Here’s a complex man with a heart-breaking past. I know I’ve been going shorter with my birthday bios, but Owen’s was one of the first ones that I started writing, so I’ve been holding onto this one for a year.
CW: spoilers
TW: death, familial loss, child death
Basic Info:
Age in Aquarius: 35
Height: 6’4 | Weight: 165 lbs.
Hair: metallic black curls, medium-length, sponge twists | Eyes: pale pistachio green
Human Race: African-American | Species: Angel
Hailing Planet: Ninurta
Ability: superhuman combat; fighting instinct, attack prediction
Rank: Elder
Specialties: weapon proficiency, blade wielding, close combat, intimidation
Roommate: Wesley Craft, Harrison Reid
Best friend: Liam McCoy, Wesley Craft, Ariel McMahon
Mentor: Trenton McMahon
Soul mate: Markeisha Porter
Three facts about Owen:
- Owen comes from a large family that resides in the Benton Crossing colony. He has a father, a step father, and three sisters.
- Before he was recruited by the court, Owen lived in the desert with his wife Imena and their daughters. He lost all three in a demon attack.
- He was truly heartbroken by the end of Aquarius. No woman has affected him like that since his late wife.
My thoughts on Owen:
In order to go about this, I need to give you the background information on two separate individuals, as the third related party has already had a birthday bio written about her. First, let’s get into Owen’s story.
Owen McMahon was the second oldest of four children. His father, Trenton, trained him in every weapon and combat form he could imagine, molding him into the ultimate protector for their colony. Benton Crossing is hidden away in a valley, so few bandits try to raid this stronghold. Because of this, they were always accepting of new colonists, and sometimes new colonists bring sickness. Trenton’s wife, Kassidy, was a field nurse who helped the colony’s physicians from time to time, and eventually she became sick herself. What started as bronchitis evolved into a nasty case of pneumonia. Kassidy passed away just before her forty-eight birthday and was mourned by the entire colony.
Trenton had remained faithful to his wife until the very end, his spare time spent either training Owen and his sisters or patrolling the border with his long-time friend and partner, Theodor Werner. Theo was a crucial rock for Trenton when Kassidy passed, and the two eventually pursued a romantic relationship. They’re now married and live in Benton Crossing with Elen, one of Owen’s younger sisters. Ariel and Irvette, Trenton’s oldest and youngest, respectively, share a home with a couple other female scouts. The McMahon family is infamous in California for their bravery in protecting travelers from bandits. Even though they were all trained to the same harsh degree, Owen was already a teenager by the time he considered doing something else with his life.
Then one day, on a supply run with desert farmers, Owen met Imena.
Imena was the eldest of three from a family in the Cortez colony of southern Colorado. Her father passed away when she was about nine, and her mother maintained her relationship with their girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time with Imena’s youngest brother. She supported her mothers in every way she could; she helped with the chores, watched over her brothers, and ran errands. The teen was very popular in the colony, and as her eighteenth birthday grew closer she was met with pressure from the colonial leaders to choose a suitor from one of their sons. Her mothers had done their best to dissuade the other families, as Imena had no interest in marriage. However, no agreements could be made, so her parents ultimately decided to sneak the entire family out of the colony and travel until they could find one that would let Imena be.
They travelled to the St. George colony, where they learned that a large, secure civilization surrounded by mountains was accepting any and all seeking asylum. They continued across the desert, pausing briefly to explore an odd castle seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Then after directions from desert farmers, they were nearly at their destination when they were ambushed by bandits. With only a baseball bat at her disposal, Imena did her best to defend herself and protect her younger brothers, the oldest being only eleven. Her mothers were armed with hunting knives and pistols, but they ran out of ammo before Imena’s biological mother was shot and killed. Her stepmother was grappling with one of the vandals when Owen and his group of scouts from the Benton Crossing colony intervened. Imena’s family was brought to the colony, where they held a funeral service for her mother. The two families became close as Owen’s sisters insisted on helping Imena and her stepmother with the younger children. This allowed Imena to pursue her own interests, such as gardening and repurposing old, dilapidated items into new decorative pieces.
With time, Imena and Owen grew closer. Her adventurous spirit rubbed off on him as she encouraged him to find his own interests outside of his scouting duties. Being raised in a family of scouts and constantly around other scouts left little room for the imagination and creative endeavors, but the young man soon found solace in painting. When they reached their early twenties, Imena proposed to Owen, to which he said yes.
They took everything they owned and moved out into the desert, where Imena and her family had seen a castle years prior. They cleaned it up and made the abandoned structure their own; fitted with solar panels and with enough land surrounding it for their own farm, the two settled down and began to raise a family. It wasn’t long before Malika was born, and Jamilah came just a few years after.
Then the demons came.
Owen is, to this day, certain that the people who attacked his home were demons. The man and three women were sadistic, surrounding the small family’s home and setting off explosions to lure them out. Once they had easily outmatched Owen–spirits are three times faster and stronger than the average human–they turned on Imena and the girls, killing them without mercy. The faces of those killers are seared into Owen’s psyche to this day, and that fantastic memory of his will come in handy very soon.
There’s going to be more interactions between Owen and Markeisha in Taurus and Pisces. There will come a time when the Zulwini Tribe will need the help of their ally, and a time when the Ninurta Court will need them as well. We’ll see how these emergencies go, but remember: not all battles can be won, and not all lives can be saved.
For those of you who don’t know, Owen is a supporting character in my trilogy Saturn Rising, which is the first installment of The Chronicles of Life & Death. The first book, Aquarius, is available now on Amazon as an e-book and paperback. You can even read it all for free with Kindle Unlimited! Learn more here.
Photo by Dorrell Tibbs on Unsplash
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