Duke is an adult raccoon. He is one of the four protagonists of The New Low.

Appearance

Duke is a young, somewhat small male raccoon with grey and black fur.

Personality

Duke is passionate, expressive, and naive. He loves to talk extensively about his interests, and he doesn't like to sit still for too long.

When talking about his work, Duke sometimes comes off as braggadocios. He takes great pride in his career even though his peers don't appreciate him the same. He is prone to exaggeration, though he makes an effort to correct himself when he catches himself exaggerating.

Duke also enjoys board games and video games, especially ones involving adventure.

Backstory

Duke was born in Iapetus to {{RECEPTIONIST}}, a receptionist, and {{ACCOUNTANT}}, an accountant. He has no siblings.

The Shattering

Duke was 4 years old when The Shattering occurred. As such, he only has vague memories of the event itself. He similarly lacks memories of his extended family, who lives outside of Luxtia. He still feels the pain of their loss through his parents' mourning.

Since no schools operated until several years after The Shattering, Duke's parents homeschooled him. They continued this even after schools began to reopen. After Duke's formative years, the parents ran a curriculum focused on skills valuable to office work, as they both only ever worked in offices. Duke found this to be exceedingly boring; he did not enjoy math or writing, and he abhorred the idea of sitting in one place for hours on end. He rather enjoyed hands-on activities, like sports.

However, his parents, who feared for his safety, didn't like the idea of him becoming an athlete.

Running Away

During adolescence, Duke grew rebellious of his supportive yet suffocating parents. Swearing to make a life of his own, he ran away from home. The note he left was short and simple:

I'm leaving to be an excavator. Love you.

Duke's parents taught him about excavators only to warn of the dangers of excavating. This obviously did not sway him; it enticed him.

After only a few days of searching a few dozen urgent office memos, the parents located Duke. He had fled to Tethys, where he was already applying for apprenticeship.

Being 14 years old, Duke was old enough to apply independently. However, his parents could still request the citadel to reject him. They wanted him to reconsider before he grew old enough to be considered an independent adult.

Duke managed to convince his parents.

Apprenticeship

x

Crew XXXXXXX

Duke started working as an excavator working through the {{TUNNEL_EAST}} for Tethys. He is the observer of Crew Dione-111 "XXXXXXX".

Exfae Encounter

During the 49^th Expedition of Crew XXXXXXX into the Shifting Lands, the weather was unusually calm. Duke unwittingly strayed far from the rest of the crew while surveying. He was close to the boundary between the Aerosphere and the Aerosphere when he spotted an exfae on the other side.

The exfae had white fur with yellow swirly markings on its flanks. Its tail was long like a cheetah's, and its legs were lithe like a deer's. It had four wolf-like ears, one pair behind the other.

Duke was enamored. He drew nearer and nearer, closer than he (and many other fae) had ever been to the boundary. Normally, this would absolutely destroy his body, yet that didn't even cross his mind at the time. He felt drawn in by the exfae. At the boundary, he reached out a hand. The exfae, which had been seemingly motionless until then, reached a forepaw in return. Duke felt an overwhelming, indescribable, wonderful emotion, looking back at the exfae. He felt as though it would talk to him...

But suddenly, his instincts and his training kicked in. He suspected that the unusual emotions and sensations were a sign of changes in the weather. He frantically ran away, feeling a sense of terror. He managed to relocate his crew a few minutes later.

Realizing quickly that his story would sound insane, Duke told his crew that absolutely nothing happened. They were immediately suspicious that he encountered an exfae, as alleged sightings of them were well-known by then. They tried convincing him to tell them, seemingly fascinated and even hopeful at the idea that Duke saw an exfae. Finally, Duke confessed, telling of his encounter with increasing passion and fascination, as he himself started to come to terms with just how phenomenal his encounter was.

The three excavators did not believe Duke's story at all. They didn't even believe he approached the boundary due to his complete lack of injuries. They called him some names and jokingly implied he was crazy. Duke took the defensive, insisting on his story more and more. His crew, offended by his hostile response, doubled down on their bullying. They eventually dropped the subject, but their trust in each other had already been shattered.

Duke became ostracized from his crew, then from excavators in general. After only a few days, he was known by everybody in Saturn as the latest lunatic to babble about exfae.

The drama died down after a couple weeks, but other excavators haven't treated him as a colleague since. His reputation has been destroyed.