MERCH!

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Jack Marston

Concept:  Bounty Hunter

AKA: Some of the people in his office call him “Cactus Jack” Jack’s okay with this because he’s a Mick Foley fan.

Desc: Jack looks like he ought to be on old school cigarette advertising. Rangy and tough looking. He has a nice smile( he flosses)  and pleasant blue eyes. He tends to wear jeans and a denim jacket as his everyday wear. He tends to go for boots. His frame is fairly compact but he has serious muscle. He’s got a deep tan that comes from growing up on a farm and working outdoors a lot. Keeps his blond hair short and clean cut.

History:  Jack isn’t dumb but he knows that a guy who grew up on a farm, and who went into the Marines as soon as he was old enough has limited options when it comes to the job market. After a while, it was clear to him that career Marine wasn’t going to be for him.  He came home and for a while did some bouncing.  And that was okay and all.  But it just wasn’t for him. He wasn’t interested in getting into crime. Finally, he answered an ad in the paper for a Bail Bondsman’s office.
It turned out that Jack had a real talent for it.  The way it works is like this.  Some guy gets himself arrested. That guy may not necessarily have the monies to pay the bail. So they get a bail bondsman to cover the necessary payment.  Then at some point, the person may go to trial.  If they decide that they’d rather skip and take their chances on the run, that’s when Jack swings into action.  A lot of his actual work day involves a little pre-emptive investigation on the people who use the bail bondsman’s service. This way, if a guy decides to skip, They already have a certain amount of intel already banked and they aren’t caught flat-footed and on the clock.  Of course, when they skip, that’s when Jack has to go on the road and run them down.
      There’s something about it that he likes. He’s good at solving puzzles.  He’s decent at talking to people and getting them to give him information. And he likes meeting new people and traveling to new places, even if it does mean people setting their dogs on him or pointing shotguns at him.

Attitude: “Listen, Jorge...Are you listening?  Dude, It only takes about 17 foot-pounds of pressure at this angle to break your arm.   Now I don’t know what unfortunate state of affairs led you to this sorry pass. But whatever it was...You ARE coming with me.  I’d just as soon you be conscious and ambulatory.”

Skills:  Jack breaks down like this. He’s got more Resolve than other forms of mental. More Manipulate than other forms of social.  He’s got more stamina than other physicals but his other physicals are pretty high. He’s got a martial artist’s build (He’s a practitioner of Jiu Jitsu and has some dots in M.A.C too.) and he runs to stay in great shape. Running tends to figure into his work.  On the social side of things, Jack doesn’t tend to come on heavy. He smiles and is pleasant to people and usually has a premise worked out ahead of time for contact with locals, (“No Ma’am. The lawyer sent me to find him because his uncle died and he’s coming into some money. Might be he might kick a slice to someone who helped me find him”. *Big sincere smile*)  He’s also got lots of dots of Animal Ken which has come in handy more than once. (“ That’s right. you were just being a good boy. I get it. I understand. Yes.”)
While he’s nobody’s hacker, He’s got more than a single dot of Computer and a few dots of Investigation with a specialty in “finding people”.  He is actually pretty good at answering a lot of questions through statistics, reference books, and web searches.  And clients of  Mr. Lee’s bail bonds service have their affairs looked into, BEFORE they skip, as I mentioned.  Mr. Lee is prudent that way.

Gear: Jack’s primary mission is to bring them back alive.  As such, he is usually armed with Taser and stun baton.  He keeps a bull-pup configured shotgun with bean-bag rounds in the trunk of his 76 Dodge Duster. (Don’t laugh, it’s got a v8) He has kevlar inserts for his denim jacket and if he’s expecting fire, he’ll bring along a motorcycle helmet.  He also carries a sheaf of zip-ties. (He knows that zip ties can be snapped in two, so he’ll tie the thumbs too.)  If he can close, he’ll use his martial arts.   He also carries a hunting knife. Because you never know.  He’s jacked up more than one runner just by jamming the thing through the front of a radiator.  Can’t get far with a hole in your radiator.

Home: Jack lives in an apartment. A nice one too. He has a large Irish wolfhound named “Mick” which keeps an eye on the place while he works. They also go running together. Jack has a fairly large collection of music. His CD’s take up a whole wall in his apartment.  He may have every single album that Johnny Cash ever recorded.  He has friends in the apartment complex too, who aren’t shy about looking after Mick. In fact, Mick may have more friends than Jack does. 

Circle: Jack has friends at his office, at his apartment complex and on the weekend he has friendly people at his dojo and at the C&W watering hole where he likes to line dance. Jack is pan-sexual but doesn’t exactly put that on blast. (Mr. Lee is a bit conservative. He might not take it well.) so he occasionally brings home people...And sometimes they end staying in the spare bedroom for a while.

Story Uses:
“Can I bring him in? Yes.  Will he be any use to you by the time I get him back here...That I can’t say.”
As you can imagine Jack would be a pretty good addition to any supernatural creatures payroll. He’s competent and doesn’t rattle easily. He’s good at what he does and takes pride in his work.

“Stings like a sumbitch, don’t it?”
On the other end of the scale, One might have to deal with him in a more professional arrangement. Most supernatural creatures think they’re above the law. And as such, might pay the bondsman and then just skip, thinking to disappear.  This does not work out well when Cactus Jack is on the case.


Connections:
* knows Joseph Cartolano from his dojo. The kid really dropped the weight.We're all really proud of him.
* Has used Rory O'Halloran to case certain targets. The P.I. who put him onto Rory said he was gold and he was right. Also, who'd have thought Irish cuisine could be so good?
* Has had peripheral contact with Tyronne "Tiberius" Glover by dint of having to run down some of his boys. There was a tense situation or two where Jack was forced to explain to Tyronne that some of his boys had made certain promises and had broken them. Weird thing is, Tyronne gets pretty upset about broken promises.  On both occasions, he handed the boys over to Jack, although both were the worse for wear. Tyronne has an interesting relationship with Mr. Lee and boys who attempt to skip...Are endangering it.  He doesn't take that well. Tyronne's got RULES.
* although he is essentially a part of the Law Enforcement community, there are times when it might be necessary to patronize someone on the other side of the tracks. Hence, he knows Dr. Ronnette Franklin and is, just a little bit smitten with her. In fact, if he gets hurt, he'd rather go to Ronnette and put money in her pocket than to another doctor. 
* Had to run down Teflon John Galloway once after he tried skipping on a narcotics bust. It was too bad. John was kind of cute in Jack's assessment.  His lawyer got him off, though. 
* Used to work as a bouncer at The Witness. So he knows all the crew there. Every once in a while business takes him that direction and he stops by and they treat him like the prodigal son. He'd go there more regularly, but the music isn't to his taste.
* After his bouncing gig, Big Dan Tarleton made an approach, but Jack wasn't interested. 



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