Dakota

❥ PERSONALITY

When you first meet Dakota, you would have never guessed he was a criminal of any kind. He's very happy-go-luck and easily exciteable. He laughs at newarly anything, even if it might not have actually been meant to be funny. He's also a little airheaded and can be slow to grasp some things making him pretty clueless and oblivious most of the time. Despite his cheery softness though, he is still not a force to be messed with. He knows how to work with knives and even is decently skilled in just hand-to-hand combat so if you mess with his 'pack', he'll surely make you wish you hadn't.

He can be really sensitive too, and often ends up being the one the rest of the boys like to tease and pick on the most since it's easy to get a reaction out of him. However they make sure not to take things too far since Dakota can get panicked real easily and suffers from some PTSD from past events in his life. This also causes him to have a hard time trusting a lot of people and becomes really clingy to those he can. At the same time though his shallowness still affects his judgement quite a bit on who he can and can't trust so it would still be easy for someone to trick him into thinking they're trust worthy by being nice only to want to bring him harm.

❥ TASTES

❥ CHILDHOOD

Dakota's life started out very similarly to Nettle's, he was abandoned by his birth parents and stumbled upon by someone else who would take him in as their own. The difference though being Dakota ended up straight into the arms of a wizard instead of going through any kind of foster home or adoption center like his future friend had. The wizard took great care of him and loved him dearly. His wife on the other hand wasn't very pleased with the werewolf her husband had brought into the house without her permission. The wizard tried to reason with her saying that he couldn't just leave Dakota out there on his own and didn't trust any of the organizations in the area to give him a good home, so eventually his wife gave in and let him stay. This didn't mean she changed her feelings towards the boy though or treated him all that nicely. In fact when the wizard wasn't around, or even when he was, Dakota spent most of his time trying to hide from her to avoid the cruel comments and overall hostile attitude she'd have towards him.

This harshness was somewhat bearable for a while though since Dakota was fortunate enough to have a group of friends to escape to every day and be distracted by. It started when he was about four years old, another witch in the area had adopted a young Dainty who was also going to lend her a hand as an apprentice. The wizard that raised Dakota and the witch who had taken in the Dainty were close friends and often did business and conversed together as most of the magic users in the area did. So Dakota had lots of opportunities to come into contact with the young Daint. At first however, he was really shy and only observed her from afar or watched her play with the other boys in the neighborhood. She always seemed to catch him staring but it wasn't until one day when they were all playing a game that she had to sit out for did she actually approach him. All it really took was that initial step and shortly after Dakota was able to warm up to the Dainty, who's name was Nettle, and the rest of the boys very quickly and fit in with all of them just fine. The others being close to Nettle too also helped, since if she trusted him they all did and welcomed him too.

For a while things continued on pretty normally for Dakota, having friends kept him the happy and smiley kid that he was. However his mother's feelings towards the werewolf still had not shifted even a little. In fact the older he got the more annoyed she became with his presence until she realized if she really wanted to get him out of her hair she better act now before it would be too difficult to 'lose' him and make it seem like an accident. So one day about the time he was 10, his mother took him out for lunch and to run some errands a few cities over, just him and her.

They went through the day normally, fufilling everything she had said they would be doing that day with no ounce of suspicion that Dakota's mother was up to something sinister. It carried on that way into the evening until his mom announced they should start making their way back so they'd be able to catch the train in time to make it home before dark, and it was there that she was secretly plotting to carry out her plan.

As expected, the station at that time of day was packed with people commuting from work or just simply traveling. It was the kind of busyness that if you didn't stick close to those you were traveling with it would be easy to get separated, which was exactly what Dakota's mom was counting on. Usually she might have held Dakota's arm or at least check on him frequently to make sure he was still there. But this time she just powered through the crowd, ever so slightly hurrying more than usual, and sure enough within only a few moments the two became separated. Dakota tried calling out to her but she didn't hear him, or simply just ignored him to give off the impression that she didn't notice. He tried pushing his way to her but with how tall many of the people surrounding him were, it wasn't long until he realized he lost her for good.

The amount of people at the station freaked the small boy out, so once he was certain his mother was gone he left the station and began to search out help in the slightly less crowded city. Dakota was hoping to find a police station since that seemed like the most logical place to go to when lost, but trying to get there he realized he was a lot more lost than he originally thought. With night creeping up, danger wasn't too far behind either.

He continued to search until the street lights came on and by then he was starting to panic, not knowing what he was going to do for the night if he couldn't get to the station. Just as he was trying to think of what to do next he was approached by a shady looking group of men who started questioning the boy. Being too naive to think they'd mean any harm he told the men he was lost and trying to find his way to the police station so he could get back home. The men told Dakota they'd help him get to the station and he just had to follow them, so he agreed. The men decievingly did not take him to the police, and instead took him just outside of where there would be many people nearby and assualted the boy. They abandoned him and left immediately after to get away and avoid being caught, leaving Dakota lost again and even more terrified than before. The next morning a woman on her way to work found Dakota sittin up against a shop and approached him out of concern. She wasn't able to get him to speak much but through lots of questions and head shakes she finally got out of him he was lost and became the one to actually get him to the police station.

From there the police got him safely home to his father who was worried sick, and his mother who was less than happy to see him again but wasn't going to give herself away by making it obvious. Dakota never brought up the assault once he returned. It shook him too much to be able to say anything about it, but his overall attitude and mood was drastically different. His father had noticed but assumed just the shock of getting lost two cities away was enough to spark a change in the boy so it didn't cross his mind to questionany further.

Dakota smiled a lot less, in fact he hardly smiled at all. He hardly spoke, his appetite decreased, he slept less, and Nettle and the boys saw less and less of the energetic werewolf as well. He became more bitter, but all that hatred that started to pile was only directed towards his mom. It took him a while to realize it but after thinking about that day over and over again he finally came to the realization that being separated from her couldn't have been an accident. With how apparent she always made it that she didn't like him, he was certain it had to have been on purpose. He blamed her for what happened later on that night too since if he hadn't gotten lost, that wouldn't have occured either. Dakota attempted to confront her about leaving him at the station but in return she only threatened him that she'd do a lot worse if he ever tried telling his father. Terrified of what worse could be he agreed and bit his tongue to avoid that risk.

❥ ADOLESCENCE

A couple of years passed and still not much changed from that day. If anything he continued to grow worse with his mom constantly being sure to reming him of her threat. He still hung around the others but he just sat in silence instead of participating. Eventually Nettle was able to break through to him and became the only person he was able to come clean and tell the whole incident of that day to, He had her promise to keep it a secret, but even then it couldn't prevent him from from beggining to act up. He didn't know what to do with all the anger and ill-feelings he had so it resulted in him learning to use knives to cope with it. At first the intention was self defense for if anything like that were to happen again. His hatred towards his mom fueled his interest too but he still had it in him enough to keep that side of the motive contained. He soon began stealing too since in an odd way the exciting rush of successfully getting away with it made him feel better , even if only for short periods at a time.

After even more time had passed, word did finally get out that Dakota's mom was intentially responsible for what happened that night and what happened even later was revealed as well. Rightfully outraged the wizard kicked his wife out of the house and made sure she knew he wanted no word or sight of her ever again for allowing her hatred to consume her enough to do something that cruel to a young boy with no other home than with them. The wizard since clung tightly and protectively to Dakota and felt extreme guilt and apologeticness for not having known or done anything earlier. From then on he continued to do everything he could to assure Dakota was safe and felt secure at home for as long as Dakota was in his care.

With his 'mom' gone, and the abundance of love and support from not only the wizard but Nettle as well, Dakota's smile did eventually return to his face. It still took a lot of work and healing, but fortunately they didn't lose that bright cheerful wolf forever.

➳ STATISTICS

➳ SKILLS

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❥ TRIVIAS & FACTS

❥ NETTLE

Childhood Friend - TBA