#*dustin

PORTRAYAL NOTES.

#1: i am flexible in terms of writing dustin during his adolescent years in hawkins ( during the show timeline ) and also exploring his older life post-high school.

#2: i am not a fan of dustin & suzie's relationship as it is at present in canon. that does not mean i won't write it or indeed ship it, but it will take a lot of plotting & discussion behind the scenes before i could plausibly become invested in them as a pairing.

#3: headcanon tag  /  meta tag

BASICS.

NAME: dustin henderson

NICKNAMES / ALIASES: dusty, dusty bun AGE: 12 - 15 BIRTHDATE: may 29th, 1971 NATIONALITY: american GENDER & SEX: male SEXUAL ORIENTATION: heterosexual SPOKEN LANGUAGES: english OCCUPATION: middle / high school student HOMETOWN: hawkins, indiana CURRENT LOCATION: hawkins, indiana

PHYSICAL TRAITS.

EYE COLOR: blue HAIR COLOR: brown HEIGHT: 5'5" FACE CLAIM: gaten matarazzo

RELATIONSHIPS.

PARENTS: george & claudia henderson SIBLINGS: n/a SIGNIFICANT OTHER(S): suzie bingham CHILDREN: n/a EXTENDED FAMILY: FRIENDS: mike wheeler, lucas sinclair, will byers, eleven, max mayfield, steve harrington, robin buckley, erica sinclair, nancy wheeler, jonathan byers, eddie munson, scott clark ENEMIES / ANIMOSITIES: the demogorgon, the mind-flayer, billy hargrove, vecna

PERSONALITY TRAITS.

POSITIVE TRAITS: loyal, curious, perceptive, intelligent, quick-thinking, sensitive, creative, open-minded NEGATIVE TRAITS: precocious, blunt, insecure, reckless LIKES: science, comic books, reading, star wars, d&d, watching movies, animals DISLIKES: FEARS: rejection SKILLS: book smart, ALIGNMENT: chaotic good

TROPES: affectionate nickname, ditzy genius, fairy tale motif, friend to all living things, gadgeteer genius, the heart, the navigator, sad clown

D&D CLASS: bard

BIOGRAPHY.

Claudia Martin had lived in Hawkins all her life, as had her mother and father before her. She had never had any ambitions beyond her small town, not until meeting George Henderson in her sophomore year of high school. George had been moved around the care system for years along with his younger brother, Richard, with Hawkins just another shit hole with a foster family who would quickly tire of them on their road to adulthood and the freedom to choose their own future.

They were an odd pair; Claudia was quiet and reserved at school, where George, though not as wild as his younger brother, was far more outspoken and confident. But they unexpectedly hit it off and became inseparable, and so not only was George planning to move to the East Coast with his brother, but with his new wife, too. For Claudia, this was the biggest act of rebellion she had ever committed in her life: while her parents did not outwardly disapprove, they were surprised at Claudia's choice in husband --- and even more surprised that she was willing to move across the country in order to live out a new life with him on the coast.

George and his brother, Richard, opened their own garage, using their own rudimentary knowledge of repairing cars in their youth and saving up to eventually train for certification as mechanics in their own right. Claudia was content as the loving housewife, falling pregnant and giving birth to a son, Dustin, a few years later, when she became a stay at home mom, too.

Their life in New Jersey was comfortable, and at times happy --- but this all changed in the Spring of 1980. An economic downturn in the country, along with George finding out that Richard had been accruing debts in pursuit of gambling and drink, neglecting his own life and the family business, meant that he was forced to close down his garage. With no income and a mortgage still to pay, George and Claudia were at real risk of losing their home, so they made the difficult decision to cut ties with Richard and move back in with Claudia's family in Hawkins. Only her mother was still alive, albeit with failing health, but Claudia was quietly glad to be home.

This upheaval occurred when Dustin was nine, joining Hawkins Elementary for a year where he first met Mike, Lucas and Will, before the group moved on to middle school. A year after moving to the mid west, Claudia's mother passed away, and so she and George inherited the family home.

But while the family were once again financially secure ( albeit far worse off than they had been a couple of short years ago ), the fracturing of Claudia and George's relationship had begun. Small-town life had never suited George, now forced to work at a car manufacturing plant in Indianapolis in order for the family make ends meet, and like his brother before him he turned to drink in order to cope. Claudia's nerves did not recover from the upheaval of nearly losing everything and moving back to Hawkins, and was only exacerbated by her husband's drinking and his temper. The pair argued frequently, although Claudia always tried to conceal this from their son. It didn't always work.

The disappearance of Will Byers and Barbara Holland were the final straw for the pair's relationship. George left shortly after Christmas 1983, moving permanently to Indianapolis. The two divorced soon after at George's insistence, though he allowed Claudia to keep the house in Hawkins for hers and their son's sake. For Dustin, it did not change much in tangible terms: his father had always been distant, always been away working, always disconnected from his son. Dustin could recall the pair watching Star Wars: A New Hope together as a child, but few things had connected them after that. They had nothing in common: Dustin did not like cars, or sports, and so when George left him alone with his mom, few things really changed.

George invited Dustin to Indianapolis once, and would likely have invited him again had Dustin not hated every moment of the trip. He never accepted an invitation ever again, and decided in that moment that he no longer needed his father in his life. Claudia, meanwhile, needed to work in order to provide for the two of them, and so took on a clerical job at Hawkins' Town Hall. Dustin, therefore, became very independent, cycling to school with his friends and frequently spending evenings at Mike or Lucas or Will's house whenever his mom was forced to work late into the evening.

The Upside Down's interference in the lives of those in Hawkins continued, and while Dustin kept the details of his involvement from his mom, Claudia was not blind to the tragedies that kept on befalling her hometown. Had she the finances to do so, she would have moved away long ago for the sake of her nerves, but she could not. Like her mother and father before her, she suspected she would live out the rest of her days here, and could only hope that Dustin would go on to graduate to a college out of state and branch out of her small town all on his own...

VERSES.

season 1 timeline

Follows the timeline of the first season. Dustin, Mike and Lucas' lives in smalltown Hawkins is turned upside down by the disappearance of their friend, Will Byers, and the appearance of a mysterious girl called Eleven.

season 2 timeline

Follows the timeline of st2. Adopting an unusual pet that turns out to be a baby creature from the Upside Down, Dustin teams up with Steve Harrington to defeat it and help close the Gate.

season 3 timeline

Follows the timeline of st3. Following his time spent at Camp Nowhere, during an attempt to communicate with his long-distance girlfriend, Suzie, Dustin accidentally intercepts a Soviet communication. He takes it to Steve and his coworker Robin, who decode the message and discover the sinister secret lurking beneath Starcourt Mall.

season 4 timeline

Follows the timeline of st4. When the leader of Hawkins High's D&D club, Hellfire, Eddie Munson, is accused of the murder of high school teen Chrissy Cunningham, Dustin is convinced of his new friend's innocence. But in seeking him out to help clear his name, he finds out that the Upside Down has reared its ugly head again and, this time, without Eleven and her powers, there is a very real chance they might not be able to stop it.

season 5 timeline

to be written.

apocalyptic au lead in to season 5

For any imagined plots within the post-season 4 / pre-season 5 timeline, exploring the apocalyptic fallout of the earthquake and the Upside Down bleeding into Hawkins. See more details here.

post canon

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