Dill 'Stupid' Parker's Questionnaire

Dill currently lives in the streets in New York City with his best friend Scriggles, typically staying around entrances to the sewer so there's easy access to the rats and wererats they hunt. He used to live with his parents until he was 10, when they threw him out after his second Change, unable to stand the apparent monster their child had become.

Most of the time they stick to dark areas in the street to avoid the view of both the general public and avoid animal control (or other services) being called on them. Sometimes, during the day, they also head into abandoned subway tunnels, or sewer tunnels as well for this reason when the streets are particularly busy.

Dill is mostly dirt poor, with the few bits of change he does have being found in gutters and dumpsters. He does also occasioanlly steal from stores or restaurants, but that's rarely cash and more often food, medicine or other items. However, he does have a sort of cult following among the monsters of New York City due to the urban legends around his battling against the Rat King and his forces, occasionally scouting out things left for him (most often weapons or ammunition, sometimes money and food) by the residents of the city. He also pawns rugs he makes from sewn together rat hides.

When he does have it, he mostly spends it on food or things to maintain his clothes and person, such as medicine.

Dill doesn't have much of a grand ambition, mostly wanting to make friends and keep them safe when he can. However, he's also specifically interested, more as he's grown, in finding out whether there are others like him, and seeks out information he can on his own nature and why he is why he is. This partially comes from practical concerns, and also the fear he has around his Metamorphosis, and not knowing what the end will look like for him as he continues to live. This is mostly why he keeps going on Contracts, as so many varied people and things outside of the natural are found on them that he believes it's the most likely way to find a community....as dangerous as the contracts themselves can be.

The most defining event he can remember in his life before the Contract is him being kicked out of his house and onto the street. His parents had a growing fear and revulsion towards him after the first signs of his change began at four years old, but at 9 and ending at 10, his second metamorphosis started, where many of his physical changes became more pronounced, but also where his mentality changed slighty (though this was also because of his growing alienation from the other people in his life), and his beliefs and thoughts started to shift from beliefs they had instilled within him.

After the second Change, which was the first with a chrysalis lasting more than a single night, they were horrified enough to pack up his things and bring him out onto the outskirts of the city to leave him there, declaring him missing and leaving him to fend for himself.

Scriggles - Scriggles is probably Dill's closest friend, the pair having met soon after Dill found himself on the street. He likely would have died without his help as he taught him how to find food, and much of what was good to eat. He also taught him how to steal and sneak around, with Dill helping him out by fighting off cat catchers, and his senses being good enough to avoid rotten food, and pick up on potential attackers from far away.

Fork - Fork is Dill's mysterious pet beetle. He initially began as an imaginary friend in Dill's childhood, and may still be, though Dill claims Fork taught him lots of things about the world, as well as how to protect himself both physically and at range (accounting for Dill's mysterious proficiency with firearms). He has also lived a long time, being present from about 4 and into his current age, also telling him things about his abilities (though claiming to not know their origin either). They rival Scriggles in how much Dill talks to them, but Scriggles tends to give more consistent advice.

The Rat King - The Rat King is Dill's greatest enemy, made as a result of Dill's consistent friendship with Scriggles and their frequent killing of wererats in NYC. They briefly had a more neutral relationship, with the Rat King sending servants he didn't like to Dill and Scriggles or 'Guillotine Joe' as he's called around NYC to kill them off. However, a recent turn, potentially due to their consistent activity and growth in power, prompted the Rat King to turn his attention to actually taking them down by partnering with the Cat Catchers.

Dill's parents, as mentioned earlier, treated him poorly consistently due to his Changes, beginning with the first Change at 4 and the second at 10 which culminated in him being left for dead and removed from their lives. However, his childhood was also generally restrictive, being raised as a Jehovah's Witness. Aberrant or unusual behaviour was strictly punished, which also then included physical changes being feared but considered proof of some great malicious belief, idea or deed within him or performed by him, which resulted in him being pulled from school, and shunned and confined to the cellar.

Dill attended school until he was 9, when sickness before his Change, and his growing separation from other children his age, caused him to be pulled from school. He has not since attended any formal schooling. At school, he tended to be a loner, as the school was heavily occupied by fellow Witnesses and other Christians despite being a public school. He did have a few friends from 5-9 years old, named David and Penny, though he lost contact with them when he was pulled from the school and has since had no contact with them.

[ Changing this question to be asking more about Dill's general ideas about love both romantic and not, just so the answer isn't 'no he is 14' ]

Dill, in his childhood, was taught the standard belief about 'proper' love and relationships shared by Jehovah's witnesses, which is that the only acceptable relationship would be one between a man and a woman who intend to marry, at an age his parents deemed fit, and that included as little 'unclean' acts as possible. This still generally persists in his mind, having not known about alternative beliefs about dating, love, gender and sexuality until very recently, and even now considering his only source of information is Scriggles and the general things he overhears, there is a lot of gaps in his knowledge, and Fork isn't very helpful as he only really mentioned laying eggs.

Losing People: Dill's biggest fear is losing the people he cares about. He initially held onto this fear in relation to his family, wanting very much to be loved and accepted by them, though finding himself being pushed further away by them and his growing differences to them. Historically, he had a strong belief about Jehovah and God as well, fearing divine punishment and condemnation after death, as well as being very afraid of hurting other people.

Part of the reason why his parents saw such a shift was that after his first Change, Dill's great concern for human life as special faded, and changed to hold humans and animals at similar levels, only really valuing the health of others if they were people he liked. This sudden shift was a little concerning to him, but did result in him breaking that fear of hurting others and allow him to then defend himself against bullies at school (though sometimes seemingly too much or too harshly, leading to further exclusion).

He currently holds a fear of losing people because of the changes in his body and mind, fearing further changes and fearing he'll lose Scriggles and other friends he has made because of it.

That still holds after the second Change, but he has now also gained a fear of being imprisoned and held. He held this as a small fear before the second Change, but after strong memories of being held in the Cellar, and spending more time underground due to his living situation, thoughts of being trapped and kept isolated from others now occupy his mind more frequently.

Fork - Fork is a mysterious beetle that would technically count as one of his possessions, which he carries around in his pocket to seek advice from. More about Fork said in the person question.

The Hammer - The Hammer is a shotgun Dill has had for a while, which has gained almost a hatred that matches Dill's own of rats and wererats, after spilling and being washed in the blood of both so many times. It is also imbued with infinite ammunition, which Dill doesn't really know the reason behind. It could be magic accrued in the same way as the rat-slaying, some other magical influence, or be pulling from Dill's mysterious Beetle Space and forming ammunition from it.

Notebook - Dill has a notebook he often draws in, having been drawing scribbles for quite some time. He tends to need a lot of time to draw well, as most of his sensory information comes from non-visual sources and it is not one of his most intuitive senses, but with his greater dexterity and proper limb arrangement now he may get better. He has drawings of him and Scriggles, various creatures he's encountered, notes on people he's met, and he usually writes little journals related to things that happened on Contracts in it.