| “ | Language can express the world in all its entirety. Perhaps a picture is worth a thousand words, but a thousand words can still describe the scene that one sees before him, ten thousand words can subvert the coming of dusk, and a hundred thousand words can reshape the fabric of the world. | ” |
–The Poet, 1934 Alice in Jails: Streets | ||
The Poet (詩人, Shijin) is a homunculus created by Huey Laforet and a member of Lamia. He has a habit of rambling poetic verses, much to his companions' chagrin. Like many of Huey's other homunculi, the Poet's eccentricities are defense mechanisms he uses to distance himself from humans.
The Poet possesses hypnotic eyes that are usually concealed by his hat.
Appearance[]
The Poet has brown hair, and a cropped beard and mustache. He is depicted wearing a white jacket over a light thistle dress shirt and dark green-black tie, as well as a white hat with a dark green-black band. He always ensures that the brim is pulled over his eyes in an effort to protect others from accidentally being hypnotized.
Personality[]
The Poet's odd speech is part of an "outlandish personality" that he deliberately cultivated in a desperate attempt to keep humans from making eye contact with him lest they fall under his power.
He has spoken oddly for so long that the poetic verse is practically second nature to him. However, he does speak 'normally' on multiple occasions throughout the series.
Though he constantly bears the painful physical brunt of Sickle's irritation with him—as well as the verbal jabs from the rest of the Lamia—he continues to deeply admire her and takes the verbal jabs in stride. The constant vocal and physical complaints about his ramblings never deter him from being excessively poetically verbose when around others—in fact, he usually only tones his language down when alone. He has internally described his existence as "daily playing a fool."
He is one of the most observant and introspective members of the Lamia, understanding as early as the fight in Dolce Restaurant that in all likelihood someone is deliberately orchestrating the events that have taken place in a manner reminiscent of Sham and Hilton, and that someone may very well have betrayed. He also is able to pick out unusual reactions amongst the Dolce crowd when they learn that their friends have been kidnapped—reactions of individuals who are actually Sham vessels.
The Poet feels strong guilt when it comes to hypnotizing people, and only uses his power when absolutely necessary. He is acutely aware that he could live quite easily if he used his power for his own ends, but thus far he has only used his power for the Lamia's missions. Complying with Huey's instructions is something he had justified in the past as the 'safest route' the Lamia could take, only to later admit to himself in 1934 that such a justification was another form of lying to himself.
By his own admission, the Poet has never truly found 'the road that brings happiness' which he sought after in the past, and he fervently wishes that the younger Lamia members still have a chance to find the happiness he never could.
Chronology[]
(To be added)
Abilities[]
The Poet's eyes can take in light and reflect it at a different wavelength, allowing him to control the minds of others in a manner similar to hypnosis. As his eyes emit flashing streams of blue light, all he has to do is move his head incrementally in order to render the other person half-sleep and extremely susceptible to suggestion. Importantly, it renders them susceptible to any suggestion, not just ones given to them by the Poet. So if the hypnotized individual happens to hear any command in their vicinity—such as, "go die," then they will carry that order out, if not immediately then at some point in the future.
The Poet knows of no way to 'turn off' the power of his eyes, and controlling the flashing himself takes conscious effort—enough to the point where it would hamper his daily activities. Concealing his eyes with his hat (and thus going about near-blind) and deliberately cultivating an outlandish personality is the only way he knows to protect others—something especially important given that accidental victims can be influenced by any suggestion, whether those suggestions are directed at them or otherwise.
Unlike other members of the Lamia the Poet has never demonstrated any aptitude for fighting, leaving combat to the likes of Hong Chi-Mei and Sickle.