Dante Rawlins

Physical Overview

Tall, and heavily muscled, Dante cuts an imposing figure when he enters a room. His chocolate brown skin, coupled with a brilliant smile, and soulful brown eyes catch your eye as soon as you see him. He keeps his black hair cropped short, and wears a well maintained, and perfectly groomed beard. When not on duty he is often going to be found in stylish clothing, with his go to being a pair of nice slacks, and a sweater, or a button-down shirt, tailored to fit him well enough that his beautifully maintained physique is put on full display.

Personality Overview

Confident, cool and collected, maybe just a tad bit conceited and cocky, but all in all, a pretty lovable person. Dante tends to be a little bit goofy, but he has an innate charm that serves him well, and his devotion to duty, and the seriousness with which he does his job definitely shine through at all times. He is a man of few words when under pressure, but one who definitely thrives in that position and ensures that the job gets done no matter the costs. When off duty, however, he fancies himself a bit of a player, and enjoys to mix, mingle, and party whenever he can.

Personal History

Dante was born on August 12, 2367 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the only child of Victor and Maxine Rawlins. He was a precocious child, always getting himself into something he shouldn’t and giving his parents more than enough to worry over. He was also, however, a highly intelligent boy, and a very active one as well, always looking for ways to be outside doing something, instead of stuck inside. In school Dante excelled in things that kept him active, or gave him a way to express his creativity, meaning that when it came to grades his art and his phys ed classes were the ones he did best in. He also genuinely loved literature and his reading and writing classes also kept him quite engaged.

When Dante was fourteen his father suffered a tragic accident when the shuttlecraft he was riding in experienced an overload in the repulsor manifolds that caused the entire vessel to spin out of control while approaching New Berlin, on Luna. Thankfully the shuttles pilot was able to steer them just enough to keep from slamming into the colony, but to do so he had to ram them into the lunar surface at a very rapid speed. There were no survivors when medical crews arrived. His mother, devastated, of course, grew distant, and left Dante much to himself. He began to get in trouble at school, acting out because of the trauma of losing a parent so suddenly, and getting involved in things he shouldn’t be involved in. If it hadn’t been for his cousin Ramal he likely would have ended up in a penal colony by the time he was eighteen.

Ramal had been a cadet in Starfleet at the time Dante’s father had gone down in the crash, and since had graduated and been assigned a posting as a security officer. He took leave when he heard about Dante getting in trouble and returned to Earth. He pulled Dante aside and had a deep conversation. He explained to him the things he’d heard, the things he’d seen with his own eyes, growing up, and what he was afraid was going to happen. As unlikely as it was this show of compassion, and caring, was just what Dante needed to wake up from the seeming nightmare he’d spiraled into. He talked at length about his pain, and his anguish, about the dreams he’d had where he would grow up to make his father proud, and how that had been stolen. In the end Ramal helped him to understand that he hadn’t lost the ability to do any of that, and that he could still honor the memory of his father by achieving those dreams.

Three years later he did just that, by graduating, and then applying, and getting accepted into Starfleet Academy. He would spend the next four years learning and growing into a man his father would have been more than proud of, and then was assigned to his first posting, as junior helmsman aboard a Starfleet vessel, beginning the career that would lead him one day to the Santa Fe, where he currently serves as chief flight control officer.