Derrick (Dehwitt) Styles

Species: Other

Other Species: Anthrskink

Age: 31

Gender: Male

Residence: A Decent, Modern Apartment In The City

Occupation: Clinical Receptionist

Backstory:

Derrick grew up as the exact middle child of five siblings, all hatched within the same four days. (As usual for the anthropomorphic reptilian species.) He grew up knowing well that the only unique thing about him was also the thing that got him into trouble. He was always the one that needed frequent doctor visits, calls from school from yet another embarrassing mistake of getting caught in a door yet again or out-of-hand teasing that was entirely foreseeable from the other kids. He had to get used to embarrassment & the idea that there wasn't much he could do about it apart from learning to not think about it. 

Personality:

 A Defeatist Ditz. It's hard to know when Dehwitt is joking or teasing, as the line between what he does & doesn't know is a pretty blurred line. Because of his intermittent speech impediment, he's never pronounced his name right, so everyone, including his own family, instead goes by his mispronounciation of "Dehwitt." 

 In spite of the stereotype of scaled species, Dehwitt is a hugging fanatic! Open, loud, exciteable, over-expressive & impulsive he ascribes to the belief that he can't help how others see him, so he might as well not care & just do what makes him happy. As he is quite instinctual, Dehwitt will often go with his first thought which will lead others into thinking he's being intentionally gross or disgusting or doing moronic, easily avoidable things like getting his tongue stuck in funny places. They may not be entirely wrong.

Dehwitt is mostly your usual Slacker. What spare money he does have will either go to video games or whatever cheap, convenience junk food he can get from whatever markets are closest to his apartment. His clothes are almost always baggy & secondhand from thrift stores as he prefers it loose, like sweatpants, cargo pants, hoodies or old coats. In fact, majority of the time he'll go out sans pants as he mostly wears clothes only as an afterthought. (Reptillian species don't have much exterior anatomy to hide anyway.)

 Dehwitt is basically a big kid, and gets along well with kids. (Even if their parents tend to be a bit concerned.) Mostly, of course, that most children love the idea of constantly sticking your tongue out like he does!

Physical Description:

   Dehwitt has a coat of fine, dark blue scales covering his body fully. His eyes are a deep emerald green set in rounded, football-shaped irises. His snout is wide & a stubby, blunt, short shape a lot shorter than most & than what you would expect from his most prominent feature.

 His Seven-Foot, Electric-Blue Tongue.

 Dehwitt was born with an oversized tongue that continued to grow like hair throughout his life. It has grown about as long as he is tall so far & his body has had to adapt to accommodate it. At its length, its worn down his teeth to barely visible nubs & obstructs most of his breathing and capacity to feed himself... if he hadn't had the time he has to get used to using it! Due to frequency of use, it's longer, stronger & more agile than his arms and Dehwitt has gotten more used to using it than his four-fingered claws (one a little thumby claw!) though it lacks the capacity for detailed work that he'll use his claws for. His immense, constrictor of a tongue is almost always found dangling outside of his snout as the makeshift Recoil Unit has it loop down his throat into his open sack of a stomach.

 His neck is rather characteristically wide to allow him to dislocate his jaw to wind his tongue through when it has to double-fold itself through. His jaw, quite literally, drops to allow this, but does not "unhinge" as is expected of snakes. His nostrils are tiny to the point of also obstructing his breathing (likely due to the pressure of nearly a third of his muscle mass continuously sliding past.) which in turn compels him to leave aforesaid tongue dangling loose to dry out most of the time.

 But aside from his body's attempts to work his growth defect (from either biology or reconstructive surgery) not much else is much noticeable about his physique. Rather Barrel-Bodied, Dehwick is only barely kept in any measure of fitness by the grace of his family's amazingly fast metabolism & the occasional foray into Yoga.

 His feet are shaped in the same almost-raptor-like, four finger way with his plantigrade legs at a natural (about) 130 degree angle.

 Another aspect of himself that has had taunting attention drawn to, (mostly by his family) is his short, fat little tail. In the shape of an elongated football, it is little under a foot long and barely passes his bum. This, and its almost spherical shape, does make it rather hilarious to watch him attempt to sit down directly. The tail, after all, is a fat reserve; so Dehwitt's bad eating habits has also unintentionally led to his habit of slouching as well!

 Due to the sheer enormity of his tongue, he feels better letting it hang out instead of wound up inside him. This though, leads to it drying out pretty easily as saliva doesn't go that far out of his mouth. Never worry, as his tongue is relatively dry and you won't get much drool on you unless you've had to fish something out of his mouth... or its closer to his mouth as he does compulsively slide it in and out throughout the day.... and he does have a bad habit of turning to fast & whacking others in the face with his tongue.

...They don't call it Tongue-to-Eye Coordination, after all!

Likes: Salty, Sweet or soft food such as Ice Cream, popcorn, chips or very well-prepared meat, as he is a sloppy eater! Enjoys cold weather & winter, despite the fact that he is still cold-blooded and most of his species knows well that more than a half-hour out in it is risking illness. Loves making new friends!

Dislikes: Especially hot or sharp things (as he handles things first with his tongue) & people who are "Too Intense."

Key Moments:

Dehwitt's lisp is mostly only really a problem when his tongue is either fully out or in. Though sometimes he doesn't notice is he's completely unintelligible to others.

 Dehwitt also has a "regular" appetite. Though small objects will often find their way into his gullet, like keys, silverware or plates. He can work those things back out of his stomach with his tongue, but he prefers to save trouble and money & mostly just eat out of large bowls.

 Has worked in Fast Food before... Much to his manager's highering stress levels. Not only was he horrible at customer service, but they had to buy him a "Tongue Net" since he kept draping through all the flour & oil and essentially baking his own tongue.

 Had a... rather bad break-up with his first girlfriend as she... "had misgivings about his capacity to endure." ( Read: She was a psychopath.)

 

Friends: Siblings: D'shan, Eric (Or Ehwitt), Won-Ton & Anise. Amber Gris (Current Girlfriend), Bentley Bull (Ex-Girlfriend's Brother, Who He's Also Dated) & Henry Heckyll, Current Empolyer

Rivals: Venom Erieiah (Naga Ex-Girlfriend)