Post by liv on May 25, 2009 13:02:50 GMT -5
Personal Info
[/b][/center]Nickname: Liv
Age: Fifteen
Experience: fiveish years
Contact Info: PM
Other Characters or Staff Position? N/A
Basics
[/b][/center]Character Name: Tara Davis
Nicknames: Her father calls her “Scamp,” which she hates. Her brothers call her “Sissy” when they’re trying to annoy her; it usually works. Her boyfriend uses a variety of pet names, which she finds very sweet.
Gender: Female
Age: Seventeen
Birth Date: January 16
Grade: Senior (12th)
Relationship Status: In a relationship with Brian Walters
Appearance
[/b][/center]Looks like: Mischa Barton
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 132 lbs
Build: Slender
Eye Color: Hazel-to-green
Hair Color: Ash blonde
Style: She borrows from whatever trends look good on her, leaving her with a rather eclectic style, ranging from ultra-preppy to boho-chic. A common outfit for her would include skinny jeans with a print dress over them, an overlarge belt at the waist, and gladiator heels. Other times, she’s less inventive and goes for a simple look, like jean shorts and a cute t-shirt. She’s very aware of her body and what does and doesn’t flatter her frame.
Her real weakness is jewelry; she owns lots of it, and loves to mix and match different pieces with different outfits.
Over All: Tara has a naturally slim build. She’s not particularly athletic- sure, she’s on the volleyball and tennis teams, but it’s more for the fun of being on the team than any real love over exercise. That being said, she tries to keep herself in good shape, and it’s worked for her so far.
She’s more proud of her face than of her body. High cheekbones emphasize her eyes, which she considers one of her best features. They change color from blue to grey to green, though they’re usually closer to green. The blue tints come out more if she’s wearing blue or if she’s near the ocean, while they grey tends to be prominent due to the weather- usually on an overcast or stormy day.
One thing people often comment about her face is how open it is. It’s not like she wears her heart on her sleeve, or anything, but it’s hard for her to conceal her emotions. If she’s happy, and she usually is, she has a bright smile. Even people who don’t like her admit that her smile is particularly beautiful; her whole face lights up. Conversely, if she’s worried, her brow furrows to an almost comical extent, and even strangers ask her what’s wrong. Brian, her boyfriend, calls her his “little open book” because of it.
Personality
[/b][/center]Likes:
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Tara has a number of strengths; some that she’s worked for, and others that come from who she is.
An example of the former is her sports prowess- she doesn’t necessarily like sports, but she loves the feeling of being included on a team. Therefore, in order to stay on the team, she’s gotten good at sports.
However, her more interesting strengths come from her personality and her background. Tara is naturally a very emotional person. This has its downsides, but it also means that she’s extremely sensitive about the feelings of others. She’s very conscious of what will upset people vs. what will make them happy, and tries hard to please everyone. In short, she has great people skills.
Another thing is her total lack of a temper. She’s very emotional, yes, and feels things deeply, but anger never seems to be one of those emotions.
Weaknesses:
Tara tends to think of herself as having far more weaknesses than strengths. Whether or not that’s true is open to interpretation.
Her face is, as was previously mentioned, an open book. She can’t hide her feelings at all- making her a lousy liar. Sure, she can tell little white lies, like pretending to like a friend’s outfit when it plainly looks terrible. But as soon as it starts to mean something, she loses all credibility.
Acting inability aside, she’s a very emotional person. This can be a positive thing, in the case of her strong empathy, but it also can be annoying to people around her. She’s been accused of hogging the spotlight at times, but it’s not really her fault. If somebody says something that upsets her, she will burst into tears on the spot. She’s not being a drama queen, she just can’t help it.
Also, she’s pretty insecure, and takes what people say to heart. Many people have accused her of taking things too seriously, and her boyfriend often complains, when she’s not around, that if he had known she could be so high maintenance before he asked her out, he never would have.
Finally, there is the matter of her brother’s illness. She tries very hard not think about it, but if somebody mentions it callously or, god forbid, attempts to tease her about it, she blows up. She ordinarily has no temper whatsoever, but this is one topic that is very much a sore point for her.
Hopes and Dreams:
Tara has two main categories for her hopes and dreams: hopes and dreams. This may seem rather redundant, but there is a distinct separation: her hopes are short-term wishes, while dreams are long-term. Statistically, her hopes are more likely to come true, but they mean less than her dreams.
One long-standing dream of hers is to have a big wedding, followed by a lifelong and happy marriage. She knows that it’s hardly a modern thing, when so many of her friends dream of touring Europe or of being rich and glamorous, but that’s never been what she wants. She wants to be happy, which for her equates with being loved.
Another dream is one that she knows can’t come true, but it doesn’t stop her from hoping against hope that it will. Namely: that there will be some miraculous cure for Charlie’s cancer, and that the family can go back to the way it was before.
Her hopes are more common things; for her friends to find boyfriends, for good grades, for a sunny day, etc.
Fears:
Everybody has fears, Tara included. First and foremost in her mind lately has been losing Charlie. She was only a year old when he was born; she literally can’t remember a time without him there. Growing up, the ever-present duo of Charlie and Theodore were predictably and irritatingly meddling in her business. She used to complain about them; now, she would give anything to have her mischievous brothers back, instead of the scared, serious, and worst of all mature pair they turned into.
Another fear, less predominant in her head but still valid, is of rejection, be it from friends, family, or worst of all a love interest. She had nursed a crush on Brian a for long time before he asked her out; now, she’s completely in love with him. She’s sure that he loves her too, but that doesn’t stop her nature from wondering how a wonderful guy like Brian managed to pick an average girl like her.
Habits:
Tara had short hair as a kid. It wasn’t like a boy’s haircut or anything, just a cute bob, but because it was short for so long having long hair has been a bit of a novelty, even though it’s been years since she first grew it out. The point of that is that she subconsciously fidgets all the time, and playing with her hair is one of the main ways she does it.
Other habits of hers include fiddling with her nails (though never actually biting them- she had never gotten into that habit, and had no desire to start), saying “um” a lot when she can’t think of anything to say, and babbling when she’s nervous.
Activities:
As a freshman, one of her friends had an older sister who was captain of the field hockey team. Tara hadn’t intended to try out for any sports teams, but hearing her talk about all of the fun and crazy things the girls did together, she decided to give it a shot. She loved that first fall season so much that she allowed herself to be persuaded to join the volleyball team in the winter. Some of her hockey friends were on that team, but she also made lots of new ones. She enjoyed herself so much that she went out for tennis of her own volition. She wasn’t all that good to start, but her teammates encouraged her to keep trying, and she’s never seriously considered leaving a team, even during really tough practices.
She’s joined a few clubs and the school chorus, but other than that she doesn’t have too many other extracurriculars.
She also has a part-time job at a diner near school. Her boss isn’t the nicest of men, but she doesn’t mind the job, and she likes being able to save up her own money for things, rather than always depending on her parents for cash. Her family isn’t poor by any means, but she doesn’t like asking for anything big, especially with all of Charlie’s medical expenses.
General Personality:
Tara is one of those odd people who are genuinely nice, and hate it when people don’t get along. She generally thinks the best of people and gives them the benefit of the doubt, even when they’ve proved that they don’t deserve it. She’s very trusting- perhaps a little bit too much so. She’s not really naïve, but she can come across as being so sometimes. Her optimism can get on more cynical people’s nerves at times.
Tara is also a bit emotional, in the sense that the ocean is slightly damp. She’s usually pretty happy-go-lucky; she’s seldom seen without a smile on her face. However, if she’s not happy, the whole world knows it. She’s tried to hide her feelings with varying degrees of success- unfortunately, the best attempt to date involved her running to the bathroom before bursting into tears.
Despite that, she’s pretty well liked by her peers. During the vast majority of the time (i.e. when she’s not having emotional breakdowns), she knows just how to make people comfortable. She hates awkward silences, and does her best to break them when they happen.
Building off of that, he empathy stems both from her own capacity for emotion and her rather remarkable level of self-awareness. She doesn’t think it’s very special- what good is knowing what makes you tick if you can’t stop it?- but she knows herself very well, and knows how she reacts to different situations. She may not be able to stop her reactions, but she’s gotten pretty good at diffusing the situations before they happen. Many an argument between friends has been broken off by a cheerful suggestion to go get ice cream. (It may be a childish method, but most people can’t help laughing, and when all’s said and done, who can resist ice cream?)
Background
[/b][/center]Birthplace: Kennington
Financial Status: Middle class
Parents: Andy Davis (43) and Julia Davis (43)
Siblings: Charlie Davis (16) and Theodore Davis (15)
Other Relatives: Isabella Davis (28, aunt)
Pets: A golden retriever called Marley
Transportation: A birthday present of which she is extremely proud: a used corvette convertible. It’s pretty old, and she jokes to her friends about the upholstery coming pre-disintegrated, but it was a nice car when it was new and it held up well enough. Besides, it’s her first car- she has a right to be pretty thrilled!
History:
Tara has lived in Kennington her whole life, and for most of it she’s been pretty happy. Her childhood was average enough- two loving parents and two irritating tag-along younger brothers, a decently sized house, and a good income. She never really missed out on anything she wanted, but she wasn’t spoiled as a kid either. She started school, made friends, and otherwise remained a normal little girl.
When she started high school, she made a host of new friends on the various teams she joined, and was quickly established as moderately popular. She was no “it girl”, but she had a reputation for being really nice and, even better, approachable. She never really understood all of the backstabbing and gossip that floated around the school, and tried to listen to it without spreading it.
She was as surprised as the next girl when Brian Walters asked her out. Sure, she had nursed a crush on him since middle school, but she could never have guessed that her feelings were returned! Not only was he as good a boyfriend as she imagined, he was better. He catered to her love of all things romantic, surprising her every so often with a bouquet of flowers or a box of truffles. She was one of the few girls whose boyfriend celebrated their one-week and one-month anniversaries of his own accord!
All in all, life was good until the day that she had been pulled out of her English class. She had had no idea of what was going on; the school secretary had stuck her head into to the room and asked is Tara Davis would please come with her. Ignoring the whispers, she had followed her to the office, trying to ask what was going on. The secretary had refused to explain until they got to the office. Tara’s Aunt Bella had been in there, crying hard. Charlie was in the hospital, she had choked, and everything from there on was a blur. She remembered being in the hospital, but nothing about getting there. Looking at Charlie lying on those white sheets, unmoving and hooked up to life support machines, Tara’s world shattered.
Eventually, the verdict was reached. Cancer. Charlie would never grow up; he had under a year left to live. The Davis family was never the same after that day, even when Charlie was discharged from the hospital. There was no point in keeping him there, the doctors had said.
Tara never asked how everybody in the school seemed to know. Private business in a town as small as Kennington never stayed private for long. It had never really bothered her before; it was funny how these things changed when it was her family everyone whispered about.
Miscellaneous
[/b][/center]RP Sample:
Mina was early, as usual. Her mother hadn't wanted to deal with traffic, as usual, so she had begun the five-hour drive from home to school at four in the morning, as usual. They had arrived at nine-thirty (six hours before the school technically opened), as usual, and her mother had left her in the parking lot with only her luggage and a sheet of paper with her dorm room number written on it. As she had done for the past six years. So you would think that Mina would feel a little less abandoned by it by now.
She made a face as she looked at the sheet. Her dorm was on the other side of the campus from where her mother had dropped her off. How utterly perfect.
Luckily for her, one of the security guards was nice enough to lend her his cart- so long as she gave it back as soon as she had gotten her stuff to her building, of course. Mina didn't care that he was obviously patronizing her; she was just glad that she wouldn't have to make multiple trips for the fifth year running. Around three o-clock, when people were supposed to start coming in, there were valets who took your luggage up for you. You just stuck your name and dorm on a tag, attached the tag to your bags, and left your bags in a heap for the people to muddle through. Technically, that was what you were supposed to do, and technically Mina could, early though she was.
The reason she didn't is because the one year that she tried, some smart-ass had read her name on the tags and decided that it would be amusing to see the bookworm's personal items scattered all across campus. Mina had had to run all over, begging people to give back her bras and picking up her panties from hedges. It had been her first real introduction to the school.
Now, she refused to hand over her belongings to anybody.
She loaded her bags into the back of the pseudo-golf cart, and drove on the wide sidewalk to where her dorm would be.
Despite all of the humiliation Mina had undergone here, the campus was really a beautiful place. She drove past what felt like endless rows of tidy brick houses, each with a garden in full bloom despite the season. She drove past the iron-fenced teachers' houses, and along the edge of the lake. It wasn't really a lake per say, more of a glorified pond, but it was still aesthetically pleasing.
Finally, she pulled up to her building. Room 302b, Building 33, A Complex, that would be her address for the rest of the year. She unloaded her bags, pulled her key-card out of the envelope that it had been mailed to her in, and swiped it on the lock. It beeped, and the door clicked. Moving her stuff up to her room, she reflected that she could be all the way unpacked by the time everybody else showed up, and could drive the cart over to the main house for the welcome that night.
Satisfied with that plan, she set to work personalizing her half of the room.
She made a face as she looked at the sheet. Her dorm was on the other side of the campus from where her mother had dropped her off. How utterly perfect.
Luckily for her, one of the security guards was nice enough to lend her his cart- so long as she gave it back as soon as she had gotten her stuff to her building, of course. Mina didn't care that he was obviously patronizing her; she was just glad that she wouldn't have to make multiple trips for the fifth year running. Around three o-clock, when people were supposed to start coming in, there were valets who took your luggage up for you. You just stuck your name and dorm on a tag, attached the tag to your bags, and left your bags in a heap for the people to muddle through. Technically, that was what you were supposed to do, and technically Mina could, early though she was.
The reason she didn't is because the one year that she tried, some smart-ass had read her name on the tags and decided that it would be amusing to see the bookworm's personal items scattered all across campus. Mina had had to run all over, begging people to give back her bras and picking up her panties from hedges. It had been her first real introduction to the school.
Now, she refused to hand over her belongings to anybody.
She loaded her bags into the back of the pseudo-golf cart, and drove on the wide sidewalk to where her dorm would be.
Despite all of the humiliation Mina had undergone here, the campus was really a beautiful place. She drove past what felt like endless rows of tidy brick houses, each with a garden in full bloom despite the season. She drove past the iron-fenced teachers' houses, and along the edge of the lake. It wasn't really a lake per say, more of a glorified pond, but it was still aesthetically pleasing.
Finally, she pulled up to her building. Room 302b, Building 33, A Complex, that would be her address for the rest of the year. She unloaded her bags, pulled her key-card out of the envelope that it had been mailed to her in, and swiped it on the lock. It beeped, and the door clicked. Moving her stuff up to her room, she reflected that she could be all the way unpacked by the time everybody else showed up, and could drive the cart over to the main house for the welcome that night.
Satisfied with that plan, she set to work personalizing her half of the room.
Activity Level: I’ll be on as often as I can- at least once a day!
Anything else you need to say? Not that I can think of…
Oh, finally, what is king of all that is cheese? Cheese-its!