Douglas Stephens

[Douglas Stephens]

NAME: Douglas Leonard Stephens
NICKNAME: Doug
AGE: 16
GENDER: Male
ORIENTATION: Who knows?
POSITION: BA Student
FACE CLAIM: Ansel Elgort

POWER:
Shapeshifting
Doug is able to shapeshift into dogs. This includes domesticated dogs and species of wolves. Transforming is painful; think bones breaking and things growing out of your skin, taking agonizingly long minutes. It not only changes Doug’s shape, but also his genetic makeup and cellular structure. This transformation is under Doug’s voluntary control but takes a lot of energy and concentration. Occasionally he has even more trouble shifting back into human form, as he has to deal with the mind of the dog warring in his body. Once he’s in animal form, it takes a lot of concentration to get out of it, especially if the dog brain is distracted. His gender will remain unchanged when he shifts.

Limitations
.he has to have interacted with the animal he wants to transform into (so he can’t transform into a dog breed he hasn’t met)
.the transformation can take anywhere from a few minutes to nearly an hour depending on his strength level and concentration at the time
.the longer he stays in the dog’s body, the harder it is to maintain a human perspective
.changing takes a lot of energy, so if he has been tired or stressed, transforming is often impossible

Side-Effects
.as said before, the transformation is painful; even after it is completed, his muscles and often stiff and his bones sore
.he has to fight to retain a human’s mind while in the dog’s body which often leads to doglike behaviors; let’s just say it usually isn’t human Doug that wins out
.even while in his human body, he sometimes gets canine urges; for example, he really likes rare rare rare steak
.he is prone to headaches and trouble with sleeping, especially if he has transformed recently; long transformations (like if he’s been a dog for an extended period) intensify these symptoms once he’s transformed back
.prone to nausea and fatigue, especially after a long time in dog form


APPEARANCE SECTION: Doug is a tall guy, just about 6'3", but still pretty skinny, which sort of comes with the territory of being stuck in a wheelchair a lot of the time. Not a lot of time to beef up at the gym that way. His hair is dark brown and he keeps it style in a tousled sort of way most of the time. Usually by running his hands through it after he's just woken up. His skin is pretty pale with some moles and freckles on his face and down his neck. His eyes are brown as well, with dark eyebrows. His lips are full and his nose is sort of wide, but all and all, he thinks he's pretty cute. 

He doesn't think much about his appearance. He likes to wear t-shirts because they're easy to clean and easy to put on. He likes jeans and athletic pants, even though he doesn't do anything really athletic. They're still comfortable. He prefers sweaters to sweatshirts in most instances, even though they aren't really that manly. They're warmer and easier to get on, so whatever. He's mostly about comfort and ease because there are somedays where getting dressed in the biggest pain in the ass he's ever encountered. 

MUST HAVE APPAREL: Sweaters. Doug has a lot of sweaters, which is funny, because he comes from Maine, and coastal Maine, where things are really freaking cold. But he has an affection for sweaters that doesn't really make sense. 

PERSONALITY SECTION: Doug is an interesting guy. He isn't exactly pessimistic, but he certainly isn't optimistic. He has a dry, quiet, and often sarcastic sense of humor that comes off as caustic apathy or sometimes downright hostility. But he doesn't mean it that way. His intention is never to hurt someone's feelings, but sometimes it's a hazard of his personality. He has a morbid sense of humor and a teasing way of interacting with people. He likes to push people's buttons, but only in the most well-intentioned way possible. 

He's your average guy, too. He likes watching baseball on TV and playing fantasy football and talking about cars. He does play piano, but he's fallen out of the habit lately at Bellefonte. He has a great ear for music, though, and he adores it. Sometimes, when he thinks about his melancholy future in a wheelchair, he thinks he'd like to be a radio DJ. He has the humor for it, he thinks, and he likes his voice. Not only is it pleasant to listen to, but he has nearly perfect pitch. He's an a capella dream, but he doesn't broadcast it. Singing is kind of girly. 

Doug likes people. Don't get him wrong. He just gets annoyed when people treat him as a tragedy or a sideshow act or a learning moment. He just wants to be a guy who has friends. Is that really that hard to comprehend? But as long as someone treats him with the same respect and attitude they treat other people, he's alright with that. He's flirty in a teasing way with girls, mostly because he knows he's not an option. Girls don't really date guys with debilitating diseases. 

All in all, he's a quirky guy with cliched interests and mild depressive episodes. Get in line, ladies and gentlemen.

EXTRA QUIRK: Doug loves lollipops. He usually has one stuck in his mouth at any point in the day. Somehow, he still manages to have good teeth. Yay for having a mom that's a dentist?


FATHER: Xander Stephens
MOTHER: Sherry Adams
SIBLINGS: N/A
PET: An Irish Setter named Berry
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
WORTHY MENTIONS: N/A


CHILDHOOD: Doug was born to two loving and caring parents on July 17th in a small island community in northern Maine. Sherry and Xander had gotten married recently, as soon as they realized Sherry was pregnant with Doug. It was a rushed wedding, but they were happy. It was picture perfect. They'd met a few years before. Xander had grown up on the island and worked as a lobsterman while Sherry worked as a dentist and thought she could find a market on the secluded island. They fell madly in love and while Doug and their marriage were both somewhat accidental, they had a few years of honeymoon bliss.

Doug was a beautiful baby and very quiet and mild-mannered. He grew up in the large house his mother and father had purchased on the island, right near the ocean. The winters were cold and hard, considering they got many supplies by ferry from the mainland, but it was a wonderful place to grow. He fell in love with the ocean and the seals right off the shore and digging in tidal pools. He spent some days at the island daycare as a young boy and some days at his mother's small dental practice. As he grew, he went to the small grammar school on the island. It was just big enough to merit one. There were maybe five kids in each grade, with first and second and third and fourth grades combined. 

Needless to say, the young boys on the island formed quick and intense friendships, since there was no other option. The six or so kids Doug's age were a rowdy group, causing mischief in the town center and making clubhouses in the woods. They played quick games of soccer with no real goals or teams or anything. It was a pretty wholesome childhood. 

However, when Doug turned eight, things took a sudden turn. It started with some blurred vision that he kept complaining about. Expensive visits to the doctors on the mainland ruled out many possible causes. Then more symptoms developed. Tiredness, dizziness, numbness in his feet. A diagnosis was eventually given. Doug had MS.

He was immediately started on different treatments. His symptoms came and went. He’d have a few bad weeks and then a few good weeks. He got onto medication that helped him have more good weeks than bad weeks. He went to physio on the mainland, which helped him increase his mobility. But he was still tired a lot and still frustrated that he couldn’t run around like he used to. The close friends he made stopped hanging around him because the fun they used to have on the island was often not possible for Doug.

This posed a lot of problems for the life his parents were living. Living on an island meant that all of Doug's doctor visits (because while the local pediatrician was good, he wasn't good enough) took place on the mainland. That meant long trips on the ferry every time there was a problem. Eventually his parents had to face the reality that living on the island was no longer an option. Doug's mother pleaded his case with his father, but Xander was unwilling to leave the island he'd always called home.

Doug's parents broke up when he was nine. His mother gained custody of him in her house on the mainland while he visited his father on weekends. Doug started a new school with better access and support and more frequent healthcare. Sherry got another job working for an established practice on the Maine coast. 

ADOLESCENCE: When Doug entered middle school, he was still living full time with his mother. But he missed the island he grew up on, his old friends, and his father. He missed the sort of community and honest living the island fostered. The coastal town he called home now was busier and he had more trouble making friends in the bigger school. His mother worked more hours to pay for their home and was often stressed and worrisome about Doug's illness. Weekend visits to his laid-back father on the island were what he looked forward too. His father even adopted a dog, a little Irish Setter puppy, that Doug immediately bonded with. He spent a lot of his time playing with him on the island or going out with his father on the fishing boat when he was feeling up to it.

Due to a mixture of fatigue, spasticity, numbness, and weakness on bad days, Doug got a wheelchair. He didn’t always need to use it. Somedays he could get away with walking and be absolutely fine. But other days weren’t so fine. And even short distances could make him extremely worn down. The wheelchair made it harder to navigate, especially on the island where there wasn't a lot of wheelchair access. On the mainland, he was even more isolated from his age group at school. He started spending more time on the island when he could get away with it because it was quieter and he didn't have to have his mother staring at him sadly. He liked his father's dog and he liked his father's genial and relaxed attitude. His mother started being more possessive, which just drove him further away.

He made some friends in middle school, but not many. It was hard. A lot of people saw him as that kid in the wheelchair and not as anything else. He got a lot of unwanted questions from people who couldn’t keep their mouths shut. He was pretty depressed by the time his power developed.

Doug was at his father's house while his father was out fishing. It wasn't a good day for him. He was in the wheelchair in the living room, mustering up the energy to throw the ball for Berry. He often wondered what it would be like to be Berry. Such a healthy dog who had so much energy, jumping around, running everywhere. Suddenly, Doug felt a splitting pain, like his skin was snapping open and his bones were breaking. He screamed, but there wasn't anyone close enough to hear him. When it ended, he slipped off of his wheelchair and onto the ground to find that he had four legs instead of two. 

And he didn't feel the fatigue and pain and numbness that he had before. He felt like Berry. Alive and excited and curious. 

Well, when Xander came home to two Irish Setters instead of two, he was concerned. And when Doug managed to transform back, he was even more concerned. It only took about four days for officials from Bellefonte to show up and explain what was going on. His parents discussed whether it would be better to send him to Canada, but eventually they decided upon Montana. 

Doug was sent to the academy when he was thirteen. Luckily, he found he could get around pretty well in his wheelchair on bad days. There were good accommodations for him and good enough medical care in town that his mother felt comfortable. But Doug still wasn't happy with the situation. He couldn't go to the island anymore and he had to try and make friends all over again when he'd already been struggling. As soon as he learned basic control over his shapeshifting, he spent a lot of time as a dog. Maybe too much time. But if you could escape your illness by entering a new body where none of it mattered, wouldn't you?

His last three years here have been more of the same. He goes to classes, has good days and bad days, and keeps to himself. He's hovering in that between stage, mildly depressed but still with some hope left. Hope that mostly means "if it gets too bad, I can just be a dog for a while." Escapism, maybe, but it works well. 

ADULTHOOD: N/A


SAMPLE: See: Steinbeck, Dorcas, PJ, Molly, or Porter. JFC.

USERNAME: Femur

AGE GROUP: 18 dude.

EXPERIENCE: A few years

WHERE DID YOU FIND US? RPG-D

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