TAYLOR, ALYSSUM SARIN

[Alyssum Taylor]

ALYSSUM SARIN TAYLOR

•'cause we all wanna party when the funeral ends•

»»Full Name: Alyssum Sarin Taylor
»»Nicknames: Alys (pronounced like Elise, but with an A instead of an E)
»»Birthday: 23rd August, 1993
»»Gender: female
»»Sexual Orientation: bi
»»Occupation: works in a bookstore
»»Eye Color: grey
»»Hair Color: white-blonde
»»Height: 5'5"
»»Weight: 120lbs
»»Overall Appearance: Alyssum looks rather fragile, like a porcelain doll. She's pale and pretty, with long, white-blonde hair and smooth, alabaster skin. Both of her ears are pierced, as well as her lower lip, and she has a small tattoo of an hourglass on the back of her neck. She has a few scars in random places, like most people, but they're difficult to see.

»»Likes:

»»Dislikes:

»»Strengths:

»»Weaknesses:

»»Habits:

»»Personality: Alyssum is manic-depressive, which makes her mood rather unpredictable (though, like most women, she has a more pronounced depressive phase).

When in a Manic phase, she acts, well, manic. She's very easily distracted when she's in this phase. She is unable to sleep due to excess energy, and can be either extremely chatty or extraordinarily irritable, usually switching rapidly between the two. She gets very reckless when she's Manic, and is far more likely to take stupid and unnecessary risks due to excessive overconfidence in her own abilities. She's also quite aggressive and a bit violent when she's Manic. It's much easier for her to Resurrect when she's Manic, but she's also much more likely to overextend herself. Luckily, her Manic phases usually only last around a week.

When in a Depressive phase, Alys is quite a bit more predictable. She still experiences mood swings which range between fear, anger, and depression, but she's much calmer than when she's Manic. She can't Resurrect very well when she's Depressive, due to a lack of energy. She is very antisocial when she's Depressive, and tends to hide in dark, secluded areas. Her Depressive phases can last from a week up to a couple of months.

Alys likes to feel different textures on her fingertips, especially when she's nervous. She keeps a smooth pebble and a few strangely-textured objects in her handbag, simply so that she can touch them. When she can, she likes to dig her hands into dirt and feel everything embedded in the ground. It's a strange habit, but it's usually able to keep her calm.

»»Situation: Gifted
»»Powers: Necromancy:
Mediumship: Communication with the dead. No one but Alys can see the person and hear the person she's speaking to, so to passersby she appears to be having a one-sided conversation with herself. Alys can do this all the time, whether she tries to or not, but it's easier to do in the dark, since light will pass through the spirit's image and make it difficult to see.
Resurrection: Raising the dead. This is temporary, as it is very draining. Alys can only resurrect physical bodies if they are freshly dead (not decomposed) and aboveground. Otherwise it's simply a projected version of mediumship that can be seen/heard/smelled by others.
»»Weaknesses:
Mediumship isn't difficult or draining, but it does get rather irritating. Alys is able to block out her Mediumship, but some spirits are very persistent and like to keep bothering her. Their constant chatter will eventually give her a headache, which makes it hard to focus on anything.
Resurrecting, on the other hand, is extremely draining, especially if she's resurrecting a physical body. She can only do it for about ten minutes or so—fifteen, and she passes out. If she somehow stays linked to the resurrected spirit after passing out, she could potentially die. Resurrecting is also extremely difficult in sunlight, in the cold, or when she's in a Low phase.

»»Family:
Alice Taylor | mother | 45 | English teacher in Minnesota, USA
Aaron Taylor | father | 42 | painter
Lacey Greene | aunt | 39 | pianist
Eli Greene | uncle | 40 | studio photographer
Sienna Greene | cousin | 20 | occupation unknown to Alys
Elena Taylor | paternal grandmother | deceased

»»Other Important People:
Seth Grey | best friend | deceased; 19 when he died
»»Pets: Henry (cream-colored rat)
»»History:
Alyssum was born in late August, 1993, in Minnesota. Her name, “Alyssum,” comes from a genus of small, white, sweet-smelling flowers. Her mother, Alice, is an English teacher, and her father, Aaron, is a painter. They had a rather meager income, but they tried hard to make ends meet. They taught Alys to read when she was three, and had her finger-painting as soon as she was old enough to sit up.

When Alys started talking, around age one, her parents often discovered her supposedly talking to herself. At first, they thought she just had an imaginary friend—a common occurrence with young children. Alys, of course, couldn't figure out why they couldn't see who she was talking to. It took several years for them to discover that she was using her power of Mediumship to speak with the dead. What finally tipped them off was her consistency—she frequently had new “friends,” but the ones who stuck around the house didn't change at all in personality or appearance, and eventually, Alys started talking about accidents they'd had, and sicknesses they'd came down with. Her best friend was Seth Grey, a 19-year-old boy who'd died in the house. He acted like an older brother to her, and eventually ended up “haunting” her, instead of the house. This delighted Alys, of course; she had a permanent best friend who never left her side.

Worried that she'd be somehow disturbed by the morbidity of her dead friends, Alys's parents tried to help her make friends. They took her to the park every day, set up playgroups with other children, and signed her up for various classes and clubs. When none of that worked, they tried find her some sort of an outlet instead. They'd always wanted to be artistic, like them and their families, and when she was around four years old, they decided to try turning her on to music. Piano was a natural choice, since Alice's sister, Lacey, was a pianist. Alys wasn't particularly fond of playing the piano, even though she thought it sounded pretty, and quit when she was nine. She still loved music, so she started singing, and decided to try another instrument—flute. She adored the metal woodwind, and never quit playing it.

Alys didn't discover her power of Resurrection until she was ten years old. Her paternal grandmother, Elena, had just died, and her parents took her to the funeral, since they knew that she was a Medium. Instead of a simple séance, though, Alys ended up accidentally Resurrecting her grandmother. The old woman was very confused by the fact that she was in a coffin, and kept trying to ask people what was going on. The terrified funeral-goers, thinking that Elena was some sort of a zombie, started running and screaming. It was utter chaos until Alys passed out and her grandmother abruptly collapsed into a heap on the ground, dead once more. Since Alyssum's unconsciousness and the end of Elena's Resurrection occurred at almost exactly the same time, her parents were able to link the two pretty easily. Later, once Alys had woken up and the rest of the family had calmed down some, Alice and Aaron told them about Alys's power of Mediumship to them, and apologetically explained that Resurrection must be another form of that power. Alys was very confused and almost scared by her newfound power, but she quickly became curious and tried to Resurrect Elena again. She also tried it on a beetle and a bird outside. Needless to say, Alys and her parents haven't been invited to a funeral since then.

As she grew older, Alys started to become more attached to her dead friends. She'd had one or two living friends as a child, but as she became a teenager, she started to resent them. She's a bit of a jealous person, see, and she resented that all of her friends were starting to date and were spending less time with her. The dead were always around, because she was the only one who could see and hear them. She grew particularly close to Seth—while the rest of her friends were dating living boys, she spent her time sitting in the garden with Seth. At one point, she was so convinced that he was her soul mate that she made up her mind to kill herself to be with him. She thought it was romantic, like Romeo and Juliet. He threatened to find someone or somewhere else to haunt if she tried, and that was the end of that. He remained her best friend, but she grudgingly started paying attention to live boys.

Around age sixteen, Alyssum was diagnosed with Manic Depression. It was a relief for her parents, who had never known why their daughter was so unpredictable, but Alys resented that everyone thought it was a bad thing. She's unashamed of her so-called “insanity”--almost proud of it. Angry with her parents' attempts to medicate and “stabilize” her, she started acting out. In Depressive phases (which were most of the time), she'd simply lock herself in her room and either sleep or talk to Seth, her best [dead] friend. In Manic phases, she got more aggressive. Her excessive energy and confidence would send her out of control. She'd go into wild fits of rage, storming through the house like a tornado, screaming and breaking things. Other times, she'd go funeral-crashing, reanimating corpses for short periods of time (which is how she discovered her limit of 10-15 minutes).

Her tantrums and reanimation-sprees earned her a reputation in her home town, and when she turned eighteen, her parents sent her to London to live with her aunt and uncle, Lacey and Eli, and their daughter Sienna. They thought that a change of scenery and a fresh start would calm her down some, and hoped that Sienna, who was only slightly older than Alys, would be a good influence. Alys loves her cousin, but still prefers to spend time with Seth, who had followed her to Europe. Knowing that she was musical, Lacey and Eli gave Alys an old violin that had belonged to Elena. Alys loves the sound that it makes, but hasn't learned how to play it yet.

Alys got a job in a bookstore a few months after moving to London. As soon as she had the money, she went out and bought a cream-colored rat, whom she promptly named Henry. She wanted a tarantula, but Eli forbid her to bring one into the house, because Sienna is deathly afraid of spiders.

»»Roleplay Sample:

A high-pitched shriek shattered the silence of the still air, quickly followed by the sound of shattering ceramic and glass. The pink-haired girl covered her face with her arms to avoid the shards flying back at her, and ran somewhere else, avoiding the broken plates, bowls, vases, and mirrors that she'd already broken. ”Dude, chill. What's wrong with you?” She glared at the other form in the dark room and snapped, “Shut up, Seth.” When he continued trying to lecture her, she screamed again to drown out the sound of him, and threw the nearest handy object at him. It passed through his form, almost unhindered, and smashed against the wall behind him. Alyssum couldn't even remember what she was mad about, but it didn't matter. Whatever it was had sparked the crushing energy that flooded through her body, pushing outward against her skin, and she couldn't halt the onslaught of rage that was making her tear through the house in a wave of destruction.

At this point, Seth had apparently decided to change tactics. Instead of lecturing her, he was moving in and out of a thin ray of sunlight. It made him look shiny, which immediately caught Alys's attention. The rage and mayhem halted abruptly as she bounced towards him. She tipped her head to the side and stared at the wavering image of her best friend, eyes wide-open, mouth slightly open. “How lovely,” she murmured. He laughed and blew on her face, the closest any spirit could come to actually touching her. ”You should clean up Sienna's house, love,” he said quietly. ”She'll be getting home soon.”

Alys bounced away and whirled around the house like a buzzing bee, chattering at Seth as she cleaned. “I really hate cleaning, you know,” she said. “My parents used to clean up when they made me mad. They knew it was their fault.” Seth was siting cross-legged in the middle of the floor now. ”It's not like we can really help, you know,” he murmured. Alyssum made a face and glared at the forms standing at the windows. “Well, they could at least go away!” The anger was starting to return now, and her fist closed around the mirror-shard that she was holding. It dug into her hand, slicing deep. A red haze started rising over her eyes.

She dropped the mirror and stared at it on the ground. Her vision was starting to drain away, and she didn't know why. What's going on? She growled softly, deep in her throat, and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, knees against her chest. Seth and the other spirits drifted closer, and she could see their reflections in the mirror shard on the floor. Oh. “How long have I been doing that?” Her question was directed at Seth, but one of the others replied. ”Ten minutes or so.” Crap. Alys struggled to break the connection, but it was difficult to do—she hadn't had much practice with Resurrection. Their images didn't disappear from the mirror until her vision started to go black around the edges. Her eyes rolled back, and she slumped against the wall.

»»Alias: Luna
»»How you found us: advertisement on Catastrophe.
»»RP experience: wow. uh... seven years, on and off. lol
»»Your expected level of activity: varies depending on school, but I try to get on as often as possible (usually every night, or at least every other night).

Made by Satara of Caution. Lyrics by Natasha Bedingfield. Don't steal or I'll turn into a dragon and eat you. For realz. <3

[Kat]

Pending

[/size]
Reasons:[/center]

• Age - Crow and I are both fans of Emilie Autumn, and we both know that she does not look seventeen.
  
  
• Elaboration - We've seen through out your applicaiton that there is very little elaboration on some of the details. Find some examples in the sublist below.
  
  1. Hair colour - colouring is great, it expresses creativity, but why does she colour it pink? Favourite colour, some mental obsession, tell us! Build your character!
  
  2. Name - Her name isn't British, clearly. So perhaps you should tell us where she's from and where she gets her name from?
  
  3. Musical - Why did her parents choose to have her be musical? Also, as it doesn't mention anywhere her learning to play the violin, why does she have one?
  
  
• Weight - She's twenty five pounds underweight, though you mention she's thin, you don't seem to go into it in enough detail. Or the amount of detail we expect from members. The health risks of being under weigh to that extent means she'd be in risk of losing her regular ovulatory cycle. As she is also so extremely unhealthy she'd be on a specific diet from a doctor. Also not mentioned. And finally, as she's a manic depressive and is able to resurrect (which is aparently draining), that means she'd rarely be getting out of bed with the amount of energy she'd be using. Energy she wouldn't have for her weight.
  
  
• Brandon Gerard Napier - Your character contains striking similarities towards our ever loved and ever present Bam. We won't accept two characters that are so similar. We really don't want to crush your creativity, but we're trying to keep this fair. We're afraid it's a first come, first serve situation.
  
  They're both insane and like fire, and chaos. They both dislike sunshine. They're both strong willed and reckless. The list goes on.
  
  
• Self Harm - Though we appreciate that your character is a bit of a loony, we cannot stress this enough. Real people self harm. Should anyone on the site have self harmed and find your character to be self harming, they could be offended. While I'm not asking you to strike this from the record, we cannot allow you to focus too much on this to prevent anyone from getting upset or having an episode. It sounds rash, but there are recorded cases of this happening.
  
  
• Powers - A seance is not the communication with the dead. A seance is defined as 'se·ance/ˈsāˌäns/
  Noun:
  A meeting at which people attempt to make contact with the dead, esp. through the agency of a medium.' Your character's first power is known as 'mediumship'. Please change this, we don't accept mistakes. You can find a list of superhuman powers in the list here. Mediumship is listed in there.
  
  
• Family - You've listed the mother and father, which is fine. But why have you listed the cousin? If the cousin is part of the family, there would need to be aunts and uncles, plural or singular, whatever you want.
  
  
• Cyanide - We understand that he doesn't have a known first name, but for the sake of the stats, just list his name. He would have had a name that someone would have known or documented. We'd like this somewhere so we can know how things go. We'd also like to know why he's listed while he's dead.
  
  
• The Grandmother Incident - Reactions, please. We know that people were scared, and that there would obviously have been some drama, but we would really appreciate you telling us how the main character, Aly, responded and acted. Did she know what her power was? Did she know she had caused it?
  
  
• History - The history focuses mostly on her powers. Where it says 'history', we expect just that. Not a summarisation of your character's abilities. We want her school life, her relationships with her family, her friends. What was her relationship with Cyanide? Where did she meet him? What were her feelings towards him?
  

We hope you read all of that as it is vital to your stay here.

- Kat

[Alyssum Taylor]

I apologize, I forgot to put *WIP* in the subject of the thread. :/ I didn't have much time to work on the bio, but I needed somewhere to save it.

There are certain details that definitely are going to change. Her history will absolutely go into more detail about her personal life and why she is the way that she is. Cy's name will also change as well (I wrote a story about Cy and Aly when I was thirteen or so, and that's just the name he had. I haven't gotten around to changing it yet). I will also change "Séance" to "Mediumship." I simply couldn't think of the correct word when I wrote this.
I also apologize for the self-harm. I understand that real people self-harm; I know several people who have, including myself. I thought that it would make Aly more realistic, since it's a symptom of Manic-Depression and borderline personality disorder, but if you think it will make people uncomfortable, I will remove it.

Now is when I start to run into issues with your requests. I'm not saying that I won't change things. I completely understand where you're coming from. There are just a few details I'd like to point out about them.

Age: I understand that Miss Autumn doesn't look like a teenager, but I'd like to point out that Gerard Way doesn't, either. I can, of course, raise the age, but I'd rather not have to do something if someone else didn't.

Name: True, Aly's name isn't British (though I do know someone with the same last name who lives in Britain). It actually is mentioned in her history that she isn't from Britain, but I will elaborate on the subject during my next revision of her history, as well as mentioning why her parents chose her first name.

Weight: I myself am the same height and weight as Alyssum, and I don't have any health or energy issues. I will raise her weight, since I do agree with your point about Resurrection taking energy, but I don't feel that it's necessary to raise it very much.

Brandon: I hadn't looked much at Brandon's bio before now. I do see the similarities between the two now, and I apologize, but this is a complete coincidence. I'm willing to change certain things about Aly, but I don't particularly want to completely tear her down and start over. Aly is my easiest character to play, because she's very similar to me. If I change too much, she becomes more and more difficult to play (as well as being simply less appealing to me).

Family: Aly's cousin is mentioned in her family because, as was mentioned in her history, they live together. I will add an aunt and uncle, but Aly is a rather secluded person, and I didn't think it was necessary to mention family members that she never sees.


Unfortunately, I don't have time to revise the bio right now (I'm supposed to be helping my mother cook), but I will absolutely begin making changes as soon as I can.

[Kat]

Thank you for taking the time to reply to the situation, we appreciate your concern.

We also appreciate your willingness to change things for us, and we apologise for you finding issues with the problems. We'll try and come to a middle ground on this.

We're aware that Gerard doesn't look like a teenager, but as much as I'd like to convince Crow to change it to something more suitable, arguing with that woman is murder. If you'd like to bring the issue up with her and see what she'd have to say about it, you're more than welcome to. I'm sure she'll see where you're coming from.

Name and weight: Just general elaboration on the subject is all we wanted. I may have overlooked the name part in the history, but we love to see big thick histories with detailed juice ebbing from the sides.

Family: We just thought it would make a little more sense to have the aunt and uncle included in the situation, considering the cousin is also in the family. I hate to keep comparing your character to Brandon as we all appreciate unique situations, but Crow has gone to the effort of making an entire family tree which I think she can show you for Brandon. Half of the members of the family aren't in contact with Brandon or are deceased, but she's still listed them for the sake of role playing. Should an occasion arise where she has to bring up the family, it's there so she can do. That's mostly why we're asking you to. Just so there are all the available resources for you and your stay here.

I understand that you may have some time difficulties, as Thanksgiving is around, and Christmas is coming up fast, it's a very busy time for all of us. But we totally appreciate you not rage quitting on us.

We'll try to work things out, but for the most part, we hope you can stay with us.

-Kat

[Alyssum Taylor]

Alrighty. Things that I've fixed:

• Age - I've made Alyssum a few years older, as well as changing her faceclaim to Kerli (which I was considering doing anyway).
  
  
• Elaboration -
  
  1. Hair colour - her hair is no longer pink. ^-^
  
  2. Name - I explained her first name a bit, and I actually changed her last name.
  
  3. Musical - her musicalness is explained in her history now.
  
  
• Weight - I upped her weight to 120lbs... if you think I should add more, please let me know.
  
  
• Brandon Gerard Napier - I read through Brandon's application and tried to eliminate most of the similarities between the two. There are a few left that I might be able to change if it's really necessary, but I think I did an okay job of it...
  
  
• Self Harm - I understand that some people may be offended by or uncomfortable with this aspect of her mental state, so I just got rid of it. It wasn't really vital to the integrity of the application.
  
  
• Powers - I switched Seance to Mediumship, as requested. Thank you for pointing this out. (:
  
  
• Family - I added Sienna's parents (Alyssum's aunt and uncle). If you'd like me to add more family members (deceased or otherwise), I can definitely do so.
  
  
• Cyanide - I changed his name, finally. ^-^ I also mentioned in Alyssum's history why he's significant, but I can go into more detail on this if necessary.
  
  
• The Grandmother Incident - I tried to elaborate on this a bit.
  
  
• History - I put more of her personal life into her history, going over school, friends, family, and Seth a bit more.
  

If you'd like me to add more detail to anything, let me know, and I'll get on it right away. (:

[Crow]

Accepted!

Post in the Face Claim and Who's Who and you'll be free to RP. Have fun.