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David "Dave"
It's a Dave!! Always ready!!
Name David "Dave"
Gender Male
Age 23
Introduced In "Insert Shiny Hole in Time Here"


David "Dave" is an agent of the Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society.

Description[]

Dave's attitude to problem solving can best be described as skipping plans A to T and going straight to plan U. The more unpredictable the solution, the better!

He is quite a quiet person that thinks a lot, which means that if he does speak out on an issue, he has spent the best part of the last week or so thinking it through. Tash has likened him to “their own personal Jesus” due to his tall, bearded appearance. To this he usually responds, “Be thankful I'm not...” He doesn't generally swear or curse, not because he is easily offended (quite the reverse), but because he just doesn't see the point of doing so.

As a student of Archaeology and History, Dave has a bit of practice in divining how people that are not currently available for questioning see the world, although he freely admits that he could be wrong at these times. This means that he can function as the Society's forensics specialist.

His trademark is a selection of extremely bad puns, although he's learning (slowly) not to use them within earshot of Shirley. He has also failed to use them much since returning from the Captain Scarlet fandom, for reasons of depression, but he slowly seems to be getting better, at least among his close friends.

Since his replication, he has been accompanied constantly by Asuka (his Luxray), as she is one of the few creatures able to stop him if he turns traitor again.

Since Adrian's return, Dave has seemed to be a little awkward in the presence of the Counter Guardians in general, and Adrian in particular, partly because he doesn't trust this concept of The Powers That Be that they answer to, and partly because he doesn't think they are fully reliable as allies. In one of his more cynical moments, he even suspected them of actively trying to kill off the vast majority of the Society at Stonehenge by witholding information, although he is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Fandoms he is familiar with include: Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! (and its spinoffs), Spectrobes, Bonekickers, Doctor Who, Skies of Arcadia, Andromeda, Primeval, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently series, and Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt Novels.

Appearance[]

Dave is a tall person, roughly a month older than Tash, and standing at almost 6'0", with brown hair and eyes, and an untidy beard with ginger hairs in it. His usual choice of clothing depends upon the situation or fandom he is required to enter, so he adopts waterproofs, camouflage jackets, and/or snow gear depending upon what is appropriate at the time. In the Library however he sticks with dark colours, although the tough, metal plated boots he uses for Archaeology digs are his usual choice of footwear. He recently found out that he required glasses for activities involving distance, such as driving, although he often leaves them behind if he thinks they'll get broken. Owing to his experiences in the Captain Scarlet fandom, he has no battle scars of any kind, and he is unlikely to ever sustain a permanent one.

Personality[]

In personality, Dave is determined almost to the point of being stubborn and prefers to keep others at an arms length, a fault that he claims to have joined the Society to try and correct. However, it is clear that life in the Society isn't quite what he was expecting. He doesn't like failing, and as a result is quite harsh with himself when he does. He has also retained rather more sanity than an agent usually does after joining the Society, and it remains to be seen whether this is wise or not...

When introduced to Dave, Adrian identified him as someone who would contain negative emotions for long periods, and then release them all in a single, utterly pyroclastic, blast of fury. With his outburst after being manipulated by Stormherald in mind, this seems to ring true.

Dave is also an advocate of preventative medicine, meaning that he would prefer to predict the most likely problems and then stop them from occuring. This is a source of great frustration for him, as he has come to believe, not entirely correctly, that those in positions of influence in the society will not listen to him, adversely affecting his confidence.

History[]

Dave knew about the Society for a while, knowing Tash from university and the WARGS, but joined quite late. When Tash described the trouble the Society was having with the Sues his response (to their mutual surprise) was “How can I help?”. He promptly undertook the required exams and then an 'eventful' mission into the Primeval fandom. Here, Dave was variously shot at, nearly eaten by a dinosaur, and almost buried alive in a volcanic eruption. Despite this, he apprehended a Mary-Sue named Mesha, although subsequent evidence suggests she may have allowed herself to be captured.

His next mission was to the Zero-X fandom, a Thunderbirds spin-off. Here he and Tyler stopped a Stu from stealing extra-terrestrial bone-forming matter to create a legion of living skeletons. It was while they were on the planet Verspona that Mesha was abducted from the Library, although it is possible that this was pre-arranged by her.

Encountering Mesha again in the Bonekickers Fandom, he got his first taste of actual combat experience against the clone troops she had 'aquired' from Primeval. This was an experience he is not particularly eager to repeat.

When Willowe attacked the Library and the agents were forced out, Dave left the hotel in Real Life in a different direction to the rest of the self-inserts, calling out that he would meet them at Stonehenge. When asked why he failed to do so, he claimed he went to borrow a tank from one of the military bases that dot Salisbury Plain, but couldn't find one in time. As he's never driven anything larger than a Citroën Saxo, this story didn't quite fly with the rest of the Society...

After that, Dave concentrated on his degree, and became oddly defensive when anyone asked about his actions in the Battle of the Library.

A few weeks after Adrian's return and Aster's rescue, Dave started to experience severe, artificially-induced nightmares that fed his doubts about the Society's purpose. Together with the manipulations of Mesha's patron (Stormherald), this resulted in a loss of temper with Drake and a period of mild self-anger because of that. When he was sent into the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons fandom, his ideals caused him to save several captive prohibited Sues in the fandom, losing his own life in the process. When replicated by the Mysterons, who had allied with Mesha, Dave was initially under her control (a condition exacerbated by the nightmares he had suffered), and fought with Claire, Valerie, Tash and Captain Blue, before being brought down by his own Luxray, Asuka. The combination of high voltage electric current (A Mysteron weakness), and Mesha's upgrades to the replication process caused him to regain his senses with no memory of what had transpired while he was under her control. It was his use of the new gadget 'Guest Appearance' to summon Thunderbirds One and Two that allowed the society to definitively defeat Mesha on Cloudbase.

About a week after this, Phoenixia was able to lay many of his misunderstandings and fears about the Society to rest. Unfortunately, his being held hostage soon after by Louise in the Library basement - or more accurately Adrian's subsequent treatment of Alice and Louise - appeared to rekindle several of them, and he began to have nightmares again.

When the copyrights given to Scott and Virgil Tracy to protect them from Mesha caused them to confront a Stu named Ryouga in the Thunderbirds fandom, Dave was initially unable to enter owing to a ban on him entering the Gerry Anderson universe intended to stop the Mysterons from taking control of him again. Once this was overridden, Tash accompanied him on the mission. After an chase through the caverns of Tracy Island, Romani's intervention trapped Dave and Ryouga in a burning fuel store, from which they only escaped because of a Mysteron ability to vanish (or teleport) manifesting itself at just the right moment. This event was key in convincing Ryouga to surrender peacefully, and his subsequent relation of this to the basement residents helped in a small way to mend relations between prisoners and agents in the aftermath of the basement incident.

Dave however continues to have doubts - and nightmares - and seems to be sufficiently worried to be spending an inordinate amount of time in his room doing research.

Post Robert's parole hearing, in which Dave was involved as a witness and tried to support him despite his tale being slightly damning, the truth about the basement's conditions came up. Not long afterwards, Dave in his fledgling role as the Society's PR officer, met with Robert, Valerie and Harriet to discuss how to start solving the basement's problems.

Abilities and Skills[]

Dave's gaming skill, coupled with the fact that his younger brother is an avid amateur military historian, means that he has a very good grasp of strategical thinking, and should an oportunity arise to win a battle before anyone - Friend or Foe - gets hurt, its a near certainty that Dave will take it.

Weapons[]

Dave has adopted a battleaxe as his primary weapon, an odd choice for a usually reserved and quiet agent, but nonetheless effective, though success in its original purpose, keeping Shirley at bay, is mixed. This weapon also possesses a basic shrinking spell to aid storage in his pockets. Since his (and its) replication, it has also become preternaturally sharp.

He is currently trying to find another skill, or at least a ranged weapon, that he can use easily on a mission. This search is hampered by the fact that he possesses no magical ability whatsoever, and that he is an appaling shot with a gun.

Dave also carries several different Pokémon with him in case of emergencies, besides Asuka. He is known to have a Lapras called Skye, but any others are unknown at this time.

Mysteron Abilities[]

His exposure to the Retro-Metabolic powers of the Mysterons, as upgraded by Mesha, means that he is now almost completely indestructible, with only high voltage electric current, and possibly old age, being sure ways of killing him. While these recoveries take time now he has no ready supply of R-met energy, he can recover miraculously with a little effort, although this is quite debilitating for him.

Dave also has the power to teleport out of danger in much the same manner as Captain Black. When threatened, he will vanish and reappear at a location he believes to be safe (In the Library, this is usually his room), occasionally leaving a sock or shoe behind when he does so. He has not yet entirely mastered how to control this power conciously, and its use does not do his naturally low blood pressure much good, meaning multiple uses in rapid succession, or taking people along for the ride on a single journey, are likely to leave him feeling very dizzy.

Deck Strategy[]

Although Dave has been known to borrow an almost entirely original 'Dragons of Lost Empires' Deck from one of his characters, his own deck is composed mainly of standard Dragons and Trap cards, as well as an eclectic mixture of machines, warriors, and whatever else he thought was useful at the time he built it. He also once cobbled together a Macro Cosmos deck for the sole purpose of winding Tash up, although when asked about this he merely shudders and says “Never again!”

Should Magic: the Gathering be required, he also has an Esper Artefact deck ready to roll.

Agents of the ACMSES
Leaders HarrietMichaelTash
Department Heads AdrianCharisDaveValerie Shockley
Current Agents AimeeAkai MinamiAlice WoodAster SeleneAvakBenChloeClaire UpwardCristoph AsahinaCrystellia 'Chrys'DanielleDrake DragonsoulGarethInaraIngrid NunnJames 'Jamie' CoulthardJaredJessJoeJohnKarissaKyle GriswoldLily AdamsonLouiseMarcus PateMiriku WassonMizuhoMonikaOssaPeteRedRhiannon 'Rhia'RobertStacey/EzraStephenTheresa 'Terrie' BridgesTomTyler KahnWillie
Retired Agents BethBlakeCamilleDouglas KreigDoyleEmmaKateLaurenRiaSumire
Non-Agents Emily SmithPhoenixia
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