dust bowl

Prologue

This is modern AU. The action takes place around 1995, Nevada in Spring Creek.

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Arthur was born in 1959 in Illinois. His mother, Beatrice Morgan died when Arthur was a small child, his father Lyle Morgan was a petty criminal who often abused physically Arthur and his wife. Arthur's only companion throughout his childhood was his dog Copper whom later on died. As years went by without his mother Arthur picked up on drawing and writing stories which led to getting beat up by his father and being called a moron, or being told to grow up and be a man. Dropping his hobby Arthur was taught by his father how to hunt and provide for himself. Later on Lyle was arrested when Arthur was 11 for larceny, and despite their difficult relationship after his death Arthur kept his father's hat and a photograph of him, not only that because he also kept a photograph of his mother and a flower of hers that was supposedly a good luck charm. After witnessing his death he referred to him as "no good bastard" in his journal. 

Ever since his father died Arthur became an orphan living on the streets barely making it out. When he was 14 years old he met Dutch and Hosea, both of them were the heads of a mafia that was involved with gambling, labor union corrupction and other shady businesses. Arthur having no chance making it out alive on the streets quickly hopped onto the train with them. He met a lot of new people there that quickly warmed up to him, one of them was John Marston who was a little younger than Arthur. John and Arthur ever since became non-blood related brothers. The mafia didn't feel like a gang it felt like home for every stray that thought there was no tomorrow for them. 

Dutch and Hosea owned a few pubs all around the city where all of the scum gathered around and gambled their life savings, played with the whores or drunk themself to death. They were mostly keeping it low doing illegal transactions on the side with the other gangs, but as the years went by they grew bigger and bigger which later on led to some irreversible consequences.

Meanwhile as Arthur grew older, in his twenties he met a younger woman named Eliza, a waitress. They shared a passionate night and after Arthur thought he'd never hear from her again she found him and told him she's pregnant. Arthur decided to visit her as often as he could giving her money and making sure the child is safe. With every visit they grew closer and eventually they got married and decided to raise Isaac together which didn't sit well with Dutch. But as everything was going in the right direction the law started to caught up to them, bounties of Dutch and Hosea were plastered everywhere around the city since Dutch started to act more reckless. One job gone wrong and Hosea with Lenny got shot by the law leading to their death, some of the mafia members escaped during the bloody massacre and some turned their backs and never were saw again. Dutch went completely insane after losing his partner in crime. 

The rumors quickly spread around the smaller gangs and they used their opportunity of the mafia's vulnerable position and robbed their pubs, threatened the members and stole some of the clients, but one of the gangs had gone too far. They found Arhutr's family household and killed Eliza before robbing them of everything they had. Isaac was found by Arthur after he managed to get back home, crying in his bassinet while Eliza was lying on the floor covered in the pool of her own blood.

Arthur couldn't believe how far everything had gone. Staring at the dead body as the Isaac's cries rang loudly in his ears he didn't think twice, before packing the most important things with him and taking Isaac with him and leaving it all behind. John with Abigail and their son Jack moved across the country with Arthur's help trying to keep it low and finding a new place for themselfs. Arthur never forgave himself for leaving Eliza behind, but he wasn't able to get her a proper burial back in that time.

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Eventually as years went by and everything went slowly silent Arthur tried getting into art college, but due to his lack of any real education he got rejected every time. He mostly knew life on the road, and the shady side of business instead of real and honest work. He drifted from one point to another with Isaac, working as a rancher's hand, at the local pubs as a bodyguard or taking shady jobs here and there just to keep Isaac safe and sound. After some time he finally settled in Nevada with Isaac. The law was still searching for Dutch, but it looked as if he disappeared off of the face of earth out of the blue, nobody really knew where he'd escaped or if he was still breathing. Arthur was still haunted by the past and tried to make the best out of his life as it was for now while raising Isaac all alone.

The life finally started to take good turns as Arthur found a steady job as a local mechanic in Spring Creek, he settled down there for good with Isaac. But just before that he met a woman named Mary Linton, whom he quickly fell in love with, they both grew closer with each day of spending time together. Isaac had taken a liking to Mary as well so it looked as if everything was finally going towards the good direction, but Mary's father wouldn't approve their wanted marriage, and Mary was forced to marry someone else. Arthur's heart was broken once again and after hearing the news she broke off the engagment and he closed himself off completely for anything real once again.

Nowdays Arthur gets himself caught up in work at the mechanic place, takes care of Isaac who is now 12 yearsr old and attends middle school where he's in 7th grade. Also ever since Arthur escaped the hell of Dutch's he picked up once again on his hobby of drawing and writing stories or his thoughts down in his journal. Days pass by slowly and Arthur has fallen into a comfortable routine where he takes cares of his son and finally has a honest work where there's no need to get blood or dirt on his hands in order to earn some money. But that routine quickly becomes disturbed as one day Arthur picks up Isaac after school and hears about a new english teacher.

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Y/n was born in 1968 in California. Her mother was a seamstress, meanwhile her father worked at the local fabric. She never had it easy in life since her father threw himself at work completely barely paying any attention to her or her mother, meanwhile her mother kept the whole family fed and was very miserable due to the fact that the house was mostly silent except for when her husband has come home from work and fought with her or drank himself to oblivion causing them both to walk on egg shells whenever he was around. Y/n's father was verablly and psychically abusive towards her and her mother. As soon as she graduated and got accepted into college she escaped home and to this day she feels guilty about leaving her mother all alone, often wondering if she's okay.

Y

was pretty much lonely and isolated from everyone all of her life, and only in college she made some real friends and finally focused on herself. After she graduated she realized she wasn't meant for the fancy, loud life in California and travelled all around moving from one place to another unitl she settled down in Spring Creek in 1995. Very soon after settling down she found her dream job at the local school as an english teacher. Though she felt like a little girl back in California once again since she didn't know anyone here and felt very much isolated once again. Due to her childhood trauma she has trouble making any real contact with other teachers at school, but manages just fine with children. 

Kids had taken a liking to her on her very first day since she seemed very kind and patient towards them. Truth be told she was a ball of nerves, but after seeing how she managed to make children smile and laugh that stress soon turned into an easy feeling of hope that maybe in this place she would finally be able to settle down and find some purpose for herself.