Name: Gemma Fossen Alias: Gem, Gemmy (mostly by her siblings or younger children, but usually just goes by Gemma) Age: Fifteen Gender: Female Powers: Hydrokinesis, empathy, later cryokinesis Aura: Predominantly blue (#4b78db) with yellow (#ffe764), low frequency; it is often relatively close to her being but not tightly constricted
Appearance: Gemma has light blue hair that falls in messy waves to the middle of her back, with bangs that brush thick eyebrows and bright blue eyes. Oftentimes she keeps it pushed back with a headband and sometimes wears it up in a ponytail to keep it out of her face, particularly if she is being active. Her skin is healthy and often a little banged up from her perpetual physical activity (a band aid often visible on her knees or elbows, or around a finger, bumps and bruises here and there). She carries herself well and stands up straight with good posture, her being always on the go. In terms of style, she dresses functionally and comfortably, opting towards jeans, sneakers, and tank tops, with the occasional hoodie; she likes clothing she can move around in easily.
Personality: Gemma is the type of person whose emotions are closely guarded. While not necessarily shy, she has trouble interpreting what she may be feeling into words - she tends to speak through her actions more often than not, and lapses into thoughtful silences. As a result, much of what she does say can range between very general or very bizarre (depending on how much she is pushed to answer something). Truthfully it is a very frustrating thing for her, and even she does not fully understand her own emotions. She is also a very focused individual. Once she commits herself to a plan of action, she sticks with it even if the forecast is disaster. However, she is also fiercely independent and wants to prove that she can and will take care of herself. If given the chance though, Gemma is very steadfast and tries to prove it quite often. She is loyal to her family and friends to a fault, and will go out of her way to help them, even if she will not open up about what she is feeling.. or moreso that she is unable to. She is intuitive of others' thoughts and feelings but close-lipped of her own.
Combining her tomboyish nature and tall personage, Gemma is often viewed by others as somewhat intimidating, but this could not be further from the truth; she is gifted with physical strength and an aptitude for sports and her physique only reinforces that. She is welcoming to most people she encounters and has a habit of being the designated "mom friend", not having a problem standing up to others who may be causing a fuss and making others uncomfortable. She has never quite forgotten what it is like to be the new kid or the odd duck in a group, so she always puts on a welcoming presence and tries to help someone else out. If someone could benefit from her actions, even at the cost of some personal discomfort, then that makes the whole enterprise worth it for her. As long as she has others to focus on or look after, she can easily break out of her role of silent observer, but when the tables are turned on her, mum is the word and she somewhat awkwardly sidesteps the situation.
Gemma's favorite pastime is sports. She has been playing them since entering grade school, with her favorite sports being soccer and baseball (she plays on the school teams, as a forward and a second baseman, respectively), and is an avid follower of professional games on television. She has yet to go to a professional game but really wants to - her father has been promising to take the family for ages but they never seem to get around to it. In keeping with her very private nature, Gemma also enjoys taking walks, particularly down by the lake. Anywhere waterfront is her favorite place, having grown up around it, and finds the most peace there whenever her mind feels troubled, even taking a swim when she needs to decompress. Despite her tomboyish attitude and her problems sorting out her own emotions, she also finds release in painting. While her art is not the most refined, it is something incredibly personal for her and she does not tell many people it is an activity she pursues.
History: Gemma's father Dom, fresh out of a tenure in the Army thanks to family pressures, started college at a later date than he had intended. However it was probably for the best, as he soon made the acquaintance of a pretty young girl from Germany named Elke, who was four years his junior. The two hit it off immediately after meeting through a Philosophy class, despite the fact that they were both different as night and day in some ways: Elke was graceful, sensitive, and dreamy, while Dom was pragmatic, hands-on, and cheerful. It did not take long for both to settle comfortably into their position as friends, becoming one another's yin and yang, and then a short year later, the two were dating. After three more years and college graduation, Dom proposed to Elke, who happily agreed. Given some time, the red tape involving obtaining her green card was cleared, and both had a small, intimate wedding.
Shortly thereafter, Dom's degree in business took him and his wife to Portland, Maine, where he began working with the New England Fishing Company. He did odd jobs with the company at first while he trained, and many of the employees in the small business tried their hand at different positions, but Dom soon settled into a tradesman position. He was often away north for a weekend discussing business ties, but during the slower portions of the year he helped out on the boats - an active man cannot be kept tied in an office for too long, after all. Elke, for her part, went back to her rich-girl ties and sought work in a local dance studio, teaching ballroom and social dancing. Soon enough, the couple wanted to start a family, and Gemma followed shortly thereafter. Elke's hopes of having a little girl to put through ballet and to teach dance to were scrambled as the girl grew. Gemma was an active child, who enjoys cavorting with the neighborhood boys rather than playing with dolls, but her tall, awkward presence made for an imposing figure in ballet classes. It became increasingly clear to Elke that her daughter was unhappy in a class among the smaller, more graceful girls. It was with great reluctance on her mother's part and some insistence on her father's part that got Gemma out of dance class and into mixed softball at her elementary school. Here the girl found some measure of comfort in the sport, no longer under the scrutiny of a critical dance instructor and a number of girls who giggled behind their hands at the tall, awkward half-German girl. Her mother did what she could to ease the girl's anxiety and began reading to her every night, a pastime that continued on with her next three children.
However, Gemma's troubles did not end with a shift of hobbies. As she moved through the lower grades, her naturally quiet, withdrawn nature combined with her tall, awkward build. She was friendly enough when approached, if not a little strange whenever asked to speak or for her opinion, as though she could not properly collect her thoughts into a coherent answer. She was the point of ridicule, but it was often kept to slumber parties and concealed in whispers, but that does not mean that the girl did not know she was being talked about. However, try as she might, she could not click with any of the girls her age. None really attempted to approach her, either, based on childish rumors of her strange attitude and intimidating personality. Sometimes girls would come to her if they were being given trouble from a boy, and Gemma, thinking she might have an opportunity to make friends at last, would agree and scare off the offender. But it did little good, as the girls would go on their way and leave her to her own devices. It made her feel useful, at the very least, and if she could bring some measure of comfort to someone else, then that was what mattered in the end. She continued to have minor success with her school's mixed soccer and baseball teams, and her teammates liked her well enough, but being mostly guys, they did not pursue her attentions any further for fear of any rumors starting. When she reached junior high age, she had some minor jealousies towards her sister Liesel, for how well-liked the little girl was and her talent in dance. Her father and younger brother were able to abate the negative feelings on that end, until all Gemma felt was a sort of numbness to the whole idea of being more girly or a dancer. Needless to say, she spent much of her early adolescence very lonely.
Gemma had always been sensitive to her siblings' needs in a way that her mother and father could not figure out, while being continually evasive about her own; she would pick up on whenever Liesel was crying and was key at getting to the root of why, could accurately predict when Toby was lying about finishing his homework, and she knew whenever Rory was feeling stranger shy and would take her away to calm her down. They both figured it a strange quirk of fate, even if she seemed to be better than Elke was at it (which, she felt, was stranger still, considering she was their mother), but left her to her own devices. Children were naturally intuitive to other children's needs, were they not?
Her hydrokinesis powers did not begin to manifest until her early teens, as she was beginning to make the transition from junior high to high school. Gemma had always been fond of the waterfront and would often go swimming in the summertime down at the pier. A rare family excursion to the more inland lakes proved near disastrous when Rory slipped from her inner tube and into the water; Gemma was first into the lake and as she waded in, pushing water aside, the water moved with remarkable force. The momentary stun of being able to do such a thing held off long enough for her to fetch Rory, who other than being very panicked and needing much soothing (as well as coughing up a bit of water) seemed to be fine. The family stared at each other in shocked silence, and while Gemma was quietly, solemnly staving off her own panic as she tried to process what she had just done, they were approached by the beach lifeguard, who had seen everything. Another bit of luck was with the young psychic, as he had spent time at Murmuring Pines Summer Camp and was quick to recommend them to the frazzled family once they were brought to the guard hut and properly calmed down. Elke and Dom were dubious at first, but a show of the young lifeguard's own hydrokinesis was enough to quiet them back down to shocked awe. He provided the information they needed to look into things themselves, and once the family was settled in at home, they dove into research. Everything checked out as far as they could see, and Gemma, with her newfound powers, took to practicing on a smaller scale in the bathtub and sink to dull the edge on what had been a shocking discovery. Once again, Elke and Dom were at a loss with what to do with their daughter. She did not confirm nor deny she wanted to go to the camp but with junior high just about finished and summer almost fully upon them, their time was short. Her quiet practice sessions edged them towards decision, and within short order, Gemma was sent off to Murmuring Pines for the summer.
Camp seemed to be what brought Gemma out of her shell. Being so keen to the feelings of others, especially the intimidation she inspired in others back home, she kept to herself; here, everyone else was like her. She took on every challenge with a new fervor and blasted through her required merit badges, netting one for hydrokinesis and empathy in addition (although almost missing the mark on the latter due to her own feeling-sharing shyness). She came home for a short time feeling renewed but uncertain of her future - it was up to her parents to decide to let her attend Majesco Academy, and she shyly gave them the required information packet, and a quiet plea to let her attend. Besides, she had already assured the camp faculty that she would volunteer as a camp counselor the next summer - she surely could not let them down. Dom and Elke were surprised at the turnaround; had that been what their daughter was missing all along - friends like herself? Elke was loathe to send her daughter to something she thought akin to boarding school, much preferring to have all her children close, but the brightness in their daughter's eyes at her fine accomplishments after years of awkwardness, especially when she had never asked for much of anything, made decision-making a shorter process than it would have been otherwise. Gemma spent a few weeks at home to pack up her belongings and soon was off to Majesco Academy, eager to see what the more advanced classes would bring out in her (as well as equal excitement at joining the school sports teams).
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 9:52 am
MENTAL WORLD
Name: Brainball World Cup
Theme: A HUGE SOCCER STADIUM (optional: include a theme song!)
Enemies: Personal Demons, Nightmares, unique enemies (consider this more of a check list but if there are unique enemies please describe them briefly)
Figments: types/appearances, colors
Memory Vaults: at least two, at most four; please explain the contents/story of the vaults and their rough locations, if they're hidden behind any obstacles like mental cobwebs, etc (remember that memory vaults are naturally intended to hide "dirty little secrets", so most often these are memories the person considers cruel or embarrassing, things they don't want others to know about or try to block out themselves, however, one or two may contain deeply cherished memories with the intention of keeping them safe)
Obstacles: with the theme of their mental world in mind, what sort of locations, obstacles, puzzles, or etc will they venture through and overcome? what skills are necessary?
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