#ian.intro

[crbereus]

...𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐂𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐋

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙱𝙸𝚃𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝙶𝚁𝙰𝚅𝙴𝙻 𝙸𝙽 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝙲𝙷𝙴𝙴𝙺 𝚆𝙷𝙴𝙽 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙷𝙸𝚃 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙶𝚁𝙾𝚄𝙽𝙳, 𝚆𝙴𝚃 𝚁𝙰𝙸𝙽 𝚂𝙻𝙰𝙿𝙿𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙰𝙶𝙰𝙸𝙽𝚂𝚃 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙱𝙾𝙰𝚁𝙳𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝙰 𝙷𝙾𝚄𝚂𝙴, 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙵𝙻𝙸𝙲𝙺 𝙾𝙵 𝙰 𝙲𝙴𝙸𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙵𝙰𝙽 𝙸𝙽 𝙰 𝙳𝙰𝚁𝙺 𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼,

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒

name: cillian benedict mcneal

nicknames: ian

dob: september 3rd, 1989

age: thirty-three 

gender: cis male

pronouns: he/him 

orientation: heterosexual heteroromantic 

occupation: security guard & bouncer

family: siobhan mcneal (mother), robert lund (father), billie dimaggio (half-sister)

𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘

ON THE RAINY september day when ian was born robert lund demanded a paternity test, a chronic bastard he had barely waited for his girlfriend at the time-a whip-smart, irish immigrant named siobhan mcneal to stop laboring before declaring that the baby didn’t look like him at all and he wasn’t paying any goddamn money for someone else’s kid. though he was an ass it was at least easy to leave him for siobhan. a newly minted citizen she was happy to raise her son without anyone’s help. she work nights at the gas station and mornings at the diner just to scrape by, but gave her son the best life she could, called him cillian to give him a good strong name that would serve him will in life. 

cillian, or ian as he preferred, learned from a young age how to take care of himself and his mother. he was a trailer park rat through and through with summers playing in someone’s hose and knocking each other’s teeth out rolling around in the dirt. he never let anyone talk down at him-learned quick not to pull his punches because nobody else would. he was a natural-born protector always trailing behind his mother in case anyone had the bad luck to try. life was peaceful mostly, robert would swoop in from time to time and fuck up his psyche but that was given. he saw some of worse habits reflected in his father, his anger, his paranoia. he’d always felt like the world was out to get him and his mother. 

in high school ian grew into his own, he started playing football and besides having been 6′3″ since he was 14 with shoulders as big as a door frame he had a natural aptitude for the sport. his star quickly rose and for the first time in his life he was someone people wanted to be around. that kind of popularity was addicting to someone who’d never had a taste of it. he was on the road to a d1 scholarship and a possible career in the pros when he blew out his knee senior year. just like that all of his hopes of giving his mom a better life were dashed, he sunk into depression and cut off any friends he’d made in his short time in the in-crowd. 

in the following years the crowd he fell in with was a less than desirable young. he was constantly getting in trouble, dragged into the police station for public intoxication or starting bar fights. he had a lot of pent-up anger from having his future stripped away and channeled into every bad choice he could make. when he was 23 some serious shit went down and he took the fall for all of it, his so-called friends leaving him to deal with the consequences of their actions alone. the prosecution’s star witness was none other than hope mercer, pushed by outside forces to edit her story into confirming that ian was solely responsible for the crime. and just like that his freedom was gone, sentenced to fourteen years he got out last year on good behavior and overcrowding need on parole. 

as small towns are like to do the tragic tale of ian mcneal was spun and twisted in his absence. when got back the story had turned into a tale of murder and mystery around the football star that went crazy after losing his shot. he was a social pariah, squirreled away as the town’s black sheep. his mother had grown sick, contracting lymphoma. there was no hope of leaving mercer hollow any time soon and very few job opportunities for an excon. he got a security job at the bank in the day and worked weekends at a strip joint in liberty. even with his mother’s medical bills bankrupting it was still nearly impossible for him to accept help. 

with hope mercer dead and his tire tracks in the dirt where her body was dumped all eyes are turned back onto ian as one of the main suspects. he finds himself the subject of a witch hunt lead by the more judgemental residents of mercer hollow who couldn’t possibly believe that one of the distinguished, wealthy residents of the town could be responsible for such a tragedy. 

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

ian’s always been a natural protector and defender. his entire life he’s been the first one to throw a punch or stick up for the little guy. he had quietly hoped for a better life than the one he’s been handed but now he knows that it just won’t come. he’s a lowkey sweetheart who just wants the people in his life to be safe and happy. his overprotective streak can sometimes spiral into control issues and the one thing he fears more than anything in life is ending up like his father. he’s a serious, responsible kind of man who still doesn’t take shit from anyone. he can seem hard on the surface but once you get to know him he’s got a soft heart.

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

the one that got away: this muse would have known ian in high school. where everything else was real they were real. ian, a romantic at heart was over the moon to have someone. they seemed to fit together perfectly but ian broke up with them when he blew out his knee. there were a few letters sent to ian in prison but he never responded. now that he’s back in town what will happen?

friend for life: this is ian’s bro, someone who’s stuck by him through thick and thin and one of the few real friends he still has who hasn’t ducked and run after he’s become the town pariah. 

scooby gang funny business: ian is currently the subject of a witch-hunt to find hope mercer’s killer. so in order to clear his name he’s been doing his own investigating trying to figure out who killed hope so it doesn’t get pinned on him. your muse is assisting him in the search for their own reasons.

[ianlightft]

‘The clear path is never the right one’

Name: Iandore ‘Ian’ Lightfoot Age: 20 DoB: May 18th Major: Literary Arts Year: 2nd (started late due to some personal issues) Dorm: Clumber House

✦ — what are you keeping from the original canon

Ian’s family dynamic is much the same; supportive older brother, mostly having been raised by a single mother until his teens when she started dating again, lost his father to cancer before he was born. Grew up in the suburbs outside Detroit in a moderately comfortable home life with his dog Blazey but not a lot of friends between his brother’s antics and his own tendency to be shy as a kid.

Obviously his magic is gone but that’s replaced with an exceptionally sharp creative streak inherited from his dad, and a lot of pressure to be like him. His family always expected him to become a talented computer programmer like Wilden, a real tech ‘wizard’ but it wasn’t what Ian wanted and led to a lot of doubting himself.

✦ — personality

+compassionate, +curious, +intelligent

-scattered, -anxious, -withdrawn

Ian has lived much of his life in a careful sort of way, being born very soon after his father’s death from a long-term fight with cancer, his mom was very protective of her youngest child and it affected him. A bit on the neurotic side, he very much wants to connect with people but is awkward in the attempt.

Most of his life he’s depended on his family, especially his big brother, to encourage him and give him that sense of safety. Unfortunately, they’ve also always projected how much he reminds people of his dad in a well-meaning way. Ian has struggled with the idea of longing to have known his father but weary of being compared to the memory of someone he cannot connect to.

He can be bold, but more for the sake of others than himself, and he tries hard but falters more than he likes to admit. He’s earnest and charming in his clumsy way, loyal to a fault, but also rather stubborn and doesn’t always see the bigger picture at times. He’s also a bit dependent on others so far as being vulnerable to manipulation in his eagerness to fit in somewhere.

✦ — your characters schooling

Ian is majoring in Literary Arts, surprisingly, since everyone expected him to take to tech like his dad. But he writes, that’s what he wants to do; most of his classes reflect that, along with some standard classes. He enjoys learning, very focused and fixated on details; his organization skills are great.

Unfortunately he’s less adept in physical classes and basically avoids sports teams for that reason unless he’s on the sidelines. Even then he finds it dull, honestly.

He’s a bit too withdrawn to be overly involved in clubs, but he does hang around the theater club at times to watch them. He wants to be much more social than he seems to accomplish being and drifts from one idea to the next without having yet found any club where he’s wanted to stick around long.  

✦ — three head canons

Relationships. 

Ian’s only recently discovered his interest in other people, earlier efforts having been a disaster and resolved to the idea he was asexual.  Turns out not so much. He figured he wasn’t straight but being gay took a while to come to terms with. And that’s awkward. He’s not even told his family yet, even though he’s pretty sure they’d be okay with it. But now he has something else to add to the list of things to figure out about himself, apparently. Which is just great, oh yeah, he’ll just work that whole self-affirming sexuality thing in between classes and studying, sure.

Dorm Life. 

Let’s just say Ian is an interesting roommate to have. Because while he’s at times a typical college student in some ways; he’ll wear his favorite hoodie or flannel overshirt for a week straight and live on vegetarian pizza, he has just as many odd habits. Like a time limit to how long he can live in messy chaos before he has to clean the entire room and organize things; about a week or so before he gets twitchy. And expect post-it notes to be everywhere, he lives by them. He’s easy enough to get along with, but his roommates really aren’t thrilled that he binge-watches old sci-fi movies all hours of the night and has two alarm clocks just to drag out of bed in time for class.

Notebooks. 

Ian is never without a notebook, or a few of them; he writes to-do lists and scrawls down memories with an avid determination. All he ever had from his dad was an old picture or two, so he’s determined to commit the things he wants to remember to paper to save them forever. It gives him a sense of control over a life he’s always felt lacked that, lists and notes to give him confidence, life penned so that it’s always there to look back on. He thinks like a writer and finds a sort of calm in the ability to capture his days with words.