Candi Levens (Comprehensive Gerosha)

Candice Marie McArthur (neé Flippo-Levens) / Ciem is a young superheroine in the canceled Ciem novel trilogy. She is one of several incarnations of Ciem throughout the Gerosha multiverse of Dozerfleet Comics, this one in particular being part of the continuity known as Comprehensive Gerosha. She is part of an effort since 2010 to begin re-envisioning the character from her webcomic origins. Since this version was made before the November 2012 US presidential elections, the inspirations behind Cataclysmic Horizons were not yet in place. Therefore, this version of Candi became a darker and edgier version of her Classic Gerosha counterpart, taking the other's problems to their (il)logical extremes. With no Ameristani regime, this version's battles were focused more on battling petty crime and serious criminal sex offenders. Occasionally, she battled the Hebbleskin Gang and its monsters. It is Candi's godfather Imaki Izuki that produces the equipment that allows her to become Ciem officially later on.

Her teammates consist of Jack "the Jackrabbit" Mercreek, her boyfriend/eventual husband Donte "Emeraldon" McArthur, Dolly "the Earwig" Malestrom, and a few more that come and go. She begins the series in Ciem: Vigilante Centipede by trying to decide the direction she and her fiance Donte are going to go with their plans in life, especially considering he is off to fight in the Middle East to put a stop the Hebbleskins there, which would put his life in danger. Meanwhile, Candi intends to stay behind in Indiana and attend Viron University. Living at Erin's house, Candi begins to plan her move away to Viron for college.

Ancestry
Candi's double-maternal great-grandparents include the Indo-Persian explorer Sadasheeva Cherupara from India and Alexis Hood from Indiana. Their union was generally frowned upon by both their families; but they were determined to make their marriage work. Some Thuggees had a score to settle with Sadasheeva, however, and stalked him all the way to his home with Alexis. While Sadasheeva himself was murdered, his wife Alexis escaped. She raised their daughter, Marissa Hood, in the forests outside of Booneville, IN.

Marissa eventually took over living in her quiet home after Alexis died. She discovered that much of her life would be a repeat of her mother's - up until the day that a fugitive named Dwayne Lloyd invaded her home. Dwayne is a descendent of the accursed Honeybee Samuel, and spreads that curse to all his offspring. Dwayne was eventually captured, but the tragedy had one positive effect: Marissa conceived. The child that resulted was the young Shalia Hood, who grew up to become the wife of Stan Flippo. Shalia also became a politician, and her efforts helped to bring down the Hebbleskin Gang's growing influence. She played a major role in bringing things to a head in Boonville in 1990, leading to Fantisk Hebbleskin and Sgt. Luddin destroying the city. She helped the Phaelites and National Guard defeat both crime lords, and pushed the Hebbleskins back. She and Stan then built Gerosha atop the remains of Boonville.

Stan's history was even more convoluted. The abusive minor league baseball player Steve McNolan finally alienated his pregnant girlfriend, Alison Ligash. As he was in prison dying of throat cancer, he vowed to break out and seek vengeance on Alison for leaving him. She found refuge in a kindhearted male friend: Tobey Flippo. Tobey agreed to marry Alison, as well as adopt the child inside her. However, Steve betrayed the couple to the Hebbleskin Gang, whom he had been doing dealings with. Phaelites in the area agreed to protect the young Flippo family - at a price. Stan was to have two experiments performed on him. The first was that some of his cells would be extracted to produce a half-clone. These would be inserted in a donated egg from a Phaelite woman, and would lead to artificial partial cloning. While Tobey was not a fan of the idea of reproductive science, he relented and allowed Alison to give the scientists permission to experiment with Stan. The second experiment merged Stan with "Grandma Centipede," a Michigan garden centipede that was captured and used for experimentation.

Through this, Stan became a Phaelite Experiment with the blueprints for a Centhuen Prototype. When switched on, a gene inside one of his children would lead to that child developing the centipede powers that the Phaelites were trying to create. Their goal was to begin with enhanced human beings with centipede abilities, which could then be employed to form an army. From there, they'd create large monsters that were more centipede than man, dubbed "True Centhuens." The first successful implementation of a Phaelite Experiments' Offspring ("Phexo") into a Centhuen Prototype was Charles "Centipede Charlie" Hammerstein, who used his abilities to some effect in Japan during World War II. They were looking to make an even better version of Centipede Charlie, and were beginning to question the possibility of what would happen if they produced female Phexos. Through early tests, they discovered that the female Centhuen Prototypes were prone to their powers being dampened in the event of pregnancy. They figured that those women would learn to control themselves around men, reducing the need to worry about this minor detail.

Baby Stan's half-clone was inserted into the womb of a Phaelite scientist named Insila Murtillo, who volunteered for that experiment. The half-clone was not to know for several years who his true father was. The baby that grew inside Insila was born as Ploribus Murtillo. He grew up to become a war hero, and changed his name to Darius Philippine to protect his mother. He eventually learned the truth about who his father was, but chose not to get too involved in Stan's life as that would only complicate matters. Even so, his half-siblings are aware of who he is.

After Alison died, Tobey took Stan into the woods outside of Boonville to live. He taught Stan how to be self-reliant, and inspired in Stan a quest to find the lost treasure of the pirate Henry Lohtz. Stan eventually met Shalia, and the two of them embarked on a journey. Being the first couple to successfully stumble on the treasure, they were immediately rich beyond their imaginations. However, they decided to call their investment "Project: Gerosha." This is because they discovered the Gerosha Stone, a seashell that became the most prized possession of Lohtz.

Stan and Shalia married soon after the death of Marissa. Their first son was Reily, who grew up to become a world-famous chef. During the Battle for Gerosha, young Erin Wyer was discovered to be an orphan. She was adopted by Stan and Shalia. A few years after the battle, Reily met and married Ashlee Kornsdall. They immediately had a son named Kirby. It was not long after Kirby was born that Stan and Shalia had triplets Candice, Miriam, and Marina. Strangely, only Candi manifested the Centhuen Prototype ability set.

Early life
Candi was born as one of three fraternal triplets to Stan and Shalia Flippo on September 9th, 1999. She was the only Filippo 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. Her powers did not fully manifest in this version until the age of 12.

While she was trained from early on how to engage in superheroics by her godfather Imaki, her parents and older siblings advised against her going on real missions while still a small child. She was content to behave as a ordinary child for much of that early life. Her world was turned inwards in October of 2006, when her parents were run off the road by Hebbleskin Gang associates. Her older sister Erin gained custody of her, along with gaining custody of Miriam and Marina.

However, there were some problems. Erin got in with a bizarre crowd at college, leading her to become very strict about her younger sisters' dating habits. A chemical imbalance started forming in her brain, leading to the gradual deterioration of her mental health. Since Reily was busy with his wife Ashlee and son Kirby touring the world as celebrity chefs, he felt little connection to his biological sisters. The fact that they were technically young enough to be his daughters made meetings even more awkward, leading to him generally ignoring all his sisters. His luxurious lifestyle also conflicted with the family model of living beneath one's means, resulting in him being ostracized by Erin. Given that Erin was unable to provide the emotional support and stability that Candi needed, she often looked up to her godfather, Japanese inventor and Phaelite-friendly Imaki Izuki, as a surrogate father. Through Imaki, who was half-Japanese and half-Apache in this version, Candi gained a childhood friend in Jack Mercreek.

Middle school
Candi spent much of her middle school life as an ordinary student, though she did have some issues with some of her classmates. Candi's fifth grade teacher agreed with the sixth grade teacher concerning curriculum content. However, pressure from left-wing lobbies resulted in the state replacing the successful curriculum with a very destructive one. The new teachers were not only hard on Candi for her traditional views, but were actually encouraging the corruption of the youth they were charged with. Angry parents' concerns over their children going from caring about their future and how to support themselves to caring only about sex fell on deaf ears. When one father threatened to pull his daughter out because the school refused to protect her from being bullied by lesbians; he was thrown in jail, accused of threatening the lesbians that were threatening his daughter for real.

Candi found that the more politically-correct the school's curriculum became, the more hostile the school's environment became for all students - not just her. She began dating a certain Don Mendoza in sixth grade, in spite of Erin's wishes to the contrary. She thought she could cheer him up when he began having doubts about the goodwill of God, following the fact that his mother was sick and dying and his father was missing. However, the Hebbleskins also found him and got to him. Finding them willing to give him more than just promises to hold onto, he turned on Candi.

One day after basketball tryouts, Candi was in the showers at school. Don decided to lie in wait. When he saw that she was alone, he seized the opportunity and attacked her. The attack led to rape; but Candi's full centipede powers manifested during the attack. She was able to throw him off of her and fight back, leading to him fleeing the scene. Candi realized that the faculty would not work in her favor, given her religious views. She also realized that she'd blow her cover - and that of her sisters - if she made too big a fuss. During the attack, Don confessed to his allegiance to Arfaas. When Candi fought him off, he swore to find her again. He vowed that when he did, he'd be stronger. Until then, he vowed to find a way to haunt her nightmares. Much of Candi's desire thereafter to consummate with Donte stems from a desire to replace her negative sexual experience with positive experiences, so as to erase Don's legacy in her mind.

That same year, Miriam started being harassed by classmates. Marina was drugged and raped by a boy named Fred, and Candi used her centipede powers and a cheap costume to exact some revenge. Fred never figured out who it was that came from the shadows, beat him savagely, and temporarily paralyzed him. Candi and Marina kept it between the two of them. When Imaki eventually found out; he warned Candi about the dangers of personal revenge. He did not, however, lecture her about the need to let the police handle it. This is because he knew that the police would grow inquisitive - which would only trigger an alert with the Hebbleskins and endanger the whole town.

High school
Candi's high school years were marked by a repeat of middle school, with the exception that Don didn't return right away. Candi and Miriam became more adept at defending themselves, and more careful not to draw attention to themselves in the first place.

Marina, however, had more issues. Following what Fred did to her, rumors began to fly about her. Men began flattering her, in order to see what they could get out of her. She found that she enjoyed sex a little too much, and soon racked up 15 consensual partners in her quest to be appreciated. Realizing her antics with men were getting her nowhere, she became withdrawn. However, one boy named Matt Baret did not abandon her. He actually thought about pursuing a relationship with her the right way - by appealing to Erin and Candi. While Candi approved of Matt right away, Erin rejected Matt instantaneously and even threatened him. When Candi protested Erin's inappropriate hostility, Erin threatened to have all three of her sisters kicked out of the house.

As Erin's temperament began to vary from day to day between sweet and violent, the other girls began to suspect there was something not right in her head. One harsh comment too many sent Miriam and Marina into straight-out rebellion, with Candi becoming caught in the middle and trying to bring all sides together. She and Miriam eventually decide that when they head to college, they'll each take their share of reward money and flee Erin's house permanently. Marina and Matt conceived a child in secret, then ran away to get married.

Rumors flew quickly about Marina's exploits, while Candi and Miriam started being accused of a few of them around school. Efforts by the girls to defend their reputations proved fruitless. However, they did all they could to avoid bad crowds. Candi nearly found herself in a few fights, as mobs began attempts to sexually assault her. She confided in Imaki that it frustrated her to no end that she could not alert police to what was going on, as the other students at Gerosha High were taking things completely beyond normal.

At one point, Candi did begin to grow more lax about controlling herself. Her reputation was so poor because of Marina, that she decided it made no difference if she saved herself for marriage or not. While visiting over at a friend named Daniel's house, the family and others suddenly disappeared. Candi and Daniel began to grow cozy, then found themselves having sex in his bedroom. However, they emerged to find a shootout. Candi quickly got Daniel to safety, deciding against getting involved in the shootout since Daniel couldn't rapid-heal from bullets. Police were called in, and the shooters were eventually apprehended. Candi said farewell to Daniel, knowing she'd never see him again as he entered witness protection. She said nothing about her indiscretion with Daniel to her sisters.

Later on, Candi and her sisters were on a field trip to Stratford, Ontario. A grasshopper-themed Meethexo and an arson brigade attacked the town, and this became her first encounter with Donte as the two both tried to save the city. At a certain point, Donte urged Candi to stay back and let him handle the rest as Emeraldon. Candi and Donte felt an immediate connection to one another, and were soon dating in secret. Meanwhile, Miriam had a secret of her own. She had long been trying to counsel her boyfriend Phil Couric, who suffered depression. Phil and Miriam shared a desire to see the Hebbleskin Gang destroyed, something which made both their lives very dangerous. During the Canadian field trip, Miriam lost her virginity to Phil. When Phil later dies of drowning in an incident involving the Hebbleskin Gang, Miriam suffers an emotional breakdown. She confides her secret with Candi about her night with Phil, as Candi is the only woman she trusts.

Candi and her sisters all graduate from Gerosha High, with Marina celebrating her marriage to Matt. Miriam begins indulging her Sniperbadger online persona, and becomes a skilled hacker. Candi, however, secretly becomes engaged to Donte.

Exile from Gerosha
After giving it a lot of thought and consideration, Donte decides to go to the Middle East to help the Phaelite cause in defeating Duke Arfaas there, who has begun using his doomsday ships to secure control over Qatar. Donte's house is about to be sold, and it is predicted that he will have to move in with his half-brother Khumar Hamilton for a time. Candi decides that due to how risky a direct assault on Arfaas' Qatar base could be, she wants to ensure that a part of Donte will live on even if he doesn't. She talks him into sleeping with her, with the goal of her getting pregnant, even though he is uncomfortable with the thought of using her like that when they aren't married. He leaves a short time later, then enters the war alongside his friends the Wortells. The Wortells have just had a child named Charlie, whom they promised Donte would have first rights to adopt should he survive and anything bad happen to them. Donte is almost immediately captured during the fighting that ensues. However, the rest of his unit is completely obliterated. Donte is then captured in a Marlquaanite prison, so as to preserve him for a formal death by incineration ceremony on the day that Arfaas chooses to raid Evansville with his ships.

Meanwhile, Candi prepares to visit Imaki Izuki and Jack Mercreek while they are in town. Miriam heads off to a party with some of her old classmates from high school. However, she is stabbed in the back with a syringe at the party, and while drugged, is date raped. Arfaas launches an attack on Gerosha, leading to absolute panic and martial law. The party is raided by police, and Miriam is arrested along with everyone else while she is caught in a bedroom having sex with a former classmate named Kenny Corsillo.

When Candi tries to head home, she is attacked by Don the Psycho. A quick-but-vicious battle ensues, which leaves Candi singed and raped while Don ends up having burning debris fall on top of him and kill him. Candi flees the scene, naked and terrified, heading home. However, Erin goes home only to be attacked by Gunner Soorfelt. Gunner and Skellig sneak up from behind and murder Erin with an MP5-A5. They decapitate the body, then stuff her remaining corpse in the shower to threaten the other Flippo sisters. Candi sneaks into the house amidst all the neighborhood chaos, and finds Erin's body. Horrified, and traumatized beyond the ability to think straight or speak coherently, she gets dressed and hits the streets to flee town on foot.

Candi makes it towards downtown Gerosha, when she sees a TV set on inside a bar. The TV set claims that Donte and his entire crew were completely obliterated, sparing no expense to show the carnage. As the rain begins to pour down in a cloud burst, Candi collapses and begins sobbing uncontrollably. However, patrolwoman Marissa Thanatel mistook Candi for Miriam, and wondered how Miriam could have escaped from jail so quickly. She very aggressively subdued a confused Candi, and took her into custody at the local jail.

Darius soon found out about where Candi and Miriam were, and made arrangements for both to disappear. Candi, now in a straight jacket, was lured to a special room and bombarded with knockout gas. Miriam was allowed an alias of "Mila Fila," and was sent to flee town and live in Alaska. Candi awoke the next day alone and in a cave behind a waterfall - naked.

Journey to Evansville
When Candi awakens, she finds her only clue to be a letter that Darius left her. The letter scolds her for sleeping with Donte, and also gives her instructions on an address she needs to find in order to develop a new life for herself, complete with new documents. She is required to forfeit her last name of Flippo, so that the Hebbleskins will be led to believe that Candi Flippo is dead. Candi soon finds a small child named Dawn, struggling to get free from a kidnapper named Brian Folim. Brian drags Dawn down to the waterfall, assuming amidst the darkness that he and the child are alone. Candi's centuition kicks in, and she begins using darkness and stealth to sneak up on Brian. As the gas and other chemicals in her system begin to wear off, Candi quickly beats and stings Brian until he falls backward into the waterfall. He gets up, only to be eaten by a bear.

Candi and Dawn use the opportunity to escape. From there, Candi finds Brian's pickup truck and steals the blue tarp off its back end to use as a makeshift dress. She finds the keys and drives Dawn to the edge of civilization. From there, she stows herself away in the back of another pickup truck headed for Evansville. She abandons the pickup during a chaotic traffic jam situation, then makes her way into town by the back ways.

Along the way to her designated address, Candi decides to call it an evening near an abandoned building. However, she finds the area infested with sick and dying heroin addicts that had been abandoned by society. She runs into one named Ann Marie Benarko, abandoned by her husband and forced to live on the streets. Candi takes Ann Marie to the hospital, but in vain. Before dying, Ann Marie tells Candi how rotten the city has become - and that the Hebbleskins intend to make matters worse. Candi resolves she will do what she must to fight back, in time. The death of Ann Marie gives Candi resolve the following morning to go to the address Darius gave her - where she starts life over under the assumed alias of Candi Stevens.

Early work
Candi enrolls at Viron University, where she begins taking her general education classes in the hopes of getting into forensics school. She uses her time meanwhile to look for petty criminals that she can put a stop to, acquiring a crude early costume. However, she finds some of the most horrible crime to be happening right in her own residence hall. Queen Bee Larissa Muener and her assistant Audrey Cherrimond become part of a blackmail ring, one which instigates numerous hazing incidents on campus. When Candi refuses to play their games, and even helps out one of their victims, they retaliate by hiring a look-alike actress to appear in a porn video with the entire football team. Candi laughs off Larissa's efforts to use this against her, citing the fact that she'd had to put up with having an urban legend sex life since high school.

Furious, Larissa hires Phexo defect to the Hebbleskin cause Wayne "the Vampire" Norfine to break into Candi's room and rape her. However, his assault is cut short when Candi reveals that she can fight back quite effectively. Her secret of being a Centhuen Prototype betrayed, Candi engages in a quick battle of wits with Wayne. This leads to her luring him into the woods, where she tricks and traps him, and then paralyzes him. She abandons him in the woods, where he dies from exposure to sunlight. Larissa becomes outraged to learn that Candi survived the encounter with Wayne and that Wayne went missing. She and her posse resort to targeting other, more vulnerable girls. Finding one who is particularly vulnerable, they try to ruin her good name online until the girl is driven to suicide. Candi intervenes to prevent the girl from committing suicide, so Larissa and company show up in a van and begin shooting at Candi and their victim outright. Candi is unable to save the girl's life, so she instead puts her crude costume on and seeks to avenge the girl.

However, a male target of Larissa and her friends ends up arriving at her cabin with his mob connections, and begins shooting the place to smithereens. Candi bails out, realizing that there is little she can do about the situation.

Meeting Denny
As Candi began to fear that she was at a loss for having anyone to connect with, she began to become friends with a classmate named Laurie Pegol. Laurie encouraged Candi to start looking at building a job history, which would help her later in life. Candi managed to land exactly that - at the Hazy Eighties Bowling Alley. However, no sooner did she leave the building after her job interview than she was attacked by Meethlites. Throwing himself into harm's way to help her was none other than Denny Levens, who then took Candi home in his car to explain himself. Over time, Candi and Denny began to have feelings for one another. The two of them try to befriend Botan the Plant-Man, but are unable to help him right away. He flees for Florida to hide until they can cure him.

Candi and Denny have a chaste friendship and romance, at least at first. However, Candi's insecurity and appetite begin catching up with her. And the more time that Denny spends around her, the more Jessie begins teasing about where the two are going in a relationship. When Nolle Barret destroys Candi's chances of gaining any leadership at the Viron Community Church by helping to spread rumors regarding the very things Larissa was into, Candi stops going for a while; until Wilbur Brocklyn reaches out to her and helps her make things right.

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Personality
Similar to other versions of the character, Candi in this version is a cautious and reserved, beta-dominant female. Like with Cataclysmic and Classic Candi, she can be viscous if cornered and cruel if her friends and family are harmed. However, she prefers stealth and subduing her enemies to the more ruthless tactics of Dolly and her Earwig suit. She is a hopeless romantic, and dreams of a family with Donte quite often. She is very protective of her sisters, and feels frustrated when they end up in situations where she can do nothing for them. Unlike Cataclysmic Candi, Comprehensive Candi is less-focused, and is less willing to complete a job. While she loves Donte more than she has any other man, her self-control issues interfere with her ability to remain entirely faithful to him. Denny Levens existing in this version complicates things for her, as do Jack's relentless attempts to seduce her.

She suffers with an extreme case of hypersexual disorder, far more exaggerated than that which her Cataclysmic Gerosha counterpart struggles with and even in excess of that of her Classic Gerosha counterpart. While Cataclysmic Candi and Donte only slip up with each other a total of three times before their wedding, Comprehensive Candi is addicted to sex and strives to get it from Donte whenever possible. This leads to a sense of self-loathing in her, as she realizes this behavior is wrong. However, she finds it difficult to shake her habits. For a time, she ends up being this way with Jack Mercreek also. Jack's own insatiable libido makes him a viable candidate for going after her, as he doesn't tire of her very easily. Donte has less endurance than Jack, but both can take more from her than Denny.

Comprehensive Candi tends to keep a small circle of friends, not socializing much beyond her circle. In some ways, her circle is even smaller than that of other incarnations. She is also the least-composed version, struggling with self-confidence issues and frequent depression. One of her only other outlets is the thrill she gets from watching the Hebbleskins' evil plans fail, causing her to fear that she is perhaps more mentally and emotionally unstable than she initially imagined. When she finally is able to start a family, she mellows in her depression and sex drive. Children become a positive way to cancel out the strains she had with her life before that.

Her self-esteem issues lead her to agree to things she wouldn't dream of in most other incarnations. While Cataclysmic Candi had to be tricked into sampling Remotach pills and proving that they work, Comprehensive Candi is voluntarily beheaded three times to prove that Denny pills are effective. She even goes so far as to form a plan that involves her using Denny pills and faking her own death on the chopping block as a way to infiltrate Duke Arfaas' doomsday ship and rescue Donte, a much-riskier plan than what any other version of Candi has ever been willing to attempt in their missions to rescue Donte.

Visuals
Several different art media were considered for how to depict this version of the character. The initial attempts at depicting her used a highly-modified model of her in The Sims 2, which was the same game engine used to depict all prior webcomic versions of her. The Sims 3 became a favorite game engine for concept art, though various real-life Filipina and Indonesian models were used as templates of inspiration. These have included Christiana Chrissiana, Charo Ronquillo, British pop star Amerie, actress Vanessa Hudgens, actress Parminder Nagra, model Sameera Reddy, and model Lekha Washington.