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Susan Johnstone was a cleaner working minimum wage when she was 29. She already had five children, no lasting partners, and was claiming every type of benefit available in order to stay afloat. This all changed when she entered a British singing competition and came fifth, followed by a few middling pop hits and a workout dvd. It was in the midst of this five minutes of fame when she met Zeus, disguised as a television presenter during one of his many forays to the mortal world. Impressed by her determination for success (plus considerable beauty), he seeked her out and began to flirt. Susan, seeing this as an opportunity for more fame, asked him out to a hotel bar. From there, they both ramped the flirting up to eleven for their own reasons and it quickly escalated. Before too long, they'd slept together. Zeus, having godly duties and an angry wife, ascended to Olympus while Susan was sleeping. Susan woke up the morning after and, feeling bitter and used, swore to kill Zeus if she ever saw him again.
Nine months later, and Connor was born. Zeus decided to visit the two once they'd returned home, only for an hour or so. However, when he teleported into the front room of their home, Susan wasn't pleased to say the least. She responded, without thought, by throwing every object that wasn't nailed down at Zeus, along with calling him every obscenity under the sun. Zeus, with his pride hurt, responded instantly by calling down a lightning bolt to reduce Susan Johnstone to ash. He then left immediately, fuming. Three hours later, Connor's siblings returned home from school, witnessed the scene, and called the police. Connor was then taken into foster care by the government and, being a baby, it wasn't long before he was adopted by Richard and Jennifer Douglas. The Douglas' were intensely rich, but were infertile and had nobody to pass on the legacy to. They adopted Connor as a newborn so that he could be raised as their own easily.
Connor was raised well as an only child in the Douglas household, and the couple raised him as if he was one of their own. However, they did mollycoddle him and never let him stray far from their sight. Also, being two practising Catholics, they had particularly extreme views when it came to issues such as abortion or homosexuality, and it wasn't long before an infantile Connor was being taken to church to be indoctrinate into this way of thinking. Education was another factor where the Douglas' didn't falter as well. Connor was educated in a high-cost private school, which meant that he had very few people to interact with.
When Connor was 10, a new kid joined the class by the name of Jasper. Jasper and Connor immediately struck up a friendship, with them both seemingly sharing the exact same interests. Of course, as nothing is ever simple, Jasper was actually a satyr, sent from Camp Half-Blood to seek out demigods. Their quick friendship also allowed Jasper to stick close to Connor at all times, for his protection. This came in handy during Connor's first monster attack. They were playing around in the back yard of the Douglas mansion, when a harpy attacked them, swooping out of the sky. It picked up Connor by the arm, its talons causing him to bleed heavily. As his vision was becoming blurry, he saw a flash of brown and silver, then hit the ground hard and passed out. What he didn't know is that, while he was unconscious, Jasper had managed to kill the harpy and save Connor. The next thing Connor knew, he was in a hospital bed, being treated for the cuts to his wrists. The assumption that the hospital workers, and his parent, jumped to was that Connor had been self-harming. It wasn't long after he came round that he was being targeted by questions, and pity. Of course, he knew that the harpy was real. He asked Jasper about the whole thing, but he was just met with confused stares and worried glances.
When his parents thought that he was self-harming, they began to keep a much closer eye on him. Any opportunity was taken to try and sit him down and talk through his problems. Except this only made Connor angrier, since he knew for sure that nothing was wrong with him. He began to spend more time out of the house and made any excuse to get away. Jasper would always stick with him though, and Connor always enjoyed somebody that he could blow off steam with. However, as Jasper kept an eye on Connor, Connor would do the same with Jasper, certain that there was something that he wasn't being told. He got his answer when he was 11. He and Jasper were walking home from a trip into town across a quaint country path. Then a Myrmeke burst out of the ground and lunged at Connor. Jasper noticed this attack before Connor even registered something was wrong and, with no other alternative, leapt in front of Connor. He unsheathed a CB dagger hidden on his person and slashed at the large ant, making a dent in its armour. Then, in the same movement, he moved to below the myrmeke and pierced its underside, killing it. Connor, seeing everything this time, questioned Jasper relentlessly and, after a while, forced a confession out of him. Jasper explained to Connor about both Connor's godly heritage and the fact that Jasper himself was a satyr.
Following this discovery, and under repeated threat from monsters, Connor asked Jasper to train him to fight. Jasper agreed, and took Connor to his makeshift home in a midst of a nearby woodland. There, he handed Connor an enchanted weapon that he'd found on one of his excursions: a celestial bronze warhammer. The special enchantment made it so that it could become an innocent looking key at a moment's notice. Jasper had never discovered what the key could unlock. From that moment on, Connor began to train with Jasper daily, and began becoming a competent fighter quickly. This helped him for his third monster attack when he was twelve. He and Jasper were training in the forest when a hellhound, sensing that a demigod was nearby, emerged fromt he trees and pounced at him. Connor, being confident with his skills, tried to fight the beast off, but the hellhound was too strong and, before long, it had Connor pinned beneath him. Luckily, Jasper was on hand to kill it whilst it was distracted by its prey, impaling it.
When Connor turned 13, he began to spend time out of the house more. He started to hang out with some mutual friends until late at night, which led to his adopted parents almost never seeing him. This meant that they knew next to nothing about his personal life. Connor became good friends with these people and, before long, he and a boy called Dylan had hit it off and started talking a lot more. It wasn't long before they tried to give it a go and started dating. Connor hid this from his parents purposefully, aware of their extreme views on homosexuality. He also became much better at fighting, but still needed Jasper's assistance with his next monster attack. A scythian draconae had seeked them both out after a training session, and tried to kill them with a sword. Connor used a tactic that he'd been taught, where he hit the draconae with his hammer to knock it to the ground. From there, Jasper used his dagger to stab it in the head, killing it.
When Connor was 14, he and Dylan decided to take their relationship to the next level. They were both facing intense pressures, from both their opinionated parents and public opinion itself and, on a date to a secluded lake, they both consented to sex, to see what it would be like. They felt like they were soulmates, and nothing could separate them. After the date, Dylan went home, but Connor remained to watch the sun set. It was at dusk that a firebreathing horse attempted to take Connor by surprise and burn him. Connor heard it before he saw it though, and instinctively dodged out of the way. Seeing what the creature was, he made a plan up on the spot to lure it into the lake. He presumed that the flames were connected to its life force. He ran into the lake and waved to get the horse's attention. When the horse charged, Connor then ducked and it became submerged. Whilst it was steaming and immobile, Connor impaled it with his dagger, killing it. He returned home and his parents wanted to know where his burns had come from. With no other options, Connor explained everything, including his boyfriend. The Douglas' flipped out at this and started verbally abusing Connor, calling him an 'abomination'. The next month, he was shipped off to a New York boarding school to keep him separated from Dylan.
He stayed at the school for two years. He thought he was alone until, when he was 15, another harpy attacked him on campus. He was taken by surprise and thought he was a goner until the harpy dissolved into dust, Jasper stood behind it. He revealed that he had accompanied Connor on the plane but had stayed hidden for a year, keeping him safe secretly, giving Connor assurance that he wasn't alone. Connor turned sixteen shortly afterwards, and Jasper put his game plan into action, to transport Connor to Camp Half-Blood. They got to the forest by camp when a lone draconae attacked. However, it was no match for Connor and Jasper, who teamed up to destroy it, one last time. Jasper accompanied Connor to the camp border and said his farewell, leaving again to seek out more demigods. Connor then joined camp full-time and was claimed by Zeus. He hasn't been there long.
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