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27 April 2015 20:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dustybellFull name: Justine Llewelyn Bell
Goes by: “Dusty”
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 156 lbs
Skillset: Police training, ie. firearms certification and hand-to-hand combat including grappling and submission fighting techniques, knife fighting, gun disarming, and general self defense.
Goes by: “Dusty”
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 156 lbs
Skillset: Police training, ie. firearms certification and hand-to-hand combat including grappling and submission fighting techniques, knife fighting, gun disarming, and general self defense.
History:
Born on an army base on a balmy day in July, Justine and her big brother Spencer grew up on the move. Her father, Glenn, was on active duty in the army, and as such the family frequently had to pick up and relocate, meaning the kids never really got to develop any roots of their own.
Rather than putting too much effort into forming friendships at the schools they attended, Justine and Spencer became closer to each other, and were best friends and confidantes throughout their early years. That isn’t to say they had no other friends, but few stayed in contact after each move. Justine was an unabashed daddy’s girl; the two of them would spend as much time together as they could between work and school. He called her his “little deputy.”
Life for the Bell family took a turn for the worst when war was declared in the Middle East. Glenn was deployed to Iraq shortly thereafter. The months that followed were a sick waiting game for all of them, anxiously watching the news in the evenings and praying every night that their father would return home. As it turns out, sometimes the answer to prayers is “no.”
The news of Glenn’s death devastated his family. Justine was only nine years old. In the aftermath, Joyce found herself unable to care for her own emotional needs as well as those of her children. Rather than leaving them to their own devices under her absent watch, she chose to send them to separate Catholic boarding schools. Justine and Spencer railed against the decision, not wanting to be separated one from the other, but their protests were in vain; within a few weeks, they had been bundled up and shipped away.
Suffice to say, Justine didn’t handle the change very well. Slow to adjust to her new environment, her grief at the loss of her father and the separation from her brother manifested itself in the form of rebellious behavior and a sassy mouth. Although she had mostly calmed down by the time she turned sixteen, she still wound up getting expelled. The reason? After fooling around with a boy from her academy’s sister school, she was confronted by the nuns and told to repent. Turns out her boy had come down with a case of guilty conscience and wound up confessing, ratting her out in the process. Justine’s refusal to repent resulted in her expulsion from the school.
It’s safe to say she wasn’t heartbroken over the ordeal, though her mother was scandalized. Justine earned her diploma from a nearby high school and moved on to get an associates degree in criminal justice administration before eventually becoming the sheriff of a small town in middle-of-nowhere, Colorado, just west of Kansas on the bank of the Smoky Hill River. She kind of liked the quiet, even though she was a million zillion miles (or two hours, if you sped a little) from anything really interesting. Spencer got married and came to visit occasionally, but relations with her mother never really recovered like she might
have hoped.
In the following years, Justine met and settled down with a nice young man, Joshua Harper. His family owned the local hardware store, and she always joked that one of the main reasons she dated Josh was because she got “free screws” whenever she needed them. Josh eventually proposed and the two began to plan for their wedding. They even bought a dog together: a Belgian Shepherd they named Duchess.
Justine’s life was panning out as she’d hoped it would, but like all good things, it wasn’t meant to last. A rash of killings broke out. In the span of two months, the bodies of six males, ranging in age from twelve to sixty-eight, washed up on the bank of the river. Apart from their gender, the thing each of them had in common was the fact that their bodies were ripped to shreds as if they’d been eaten by a wild animal, barring their hearts and livers. It was the most bizarre thing anyone had ever heard; the bite marks on the bodies didn’t match up with those of any local wildlife.
Posing as a biologist working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a hunter named Ezra Stills came into town to investigate the case, hoping to catch and kill the critter before it could wolf down its next victim.
Unfortunately, three days before his arrival, Josh had gone missing.
Fearing the worst, Justine volunteered to help Ezra locate whatever kind of thing was behind the killings, but he insisted her help wasn’t necessary. She summarily ignored his warnings, following him to the riverbank that night in secret. After losing sight of Ezra in the dark, she came instead upon a black horse by the shore. Thinking it probably belonged to a local farmer, Justine tried to corral the beast, only to find that she couldn’t pull her hand free from its flank after touching it. Turns out the horse was not a horse: it was a kelpie.
Stuck as she was, the kelpie tried to drag Justine into the water, but Ezra heard her cry for help and was able to ward the beast off before she could be drowned (or worse). Now, Justine wasn’t willing to believe that was an ordinary horse, and she forced an explanation out of Ezra.
Figuring he owed her the truth at that point, he told the bedraggled sheriff about the monsters and creatures that went bump in the night. He had realized that a kelpie was responsible for the deaths after examining the bodies, but there was no way he was going to involve her or any of the local authorities.
For her part, Justine might have been willing to let Ezra handle the kelpie on his own after her close encounter, but that changed when Joshua’s body was the next to wash up two days later. Seeking out Ezra, she demanded that she be allowed to help him complete the hunt, going so far as to allow herself to be used as bait for the creature. He was obviously reluctant to accept her assistance, but she was adamant. That night, the two of them returned to the river and Justine lured the kelpie onto the bank, where she and Ezra were finally able to slay it. (She threw up after, then helped him dispose of the body. It’s not a fond memory.)

Since then, Justine quit her job and left town, traveling with Ezra for a while to learn the ropes of hunting. Now she’s on her own, traveling the country with Duchess in a covered pickup truck that serves as her home base. It’s been a long road so far, and as far as Justine is concerned, there’s no end in sight.
Born on an army base on a balmy day in July, Justine and her big brother Spencer grew up on the move. Her father, Glenn, was on active duty in the army, and as such the family frequently had to pick up and relocate, meaning the kids never really got to develop any roots of their own.
Rather than putting too much effort into forming friendships at the schools they attended, Justine and Spencer became closer to each other, and were best friends and confidantes throughout their early years. That isn’t to say they had no other friends, but few stayed in contact after each move. Justine was an unabashed daddy’s girl; the two of them would spend as much time together as they could between work and school. He called her his “little deputy.”
Life for the Bell family took a turn for the worst when war was declared in the Middle East. Glenn was deployed to Iraq shortly thereafter. The months that followed were a sick waiting game for all of them, anxiously watching the news in the evenings and praying every night that their father would return home. As it turns out, sometimes the answer to prayers is “no.”
The news of Glenn’s death devastated his family. Justine was only nine years old. In the aftermath, Joyce found herself unable to care for her own emotional needs as well as those of her children. Rather than leaving them to their own devices under her absent watch, she chose to send them to separate Catholic boarding schools. Justine and Spencer railed against the decision, not wanting to be separated one from the other, but their protests were in vain; within a few weeks, they had been bundled up and shipped away.
Suffice to say, Justine didn’t handle the change very well. Slow to adjust to her new environment, her grief at the loss of her father and the separation from her brother manifested itself in the form of rebellious behavior and a sassy mouth. Although she had mostly calmed down by the time she turned sixteen, she still wound up getting expelled. The reason? After fooling around with a boy from her academy’s sister school, she was confronted by the nuns and told to repent. Turns out her boy had come down with a case of guilty conscience and wound up confessing, ratting her out in the process. Justine’s refusal to repent resulted in her expulsion from the school.
It’s safe to say she wasn’t heartbroken over the ordeal, though her mother was scandalized. Justine earned her diploma from a nearby high school and moved on to get an associates degree in criminal justice administration before eventually becoming the sheriff of a small town in middle-of-nowhere, Colorado, just west of Kansas on the bank of the Smoky Hill River. She kind of liked the quiet, even though she was a million zillion miles (or two hours, if you sped a little) from anything really interesting. Spencer got married and came to visit occasionally, but relations with her mother never really recovered like she might
have hoped.
In the following years, Justine met and settled down with a nice young man, Joshua Harper. His family owned the local hardware store, and she always joked that one of the main reasons she dated Josh was because she got “free screws” whenever she needed them. Josh eventually proposed and the two began to plan for their wedding. They even bought a dog together: a Belgian Shepherd they named Duchess.
Justine’s life was panning out as she’d hoped it would, but like all good things, it wasn’t meant to last. A rash of killings broke out. In the span of two months, the bodies of six males, ranging in age from twelve to sixty-eight, washed up on the bank of the river. Apart from their gender, the thing each of them had in common was the fact that their bodies were ripped to shreds as if they’d been eaten by a wild animal, barring their hearts and livers. It was the most bizarre thing anyone had ever heard; the bite marks on the bodies didn’t match up with those of any local wildlife.
Posing as a biologist working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a hunter named Ezra Stills came into town to investigate the case, hoping to catch and kill the critter before it could wolf down its next victim.
Unfortunately, three days before his arrival, Josh had gone missing.
Fearing the worst, Justine volunteered to help Ezra locate whatever kind of thing was behind the killings, but he insisted her help wasn’t necessary. She summarily ignored his warnings, following him to the riverbank that night in secret. After losing sight of Ezra in the dark, she came instead upon a black horse by the shore. Thinking it probably belonged to a local farmer, Justine tried to corral the beast, only to find that she couldn’t pull her hand free from its flank after touching it. Turns out the horse was not a horse: it was a kelpie.
Stuck as she was, the kelpie tried to drag Justine into the water, but Ezra heard her cry for help and was able to ward the beast off before she could be drowned (or worse). Now, Justine wasn’t willing to believe that was an ordinary horse, and she forced an explanation out of Ezra.
Figuring he owed her the truth at that point, he told the bedraggled sheriff about the monsters and creatures that went bump in the night. He had realized that a kelpie was responsible for the deaths after examining the bodies, but there was no way he was going to involve her or any of the local authorities.
For her part, Justine might have been willing to let Ezra handle the kelpie on his own after her close encounter, but that changed when Joshua’s body was the next to wash up two days later. Seeking out Ezra, she demanded that she be allowed to help him complete the hunt, going so far as to allow herself to be used as bait for the creature. He was obviously reluctant to accept her assistance, but she was adamant. That night, the two of them returned to the river and Justine lured the kelpie onto the bank, where she and Ezra were finally able to slay it. (She threw up after, then helped him dispose of the body. It’s not a fond memory.)

Since then, Justine quit her job and left town, traveling with Ezra for a while to learn the ropes of hunting. Now she’s on her own, traveling the country with Duchess in a covered pickup truck that serves as her home base. It’s been a long road so far, and as far as Justine is concerned, there’s no end in sight.