Samuel Darwin
Samuel Henry Darwin
f8331d65.jpg
Portrayed By Cedric Bihr
Gender Male
Date of Birth December 13, 1976
Age 31
Zodiac Sign Sagittarius, Yang Fire Dragon
Aliases Sam, Darwin, Dar, Captain Nerdo
Place of Birth New York City, NY, USA
Current Location New York City, NY, USA
Occupation Writer and Novelist
Known Relatives Theodore Darwin (father), Andrea Darwin (mother)
Significant Other None
Known Abilities Healing
First Appearance Friendly Geeks
Phone Number 283-9114

Samuel Darwin is a New York Times bestselling author as well as a book-reviewing journalist for the Times itself. He is not well-known outside of those specific areas, but has been a guest speaker and has run writing workshops at several local colleges.

History

Samuel Darwin was born and raised in New York’s upper west side and lived a privileged life thanks to the efforts of his parents, both of whom were influential journalists. He was conceived by a matter of accident several years after his parents believed a pregnancy was no longer physically possible, and was regarded both as a miracle of life and as an additional unexpected financial and emotional strain. He never attended public school, entering into a private kindergarten and continuing on the private track until college.

Darwin’s power manifested early. When he was five, he instinctively healed his dog – an aging schnauzer named Pepper – when she was injured in a dog park. Despite panic at the resulting nosebleed, the boy quickly figured out that he had the capacity to mend the wounds of others… but not himself, something discovered when he broke his arm at age twelve during a biking accident. He was in and out of hospitals for host of his young life while doctors attempted to puzzle out the cause of his spontaneous (and serious) nosebleeds, which worsened yearly as Darwin attempted to offer healing to things that had sustained greater and greater injuries.

While in school Darwin was the very definition of a nerd: he played video and computer games, had a tabletop gaming group, read an obscene amount of science fiction and fantasy, and generally let his life be enriched by things that didn’t exactly put him at the top of the teenage social ladder. His only redeeming traits were a spot on his high school science team and his leadership of the school newspaper staff, which weren’t quite the peaks of popularity either. Darwin graduated as the valedictorian of Columbia Prep, somehow managing to be at the very least tolerated by most of his classmates, and continued on to attend Columbia University.

He graduated Columbia with a double major in Journalism and Creative Writing; Darwin’s parents approved of the first and considered the second to be a waste of their son’s time and their money. Since graduating he found himself a job writing for the New York Times, and began to publish books as he wrote them. His first few novels were met with criticism, but he eventually found the right publisher and started to receive an unexpected amount of attention. Though he still works at the Times, that job is now secondary to his career as a popular and offbeat novelist; he has worked out several deals to provide the novelizations for movies. Darwin’s favorite jobs are without question those he gets from the scifi and fantasy community. He has produced two bestsellers that follow his own peculiar vein of writing. Darwin also eventually started a small band with several friends, for which he sang and played guitar.

When he was twenty seven, Darwin’s parents were involved in a brutal auto accident. While his mother was relatively unharmed his father was not expected to live past his first night in the hospital. During his ‘last visit’ with his father, Darwin restored him to the very pinnacle of health – and gave himself a stroke in the process. He was hospitalized immediately, and by the time the air had cleared it became evident that he would not walk again. Though his legs were not entirely useless, they were rendered extremely weak from the waist to the knees and completely unresponsive from the knees down. This stunt had the added effect of revealing Darwin’s power to his parents and to several people on the medical staff at Columbia Presbyterian, but they were bribed into silence.

Since that time Darwin and his parents have shared a distant relationship, mostly because neither party knows what to say to the other. Though Darwin’s father certainly appreciates being alive he is troubled with guilt over his son’s sudden disability. Darwin continues to write, and has begun healing injured people that cross his path on the sly, a practice that he keeps from his parents.

Abilities

The power to heal – to lay hands on an injured body and take away pain and suffering – it’s one that no one in their right mind would ask for when it has consequences attached like those that have been clipped to the abilities of Samuel Darwin. He has the potential to heal virtually any injury, but all of his healings come at great personal expense. The healing itself is achieved by skin-to-skin contact with the palms of Darwin’s hands, and there are no secondary manifestations other than tingling and an odd numbing sensation felt by the person or thing being healed. Darwin cannot resurrect the dead. He can heal anything that is alive, including animals and plant matter. The strain that healing puts on him in terms of non-human subjects is lesser depending on the size and complexity of the organism; a housecat would be far easier to heal than a human, and an ancient oak tree would be harder to heal.

In all cases of healing, even with something as simple as a papercut, Darwin encounters negative side effects (though the recipients of his attention do not, barring some nausea depending on how severe their injuries were in the first place). These side affects can range from simple drowsiness to full-blown organ failure, cardiac arrest, stroking, or comatose states. Nosebleeds are commonly manifested with any strenuous use of his ability. Darwin is incapable of healing himself. No matter how hard he tries, all he ever manages to do is give himself a monstrous headache. Due to overusing his power, he experiences spontaneous nosebleeds on an almost daily basis. Darwin is able to withhold his actual healing and just provide a numbness similar to a local anesthetic if he wishes, something that has a far less debilitating effect on him.

Timeline

May 17 Friendly Geeks Samuel meets Namir in a local comic shop, and they find they have enough things in common to warrant an addition to Namir's Halo team, Karmageddon. Darwin, Namir
May 19 Drinking is Good For You Darwin goes to meet a friend at the Della Rosa, who decides that showing up is overrated. Instead, he gets treated to the experience of a boilermaker by Trina. The Della Rosa earns itself a new returning customer. Darwin, Trina
May 26 Nosebleeds Darwin trolls the Metro clinic and heals a random bystander. Jedaiah makes a fuss. Darwin, Jedaiah
May 28 Now You See It... Freakiness at Mount Sinai gets… really freaky. Bekah, Darwin, Samantha

RP Hooks

  • At the moment, Darwin is searching for a freak-friendly (read: Evolved-friendly) psychologist or psychiatrist because of his screwed up head.

Modern Noise

Modern Noise is the financially unsuccessful band of which Darwin is the lead singer and guitarist. He is also a founding member. The band recorded three CDs consisting of tracks that were mostly covers of relatively recent music, though they contemporized some classical pieces (most notably the Sibelius violin concerto). Darwin often gives away copies of these CDs as presents. Despite his skill with the English language Darwin refused to write lyrics for the band, claiming that he was chronically bad at writing anything similar to poetry. Another band member, James Mason (the drummer), has written a few original pieces for the group. Modern Noise still plays at low-key clubs and bars every month or so, most often performing covers along with a few of their scattered originals. They commonly cover work by rock groups such as Green Day, Third Eye Blind, Ghost of the Robot, Matchbox 20, and Maroon 5.

Trivia

  • Pets. Darwin owns two spayed female applehead seal-point siamese cats named Mara and Jade. These cats came from the same litter and are five years old. He also has a grumpy and aging neutered male blue Abyssinian named Tarkin. Tarkin, who's pushing twelve, is infamous for his Serious Face, and tends to live in a sphere on a cat gym that has been dubbed the Death Star. All of Darwin's cats are purebreds, and are up-to-date on shots and medical care. None of them are declawed.
  • Name. Though he has absolutely no problems with the name 'Samuel', Darwin is familiarly known by his surname instead thanks to the habits of his friends in high school. They also sometimes call him 'Henry' (his middle name) just to bug him.
  • Heritage. Darwin is a direct descendant of John Adams, and is the first member of his family to be born outside of Boston.
  • Bestseller. Darwin is a two-time bestselling author for his books Changing Winds (2002) and Gas Masks and Flowers (2005).
  • Handicapped. Due to overtaxing himself and his power enough to cause a stroke, Darwin has become crippled. He has dull feeling from his upper legs down to his knees, and only minor sensation from his knees to his feet. He cannot walk, and must get around with the aid of a wheelchair.
  • Education. Darwin was a graduating member of Columbia University's class of 1998.
  • Musically Talented. Darwin is an excellent singer, and is a deft learner of most things having to do with music. He plays the piano and the guitar.
  • Driving. Though Darwin is a decent (and safe) driver, his handicap kind of puts a cramp in the actual driving part. He has opted not to buy a car with hand-controls, and instead has hired a private driver - who also happens to be a med-school dropout - to chauffeur him around in his own car. He currently owns a dark blue 'pearl' 2007 Lincoln town car, and is paying it off in a few very large installments.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License