Tasha
Basics
Name: Lt. Natasha Elizabeth Burgess (Tasha works just fine for her and certain close people can get away with Liz); Natasha means rebirth, Elizabeth means consecrated to god, Burgess means a citizen or inhabitant of a borough
Age/Birthdate/Zodiac: 28/April 13/Aries
Occupation: Tasha is a new transfer and a proud paramedic operating out of Sunset City General Hospital.
Hang Outs: the various parks and the beach, the Brownstone's roof, the Fortress, Prime Fitness, Brennan's Pub (not so much for the drinking as for the fish and chips)
Skills, Hobbies: top-notch paramedic with a skill for improvising and has great survival rates to show for it, speaks enough Russian to not humiliate herself in a conversation, gumby-girl (Ankles behind her head? Sure!), yoga, proficient in aikido and starting work with staff and tanto, bike riding, proficienct with a handgun and a semi-automatic, compass-in-her-head (excellent nose for directions), raises aloe plants and cacti very well, functions unfairly well on irregular and scattered sleep (it is normal for Tasha to sleep two hours here, two hours there, and so on), growing skills on a surfboard
Likes: gelato, fish and chips, heights, the ocean, Sherlock Holmes and Modesty Blaise (books, not movies), a closet fan of musicals, the colors black and blue, dawn and the sunrise, wildflowers, baby animals, rare steak (she has become a vegetarian's worst nightmare since awakening)
Dislikes: people who claim to know best (most notably her parents), stagnation, being told "no, it's impossible", green vegetables (except peas), vodka shots (they get her into soooo much trouble), pastel colors, twilight and sunset, overly manicured gardens
Timeline:
April 13, 1980 - Born to Richard and Tatiana Burgess, old money Boston with definite Ideas about how their family will progress.
1996 - Discovers her father's journals and relic in the attic but he resists giving her a full explanation about his previous life as a Hunter (Healer, air:breath).
June 1998 - Gets her tattoo, faces house arrest until she turns 21 (nice threat, Mom and Dad!).
September 1998 - Enters the University of New York with ROTC against her parents' wishes, focus on nursing. Sometimes realizes that boys are interesting and further upsets her parents with honest dating stories. Yes, deliberately.
2002 - Graduates college, enters the Air Force as a Lt.
2003 - Discovers her abilities while on a tour of duty in Iraq.
2004 - Dad finally confesses to his pre-marriage life and the family history of hunting (his own mother died in the WWII situation), does his best to emphasize how Not Normal hunting is and how being forced into retirement was the best thing EVER. Tasha does not buy any of this but wisely keeps her mouth shut. This alone is unusual and should have warned her parents. Begins hunting a bit on her own whenever she is on leave.
2005 - Mom finds out about her powers and illicit hunts, leads to a heinous fight conducted over emails and the rare phone call. This fight is a good thing on which to blame the following event... Momentarily engaged to a fellow medic until they both thought better of it two months later, the incident is known amongst her colleagues as the most unnaturally healthy break-up ever.
2006 - Incommunicado for five months, presumed lost or captured. Returns home afterwards for prolonged leave and reconciles properly with her mom. Starts to seriously think about changing careers.
2007 - Leaves the Air Force and enters the civilian world as a paramedic in Boston. Gets her own apartment. Takes up hunting again.
Name: Lt. Natasha Elizabeth Burgess (Tasha works just fine for her and certain close people can get away with Liz); Natasha means rebirth, Elizabeth means consecrated to god, Burgess means a citizen or inhabitant of a borough
Age/Birthdate/Zodiac: 28/April 13/Aries
Occupation: Tasha is a new transfer and a proud paramedic operating out of Sunset City General Hospital.
Hang Outs: the various parks and the beach, the Brownstone's roof, the Fortress, Prime Fitness, Brennan's Pub (not so much for the drinking as for the fish and chips)
Skills, Hobbies: top-notch paramedic with a skill for improvising and has great survival rates to show for it, speaks enough Russian to not humiliate herself in a conversation, gumby-girl (Ankles behind her head? Sure!), yoga, proficient in aikido and starting work with staff and tanto, bike riding, proficienct with a handgun and a semi-automatic, compass-in-her-head (excellent nose for directions), raises aloe plants and cacti very well, functions unfairly well on irregular and scattered sleep (it is normal for Tasha to sleep two hours here, two hours there, and so on), growing skills on a surfboard
Likes: gelato, fish and chips, heights, the ocean, Sherlock Holmes and Modesty Blaise (books, not movies), a closet fan of musicals, the colors black and blue, dawn and the sunrise, wildflowers, baby animals, rare steak (she has become a vegetarian's worst nightmare since awakening)
Dislikes: people who claim to know best (most notably her parents), stagnation, being told "no, it's impossible", green vegetables (except peas), vodka shots (they get her into soooo much trouble), pastel colors, twilight and sunset, overly manicured gardens
Timeline:
April 13, 1980 - Born to Richard and Tatiana Burgess, old money Boston with definite Ideas about how their family will progress.
1996 - Discovers her father's journals and relic in the attic but he resists giving her a full explanation about his previous life as a Hunter (Healer, air:breath).
June 1998 - Gets her tattoo, faces house arrest until she turns 21 (nice threat, Mom and Dad!).
September 1998 - Enters the University of New York with ROTC against her parents' wishes, focus on nursing. Sometimes realizes that boys are interesting and further upsets her parents with honest dating stories. Yes, deliberately.
2002 - Graduates college, enters the Air Force as a Lt.
2003 - Discovers her abilities while on a tour of duty in Iraq.
2004 - Dad finally confesses to his pre-marriage life and the family history of hunting (his own mother died in the WWII situation), does his best to emphasize how Not Normal hunting is and how being forced into retirement was the best thing EVER. Tasha does not buy any of this but wisely keeps her mouth shut. This alone is unusual and should have warned her parents. Begins hunting a bit on her own whenever she is on leave.
2005 - Mom finds out about her powers and illicit hunts, leads to a heinous fight conducted over emails and the rare phone call. This fight is a good thing on which to blame the following event... Momentarily engaged to a fellow medic until they both thought better of it two months later, the incident is known amongst her colleagues as the most unnaturally healthy break-up ever.
2006 - Incommunicado for five months, presumed lost or captured. Returns home afterwards for prolonged leave and reconciles properly with her mom. Starts to seriously think about changing careers.
2007 - Leaves the Air Force and enters the civilian world as a paramedic in Boston. Gets her own apartment. Takes up hunting again.
*
--This Year (2008):
September 2008 - Has the latest marvelously bang-up fight with her folks, moves to Sunset City in a combo one-two punch of defiance (getting as far from the parents as possible and moving to the city her mom actively hates the most for its relation to Hunting). Finds an apartment and an adoptable "brother" in Brian. Meets Dusty and is introduced to the Fortress gang. Finds and adopts Walker and Ari as well. Finalizes her hook up with Dusty by the end of September and can introduce him as her Boyfriend.
Big Deals
Appearance:
Hair: Tasha was blessed with Herbal Essence hair - a fact of life that is totally lost on her (the tramp). It is thick and straight and silky. Colorwise, it is extremely dark brown and you would not be crucified for naming it black. When she has spent enough time in the sun, though, it picks up some of the odd tinting that such dark hair gets and she ends up with something rather more like black cherry, hair the color of which is the envy of goth girls everywhere. She wears her hair in a simple swing-cut bob that ranges between chin-length and shoulder-length, depending on how motivated she can get for a haircut. The more involved she gets in Hunting, the more she favors the shoulder-length as it allows her to swoop it back in a pony tail with more ease.
Face: Tasha has a face that is more arresting than beautiful. It is all strong planes and angles with high cheekbones, a pointed chin and sharply rising jawline. Her nose is thin-bridged and straight with a very slight downwards bend at the tip. Her lips are on the thin side but are usually set in a slight smile, corners just barely upturned. The look is not exactly gleeful but it has a strangely reassuring cast to it; if Tasha is smiling, then the situation can't be that bad, right? There is nothing spectacularly fascinating about the shape of her eyes, proportionate and slightly almond-shaped with eyelids of the sort that are rarely seen when her eyes are fully open. The noticeable thing about them are the dark lashes and the color. Since awakening to her powers, her irises have turned a deep blood-red. Her eyebrows are dark and thin, arching a bit crookedly as if to say she is still considering life and its meaning. Her complexion is on the paler side of the spectrum but avoids the Snow White Look with faint touches of sun-kissed olive undertones. The sun of California is just highlighting this as she spends more and more time outside, sunscreen or not.
Build: Standing at a fairly respectable 5'8", Tasha is built on long and simple lines. Her proportions are balanced but the fact that she is so leanly muscled tends to emphasize her limbs, making it appear that she has longer legs than she actually does. Her chest and hips are modest but feminine enough that she still needs a bra and will never be mistaken for a boy from the back. Her neck is long and smooth, her collar bones quite noticeable. She has broad, square shoulders and rather knobbly wrists with square, long-fingered hands. Her nails are always cut short with clear nail polish. Her feet are surprisingly dainty and turn outwards slightly when standing in a rest-position. More often than not, though, her posture is ramrod straight with her shoulders back and her head up. She moves fast and smooth with great efficiency and purpose.
Clothes: Tasha dresses for comfort and ease while retaining a sort of clean professionalism. She avoids patterns and favors darker jewel tones - lots of slim jeans and black pants and the few skirts she does own end at least an inch above her knee. She actually does own a pair of black leather pants for when the occasion arises. She is into clean lines and simplicity; her closet features a lot of Oxford-style button-down shirts and tailored boat-neck blouses. She prefers cotton and silk, claiming that artificial fabrics make her itch. She only just bears the fabric of her EMT uniform because, well, what are you going to do? It was the same way in the military. On the other hand, she also has a drawer full of yoga pants, running shorts, and skimpy tank tops. These are her exercise outfits and she spends a solid third of her life in them. They are also solid colors and many are worn through into near transparency, necessitating the layering of tanks for decency's sake. She avoids heels and lives in flats and running shoes and flip flops. She is definitely taking advantage of the warmer weather of her new home and appears to have no threshold that bows to cold weather (she grew up in Boston, after all); she donated all of her coats to charity the moment she moved west and refuses to wear one no matter what now. She will layer like an onion if she has to before she will submit to a coat.
Misc: Tasha has single piercings in her ears but never wears anything other than simple studs or stones. She has a tattoo of a stylized sun at the back of her neck, obtained in a fit of rebellion at 18; since the awakening of her powers, though, it has been fading slowly until it has reached the point where a bit of make-up can cover it easily. She once had a scar from losing her appendix but it too has faded in the past few years. She has a naturally high body temperature and regularly reads a couple degrees high on a thermometer. She retains a definite Bostonian accent and, if you know it well enough, you can tell that it is a "monied" Bostonian accent. Somehow it matches nicely with her low-and-slow voice. She has a helpless addiction to Cute Matched Underwear sets.
Personality:
*Virtues: practical, loyal, determined, generous, applied intelligence, connects easily and well, fearless, strong personal code of ethics, passionate
*Neutrals: goes on instinct, honest, forthright, memory of an elephant, stamina, dry-humored
*Vices: stubborn, willful, reactive, bossy, aggressively steamrolls others, impatient, refuses to discuss her issues (No, I do not have a problem with my mother. Why do you ask?), Two Drink Drunk
Blurb:
Having seen both the posh living in her privileged Boston home and the hard conditions in the deserts of Iraq, Tasha has very much become a composite of her experiences. She is an extrovert, an adaptive soul that assimilates knowledge and fits it to her needs, and practicality is her battle-cry. She is amazingly talented at applying lessons and information to her real life, a skill that has proved more than useful in her medical emergencies. MacGyver might as well be her patron saint. She believes firmly in facing the reality of the situation... Only then can you bust your way through it and make it call you Mama. Which is something she likes to think she is skilled at and, truth be told, she is not completely in the wrong. Tasha has fierce determination and dedication once committed to a course of action. If she believes in something, she is also utterly fearless and more than willing to accept the consequences. There is right and wrong and, if you do wrong, you 'fess up and deal. Tasha is not one for introspection when it comes to her motives or hang-ups. Her personal code of ethics dictates that what is good for the goose is good for the gander; she will not ask anything of anyone else that she is not willing to do herself.
This is good and this is bad. For instance, Tasha is willing to do a lot of things and put herself at risk in situations. She is stubborn as hell and cannot see why anyone else would not be as ready to sacrifice and explore and fight the Good Fight as she is. She believes utterly in the Hunt and her powers and it remains a sticking point with her parents. She in no way buys her father's argument that leaving his former life was a good thing and she secretly considers it a form of cowardice. She loves her father but his choice is not something she can stomach readily and she irrationally blames her mother for making him choose comfort over duty. Complacency and stagnation very nearly piss her off and any sort of indication that you expect her to join her in your White Picket Fence world is the fastest way to get her backing away from you. (It is less a fear of commitment and more a fear of shirking her calling. In theory, she has no problem with Happy Families and she certainly has no issues with attraction and/or interactions with men. She likes men quite well. She just cannot choose to dump her duty for a man, no matter how much she digs him.) Otherwise, people find her quite personable and interesting. She connects well with people as they generally react to her obvious intelligence, down-to-earth nature, and her dry humor. Her generosity is legendary and she spent a fair amount of her time back in Boston volunteering at the local Girls' and Boys' Clubs. She figures that she had the time, the skills, and enough money through the family to do what she can. She is really hugely fond of small children and small animals and tended to figure as a big sister to any number of small, impressionable children back in Boston. She is honest and forthright; what you see is what you get. Most days, she will try to soften her honesty with tact but, in the event of high-pressure situations, she always figures your feelings will heal faster than broken bones or severed limbs. Thus we have another of her worse tendencies. Tasha can be extremely bossy if she believes that she knows the best course of action and is more than willing to steamroll over others in an attempt to make things go her way. She will apologize much later (sometimes) but never while things are happening.
Tasha's pride is a prickly thing and can rear its head unexpectedly. She generally has fantastic instincts and her gut provides her with innumerable solutions to problems. If she just rolls with what comes to mind, she usually comes out on top. However, this can lead to clashes if she's challenged or if she turns out to be wrong. While she won't do anything as juvenile as sulking, she definitely feels the sting and will be a bit touchy with the person who witnessed her slip. She has too much control to snap or snark but there will be a small time of invisible distance. Tasha believes in herself without any question or doubt and, while she can handle correction, it needs to be swallowed carefully. She also has a definite self-image and this usually works in her favor as her presentation reflects her own view and people tend to buy into it. She is strong, she is sure, she is capable. Of course, not everyone can be all of those things at all times but Tasha hates to admit it and avoids introspection or discussion of personal problems assiduously. No, she does not want to discuss the hang-up with her parents. No, she does not want to analyze why her mom can drive her to fury. She is more than aware of it, thank you, and wishes that you would do her the courtesy of pretending you aren't. One other strange little quirk of her pride results in her being a Two Drink Drunk, proven time and again. Tasha cannot handle alcohol with any kick to it. She is the cheapest date on the planet and no one must ever know about her and the vodka shots and the wading in the public fountain... In her underwear. Unfortunately, she cannot quite admit to this flaw and back down when challenged to a drink. She can have two and knows she can have two but, if you offer her a third with enough force, her metaphorical balls will not allow her to say no. She will drink it and you will find her under the table, discussing the graffiti there. Hopefully, she will someday learn to grow out of this alcoholic penis-measuring.
The Other Side
Elemental Control: Water: Blood
Abilities: While Tasha is most definitely a Healer on both ends of her life, her element is a tricky thing and has great possibility for more harmful purposes. After all, if you can call your element to you and your element is blood, even a trace amount yoinked from someone else for your mojo-workings could have a negative effect. She can, of course, use her own blood for things but it results in a drain on her own physical well-being. However, the trade-off in this is that, while she can use her own blood for less time, it packs more of a punch. A burst of a high-power laser versus the endless rounds of a pellet gun. Using her own blood to heal a seal is pretty f'ing awesome.
Stop-start - This particular trick with her element is almost second-nature by now as she has used it so frequently. It was the first found and the most trusted. With almost no concentration at all and only her touch, Tasha can staunch the flow of blood at a wound site. Provided, of course, it isn't an arterial gouge of magnificent proportions. Stopping something so powerful is likely to take a serious toll on her. Likewise, she can start blood flowing once more with a touch and a bit of concentration. The can be used as a purging or weakening technique... It can also be used for hysterical stigmata pranks when she is drunk.
Filtration - A relatively new trick that she has developed since becoming an EMT, Tasha can forcibly isolate and remove impurities in the bloodstream (lead, poison, dyes, etc). The impurities enter her own bloodstream momentarily before being expelled through her skin, often resulting in interesting stains in her shirts, especially over her heart and along her spine. Depending on the impurity, she might also experience some moments of weakness or effect herself but she is getting faster and more effective at the purge. Strangely, her system is resistant to alcohol and that lingers in her bloodstream exactly as long as it is supposed to... Sometimes even longer.
Redirection - With a ton of concentration and effort, Tasha can actually redirect the flow of blood. Going beyond her stop-start trick, she can push blood to new locations and isolate it in an area. She can improve the rate of flow, stabilize it or speed it up. Get creative and I'm sure you can think of ways that focusing blood somewhere could be useful.
Bloodhound - Much like a fingerprint, everyone's blood is specific and identifiable in Tasha's experience. While she can do the "normal" things such as blood-typing by taste, she can also distinguish between individual people. Once she knows your blood, it sticks with her and she can identify it if found again. She is extremely awkward at explaining this, having no one interested enough to ask, but generally muddles through with descriptions based on taste and smell when asked. ("You're kind of like a melted chocolate bar but there's this kinda funk to it that reminds me of the locker room and... Never mind.") When she focuses, she can also follow a bloodtrail over a good distance. Coincidentally, this talent heightens her aptitudes for sensing both daemons and other Hunters a bit above the average Healer's. They just smell/taste totally different!
Type of Hunter: Healer
Relic: Nothing at all yet. She couldn't very well take her dad's relic now, could she? (Not that a musty aspirator did anything for her triggers...)
Band: Er... The Fortress? XD
Audition
Shutting the door behind her, Tasha bit back a grimace and tried not to think of the look she had spotted on the snooping desk clerk's face as her attempts to sneak back to her motel room unseen failed by a hairsbreadth. Absently, she slid the bolt home and hooked the chain. It would have been much easier to have avoided all of that, she reflected as she finally released a frustrated sigh. So much for sleeping in the next morning. She would have to be packed and on the road once more by dawn before the manager heard about this and thought his motel would be best served by her immediate departure.
Not that she blamed him. Even in a dive motel that boasted its last redecoration somewhere back in the mid-sixties, blood and green ooze looked out of place.
Speaking of which... With a frown, Tasha rested one hand against the wall as she used the other to tug her sneakers from first one foot and then the other, bending easily into the awkward position. She dropped them to the floor with a dull thump. Even as they hit, she was already striding towards the pink-and-black bathroom, peeling off a paper-thin flannel shirt. She folded it up neatly, making sure to keep the stains on the inside of the bundle, and she buried it at the bottom of the wastebasket as soon as she reached the bathroom. When she straightened, she caught her image in the age-spotted mirror above the sink and scowled experimentally. The fluorescent lighting sparked cherry fire-streaks in the silky darkness of her hair and cast strange shadows along her sharp cheekbones. She tilted her head before she reached up to tuck a bit of hair behind an ear. Then she glanced downwards and cursed under her breath. A smear of red and green fluids stained the front of her tank top. "Figures," she muttered to herself. "At this rate, I'm going to have to shop when I get out to Sunset City. Nothing gets out this mess."
Her sigh was resigned as she tugged the thin cotton over her head. Then she shrugged and dropped her hands to undo her jeans as well and skin them off. "Might as well look at the damage," she told her reflection, glancing up to catch wry humor in her blood-red eyes. "Don't laugh. Adrenaline can do a number on the body. Right? Right." She pushed the discarded clothing off to the side with one socked foot and straightened her posture. One finger hooked under and adjusted the strap of her bra thoughtfully as she studied the lean lines of her own pale body dispassionately. She took a slow breath and watched her chest lift, then fall. Experimentally, she contracted and then relaxed her abdominal muscles. Whatever she saw satisfied her and she rolled her shoulders back, tilting her head from side to side again, stretching. Only then did she pivot on the balls of her feet, smooth as any ballerina, and peer backwards to inspect the other side.
"Oh, goddammit." She reached a hand back to trace the cut that ran cleanly parallel about three inches below her shoulder. "How did you get there?" she asked and, for a moment, worried that she expected an answer. Huffing with annoyance at her own ridiculousness, Tasha moved her hand away and wrenched the faucet to cold before wetting a washrag and delicately dabbing away the drying blood and ichor. After dropping the rag back into the sink, she readjusted her positioning again and studied the wound through half-closed eyes before dragging her index finger along the line in a controlled motion. Tiny bubbles appeared as she went and she wrinkled her nose before repeating the process, this time with first and second fingers and pressing harder. The bubbles became pale foam before dissipating to reveal a very thin line of quickly healing flesh. She gave it one more brush as if for good measure and good luck.
Then, with a slight shake of her head, she rinsed the hand off, shut down the faucet, and reached for her toothbrush. She was going to have to be more careful, that was all. She was alone and just as far from her old home as from the new one. Thoughtfully, she jabbed the laden toothbrush into her mouth and began mechanically scrubbing away. This was going to require some new tricks.
And maybe a better gun.
How Tasha Was Born To This - extra tidbits
1980 - Tasha born, Richard is 41 and Tatiana is 32
1970 - Richard and Tatiana marry, Richard gives up hunting, the couple moves back to Boston
1968 - Richard and Tatiana meet at college in Sunset City
1958 - Richard starts hunting in Sunset City
1945 - Elizabeth Merriweather Burgess dies in Sunset City
late 1944 - Uncle Leonard Merriweather dies in WWII, the family rep slot falls to Elizabeth
1939 - Richard Burgess born to Elizabeth Merriweather Burgess (Hunter) and Harold Burgess (youngest son and junior CEO type) in Boston, 3 more children are born over the next couple of years
1917 - Elizabeth Merriweather born, second child and first daughter of Carradine Meriweather (Hunter) and his wife Johanna, both she and her older brother show partial talents by age 10
--This Year (2008):
September 2008 - Has the latest marvelously bang-up fight with her folks, moves to Sunset City in a combo one-two punch of defiance (getting as far from the parents as possible and moving to the city her mom actively hates the most for its relation to Hunting). Finds an apartment and an adoptable "brother" in Brian. Meets Dusty and is introduced to the Fortress gang. Finds and adopts Walker and Ari as well. Finalizes her hook up with Dusty by the end of September and can introduce him as her Boyfriend.
Big Deals
Appearance:
Hair: Tasha was blessed with Herbal Essence hair - a fact of life that is totally lost on her (the tramp). It is thick and straight and silky. Colorwise, it is extremely dark brown and you would not be crucified for naming it black. When she has spent enough time in the sun, though, it picks up some of the odd tinting that such dark hair gets and she ends up with something rather more like black cherry, hair the color of which is the envy of goth girls everywhere. She wears her hair in a simple swing-cut bob that ranges between chin-length and shoulder-length, depending on how motivated she can get for a haircut. The more involved she gets in Hunting, the more she favors the shoulder-length as it allows her to swoop it back in a pony tail with more ease.
Face: Tasha has a face that is more arresting than beautiful. It is all strong planes and angles with high cheekbones, a pointed chin and sharply rising jawline. Her nose is thin-bridged and straight with a very slight downwards bend at the tip. Her lips are on the thin side but are usually set in a slight smile, corners just barely upturned. The look is not exactly gleeful but it has a strangely reassuring cast to it; if Tasha is smiling, then the situation can't be that bad, right? There is nothing spectacularly fascinating about the shape of her eyes, proportionate and slightly almond-shaped with eyelids of the sort that are rarely seen when her eyes are fully open. The noticeable thing about them are the dark lashes and the color. Since awakening to her powers, her irises have turned a deep blood-red. Her eyebrows are dark and thin, arching a bit crookedly as if to say she is still considering life and its meaning. Her complexion is on the paler side of the spectrum but avoids the Snow White Look with faint touches of sun-kissed olive undertones. The sun of California is just highlighting this as she spends more and more time outside, sunscreen or not.
Build: Standing at a fairly respectable 5'8", Tasha is built on long and simple lines. Her proportions are balanced but the fact that she is so leanly muscled tends to emphasize her limbs, making it appear that she has longer legs than she actually does. Her chest and hips are modest but feminine enough that she still needs a bra and will never be mistaken for a boy from the back. Her neck is long and smooth, her collar bones quite noticeable. She has broad, square shoulders and rather knobbly wrists with square, long-fingered hands. Her nails are always cut short with clear nail polish. Her feet are surprisingly dainty and turn outwards slightly when standing in a rest-position. More often than not, though, her posture is ramrod straight with her shoulders back and her head up. She moves fast and smooth with great efficiency and purpose.
Clothes: Tasha dresses for comfort and ease while retaining a sort of clean professionalism. She avoids patterns and favors darker jewel tones - lots of slim jeans and black pants and the few skirts she does own end at least an inch above her knee. She actually does own a pair of black leather pants for when the occasion arises. She is into clean lines and simplicity; her closet features a lot of Oxford-style button-down shirts and tailored boat-neck blouses. She prefers cotton and silk, claiming that artificial fabrics make her itch. She only just bears the fabric of her EMT uniform because, well, what are you going to do? It was the same way in the military. On the other hand, she also has a drawer full of yoga pants, running shorts, and skimpy tank tops. These are her exercise outfits and she spends a solid third of her life in them. They are also solid colors and many are worn through into near transparency, necessitating the layering of tanks for decency's sake. She avoids heels and lives in flats and running shoes and flip flops. She is definitely taking advantage of the warmer weather of her new home and appears to have no threshold that bows to cold weather (she grew up in Boston, after all); she donated all of her coats to charity the moment she moved west and refuses to wear one no matter what now. She will layer like an onion if she has to before she will submit to a coat.
Misc: Tasha has single piercings in her ears but never wears anything other than simple studs or stones. She has a tattoo of a stylized sun at the back of her neck, obtained in a fit of rebellion at 18; since the awakening of her powers, though, it has been fading slowly until it has reached the point where a bit of make-up can cover it easily. She once had a scar from losing her appendix but it too has faded in the past few years. She has a naturally high body temperature and regularly reads a couple degrees high on a thermometer. She retains a definite Bostonian accent and, if you know it well enough, you can tell that it is a "monied" Bostonian accent. Somehow it matches nicely with her low-and-slow voice. She has a helpless addiction to Cute Matched Underwear sets.
Personality:
*Virtues: practical, loyal, determined, generous, applied intelligence, connects easily and well, fearless, strong personal code of ethics, passionate
*Neutrals: goes on instinct, honest, forthright, memory of an elephant, stamina, dry-humored
*Vices: stubborn, willful, reactive, bossy, aggressively steamrolls others, impatient, refuses to discuss her issues (No, I do not have a problem with my mother. Why do you ask?), Two Drink Drunk
Blurb:
Having seen both the posh living in her privileged Boston home and the hard conditions in the deserts of Iraq, Tasha has very much become a composite of her experiences. She is an extrovert, an adaptive soul that assimilates knowledge and fits it to her needs, and practicality is her battle-cry. She is amazingly talented at applying lessons and information to her real life, a skill that has proved more than useful in her medical emergencies. MacGyver might as well be her patron saint. She believes firmly in facing the reality of the situation... Only then can you bust your way through it and make it call you Mama. Which is something she likes to think she is skilled at and, truth be told, she is not completely in the wrong. Tasha has fierce determination and dedication once committed to a course of action. If she believes in something, she is also utterly fearless and more than willing to accept the consequences. There is right and wrong and, if you do wrong, you 'fess up and deal. Tasha is not one for introspection when it comes to her motives or hang-ups. Her personal code of ethics dictates that what is good for the goose is good for the gander; she will not ask anything of anyone else that she is not willing to do herself.
This is good and this is bad. For instance, Tasha is willing to do a lot of things and put herself at risk in situations. She is stubborn as hell and cannot see why anyone else would not be as ready to sacrifice and explore and fight the Good Fight as she is. She believes utterly in the Hunt and her powers and it remains a sticking point with her parents. She in no way buys her father's argument that leaving his former life was a good thing and she secretly considers it a form of cowardice. She loves her father but his choice is not something she can stomach readily and she irrationally blames her mother for making him choose comfort over duty. Complacency and stagnation very nearly piss her off and any sort of indication that you expect her to join her in your White Picket Fence world is the fastest way to get her backing away from you. (It is less a fear of commitment and more a fear of shirking her calling. In theory, she has no problem with Happy Families and she certainly has no issues with attraction and/or interactions with men. She likes men quite well. She just cannot choose to dump her duty for a man, no matter how much she digs him.) Otherwise, people find her quite personable and interesting. She connects well with people as they generally react to her obvious intelligence, down-to-earth nature, and her dry humor. Her generosity is legendary and she spent a fair amount of her time back in Boston volunteering at the local Girls' and Boys' Clubs. She figures that she had the time, the skills, and enough money through the family to do what she can. She is really hugely fond of small children and small animals and tended to figure as a big sister to any number of small, impressionable children back in Boston. She is honest and forthright; what you see is what you get. Most days, she will try to soften her honesty with tact but, in the event of high-pressure situations, she always figures your feelings will heal faster than broken bones or severed limbs. Thus we have another of her worse tendencies. Tasha can be extremely bossy if she believes that she knows the best course of action and is more than willing to steamroll over others in an attempt to make things go her way. She will apologize much later (sometimes) but never while things are happening.
Tasha's pride is a prickly thing and can rear its head unexpectedly. She generally has fantastic instincts and her gut provides her with innumerable solutions to problems. If she just rolls with what comes to mind, she usually comes out on top. However, this can lead to clashes if she's challenged or if she turns out to be wrong. While she won't do anything as juvenile as sulking, she definitely feels the sting and will be a bit touchy with the person who witnessed her slip. She has too much control to snap or snark but there will be a small time of invisible distance. Tasha believes in herself without any question or doubt and, while she can handle correction, it needs to be swallowed carefully. She also has a definite self-image and this usually works in her favor as her presentation reflects her own view and people tend to buy into it. She is strong, she is sure, she is capable. Of course, not everyone can be all of those things at all times but Tasha hates to admit it and avoids introspection or discussion of personal problems assiduously. No, she does not want to discuss the hang-up with her parents. No, she does not want to analyze why her mom can drive her to fury. She is more than aware of it, thank you, and wishes that you would do her the courtesy of pretending you aren't. One other strange little quirk of her pride results in her being a Two Drink Drunk, proven time and again. Tasha cannot handle alcohol with any kick to it. She is the cheapest date on the planet and no one must ever know about her and the vodka shots and the wading in the public fountain... In her underwear. Unfortunately, she cannot quite admit to this flaw and back down when challenged to a drink. She can have two and knows she can have two but, if you offer her a third with enough force, her metaphorical balls will not allow her to say no. She will drink it and you will find her under the table, discussing the graffiti there. Hopefully, she will someday learn to grow out of this alcoholic penis-measuring.
The Other Side
Elemental Control: Water: Blood
Abilities: While Tasha is most definitely a Healer on both ends of her life, her element is a tricky thing and has great possibility for more harmful purposes. After all, if you can call your element to you and your element is blood, even a trace amount yoinked from someone else for your mojo-workings could have a negative effect. She can, of course, use her own blood for things but it results in a drain on her own physical well-being. However, the trade-off in this is that, while she can use her own blood for less time, it packs more of a punch. A burst of a high-power laser versus the endless rounds of a pellet gun. Using her own blood to heal a seal is pretty f'ing awesome.
Stop-start - This particular trick with her element is almost second-nature by now as she has used it so frequently. It was the first found and the most trusted. With almost no concentration at all and only her touch, Tasha can staunch the flow of blood at a wound site. Provided, of course, it isn't an arterial gouge of magnificent proportions. Stopping something so powerful is likely to take a serious toll on her. Likewise, she can start blood flowing once more with a touch and a bit of concentration. The can be used as a purging or weakening technique... It can also be used for hysterical stigmata pranks when she is drunk.
Filtration - A relatively new trick that she has developed since becoming an EMT, Tasha can forcibly isolate and remove impurities in the bloodstream (lead, poison, dyes, etc). The impurities enter her own bloodstream momentarily before being expelled through her skin, often resulting in interesting stains in her shirts, especially over her heart and along her spine. Depending on the impurity, she might also experience some moments of weakness or effect herself but she is getting faster and more effective at the purge. Strangely, her system is resistant to alcohol and that lingers in her bloodstream exactly as long as it is supposed to... Sometimes even longer.
Redirection - With a ton of concentration and effort, Tasha can actually redirect the flow of blood. Going beyond her stop-start trick, she can push blood to new locations and isolate it in an area. She can improve the rate of flow, stabilize it or speed it up. Get creative and I'm sure you can think of ways that focusing blood somewhere could be useful.
Bloodhound - Much like a fingerprint, everyone's blood is specific and identifiable in Tasha's experience. While she can do the "normal" things such as blood-typing by taste, she can also distinguish between individual people. Once she knows your blood, it sticks with her and she can identify it if found again. She is extremely awkward at explaining this, having no one interested enough to ask, but generally muddles through with descriptions based on taste and smell when asked. ("You're kind of like a melted chocolate bar but there's this kinda funk to it that reminds me of the locker room and... Never mind.") When she focuses, she can also follow a bloodtrail over a good distance. Coincidentally, this talent heightens her aptitudes for sensing both daemons and other Hunters a bit above the average Healer's. They just smell/taste totally different!
Type of Hunter: Healer
Relic: Nothing at all yet. She couldn't very well take her dad's relic now, could she? (Not that a musty aspirator did anything for her triggers...)
Band: Er... The Fortress? XD
Audition
Shutting the door behind her, Tasha bit back a grimace and tried not to think of the look she had spotted on the snooping desk clerk's face as her attempts to sneak back to her motel room unseen failed by a hairsbreadth. Absently, she slid the bolt home and hooked the chain. It would have been much easier to have avoided all of that, she reflected as she finally released a frustrated sigh. So much for sleeping in the next morning. She would have to be packed and on the road once more by dawn before the manager heard about this and thought his motel would be best served by her immediate departure.
Not that she blamed him. Even in a dive motel that boasted its last redecoration somewhere back in the mid-sixties, blood and green ooze looked out of place.
Speaking of which... With a frown, Tasha rested one hand against the wall as she used the other to tug her sneakers from first one foot and then the other, bending easily into the awkward position. She dropped them to the floor with a dull thump. Even as they hit, she was already striding towards the pink-and-black bathroom, peeling off a paper-thin flannel shirt. She folded it up neatly, making sure to keep the stains on the inside of the bundle, and she buried it at the bottom of the wastebasket as soon as she reached the bathroom. When she straightened, she caught her image in the age-spotted mirror above the sink and scowled experimentally. The fluorescent lighting sparked cherry fire-streaks in the silky darkness of her hair and cast strange shadows along her sharp cheekbones. She tilted her head before she reached up to tuck a bit of hair behind an ear. Then she glanced downwards and cursed under her breath. A smear of red and green fluids stained the front of her tank top. "Figures," she muttered to herself. "At this rate, I'm going to have to shop when I get out to Sunset City. Nothing gets out this mess."
Her sigh was resigned as she tugged the thin cotton over her head. Then she shrugged and dropped her hands to undo her jeans as well and skin them off. "Might as well look at the damage," she told her reflection, glancing up to catch wry humor in her blood-red eyes. "Don't laugh. Adrenaline can do a number on the body. Right? Right." She pushed the discarded clothing off to the side with one socked foot and straightened her posture. One finger hooked under and adjusted the strap of her bra thoughtfully as she studied the lean lines of her own pale body dispassionately. She took a slow breath and watched her chest lift, then fall. Experimentally, she contracted and then relaxed her abdominal muscles. Whatever she saw satisfied her and she rolled her shoulders back, tilting her head from side to side again, stretching. Only then did she pivot on the balls of her feet, smooth as any ballerina, and peer backwards to inspect the other side.
"Oh, goddammit." She reached a hand back to trace the cut that ran cleanly parallel about three inches below her shoulder. "How did you get there?" she asked and, for a moment, worried that she expected an answer. Huffing with annoyance at her own ridiculousness, Tasha moved her hand away and wrenched the faucet to cold before wetting a washrag and delicately dabbing away the drying blood and ichor. After dropping the rag back into the sink, she readjusted her positioning again and studied the wound through half-closed eyes before dragging her index finger along the line in a controlled motion. Tiny bubbles appeared as she went and she wrinkled her nose before repeating the process, this time with first and second fingers and pressing harder. The bubbles became pale foam before dissipating to reveal a very thin line of quickly healing flesh. She gave it one more brush as if for good measure and good luck.
Then, with a slight shake of her head, she rinsed the hand off, shut down the faucet, and reached for her toothbrush. She was going to have to be more careful, that was all. She was alone and just as far from her old home as from the new one. Thoughtfully, she jabbed the laden toothbrush into her mouth and began mechanically scrubbing away. This was going to require some new tricks.
And maybe a better gun.
How Tasha Was Born To This - extra tidbits
1980 - Tasha born, Richard is 41 and Tatiana is 32
1970 - Richard and Tatiana marry, Richard gives up hunting, the couple moves back to Boston
1968 - Richard and Tatiana meet at college in Sunset City
1958 - Richard starts hunting in Sunset City
1945 - Elizabeth Merriweather Burgess dies in Sunset City
late 1944 - Uncle Leonard Merriweather dies in WWII, the family rep slot falls to Elizabeth
1939 - Richard Burgess born to Elizabeth Merriweather Burgess (Hunter) and Harold Burgess (youngest son and junior CEO type) in Boston, 3 more children are born over the next couple of years
1917 - Elizabeth Merriweather born, second child and first daughter of Carradine Meriweather (Hunter) and his wife Johanna, both she and her older brother show partial talents by age 10