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Post by Selina Taylor on Mar 16, 2015 21:11:49 GMT -6
Selina Salomé Taylor
FACE CLAIM: Jasmine Villegas
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AGE: 19
GENDER: Female
ORIENTATION: Bisexual, but more likely to be attracted to women or feminine of center people.
POSITION: Bellefonte College Student
POWER: Water Manipulation
The chemical compound of H2O is the only compound Selina can manipulate or control. Any other liquid is impossible for her to use. Contaminated water, (i.e. salt water/ mud/blood/etc.) can be controlled, but with quite a bit more effort involved, as any contaminant is deadweight. The more volume she controls, the more effort it takes as well.
She can freeze water through manipulating the molecule to form a solid or create water vapor by manipulating the molecules to form a gas. She could also theoretically condense the molecules until water is dense enough to walk on, but this would take a major amount of concentration, effort, and finesse that she hasn’t yet achieved. Anything involved with changing the base source she’s provided with takes more energy and focus. This includes any attempt at purifying contaminated water as well.
Selina’s rigorous physical and mental training in Aikido is a great aid to her in controlling her power as Selina is very physically focused, and her power works best when she uses her body to direct it.
LIMITATIONS:
She can only control what she can physically lift of pure water (i.e. A gallon of water is heavy and would require more energy to lift than a cup of water). So the stronger she is, the more she can lift or control and the longer she can hold it under her command. Contaminants can easily more than double the weight she has to lift depending on how saturated the water is.
A natural source of liquid water takes much less effort to manipulate, as having to condense water vapor in the air into enough water to actually do anything constructive takes a massive amount of effort and often with very little reward unless the air is heavy with fog or humidity.
Physical strength and power are much more effective at moving larger amounts of water which are harder to fine tune and intricately manipulate. Little thought or mental acuity is required for brute force.
Strength of mind and concentration are what’s important for smaller amounts of water that can be used in more delicate or imaginative ways. Little physical strength is required to maintain such control as it is usually only a very small amount of water that is used in such situations.
As for how often a day she can use her power, it depends on how the power is used and how much physical strength or mental energy the manipulation required. The more physically fit she is, the more she can do, and the more mentally prepared, through meditation or focus exercises, the more she can do with fine-tuned and delicate manipulation.
SIDE-EFFECTS:
Severe headaches and permanent brain damage are possible if she mentally overexerts herself, but the brain damage would only occur if she went so far beyond her limits that the consequences became irreparable.
Severe muscle pain and possible permanent muscular atrophy along with other physical injuries are possible if she physically overexerts herself. Again, the permanent damage would only occur in the most extreme cases.
A mixture of the two is definitely possible.
A more common side effect is fainting/becoming unconscious if she overtaxes herself.
Physical rest is an imperative after using too much of her power, similar to needing physical rest after an overly strenuous workout.
HEIGHT: 5’5” Her height has never truly bothered her, because she always enjoys it when others underestimate her. It gives her a great opportunity to take advantage of them.
HAIR COLOR: Dark Brown
EYE COLOR: Dark Brown
MISC: Selina loves to wear dramatic dangling earrings. She loves the way they feel, the way they look, and she enjoys the looks she gets for some of her more outlandish choices. Her clothes are usually nice casual, as she always wants to appear well put together. She uses make-up to her advantage and occasionally enjoys going all out with contouring, blending eye make-up, and bright lipsticks, but most of the time it’s just too much effort. Earrings are simple and easy to don and take off, but make-up takes a lot more time, talent, and focus. Selina also enjoys putting up her hair in a high ponytail, as it’s fashionable, practical, and fun to play with different styles. Occasionally, she’ll braid her hair or let it hang loose, but most often it’s up in a high ponytail.
Selina has many scars from rough and tumble playing, fights, and accidents when she was younger, as well as some from practicing her Aikido, but the most prominent is a three inch scar along her collarbone that she got when she was 16.
PERSONALITY:
Selina is incredibly closed off and cold to those who don’t know her. She can warm up to those she likes, but she still keeps her guard up around anyone who she doesn’t consider family. She’s been encouraged by her mother to try and make friends, so she’ll give it her best effort for her mother’s sake, but she’s not exactly sold on the idea that she needs friends.
Selina hates and despises anyone who dares to badmouth her mother. She probably won’t verbally respond unless she’s having a bad day, but that person will be on her shit list and if something bad happens to them, she may or may not have had a direct hand in its occurrence.
Selina also hates bullies, but for the most part she’ll ignore them unless they become too much of a bother. On the rare occasion she might be willing to stand up against injustice that involves somebody else so long as it’s someone she knows or cares about that’s getting harassed, assaulted, or bullied.
Selina is more of a quiet strategist, but she also has no qualms about using brute force if necessary. Her skill in aikido is unrivaled by most her age, and so her threats are never idle.
Selina is also a fierce competitor who loves going all out against an opponent, whether mentally, physically, or both. She never backs down from a challenge, which can bite her in the ass on occasion.
Her arrogance is a part of her competitive side, but it more often correlates to how she relates to her peers on an emotional and mental level. She’s young and so she knows everything there is to know and everyone else is a fool, or just not worth listening to in her humble opinion. If someone has earned her respect though, she’ll be completely willing to listen and learn, but if not, then she can be extremely difficult to teach.
Selina has an extreme mistrust of teachers, men, and anyone in authority. There may be a good reason behind it, but sometimes it makes her more headstrong than is wise.
Selina loves tea and wine. Openly consuming alcohol at her age will be something she’ll miss, but she knows that underage drinking is quite popular in the Estados Unidos, so she has hope.
Selina also likes sexual relationships that aren’t meant to last. She hates clingy people and can’t stand it when people try to make a perfectly good and shallow physical relationship deeper. Occasionally, she doesn’t mind stringing along a particularly obnoxious or persistent ass and dropping him on the rocks as soon as he gets attached enough for it to really hurt or until she gets tired of the game. She’ll only do that if she’s really bored and has enough time to waste though. And yes, those relationships are specifically with men. She wouldn’t do that to a woman since she tends to actually like women.
Selina has very carefully constructed an image of ruthless efficiency, and any chink in her armor being seen by others is dreaded, unless she’s purposefully allowed them into her world. She fears others finding her scars and using them to tear her apart.
On some level she fears emotional attachment to anybody, as it can be used against her, by them or by others.
Selina also fears defeat, being seen as weak, and appearing the fool.
Her desires are many, but her main wish is to find somebody she can trust, though she won’t likely admit that to anyone, including herself, anytime soon. On a deeper level, she wonders if she’s worth such a relationship or even capable of forming and maintaining it, but that’s too close to admitting defeat for her tastes, so she just claims she’s better off alone.
SECRET(S):
Selina killed Maria Esperanza’s abusive husband. It’s not necessarily a secret, so much as she never talks about it if she can help it, and prefers if others don’t know.
The scar on her collarbone is always hidden by clothing, so she never wears tops with too low of a neckline. It’s not because she’s ashamed of it, or because she thinks it’s ugly, it’s merely because people ask too many prying questions if they can see it, and that gets tiring to deal with.
Her mother’s job as a stripper isn’t much of a secret, but she doesn’t talk about that either. Selina has never been and never will be ashamed of what her mom does for a living, but for the sake of protecting her mom from other people’s ignorant judgments as soon as they find out, she typically stays silent.
FATHER: Unknown
MOTHER: Katerina Taylor
SIBLINGS: N/A
WORTHY MENTIONS:
Maria Esperanza – also known as Tia Maria to Selina. Katerina’s lover and a second mother to Selina. She’s a victim of domestic abuse, but Katerina protects her and offers shelter. Maria is the first serious relationship that Katerina has ever been in, and is likely to be the last as Katerina wishes to be with her for as long as they live.
CHILDHOOD: Selina was born in a hospital on December 7, 1995 in Santiago, Chile. Her mom, Katerina, had no idea who the possible father was due to the nature of her multiple physical relationships with men, but she didn’t care. She’d been wanting a child for years and to finally hold her baby girl in her arms was indescribable. Katerina named her child Selina, after the full moon that shone so brightly outside her hospital window on the night of her birth. Katerina gave her the second name of Salomé, for the fact that this child was perfect and that she completed Katerina.
Katerina took very careful care of her young girl and played with her every day she wasn’t working at the strip club. The four nights a week that she worked, she hired a babysitter, Maria Esperanza, to watch over Selina so that the child wouldn’t be home alone. Maria and Katerina became fast friends and Selina quickly attached herself to her “Tia Maria” and accepted her as an extension of her close-knit family. The three grew a strong bond between them and became inseparable as Maria often went out with Katarina and Selina on family trips, attended Selina’s aikido classes, and spent almost as much time with Katerina as she did with her constantly traveling and absent husband. Katerina and Selina lived on the poor end of town and were often strapped tight for money, but they were relatively well off compared to many of Santiago’s less fortunate, as Katerina worked at one of the higher end clubs in the center of the city.
Selina sometimes wondered about who her father was, but with Katerina and Maria showering her with all the love and support she could handle, she didn’t end up caring very much. Thinking about him became more of a thing she did when too bored to think of anything else as she grew older.
ADOLESCENCE: Katerina gave Selina the most thorough sex education a girl could ever want, with a heavy emphasis on consent and not allowing anybody to touch her unless she wanted them to. Katerina had dealt with difficult customers and misogynists more times than she cared to remember, and she was determined to give her daughter all of the tools she possibly could to survive. It was part of the reason why Katerina had been so supportive of her daughter involving herself in martial arts.
Partially because of how her mom and Tia Maria had brought her up and partially because of her own personality, Selina had high self-esteem as a young teen. She studied hard, made excellent grades with a 6.7 GPA on a 7.0 point scale and an honored place on the Principle’s List. When Selina wasn’t studying, she was practicing her aikido and she made friends rather easily at first, especially in the dojo. At school, she was a bit more reserved, but she still fit in pretty well… until one of the teachers placed his hand on her knee and threatened to expose her mom’s job as a stripper if she didn’t comply with his wishes when she was a 14 year old freshman.
Selina froze at first, not believing this could possibly be real. She had no idea what to do or even how to respond, because surely a teacher, a figure of authority, could not be doing this. She remembered everything her mom had ever told her about not allowing anyone to manipulate or touch her, and knew that this was so wrong, but she couldn’t force herself to move. She wasn’t concerned about whether or not her mom’s job would be exposed, as she’d never really thought of it in terms of being a secret and it was perfectly legal, instead her immobilization was purely due to fear, disbelief, and a complete loss as to what it was she was supposed to do.
As Sr. Reyes’ hand crept higher up her thigh, she suddenly reacted purely from instinct and punched the man as hard as she could before desperately running out of the room. She ran all the way home, not stopping to catch her breath. She was terrified. She’d just hit a teacher. Could she go to jail for that? She had no idea. All she knew was that she was in deep trouble and her young imaginative mind came up with all things unrealistic and nightmarish as to what would happen when others found out.
Her mom immediately knew something was wrong when Selina slammed the door behind her upon entering the house and ran for her room, tears streaming down her face. Katerina called out to Selina asking what happened, but got no response except for a closed door in her face as Selina got to her room and collapsed to the floor, sobbing. Katerina respected her daughter’s need for private space and didn’t force open the unlocked door. Instead she sat outside and reassured Selina that she would be there for her when she was ready to talk.
When Selina finally calmed down and told her mom what had happened, her mom was livid. How dare that perverse bastard do such a thing to her precious child? Katerina immediately called the school and demanded that Sr. Reyes be fired. Needless to say, the school disagreed. Sr. Reyes had never been reported for sexually harassing or assaulting a student before, and so the suspicion fell to Selina. The daughter of a stripper must surely have made the moves on him and been upset when he refused, right? Or so Sr. Reyes had said.
Of course, Sr. Reyes had had plenty of time to spin his own story to the principle before Selina could make it home and to her mother’s protective arms. He’d even been so generous as to be willing to forgive Selina for her grievous crime and showed his understanding by claiming she should merely be suspended instead of being expelled for such an unwarranted act of violence. Surely she was merely a troubled girl from a troubled home, after all without a father’s hand to guide her along the right path and with such an immoral mother, how could she possibly know any better? The principle, knowing how badly a case like this would look for the school if it got out that one of their teachers had been caught sexually assaulting a female student, believed Reyes without the slightest reservation. Katerina was so furious when she heard his response she could barely speak, but she argued for her daughter’s innocence until the principle got tired of humoring her and firmly told her that the suspension was final, and that if her daughter messed up again, it would be expulsion.
Because of Sr. Reyes’ malicious gossip, Selina soon became known as a violent and promiscuous girl, and though she wasn’t one to care what people thought, some of her friends were. No matter how many times she told them the true story of what happened, with everyone else being against her, and with one of their favorite teachers being so “kind and forgiving”, they began to doubt her. Selina refused to put up with their insecurities and stopped hanging around them, becoming a loner. Being alone had its drawbacks when the boys who thought they were entitled started making life difficult for her, though.
Her mom spent almost all of her free time trying to find a new school for her daughter to attend, but it was difficult to find a good school that would accept a student who’d punched a teacher that was also within her limited budget. Eventually, Selina told her mom that literally anywhere other than Nuevo Comienzo was fine, just so long as she didn’t have to go to school with that teacher. Katerina agreed and Selina transferred from her mediocre and average public school to an impoverished school that could barely afford supplies for her sophomore year.
By this time, Tia Maria had become an almost permanent resident in the Taylors’ two room apartment, sleeping in bed with Katerina and sharing her room being a far more common occurrence than being in her own bed at home. When her husband found out about her infidelity through means of hiring a private investigator to follow Maria, he was beyond livid. He came to Katerina’s door later that night after drinking himself into a dangerous stupor and demanded entrance to her home, which she stubbornly refused while she urged Maria and Selina to hide in her bedroom.
Unfortunately, she didn’t count on Sr. Esperanza kicking down the door and forcing entry to their home when Selina was 16. Katerina was physically fit and strong from pole dancing and her ballerina training, but she knew nothing about how to fight off a three hundred pound man of over six feet in height. Selina, having heard the huge crash, rushed out into the main room, just in time to see her mother back handed by the brute before she fell to the floor unconscious. Selina panicked as his eyes fell on her and she looked for anything to keep distance between them but didn’t have much time to react as he attacked her.
Luckily, her training took over and her muscles reacted almost of their own accord, turning the man’s strength and momentum against him as she flipped him over her hip. What she wasn’t counting on was the switchblade he drew from his pocket and threw with deadly accuracy, even despite his drunken haze. She only barely managed to move enough out of the way so that the blade embedded itself into her shoulder instead of into her chest.
She reflexively grabbed at her wounded shoulder and groaned in pain and dismay when her hand came away dripping in blood. Selina’s panic only rose as he lifted himself to his feet and smirked, calling her all sorts of filthy names and describing in painful detail how he was going to kill her. He could have just been trying to intimidate her, but she’d never know. Without thinking, when he got into striking range, Selina used the good hand covered in blood and rammed her fist into his throat with all of her might. He blocked her strike just in time, but was just as surprised as she was when he felt the frozen spikes consisting of her own blood pierce his jugular.
Selina felt all of her adrenaline drain out of her and she fell to the floor at the same time he did, unable to stand due to lack of strength. Her sudden manifestation of power drained her completely. Sr. Esperanza died drowning in his own blood not two feet from her, but she didn’t even notice. Her entire mind and body had fallen into shock and she wasn’t cognizant of anything happening around her until the police came and helped her into an ambulance.
The recruiters found her mere days after the incident, and told her about the school in Santiago for people like her with her powers. And so Selina transferred schools once again, and this time to Bellefonte’s sister school in Santiago. It honestly wasn’t that much of an improvement, as every other country sent their delinquents here to be “reformed”, but with a death on her hands and a violent attack against a teacher in her background, she fit in pretty well. Luckily, the court had declared the death a case of self-defense and she suffered no legal penalties for having killed Sr. Esperanza.
She detested the foreigners on principle, but she hated the gringos from the E.U. the most, as they tended to be more racist than the rest, always calling her “exotic”, “spicy”, and “fiery”, while they hit on her and expecting her to react like a Latina porn star. She beat them into submission quickly enough, and since this was a school where violence wasn’t exactly unusual, no one really noticed or cared. She just became another problem child, with the only difference between her and most of her peers being her exceptional grades.
She kept up with her aikido as well, so she’d have a sterling transcript with extra-curricular activities as well as high marks to present to Bellefonte College in the E.U. Not that it could be perfect with her violent past, but she tried to make up for her past with hard work at the Academia. She wanted to get out of Chile, and so did her mom and Maria. There were too many dark memories here, and they all needed a new start.
ADULTHOOD: At least two paragraphs please. (You don't need to fill this out if your character is under 18 years old)
Selina felt incredibly lucky to have been accepted into Bellefonte College when she got their response to her application. She honestly didn’t think she’d have much of a chance to get in, considering her spotty history, and it was a day that all three of them celebrated with a special dinner out.
As soon as she graduated from La Delgadillo Academia’s secondary school, they all moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where one of Katerina’s contacts had found a job for her. They found a small condominium outside of the city with plenty of room for the three of them, and Katerina and Maria both got their green cards.
The summer before Selina attended Bellefonte College, she made her way to Montana to visit and see what the school was like and gradually grew comfortable with the campus. She’s been rather closed off and silent since starting last fall, but she’s kept up with her classes and the rumors that always seemed to circulate around her in Chile didn’t seem to have followed her to the E.U. for which she was grateful.
SAMPLE:
Selina walked up the school, hesitating before she stepped onto the grounds and taking in everything around her with a slow and calculating gaze. It was a warm summer day, but there was no oppressive humidity so she was comfortable enough in her black jeans and navy blue satin blouse. The dry mountain air was refreshing, and reminded her of home, but the perfectly manicured lawns with expertly landscaped trees carefully placed and maintained made her feel uneasy. Selina had never met many rich people in her lifetime, and she had certainly never seen or been a part of a campus this plush.
Besides, what the hell was with their motto? Selina couldn’t understand Latin in the slightest, but it’d been translated for her by the school itself in its welcoming letter and she’d been positively baffled by it. Why would she want to use her power for anyone except for herself? She didn’t owe these gringos anything and if they expected her to bend over backward to serve them with her power, then they’d need to think again. She didn’t mind helping fellow Latinas so much, but anybody else was going to have to beg, not because that would tempt her to help them, but merely because it would be amusing to see.
Really though, “colorblind” gringos were the most annoying racists she’d had to deal with and that motto seemed like it was made for them with a golden bow. She had no desire to become a part of some conglomerate machine they’d created to further their own ends. Selina shook her head and decided not to say anything about her cynical doubts. She had no desire to get kicked out after working so hard to get in the damn place. She’d keep silent and use this place to further her own skill and her own goals, their ridiculous ideal be damned. After she got what she wanted, she would be gone and they’d never hear from her again. After all, the only reason she was here was to learn to control her power and to get a degree so she could get a high paying job to provide for her mother and Maria.
Selina sighed as she realized that Maria and her mom would want her to enjoy her college life and actually attempt to make friends here. She let out a small huff of amusement at the thought, but was determined to try at the very least. Making friends wasn’t serving this community, but serving herself and her mother who would worry if Selina were constantly alone, so it was an acceptable objective. With newfound resolve, Selina held her chin high and made her way to the Admissions office, mentally preparing herself for her college life.
USERNAME: FuzzyFemme
AGE GROUP: Early Twenties
EXPERIENCE: For about a year and two months
WHERE DID YOU FIND US? Advertisement on Proboards
