Trevor Rethstrom

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Trevor Rethstrom

[attr="class","appsubname"]The Most Dangerous is the Most Interesting!

[attr="class","appheading"]GENERAL INFORMATION

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[attr="class","appheading"]PERSONALITY

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Trevor is an incredibly inquisitive and curious soul. He derives the most joy in life from figuring out how things work, utterly fascinated by the the tiniest processes behind both life and automation that often go unseen on the surface. But it's no understatement to say that life interests him far more than machine, and what particularly grabs his interest more than anything else is the topic of metazoology, the study of Fortuna's Mysterious Beasts (or "monsters" as some would call them, though Trevor isn't particularly fond of the term). The Beasts of the Mist are a unique blend of biology and magicology the likes of which little else on the planet can match, and there is nothing that arrests Trevor's attention more than that combination.[break][break]

He doesn't just enjoy learning and studying, but he also enjoys sharing what he finds - he avidly maintains the practice of documenting everything he learns so that it can be shared with others, and especially so that he can do his part to minimize the amount of ignorance in the world. Trevor is an animal-lover, and this certainly extends to Fortuna's more monstrous creatures; while it's true that many such creatures definitely deserve to have a healthy dose of fear in their approach, Trevor believes that as much as something may be feared, it also still deserves to be respected. He absolutely detests the fact that some creatures are regarded as "kill-on-sight" creatures by most of the world, and he hopes that his research can someday help to enlighten people out of such mindsets. He's been known to befriend creatures that anyone else would call extremely deadly, creatures that could kill Trevor in an instant if they had a mind to, simply because he learned the best and most respectful way to approach them. As such, he's not the sort who can be convinced that it's impossible to live in harmony with Fortuna's native beasts.[break][break]

Setting aside his more studious inclinations, Trevor is a very good-natured and exceptionally patient individual. He tends to be friendly with most people that he meets, opting for the idea that it's unfair to judge someone as harmful before you've gotten a chance to know them, or at least to know of them (and even that can be unreliable due to people's predilections for rumors). He's passionate about education, and does his best to try and share it, even when the people he's sharing it with might not be interested in hearing it. He will keep trying until he breaks through with someone, and he will keep a smile on his face all the while.[break][break]

He has a tendency to annoy people, though, due to the fact that he can be quite the chatterbox when allowed, and will talk at length about a subject without pause once someone gets him going on it, his enthusiasm making him blind to how he may be wearing thin on someone's patience. As intelligent as he is, he can also be naive, and somewhat blind to social cues.[break][break]

While he does not possess any magic of his own (he never quite had the talent for it), he finds the subject incredibly fascinating, and he's managed to learn quite a lot about how magic works simply as a natural extension of his learning about Fortuna's magical creatures. After all, understanding magic is the first step to understanding a creature that lives off of it! His cleverness and general know-how have helped him avoid many a dangerous situation.

[attr="class","appheading"]APPEARANCE

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Trevor is a boy whose short stature and youthful face makes him look even younger than he actually is, which says a lot considering he's barely an adult as it is. He has a head of mussy brown hair that is often covered by a large hat he is particularly fond of, a face full of freckles, and a lean build that could be mistaken for scrawny. The latter, of course, is not strictly true; he's by no means strong, and is definitely weak compared to many other boys his age, but he's also in-shape. One would have to be, for all the traveling, climbing, and hiking he does during his field research. And running. Lots of running (usually away from an angry set of fangs). His eyes are a chestnut brown color, and are set behind a pair of large circular spectacles he wears for nearsightedness. He stands at a mere Five feet, four inches.[break]

He has told those close to him that he favors a style of dress that is somewhat "wizardy" in appearance. He thinks that it helps him avoid conflict with some ne'er-do-wells who might second-guess the idea of attacking someone that they think has magic. Therefore, it's basically an elaborate bluff.

[attr="class","appheading"]HISTORY

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Trevor was born in Liesdro, into a household that was neither rich nor poor, situated neatly in a nice, suburban area that was about as far away from the wilds as anywhere in Liesdro could be. While his parents definitely placed a value on education, like many Liesdrons did, it was never something so overbearing or severe. Some could say he was quite lucky, actually; while many of his peers were pressured by their parents to be the best they could be in one field or another, to strive for social standing and advancement, and some even with families that were obsessed with class politics, Trevor's household was always rather lax. His parents seemed quite happy where they were; an average life, sure, sometimes leaving them wanting or lacking once it was time to pay bills, but they had what they needed in each other, and were happy to simply enjoy each day for what it was.
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Trevor grew up taking that value to heart. Between seeing how his parents were able to find their own sense of peace and happiness even among average to below-average circumstances, and seeing how the other kids who lived near him worked themselves to near misery with the pursuit of scholastic perfection, he learned at an early age that life always needed to be enjoyed, first and foremost. But that didn't mean ignoring the education that Liesdro tended to stress so heavily. No, on the contrary, Trevor's opinion was that his neighbors were simply going about it all wrong.
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Education was important, but there were literally hundreds of subjects within the educational sphere that a person could specialize in. It was no surprise that so many of the other kids were miserable when they were forced to pursue things that they didn't have an interest in. But he would see the little sparks, here and there. Brianna loved art, Noah's eyes lit up when he talked about chemistry, Silvio would smile that secret smile of his when asked about Liesdron history. Everyone had a thing, and if they could just be cut free to pursue that and that alone, they'd be a lot happier. And that wasn't all; teachers, Trevor found, were more effective when they were passionate about what they taught, enough so that even students who might have been disinterested could still walk away from class feeling happy that they'd heard what they did on the topic. In Trevor's scholastic experience, many of the teachers he encountered had no love, no passion for what they taught, and so it was no small wonder that their students couldn't find any joy in the subject either. But when his friend Alexandra was asked to explain a math equation? She could suck you right in with her explanation, because she had a passion for it, always saying that nothing made sense the way math did, and that there was almost a sort of beauty in the way the numbers always worked. Trevor did not like math, but he enjoyed it when she would teach him.
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It was one day in his eighth year of school that Trevor shared all these 'findings' with his parents, his thoughts on education and how it could be improved on, and to say that his parents were proud of him would have been an understatement. They thought it incredibly impressive that a thirteen-year-old boy could have such a level of insight on the topic, and that he saw things so clearly. They also agreed wholeheartedly, and confessed that that was precisely the reason they never pressured Trevor the way other parents liked to. What was the point of forcing Trevor to strive for greater things he wasn't interested in? They wanted their son to be happy, and fulfilled. They had no problem with their own life, and didn't see the point in ruining Trevor's for the sake of their own advancement.
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But there was just one small problem: as much as they were all in agreement, the fact remained that Trevor still didn't actually know what his thing was. He didn't know what it was that would make him find that fulfillment they wanted for him. Science was alright, interesting, but he couldn't help but feel like it wasn't the whole picture of what he was looking for. Biology captured his interest heavily, and when he talked about liking to know how things worked, his parents suggested engineering. Certainly a great topic, and he wasn't not interested, but it just wasn't quite doing it for him. His mother suggested magic, then, and so Trevor gave that a shot. It was incredibly engaging, but his own lack of talent for it wasn't helping things, and they still couldn't seem to figure out what exactly would scratch that unknown itch he had.
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Finally, his father suggested camping. It was something they'd never gone to do before, and their lives were more or less embroiled day in and day out with modern comforts and amenities, man-made structures, and artificial concepts. Trevor had never really gotten a taste of nature outside of reading about it in books.
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His father took the two of them to one of Liesdro's mountain ranges, near to the Diryn border, and Trevor found himself captivated with the sight of the trees, the cliffs, the streams, and the sound of wild animals that were so absent in his daily life (the most wild exposure he ever had was Charlie, his pet cat). It definitely stirred something in him, and he could tell they were on to something. But his answer came to him loud and clear as the sun was setting that day, and their camp, as it turned out, just so happened to be located within territory that a local Deusa had claimed.
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Now, Trevor had never seen a Deusa, or any dragon for that matter, but as the only known dragon species that was primarily native to Liedro, he had certainly heard of them. He'd always thought that it'd be the last thing he'd want to encounter, given the stories about them, how they were incredibly territorial and aggressive, as well as exceptionally powerful. And yet despite that fact, and despite the fact that the dragon was indeed not happy to see them, Trevor couldn't help but think that the creature was absolutely breathtaking once he set eyes on it. The way its feathered wings moved atop its powerful shoulders made him want to know what kind of muscle structure was present there. The golden bone spikes that sprouted from its back were so far outside of natural that he had to know more about them. Even as the beast proceeded to spew a beam of light energy at him and his fleeing father, Trevor recognized the presence of magical evocation in the act, and found himself insatiably curious about how that worked for it.
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Trevor and his father made it back home with their lives, and he wasted no time in telling his parents that the encounter had made him realize what it was he wanted: he wanted to see the wild, and the creatures that lived there. He wanted to know more about them. That was his thing, that's what he felt a passion for. His parents... were unsure. It seemed like an incredibly dangerous topic to get mixed up in, but Trevor was insistent. His parents then confessed that even if they were willing to let him pursue that, there were few places in the world that even possessed the knowledge to teach him. Monsters had long been a presence in Fortuna, and for much of its history, people survived by avoiding them, not getting closer. It wasn't until fairly recently in known world history that people had actually started to study some of them, and there were few schools that offered education on the beasts in their curriculum.
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Trevor was steadfast though. He needed to learn about this. And his parents weren't about to deny him, it seemed. They couldn't afford much, though, so if Trevor wanted to study at one of the few places that offered education on the topic, he'd need to help with the costs. He found himself odd jobs and started saving, and his parents scrounged away what they could as well, until finally they'd managed to pull together the tuition to send him to Niseca, to the City of Boiss. It was here that he would find a school that was dedicated to the study of wild beasts, including those that had come about from Miynie's influence. However, Trevor would sadly find a great deal of disappointment in this place. While it certainly offered more education than most other place in the world would supply, there was still much that was unknown, and the city of Boiss itself had something of a non-interference policy on the wild fauna. This limited the amount of study one could actually do on the creatures, and furthermore, the more dangerous creatures that occupied Fortuna were a topic that was mostly ignored. Little research had been done on them, and some of Trevor's instructors even went so far as to say that beasts such as those had simply been mistakes, beautiful creatures of Fayana that were tainted by Miynie or Streike, and thus were not worth knowing. Trevor would be wise to simply avoid such abominations.
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Trevor couldn't bear to keep studying in such a close-minded environment, even knowing the money and effort it had taken to get him there. But he also didn't want to disappoint his parents, who had sacrificed so much to see him get to where he was... And so he decided he would just have to pursue his studies on his own, in secret from his instructors. He would sneak out of his dorm after hours, he would "bother" the docile animals walking through the city limits, and he would venture out into the wilds beyond the borders of Boiss, where the creatures would no longer be docile, and where he would be in very real danger. Danger which, on more than one occasion, nearly cost him his life, but he considered it all worth it with how much more he was actually learning about what made these magnificent creatures tick. In a fit of petulance, he even started sneaking into the record halls of his school and hand-writing additional information into the books on various creatures. This caused something of an uproar among the instructors, who demanded to know who was responsible for what they deemed as desecration of school property, but Trevor had left no evidence tying himself to the act.
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Unfortunately, this changed when he was caught one night on one of his routine sneak-outs. Security had been upped in light of the "vandalism", and just the mere act of catching Trevor sneaking out into the wilds at night was apparently enough for the instructors to decide he was responsible for everything (which, well, he WAS, but still, he couldn't help but feel there was a severe lack of due process in making that decision). He was expelled, on the grounds of major rule violation, tampering with Yaotu's creatures, and vandalizing school property. All he could feel was shame at having to face his parents and tell them how he'd ruined the chance they had all worked to get him.
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All his parents ended up wanting from him, though, was an explanation for why it happened. And when he gave that explanation, he wound up going on several tangents, explaining why he thought the school's way of teaching was wrong, and even going into depth on what he'd managed to learn by studying independently. It would be a lie to say that his folks weren't disappointed that he'd gotten himself kicked out... but they also seemed incredibly impressed with him. His mother told him that it was always the innovators, the ones who weren't afraid to shake things up and upset the establishment, who would bring about positive change. And she believed Trevor could definitely do that. He was fifteen by now, and while that wasn't quite graduation-age for your average human, it was old enough, they decided. Trevor clearly wasn't going to find what he was looking for in established schools, not yet. He was going to have to pursue this on his own. And if he wanted to drop out of school and do that? Well, his parents weren't about to stop him. But they warned him that it was going to be hard, and that he'd have to find a way to start supporting himself. It'd be difficult for them to keep paying for all three of them, especially since Trevor's tuition fees were never refunded.
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He assured his folks that this was no longer their problem. He would find a way to look after himself. And he promised that no matter what, he'd find a way to change the world's outlook on Fortuna's magical beasts, and he'd make everything better for all of them.
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And his first accomplishment? Settling some peace between some local farmers and the Deusa that lived on the mountain. Trevor had been holding down a minimum-wage job in between study sessions in the mountains, trying to start locally and work his way up. And it was during these sessions that he came to encounter the dragon again, this time from the vantage point of safe hiding places. He observed the creature's behavioral habits, observed its capabilities, and watched as it got into occasional scuffles with other wild creatures that crossed into its domain. He came to learn that the creature had a prideful but also noble nature. He observed instances where it would get into a fight with a creature much weaker than itself, but when that creature kept fighting despite being terribly outmatched, the dragon eventually halted before delivering a killing blow, seeming to show admiration for the animal that it had been fighting.
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This inspired an interest in Trevor for how he could try to get along with the creature, seeing that it clearly wasn't all violence and killing. And sure enough, weeks of careful research eventually found Trevor approaching the proud dragon one day, calmly and slowly, showing deference, and eventually being allowed to even lay a hand on it before it elected to fly off. And as though by fate, it wasn't long afterward that he heard of a group of local farmers that had been having difficulty with the dragon. It had been raiding their land in recent weeks, stealing livestock and wounding those that tried to stop it. Trevor stepped forward, offering to try and resolve the matter for them. Though the farmers looked at this offer with incredulity, they were at their wits end, and so agreed that they would compensate him if he could somehow manage it. And sure enough, Trevor's preexisting established respect with the Deusa allowed him to do just as he promised. He was there when the dragon next descended onto the farmlands, and to its confusion, he kept putting himself in the way of the sheep it was trying to abduct. He narrowly avoided spews of flame and bolts of light when it became aggravated, but would not run away, would not move from between the Deusa and the sheep. And eventually, once Trevor was beaten up, scorched, cut up, and barely standing but still holding his ground before the great beast, the Dragon finally stopped. It gave a snort of what appeared to be acknowledgement, and Trevor would swear to this day it smirked at him. And then it left. It didn't bother the farmers anymore after that, and Trevor was celebrated for what he'd managed (and paid as handsomely as the farmers could afford to).
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That was the springboard. From that moment onward, Trevor started seeking out others that might have been having issues with Mysterious Wildlife, helping them resolve their issues with his own know-how, and teaching them what they needed to do to avoid further problems. He was earning quite a bit of money doing this, and was learning about what he loved all the while. And so, eventually, he was finally able to leave home again. His town had been left well-educated on how to handle their local problems, and Trevor had learned a great deal about everything he could that lived in his area, so it was time to start branching out. To return to Niseca, where more wildlife waited for him than he could possibly dream to find in Liesdro. To journey to Fiamont, where some of the most dangerous creatures were known to reside.
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Of course, new dangers meant that Trevor couldn't just rely on his smarts anymore, not when creatures as dangerous as the Deusa or moreso were all over the place outside Liesdro. He started to hire bodyguards who would look after him while he did his research, paying them with the funding he received from local scholars for information, or local citizens who were having monster trouble. Still, he could never quite find the best fit for the job. Many of his hires were of the shoot-first-questions-later disposition, more likely to kill the creatures he was trying to study than simply protect him from them, which sort of defeated the point. He couldn't abide keeping people like that around, as killing for self-defense should have always been the last resort, not the first.
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One day, while he was looking for his next bodyguard for a dangerous research endeavor, he heard tell of a woman who was in town that had a pet dragon. And apparently, the story was that she had managed to tame this dragon all by herself, and had even helped it recover from injury. The dragon had been wild previously, with no apparent prior history of domestication, making it a particularly impressive feat that was earning this Dragon Tamer a reputation. Trevor found himself with an inkling that someone like that, who would see a wounded dragon as a potential companion rather than a threat to be eliminated, might have been exactly the kind of person he was looking for.
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Her name was Demetra, and he thankfully was able to find her before she left town. He approached and told her plainly what he was looking for, and asked if she was interested in the job he offered. Demetra accepted, apparently lacking any reason not to, but insisted that it would only be for a set period of time, until she found something else. But once that time period came to an end, it seemed she still didn't have any other job offers, and so Trevor offered to pay her again, to renew her contract. She seemed to find that agreeable, and accepted.
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And accepted again, and again, and again. Each month, when it came time for their contract to end, Trevor would offer to renew it, and Dee would accept the offer. Trevor wasn't blind, though; he could tell as well as she that they had come to genuinely like each other, and also that she was coming to enjoy the work as much as Trevor did. Paying Demetra had started to simply become a formality. Something told Trevor that if a month ever came where they hadn't managed to earn anything, and he couldn't afford to pay her... she'd probably stick around anyway, making up some excuse until they could find some money.
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Trevor travels with Demetra now, always looking to further his studies and expand the world's knowledge on Fortuna's native beasts, helping to resolve monster-related issues, and generally? Hoping to make the world a better place for man and beast alike.

[attr="class","appheading"]ABILITIES

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[attr="class","appability"]➢ Vast Knowledge[break]
Trevor has amassed a great collection of knowledge on Fortuna's Mysterios Beasts, as well as several topics related to them, such as Magical Theory for a number of different classes of magic, biology, and behavioral psychology. He has also delved a good deal into knowledge on engineering, architecture, chemistry... basically any subject that revolves around how things work. Though his actual talent or ability in many of these fields varies considerably (and is outright terrible or nonexistent in some cases), he at least has the know-how, and could recite textbook tutorials on how to do various things such as cast a spell or build a watch, even if he couldn't actually do so himself. He is also a very quick thinker and good at improvisation, and has used his wits to survive more than a few dangerous situations.
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[attr="class","appability"]➢ Stock of Magical Trinkets[break]
While Trevor may not be a spellcaster by any means, his understanding of various magical theories and the workings of spellcraft have given him a good sense of how to use various charms and potions. When he has the spare money, he likes to make the occasional purchase of a useful potion, or a scroll with a spell sealed in it, and is prepared to use these objects in emergency situations that call for them. Most of them are focused on self-defense: scrolls which can summon an abjuror's shield around himself, potions to make a disorienting smokescreen, and things such as those. He also has some fairly potent medicines on him.
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[attr="class","appheading"]Fortuna-RPG