Winona Crowley

Name: Winona Crowley

Sex: Female

Species: Werewolf

Age: 19

The summer when she was 8, Winona went to a camp for a couple of weeks up north in the Upper Peninsula, and at night during her stay she would hear the howling of wolves in the distance. Being 8 and more curious than scared, after a few nights of listening she decided to get up when everyone was asleep and see if she could find the wolves. She took a flashlight and a little digital camera she had and wandered towards the sound. After a while, she came into a clearing of tall lime grass, and the howling ceased. Mesmerized now by the stars, Winona turned off her light and lay back, turning her attention skyward. She was drifting off to sleep after a long while when she heard soft footsteps nearby, and she sat up and held out her camera. Holding it in the direction of the sounds, she snapped a photo and the flash temporarily blinded her. She heard a snarl and suddenly there were teeth clamped around her arm. Screaming, she thrashed and her assailant let go and ran. Before very long the camp counselors had found her and carried her back to camp and she was sent to a local medical center. The bite healed quickly enough; it wasn’t very deep, but it left scars on her forearm. That summer her parents kept an extremely close watch on her and it didn’t take very long before the signs became obvious — that creature had been a werewolf, and now so was Winona. Winona did get a very grainy picture of the wolf, though she never shared it with her parents for fear that she might get in trouble. She printed it later on and kept it so that she may try to make sense of it later.

Winona grew up an only child on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. After the incident when she was 8 and when her parents discovered what she had become, the family took Winona out of public school and moved to remote northern Lower Michigan. Her parents decided to embrace the change and started a homestead and settled a short distance from Traverse City. They grow/raise most of their own food and sell what remains at local farmers markets. While at first they were worried about Winona, she has gained more control with time and they have let her be as she got older and she can roam around as she pleases. She even has permission to drive into town on her own and she usually goes on the weekends. 

Winona is an outgoing and friendly person. Her personality is kind of a mix between Mebh from Wolfwalkers and Marceline from Adventure Time. She gets riled up easily, and she tends to be awkward in social situations because she doesn’t have much experience with people. Her general aesthetic is a Cool Forest Lady. Animals take to her either very well or not at all. She knows a ton about the woods and nature in general.

Winona’s abilities work in four different ways. 

• She always has passive abilities associated with being a werewolf — that is, she has moderately heightened senses and a slightly faster movement speed. These fluctuate with the phase of the moon, as well as her shifting. 
• She can shift with emotions. If she is angry, upset, frightened, excited, or depressed, she tends to shift to a halfway stage, which looks a lot like Hollywood’s representation of werewolves (bipedal, huge, disproportionate). This phase is the best and worst of both worlds, with incredible strength, speed, and viciousness. It is the hardest for her to control but usually the best for getting out of a bad situation.
• Winona can shift at will with concentration. It’s much easier for her near when the moon is full but she can do it at any time with a calm mind. It’s also easiest for her to go “full wolf” rather than trying to stop in the middle at her bipedal wolf stage.
• On nights when the moon is new or small, she doesn’t shift and has more human-like senses. On nights when the moon is more full, she shifts much more easily and even sometimes unintentionally, but she has a better grasp on her abilities and senses than if the moon were not full. It doesn’t matter if there are clouds or if the sky is clear, as long as the moon is at its specific phase she gets the effects.