Daniel Stark

Physical Description
Dan is a bit on the short end of average height, but makes up for it with pure mass. He's well built and stocky, with a muscular frame from hours of grueling workouts and training. He takes his physical appearance very seriously, and while he's not afraid getting dirty and disheveled, he tends to be very neatly groomed when he can help it.

His hair is almost always kept in a neat "high and tight", bald on the sides and back of his head, and just enough of a stubble on top to ascertain that his hair color is brown.

Dan's eyes are a mixture of blue and green, with blue being the dominant color and green appearing mostly as little flecks throughout his irises. He has a piercing stare which he uses often, especially on those who irk him.

History
Dan grew up from a troubled past, but the trouble was caused by no one but him. Even when he was quite young, Dan learned that he loved playing jokes and pranks on others, and became quite skillful at getting out of the blame. For a long time, his pranks were harmless, so they were tolerated in good humor, but as he grew Dan began pushing the envelope of what he could get away with.

With his childhood friends, Chase Haas and Sarah Gibson, Dan managed to earn them all the title of "town troublemakers" with Dan taking the prize of ringleader. Still, the pranks were innocent enough that, other than a few lectures about respect and responsibility, the three seldom got into any serious trouble.

Dan's pranks began turning more into "criminal" activities as they reached their high school years, however. While it can be well argued that Dan had no real harmful intent, there was no doubt that his "pranks" began to grow more extreme, more dangerous, and more costly to pick up after. Sarah grew more and more reluctant to take part in the mischief, which put a strain between the two of them, and Chase seemed to be drifting more in Sarah's direction.

Perhaps it was just a case of Dan not growing up as fast as his peers, or perhaps something more. Either way, when Sarah finally expressed in no uncertain terms she was done with such games, Dan was left feeling stung and betrayed, and strangely enough, over the next few years, the Gibson farm found itself victimized by more than the occasional prank. Dan always seemed to have an alibi and excuse about why it couldn't have been him, though.

Finally, at eighteen, Dan planned a joke that he had hoped might set the stage for making things right with Sarah. Unfortunately, things had gone wrong, resulting in a busted tractor, and close to $2,000 dollars in damage. Mr. Gibson and Daniel already were on very thin ice, with Mr. Gibson having threatened legal action in the event of more antics on Dan's part.

Fearing that Mr. Gibson might follow through on his threat and Dan might actually end up facing jail time, Dan fled. He took all the documents he would need out of his parents' files, drove to Twin Falls, and told a Marine Corps recruiter he wanted to be in San Diego, ASAP.

Three days later, he was at MCRD, San Diego, standing on yellow foot prints on the concrete.

It wasn't until he got to his first unit that he really started to grow up. He made friends, learned about respect and responsibility, and all those other things he had avoided as a child, and found something that he truly loved. When four years was up, he reenlisted without a second thought.

By this time, he was working With Force Recon, pulling operations in some of the most dangerous places in the world. As a Recon Man, he learned survival from the best and determination from the driven.

He had tried to call home from time to time, but the thick emotion and unhealed wounds were too much for him. The conversations always just left him depressed, so he began to avoid them more and more. But at odd hours of the night and in quiet moments, he would occasionally think fondly of home, wondering how everyone was doing.

Finally, towards the end of year eight in the Marine Corps, Dan decided it was time to go home. He had been running away from the messes he had left in Benson, Idaho long enough.