Lamium Dioica

"Sorry...my mind was somewhere else..."

Lamium Dioica is an original character created by Aldrasos

Appearance
Lamium - or Lami, as he prefers to be called - is a young man of average height and thin build. As the result of a severe vitamin deficiency, Lami is known for his sickly grey skin, which he tries to downplay by drawing attention to other aspects of his appearance, most notably the many swirling purple tattoos covering his body, as well as his penchant for bright clothing. His hair is jet black with purple highlights, and is styled so that the left side is short, the top and right side is medium length and messy, and the back is long and tied in a basic ponytail. His sharp violet eyes are known for their piercing glare.

In terms of clothing, Lami favours a specific outfit designed for both general and specialist use. From the feet-up, Lami usually wears dark-leather boots connected to greaves studded with tiny purple Dust crystals, over simple black and purple trousers held up by a thin belt decorated with a elegant silver buckle. His long-sleeved shirt is a stark black, though the torso is covered by a thin leather vest reinforced with more purple Dust shards. Over the vest he wears a large pendant with a clear diamond-shaped crystal in the centre. Around his neck he sports a purple cowl, which he often pulls over his head when out in public. On his shoulders he dons a pair of dark studded leather pauldrons attached to a light purple cloak. The outside of his shirt sleeves sports a long purple line that eventually ends in pair of leather gauntlets, once again studded with purple Dust shards. Additionally, a pair of hand-crafted leather holsters are strapped to his back, in which he carries his two daggers.

Another notable aspect of his appearance is his faunus trait, which is a pair of large black ram's horns. Lami's self-consciousness about his trait makes the wearing of his cowl routine and often necessary when in public.

Personality
Lami is overall a well-balanced person, with a firm understanding of what is morally right and wrong. However, a medical condition that for the longest time withheld a large amount of autonomy made him desire an exciting, thrill-seeking lifestyle, which often creates difficult moral choices. Usually, Lami will do what is most exciting, regardless of long-term consequence, though once the thrill is over he expresses great regret for his actions. Unfortunately, his shame is usually not enough to make him change his ways, and so he frequently suffers from mental breakdowns created by accumulated self-loathing. After several days he is typically recovered, though, and quickly returns to his old ways.

Lami is an incredibly inquisitive person, and is known for letting his curiousity get him in trouble. His hunger for knowledge and secrets is more the result of the desire to know what others attempt to hide, rather than actually gaining anything of value from said knowledge. This makes him a dependable spy and informant, as he is very unlikely to betray his employers after a successful mission. Lami is not typically a fan of violence, but will fight with tooth and nail if he feels personally in danger. For the most part, however, Lami avoids confrontation - though he will often goad and provoke people out of amusement, at least until the threat of violence becomes possible.

His condition, which makes him spend much of his life inactive and away from society, has also resulted in debilitating loneliness and a desire for human interaction. As such, Lami tries to be as sociable and gregarious as possible when he is able, and often spends a lot of time walking back and forth down busy streets, for the simple pleasure of being around people.

Background
Lamium Dioica was born to faunus parents in Menagerie, around 20 years before the events of RWBY. His parents were loving and relatively well-off by local standards, but were otherwise ordinary citizens. He lived a happy and peaceful life in Menagerie for 12 years, until one day he fell severely ill. He was diagnosed with gradual kidney failure, which would soon lead to complete failure and eventual death. With the required resources unavailable to them in Menagerie, Lami's family was forced to move to Mistral for treatment. They managed to gain him access to a crude dialysis-functioning machine which prevented his immediate death, though he was required to stay attached to the machine for most of his life. The time Lami was using the machine was spent reading and learning as best he could, as he was unable to go to school and was forced to make do with what he had. To combat depression he spent as much of he free time interacting with people outside his house, and spent the rest of the time exercising in order to stay as fit and healthy as possible. While obviously unaccustomed to violence, Lami was warned by his parents of potential anti-faunus sentiments in Mistral, and did his best to disguise his faunus heritage. After one particularly painful encounter, Lami eventually took on self-defense classes as well.

Gradually, however, Lami's condition began to worsen. Soon, he spent the vast majority of his life connected to his machine, and he began to lose contact with the friends he had made in the outside world. As the months passed, he was soon forgotten by most of his former associates. To crushing depression and stress this created, and the desire for freedom and adventure suddenly manifested in the unlocking of his Semblance and Aura - the former of which he named 'Psychic Ruse'. Using his Semblance, Lami gained the ability to move freely during the day, and his mental state soared.

In his wanderlust, Lami eventually found himself working as a informant and spy-for-hire for shady businessmen and - allegedly - criminal elements in the Mistral underground. His natural inquisitiveness, loyalty, and convenient abilities made him perfect for the role. And why the consequences may have caused adverse effects on others, he used the money he gained to help his struggling family. Despite his caution, though, Lami was always fearful that somebody might come after him, and so regularly donned Dust-lined armour to act as a powerful deterrent to those who might intend to do him harm.

Nettle and Thistle
Nettle and Thistle are Lami's weapons - a pair of long, purple-dyed daggers with an additional handle, so that they can be wielded in a reverse-grip, like a tonfa. When held in this grip, the end of the handle is facing forwards, revealing the single barrel of a built-in shotgun, which can be reloaded via a small chamber near the hilt of the blade. The ammo used is almost exclusively Gravity Dust, which Lami uses to either push opponents away with extreme force, or dragging them forwards into his waiting blades.

Martial Arts
Lami has also adopted a personalised unarmed combat style, focussing on dramatic kicks and spins designed to confuse and disorientate his opponents. If need be, Lami also knows how to effectively break grabs and grapple with more up-front attackers. Despite this, Lami prefers to either fight with his knives, or not at all.

Psychic Ruse
Psychic Ruse is Lami's Semblance. Upon activation, Lami creates between one and three clones of himself, before falling unconscious. In each of these 'ruses', Lami gives a large portion of his Aura, which determines its maximum lifespan and overall power. Each ruse has a varying degree of autonomy, based on the amount of Aura used to create it, and is granted different powers. If almost all of Lami's Aura is used to create a single ruse, its appearance becomes more humanlike, it is more durable, and is generally more intelligent. Weaker ruses are, in contrast, wraith-like, and unable to interact with the physical world as easily. They visibly glow varying shades of purple, with the intensity increasing the weaker the ruse is, making their inhumanity more obvious.

The rures are limited in multiple ways. Regardless of strength, ruses are unable to talk, smell, feel or taste, and can only hear and see. Communication from the ruse can only be done via sign language or writing - and this is only possible when a powerful ruse is present. Ruses are limited to following the subconscious orders given to them by Lami at the time of activation, but will use their limited autonomy to do so to the best of their abilities from that point on. Powerful ruses are more adaptable and are capable of greater feats of problem-solving, while weak ruses can do little more than find locations, open doors, and hide. As they are made of Aura, ruses can be destroyed with enough force, with even the strongest ruses being unable to take more than a hit or two, though equally they are capable of dealing limited damage to attackers. Once deactivated, all visuals and audio recorded by the ruses are returned to Lami in the form of memories. However, the weaker the ruse, the blurrier and more incomplete the memories are. Equally, the sudden destruction of a ruse by an outside force can cause loss of completeness.

It is important to note that while the ruses can think, they do so only to fulfill Lami's orders. They are incapable of feeling, and are therefore completely apathetic as a result.

There is no limit to the distance the ruses can travel from Lami, though the greater the distance, the more memory is lost upon deactivation. For specifics, a ruse can move throughout all of Mistral's capital without losing much memory, so long as Lami is also in the capital. The ruses themselves do not have a time limit, and will continue to function until deactivated, which occurs when either:

- the ruse has completed its task, or

- Lami's physical body is in danger, in which case all active ruses will immediately be deactivated

Despite this, ruses are typically activated with a timer, which prevents them functioning for longer than 24 hours as, since Lami's physical body is unconscious, he is unable to take care of himself. On a side note, when activated, Lami's Semblance will cause his eyes, tattoos and crystal pendant to glow a bright purple.

Trivia

 * The name 'Lamium' is derived from the flower Lamium purpureum - a purple-petalled nettle, also known as a 'Deadnettle', which is the origin of Lami's alias
 * The surname 'Dioica' is derived from the flower Urtica dioica - another type of nettle
 * Lami's appearance is inspired by adaptations of Loki, from North mythology, and Jace Beleren, from MTG
 * Lami's Semblance is also inspired by Jace's ability to consciously control several apparitions of himself, of course to a much greater degree