#lyrasmith

In canon DBD, apparently every time you die in a Trial, you lose a little bit of your soul until you're gone if I recall. I can somewhat imagine how that'd affect a person's psyche, so I imagine the survivors who've been there the longest are a little... eerie. Off-putting and a bit unhinged.

Vittorio would probably be the most unsettling to be around since he's been there for what, a couple hundred years? Following him would be the next oldest survivors who are still around (Dwight, Meg, Claudette, Jake, Nea, etc) and while they're still themselves, obviously they're a bit strange since they've died hundreds of times.

They tend to stare off into the distance, seem a bit absent, and have more muted outward emotional reactions.

For example, Dwight was initially a nervous, very screamy and jumpy survivor. As of now, he's much more quiet and rolls with the punches a lot better. While he's still a good leader and puts his teammates first, he's also aware of how the Fog is affecting him and his older colleagues. If he's forced to choose between getting a new survivor killed and a senior survivor killed, he'll let the newer survivor die. Their soul can take a lot more than an older survivor can, after all.

Quentin, despite being significantly newer than a lot of the longer-time survivors, doesn't really follow this. He'll gladly throw himself in harm's way to protect anyone, and as such, he's died a lot more than his peers save for Vittorio.

The fact that Quentin has the whole dreamwalking thing going for him only serves to make him even creepier, and while he has generally amicable interactions with his fellow survivors, they don't actively seek him out. He's a bit of a loner, and the fact that his soul is so damaged by the Entity only makes his stunted conversations with everyone uncomfortable.

He has a handful of friends, however. Nea, Steve, Sable, Leon, Jonathan, and Renato do regularly hang out with him.

Nea is his closest friend, having been there almost the same amount of time as him. Steve sees him as similar to a kid he knows, El, and sympathizes with his situation. Sable is Nea's partner and also finds Quentin interesting, what with her attachment to the occult and creepy shit. Leon is older and has a generally protective view of survivors younger than him, so he often checks up on Quentin to make sure he's okay. Jonathan sympathizes with his 'social outcast' status, having been a social outcast himself, and enjoys talking about photography and music with Quentin. Renato is autistic and sees a lot of himself in Quentin's social struggles.

This is just a self-indulgent Quentin-centric thing because thats literally like. The only survivor I write about.