the personality

likes • Equines (Horses, Ponies, Mules, Donkeys, etc.), Helping said Equines, His Truck - It's His Office, Passionately singing in the car or doing karaoke, Annoying Whitney, Camp Fires, Open Ranges paired with Mountain Views, Cuddling with Whitney & the Dogs, One Pot Meals - Hearty Varity, Teasing his Assistant, Laying out under the stars, Vanilla Sugar Scented Candles
dislikes • Irresponsible Horse Owners, Seeing Neglect and Abuse Cases, Politics - International and National, Glamping, Leafy Greens - What is Salad?, Sitting in a Chair for Long Periods of Time, Visiting Family in Montana, Diets, When He's informed by Whitney that he's too warm to cuddle, Running Errands
strengths • Decision Making, Multitasking, Infectious Personality
weaknesses • Whitney - doing just about everything, Bold, Restless, Judgmental
dreams • Tying the Knot with Whitney, Expanding his Vet Business
fears • Not Being Able to Save a Client when needed, Whitney pulling out of their relationship - That He'll Somehow Ruin it All
overall personality • Nate is the kind of guy that you know is there the moment he walks into the room - loud, bold, outgoing, and open minded. He has the ability to make himself known and is the sort of person who attempts to talk a turtle out of it's shell - whether they want it or not. Nate has a habit of being care free and spirited, being serious is something that is hard to come by unless the occasion calls for it. People who know him best would likely describe him as curious, perceptive, enthusiastic, good natured, and an excellent communicator. But with all good traits, there are always bad traits to balance. Nate can be a bit of a motor mouth and can come off as judgmental (which he is - especially when animals are involved) as well as unorthodox in thinking. His brain to mouth filter is quite terrible which several people can find off putting. Others might also add that he is unfocused, disorganized, overly optimistic and accodmendating, and restless. He can be utterly over the top when it comes to romance, so whenever there's a disagreement or strife, he's known to wallow and wallow very hard. That said, Nate tries very hard to be the best romantic partner that he can be to Whitney, and often does his best to reign himself in if he gets too spontaneous. He does have a deep anxiety of loosing her, given how his first marriage fell apart, and often needs some reassurance over the relationship.

the history

father • Lee Drummond, 68, Cattle Rancher
mother • Grace Drummond, 66, Ranch Wife & Country Boutique Owner
siblings • Braeden, 46
Jackson, 42
Cheyenne, 39
important people • Whitney Heather Otero , 43, Fiancé
Beth Wilkins, 43, Ex - Wife
------ Lachlan, early 30's, personal assistant and vet tech & ex-girlfriend - ended on great terms
hometown • Livingston, Montana
overall history •Nate was born as the second oldest to the Drummond family, a wealthy and well off rancher dynasty just outside of Livingston, Montana. While Nate and Jackson were never truly forgotten in their family's eyes, they were the middle children and were often left to their own devices so long as they helped out on the family's sizable ranch. To the surprise of no one in the state, Nate pretty much grew up as a cowboy for lack of a better word. He was in the saddle before he could walk, he was disciplined to wake up at the crack of dawn, and learned how to take better care of the cattle and horses better than himself. Nate never minded this though, for all the thoughts that routinely clogged up his head, working the herd and driving the open range always seemed to give him the peace of mind.

Unlike his Braeden, his oldest brother, and Jackson, his younger brother, Nate and his only sister, Cheyenne, never felt a need to get into the family business - not in the books and money keeping business at least. The constant worry as the decades changed with the raise of costs for feed and land, animal rights activities, and the charges that cattle ranching is bad for the environment, not to mention, the way businessmen and other ranches circled the land like vultures waiting for the Drummonds to make one bad move to signal the end - none of that was for Nate. All what he cared about were the care and happiness of the animals. Nate understood the life cycle, he understood from an early age on where the cows went when they were ready, but it was an episode with a horse that set him on the path towards veterinary medicine.

A family horse, Nate's favorite horse, had a freak accident out in the field one day. The ranch hands caught it and took care of the wound, calling the vet in. And while everything seemed fine, that wound caught an infection that the vet at the time didn't catch, and days later, what could have been a routine fix ended in death. Nate was devastated - to the point of which his family could not understand. He blamed that vet for everything, even though his father and mother assured him that it could have happened with any horse and any vet, but Nate took it personally and was convinced that the horse could have been saved, that something could have been different, and he would have still had that horse. After that day, there was a change in the young man - he took school more seriously, particularly sciences and math, knowing that he would need good grades and good understanding if he was ever to become a vet.

His family, wanting him to stay close to home, insisted that Nate attend the University of Montana despite them only having a pre-veterinary medicine program and no follow on to vet school. He fought with his father over it, but in the end, relented due to his mother as well as his sister. Some battles just weren't worth it this early on in the Drummond household. It turned out though, that it had been a good move. The classes challenged him, it was a respectable pre-vet program, and he made good friends - one in particular, Whitney Otero. They had met during organic chemistry, originally united in how much they hated the class and how stupidly hard it was, which blended into discovering how much they had in common. Whitney became a great friend to Nate, perhaps even the best kind of girl friend a guy could have - a constant who was always there and knew how to handle herself around the stupidity of men.

There were occasions over the first year of their friendship that Nate thought that maybe, just maybe, they could be more. But the proximity of their closeness as well as his brain lodging her as 'one of the guys' typically kept him from fully acting on any sliver of thoughts he may had - and then - there was Beth Wilkins. She barreled into his life like a wild bull at a rodeo, a student from University of Montana Western, was attending a party on the University of Montana campus that Nate had been attending. She was beautiful, wild, outgoing, had curves like no other, and was majoring in Equine Science and Natural Horsemanship. Nate was smitten, a rabbit caught in a snare, and never thought that he should escape.

Nate began dating Beth after two months of flirting and loaded suggestions, and all the while, balanced his school work and his time with his friends, to include Whitney. After graduation, he remained in contact with her for a bit as they went their separate ways. Beth also was a hit with his family - a good, strong western girl. Sure, she was from Wyoming instead of Montana, but she had been everything that they could ever want in, what they hoped, would be a future daughter in law. For veterinary program, Nate was accepted into the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine - Virginia Tech, a prestigious 'east coast' program. The thought of being separated from Beth was unbearable, so Nate proposed to which she said yes. The move to the east coast, along with balancing school work and their relationship, proved to be tough. Virginia was not Montana or Wyoming. Nate was always busy, and Beth's personality often clashed with the local horse crowd, but they made it work.

As soon as Nate graduated with honors, they left, returning to the west to get on with their lives. Unable to start his own business, Nate worked under a vet firm that specialized in live stock and equines. The need to provide and the need to keep Beth happy and give her whatever she wanted always drove Nate, it drove him to work long hours - after all, western show horses were expensive. The long hours left Nate exhausted and Beth unhappy that she never saw him, he was always on call as well, which unfortunately came up at some of the worst times when they were working on their relationship. A wedge began to build between them, something that Nate desperately kept on trying to fight - even more so when Beth would go on show tours and Nate couldn't get the time off to support her. The nail in the coffin though, unfortunately, had been at one of Beth's shows.

To this day, Nate still doesn't entirely know how everything went down - but he lost it on a vet, or a trainer, or maybe it was a vet tech, for how they were handling one of Beth's prized horses - and for the matter, one that Nate had bought her a while back. The blow up was shocking, and it ran through the halls, to the point of where he had to get escorted off the property and Beth was left mortified and dealing with the aftermath - not only at the show but to her reputation. Half of the people at the arena hadn't even realize she had been married given that her husband never showed up on the circuit for the last year and a half. It lead to another fight surrounding their situation, and at the end of the day, Beth decided it was best for things to end.

It left Nate absolutely blindsided. Never had he thought that their relationship had been strained to the point of where his wife thought that they should end it. He tried everything to try and make it up, to get her to change her mind, but the damage was done. Perhaps the killer was that Beth told him that she didn't regret their relationship, that she would always love him, but they were past the point of trying to fix things for each other - they had been trying for so long that they seemed to live more normal lives without each other than with each other. Nate, dejected and understanding, submitted to her request. A year of separation, followed by divorce. Still they saw each other from time to time, Nate always drawn to her, and they would have their one night stands - always swearing that it would never happen again. Finally, Nate realized he had to put distance between himself and his soon to be ex-wife.

He returned to the Drummond ranch to cool down and reassess his life and while his parents gave him space, they were also upset for him for not salvaging his relationship with Beth - whom they had adored. During that year, Nate took online courses in business and practice - deciding that he would be his own boss now, and never again would be at the bottom of the totem pole at work. Deciding that he needed a change of scenery, away from everything that reminded him of his relationship and his family, Nate up and left, not only Montana, but America as well, and moved across the pond to a tiny, but budding, horse community in
Hickstead, England. There - Nate started up his own equine veterinary and dentist practice - Meadow Lark -and took to the scene establishing himself as a good, reputable, caring vet.

A few years went by, and one day, a friend asked him to go out on a group kayaking trip. Nate was a little apprehensive about it, he didn't care for being shoved into a tiny boat with his frame. His friend, as well as his assistant, said that it would be a good break. Shockingly, once he got there, he had run into a familiar face: Whitney Otero. She was older, like him, but still so sure and confident in herself. They picked back up right where they left off, and after a year, began dating each other. After a while, Whitney moved in more or less, along with building her own bat rescue facility which Nate hardly minded - as long as they could grow their furry family beyond tiny little flying rats.

Years went by, and eventually, once Whitney got her full professor status - Nate finally realized he wanted to make a move, and propose. Nate had created a scavenger hunt that ended when it turned dark. He had created the outline of their shared constellation of Cancer on the side of the barn in Christmas lights. After dropping the ring box, and a few more frantic moments of searching – Whitney was presented with a custom engagement ring. To his delight, she said yes, and Nate couldn't be anymore happy.

the role player

alias • forever
age • old
other characters • my herd