“Sometimes I get so caught up in my own drama, I forget I’m not the only one in the play”
27
Physical DescriptionTara has a slight, but strong figure that has become standard with the food rations and high physical expectations of New Philly. She stands at 5’6”, long straight dirty blonde hair, usually tucked away or pulled back into a ponytail. Hazel eyes and a smattering of freckles that come and go with the sun and season.
Tara’s clothing choices are heavily dictated by what is accessible, she tends to favor darker clothing as they can go longer with out washing. She have a black scarf that she uses cover her hair, use as a mask and more than once, used it as a blanket.
PsycheA practical realist.
Tara’s whole life has been dictated by the phrase ‘hurry up and wait’, mixed with ‘this is only temporary’. Tara has spent most of her life among people who saw that fog as a ‘temporary travesty’ and they just needed to ‘sit tight’ till it passed, making it hard to form connections to places and people because she was always being shuffled around to the next ‘temporary’ place. It doesn’t make her cold or unfriendly, she quiet enjoys a chat and a friend, but she sees them as something for the moment and nothing to grieve over when lost.
Due to her transitional upbringing, she also doesn’t put much value in possessions. Keep what is needed for survival and ditch the rest. Sentiment won’t feed you and it just takes up space on your back and in your heart. When it comes to choices, she follows logic and has very little patience for people who aren't.
MotivationContrary to her personality, her motivation is very...illogical.
A dog. Honestly. A memory of a dog that lives in Colorado. A state that was once her infanthood home. Although she was too young to remember it, returning to it has always been her goal. In theory, a family she can’t recall might still be there.
And maybe the dog she does.
Regardless of her family still being there when she arrives, a part of her, no doubt fostered by her grandma, always thought that everything would be alright once she arrived there. It has an almost Utopia appeal to her.
On paper, it is to gather more intel on the mist and the monsters within.
RelationsGrandma Lynn: The elderly woman she was visiting as a toddler while her parents worked. The fog came and made the return trip impossible and caused her Grandmother to become her pseudo parent. She was old when the fog came and died from a flux years after.
Whoever Runs the Split Eye: Used to tell him what was happening and what she heard at the hospital.He gave her candy. Grandma made it stop when she found out.
TBC:
Personal HistoryTara was hardly into her second year of life when the fog hit. In fact the only memory she truly has of before that time was of a large white dog that smelt like wet tile and green plants. Tara was from Colorado, her family was mostly the ‘urban farm type’ that ‘worked till dead in the summer’ and ‘lazed about all winter’. Which was how the two year old ended up two hours outside Philadelphia when the fog hit. Her paternal grandmother offered to keep the little one from underfoot during the busy season. Although she has ‘memmories’ of her siblings and parents, they all suspiciously line up with the stories that her grandmother knew about them. Later in life, Tara figured that she was remembering the stories her grandmother told ABOUT her family, rather than any she actually had.
After the fog, there was no way to return and the grandmother/daughter team spent the next 8 years moving from the house to the town to the road and finally ended up in Philly. The pair that they were always got sympathy and help from strangers. Easily taken in, but also seen as a liability and were often 'smothered' with safety. The ones told to stay in the house, the ones left waiting in the dark. What fighting skills she has, she was taught during these early years was taught by good hearted men, more worried about the monsters within humanity than outside of it. That being said, a bullet doesn't discriminate between humans and monsters.
By the time they reached Philly, both had give up hope of things returning to 'normal'. Grandma Lynn tried to acclimate, she got a job in a hospital, coming out of retirement to join the nursing staff. In the early years, the schooling was inconsistent and left children with hours of unaccounted for time with which they could get into mischief. Mostly she spent her in the hospital, dogging her grandmother. Getting tossed out when she became too much of a nuance for the overwhelmed staff. Tara’s other form Of amusement came from Tom and the Split Eye. She’d tell him what the gossip at the hospital was while they played chess or cards. If she gave him good gossip, he’d give her chocolate. He especially liked when she talked about 'people' who came from the mist.
That ended when Tara let it slip that she often saw a man who gave her candy, played fun games with and wasn’t supposed to tell her Grandmother about.
Her time became a little more structured after that. When not in school, her grandmother had her hopping about the hospital, now older she was given small tasks. In theory it was to help her get a head start in the health field. In reality, it showed her to have horrible bed side manner (Your son died, it is a good thing you had two) and that she was an empathetic puker.
It wasn’t a total loss, as the girl found her true calling away from the living and into the lab. Or what passed for a lab these days. It’s primary focus now being set on examining injuries and people that came from the mist.
EquipmentTara carries a small research kit ( journal, rudimentary microscope, a few items to take tests with). She also carries a few knives that offer more protect against people than monsters. Everything else she has is from the military.
Anything else?Technically she could also be classified as a medic. Her time in the hospital has given her the ‘facts’ of healing, but she tends to have a weak stomach when puss and guts are involved.
