Lachlan James Deatley
Lachlan James Deatley
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Portrayed By Gerard Butler
Gender RABIES
Date of Birth December 13, 1971
Age 37
Zodiac Sign Sagittarius
Aliases Lach; The Dogmaster
Place of Birth Possilpark, North Glasgow, Scotland
Current Location New York City, NY, USA
Occupation Expert dog trainer, budding kennel owner
Known Relatives James Deatley (father); Alice Deatley (mother); Megan Deatley (sister); Abigail Aldric-Deatley (daughter)
Significant Other Cass Aldric (wife)
Known Abilities Animal telepathy
First Appearance A Little Coffee, a Little Chat

Lachlan Deatley is a Scottish immigrant who came to the United States at an early age. He grew up around dogs and, at the age of seventeen, ran away from home and joined one of the last traveling circuses in Canada. He remained with the circus for ten years, billing himself as the Dogmaster, a man able to train and ease astounding performances out of dogs. After leaving the circus, he returned to the United States and moved to New York, where he took up a job as an expert dog trainer and as a small-time drug dealer. He's since gotten out of the drug business and now lives comfortably with his wife, Cass, and daughter, Abby. Lachlan's parents live in New Jersey, but he does not visit frequently.

History

From the very start, it was apparent that Lachlan was not really destined for great things. He was born on December 13th 1972, the eldest of two children, in the Possilpark district of North Glasgow, Scotland. Life was fairly troublesome there, and his parents were not the richest of folks. His mother was a waitress, and his father ran a kennel out of the home, specializing in the breeding of Doberman pinschers. Though his stock was not the best, he managed to eke out a living selling the puppies to the less savory sort as guard dogs. Lachlan grew up with a love of dogs, and naturally, Dobermans were his favorite.

When Lachlan was four years old, his father found gainful employment as a postman. The family moved to a better neighborhood within Glasgow, and Lachlan started school. Thanks to his more destitute appearance, sluggish wit, and easily baited temper, he quickly became the subject of ridicule amongst his peers. He learned to loathe school, and due to this dislike and a general disinterest in learning, he did very poorly academically. It wasn't unusual for Lachlan to get into fights at school (most of which were instigated by the taunts of fellow students), and as such, he was branded as a "problem student". Lachlan grew withdrawn and bitter, finding solace in the family Dobermans.

Thanks to the generosity of some relatives, the Deatleys moved to the United States when Lachlan was nine years old. Between himself, his sister, his three cousins (with whom he did not get along), and the two sets of parents, life in the house was very crowded and loud. Though the dogs were left behind, Lachlan found canine companionship with the various dogs that ran loose in the neighborhood. He was able to approach even the most skittish of dogs and earned himself a reputation within the neighborhood as a bit of an odd child.

At age ten, Lachlan's abilities manifested themselves when he and two of his cousins got into one of their many and frequent tussles. During the struggle, Lachlan began to hear voices. It was for only a few minutes, and afterward, he had an excruciating headache. The incident frightened him so much that he holed himself away and spoke to no one for the rest of the day. After that, he would have infrequent flashes of telepathy that didn't last long and usually left him with headaches. He was always too terrified to approach his family about these occurrences, afraid that he would be deemed crazy. For weeks, he was unaware of who the voices belonged to, until it became apparent to him that the incidents happened mainly when he was around dogs, and that the voices seemed to speak from the canine's perspective.

As he grew, Lachlan found that he could turn the powers on and off, and with practice, he was able to keep them on during most of the day. At age eleven, his parents surprised him on his birthday by giving him a mongrel dog for a pet, and it was this dog — Rusty — that he used most to hone his gifts. When he finally did tell someone about the telepathy, it was Megan, who was sworn to absolute secrecy. Naturally, his family was none too keen on evolved beings.

One day during his twelfth year, he was walking home with his sister and Rusty from the bus stop after school when they were attacked by a gang of peers. Lachlan was shoved to the ground hard, and the bullies began to pick on and push Megan around. Afraid for his sister, Lachlan felt himself surge forward and begin to tear at the ringleader with his teeth. The rest of the children, terrified, fled the scene, and the ringleader was mauled horribly. However, when authorities arrived on the scene, they found the bloodied culprit to be Rusty, not Lachlan, and the boy was curled up in a ball with a splitting headache, hardly able to string together a coherent sentence.

The bully survived the attack, but Rusty — despite Lachlan's insistence that he was the one at fault — was put to sleep in accordance with the law. It took a week or two for Lachlan to recover fully and to calm down enough to outwardly agree that Rusty was the bully's attacker, not himself. Inwardly, however, he knew better, and he was riddled with guilt for several months, believing that he had killed his dog. After that incident, Lachlan found himself unable to shut off his powers, but with practice, he was able to focus in on individual voices (much as one might focus on one conversation in a crowd).

The Deatleys moved into their own house and acquired another dog — Samson — when Lachlan was fifteen. The dog and boy bonded very quickly due to Lachlan's latent abilities, and with Samson, Lachlan began to explore the power he termed "dogsight" — the same ability he had accidentally used with Rusty. A year after receiving Samson, Lachlan began to formulate plans to run away from home, fearing that he might somehow be discovered. These plans were enacted as Lachlan was approaching the age of seventeen; taking his dog, he disappeared into the night and fled to Canada, where he joined up with a small traveling circus — one of the last of its kind. There, he billed himself as the Dogmaster and performed with Samson and (later) other dogs — Dobermans — supplied to him by the circus.

Lachlan ran with the circus for nearly ten years before he returned to the United States and moved into an apartment in New York. By that time, having found a lucrative business in helping one of the circus performers deal drugs to his fellow workers, Lachlan had acquired a small nest egg large enough to sustain him as he sought stable employment. He began to work as a dog expert and trainer, but due to his nature and temperament, he was unable to make much of himself in this line of work, despite his incomparable abilities. Naturally, Lachlan began to look back into the drug business, which had served him well before. He spent some time as a small-time dealer to supplement his legitimate income.

During his stay in New York, Lachlan met Cass Aldric under a series of highly unusual incidents that eventually wound up with the pair of them falling in love and becoming engaged.

One Year Later…

After Cass' rehabilitation, Lachlan quit the drug business for good and dedicated himself to settling down and having some semblance of a normal life. He and Cass were married, an event that may or may not have been influenced by her pregnancy, and despite an accident during the honeymoon (it's not what you think) that led to his becoming permanently crippled in one leg, the couple settled down to raise their daughter, Abby. Cass went back to Enlightenment and Lachlan threw himself into dog training and a sudden desire to advance his otherwise spotty and ultimately poor education. Lachlan has also started forming the idea for a trainer's kennel in which dogs are bred and taught to work on movie sets.

Timeline

Ability

Lachlan is able to telepathically communicate with mammals, his expertise lying with dogs and other canines (wolves, dingoes, etc.). This ability is passive; it can't be switched off. As such, he has a constant barrage of canine "chatter" going through his head. At any given moment, however, he can focus on specific "voices", tuning out others. This ability is primitive in comparison to human telepathy; Lachlan is able communicate on a basic level with the dogs, cats, and to some extent rats (though the latter is only a budding ability), rather than the more advanced, "higher-thinking" of humans. In other words: he's able to pick up on the animal's feelings and intentions and is able to reason with them on a basic level, but as animals are not capable of debating higher planes of thought (such as the fundamentals of Shakespeare), he doesn't hold real conversations with them.

Though his ability is limited now to dogs, cats, and sometimes rats, Lachlan has the capability of picking up on the thoughts of other animals and can, if he puts his mind to it, occasionally do so, though often extending his powers to such lengths leaves him with headaches. The ability applies only to mammals, however; he cannot communicate with reptiles or birds.

Quotes

  • "Fer one thing, there's nothin' bloody wrong with yer dog, 'cept tha' his owner's a right daft bastard."
  • "They'll no' bite."

Trivia

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  • Lefty-Handed: Lachlan is left-handed and seems to forget this often, as it always seems to surprise him when people bring it up in everyday conversation.
  • Favorite Color: Is purple, a fact with which he is oddly at peace. Anybody who tries to tell him that purple is a girl's color is often met with derision and sarcasm.
  • Allergic to Shellfish: However, Lachlan enjoys imitation crab (the sort only made from fish, naturally). Unlike his security with the fact that his favorite color is purple, Lachlan is strangely ashamed of his love of imitation crab and does his level best to hide it from anyone and everyone.
  • Hates Snakes: A lot. He had a horrid experience with the things shortly after he joined the circus, and he's abhorred them since.
  • Never Graduated From High School: Lachlan's an academic moron. Sometimes he's a non-academic moron, too.
  • Stunt-Talented: Lachlan knows a variety of tricks, such as sleight-of-hand, juggling, and balancing and tumbling acts, but does not practice them regularly anymore. Sometimes he busts them out to impress women or when he's feeling particularly goofy.
  • Guitar-Strummin' Yowler: It is a little-known fact that Lachlan plays the guitar — mainly because he doesn't usually play in public, preferring to keep it to himself. Being self-taught, he can't read a single note of music but is fairly good at picking things up by ear. Lachlan is also capable of singing and accompanying himself on the guitar — depending on the genre of music, he's not half-bad.
  • Ink: Lachlan acquired a tattoo on the 15th of May, 2007. It was a whimsical decision. The tattoo is located over his left ribs and is roughly four inches tall. It is the head of a Doberman pinscher with red eyes. It has been dubbed "Fluffy" by Cass.

Dogs: Past and Present

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Current

Bonnie: Bonnie is an Irish wolfhound/Chinook/God-knows-what-else mix given to Lachlan by Eliana after the death of Padfoot. She is roughly nine months old and is therefore only half-grown, but thanks to her breed, she is already rather large and promises to get even larger still. Bonnie has a sweet, loving temperament that has only been encouraged by Lachlan's training and by the fact that Cass spoils her rotten. She's well-socialized and loves people. She was given to Cass when the dog bonded with her after staying with her for a time as a means of security, and naturally Bonnie was inherited by Lachlan again when he and Cass married.

Past

Barguest: Lachlan owned Barguest — a Doberman pinscher — for a little over five years. He bought the dog — along with his brother, Padfoot — from a reputable breeder in New Jersey and raised him from puphood. Barguest was an unwaveringly loyal dog and quite friendly to other people, though reserved and watchful as his breed dictated. He was highly trained as an excellent companion and guard dog, however he was shot in the face and killed by Mr. Hendrickson in February of 2007.

Padfoot: Another Doberman pinscher and littermate of Barguest, Padfoot was more reserved than his brother and was firmly attached to Lachlan. Fiercely protective and intelligent, Padfoot was one of Lachlan's personal favorites. He was shot during the break-in at Kirby Plaza and, despite efforts to save his life, died shortly after from his injuries.

Relationships

See: Lachlan's relationships page.

Videos

Lachlan Vision
A video displaying how dogs and Lachlan often perceive conversations.

Galway Girl
Bit o' guitar, bit o' singin'.

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