slower, methodical approach.
* **Drag racing:** Byte was formerly a skilled drag racer named 'Shadow Savior' and is stated to have a successful history within the racing ring he performed within, collecting enough money through his skills for it to be a notable effect on his life and income upon the ring being ended. His skill is also implied through being a target of legal services when they crack down on his ring, suggesting he would be one of the most notable and popular members of the ring.
* **Resilience:** Byte is able to take excessive amounts of physical damage before going down. Notable examples of his physical endurance are his condition after falling out of a tree and a mansion window - both which simply wind him for a couple of hours as opposed to causing any major injuries - and managing to fight off Red during the talent show without staying harmed for long. He is also able to tank many natural events somewhat well, such as cold weather, severe rain, and sun burns; however, he often is unable to use this in helpful ways to himself or his team members, due to his fighting style being extremely hit-and-run or his strength being used simply to keep himself comfortable in harsher weather.

### Mental

* **Writing:** Byte is a skilled writer, with an interest in creating his own stories, novels, and scripts. He rarely mentions his stories to other contestants, with the most notable one he has written (and acted out) being a 300 page script for an 'RPG-inspired drama romantic comedy non-battle battle anime movie'.
* **Emotional support:** Byte is willing to give anyone who needs it emotional support, ranging from helping Rafe with his relationship issues, or telling Elina how to handle her relationship with Daisy. He is willing to help most anyone who he feels needs help with it, even attempting to comfort Daisy after Damia's kidnapping; which, given her response, might have indeed been successful. While he often phrases things poorly by accident, he tries to fix mistakes he makes with people when he says something unintentionally rude or wrong, and tries putting it in terms they can always understand.

## Trivia

* Byte is one of two TDRB contestants who knows Elina's true identity, the other one being Zara. Extending the requirements to simply characters *within* TDRB, Daisy is also added to this group.
* Byte is the shortest competitor in TDRB, his height being 4'10", with second place being a tie between Mitsu and Renee, who are both at 4'11".
* Byte's eyes, despite their appearance, are not actually violet, simply being an extreme shade of blue that often gives off such an appearance; some celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor, are/were known for having similar eye coloring patterns.
* Byte is one-eighth Russian, which he comically attributes being why he's resistant to cold temperatures.
* Byte is tied with Elina for being the first contestant to earn immunity twice during merge in TDRB. Notably, they both also win their second immunity in the same episode.