Dutch Elkins

Dutch in a state of bewilderment.

**Dutch Elkins** is a Verinian space pirate with mannerisms and behavior more appropriated to a gunslinger in the wild west. As a member of the Event Horizoners, he was positioned as a weapons specialist, often serving as the brawn of the crew. His initial goal when joining the Horizoners was to obtain infinite riches, but he instead obtained true riches: a bit of conscience, friendship, and the two-way trust of a crew. Oh, and also, like, a ridiculous amount of money.

## Biography

Born on the 12th Equinox of the 3rd Semester of 3000 GUY in Syrus, Alpus IV, Dutch Ulysses Elkins was forced to grow up fast. Throughout his entire upbringing, his homeworld was locked in political discourse over the oligarchy that ruled it, causing general unrest and chaos throughout the world. Due to this, Dutch hardly knew his family and raised himself in the slums of Syrus. During his adolescence, he taught himself how to read and write, and learned the trade of gunsmithing, which he used to open up a small shop in an attempt to get him off his feet. It was in this shop where he first began workshopping Pauline, his trademark lever-action shotgun. After GUYs of being beaten down by the unforgiving political strife, Dutch resorted to unorganized crime as a means of survival. After a few petty crimes, he discovered that crime and fortune were truly his calling. He ramped up the intensity of his escapades and quickly robbed his way to purchasing his very own fighter-class starship, which he used to flee the planet and become a space pirate.

Dutch's crime didn't stop there. After obtaining a sizable bounty through the repeated robbing of small space stations and cargo ships, his work was recognized by a small pirate gang of avians called The Quimbly Crew. They offered him membership, which he accepted in his naivety. A few larger heists was all it took for his crew to betray him, deliberately having raised his bounty so they could turn him in themselves. Dutch barely escaped the grasp of the traitors with his life, but none of the crew would share that safety - he ripped them apart with his bare hands, opening a truly violent side of himself he had never seen before. Hardened by this trauma, Dutch became resilient to working with others for some time, sticking to himself and developing a superiority complex. He was a true, hardworking criminal, a self-made man; he had robbed his way to greatness fair and square, in his eyes.

After several more GUYs pass, a slip-up in a casino robbery turned into a moment of clarity for Dutch. A slip of the tongue made his threats to a clerk be taken as a hilarious joke. Up until this point, Dutch had never considered charlatanism as a means to get into his opponents' heads. He soon began using his natural charm to make his robberies even easier. He learned to gamble, and to cheat. He started smoking cigars and drinking to fit his new persona. He even began committing major heists under the guise of a performer or a legal figure. Everything was looking swell for Dutch, and it stayed that way for quite some time. An artifact robbery here, a political destabilization there, and Dutch eventually started living the good life. At one point, he obtained so much money that he paid off his entire bounty and began chillin' to the max. He bought a mega-yacht, he bought every newfangled device on the market, he bought a pocket dimension, he hired servants - he bought everything he could think of. Until, one day, Dutch realized his new lifestyle was...unfulfilling, to say the least. This may or may not have coincided with the complete and utter draining of every credit from his account. That's when he sold off a majority of his belongings in favor of living the good old days once again, with little more to tote around than himself, his gun, and his single-seat starship. With that, he re-entered the glorious life of crime, until he heard talk of a certain political mission for the retrieval of a certain artifact from a black hole, with the promise of an ultimate prize beyond any boundaries...

## Appearance

Dutch's coat is a deep chestnut brown, his eyes are royal blue, and he sports an ash-colored beard. His hair is short, spiked, and rugged, with his beard standing out from the rest of his face. A light scar passes over his left eye. Standing at 5'2" with a fit build, he's large for a Verinian, but pretty small for the cast.

His standard getup consists of a navy blue poncho with white and gold trim, a black leather vest and pants, and dark grey boots. He is rarely seen without this outfit, as it's the only one he owns. It's rarely washed.

## Personality

Dutch is quite full of himself, often to a fault. Charming and witty while simultaneously rude and foolish, he gets himself into many situations, good and bad, with his big mouth. Deep down, he does care about others, to a degree, but due to past events and his choice of career, his main mantra throughout his life has been to put himself first above all else. He sees monetary gain as the ultimate goal to any plan, and as such, can be short-sighted at times. Although his past makes it difficult for him to trust anybody but himself at first, his talent for seeming trustworthy is inexplicably unmatched, and he often uses it to his advantage.

In the dynamics of the crew, Dutch interchangeably serves as, in descending order of commonality, comedic relief, a rageful brawler, a self-absorbed tactician, and a feisty half-leader.

## Quote

"*Ow.*"
―**Dutch** after a book hit him on the head.

"*AWOOOOOOOGA!!! WHAT A DAME!!! MARBLE LADY!!*"
―**Dutch** while hallucinating under the influence of Vec's spores.

"*BAT-APE! I CHALLENGE YOU TO FISTICUFFS!*"
―**Dutch** "challenging" Seth to a duel in a fight pit.

"*ACK! That ain't fisticuffs*"
―**Dutch** after being struck in the chest by a ten-foot spear lobbed by Seth.
## Trivia

* Before the events of Final Frontier 4, Dutch had never seen a Human, and first assumed Zacharias to be some sort of hairless Apex.
* Dutch's initial one-dimensional design and inspiration came from a mixture of Overwatch character Cole Cassidy and League of Legends character Malcolm Graves. He later blossomed into a beautiful baby boy of his own personality.
* An ongoing joke in the group is to overexaggerate Dutch's small stature, despite his height being only 2 inches shorter than Emmett.