Dallas Banks

Dallas would love to tell everyone about the day he was born – the type of weather, if it had been a harried day, how it felt to be in his mother's arms (never mind the fact he certainly wouldn't know that). He'd love to, but the fact of the matter is that apparently he was found in an abandoned car on April 20 with no parents to speak off. The cops that had found him said that he was lucky that it wasn't a really bad weather day, small favors, right? But this was all told to Dallas much later in his life. His first real memories were of living in foster care. It wasn't bad; the families that Dallas lived with were nice folks and the major reason they never looked to adopt him were either because they weren't really looking to adopt so much as help kids or they were uncertain about if they were ready to take on a child with Dallas' challenges, as they had found out early on that Dallas had been infected at some point with a werehyena strand of therianthropy. It was all put really nicely and when he grew older, Dallas appreciated that they were honest with a kid like him, but of course when he was a kid, he couldn't help wondering what made him so wrong, what made him different, why did no one want him. In an effort to make himself feel better, he started trying to help other kids get adopted; he learned about them and would talk to perspective parents as best he could. He was a good little upseller for a lot of those kids, if he said so himself. But then one day, two new parents came in that were a bit different. They were two moms, he hadn't even realized that was a thing, and he had never seen two moms come in with kids all ready. He remembers being afraid at that time, wondering if maybe they were dropping there kids off – one looked to be about Dallas' age, which seemed wrong, but then there was also a real little kid, which seemed even worse. It especially got worse when the little kid started crying, so all Dallas could do was sit and play with him and cheer him up...but then the moms seemed all happy and proud. And that was Dallas' introduction to his new family. The moms – Dakota and Paris Banks – had been thinking about fostering right up until they met Dallas and saw how he took to their youngest child, Madison. With their other son being named Austin, they made the joke that clearly he was meant to be a part of him. That day, Dallas officially became Dallas Banks.

Now Dallas wouldn't say his life was blessed. It was better and he had a permanent family; his little brother adored him and if his other brother (who was the exact same age as him) was annoying, then he supposed it was something every kid with annoying brothers had to go through. Dallas went about his life pretty normally; he wasn't the best student, but he wasn't the worst. He excelled more at communication and interacting with peers, something his moms tried to encourage in him. But as Dallas grew older, he began to realize life was unfair. People looked at him weirdly for having a white little brother. People got weird when he mentioned he was adopted. People laughed at him because of his super thick accent. He was also made aware of just how unfair the world was to people who couldn't help their blood work. When he first started looking for jobs, he made the mistake of marking down things like his blood work – they would need to know, right? He needed to make them aware that, one day, he would change shape and he would need the full moon and the day after off. But most places rejected him for that, saying that it was a "high stress" environment and that they couldn't risk their guests/customers being put at risk. Full of anger, he went and tried to find work anywhere. Eventually he wound up volunteering at Big Brothers as he went into college. Things were fine right up the day he found out one of his close friends was getting abused. Dallas knew those sorts of things happened, as much as he hated it, but it had never really happened that close to him. He wound up getting so angry, he shapeshifted for the first time, locking him into what was going to be a new life for him. Suddenly even more jobs dried up for him; the jobs had been nice to him before, but now they were downright cold. They wouldn't have an animal in their midst, sorry. Dallas felt righteous in his anger...and he channeled that into his school work. He switched degrees, moving to things like law and political science and sociology. Never one to go half on anything, Dallas double majored and went out into the work world.

Once out in said work world, Dallas didn't necessarily bully his way into things, but he started laying down the laws. He started pointing out hypocrisies and injustices. He started telling people the hard truths: the world was unfair to shape changers. They were told that they couldn't go into high stress jobs...but then, when there were some "strong" ones "allowed" in, they were often given protective gear or weapons that weren't up to standard because they "healed faster". If a wereanimal turned around to get a job in retail, they were turned away, saying that there was too much of a risk. Dallas was going to make the world see that they weren't right for doing this shit. Unfortunately, activism isn't a very easy paying job, so Dallas went to work elsewhere officially. He eventually found himself at a high school working at a social worker where he established himself as something of a fan favorite among the student body.

The rest of Dallas' story is explored in the To the Moon, Through the Stars story To You the Stars.

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