Dust

Dust is the main protagonist of *Dust an Elysian Tail* and one of The Underground's strongest fighters in Dark Disney. He was originally two opposing fighters who dueled in a brutal massacre on the Moonblood race; both killed in their bout before being merged into a new warrior by Elder Gray Eyes. Being a Sen Mithrarin (two souls combined), Dust was able to wield one of the five blades of Elysium created by the Elder named Ahrah, teaming up with its guardian, Fidget, to defeat the mad General Gaius before he could drive the Moonbloods and any sympathizers to extinction. Although the volcano they fought on would seemingly consume Dust in the eruption, he somehow survived but returned to a world ruled by Disney. Dust was heavily wounded and left for dead but was rescued by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Blinx the Time Sweeper; the latter whom he became best friends with after their first encounter. He was repaired using Cyber Catra's schematics, augmented with similar technologies found within the Toonverse. Ashamed by the loss of his people, the Mithrarin remained masked and silent throughout The Underground's campaign against the regime.

By the time of Dark Disney, he became such a valuable asset to the resistance, frequently seen fighting alongside Blinx in their most crucial missions. He also was responsible for finding the Gumball Soul Retriever with Barbara Gordon and met Max when the former accidentally time skipped to the future. He and Blinx remained close to him throughout much of the crossover. And near the final chapters, their missions together ended up giving Dust hope and inspired him to speak and reveal his face again, regaining his optimism after Max saved his life on a rough mission. The final battle against the Disneyverse regime would also be one of his most famous, fighting alongside Blinx against Mickey's strongest fighters up to the reveal that it was Black Hat of the Toonverse responsible for the empire's creation. After freeing Bimm's body within the Elysium engine (which used the name of Dust's game as a trademark), Dust was one of the few survivors of the dark future who made it back to the past, but wasn't affected by the change in history. Thanks to this, he returned to Falana, now with Blinx by his side, sometime after his apparent sacrifice at the end of the Gaius War.

He along with Blinx and Fidget return in Dust and the Sweeper defeating the last of the Gaius Remnant before going on a quest to liberate the Time Sweepers from the tyrannical Benito after he took control of the Big Crystal to seize power for himself on Falana. Together, he and Blinx traveled to the Advanced Regions to uncover the truth learning that the Time Sweepers had designated Falana as their evac site after the Time Factory was destroyed, and overthrew the dictator before returning to their new home, Aurora Village. However, when it seemed their world was safe, the true mastermind behind its rapid transformation took the form of Trio; the combined form of the three Goddesses of Time and Space possessing Mordecai. With the entire Gameverse at stake, it's up to Dust and Blinx, together with their friends, to stop her after being knighted as Knights of Elysium by Gray Eyes.

## Appearance

Dust is a grey Mithrarian (possibly a wolf or fox) with a light color scheme, having light grey fur, long grey hair, a huge tail, grey eyes, and sports clothes with a similar color scheme. This comes in the form of a dark samurai hat with cloth over it; torn, dark boots, long sleeves, short vest, and a cape. In Dark Disney, due to the extensive damage done to his body, Dust was upgraded with augmentations on his chest, stomach, and face. His hair seems to have gotten slightly darker while his grey nose had been blackened. His left eye has a dark grey area of fur while his eyeball has been replaced by an ecto green one similar to Danny Phantom's. Though rarely seen, his bare chest has visible markings along the center where it can be opened to perform maintenance on his cybernetics.

Dust's original, traditional outfit had been heavily modified to mesh with his augmentations, taking inspiration from Captain Rex. He wears a dark jumpsuit with a mechanized armor along the stomach and chest region. The original sleeves of his old suit are now replaced by meshed arm guards. He also sports a utility belt with a dark skirt and has longer boots similar to his old ones. Interestingly, his hat's been modified too, having the option to mask his face with a modified Phase 3 Clone Helmet.

In Act 3 of Dust and the Sweeper, these augmentations were removed and his original attire was restored by Haley; albeit with slight modifications. However, the dark patch over his eye still remains.

## Personality

With both Jin and Cassius making up Dust's personality, he's largely a mix of the two with Jin's kindness and concern being the most dominant one while Cassius' fighting spirit and combat aggression serves as the other. The latter also may include creative thinking and his occasional snarks often at Fidget's expense. Since much of his past was shrouded in mystery until the final half of An Elysian Tail, Dust was oftentimes fairly curious about things; hilariously getting himself into more trouble than Fidget or Blinx. By the end of the main conflict, he not only made friends with the people form Mudpot and Aurora Village (even redeeming some of the bosses), he also defeated their enemies, including Fuse and Gaius.

His confidence was weakened, however, when the Disneyverse regime came to be, losing his world and his people to them. As a result, whatever was left of Jin was locked away in favor of Cassius' mission-focused side, never speaking to anyone but Blinx; the one who rescued him, along with Ahrah who continued to be a mentor to both as he was with Fidget. Once Max arrived and missions became more successful for the Underground, even when matters got tougher, Dust started to get his confidence back and blossomed back to his original personality with both Jin and Cassius. Arguably, the ending of Dark Disney shows more of Jin's side than Cassius since he was at peace when he returned to Falana and got to see his friends and family again, with the addition of having Blinx by his side.

## Biography

His biography is extensive. Click here for more

## Abilities

* Double Jump
* Dash
* Whirlwind
* Fidget/Sweeper Combo
* Lightning Storm

## Stats

Up until the end of An Elysian Tail, Dust was said to be the absolute pinnacle of a warrior; though this could be gameplay and not what's actually happening as he's shown to get tired during most heavy fights. This is especially true when he's confused about his past and his final battle against Gaius where he was so exhausted by the end that he couldn't move before the volcano could overflow. This "stamina bug" as Oswald would put it was quickly corrected when he applied the augmentations seen in Dark Disney, allowing him to fight for extended periods of time while boosting his strength. However, this also limited some of his speed as Mulan and Judy Hopps were able to keep up with him.

Seemingly all these issues were addressed by the time of Dust and the Sweeper as he easily went toe-to-toe with the entire Gaius Remnant; albeit with help from Blinx and Fidget. Blinx in particular would partner with him throughout the first and second act of the story, going through tougher battles meant to counter their upgrades, including sending in a rogue Sweeper to handle them both. Despite this and a few moments where he's downed, he was never injured enough that it would cause concern until he was reset into Cassius, giving him the desire to kill Blinx. During the fight, he demonstrated all of his normal techniques, including his tactical prowess on a massive scale as they fought throughout most of the top portion of the Time Tower. Both used their environment to their advantage and eventually ended with Dust nearly ready to kill Blinx before he could shove a Time Crystal in his chest to overload the pace maker inside. It was enough to send him in a state of shock until his friend could restart his heart. And although he would find himself in much pain, he was able to ignore it enough that he could give chase to Benito's ship and ride a motorcycle with an exposed chest cavity.

Once fully repaired, Dust reverted back to his original form but with the added strength gained from when he was augmented, making him one of the most balanced fighters in the Gameverse.

## Trivia

* Dust was originally meant to appear in multiple early versions of Toon Wars, including the later portion of the original 2008 Toon Wars timeline, and How to train your Hero as one of the games that crossed over with the Hero League. However, he was never properly implemented until years after the fact with the epilogue of The Watterson before finally being introduced in Dark Disney.
* In many ways, Dust as a character is similar to Zero from Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero.
	+ Both are swordsmen and use various abilities
	+ Both had died/sacrificed themselves multiple times and were resurrected soon after
	+ They both have two sides to them; one evil (Cassius/True Zero) and one good (Jin/Zero)
	+ Both have a friend who fights in range, not melee (X, Fidget, and Blinx)
	+ Both strayed away from their original goals: Cassius originally meant to kill sympathizers and the Moonbloods only to fight for both as Dust, and Zero originally meant to destroy Mega Man and Light's work, only to befriend and fight with their successor, X, for peace.
* Dust and Blinx's dynamic throughout Dark Disney's development was best described as a "Buddy Cop Duo," depicting Blinx as the more silly one while Dust is the straight man. This is very much similar to how Fidget is as well.
* Like Fidget, Blinx is seen interacting with Ahrah but hasn't wielded him until the later half the story. Like the Final Magisword, it seems Ahrah isn't exclusive to Dust as Blinx was able to wield the sword with ease and remain hyper focused during combat.
* Some fans speculated during Dark Disney's run that Blinx and Dust would become a couple, but Frozarburst stated that they're best buds and Blinx is canonically more interested in girls, not guys. Dust would then marry Haley shortly after.
	+ Speaking of, like the Blinx theory, Fidget was also considered as a pairing for Dust and the Sweeper, but this was prior to Frozar's announcement of Tales of the Gameverse: Ori and the main story's release where the Nimbat is dating the Spirit.
* Coincidentally, both Ori and Dust seemingly died at the same time but survived via two different means: Dust was teleported while Ori was respawned and possibly cloned by Trio.