;ooc
User Name/Nick: Ang
Other Characters: Sylar, Hayley Stark, Billy Costigan, Eames
Character Name: Danny Archer
Series: Blood Diamond
Age: 32
From When?: After he is shot and killed, near the end of the film.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Because he is bloody, luxurious, avaricious, deceitful, malicious, arrogant, and greedy.
Abilities/Powers: Skilled with various firearms.
Personality:
Danny is, above all things, selfish and greedy. In his previous life, diamonds and money were all that mattered. He enjoyed a mostly luxurious lifestyle with little care for those with less. It was necessary in his career to discard human life and remain as apathetic as possible to succeed; Danny excelled. He is not an active killer, but he doesn’t really care. “Look, people here kill each other as a way of life. It’s always been like that,” he says to defend his work and the number of lives lost to it. To him, he’s just filling a role that some other person would gladly take if he didn’t. That’s not to say that he’s completely apathetic, because he does care about certain things. Just not much.
Secure in his sense of self, with confidence bordering on arrogance, Danny is generally laid back and enjoys a good time. He is rarely sarcastic so much as blunt. Danny tends toward honesty unless necessary to lie as part of work -- in which case he is still primarily honest in small things, but tends toward the Big Lie; he is subtle in his deceit. His goals are usually long-term, big plans with a myriad of different paths toward that same end goal. He believes in patience and has no real interest in mayhem so long as he’s enduring in his successes (in his perception).
Danny is the kind of person who enjoys some routine, but the freedom to be spontaneous. He appreciates and respects deadlines without actually liking them. He expects people to keep their word when they give it, but always makes a backup plan in case they don’t. He will often keep his word also to preserve of build his reputation, but doesn’t find any moral/ethical connection with it and he doesn’t hesitate to commit to probabilities because he’s confident he can talk his way out of it if needed.
In presentation, Danny is stable and reliable. He may come across as tactless or too blunt, maybe even flamboyant, but it is part of the reputation he endeavors toward in order to secure his position. He is determined toward his goals but can be easily swayed in more minor choices. Intelligent, jaded, and isolated, the man enjoys never being close to people. Though he flirts and enjoys female company, he is by no means a playboy type. The right kind of woman can be a weakness to him in that he'll actually open up to her a bit, but even the right woman (like Maddy) will be kept at a distance.
On the Barge, Danny will work to establish a good and trustworthy reputation. He’ll be pretty chill as an inmate and not really be difficult or cooperate with his warden; he’ll just do his best to placate them and carry on with his own life and activities. If he finds work, however, his cutthroat nature will subtly return and his more proactive and perhaps aggressive tendencies will re-emerge. He will also seek out power, material goods, and trust.. all over time.
Additions to personality:
It is also important to note that, despite all his greed and everything, most of the reason Danny believes in the Big Lie and wants so much money is to escape to a place where he doesn't have to worry so much about death and everything. He wants a place to go where he can be lethargic and, namely, do whatever he wants, because that's really what he values most of all.
That said, he's addicted to doing things. Even if he had all the money in the world, he wouldn't be content to sit on a beach drinking rum vodka. He likes keeping busy because, no matter how pleasant his present is, his past is pretty traumatic and he doesn't like to be nostalgic about it; that means no spare time for idle thoughts when he can manage it. A little bit like the cliché, there is a good person buried deep within Danny, he's just stuffed it so far down as a result of everything he's been through and continually goes through that he's forgotten that guy completely.
Danny didn't do much in his time on the Barge previously. Mostly, he developed an utter hatred for vampires because he has a fierce survival instinct and the idea of a creature whose existence is based solely on human blood doesn't really line up with survival in his mind. He also had a small fling with Una, which he got a little too attached to. Bartleby was his warden, then Han, and not much was accomplished with either. Danny will retain his memories of the Barge in a slightly-cloudy sense (like a really old memory that's not entirely accurate), but that doesn't mean much in the way of friends as most of the people he talked to are gone now.
Path to Redemption:
Danny needs to learn the value of human life. He also needs to learn that material goods are not enormously important and money isn’t everything. A warden who is respectable and successful (not financially) would be good. He won’t deal very well with the specials aboard and would do best with someone moderately normal (but I'm not opposed to trying other things). They need to teach him the value of gratifications rather than pleasures by way of mostly slow and steady progress. He will be enormously stuck in his ways and prone to large lies, so it’s important that his warden be patient.
Solomon and Maddy will both be sore spots which may help him over time. Money and/or material reward can’t be used, but he won’t do well with not being rewarded either; it would be a fine balance, using abstract rewards. Someone strong who calls him on his attitude and lies without being confrontational or a jerk is also ideal.
History:
Wiki.
This is one of those rare cases where I genuinely don’t want to mess with the canon at all by writing a full, primarily original history. If you need more than just what is provided in canon, please let me know and I can write up something basic, but I feel most of what I might create wouldn’t do the canon justice, honestly.
Summary:
Danny was born in Rhodesia. He was sent to South Africa in 1976 when he was 9 after his farm was overrun; his mother was raped and shot and his father was decapitated and hung up on a hook in the barn. He joined the army at 18, where he worked doing hard and ruthless jobs for 10 years. After all of this time of suffering for nothing, he decided to take advantage of his skill set and knowledge and to suffer for something. This is when he began smuggling diamonds, being taken under the wing of the Colonel Coetzee and growing up working with him through the years.
Old Sample Journal Entry:
Kan u my die pad beduie na, waar is die naaste dokter, eh? Or you speak English here?
It seems like most of you speak English. I need you to find me a doctor, huh? I was shot and I think I might be dying. Hell, this whole thing might be a hallucination, because I’m entering into shock from bleeding too much. I don’t want to hear Maddy say she was right. Because I’m not dead, huh? Not yet.
Tell ‘em I’m not going to make it back though, huh? Tell ‘em I lost the stone. Solomon needs it a lot more than me. He’s got his family to put back together, eh? I’ve got plenty. Plenty enough for now, at least.
Old Sample Journal Entry #2:
Prefect, my friend. I’m told you are the man to talk to about getting my hands on certain goods, huh? I want to enter into business with you. You tell me what you need and I get it, huh? Then you give me money or more valuable goods in exchange. It’s a good barter system. You know what that is? A barter system? Bagin?
..Sis, Onbegonne taak onderneem.. Ek is onbevoeg vir sy taak.
New Sample Journal Entry:
You people.. are you craze? Always the same thing with you, huh? Bloed, seks, geld. 'Blood, sex, and money.' I can't say I blame you, but you'd do a lot better getting it from somewhere else, huh? This brak isn't the type I'd trust if I were you. But if I recall, you aren't going to listen to reason. Never was your strong point, huh?
Just tell me that some of the vampires have gone? They can't all have stayed here if everyone else is gone. Laat ons oop wees , all right? I don't like you. I'll do business with you, but if it were up to me, you'd be dead, huh? All dem wardens would lock up dem vampire boys. Then we'd have ourselves a real jol here.
The name's Archer. A-R-C-H-E-R. Archer.
Sample RP:
The rocks shimmered in the morning sun, just beginning to crest over the far hills. It was no later than 6:30am and their small pair was attempting to cross into the Nigeria for the third time this year; only into spring, this did not bode well for the market’s demand this year. High-risk, high reward. These little stones, less than the size of a fingernail, each, were worth millions of dollars, would destroy hundreds of lives, and were just another day in the life of Danny Archer.
After he finished his count, the man clenched them into his fist and quickly told hold of the nearest goat. Grabbing just below the hind base of his neck, he used his free hand to slide the knife from his belt and bring it down for blade to meet flesh. A small four-inch incision was all he needed and he moved the knife to his mouth to clean before returning. Then Archer dropped the diamonds into the cut, still holding the stubborn animal in place with determination. Well, and brute strength.
“How ‘bout you give me a hand here, eh?” With both hands now free, he pushed the skin of the goat’s neck back together and waited for his partner to join him. The doctor was already beginning to stitch the wound back closed when Danny stood properly again. Four down, only another two to go. For this round.
“How’m I supposed to get dem stones to dem employers if I can’ get no help, eh?” He asked with mild frustration, trying to encourage the people he was meant to be working with. They were too lazy for his liking and he wanted them to remember precisely who they were dealing with and the standards he expected. When the other man had finished stitching the same goat, he nudged at its behind with the butt of his rifle to encourage it to join the others that were done. “We need to get this done by sunrise, or else we’re in a load’a trouble, my friend.”