Dan Dark

[Dan Dark]

Name: Daniel Dark

Age: 19

Species: Two-tailed fox

Physical Appearance: His fur is primarily a dark blue color with a hint of grey, except for his muzzle, chest, the tips of his tails, and the insides of his ears, all of which are an off-white; his eyes also happen to be blue, but of a noticably different shade. He's of what could best be described an "average" build; not particularly muscular, rather average weight, and just a bit above what might be considered a normal average height.

Clothing: Usually dressed casually, he is nearly always wearing a t-shirt and either jeans or khakis; for some reason he hardly ever wears shorts. One of his favorite outfits is a pair of black jeans and a dark grey baseball style t-shirt with black sleeves, worn with his usual black sneakers, and, temperature permitting, a rather simple black leather jacket, which features little more than a zipper, collar, the two normal outside pockets, and a single inside pocket. Also, he's rather fond of his sunglasses.

Personality: A complex character who cannot truly be summarized with any serious degree of completeness, although he does, of course, have a few definite traits commonly exhibited. He tends to be rather quiet, shy, even, and usually will only talk to others when necessary or once he has come to know them a bit. Even then, he often will not talk much, only occasionally chiming in with what he may consider important, or sometimes just to add to the madness among friends. Speaking of which, he is slow to make friends, and just as slow to even consider abandoning them - once he has come to trust someone, it is difficult to lose that trust. He normally tends to be more of a thinker than a doer, and so he often dreams of accomplishing amazing feats of various sorts, but rarely ever comes close to actually doing them; and a number of them would likely not actually happen even if the chance did arise - despite the way he may sometimes act, he is essentially a pacifist, since he has actually taken the time to realize just how many implications and results would arise from even a single death, and how many lives, although continuing, would be forever altered as a result. He usually prefers to be more or less alone, which makes it somewhat odd that he usually works fairly well in a group.

History: He doesn't talk much about his past... not because he has some dark secret to hide or some tradegy trying to be forgetten, but rather because it was quite unextraordinary. For once he is someone who had something close to a "normal" life thus far - lived with his parents and sister until his parents divorced, when he and his sister went to stay with their mother for the most part, although they still regularly saw their father. Their mother remarried at some point as they continued along with their education, and there were a few elaborate family vacations and school trips - even before completing high school he had already seen more of the world than his father had. After graduation, Dan decided he had enjoyed traveling and seeing new places, and so set out on his own to travel the world for a while.

Shortly after setting out from home, he purchased his revolver, figuring that it might be useful to have something more than just his inexperienced fists to rely on for self-defense. He's also discovered another convient use for it - all his years of playing video games back home had given him fairly good hand/eye coordination, which translated into reasonable accuracy with the weapon from the start. The owner of the gunshop where Dan purchased the weapon was impressed while watching him try it out on the shooting range, especially after learning that it was his first time using a real gun. The store owner mentioned that there was a local club having a competition later in the day, and recommended that Dan enter it; even though he might only be a rookie, the regulars at the club just weren't that good, and yet since no one would normally expect an unknown to win...

The store owner was involved in a bit of gambling that went on at the club, and promised Dan part of the profits they'd make if he won. As it turned out, the locals weren't quite as bad as the dealer had imagined, but nonetheless Dan managed to make a respectable showing, finishing up in the top five. Since then, he'd often stopped at shooting ranges and clubs to practice and has improved noticably, and could usually make at least enough to get by on just by entering competitions.

However, during a larger tournament, he was approached by an older man who'd been watching and apparently had misintrepreted Dan's skill and quiet nature - Dan hadn't associated much with the other competitiors, or anyone, for that matter, simply showing up when scheduled to compete, doing his bit, then disappearing. This "gentleman" had gotten the impression that the young fox wasn't just being shy, but deliberately secretive, and somehow decided that it couldn't be a coincidence that he was so skilled. He decided to offer the fox a "job"... Dan agreed to listen at first, until the man handed him a picture of someone he claimed was his wife. The fox was a bit confused by this, and asked what the man wanted him to do with it; after a moment, he explained, rather bluntly. The man said he couldn't stand his wife anymore, and that she happened to have a rather large life insurance policy...

Realizing what the man ment, Dan quietly commented he'd "think about it" and let him know the next day; he never showed up at the competition to meet with him, or even to compete, having instead decided to leave town late the night before. It'd been kind of cool to subtlely suggest he might be a hitman and to let people wonder, but having someone actually approach him as such was... unnerving. He didn't like the thought that he might actually be giving people that sort of an impression; he's quiet, sure, but a killer, more concerned about money than life...? No, most definately not.

Despite his definite skill, Dan chose to abandon the shooting competitions, since he really had never wanted them to become such a significant part of his life anyway, and by avoiding them, he hoped he could avoid becoming what he'd once been mistaken for. He still carries the two pistols he accquired, but now keeps them locked away in a small compartment on the side of his motorcycle most of the time. Lately he's started to put his skills to use a slightly different way - still shooting at things, not with a gun, but with a camera. He always had had a bit of an interest and some skill in photography; whenever his family went on vacation somewhere, he almost always took a camera along, although on some occasions he'd actually end up getting too involved taking pictures, on one occasion going through close to a dozen rolls of film. Still, this frequent practice has given him something of an idea how shots should be framed, what would be interesting to focus on, and so on, and has decided to put that knowledge to use now. Work isn't quite as steady, but he still has a fair bit of money saved up from before, and besides, it's enjoyable, and the money's enough to get by... Someday he hopes to settle down somewhere, of course, but for right now, all that really matters is to keep going on living, and moving forwards.

Alignment: Neutral/Good

Transport: Sometimes uses a basic motorcycle, a highway cruiser that was once top of the line, but by now has obviously seen better days. Although it's still fine for getting from one point to another, it's definately not going to be setting any sort of speed records, and it is also somewhat prone to breakdowns. Still, it can keep up with traffic, and that's all that really matters. Also, in place of "saddle bags" he has rigged a way to hook a bookbag to the back of the bike in a similar fashion.

Stats: (30)
Strength: 5
Stamina: 7
Agility: 9 (+5) = 14
Speed: 9

Weapons: (17 slots total)
Handgun: 8 slots
Walther P99 (16-clip semi-automatic)
Revolver: 9 slots
.357 Magnum (Breech-loaded, 7 round capacity)

Skills:
Advanced Ranged Combat Skill: (20 slots)
Moves:
Quick Draw: (Revolver only) When carrying the revolver in a thigh holster, it can be drawn, aimed, and fired a bit faster than a gun drawn from a normal holster. However, accuracy will suffer a slight drop as a result of the decreased time.
Speed Loading: (Revolver only) Although normally rounds have to be loaded individually, usually requiring a fair bit of time, Dan carries a pair of speed loaders which enable the revolver to be reloaded about as quickly as a clip-based weapon. However, there's only the two of them, they are designed to fully reload the revolver, making them not exactly practical if it isn't completely empty, and, of course, they have to be prepared in advance.

Advanced Photography Experience: (15 - 5 = 10 slots)
- Even though all he uses is a basic 35mm camera, a smallish black rectangle that features nothing more advanced than power advance, rewind, and a flash, Dan has something of an "eye" for good pictures, and has used this same camera enough that he's quite comfortable with it. His pictures might not always be quite the quality one would get with more advanced equipment, but usually they'll be good enough for most purposes.

Advanced Computer Experience: (15 - 5 = 10 slots)
- Back before leaving home, Dan often played video games and frequented the Internet. From frequently playing games, installing, uninstalling, downloading and using modifications and tools to make modifications for them, as well as trying to fix the games or the system itself when something would stop working correctly, he got quite familiar with using computers. He's even reasonably comfortable with how to put a system together; more than once he ended up taking the family computer almost completely apart, to add something or in an attempt to fix a problem. However, he still isn't too familiar with how the actual hardware itself works - he only knows that it does. He still has no problems simply working with a computer, of course, and happens to know an advanced trick or two most people wouldn't know of, but he's no hacker.

Intermediate Driving Experience: (10 - 5 = 5 slots)
- He's no expert (even though he may occasionally like to think so), but Dan does know enough about driving to actually keep a car, or motorcycle, on the road, in the correct lane, and usually at something not too far from the posted speed limits. Hasn't the faintest idea how to work a manual transmission though, despite his fascination with sports cars.

Beginner Medical Knowledge: (5 - 5 = 0 slots)
- Knows a thing or two about first aid, such as the basics to treating a wound, but really nothing more advanced than what would be possible with a simple first aid kit.

Total Slots Used: 92

Strengths:
- When faced with a situation such as a fight or agrument, Dan will rarely chose sides, unless it is a situation he is already familar with, or if someone close to him happens to be involved. Normally, though, he tends to be fairly open-minded, and so is able to view such situations from various perspectives and will attempt to understand the motivations involved, even if they are ones not shared by him.
- Not only is he normally open-minded, Dan has a fair understanding of logic and strategy, and often tends to live by it (of course, in his mind there is always -some- logic behind his actions, even if it is not readily apparent to others). This actually has a number of implications, one of the most notable being his idea concerning life, or, more specifically, the taking of it - he feels its unknown what happens after death. Although he'd like to think there will be something more, he realizes there's a chance there isn't; a person might only get one shot at life, and if that's the case, he figures everyone should be allowed to get as much out of it as they can. (Or, in short; he's smart, and won't kill anyone - there'd be no point to it.)
- Although it takes time, once someone has earned Dan's trust and friendship, it is very unlikely to change suddenly. However, this could also be a fault, since he may end up becoming too trusting, and possibly taken advantage of as a result.

Weaknesses:
- Dan is usually a calm and level-headed person, and doesn't get angry often or easily. However, as a result he has little experience in actually handling being angry, and could end up saying or doing things he normally wouldn't.
- Despite his abilities, Dan has never experienced actual combat before, and as such may be unpredictable or even unreliable in such situations.
- He normally tends to be quiet and a bit shy when meeting new people, and although he will open up a bit if he gets to know someone better, he may still have difficulty expressing himself at times.

[Edit, 10/3/08 : Gonna fix this up later. Can't believe I had stuff from that numbers-based stats system we messed with on here still.]