Link to YouTube video
When he heard that Rust was at the station, anger flooded through him. He'd taken a few steps away from his desk before he realized that he didn't want to kill him. Just beat the shit out of him. So he left his gun and his rings in his drawer, took off his coat and tie. Then he headed to the door.
By the time he got to the door, he was practically running. Rust was just walking through the parking lot, heading in to work like nothing had happened. Like he hadn't been suspended. Like he hadn't fucked Maggie.
He was slamming into Rust almost before he realized he had gotten to him. He started punching him, as hard as he could. The rest of the fight was a blur, until Rust threw him against his truck. That shocked him out of his rage for a second, but he only got a few blows in before the people watching them finally broke them apart.
Watching Rust leave Salter's office was one of the weirdest moments of his life. First, he was relieved, glad he wouldn't have to see that fucker's face around anymore. Then, for some godawful reason, he felt sad that Rust was leaving. Even after what the conniving fuck did, he still felt bad that his partner was walking away from him. So he did what he always did, he shoved that feeling way down deep and headed out in search of a drink.
When he heard that Rust was at the station, anger flooded through him. He'd taken a few steps away from his desk before he realized that he didn't want to kill him. Just beat the shit out of him. So he left his gun and his rings in his drawer, took off his coat and tie. Then he headed to the door.
By the time he got to the door, he was practically running. Rust was just walking through the parking lot, heading in to work like nothing had happened. Like he hadn't been suspended. Like he hadn't fucked Maggie.
He was slamming into Rust almost before he realized he had gotten to him. He started punching him, as hard as he could. The rest of the fight was a blur, until Rust threw him against his truck. That shocked him out of his rage for a second, but he only got a few blows in before the people watching them finally broke them apart.
Watching Rust leave Salter's office was one of the weirdest moments of his life. First, he was relieved, glad he wouldn't have to see that fucker's face around anymore. Then, for some godawful reason, he felt sad that Rust was leaving. Even after what the conniving fuck did, he still felt bad that his partner was walking away from him. So he did what he always did, he shoved that feeling way down deep and headed out in search of a drink.
Hat Flood Memory: Carcosa (cw violence)
May. 11th, 2019 09:03 amLink to YouTube video
He really didn't want to go into the maze. But Rust was in there. That man was in there. He couldn't leave Rust in danger. So he went in, squinting against the darkness.
Inside was a tangle of stone, bare branches, and clothes he didn't look too closely at. He quickly became disoriented, confused by the twisting, turning paths. He kept hitting dead ends, having to retrace his steps, cursing under his breath. He had a feeling he was on a strict time limit and he did not want to lose any more.
When he got to the center of the maze, he aimed automatically at the big man hunched over Rust and fired. He managed a couple of shots before the guy threw and axe straight into his chest and he went down. The pain was horrible, almost crushing. He didn't notice that the guy had moved until he grabbed the axe and started pulling it out of him. He had enough strength to try and keep it where it was, though. Deprive the enemy of a weapon and keep the blood in him. Just as he was failing to do that, a shot rang out and the guy fell over dead.
Rust was lying behind him, holding a gun. He let the axe fall out of the wound almost absentmindedly and crawled over to him. Rust was almost gutted, too badly hurt to last long. Then the dumb bastard pulled the knife out. He tried to staunch the bleeding and pulled himself up so he was sitting, with Rust's head in his lap. He hoped help would come soon.
He really didn't want to go into the maze. But Rust was in there. That man was in there. He couldn't leave Rust in danger. So he went in, squinting against the darkness.
Inside was a tangle of stone, bare branches, and clothes he didn't look too closely at. He quickly became disoriented, confused by the twisting, turning paths. He kept hitting dead ends, having to retrace his steps, cursing under his breath. He had a feeling he was on a strict time limit and he did not want to lose any more.
When he got to the center of the maze, he aimed automatically at the big man hunched over Rust and fired. He managed a couple of shots before the guy threw and axe straight into his chest and he went down. The pain was horrible, almost crushing. He didn't notice that the guy had moved until he grabbed the axe and started pulling it out of him. He had enough strength to try and keep it where it was, though. Deprive the enemy of a weapon and keep the blood in him. Just as he was failing to do that, a shot rang out and the guy fell over dead.
Rust was lying behind him, holding a gun. He let the axe fall out of the wound almost absentmindedly and crawled over to him. Rust was almost gutted, too badly hurt to last long. Then the dumb bastard pulled the knife out. He tried to staunch the bleeding and pulled himself up so he was sitting, with Rust's head in his lap. He hoped help would come soon.
User Name/Nick: Lydia
User DW:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lookashiny
E-mail: lid.johnson@gmail.com
Other Characters: None
Character Name: Marty Hart
Series: True Detective (Season 1)
Age: 52
From When?: 2012, a few months after the end of season 1.
Inmate/Warden: Warden. Marty used to be a cop, and started running a PI business at some point between 2002 and 2012. After collaring Errol Childress, he's looking for a purpose in his life. After Rust Cohle came back and helped him collar Childress, he's more inclined to believe people can change. He'd be more apt to help someone who wants to be helped, but he'd probably try with all but the worst. He's more tough than touchy-feely, but, well, nearly dying has given him a new appreciation of life.
Item: Small legal pad
Abilities/Powers: None
Personality: Marty's a complicated person, though he wouldn't seem it on the surface. He likes to project an air of normalcy, of being an ordinary guy. He's also sociable enough on the surface that most of the people he meets or even knows assume that he is what he says he is, and ignore or overlook most of his flaws. He's a redneck in some ways, but also a lot smarter than he lets on at times. He's definitely not a person to underestimate.
When he first (chronologically, the show takes place over three time periods) appears on True Detective, in 1995, he appears to be the normal one of the partnership. He's got a wife, Maggie, and two young daughters, Audrey and Masie, and he's sociable and well-adjusted (seemingly). However, he's cheating on his wife, he's got anger issues, and he's a prick. When his mistress breaks up with him and starts dating another man, he breaks into her apartment, and and beats the guy up. When he discovers that the man Rust's just arrested and handcuffed has two kidnapped kids (one dead) in his shed, he shoots him (unknowingly ending the case prematurely). He genuinely loves his wife, but his issues with women nearly destroy their relationship. He seems to put women into boxes; he can't have wild sex with Maggie, since she's a wife and mother, but he can do it with his mistress, since she's younger and his mistress. He's also one of those people who thinks that he's normal because everyone else acts like he does, whether or not that's the case.
In the 2002 section, he's matured some, only to backslide. He managed to repair his marriage and kept on the straight and narrow for seven years. He's been able to work with Rust for that time, too. Then he impetuously sleeps with a younger woman he meets (who he met in the 1995 section when she was an underage prostitute, during their investigation) and starts an affair with her. His violent tendencies also flare up again when he catches his older daughter, Audrey, sleeping with three older men. He goes to see them in jail and tells them he won't press charges for statutory rape if they let him beat them up, which they agree to. He has to pull over after driving off to throw up, which indicates he's feeling some turmoil, but he still goes straight to violence as his first reaction. He's at least headed towards a mid-life crisis at this point, if not in one. Him doing this drives Maggie to sleep with Rust, the two men get into a fight, and then part for a decade. He and Maggie divorce.
During the first two parts of the show (1995 and 2002), his relationships with the women in his life are marked with possessiveness. His mistress in 1995 only gets him to leave her alone (after the aforementioned boyfriend beating) by telling his wife. Similarly, Maggie almost sleeps with a random stranger in 2002 in an effort to get back at him and end their marriage, before realizing that that wouldn't end things. She sleeps with Rust largely because, since he is Marty's partner, the betrayal is greater than if it was a stranger. That's the only thing that would drive Marty away completely, otherwise he would either "forgive" her or keep after her until she agreed to reconcile, which is implied to be part of why they got back together in 1995. Luckily, this aspect of his personality is gone by 2012.
During that decade, he quit being a cop in 2006 after a particularly tough case. He started Hart Investigative Solutions, a private investigation firm, pretty quickly thereafter. He's good at investigations, so that, plus living more or less alone, wouldn't let him stay idle for long. He dated a couple of times, but he had not long lasting relationships. By 2012, he leads a pretty solitary life, though he does try to downplay it when asked.
He's very hostile to Rust when the other man first tries to reconnect in 2012, in an effort to finally solve the Dora Lange case. However, he decides to help him pretty quickly after Rust shows him a videotape he stole from one of Reverend Tuttle's houses, of a group of masked men performing some horrifying ritual using a young girl as a sacrifice (the audience is only shown a small portion of the video, but it's enough to see that nothing good is happening). The video leaves him badly shaken and he realizes that he can't allow things like it to happen any more than Rust can. He uses his connections to old friends who are still cops to help their investigation.
After the end of the show, and getting hit in the chest with a thrown axe, he at least appears to be a changed man. Aside from time having eroded a lot of his anger and lead to an acceptance of aging, he's willing to reconnect with his ex-wife and daughters, who he hasn't seen in years, and they seem to be tentatively willing to do the same. He wouldn't be able to go back to his old, solitary life. He may even go looking for more adventure. It's at this point that the Barge is likely to come into play.
All in all, Marty's development is largely positive. He may take seventeen years, but he mellows into a mature person who understands his flaws. He spent a decade on his own as a result of being an asshole to the two people closest to him, and he used that time to think about that and at least partly realize he did wrong. He only takes the time he and Rust re-open their investigation (probably a few weeks, certainly not over a couple of months) to realize the other man really is his friend, anyway. He also talks to Maggie right before he and Rust go to finish their investigation (and expect to possibly meet violence) and it goes better than most of the other conversations they had, even when they were married.
Personality revisions: (since the time the character is from is shortly after the end of the season, this may be heavier on conjecture than otherwise)(also some of these overlap so sorry in advance if I repeat myself, I'll try not to)
How does Marty see himself? He still sees himself as a normal guy, though he's not as in denial as he once was, about his flaws, at least. He's gotten over his mid-life crisis, and he's isolated enough that there's no one around most of the time for him to have to live in relation to.
How does he want others to see him? He still wants others to see himself as mostly normal. The quote I think sums this up is "Oh, just a regular type dude... with a big ass dick." He's self-effacing, but he wants to be seen as important, too. He puts a lot of emphasis on his social abilities and the fact that he was "steady". This is mostly him explaining how he used to be, in contrast to a younger Rust, but it's still important to his present image. He's proud of being a detective, and he wants people to know that, but he emphasizes the fact that he can talk to people, and relate to them (at least more than Rust). After killing Errol Childress, he doesn't want others to see him much differently. He wouldn't want celebrity after the experience he had.
How different are those images from the truth? They're not extremely different, but he really does not like other people (except maybe Rust) to know how smart he is. In addition to his social intelligence, he's simply a very smart detective. He downplays it to appear more normal and approachable, especially in the good-old-boy atmosphere of the CID. This urge also continues after he stops being a detective. He also hides most of his emotions from basically everyone. He prides himself on being "steady" even when he isn't, necessarily.
How stable are the changes he's experienced in the last several years, and how does he feel about them? By the time he's out of the hospital, his changes have solidified. In the last scene of the show, he finally, finally listens to Rust and tries to connect with him, instead of ignoring 90% of what he says. He's willing to talk to Maggie and his girls and maybe have a relationship with them. Before this, he wasn't happy with his isolated life or with the rut he fell into. He didn't spend a lot of time thinking about Rust or the Dora Lange case, but his feelings about Rust don't seem to have changed a lot between their last meeting in 2002 and their first meeting in 2012. He tells Rust point blank that he won't help him and is at least a little suspicious of him. It takes seeing the video tape of Marie Fontenot to jerk him out of his rut and the realization of what he (along with Rust and the other cops) allowed to happen is the start of his changes becoming cemented. He's gained enough distance from his younger self to be able to realize that he doesn't want to be that person again.
What drives him now other than possessiveness and anger? Again, before his reunion with Rust, not a lot is driving him, except basic self-preservation/lack of desire to die. He's living a very isolated life, dating occasionally, but letting no one in. He briefly has the purpose of finally solving Dora Lange's death (and keeping Rust from doing anything too foolish), but that ends. He doesn't go back to isolation, though, and his reawakened desire to solve mysteries and find justice isn't going to just go away.
How does his impulse toward violence manifest in the present? His impulse towards violence is mostly gone, but it does show up occasionally. The first time he saw Rust in 2012, it was certainly close to the surface. If he had been more impulsive or less curious about what Rust had to show him, things most likely could have devolved into another fist-fight. He was also willing to fight Errol Childress, though he only goes after him to protect himself and Rust. At that point, his violence is only directed at clear threats and/or highly dangerous people. He's matured enough that violence is not his first response.
How does he relate to people outside of violence and womanizing habits? He had drinking buddies at work, some of whom he stayed close enough to to use the contacts to get the evidence from the Dora Lange case. He is good at talking to witnesses and at getting them to cooperate. He can put them at ease and get information fairly easily. He doesn't have the same ease with suspects, at least on screen, but the suspects we see are all scumbags, so that may be different with others. He's very forthcoming with Gilbough and Papania, only leaving out things like the fact that the shootout at the Ledoux place was fake and the fact that Rust and Maggie slept together. He has no reason to distrust them, so he doesn't.
He doesn't form close connections with people, but he's superficially easygoing enough that most people have positive impressions of him. His old CO called him a "human tampon" once, though, so that's not everyone.
What does he interact with colleagues, clients, acquaintances? His drinking buddies at work enjoy his company and he enjoys theirs. In 2012, we don't see any of his colleagues except Rust. He and Rust work well together very quickly, though the start is rocky, of course. The two of them manage to solve the Dora Lange case relatively quickly once they actually pool their knowledge and connections and work together well. Unfortunately, he never talks to clients for his PI business onscreen either, but the way he talks to witnesses/people of interest/ect is probably about the same. He's courteous and respectful, while also being insistent in his line of questioning. In contrast, he treats Steve Geraci with barely disguised contempt that quickly becomes just contempt, in 2012. He may have matured some, but he doesn't have time for people he judges negatively. His standards by which he's judging are different, too. He's contemptuous of Geraci because he helped, however unknowingly, conceal Marie Fontenot's death. When he was younger, he'd judge anyone he saw as being outside the norm.
Does he have any emotional life outside of his work, and if so, what is it like? When he was married to Maggie, he had her and their daughters, as well as his girlfriends. His happy home life was part of why he saw himself as so normal (especially in contrast to Rust). He did genuinely love Maggie and the girls, and it kept him more or less on an even keel. Unfortunately, his cheating put a strain on the marriage that ultimately ruptured it.
In 2012, he goes on Match.com and dates a few women, but his life is very lonely. He sits at home, most nights, eating microwave meals and watching football, alone. His emotional needs were no longer being met by anyone and he had to deal with that all on his own.
Post-Carcosa, he has Maggie, his daughters, and possibly Rust around to provide connections. While he will never have the same relationship with them as he did with Maggie when they were married, he doesn't have to be as isolated as he once was again.
If Cohle is the nihilist on the show - does Hart have a different philosophy about what The World and People are like that effects him day-to-day, or does he take things as they come and not think about it very much? Marty doesn't have an easily sum-up-able philosophy like Rust does. He's not a nihilist, though he's been a cop for long enough that he's not an idealist, either. He's not the type to think about things like a life philosophy, though. That's too much introspection and high concept thinking for him.
Barge Reactions: Marty's just barely been through some weird things, and nearly died, but the Barge is not like anything he's ever seen before. He'd need to get his bearings, at least, though he wouldn't let on to many/any other people that he was rattled. He plays things close to his chest and he's not going to give away his reactions that easily.
Same with the different kinds of people here. He's aware that there's going to be people from all sorts of different worlds here, but knowing and experiencing are two different things. Magic, superpowers, people from outer space; these are all things he hasn't given much thought to. He's not going to live in denial and he'll probably get used to it quickly, but he'll spend some time quietly boggling, at least.
Deal: Marty's deal is for the Tuttle/Childress family conspiracy to be revealed to the public, in a way that can't be ignored, justified, or covered up again. They spent decades raping and murdering women and children. Marty and his partner, Rust, took down one member of the family, Errol Childress, but that's only one small part of it. They're powerful enough to escape justice of the ordinary sort, but if they got what was coming to them anyway, that would be a damn good thing.
History: Character Profile and Season 1 on Wikipedia
Sample Journal Entry: So. Figure I might as well introduce myself. Name's Marty Hart. I'm from Louisiana. Anyone want to meet me, in person, I'll be in the bar. Or on deck. I've never seen this many stars in my life.
Sample RP: Marty sits on a bench on the deck, watching the stars go by. He's absorbed in the sight, first tracking one, then another. Occasionally, he tried to count them, or group them according to color/size/ect, but there's just too many.
It's quiet up here, which he likes. After a decade of living alone, being in this amount of close quarters with a bunch of other people takes some getting used to. Sure, he could just stay in his room, but if he spends too much time there, he starts to feel like he hasn't left Earth. Like this whole thing is just a dream.
He'd never be able to do that up on deck. It's so obviously alien that it couldn't be anywhere on Earth. He's in a whole new place now, doing new things. Meeting new people. He wonders what Maggie would think of him, all the way out here. Maybe she'd be glad he's changing. He hopes so.
also Link
User DW:
lookashinyE-mail: lid.johnson@gmail.com
Other Characters: None
Character Name: Marty Hart
Series: True Detective (Season 1)
Age: 52
From When?: 2012, a few months after the end of season 1.
Inmate/Warden: Warden. Marty used to be a cop, and started running a PI business at some point between 2002 and 2012. After collaring Errol Childress, he's looking for a purpose in his life. After Rust Cohle came back and helped him collar Childress, he's more inclined to believe people can change. He'd be more apt to help someone who wants to be helped, but he'd probably try with all but the worst. He's more tough than touchy-feely, but, well, nearly dying has given him a new appreciation of life.
Item: Small legal pad
Abilities/Powers: None
Personality: Marty's a complicated person, though he wouldn't seem it on the surface. He likes to project an air of normalcy, of being an ordinary guy. He's also sociable enough on the surface that most of the people he meets or even knows assume that he is what he says he is, and ignore or overlook most of his flaws. He's a redneck in some ways, but also a lot smarter than he lets on at times. He's definitely not a person to underestimate.
When he first (chronologically, the show takes place over three time periods) appears on True Detective, in 1995, he appears to be the normal one of the partnership. He's got a wife, Maggie, and two young daughters, Audrey and Masie, and he's sociable and well-adjusted (seemingly). However, he's cheating on his wife, he's got anger issues, and he's a prick. When his mistress breaks up with him and starts dating another man, he breaks into her apartment, and and beats the guy up. When he discovers that the man Rust's just arrested and handcuffed has two kidnapped kids (one dead) in his shed, he shoots him (unknowingly ending the case prematurely). He genuinely loves his wife, but his issues with women nearly destroy their relationship. He seems to put women into boxes; he can't have wild sex with Maggie, since she's a wife and mother, but he can do it with his mistress, since she's younger and his mistress. He's also one of those people who thinks that he's normal because everyone else acts like he does, whether or not that's the case.
In the 2002 section, he's matured some, only to backslide. He managed to repair his marriage and kept on the straight and narrow for seven years. He's been able to work with Rust for that time, too. Then he impetuously sleeps with a younger woman he meets (who he met in the 1995 section when she was an underage prostitute, during their investigation) and starts an affair with her. His violent tendencies also flare up again when he catches his older daughter, Audrey, sleeping with three older men. He goes to see them in jail and tells them he won't press charges for statutory rape if they let him beat them up, which they agree to. He has to pull over after driving off to throw up, which indicates he's feeling some turmoil, but he still goes straight to violence as his first reaction. He's at least headed towards a mid-life crisis at this point, if not in one. Him doing this drives Maggie to sleep with Rust, the two men get into a fight, and then part for a decade. He and Maggie divorce.
During the first two parts of the show (1995 and 2002), his relationships with the women in his life are marked with possessiveness. His mistress in 1995 only gets him to leave her alone (after the aforementioned boyfriend beating) by telling his wife. Similarly, Maggie almost sleeps with a random stranger in 2002 in an effort to get back at him and end their marriage, before realizing that that wouldn't end things. She sleeps with Rust largely because, since he is Marty's partner, the betrayal is greater than if it was a stranger. That's the only thing that would drive Marty away completely, otherwise he would either "forgive" her or keep after her until she agreed to reconcile, which is implied to be part of why they got back together in 1995. Luckily, this aspect of his personality is gone by 2012.
During that decade, he quit being a cop in 2006 after a particularly tough case. He started Hart Investigative Solutions, a private investigation firm, pretty quickly thereafter. He's good at investigations, so that, plus living more or less alone, wouldn't let him stay idle for long. He dated a couple of times, but he had not long lasting relationships. By 2012, he leads a pretty solitary life, though he does try to downplay it when asked.
He's very hostile to Rust when the other man first tries to reconnect in 2012, in an effort to finally solve the Dora Lange case. However, he decides to help him pretty quickly after Rust shows him a videotape he stole from one of Reverend Tuttle's houses, of a group of masked men performing some horrifying ritual using a young girl as a sacrifice (the audience is only shown a small portion of the video, but it's enough to see that nothing good is happening). The video leaves him badly shaken and he realizes that he can't allow things like it to happen any more than Rust can. He uses his connections to old friends who are still cops to help their investigation.
After the end of the show, and getting hit in the chest with a thrown axe, he at least appears to be a changed man. Aside from time having eroded a lot of his anger and lead to an acceptance of aging, he's willing to reconnect with his ex-wife and daughters, who he hasn't seen in years, and they seem to be tentatively willing to do the same. He wouldn't be able to go back to his old, solitary life. He may even go looking for more adventure. It's at this point that the Barge is likely to come into play.
All in all, Marty's development is largely positive. He may take seventeen years, but he mellows into a mature person who understands his flaws. He spent a decade on his own as a result of being an asshole to the two people closest to him, and he used that time to think about that and at least partly realize he did wrong. He only takes the time he and Rust re-open their investigation (probably a few weeks, certainly not over a couple of months) to realize the other man really is his friend, anyway. He also talks to Maggie right before he and Rust go to finish their investigation (and expect to possibly meet violence) and it goes better than most of the other conversations they had, even when they were married.
Personality revisions: (since the time the character is from is shortly after the end of the season, this may be heavier on conjecture than otherwise)(also some of these overlap so sorry in advance if I repeat myself, I'll try not to)
How does Marty see himself? He still sees himself as a normal guy, though he's not as in denial as he once was, about his flaws, at least. He's gotten over his mid-life crisis, and he's isolated enough that there's no one around most of the time for him to have to live in relation to.
How does he want others to see him? He still wants others to see himself as mostly normal. The quote I think sums this up is "Oh, just a regular type dude... with a big ass dick." He's self-effacing, but he wants to be seen as important, too. He puts a lot of emphasis on his social abilities and the fact that he was "steady". This is mostly him explaining how he used to be, in contrast to a younger Rust, but it's still important to his present image. He's proud of being a detective, and he wants people to know that, but he emphasizes the fact that he can talk to people, and relate to them (at least more than Rust). After killing Errol Childress, he doesn't want others to see him much differently. He wouldn't want celebrity after the experience he had.
How different are those images from the truth? They're not extremely different, but he really does not like other people (except maybe Rust) to know how smart he is. In addition to his social intelligence, he's simply a very smart detective. He downplays it to appear more normal and approachable, especially in the good-old-boy atmosphere of the CID. This urge also continues after he stops being a detective. He also hides most of his emotions from basically everyone. He prides himself on being "steady" even when he isn't, necessarily.
How stable are the changes he's experienced in the last several years, and how does he feel about them? By the time he's out of the hospital, his changes have solidified. In the last scene of the show, he finally, finally listens to Rust and tries to connect with him, instead of ignoring 90% of what he says. He's willing to talk to Maggie and his girls and maybe have a relationship with them. Before this, he wasn't happy with his isolated life or with the rut he fell into. He didn't spend a lot of time thinking about Rust or the Dora Lange case, but his feelings about Rust don't seem to have changed a lot between their last meeting in 2002 and their first meeting in 2012. He tells Rust point blank that he won't help him and is at least a little suspicious of him. It takes seeing the video tape of Marie Fontenot to jerk him out of his rut and the realization of what he (along with Rust and the other cops) allowed to happen is the start of his changes becoming cemented. He's gained enough distance from his younger self to be able to realize that he doesn't want to be that person again.
What drives him now other than possessiveness and anger? Again, before his reunion with Rust, not a lot is driving him, except basic self-preservation/lack of desire to die. He's living a very isolated life, dating occasionally, but letting no one in. He briefly has the purpose of finally solving Dora Lange's death (and keeping Rust from doing anything too foolish), but that ends. He doesn't go back to isolation, though, and his reawakened desire to solve mysteries and find justice isn't going to just go away.
How does his impulse toward violence manifest in the present? His impulse towards violence is mostly gone, but it does show up occasionally. The first time he saw Rust in 2012, it was certainly close to the surface. If he had been more impulsive or less curious about what Rust had to show him, things most likely could have devolved into another fist-fight. He was also willing to fight Errol Childress, though he only goes after him to protect himself and Rust. At that point, his violence is only directed at clear threats and/or highly dangerous people. He's matured enough that violence is not his first response.
How does he relate to people outside of violence and womanizing habits? He had drinking buddies at work, some of whom he stayed close enough to to use the contacts to get the evidence from the Dora Lange case. He is good at talking to witnesses and at getting them to cooperate. He can put them at ease and get information fairly easily. He doesn't have the same ease with suspects, at least on screen, but the suspects we see are all scumbags, so that may be different with others. He's very forthcoming with Gilbough and Papania, only leaving out things like the fact that the shootout at the Ledoux place was fake and the fact that Rust and Maggie slept together. He has no reason to distrust them, so he doesn't.
He doesn't form close connections with people, but he's superficially easygoing enough that most people have positive impressions of him. His old CO called him a "human tampon" once, though, so that's not everyone.
What does he interact with colleagues, clients, acquaintances? His drinking buddies at work enjoy his company and he enjoys theirs. In 2012, we don't see any of his colleagues except Rust. He and Rust work well together very quickly, though the start is rocky, of course. The two of them manage to solve the Dora Lange case relatively quickly once they actually pool their knowledge and connections and work together well. Unfortunately, he never talks to clients for his PI business onscreen either, but the way he talks to witnesses/people of interest/ect is probably about the same. He's courteous and respectful, while also being insistent in his line of questioning. In contrast, he treats Steve Geraci with barely disguised contempt that quickly becomes just contempt, in 2012. He may have matured some, but he doesn't have time for people he judges negatively. His standards by which he's judging are different, too. He's contemptuous of Geraci because he helped, however unknowingly, conceal Marie Fontenot's death. When he was younger, he'd judge anyone he saw as being outside the norm.
Does he have any emotional life outside of his work, and if so, what is it like? When he was married to Maggie, he had her and their daughters, as well as his girlfriends. His happy home life was part of why he saw himself as so normal (especially in contrast to Rust). He did genuinely love Maggie and the girls, and it kept him more or less on an even keel. Unfortunately, his cheating put a strain on the marriage that ultimately ruptured it.
In 2012, he goes on Match.com and dates a few women, but his life is very lonely. He sits at home, most nights, eating microwave meals and watching football, alone. His emotional needs were no longer being met by anyone and he had to deal with that all on his own.
Post-Carcosa, he has Maggie, his daughters, and possibly Rust around to provide connections. While he will never have the same relationship with them as he did with Maggie when they were married, he doesn't have to be as isolated as he once was again.
If Cohle is the nihilist on the show - does Hart have a different philosophy about what The World and People are like that effects him day-to-day, or does he take things as they come and not think about it very much? Marty doesn't have an easily sum-up-able philosophy like Rust does. He's not a nihilist, though he's been a cop for long enough that he's not an idealist, either. He's not the type to think about things like a life philosophy, though. That's too much introspection and high concept thinking for him.
Barge Reactions: Marty's just barely been through some weird things, and nearly died, but the Barge is not like anything he's ever seen before. He'd need to get his bearings, at least, though he wouldn't let on to many/any other people that he was rattled. He plays things close to his chest and he's not going to give away his reactions that easily.
Same with the different kinds of people here. He's aware that there's going to be people from all sorts of different worlds here, but knowing and experiencing are two different things. Magic, superpowers, people from outer space; these are all things he hasn't given much thought to. He's not going to live in denial and he'll probably get used to it quickly, but he'll spend some time quietly boggling, at least.
Deal: Marty's deal is for the Tuttle/Childress family conspiracy to be revealed to the public, in a way that can't be ignored, justified, or covered up again. They spent decades raping and murdering women and children. Marty and his partner, Rust, took down one member of the family, Errol Childress, but that's only one small part of it. They're powerful enough to escape justice of the ordinary sort, but if they got what was coming to them anyway, that would be a damn good thing.
History: Character Profile and Season 1 on Wikipedia
Sample Journal Entry: So. Figure I might as well introduce myself. Name's Marty Hart. I'm from Louisiana. Anyone want to meet me, in person, I'll be in the bar. Or on deck. I've never seen this many stars in my life.
Sample RP: Marty sits on a bench on the deck, watching the stars go by. He's absorbed in the sight, first tracking one, then another. Occasionally, he tried to count them, or group them according to color/size/ect, but there's just too many.
It's quiet up here, which he likes. After a decade of living alone, being in this amount of close quarters with a bunch of other people takes some getting used to. Sure, he could just stay in his room, but if he spends too much time there, he starts to feel like he hasn't left Earth. Like this whole thing is just a dream.
He'd never be able to do that up on deck. It's so obviously alien that it couldn't be anywhere on Earth. He's in a whole new place now, doing new things. Meeting new people. He wonders what Maggie would think of him, all the way out here. Maybe she'd be glad he's changing. He hopes so.
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