Acruen
Alright, so in the continuing ‘I’m info dumping about old charas because I miss them’ thing that I’m doing....I’ve got a few I’m gonna group because of their species: Acruen. But I figure I should explain what an Acruen is first, so this is gonna be part explanation of the species, part info dumping of charas. It will get long (I feel like all of these do. Sorry!)
What happens when you piss a witch off enough they place a dormant curse on your family line which gets activated during a moment of intense emotions, most often tragedies? Well then you get an Acruen. Acruen are extremely similar to mutants in terms of the near infinite ways their powers can manifest but each Acruen has some form of theme to their power. For example, Mark Park is an Acruen whose theme is weather, while Barry’s theme is speed with a small bit of electricity mixed in, and Rylan/Mykael has heat as theirs. Acruen are still, at their core, human however. Unless their theme allows for it, they are not stronger, faster, or more durable than any other human. They still bleed, still suffer, still die. And there’s also the added risk that the original witch or one of their direct descendants can remove the curse that caused them to become Acruen in the first place. If that curse is removed, an Acruen reverts to being a normal person.
So with that all covered, (I know it’s pretty short but honestly Acruen are a very simple concept I’d say) let’s take a look at some of the Acruen I have. I’ll include FCs and images where I can.
Rylan/Mykael, FC: Robbie Amell. Before getting into his info, I just want to say that I am by NO MEANS an expert on any of the medical stuff/diagnosis things that are discussed in his information. I do not have any personal experience with any of it nor do I know anyone personally who does. I’m not in the medical field in any regard and I have no knowledge of psychology.
So first off, this one’s probably the more complicated of the Acruen I have. Basically, originally it was Rylan and Mykael, a set of conjoined twins. The two pretty much hated each other. Polar opposites, the two literally could not be in the same room once the surgeries and rehab following the surgeries to separate them were completed. They lost their parents before they turned ten, their mom passing first from cancer when they was six and their father in a plane crash when they were eight. At that point, they were adopted by their mom’s childhood friend and her husband. Things went off the rails however in high school. Rylan was always the athletic troublemaker while Mykael was the intelligent, responsible one. After getting in trouble for something rather stupid that he doesn’t even remember, Rylan got put under house arrest for a weekend by their foster mom while she and her husband went out for a work function. Only thing is, there was this party Rylan wanted to go to and being quite the stubborn, rebellious one, he saw no issue with sneaking out to go to said party. Mykael, upon realizing Rylan had snuck out, went to the party to drag his brother home. The two were arguing in the parked car when one of the drunk party goers crashed into their car while behind the wheel of another car. Rylan was the only one to survive, fighting to try and get his brother to safety, screaming because he couldn’t loose another family member. But with the party going on not that far away, no one heard. This tragedy was what would wind up turning Rylan into an Acruen. Cut to a few hours later, Rylan refused to accept the death of his brother. He even told his adoptive parents that Mykael was still there, tapping his head absently. They didn’t think anything of it at first. It wasn’t until four weeks later when down the stairs came Mykael. Only it wasn’t truly Mykael, it was Rylan. The truth was Rylan’s inability to accept the death of his brother caused a sort of fracture where he adopted nearly every mannerism of his deceased twin. His parents, when they finally realized what was going on, took him to all sorts of doctors, thinking he had developed some sort of multiple personality thing.But every doctor they took him to was adamant: Rylan did not have multiple personalities. For one thing, he only expressed one other personality, not enough to class as ‘multiple’. For another, both personalities expressed an ability to communicate with one another as well as remaining ‘conscious’ for the entirety of the other presenting. Certainly, there was something going on with the teen but the majority of the doctors chalked it up to the extreme trauma of what had happened.None were willing to give an actual diagnosis of what was going on however. And Rylan/Mykael wasn’t exactly concerned about it either. Because of everything that was going on, it was a while before the Acruen status was actually realized by them. What it took was a fight with his adoptive dad during which Rylan/Mykael literally burst into flames. The next day, the house was empty with no note or anything. Since then, Rylan/Mykael has been doing whatever they can to make ends meet, surviving on their own.
Mark Hunter Park, FC: Liam McIntyre
Mark...Mark’s something of a bastard. Or a brat. Take your pick. Stubborn, ambitious, and not at all a good leader, Mark tends to think more of himself than he should. Humble is not a word used to describe this particular Acruen. Nor is smart usually. He’s still smarter than his kid brother was though. Mark knows consequences, even if he does tend to have a habit of foofooing them. Looking out for others is no longer something on his agenda, not since his brother was shot the night Mark became an Acruen. Mark’s a thief. Growing up, he was the only thing that kept his younger brother from getting his ass killed or in jail. Mark taught his brother everything he knew about being a thief, about surviving. The one thing he never quite managed to teach his brother was the subtle art of ‘not always doing stupid shit’. Sure, Mark had his dumbass moments, he still does, but knowing when to lay low was always something he tried to impart on his brother. Not that it ever stuck. Kyle had a habit of always going for the biggest thrill, never really sticking to any one lane, until he got started robbing banks, much to Mark’s frustration. There’s a rather infamous video of a high speed chase involving the brothers when Kyle robbed his first bank which rather clearly shows Mark at the steering wheel, tearing Kyle a new one and thwacking him upside the head between some astonishingly reckless driving and the occasional potshot at the law enforcement vehicles following them. They were never actually caught on that one. Nor any of the other times when the brothers worked together. Mark always knew how to get Kyle out of whatever shit he landed in after all. Up until the night they were getting ready to flee the country while the FBI was after them. Mark was in the plane, at the pilot’s seat, while Kyle was booking it across the tarmac. And then Kyle got shot and Mark got to witness his brother’s death. His grief and rage triggered his Acruen status and wound up wiping out an entire FBI task force with the exception of one person: the one who shot Kyle. Since then, Mark’s been juggling his desire for revenge, for the death of the one who took his brother’s life with his own survival.
Last up is Barry. I can’t seem to find any images for him I actually like right now so I may come back and add that. Barry’s a doofus, quite simply put. He’s got a heart of gold, a sense of humor, and loyalty a mile wide but he’s also quite the dork. He tends to hide his intelligence, not always intentionally, behind his klutzy nature and inability to reliably read a room. That being said, Barry’s got great insight and often picks up on cues before others, particularly when it comes to those he’s closest to. He is more on the naive side at times though and he’s rather self-sacrificing. He’ll gladly be the clown to make others laugh or lighten the mood and doesn’t always come across as taking things as seriously as he perhaps should. But he’s incredibly harsh on himself and prone to internalizing his grief and guilt. He’s great at looking out for others and he just can’t stop caring about them but he absolutely sucks at taking care of himself. Barry grew up without his parents for the most part. Mom was murdered in front of him as a kid, dad took the blame. Barry’s mom’s murder is what triggered his Acruen state and he’s been trying to find out who killed his mom ever since. Problem is, as far as he’s been able to uncover, the murderer wasn’t human. He hasn’t been able to figure out what they were exactly and since his dad was the convenient scapegoat, no one’s really listened to him about it either. In their eyes, he’s just the traumatized kid who say it but couldn’t accept it. Barry’s got a bit of an inability to hold down a job, his theme of speed meaning his thoughts and reactions tend to be much, much faster than others and he struggles to remember to slow down these things enough to blend in like a regular person at times so he grows bored rather fast. And he’s not exactly great at the whole ‘being on time’ thing. And he’s got a stubborn side which, when combined with his morals, has led him to actually argue with superiors on what’s right and what’s not because holding his tongue is just not something he knows how to do when he believes in things.