Duster (Ironee)

* Current
* Henshin

Blood-Coated

> "*Is this... Normal behavior?*"
> ― Duster
>
>

**Duster** is a Fallen Angel from Northern Heaven. He can be a bit strange at times, being unfamiliar with normal human behavior, but he does his best to help his fellow Angels.

His weapon is an Odachi named *Blood-Coated.*

## Appearance

Duster is a tall, pale man with a toned body. His long, silver hair reaches to his knees and contains aqua/green Soul Threads. His eyes are unnatural, having pupils similar to a demon's despite being an Angel.

His usual outfit is comprised of a long duster with silver pauldrons, gloves, a black choker, metal-tipped boots, and a pair of fatigues. His shirt, if any, exposes his entire chest.

### Henshin

Duster's henshin is a long duster split into 4 tails at the end, white thigh-high boots, black belts, a cincher with a cross, black metal pauldrons and cuffs, a white belted choker, and white suspenders in an x-pattern.

He has a pair of wings protruding from out of his coat, but he only has one wing from his back. He also has black wings on his arms.

## Personality

Cold and unforgiving, Duster has never been a man of many words or relationships. Everyone he has associated with was related to his work; Once the job is done, he doesn't contact them unless they are part of the next job. He's incredibly distant when it comes to his emotions, but he isn't completely emotionless as others think he is. His exterior is a shell, but don't crack it. Under it all, he's insecure about myriads of things that he'll never talk about. He cracks under too much pressure, but it takes a lot to get him there. If someone gets to close to his intimate self, he can become very angry and lash out. He's a ticking time bomb.
The only exception to any of this is Hot Pants.

## Background

Duster was not born between parents, but in a lab run by Human and Angel scientists who wanted to create hybrids of their Angelic ancestors. Out of God knows how many test-tube babies, he was the only successful outcome. That is, he's the only one that isn't ill from the experiments, anyway. Born in Northern Heaven, he was raised under direct supervision of one of their lead scientists, taking trips between Earth and Heaven constantly to check his progress as he aged. He lived a fairly kushy life, but very sheltered. Because of the way the raised him, in a lab, he never figured out how to develop personal relationships or bonds. He also despised the lead of the organization, Spectacles, who was very... Overbearing.

### Early Life

Northern Heaven's constrictive nature on his life took a toll on him. There were many things he'd never learned through experience, but instead learned through books. His early life consisted almost entirely of strict teachings from the best tutors and training to become the strongest elite they could create. He had no time for friendship or relationships with anything other than his mother and, dare he say it, Spectacles. On top of it all, his teachings were entirely censored as well. He learned about sin through a narrow lens. "This is the sin we're learning about, these are the terrible things it does to your mind, life and body. Don't do them." Most importantly, questions about most things were met with the wave of a hand or chaste voices. Keep your mouth shut and do what you're told. There were questions he had about things like sexuality and love, but all he was told was that he would eventually find a suitable woman, get married, and together they would bear beautiful children to carry on his legacy of perfection. Except he wasn't into women, and that bothered him. He didn't find anyone but his mother attractive. And men. Men were nice to look at. But those thoughts were forbidden.

By the time he reached his early 20s, he was renowned throughout the North for his strength and discipline. He was also known to be cold and emotionless. He was the poster child for the Greatness of the North, to be feared and envied by so many.

During his travels between the North and Earth, he had traveled West to meet with Spectacles in a different location and got lost. Daten City was a place that was foreign to him, so different from the life he had lived in the North, that he let his curiosity take over and went exploring. It felt wrong, so wrong to veer off the path, but the curiosity was killing him, and he ended up in the less fortunate side of the city. A few misplaced words later, he ended up in a fight with a teen 9 years his junior and lost a wing.

Pride lost, wing stripped away, the end was nigh when he attempted to find solace somewhere that wasn't anywhere near his caretaker or the North until he could come up with an acceptable excuse for what had happened.  What more could go wrong in his life? He would soon find out, he figured, as he was still lost. In an attempt at retaining his pride, he refused to ask for help, but accepted it whole-heartedly when another Angel found him and took him in. The Angel had been stationed in Daten for a bit of time, an Ophanim of high rank that he swore he'd seen before but never acknowledged, maybe. He nursed him back to health and... Long story short, he lost his virginity that day. When he awoke that morning, he felt heavy with guilt and sin and all kinds of feelings he wasn't used to. He had nowhere else to turn but home. And he confessed to everything.

### Leaving the North

His experience in Daten on Earth was so punishing to him and after all his confessions of guilt and need for forgiveness, they only seemed to shelter him more. He had sinned, for one, with a man no less. He had been defeated by a human. Someone younger than him. He needed to become stronger, to become superior once again, and the comfort of Mother was oh, so soothing. But even he felt that his mother's love wasn't enough to wash his guilt away. It would be almost six years before he felt whole again. If whole was supposed to be numb and unfeeling. It was then he developed a bit of self-loathing he had never felt before. Far more isolated than any of the other Angels, and far more superior. But he was alone.

He was able, soon enough, to travel between Heaven and Earth, and life returned to its boring stasis it once was. Eventually, he got sick of it and on one of his trips, veered directly into another section of the Heaven: the west.

His life in the west was incredibly lackluster. There was no fight training, no doting scientists singing praises... Nothing. A fully grown adult in the world that should be fully capable of taking care for himself and he felt lost. It became apparent that the lifestyle he had previously lived was far more sheltered than he had hoped, so he began finding purpose. That purpose happened to be finding people to fight. So he found a pair of men his age and attempted to scrap with them. Though successful, the two men were so impressed with his strength they took him in and he found himself his first two friends: Cowlneck and Combat Boots.

The two had many things to teach Duster, and they became incredibly close. Duster found the acceptance he had been searching for all his life, where people didn't push him to fit their image but instead encouraged him to be what he wanted and feel what he wanted to feel. The next year or so with his friends taught him a lot about life. It wasn't perfect, because Cowlneck was prone to jealous rage and they fought a few times. Bickered like a married couple, maybe. But it was still so much better than the life he had lived, so sheltered from the real world, the truth. He was happy, despite his shortcomings, and had decided to throw his past mistakes down the drain, locking his self-loathing and rotten outlook deep inside. He was able to function like a normal person for the rest of his life.

Until his behavior took a turn for the worse.

### Falling from Grace

Anger, caused by years without understanding and so many unanswered questions, became evident when he fought over petty things. It caused him to physically lash out, due to his inability to cope with emotions.
Envy, over the relationship between Combat Boots and Cowlneck, as the two had grown up together, over every other Angel that was able to live a normal life.
Lust and Pride, for his past life had been filled with praises that had been forgotten in Western Heaven. He wasn't used to being on the bottom rung, or at least at the middle of the ladder, because for a long time his mother and the Seraphs had been the only Angels above him in rank. His pride had been wounded by his previous transgressions and his fall from grace. He missed that power he had over others, lusted to shut others down when they talked to him out of turn. He missed his power.

It was this bundle of pent-up emotions that cracked him. He had kept his negative feelings for people, for things, and for thoughts locked away deep inside for so long that eventually it would all bubble over like a simmering pot. He was never a normal person, and his sheltered lifestyle left a stain that couldn't be washed away. He was prideful and he had still come crashing down to rock bottom. He finally snapped, and lashed out far more than he had before. A simple off-handed comment about his atypical social behavior and he flew off the handle. After he struck down the first Angel, more followed, and he found he had injured a large crowd of people in a matter of only a few minutes. Horrified, he attempted to flee, but was immediately taken for Judgement. He got off lucky, being sent to Earth to learn what he clearly needed lessons in. Shelter wouldn't stop this, now.

Now even more lost than before, Duster was left on Earth with no vision and no job. He was lost in the same place he had been before, and it was the worst situation he could have gotten himself into. He sought shelter with anyone that may have even remotely helped Angels, and found VAG.
VAG was an institution that sought to help Humans, and Duster figured this may be his answer and his ticket back to his former life and friends. He was welcomed with open arms, and he got a little too used to the attention, but strove to be more distant still (being that his interaction with humans consisted of only scientists). They got new recruits often, as the organization claimed to be far more helpful to Humans, but none were as interesting as one that would change Duster forever.

Hot Pants, a young ruffian in his late teens, joined with hope for a better life. Duster found interest in his spunk, and tended to bother him far more than he would anyone else. Something drew him to Hot Pants, and it was the same thing that would keep him coming back for more. Their relationship was... Interesting. And when Hot Pants left, it crushed Duster. Determined, he constantly tracked the man down everywhere he went, trying to get him to rejoin by whatever means necessary. It never seemed to work, but he would try. He needed this guy in his life, he was literally the only relationship he had. Soon enough, he realized that he would never be with Hot Pants so long as he was part of VAG, so he just left.

After years of tracking, he finally found him with nowhere else to go, and the two moved in together. They rent an apartment in Daten, where Duster's work is unclear (but still apparently very well-paying).

## Trivia

* He denies his obsession with Hot Pants. He's the only friend he has, of course he'll track him down.
* Bondage is a thing he likes. Yep.
* Totally not a Sephiroth expy
* He's madly in love with Hot Pants and it's gross.
* He needs to use an entire bottle of shampoo and conditioner to clean his hair, and it's scented 13 different scents, so every time he flips his hair the air changes scent.
* He doesn't make many expressions and suffers from "Resting Bitch Face" or what he calls Resting Poker Face. As a result, his body is slightly more expressive (he tilts his head when asking a question, crosses his arms when he's frustrated, etc.)
* If you really want to know what he's feeling, read his eyes. They will tell you everything.