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"It's not about being strong. It's about being stronger than the other guy."
NAME DAK VEREN AGE 33 FACTION MANDALORIAN DOMINION RANK PROTECTOR
[fancybox4=http://i60.tinypic.com/25ggqv9.jpg]
Dak is a survivor above all else. Growing up as an orphan, he quickly realized that if he didn’t look out for himself, no one else would. As a byproduct of this attitude of self-preservation, he developed something of an apathetic attitude as to the effect that his actions might have on others and has often displayed a willingness to cause hardship for others in the name of his own self-preservation.
When it comes to interacting with others, he’s not an overly social individual. While usually polite, he doesn’t tend to like people until after he has spent a great deal of time with them and they have proven that they can care for themselves. He disdains incompetence and because he expects a great deal from himself, he tends to hold others to the same standard of achievement, often looking down on those that don’t meet up to his criterion. While he will associate with strangers, the odds that he will trust and develop a deep bond with others is slim. However, he cares deeply for those he feels he can trust and is undyingly loyal to those few individuals who make it into his “inner circle.”
To say that Dak is strong willed would be an understatement. He’s very much interested in carving his own path and has so much disdain for being told what to do that he may in fact go out of his way to avoid doing what he is told – even if he was already planning to do it – on principle. Often described as obstinate by those he meets, it’s a reputation that – right or wrong – he bears with pride.
Unfortunately, he has had “violence is a viable answer” drilled into his head for years and while Matare worked extensively to root that thought process out, Dak still has a tendency to occasionally resort to violence before all other avenues have been exhausted. That said, he’s not cruel for cruelty’s sake and while he may steal from or even hurt others, he generally frowns upon the outright murder of innocent bystanders.
His dubious moral compass becomes more evident when one looks at the jobs that he has taken over his career. Assassination contracts by criminals against criminals have lined his pockets with various amounts of credits and throughout the process, he has even at times convinced himself that he is doing something of a public service despite the illegal nature of the activity.
[/fancybox4]When it comes to interacting with others, he’s not an overly social individual. While usually polite, he doesn’t tend to like people until after he has spent a great deal of time with them and they have proven that they can care for themselves. He disdains incompetence and because he expects a great deal from himself, he tends to hold others to the same standard of achievement, often looking down on those that don’t meet up to his criterion. While he will associate with strangers, the odds that he will trust and develop a deep bond with others is slim. However, he cares deeply for those he feels he can trust and is undyingly loyal to those few individuals who make it into his “inner circle.”
To say that Dak is strong willed would be an understatement. He’s very much interested in carving his own path and has so much disdain for being told what to do that he may in fact go out of his way to avoid doing what he is told – even if he was already planning to do it – on principle. Often described as obstinate by those he meets, it’s a reputation that – right or wrong – he bears with pride.
Unfortunately, he has had “violence is a viable answer” drilled into his head for years and while Matare worked extensively to root that thought process out, Dak still has a tendency to occasionally resort to violence before all other avenues have been exhausted. That said, he’s not cruel for cruelty’s sake and while he may steal from or even hurt others, he generally frowns upon the outright murder of innocent bystanders.
His dubious moral compass becomes more evident when one looks at the jobs that he has taken over his career. Assassination contracts by criminals against criminals have lined his pockets with various amounts of credits and throughout the process, he has even at times convinced himself that he is doing something of a public service despite the illegal nature of the activity.
Skills and Appearance
[fancybox4=https://d.wattpad.com/story_parts/353726837/images/1495d44917d86c0d343530548922.gif]Dak Veren is quick on his feet and carries himself with a natural grace and athleticism that might be the most notable thing about him. At 5'7" and 170 lbs, he is quite a specimen and has the body of someone who engages in hard physical exercise on a daily basis. Numerous tattoos cover his right forearm documenting a myriad of major events in his life. Be it crimes from his teen years or notable lessons he's learned from his older years, each one has a deep meaning for him. Although often covered by clothing or armor, these markings become very apparent when not wearing long sleeves.
Growing up as a street boxer, Dak is more than capable of taking a punch and keeping on going. His natural born athleticism made him a formidable opponent in the ring and a lethal opponent on the battlefield. One of his fellow partners on a job once went so far as to tell him that he was not a natural athlete, but a natural killer. Take that as you will.
While his years as an orphan taught him how to take a hit and survive in the underworld, his years with Matare taught him how to be a killer. Over a five year period, Matare taught Dak how to fight with all manner of weapons, how to observe one's environment and use it to your advantage, as well as numerous other skills including demolitions, combat driving, basic piloting, and numerous others. However, Matare always taught Dak that his greatest gift was his mind, not his weapons. With a 145 IQ, Dak is no mindless thug and can truly count his greatest asset as his mind.
While he is an expert fighter, he tends to jump too readily towards violence, an attitude that is not only dangerous for others, but is liable to get him killed one day as well.[/fancybox4]
Biography
[fancybox4=http://i.imgur.com/UvrOxef.jpg] You wanna know my life story? Alright then. Well, I was born on Nar Shaddaa. My parents were broke, but we always managed to scrape by, even if only barely. I guess you might say we made the best of a bad situation. Man, talking about them seems like a lifetime ago now. They were killed when I was ten… speeder accident after some stoned idiot got behind the controls of a speeder. They say it happened quickly and painlessly, but who really knows if people are telling the truth or just trying to make a kid feel better?As you might imagine on a world controlled mostly by crime, the childcare services for orphans weren’t outstanding, and I guess I was one of the many kids that “fell through the cracks.” I remember day in and day out going hungry, pawing through cantina trashcans just to get enough to survive. After a few weeks like that, I ran into others like me – orphans - and my life got a bit better. Or worse, I suppose, depending how you look at it.
Some of these guys – the older ones especially – had a real knack for B&E and so that’s really how I ended up getting my start. Cat burglary was how we got money for food, which eventually turned into grand theft auto among other things. It was a dangerous life, really. Especially with some of the people we pissed off, but somehow, I made it through without being killed or jailed. That’s better than I can say for some of the other guys.
So that was the pattern for the next - oh - seven or so years. Steal. Sell. Eat. Repeat. That was until I reached my upper teen years - seventeen I think it was. That’s when I started fighting. See, underground fight clubs and brutal bare-knuckle boxing were popular, even for teens. That’s where I first started making any real money. I was pretty good and when I won, the payouts were pretty nice, though I’ve gotta say, the physical toll it took was noticeable. Sometimes I’d be beaten up so bad I couldn’t even see because my eyes were swollen shut and I could barely walk without my legs giving way.
But as a seventeen year old who couldn’t even be responsible with his body, do you think I was responsible with this newfound money? No. I went out and started gambling. I’m a pretty solid sabacc player and what started as me playing against my friends, quickly escalated into playing for real money. Well, I’d picked up a nasty habit of cheating with my friends, and when I started playing against the swoop gangers, it worked at first. Until it didn’t. After a couple of games, one of them got wise and caught me in the act. Let me tell you, they were angry enough to kill me. In fact, that’s exactly what they had in mind.
Four vs. one, even being the fighter that I was, that wasn’t going to end well for me. They dragged me out back and literally beat me half to death. I don’t know what I would have done if my guardian angel hadn’t shown up. His name was Matare Veren. He was a Mandalorian who’d spent several years as an operator within the Border Alliance. Tough as nails, one of the hardest men I’ve ever met.
To be honest, I couldn’t even really tell you what happened next… probably because of the concussion. All I know is he patched me up and after a conversation that to this day I barely remember, he took me with him away from Nar Shaddaa. I even asked him about it later, ya know, why he did it? All he ever said was “you reminded me of me.” I know it sounds cliché, right?
But that was that. Apparently I’d agreed to this in my concussed stupor and when I came fully to my senses, I wasn’t on Nar Shaddaa anymore, I was on Mandalore. The next five years we went everywhere together. He taught me what he’d learned in the military, which I’ve gotta say was a lot – CQC, marksmanship, demo, all sorts of things - and I became his partner on jobs that he took. It was a good life. Really, it was the first time I’d been cared for in nearly a decade. He became my father, even in the literal, adoptive sense. It’s why I no longer bear my birth surname.
This “good life” wasn’t to last though. Matare passed away four years ago. A fluke heart attack. And I do mean a fluke, since he was in pinnacle shape. Doctors couldn’t give me a good reason. Ever since, I’ve just kept doing what we used to do together. I have a home on Mandalore, but without Matare it doesn’t really feel like a home anymore so I spend a lot of my time traveling. I’ve taken jobs for the Cartel, contracted for intelligence agencies, bounty hunting, private security, you name it, but those are stories for a different time.
So I guess that’s that. I don’t know what else you want to know, but that’s my story, interesting or boring as you may have found it.[/fancybox4]
Roleplays
[fancybox2]1. [The Missing and the Dead]2. [Swamped]
3. [Halmad Knights]
4. [The Forge of Body]
5. [The Forge of Spirit]
6. [Pleasure to Make Your Acquaintance]
7. [Nice Place You've Got Here]
8. [Battle of Rodia: Et Tu Padmé?]
9. [Corellian Whiskey]
10. [Listening In]
11. [Making New Friends]
12. [Battle of Mandalore - Insurgent Threat]
13. [Out For a Smoke]
14. [Briefings and Debriefings]
15. [Send Them to Get Coffee]
16. [Over the River and Through the Woods]
17. [The Funeral of the Manda'lor]
18. [Aggressive Negotiations]
19. [Arasuum's Palace: Mav, Pirur]
20. [You Know Who to Blame]
-------------Timeskip
21. [Mandalore Indomitus]
22. [Prison Blues]
23. [Unhappy Homecoming]
24. [Making Trouble]
25. [Dude, Where's My Darksaber?]
26. [In the Aftermath][/fancybox2]
