| Stephen Darby | |
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| Portrayed By | Jason Michael Carroll |
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| Gender | Male |
| Date of Birth | 5/5/81 |
| Age | 28 |
| Zodiac Sign | Taurus |
| Aliases | Fetish |
| Place of Birth | Pittsburgh |
| Current Location | NYC, NY |
| Occupation | Jeweller |
| Known Relatives | Parents |
| Significant Other | ??? |
| Identity | Secret |
| Known Abilities | Shamanistic Magic |
| First Appearance | Over a Book? |
My mother forsook our history. I must learn it on my own.
History
As time passes, so do many cultures. While some people will hold to their traditions, many more of the younger generations move away to fall in with modern life. Unfortunately, this happens a lot with many Native Americans. While the tribal customs pass along to some, most of the young people do their own thing. So it was with Una. Leaving her people, she went to school and ended up marrying Daniel Darby before College was over.
Una and Daniel ended up dropping out of college early on, because of Una's pregnancy. Her pride and sense of self prevented her from asking her parents for help, or for even revealing her history to her child. While it was fairly obvious she was of tribal decent, she never discussed it and Stephen never really questioned it as he grew older, trusting his mother to tell him what he needed to know.
His grades were average in school as he went along, nothing spectacular. He did decently in sports as well, being able to occasionally start on the basketball team, but even then, he wasn't that great. He wasn't voted most likely to succeed, or most likely to fail. He was simply… average. He looked good, and that was a nice thing, but he didn't do anything that made him stand out.
He graduated high school with a 3.0 GPA, and a high enough score on the SAT to get a partial scholarship, the rest to be made up in 'work credits'. Before his freshman year of college, however, he and a few of his friends decided to do a road trip across the country for fun. They loaded up a car and took off. They hit all of the off the wall spots they could, like the world's largest ball of twine, before they headed into the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. Somewhere in between, their car broke down. A small reservation was the closest place to them. They took them in to help repair their car, mainly based on the fact that Stephen's genetics gave him away, even if he didn't know his own history.
They had to wait a week for the parts to come in and repair, but they looked at it as a chance to learn about a new area. On the first evening, however, while Stephen was taking a walk on his own, he was approached by an old man who asked him what he knew of his past. Stephen told him what he knew, and the old man simply nodded. He gave him a time and place to meet him tomorrow, with the accompanying, ominous, "And be there alone."
Figuring it'd be good for a laugh, Stephen went. His friends didn't hear from him for a few days… The old man led Stephen to a place out in the dessert and explained to him that the spirits had asked him to take the young man into the open areas for his vision quest. Unfortunately, Stephen didn't know his mother's people. The man left abruptly, explaining that he needed to discover why he was brought there.
The rest of the vacation passed uneventfully. He went back home and started college, only to drop out after one year. He just wasn't ready for school. Instead, he chose to go into a vocation by way of apprenticeship. Jewelry was his chosen profession. Primarily silversmithing and gemcuting, however, with one smithing, you can usually do a little in others. In his daily life, he began working with a master jeweler, and finally chose to set out on his own journeyman status to make things on his own. This led him to New York City, where he's just finishing up the last part of his journeyman status before becoming a master of his craft.
Themesongs
Timeline
| January 5 | Stephen and Pudge meet an interesting new person. | Too Friendly |
|---|---|---|
| January 15 | Stephen is there when all hell breaks looks. | Inferno Ignited |
Quotes
- "I said it!"
Trivia
- Amazing thing!
Powers
The greatest use of power that Stephen has mastered is the ability to imbue himself with an animal nature. He can channel the spirits of animals into his body, granting a minor VERY limited transformation, and an animalistic spirit body surrounding his own. What this entails basically is this. Using a hawk as an example, Stephen's body will become light, and his toes will transform into talons. His hair will become feathers. Around his body, a spiritual aura will shape into a hawk. While channeling the Hawk's Spirit, he can fly like a Hawk, he can see long distances like a hawk, he can attack from the air with talons like a hawk's. All in all, he becomes very much LIKE the animal, but retaining his human appearance. However, this power is not as easy as just channeling, before any animal can be channeled, there are things he must do. Animals will respond to him as if he were one of their own when he channels.
To channel an animal, he has to make a carving out of either bone from the animal, or stone from it's native habitat. For some animals this is easy, as they're everywhere. For others, not as easy. After the carving, he must imbue it with the actual spirit of the animal. Generally, he wears these fetishes that he creates around his body either as charms or on a necklace. His power only works with real animals, and the powers he gains are adjusted to be as if they were an animal HIS size. If the fetish is destroyed, he cannot channel that animal again until he recreates it.
Also, there is a downfall to using his animal channeling. The longer he channels the same animal (consecutively), the less human his mind becomes. At a day of channelling, he becomes the animal mentally. He CAN be snapped out of it, but that requires a telepath, animal telepath, destruction of the fetish, or some very strong link to his normal life being brought to his attention.
Gallery
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