Archived:Zaria Phaser

Personality
She's not one to talk very much. She doesn't like to be in big crowds. She keeps to herself but she isn't shy. She knows when to speak up for herself and also knows when she's going too far. She considers herself to be passive-aggressive; passively getting under your skin then just about crushing your soul instead of actually crushing said person. Around certain people, she tends to change personalities

History
Stephen, her father, worked at a carnival. He ran the "World's Largest/Weirdest/Smallest/etc." sector in the carnival so, essentially, he was good with weird (even though most of the attractions were indeed fake). He dealt with winy, snotty-nosed kids and their boring parents, lousy co-workers, and even lousier attractions. So, when the carnival manager told him a new attraction was to arrive that night, he didn't expect anything of it.

Stephen led the loaders into the tent with the huge, boxed-in crate that continually growled. He asked one loader about what was inside. He didn’t answer so, he asked the others and they continued to ignore him. They placed the boxed crate in its tent and Stephen gathered the lion-taming necessities. During this, a woman in flapper dress paraded behind him. When he turned, he yelped out, alarmed by her presence. She warned him to leave; telling him that the creature in that cage was not something he could handle. After many minutes of convincing and growling from the creature, he agreed to leave. Something in his gut told him she was right... or crazy. She told him to never come back to this place, unless he wanted to be cursed.

He was exiting the tent when the creature burst through the cage; a huge mass of fur and teeth. He looked for the woman, afraid she hadn’t made it out. He was afraid he wasn't supposed to leave her; like he was supposed to protect her. Something pushed him away, ending his search, and he ran toward the parking lot. He abandoned his car and just ran. A few weeks later, after he realized it was stupid to be looking for her so desperately, he decided to return to the abandoned circus lot anyway, believing he had imagined her and her warning. The lot was torn apart; the tents were shredded and the rides were rusted and bent all out of shape. He walked into the tent and saw something feathery lying on the ground. He picked it up and examined, realizing it was the feathered boa she wore. He dropped it and backed away. She, the woman, appeared before him, angry that he didn’t adhere to her warning. She told him that he had caused her grave pain and that pain would be inflicted on him if he didn’t listen to her now. She explained how there was a sleeping child lying on his kitchen table and how he had to take care of it. She then told him that she was lying and that the child wasn’t really there, yet. She explained that the one dream, not nightmare, he did have of her was real and that she was expecting the child. He asked when the child would be arriving and she simply stated that she would be there in due time.

And that time came. One night, the woman appeared in Stephen's bedroom with a baby girl. She laid the baby on the bed next to him then disappeared. When he awoke, the child was crawling over him. He was confused about it though. How can any of this be? He didn’t know the woman, didn’t know if she—if this... if the child—was all real or not. He could've sworn that night was just a dream. He couldn't believe she just left the child like that. The woman's existence refuted all the things he thought he knew. And then, one cold night, he awoke in a bed of blue fire that engulfed him. He still burns there to this day as apart of his curse, in pain, as she promised. The child, well... because Stephen's apartment manger walked in to demand the over due rent and saw Stephen gone and a baby in his place; she was taken into custody by the state. She was transferred to foster care in Maine that “took care” of children from one year of age to seventeen years of age. She lived with many different people, dully moving through life with questions and… abilities she never figured out. At about 12, she found a consist family; the Burkes. They tolerated her, she tolerated them. They put her in a nice boarding school when she was 13. She has been kicked out of the boarding school many times due to her misconduct—pranks, cursing, explosions, ranting on about murdering monstrous teachers and students(she still brags about the first staff of janitors--who turned into kobalio--she "samuri-ed" when she was 13 with a cross bow from the JROTC department.)etc.—but the state kept ordering the Burkes to send her back.

Zaria would come back to her foster parent's home on holidays. Her foster father, Val, was involved with politics and her foster mother, Hilary, was an excellent trophy wife. Val was usually at the office for about the same amount of time as Zaria was at school. On holidays, Hilary would demand everyone agree to spend time together. They would have family activities like horseback riding, archery practice, scuba diving, fencing (with real swords!), etc. Despite Zaria's perceptions of the Burke's, she liked spending time with them on the trips. But, as soon as school started back, they would send her off again without hesitation... until her sophomore year. The summer leading to, they questioned her multiple times on her decision, warning her of some huge test she had to pass. She went anyway, scared away by the Burke's weirdness.

Toward the end of her sophomore year, a selected few in her class were taken on a field trip to New York to see is these kids were "demi-god" material. She and the group didn’t go to the usual attractions of New York; they went through alleys and sewers and motels. The group slowly started to dissipate as they kept getting attacked by “homeless people”--which the monsters pretended to be. There were originally fifteen in the group but it shrunk to 6 quickly. Then they were split into 3, the others sent to California. Zaria and the other two, Cassi Palette and Zane Craig, were told "this particular mission was the biggest and hardest test of them all" were sent on their own the next morning.

They wandered aimlessly, strangely avoiding all the obstacles they faced earlier. Cassi eventually took the lead in the group and decided to take them to the Brooklyn Museum. Zane, the sensible one, wanted to try to get back to the school but, they all knew they were probably would be better off on the street than at that school where they were abused and ridiculed for who they were. They got there in about three days’ time, getting lost twice. Upon walking up to the building, Zaria jinxed everything by saying, “Is it weird we haven’t seen any insane homeless people, mutated tourists, or rabid animals yet?” recalling all the monster attacks they’ve face up to this point. They were looking at paintings from the Spanish exhibit when the guards began harassing them. They accused Zane of stealing something from the gift shop from upstairs. Zane refused to cooperate, causing the guards to handcuff him. Cassi and Zaria tried to stop them but they ended up being arrested as well. They were carried off to the museum jail through a series of long hallways—that were covered in dirt and very cold—that opened to a dank set of stairs and a jaggedly outlined opening that revealed a burst of sunlight. “What is that?” Zane demanded. He had been thrown over one of the guard’s shoulder because he tried to run off earlier. He wasn’t facing the light but, the closer we got, the light shined off the walls. “You’re lucky you arrived when you did,” said the head guard. He had left his hat off after man-handling Zane. His hat seemed way too big for his head and especially small for the thick, curly horns on his head. “We were scouting the area and Matt thought of the bright idea to check out the museum!” “Yeah, some schools have field trips, Doug!” "How old are you guys anyway?" asked Doug. "You guys seem a bit older than the usuals we find." "16," Zane, Zaria, and Cassi voiced in unison. “What is that light?” Zaria asked. “I won’t say too much—I want you guys to be surprised—just know it is safe, okie-doke?” They emerged through the opening. Zaria, seeing it was dark and all the forestry, wasn’t very sure about the safety they were promised. Suddenly, kids appeared from behind trees and out of trees and from behind bushes with weapons. There was a thump behind Zaria that resulted from Matt dropping Zane. Doug announced who they were and requested Zaria, Cassi, and Zane be taken to the Big House. After everything was cleared, they were moved into the Hermes Cabin.

Powers

 * Power 1 = able to mimic sounds or the voice of a person or creature they already heard speaking or making noise.
 * Power 2 = the minor ability to create illusions of attacks so realistic that they are most likely to catch an enemy off guard
 * Power 3 = able to make the objects in a small area shift appearance or location, confusing those who will see it.