Quickdraw

Real Name: David C. Crenshaw
Renegade Name: Quickdraw
Title: Bounty Hunter, Retired Outlaw, Confederate Deserter
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
DoB: March 4, 1836
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 196 lbs
Blood type: AB+







Originally, David had a very laid-back personality and was rather lackadaisical - especially when it came to education. Not to say he was unintelligent; he was simply more focused in practical day-to-day things than the theories put forth in higher education. Being from one of the more humble families of the South, David’s family never owned more than their farmstead.

His personality changed during the American Civil War and he was pitted against his elder brother, who fought for the Union. A crisis of conscience gripped him, and he left into the territories in the West.

In spite of trying to start a family of his own, a series of tragedies struck him, including the activation of his own Meta gene, that left him widowed and unable to age. As time moved on and his generation became less relevant, David became more bitter and started doing almost anything for money. To him, life had no further meaning than simply living to the next day - he’s been backstabbed many times, and has in turn done the same to others.

All this said, he retains a reluctance to hurt children and a soft spot for animals, especially dogs.



Born to a humble farming family in Texas, David grew up homeschooled and disciplined through long years of physical labor working on his father’s farm. When the American Civil War broke out, he initially simply wanted to live and let live - however, he joined in as part of the Confederate Army in 1962. This was not to defend the institution of slavery - the most widely cited reason for the war - but out of personal loyalty to the state of Texas itself.

The phrase that described the Civil War was “brother against brother” - in David’s case, this was a literal scenario. His older brother, Eric, had left to seek higher education in the North. When they finally met again, it was during the Battle of Shiloh, and Eric was fighting for the Union.

David had been the one to end Eric’s life - something deep inside him broke that day. He went missing, his body never recovered. After a crisis of conscience, David deserted the Confederacy and left west toward the Arizona territory. Without a penny to his name, he lived as part of a gang for years to make ends meet before meeting Linda - someone he would eventually marry after leaving the outlaw life behind.

Unfortunately, the past caught up with him. Despite an otherwise happy marriage with a beautiful daughter named Rosalie, David struggled to get over the ghosts of his past and drank often. He regrets striking Linda during a drunken frenzy to this day.

It got to the point where Linda started seeing other men behind his back. Unfortunately, one of them was the wrong man - an outlaw that was an enemy from David’s past days as an outlaw. Kidnapping Linda and Rosalie, the outlaw’s gang left a letter daring David to come and get them.

In spite of his drunken state, David resolved to pick up the gun one last time and save his family. But it was an ambush - they never intended to let Linda go, executing her in front of David. His entire world tinted red as an overwhelming rage took him and he began to shoot a bloody swathe through the gang before being gunned down himself.

Unknown to him, he had inherited the Meta Gene, and it had remained inert, waiting for the right catalyst to trigger. Him laying down and bleeding out on the ground became that catalyst. His wounds closed in seconds and he got right back up, to the shock of everyone who saw.

Still somewhat drunk, the enraged widower went on a ramage, killing six men in the span of a second. A freakishly fast shooter, not a single member of the gang walked away alive. In the aftermath, David found his wife’s body, but failed to find any trace of his daughter.

Burying his wife on his homestead, David tried looking for leads on his Rosalie, but always came up empty. In the following weeks, he found himself surviving wounds that would have otherwise been fatal to a man, able to react far faster than anyone - becoming literally the fastest quickdraw in the West.

However, as he was already drunk when his abilities activated, he found he needed to regularly drink in order to keep his reflexes from going runaway and from becoming too responsive - as demonstrated when he shot someone on accident because he thought they were drawing a weapon and his reflexes worked faster than his rational thoughts could.

At first, he thought to use his abilities to make up for his past as an outlaw, and became a bounty hunter to both support himself and make a difference. Unfortunately, his efforts were - as often as not - rewarded with betrayal.

In time, the altruism within the long-lived man burnt out completely, leaving a cynical shell who has no higher priority than “live to the next day”. He remains a bounty hunter for hire, and will often opt to bring his target dead, if given the option.



Fastest Gun in the West: One of the main effects of the Meta Gene is that David’s reflexes are freakishly fast. His reaction time has been impossible to accurately chart, but is estimated to be around 20 milliseconds at rest (the average human reflexes clock at 250 milliseconds), with it speeding up even more under combat stress. So fast, in fact, that his drawing and aiming speed is seen as little more than a blur to a normal human - he’s used this to dispatch entire fireteams worth of people by fanning the hammer on his revolver and landing headshots before any return fire could begin.

Healing Factor: The Meta gene has also granted David with a healing factor - and an especially potent one. He’s recovered from shots to the extremities, the pelvis, and even the torso within a manner of seconds. He’s also been known to reattach lost limbs.



Power Incontinence: David’s reflexes are nearly uncontrollable without some form of Central Nervous System (CNS) depressant (such as alcohol, opiates, or sleeping pills) in his system. His reflexes can outpace his rational thought processes at times, potentially leading to negligent use of force.

Mozambique Drill (i.e. "two to the body, one to the head"): There are limits to David’s healing factor. A precision shot to the brain will drop him as much as it would any normal human being. Glancing shots to the heart can be survived if promptly addressed, but a direct hit is near-certain death, especially when combined with a headshot.



Colt Single Action Army: A fixed-cylinder single-action revolver first designed in 1873 following the American Civil War. This revolver has been David’s constant companion as the years have passed, and he has the practice needed to “fan” the hammer.

• Strengths: The .45 Colt, while weaker compared to more contemporary cartridges, is nonetheless a rather strong cartridge. And because the cylinder is solidly fixed to the frame, the Single Action Army is an inherently strong design, able to handle high-pressure rounds.
  
• Weaknesses: The weaknesses are noteworthy. For one, the revolver only holds six rounds. For another, it’s single action only - the hammer has to be cocked back by hand in order to fire. Lastly, the reload time is abysmal - the hammer has to be left at half-cock and the loading gate opened to eject and reload each chamber one at a time.
  

Marlin Model 1895: A lever-action rifle introduced in 1972, named for the original 1895 model. This particular one is chambered for .450 Marlin (a modernized variant of the black powder .45-70 round), capable of taking down just about any North American large game - overkill on an unarmored human being. David modified it by cutting the stock off and shortening the barrel, turning it into a “Mare’s Leg” and making it easier to conceal and use in enclosed spaces. Holds seven rounds.

• Strengths: The .450 Marlin caliber is based on the older .45-70 Government - a buffalo-hunting round. As such, the rifle boasts an incredibly high amount of power when fired, as well as decent range - even with the shortened barrel.
  
• Weaknesses: This Marlin rifle is restricted to 7 rounds, and the action has to be manually cycled after each shot, hampering fire rate. The recoil is similarly high, and the lack of a stock hampers aim stability. The rounds must be reloaded one at a time through a side gate under the ejection port.
  

Hip Flask: Kept on his person at all times as a means of treating his alcohol dependency and power incontinence, this 7 oz flask is typically filled with some form of whiskey, gin, or other form of hard liquor. He’s sewn it to his body in the past to lower the chance of him losing it.





Delirium Tremens: David is a complete lush. This can be seen when he tries to aim without alcohol in his system - his aim is shaky and frequently goes wide. When combined with his power incontinence, this can lead to the exact wrong person getting hurt. Given his regenerative capabilities, David is unlikely to actually die from DT. Like with a normal human, this can be alleviated by introducing alcohol into the system.

The Ageless: The same healing factor which allows him to regenerate from serious injury also reversed David’s physical age to his late Twenties, when he was still in his physical prime. This gives him an extended lifespan, if not complete biological immortality.