Terra ~~ Tara Markov

[Gia Stevens]

TARA "GIA” MARKOV

x x

Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?
Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn...
This hurricane's chasing us all underground.

"Things change, Beast Boy. The girl you want me to be is just a memory."

THE BASICS;;
NAME: Tara Markov
AGE: 14 years old
SEX: Female
CODENAME: Terra, though it is currently unused
ALIASES: Gia Stevens
AFFILIATION: Neutral
STATUS: Being terrified by the dreams she’s been having lately.
CANON: Yes~.
PLAYBY: Nope!



THE GOOD STUFF;;

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Tara stands at 5’2”, just below average for a girl her age. Weighing in at 95 pounds, the girl has quite a slim figure, mostly because of her previous life on the run. With blonde hair that falls to a bit below her small chest, and light blue eyes, Tara has the look of someone that spends a lot of time outside, especially in the sun, as that is exactly what she does. Her skin isn’t too tan, as she doesn’t tan easily, but it definitely has the tint of one that spends their life outdoors, as well as the sort of “dirt-encrusted” look, as she spends plenty of time in the dirt.

Her clothes tend to vary, as she wears her uniform when in school, but when out of it, she likes to wear jean shorts, with the occasional jeans, never anything fancy or ‘girly’. For some reason, she finds herself attracted to gloves and goggles, and though she has bought herself a fingerless pair, she doesn’t wear them. They… remind her too much.

PERSONALITY: Tara… is a complicated person. When she was Terra, she was very insecure, always blaming herself for her lack of control even though she tried extremely hard, and latching onto the slightest hint of affection that she was shown. She was also not entirely right in the head, something which being on your own for over four years, believing that you were a murderer, and constantly being on the run would do to someone. However, Tara was quite good at hiding it, and usually portrayed a “happiness personified” mask, that usually only broke around those that she was very close to.

On the other hand, now that she is Gia, the girl is happy. She doesn’t remember her past, and doesn’t want to, even with the nagging sense of incompleteness that she feels, and is content to be a normal person, perhaps grow up and become a geologist someday, because she enjoys the earth. The simple things in life make her happy, and though she is quiet, and not necessarily the most outgoing person in the world, she likes to find reasons to laugh and to smile. Gia is content to live in the moment, and not to dwell and worry about things, even when they’re little inconsistencies. She can forget about the familiar people, the movement of the rocks, everything… She just wants to be normal.

Lately, however, with her dreams cropping up, she’s been losing it a bit, and has been stressed out. They feel like part of her, like part of that life that the Teen Titan, Beast Boy, was talking about, but they can’t be her, right? She has begun to doubt herself, and has grown more introverted, her smile more a shadow of what it was.

Gia doesn’t want to become Terra all over again.

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Tara has the very strong ability to control earth in any form, be it mud, stone, or other. When she uses her powers, whether to mentally throw rocks or something else, her eyes glow yellow, as do her hands, just with a faint sheen around them. It is unknown the extent of her powers, merely because she doesn’t know them herself, but they range from throwing rocks to flying with them to creating creatures out of it and controlling them, so they are quite versatile. As well, she is also quite limber, and fairly quick on her feet.


WEAKNESSES:

• Doesn’t know – As of right now, she both doesn’t know of her past life, not fully remembering it, and is in denial over her dreams. Therefore, any usage of her powers she will explain away and attempt to forget.
  
• Emotionally Unstable – Despite the fact that she is mentally a fair deal healthier than she has been in the past, her dreams are disturbing her, and thus sending her out of whack.
  
• Physical – She has little endurance, and little skill at hand to hand fighting, as well.

GOALS: To find out what exactly her dreams mean and to stop them. To live a normal life.
HISTORY:
Born as the second child to the King and Queen of Markovia, Tara had a happy early life, playing with her brother and having a wonderful family. This lasted for years, until she was eight years old, when there was an uprising and uproar in the country, and she found herself kidnapped, whisked away and used for experimentation.

For a whole year, maybe more, the girl found herself the subject of many painful tests and experimentations, until, finally, they had done it. They had given her the power over earth, and she was to be used as a weapon. What more would crush the hearts of those still in favor of the Crown than the princess herself killing them one by one?

But her powers were tied to her emotions, and she was scared, terrified, and so lashed out, her powers bringing the whole building down on top of her, killing everyone inside. Terrified by this, and unable to remember anything before the experimentation, she fled, pick-pocketing someone’s ticket and hitching a ride to America, away from her misdeeds.

For years, she wandered the country, perpetually trying to stay in one place, to put down roots, but her control over her powers was shaky, a combination of several factors: the way she received them, her fear of them, and her age, and so she constantly caused natural disasters without meaning to. Earthquakes, avalanches, mudslides… She had done them all, had too much blood and destruction on her hands, and it seemed that she was doomed to be alone, forever, until she finally died.

But when she passed by San Francisco, she chanced upon a group of heroes, the Teen Titans, and befriended them. One in particular, Beast Boy, became close to her, and he found out her lack of control. It didn’t matter what Slade said, he’d never tell… right? When he apparently betrayed her trust by telling Robin, she fled, unable to believe that the one person that she had trusted, had confided in, had broken his word.

The troubled girl was picked up by Slade, and though she had reluctance, though she didn’t want to, she became his apprentice, and was trained. Finally, finally, she had control. And then when he wanted her to infiltrate the Teen Titans, to destroy them, she was horrified. Not them, not her friends! But… Beast Boy would be spared. And they really hadn’t been her friends, had they? They didn’t know all of the horrible things that she had done…

So she rejoined them, flaunting her control and earning their trust back, before she hacked the system so that Slade could get in, and took off with Beast Boy. He wasn’t to be harmed. But Slade intercepted them, before she could tell him anything, and though she pleaded for him to understand, wanted him to still be her friend, to help her, to save her… He didn’t.

And that was when something broke inside of her.

She, driven to the brink of insanity, fully joined up with Slade, wearing his suit and learning to fight. And then, they struck. Her duty was to eliminate the Teen Titans, to slaughter them all. They were far too easy to kill, far too easy to simply dispose of.

Of course, they came back. They came back, and fought her, and she was no longer Terra the Villain, driven to the edge of despair and sanity, but Tara the scared little girl, who was reaching out to Slade for help, and brutally shoved aside.

So she refused. If he wasn’t going to help her, was going to shove her around and control her, then she wasn’t going to stand for it! She wanted out, away from all the hero business that she never should have gotten involved in. But, of course, there was a catch: That suit, the one she was given that ‘amplified’ her powers? It could control her.

Terra begged for Beast Boy to destroy her, to kill her, to stop her before she did anything else that she would regret, but before he could, before she could even see if he would follow through on such a thing, she overcame it. She unleashed her powers, freed herself, and killed Slade… But at the same time, triggered a volcanic eruption.

With one last good-bye to the best friend that she had ever had, she sacrificed herself, turning to stone as she released her powers to stop the eruption and everyone from dying.

They all swore to find a cure.

And then, months later, through… something, and she certainly wasn’t the person to ask what exactly, she transformed. The stone melted away, taking the suit that Slade made her in the process, and she fell, wearing nothing but her bandages and undergarments, in the underground chambers. She was weak, she was tired, and she was hungry, but the girl managed to half stumble, half crawl her way out.

She was found by an old couple, out for their morning jog, and they helped her, calling the police. The girl was then taken to the hospital, where she was treated for malnutrition, severe exhaustion, and dehydration. Everyone was worried when she claimed she didn’t remember anything.

She did. An image, of a smiling face, and a green one, nonetheless, but she mentioned it to no one.

Nicknamed “Gia” by the older couple, they agreed to take her in, at least until any sort of identification, missing person alert, or anything of the sort could be found. Temporarily taking on their last name, of Stevens, she was enrolled in the local school, and found herself relaxing into it, enjoying herself and pretending that she was Gia, that she did know who she was.

Of course, that didn’t last for long, once a certain green Titan caught sight of her. She didn’t want to listen to what he said, didn’t want to believe that was her. She wasn’t a hero! She wasn’t Terra! Not a villain, not a Titan, not a betrayer! She was just Gia, just a normal school girl!

So she rejected him, not wanting a part of that life, despite the way that he smiled at her, and that one faint image, that she was sure was him. But it had to be a coincidence, it had to be. She just couldn’t be Terra… could she?

The answer remained a doubtful ‘no’, for awhile, until the dreams started up. Dreams of aliens, of magic, moving earth and villains, friendship, betrayal, and blood on her hands…

Suddenly, she wasn’t so sure.


THE NITTY-GRITTY;;
SCREENNAME: Poet
Time spent roleplaying: Almost five years.
Other Characters: Brainiac 5.0 and Angel~.

RP Sample:

The look that Addie gave her made the Geomancer want to fidget, but she resisted the urge. Fidgeting always told the person watching that you were either (1) uncomfortable, or (2) hiding something, and she didn’t want to project the emotion of either. As the other declared that she wouldn’t force her to do anything, Tara barely suppressed her sigh of relief. She would probably have to go along with it, seeing as there was absolutely no competition between her and the super, so thank goodness for that fact.

Wait, was it really gonna rain? She had thought it was, as it had been a fairly nice day so far… Was Addie trying to trick her? (She was a superhero, but that didn’t always mean anything) Following the other’s gaze, though, the girl was dismayed to see that she actually was telling the truth. Thunderstorms? Rain? Ugh, so not her day. As if the giant moths and getting found out by a super didn’t prove it already.

So… what should she do? Accept the offer to stay? Tara definitely didn’t want to stay out in the rain, after all… And a thunderstorm only made the offer look all the more appealing. For a moment, she considered just saying no, right off the bat, and figuring out what she wanted to do later, but the survival instincts that had stuck with her pretty well for her whole life told her that that would be a rash decision, so she spoke up hesitantly. “…Can I get back to you on that offer?” she asked weakly. Tara hated giving in like this, to let herself be cornered by a super and staying with her long than she wanted, but she didn’t have anywhere else to go, and the weather was horrible.

…Besides, she could only stay for one night, ‘till the weather got better. That would work out fine, right?

…Right?

However, she perked up at the other’s words, turning to face her with a grin blossoming across her face. “They’ve got video games there?” And a stereo, that was cool, too, but she never got very much into music, mostly because she didn’t have access to it, aside from hearing it play in stores. But video games… She had distant, faded memories of playing them with an older boy, once upon a time, and more fresh ones, of playing them in the stores whenever she came across one of those demo-things where you could try them out. Always fun, and a great way to pass time. “Do you know what kinds of games they have?” She had said that human technology was beyond her, but-

Wait. Human technology. The phrasing of that. Swallowing sharply, Tara looked at the super with new eyes. So she was an alien, huh? Like Superman? …She didn’t know how she was supposed to react to that tidbit of information. Crap. (though it did make the fact that she had called Tara ‘little one’ make a bit more sense, as who knew how old she was)

At least the other was quiet, though, as they picked up the jewelry. It gave the Geomancer time to think and to plan her course of action, of if she was going to stay with the super or her friends or not, and though she didn’t reach a conclusive decision… it had been nice. She had a sort of plan, though: First, she was going to meet the Teen Titan(s), and see if they were okay. They had ‘Teen’ in their name, after all, so perhaps they were her age? So it would be okay? Second, if they were nice… maybe stay with them. If they said no, and she would have to stay with the alien super who was kind of alternately amusing her, annoying her, and freaking her out (and who had no video games to tempt her, unlike the team), she wasn’t going to stay with anyone. She could get a hotel room (if she could afford it), or break into someone’s garage and sleep there or something.

Right. Good plan of action.

Blinking in surprise as the other ruffled her hair again (seriously, if she did that a third time, Tara was gonna steel herself and ask her to stop), the Geomancer listened curiously as she rambled on, and grinned slightly at her compliment, though she felt the need to shoot it down. “They’ll have to repave it, though,” she remarked. Maybe if she was better, she could have fixed it really well, but, alas, she was not. Too bad.

As the other finished up talking, though, she chuckled. “Sounds like they suck,” she commented off-handedly. “Maybe you should go on strike and see how they react?” Tara was kidding, of course, though it would make an interesting statement. And an interesting cover page for the newspaper. ‘Superheroes on Strike!’ Mentally, she sniggered.

Following as the other motioned her to (was she gonna argue with a super?), and stepping through the moth bodies (gross!), Tara’s smile faded slightly as the other pointed out her name. “Ah… Yeah… Terra Firma and all that.” She just… didn’t like her powers. Nor people drawing attention to them. She just wanted to be… normal. And having a name like ‘Terra’ wasn’t really normal, at least in her book.

For the short time it took them to walk to the pizza place, the younger girl was quite happy that the other was silent. She just really didn’t know what to say to Addie, and desperately hoped that the Teen Titans would be a little easier for her to talk to. It would be nice.

As they arrived, though, she peered around the place curiously. It looked nice, like a place that she would’ve eventually visited on her own, so they’d probably have pretty good food. They already had a nice atmosphere, after all. Plopping in the chair (and resisting the urge to put her feet up on one of the open ones, as her boots had too much dirt on them), Tara took the menu, blinking at the other. “Ah… thanks.” With that, she browsed through it. Seemed fairly basic, so she already knew what she wanted. “Can I just get a pop and a medium pepperoni pizza?” the Geomancer asked, not yet looking up from the menu. It didn’t look too expensive, and she could definitely eat the whole thing…

[PTAV]

ACCEPTED!