silvermist1116

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Punished GN Should we all make sheets like this?

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Damn. She really hit the oxy hard if she can't tell who the hell the priest was. She didn't recognize him at all and couldn't for the life of her remember anyone that seemed inclined towards the clothe. Not that it mattered. Man was here five second and the moment he opened his mouth, Tayla had a headache. The way he spoke and his jovialness didn't match the scene at all. She trusted very few people, but she already knew she's never trust this clown. This meeting needed to get done, so she could go home. She's already tired of this shit.

She tuned out the priest's speech. He moment he said "Sister Auclair", she pretended he didn't exist. She's good at that when she thinks about other things. Like how the fuck she's getting home. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. The ferry's last run was at 8pm. It's edging into 7pm now. She could order a ride to the dock the ferry docked at, and get home after dinner. She's knew there would be leftovers. She made plenty of sides on Sunday to last them the week. Her father just had to take care of the entrée. She hoped it wouldn't be ass, but that's a dying hope considering his cooking skills.

After the priest's riveting performance, Auri finally got to the point. And boy had she wished she didn't say what just came out of her mouth. The fucking Wolfpack. This is what she's here for. The bane of her exists and the thing that exacerbated her trauma just happens to be the next important thing Auri needed to talk about. Maybe she should've held her tongue. She wasn't ready to shoot straight into a relapse after she's been doing good. The reason she came here didn't seem all that important anymore. Nothing but holding onto her sanity mattered.

She raised her hand, ready to decline, when a man dressed in a suit with a food platter in his hand came inside. She put her hand down. He looked a wreck. Like having attention on him was about to make his shit himself. And when he looked at her, he looked more like he would shit himself. He stumbled over his words for a few seconds, before something in him changed. She's been around enough snakes to know one when she saw one. The way he held himself, spoke, and even his expression, all changed in an instant.

He started talking about the murders, the police investigation, then brought up the FBI. What they have to do with anything Coven related was lost on her, until the main pulled out a badge and attached to that badge was his ID. She right in front of him and got a look at his name. Kali Mahendra. Didn't know him, and she didn't want to.

"What the fuck, Auri. You invited the feds?" She complained, crossing her arms, then gave it a second thought a split second later. "Y'know what, it's good you invited him. He can go down to the Wolfpack and chat them up. They're dangerous and all. No need for the rest of us getting involved. What's your next lead? I'll go literally anywhere else that's not Wolfpack related."

She can't be anywhere near them. The memories will come back. All the feeling she liked about being on oxy, the smells of the strip club, of any place she frequented for a fix, all of it would be a calling card to welcome her back into misery and an early grave. For her to abandon her son for drugged up pleasure and sex with a biker that shouldn't fuck her when she's incoherent, but will do it anyway. Her forehead prickled with a cold sweat. She tucked her hands under her arm pits to quiet down the shaking. She needed to go home. She needed to get out of here. This was a mistake.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Most of Tayla's day was normal. She got up at 4am to help her father, Taeshik, prepare the fishing boat. She dressed in dark green rubber overalls with attached boots, and a bright yellow coat. She got her son, Siwan, up at 4:30am to get him dressed and in his coat and scarf to set sail in. Day care wouldn't open for another 2 and a half hours, so she had to take him with her on her first job of the day, fishing. The waters were choppy as they tended to be this time of year, but she grew up on this boat, could deal with the waves. Her son will grow up on his boat, and he's already used to it. She put down under deck in a crib she bolted to the floor. He'll grow out of it soon enough. She'll come up with something else when he's too big for it.

They were on the water fishing at 5am for 2 hours, before her father pulled into the harbor so they could dump their catches and she could take Siwan to daycare.

"빨리빨리!" her father called.

"네," she replied, not in the rush he wanted her to be in. It's the same every day. He'll tell her to hurry, like he's not going to take an hour break on the pier chatting with the other fishermen. She walked several blocks inland holding her sleeping son in her arms to his day care. It was ran out of a middle aged woman's home. Her name was Ms. Darcy. She's been watching sailor's children out of her home for twenty years. It's a business her mother started decades before St. Portwell was built up to the city it is now. The home was a two stories, white colonial style home. The outside has not aged well, but the inside was clean, warm, and well loved. Not many children were dropped off here anymore. Not with the school district opening up their own or the private school that went from day care age to high school. But Ms. Darcy wouldn't close and she loved her for that.

She dropped him off with his baby bag she kept in the boat so she wouldn't forget it. Siwan went with Ms. Darcy even enough. He clung to her like he would to his mom.

"Bye bye," he said mid-yawn.

"Bye bye." She kissed his cheek. "Dad will pick him up at noon." She walked backwards down the stairs. She hated to leave him for most of the day. The weekends were a highlight for her. She got to spend time with him all day on her days off.

"Have a good day, and don't forget payment is due next week," Ms. Darcy said.

"I haven't forgotten. Haven't missed a day." Ms. Darcy also had the cheapest day care prices in the city. Couldn't beat $800 a month. All the other places would put her in the thousands. It was hard squeezing out that money, but until he was old enough for pre-school, she and her father would just have to deal.

She hurried back to the boat, her dad lounging round on the dock, shooting the shit with other fishermen talk about the catches they caught that morning. It's been about 20 minutes. She wasn't in the mood to stick around for another 40.

"아빠, 가자," she said.

Taeshik waved her off, motioning that he was in the middle of something. She would've stopped off to get some breakfast, but she wasn't in the mood it eat nor did she have the patience to stick around. She kicked his chair.

"가자," she said again. She didn't stop kicking it and repeating herself, until he got up looking peeved.

"I need to get ready for work," she said.

"Go get something to eat. You're too skinny," he urged her.

"Not feeling it. 가자."

Taeshik sighed and shook his head. He said bye to his fishermen friends, then took her back to the island they lived on. It was called Callie's Island and had four homes on it. It was about the size of three city blocks, had dial up, and ran on propane tanks. Not the most modern of living, but it was quiet and kept her out of trouble now that she's moved back home. Their tiny two story house faced the west. The sunsets were easily the best part of this place.

She got off the boat and went to get ready. Taeshik took the boat back out. Tayla spent a lot of time getting ready to get the smell of the sea, salt, and fish off her. Just because she worked that Martine Museum, didn't mean she needed to smell like the sea. She showered and dress in a hour and a half. She packed another set of clothes. She had to wear a navy blue uniform shirt with her name badge and white bottoms. She always wore a flowy long skirt. The whole outfit hide her body decently enough. She put on red lipstick, packed extra clothes, because she didn't want to show to the evening meeting in her uniform. She doesn't need any of her old coven mates knowing where she worked. Lord forbid any of them ever show up for her 8 hour shift.

She got back on her dad's boat and he dropped her off at the port near the museum. It was a long walk up the old wooden stairs, but she got there with more than enough time for her 10am shift when they opened. Her day went on like usual. She answered questions in person and on the phone, took money, gave out tickets, nothing abnormal about her day at all. She got a text message at noon from her dad. It was a badly taken selfie of him and Siwan together. She smiled and saved it, texting him to have a good day and that she'll see him tonight. Since she's not coming home right away, she'll have to get her own ride home. She hoped one of their neighbors would be in town or that the ferry guy wouldn't mind going a little out of his way. She needed to buy her own boat whenever she gets the money.

~*~

Six o'clock rolled around pretty slow. For her, but when her shift ended and the museum closed down, she hurried to change out of her uniform in the staff bathroom. She felt a lot better wearing bagging black pants, a white button up shirt, and a black sweater vest. All her clothes were baggy and made her look shape less. She could be anywhere between 100lb and 200lb. Flowers and Canvases was a quite a car ride away from coast. She had to get an uber, which cost her money she didn't really have to spend but it's worth it not to be hunted down and murdered as an alternative.

She got there a little after 6:30. Feeling awkward at Auri greeting her like everyone else that walked through the door. She sat in the near empty front row. No one liked front rows seats and she didn't like sitting next to people, so it worked out for her that she could be mostly alone. There's a chance no one would recognize her, she's changed so much. She was taller than the last time she saw everyone, about thirty pounds lighter, and no longer the bright bubbly person that was crazy for her boyfriend. She even made her nickname her legal name. She took a quick selfie with some people in the background, then texted it to her dad. He got nervous when she wasn't home right after work. Would think that she's slipping back into her addiction. But no. She's where she said she would be. At a flower shop with some old 'friends.' Maybe he'll recognize a few faces. She sure did.

Auri looked the same for the most part, but she's grown up quite a bit. She still rambled or maybe she's misremembering. She couldn't remember a lot from her time in the Coven. Everything before, during, and after the battle, she purposely tried forget for her own sake. It's been a decade and she thought everything would still feel the same. It didn't. Whatever friendly feelings she had for these people were ambivalent at best and apathetic at worse. In Drake's case, still annoying. She didn't remember Luca at all, but there's a vague memory of Britney doing something fucked up. She showed up to so many meetings after the battle on oxy, and sometimes she didn't show up at all, that she can't remember what that all was about.

She raised her hand. "So, you brought us all back together and invited someone that at least one person could be triggered by and another her cheerleader, and expect us to be a family? Yeah, no, that's not going to work for me. I expect a lot from family, but I'm not expecting shit from whatever this is supposed to be." She circled her finger to generally indicate their surroundings. "I want to get what we got to do done and wash my hands of this. It's taken me a long time to get good and I can't back slide on your butterfly dreams of fantastical expectations. I've moved on from this, so let's get to the point. We can make nice on our own time, what's the next important order of witchy business? I have a self-imposed curfew and I'm already breaking it to be here."

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Punished GNThat makes sense. Never thought about it before. I've gotten back into the GL comics lately.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Punished GNWow that's a lot.
And yes, giving. "In brightest day and blackest night, no evil should escape my sight yada yada yada, Green Lantern's light!"

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

The chant is giving Green Lantern.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Punished GN Bruh what's your word count for that first post? Like damn.

Tyrant Shell: The Answer of Rain [CANCELLED]

@DragKing Gizzard

Hachidori was on the other side of the beach, taking cover from the fighters above under a long destroyed shell. He could bid his time. He kept track of what his teammates were doing. More and more fighters and drones were being taken out. The ones hovering above were shot down, giving him a chance to escape. Some of the crew were in the rainforest beside the beach. It wouldn't be good for him to be isolated from the rest of the group. He could handle himself, but strength in numbers.

A large blue beam shot out of the forest followed by an explosion. A large swathe of trees were destroyed, giving him a view of the shell that did it. An alert popped up on his screen just as Ava came through the comms. "Ossifrage-80 down." Telling him what the reading said. He's too new to feel anything other than general sadness for losing a teammate. There would be time to mourn after the mission. He had orders he needed to follow.

"...I want Gizzard and Hachidori to rip the thing to shreds with their weapons. Copy?" Ava said.

"Copy that," he replied.

He didn't run right at it. He figured hitting it from behind would be much better.

"Gizzard, let's hit it at the same time. I'm going at it from behind. Over," he said. He skirted around the damaged the trees, heading for the lush ones instead. He kept low and took it one step at a time. He didn't want to alert its attention, before Gizzard was ready. No doubt all of them showed up on its scanners, but the closest would be prioritized. He needed to hit it fast and hard with no time to react when the moment was right.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Tayla Choi

"Life's not fair, baby. This I know."

_______________________________________________ Tayla Takara Choi She/Her/They/Them | 25 | Japanese/Korean | 5'10 | 103lb _______________________________________________ Tragic. _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "Nothing useful." ___________________________________ [+] Self-discipline ⫻ She's two years clean off oxy and she plans to stay that way. Takes a lot of practice and discipline not to fall back into old habits and get triggered by stressors. Bilingual ⫻ Speaks English and Korean fluently. Used to know Japanese before the divorce. Lost it cause she doesn't have anyone to speak it to. Fishing ⫻ Grew up on a fishing boat, helping her father with the daily catch out on his boat.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I call it Heroin Chic." Tayla is pale as fuck. All those years on a fishing boat didn't give her a tan like her father. She burned like an egg on an Arizona sidewalk. SPF 100 is her bestie during the summer. She's tall, 5'10, and so thin the wind could blow her over. It's not healthy, she knew, but it's a lasting effect she's having a hard time getting over after going clean. She's mostly skin and bones. Her ribs and backbones are easy to see through tight clothing, so she keeps her style baggy. When she first kicked her habit, anything she ate either got thrown up or shat out, so she went without eating to feel a little less miserable. She still doesn't have a healthy relationship with food, but at least she eats. For a while there it was only a skinned apple and sweet potato once a day. Not even pregnancy did her breasts any favors. Still as flat as ever. Her lips are wide and thick. She often accentuate them with lipstick. Her hair is pitch black and it's almost styled like a mullet. She keeps her bangs long and over her eyebrows. From ear to ear her hair is short. The back lays on her neck and is cut shaggy. She does it herself. She can't stand it longer than her nape. Her eyes are dark brown, almost black and narrow. Her double eyelid is shallow at best and her eyelashes are short as hell. Lash lengthier mascara only does so much. Lastly, she's gone without it. Her ears are pierced and depending on her mood, she'll wear big hoops or studs. For the last 18 months, it's been studs. Her baby likes to pull on large hoopy things that cause mommy pain. She wears rings on her pointer and ring fingers on both hands. She has an array of them and generally chooses whatever she sees in her jewelry box first. She cares little to match them with her outfit, just like she cares little to match her outfits. She keeps to dark and neutral colors, so more often than not she leaves the house decently matching.

_{Psychology
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"Welcome to my sick pretty mind."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Stay clean, so she can raise her son like a decent parent should. She almost lost custody of him when the hospital found out she was a drug addict up, until the point she found out she was pregnant. If it wasn't for her father's support, she wouldn't have him now and he'd be in the system somewhere.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ She's been fucked by life. She can't tell if it's her own doing or if circumstances pushed her towards her addiction. Life is a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. She's had plenty of both that cost her something. Abandonment, death, near death, more near death, and finally a light at the end of the tunnel she doesn't hope will stay that way.

SECRETS ⫻ She's knows who her baby's father is, but she won't say. Better to keep it hidden from everyone. He's a dangerous man and she's not looking to put her son in danger. She's enough of a slut that no one will have an easy answer to the countless speculations.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Whatever she needed to be to get her next fix. She's never had a preference. Still doesn't have one. She hasn't sat with herself long enough to figure it out.

FEARS ⫻ She's afraid that all her hard work will be wasted and that she'll slip back into that oxy life. She hated who she was then, and still hasn't figured out how to love herself but she's trying. The last thing she needs to get out of control of herself and seek the comforts of an old friend. If she did, she'll lose her son, and she doesn't think she's strong enough to get clean a second time.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ She was rambunctious, loud, always looking for a good time, and looking out for her friends. She can't say for sure if she had a hand in breaking it up. By the time the Coven disbanded, she was already knee deep in oxy every week and didn't care to participate in the discourse. All it did was bring up memories she wanted to forget.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ She played a good support role at first. Her pink lux was good with confusing the enemy through various mental manipulation and illusion spells. But when the love her life was killed mid-battle, she blacked out and lost it. She couldn't keep her cool and let her emotions get the best of her, making her lux wile out. She could've cost them the battle if they didn't have such good leadership. Daisy pulled her through to the end, helped her keep focus, up until they were able to kill the Stygian Snake.

FLAWS ⫻ She's wary of getting involved with anything that's not her business or is too complicated. Anything that could potentially stress her out, could make her slip up and she's not willing to take that risk. She's conflict avoidant, and will always put her son first, to the determent of anyone getting in the way of that.

_{Backstory
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"I'm getting fuck by life."

There was nothing special about Tayla's life for the first six years. She was born and raised in Busan, South Korea by her Korean fisherman father and Japanese lawyer mother. Their marriage didn't last long. They got married, because they fucked around without a condom a few times and her mother got pregnant. Birth control be damned. Her parents didn't have anything in common. In fact, her mother was a rich kid and decided to slum it for shits and giggles one summer vacation during her college years. Her father didn't have a good education. He dropped out of middle school to work to help his family when they were struggling financially. What he didn't have in book smarts, he had in common sense and street smarts. Their two different backgrounds, her mother's desire to move back to Japan, and personalities led to divorce. And her father, being ever dramatic, moved to St. Portwell, Oregon to make it hard for her mother to see her. Except, she didn't care about her. Tayla knew this by the bitter end of their relationship. She's sure she has half siblings out there somewhere.

When they moved, her father heard from other Asian immigrants that they would get along better if they had English names. He choose something that was close sounding to her given name, Takara, but he had a hard time pronouncing the R at the end of Taylor, so she ended up being named Tayla instead. Up until she was 18, all her paperwork said Taylor, but she never called herself that. She changed it to Tayla when she was legally able to.

They lived on a small island with three other families off the coast of St. Portwell. There were a lot of little islands spattered around the coast. On that island, was a boy named James. They got on well, becoming best friends rather quickly, despite the language barrier. They were so close that she fell helplessly in love with him by the time they hit puberty. Her love was so strong that it triggered a Kindling-Event when he accepted her feelings in middle school. Her father knew nothing about magic, even though she tried to show him, but he was Blind, she later learned. She assumed this power came from her mother and if intense feelings of love were what triggered it, there's a chance that was part of the reason her mother left them. She didn't love them enough to get magic powers and maybe she was desperate for them. Tayla didn't know for sure. She assumed this was the case.

Her lux was pink and James thought it suited her. He had a different type of Abstraction. Something bound to him by a notebook. He never went into detail about how he acquired it, but she didn't care to know all that much. They joined the Coven their freshman year of high school. They made a lot of new friends and were eager to help stop the Stygian Snake. James a lot more dedicated than her. And it was that dedication that got him killed in the final battle. They needed a distraction and he volunteered, dying mid-battle in the process. Nothing was ever the same for her after that.

Life was bleak and she sank into a deep depression. Hanging out with the Coven was too much. Too many happy memories. Too many sad ones. She wanted to forget, so on James's birthday she went to visit his family for a private vigil. They never knew the real story of how he died. Thought he got hit by a car in a hit-and-run late at night and the driver was never caught. She hated lying to them about what happened, but there no one to explain. They weren't Adepts or any other Abstraction, so she couldn't explain it to them in terms they would understand. At the vigil, she took a moment away from his family to go to the bathroom. She needed a break. That's when she spotted his mother's oxy on the counter. She'd had a major surgery several months, before and were the meds for awhile. She had stopped taking them and there was only a little left. Tayla heard it could ease pain, both physical and emotional, so she popped one. It put her to sleep after a few minutes. She went to rest in James's room and didn't wake up for several hours. It's the most rest she had in a while and she couldn't help wanting more of that, so she stole the pills.

She didn't use them every day, but the more she tried to cope without the more she needed them. Once that supply went out, she went to the The Wolfpack for a refill. That started a long spiral of partying with them, sleeping around for pills, and stealing money from her dad to keep her supply up. When the Coven disbanded, she didn't even care. She threw all those friends away, and made friends with her dealer and his crew. She got into a situation ship with her dealer, Dean Walker, just shy of her 19th birthday. He didn't care to touch an underaged girl, but he didn't mind pimping her out so she could afford her habit when she was strapped for cash. They began an on again, off again relationship. Toxic as all hell, not only for drugs, but of various assaults, both physical and sexual, and intimidation. He's the father of her baby, but will never tell him that. He still pimped her out when they were together.

Her addiction and bad relationship caused a Severance. Not that she used her lux anymore, anyway, but she lost her connection to that power and couldn't even care. She lost the person that triggered it in the first place. Why bother with it without him? When she was 23, she finally overdosed after a horrible break up with Dean. It was bad, like black eyes bad. At this point, she had left her father's home years ago and floated around on whatever Wolfpack member's couch she could fuck her way onto whenever she wasn't with Dean. After such a bad fight, she took three too many oxy and OD'd. One of Dean's friends found her having a seizure, lips and fingers blue. She got rushed to the hospital where they were able to save her life. She woke up realizing she was 6 weeks pregnant. They just barely managed to save her baby. And when she counted back the weeks, the only man she'd been with when she could've conceived was Dean.

The hospital had called her father, she hadn't seen him in over a year at that point. She promised to get clean and asked for his help. She was certain she would lose her baby once the withdrawal set in. It was bad. As the months went on, she was underweight, so was her baby, and he ended up being born 6 months premature. She named him Siwan (pronounced Shiwan), not caring to give him an English name. It's easy enough to pronounce. It was touch and go for him for awhile, but he pulled through and is now a loud, bouncing 18 months old whose favorite word is 'No.' She's been clean two years, cut all ties with The Wolfpack, and works at The Maritime Museum at the ticket booth.

Life was going as good as she could get it, until she got the call from Auri about Ashley and Daisy and needing her back in the Coven. She refused at first. She was done with that life. She didn't even have her Lux anymore, but Auri told her about what happened to other members. That someone or something was hunting them and taking them out. Which meant, at some point, they would be coming for her too. Her son would be in danger. She hated that she got pulled back, but it's the only way to get her life back to how it was before all that magic shit came back to bite her in the ass.

_{Abstraction
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"No regrets."

TYPE ⫻ One-Eye-Open; Ex-Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Pink Lux (Severed) - Channeler - A candygram James got her for Valentine's Day their freshman year. She keeps it in her wallet.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ No longer has access to her Lux. She doesn't feel bad about it either. The Coven and all it's trouble are in the passed. She has no interest in getting back into magic or dealing with Abstractions.

LIMITS ⫻ Lacks an Emotional-Field. As susceptible to magic as a blind.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Everything.

_{Abstraction 2: Electric Boogaloo
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"Hope I don't regret this."

TYPE ⫻ Abberation (Agent).

ABSTRACTION ⫻ That Melody, a pair of magical headphones that will allow Tayla to "hear" all the thoughts going on around her (with the ability to focus on specific areas/people).

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ A relatively new artifact created by late Greenwood member Lyric Brown, a part of her growing collection of audio-based artifacts she created with her two hands. Her magnum opus was That Melody, a special artifact allowing the user to "hear the world the way it was meant to be heard." It was stolen by Das Sonnenrad when they murdered her and mysteriously ended up in Tayla Choi's hands. Once Tayla puts on That Melody, it will activate a powerful form of telepathy that converts all the thoughts in a hundred-meter radius into sound that Tayla will hear through them. She will hear the immediate and deep-down thoughts and receive mental images from all these people to supplement them. In addition, her hearing will be enhanced, far sharper than usual, and she will be able to tell the most subtle changes in someone's tone. Normally, this would be overwhelming, especially if she's in a crowded area, but she can "focus" on specific areas and people. By focusing, Tayla can tune out the "background noise" created by the other people in her range and only hear what she wants to hear. This will take extra effort and concentration, depending on the area's number of people. A perk of this abstraction is a limited form of Omnilingualism, Tayla can understand any and all languages as long as it's spoken. The only thing is that she can't speak any imaginable language; she just understands it when spoken by someone else.

That Melody automatically gives Tayla a form of mental defense in case another noisy telepath, or empath, tries to go dig into her head. Instead of getting helpful information, telepaths will get random and useless information from Tayla regardless of how hard they dig. Tayla will be treated as a blindspot against Empaths as they will be unable to read her emotions properly as she will appear as a constantly fluctuating mass of emotions. Other forms of mental intrusion, such as from Pink Lux users, will simply not work on Tayla while she has on That Melody.

LIMITS ⫻ That Melody can't precisely be turned off; she will constantly hear all the thoughts around her unless she focuses on a specific area/person or tunes out the background noise - even by doing this she will have to focus and expend energy. Tayla can't pick or choose what she "hears" even by focusing on one person; she will hear all their thoughts, including useless information and random intrusive thoughts. This abstraction works in a radius of a hundred meters and will be active until Tayla removes That Melody from her ears.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Tayla will be forced to endure people's weird sexual fantasies and other weird intrusive thoughts first and foremost. The primary drawback will be large crowds of people, as Tayla will be bombarded by an overwhelming amount of thoughts. While she can focus on one specific area/person, if a large group of people is around, it will take far more focus/energy - meaning she won't be able to maintain it for long. She will be forced to take off That Melody in certain situations, rendering her One-Eye-Open. Having telepathy is not something Tayla should go and announce, as it will make her more challenging to trust in a situation where nobody trusts each other.

^{Other
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"I'm in my good girl era, but I still feel bad."

She's off oxy, but she picked up smoking from The Wolfpack. She's not kicked that addiction yet, but she's weaned herself down to two cigarettes a day.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Tayla Choi

"Life's not fair, baby. This I know."

_______________________________________________ Tayla Takara Choi She/Her/They/Them | 25 | Japanese/Korean | 5'10 | 103lb _______________________________________________ Tragic. _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "Nothing useful." ___________________________________ [+] Self-discipline ⫻ She's two years clean off oxy and she plans to stay that way. Takes a lot of practice and discipline not to fall back into old habits and get triggered by stressors. Bilingual ⫻ Speaks English and Korean fluently. Used to know Japanese before the divorce. Lost it cause she doesn't have anyone to speak it to. Fishing ⫻ Grew up on a fishing boat, helping her father with the daily catch out on his boat.

Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I call it Heroin Chic." Tayla is pale as fuck. All those years on a fishing boat didn't give her a tan like her father. She burned like an egg on an Arizona sidewalk. SPF 100 is her bestie during the summer. She's tall, 5'10, and so thin the wind could blow her over. It's not healthy, she knew, but it's a lasting effect she's having a hard time getting over after going clean. She's mostly skin and bones. Her ribs and backbones are easy to see through tight clothing, so she keeps her style baggy. When she first kicked her habit, anything she ate either got thrown up or shat out, so she went without eating to feel a little less miserable. She still doesn't have a healthy relationship with food, but at least she eats. For a while there it was only a skinned apple and sweet potato once a day. Not even pregnancy did her breasts any favors. Still as flat as ever. Her lips are wide and thick. She often accentuate them with lipstick. Her hair is pitch black and it's almost styled like a mullet. She keeps her bangs long and over her eyebrows. From ear to ear her hair is short. The back lays on her neck and is cut shaggy. She does it herself. She can't stand it longer than her nape. Her eyes are dark brown, almost black and narrow. Her double eyelid is shallow at best and her eyelashes are short as hell. Lash lengthier mascara only does so much. Lastly, she's gone without it. Her ears are pierced and depending on her mood, she'll wear big hoops or studs. For the last 18 months, it's been studs. Her baby likes to pull on large hoopy things that cause mommy pain. She wears rings on her pointer and ring fingers on both hands. She has an array of them and generally chooses whatever she sees in her jewelry box first. She cares little to match them with her outfit, just like she cares little to match her outfits. She keeps to dark and neutral colors, so more often than not she leaves the house decently matching.

_{Psychology
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"Welcome to my sick pretty mind."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Stay clean, so she can raise her son like a decent parent should. She almost lost custody of him when the hospital found out she was a drug addict up, until the point she found out she was pregnant. If it wasn't for her father's support, she wouldn't have him now and he'd be in the system somewhere.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ She's been fucked by life. She can't tell if it's her own doing or if circumstances pushed her towards her addiction. Life is a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. She's had plenty of both that cost her something. Abandonment, death, near death, more near death, and finally a light at the end of the tunnel she doesn't hope will stay that way.

SECRETS ⫻ She's knows who her baby's father is, but she won't say. Better to keep it hidden from everyone. He's a dangerous man and she's not looking to put her son in danger. She's enough of a slut that no one will have an easy answer to the countless speculations.

SEXUALITY ⫻ Whatever she needed to be to get her next fix. She's never had a preference. Still doesn't have one. She hasn't sat with herself long enough to figure it out.

FEARS ⫻ She's afraid that all her hard work will be wasted and that she'll slip back into that oxy life. She hated who she was then, and still hasn't figured out how to love herself but she's trying. The last thing she needs to get out of control of herself and seek the comforts of an old friend. If she did, she'll lose her son, and she doesn't think she's strong enough to get clean a second time.

REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ She was rambunctious, loud, always looking for a good time, and looking out for her friends. She can't say for sure if she had a hand in breaking it up. By the time the Coven disbanded, she was already knee deep in oxy every week and didn't care to participate in the discourse. All it did was bring up memories she wanted to forget.

ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ She played a good support role at first. Her pink lux was good with confusing the enemy through various mental manipulation and illusion spells. But when the love her life was killed mid-battle, she blacked out and lost it. She couldn't keep her cool and let her emotions get the best of her, making her lux wile out. She could've cost them the battle if they didn't have such good leadership. Daisy pulled her through to the end, helped her keep focus, up until they were able to kill the Stygian Snake.

FLAWS ⫻ She's wary of getting involved with anything that's not her business or is too complicated. Anything that could potentially stress her out, could make her slip up and she's not willing to take that risk. She's conflict avoidant, and will always put her son first, to the determent of anyone getting in the way of that.

_{Backstory
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"I'm getting fuck by life."

There was nothing special about Tayla's life for the first six years. She was born and raised in Busan, South Korea by her Korean fisherman father and Japanese lawyer mother. Their marriage didn't last long. They got married, because they fucked around without a condom a few times and her mother got pregnant. Birth control be damned. Her parents didn't have anything in common. In fact, her mother was a rich kid and decided to slum it for shits and giggles one summer vacation during her college years. Her father didn't have a good education. He dropped out of middle school to work to help his family when they were struggling financially. What he didn't have in book smarts, he had in common sense and street smarts. Their two different backgrounds, her mother's desire to move back to Japan, and personalities led to divorce. And her father, being ever dramatic, moved to St. Portwell, Oregon to make it hard for her mother to see her. Except, she didn't care about her. Tayla knew this by the bitter end of their relationship. She's sure she has half siblings out there somewhere.

When they moved, her father heard from other Asian immigrants that they would get along better if they had English names. He choose something that was close sounding to her given name, Takara, but he had a hard time pronouncing the R at the end of Taylor, so she ended up being named Tayla instead. Up until she was 18, all her paperwork said Taylor, but she never called herself that. She changed it to Tayla when she was legally able to.

They lived on a small island with three other families off the coast of St. Portwell. There were a lot of little islands spattered around the coast. On that island, was a boy named James. They got on well, becoming best friends rather quickly, despite the language barrier. They were so close that she fell helplessly in love with him by the time they hit puberty. Her love was so strong that it triggered a Kindling-Event when he accepted her feelings in middle school. Her father knew nothing about magic, even though she tried to show him, but he was Blind, she later learned. She assumed this power came from her mother and if intense feelings of love were what triggered it, there's a chance that was part of the reason her mother left them. She didn't love them enough to get magic powers and maybe she was desperate for them. Tayla didn't know for sure. She assumed this was the case.

Her lux was pink and James thought it suited her. He had a different type of Abstraction. Something bound to him by a notebook. He never went into detail about how he acquired it, but she didn't care to know all that much. They joined the Coven their freshman year of high school. They made a lot of new friends and were eager to help stop the Stygian Snake. James a lot more dedicated than her. And it was that dedication that got him killed in the final battle. They needed a distraction and he volunteered, dying mid-battle in the process. Nothing was ever the same for her after that.

Life was bleak and she sank into a deep depression. Hanging out with the Coven was too much. Too many happy memories. Too many sad ones. She wanted to forget, so on James's birthday she went to visit his family for a private vigil. They never knew the real story of how he died. Thought he got hit by a car in a hit-and-run late at night and the driver was never caught. She hated lying to them about what happened, but there no one to explain. They weren't Adepts or any other Abstraction, so she couldn't explain it to them in terms they would understand. At the vigil, she took a moment away from his family to go to the bathroom. She needed a break. That's when she spotted his mother's oxy on the counter. She'd had a major surgery several months, before and were the meds for awhile. She had stopped taking them and there was only a little left. Tayla heard it could ease pain, both physical and emotional, so she popped one. It put her to sleep after a few minutes. She went to rest in James's room and didn't wake up for several hours. It's the most rest she had in a while and she couldn't help wanting more of that, so she stole the pills.

She didn't use them every day, but the more she tried to cope without the more she needed them. Once that supply went out, she went to the The Wolfpack for a refill. That started a long spiral of partying with them, sleeping around for pills, and stealing money from her dad to keep her supply up. When the Coven disbanded, she didn't even care. She threw all those friends away, and made friends with her dealer and his crew. She got into a situation ship with her dealer, Dean Walker, just shy of her 19th birthday. He didn't care to touch an underaged girl, but he didn't mind pimping her out so she could afford her habit when she was strapped for cash. They began an on again, off again relationship. Toxic as all hell, not only for drugs, but of various assaults, both physical and sexual, and intimidation. He's the father of her baby, but will never tell him that. He still pimped her out when they were together.

Her addiction and bad relationship caused a Severance. Not that she used her lux anymore, anyway, but she lost her connection to that power and couldn't even care. She lost the person that triggered it in the first place. Why bother with it without him? When she was 23, she finally overdosed after a horrible break up with Dean. It was bad, like black eyes bad. At this point, she had left her father's home years ago and floated around on whatever Wolfpack member's couch she could fuck her way onto whenever she wasn't with Dean. After such a bad fight, she took three too many oxy and OD'd. One of Dean's friends found her having a seizure, lips and fingers blue. She got rushed to the hospital where they were able to save her life. She woke up realizing she was 6 weeks pregnant. They just barely managed to save her baby. And when she counted back the weeks, the only man she'd been with when she could've conceived was Dean.

The hospital had called her father, she hadn't seen him in over a year at that point. She promised to get clean and asked for his help. She was certain she would lose her baby once the withdrawal set in. It was bad. As the months went on, she was underweight, so was her baby, and he ended up being born 6 months premature. She named him Siwan (pronounced Shiwan), not caring to give him an English name. It's easy enough to pronounce. It was touch and go for him for awhile, but he pulled through and is now a loud, bouncing 18 months old whose favorite word is 'No.' She's been clean two years, cut all ties with The Wolfpack, and works at St. Portwell History Museum at the ticket booth.

Life was going as good as she could get it, until she got the call from Auri about Ashley and Daisy and needing her back in the Coven. She refused at first. She was done with that life. She didn't even have her Lux anymore, but Auri told her about what happened to other members. That someone or something was hunting them and taking them out. Which meant, at some point, they would be coming for her too. Her son would be in danger. She hated that she got pulled back, but it's the only way to get her life back to how it was before all that magic shit came back to bite her in the ass.

_{Abstraction
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"No regrets."

TYPE ⫻ One-Eye-Open; Ex-Adept

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Pink Lux (Severed) - Channeler - A candygram James got her for Valentine's Day their freshman year. She keeps it in her wallet.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ No longer has access to her Lux. She doesn't feel bad about it either. The Coven and all it's trouble are in the passed. She has no interest in getting back into magic or dealing with Abstractions.

LIMITS ⫻ Lacks an Emotional-Field. As susceptible to magic as a blind.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ (DO NOT FILL THIS OUT, I WILL PROVIDE IT FOR YOU)

^{Other
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"Extra Quote here."

She's off oxy, but she picked up smoking from The Wolfpack. She's not kicked that addiction yet, but she's weaned herself down to two cigarettes a day.

@Punished GNI did the opposite of that, but I gotchu. Next rp, they'll have all the Lux. I can't make any promises to make it make sense for why they're a rainbow magician, but I'll yolo it to the stars.