Post by Terra on Mar 4, 2013 8:54:11 GMT -5
FILE
NAME: Tara Markov
CODENAME: Terra
AGE: 14 years old
GENDER: Female
ALLIANCE: Hero (NOT YJ, I realize you have her listed as part of the Team, but I would prefer her to not be, at least at the beginning of the roleplay)
HEIGHT: 5'2"
WEIGHT: 95 pounds
FAMILY: Brion // Geo-Force (half-brother), King of Markovia (Father), Queen of Markovia (Step-Mother)
OTHER CHARACTERS: None.
APPEARANCE: Tara stands at 5’2”, just below average for a girl her age. Weighing in at 95 pounds, the girl has quite a slim figure, not the healthiest, though, mostly because of her life on the run. With blonde hair that falls to a bit below her small chest, and light blue eyes, Tara has the look of someone that spends a lot of time outside, especially in the sun, as that is exactly what she does. Her skin isn’t too tan, as she doesn’t tan easily, but it definitely has the tint of one that spends their life outdoors, as well as the sort of “dirt-encrusted” look, as she spends plenty of time in the dirt. She’s not overly muscular, but she is fit and lean, possessing the muscles one gets from traveling every day, but she doesn’t quite have the ones people get from working out as, well, she doesn’t really work out.
Typically, Tara ends up wearing the same clothes over and over again. Her usual basics consist of jean shorts, a long sleeve grey shirt with a short blue T-shirt over top. She also has a midriff-baring black long-sleeved shirt that she considers her “superhero” shirt, a yellow circle with a ‘T’ in the middle, for ‘Terra’, on it, with matching yellow shorts, though she has never considered herself enough of a hero to actually wear it. In addition, she wears brown boots with her matching gloves, which tend to help ‘muffle’ her powers, as well as a pair of dark blue goggles that she wears when she is using her powers, to protect her eyes. She has a rather large backpack that is also a part of her appearance, as well, a large green one that carries all of her belongings. Sometimes she stows it in hiding spots or caves, but most of the time, it’s on her back, looming over the small girl’s head.
PERSONALITY: The image that Terra projects is one of absolute fun. She’s game for pretty much anything, always has a smile on her face, cheerful, upbeat, ready to laugh at herself or lame jokes… Exactly the kind of girl you want to hang around with, or have fun a ton of fun with. Terra doesn’t seem to get down about things, just a perpetually happy and fun girl that knows how to have a good time, and isn’t afraid of spreading that ‘good time’-ness.
That is part of who she is. But it certainly isn’t all of it, as she’d like to try to pretend.
For one, Terra doesn’t trust easily. She’s made far too many quick friends that the instant her powers started acting up, left her, so she doesn’t want to put that confidence in another, only to be let down yet again. At the same time, though, she desperately wants to be able to trust someone, just so she’s not so lonely. She’s been on her own, with no one to confide in, no one to just love, trust, hang out with… She’s starved for affection and attention.
The girl is also completely and utterly terrified. Terrified that her powers will act up, the slim possibility she’ll be found, or perhaps that she’ll be branded a villain, locked away, yet another person will fear her… Her nerves are absolutely stretched taut beneath façade, just waiting for something to go wrong again. Because she knows something will. It always does.
Finally… Terra isn’t the most mentally stable girl in the world. She certainly isn’t insane, but… With a combination of the pain and fear she went through when gaining her powers, and then the absolute terror and horror she feels every time her powers run amok, to the crushing loneliness and the sense that she’ll never, ever be able to stop running… Her mind has just been bent a little bit.
All in all, Terra is a terrified, lonely girl who hides that beneath a façade of utter fun and happiness. Hopefully, someone can break that façade…
POWERS: Tara has the very strong ability to control earth in any form, be it mud, stone, or other, lifting it up and having it fly, manipulating it into shapes, etc. It's very versatile. However, as a result of her powers never getting stabilized, they're not under control. Avalanches, mudslides, earthquakes... If she's not extremely careful, they can be set off easily, from anything from a change in emotion, to simply acting out because they will. Her powers seem to get stronger all the time, so if she can't get them under control...
Whenever she uses her powers, her eyes glow yellow, and her hands gain a faint sheen of the same color.
HISTORY: Born as the second child to the King and Queen of Markovia, Tara had a fairly good early life. She loved her older brother dearly, but at the same time… She never felt as if she belonged, as if something was out of place. Though she still does not know it to this day, she was an illegitimate child, only half-royalty, something that caused tension in the family, and led her to not know where she quite fit in.
She may have continued in that fashion for the rest of her life, perhaps eventually settling in, but it was not to be. Markovia felt threatened by the appearance of so many meta-humans and aliens, as they could possibly threaten the monarchy that still reigned in their country, for the ‘good’ ones, while who knew what harm the ‘evil’ ones could inflict. Thus, the royal scientists, without giving the children any warning, took the two royal children, and experimented on them, giving them powers to control Earth. However, their powers needed to be stabilized. Brion, her older brother, had his stabilized first, and the instant that that happened, he reacted, fighting back. Tara, who had yet to have hers under control, attempted to help as well, before she collapsed the ceiling, crushing some scientists.
Horrified, she fled, not daring to go back to Markovia after such an incident, as she was a freak. And out-of-control freak. Begging enough money (and stealing the rest that she couldn’t) to get a plane ticket, Tara headed straight towards America, a country she felt was big enough for her to get lost in. There were plenty, plenty of superheroes there, too, meta-humans and aliens, maybe a few freaks like her, which meant that she’d blend in a lot more easily.
Thankfully, English was one of the things she had been taught at an early age at the palace, and after securing some new clothes (yay for big blue eyes that caused people to pity her a touch more) that blended in here in this country, she disappeared into the masses easily, another blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl amongst the streets of America.
And so, she stayed quiet. Begging for money, swiping some (but never too much, just a few dollars per person, she wasn’t a thief), and amassing her collection, her large backpack, clothes, flashlight, food money, so on and so forth… She goes where the wind takes her, now, traveling all over. And her powers… Well, she’s tried to help people. She really has. But her powers never listen, and she always messes up further, and has to move on. Avalanches, mudslides, earthquakes… All have been left in her path, as she has fled, trying to get away from her horrible mistakes.
Don’t lose control.
ROLE-PLAYING SAMPLE: The look that Addie gave her made the Geomancer want to fidget, but she resisted the urge. Fidgeting always told the person watching that you were either (1) uncomfortable, or (2) hiding something, and she didn’t want to project the emotion of either. As the other declared that she wouldn’t force her to do anything, Tara barely suppressed her sigh of relief. She would probably have to go along with it, seeing as there was absolutely no competition between her and the super, so thank goodness for that fact.
Wait, was it really gonna rain? She had thought it was, as it had been a fairly nice day so far… Was Addie trying to trick her? (She was a superhero, but that didn’t always mean anything) Following the other’s gaze, though, the girl was dismayed to see that she actually was telling the truth. Thunderstorms? Rain? Ugh, so not her day. As if the giant moths and getting found out by a super didn’t prove it already.
So… what should she do? Accept the offer to stay? Tara definitely didn’t want to stay out in the rain, after all… And a thunderstorm only made the offer look all the more appealing. For a moment, she considered just saying no, right off the bat, and figuring out what she wanted to do later, but the survival instincts that had stuck with her pretty well for her whole life told her that that would be a rash decision, so she spoke up hesitantly. “…Can I get back to you on that offer?” she asked weakly. Tara hated giving in like this, to let herself be cornered by a super and staying with her long than she wanted, but she didn’t have anywhere else to go, and the weather was horrible.
…Besides, she could only stay for one night, ‘till the weather got better. That would work out fine, right?
…Right?
However, she perked up at the other’s words, turning to face her with a grin blossoming across her face. “They’ve got video games there?” And a stereo, that was cool, too, but she never got very much into music, mostly because she didn’t have access to it, aside from hearing it play in stores. But video games… She had distant, faded memories of playing them with an older boy, once upon a time, and more fresh ones, of playing them in the stores whenever she came across one of those demo-things where you could try them out. Always fun, and a great way to pass time. “Do you know what kinds of games they have?” She had said that human technology was beyond her, but-
Wait. Human technology. The phrasing of that. Swallowing sharply, Tara looked at the super with new eyes. So she was an alien, huh? Like Superman? …She didn’t know how she was supposed to react to that tidbit of information. Crap. (though it did make the fact that she had called Tara ‘little one’ make a bit more sense, as who knew how old she was)
At least the other was quiet, though, as they picked up the jewelry. It gave the Geomancer time to think and to plan her course of action, of if she was going to stay with the super or her friends or not, and though she didn’t reach a conclusive decision… it had been nice. She had a sort of plan, though: First, she was going to meet the Teen Titan(s), and see if they were okay. They had ‘Teen’ in their name, after all, so perhaps they were her age? So it would be okay? Second, if they were nice… maybe stay with them. If they said no, and she would have to stay with the alien super who was kind of alternately amusing her, annoying her, and freaking her out (and who had no video games to tempt her, unlike the team), she wasn’t going to stay with anyone. She could get a hotel room (if she could afford it), or break into someone’s garage and sleep there or something.
Right. Good plan of action.
Blinking in surprise as the other ruffled her hair again (seriously, if she did that a third time, Tara was gonna steel herself and ask her to stop), the Geomancer listened curiously as she rambled on, and grinned slightly at her compliment, though she felt the need to shoot it down. “They’ll have to repave it, though,” she remarked. Maybe if she was better, she could have fixed it really well, but, alas, she was not. Too bad.
As the other finished up talking, though, she chuckled. “Sounds like they suck,” she commented off-handedly. “Maybe you should go on strike and see how they react?” Tara was kidding, of course, though it would make an interesting statement. And an interesting cover page for the newspaper. ‘Superheroes on Strike!’ Mentally, she sniggered.
Following as the other motioned her to (was she gonna argue with a super?), and stepping through the moth bodies (gross!), Tara’s smile faded slightly as the other pointed out her name. “Ah… Yeah… Terra Firma and all that.” She just… didn’t like her powers. Nor people drawing attention to them. She just wanted to be… normal. And having a name like ‘Terra’ wasn’t really normal, at least in her book.
For the short time it took them to walk to the pizza place, the younger girl was quite happy that the other was silent. She just really didn’t know what to say to Addie, and desperately hoped that the Teen Titans would be a little easier for her to talk to. It would be nice.
As they arrived, though, she peered around the place curiously. It looked nice, like a place that she would’ve eventually visited on her own, so they’d probably have pretty good food. They already had a nice atmosphere, after all. Plopping in the chair (and resisting the urge to put her feet up on one of the open ones, as her boots had too much dirt on them), Tara took the menu, blinking at the other. “Ah… thanks.” With that, she browsed through it. Seemed fairly basic, so she already knew what she wanted. “Can I just get a pop and a medium pepperoni pizza?” the Geomancer asked, not yet looking up from the menu. It didn’t look too expensive, and she could definitely eat the whole thing…
