Dusty's home world is very similar to our own current world except that about 10 years ago a string of attacks and murders in Central Park turned out to be a hungry and impulsive vampire. Through investigations and medical reports, it was eventually revealed to the general populace that supernatural creatures have always been real. Because of the way they were exposed, supernaturals are generally subject to a lot of stigma from regular humans, particularly if they're the sort seen as "monsters" - werewolves, vampires, banshees, ghosts, etc. Since supernaturals were exposed, there has been the development of Hunters who track them down if they do any damage or even sometimes just because they're disliked. Even without Hunters, any supernatural who is exposed is subject to anything from shunning to vigilante "justice." The governments of the world are working on legislation around supernaturals; violence against them is still punishable in the same way that it is for humans.

CW: child abuse, animal attack on children, attempted murder of a child, murder perpetrated by a teenager - Dusty was born the second son of a couple who ran a farm in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and his father had (correct) suspicions that he wasn't Dusty's biological father. Neither parent was particularly enthused about parenthood, so the boys were neglected sometimes and verbally or physically abused by turns in the name of discipline. When Dusty was 5 years old and Chester was 15, they were playing flashlight tag when Dusty was attacked by a werewolf. Chester intervened and managed to drive away the wolf, but both boys were bitten, and they soon discovered that when they lost control of their emotions the wolf would take over. While Chester was able to learn to control the wolf inside by embracing it rather than fighting it, it was still a learning process and while Chester did his best to teach Dusty how to control it as well, Dusty was so young and had a difficult time with it. They could only manage a month before their parents found out. Once they did, their father, with the verbal support of their mother, decided that he was too dangerous to the livestock and people in the area, and went to take him out behind the house to shoot him. Chester finally snapped after years of neglect and taking care of his younger brother and attacked first his father and then his mother. Chester overkilled both parents with a Swiss Army Knife, buried their bodies, and then they carried on as if nothing had happened. End of CW.

Chester took over Dusty's care, managing to dodge Child Welfare until he was old enough to legally become Dusty's guardian. When Dusty was 8 years old, he lost control of the wolf again, and was hungry. He ran through the woods and Ches lost track of him until it was too late - Dusty managed to get to a neighbor's farm. The family there consisted of a sick elderly woman and her teenage grandson, Noah, who was taking care of her. Dusty attacked and started eating their chickens. When Noah came out to intervene, Dusty attacked and bit him out of fear, and bolted over the porch to escape, accidentally knocking down Noah's grandmother in the process. She was already fragile and in bad health, and died due to the fall. Later that night, Ches convinced Noah to come live with them, and Dusty apologized thoroughly. Noah forgave him, and joined the family.

After Noah joined them, the little family started to take on new members slowly but surely, mostly people who had terrible experiences with losing control of the wolf and needed to learn how not to do that. Chester eventually agreed to be called the Alpha of what had become a new pack of werewolves, and taught anyone who needed the methods he used to control the wolf through embracing it. Recently there has been some tension with another pack in the area, known as the Jones pack, and there have been signs that Hunters might be in the area and searching for them. Dusty would arrive in game a day or two after the pack found the deceased bodies of three young campers on their property, with the scent of a wolf who had previously been in and left the pack.

+ Good-Natured/Optimistic: Dusty is just generally a good-natured person. He rarely gets angry or sad, and seems mostly unaffected by the traumas he's endured in his lifetime. Generally, he thinks that people are good and that things will turn out okay. While he was already a pretty emotionally stable kid before he was bitten, once Chester took over his care he sheltered Dusty from anything frightening or sad that happened in the fallout of their parents' deaths. Because of this, he has a mostly positive outlook on life and defaults to thinking the best of people and situations.

+ Laid-Back/Easygoing: Along with his good nature, Dusty is very laid-back and easygoing. Quick to forgive and brush things off, he's aware that everyone does things they regret and can't bring himself to hold it against them. Dusty doesn't hold grudges, doesn't take anything too seriously, and is an excellent person to go to for advice for people struggling with internalized hatred or anger, because he can always find a way to work around it, a realistic reason that it should be forgiven. Lacking in a lot of strong opinions and passionate beliefs, Dusty isn't too fussy about things, and genially just goes with whatever will make everyone else happy, whether it's what food to eat or a plan of action for the pack.

+ Warm/Caring: Most of the pack view Dusty as the heart of the home, because he's warm, inviting, gentle, and caring. Usually, he can be found in the kitchen baking or cooking or puttering around, or doing small chores around the farm, mostly involving animal care. Dusty is non-judgmental and good at keeping secrets, so he's a good sounding board, a safe person to go to with anything that others might be afraid to talk about to anyone else. He also takes care of the others in a physical way - he's always ready to make the correct food for any type of disaster or bad situation. He's the one who makes chicken soup when someone is sick, who makes cookies when someone is sad, who knows everyone's favorite dish and goes out of his way to learn the recipe for people's comfort foods if he's not already familiar with them.

- Unambitious/Unmoored: Another way that Dusty's laid-back nature expresses itself is through his complete lack of ambition or drive to progress or accomplish anything. He has no career and no desire to get a job other than helping out on the farm, he has no particular life goals or aspirations and is generally pretty aimless. Considering how comfortable his life has been, besides a few major events, he just has no real will to change anything, and desperately needs a good strong push to get him to figure out who he is and what he wants out of life.

- Naïve/Sheltered: The Fields brothers grew up in a very difficult, scary situation, but because of Chester's drive to protect Dusty and keep him safe, to give him the opportunity to have a real childhood, Dusty has successfully been mostly shielded from the frightening or traumatizing circumstances. Dusty isn't stupid, but he's very sheltered and in combination with his optimism, he can be incredibly naïve, accepting things at face value without putting in a lot of critical thinking. He doesn't have a lot of street smarts and doesn't have a lot of book smarts either, though he excels at subjects he's particularly interested in, like cooking. Also, because of being sheltered along with the transient nature of a large percentage of the pack (people will come and learn to control the wolf and then move on quite frequently) he's also somewhat hesitant to get really attached to people or forming deep connections to anyone that isn't family (mostly Ches, Noah, and Jasha, another member of the pack who's been around for 10+ years). He's been so well-protected his entire life that the idea of taking that kind of risk isn't worth it to him. Yet.

- Stubborn/Defiant: This is just an inborn part of Dusty's personality. When he's ordered to do something or another werewolf tries to dominate him, he immediately becomes incredibly defiant. He's painfully stubborn, refusing to bend to anyone's will just because he thinks he shouldn't have to bend to anyone's will. Obviously, in some situations this can be a positive, but much more often it's the demands of someone who cares about him, demands that are in his own best interests that he's giving pushback on. Once he's made a decision or holds an opinion with any strength or passion, he holds onto it stubbornly, refusing to reconsider other options or listen to the other side.

Dusty has been a werewolf for 20 years and can barely remember a time in his life when he wasn't a werewolf. What this means:

- Dusty has learned to control the wolf, and very rarely loses his own personality while in wolf form. This is an entirely learned skill, so he may lose control in situations of high emotion or due to game effects, etc. He can also communicate with other werewolves (either human or wolf form) through a sort of telepathy. Unfortunately this is useless since he's not going to have canonmates.

- While in wolf form he has all the strengths and weaknesses of a regular wolf. Excellent dark-vision, speed, stamina, an amazing sense of smell and a mouth full of very sharp teeth. However, a distinct lack of opposable thumbs or to speak language out loud.

- While in human form, he has some limited access to the strengths of the wolf, particularly in situations where he's calm and connected with the wolf -or- moments of panic where he acts on instinct. The strengths he could access would be better-than-human reflexes, enhanced sense of smell, enhanced hearing, enhanced speed, and enhanced agility. The quality of these enhancements is variable, but would never reach the same levels in human form that he has in wolf form (for example, he will never have the wolf's full sense of smell in human form, but it might be better than a human's sense of smell).

- Limited healing when switching forms. When changing from a wolf to a human, he heals just a little. The healing would be essentially good enough to take him from the brink of death to stable but still severely wounded and incapable of taking care of himself.

PERMISSIONS

● ● ● ooc information

PLAYER: Yvie
CONTACT: private message

● ● ● ooc permissions

BACKTAGGING: Y
THREADHOPPING: Y (I love threadhopping)
FOURTH-WALLING: N
OFF-LIMIT TOPICS: None

● ● ● ic permissions

FLIRTING: Y
FIGHTING: Y
INJURY: Y
MINDREADING: Y (Send me a PM so we can plan cool stuff.)
MAGIC: Y
IC LIMITS: None that I know of!
WARNINGS: His backstory includes references to child abuse and neglect, the murder of his parents by his older brother, animal attacks on children, and a baby werewolf biting someone. Just reply to this entry if you want none of that.

XIMILIA