Duke Wesley

Finished concept art for Duke Wesley

### Other

Always likes to wear black with red, but will change the red to other colors depending on his mood

Duke Wesley is a member of Salvation Team and core character of the Fate's Wish: Salvation story arc. He bears the team number Salvation-5

Duke Wesley is a brilliant alchemist who after a tragic accident, fused with a pumpkin. This fusion not only changed him into a mostly plant based being, but completely altered his genetic being. The experimental alchemic procedure mutated his RNA to become self replicating, also replacing his DNA. This allows him many abilities as well as creating new life itself through alchemy.

Despite his condition, Duke continues to follow his dream from when he was younger, to become a Rockstar.

## Personality

Duke is a trouble making delinquent who likes to consider himself a "bad boy" type. He is considered to be "emo" by those who know him. Duke is a hard headed and rash person, he can be egotistical and hot headed at times too. Often these traits lead him to act off his heart rather than his mind, putting him down regrettable paths. Duke always tries his hardest to redeem himself when he goes down dark paths. Even though he likes to make others see him as the heart breaker he finds it hard to connect with people on an emotional level. He is still a dominant person who will seize opportunities when presented. Duke is also a great performer and music artist who's dream is to become a famous Rockstar in the west. In his free time he likes to spend his days writing songs and practicing the guitar, as well as singing. He loves listening to bands such as Green Day, Papa Roach, and Nirvana. Some of Duke's hobbies include baking, cooking, and writing novels about love.

Despite his questionable, almost villainous tendencies, and bad decisions; Duke is still a redeemable person who has mostly good intentions.

## Appearance

### Pre-Transmutation

When Duke was younger he was a fairly average boy, being slightly underweight due to lack of eating. Being Dutch/Irish he was pretty tall, with bright red auburn hair. His eyes were a baby blue and his skin was slightly pale. Duke had rosy cheeks with small amounts of freckles. He would always experiment with his clothing styles, loving to wear outfits like all the rock bands he would watch on TV.

### Post-Transmutation

After accidentally fusing his body with a pumpkin, his head completely transformed into a jack o' lantern and his skin and limbs into thorny vines. Quickly he discovered a way to harden his skin to make it closer to wood, giving him a more human form. Duke's hair stayed the same though his eyes became black pits with glowing red irises. He got taller, reaching to 190 cm. (6 ft. 3 in.) without growing. Duke stayed tall and lanky despite being able to change his body shape. Becoming a plant his overall mass dropped down to 58 kg. (128 lbs.) Duke nearly always wears his signature outfit of his black/grey sleeveless jacket adorned with stars and a brass ring at the bottom right. Underneath he has a near skin tight long sleeve black/grey shirt and pants. His hat is a black/grey top hat with a star in the middle. He wears a brown pack on his hip where he likes to keep essentials. Along with this he wears a red tank top, with long gloves, boots, and a belt with a star. He changes the red to other colors depending on how he's feeling on particular days.

## Abilities

### Alchemical and Chemical Knowledge

From a fairly young age Duke practiced science and alchemy, skipping out on school to experiment with this knowledge. Because he practiced in secret from such a young age, Duke became very adept with using quick alchemy and science for all sorts of purposes.

### Plant Based Abilities

After transfusing himself with a pumpkin on accident, Duke gained many new attributes. His blood became closer to plant based fluids, and all his organs and internal body parts changed to be plant like. On the outside his body became thorned vines, with his head turning into a pumpkin fruit and eyes and a mouth carved out similar to a jack o' lantern. When he concentrates his vines come together and harden to form a body shape, the hardening also acting as minimal armor. He can grow and shrink his thorns depending on what he is doing. The thorns are strong enough to pierce skin and tissue, though not much else tougher than that. His limbs/vines can grow quite a lot longer to grasp things far away, among other things. Duke is also capable of feeding through photosynthesis, though he doesn't like doing this often as it takes much longer than eating meat. Duke's body is capable of rapid healing though enough bad damage will take much longer, or possibly not heal at all.

### Physical Abilities and Skills

Duke has basic military training with cqc skills and basic gun skills. Duke speaks Dutch better than he speaks English, though he is still decent at it. He also has the rare ability to understand Irish gibberish speak. Aside from battle abilities, Duke is great in music theory and a talented singer and guitarist.

## Early Life

Duke's mother was Dutch and his father, Irish. They lived together for a few months in the Netherlands until they broke up after a fight. Unknowingly, Duke was born 8 months later after his father had left. His mother was poor, and despite her best efforts couldn't always have a meal on the table. He grew up resenting his father, even though his mother tried her best to keep his image good. This led to Duke becoming a rebellious delinquent. Duke had a habit of sneaking out and skipping school to listen to his favorite rock bands while reading and practicing old science and alchemy books from the library. He was still a good kid though, who grew very close to his mother. Until one day at age 10, he found out his mother had cancer. He became distraught, and for the next few years he put his dreams on hold and studied as much as he could about alchemy and curing cancer. By the time he turned 14 he had learned all he could and time was running out, using all of his scientific and alchemic knowledge he attempted to bake up a cure for his mother's disease. What he didn't know, was that in his excitement for a chance at saving her, he forgot to bring her the normal meal of pumpkin (an excellent food to help combat cancer) and during this transmutation the pumpkin fell into the alchemy circle. This caused the cure to instead return to him instead of into the vial he had set in the circle. Combined with the pumpkin the amalgamated science backfired on him turning his body into a mutated pumpkin hybrid on the molecular level. After the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Duke was left a plant being who could barely control his own body. His mother died in the hospital before he could even walk again. Years later, he was approached by a U.S. government official. They offered him a chance at his dream if he went with them to help save lives of others like him. He of course accepted, joining Salvation Team.

## Gallery

Duke Wesley's red rock outfitDuke Wesley Wallpaper from the Fate's Wish Salvation, Salvation Team Wallpaper Collection. Salvation-5
## Trivia

* Duke Wesley's character was lightly based off of the onceler from illumination's the Lorax
* Duke hates the band Smashing Pumpkins