Duke Crocker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
exceptionalcrook) wrote2019-12-06 02:30 pm
exceptionalcrook) wrote2019-12-06 02:30 pm
Entry tags:
Dualis application
YOU
Player name: Shan
Contact: Discord: PixieStyx#8980
Current characters: Crazy Jane
THEM
Character Name: Duke Crocker
Character Age: 35
Canon: Haven (TV series)
Canon Point: Season 4 episode 1 right after his ejection from the Barn.
History/World: HavenWiki
Personality: The very first thing we hear about Duke in Haven is Nathan Wuornos' firmly held opinion that he's "unreliable, untrustworthy, and a pain in my ass". While Nathan's an admittedly biased source, it's fairly obvious right away that he's got a point. A smuggler, Duke's got a rap sheet of various, mostly theft- and tax-related crimes and appears mostly interested in his own ends - such as refusing to give information to the police until Nathan apologizes to him for being rude. For the most part he is content to simply go on with his own life of theft, smuggling, and selling contraband while pissing off Nathan by making snarky jokes. However, as his curiosity about the Troubles grows and more and more of his friends and acquaintances become affected by them, he begins to show something surprising: he's a good guy.
He first begins to show selflessness when his childhood friends, brothers Bill and Jeff McShaw, suffer a sudden decline in business at their bistro due to Bill's Trouble, which, when he is upset, causes the foods he's tasted to rapidly rot. The venture goes so badly that Jeff ends up murdered after an argument, and due to his closeness to both brothers Duke cooperates with Nathan and fellow officer Audrey Parker. It's also at this point that he begins to develop a fondness for Audrey, as well as some more patience regarding Nathan. Duke's interest in the Troubles grows more personal when he learns that his family is enmeshed in the history of Haven, and that his life may be in danger - yet he continues to grow closer to Audrey and to let Nathan in more, and continues helping them despite a lack of obligation.
Admittedly, part of this newfound interest in the town and the Troubles is due to his own "destiny": a friend with the Trouble of foreseeing others' deaths informed him that he was to be killed by a man with a certain tattoo (that turns out to be an esoteric symbol tattooed on a great many Haven citizens). He swears to offset his supposed destiny and save himself, cataloguing all the information he can find on this symbol and making careful note of all areas he can find where it occurs: this research takes up an entire wall of his Cape Rouge cabin. His search is relentless, and in order to continue it he appears to ally himself with the Rev, an extremist local minister who leads a faction of Haven citizens who believe the Troubled are ungodly. The search leads to the death of his wife, yet he persists until he uncovers his family's secret. Despite this apparent duplicity, he remains sympathetic to the Troubled and loyal to his friends, something he repeatedly tries to demonstrate in order to reassure Audrey and assert his place as a helpful presence in the town. He refuses to become a simple killer, opting instead to fight for those he cares about.
In fact, despite preferring a great deal of space and little imposition on his actions, and his general sarcastic and wise-cracking demeanor, Duke is very good at taking care of and supporting people. This is most obvious in dire situations - such as when his ship is hijacked with several of his friends on board. Enduring a brutal beating, Duke refuses to give up the cargo the hijackers want until they threaten a woman on board. He immediately gives up the crate's location in order to save her. When a teenage busboy who works at his restaurant, the Grey Gull, is threatened by a murderer, Duke not only promises to protect the boy but assists Nathan and Audrey in hunting down the perpetrator. Tragedy, naturally, also brings out this tendency: when Nathan's father dies, Duke arrives to support him and help bury the man. But this shows in small ways, in regular moments: spoiling people with good food, checking in with friends when they're not doing well, giving those constantly bombarded by the Troubles a breath of normality and the space to relax.
Part of Duke's charm, on that note, is that despite the massive amounts of misfortune in his life he remains an optimistic and friendly presence and has a certain degree of happiness, or at least acceptance, in his life. Although his life has been very strange, he rolls well with bizarre circumstances and seems able to find the normal in the abnormal. He has very strong faith in most of his own decisions, and is proud of the paths he's chosen for himself. Most of these paths seem to be in direct opposition to those usually taken by the Crocker family, and he shows his abject refusal to follow examples by swearing off the "family business" of murdering the Troubled and ending Curses. There are, of course, tragedies he's had to work through, such the murder of his wife, Evi; the loss of his biological daughter, Jean; his rather abysmal childhood with his neglectful alcoholic father, Simon. But Duke's confidence in himself is strong and well-placed, and he is an emotionally aware individual prone to soul-searching - if there is a reasonably healthy way to work through pain, he will find it. Moreover, he will attempt to lead others to it.
In many ways, Duke is the most emotionally mature character shown in Haven. He and Nathan have a thorny relationship due to Duke's disrespect for the law and, earlier than that, his childhood habit of bullying Nathan. Still, despite their enmity it's Duke who reaches out to Nathan in jeopardy. When Audrey is abducted and Duke is framed for it, Nathan turns violently on him; Duke eventually talks him down, reasoning that they'll have to work together to save their friend. Audrey is extremely important to Duke, and early on he has a romantic interest in her that remains notable but is eventually dwarfed by their friendship. When Audrey admits she's in love with Nathan, Duke is obviously disappointed but accepts this immediately, harboring no resentment for either of them. If anything, his friendship with and respect of Nathan grows stronger after this revelation.
This is also apparent in his self-control, which manifests in various ways. The most obvious is his ability to keep the Crocker Trouble under control, although the rush of power from touching Troubled blood is intense. Although he never uses his Trouble without very good reason, he compares the sensation to a heroin high. (Unusually for a child of an alcoholic, Duke is also very good at moderating himself in regard to various substances. He drinks socially and occasionally engages in recreational drug use, but he does not allow himself enough exposure to develop any sort of addiction.) When he does use the strength part of his Trouble, it's almost exclusively in self-defense or to help others. At one point, a Troubled woman named Daphne was caught in a rising tide after a traffic accident knocked her off the road and trapped her in her car. Despite Nathan's fear that Duke would touch Daphne's blood and give into the family Curse, he touches a cut on her leg and uses his strength to pry her car door off its hinges and carry her to safety. Interestingly, the Crocker Trouble is one of the few in Haven that can be controlled, although Duke is the first one to realize this.
As the series goes on Duke discovers nearly all the complications and misfortunes in his life are directly related to the Troubles. Like every Havenite, Duke wants them to end. He wants to go back to an adventurous but relatively normal life of questionably legal shipping operations and running his bar. He wants Haven, and his life, to be normal, although not at the costs necessary. Truth be told, friendship is the most important thing in Duke's world - far more important than his own safety and definitely more important than family. When possible he ensures his loved ones are far away from Haven and the mess going on therein, but as he shows when he runs into the Barn as it implodes, he will do all he can to keep them alive.
He really never planned on being a hero. Sometimes that's just how it works out.
Items: Duke will be arriving with the clothes on his back, the jewelry around his neck, his wallet, keys, and cell phone, a knife in his pocket, and a loaded semiautomatic tucked into his waistband.
Powers/skills: Duke has a Trouble, a superpower with a really crappy side. When a Troubled person's blood touches his skin his strength multiplies dramatically (and his eyes turn silver for some reason). In this state he's powerful enough to throw someone across a room one-handed and to rip a car door off its frame. The bad side is, Duke's power is designed to help him kill Troubled people. The Crocker family curse is ending other families' curses -- all they have to do is kill one individual with said Trouble. The rush of power from using his Trouble can and has been addictive to some members of the Crocker family, though Duke is very good at controlling it.
This Trouble can't be accessed without the blood of another Troubled person, so unless there are NPCs from Haven in Dualis this will be off-limits to him. Which is just fine with him, he prefers to rely on his own varied skills. He's a good con man and thief, can hold his own in a street fight, and by this point is fairly proficient in practical detective work and crime-solving. While not as reassuring as Audrey, he is good at comforting traumatized people and de-escalation. He's also a damn good cook, speaks Russian and Japanese, and is competent on the ukulele, for what that's worth.
SAMPLE
Test drive
PERMISSIONS
Permissions
Player name: Shan
Contact: Discord: PixieStyx#8980
Current characters: Crazy Jane
THEM
Character Name: Duke Crocker
Character Age: 35
Canon: Haven (TV series)
Canon Point: Season 4 episode 1 right after his ejection from the Barn.
History/World: HavenWiki
Personality: The very first thing we hear about Duke in Haven is Nathan Wuornos' firmly held opinion that he's "unreliable, untrustworthy, and a pain in my ass". While Nathan's an admittedly biased source, it's fairly obvious right away that he's got a point. A smuggler, Duke's got a rap sheet of various, mostly theft- and tax-related crimes and appears mostly interested in his own ends - such as refusing to give information to the police until Nathan apologizes to him for being rude. For the most part he is content to simply go on with his own life of theft, smuggling, and selling contraband while pissing off Nathan by making snarky jokes. However, as his curiosity about the Troubles grows and more and more of his friends and acquaintances become affected by them, he begins to show something surprising: he's a good guy.
He first begins to show selflessness when his childhood friends, brothers Bill and Jeff McShaw, suffer a sudden decline in business at their bistro due to Bill's Trouble, which, when he is upset, causes the foods he's tasted to rapidly rot. The venture goes so badly that Jeff ends up murdered after an argument, and due to his closeness to both brothers Duke cooperates with Nathan and fellow officer Audrey Parker. It's also at this point that he begins to develop a fondness for Audrey, as well as some more patience regarding Nathan. Duke's interest in the Troubles grows more personal when he learns that his family is enmeshed in the history of Haven, and that his life may be in danger - yet he continues to grow closer to Audrey and to let Nathan in more, and continues helping them despite a lack of obligation.
Admittedly, part of this newfound interest in the town and the Troubles is due to his own "destiny": a friend with the Trouble of foreseeing others' deaths informed him that he was to be killed by a man with a certain tattoo (that turns out to be an esoteric symbol tattooed on a great many Haven citizens). He swears to offset his supposed destiny and save himself, cataloguing all the information he can find on this symbol and making careful note of all areas he can find where it occurs: this research takes up an entire wall of his Cape Rouge cabin. His search is relentless, and in order to continue it he appears to ally himself with the Rev, an extremist local minister who leads a faction of Haven citizens who believe the Troubled are ungodly. The search leads to the death of his wife, yet he persists until he uncovers his family's secret. Despite this apparent duplicity, he remains sympathetic to the Troubled and loyal to his friends, something he repeatedly tries to demonstrate in order to reassure Audrey and assert his place as a helpful presence in the town. He refuses to become a simple killer, opting instead to fight for those he cares about.
In fact, despite preferring a great deal of space and little imposition on his actions, and his general sarcastic and wise-cracking demeanor, Duke is very good at taking care of and supporting people. This is most obvious in dire situations - such as when his ship is hijacked with several of his friends on board. Enduring a brutal beating, Duke refuses to give up the cargo the hijackers want until they threaten a woman on board. He immediately gives up the crate's location in order to save her. When a teenage busboy who works at his restaurant, the Grey Gull, is threatened by a murderer, Duke not only promises to protect the boy but assists Nathan and Audrey in hunting down the perpetrator. Tragedy, naturally, also brings out this tendency: when Nathan's father dies, Duke arrives to support him and help bury the man. But this shows in small ways, in regular moments: spoiling people with good food, checking in with friends when they're not doing well, giving those constantly bombarded by the Troubles a breath of normality and the space to relax.
Part of Duke's charm, on that note, is that despite the massive amounts of misfortune in his life he remains an optimistic and friendly presence and has a certain degree of happiness, or at least acceptance, in his life. Although his life has been very strange, he rolls well with bizarre circumstances and seems able to find the normal in the abnormal. He has very strong faith in most of his own decisions, and is proud of the paths he's chosen for himself. Most of these paths seem to be in direct opposition to those usually taken by the Crocker family, and he shows his abject refusal to follow examples by swearing off the "family business" of murdering the Troubled and ending Curses. There are, of course, tragedies he's had to work through, such the murder of his wife, Evi; the loss of his biological daughter, Jean; his rather abysmal childhood with his neglectful alcoholic father, Simon. But Duke's confidence in himself is strong and well-placed, and he is an emotionally aware individual prone to soul-searching - if there is a reasonably healthy way to work through pain, he will find it. Moreover, he will attempt to lead others to it.
In many ways, Duke is the most emotionally mature character shown in Haven. He and Nathan have a thorny relationship due to Duke's disrespect for the law and, earlier than that, his childhood habit of bullying Nathan. Still, despite their enmity it's Duke who reaches out to Nathan in jeopardy. When Audrey is abducted and Duke is framed for it, Nathan turns violently on him; Duke eventually talks him down, reasoning that they'll have to work together to save their friend. Audrey is extremely important to Duke, and early on he has a romantic interest in her that remains notable but is eventually dwarfed by their friendship. When Audrey admits she's in love with Nathan, Duke is obviously disappointed but accepts this immediately, harboring no resentment for either of them. If anything, his friendship with and respect of Nathan grows stronger after this revelation.
This is also apparent in his self-control, which manifests in various ways. The most obvious is his ability to keep the Crocker Trouble under control, although the rush of power from touching Troubled blood is intense. Although he never uses his Trouble without very good reason, he compares the sensation to a heroin high. (Unusually for a child of an alcoholic, Duke is also very good at moderating himself in regard to various substances. He drinks socially and occasionally engages in recreational drug use, but he does not allow himself enough exposure to develop any sort of addiction.) When he does use the strength part of his Trouble, it's almost exclusively in self-defense or to help others. At one point, a Troubled woman named Daphne was caught in a rising tide after a traffic accident knocked her off the road and trapped her in her car. Despite Nathan's fear that Duke would touch Daphne's blood and give into the family Curse, he touches a cut on her leg and uses his strength to pry her car door off its hinges and carry her to safety. Interestingly, the Crocker Trouble is one of the few in Haven that can be controlled, although Duke is the first one to realize this.
As the series goes on Duke discovers nearly all the complications and misfortunes in his life are directly related to the Troubles. Like every Havenite, Duke wants them to end. He wants to go back to an adventurous but relatively normal life of questionably legal shipping operations and running his bar. He wants Haven, and his life, to be normal, although not at the costs necessary. Truth be told, friendship is the most important thing in Duke's world - far more important than his own safety and definitely more important than family. When possible he ensures his loved ones are far away from Haven and the mess going on therein, but as he shows when he runs into the Barn as it implodes, he will do all he can to keep them alive.
He really never planned on being a hero. Sometimes that's just how it works out.
Items: Duke will be arriving with the clothes on his back, the jewelry around his neck, his wallet, keys, and cell phone, a knife in his pocket, and a loaded semiautomatic tucked into his waistband.
Powers/skills: Duke has a Trouble, a superpower with a really crappy side. When a Troubled person's blood touches his skin his strength multiplies dramatically (and his eyes turn silver for some reason). In this state he's powerful enough to throw someone across a room one-handed and to rip a car door off its frame. The bad side is, Duke's power is designed to help him kill Troubled people. The Crocker family curse is ending other families' curses -- all they have to do is kill one individual with said Trouble. The rush of power from using his Trouble can and has been addictive to some members of the Crocker family, though Duke is very good at controlling it.
This Trouble can't be accessed without the blood of another Troubled person, so unless there are NPCs from Haven in Dualis this will be off-limits to him. Which is just fine with him, he prefers to rely on his own varied skills. He's a good con man and thief, can hold his own in a street fight, and by this point is fairly proficient in practical detective work and crime-solving. While not as reassuring as Audrey, he is good at comforting traumatized people and de-escalation. He's also a damn good cook, speaks Russian and Japanese, and is competent on the ukulele, for what that's worth.
SAMPLE
Test drive
PERMISSIONS
Permissions