Taylor McKay-Maran |
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Sigial-Bearer, Addictions councellor. Former Meth-head.
History
The only reason Taylor knew she was a mistake was when she first met her mother. Her father, Travis Maran wasn't a sleeze, but he got involved with the wrong lady, and as we all know. Accidents happen. By the time her mother found out she was pregnant, he had already moved on. In a failed attempt to win him back, she kept the child only to quickly realize she had no desire to be a mother. With great joy he took custody of his daughter and raised her with his new wife, Jana, and her son Jasha.
Taylor absolutely adored her older brother, 6 years younger than him, she would try to tag along with him as much as possible. She knew that him and his mother were different than her and her father, but she never understood <i>how</i> different until, when she was 7 years old, Travis and Jana sat her down and had a talk with her. That was the first time she heard the name Laukos, and it would be years before she began to understand exactly what her lovely mother and brother were. It was very quickly that she learned this was a secret never to be shared.
Her father was a police officer, with good morals and a good heart. He passed this on to his daughter, so when she was 11 and her mother wanted to start a relationship with her she quickly agreed. That summer she would spend a month living with her mother in New York City. Things didn't go very well for her there. Her mom lived in a one bedroom apartment and had a string of boyfriends coming and going. This woman was such a far, disgusting cry from her beloved stepmother she didn't know how to handle it. One night they got into a fight and her mother lashed out at her. She told her that her father had left her pregnant, told her that she should have been an abortion, that her life would have been so much better if she'd never been born. She never told anyone what was said, but she had her father pick her up that very night, a changed girl.
She never saw her mother again after that, and a rebelious streak in her started. First it was just general disgruntledness, but by the time she was fourteen she was sneaking out to parties, letting her grades slip, and generally showing no respect to her parents. As she spiraled further and further out of control her father was at his wits end the day he caught her smoking meth in her room. He was ready to give her a choice, rehab or get the fuck out. She chose, get the fuck out.
Only seventeen at this point, she dropped out of school and got a shitty job to pay for rent. To get drugs she would steal, turn tricks, whatever it took really. She didn't hear from her family for close to three years before it was Jasha who showed up at her door. She hadn't spoke to him since he graduated highschool and left for NYU. The talk they had was very one sided, and basically put…He wasn't going to put up with her shit, and she was going to get help right then. Whatever had changed in the past three years she reluctantly accepted, and went to rehab. She got herself clean, and she started mending the damage she'd done to her family. Taylor even went back to school, got her highschool diploma and started going to college to become an addictions councellor.
Personality
Positive and hopeful.
Powers
Soon after the Shockwave happened, and Taylor found herself as one of the few branded with a Sigil. Afterwards she discovered that she was now intuned with the energies around her, people plants, animals. She could feel them all, and began to explore her new abilities. The most immidiate advantage she found was empathy. By 'tapping' into someone's 'energy field' or whatever you want to call it, she can feel exactly what their feeling, though specific thoughts remain hidden.
The next she found was healing. She can manipulate an injured persons energy to begin healing faster. This also includes diseases. While unable to cure cancer or anything, she can certainly improve a patients quality of life by simply 'laying her hands' on them.
Another odd side effect is her aging. While she's 30 years old, she doesn't look much older than she did when she was first branded. While clearly she will still age, being so intuned with life around her seems to have slowed her aging.
Affiliations
Jasha Maran, various volunteer groups.