Concept: “that One Dick”
AKA: People tend to whisper about James harkness behind his back rather than nickname him properly. Often times his most common moniker is “spook show”
Desc: A large black man in his mid forties. He’s got good wind and goes and hits the heavy bag whenever he’s trying to noodle something out. if there’s anything that’s a little bit off-putting about Jimmy Harkness it is, that his sense of humor has become so gallows black that even the other homicide dicks often look at him with stricken “DUDE! Too Far!” looks on their faces. He’s already been officially reprimanded for a bad bout of church giggles he got at a crime scene within earshot of the grieving wife, who also turned out to be the perp by the way.
History: Jimmy has seen some shit. he’s worked as a cab driver, a corrections officer and then eventually got a gig with metro PCP. He’s been in a scrap or two in his life. He grew up in a part of the state where you worked in the mines until you coughed out your life in a hospital bed. So he’d rather do ANYTHING else than go back there and die like his pop did.
he came to the big city and started working as hard as anyone can. because Jimmy had seen some shit already and knew a few things that they don’t teach you about in big city public school. Nor in big city community college.
Like knowing a few things about Haints, and a thing or two about hoodoo. and then the actual flesh and blood predators out in the night. It didn’t take too long for The Union to come around and recruit Young Mr Harkness. and he’s been working with them all this time. It explains a bit how his career has been somewhat checkered and how he’s moved around laterally. He’s also pretty good at it, The Hunting AND the Homicide detecting. He has a good grasp of psychology and while his schooling isn’t great, he’s got great people radar and isn’t lazy as fuck like Blanchard and Skiggs.
Granted it’s not all chili and hot dogs. his sick sense of humor comes from being triggered in the field a few times. His work and his hunting make it difficult to keep a girlfriend (Even though Jimmy is something of a catch. He’s not hard to look at and in decent shape. Occasionally, during hunting there are cash windfalls and Jimmy always invested them well.)
Attitude: “Keep your eyes open kid. Pay attention to the big stuff going on around you and the little stuff too. Remember to keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel and you just might get to die in your bed at an advanced age. I certainly hope to.”
Skills: mentally he’s pretty fast on the draw. he might have a number of investigation specialties and streetwise specialties too. He’ll have a dot or three of occult. and might even have encyclpodic knowledge. He’s always buying books with strategies on how to become a math wiz or do that “memory palace” shit, but he tends to get bored midway through and so he’s never really managed any of that. But he is GREAT at reading people (Give him a five in empathy, which makes his inappropriate jokes even worse.) He’s got great radar for people and almost always know when you’re lying. ESPECIALLY TO YOURSELF.
Physically, he’s in good shape. Plenty of dots of brawl and some boxing FS. He’ll have decent brawling dodge too. Isn’t anything special with his gun but CAN hit the broad side of a barn. He’ll have some athletic dots but is probably not going to have enough flexibility to ever do anything like Parkour.
Socially, he’s a decent guy and most people like him even though he has a bad habit of speaking his mind and being terribly honest. It hasn’t endeared him to some in the department. His size and frame can make him a bit intimidating and if he decides he don’t like you he will invade your personal space.
Gear: he’s got cuffs and obviously a service piece. he’s also got a very large holdout piece which has a kick on it like a mule. he’s also carries a large tool bag for evidence handling and field testing. When on the hunt. Jimmy prefers a rather large shotgun and/or a big baseball bat.
Home: Jimmy has a lovely houseboat which he intends to retire onto. It’s on board arsenal is non-trivial. It is also booby trapped and in case of heat from monsters, he can always pull away from shore.
Circle: He knows most of the people in the department of course, a subset of criminal folks, and the people around the marina. He’s not terribly outgoing from there.
Story Uses:
“Did you or did you not see these markings? Seriously Skiggs. DO you not know what a clue looks like?”
As I may have mentioned Jimmy has seen some seriously fucked up shit in the line of duty. He’s not one to stop listening when the witness says, “OK. Now this is going to sound crazy....” I’m not saying that James is going to become your own personal captain ahab. but anything weird is GOING to be passed up the chain to his people in the Union and lord only knows what will come out of that.
Options:
If you want to juice up Jimmy Harkness, you can always give him psychic merits, a Second Sight hedge magic template of some sort. or have him be unwitting wolf blooded or an unwitting Dhampir.
Connections:
*Has a nodding acquaintance with the officers of The clean-up crew. If they meet in the field, on the hunt, it's going to get very awkward very quickly.
* Shawna Bishop "Real shame what happened to that girl. real shame."
* Sgt. William Donnelly "You got a problem with Big Bill. Then you got a problem with me. And if HE's got a problem with you, Then I don't think I want to know you kid.
* Thomas Jones Rutherford "yeah I know TJ. He's my boy! Dude would have made a pretty good cop himself I think. He asks the right questions.
* Paul Castellamarese "Id love to nail him on that thing from two years ago. But he lawyered up real good and the goombas closed ranks.
* Detective Marty Bennetti "That man is complicated to talk about. Errybody KNOWS he's crooked. But He also saved my damn life once. Don't partner with him if you're career minded.
Detectives Blanchard and Skiggs "the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy of PCPMetro.
* Sheriff Hank Settles Probably the only other lawman i can count on in the field. man I wish he'd transfer to metro. While I'm wishing I might as well as for lotto numbers and a blowjob.
* John Joseph Staglione "Love to find that dragunov of his and close about a dozen cases, but the man is out of the game and I hear for good. Besides i've seen him with his grandkids. I couldn't toss him in jail NOW."
* Miss Virgie Hawkins " i think she knows more than she lets on."
* Norman Cayce "I think he's right and I help when i can.
