[b]14. ARDELIA ZAHRA[/b]

(AKA Valeria Mercedes Zahra; originally in Crisis Mars: Evolution)

CRISIS MARS: EVOLUTION

[hider=Ardelia Zahra]
Name: Ardelia Zahra
Alias: N/A
Age: 35
Gender: Female

Appearance: [img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/40/be/d5/40bed5ba1b64b1fc61831692cbac1dbe--side-braid-hairstyles-side-braids.jpg[/img]

Ardelia has wavy dark brown hair hair that is usually tied in a high ponytail and pulled away from her face or in a messy braid. On rare occasions, she lets it hang free, the wavelets cascading down her back. Ardelia has lively chocolate-brown eyes and tanned skin. She is rather tall, standing at five feet and eight inches, and weighs about 130 pounds. Ardelia likes to wear make-up; she is rarely seen without at least some mascara on, and she absolutely adores a particular lipstick that goes well with her skin tone and hair color. Ardelia always seems to have a playful smile on her face and prefers to wear bright, eye-popping colors. She frequently experiments with cosmetics and clothing, which doesn't always end so well-but that does nothing to deter Ardelia in the slightest.

Abilities: Ardelia is able to "see" people's emotions in their auras-translucent clouds of color that surround everyone, Ardelia herself included. Certain colors mean certain emotions, and flickers and shifts in the colors of an aura indicate changing emotions or mixed emotions. More often than not, there is also an overall "background" color that signifies what the person's general personality is like. As with actual people, auras can only be seen when some part of the person is visible, despite the fact that Ardelia finds the auras to emit a slight glow. For example, Ardelia would not be able to see the aura of somebody completely covered by a blanket, no matter how thin that blanket is. Although Ardelia technically has no limit to the distance at which she can see auras from besides the limits imposed by her eyesight, they all tend to blur together into one giant blob of moving colors with no meaning whatsoever when she is around large crowds.

Ardelia also can subtly alter the emotions of others by changing the colors in the auras with her mind. The most she can do is intensify or water down an emotion-she cannot change love to hate or anger to sadness, but she can make someone go from happy to ecstatic or slightly scared to terrified. Doing this requires the aura to be visible and can drain energy very quickly.

These abilities, though related to sight, does not come as naturally as sight. Ardelia has to "turn on" the auras, which takes two or three minutes at the very least and a good deal of concentration. Once the ability is activated, it does not require a significant amount of energy to maintain, but after an entire day with the ability turned on Ardelia is usually exhausted. The maximum amount of time she has gone with the ability switched on is sixteen hours. Falling asleep automatically "turns off" the ability.

Skills:
*Even without the auras switched on, Ardelia is very perceptive of others' feelings
*Ardelia is a people person and has good social skills
*Ardelia considers herself pretty good with make-up and has, in her opinion, a great taste in fashion
*Sketching from life
*Painting with watercolors-although Ardelia is certainly no professional, she has a knack for it and considers it one of her favorite things to do
*Running in heels and applying make-up while operating a vehicle
*Fashion design-Ardelia has always had an eye for color and composition that just sort of came naturally to her
*Ardelia is able to speak both English and Spanish fluently

Flaws:
*Thinking objectively-Ardelia tends to let her emotions get in the way of things
*Ardelia can be flighty and gets distracted often when she doesn't genuinely care about something
*Ardelia can be very, very chatty to the point of being flat-out annoying
*Ardelia is not the best at thinking ahead, as she prefers to live in the present and deal with things as they come
*Ardelia can be unbelievably petty and irrational, even when it is uncalled for (this goes back to the fact that she frequently lets her emotions cloud her judgement)

Background: Ardelia was born to an upper-middle class family in New York City. Both of her parents had moved to New York City from Puerto Rico before she was born. Ardelia has a brother who is three years older than her and a younger sister who is five years younger than her. Growing up, Ardelia led a fairly typical life. She went to school, dated, made friends, and so on. Ardelia was very artistic. She loved playing dress-up as a little girl, and this eventually  led to her to begin seriously pursuing fashion design as a career. She had always had a natural eye for the aesthetics and what lip gloss worked with what skirt and the like. Ardelia majored in fashion design in college, and graduated with good grades.

After graduating, Ardelia quickly found a job at a minor clothing company and slowly worked her way up the ladder. Her big break came in 2195, when she was offered a position in a design firm that was partnered with the Lorne Corporation. Ardelia jumped at the chance, but she soon found herself faced with the most difficult decision of her life: whether or not to move to New London, the Martian city that Ardelia had never once in her life even dreamed of setting foot on. If she wanted the job, that was precisely what she had to do-move to New London. Apparently, there was a growing demand for consumer products on Mars, and people like Ardelia would meet the demand perfectly.

Ardelia ultimately decided that she was willing to make the move in order to keep the new job that paid far more than her old one. By 2196, she was settled into a small but comfortable apartment with a well-paying job in New London. Adjusting to New London took a while, but Ardelia soon settled into a familiar rhythm and decided that Mars was not bad at all.

Ardelia didn't think much of the subtle prejudices present in New London-in fact, she didn't even notice them until the UN began to maintain an increased military presence on Mars. Ardelia was not one to stir the pot when the law was concerned. She stayed under the radar and went about her life normally. None of the unrest seemed particularly related to her-she was a fashion designer, for Pete's sake, not a politician. Sure, she read about the protests in the news and everything, but it all seemed sort of...distant.

That certainly changed after the quake of 2200. Ardelia had been on her home from work when suddenly, there were flashing colors surrounding the people on the streets. The colors were versatile and variegated, flowing fluidly in their own little bubbles or writhing desperately, surging with energy or stagnant and lifeless. Ardelia thought she was hallucinating and took a nap. When she woke up, the colors were gone. But a couple hours later, they were back, and Ardelia began to become more and more confused. She noticed that there were colors that surrounded her as well, and watched in awe as the swirling shades of green and orange that indicated confusion changed to energetic waves of bright blue and shimmering gold. Ardelia seemed to instinctively know what the colors represented-the bright blue and gold, for instance, indicated fascination. Ardelia started to secretly experiment with the auras, finding that she could even manipulate the auras of others, to some degree. She has not told anyone about the colors for the fear of being labelled as crazy or insane, and the news of the UN imprisoning people who had exhibited superhuman abilities has reinforced Ardelia's promise to herself to keep the auras secret.

Personality-wise, Ardelia is bubbly and outgoing. Her friendly, cheerful disposition is well-liked by her peers, and Ardelia has never had a lack of friends. Ardelia is optimistic and a tad impulsive, with an "everything will be alright" attitude towards life. Ardelia relies more on her heart than her brain and frequently has no other explanation other than "it feels right". She can talk about anything and everything for hours on end. Some tend to find this incessant chatter exceedingly irritating, which Ardelia is not always the most aware of. She is a kind and sweet person at heart, though her more mean-spirited side can get the best of her at times.

If Ardelia is not always aware of how much she talks, she is aware of the feelings and thoughts of others. Ardelia is naturally "people-smart" and is good at picking up subtle hints that indicate shifts in emotions in others. Ardelia also is somewhat of a risk-taker, at least when it comes to her fashion choices. She is always boldly trying something new when it comes to her hair, make-up, or outfit.

Sample Post:

It was no ordinary day at work. Representatives from the Lorne Corporation would be coming to pick out designs to mass-produce. Ardelia stood anxiously by the rack of clothing that she had designed herself. She glanced down at her hands-a nervous turquoise danced a frantic Irish jig with vomit-green. Ardelia took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and she watched as streaks of ocean blue shot through the vomit-green. Out of the corner of her eye, Ardelia glimpsed the stern-looking representatives from the Lorne Corporation walking her way, and she straightened up, smoothing out her skirt and plastering a smile onto her face.

Curious yellow-orange surged through the aura of the more relaxed representative, while a bored light gray filled that of the second representative. The third had a slight tinge of vivid magenta moving languidly through his otherwise dark blue aura. Would it be wrong to...you know...right now? she wondered to herself. Ardelia looked on as the curious yellow-orange became infused with a subtle gold. I suppose it wouldn't hurt, she thought a tad mischievously. Ardelia concentrated on the gold, willing it to intensify. After a couple moments, the gold seemed to explode out all at once, "droplets" of it landing all throughout the representative's aura.

Ardelia felt a sense of excitement as the first representative turned to her. "You are the designer?" she asked. Ardelia noted that the representative was rather young-looking, despite the fact that Ardelia knew the woman was in her fifties.

Ardelia grinned. "Yes, I am," she said politely, giving the representative a dazzling smile.

"What's your name?" the representative questioned, and Ardelia didn't need the auras to know that she was entranced by Ardelia's designs.

"Ardelia Zahra," she replied, doing her best to hide her excitement.

The representative beamed. "Well, Ms. Zahra, I have to say that your work is the best that I have seen in years now. David, could you please write this down..." the representative trailed off, motioning for the second representative-the one with the bored light grey aura. Ardelia detected a flicker of orange surprise that materialized in the aura.

"I can't believe that no one has thought of this before," the first representative continued, gesturing toward the eye-catching floral print skirts and lacy tops. "It's a blast from the past, to be sure, but retro is all the rage nowadays. I'll definitely be in touch!" And with that, the representatives were off and on their way, examining the work of Ardelia's colleagues.

A low whistle sounded from behind Ardelia. She spun around, only to come face-to-face with Anya, one of her co-workers. Dark-haired Anya wore chunky earrings and big bangles and burgundy lipstick. "That one really liked your stuff, huh?" Anya asked, chuckling.

Ardelia felt a slight twinge of guilt. Doing this isn't fair to the others, she thought. However, Ardelia did not voice her concerns, simply smiling at Anya. "Yeah. Whoa, I was totally not expecting that, and I honestly have no idea what to make of it," she replied. "How's everything going with you? Did any of them say something?" she questioned, changing the subject to Anya's designs.

Anya nodded happily, her eyes twinkling. "Granted, they weren't as enthusiastic as they were with you, but I think that I've got a deal coming through," she answered.

"Oh my gosh! That's amazing!" Ardelia gushed, genuinely ecstatic for her friend. Ardelia could tell that Anya was overjoyed as well-her aura was enveloped in a sunny yellow-gold. She was quite literally glowing.

Ardelia lowered her voice as she caught sight of a few stern looks being shot her way. It probably was not the best idea to be loudly congratulating a friend while the representatives were still in earshot, now that Ardelia thought about it. "Listen. After all of this is done, let's go out and get lunch?" Ardelia said.

Anya nodded, letting a cheeky grin slide onto her face. "That sounds wonderful," she responded, giving Ardelia a playful wink before walking away. Ardelia let her gaze fall down to her hands-bubblegum pink and daffodil yellow popped like firecrackers in her aura. She sighed contentedly. Life was good.
[/hider]

THE SUPERHERO INITIATIVE (POLYVORE)

CS: https://urstyle.com/styles/489666

[hider=Valeria Zahra]

Group: The Superhero Initiative (http://www.polyvore.com/superhero_initiative_roleplay/group.show?id=210292)
Hashtags: #superinitiative #supers
Song: "Rainbow Veins" by Owl City 

{VALERIA MERCEDES ZAHRA}

{“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” ~Roald Dahl}

Name || Valeria Zahra ("Val" to her close friends and family)
Age || 30
Hometown || Mexico City, Mexico (born), San Diego, California (grew up and currently resides)
Profession || High school art teacher and free-lance artist (her preferred medium being acrylic and oil paint). She also does some calligraphy work on the side, and tutors kids in Spanish when she can.
Model || Shay Mitchell

Personality || Valeria is bubbly and outgoing. Her friendly, cheerful disposition is well-liked by her peers, and Valeria has never had a lack of friends. Valeria is optimistic and a tad impulsive, with an "everything will be alright" attitude towards life. Valeria relies more on her heart than her brain and frequently has no other explanation other than "it feels right". She can talk about anything and everything for hours on end. Some tend to find this incessant chatter exceedingly irritating, which Valeria is not always the most aware of. She is a kind and sweet person at heart, with not a mean bone in her body.

If Valeria is not always aware of how much she talks, she /is/ aware of the feelings and thoughts of others. Valeria is naturally people-smart and is good at picking up subtle hints that indicate shifts in emotions in others. Valeria also is somewhat of a risk-taker, at least when it comes to her fashion choices. She is always boldly trying something new when it comes to her hair, make-up, or outfit. Valeria has always thought more with her heart than with her head, which means that her emotions tend to cloud her judgement more often than not. She is extremely empathetic and very cheerful.

When creating art, however, it's like the regular Valeria was abducted by aliens and replaced with a clone. Valeria is extremely concentrated when painting, and her flighty nature replaced with razor-sharp focus. If she gets in the "zone" (as she likes to call it), the rest of the world melts away and nothing exists but the dozens of paintbrushes that she goes through, her paint palette, and the empty canvas. 

With her students, Valeria likes to treat them as if they were her peers. She laughs and jokes around with them quite often, and she is always happy to offer someone advice on their latest project. Valeria is very supportive and doesn't have it in her to harshly criticize somebody's artwork. She is open and accepting and /tries/ to follow the rules most of the time when it comes to what she teaches, but she's very willing to take advantage of loopholes and to let her students do the same. Valeria lives to love, to laugh, to enjoy life and eat good food, and to make art. 

Likes || Floral print, bright lipstick and eye shadow, winged eyeliner, eyeliner in general, make-up in general (especially brightly-colored make-up), cute shoes (especially high heels), painting (acrylic and oil), calligraphy, her trusty set of paintbrushes, splatter paint, finger paint, cheerful music, Mexican food, fruit juices/smoothies, summertime, sparkly nail polish, eye shadow, and gel pens, pretty notebooks/sketchbooks, sunny days, sleeping in late, Saturday mornings, flowers, dancing, funky clothes and shoes, the beach, summer sunsets, summer storms, teaching, art, romantic comedies and chick flicks, abstract expressionism and surrealism, ice cream and frozen yogurt, books that make her laugh, birds

Dislikes || Cold and the winter, snow, blizzards, people who don't know how to "have fun", stuffy people, snitches, people who always insist on following every single rule in the book, people who are sticklers for punctuality, brussel sprouts, dirty brushes, when her students don't do a good job of cleaning the art room supplies, people who view the arts as "useless", horror movies, dark chocolate, black coffee, being stuck in the rain without an umbrella, people with no sense of humor or can't take a joke, sitting still until her foot falls asleep, still lifes, drawing from life in general (though she recognizes that this is necessary), Shakespeare (she can't understand a /word/ of his stuff), spiders (she's absolutely terrified of them)

Strengths ||
*Valeria is a people person and has good social skills
*Valeria considers herself pretty good with make-up and has, in her opinion, a great taste in fashion
*Painting (acrylic/oil paint being her preferred medium and abstract expressionism or surrealism being her preferred styles)
*Calligraphy (for some reason, the meticulous art of beautiful writing just clicks with Valeria)
*Drawing (though she tends to lose patience with still-lifes rather quickly)
*Running in heels and applying make-up while operating a vehicle
*Valeria is able to speak both English and Spanish fluently
*Good listener

Weaknesses ||
*Thinking objectively-Valeria tends to let her emotions get in the way of things
*Valeria can be flighty and gets distracted often when she doesn't genuinely care about something
*Valeria can be very, very chatty (to the point of being flat-out annoying)
*Valeria is not the best at thinking ahead, as she prefers to live in the present and deal with things as they come
*Valeria can be unbelievably petty and irrational, even when it is uncalled for (this goes back to the fact that she frequently lets her emotions cloud her judgement)

Hobbies || Painting (anything goes-traditional painting, splatter paint, finger paint, spray paint, etc) and making art/beautifying things (she enjoys bedazzling her belongings with an excessive amount of fake flowers and rhinestones), calligraphy, doodling, movie marathons, shopping, tutoring (Valeria has the patience of a saint when it comes to children, and she tutors kids in Spanish on the side), going to fun parties, spending time outside, taking artsy pictures, spending time with her friends and family, dancing (not that she has any formal dance experience, of course-it's mostly just jumping up and down and belting out the song at the top of her lungs), experimenting with clothing/make-up/hairstyles, obsessing over aesthetically pleasing planners and notebooks

Family ||
Maria Zahra (mother, 53): Valeria loves her kind-hearted, loquacious mother dearly. She admires how this amazing woman managed to raise her and all her siblings without going insane, and all the sacrifices that she made to give her kids the best opportunities that she could. Valeria has inherited her mother's love of flowers and her mother's habit of talking your ear off. Maria began working at a florist after she sent her last child off to college.

Jorge Zahra (father, 54): Valeria and her father are particularly close. Valeria's father was a painter himself, and he taught her much of what she knows today. Jorge is a quiet, mellow soul, a perfect complement to Valeria's excessively talkative nature. Jorge now works for a real estate company, though he still tries to paint when he can.

Manuel Zahra (uncle, 59): Valeria's uncle on her father's side is a jolly, cheerful man with an abundance of optimism and a great love of good food. He managed to secure a well-paying job years before Valeria was born, paving the way for Valeria and her parents and siblings to move to America to join him. Manuel is now one of the managers in an accounting firm.

Julia Zahra (aunt, 56): Valeria's aunt is rather quiet, full of soft smiles and gentle touches. She works as a math teacher at Valeria's old high school, and Valeria respects and loves her aunt, who was like a second mother to Valeria.

Alicia Zahra (older sister, 35): Valeria and Alicia get along as all sisters do-they grew up calling each other names and constantly arguing, though now they are capable of being perfectly civil to each other and laughing as they remember their childhood antics. Alicia tends to be a bit bossy and always insists on doing things her way. She is now the head of human resources at a large company based in New York City. Alicia married when she was 29 and had a son when she was 31.

Miguel Zahra (younger brother, 28): Valeria and Miguel were /always/ picking fights when they were children, before they decided to team up against their bossy older sister in their teenage years. Valeria and Miguel are as thick as thieves, with Valeria always following Miguel in his mischief. Nowadays, Miguel maintains his impish, adventurous personality, though it has been somewhat tempered as he grew older. Miguel is unmarried and works in Los Angeles in the film industry.

Juan Zahra (cousin, 37): Manuel and Julia Zahra's only child. Juan was always closer with Alicia than he was with Valeria due to their age difference. Valeria views Juan as somewhat of an older brother and is on good terms with him and his wife and two kids. Juan now lives in Virginia, working on the board of admissions for the University of Virginia.

Pets || Surprisingly enough, Valeria has no pets, though she can envision herself as a crazy cat lady after she retires

Bio || Originally from Mexico City, Valeria's family was lucky enough to be granted entrance into the United States due to the fact that Valeria's uncle lived in San Diego. Valeria has very few memories of her life before she moved, since she was only three when they crossed the border and settled down with her uncle's family, but the memories that she does have are all pleasant-her grandmother's warm brown eyes and face lined with laugh lines; the smell of spicy stew being ladled out to each person sitting at the table; stubborn flowers that popped up on the sides of busy streets every year, refusing to be trampled by the hustle and bustle of Mexico's capital city.

Valeria's younger brother, Miguel, was born shortly after her family arrived in America. Valeria lived with her uncle and his family for a year or so, before her parents began making enough money to pay the rent for an apartment of their own. Her mother worked as a housekeeper while her father painted murals until he secured a job at a real estate firm. Valeria loved to draw on the sidewalks and streets outside their apartment building with brightly colored chalk, and her father decided to teach her how to properly draw, sketch, and paint. Art was an integral part of Valeria's life.

While Valeria's family wasn't necessarily poor, they were far from rich. Valeria always appreciated how her mother worked longer hours and her father went out of his way to work on holidays and overtime in order to give their children the best life that they could get. Valeria never wanted for anything, and she was happy at her school-she didn't flunk any classes (though her parents were /extremely/ upset whenever she brought home C's) and she liked her classes well enough. The teachers liked Valeria too, even if they complained that she talked too much in passive aggressive letters to her parents.

Valeria graduated and went to college for art and teaching. She'd gone to school solely for art at first, but discovered that she very much liked working with children and that there were many more jobs available as an art teacher than there were as painters. Valeria worked as a Spanish tutor on the side-Spanish had been her first language, and besides, it was a lot better than her job in high school as a waitress. She continues to tutor kids in Spanish to this day.

After completing her education, Valeria moved back to San Diego and found a job as an art teacher in a high school not far from the one she attended. Valeria remains close to her family and loves getting together for holidays and parties and reunions. Valeria signed up to be a test subject on a whim one day, not entirely realizing how far-reaching the effects of her decision would be.

Extra Information || Valeria is unmarried...for now. Her friends are always devising up schemes to get her into a relationship.

Quirks || Valeria's fingers are perpetually stained with paint or ink. She always carries around extra lipstick and a hot-pink gel pen.

Extras:
Storyboard - 
Short Story -
Wardrobe - 
Closet - 
Playlist-
Inspiration Collection - 
Character Study -

("With great power comes great responsibility"...I'm supposed to put that here, yes? :D) [/hider]