Jesse & Chester Mayfield
by Epiale
Jesse Mayfield Reference
--Typical Civilian Response Meeting Jesse
Jesse Mayfield is a cinnamon roll in the body of a death machine. He's a shy, gentle, anxious person who ultimately would very much like to not be a giant terrifying monster. Adopted and raised by a human from infancy he never developed the natural cruelty or prey drive most members of his species have, and instead lives a fairly normal life with his now-husband, Chester. He's an academic who enjoys literature, and speaks in a somewhat stilted, overly formal way.
Being relatively well-known in his home-world for being one of the two people to successfully find a legendary gold hoard, The Pool of Wishes, hasn't lead to much progress in being actually accepted, and, while content in his own way, it's never stopped weighing on his mind how deeply he wishes he could just be a normal person, able to walk amongst others without fear or stigma.
Table of Contents
BackstoryJesse was found as an infant by his adoptive mother, a human woman who took pity on the badly injured, abandoned child, even if he was doomed to grow into a dangerous predator. His mother -a local explorer "Blind Betty"/"Buckshot Betty"- was already known for being "spirited", and while she was a decent parent to him, not an ounce of her bravery and taste for adventure wore off on Jesse. Forced to grow up largely indoors or sticking to more abandoned rural parts of town, the taste of companionship he received from his mother only served to ignite in him a desire to be around other people.
Of course, being one of the most feared apex predators in an already very dangerous homeland, any attempts at trying to venture into public mostly resulted in a lot of chaos and being shot at. He eventually turned to books, developing a deep love of literature, and academics. After losing contact with his mother on one of her adventures, he was able to take on a job ghostwriting for the local paper, and worked security at the local bank, his mere presence enough to scare off most any criminal.
It was at his security job that he met Chester Mayfield, after the idiot tried to rob the bank he worked at with a broken gun. He was impressed with the lack of fear Chester showed in subsequent, equally poorly planned, robbery attempts, and started just talking to him instead of bothering to intervene.
Ultimately Jesse inquired as to why he was trying so hard to steal a relatively small amount of money. When Chester explained he was going to use it for supplies to journey out into the deadly deserts to the East in a search for a children's fairytale Pool of Wishes Jesse simply gave him the money out of his own savings as a gift. He was further surprised when Chester invited him along, and he happily agreed, leading to a long, largely idiotic journey into some of the most brutal nature the continent had to offer.
Through the adventure he and Chester grew incredibly close, and by the time they'd reached the place legends said the Pool would be, Jesse had started to hope that they may be true. They were... In a way that ultimately did not matter to Jesse. The "Pool of Wishes" was not a magic location granting wishes, but instead an impossibly massive hoard of gold, and precious gems. Jesse broke down at the sight, having to realize that, while the place of legend existed, it could never grant him the one wish he desperately wanted fulfilled.
Still, life pressed on, and more happily than Jesse had ever really expected. He and Chester got married, and built a beautiful home for themselves with the vast wealth they now possessed. He's comfortable, loved, and has found his own happiness the best he can.
But the sting never really left. He still feels the aching in his chest anytime he thinks about how he'll never really be able to go out, enjoy the world, or even just kiss his husband without risking him harm. Even a warm, loving cage still feels like a cage, and it's ultimately his greatest desire to find a way to live a normal life.
PersonalityJesse is a quiet, gentle person generally prone to anxiety. No amount of being a giant monster has really shaken the fear that's instilled in a person after being shot at as a child by panicked rednecks.
He's generally very friendly, and happy to talk if anyone wants to, though comes across as deeply awkward, and overly formal. He isn't adventurous himself, but will follow anyone who wants him along and who's kind. He's a very affectionate, caring person, but can also be extremely stubborn if he decides he genuinely cares about something.
The sole exception to his natural passiveness is a defensiveness of loved ones. He'll absolutely tear someone to shreds (verbally or otherwise) if they try to harm people he cares about. He just about gave Chester a heart attack at their wedding when he got genuinely angry and went off on a relative of his because she'd implied Chester wasn't as successful as she thought he should be, and while no harm was done he's still a force to be reckoned with when convinced he's acting in someone else's defense.
He's also cautious and suspicious. He's decent at reading whether someone is being honest, and will react worse to someone lying than to an admission of wrong-doing or less favorable personal traits. He'll pretty passively accept someone being a bad person so long as they're friendly and upfront about it, but if he's under the impression you're trying to deceive him in some way no amount of friendliness is going to make him stop glaring at you like a particularly wary feral cat. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Abilities
[Jesse's abilities are largely just a result of being the species he is.]
Extraordinary Vision
Atraxants are sight predators, and have an extremely advanced visual prowess. With 6 eyes in total, Jesse has nearly perfect 360° vision, with the eyes inset in his jaw able to see behind him, the side pair providing good general vision, and the front-most set seeing in extreme detail. All sets see well in the day but much better at night, and pick up on movement rapidly. Not as good with pattern detection as humans are by a long shot, but once he's got sight of you he isn't losing it easily.
Athleticism
Jesse is generally much much more athletic than the average person. A good comparison would be the athleticism of cats, or, if you're familiar with the Alien franchise, xenomorphs. He can scale any surface he can dig his claws into, and is generally fast and agile. Not as flexible as a cat, but slender enough he doesn't really need to be most of the time.
Durability
Atraxants are a very hardy species, native to hostile deserts, and dry, rocky mountains. As such their skin is tough, leathery, and they conserve water and energy well. Their blood clots quickly, and they're very resistant to blunt force trauma, with thick, sturdy bones. His eyes also have a double eyelid system, and take advantage of aerodynamic skull shaping to keep dust from his eyes and maintain visibility even in high wind.
Strengths
See Abilities. Jesse is just a physically imposing presence, 10ft tall, strong, and dangerous. He's the evolutionary product of a species built on pure hunting instinct and efficiency.
He's largely immune to weather conditions such as heat waves and cold blasts, used to a rapidly changing desert climate. Snow would confuse tf out of him as he's never seen it, but the cold of it is not any actual issue.
He's decently academically intelligent, spending a lot of time reading and studying. He has gotten good at studying the world around him, and picks up on logic tracks easily.
Despite being a social mess he's also developed a knack for recognizing behaviors and social cues, and is relatively adept at piecing together whether people are lying or if they have bad intentions. Combined with the fact he's basically a death machine on his home-world, he also isn't intimidated by bluffing, bullying, or cockiness, largely thinking anyone who tries is an idiot.
Weaknesses
Jesse is a deeply anxious person, who is gentle to a fault. He's extremely sensitive to the thought he might harm anyone, and will, to some degree, let himself face harm if it helps someone else. He cannot be intimidated, and would mostly find anyone trying to intimidate him stupid, but he will be distressed if he thinks he's hurt or upset anyone. He will actively put himself in harms way to protect people he cares for or sees as innocent, including animals. (Chester has learned to just... not mention it if Jesse doesn't notice himself that he stepped on an ant.)
He's extremely attached to Chester, to a probably somewhat unhealthy extent. He will drop everything instantly to keep him safe, and can be noticeably jealous as a result. This jealousy doesn't reach a like, psycho anime extent, but he can definitely be kind of a little bitch about it.
Jesse is stubborn, which admittedly could be a blessing or a curse. Once he's set on something he's SET on it, and it will take a lot to shake that focus. Obsessive thought patterns are an issue, and while Chester's pretty good at redirecting or calming him down, there's only so much you can do.
Water is a foreign enemy. Living in a desert he never learned to swim, and sinks like a rock. While he can hold his breath a decent length of time, panic will absolutely demolish that lung supply. His body density also becomes an outright hazard in deeper snow, mud, etc, making it extremely easy to get stuck.
Has a phobia of guns. He puts up with Chester's seeing it as a necessary evil meant to protect someone he loves, and also in large part because he knows it's functionally useless due to age and poor upkeep, but he has a genuine phobia, and will devolve into "scared animal mode" if one is ever a little too close to being pointed his way. It should be noted, like most scared animals, there's a 50/50 chance the response will be flight, or fight.
And speaking of scared animal mode, His grasp on humanity is more tenuous than he'd like to admit. Getting too hungry, too stressed, etc will throw him into a more animalistic headspace where thinking clearly pretty much goes out the window. Some chemicals similar to the hormonal communication his species uses and some specific sounds can also set this off to a lesser extent, resulting in a very dulled reaction time and some pretty severe confusion. Chester is pretty used to seeing this and can reign him in, but if they're separated it's extremely difficult for Jesse to snap himself out of.
Gallery
Full Body Ref | Tear & Blood Color Ref | Limits or Lack Thereof |
More Specific Clothing Ref |
Author's Notes
Some dumb little notes:
- Jesse speaks in an extremely stilted way. His vocal chords aren't really built for human speech, and while he manages it sounds deeply unpleasant. He doesn't use contractions at all when talking. (ex. Wouldn't say 'Wouldn't" but would instead word it "Would Not")
- Has a very very deep voice. Atraxant's natural language is spoken in a tone so low humans cannot naturally hear it. Most "animal" noises he makes like surprised shrieks fall into this range, and while not audible to most, the vibrations of it can be felt and tend to make people extremely uncomfortable on a more primal level.
- Can walk upright or on all 4's. He doesn't like walking on all 4's, but will if forced to by ceiling height, or when climbing a steeper surface.
- His teeth are needle-like and not any more sturdy than normal teeth, but grow in such numbers breaking or losing a few every now and then doesn't make much difference long-term. (They take about a week to grow back in)
- Concerningly fond of dairy. It's just about the only not meat/viscera he can eat, and the variety it adds has made it a favorite. You CAN fascinate the Jesse with a cheese.
- He'll get pretty aggressively ill if he eats too much vegetable matter (less than you'd think, but a seasoned steak won't hurt him), and cannot process any alcohol. Dude had a sip of beer once by accident and was functionally blackout wasted and ill for a solid week.
Chester Mayfield Reference
-- Chester's Mom
Chester is a deeply optimistic person, and by optimistic most would clarify "delusional". He's chipper, and spirited, but also convinced every children's fairytale he's ever read was real, and everything will work out in the end. Life is exciting for him, and he's gained an even more delusional confidence after proving one of his favorite stories to be semi-true on an adventure where he met his now-husband Jesse, a giant man-eating monster.
He's dumb as a sack of bricks, but sheer enthusiasm and charisma help balance it out, and he's lucky to a point it's debatably supernatural. Seems to be a magnet for monsters.
Table of Contents
BackstoryBorn in the town of High Lonestone, a major city on the edge of the lovingly nicknamed "Death Deserts", he had a mostly normal childhood. He was raised by his very elderly grandmother, and while he was loved and cared for, he also ended up spending a lot of his time by himself, without other kids his age around. Combined with his grandmothers extensive collection of fairy and folk-tales he ended up being a very weird, day-dreamy kid.
Unfortunately for the local population he did not grow out of this, and childhood fancy matured into a deeply annoying, kind of stupid adult man. Still, persistence, luck, and pure charisma count for something, because he eventually stumbled on a legend that seemed plausible, the tale of a distant Pool of Wishes, across the great desert. While trying to, badly, rob a bank he met Jesse, and the two journeyed out together, ultimately growing close and successfully finding the legendary Pool. It did not grant wishes, no, but was a vast wealth of gold, that made him filthy rich overnight.
Being the person he is, he fell very much sincerely in love with Jesse on their journey, and proposed to him not long after they made their way back to their hometown. They've been happily married since, and Chester gets to live his dream of just enjoying the simple things in life, and living with an affectionate giant monster. He's ultimately an adventurer, though, and it's only a matter of time until he goes out on some other poorly thought out quest, dragging Jesse along for the ride.
PersonalityChester is a boisterous, cheerful person, who can be hard-headed to a fault. It's difficult to shake him, or get under his skin, but this also leads to a general lack of social awareness, and a complete lack of respect for consequences. He'll throw himself into things without thinking, and can be a menace not just to other people, but his own health.
He's a dreamy, romantic, playful person, and loves a good adventure, even if it's something as simple as trying a new dish, or visiting someplace new. While generally unserious, he is deeply loyal, and would do anything for the people he loves and cares about, and has a deep well of patience for other people's own social quirks, well aware of what it's like to be dismissed socially. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Abilities
He's functionally just a human, but one who is very good with animals, and has some insane luck on his side depending on your definition of luck. As an example, some may consider it bad luck to have died in an incredibly stupid revolver accident in the desert, but it could be argued that it's insanely good luck he had a giant friendly monster with him who quite literally played a game against Death and won to bring him back to life.
Strengths
Enthusiasm. Curiosity. Unshakable positivity.
Weaknesses
Stubbornness. Curiosity. A complete disregard for his own mortality.
Gallery
Main Ref | [item description] | [item description] |
Author's Notes
- An insufferable "wife-guy". Deeply annoying about it.
- Has the energy of 10 huskies.
- Actually pretty good with horses and livestock having made most of his money pre-riches working odd jobs on local ranches, and helping move cattle.
- Would probably be pretty decently intelligent if he had any desire to think about something for more than about 5 seconds.
- Somehow is not aware of the fact his loyal horse, Kelpie, is not a horse, but in fact some kind of horrible shape-shifting monster.
Jesse & Chester
Jesse & Chester Mayfield
|
|||||||||||||