#and he pretty much seems like just some guy I'd encounter 'round Nicosia hehe

[why-even-ask]

I headcanon J. S. Steinman as a Cypriot. And it works.

Aphrodite's birthplace is in Cyprus and we all know how much Steinman loves Aphrodite. You know, make him a Jewish Cypriot. His family might as well come to Cyprus during the Ottoman period (late 16th century onwards) or even the late 19th century.

It very much works. Look at him. He looks like some Nicosian you'd see in your uncle's kebab shop or something. Just some guy you'd drink zivania and KEO with.

Wanna read more? Click on.

I say he has a mixed family of Turkish Cypriots, Greek Cypriots, and of course his Jewish roots. I mean, Cypriots are kind of chill with religion; for example, the Linobambakis would have both Christian and Muslim traditions and celebrations. Nothing conflicts with anything, you just have a personal relationship with religion over there.

So, here's our favorite Jewish (and Greek and Turkish) Cypriot who worships Aphrodite.

[Using the "There's Something in the Sea" data to build a 'canon' background here.] So, he vanishes from the US around the late 1940s, right? Apparently, he had a friendship with someone for 32 years. Let's say that their friendship started around 1918. Steinman was known for his face reconstruction work at a young age, and it makes sense because it would line up with the First World War. If we say that Steinman took only a few years of education to get to that degree with extraordinary success, it would mean that he was in the US at least by 1914.

It means that, in the game (Bioshock 1 - 1960), Steinman is at least 65 years old.

And, well, building a headcanon here: Let's say that his family left Cyprus because of the British occupation getting stricter with taxes and even hinting at conscription if/when the war broke out.

Now, imagine him.

He still misses home during his studies. He complains about not being able to find zivania (Cypriot drink) to drink. His family sometimes visits Cyprus and sends him some halloumi cheese over. He even visits Cyprus at some point and brings some cattle bones from the empty fields over Nicosia, say, Kythrea. He has them in his student dorm on his shelf.

I mean, don't think of a city when I say Kythrea or something. Think of a village, a very small one. Imagine him growing up there. He steals from the melon fields of the neighbors. He knows which wild weeds to pick to eat. Hell, he even experiments with which herbs are good for healing purposes, as his grandmother is a village elder who people go to for that kind of stuff. He learns that the branch of pharmaceutics exists just for that. Then, though, his focus shifts to medicine. Most importantly, surgeries --face reconstruction and all that. He's around 15 or something, they leave Cyprus.

Now, it's around the 1930s. Steinman is well over 30 at the time. His family had gone back to Cyprus at some point because they couldn't handle the US. His father picks the field up, and his uncle and his mother are running the barns & farm. Sometimes when Steinman visits, his uncle asks him to check the health of the cattle. "I'm not a vet!" doesn't work for Cypriots, you gotta do what you gotta do, lol. He stays there for half a year as a break and thinks about staying and working there as a vet because he really misses home... but the Second World War breaks out. The Brits are trying to draft up people for the Cyprus Regiment to fight in Europe or Northern Africa, especially those who know English being very much preferred... and Steinman has to flee once again. He tries to take his family to come with him as well, but they refuse. They cannot part from Cyprus once again.

Hell, the Brits manage to "convince" his father and uncle to join the Regiment. His mother goes to the US to stay with Steinman because it's hard being so lonely there. Steinman is making good money but you know, his father and uncle are deep in the war already and were as stubborn as mules about not coming to the US.

By the end of the war, his father gets injured, and they get a residency permit for the UK as a "gift" or something. His father decides to live there because he cannot work in the field easily anymore. His mother follows suit. Only his uncle remains in Cyprus. Steinman is alone in the US again.

He also read about Cypriot mythology, by the way. He learnt that Cyprus was Aphrodite's birthplace and now he believes that it's all fate that he is the best face reconstruction surgeon. He believes that he should work with "beauty" as well, and starts worshipping Aphrodite in the private and takes up aesthetic surgery.

He briefly visits Cyprus every once in a while. It's not horrible, but it feels lonely as hell. At least he has his uncle still running the farm, so they hang out and all that. When his uncle dies in the late 40s, though, he permanently goes back to the US.

He's now over 40. He expects to have a feeling of home, right?

The US doesn't feel right, though. There's business, yes, but he wants a home. He wants a place he can belong in. He feels like he needs to erase his name and face off the earth to ever belong somewhere, which feels impossible.

Until... Rapture happens.

Does he miss Cyprus? A bit, of course. But he knows he couldn't have lived there. It's a memory, but quite a strong one. At some point, he manages to convince Fontaine to smuggle him some zivania. For Fontaine's surgery (the Atlas thing, you know), Fontaine brings him soil from the fields, some molohiya (a cookable weed also called Jew's Mallow), and crates full of zivania and a new brand: KEO. When Steinman asks what it is, he tells him that it's the new fad around Cyprus, established in 1949. It's good beer, truly.

And, well, Fontaine had brought him so much zivania and KEO that he doesn't run out of them until his death.