| Dwayne was born to a well-to-do family in Chicago. He was quick-witted, and silver tongued to match the silver spoon pretty much from birth. He used those skills combined with his natural grace to climb the social ladder in school. His grades were always near, but not at, the top of his class.
In his high school and later college, Dwayne turned his natural talents into a focus on athletics. A team captain, an MVP for the team, and a high school and a college chanpionship were all connected to his name. However, beneath all this silver and gold was a dark edge.
Long, lean, and athletic, Dwayne could pickpocket or perform other sleights of hand, even pick locks with ease. This all changed one night, when he opened the locked door to a rich man's home, and instead ended up in a hedge maze. What he didn't realize is that it was a maze in the Hedge itself. After days of wandering the maze, he was weak, tired, and hungry. He wasn't used to any of those feelings.
Finally, he fell into a stream or creak that he was trying to cross. When he woke up, he was restrained, and the Brackish King stood above him. The King needed more materials for his crafting, and for that, he needed someone able to go out and explore for him. Retrieve for him. The King waved his hand, and Dwayne was asleep once more. Next time he awoke, he was now standing up, against a tree that moaned behind him. Chains made of the saddest smile that he had ever seen, held him standing... was that him? His hands had fur. His body had fur... almost the color of darkness itself. In fact, in the night, he was darker than dark. After being fit with a silver thread, the newly made Beast rarely got to leave the King's side for a time.
Over the next twenty years, the permission was given, to leave, with the silver thead tied tight. The Brackish King often needed materials from the hedge, or other Arcadians. Sometimes, Dwayne would be sent to the human world, to find a way to the realm of the Dead. It became his specialty to find ancient lost items for his master, For the King's library, he needed papers from the Library of Alexandria, so he could create a new librarian, and Dwayne found them and returned. The next time out, he went to the spirit realm. He still accomplished his goal of acquiring a spirit by oath, but he didn't quite have the same natural affinity there. He'd still go, and usually succeed. When he didn't succeed, he'd spend days, weeks, months, and the last time, years, imprisoned. Not allowed to die, but not allowed to go free. Snake-shaped beasts would bite him with venom, while water and mud elementals would nearly drown him. Finally, the King arrived to send him on his next assignment. Barely conscious, starved, and in pain, Dwayne still went to his next job.
"I want you to retrieve the shipwheel of Juan Ponce de Leon for my new boat I'm making."
So, back to the Underworld went Dwayne. In the process of searching for the artifact from the depths of the Underworld, Dwayne came upon a ghost of a soldier (he thought!). The soldier had fought and died for the country during the revolution. His influences were based on Freedom and War... and he saw the silver thread, the chains on Dwayne. He offered a deal with the Changeling. Dwayne offered his knowledge of military history, of cyber warfare, and other academic knowledge of war and history, to the spirit. So he could be modernized. The shade agreed, and used his influence to remove the chain and free Dwayne. The wyrd took Dwayne's knowledge he had gained in school and college, and gave it to the ghost. Then Dwayne was free and went back to the mortal world!
He spent the next three years moving from town to town, building up a new name. Roger Gimlin. By the time he reached Chicago, he discovered that there had been a fetch left in his place. His parents never missed him, his college sweetheart was now married to the replacement. No children brightened the home, but the devotion in her eyes for the replacement caused Dwayne to leave and not turn back. He couldn't hurt her like that.
Rog became a specialist in corporate espionage. At the same time, he joined the Winter Court, but again, he moved from town to town working for the mortal corporations. He'd be hired as a janitor, or as a paralegal, or as various other lower echelon jobs. Then he'd work his way up to enough trust to steal the secrets that he needed to get. Likewise, he would spy and steal information for Winter, and occasionally for Autumn, as he frequently held mystical information that would be of interest for that court. After a while, he started to become disenfranchised with the negative connotations and capitalistic nature of his job. Instead, he started turning his focus on using his skills to do something more productive and creative, and became a stage magician.
After he arrived in Philly, to focus on himself and his growth as a person and a magician and a member of the Lead Arrow, he met a young woman that became an assistant to the magician growing in notice nad fame. She was the first person that Dwayne told everything that happened to him. Now he's found a new home, an new friend, and a calling.
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