Dark Perkulators

This information is largely adapted from the article, "Dark Perks", on the Forever Knight Wiki.The Dark Perkulators are a Forever Knight faction devoted to Nick's third-season partner, the human police detective, Tracy Vetter. However, unlike other "dark" fraction factions, they do not necessarily want the character to become a vampire. Rather, they recognize her to be a strong and capable police officer. 
Although formally Dark Perkulators, the faction name is usually abbreviated to Dark Perks or DP. The members also often refer to themselves as "Thugs".
==Yahoo!Groups==
* DP-L (Yahoo Group) (founded in 1999, still active in 2010)
* darkperkmansion (Yahoo Group) (founded in 2000, active for about a year)
In addition, the Dark Perks have a restricted list specifically for those members participating in a Forever Knight War:
* DP-war (founded 2001)
==Faction Websites==
*Dark Perkulator Mansion 
*The Dark Perkulator Library (archived)
*Cousin Mary's Tracy Vetter Page
*DP Burp Page
==Faction Character==
Of all the major character-based factions, the Dark Perks are perhaps the one most noted for lively fun. They might be described as the sorority from hell—a sort of St Trinian's version of girly-girlishness. In keeping with this, they have a tongue-in-cheek association with the colour pink (especially shades of hot pink or fuchsia) while making jokes about toting guns. Thugs tend to wear leather and dark pink, and are reputed to wear pink underwear. They ride pink Harley motorcycles, and wear DP utility belts. They also carry replicas of the "Duffel Bag o' Doom", i.e., the duffel bag that Tracy used in the episode, "Hearts of Darkness".Much of this information comes from the "DP FAQ" page on Cousin Mary's Tracy Vetter Page. 
During war, they engage in general mayhem.
As the name of the faction suggests, the Dark Perks are exceedingly fond of coffee. Many war posts riff on this.
==Faction History== 
When Mary Jenkins joined FORKNI-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU in 1997, her two favourite characters were LaCroix and Tracy Vetter. In honour of the former, she joined the Cousins list and adopted the soubriquet "Cousin Mary". However, she did not feel that the Perkulators' interpretation of Tracy accorded with her own. 
Calling herself a "Dark Perkulator" was initially no more than a tongue-in-cheek personal statement. However, on 14 December 1997, responding to a thread about proposing new factions, Cousin Mary wrote the following:
There was considerable positive response; and the Dark Perkulators affiliation was therefore officially formed 2 February 1998 in reaction to the "fluffy" tone of the already existing Perks faction.Most of this information is taken from "About the Dark Perks" on Cousin Mary's Tracy Vetter Page.
When the original Perks did not sign up for War Nine, the DP replaced them, and since then have had control of the character, Tracy Vetter, during war activities. 
Although in lists of factions Perks and Dark Perks are usually listed as distinct, it would be more accurate to say that, despite the origin of the DP as a fraction faction, there is really—and has for many years been—only one Tracy-focused faction. The Dark Perks have simply superseded the early Perks. Any original Perks still playing today do so therefore under the DP banner. Because of this fusion, the faction is sometimes referred to as the "Perks/DP"; but it is actually the Dark Perks' attributes that dominate.
Outside their war-related activities, the DP used to run a very active list, and posted many Tracy-related stories. They also evolved a wide range of couple factions, linking Tracy with many other characters, often on a humorous "least likely" basis. There were also some half a dozen members who wrote stories about the Dark Perks themselves, featuring faction members as characters in birthday stories, adventures, tales of revenge against bad bosses, and the like.The information on non-war DP fan fiction is adapted from a personal e-mail sent by Cousin Mary to Greer Watson on 29 April 2011.
==DP Lore==
Because of their active writing and madcap antics in and out of war, the Dark Perks have accumulated considerable fannish lore peculiar to their faction.
===Headless Bunnies===
The information on headless bunnies is adapted from a personal e-mail sent by Cousin Mary to Greer Watson on 29 April 2011.Cousin Mary's story, "A Dark Perk Easter", opens with the Dark Perks eating chocolate Easter bunnies, starting with the heads. Later in the story, they mock-attack a fellow DP, Eric McCann, who is wearing a pink bunny costume, and mount the felt head of his costume on a pike on the front lawn of the Dark Perks' Mansion. The story inspired the use of the "headless bunny" motif as a running gag.
In the first war in which the Dark Perks participated, they used either headless bunnies or bunny heads as their calling card, leaving them at the scene of each attack. Later on, headless bunnies became the DP "call to arms": each member would receive one (perhaps in the mail, or at their desk at work, or carried in by their pet) at the beginning of the war, at which signal they would drop everything and head to Toronto. 
Indeed, in real life, a lot of Dark Perks would send headless bunnies to each other through the mail for birthdays and the holidays.
===Faction Headquarters===
The Dark Perks headquarters was introduced in Cousin Mary's story, "Dark Perk Mansion" (1999): 
Described as "pretty much Clue Mansion", it is at the fictional address of 1313 Mocking Bird Lane in the Toronto suburbs. The irascible housekeeper, Mrs. Hitchcock, is a play on the director. The top three floors are bedrooms, so that each Thug can have his/her own bedroom.
There are bats in the belfry and Jello in the basement. In fact, the basement is filled with the Jello, which has the curious characteristic that anyone thrown into it sleeps until pulled out.
===Pink Demons===
The information on the pink demons is adapted from a personal e-mail sent by Cousin Mary to Greer Watson on 29 April 2011.The DP mansion is haunted by pink demons, who tend to run amok (rather like the DP themselves), though they are unable to leave the mansion. These demons are about three inches high and dark pink, with no facial features; but they have tails. It is impossible to kill them. Since they are chaotic, the only way to combat them is for the faction members to keep organized. (This references Tracy's tidy apartment: in one episode, Javier Vachon even accused her of alphabetizing her fridge.) 
One of the demons has been made something of a pet, and named Burp. He's particularly fond of the DP Demon Doctor Jenn (who experiments on him) and Rosemary (who's nice to him.)
==Faction Symbol==
Although no formal symbol has been adopted by the DP, a selection of variants were created by Anne Jensen. Each depicts a mug with a fanged smiley face in some combination of white, black, and hot pink.
==Faction Icon==
In 2012, Greer Watson created an icon for the DP as part of her project to create a set of icons for all the Forever Knight factions. The design composits a screen capture of Tracy with a cropped picture of the top of the head of a white toy rabbit, orienting them so that it looks as though she is pointing a gun at the rabbit. The icon also includes one of Anne Jensen's DP symbols in the top right corner. 
==References==
Category:Forever Knight Factions
Category:1990s
Category:2000s
Category:2010s