DUKE, skandar tristan

[skandar]

SKANDAR DUKE

....the mask

Your Name: Erinn
Where did you find us?: an affiliate here
How long have you been roleplaying?: 4-5 years
Password: [admin edit!]

...basic character information

Birth Name: Skandar Tristan Duke
Nickname: Skan on occasion, but typically just Skandar
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12
Birth date: July 17th
Program: Bachelor of Commerce
Major: Marketing
Animal Identity:Weasel

...personality

Likes:(at least 10)

• being alone: he’s not antisocial, but he gets distracted easily so things are easier when he’s alone.
  
• crowds: by the same token, he’s not antisocial, so as long as he’s not supposed to be focused...
  
• Sitting back and watching: Skandar isn’t compelled to be in the spotlight. He’s fine being ignored
  
• Music: it inspires him. Especially when he’s in a bad mood
  
• small Animals: well, obviously.
  
• one on one conversations: he prefers talking to one person at a time. It’s a lot more personal.
  
• School: he loves it, oddly enough.
  
• Dancing: you wouldn’t expect it, but he’s a really good dancer
  
• drawing: it’s soothing, and can distract him for hours on end
  
• snow: Skandar would never get tired of playing in the snow, it makes him feel like a child, but he loves it.
  
• flirting: he’s a little more subtle than most guys, but he’s pretty much a flirt.
  
• Brainy people - he likes talking to really smart people, he thinks it’s impressive.
  

Dislikes: (at least 10)

• swimming: he simply doesn’t like it. there’s not mush more to say.
  
• having enemies: he’s prone to arguments, but he’s easy going and doesn’t typically have long term enemies.
  
• drugs: he’s got awful memories from them.
  
• vegetables: it seems very infantile, but he hates them. Fruit is fine, but veggies, not so much.
  
• fighting: it was something that haunted him in the past. Physically he’s strong, but if it comes to a fight he’ll probably back down.
  
• Sports competitions: athletes don’t impress him at all
  
• summer: he likes to be cold
  
• Surprises: he likes to know what’s going on, surprises are unsettling.
  
• talking about his past: he knows its been hard for a lot of these people, but he’s just terrible at opening up
  
• slackers: people who don’t try just bother him
  
• drama: it’s just not his deal.
  

Fears: (At least 3)

• drowning
  
• ending up on a lab table somewhere because of his shifting
  
• getting stuck in one form (either human or weasel)
  

Strengths: (At least 3)

• fast runner
  
• hard working
  
• clever
  
• takes initiative
  
• can see the best in people
  

Weaknesses: (At least 3)

• too fast to trust people
  
• sort of gullible
  
• unconfident (only around people he knows he’ll see again)
  
• talking to girls - he’s a little awkward (:
  
• stubborn
  

Overall: [400 words minimum]

From a distance, Skandar is sort of the hard working, overachieving type. Not in an arrogant or annoying way, but sometimes he seems a little over enthusiastic. To be completely honest, the way he looks from the outside pretty much tells it like it it. He’s reasonably strong willed, and never quits or gives up on anything. He’s very dedicated once he gets into something. Especially his school or work. He’s very sucked into that. In some ways, you can read Skandar like a book. He’s very clearly happy to make friends and passionate about his interests, albeit a little bit awkward with girls. But in other ways, he’s deeply mysterious. He never likes to talk about his family or his past. He had a rough first several years of life. He doesn’t mean to act like other people’s pasts weren’t as bad as his (even if it seems like that sometimes) He’s just not as comfortable sharing as many of the people around him are.

Skandar doesn’t mind being alone. He actually likes it a lot. It makes him feel more secure to spend time alone. Sure, sometimes he craves company, and he’s definitely not antisocial. He just enjoys spending time with himself sometimes. He makes friends fairly easily, as long as they respect him and don’t ask too many questions. He’ll treat people the way that they treat him, so if someone greets him enthusiastically, he could quickly match that level and be enthusiastic with them. By the same token, if someone yells at him or insults him, he’s likely to yell or insult them back. Verbal fights are something he can be prone to if he openly dislikes another person. He’s pretty much all talk and no action though. He’s certainly not a wimp, and could take anyone in a physical fight if it were necessary, but he prefers to steer clear of physical altercations. He’s witty and clever enough to be able to win any verbal disagreement. He’s not the most confident guy in the world. Sure, he’s dated a few girls, and he’s not innocent by any stretch. Let’s just say he’s not a virgin. His problem is approaching people he hasn’t met, but knows he’ll see again.. He’s perfectly fine talking to a stranger that he won’t be likely to see again after that day or when someone else starts the conversation.

He’s very stubborn and determined by nature. Once he gets started on something he won’t give it up until he’s done with it. He has a great work ethic and spends a lot of time working on not only his school, but making the most out of his abilities. He’s terrified that one day he’ll end up being tested like a lab rat because of his shifting, so he doesn’t like to abuse the shifting. He really only wants to make sure that it never happens of its own accord. He likes to be in control of it. For the most part, he’s a happy guy, As long as you don’t ask about his parents or “home”. He’ll party on occasion, and when that happens, he’ll get a little drunk and more out of his shell. Most of his inhibitions go away quickly.

...appearance

x x

Celebrity Play By: Bradley James
Appearance: [400 words minimum]
Skandar stands pretty tall, at about 6’2” from head to toe, with a lean but toned body in the middle. He’s not some buff body builder. His muscles certainly aren’t bulging, but he does works out frequently, so they’re noticeably there. His features are a little bit sharp. His nose is vaguely pointy and his eyes are a tad bit small. All of this reflects the face of the weasel he shifts into. His skin is naturally tan, he doesn’t get much sun, but it’s clear that his genetics hold something other than pale. His hair is straight and a pale golden colour. It’s cut short most of the time and on occasion it falls in his eyes. Though they’re slightly too small, his eyes are a very pretty shade of grey blue when you see them up close, the girls seem to like them a fair bit. As a reasonably happy person Skandar is frequently seen with a smile. This reveals his moderately crooked teeth which bother him to no end. He’d wanted to get braces when he was younger, but he didn’t exactly have money or means to get it done. Despite the fact that they’re not perfectly straight, they’re always pearly white, and the tips of his canine teeth are sharper than usual, but not enough to draw attention. Skandar’s clothing style leaves little to discuss. Typically a pair of jeans and a t-shirt will suffice. Occasionally he’ll throw in a button up or a collared shirt and when it’s cold he’ll wear a hoodie or throw on a leather jacket. He’s got a few scars on his back and chest that you can see clearly when his shirt is removed. Along with this, he’s got a tattoo (click) of weasel footprints. Really original right? Oh well. Anyway, that’s on his back between the tops of his shoulder blades.

As a weasel, Skandar is predominantly white. His blue eyes darken to black and his nose grows even more pointed. You wouldn’t notice until you saw him change, but he’s got a row of freckles that line up perfectly with the whiskers of his weasel form. The appearance of his teeth change dramatically. They straighten up a little bit, and the already pointed teeth become even more so, while the remaining teeth become much less dominant. The most peculiar part of Skandar’s weasel form is the color of his coat. Typically, a weasel will change colors with the season, turning white in the winter and having their backs shift to brown. Oddly enough Skandar’s weasel is white almost the entire year round, shifting to a light tannish color for only a few weeks in the middle of the summer.

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...history

Parents: Mother: Loretta Michelle Duke
Father: unknown
Siblings: none
[400 words minimum]
Skandar’s birth wasn’t exactly planned. His mother was only 17 at the time and well, I suppose starting the story at the beginning would be best. Loretta Duke, resident of downtown London, was a bit of a club hopper. Actually, that’s an understatement. She dropped out of school at 16 and pretty much lived off the money she made...dancing, for lack of a better term. Along with her lifestyle, there were a lot of men, and as expected, a lot of one night stands. The night of the conception was strange, and it clearly changed her life immediately. She was used to men begin aggressive, it happened a lot. But this one was different. He was almost animalistic. The whole night was a cloudy memory for her, but what told the police was that the mystery man had spontaneously turned into a panther on top of her. Yeah, a panther. The feline sort, with razor sharp teeth and claws. Of course, the woman was unharmed, so what was law enforcement to do? They thought her a tragically insane high school dropout, committed her to a mental health facility and that was that. They never even looked into what had happened.

Unbeknownst to the authorities and the doctors treating a completely sane girl, what she’d really seen was Skandar’s father’s ability to shift into an animal. Upon finding out she was pregnant, Skandar’s mother refused to have them abort the baby like they typically would with such a patient. Eventually, Skandar was born, and sent to live in an orphanage in London. To be honest, he probably would have been better off left to be raised by a crazy woman. That was better than not being raised at all. The older girls at the orphanage were responsible for the babies until they were kicked out on the streets at 18, so there was never a constant figure in Skandar’s life. Once he was old enough to take care of himself, he was drawn into the customs and traditions of the Orphanage. The couple who ran it weren’t exactly....good influences. By the time the kids were twelve, they learned that their legal guardians were drug dealers. The only reason they worked this dump was to escape paying rent somewhere else. The kids didn’t mind really. They all had the same problems so they got rid of them the same ways. Drugs. Skandar got high for the first time on his 13th birthday, and after that it was all a blur. His time in the orphanage was mostly filled with fights, older kids beating up the younger. Skandar was frequently on the receiving end of the beatings, being small and undernourished and he has the scars to prove it.

The fights were what he likes to believe brought on his first change. All he really remembers about it is wanting to get away, and the painful sensations. He felt as though all his joints were dislocating themselves and the world was closing in on him. The next thing he knew, he was crawling out of the neck hole of his tattered t-shirt on all fours. The world around him was so bright and huge. He didn’t know what was going on, and honestly he was terrified. He escaped the older kids, miraculously unnoticed. He didn’t know how long he spent in the back of the coat closet until he finally shifted back, nude as the day he was born. Sliding into a long coat from the closet, he snuck back into the bedroom and put clothes on. It took him several weeks to be able to shift on purpose. He still found himself shifting on accident and he couldn’t always do it when he wanted to, but he found it useful for avoiding fights and sneaking around to steal food after hours. In hindsight, probably the most useful time he used his animal form was to sneak into the main office in the middle of the building, where he found a file with his name of it reading “top secret”. The papers inside revealed everything to him. Well, not everything, but enough. He knew the circumstances of not only his birth, but of his mother’s admission to the Mental hospital. He realized that the man she’d described had an ability just like his.

Skandar went on with his life, not sure how to process this information. Everything was fine until someone caught him changing. One of the older boys. He started making a big deal out of it, claiming to tell someone, but Skandar ran away before the boy got that chance. He got out of the Orphanage in his weasel form before making the still painful stretch back into his human form. putting on clothes he’d stashed outside, he made a break for it. He got a day out of London before he was caught by a cop while attempting to steal food from a convenience store. Being thrown in a jail cell was enough to terrify Skandar into his weasel form. He was only 13 after all. The chief of police saw the whole thing, but thankfully he was aware of Skandar’s condition. Skandar never found out how the chief had come to know about shifters like himself, but he quickly found himself placed into the care of the faculty at SA. He’s been there for 4 years now, and has made incredible progress, not only in controlling his shifting, but acting like a normal teenager and even catching up in school.

...connecting human to animal

[One Paragraph Minimum (Can be point form)]
Skandar relates to the weasel that he turns into in several ways, with both his appearance and personality. First, he has a relatively weasel-like face. It’s pointed and almost fierce. Another thing is that he has light hair and relatively light skin so it’s only natural that the animal does too. The weasel is known for being clever, which is a trait that shines through in Skandar’s personality, and helps him out with his chosen major. It couldn’t be said that it was an animal that interested him early on, seeing as he didn’t know anything about weasels until he researched them after his first few changes. But as Skandar researched, he began to learn incredible things about how he related to his inner animal. His body was tall and lean, just like a weasel. He was a fast runner, and the most fascinating out of it all, his hidden ability to dance. Weasels are rumored to perform a type of war dance, said to be mesmerizing to those who had the privilege to see it.

...literacy

RP Sample[/i]
Skylar pulled open a drawer and grabbed a shirt to put on with his jeans. He had a class this afternoon that he didn’t really want to go to, but he wasn’t the type to skip class so here he was, getting ready. His dorm room was small but clean, and recently, full of crumpled up papers. He’d been trying his hardest to draw her, but nothing was even anywhere close to being as good as the real thing. Izzy’s face hadn’t left his mind since he’d seen her that night in the club. Since he’d freaked out and deserted like the paranoid guy he was. In truth, he was terrified. He didn’t want her to know the truth. He had a funny feeling that she wouldn’t hold it against him, but he didn’t want anyone to know the truth. He liked hiding behind his mask as much as the next person. He’d rather be seen as oddly unsocial and strange than have everyone know that he was really broken and hurt. She wasn’t the same as the people he was normally around, so he wasn’t sure exactly what to think of her. He had mixed feelings on the matter to be truthful. He was relived that Izzy wasn’t someone he saw frequently, because she’d want an explanation for him acting so strangely and just leaving like that…and he didn’t have any excuse. On the other hand, he hadn’t stopped thinking about her since he’d left that night, and in a way he wanted to see her again.

He was more confused by his desire to see her again more than anything else. He went out of his way so that he didn’t have to associate with the same people multiple times. The reason his hair was so long was because he didn’t like getting it cut by the same person, so he’d taken a long time in between cuts so that he could find another person to do it next. He’d gotten to the point where he’d just stopped, and let it grow. It was down to his shoulders now, and he kind of liked it. Other that making him really cold after he showered in the winter, it wasn’t a bother to him like he’d expected it would get to be. He enjoyed having a lot of hair. He could hide behind it for one thing, and was really just interesting. It had brought him some new things, like a hair dryer, and a real hair brush as opposed to a comb. Just something to add to the small pile of things he actually owned. He didn’t really care how it made him look. He honestly just liked to keep things simple. Jeans and a plain white tshirt would suit him any day. He wasn’t interested in shopping, and he really didn’t have the money to spend on clothes anyway. He was practically broke other than the money he got every once in a while from selling his artwork.

He’d met a lower class art dealer with a shop on the lower east side, the guy liked his work, so he put it up for sale there and ten percent of any profits went to the store owner. Every once in a while, someone with money would see something of Skylar’s and the dealer would talk them into a large sum of cash for it. Most of the things that sold were his paintings. He could always get someone that wanted him to draw them and was willing to pay for it, so he did that sometimes too, but that didn’t help nearly as much as the paintings. But he didn’t do them often because they didn’t come as naturally to him as drawing. He did dabble in various mediums every now and then though, ranging from charcoal to colored pencils to spray paint to acrylic paint. Along with that, he had his job at the movie theater. He typically sold tickets in the box office and didn’t really talk to anyone other than to ask what they wanted to see and tell them how much it cost. Either that or he’d be the guy tearing the tickets that says, ”Third one on the left”. He was fine with anything really though. He got paid for it, so it was fine. He had enough to get by, so money wasn’t something he particularly worried about.

Skylar finally left his dorm and headed towards the main campus. His class didn’t start for an hour or so, so he planned to go to the library. Maybe he would draw something, or maybe he would actually study, like the other students who spent their time in the library. He had trouble concentrating on school when he was surrounded by people like that. Sure, it was quiet for the most part, but there was still so much going on. Just watching people and they way they acted when they were close to alone. It was bright out and there were a few students on campus studying, eating, talking and relaxing in different ways. Other than his dorm and his classes, Skylar didn’t spend much time on the campus. It was pretty though. It made him walk slower on his way to the library, if only because it was much nicer outside than in a stuff old building like the library.
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