John Tarkus
"Some will call me Doctor and others Professor, but any of those four words will make me turn my ears."
Professor John Tarkus
Beloved bear-man of Frontline Academy, educator and counselor, and Rank #107 of The International Rankings Association.
Professor Tarkus has been a steadfast educator in Law, Civics, Sociology, and numerous other 'boring' subjects for The Academy's curriculum. Kids like to hug him to see how he feels and Kichi Clarke seems fond of doing so, too.
Whether it's homework help, dietary advice, an ear to talk to, or a claw to pry open a locker, Professor Tarkus is a consistent boon to run into, and typically one of the highest-spirited members of the Academy's staff.
Professor Tarkus has been a steadfast educator in Law, Civics, Sociology, and numerous other 'boring' subjects for The Academy's curriculum. Kids like to hug him to see how he feels and Kichi Clarke seems fond of doing so, too.
Whether it's homework help, dietary advice, an ear to talk to, or a claw to pry open a locker, Professor Tarkus is a consistent boon to run into, and typically one of the highest-spirited members of the Academy's staff.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Hulking and fluffy in tandem, Professor Tarkus holds a strong image of being a big softie that belies his brutal strength. With nails the size of knives and teeth to match, he's adapted to his toothless lifestyle with utmost caution to make himself seem unimposing.
Physical quirks
As Professor Tarkus is an Emotive Biomorph, his temper is integral to keeping a 'consistent' shape among those he works with. Lacking his usual temperance, his arms and torso bulk in size, leaving him frustrated with fine dexterity tasks and ruining his office attire wrist cuffs.
His glasses are mostly for show, though he does need to adjust them when reading traditional paperback material. Most of his personal device screens adjust for his very light prescription needs, which can give others headaches at times.
Tarkus has the olfactory senses of an actual bear! This means his nose crinkles intensely at any scent of smoke, which he can detect from inhuman distances. He alone is the reason the collegiate campus is a completely smoke-free zone, to the chagrin of Ignatius Stoker.
Due to an injury incurred by Battery Charge's first-year delinquency, Tarkus has a tough time with his rotator cuff on his right shoulder occasionally, and he sometimes walks with a limp if he doesn't properly stretch in the mornings.
His glasses are mostly for show, though he does need to adjust them when reading traditional paperback material. Most of his personal device screens adjust for his very light prescription needs, which can give others headaches at times.
Tarkus has the olfactory senses of an actual bear! This means his nose crinkles intensely at any scent of smoke, which he can detect from inhuman distances. He alone is the reason the collegiate campus is a completely smoke-free zone, to the chagrin of Ignatius Stoker.
Due to an injury incurred by Battery Charge's first-year delinquency, Tarkus has a tough time with his rotator cuff on his right shoulder occasionally, and he sometimes walks with a limp if he doesn't properly stretch in the mornings.
Special abilities
John Tarkus is a Metahuman as well as a Fauna Aspected Emotive Biomorph. In simple terms, he physiologically reacts to strong feelings by turning into a monstrous werebear. His strength proportionately grows as his heart flares, to an upper limit of an ability to lift large vehicles and rend his paws and claws into metal.
The drawback to his metahuman trait, however, is that he was unaware that extended use of his abilities permanently left him in a hybrid state, no longer able to calm himself into his prior human form. He can still draw his emotions forth to induce his strongest state, but has hangups about doing so.
The drawback to his metahuman trait, however, is that he was unaware that extended use of his abilities permanently left him in a hybrid state, no longer able to calm himself into his prior human form. He can still draw his emotions forth to induce his strongest state, but has hangups about doing so.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born in a cottage to a sheriff and a homemaker, John Tarkus was never a problem child as he learned quickly to please his family or be reminded of his place.
Channeling the rage of his suppressive upbringing led him to discovering extreme heights with his unspoken-of 'condition' out in the woods where the answer of rumors of a monster in the woods is to round up the boys rather than call professionals. It wasn't long until he was discovered, and the suppressed rage against a badge-pinned father evolved to a suppressed rage against a small-town society seeking to agitate the freak. At the time of his graduation, the Kaiju Craze had been in full effect, and societal perception of young John was that of a draft-dodger and coward, too afraid to face the monsters he was born to fight, mainly because he was too young to willingly participate regardless.
Enlisted as a Ranker since his first primary school outburst, John was always expecting some form of shadow organization keeping him under lock and key, but that never really happened. When he came of military age, his knowledge of the backwoods of the Territories from ride-alongs and ice fishing with his father, along with secretive anger ventilation sessions in the woods, made him a capable were-bear who just needed some direction to do good. Up-and-coming young Ranker Fowler was matchmade with him by IRA dispatch, and the two became a solid duo together. Fowler's informational abilities and analytical mind combined with Tarkus's brute strength and personal skills made for a perfect search-and-rescue cooperation.
Over time, however, Tarkus had an identity crisis in form of his 'heroic' personage. Do people see him, or the bear monster he becomes? More and more, he sought closure to this in his rescue operations work, until his physiology forced his choice for him. In the years leading up to this change, his 'role' as a brutish rescue ops Ranker also troubled him. Weary of the presumption and stigma that followed him since youth, he sought to change himself internally, and sought higher education. His own traumas and experiences pulled him into studying developmental psychology passionately, along with other social structural fields in an attempt to understand a world he barely realized was changing with his own success, as his body changed without his realizing.
As helicopter rides and other emergency transports had to become more accommodating for Tarkus's forceful bodily adjustments, he focused less on active service and more on a new project: The Academy Assignment, a project where young metahumans would be brought into a formal environment to train themselves and get resources to have a unified experience away from the homes that may have mistreated them. Tarkus asked his handlers for a reassignment near immediately upon hearing about it.
Channeling the rage of his suppressive upbringing led him to discovering extreme heights with his unspoken-of 'condition' out in the woods where the answer of rumors of a monster in the woods is to round up the boys rather than call professionals. It wasn't long until he was discovered, and the suppressed rage against a badge-pinned father evolved to a suppressed rage against a small-town society seeking to agitate the freak. At the time of his graduation, the Kaiju Craze had been in full effect, and societal perception of young John was that of a draft-dodger and coward, too afraid to face the monsters he was born to fight, mainly because he was too young to willingly participate regardless.
Enlisted as a Ranker since his first primary school outburst, John was always expecting some form of shadow organization keeping him under lock and key, but that never really happened. When he came of military age, his knowledge of the backwoods of the Territories from ride-alongs and ice fishing with his father, along with secretive anger ventilation sessions in the woods, made him a capable were-bear who just needed some direction to do good. Up-and-coming young Ranker Fowler was matchmade with him by IRA dispatch, and the two became a solid duo together. Fowler's informational abilities and analytical mind combined with Tarkus's brute strength and personal skills made for a perfect search-and-rescue cooperation.
Over time, however, Tarkus had an identity crisis in form of his 'heroic' personage. Do people see him, or the bear monster he becomes? More and more, he sought closure to this in his rescue operations work, until his physiology forced his choice for him. In the years leading up to this change, his 'role' as a brutish rescue ops Ranker also troubled him. Weary of the presumption and stigma that followed him since youth, he sought to change himself internally, and sought higher education. His own traumas and experiences pulled him into studying developmental psychology passionately, along with other social structural fields in an attempt to understand a world he barely realized was changing with his own success, as his body changed without his realizing.
As helicopter rides and other emergency transports had to become more accommodating for Tarkus's forceful bodily adjustments, he focused less on active service and more on a new project: The Academy Assignment, a project where young metahumans would be brought into a formal environment to train themselves and get resources to have a unified experience away from the homes that may have mistreated them. Tarkus asked his handlers for a reassignment near immediately upon hearing about it.
Education
Beyond a mandatory public school experience, Professor Tarkus's higher education experiences are mainly online, studied between Rescue Ops shifts in his time in the deep North of Canada. His School Psychology Master's Degree is accredited by Mount Saint Vincent University of Halifax, and he holds multiple minor accreditations between World City University, The University of Victoria, and a few Humanities courses taken during a Summer II 'vacation' schedule of 3 weeks at Victoria Community College.
Employment
The only real employment work Tarkus has known has been for the IRA, between Rescue Ops work with Fowler and educational work at Frontline Academy, along with the constant on-call dispatch that all Rankers are subject to at any time.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Tarkus is a major name in the Hundreds as his former partner is; both of them are within the awkward range of contesting the Double Digits scores whenever they would make a big headline, and lose it if they hadn't kept up their momentum after so much time passed.
In Rescue Operations, Tarkus is a world-renowned figure, with thousands saved in his decade of service both locally and when stationed outside his operative range. His family home in Yellowknife is adorned with print-outs of his various rescues alongside his father's own headlines, and his Frontline office has many pieces of memorabilia and sentiment he has stories about.
If one asks him what he's felt most accomplished about in his career as a Ranker, though, his answer is always that they'll see the results when this next group of Frontliners graduate.
In Rescue Operations, Tarkus is a world-renowned figure, with thousands saved in his decade of service both locally and when stationed outside his operative range. His family home in Yellowknife is adorned with print-outs of his various rescues alongside his father's own headlines, and his Frontline office has many pieces of memorabilia and sentiment he has stories about.
If one asks him what he's felt most accomplished about in his career as a Ranker, though, his answer is always that they'll see the results when this next group of Frontliners graduate.
Failures & Embarrassments
As many rescues and headline moments as Tarkus has had in his time, though, the headlines only ever fixate on what gets attention. He's failed nearly as many as he's saved in his time in Rescue Ops, as the nature of the work is to be a hopeful rescue for those in the most helpless situations. He's felt lives against his fur slowly fade and has had blood on his hands enough times to have a dire, serious approach to the work he educates youths in.
As an educator, he feels his worst failings are the ones he can't reach; Azure Abrams and Battery Charge are two big examples: he could not see the way Abrams festered beneath the warm smiles, though even Fowler failed to see the warning signs. With Bellamy, he felt he related too closely to her upbringing, and took their understanding of one another for granted. It was a painful lesson learned as she sent him through solid concrete with a glancing blow in her rampage.
As an educator, he feels his worst failings are the ones he can't reach; Azure Abrams and Battery Charge are two big examples: he could not see the way Abrams festered beneath the warm smiles, though even Fowler failed to see the warning signs. With Bellamy, he felt he related too closely to her upbringing, and took their understanding of one another for granted. It was a painful lesson learned as she sent him through solid concrete with a glancing blow in her rampage.
Social
Speech
Tarkus has a very polite, 'wimpy' way of speaking that fits his sense of character but betrays his underlying monstrous form; his native accent is that of a Deep Northerner, but he's since lost the edges to most of it in his time in Academia.
He has a habit of referring to the youths of Frontline Academy as "Mr./Mrs. Lastname" rather than by their name alone. Any gender-diffident students would simply get a question asking which they like more rather than an argument from him.
He has a habit of referring to the youths of Frontline Academy as "Mr./Mrs. Lastname" rather than by their name alone. Any gender-diffident students would simply get a question asking which they like more rather than an argument from him.
Current Status
Educator for Frontline Academy
Current Location
Species
Conditions
Ethnicity
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Search-&-Rescue Hero, Ursa Major (former), Frontline Academy's Mascot.
Currently Held Titles
Age
Late 30's
Date of Birth
December 11th
Birthplace
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Dark Blue, Beady
Hair
Fur Only
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Snow White
Height
7'1" (215cm)
Weight
782 lbs (355 kg)
Aligned Organization
Character Prototype
Beast from X-Men is the singular biggest inspiration. Principal Nezu from Hero Academia also comes to mind, along with All Might for his design struggle of a 'weak' main form and a 'monstrous' war form that he strains to retain for long periods of time that comes at a health cost to himself.
by Sung Kwon Oh
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