DuCet bio - Darkness Rising

Name:
Clive H. DuCet

Age:
35

Gender:
Male

History:
Born to a French high-flying businessman and a British journalist, DuCet spent much of his childhood surrounded by success stories. Thanks to this, a reasonably well-off upbringing and a lot of help from extended family members of equal skill, DuCet spent his childhood excelling in things. As a talented sportsman and gifted intellectual, DuCet found his way through school and before long the University of Surrey almost without trying. He quickly specialised in the sciences, and his boyhood attraction to loud noises and explosions gradually became a potential career in demolitions. In the frankly painful job markets of mid-21st Century England, however, DuCet found his first stumbling block. After a months-long period of depression, numerous additional courses and hundreds of job applications, however, he found a role in Forront Deconstructions, a small demolitions and munitions research company based on both sides of the English Channel. DuCet was determined to keep this job, and ended up quietly erasing all of his sparse individuality to form the perfect employee.

After some years of this, and a steady mass of promotions culminating in an executive post, DuCet decided one night that he didn't need any more promotions, and set about reinventing himself. After a series of experimentations in sports he eventually settled on naturally solitary activities such as hiking or yachting. He also plays a number of musical instruments, the acoustic guitar being his most-loved. When the Shockwave hit, DuCet was one of the only people in either Forront office to show mutations. Luckily, Forront's founders and directors decided to make their Gifted into 'equal-opportunities' goldmines, conveniently leading to little or no persecution. Over the following two months, DuCet continued with his job, and was on a week's holiday hiking in Scotland when he found the egg.

Following the Egg's pull DuCet travelled through Germany and found passage on the Italian warship Medici. Once completing the quest to the Source DuCet tied the deserting crew to Forront Deconstructions in a mutually beneficial business deal and began helping both organisations run smoothly. He was called to hunt Angelic Winged by the Demon who had expressed an interest in his progress, and unlike many Bearers he found success in the form of a murdered rioter in Chennai, India. Using this onrush of power the Demon hijacked DuCet' mind and sent him forth on a journey to a conference for Winged in London. DuCet and the Demon killed or wounded everything in the hideout where the conference was taking place, and he tricked the Demon into handing him all of its power. DuCet descended into daemonhood at this point and escaped to a hotel to rest until he had regained control of himself.

Appearance:
Human – about 6' 3" in height, with neck-length white-grey hair and a sharp, chiselled face. DuCet is slim for a human with no wasted body mass. He typically wears a short-sleeved white shirt and formal trousers, his preferred attire when he was working. DuCet goes barepaw since recovering from possession.
Anatomical Changes – From both the Shockwave and his own doing DuCet has suffered physical changes  which place him beyond 'Winged' classification. His body now sports mottled black/grey feathers in a coat that runs from the neckline (where hybrid feather/hairs can be seen on his hairline), along the backs of his arms to the rear of his hands, and all around his legs and feet. The feather sizes range from soft, downy tufts on his hands to foot-long pinions on his lower back. DuCet now has wings, of a 10 foot wingspan and wide enough for easy soaring.

As well as the feathers, DuCet's feet have mutated to resemble lupine hind paws, with the heel drawn up into the lower leg. The balls of his feet are now slightly thinner and narrower than a human's, with thick pads on the foot and toes. The toes have also juggled around, creating a dewclaw (vestigial claws found on the inside of an animal's ankle) and feature black nails of approximately 1.5cm length. The feet are covered in small hair-like feathers for protection. lf travelling, anyone but a Winged or Gifted will not notice his changes if they notice him at all.

Personality:
A professional by nature, Englishman by upbringing and otherwise largely assuming. DuCet would normally hide his dry observational humour behind a formal, correct demeanour. After becoming a demon, however, he prefers to hide behind a 'down-to-earth sales pitch' laced with a pounding headache. DuCet has always favoured being alone and will operate independently to all others when he can help it.

DuCet measures himself and others by success. He maintains that doing one's best is self-evidently not good enough, and a loser should pick him/herself up and keep trying. He dislikes receiving or giving gifts, but this has spiraled into an obsession with leaving everyone he meets 'in balance' with him. This means assisting or hindering others until nothing is owed materially or emotionally. He uses the opinions of the other person involved rather than his own beliefs (some reading of surface thoughts is often employed) and will make exceptions for the very few friends he can still bring himself to contact.

Equipment:
Since his temporary possession DuCet has lost his car, anorak, supplies and his beloved boots. His abilities can make up for these losses, but he carries his USP handgun nonetheless. He needs no potions, alchemical ingredients or artifacts to work his powers and so travels light.

Markings and Abilities:
DuCet sports a simple Celtic knot design on the palm of each hand, and an interweaving pattern across his lips. This bestows upon him the power to not be noticed by others, which he can rein in or unleash at will (although Bearers and Winged are immune). Contrary to the effects of the Mark when a human, he can now handle musical instruments again without any ill effect; He is however well out of practice and would prefer not to. Malik still has his old guitar.

Additional powers are the entire skill-set of the deceased Demon DuCet had abandoned. The scope of these tricks and spells is almost unlimited, ranging from inscribing daemonic tattoos to transmuting the material from which objects are made to power over the elements. This is not raw instinct that drives his abilities, but the knowledge the Demon had gained from millennia of studying the dark arts and to see DuCet use his powers is to watch a master at work.

Combat Capability:
If in a fight DuCet will first use his Mark to force his opponent to forget about him or to lose concentration. He will turn to his trusty handgun first and will attempt to stop his opponent with a handful of chest shots, turning to his abilities if this isn't effective.  The wide range of spells and an in-depth knowledge of structural engineering leads to some novel attacks which can immobilize or blind-side an enemy. If all else fails, DuCet can throw punches hard enough to make sure what he hits stays down.