Regan Kavanagh She / her
“It wasn’t an Irish death cult. It was Irish, and there was death, but extended family is always a little strange.”
SPECIES: Banshee OCCUPATION: Medical Examiner AGE: 35 Years Old (Looks to be about 25) PLAYED BY: Casey FC: Rose McIver
BIOGRAPHY:
TW: Parental death, grooming, stalking
First, it was Sean Kavanagh who ran—far away from his traditional Irish banshee family, and to Maine, where he blissfully settled with a wife and the three sons that followed. Then came the daughter, Regan. She wasn’t normal; Sean could tell. From the dead animals she brought into the house to her childhood proclamations of becoming a medical examiner, he knew. And he was right. During Regan’s forensic pathology residency, her grandmother, Cliodhna, arrived. Fate had dogged Sean his whole life, and now it struck. Sean—finally and unwillingly—fulfilled his duties at the end of Cliodhna’s blade, bestowing upon Regan her birthright. Regan, witness to the slaughter, banshee in her bones, was changed.
The rebirth was late and hardly ceremonial enough; Cliodhna knew there was much work to be done to turn Regan into a proper banshee. For the first couple of years in Saol Eile, a banshee aos sí near Dublin, any attempts at explanations and forgiveness slid off of an inconsolable Regan. She didn’t believe any of it, couldn’t work through the trauma of what she saw and what she was. But eventually, she knew she had no choice—she needed to control the scream if she was going to keep her oath: primum non nocere. So instead of risking the harm of others, she harmed herself and her psyche, clawing through years of unspeakable miseries and emerging as a husk of hard-won control, in a kind of death that left no cadaver to autopsy. But even submitting to the torture masquerading as training, to eight long years of trying, Regan was never good enough to meet her grandmother’s exacting standards. The only thing that kept her tethered to herself was becoming the community's physician—a calling besides Fate she could serve.
When the banshees started bringing her human “patients” they intended to sacrifice, it broke through Regan’s brainwashing and, in a moment of clarity, she fled Saol Eile. She found an opening for a forensic pathologist in a town called Wicked’s Rest, picked up her residency, and readjusted to human and professional life. Slowly, very slowly, she formed a web of connections that mattered to her, even a romantic relationship, and years of conditioning loosened their hold.
This peace was threatened when Siobhan, another banshee and exile with her own agenda, dragged Regan back to Ireland. But Wicked’s Rest followed Regan there both literally and figuratively, keeping her from falling completely into her grandmother’s grip. This time, when Cliodhna pushed too far, Regan pushed back… into a tar pit, where Cliodhna would spend years slowly sinking to her death. Regan was put on trial, a court presided over by a human pelvic bone (her pubic defender) and too many enemies. There, the banshees figuratively stripped her down, excoriating every exposed piece of her… and all under the watchful pelvis, a bone Regan always trusted. Her life had been in its girdle, but it had done no good. Sentenced to one hundred years in Saol Eile, Regan managed to escape, surprisingly, with Siobhan’s help. Shattered and wingless, nights full of terror and sweat, she could go home. She could be Regan again, whoever that was.
So Regan rejected her duty and the other banshees for good, and decided what she wants to be: human. Because, well, if she were a banshee, that would mean facing everything she’s been running from—her grandmother, her abandoned duty, and the fear of losing control that started it all. So, like a human, she’ll ignore her slipping control and glamours, even as they worsen by the day.
And most of all, like any adept human, she’ll ignore Richard.
Richard “Dick” Pubik was Regan’s once-coworker during her “soul searching phase,” when she tried on different jobs. His unfortunate last name unconsciously bristled her, reminding her of the trial and trauma endured in Saol Eile, the cruelty of the pelvic bone that publicly and pubicly betrayed her. Regan hated Richard Pubik. She hated him possibly even more than she hated Siobhan, because Pubik was right there. She hated him and she allowed herself to hate. She hated his voice and his attitude and his presence. And Dick Pubik hated her back. Every day working together was war, and even once Regan left that ill-suited retail job, she plotted and conspired, because she knew he was doing the same. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, couldn’t let him go; he grated on every moment. He continued to make her life miserable, calling up the morgue and starting petitions of his own, sending scams to her inbox.
Regan had gone to see him, to corner and argue with him. Nothing new. She just had some things to say and he needed to hear them, like that she was going to figure out how to have him transferred to a store in Cleveland, Ohio. They were in some backstreet, fingers pointing, spit flying. That was when the scream came. Months ago, she might’ve been able to contain it. This time she couldn’t. Her control had atrophied since she stopped practicing what her grandmother carved into her.
Richard “Dick” Pubik was Regan’s once-coworker. Now he’s dead. Officially, by another pathologist’s judgement, his lungs ruptured, unusual pneumothorax; an accidental death, mechanism unclear. Unofficially, Regan’s denial has a body count.
And yet Richard continues to torment Regan. Not only his memories, but him, his ghost. He’s there, almost always—arguing, antagonizing, trying to get her to face him. A constant reminder, a witness to what she is and her lack of control even as it keeps failing. Harm done. What do you do with a ghost? Some might consider options ranging from exorcism to offering to help them move on, but Regan has decided—human that she is—that there is no ghost. She’s never believed in them and never will. Humans don’t see ghosts, and she’s decided—again, you might recall—that she’s human.
First, Sean ran. Now Regan is running. But ghosts, like Fate, are hard to outrun.
PERSONALITY:
Serious · Dedicated · Moralizing · Principled · Stubborn · Compassionate · Cold · Demanding · Private · Odd · Obsessive
OTHER INFO:
Though her father fled Saol Eile, he himself was quite brainwashed, and Regan had a strange upbringing as he attempted to shield her. Her mother was only somewhat of a mitigating force.
After arriving in Wicked’s Rest, Regan developed a romantic relationship with vampire slayer, Jade Bloodworth. A couple dead squirrels, an eruption of Sprite, some fornicating bog lemmings—and one thing led to another. They consider themselves “bone partners,” which is more than what it sounds like (but is inclusive of what it sounds like).
As a Medical Examiner, Regan has vast knowledge of forensic pathology and death investigation. Outside of forensic pathology, she is a competent doctor, though really prefers working with the dead. She is familiar with fae (banshee, mostly) physiology and spent time treating them in Ireland.
Regan has three brothers, named Reilly, Alvin (Alv), and Liam. She’s the youngest of the four, though born the same year as Alv. She’s close with Reilly, often the voice of reason among bickering siblings.
Given Regan’s years of particularly intensive, brutal, and at times brainwashing training, she has fine control over her abilities when she’s focusing and giving in to the training and methods she was taught with. However, her control comes with great personal sacrifice, and she recently stopped making those sacrifices.
Regan has large cicada-like wings that lie flat against her back, with green venation and transparent membranes. They function but she doesn’t like them by association. She can’t glamour them herself and has a necklace to help out.
Thanks to her “immersion” years in Saol Eile, Regan has become fluent in Irish, and picked up a slight lilt, though not enough to be considered an accent.
During Regan’s return to Saol Eile with Siobhan, banshees from Saol Eile came to Wicked’s Rest, creating chaos and danger for those Regan left behind. Even now, Regan doesn’t have the full measure of what the banshees did. But consequences are sure to catch up to her.