Duncan Ferelle

Duncan's parents were incredibly intelligent, incredibly academically-focused individuals: they named their son after Duncan, the Shakespeare character, for a reason. Their strict mindset bled into every aspect of Duncan's childhood. As the only child in the family, Duncan was expected not only to succeed, but to excel: whether that be in terms of his grades, his speech and debate tournaments, his piano competitions. He was praised whenever he did well, but was explicitly told whenever he'd failed to meet expectations or if his parents were disappointed in him. As a result, Duncan became incredibly reliant on his parents' words throughout his youth. Their opinions quickly became the only opinions that mattered to him at all.

As a result, however, Duncan found it difficult to make and maintain any sort of friendships throughout his childhood whatsoever. He had incredibly high expectations of others, and would immediately snap and get irritated whenever people didn't live up to them. It was difficult for him to ever reveal anything personal about himself to anyone, not wanting to come off as weak or vulnerable to people who, really, were nothing more than acquaintances. People either avoided him or wanted to make friends with the "teacher's pet," leeching off of his notes and study guides all throughout his high school years.

When Duncan entered college, he was rude, closed-off, and highly suspicious of anybody who wanted to make friends with him -- thinking that they were going to just use him for his intelligence again. It wouldn't take long for his future partner and best friend to crack his shell, however: during orientation, right after he'd bought a stack of expensive textbooks, he quite literally ran into Chanto Valerin as she was passing by with a plate of food and drinks. The resulting accident completely ruined his books -- and just as he was about to explode, demanding that Chanto pay him back or buy him new ones, a college junior Aaron Vesre intervened and offered to make up the damages.

The three of them would become inseparable (even if Aaron had to spend most of their first few months together breaking up fights between Duncan and Chanto), rarely ever seen apart outside of their classes. Aaron and Duncan would start dating during Aaron's senior year; his partner's devotion and success at the Virion Project would convince an otherwise-reluctant Duncan to apply for an internship there as well. Joining Aaron as part of the Investigation Division the moment that he graduated, he and Aaron made a promise to each other that Duncan's never quite managed to forget: they would protect each other on the front lines, fighting until the end to find a cure for viscerosis.

To Duncan's relief, the transition out of his strictly-academic childhood to the work of the Virion Project wasn't as difficult as he'd imagined it would be. He loved the research that he was doing, even enjoying the interviews and depositions he would do as the forensic psychologist on the team. Even though he initially had a rocky relationship with Clarence Rheuma and Kay Mironov, the other two Investigators, he'd begrudgingly admit that they were "friends" as well -- only to a certain extent, though!

The first few years of the Virion Project caused Duncan, to his own surprise, to get more invested in the cause than he'd ever thought he'd be. For once, he wasn't working for the approval of his parents: he was working towards something greater than him, while still getting the recognition for his intelligence that he felt like he deserved. Just as he was starting to settle in, the Outbreak Incident would cause his budding ideals to crash around him. On the front lines with the other Investigators, none of them expected the viscerosis victims that they were sent to interrogate to fight back as strongly as they did. Even though the Containment Division eventually came to their rescue, it came at the cost of nearly every member of the original Investigation Division: all four of them, including Duncan, contracted viscerosis.

While Aaron and Kay lost a right and a left eye, respectively, Duncan and Clarence were left in a far worse condition: Duncan lost an arm and an eye, while Clarence lost their vision and their former humanity entirely. Duncan was furious -- partially at himself for letting it happen, partially at Kay and Clarence for disappearing without even saying goodbye, partially at Aaron for wanting to continue to be an Investigator, despite everything that'd happened to them. He couldn't understand why Aaron would risk his life -- again. Hadn't the two of them already lost enough?

Despite Aaron's intense disappointment in him (and, really, his disappointment in himself for breaking their old promise), Duncan's pragmatism and sense of survival won out above all else. He and Aaron would ultimately end their relationship as Duncan retreated into the relative safety of the Research Division, even as Aaron stood in the spotlight as the de facto leader of a new group of Investigators. It's still hard for them to make eye contact in the hallways, even though so many years have passed. Duncan would never admit it, but he misses Aaron; Aaron, on the other hand, seems bitterly opposed to ever having to face Duncan again.

Even though he might've removed himself from the front lines, Duncan believes in the Virion Project even more strongly than he did when he was an Investigator. He's determined not to fail -- not a second time, at least. The people he's working with are intelligent enough, by his standards, and clearly putting their all into the research that they're doing. If he can find a cure for viscerosis, after all, then maybe the missing Clarence and Kay will reappear, the regret that Chanto carries will finally lift off of her shoulders, and the rift between him and Aaron can finally come to a close.