Conner Zweiger

Physical Appearance

• Medium length chocolate brown hair, with longer bangs covering right eye
• Blue eyes
• Fair skinned
• Somewhat tall in height
• Somewhat slender with moderate amount of muscle
• Pierced ears (only has single lobe piercings, even if some of his art depicts more)

Clothing Style

Conner tends to dress with a somewhat edgy style despite how soft and gentle he actually is. He prefers dark colors for his clothing when out and about. He also is a bit sensitive to cold, so he tends to wear long sleeves and keep his legs covered for most of his outfits. There's also some running joke within his band that he's required to wear skinny jeans for his band outfits or he'll throw off the balance of the cosmos (Fathom tends to exaggerate). In public he humors the skinny-jeans-myth, but he greatly prefers sweatpants at home. He's rather open to a wide range of styles, but he doesn't really like bright in-your-face designs or colors. He's not too hardcore edgy either, and even though he has his punky-ish torn shirts and jeans and such, he's a total softy. He tends to like black, leather jackets, boots, and clothing with some cross-stitched or fish-netted accents, although they can't be excessive or dominate the majority of the article of clothing.

His most common outfit consists of a long-sleeved black shirt with tears in both shoulders. His right sleeve becomes a fingerless glove with a snake and arrow symbol of his band, Etrukan Truth, on the back of the hand. The left sleeve ends at the elbow with a black strap and red buckle. On his left hand he wears a black glove with a larger snake and arrow symbol and some fishnet accents. He also has dark jeans with slightly torn knees, and black leather boots with a seemingly transparent front cutout (it's actually durable mesh) and black crossing straps with red buckles. He wears two black studded belts, a black leather studded choker, and a snake and arrow necklace. He also tends to wear either silver studs or small silver hoop earrings in his ears.

Personality

Conner is an honest and sweet young man who prefers to keep his life relatively simple despite the world always making things complicated for him somehow. He's rather easy to read and always wears his heart on his sleeve, so there doesn't seem to be much mystery to him. He's very friendly, optimistic, and social with others, and he always tries to be diplomatic and is rarely confrontational (unless it's something silly, like confronting Fathom about being a lazy sack who never does his own laundry). Conner tends to be practical and realistic, and he's usually the most responsible and level headed of his band mates. He's very mellow and is easy to approach and talk to, especially since he's very open-minded and nonjudgmental. He always tries his best to be there for those he cares about and look after those around him, and he tends to be a self-starter and a reliable friend/ally. He is willing to act as a mediator when needed and can always be relied on to remain civil when tensions are high. 

However, since Conner doesn't like inconveniencing others, he can sometimes be a bit of a pushover. He particularly has problems with standing up for himself against aggressive people or encounters when he is unable to defuse the situation through talking others down. He is not timid about standing up for his friends or family though, and he will always come to their aid or even put himself in danger if it means protecting them, regardless if he can actually handle the situation on his own. Usually Fathom is the one to take the aggressive approach, and although Conner constantly insists that violence is never the answer, he does often need Fathom to defend him against physical confrontation whether he likes it or not. He also has a problem with expressing when he has problems with other people, and he'll usually just stay quiet and try to ignore things rather than bring them up to people other than his close friends or family. Fathom usually ends up doing such things for him, even if Conner would prefer to not make a scene.

Although he has an edgy and cool appearance, anyone who knows him personally knows he's just a simple softy who doesn't really have much to hide about himself (aside from the weird supernatural things going on around him). He has no desire to alter his persona to seem more interesting, and he detests lying to others, to the point where he usually can't convince himself to be dishonest about anything even if his life depended on it. For this reason, he really doesn't seem like a very complicated person, but he prefers to be that way. He doesn't particularly stand out in a crowd when there are a lot of other social and outgoing people around, but in terms of his band he tends to be the most social and friendly, so he tends to leave a stronger personal impression on others that encounter them for the first time. His band mates sometimes refer to him as the band mom because he keeps everything in order for them, fusses over things, worries about all of their well-beings, and is the best one out of them to go to for emotional support.

Abilities

• Power over Mana, which allows him to manipulate others into doing things simply by verbally commanding them
  • Currently unskilled at controlling his Mana and cannot manipulate strong willed people and also exhausts himself almost immediately after use
  • When using a specially designed Mana gauntlet, he can better use his abilities without wearing himself down
• Skilled at using small firearms, specifically simple handguns, although he has enough knowledge about some other kinds to use them in a pinch
  • In conjunction with his Mana he can further improve his aim by "willing" his shots to find their target, although this too can exhaust him if used too frequently
• Fluent in both German and English
• Skilled at playing guitar and singing, although he can also play drums and a bit of piano

Strengths

• Charming, compassionate, and easy to approach
• Loyal, supportive, and diplomatic
• Honest, moral, and empathetic
• Trustworthy, self motivated, and responsible

Weaknesses

• Non-confrontational, has trouble defending himself, and danger prone
• A bit of a pushover, tends to hide his personal problems, and a little too trusting at times
• Extremely sensitive to the cold, to the point where if he's in the cold for longer than a few minutes he will slow down until he can't move anymore
• Easily walked over by aggressive people and has a hard time staying calm if people he cares about are in peril or injured

Backstory

As far as Conner knows, he was born in the US, where he lived with his parents for about a year until his sister, Linsey, was born. Shortly after, their parents divorced and the two were raised by their father, Oskar. Later that same year, Oskar also took in their infant cousin, Volkmar, under somewhat sketchy circumstances, and moved to Germany where Oskar was from originally. Conner and his family lived close to his grandparents' home, who helped Oskar raise the children. They lived there for a few years until Oskar‘s parents were starting to have a hard time taking care of themselves in their old age and were planning on moving to a retirement home. Oskar decided to return to the US to visit his older sister, Hanna, and her family for some time until he figured out a stable way to raise the three children on his own. Unfortunately he was unaware the FBI had a warrant for his arrest for assisting Volkmar's father elude authorities after a mass murder (which was the reason why Volkmar was placed into Oskar‘s care in the first place). Oskar was apprehended by authorities during their visit to Hanna’s, but he managed to use his power over Mana to escape and went on the run with the three children.

Conner grew up moving throughout the country almost constantly, only settling in areas for short periods of time. Oskar home-schooled all three kids since they couldn't risk attending public school and alerting anyone to their location. The three children were very close in age, so they bonded easily and did almost everything together when playing or exploring outdoors, especially since they didn't make that many friends while on the move. Conner tended to be the more sensible and cautious of the three, often keeping his headstrong sister from getting too out of control and usually providing his sensitive younger cousin any support needed when trying to keep up with them. During this time while on the run, Conner met Fathom Shank, a boy acquainted with Oskar, and the two became close friends after encountering each other multiple times while traveling. At some point when they were about 13 years old, Fathom ended up saving Conner's life, which solidified their bond.

Eventually the family was finally caught by authorities in Omaha, NE. Although Conner and Linsey didn't face any repercussions, their father ended up being occupied negotiating his way out of extensive questioning and prison sentences (only accomplished with use of his Mana), and Volkmar ended up serving a year of juvi for previously attacking and injuring another child their age. Conner and Linsey ended up staying in a foster home temporarily, likely to remain there while their father served prison time, but Oskar manipulated his way out of serving any time and also negotiated getting a home for all of them in a wooded area on the outskirts of the city. After they finally were able to settle down, Fathom ended up meeting up with them again and was invited to stay in their new hopefully-permanent home.

Conner and Volkmar wrote music together while growing up, and occasionally when Fathom encountered them on the run he would join them. Conner's sister Linsey would sometimes record videos of them performing songs and would upload them to her website, which she eventually redesigned to focus on them as a band called Etrukan Truth. They were able to work on improving their music and video quality after they were able to settle in Omaha following Volkmar's release from juvi. During that year of juvi, Oskar also took in Jasper Moflin, and later Conner met Lee Schmedrick. The group was able to make more rounded music with more members, and their music was mostly distributed through their website and social media thanks to Linsey's efforts. Their healthy fan following from before gaining other band members grew exponentially to their surprise, and as of late they've been using this opportunity to make enough income to ease the strain on Oskar from taking care of the household of seven on his own.

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