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[ukan]

Level 001, Cabin 001
User Name/Nick: vilify
User DW: lavanille
AIM/IM: n/a
E-mail: hatofrabbits@gmail.com
Other Characters: David Cain

Character Name: Lark Tennant
Series: Sharp Teeth
Age: 41
From When?: From near the end of the book, at the final battle where Lark is about to be ambushed by Baron.

Inmate: Lark uses violence and cunning to get what he wants. He believes that he knows what is best for others (he usually does, to be fair) and doesn't listen to complaints. In fact, if you complain too much in his pack, he will kill you or throw you out. As a pack leader, he's both very assertive and confident, and very stubborn. He's willing to adapt his strategies as many times as necessary, but at the end of the day he only wants to be on top.

Like many inmates when they first start out, he's not willing to trust anyone and he's intensely secretive and manipulative about it. Because he's coming from a battle that he was preparing for almost a year for, he'll also be fairly violent at first.

He doesn't view humans as packmates. Dogs (or lycanthropes) are a completely different beast, and he only forms real bonds with the humans who are of use to him or who can be turned into dogs. Obviously, working in a diverse environment like the Barge will broaden his horizons, and a warden will help with that. He doesn't actually need a lot of work, just some guidance and new things to think about. If you can get through to him, that is.

Abilities/Powers: Lark is a lycanthrope. He is able to turn into a large wolf (one that resembles a German Shepherd-wolf mix more than an actual wolf). He is able to turn other people into lycanthropes as well, by sharing blood. Rather than bite, he tends to cut his palm, cut their hand, and share that way.

He has the requisite heightened senses (smell, hearing, intuition). He has training in self-defense, but he is most lethal in his wolf form. His strength as a human is proportionate to the strength of a wolf but he is very mortal and vulnerable. He has no defense at all against telekineses, telepathy, fire, etc. etc. He is basically just a very smart man who can turn into a strong, mean dog.

Personality: Lark says control is everything.

There are lycanthropes who lose control if they smell chicken grease. (Bone, a member of Lark's pack once lost control in a fried chicken joint, and killed and ate every person in the building. Lark stood by his underling after, and simply told him there was no point to hating himself.) Lark does not. He believes that mastering desire offers the path to freedom. Lark is in control whether he's eating fried chicken or lying next to the alpha female of his pack without ever touching her. Lark himself is celibate and uses moderation in all things, using self-denial to cultivate strength and clarity.

The Ukan path, as he calls it, focuses on lying low, avoiding pack wars, and infiltration. If Lark had it his way, he'd be able to pick off his enemies one by one. It causes the least amount of bloodshed.

The pack never questions his intentions,
if they did, they sense
there would be no answers.

Lark is always focused on the long term and where his schemes are going, but he never shares those goals with anyone, not even his pack. He's an elegant sort of leader though, someone who is so confident of his path and his methods that he inspires people to follow blindly. He doesn't trust those he leads, but he does love them all deeply.

That being said he won't hesitate to kill a traitor, and he splits his pack in order to keep them from forming their own plans. He understands motivation, and readily manipulates his 'dogs' when they begin to grow bored or frustrated or confused by what he asks from them. As long as it's for their good and contributes to his end games, he justifies the way he handles them and doesn't feel an ounce of guilt.

There's blood everywhere.
"Like a Jackson Pollock valentine," he thinks

Lark is educated and deeply interested in the world. It's part of how he can juggle three complex plans at once, and calmly weigh his chances against the failings of Napoleon and Roosevelt. He can easily relate to almost anyone, and when his secretive nature does rub someone the wrong way, he kills them off and lets them serve as an example to other dissenters. When most of his pack is killed, he quickly makes sure that the survivors are away and safe, and then cancels the security call and cleans up the bodies.

He listened for hours,
his patience becoming the bedrock
she could rest her fears upon.

Lark may use people--and packmates--blatantly, but that doesn't mean that he is beyond compassion. He gathers up people who will be useful, but he also seeks out broken people, those who need a safe place and a sense of empowerment. Apart from the other two lawyers, Lark built his first pack on veterans returning from a war, knowing full well they would need stability. The second pack, he built from junkies and runaways.

The alpha female had been a victim of domestic abuse when he found her, and took her in and finally changed her. He gives her more freedom than he gives to anyone else, including himself. No one in the pack can touch her, and she can come and go as she likes. Having her there, tormenting the pack with how untouchable and powerful she is, had been part of the Ukan path of discipline that he trained them all with. But it's also likely that he gave her the freedom to get close to Anthony the dog catcher because he knew she needed that autonomy in order to heal.

He insists on discipline, but rewards good behavior. He keeps them safe and well-fed, and even took the pack to Las Vegas to allow them all a chance to indulge with prostitutes. (He might have also done that trip to make them realize what they were giving up when they went back home and back to work for him.)

That being said, Lark focuses so much on his long-range goals that he often slips up and misses imminent problems. He never imagined that his pack could be destroyed, or one of his own packmates could be turned against him. He wasn't watching out for them because he was so involved in his own ideas--that's a common trend for him. He goes through extremes, between seeing too far down the road and being unwilling to get out of bed (as with Bonnie, when he decides to hide out and pretend to be her pet). Without a goal, he withers away.

And for as manipulative as he is, it's very easy to trick him. He doesn't give information that other people will need, but assumes that others will tell him everything he wants to know. Despite being clever and changeable, Lark has a very narrow view of the world he's in. Tunnelvision, you could call it.

Barge Reactions: Lark has been on the Barge before, but he won't remember it at first, thanks to the new canon point and having to absorb the concept of being here when he remembers being at home at the same time. As he meets the people he knew before he'll remember more, although then he will be dealing with the idea of having lost two more packs (the one at home that was decimated by the battle, and the one he'd begun on the Barge). Since he's an adaptable sort of wolf, he will mourn them (and spend more time with those who remain) but keep trucking along toward the goals that he had set for himself last time: build a pack and uncover the Admiral.

As for more general reactions, he is no stranger to violence and absurdity (he's a lycanthrope who's been on the lam), so he'll probably laugh about a lot of the floods and throw himself right in there with the breaches. He's well-read and eager to learn new philosophies, especially through adversity, so the floods will be something he looks forward to.

I predict that he will come to be protective of some of the people on the Barge (those who need stability, for example, but who aren't wolf-material) and he is tenacious when it comes to that. He's also likely to be a little bit creepy about it--apart from getting involved physically, he'll set things in motion behind the scenes to make sure that whoever he's protecting is both safe and content, even if they don't want his help or agree with his methods.

Path to Redemption: You should probably understand wolf hierarchy. Lark is not as independent as you would expect--he is an alpha. He hates being alone. He needs people around him in order to get what he wants, and he'll understand that that's especially true on the Barge. But he won't listen to an authority figure without being convinced that they will listen to him.

He will probably come to care very much about his warden, but only if he feels that they need something personally from him. You know that 'White Knight Complex'? Yeah, he's got it. He wants to feel like he's of use and someone to be leaned on, so don't expect or push him to lean on you. He will over time, if you can teach him how in sneaky ways.

More than anything he wants to lead his pack into something better. He's a megalomaniac. He wants to be the head of the most powerful pack in the world--and that means ruling in both 'human' world and 'dog' world. He's a lawyer. Appeal to him with rules, as long as they make sense and seem fair. And mostly, be prepared to be manipulated; you're free to do it in return.

History: Lark, like all present-day lycanthropes, began life as a human. He grew up and went to law school. He had a gift for argument and coercion, and was considered almost 'too bright' at the first law firm he worked at. Despite his talent, the job left him feeling empty and lost. He spent the nights drinking, waking up to hollow victories, and filling himself with more liquor.

His life might have gone on that way forever is his best friend hadn't wrapped his car around a pole one night. Lark spent the night at the hospital with him, and woke up facing a stranger. The man was there with him when the doctors announced Lark's friend had died; it was the first time Lark had sobbed in years, and it brought a part of him back up out of the emptiness.

The man brought Lark into the pack a few days later, and Lark spent the following years mapping a future for himself: the Ukan path, and his own group to lead. Lark was finally happy until the night one of his own dogs he had sent to spy on another pack turned on him.

Most of his pack was murdered. He tucked away the three remaining survivors and hid himself in the Pasadena dog shelter to wait. (He picked Pasadena because there was no policy there that would have ended with Lark being neutered; he may be celibate but he is attached to some things). And eventually, Bonnie came, nervously drumming her fingers and looking for a big dog to protect her. When she saw Lark, she named him Buddy.

Lark went home with her, intending to spend a week hiding out and planning and then move on. But a week dragged into two, then three, then six as he enjoyed sleeping at the foot of her bed and letting her rub his fur while they watched tv....

When he finally begins to pull himself back together, it's bad news for Bonnie. Lark starts using her car while she sleeps, borrowing pencils to scribble ideas, using the phone, eating the yogurt. Of course, to Bonnie (who lives alone) it all makes her feel as if she's losing her mind. A half-tank of gas gone overnight! The furniture rearranged, food gone. And so she finally checks herself in to a therapeutic retreat and drops 'Buddy' off at her sister's. That night, he makes his escape.

Sample Journal Entry: [The first thing Lark does is follow his nose. He gets himself some food, enough to clear his mind, and then finds a quiet corner up on the deck where he can watch the universe drift by. He watches the network first, making cursory judgments of the people there. And then he turns the camera on himself.

He's not sure any of this is real, but it's always safest to pretend it is. If it's real to these people, it needs to be real to him.]

Monarchism depth doubtfully entrancing.

[He closes his eyes, no. Not right. Slow breath in: who am I?]

Sorry. My name is Lark. I've already introduced myself to the cafeteria, [he holds up his clean spoon] You eat pretty well here. Better than I've had in other cages. I can tell what most of the things on my plate were originally. In a place like this, in times like these, that's a blessing.

[Now the question. Time to find out the important things. He should have waited, but he doesn't have time to spare.

Who am I? Lark. Where am I? That, as Shakespeare said, is the question.]

I'm still monkey lid drudging cloud?

Sample RP: A glass of water and a hot shower cleared his mind. They're both such human luxuries: water in a bowl is always tepid, and dogs prefer things to swim in than things that beat down on them.

Lark stands under the spray for as long as he can, not caring that it's a communal shower. He has long since given up the idea of modesty. He spent six weeks using a backyard instead of a toilet, and he's been so caked in blood that it ripped at his chest hairs to get it out again.

He sat on the floor after he was dressed and beat against the fog in his head until he knew the truth. Lark Tennant, find the pack, kill Baron. In a prison, find the key, get home.

He left his room again when his thoughts were his own, and he was sure he could hold a conversation without lapsing into the random misfires his weeks as a dog had caused. He followed the scent of sweat and adrenaline to the gym, and though Lark enjoyed a good challenge he preferred to hang back and appear timid. White-collar, manicured.

Too gruff, too centered. Too human. So many things could disqualify a person from consideration. Shirt untucked, nails too clean.

He smiled at them all anyway. "Not bad, where'd you learn that?" For those worth noticing. A simple nod for those who aren't. He's just laying groundwork right now, sending out feelers.

Phase One.