Modern –Version Ethan:

Like my other close characters, I enjoy having a modern renditions of them for variability in the potential settings to play them in as well as it being entertaining to think of how a character translates from a historical setting; how much of the essence of the character is maintained, etc.

Ethan is no exception, in fact, I think he translated surprisingly well to a modern version.

Ethan is about the same age (sixteen going on Seventeen) and even has the same birthday, November 1 (right at the stroke of midnight – not that he knows that ^_~ ) although the year has changed a bit ^~.

 

Appearance:

Physical Appearance:

Ethan, modern version, appears very much like his historical counterpart. He still wears his curly, light brown hair long, and frequently tied back. His eyes are the same hazel-amber, and he is dusted all over his face, shoulders and back with freckles. His left hand has a sixth finger (an extra middle finger to be specific). His build is skinny and gangly.

Ethan is sixteen going on seventeen as of the end of his backstory.

 

Clothing/Accessories:

As long as Ethan is being depicted in his human form, he would never be without his intricate silver Celtic Cross.

Beyond that, Ethan’s fashion sense would be largely influenced by his mother: think modern-hippie and new-age type clothing. Think: Hemp jewelry, sandals, earth-tones and nature-friendly clothing. Unique-looking things, many of which may be hand-made. From anything as normal as a t-shirt and khaki cargo pants to miscellaneous Ren-Fair-inspired clothes (poofy lace-up shirts, etc).

 

Demon-Form:

While Ethan’s mother is human, his father… wasn’t. When Ethan’s pendant is removed, his real form is expressed. As of the end of his backstory, however, Ethan has no idea that he is anything other than human.

It looks just like the Historical-version demon form, outlined HERE on the reference sheet. OR now on the Ethan's main page there are several visual refs.

Broken down, When the pendant is removed, Ethan gains:

-          Two large horns sprout from his head,

-          His legs become digitigrade with cloven hooves with two small spur-like “dewclaws” on the backs (although there is no fur).

-          He sprouts a long, scaleless snake-like tail that tapers to a point (no spade) – that still bears freckles like his face and back. It is flexible and can wrap around objects and pick up light things, although it lacks the strength and control to hold a weapon effectively or to support all his weight.

-          His ears have double points (like an elf ear with a second point below the first),

-          His tongue forks (looks like a triangular notch taken out of the tip)

-          Small claws tip his right hand

-          His left arm becomes sinewy (not necessarily bigger, just more corded) – the freckles becoming larger like liverspots, and the fingers are tipped with longer talon-like nails.

Abilities:

While they did not surface immediately, Ethan still has the power to harm others with a touch by his left hand. Initially triggered by anger, but he can learn to control it later, Ethan can leave a burn-mark (in the shape of his six-fingered left hand/however he touches the victim/object) – singing through clothes and marking flesh. Of course, it heals normally, but it is rather disconcerting to see…

 

Ethan is also resilient to heat and fire, and can summon a boost of strength or speed under duress (mostly works like adrenaline, but a bit more so).

 

Setting:

While there are elements of Magic – for the most part this is to take place in a mostly real-world setting. It’s just that some of the things that some people believe in really do work. Although, just like in the real world, most people don’t believe in it.

 

Backstory:

Ethan was born on November 1^st at the stroke of midnight to his mother, one Rosemary Cuskley. While most would consider this birthday quite significant, for Rosemary the timing only seemed to fit “naturally” with the rest of the strange events that led up to the birth of her child.

 

Rosemary had been happily married to Sean Cuskley, ever since her late teens. While they were young, Rosemary was happy. Always a bit of a wild child she found her match in a man with a similar interests and beliefs as herself. Sean was even of similar Irish descent – and it seemed a perfect match. They were both interested in the esoteric – in spiritual healing, natural magic and other associated practices and beliefs. While folksy, and not brimming with money by any means, they had what was important… Almost. Together they transitioned from hodgepodge jobs to actually starting up their own store that sold things from incense, candles, crystals, and unique jewelry to New Age-ish books (some a lot more genuine than others – in order to operate a storefront they needed to be able to cater to both the serious customers as well as teenagers who wanted to snatch up mass-produced tarot decks or books on Wicca). However, they did miss one vital thing… For many years the couple passively tried to have a child – at first writing off failed attempts as it not being time, they were still young, but as years passed, it became a concern. However, they never agreed to visit a doctor, trying instead to improve their fertility chances with particular herbal combinations or crystals…. That is until Sean started getting spontaneous headaches…

 

By the time they visited a doctor, the cancer was inoperable. The disease ravaged Sean quickly and they only had a short time to spend together before he passed, leaving Rosemary very alone.

 

She was empty, and angry and bitter. She ended up eventually visiting a doctor to find out if it had been her fault that they hadn’t able to conceive a child – to find out that yes, it was likely on her side. A very happy life turned sour and Rosemary began to resent some of the techniques she had tried and the values she had held. Nothing had worked – it hadn’t helped them have a child and it hadn’t saved Sean’s life. And now she was alone, not even with a child from their marriage that she could love. In her bitterness, Rosemary turned to some of the darker tomes and magic. Rosemary hadn’t lost her belief in magic so much as her faith in it. The darker paths were a way for her to lash out against the perceived betrayal of the lighter routes. Working with some of the contacts she had made, Rosemary eventually found a very real summoning spell – a way to invoke a favor from the spirits. Most of the magic that Rosemary had practiced always tied in with the symbiotic relationship with nature – asking a favor and working within the energy channels, maintaining a balance and working with those lighter spirits. While Rosemary wasn’t Christian and didn’t believe in Angels and Demons in the traditional sense, she believed in spirits of the earth and benign, neutral, and malign spirits.

 

The ritual was complex and required a sacrifice of an item of great personal value that bore significance to the boon that she asked. Begging for a child, Rosemary boiled down her and her late husbands’ wedding rings. At first, it seemed as if nothing had happened. Days passed and nothing seemed out of the ordinary until one evening as she went out to eat alone, she met a charming man, one "Dyson Graves", who reminded her ever so much of her late husband. He was friendly, charismatic and seemed very interested in her. Lonely, and feeling a spark, she invited her back to her home… where the façade was dropped and he appeared to her in his fully demonic visage and had his way with her.

 

What seemed the next morning like a horrible nightmare, the memory transient and vague – the details seemed swimmy and she started to doubt if anything had really happened at all… until she found out later that she was pregnant. It was a jarring discovery – both happy as well as tainted by the memory. She had gotten what she asked, but the implications…

 

It was at that point that Rosemary locked away the books on Demonology and summoning Rituals, jarred by just how real they were, and re-embraced her older ways, determined in her belief that no child could be born evil, especially if raised in a good home.

 

Rosemary only visited a doctor once in her pregnancy – to have her fears confirmed when the physician said that based on the sonogram there “might be birth defects”. From there, Rosemary handled most of her pregnancy alone with only a close friend to assist her in checkups and the such. The pregnancy, for the most part, was without much complication. The child was active and kicked a lot.

 

At the stroke of midnight on November 1, Rosemary bore her screaming child alone. The child that bore obvious traits of his parentage – a thin tail, hoof-like feet, two small nubs on his forehead, six fingers on his left hand, and he was born with his canine teeth. While it was draining to see such indicators there, in the flesh in her own son, it was an eventuality that Rosemary had prepared herself for – and researched a powerful spell to help him (and herself) lead a relatively normal life.

She bound a part of herself into a symbol of her faith – a symbol of her love for her son and belief that he could be a good person and wove the Celtic cross around his neck with soft leather cording. The magic worked, the piece of herself bound in the cross was easily able to repress the features on the innocent child – and before her eyes the inhuman features seemed to withdraw – leaving her with a healthy, normal baby boy – with a single exception of an extra finger on his left hand.  

 

********

Ethan grew up with absolutely no knowledge of his demonic heritage. He knew his mother had been married previously, and that her husband had passed away from cancer, but she always refused to speak on who his real father was, regardless of how much he pressed or wheedled. She also always insisted that he never remove his cross (not that it would be easy, given that the cord had been braided into a single loop with no tie or clasp in the back - and not to mention the small charm she had added to it to give Ethan the compulsion to not remove it). She pressed upon him that it was a symbol of their ancestry, their faith, and her love for him, and that it was Magic and protected him.

 

Ethan was home schooled, and developed a very tight bond with his mother (very much a mama’s boy). He was inquisitive and bright and she was able to teach him what she felt was important along with basic required curriculums, teach him at his learning speed, and so forth. He learned a lot about his mother’s beliefs, and assisted her in the shop as he grew older, although he was always warned away from any of the darker aspects. She imposed in him a strong sense of morals, of equality and respect. And, for the most part, it was easy for Rosemary to ignore the fact that Ethan was anything but a normal, loving boy. And there were very few reminders of that darker side of him – he wasn’t generally very good with animals (except the family dog that they had forever) and snakes… but that was easily overlookable. And Ethan was never particularly talented at the crystal healing techniques or other ways to channel positive energy – but he did learn and assist with some of the therapies that the shop offered.

 

He enjoyed visiting the Renaissance Festival annually with his mother – both to help her sell in the booth she set up and visit and see the sights. They also traveled periodically to see parts of the country and natural environments, camped, and so forth. His mother would have friends, sometimes of the masculine (or feminine...) persuasion, however there were no lasting relationships – Rosemary seemed happy investing that love in her son, with occasional flings with men she knew and trusted. But she never seemed comfortable letting other boyfriends in close (a combination of the loss of her husband, still jilted by the encounter with the demon, and protecting Ethan).

 

However, eventually Rosemary knew she couldn’t shelter him forever, and wanting him to be able to have a future and go to College, she decided to enroll him in a public High School starting his Sophmore year when he was 16. Colleges weighed high school performances more highly that home schooled children, and she didn’t want to hurt his chances.

 

It was a difficult transition – the organization was strange, being away from his mother for a sizable portion of every week day was strange… and being among so many peers who were often less than sympathetic was difficult. Some of the nicer nicknames applied Ethan picked up included “Granola” and “Freckles”. There were many not-so-nice ones. Ethan stuck out like a sore thumb in public school – both because of having been home schooled as well as his mother’s (and his own) beliefs. On the bright side, after getting the hang of the formatting of public school, his scholastic performance was pretty decent (after all, most public schools have to dumb down the material to teach to the lowest denominator)… but many other aspects weren’t easy. He was a prime target to be bullied…

 

 

Subsequent Storyline – Click Here

This Storyline is not complete~! I will post it when it is.

But really, the modern-version Ethan is more of a backstory and personality that can be altered/plucked down into a RP or story.

 

 

Appendix: Additional Notes:

 

- Restraints Removed: Mechanics of Ethan’s Demon form and the Pendant -

DISCLAIMER: With the exception of what he physically looks like when he takes it off, Ethan’s Pendant may not function the same way in the historical version as it does in the modern. The properties of Ethan’s Celtic Cross and how it works and his Demon-psychology have yet to come up in the historical version and may be drastically different.

 

Physically: Ethan assumes his demon form (outlined above).

 

Additionally, for someone who is not close to Ethan who witnesses this form and knows it for what it is has a hard time expressing this to others. At first, while they may know what they saw, and remember how it looks, for some reason when they try to pass this on it comes out sounding ridiculous or crazy. And over time, that doubt grows and even gnaws into their own belief in what they saw – causing them to question its legitimacy. This doesn’t affect those people directly involved so much – Ethan himself, someone emotionally close to him – be it the target of his fury or positive emotional bond. (Ie, his mother wouldn’t be affected by this if she were to witness it, nor would a close girlfriend.)

 

Psychology:

 

While Ethan is a good person, especially his basic ethics and upbringing, this isn’t a happy-smiling “KAWAII” demon concept. He IS a demon in the biblical sense, and a very real issue for Ethan to face within himself. There are a lot of moral decisions, and questions of self identity. Once the cat has been let out of the bag, there’s no denying that it was there. Now that he knows, it is part of his identity and infused in his being in a way that it never was before it had manifested. Like the concept of self-fulfilling destiny, the very issue of knowing what he is changes Ethan – both psychologically as well as the magic required to ‘rein it in’ after this point.

 

After he knows what he is, and the more he explores what it's like without it, the more the pendant feels like a "cage"/inhibiting what he really is.  While the demon-form is new and frightening, it feels less restrictive - restrictions that he never knew were there until he took off the pendant.  After getting used to his new physical form, it actually feels more natural to him, and wearing the pendant makes him feel more strangely.  It doesn't just illusion away the features, but it pulls them away from him for a time. 

 

Emotionally, without the pendant, Ethan also feels less inhibited.  It feels energizing and gives him this boost of confidence and magnetism.  It feels fulfilling to him to use his potential – like how people feel good after working out – it feels physically right to him, even if he knows he shouldn’t.  His personality is skewed subtly - making it a little more difficult for him to sympathize with others, and making himself and his own desires more prominent.  However, his mother, to some degree, was also correct about nurture being an important factor with raising Ethan. The things that he wants, what IS important to him can be very different than had he not been raised with such a strong moral core.  But, it does scare Ethan to think that who he is and has always identified himself to be might be at least partially due to the object that he wore around his neck and not just his own upbringing and decisions.

 

The Pendant:

Ethan’s pendant is a solid silver Celtic Cross, ornately designed, on a short leather cording around his neck. The cord is a solid loop (until broken the first time) and doesn’t have any sort of clasp or tie in the leather – just braided into a loop. The loop isn’t a choker, but on the same note it’s too tight to just slip over his head. After the cord is broken the first time, it has to be tied around his neck. There are small knots in the leather to either side of the pendant to keep it from slipping off the cord if it is broken or untied.

 

Ethan’s Pendant always was a strong magical (and spiritual!) influence on him. It was bestowed upon him by his mother shortly after his birth, and it was a way to inhibit and deny his demonic nature. It would have taken a good deal of power for his mother to initially place it around him, and beyond that, once removed the first time, it required a stronger force to keep being effective – requiring a contingency spell for the event it was removed to still work…

 

In order to work, both his mother and Ethan needed to believe in what the religious symbol stands for – and it took a lot of power and faith for his mother to cast the spell to begin with. And it is and was a good influence on him through his life – even if he never knew it as anything other than a reminder of his faith and his mother and her love for him.

 

Ethan’s cross acts as a kind of antithesis to his demonic side. If it has been removed, and he, for example, holds it in his hand, it saps away at that part of him. It hurts to pick it up when it has been removed, but if he holds fast, then that hand will lose its demonic traits – feeling like they are being leached away. If the pendant is brought close to his heart (anywhere in the range it would have hung when around his neck or closer) then at first it feels like opposing magnets – hard to force it close. Ethan has to want to do so, and accept it to (and into) his heart in order for it to work, at which point it will sap away the demonic traits, leaving him appearing human again.

 

However, after the first time it was removed, it is a harder task to take away that which Ethan is consciously aware resides within him. Before, it was like an untapped potential sealed within him – psychologically and spiritually he wasn’t aware of it. After the first time, it is like that potential has been released within him and has permeated his being – the veritable opening of Pandora’s box – and you never quite can put things back the same again once opened. It was a contingency plan that sapped a good deal of energy from his mother (making her immediately fall ill when it happened) for the pendant to even be able to work as well as it does after that point. However, even then, there is that potential there even when he appears normal, that promise of power, and that moral dilemma.

 

Also, at first, when he doesn’t have the pendant on, Ethan feels odd – a stranger in his own body. It’s creepy to him – it doesn’t seem like him, and even psychologically he feels a little weird – more selfish. And he might even feel a pang of regret or guilt for something after he puts the pendant back on. But the more time he spends with the pendant off, the more that will seem flipped. Like he’s denying a part of himself when he is wearing the pendant. It feels more like a disguise and he feels uncomfortable with the pendant on. And that fact alone would make him uncomfortable – is his nature changing him? Is he doing things he wouldn’t have before normally? Which is really him, and what is most important to him…? He doesn’t want to slip and truly become a demon in actions. He wants to be a good person…
 

 

Ethan's Father: