Biography:
Wooden Heart: Cuinn’s branch grows as a response to the shooting of Mickey, but he is emanated in response to a conversation Tara has with Tommy. It is after her breakup with Patrick and she refuses to reconcile with him, or to take Tommy’s suggestion to hook up with Whirljack. Instead, she decides to dedicate herself to science – so Ash emanates a scientist.
Cuinn approaches Tara at RR-2 Labs and asks for a job. She is taken aback that he has managed to get through security, and that he wears glasses as an affectation, but he reminds her both of Daniel and Edom St. John. He asks for five minutes, and she allows him to make his pitch. He gives a rambling explanation of physics in the nul-universe, ending with the idea that the fastest way to come to terms with the situation is to figure out how to more effectively use nau’gshtamine to communicate with the trees. Tara hires him and puts him on the research team with Clive and Claris.
Tara and Clive keep certain political secrets from Cuinn; at the same time, Cuinn and Claris hide the fact that he is an emanation of the Atlas Tree. During this time, political tensions with CenGov and also the reactionary group led by Guinnebar continue to escalate. To take a breather, Tara and Cuinn go to a carnival celebration. Tara realizes that she is attracted to Cuinn, but feels that between her recent breakup with Patrick and her responsibilities as Empress during a politically volatile period, it is not the right time for a relationship. She promises Cuinn, “…when I’m ready, you’re first in line.”
When Tara discovers that the tomb beneath Sloane’s effigy is empty, she gets an intimation that perhaps he is a mothman. She wants to discuss it with a friend, and thinks of Cuinn, but when she returns to RR-2 Labs, she discovers that Cuinn has been missing ever since a large part of the complex was damaged by a CenGov bombing. She goes to Cuinn’s flat to verify whether he has been home since the attack. It is empty, seemingly undisturbed, furnished sparsely with very few personal belongings. However, she discovers an oddity – a book – which happens to be the same volume of Yeats that she gave Sloane for Solstice. Inside the book she finds, used as a bookmark, the tanzaku she’d written as a child. From this, she realizes that both Sloane and Cuinn are emanations of Atlas.
After Ailann becomes Archon, Tara employs Cuinn on and off as a scientific advisor. When the Microbial scout ship arrives in the Domha’vei at the end of 3593, excited by the prospect of learning about an entirely new life form, Cuinn goes to make contact with the aliens. He proposes an alliance where protozoan might join animal and plant in the coming empire, but the Microbials see humans only as host organisms to be exploited. Cuinn changes into the mothman and destroys the Microbial ship. When Ash returns to Dolparessa, he emanates for the first time as Cillian.
Not long after the Microbial War, Tara realizes that the recent successes of CenGov are anomalous, and she enlists Cuinn to analyze the data. They determine that CenGov has probably figured out a way to tap into the prophetic powers provided by the apples of the Arya Nau’gsh. In order to avoid detection by the prophet, Cuinn suggests that they employ the services of an emanation capable of defeating probability – Wynne.
In 3596, Eirelantra is set to host the PanGal Prizes. Ailann decides that it would be a positive, unifying event if Dolparessa were to win the prize, so he tasks Davy and Cuinn to enter in the natural sciences/bioengineering division. Davy develops the javamelon – it is Cuinn’s task to rationalize the science behind it. When they win, Cuinn gives a baffling acceptance speech, stressing the cultural importance of sticky notes. Immediately after the ceremony, Tara and Cuinn sneak off to finally consummate their relationship, but a private kiss is caught by a paparazzi and it causes a minor scandal. Later, Cuinn and Davy partner with Ross in the javajuice franchise No Beans About It.
Cuinn continues to appear as a scientific advisor in the rest of Wooden Heart, helping Cillian analyze the data before the Tasean War, and emanating for a brief time when scientific conclusions about the artificial singularity which has appeared in the Domha’vei are needed. He also discovers an artistic tendency, which he expresses by making motivational posters.
Eden Blues: Cuinn emanates to analyze the problem of the separation between Atlas and Goliath. After rejecting transplanting and grafting, he proposes the solution which will ultimately be used – creating a stable wormhole (or ra’aabit hole) through which Atlas and Goliath can connect at the root.
Cuinn is also called upon to predict the possible locations of singularity drops during a CenGov incursion. It is this information which allows Ari to outface them by hijacking one of the ships and getting it to dump its cargo early.
During the course of the novel, Cuinn realizes that the Skarsium crystals are an alien technology (as it turns out, the Skarsium mine was left by the Flaxxshi, the Domha’vei’s original inhabitants who were erased by the SongLuminants). This insight allows him to recreate the crystals. It is this, however, which triggers the SongLuminant investigation into the Nau’gsh.
Cuinn is called upon to testify to the SongLuminants. He spends most of his time coming up with crackpot theories of quantum entanglement, then decides that he wants to put an umlaut into his name to make him look more intelligent. Just as the SongLuminants are about to write him off as incoherent and useless, he comes up with the observation that neither compassion nor understanding are necessary between different species as long as there is mutual respect. This insight is rated positively by the SongLuminants. As it turns out, Cuinn was one of the handful of emanations who understood that the SongLuminants weren’t practicing true telepathy, but were actually possessing the body of the Floatfish intermediary. His testimony was intended to stall the investigation until Ashtara had enough information about the SongLuminants to produce Lucius.
The Poison Garden: Cuinn has become the president and chief scientist of RR-2 Corporation. Early in the book he does some analysis identifying the nature and source of the nullets. He raises the issue of the umlaut several times, and Tara affirms that he should be able to spell his name as he likes. From this point forward, he is known as Cüinn.
Cüinn reaches the correct supposition that Esau St. John is a telepath capable of projecting people’s subconscious assumptions back at them. He directs Lucius in the choice of exploitation galaxies from the Combine keeping in mind the ones with good access to nul-energy or interesting experimental possibilities.
Cüinn wants to use the galaxies in experiments in setting up stable wormholes. The emanations consider the idea of being able to grow another tree in an entirely different galaxy. He also occupies his time by making more motivational posters. When he learns about the particle decay problem of the Twist, he deduces that interacting with Wynne’s ability to warp probability could give the Twist in his vicinity near-immortal lifespans.
“The Prophecy of Seed” has Cüinn and Tara travelling to the Seaspring Forest to find the father tree – the source of the seed which grew Ashtara. On the trip, they discuss the history of the Cu’endhari and notice that many people have left offerings at Cu’ensali trees. Cüinn says something insulting about the Cu’ensali – and a tiny sprite appears, punches him in the face and flies away.
Tara and Cüinn end up having sex propped against one of the squirrel trees. The squirrel protests and Cüinn drives it away, but it returns when they are getting dressed and pelts them with apples. They finally locate the father tree and are very surprised to discover that it has green leaves. They identify it as a Bright Nebula nectarine – but with a nau’gsh taproot. Ash did not descend from the squirrel trees, but rather directly from the original nectarine ancestor of all Cu’endhari. Tara takes a bite from the fruit, shocking Cüinn – it is, after all, his father. She has an epiphany that her ancestor, Ernst Sider, planted the tree intentionally – and Cüinn has his own epiphany that the seed within the nectarine responded to Tara, that Ash’s n’aashet n’aaverti began even then.
In “The Prophecy of Dogs,” it is Cüinn who suggests to Manasseh that he get a dog in order to understand why humans love pets. In “The Prophecy of Fear,” we learn that Cüinn is still experimenting with travel into other galaxies. On an experimental trip into Tucana, Ash encounters the Great Dread. Cüinn is having supper with Tara during “The Prophecy of Windows” when a gyring Elma arrives to inform them that she has made a deal allowing the Cantor a second branch in exchange for the Forest supporting Ash in his colonization project.
The Perpetual Rose: Cüinn had supposedly been working on a project to discover the best wormhole paths to the new colony – but in actuality, he was looking for paths into the Tucana Dwarf Cluster, to deal with the Denolin Turym – the Great Dread. He collaborates in several research projects during the course of the novel, including the production of glowkrill, the analysis of the teleportation device, and the compilation of trading card statistics, but has no part in the main action.
The Portable Grove: Cüinn’s first appearance is in experiment eight. He tries to develop a testable hypothesis for Gold Club membership by analyzing the data.
When deciding on the tenth experiment, Tara picks a random trading card from the deck – it’s Cüinn’s. His experiment is to see if he can improve the nau’gshtamine production in two low-producers, Till and Lucius. He solicits aid from Tarlach. They devise an experiment where Tara drinks the juices of the two emanations while Till takes an extract of Blue Moth Mushrooms. Both improve nau’gshtamine production, but not enough to bring the subjects up to average. Tarlach and Cüinn then decide to use a survey tool to see what factors influence high-producers. They discover that the highest producing emanations have a reputation for being an easy pollination. Based on this research, Tarlach develops the PRAT/PIT method.
During the course of experiment fifteen, Cüinn makes an important discovery: the “junk DNA” on the genetic marker for the Blood of the Matriarchs is actually an encoded message from Ernst Sider, revealing that he understood a lot more about the nature of the Nau’gsh and the nul-universe than was supposed. The Blood contains a trigger which will only be activated in a descendant who is also imprinted with residual nul-energy from a Cu’endhari ancestor – Tara. She is actually a product of Sider’s experiments in human evolution.
Cüinn’s cross-pollination request is based on analyzing the correspondence charts – he chooses Marius. Their stress-test is about tyranny, and the scene is a battle of dominance between Cillian and Marius. Marius tries to train Cüinn as a submissive, but Cüinn can’t quite seem to take it seriously. Nevertheless, Tara gives him the prize for best submissive because he’s adorable. The prize is his gift from the gift shop, which turns out to be “The perfection of sensual pleasure.” Despite this, he never gets laid by Marius.
Correspondence Chart Entries from The Portable Grove
| Denotation | Cüinn Cleary (originally Cuinn; Gaelic: intelligent; Gaelic: scholar). |
| Numeration | 8th Emanation of Ashtara; 8th branch of Atlas; 36 in the correspondence chart. |
| Age | 28 |
| Hotness | 8/10 |
| Vital Statistics | 1.703 meters tall, cock size 15.44 cm when erect. |
| Description | Cute; he’d be handsome if he weren’t always gaping at everything. Wears thick-rimmed glasses he doesn’t need because he thinks it makes him look intellectual. Hair is medium brown, cut is utilitarian and unremarkable, tends to get overgrown. A bit on the thin-side, pale and not very conditioned as one might expect of a man who spends his life in a lab coat. He has two varieties of shirt: a striped sweater and a short-sleeved, collarless button-up. He has each in a variety of colors: black, red, white, green to pair with slacks and sneakers. In this way, he efficiently avoids having to bother thinking about what to wear. He feels naked without his lab coat. |
| Skills | Theoretical physicist, Director of Research, RR-2 Labs. Genius. Idiot. |
| Sexual Prowess and Kinks | Thinks lab coats are sexy. Very loud during sex. |
| Average Duration of Play | 12 minutes, 46 seconds. |
| Totem Tree | Coffea arabica, the coffee bush. |
| Fixed Star | Dschubba, the forehead (D Sco; also C LF – the Lillifers, a constellation in Skarsian astrology). |
| Color |  |
| Esoteric Symbol | The Etruscan letter (b) |
| Function | Administrative initiation. |
| Official Title | Skarsian Minister of Science. |
| His Prophecy | Brilliance which trips over its own feet. |
| Dessert | Javajuice tiramisu with nau’gsh puree. |
Persistence of Weeds Addendum
| Branch Growth Characteristics | Natural branch growth resulting from the trauma of Mickey’s death. Used as a template for his half-brothers on Goliath, Solomon and Darius. |
| Nul-history | Was joined to Ross and Mickey, and in the process of synchronization with Owen-Lugh when they were all drawn into Atlas. |
| Proto-conscious Root Concept | Intellect, designated Reason. |
| Prime Number of Energy Resonance | 151 |
| From Self-Portraits Not-of-Me II: Baby Pictures by Driscoll Garrett |  |