❀ ooc | information
[series]: Tales of the Abyss
[character]: Dist the Reaper / Saphir Wyon Neis
[character history / background]: Tales Wiki.
[character abilities]: He's technically a genius, though he manages to be a complete idiot at the same time, so uh. He's exceptionally good with fonic technology -- possibly the best currently living in his world -- including fomicry. However, he's generally better with putting things into practice than he is with coming up with theories, which is where he and Jade always sort of completed each other in regard to research.
He always fights with machines rather than with his own power; he likely knows his own physical limitations. There isn't really much ever said about his own fonic ability; he did make it to an extremely high rank within the Oracle Knights, but this may only be because of his intellect. It's possible that copied Jade in regard to opening the eyes' fon slots, which would have increased his abilities, since he also wears glasses and has red-tinted eyes like Jade, but this is never mentioned anywhere as far as I can tell, so I wouldn't count on it.
[character personality]:
Dist's entire being revolves around two people -- Professor Gelda Nebilim and Jade Balfour.
His feelings toward Professor Nebilim, though rather complex, are relatively simple to quantify. He adores her; she treated him kindly and supportively in his childhood when most others -- particularly Jade -- didn't. There isn't a single negative or conflicting feeling toward her; indeed, in the decades since her death, she's become something beyond human in his eyes. She's a symbol of his happy, sheltered childhood, a golden ideal that he clings to relentlessly, and her death marked the moment when everything shattered -- something he has never been able to deal with. His sole mission in life ever since that day has been to bring her back to life so that he can restore things to how they once were, when he and she and Jade were "happy" together, and in this, she has become an unattainable perfection, a savior.
His relationship with Jade, on the other hand, is incredibly conflicted, and can be difficult to put into words. It is entirely true to say that Dist both genuinely loves and genuinely hates Jade.
Dist -- or Saphir, rather -- utterly idolized Jade throughout their childhood and desperately wanted to be friends with him. Jade was brilliant and powerful and cool; Saphir was the only other child around who came close to matching Jade's intellect, so it only made sense to him that they belonged together as best friends, even if he was rather lacking in the other two areas. But Jade had no interest in the whiny, clingy Saphir, and his callous rejections of his myriad attempts at friendship ranged from merely cold -- not bothering to help when Saphir tripped and hurt himself while trying to catch up to Jade -- to outright cruel -- casting an arte to make the ice beneath him break when Saphir attempted to join Jade and his friends in ice-skating, something that resulted in search parties having to fish him out of the freezing water.
And despite all this, Saphir never stopped trying.
Which ended up working out well for Jade after he killed Professor Nebilim in an accidental explosion. Saphir was there to help him carry her body from the building, he was at Jade's side throughout the creation of their first failed replica, and when Jade vowed that the two of them would find a way to truly bring Nebilim back no matter what it took -- well, there was certainly no way Saphir would refuse to indulge him. This was almost a bittersweet moment in Saphir's life, because while he considers it the absolute worst, losing his beloved professor and shattering his childish innocence, it was also the first time Jade ever needed and wanted him. From that point on for many years, it really was him and Jade, the two geniuses no one else could understand, against the world, just as he'd always imagined it should have been. This probably justified all the years of bullying in his mind and contributed to his delusion that the three of them had once been perfectly happy together -- Jade had needed him after all, he must have always needed him, and once Professor Nebilim was there with them again, with the two students who had cared enough to bring her back, everything would be perfect.
But then Peony just had to come and punch sense into Jade and get him to give up this sick mission of reviving the dead, as if Saphir hadn't had enough reason to hate him in their childhood, when Jade had always chosen Peony over himself. It ruined everything.
Because Jade left. Maybe he thought it was accepting the past and moving forward from it, but to Saphir, it was giving up, and it was the most horrible thing he ever could have done. He was giving up on Professor Nebilim, willing to just leave her rotting forever when she had done so much for him, and when Jade had been the one that had killed her in the first place; and he was giving up on Saphir and abandoning him after everything they'd gone through together and everything he had done for him. And he was telling Saphir that the dream of a happy reunion that had been his reason for living all this time was never going to come true.
Dist views this as an incredible betrayal to both himself and to Professor Nebilim, and it's something he really can't forgive. So he does hate Jade. But even now, he somehow still clings to that hopeless wish that Jade will come back to him again, to him and Nebilim; and even when he thinks of Jade as treacherous scum, he still can't shake that image of him as that perfect boy he idolized and loved. He can't let go of Jade or the intense attachment he feels toward him, and that makes him hate him all the more.
NOW THAT THAT'S COVERED...
Since his childhood as a scrawny, geeky kid with a bowl cut, Dist has grown up into a remarkably flamboyant adult, wearing brightly colored makeup and clothing with ridiculous pink flower petals, floating around in a flying armchair instead of bothering to walk, insisting that he be called "Dist the Rose", and overusing words like "elegant" and "gorgeous" when describing himself, which he does very frequently. While it may seem a little strange, it's likely the result of his insecurity and the desperation for attention he's exhibited since he was young.
This crazy, sparkly narcissism also definitely contributes to his success as one of the game's primary sources of comic relief -- as do his exaggerated emotions and obsessive feelings toward Jade, his terrible failure at ever being suave and secretive (leaving notes telling his enemies the thing they're looking for is DEFINITELY NOT INSIDE THIS ROOM!, for example), the fact that he manages to live through everything "like a cockroach", and the fact that pretty much no other character ever bothers to listen to him -- Sync tends to leave in the middle of his spiels, and no one but himself has ever called him "The Rose".
Despite his general obnoxiousness and unlikability these days, there are moments where the awkward, lonely kid who will do anything for attention still shows through. Dist was the one who made Tokunaga into a weapon for Anise -- she felt bad for him always sitting alone in the dining hall and finally sat with him one day; he altered Tokunaga for her out of appreciation for this. Regarding this, Anise says that Dist isn't a bad person, but isn't really a good one either. (One of the manga novels expands on their relationship a lot, and while I like to draw on it a bit for interactions with Anise when their players agree, I don't really think it's canon. Regardless, even though they clearly aren't friends, Anise does seem to have a bit of lingering sympathy for Dist, fighting the Nebilim replica on his behalf -- even if she has just used half a dozen insulting terms to describe him.)
The last major thing to note is that Anise was pretty much right in that simple description. Dist is a pitiful character who's often been treated worse than he's deserved and who can do good things for others when he wants to, but he isn't a good person, either. He's perfectly willing to play everyone and use them all to achieve his own goals, and he does so whenever it will benefit him. He's also a little more morbid and less prissy than you might expect from looking at him -- after all, he spent years with Jade researching corpses (he's not called "the Reaper" for nothing) and he had no qualms about turning Mohs into a particularly hideous monster.
And as much emphasis as there is within the game (and much moreso within fandom) on his comic relief role, he is an exceptionally competent scientist, and is the only person to have intentionally managed to create a perfect isofon (Star the Cheagle). His over-the-top personality just tends to undermine his accomplishments.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Sometime before his last fight against THE JADE GANG at the Tower of Rem.
I pretty much always imagine Dist speaking much more in his Japanese voice than in his dub voice, PARTLY BECAUSE I JUST REALLY LOVE YAO KAZUKI.
Until I get my hard drive back and can actually make some sound clips, have some Youtube:
Here at 00:40 and here at 1:00.