The General Stuff:

Nicknames: Dame (shorthand), Damie (affectionate), Vasquez (cromwell)

Heir of Doom, Derse dreamer. Originally intended to be an exploration of the extent of the damage SBURB can cause, but the exploration of trauma broadened out to include things such as the utter hopelessness and resignation dealing with mental health issues completely by yourself drives you to and not being able to properly process grief.

Puerto Rican, born June 6th, 1989, transmasculine, demisexual/romantic achillean. 5'7. Currently runs an apothecary and makes his own stock (among other things for fun). Chem nerd, specializes in poisons. Stocky build, halfway between muscle and fat. Physically imposing for his height. Permanent resting bitch face with distinct bright purple eyes. Asymmetric split dye, black and purple.

Actual age unknown (~10000, possibly much older. after a certain point you just lose track) but is locked physically at 26. Usually just says he's 27 and moves every decade or so because he visibly does not age and that puts him at risk of being found out.

AuDHD. Undiagnosed agoraphobic anxiety, C-PTSD, insomnia, bipolar I, and pyromania. REALLY hard time articulating emotions. Struggles with vulnerability, coping with grief, and accepting his hero title as part of himself. 100% an alcoholic, huge smoker dad vibes. Very prone to night terrors. Severe thalassophobia. Refers to his manic episodes as "The Zoomies" because that's the closest thing he can think of to describe it.

Uses an intimidating mask to keep people out, yet ironically is decently lonely despite his strong relationships with Cain and June. Under that mask is a very wild and excitable little gremlin of a man with no impulse control and a habit of putting himself between an aggressor and the people he loves. He can be very overbearing or headstrong at times but more often than not, his reckless actions are born of a desire to help.

Some Important Facts:

Functionally mute as a result of vocal cord damage. His entry item was a hunting knife, which he held onto for the majority of his run through his planet (LOBAF - land of blight and flame), right up till he ascended. He used that knife to decapitate himself on his quest bed and got about a third through his neck before the blood loss really set in, and hit his vocal cords in the process. Of course, because Paradox Space fucking hates Doom players, it didn't heal right. As a result, he has significantly less stamina than he used to and it's made talking pretty painful for him. Communicates in either sign language, anything that he can write on, or when with Cain, using nonverbal tells.

Related to his entry item, he spent most of his pre-ascension run with only one hand! In true John Kramer fashion, he had to cut off one of his hands to enter the Medium at the ripe old age of 17! I'd say I feel bad but I'm the one who made that call lol

Cat father. His daughter is named Cyanide, her body is metal but it houses the actual cat (he prototyped her ashes for a catsprite). She is a little goblin but he loves her very much and is very protective of her.

The strongest of his abilities involves fire. It's highly reactive to his emotions, and specifically gets harder to control as his mental state gets worse. There are dire consequences to him losing his grip, especially on his temper, and he knows it. In addition to his trademark fire, he can raise his body temperature at will, summon his own neurotoxin, and is naturally fire-retardant. He can't be poisoned and sometimes just eats arsenic because it scares the shit out of people and he thinks it's funny.

Relationships:

He's best friends with Cain and helps him out with his experiments fairly often. Cain started seeing him like an older brother because Damien's ascension scar was in the same spot where he stabbed Abeline and just kinda imprinted on him, but after enough time it became an actual friendship. He views Cain like the little brother he never had and is very protective of him. Their connection has grown strong enough for Cain to be able to hold entire conversations where Damien rarely has to sign to carry his end. Had they known each other before the session, he probably would've taught Cain how to shoplift from Hot Topic.

He LOVES the time he spends with June. They've known each other since they were very young, since before Damien even came out, and over time it's become the perfect yapper/listener dynamic. June is a huge talker when she gets comfortable and since she works at a library, Damien ends up being a regular and they usually have very lengthy chats when he has the time where she rambles him about the new thing she's been studying. They're both inclined towards STEM fields, with June taking in whatever discipline she hasn't yet and Damien being a chemist specifically, so sometimes these conversations consist of talking shop about whatever subject comes up. One of them managed to alchemize one of those roll-out TVs and they occasionally have weed-fueled movie nights with whatever DVDs they have left. It's great.

On the complete opposite side of the coin, he hates Cromwell with a burning passion, though they actually dated really far back in their Antiquity period. Coincidentally, at the same time they were both competing to establish empires like it was a goddamn Civ game, so naturally there was a little tension between them, possibly some room for pitch vacillation. This is to say that at some point Cromwell struck first, Damien struck back, and that altercation started a long period of physical fights, screaming matches (to the detriment of his vocal cords), and a LOT of hatesex. It eventually ended in Cromwell leaving without so much as a word, done with the intent of protecting him from further harm. This ended up having the unintended effect of leaving Damien with the impression that he was nothing more than something for Cromwell to kick around and pleasure himself with until he got bored, and thus the beef was born. As their relationship stands today, they both still hate each other and more often than not get into verbal arguments (where Crom will sometimes just grab Damien's hands to make him shut up) with the occasional barfight. At least they're not constantly trying to kill each other.

He was close with Kara. They actually used to be coworkers before they played SBURB. He's still feeling the crushing void she left behind.

He's sort of neutral to Clem, in the same way you interact with someone you knew in high school after you graduate. They were childhood friends as well, but started growing more distant after they'd already won their game. As of now he'll still be friendly towards her, but they just aren't as close as they used to be.

Trivia:

Lightweight. Also doesn't know when to stop. Has an agreement with Cain to carry each other home if one is too wasted to make it back by themself.

Still makes active use of his fire in small, controllable ways like being his own lighter.

He used to be able to metal scream and unfortunately lost that ability with the vocal cord damage.

Ascension made him taller! It also took him a hilariously long time to adjust to the new height, leading to him slamming his head into a wall-mounted bookshelf at some point expecting his head to land underneath it.

He makes his own bleach and hair dye.

HUGE mama's boy. He loved his mom so fucking much man you have no idea

He was actually the first to kill his denizen among his team. Sometimes dying and being reborn into a stronger body just does that to you.

Surprisingly good cook for a pyromaniac. Well-disciplined in the art of resisting the urge to get a little too silly with fire and not burning either his food or his kitchen.

Production Trivia:

His name and birthday are all meant to be stupid references to edgy media from the 2000s. The name Damien and his birthday are both references to The Omen (2006), and the surname Vasquez comes from Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim.

Coincidentally, his birthday also makes him a True Gemini on the Hiveswap extended zodiac!

His pyromania was actually a complete accident. I got maybe a month into development before I realized I'd implied that he had it and decided to make it canon.