Appearance: Roughly 5’10, Cian has a naturally athletic build. He works out to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Nothing too much though, considering he’s no body builder. Though his eyes are a bright, rich ice blue, they retain a measure of kindness and are in no way menacing or cold. One could say they even twinkle when he’s truly happy. He’s got a smile that would light up even the dimmest of sorrow. He usually keeps his hair a little messy and likes the appearance of it being a bit ruffled, although he keeps it neatly brushed while at work.
When not in business attire to look presentable in court, he wears a lot of ripped jeans. It doesn’t matter if he’s sporting a vintage concert tee or a comfy sweater. He still wears those old, faded ripped jeans. In the winter, he has this black knitted snow hat. Though he loves it, it gives him a funny looking sort of appearance.
Personality: Charismatic. He’s not necessarily charming, but a person would generally enjoy his company. Oddly enough, his lingering Irish accent (thanks to his parents) is quite attractive to most women (he honestly doesn’t see why though). One thing to note: although he the accent isn’t domineering like with his folks, he always says ‘me’ in place of ‘my’.
In his teen years, he was brazen young man. He wasn’t shy about letting a pretty girl know he liked her. He wasn’t really a ladies man or popular, but he wasn’t unknown. More like he got along with mostly everyone. Like many of his siblings (and perhaps because of them), he had a very competitive attitude. He wasn’t afraid to joke around comfortably with people, seeing that growing up, he was raised in a very close-knit and open family.
In the years following his departure from Mysteria, he grew up quite quickly. With the early birth of his son, he became more mature. His teen attribute of unabashed nature waned with fatherhood. His ability (healing, but more on that later) taught him the meaning of being secretive and has thus learned that being so open with people wasn’t so simple anymore.
Past events (see history) have made him very touchy on certain subjects. It’s best not to bring them up in his presence. He tends to flip out over it and if provoked, it’s not difficult to get into a fist fight with him. He’ll warn you once if you are unaware, but that’s it. Actually, he’s liable to hit you first if you mention it again, so tread carefully on his taboo subjects. And all that tenseness on those taboo subjects bleeds off into his overall personality. While he’s a more tense person these days, he still retains a glint of that charisma and competitiveness of his teenage years.
Special abilities/talents: He’s somewhat athletic. All through junior high, high school, and in early college, he was an avid soccer player. He also has a good bit of common sense on his side, so when one approaches him for advice, you can count on him to give to you straight (while in the most unharsh way he can).
Power(s): Healing, of course. But it’s not that simple. There’s no rhyme or reason as to how or why he has this ability. Other than his twin sister, Ivy, no one else in their family could do it. With a touch, he can mend the scraped knee of a child or pull the cancer right out of a someone. But it doesn’t come without a price. When he heals, depending on the gravity of the illness or wound, it takes away from him. It drains him. Not only that, but the design of life and death can’t be toyed with. For every ying, there must be a yang. Now for a simple thing, like a small flesh wound, the plants nearby may die or the neighbor’s house lights may flicker. It has it’s effect on him, but for such a small thing, it’s not a significant difference. But for something big, like preventing death, who knows what will happen? Sometimes someone else dies. Sometimes a bunch of people suddenly fall ill for no reason. It’s also important to note that after performing such a feat, he needs time to recuperate. To him, it feels as though all the energy has been drained from his entire body. If he doesn’t give himself the proper time to rest and regenerate, accompanied by such a loss of energy, his body could very well just shut down and stop working all together.
One of the perks though, is the fact that he himself can’t retain an injury. That doesn’t mean he can’t be killed. He’s still only human, after all. As long as he’s got a breath in him, he can heal and survive. Granted, something like that would take some time. But as for bumps, bruises, gashes, or broken bones, they’re usually unnoticeable by the end of the day.
History: The second youngest of five children, Cian was born and raised in Mysteria. Growing up in a town like that, it’s only reasonable for one to have an open mind to the limits of the unimaginable. Too many things over the years happened to make those of the family believe otherwise. The family wasn’t supernatural to their knowledge, but of course, that’s not the case.
It started a very long time ago in their family. In the early 1800s (as far back as the family tree can be traced anyhow), there was one individual that marked the ‘special’ part in the family. Louis Cullen, a young sheep herder in Ireland, was also a healer. Little is known about his life or whereabouts after the age of 19, but clearly he had at least one child, seeing that the bloodline exists today. Louis’ secret went unknown, and there wasn’t another healer born in the family until Cian and his twin sister, Ivy. Cian has no knowledge of this past ancestor. Not his supernatural ability anyhow.
His parents (and his mother’s mother) came to the states at the beginning of their marriage, seeking to raise their future children in the land of the free. They went straight from Dublin, Ireland to Mysteria. Almost immediately they noticed the strange happenings there, but were intrigued by it so they stayed. Their children came in quick succession the next five years. Starting with the oldest, it went boy, boy, boy, boy, girl. The latter of the children where the twins, Cian and Ivy.
Cian and her sister both had sort of a healing touch from birth. Nothing significant. More like, a very comforting presence. A good example would be when his parents used to take the kids to see their grandmother in the old folks home. The occupants took to the twins like bees to honey. Their presence cheered them, made them feel calm and generally good. Livened up, so to speak. It was as though their healing ability radiated from them. It remained this way all through childhood into adulthood.
Whenever Cian would get a scratch while playing to crash his motorbike, he never really got hurt. When he did, he wasn’t hurt for long. He healed exceptionally fast, which baffled medical professionals. He was never sick a day in his life, even when all of his siblings (minus his sister) came down with the chicken pox.
Things went normal enough through high school. He made friends, dated, and played soccer. He even tried out for the school musical in the tenth grade on a dare, but he couldn’t carry a tune if his life depended on it.
Then it was time for college. Seeking to break the confinements of small town Mysteria, Cian was accepted to Florida National College. He and Ivy both headed there the semester following their graduation from Mysteria High. There he studied Political Science, intending on going to law school after he finished with his bachelor’s degree. It would end up taking him longer than he intended though. It was at FNC where he met Courtney Allen. It was at a party at a mutual friend's house, and absolutely love at first sight. The two hit it off right away and were quickly known as the fairytale couple to their vast array of friends. However, that all changed during the summer before their sophomore year.
They quickly discovered that before the school year was out, they would be parents. So Cian quit soccer to get a full-time job while still in full-time classes, and Courtney finished out her first semester, not returning for the next. They got an apartment off campus where she could live instead of going back home to Georgia. Cian didn’t live there (since as a student he was required to either live with his parents off campus or stay in a dorm), but he still helped pay the bills while Courtney got a job as a cashier at a local grocery store.
Very shortly before their son, Ewan (YOO-an), was born in March of 1996, Cian dropped down to part-time and moved in the apartment with Courtney. It was then, at age 20, that Cian began to notice that his ‘healing’ touch was something more than that. Ewan was born with severe jaundice. He was hospitalized for the first 6 weeks of his life. When the doctors finally let Cian finally hold his sickly child, the extreme emotion and concern he felt manifested his ability, little to his knowledge. There was no golden glow or wind blowing open the windows; no dramatic voice from God or angelic choir singing. It was simple, unnoticed by anyone else and completely ordinary to onlookers present. As his hands lay upon the child, he felt as though he was drawing out the jaundice. Like sucking the poison out of a snake bite. He felt drained and weak, yet he couldn’t understand why. He attributed it to the heavy stress that he and Courtney were feeling as first time parents who were terrified of losing their son.
A few hours later, while Cian was getting the call of a miraculous recovery by his son, an orderly was found dead in one of the hospital elevators. He’d suffered an aneurism with no medical explanation why. He’d keeled over, just like that. And with no real medical problems, no one really knew the cause.
Over time, Cian soon discovered the nature of his energy loss of that day. He found he could heal, much to his own shock. He viewed it as a godsend, believing it a gift. He never noticed that the grass seemed to wither or the neighbors electricity going out when he fixed a bruise or cold of his son or his girlfriend. His open nature became smaller and smaller, knowing that public knowledge of what he could do would probably start some kind of religious fanatical outcry or something along those lines. Or perhaps it would be more like a witch hunt. He didn’t want that by any means, so the only person aware of what he could do was Courtney.
That changed when his twin confronted him with the same thing (after a long stay in the hospital). Turns out, she could do it too, after a traumatic event of her own during her early 20s. But her revelation was accompanied by a grave warning. She had a theory about some grand design, that the balance of life and death couldn’t be toyed with. Apparently, when she’d healed a hospital wing of terminal cancer children, a school bus of elementary kids crashed and killed 20 of them. Which happened to the be the same amount of children she’d healed.
Armed with this new knowledge, Cian began to notice that very thing. He’d finally put together the pieces, realizing that the orderly who died the day Ewan was healed had be no coincidence. He finally noticed the dying grass and power loss in his apartment building. And soon, he became wary of healing. He allowed Ewan to get sick every now and then to build up his immunities so that later in life, the boy would be able to fight off sickness on his own. Courtney also respected the repercussions of Cian’s gift, so she never asked again that he used it (but they both had the agreement that if needed, he would still heal their son).
Slowly over time, both Cian and Courtney finished school and got their bachelor degrees (Cian finished before Courtney, and her major was elementary education). Cian began part-time at Stanford Law, so the small family relocated Connecticut. Money was tight, so if he hadn’t had a full scholarship, he couldn’t have ever continued his education.
Fast forward a few years. Cian was then 29 and fresh out of law school. He took his bar exam and passed with flying colors. Just as he was beginning at some small time law office, Courtney disappeared. Gone, just like that. After she didn’t return home one day from the weekend of her sister’s wedding, Cian reported her missing. An investigation followed, but nothing was found. It was like she’d just ceased to exist, no trace her ever found nor any evidence of foul play.
He spent a long time refusing to believe that Courtney would just up and abandon he and their son. It was hard for him, her presence causing him great pain and grief. So that he wouldn’t have to give up his career or sacrifice time with Ewan, Ivy came to Connecticut to stay with Cian while she found a place of her own there. For the next four years, she helped raise Cian’s son while he concentrated on work and moved on with his life.
Problem is, he never did. It ended up being something he refused to talk about, even with Ewan. The subject of Courtney became taboo. Everyone who knew Cian knew well enough to never bring it up, seeing that too many of them had received black eyes and broken noses because of it.
Although time soothed the fresh wounds (and the taboo subject was very rarely mentioned), Cian got back some of his youthful competitiveness and charisma while forming a sort of tension that never seemed to go away. Especially with women who showed in interest in him. Don’t get him wrong; he still loved the ladies and wasn’t about to turn the other way by any means. It was just too complicated and too difficult to get past that taboo subject.
About a month ago, Ivy convinced Cian that it was time to return home. So Cian packed up his home and his son, moving the three of them back to Mysteria and into their parents old home (they don’t live there anymore, but the house was still owned by the family. His brothers managed the upkeep of the house until he came back).
Flaws:
‘Taboo’ mean anything to you? Hopefully so, because if you bring up something ‘taboo’ to him, he’s likely to give you a nice shove, if not a firm right hook. Furthermore, you’re probably wondering what these taboo things are? Anything to do with Courtney, ranging from something as simple as “Why didn’t you graduate from college with your sister’s class?” to “Where‘s the boy‘s mother?” A snide remark about her will most definitely earn you a bloody nose.
You think Britney was over protected? Ha! Cian is obsessed with protecting his son. Ewan is all he has left of Courtney, not to mention, he’s his boy! He was very young when Ewan was born (resulting in him becoming very quickly attached to him) and accompanied by the disappearance of his girlfriend, he’s become VERY protective of his son. Like a momma bear and her cub.
Speaking of being over protective, he’s also a tad necrophobic (the fear of losing a loved one {Reference}). If he were to lose sight of Ewan in a crowded store, he would LOSE HIS MIND. Same goes for his twin, but more so for his son.
Merits:
Got a problem? Some worries that have you down? Cian is your man. He’s a compassionate listener, due to his natural ability as a healer. Not to mention, you’ll always feel better after spending a little bit of time with him for some unknown reason (not known to you anyway).
He’s a family man. Because of the close-knit and relaxed atmosphere he grew up in, he had a close relationship with his son. They have good communication, which he also had with Courtney. He believes communication and honesty are the keys to any successful relationship. (Though this doesn’t mean he’s open with everyone else like he used to be in his youth.)