Archived:Erin Garcia

this character belongs to ThetaS

Personality
Both upbeat and off the beat, Erin is not afraid to be herself. She will actively defend her individuallity, as well as others', as she views it as one of the most important things you can have in life. However, this take on life makes Erin especially sour towards the idea of teams, political parties, and/or group t-shirts.

Her biggest fear is that one day she might give in to mainstream society, and become one more uniform face in a crowd of uniformity.

Erin loves indie rock, is a lesbian, and has a mild form of claustrophobia.

History
Maria Ellen Garcia was a scientist at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Most days she wasn't even a scientist, but instead a tour guide for all the families that visted the Observatory. She longed a part of NASA, where she would be able to shirk the responsibility of being a tour guide and become an astronomer 24/7. But NASA had rejected her three years prior, and Maria had no delusion in her head that they'd change their mind, especially with new applications coming into the esteemed space progream every day. So Maria accepted her mostly-tour guide but sometimes-scientist job with a tight smile, and tried to appreciate the time that she did have to look at the stars.

It was one night that she'd gotten stuck with cleaning duty that everything had changed. A man was found using one of the telescopes after guest hours; Astraeus, the titan of the stars, though Maria hadn't known that. She had thought he was some tourist that hadn't left yet. So she shooed him away. But the next night, he was there again. And the next night, as well. Eventually Maria formed a friendship with the titan that just kept coming back, which eventually bloomed into love. The last time she ever saw Astraeus was a few weeks before Erin was born.

With Astraeus gone, Erin became her mother's sole joy, aside from the stars. Erin had a very close relationship with her mother. In the days of her childhood, Erin and her mom would sit out in front of the Observatory and look out at the stars, talking about how school was going, or about Erin's dad. Maria never mentioned his name, though she often called him an astronaut, telling Erin wild stories about his travels to Jupiter or Mars. Whenever Erin got sad about her father being gone, or unsure if he was even alive, her mom would always tell her that he'd be home as soon as he found the perfect moonrock to bring home as a souvineir.

The moonrock never came.

As Erin grew older, she began to notice something following her. She'd catch glimpses of ghosts or large dark hounds that would be gone as soon as she blinked. Her first monster attack occured when she was 12; a drakon scouted her out as she was leaving school and chased after her. She was able to escape the monster, but not without getting a glob of acid on her left arm. She was able to keep it from eating all the way through her skin, but the incident caused a large patch of blotchy skin on her arm, as well as a sensitivity to brusing in that area.

The incident unnerved her mother, and Maria chose to move around the country in order to keep monsters from catching Erin's scent. First they moved to Seattle, but after only 3 months of being there, Erin was attacked by a Gorgon. This was the first time she ever used her powers; she instinctively floated the monster clear off the ground in her panic. After that incident, her mother told Erin about her father being a god. However, Astraeus had never told them about Camp Half-Blood, so the two continued to avoid monsters in the mortal world.

With Seattle off the list, they moved to Minneapolis. They were able to live for a little over a year there before another Gorgon found Erin. While escaping, Erin ran across the street, the Gorgon following her...the monster had unlucky timing, and was hit by a car.

Erin's mom came up with a new plan; move all the time and hopefully the monsters wouldn't find them. So they began to travel the united states, evading monsters and, to be honest, having a fun time with it. It wasn't so bad being on the run; when not getting into the occasional encounter with a hellhound or some other monster, Erin and her mother got to see what seemed like everywhere, from the Grand Canyon to Niagra Falls. But this was very expensive, and unless they wanted to start stealing, they couldn't keep it up. So eventually, when Erin was 16, they settled down in Bridgeport, Conneticut, and hoped for the best.

They lucked out. Brian Grey, a legacy of Dionysus, befriended Maria after a few weeks of them being in Bridgeport and helped to point them in the direction of Camp Halfblood. He gave Erin a greek xiphos and (attempted) to show her how to use it, so that she could defend herself against monsters. Erin was not very good with the sword, though, so she ended up just getting a compound bow from walmart, a weapon she was able to manage slightly better.

After a few months of procrastinating leaving her mother, the daughter of Astraeus took a bus to New York while her mother remained in Conneticut with Brian. A harpy almost got her while she was getting lunch in New York, but she was able to defeat it using the little skill she got from Brian's sword lessons, as well as her powers over gravity, which had developed nicely over the years. A nearby satyr noticed the commotion, and was able to escort her the rest of the way to camp.

Powers
(for full list, see the Astraeus Cabin)
 * can conjure miniature stars, which can be used either as a source of light or to blind enemies
 * can manipulate gravity, making people or objects float/stick to the ground for a limited period of time
 * adapts to different planetary environments, within reason (less susceptible to heat or cold, but not immune)
 * stronger at night
 * innate knowledge of the stars, constellations, and astrology