Appearance: Ava is a tall, thin girl. Standing at about 5'8" and weighing very little (bless her ridiculous metabolism), she has very little in the way of curves besides her awkwardly wide hips. Most notable are her long fingers. She has short, snowy white hair, not quite reaching her shoulders, which she usually cuts herself. Not too bad for having done it on her own! She's been doing this for years in an attempt to ward off her mother's need to pretty her up, and to avoid going to the salon with her. And yes, it's completely natural, same as her pale skin.
She doesn't usually do anything fancy in the way of clothes. She prefers comfort. Her favorite outfit consists of a sea green tank top and faded cutoff denim shorts. Partially this is because she's a tom boy, and partially it's another middle finger towards her mother. She is never seen without the leather bracelet on her left wrist (a gift from her daddy from one of his deployments). She'll also never wear shoes if she can get away with it, which has given her very tough feet (which are a size ten, by the way). She's become very good at avoiding obstacles in her path, even if that means looking quite silly dancing around them as she walks.
Personality: Ava learned from a very young age how to take care of herself. As a result she's quite practical and self-sufficient in a lot of ways. However, being left on her own and having minimal human interaction besides what was forced on her in school, she never really developed proper social skills.
By default Ava will mainly keep to herself. It's simply easier, and she's happier that way! She honestly just doesn't feel the need to talk to people. They're not interesting. She's the strange girl you see talking out loud to her doggy, so she's not used to people trying to communicate with her regardless. But when she does have to she's surprisingly perky. This wasn't always the case, but having the ability to talk with her pet and actually have a friend has significantly improved her outlook on life, and so she offers the same sort of friendliness to anyone who bothers to speak to her.
Of course she tends to talk a bit too much, or a bit too fast, or about things people probably don't care too much about. And she usually doesn't realize it. Sometimes she'll start going off about her dog in explicit detail, which often raises the question of why she knows such detailed things about an animal that can't speak. She's absolutely terrible at reading people, even when their emotions are clearly written all over their faces.
Whilst she doesn't like people that much (they don't bother her, they're just boring in comparison to other things), Ava loves animals of all kind. Her favorite subject in school is science. In fact, so far she's taken two science classes each year of high school to get more exposure to it. She loves biology and astronomy the most.
It was one of those stories. Love at first sight and all of that nonsense. At least, "nonsense" was one of the words Constance Riley (previously Constance Bissette) used when telling Ava the story. But John Riley told the story of how he met his beloved wife with much fondness.
It was the early nineties. He had just days prior finished his deployment. The USS Ranger had docked safely back in the states. John had lasted a grand total of two days before he missed traveling, and the idea of doing so on his own terms, in comfortable quarters to say the least, was all to appealing. He left for Paris.
Intent on spending the next four weeks without a care in the world, John spent his days walking the streets, sampling restaurants, and renting cars to spend quiet hours in the countryside. But it was while at one of those restaurants that he first saw Constance. As he sat outside watching the people pass by, she stood out amongst them all, radiant beautiful.
He did not care that every word that escaped her lips was like ice. To John it was honey. He was completely blinded. He spent the rest of his vacation wooing her, oblivious to the fact that she only gave him the time of day because marrying a man of his position would mean many months alone with the money he brought home. Constance was a selfish creature from birth. The last sort who should have been blessed with a daughter.
xxxxxxxxxxThe Important Partxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unexpectedly after five years of marriage, Constance became pregnant. Always the optimistic, loving soul that he was, John was ecstatic. He saw his wife's distress as hormones, nothing more, and he had never been more excited when Ava arrived. Of course her name became the first hurdle to go over. John wanted desperately to name his precious baby after his late mother. She had been the strongest, most interesting woman he'd ever known. But Constance thought it an ugly boorish name. She insisted on Dominique. After almost an entire pregnancy of arguing, she finally stepped aside and allowed it to be her middle name. Over the next sixteen years they would never call their daughter the same name.
It became apparent immediately that Constance was as poor a mother as they come. Neglect was her weapon against her daughter, whom she disliked from birth simply for being a burden upon her lifestyle. First it was about her body, how she had stretched and basically destroyed it. Then it was about how little time she had to herself. It didn't take long before she grew tired of it. In fact, the moment that John left home once more after his daughter's birth, Constance hired a live-in to take care of Ava.
Ava spent every deployment of her father's waiting eagerly for his return. She would sit up in her room, marking off the days on her calendar before he'd return home. She wrote him letters almost daily, detailing every little thing she'd done or seen, and how she never saw her mother. In fact, Constance had begun spending very little time at home. More often than not she was seen prancing out the door to another cocktail party, leaving Ava home with the nanny. John knew things weren't perfect for his daughter, but the angelic image he had in his mind of his wife kept him from realizing just how bad things were for Ava.
When Ava was eight she stopped responding to Dominique. Not that her mother spoke to her often, but when she did she would always call her by her middle name. But Ava blew her off entirely until Constance grudgingly called her by her first name. Her daddy called her by her real name, so that was the only name she'd respond to.
By ten Constance had sent the live-in on her way. She had deemed Ava old enough to be home on her own and take care of herself. Or, more accurately, she decided that she no longer wanted to spend her precious money paying for something that she considered unworthy of attention. John was livid when he found out, but his protests did nothing to break down Constance's steel walls. Unless her father was back from deployment, Ava spent her days completely alone.
Ava was fourteen (huzzah, puberty) when she first started to notice something was up. She was sitting in her room, counting the days until her father would be home (fortunately for her, it would be in two weeks), when her hand started to disappear. While startled at first, she accepted what was happening as the invisibility spread over her body fairly quickly. In her mind she figured it was because she was ignored so much to begin with that this was just nature's way of doing away with what didn't matter anyways. If anything she was more surprised (and disappointed) when she reappeared a couple of minutes later.
This happened twice more over the next two weeks. The first time was when she unfortunately crossed paths with her mother in the kitchen. Completely ignoring Constance and her constant criticism of Ava's less than flattering attire, she started digging through the fridge for something to eat. While Constance rambled on, Ava started to disappear again. It was her mother's shriek that brought her attention to what was going on.
With no way to immediately contact her husband, Constance spent the next few days harassing her daughter for being such a freak. Not only was she a burden on her life, but now this! The second time that Ava turned invisible during that period was when her mother struck her for the first - and only - time. Constance was angrily raving at her daughter when her rage got the better of her. In complete shock Ava fled to her room, completely disappearing for the next few minutes.
When John returned home it was Constance who filled him in on their daughter's abnormality. But instead of reacting like his wife, John reacted with complete support. Ava confided in him her thoughts behind what was happening. Feeling guilty for never being home and subjecting his daughter to what he was beginning to see was completely cruelty from his wife, John did his best to make up for it. He took her to the shelter, where they found the fluffiest ball of white Ava had ever seen. She returned home with Logan, her new shepherd pup.
The next two years grew increasingly better. With a new friend Ava rarely turned invisible. It was mainly during her mother's outbursts. But she felt more at peace because of Logan's company. She talked to him day in and day out. She had never particularly cared for the company of her schoolmates (to them she was the weird kid who never wore shoes). So she simply talked to her dog.
However, after six months of this, Logan talked back. He didn't actually talk, but she heard something. It was difficult to describe, because what she heard wasn't actually words. He responded, and Ava knew what her dog was trying to say, but it was without real words. This she embraced immediately, and it was something she didn't have to share with her mother. She wrote John immediately, but he was the only one she told. Besides mild concern that she still didn't care to make human friends, her father was completely supportive and excited for her.
When she was sixteen her powers started becoming a bit more erratic. The invisibility spells came back for seemingly no reason. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, she went to the internet for advice. It wasn't long before she came upon information about a psychic academy. She knew her dad wouldn't be home in time for her enroll, so her mother was her only choice.
Naturally Constance wouldn't hear of it. A school of freaks! No, Ava was much better just rotting away at home and going to an ordinary public school. She didn't want them teaching her daughter to be even stranger. What would people say about their family (or more specifically, about Constance). But Ava's mind was already set. She had long since learned how to forge her mother's signature. The woman never gave her the light of day, so she'd learned to do so for the sake of field trip permission slips and school enrollment forms on the years when Constance forgot. Surely this was no different.
As a final blow to her mother Ava also forged a check. A sizable donation written out to Majesco Psychic Academy. Ava packed her bags, and Logan, and set off to her new school. She'd just write her dad about it later.
Beerrito
Tipsy Blob
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Beerrito
Tipsy Blob
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:41 am
MENTAL WORLD
Name: what would you call it if it were a level in a game
Theme: A seemingly endless forest plagued by an eternal winter. Warped trees, striped in color, are dense throughout the forest. somethingsomethingsomething gotta think of a song too
Enemies: Personal Demons, Nightmares, unique enemies (consider this more of a check list but if there are unique enemies please describe them briefly)
Figments: types/appearances, colors
Memory Vaults: at least two, at most four; please explain the contents/story of the vaults and their rough locations, if they're hidden behind any obstacles like mental cobwebs, etc (remember that memory vaults are naturally intended to hide "dirty little secrets", so most often these are memories the person considers cruel or embarrassing, things they don't want others to know about or try to block out themselves, however, one or two may contain deeply cherished memories with the intention of keeping them safe)
Obstacles: with the theme of their mental world in mind, what sort of locations, obstacles, puzzles, or etc will they venture through and overcome? what skills are necessary?
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:42 am
ANIMAL FORM
Name: Logan Age: Three Species:White Swiss Shepherd Powers: Telepathy Owner: Ava Riley
Appearance: Logan is pretty decently tall, reaching to about Ava's hip in height. He's a long-haired dog, with thick, long white fur and not a single marking. His eyes are a hard black, same as his nose. His tail is full and his ears pointy as anything. He wears a leather collar similar in style to the bracelet that Ava wears.
An expressive dog, Logan's every feature screams whatever he's feeling. His ears perk when he's happy and droop when he's not. He almost seems to smile, with that tongue hanging out of his mouth as he does so. His posture can almost be comical. He'll always stand tall, but when blowing off an individual he'll turn his nose up and look away.
Personality: Intuitive as animals tend to be, Logan is very particular about who he focuses his affections on. Generally he will keep by Ava whenever possible. His exposure to other humans at this point hasn't been especially fruitful when providing good people, so he will usually keep to himself when Ava isn't available. If he has no choice but to keep company with someone he doesn't care for he will immediately snub them. A gentle dog, he will never so much as growl unless danger is imminent.
Having never been trained to eat only his own food, Logan is quite used to sharing anything Ava eats! He likes peanut butter oatmeal cookies the best. He's become quite a bit more vocal about his tastes since he started communicating with Ava. He loves to play, but to be honestly he's perfectly content sitting inside reading or what have you so long as he's got Ava's attention.
History: He didn't remember his previous owners all too well, but that was to be expected. He really didn't see them all that often. They didn't even properly name him. What was he called? Snowball? Fluffy? That dog? They were always calling him something different, if they noticed him to begin with. Mostly he just sat in a room hoping one of the bigger people would remember to tell one of the little people to feed him or take him outside.
Eventually, when he was a year old, apparently they grew tired of having to take care of him. They didn't seem sad at all when the bigger person said that he'd be going away. She took him to the shelter and left him. At least he got to eat better now, and there were other dogs to talk to!
The girl appeared at the shelter shortly after he arrived. He liked her immediately. He didn't know what it was, but he had a good feeling about her. And she seemed to like him too! Before he knew it he had a new home. He wished that the big person who was with her had stayed, because he didn't like the other big person in the house. But he didn't see her much. There was just Ava. She called him Logan. They were Ava and Logan, Logan and Ava, and he loved her dearly.
After a few months of living together, something funny happened. She understood him! Ava had been talking to him about school, that place she kept having to go during the day. He was trying to communicate through actions, but his thoughts somehow made it through too!
As time went by they got better at communicating. This seemed to make Ava really happy. He knew the girl wasn't very happy a lot of the time. So he did everything he could to make her happier. But she still seemed to need something more. That's when she found out about the school. A lot was going on, more than he could understand, even with the ability to talk to Ava. Before he knew it they were leaving. A trip?
