Stephen Shorne
From Dunehelden
Stephen is a junior in the university section of Dunehelden, and has a major in history and a minor in dance. He is half-vampire and half-human, having a human father and a vampire mother. He calls himself a "halfpire". Stephen is also partially blind, having lost his right eye in his mid-teens. He has replaced it with a glass eye that matches his real left one.
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[edit] Bio
[edit] Pre-Dunehelden
Stephen was born in a small town in Manitoba, Canada, to Andrew and Jennifer Shorne. Being the child of a vampire and a human, a union that was unheard-of in that area, Stephen faced persecution from his peers from an early age. When he was eight years old his older schoolmates locked him in a tiny crawlspace in an abandoned house and left him there; a homeless man who had taken shelter in the house found him and returned him to his parents. Stephen has suffered from claustrophobia ever since as a result. At the age of fifteen Stephen lost his right eye in a fight with several of his classmates, which also left him with a scar running down the right side of his face.
[edit] Dunehelden
Stephen is good friends with a number of students, including Li Haneul, Seele Steiner-Finlay, Nina Paem and Meriel "Dubhiarr" MacNamara. He is somewhat self-conscious about his glass eye, namely because it has a tendency to pop out at awkward moments, especially when he sneezes (one such incident in the mess hall resulted in several people, most of them teachers, being splattered with melted chocolate ice cream). He has a crush on Dubhiarr, though he has yet to admit it to her. Thus far he has shown his affection by buying her gifts on Valentine's Day (a bouquet of eleven pink roses and one fake purple one), her birthday (a purple silk scarf) and Christmas (a silver and amethyst necklace in the shape of a flower), and giving them to her anonymously.
[edit] Conall
When Professor Conall first began terrorizing the students, Stephen looked into Seele's memories and helped her recall and untangle memories of Conall nearly taking advantage of her, and he enlisted himself as a helper to Haneul, who had been appointed by the Headmistress to keep an eye out for suspicious people or goings-on in the school. Neither he nor Haneul got the chance to beat Conall to a pulp, much to Stephen's disappointment.
The morning after Conall was killed, Stephen followed Nina to the sick bay and met Dubhiarr there, hearing about Conall's death from Ian Harris. He secretly hid a fake, purple rose in a vase full of irises that Professor Diana Harrows had given to Dubhiarr, knowing that Dubhiarr would know what it meant. After leaving the room to help Nina retrieve food for Dubhiarr, Ian and Kemekin, Stephen attempted to comfort a crying Nina, and looked into her memories to see what was bothering her. Thus he learned of Nina and Dubhiarr's argument that had driven Dubhiarr out into Conall's clutches, and of Nina's overwhelming guilt and shame because of that argument and its consequences.
[edit] Tabula Rasa
After Conall's death, Stephen attended history classes with Valérian Mervielle-Dion, the professor who replaced Conall. He and Stephen's interactions were alway awkward, because Stephen's name was so similar to the name of Valérian's little brother, Étienne; this brought on vivid memories of Valérian's past, which he struggled to set aside. A few weeks after Conall's death, Stephen was attending a class with Valérian when he happened to look into the professor's eyes and see Valérian's memories of his mother's death, his own death, and his murder of Étienne.
The intensity of the emotions in the memories and the length of time he was immersed in them led to Stephen's memories of himself and his past being completely erased, and left him with a splitting headache on top of that. His classmates Seth Larisha and Lance Woodburn helped get Stephen to the infirmary, where Stephen tried to make sense of what had happened. Dubhiarr was quickly brought in, and she started to help Stephen get his memories back, inadvertently finding out about Stephen's crush on her in the process.
Stephen slowly began regaining memories of his past life and his friends at Dunehelden, by reading his student file and interacting with Nina and Haneul. Looking into Nina's memories prompted questions about Conall (which his friends urged him to set aside) and Seele.
[edit] Personality
Stephen is a calm, polite person, and is fairly outgoing when he wants to be. He loves dancing, and is very good at it, particularly tap and Irish step dancing. He has also dabbled in various other forms, including ballet.
