<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d8/Darren.jpg)</div><div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d9/AchillesDisney.jpg)</div><strong>Character name:</strong>Sheriff Darren Phaeton<br/><strong>Who:</strong>open.<br/><strong>When:</strong>Day 1, morning<br/><strong>Where:</strong>jogging from his house and around campus<br/><strong>Warning:</strong>None so far!<br/><hr/><br/>Coming awake with only a moment of transition-- a habit from years in the Army-- Darren Phaeton was rolling out of bed and hauling his naked self into the shower. Grinning over the sting of scratches and overworked muscles from top to heel, he cleaned up and dressed casually with a sense of pleased purpose. Like an ever-present shadow, Achilles dogged his steps and waited patiently by his dish for breakfast, unlike the begging Gypsy who wound herself about her human's ankles.<br/><br/>"Mornin' zoo," he greeted them, dispensing out kibble for the predators and seed and fruit for the screeching Fool. The brightly-colored bird snapped at him, making the big man laugh, and tore into breakfast like he'd been a serial killer in a past life. Only then could Darren eat his own breakfast and read the paper. The scene of domesticity was a contrast to the trick he'd picked up at the bar last night. Some stranger in from the mainland for some reason that he couldn't care to remember. She'd provided him relief and some rough fun. That was his MO and he was quite content to stick to it.<br/><br/>In a flurry of gathering the necessities and checking that the housebound pets were set for the day, Darren slid his glock into its holster beneath his arm and his gold badge. Being elected the sheriff pleased him enormously. The power and prestige of it soothed him and rewarded him for a lifetime of hard work. No matter what his detractors might say, Darren had earned the gold.<br/><br/>Lacing on his sneakers, Darren called Achilles over and the two males worked together to get the dog into his working harness with its stitched sheriff's department badge on the chest and the cape-like shadrack that proclaimed him as a police dog.<br/><br/>"Come on, boy!"<br/><br/>At a good, steady beat, they ran together, enjoying the morning air and the small town buzzing to life. Darren rarely plotted a course, preferring to randomly wander the town he knew like the back of his hand. Few bothered him more than calling hello as he worked his way over to the school. Yes, the college that made this entire island exist. If not for the campus, this would be just another overgrown spur of land in the San Juan Islands full of birds and seals and possibly a few vacation homes.<br/><br/>Students were starting to move around as the morning warmed, the babble of them giving him purpose and the usual ideas. How could a man like him complain about the constant parade of interesting and beautiful that the college brought to his doorstep? He knew his game well, when to play and when to back off to preserve his way of life. And there was rarely a time he couldn't find some sort of entertainment.<br/><br/>Shrugging off his overshirt and gunbelt, he draped them over Achilles' back and pulled out the collapsible bowl to fill it at the water fountain and let his partner drink. Only then did Darren strip off his t-shirt to dunk it into the nearby central fountain that sparkled around the statue of the school's founder. Wringing out the cotton, he scrubbed over his bare chest and back, not caring in the slightest that his old scars and fresh scratches were on display.<br/><br/>After all, they were all grownups here.