Dexter Russell Kearn

"My smile? Yes, it's pretty evil. But what you can do? Playing the good guy doesn't mean I can't be scary, right?"

- Russell's trademark quote.

Dexter Russell Kearn is a former student of Shade Academy, twin brother of Lilith Iolite Kearn and a Huntsman of Mantle. His weapon of choice is a set of knives named Plucked Petals.

A resident of Mantle, Dexter enrolled in Shade Academy because Atlas was out of his reach. After finishing his studies and surviving Vacuo's hostile environment, he returned to Mantle and became a specialized Grimm killer known as the Red Joker. While being a respected figure by the population, the Atlas military consider him to be a lawbreaker.

Appearance
Dexter is medium-sized and has a normal physique. However, his clothing isn't exactly normal. Dexter wears a red shirt and red jeans, being covered on a torn coat which is red on the outside and gray on the inside. The gloves he wear imitate the pattern of the coat as the backhand side is red and the palms are grey. He wears a red police cap with a black crown addorned around it. He also has a torn pink tie and two buttons attached to his coat. One of them is a smiley face with pink paint splattered on it and a four-leaf clover under it. He wears a belt filled with small bombs and a decorative belt on his coat, holding some of the knives he uses.

Personality
''With a psychopathic-looking smile, Dexter isn't a killing freak. Rather, he's very controlled and intelligent, with the trait of being an optimist. He can fail to understand how deep a situation can be, though, and can be too playful, even for his own good. Hints of sadism can be found on him as well.''

Dexter's psychopath look doesn't reflect himself at all. He's a happy-go-lucky person whose talent is to be positive. Dexter believes that every situation can have an outcome and that he will always find a way out of any pinch.

He's also very intelligent and observant. As said by Bellatrix Samara Melantha, leader of the team, those are Dexter's most dangerous traits, as he can get one person read like a book in seconds of talking. While not being the leader of the team he belongs, he's usually the one up in front because of these traits.

Dexter has the singular problem of being laidback, expecially when situations are completely dire. He doesn't tend to take things as seriously as he should and doesn't demonstrate too much worry on any consquence. That is due to his exceeding positivism.

Another thing noted is that Dexter can be a little of a sadist. At times, he likes to pick on someone's personal feelings and issues to hurt or anger them. This is mostly used in battle against his foes, but he does that to his friends and allies as well.

History
Dexter and Lilith were born in Mantle. At the time, their living conditions weren't stable, but their parents did their best to see their children live. As time passed, they always had to hear from his mother that "everything will be okay." Each of them took the interpretation on their own. On Dexter's case, he believed that everything would be fine as his mother said, building an optimistic side. While the situation did resolve and thei began living normally, another problem did rise within the family, bit it only served to further boost his positivity. At each new issue that came, more and more he kept believing in the better side of things. That is, until one day. While travelling on an airship to visit Mistral, their ship was attacked by Lancer Grimm. While they changed directions midway to escape the attack, it didn't work and the ship kept being attacked until it crashed on Vacuo lands. Thankfully, Huntsmen were in the area and dealt with the Grimm. As they counted the survivors, Dexter and Lilith survived but their parents have died on the crash. But before they became orphans, they were sent to Oscuro Academy, as it was the safest place for them to stay at the time. They lived there under observation and were treated as residents there until they completed the necessary age to begin the initiation to Huntsmanship. Dexter decided to take the lessons and sworn to become a Grimm exterminator. He didn't confirm if it was for vengeance, but his determination to defeat Grimm was higher than the usual between students. Once both siblings finished their studies at Oscuro, they were immediately transferred to Shade Academy to continue their studies. During one training session, Dexter's Aura had made itself manifest after being thrown on a boulder by a fellow student. However, the training had to be stopped thanks to the invasion of a swarm of Centinel Grimm in the area. Alongside teachers and staff, students had to do their best to stop the attack. Dexter's Semblance was discovered during the attack, as he suddenly vanished out of everyone's sight and went for the Grimm. His lack of negative emotions did mask him for a while, but when he hit the first one of them, anger did boil out and ennervated the other Grimm. Lilith had her own chance at the time and, together, they helped with most of the monsters. Years passed by and the brothers completed their training and studies, becoming Huntsmen right afterwards. One day, Dexter decided to leave Vacuo and head back to Mantle, his hometown. Accompanied by Lilith, both went back, only to discover that Atlas had deliberatedly abandoned Mantle to its own. At the moment of the announcement, Grimm decided to attack Mantle as the alarms went all off. Military soldiers fought against them, but it wasn't enough to stop them. The remaining guards demanded that the siblings went inside and hide, but they disobeyed orders and fought against the Grimm. His secondary power to manipulate his own blades was discovered there. As they defeated the menace, they escaped before the soldiers could arrest them for disobedience. And thus, he became known as the Red Joker, one of the most influential people in Mantle because of his risk against the guards.

Powers and Abilities
Dexter's fighting style is of an assassin specialized with knife combat and throwing. He uses quick movements to evade attacks and to deal quick blows with his knives. He's also very acrobatic and has high jumping abilities for a human. However, he suffers from having a poor damage output in comparison to the rest of his team, which is why Dexter resorts to deal critical attacks by aiming at weakpoints of his opponent's body or by dropping their mental stability, leaving them vulnerable.

However, Ceruleo's Aura is different. It has a strong effect on healing his wounds and even to defend him against some attacks, it's stronger against Dust-related attacks, but it has one of the weakest durability when he suffers physical damage and it can be easily depleted if he's not careful. Strong fighters can easily deplete his Aura and even damage him directly depending on the hit's power.

Semblance
Dexter's Semblance, Mary of a Kind, is a stealth Semblance similar to Lie Ren's Tranquility. This allows Dexter to go undetected throughout places, as if he's not visible to anyone's eyes. Deirdre argued once that Dexter's Semblance messes with someone's subconscious, as if he's not just "masked" but he's "ignored" by people, but he confirmed that his Semblance has no relation to mind manipulation at any sort. He also creates a "connection" with his weapons, being able to utilize them without having to use his hands. He can also draw them back to himself or change their direction once per knife.

The problem with Dexter's Semblance is that it only masks his corporeal state. As such, sounds and emotions aren't blocked. That puts him at a disadvantage against Grimm or Huntsmen who have perception-related Semblances. Also, unlike Ren, Dexter can only cloak himself in his Semblance. Other people cannot be affected. Another point of Mary of a Kind is that it immediately dispels if Dexter decides to attack. The moment Dexter does an attacking movement he immediately becomes visible to the eye.

FInally, when it comes to the weapon manipulation, he has a limit of 50m to control them. If the knife goes too far, Dexter can't call them back.

Weapon
Dexter's weapon of choice is a set of knives called Plucked Petals. The knives are hidden throughtout his coat, both inside and outside. Dexter can use them in close and ranged combat. He usually holds them between two fingers to easily throw them and to mimic a claw-like weapon.

Trivia

 * CNR:  his second name, Russell, means "little red" in Old French, and the stated color is present in part of his outfit. His surname means "dark" in Irish, which directly points to grey in his outfit and the dark energy conducted by the Semblance.
 * Dexter's design is a recolor from Ciel (Elsword) in his Abysser class. All credits are given to Hwansang, the original artist of the image.
 * His Semblance is a reference to the Bloody Mary urban legend, as Dexter can become an apparition and kill his foes without them seeing him directly..