Post by Marnie Sullivan on Dec 16, 2019 0:39:34 GMT -5
The Basics
Name: Marnie Anne Sullivan
Nicknames: None
Age: 22 (July 19th, 1997)
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Orientation: Bisexual
Desired Rank/Job: Local resident. Barista at the Coffee House by day, hobby artist by night. Has a bachelor’s in Accounting from the University of Vermont (thanks Mom!) but isn’t looking very hard for a different day job yet.
Powers: Camouflage. When Marnie's power first appeared at the age of 13, it occurred largely at random or as a response to agitated emotion levels (ah, middle school!). After graduating from Hammel, Marnie is able to blend on command with her surroundings. Her pattern matches are pretty stable and consistent at this point. However, she still catches light and casts a shadow (and can’t camouflage her clothes anyway) so she won’t be committing any bank heists soon. Complicated patterns require more concentration and use more energy. Besides improving her pattern matches, most of Marnie’s training was to avoid shifting unintentionally. Shifting is more difficult to prevent the more tired, sick, or upset (or combined) Marnie is. As side effects of her power, Marnie is colorblind (specifically can’t process reds, which can interfere with her color matches) and has heightened sensitivity in her skin. Most of the time, this manageable - just minor tingles that Marnie has long been used to - but the more difficult her surroundings are to blend with, the stronger she feels what most people know as the pins-and-needles sensation that most people association with loss of circulation.
Play By: Sarah Bolger
The Details
Hair Color: Medium brown
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'6"
Any Piercings? Two in each earlobe, one in upper left ear cartilage
Any Tattoos? None
Any Scars? One small faint scar on back of right hand (cat scratch, age 12), one 3-inch scar on back of left shoulder (rough scrape falling out of a tree, age 9).
General Appearance: Marnie’s typical style is influenced by the side effects of her powers. Her wardrobe most prominently features blue and green of various shades, although here and there some purple has managed to sneak in. She favors full-bodied pieces made of soft fabrics to accommodate her skin sensitivity like long sleeves and cardigans, pants or skirts with leggings, especially when she knows she’s going to be somewhere crowded or outdoors like a woodland trail run. Very few items in her wardrobe could be considered ostentatious (usually purchased while feeling bold, then shoved to the back of the closet). She wears two silver studs in each earlobe and a thin, heart-shaped silver hoop in her upper left cartilage - the lingering result of some style experimentation in college.
Marnie’s favorite facial feature is her bright blue eyes, which she hopes people notice before her high forehead, round cheeks and jaw, and just-too-big front teeth. When hanging loose, her brown hair lays straight and reaches to her shoulder blades. Although she avoids flashy clothing or accessories, Marnie does enjoy playing around with hairstyles to make an otherwise plain look more feminine - hot tools and hairpins don’t cause the same kind of discomfort as certain clothing choices. When working, she frequently wears it in a braid or ponytail to keep it out of the way.
Makeup-wise, Marnie keeps things pretty simple. In high school makeup interfered with her camouflage training and felt uncomfortable on her face during side effect flare-ups, so she avoided it most of the time. In college she had hoped to play around with different styles more but was self-conscious about mismatching the shades she needed. As a result her makeup collection is small, saved for special occasions, and mostly selected on the advice of friends or beauty counter clerks.
Personality: A creature of habit, how Marnie presents to the world depends on whether or not she’s in her comfort zone. She knows what she’s good at, and she likes to do those things and be appreciated for them. When a task proves to be more challenging than she expected, Marnie can become defensive and irritable. She hates feeling out of her depth or looking foolish. At this point in life she is well aware of this tendency and tries to hide it, but that’s all it is at best - hidden, not handled.
The flipside of this is that when Marnie feels confident about what she’s doing, she shines. She gives freely of her time and energy to help someone trying to get to the same level. Even better if it’s a subject she feels genuine excitement for; Marnie can overshoot and come across as a know-it-all, but she doesn’t jealously guard what she knows. Ask her for the notes from Tuesday’s ACCT 204 and you may end up with a tutor for the midterm.
Most people notice quickly that Marnie is something of a people-pleaser. If you assigned her to a class project with slackers for teammates, she would just handle the project herself. At least then she would know what goes into it, right? In mild situations she could generously be described as going with the flow, but the reality is that she wants to avoid making waves.
Marnie compares herself a lot to her peers, measuring herself against other people’s milestones. College helped dampen this since she got to encounter students following a variety of life paths, but it didn’t totally erase this tendency of hers.
Your Vices
Likes:
Reading
Trashy novels
Running
Painting/chalks
Meeting other people’s pets
Pastries
Carb loading
Snow
Ugly sweaters
Being at home
Pillows, extra pillows, and more pillows
Flavored coffee
Dislikes:
Scratchy fabrics
Being kept awake/all nighters
Foods with too many nuts
Black coffee
Scary movies
Camping
Hot weather
Getting paint on her face
Walking past buskers with no change (feels guilty)
Strengths: Marnie has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Vermont, with a minor in studio art. She was a diligent student and is a hard worker. Has high endurance for long-distance running, though speed is average. Good memory and talented at math.
Weaknesses: Allergic to shellfish, weak swimmer, hates practicing things she doesn’t pick up quickly. Physically uncoordinated in dancing and sports. Can be slow to pick up on subtlety. Caves to pressure easily.
Family Ties
Father: Peter Sullivan, 49, insurance salesman, non-powered
Mother: Joanne Sullivan, 47, accountant, non-powered
Siblings: None
Spouse/Partner: None
Any Other Important People: (pets count)
Aunt Roz, 50, Joanne’s older sister. Has bioluminescence. Lives in New York City.
Grandfather Norman, or Poppa, 79, Joanne’s dad. Lives in Maine. Non-powered.
Uncle Marty & Aunt Sandra - Joanne’s younger brother and sister-in-law. Not actually important. They live in Indiana.
Felix - Chameleon. Marnie's pet since moving into the Hammel dorms, a gift from her mom.
History
Marnie was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire and lived there until the age of thirteen. An only child, she was eager to please and meet the expectations of her parents and teachers. Without siblings to interact with, Marnie spent most of her home time wrapped up in books. This habit and her good grades combined to earn her a reputation with her teachers as an intelligent and studious bookworm. This resulted in something of a self-fulfilling cycle for Marnie to get caught in, seeking the approval that came with such a reputation.
Eighth grade seemed to be the heyday for meta students appearing in Marnie’s middle school - or at least, it was the peak of rumors flying. Which students disappeared because they’d manifested powers, and which ones just got knocked out with mono for two weeks? Who was slowly shifting into Bigfoot, and who was just going through a growth spurt? Ignorance and gossip abound, and Marnie was no exception - although truth be told, she secretly hoped that sooner or later she would get to see a meta manifest in her school. It had to be more interesting than studying for the next quiz.
Perhaps a clairvoyant could have warned her: Be careful what you wish for. That first semester of eighth grade, irony struck when a boy in her physical science class asked her to the homecoming dance and Marnie’s face and arms turned a distinct, speckled green. Her parents pulled her from school immediately, and she was only too happy to escape. Her power was totally out of control at this point, causing her skin to shift colors and her hair to twist into ropey vines for several days while Marnie hid inside her home.
The weekend after her powers manifested, Marnie’s parents asked her Aunt Roz to fly up from New York. Marnie’s mother and aunt were somewhat distant and she had only met Roz a handful of times in her life; it was only now that Marnie learned that her aunt was also a meta, with the ability bioluminescence. When the Hammel recruiters came, the question of whether to go was a simple one. Marnie was enrolled in short order, and her parents moved to Pilot Ridge so that she could live at home.
Studying at Hammel was a completely new experience for Marnie - she could manage math class just fine, but when it came to her powers she was starting at square one. This was, of course, deeply uncomfortable for her. But being in classes with students who were dealing with the same problem, even if their powers weren’t the same, made a huge difference and allowed Marnie to connect with her peers more than she had back in New Hampshire.
After three years, at the age of sixteen, Marnie moved into the dorms while her parents moved up north to Maine in order to care for her aging grandfather, where the three of them still live. Being beholden to curfews and rules meant it wasn’t total independence, but it was the closest to it that she had experienced. Living away from home made room for friendships, youthful relationship foibles, and adventures that she hadn’t had before. Marnie graduated with the class of 2015 and immediately began studying at the University of Vermont.
College was an opportunity to explore new fields and experience another level of independence. All around her at UofV, there were students who seemed to be on a straight shot to their dreams as well as students camped out overnight in the library to finish the work some people made look easy. With encouragement from friends Marnie managed to try some new things - like studio art, which managed to stick - but true to form, she chose a known quantity as a major. With her mother being an accountant, Marnie knew what to expect from that career path. And having a head for math meant it wasn’t a disagreeable choice, either. This was enough to get her through four years of fuzzy self-perception, unclear goals, and working part-time in retail to graduation.
Now, though, Marnie finds herself back in Pilot Ridge. Nostalgia is the wrong word for it, having only been away for a few years - and an additional two months spent living with her Aunt Roz as a graduation present - but the small town vibes and supportive meta community are her new comfort zone. Middle school to Hammel, Hammel to college, college to now - Marnie is launching into a new stage of her life and she wants to do it here.
Player Information
Name: Etch
Age: 28
Player Pronouns: She/her/hers
How Did You Find Us? I smelt it on the wind
Other Characters: n/a
