History [General]

Ron exists in a world that is generally equivalent to our world in the 1980s. The main difference is that most cryptids and creatures from modern folklore are real - think Bigfoot, the Mothman, vampires and wendigos. They hide easily and are rarely seen, but a few humans have had encounters they can't explain and lived to tell the tale. Or at least, keep it buried in their mind until they die.

Ron was born as Rhonda Marie Howard, in 1950. She grew up in Vermont, raised by loving parents along with her brother Billy who was five years younger. The family was middle-class, close with their neighbors and generally living the dream.

When Ron was 12 years old, her parents went for a hike and her father returned alone late at night. He spent several hours on the phone with rescue services while they searched for her mother, and finally gave up and went to bed. Around midnight, Ron got up for a glass of water and saw her parents outside. She watched her father shoot her mother, and hide the body. Ron went back upstairs, and pretended she hadn't seen.

After that, her father started teaching Ron how to hunt. While he never named exactly what they were hunting, she knew they could take the form of humans. She put together on her own that this had been the thing her father had shot that night... or at least, she hoped so. For years she still watched him warily, wondering if this was really what he had killed that night, and why he thought she needed to have a gun. She helped to raise her brother and kept him sheltered, vowing to her father not to tell him about exactly what was out in the woods.

As she got older, Ron found it harder and harder to get along with her father. She spent less and less time at home, instead getting a job as a mechanic and an old car to travel around the state. The car was eventually swapped out for a motorcycle, which became a cherished possession - the bike meant freedom, it meant not having to face her family when she didn't want to.

When she turned 21, she decided she was done living with her father. She bought an RV, and started traveling around the country. She barely kept up with her family aside from occasional calls, but it always felt better to avoid the past. She had her own little house, that she could pick up and take with her whenever things started to feel too sedentary. Every so often, it would be a supernatural encounter that caused her to leave - she wasn't a hero, and didn't want to risk her neck for the sake of anyone else. Most of the time, it was just wanderlust and an unwillingness to let others too close. If someone seemed like they were getting attached to her, she would move to another state and hope they forgot about her.

The year is now 1986. Recently, her travels brought her back to her hometown of Hopesfield, Vermont. She had planned to stay a few days, do repairs on her van and keep going. More than anything, she doesn't really want to run into her brother and father. Instead, she wakes up in a DWRP setting.

Application [Deer Country]

Character Base

• Character Name: Ron Howard
• Age: 36
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: Original
• Items Coming Along: 
- A magnum revolver with six chambers
- A set of knuckle dusters
- A large backpack, containing two boxes of bullets, a pack of cigarettes and a first aid kit
- A motorcycle with a detachable side-car
- Her very large dog, Ollie (in the form of her Omen)
• Content Warnings: Ron's backstory involves murder/gore and themes of domestic violence.

Character Background

• History: Link here.

• Core Relationships:
- Kathy Howard: Ron adored her mom, and has plenty of fond memories from before her death. Kathy would buy matching outfits with Ron and take her along for short hikes to try and get her involved in nature, and was openly supportive of her obvious attraction toward girls - she set a good example that gave Ron a lot of confidence in her own identity. Ron was also aware that some people in town were less accepting of her, and that Kathy wasn't shy about defending her daughter against them. Both Kathy and Mark got their fair share of criticism for letting Ron go by "a boy's name" but they made damn sure everyone minded their business about it. Losing her mother left a very palpable empty space in their home, and it never quite closed - that was a large part of why it was easiest to just leave when she had the means to.

- Mark Howard: Ron was close to her parents before her mother's death, and stayed close with her father for a while afterward. They spent most of her childhood joined at the hip, but the relationship was rotting from the inside - she couldn't shake the memory of her mother's body dragging through the snow whenever she looked at him. Eventually, it just got easier not to be around him. And even easier not to speak to him once she got her motorcycle. There's a lot of baggage between them, and they never really talked about what happened to her mother. She pieced together as much as she could, but she doesn't want to know if he knew what he was doing. And she doesn't want to know whether it was her mother she saw that night.

- Billy Howard: Ron's little brother absolutely adores her, and Ron loves him as much as she can manage. There's a disconnect between them, very similar to Ron and her father, but with a little less blood and a little less understanding. Billy never found out what happened to their mom, past the fact that it was a hiking accident. And Ron, not wanting to let any of that secret slip, kept Billy emotionally at arm's length. She look on a motherly role for him during their childhood, but he was sixteen when she left and she never said goodbye. They have phonecalls every so often, but neither of them want to spend that limited time discussing heavy subjects, so it just hangs over them. Usually, Billy will just tell her about all the technology she's missing out on while she's on the road, and occasionally have to remind her what year it is.

- Ollie: Ollie has been Ron's best friend for the last two years. He is a purebred Rhodesian Ridgeback, which she trained as a hunting dog for both mundane and supernatural game. She's often caught herself talking to him when no one's around to listen - anything beats the silence. Ollie is extremely friendly, but somewhat protective of Ron in close quarters and may gently nudge people away from her if he senses her getting uncomfortable. Ron has gotten so used to having him around that going anywhere without him feels a little like missing an arm, even if she's just spending an hour in a building that doesn't allow dogs.

Character Personality Through Key Moments

(2+) Positive Experiences:
- Observant: Ron was taught to hunt by her father, and often was complimented on how well she could track. For many of her prey, both natural and supernatural, that involved noticing little things that were slightly out of order. Similarly, a lot of mechanic work deals in understanding small issues in the vehicles she works on, and understanding how the mechanisms interact to cause those issues. She is not as gifted when observing socially, as she has far less experience with it, but she does dedicate a lot of time to watching people and learning their mannerisms.

- Introverted: Ron spends most of her time alone, by choice. While she's happy to engage with someone who starts a conversation with her, she rarely seeks company out on her own. This does not mean she's shy - she often makes a point to tell people that she enjoys company who can handle a long silence, because she likes to hear herself think before she speaks. When she does decide to socialize she has a calm and confident demeanor, and on the surface seems shockingly well adjusted for the life she's leading.

- Thoughtful: Ron doesn't keep close friends, but she also doesn't limit her support to her personal circle. A good example of this is her relationship with Shawnee, a friend she meets past her current 'canon' point. Ron meets Shawnee after fishing her out of a car crash, and while she refuses to chatter and bond, she does make sure to get Shawnee to the hospital and offers to fix her car for free. She ends up doing a lot of favors for Shawnee, just because she can tell the woman is struggling. As much as she wants to be an island, Ron can't fully help herself wanting to do some good in the world.

(2+) Negative Experiences:
- Avoidant: Ron is prone to running away from her problems in a very literal sense. She's said as much about herself - the RV is a symbol of her freedom, and it helps her stay afloat as her own little island. Every time that she's gotten too close to someone for her own comfort, she leaves. And every time she's come up against a supernatural creature she can't beat, she's left its victims to die. The latter has happened more times than she's comfortable saying. Her father is partly to blame for this behavior - some mixture of the fact that they never really discussed the details of her mother's death, never gave her concrete details for the creature he killed, and his mishandled attempts to cheer her up and move past those events. It just made it easier not to deal with her feelings, to pack them up tight and refuse to let anyone comfort her.

- Inflexible: Ron has a lot of trouble with electronics, and any new technology (later than about 1970). She prefers speaking to people in person rather than over the phone, and is not particularly interested in television or using the internet. This is a symptom of an overall lack of flexibility - she's never been particularly good at handling change outside of her control, and having the ability to pick up and leave whenever she's uncomfortable has directly made it worse. Ron is often the last person to agree to a plan, and the first person to snap under pressure.

Deer Country Attributes

• Canon Powers: Ron is mundane, but has a few notable skills. She works out regularly and has a powerful build, plus a fair amount of experience in hand-to-hand combat. She is comfortable with guns, particularly hunting rifles, and she is a skilled mechanic with a focus on motorcycles. Plus, she has a knack for handling animals.

• Blood Type: Coldblood
• Omen: Ollie the Rhodesian Ridgeback
• Blessed Day: May 20th - the anniversary of the day she left home.
• Patron Pthumerian: Bausphomette - Ron will initially misinterpret the 'self-care' Bausphomette represents as the stubborn self-isolation she's grown accustomed to. It may take a while for her to accept the sort of growth and self-analysis that Baus is actually embodying.
• Blood Power Manifestation: Ron will have relatively weak fire powers that may grow stronger as she gets accustomed to them. She'll mostly use them to light her cigarettes.

Writing Samples

One: August TDM Link
Two: April TDM Link

The Player

• Player Name: Bones
• Player Age: 26
• Player Contact: dogbones#3310
• Permissions: Here.