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Ches Fields

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Player Information
Name: Mica
Age: 30+
Contact: PM to this journal, discord: onlilypads
Other Characters: n/a

Character Information
Name: Chester "Ches" Fields
Canon: Original (Bite Marks TTRPG NPC)
Canon Point: Spring of 2021, just after having defeated a rival pack of werewolves led by a sociopath
Age: 37

(canon) background: n/a
(original) world & history:
Chester's home world is very similar to our own current world except that about 20 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. Mostly because of years of folklore and partially 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 groups of Hunters who track them down if they do any damage, but this has evolved so that many Hunter groups form simply out of a hatred for supernaturals. 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; as of Ches's canon point, violence against them is still punishable in the same way that it is for humans.

CW: Non-sexual child abuse, animal attack, injury of a child, attempted murder of a child, parental murder perpetrated by a teenager Ches was born on October 31, 1985 at his parents' home in a small town called Shiloh in British Columbia, Canada. He was the first child born to parents who had never really wanted to be parents, and it showed in their treatment of him. While they certainly did enough to keep him fed and dressed and in school, his parents put in very little effort to tend to their son's emotional or mental well-being, and he was often left neglected or to fend for himself from a very young age. Because of this, he became quite self-sufficient.

When Chester was 9 years old, his mother cheated on his father and became pregnant again, eventually giving birth to a little boy who was named Dusty, when Ches was 10. Though the affair was never openly acknowledged in the house, his father suspected that the child wasn't his and because of that the boys' home life became much more volatile and Dusty's care was far less tended to than Chester's had been. Despite his young age, Chester stepped in and became a sort of stand-in parent for Dusty, a good-natured little boy who Ches did everything in his power to protect from the ongoing neglect and verbal and physical abuse that was becoming par for the course, on many occasions stepping in to antagonize their parents so the abuse would fall on him instead of his little brother.

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 Dusty 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.

Chester took over Dusty's care, dropping out of school and 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. End of CW.

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. While on a pack hunt, the group found a group of young campers who had been slaughtered in their territory, along with the scent of a previous on-and-off pack member. After some investigation, they discovered that their previous packmate had been coerced into killing the campers by a group of artificially enhanced soldiers called Wraith. The Wraith were trying to pit the various packs in the area against each other by planting one of the bodies at the Jones ranch. After the Jones pack kidnapped a couple of members of Chester's pack and they were rescued, the Wraith realized that they weren't going to be able to start a full-fledged war between the packs. This escalated the situation and soon a couple members of the pack went to the Jones house only to find nearly the entire pack slaughtered.

After realizing what was happening, the pack went to visit the Hill Pack, another group of werewolves in the area who live mostly in wolf form and generally don't start fights with or interact much with other packs, to warn them about the Wraith. After running into a sniper necromancer (Ana) in the woods, they connected with the Hill Pack and they teamed up with them and Ana to fight off some vestiges of the Jones pack, led by a sociopath named Isaac, that had gone into hiding after the slaughter. Shortly thereafter, they went back to their home and had a final showdown with the Wraith. The battle went well, and they completely decimated the Wraith.

A short period of rest followed before the splinter Jones group led by Isaac initiated a sort of guerilla warfare with the pack, resulting in several confrontations. Isaac's group kidnapped some small Jones children that had been saved after the Jones Massacre, and the pack barely managed to recapture them after a protracted fight in a cave system laced with fires burning wolfsbane. After sending the Jones children up to live with the Hill Pack in safety, the warfare continued, and the pack enlisted the help of the town doctor and coroner, a hedge witch named Skye, to place a bug on one of the members of the pack, which was successful. After tracking down Isaac's pack to one of their main haunts - a large abandoned chicken coop in the woods - they discovered several new 'cubs,' freshly-turned unwilling werewolves who couldn't control themselves and were being held hostage in the coop. Regretfully, they had to kill one, but rescued the other, Dorothea, and brought her back to the house. While a group of pack members went to gather some of Dorothea's things, Isaac's crew broke into Chester's house, where he was mostly alone with his enforcer, Jasha, a long-time member of the pack and close friend. After Jasha and Ches fought and took out several members of the group, one of them managed to get the jump on Ches and held a gun to his head until Jasha allowed them to take him. He was kidnapped, and taken to the chicken coop where Dorothea had been held.

This led to a final confrontation with Isaac's crew, during which the pack stormed the coop where Chester was being held and fought bitterly in another protracted battle to get their Alpha back. This was successful, and the pack put down Isaac and his followers. After another period of rest, the pack was investigating a strange screaming sound on their territory during another pack hunt when it was inadvertently revealed that Dorothea was the one who told Isaac's goons where to find the group that had gone into town to get her things, which had allowed Chester to be kidnapped. It is right after the revelation of this betrayal that Ches will arrive in game.

(CRAU) background: n/a

abilities:

Chester is a werewolf who is in complete control of the wolf through being in tune with it. He has accepted the fact that he's a werewolf and embraced as an important and valuable part of his life so thoroughly that his eyes changed from brown to golden and reflective, the single outward sign in his human form that he's a werewolf.

- Ches has mastered complete control over himself while in wolf form, and never loses his hold on his own personality while in wolf form, retaining human logic and reasoning, though he does occasionally choose to give in to the wolf. When he does so, he behaves the way a normal wolf would behave. 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 the ability to speak language out loud.

- While in human form, he has some access to the strengths of the wolf, particularly in situations where he's calm and connected with the wolf -or- moments of utmost panic where he acts on instinct, with the former being a frequent scenario and the latter being almost nonexistent. 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 he would fall just short of having the same levels in human form that he has in wolf form (for example, he will almost but not quite have the wolf's full sense of smell in human form, but it will be significantly 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.

Personality:

+ PROTECTIVE: Ches was born with a natural protective instinct that has both shaped him into who he is and served him well in his life. It is because of this protective nature that he took over the raising of his brother and shielded him from their parents, and it is this protective instinct that allowed him to become the Alpha of his own pack. Ches is strong, and aware of his own strength, and feels a responsibility to protect and shield those who aren't as strong as he is. Whether it's through throwing himself in front of someone else to protect them from physical danger, taking abuse onto himself to shield someone else, or providing guidance to others in order to ensure they don't hurt someone without meaning to by not knowing how to control their wolf. At home, Ches has mostly applied this protective instinct to the members of his pack, but out of that context the protective instinct remains and he will apply it to anyone who he feels might need protection.

+ STEADFAST: From the time he was very young, Ches had a lot to deal with and a lot to take care of - himself, at first, and then the care of his brother and after that of the whole pack. No matter what he has to deal with, Ches carries on and maintains his sense of self and his place in the world. Firm and unwavering, he knows who he is and what he wants out of life and for his family and pack, and doesn't allow anything to shake his devotion to those things. Very aware of his responsibilities and his duty to his pack and to himself, he follows through without question, and always does what he promises to do. Ches believes in gaining respect through being reliable, consistent, and the positive actions that he does for the best of the people around him.

+ CONFIDENT: With his strong sense of self and knowledge of who he is and what his strengths and weaknesses are, Ches has developed a very strong confidence in himself. While he is very confident, it's not the type of confidence that results in a lot of bragging or talking himself up, though he will factually state his strengths in certain areas. Also, while most Alphas in his world tend to be domineering, often dominating their pack through brute force, whereas Chester believes that he has his pack's respect, and rarely feels the need to bark orders or even issue orders at all. This confidence bleeds through to his non-pack interactions as well - he tends to treat people with respect and expect it in return, rarely insulting others but shaking off any insults in return.

- UNSOPHISTICATED: Ches has spent his entire life living in one place, on his farm, and wasn't able to finish high school (though he has his GED). Due to having experienced almost none of the world outside his farm and the small community he grew up in, he's not very sophisticated when it comes to his tastes or breadth of knowledge. With only his limited experience to draw on, he sometimes can have a hard time understanding where other people are coming from or may suffer from culture clashes. While he is respectful and still listens in these situations, they can certainly trip him up.

- CONTAINED: Emotionally, Ches is incredibly contained - from a young age, he's had to hide the more vulnerable parts of himself. At home, if he showed any kind of emotional vulnerability or fear, he ran a risk of hurting the people around him. If the Alpha was afraid or vulnerable, then the members of the pack were likely to be afraid. Because of this, while he doesn't shy away from showing his personality or getting close to people, he does have a certain distance about him. It takes a long time for him to genuinely let people in, and he's very measured about how and when he reveals his vulnerabilities. This distance means that he doesn't have many truly close friends, and has a hard time making them.

- MANIPULATIVE: Ches has a decent understanding of what makes the people around him tick, at least once he's gotten to know them, and has no real issue telling people what they want to hear in order to get what he needs from them. This is a trait that's been somewhat flanderized in him through the job of being the Alpha to his pack - he knows his people, he knows what drives them, what motivates them, what chases their fears away, and he's always ready with the right words to say to motivate them to behave in a way that's useful and helpful for the pack. Along with his contained nature, this tendency to break people down into what their motivations and needs are is something that can put a distance between Chester and other people, and can contribute to his difficulty with making real, deep friendships with those around him, no matter how much he likes them.

Inventory: plaid flannel shirt, white tank top, jeans with holes in the knees and motor oil stains, wool socks, work boots, leather belt, 3x leather bracelets, 2x beaded bracelets, 1x plain leather cuff, 1x leather and beaded necklace, 1x pistol. Canvas backpack containing 1x leather traveller's journal and pen (unused), 1x apple, 1x ziploc bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies, leather wallet (containing ID, debit and credit cards, driver's license, photo of younger brother, $45 Canadian cash), additional ammo for pistol, hoodie.

Which of the following would they most like to have in abundance: limitless good luck, the freedom to act without restraint, the ability to teach and to learn, or for everyone to just relax?

The ability to teach and to learn.

Writing sample(s):

previous game (log)
previous game (log)
previous game (text)

OOC INFORMATION

Player Name: Mica
Are you over 18?: I'm 30+
Contact: PM
Other Characters in Game: n/a

IC INFORMATION

Character Name: Chester "Ches" Fields
Canon: Original (Bite Marks TTRPG Character)
Canon Point: Late Spring 2021, just after having defeated a rival pack of werewolves led by a sociopath
Age: 37
Background: Biosheet - see World and History sections

Arrival Scenario: Thorne!

Suitability: Chester is an active person who's used to being in charge and getting things done. If things are happening, he's going to want to be involved in some way, because he's used to being involved and feels much safer being involved than he would feel letting things happen to him without his own input. He's got a very strongly developed sense of who he is and what he needs from the world, and will want as much input as he can. As much as he's a leader in his own world, he's not the type to be involved in high-level politics or anything, and will tend to gravitate toward quests or missions that involve helping people or mentoring others. He's very motivated by close connections and will get more and more involved as he forms CR and connections with other people.

Powers: Chester is a werewolf who is in complete control of the wolf through being in tune with it. He has accepted the fact that he's a werewolf and embraced as an important and valuable part of his life so thoroughly that his eyes changed from brown to golden and reflective, the single outward sign in his human form that he's a werewolf.

- Ches has mastered complete control over himself while in wolf form, and never loses his hold on his own personality while in wolf form, retaining human logic and reasoning, though he does occasionally choose to give in to the wolf. When he does so, he behaves the way a normal wolf would behave. 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 the ability to speak language out loud.

- While in human form, he has some access to the strengths of the wolf, particularly in situations where he's calm and connected with the wolf -or- moments of utmost panic where he acts on instinct, with the former being a frequent scenario and the latter being almost nonexistent. 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 he would fall just short of having the same levels in human form that he has in wolf form (for example, he will almost but not quite have the wolf's full sense of smell in human form, but it will be significantly 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.

- Ability to turn others - this only works on the night of the full moon, and via a bite. Ches will not turn anyone without their permission (and mod permission) and would be very careful about turning anyone who wanted to be turned. He sees being a werewolf as a gift, but it's not a gift to everyone who's a werewolf and he knows it. He would need to trust the person a lot and understand them a great deal before he even considered this option.

PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.

CW: non-sexual child abuse, attempted murder of a child, patricide and matricide by a teenager
Probably the most important event in Chester's life was the night that his parents found out that his younger brother, Dusty, had been turned into a werewolf. Thinking the 5-year-old boy a danger to the people and animals on the farm, they decided that Dusty had to be put down, and their father prepared to take Dusty out behind the barn to be shot. Chester, who was 15 at the time and who had been protecting and caring for Dusty since his birth, finally snapped after a lifetime of neglect and occasional verbal and physical abuse. Using the two inch blade of a pocket knife, he overkilled his father and then did the same to his mother, stabbing them dozens of times each. End of CW content.

This affected Chester deeply. While he doesn't exactly regret it, he knows that he handled it poorly, to say the least. The situation he and his brother were living in was untenable and sometimes he thinks he probably should have just run away with Dusty. Primarily, the lack of regret, the fact he doesn't feel bad about doing what he did has taught him a lot about himself and how far he'll go to protect the people he cares about, and the period of having to duck Child Welfare afterwards until he was able to legally become Dusty's guardian has taught him a lot about his own ingenuity and problem-solving. Beyond that, he's also learned what behaviour and worldviews he will refuse to tolerate - he won't tolerate hurting innocents, he won't tolerate abuse, he won't tolerate closed-mindedness. This knowledge has informed almost every decision he's made in his life and deeply informs how he leads his pack, what kind of behaviour he models, and what he expects from those around him and in his pack.

Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?

While he wouldn't necessarily call it a moral code, Chester does have a set of values that he lives by, and has integrated into how he leads his pack. Chester values loyalty, acceptance of others, learning from mistakes instead of judging people for them, he believes in defending oneself, in never starting fights but always finishing them. By extension, his pack is one that will take anyone in regardless of what terrible things they've done in their past, unless they're a current and serious danger. He's willing to teach anyone how to control the wolf, regardless of status or history or anything else.

On a larger scale, Ches cares about people in general. The people in his pack tend to be very damaged because almost all of them have had terrible experiences with losing control of the wolf and hurting or killing other people, and Ches does his best to nurture them and help them improve their control, help them get over their trauma and learn to accept themselves as they are. This extends to non-werewolves as well. He's deeply interested in people and what makes them tick, and believes strongly in second chances, in overlooking past mistakes. He believes in helping people to be the best they can be. Unfortunately, he doesn't always extend that philosophy to himself.

What quality or qualities do they admire most?

The qualities that Ches admires most fall on one of two scales - he admires gentle people, people who can maintain their innocence despite terrible situations, caring and compassionate people who love others unconditionally; on the other hand, he also admires strong people who are willing to make difficult decisions, who have a streak of ruthlessness and wildness, who stand up for others and are willing to take the trouble of others onto themselves. He finds both types of people impossibly endearing and has gathered a group of people into his pack who generally have some or all of these traits.

Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?

There is a heart of darkness in Chester, and that's probably the part of himself that he dislikes the most. He dislikes that he's a person who killed his own parents and feels no regret for it, that he can be that kind of callous and ruthless. As much as he admires ruthlessness in others, he hates having to be ruthless, and that's something that he's called upon to do pretty frequently in his position of Alpha of a pack. Maybe that's even why he admires those who are ruthless and can make difficult decisions - because he struggles with making those decisions, deep inside, no matter how contained and calm he seems on the outside.

Another part of himself that he dislikes is his manipulative nature. He knows his people, he knows what drives them, what motivates them, what chases their fears away, and he's always ready with the right words to say to motivate them to behave in a way that's useful and helpful for the pack. This tendency to break people down into what their motivations and needs are is something that can put a distance between Chester and other people, and can contribute to his difficulty with making real, deep friendships with those around him, no matter how much he likes them.

What is their sign, and why?

The Lovers - Ches is defined by his loyalty to his pack and nothing really describes him better than someone who forms strong bonds with others and will do anything to protect his people. Even without his pack, who he would miss deeply and endlessly, he will form bonds with people quickly and go to the ends of the earth to protect and take care of those people, be willing to throw himself into danger for them, and mentor them so they can be their best selves.

SAMPLES & ARRIVAL

Samples: catch-all (apocalypse how), network entry (apocalypse how), getting the shovel talk (apocalypse how)

PLAYER INFO

Name: Yvie. (they/them)
Age: 35+
Contact: Private Message
Current Characters: N/A

CHARACTER INFO

Name: Chester "Ches" Fields
Journal: wolfssegen
Age: 37
Appearance: Ches is average height at 5'11, has a lanky but decently muscled frame, jaw-length sandy blond hair, and golden eyes that reflect/glow like a wolf's. He has a few tattoos and a few scars but nothing super notable.

Canon: Original
Canon Point: Spring of 2021, just after having defeated a rival pack of werewolves led by a sociopath

History: Biosheet

Abilities: Chester is a werewolf who is in complete control of the wolf through being in tune with it. He has accepted the fact that he's a werewolf and embraced as an important and valuable part of his life so thoroughly that his eyes changed from brown to golden and reflective, the single outward sign in his human form that he's a werewolf.

- Ches has mastered complete control over himself while in wolf form, and never loses his hold on his own personality while in wolf form, retaining human logic and reasoning, though he does occasionally choose to give in to the wolf. When he does so, he behaves the way a normal wolf would behave. 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 the ability to speak language out loud.

- While in human form, he has some access to the strengths of the wolf, particularly in situations where he's calm and connected with the wolf -or- moments of utmost panic where he acts on instinct, with the former being a frequent scenario and the latter being almost nonexistent. 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 he would fall just short of having the same levels in human form that he has in wolf form (for example, he will almost but not quite have the wolf's full sense of smell in human form, but it will be significantly 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.

Questionnaire:

1. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed?

From a young age, Ches has been an authority and parental figure, first to his younger brother and then to the pack he's the Alpha of. His first loyalty is always to his brother Dusty, but the pack is a very close second. The pack is his life and he devotes all of his time to caring for them, leading them, teaching them, and protecting them. He knows every person in his pack and what motivates them, what drives them, what they're passionate about, what their needs are, and he does his best to meet those needs, to guide them to their best potential through what drives them.

On a larger scale, Ches cares about people in general. His pack is one that will take in any wolf unless there is a very good reason not to, and he's willing to teach anyone to control the wolf. The people in his pack tend to be very damaged because almost all of them have had terrible experiences with losing control of the wolf and hurting or killing other people, and Ches does his best to nurture them and help them improve their control, help them get over their trauma and learn to accept themselves as they are. This extends to non-werewolves as well. He's deeply interested in people and what makes them tick, and believes strongly in second chances, in overlooking past mistakes. He believes in helping people to be the best they can be. Unfortunately, he doesn't always extend that philosophy to himself.

2. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take: best, worst, most likely?

Best: Ches could be a powerful force of good in his world if he channeled his leadership potential correctly. Ches projects confidence, and he is very confident, but accepting his own insecurities and vulnerabilities would make that confidence 100% true and certainly more sturdy. Coming into himself, he could effect change in the supernatural world where he lives by leading the other werewolf packs and the other groups of supernaturals in the area into a time of peace.

Worst: At his worst, Ches can be manipulative and withdrawn from other people. If he were to develop this way, he could start disconnecting from his pack emotionally, caring less about their development and making them better people and instead focus on learning solely what makes them tick and what they care about so he can use it to make them into the people he wants them to be, rather than who they should be.

Most Likely: If Ches can learn to be vulnerable with other people, he might start to let them in and feel more comfortable in his own skin, and less resentful of his role as a caretaker while growing up and learn to have fun. Once that happens, he'd become a better, more emotionally involved Alpha for his pack, with real emotional connections to other people. This would allow him to be the best Alpha possible, and probably to form stronger alliances with the other wolf packs in the area, so they could band together to protect themselves from outside threats.

3. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why?

Ches is a natural leader and always has been. In groups of people he tends to fall into a leadership role unless he feels like someone else is better suited to it. Even if he's not in the role of a leader, he will participate in the decision-making, adding in his opinions and thought. Ches is a very collaborative person who respects and values the competencies of others and isn't afraid to admit when he doesn't know something, so even in a leadership role he'll be likely to ask for input from everyone in the group.

If he knows and trusts the group, he is more likely to take a strong leadership role, confidently placing people in positions that are well-suited to them and using his people in the best way to serve the group. If it's a group of strangers, he'll take his time and listen more, try to suss out people's strengths and weaknesses so he can place them where they need to be or make suggestions on how they might best help out.

4. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it?

What Ches wants out of relationships and what he needs out of relationships are two different things. Chester has a very complicated relationship with connecting to other people. While he does, deep down, have the desire to have a connected relationship where he shares what he's feeling with a person or people that he can be himself around, he doesn't believe that's something he's able to have. Because of his role as Alpha, he needs to have a certain disconnect, he can't show his vulnerabilities and weaknesses to anyone in the pack because he's worried that it will frighten them, that they'll feel unmoored or unsafe with a 'weak' Alpha. So, what he wants is someone he can confide in without appearing weak or afraid, someone who won't push him to delve too deeply into his issues or baggage, who will leave those be under the surface. He goes about getting this kind of relationship by fostering one-sided relationships with people - delving into their issues and talking through them, discussing their hurts and aspirations, but only revealing a fraction of his own, just enough to make people feel he's being open enough for a relationship.

What he needs is the exact opposite of that - whether as a friend or a lover, he needs someone who will push through the surface and make him feel safe enough to expose his vulnerabilities, talk through his issues, express the feelings and thoughts that he has buried because he deems them unacceptable. Specifically, he needs to air his resentment over losing his childhood to looking after his brother, which is something he has never voiced because of how much he loves Dusty. He needs to talk about the pressure of being an Alpha and allow himself to lean on someone else.

5. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?

Ches grew up in a small rural town and dropped out of school when he was only 15 years old, so his worldview is actually quite unsophisticated, limited to his town and farm and the supernatural and non-supernatural people in the area. He hasn't got a lot of experience with people of other cultures or who have different opinions or traditions than he does in rural Canada. However, while he doesn't have experience with them, he's interested and open to learning about other people due to his interest in people as a whole.

Another note about his worldview has been touched on already, but bears repeating - he believes in rehabilitating people. He knows that people make mistakes, sometimes horrific mistakes, and is willing to forgive them if they put in the effort to make things right and not repeat those mistakes. He genuinely believes that people can make things right and learn from the mistakes they've made. This means that he won't hesitate to befriend even pretty bad people and help them if he can.

6. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions?

While he does always temper it just a little with logic, Ches mostly relies on his instinct and intuition to make decisions. Being so in tune with his inner wolf, he has very strong instincts, and he hones those instincts by learning whatever he can about the people around him. In any given situation with his pack, he has a very strong idea of what his people are thinking or feeling, what they want, what decisions they'd make themselves, and so he can react in their best interests without having to put too much logical thought into it. He's also quite good at reading people, which is only improved by his heightened senses, and so he tends to rely on his intuition about people and situations.

7. What is something others might find intolerable about them?

There are a few intolerable things about Chester - he's impossibly self-assured, manipulative, and emotionally disconnected. Even when he's wrong, Ches is convinced that he's right, and while he does listen to input and take it seriously, he makes the decisions he wants to make when and how he wants to make them, which doesn't always mean he takes advice or individual people's desires into account if he thinks what he's doing is for the best of the pack. While he does usually use it for good, he can be extremely manipulative, using his knowledge of the people around him to say the right things at the right times to convince them that his way is the best way, or to do what he'd like them to do. Whether or not he's using it for good, this is definitely something that can put people off. Finally, he's emotionally disconnected and for people who want to be let in, that can be a big problem. In relationships, Ches can have a bad habit of emotionally taking, of breaking down the other person and asking them to expose themselves without really giving much of himself in return - he'll take care of them, of course, and make sure they feel good, be someone they can rely on, genuinely care about them and love them, but will very rarely open up in return.

Samples: catch-all (apocalypse how), network entry (apocalypse how), getting the shovel talk (apocalypse how)

Why are you interested in this game? I love the idea of a game that encourages character growth, because while Ches is a good person, he has a lot of development and growth to do as a person. I'd love to see him deal with some of his issues and his resistance to being vulnerable and develop attachments to people. I really like the idea of a constantly changing setting too.

On an OOC level, I really like that it's chill and find I have a much easier time being active in games with check-in AC. The cast looks interesting, and I've been wanting to join off and on since it first opened. Now just seems like a good time, and like Ches would be a good fit.