Fictional history of Classic Ciem

The following is a detailed biography of the Dozerfleet Comics character Ciem.

The first seven years
Candi was born as one of three fraternal triplets to Stan and Shalia Flippo on September 9th, 1999. She was the only Flippo child to receive the Centhuen Prototype mutation via Stan. Her two non-mutant sisters, Miriam and Marina, would develop other talents.

Candi had lived for much of her early life going back and forth between being exposed to various environmental factors and being sheltered from them. She was aware early on of her mutation, and her implied calling in life; but has always had mixed feelings about it.

Lifelong worldview
She always liked to believe that what she was doing was so because it was her choice; and to be reassured that she really does have a choice. She was never one to like to do the right thing merely out of a sense of appeasement; because she has always believed that virtue is something one should learn to take pleasure in.

Becoming an orphan
After Stan and Shalia die, Candi's half-brother Ploribus remains secretive until much later in her life. Her brothers, particularly Reily, choose to remain mostly uninvolved. In late November of 2006, Stan and Shalia both died from health complications, leaving Candi and her sisters as orphans. In spite their immense wealth of inheritance due to Stan and Shalia's vast treasure, the girls were taught to value wealth as a gift to be employed for greater purposes than self-indulgence. They were also taught early on that there is value in maintaining the illusion of poverty, no matter what one's wealth.

With the deaths of Stan and Shalia, the older children began to have heated debates about what should become of the younger children. Nobody wished to dump the three young girls on Reily, since Reily and Ashlee already had their hands full with their son Kirby. Therefore, especially with Tom missing, custody fell to Mike, Jeff, and Erin. Mike and Jeff refused to get involved with their younger sisters, fearing it would interfere with the business they were creating. Therefore, responsibility for the girls fell onto the shoulders of Erin.

Erin, who had a reputation for being a strict disciplinarian given her education at a prestigious southern Christian college, did all she could to keep her sisters on the right path in life. Once the girls start to grow old enough to develop their own identities, Erin slowly begins realizing how she has, in certain areas, taken her discipline too far.

Philosophy
Candi becomes almost debilitated by a conscience that tries to twist her every pining of guilt into self-hatred. While Candi would improve, the curse would haunt her most of her life, and Candi focused her entire moral compass in life on what the rules were to remain in Erin's custody. Even long after finding life elsewhere, it takes Candi a while to realize the freedoms and grace she truly has, being previously obsessed with what she calls "Erin's Law."

Candi develops a very healthy understanding of the nature of morality and of her place in the universe, as well as her calling in life. However, she ends up struggling with the abusive side of Erin's discipline; the psychological tendency towards despair-induced self-recrimination. Candi doesn't learn how to stop agonizing over her moral failures until Ciem 2.

Miriam's rebelliousness
Miriam Ann Flippo is the opposite of Candi. Instead of obsessing over how to cover for her guilt and shame and be the most righteous that she can in Erin's eyes in an effort to win her approval, which was Candi's big mistake for many years; Miriam becomes a rebel. She is held back from her worst by Candi's loving requests, but still occasionally looks for opportunities to get what she wants from life just as soon as she finds ways to keep Erin from stopping her. While Candi and Miriam love each other as twin sisters deeply, they realize that they must ultimately decide their own paths apart from each other.

Marina's promiscuity
Marina tries to be like Candi, until she one day goes too far with someone at school. Being quickly corrupted, Marina learns the pleasures of sex before any of her sisters can arrive to protect her. She dumps her first boyfriend after he tries to hurt Candi, in spite Candi being able to easily defeat him. He is ultimately whisked off to jail, where he vows revenge on all the Flippos.

Miriam's feelings for Marina
Miriam, realizing that she wants the same thing in life that Marina has already taken, tries to keep her sister protected from future partners and from Erin. Candi, fearful of what Erin would do to Marina if she learned of Marina's affairs, agrees to keep Erin from learning the truth.

Marina expelled from Erin's house
Marina finds her sexual appetite insatiable; and soon begins pursuing numerous partners. She begins targeting paperboys in the neighborhood most often. She tries to hide this from her sisters, not wishing to burden them further with it. She ultimately is forced to confess the truth to Erin when she learns that she is pregnant with the child of Matthew Baret, whom she has also found worthy of a steady relationship.

Erin, acting out of anger rather than love, immediately throws Marina out of the house. Marina begs for leniency to be shown towards Candi and Miriam, who were just trying to help and didn't understand the seriousness of the situation.

Erin's reckoning
When Marina, out on the street, is almost killed, Candi and Miriam come to her rescue. When the police arrive, the result is that Erin receives a lecture from the police about her psychologically abusive behavior. Erin grows reflective about this, and begins seeing numerous times in her life when she acted out of a desire for control rather than out of love. While she is still unable to convince herself to let Marina back in, she does apologize to the other two girls, and un-grounds them. The girls in-turn forgive Erin. However, deep-seated resentment for Erin's control-happy nature continued to harbor in Miriam's heart.

The girls' early relationships
Marina eventually gets married to Matthew Baret, and she gives birth to their son Andy Baret. Andy is destined to one day become the Cyclehawk.

However, Miriam began to stray from the family moral code as well. A year or so before graduating from high school, she has sympathy-motivated sex with her despondent boyfriend Phil Couric to cheer him up. Her plan ultimately fails when Phil commits suicide, and Miriam becomes secretly embittered by her own shame.

Candi also acquires and breaks up with a boyfriend in school. Don Mendoza shows interest in her early on. However, when their values systems started moving in different directions, Candi decided that the two of them needed to go their separate ways. She later develops a relationship with Donte McArthur, after he helps her defeat Jeff the Invisible in battle. Unlike her sisters, Candi is able to remain mostly chaste in her relationships, not losing her virginity until after the day she marries Denny Levens.

Ciem 1 Timeline
Main articles: Ciem: Vigilante Centipede (Comprehensive Gerosha) and Ciem (webcomic) (Classic Gerosha)

Post-Erin
After several events in all the girls' lives leads Erin Flippo and Don Mendoza's deaths, Candi flees for Viron; where she marries Denny Levens and gives birth to a daughter, Angie.


 * Classic Gerosha: In the mean time, she has also joined and quit the pom squad for Viron University's football team. She has obtained and been fired from her job at the Hazy Eighty's Bowling Alley.  Miriam runs away to Farrenville, where she acquires another boyfriend to replace Phil.  This one eventually also kills himself, and so Miriam finally settles for Steve McLaine.  Marina stays behind in Gerosha and lives in the trailer parks with Matt.


 * Comprehensive Gerosha: She has also worked at a bowling alley. Miriam's story remains unchanged.  Marina moves to trailer parks in Evansville with Matt, and stays there.

Short-lived marriage
Candi finds herself constantly hunted by the Meethlites and their forces, and mistakenly believes she can find shelter in the arms of Denny Levens. The two of them marry, but after less than a year, Denny is murdered by Musaran.

Kimiyato Hiriyama
Making matters worse, Candi's tormentor from childhood, the evil telepathic ninja witch known as Kimiyato Hiriyama; makes a return to mess with Candi. However, the telepathic link is severed when Candi gives birth to Angie. Angie steals the link and then dies a short time after being born. This forces the link to be gone forever, a fact which infuriates Kimi while giving Candi a break.



Becoming Ciem

 * Gerosha Prime: After being rescued from jail by her godfather Imaki, Candi trains to become Ciem. Imaki dies of a heart attack, and Candi decides to loot his house to become Ciem.


 * Despair Gerosha: Imaki steals Candi's comatose body from the hospital, while leaving her a VHS tape that explains everything. Candi awakes to discover that Imaki has died since making the tape, and so she resolves to loot the flooding house where she has been resting and to embark on the quest to become Ciem and atone for getting pregnant out of wedlock.


 * Classic Gerosha: With the help of her long-lost brother Tom and her dying godfather Imaki, Candi eventually becomes Ciem.


 * Comprehensive Gerosha: With the help of her godfather Imaki, Candi trains to become Ciem. Imaki eventually dies of a heart attack, and so Candi decides she is ready.

Her first major course of business is to destroy the Kerpher Gang, including her former boss Victor Nanale. She saves Mexican immigrant Maria Sanmarcos from Victor, and has her second major encounter with Musaran. Afterward, she embarks on a quest to figure out just what the sinister plot is that police chief Merle Hourvitz is behind, as well as how to save Donte and the others from Musaran and Arfaas' latest scheme.

She succeeds as Ciem at rescuing Donte and at partially restoring his powers as Emeraldon. The defeat of Musaran earns Candi a new ally: the now-blind-for-life Jeraime Malestrom.

Ciem 2 Timeline
Main article: Ciem 2 and Ciem: Nuclear Crisis

Candi is now a successful college student and is enjoying limited success as Ciem. However, she feels that her personal life is a mess. She becomes engaged to Donte and wishes to adopt Charlie Wortell. At the same time, she must rescue Miriam from Capp Aard, Lloyd Kolumn, and a slew of other villains. By story's end, she has conceived Frank with Donte and has married Donte shortly after so that they can adopt Charlie and raise him as their own.

Ciem 3 Timeline
Main article: Ciem 3 and Ciem: Condemnation

Another two years of success go by. However, Lloyd Kolumn and Kimiyato Hiriyama have taken over Meethlite operations on Earth while the Meethlites themselves begin to retreat after the death of Duke Arfaas. They set a trap for Candi and several of her new friends in an attempt to drown them in a special facility built in California.

Not one to take this sitting down, Dolly Malestrom steals a suit from Ploribus Philippine and dons the identity of the Earwig in an effort to save Dirbine/Evansville from its current streak of threats.

After Ciem 3
Classic Gerosha: With most of Dirbine having been completely destroyed by Milp, Candi decides to move with Donte, Frank, and Charlie to Louisville, Kentucky. Candi's wealth begins to run dry, and Donte's medical treatments eat up costs. After 11 years, Candi gives birth to fraternal twins John and Dana, both inheriting her powers and Donte's. Charlie starts his own business in order to support Donte.

Candi continues to protect Louisville as Ciem, with the occasional technical assistance of Miriam. This assistance ends when Miriam and Steve move to Alaska with their three kids Marie, Trina, and Larry. She continues to fight as Ciem until John and Dana are at the age of six. By that time, she decides to retire from superheroics for good. She makes sure that her nephew Lex Philippine becomes Dana's mentor, as she is convinced that Dana will one day take her place as Ciem.

Comprehensive Gerosha: Evansville is mostly spared, save for a few completely destroyed neighborhoods. The rest of Candi's story remains unchanged from the above facts.

Death
At the age of 53, Candi and Dana are captured by the same cousins of Arfaas that had captured and beheaded Miriam and Marina. They intend to execute Candi in the same manner as Kolumn had attempted to in Ciem 3. The only difference between Candi's execution at the age of 26 and her death at 53 is that she was not sucessfully rescued the second time around.

A Marlquaanite intervenes when Arfaas' memorialists try to behead Dana, and he makes her matter phase so that the blade does not have any effect. Dana kills almost the entire faction, but is unable to recover Candi's head.

Horrified by these events, Dana goes into hiding after recovering her mother's body for burial. Dana's brother, John, becomes Verdecent in order to protect the future, rebuilt Dirbine/Evansville from both Meethlite and Phaletori attacks. He also takes up residence with Charlie and a day job at Charlie's business.

Donte dies from cancer a year after Candi's death, refusing further treatment as he wishes to be reunited with his wife. This forces Dana to move in with Lex and Andy as they forge an alliance to protect Gerosha. Candi and Donte are buried in the Gerosha Cemetary in 2052, next to the grave stones for Denny and Angie. Ironically, a new group has branched off from the Meethlites, one which believes in the sanctity of all cemeteries. This new group vows to give its life to protect Candi's tomb, even though she would have been their enemy in life.