Cullen B. Mosquito (a.k.a. Aedes albopictus)
"Remember, I am not responsible for any broken or defective merchandise. I'm a simple tradesman after all."
Cullen is a shady traveling merchant that specializes in unconventional and rare goods found across the country. He is a vagabond that travels around by hitchhiking on human trains.
Physical Description
Physical Appearance
Cullen is a tall, lanky figure with recognized easily by his long proboscis-like nose and a smile of sharp fangs. His skin is pale with black stripes on his limbs and abdomen similar to his
Bug kin the Asian Tiger Mosquito. He has shaggy hair he keeps pulled back into a pony tail. While his hair is dark, several strands are a contrasting white.
He has pink eyes, however one was severely damaged, causing a long scar across his eye and a
hyphema full of
hemolymph which turns it a mustard yellow. The eye is completely blind and fails to open fully.
Appearal
Cullen is most frequently seen wearing a pale yellow button down with maroon suspenders and black trousers. He's occasionally seen carrying around a large back full of miscellaneous items he intends to sell.
His injury on his eye leaves him effectively blind in it. While he can make out shapes and movement, vision in that eye is blurry, foggy, and sensitive to light.
Mental characteristics
Cullen was born the daughter of a wealthy mosquito family in Scuttlebug Bayou , with two older sisters. He was often isolated due to his mother seeing her children as fragile, and wanted to preserve their beauty. But, Cullen was always the type to wander off and get in trouble, and didn't bother to hide his 'uncouth' nature and pretend to be more sophisticated than he was. He'd often sneak off with his father and watch him as his job as a merchant, even if it meant taking verbal abuse from Miinu who found mosquito's to be vile, diseased creatures.
At a young age, he met
Lampry , a young boy from the circus that came into town every year. Cullen would sneak off to watch their show and the two nymphs would become close friends and hang out every summer when the circus came into town. As they got older, their relationship blossomed into something romantic, as he felt Lampry was the only one who truly understood him, and never judged him for how he was born.
After the sudden death of his father, money became tight for the mosquitos, and their mother demanded her daughters find a husband to take care of them. Cullen decided to propose to Lampry. But Lampry was uneasy, and though he promised he'd give him an answer soon, the next day Lampry left without a word other than a simple apology letter.
Cullen would be engaged to a man that his mother picked out, but before their wedding, Cullen decided to run away from home after cutting his hair and changing his identity to that of a man's. He ended up feeling more comfortable in this identity as he made his way to
Treasure City to start a new life for himself from scratch. However when he got there, he found it harder than he thought to make a living, and was subject to the same vitriol that he experienced at home. The final knife in the chest was seeing Lampry in town, seemingly starting a new life with another woman. This caused him to spiral into a depression, until he met
Arressa, a beautiful wasp woman who nursed his feelings and offered him an opportunity of a lifetime to join her organization and make more money than he'd know what to do with.
He ended up joining the Mothia, and becoming a drug mule for his boss
Tox. It was dirty work, but it did in fact make him a lot of money, which he'd spend on clubs, parties, and drugs. Him an Arressa would also start an intimate and passionate relationship. His wild life style over the years caused him to develop a dependency on the drugs, and when his cravings got stronger, he started taking money and product off the top of his sales without telling anyone. However, Arressa would betray him and snitch to the mob, her loyalty being for them and not the mosquito.
When the mob found out about his crimes, they hunted him down and beat him within an inch of his life, including severely wounding his left eye. The only reason he lived is to due discovering his blood bending powers in an act of desperation. Narrowly escaping death, Cullen skipped town on the next train, vowing not to go back. Broke with no community and a crippling addict, he turned to scamming miinu in order to earn enough money to feed his habits. He was even able to use his embarrassing blood craving to sell human blood like snake oil to hapless customers.
Cullen's designs over the years.
He has complicated feelings about his gender. He is hyper aware of the biological differences between female and male mosquitoes and his ability to drink blood gives him dysphoria; yet he continues to do it due to the intense cravings he gets for it.
Cullen is a traveling salesman that sells a variety of items he has collected from the human world to Miinu. However he is particularly known for a miracle elixir he touts as being a cure all for illness. It contains human blood which he drinks from humans and promptly spits back out. in reality the blood does very little for illnesses but due to the general woship/fear of humans in Miinu culture, he can easily fool suckers into buying it.
Cullen developed PTSD after his assult in the ally, and developed a paranoia disorder as a result. He has trust issues and refuses to let strangers close to him for too long. He constantly keeps moving due to the fear that if he stays in one place, the Mothia will hunt him down. He often suspects the people closest to him are secretly waiting for a moment to kill him, thus if can act overly defensive around others.
In his worst moments, Cullen will have delusions of the people around him planning to murder him and will respond with violent outbursts; especially if he's been abusing substances.
Personality Characteristics
He likes Money money money. But jokes aside, he enjoys traveling and seeing the world, as well as collecting obscure and 'rare' human artifacts. In reality even something as mundane as a marble or an ear ring is valuable to him. He also used to enjoy meeting new people, though it's harder for him to do that these days. He still enjoys listening to the stories of different people he meets.
Small things he likes; Alcohol (Bloody Marys), Tomatoes, Pomegranate, Nectar, Swing music, trains, Shiny things, the color red.
He dislikes being bossed around or told what he can and can't do. He values his independency, and hates accepting help from others as well. He also cant stand traditionally feminine presenting attire.
Small things he dislikes; Leafy greens, mornings, AB- Blood, swamp smell, beuracracy, the color pink.
Personality
Cullen comes off as charming to a suspicious degree. He's good at conning and manipulating people who don't know better, but to others he is clearly a shady and untrustworthy person. He is willing to scam people to make a quick buck; for example selling human blood as a cure-all miracle elixir, when in reality there's no valuable benefits to it. Cullen can be selfish and greedy, and often looks out for his own best interests first.
He often uses his money to fund a drug and alcohol addiction. He's often abusing substances to numb the feelings of shame and self hatred he experiences from his actions. This abuse also has a tendency to trigger his trauma and paranoia. When he's under the influence, he can be a cruel and violent person that acts out on his own delusions.
Any good side he has is one he closes off to others, as he rarely trusts others to know his true self. Deep down he can be a funny and genuinely caring man, but it's a side of him he finds weak and vulnerable, and rejects at every opportunity,
Social
Cullen grew up with an affluent mosquito family, whose money came from selling animal blood. His parents was his mother Cici and father Albo, who was eaten by a toad in Cullen's late teens. He was the youngest of three children by a day, proceeded by Aeda and eldest Cicilia.
Cici was someone who was obsessed with the families image and reputation, and wished for her daughters to be perfect mini-me's of her. She often expressed disappointment in Cullen's lack of femininity and crassness and frequently pushed her desire to see Cullen get married and have children, a prospect that disgusted him.
Cullen (pre-t) and his family.
The last time he was in contact with his family was after an argument he had with his mother, after he cut his hair of before Cicilia's wedding. He left the home without a word and hasn't been back for 15 years.
Cullen has a tendency to smile all the time, even if his actual mood doesn't warrant it. He has a persona he puts on when making sale, and it's only when he's particularly frustrated or tired that the persona drops. He is a bold, attention seeking person. He's loud and boisterous, but also unnerving to the hyperaware.
He speaks very quickly and confidently, but he has a slight lisp.
History
Symon meet's Cullen while looking for directions to Treasure City and is stunned to meet another travelling salesman. He is initially admires Cullen's confidence and experience but slowly start to realize he is an uncouth individual. However they need to board the train with him to get to mutant city.
During their long trip Cullen grows more and more paranoid of Symon, eventually coming to the conclusion that he is an assassin come to kill him, and retaliates by attacking him with a knife and attempting to throw him off the moving train. Symon is saved when Ves knocks Cullen out, where they then find signs that he'd contracted a deadly disease from the blood he'd been drinking
Despite just being attacked, Symon insists they take Cullen to the city where he can get medical attention, which causes Cullen to freak out when he wakes. Eventually they are able to get him help and when he has a clear head again, thanks Symon for helping him and promises to help him get to the dock to Nawala Island.
Relationship Reasoning
Initially Symon only needed a guide to Treasure City, but after learning how sick Cullen was, felt the need to help him despite how terrible of a person he was. For Cullen, it allowed him to trust someone for the first time in ages.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
Both Symon and Cullen have history with being traveling salesmen, which initially allows Symon to trust Cullen. Symon can also empathize with the difficulty and stress that comes with the job.
History
Before they even realized, Cullen and Lampry met when they were kids. Lampry was wondering the area while his circus was in town and paused at the lake that Cullen lived in as a nymph. They had a breif talk about their lives; how Lampry had been traveling the human world for a while, and how Cullen wanted to see more of the world outside the lake. They hit it off and Lampry nicknamed him Cully, which inspired his chosen name after transitioning.
They wouldn't meet again until years later, and they wouldn't recognize each other in their adult forms. Lampry immediately was interested in Cullen and would flirt with him, but he would not return his advances, as he still had his eye on Arressa.
Later on, when Symon Cantillo and friends tried to help Cullen find a doctor, Lampry was the only one in town to offer assistance, due to Cullen's bad reputation.
When Cullen attempts to gain immortality with the Fossil Stone and turns into a monster, Lampry is the one who distracts them while Symon tries to undo the spell. He eventually talks him down, allowing him to turn back to normal. Lampry insists he'll take care of Cullen.
They two catch up on their childhood exploits while Cullen recovers and end up dating by the time they meet up with Symon again.
Nicknames & Petnames
Lampry refers to Cullen as 'Cully' to this day.
Relationship Reasoning
Cullen was the first friend Lampry ever had growing up, and when they finally met again as adults, he was desperate to rekindle that relationship. He never believed all the nasty rumors about Cullen because he knew a different side of the man and believed he was better than that.
Cullen, despite having many connections, never had anyone he could truly rely on, so seeing someone still care about him after everything he'd done was a shocker for him.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
They both are infatuated with the human world and human life, and both had a desire to go out and experience all of it. They both have a love for night life and dream of success and fame.
History
Cullen met Arressa while he was at a low point in his life, and fresh out of heart break. She manipulated him into a relationship and joining the Mothia, as well coaxed him into developing a dependancy on drugs and alchohol so he couldn't leave the mob. She could have eaten him or broken up with him, but she admittedly found him kind of cute and that it was more fun to play with him for a while. Cullen was obsessed with this woman who showered him with affection, keeping him in her trap.
However, when Cullen's addiction lead to him making the risky decision to steal money and product from the mob, Arressa's loyalty to the mob outweighed her affection for Cullen, and she turned him in and left him for dead.
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