Tucker is 6'0" and generally fit, sort of long in the limbs. He has blue eyes and short, shaggy, sandy-brown hair. He tends to keep his posture open and friendly, only closing off intentionally when he's finished with a conversation. He smiles a lot and has very animated eyebrows. Has kind of a natural charisma about him. He can usually be found wearing whatever t-shirt he could dig up in the local stores and some faded jeans, along with a pair of hiking boots and his black leather jacket. Unless it's night time or he's indoors, he's pretty much always wearing sunglasses. At all times he keeps a silver St. Christopher medal on a chain around his neck.

the rundown

Tucker is a non-human in a world mostly dominated by humanity. Only in recent decades have people like elves and dwarves become more accepted in mainstream human society, and people like shapeshifters, one of the so-called monster races, have a long way to go. Naturally this makes Tucker a paranoid sort, as being found out for what he is carries a hefty price where he's from, but it also means he's lived on the fringes, as a scavenger, a conman, and a thief.
In his more recent history, he joined up with an adventuring crew, taking on various jobs like cleaning out a cult, retrieving dangerous artifacts, and other such risky business. In his even more recent history, he and a couple of his closest pals broke off and started their own odd-jobs guild called Counterspell. Tucker is currently in charge of client relations.
He's a hard guy to pin down, mostly because he lies out of habit and trusts very sparingly. He tries to do the right thing, but his moral compass is pretty skewed, and he's not at all above fighting dirty or double-crossing to get what he needs. He and his come first, every time. But hey, at least he's friendly- to your face, that is.

where to find

Tucker doesn't have an official job in Hadriel, but he's restless, so he gets around. He can be found just about anywhere in the city, scavenging food for his stash, exploring every nook and cranny of abandoned buildings, and generally keeping an eye on things. His apartment is in Spire 1 (701), but he's only sometimes there. Tucker is available for lessons in cooking and lock-picking, and knife-throwing if you're nice. He often gets up to shenanigans, and helps out at the Coliseum when newbies arrive.

skills/abilities

Parkour: Tucker is spry and nimble, and he has an excellent sense of balance. He can climb most surfaces with ease, jump a pretty fair distance, and move very quickly when he wants to.

Sticky Fingers: He's been picking pockets and shoplifting since he was a little kid, so Tucker's a fairly adept thief at this point. He can also plant items on people and pick locks.

Stage Magic: Related to the above, Tucker knows a fair number of "magic" tricks, mostly just sleight of hand and misdirection. He can juggle, vanish small objects, throw knives, and do card tricks. Some of these are more useful than others.

Combat: Tucker knows his way around a fight, but he's not especially strong or adept at hand-to-hand combat or the use of heavy weapons. He is, however, pretty good at fighting dirty, and his speed and dexterity make him tough to hit. The only weapons he has any skill with are knives and handguns, but he's pretty decent with both. In wolf form, he fights by biting, and his jaws are strong enough to break bones.

Shapeshifting: Tucker's only supernatural ability is that he can turn from fully human to fully wolf at will. The change itself only takes a few seconds and it's not painful or especially horrific. His other form is a black wolf with yellow eyes. It's not especially large for a wolf, but wolves are huge, so he's still pretty big. In wolf form, he can't speak or do any fine motor tasks, but he retains his human intelligence. As a shapeshifter, he has the potential to learn other forms, but he's not sure how to go about it.

Wolf Senses: Tucker can see in the dark, and he has very sensitive ears and nose. These senses are heightened in his wolf form.

Lucky: Sometimes things just... go right for Tucker. Maybe someone trying to hurt him trips over their own feet instead, or he's mysteriously able to hit a target he can barely see. It's borderline supernatural, but basically, he has really good luck a lot of the time.

trivia

Voice: He sounds at least a little sarcastic at basically all times, and he swears a lot. His voice has a slight gruff quality to it, but is otherwise unremarkable for someone his age. His accent is incredibly generic "American", and it's hard to pin down. He speaks both English and Abyssal (the language of demons), though he never uses that second one if he can help it. Though dogs/wolves don't technically have a language, he can understand them, too.

Scent: To those with superhuman senses, Tucker smells like an odd mixture of human, wolf, and Other.

Mental Information: Tucker has no mental defenses of any kind, nor does he have any psychic powers. If you read his thoughts, you might find them a little meaner than what he's saying out loud.

Biological Information: Tucker's inhuman physiology is difficult to detect from the outside, but since he can change form from one creature to another, there's probably something weird about his bones and joints and things. He has several extra teeth in the back of his jaw, and his molars aren't quite human-shaped. His eyes reflect in the dark, like an animal's.

Magical Information: Technically anyone from Tucker's world can use magic, but he himself isn't especially inclined toward it, and he doesn't know any spells. Theoretically shapeshifters are magical creatures, but that's not quite how he thinks of it, at least.

Character Info

James Tucker

original character