[h3] Roleplay: [/h3] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/176212-olympus-academy-a-school-for-demigods-and-demigoddesses/ooc]Olympus Academy[/url] [hider=Taylor McLaughlin, Daughter of Hermes] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/3B3vdrZ.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/LITyiKJ.png[/img] [h3][color=8781bd][b]"[i]The less you know, the more you believe.[/i]"[/b][/color] —[color=8781bd][b][i]Unknown[/i][/b][/color][/h3][/center] [hr] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Name[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Taylor Alannah McLaughlin[/indent] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Age[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Twenty-one, born on March eighth.[/indent] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Gender[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Female[/indent] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Sexual Orientation[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Lesbian, in the closet.[/indent] [color=8781bd][b][sub]Ethnicity[/sub][/b][/color] [indent]50% Greek, 50% Irish-American[/indent] [color=8781bd][b][sub]Years at Olympus Academy[/sub][/b][/color] [indent]Five.[/indent] [center][hr][img]https://i.imgur.com/fIf0yDn.gif[/img][hr][color=8781bd][b]"[i]This is our house, take your medicine, and fly the fiddlin' fuck away from whence you came![/i]"[/b][/color] — [b][i]Fight Song by The Stanfields[/i][/b][/center][hr] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Appearance[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]As a daughter of Hermes, Taylor naturally inherited the great endurance and speed that came with the title. As such, she has a very lean and toned build to her, weighing it at roughly 120 pounds and standing at about 5’4”. Medium length curly locks of brown hair border her face on the rare occasion that her hair is down, and compliment the curious hazel eyes that hide behind them. Both of her ears are pierced, three times each, and are generally adorned with a single silver stud in the ear lobe and two hoops in the upper ear. Because she is quite active, Taylor is normally seen in fashionable athletic wear that allows freedom of movement, but doesn’t compromise [i]too much[/i] on the looks. She will occasionally be seen rocking a hoodie on the colder days on campus, but doesn’t leave her room without a hat of some sort. Whether it’s a cute beanie or a wide-brimmed sun hat, Taylor always has something on her head.[/indent] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Personality[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Taylor is a timid, but rebellious and occasionally vindictive individual. She doesn’t like adhering to rules and regulations, nor does she enjoy being ordered around by others. Though she will not outwardly show her displeasure, malicious compliance is a common term in both her vocabulary and the description of her actions. Not overtly mean however, she is a rather kind individual to those close with her. Her heart, while not worn on her sleeve, is large and welcoming. Taylor may not be easy to befriend or even approach, but if you manage to befriend her, she is nothing but loyal to her friends. Around campus, Taylor is a quiet person. She generally won’t start a conversation with someone without being approached first. She keeps to herself and if possible, tries to stick close to the people she knows.[/indent] [color=8781bd][sub][b]History[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Rowan McLaughlin wasn’t your typical journalist. One would think that the moment a reporter caught wind of the veritable existence of the greek gods, that the story would make the front page of the New York Times. But Rowan was different. While she was quite a skilled journalist; she lived life on the edge and chased down stories that no other dared to, Rowan wasn’t in the job to make it big. She was one of the few people who did the job without twisting the words of strangers into a front page headline. The stories she wrote were the absolute, unbiased truth. It was this trait that had attracted Hermes to her. The pair’s relationship grew quickly and both Rowan and Hermes seemed quite content together. Hermes, without Rowan’s knowledge, had fast-tracked her career by providing awfully convenient “anonymous” tips, leading the journalist to uncover some of the greatest stories she’d ever written. Needless to say, Rowan had never been happier in her life, except on the day she’d found out about her pregnancy. Only three months into the relationship and she’d decided that the time had seemed right. Nine months later, a beautiful baby girl by the name of Taylor was born on the day following what would’ve been their anniversary. Except that in that very quiet hospital room, Hermes never showed up. The only clue that he’d left the journalist was a small tag around her foot that simply read “I will return on her sixteenth year.” Despite Rowan’s frustration, Hermes hadn’t left her empty handed. Rowan raised Taylor in a very comfortable home funded by none other than the god himself. Taylor went to school just like any other child would--Rowan had no reason to suspect that Hermes was anything but ordinary--and for the longest time no one suspected a thing. The only detail that was even mildly suspicious about the demigod was that she picked up languages very quickly, much to her teacher’s pleasure. Throughout her time in elementary school, Taylor excelled in track and field. She held the school record for all three sprint distances--100m, 200m and 500m--though didn’t participate in any team sports at her school. If she wasn’t outside on the track, Taylor was deep in her notebook writing about anything and everything she heard going on in the school. Though most of her writing was harmless and generally unimportant, she’d managed to get a teacher in a lot of trouble after discovering that he was cheating on his wife with one of the new educational assistants. Taylor had broken into his office earlier in the day and hid, watching as the two perpetrators...had at it. Needless to say, the two were both fired when the principle discovered an anonymous note with an attached video in her office the next morning. Just like her mother would’ve done. Just as what had been promised those many years ago, on Taylor’s sixteenth birthday her true, biological father made his return to the McLaughlin residence. Taylor and her mother had just finished dinner when Hermes knocked at the door. Taylor had never seen her mother so mad in her life, but as Rowan had never spoken of Taylor’s father before, she had no idea why. After a lengthy discussion with the two of them, Hermes had revealed his true identity and with it, revealed to both of them that Taylor was a demigod. Disbelief and shock didn’t even begin to describe the emotions of both mother and daughter, but eventually they connected the dots and it all made sense. Taylor was off to Olympus Academy a few months later, where she could learn and hone her abilities in safety, away from the rest of the world. She currently writes for and edits the school newspaper along with a few other misfits. [/indent] [center][hr][img]https://i.imgur.com/C8qnmFv.png[/img][hr][color=8781bd][b]"[i]It's always the quiet ones you have to worry about...[/i]"[/b][/color] — [color=8781bd][b][i]Hermes[/i][/b][/color][/center][hr] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Godly Parent[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Hermes, the messenger god of trade, wealth, luck, thieves, travel and language.[/indent] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Relationship With Godly Parent[/b][/sub][/color] [indent]Although she hasn’t know about her heritage for too long, Taylor despises her father. All that matters to her is that he had abandoned her mother following her own birth and left her to raise a child all on her own. Nothing would change that, regardless of how much Hermes praised Taylor and sent her gifts. He would always be known to her as the father who left.[/indent] [color=8781bd][sub][b]Demigod Abilities[/b][/sub][/color] [indent][color=8781bd][i]Aren’t you the cunning linguist...[/i][/color] - Being the messenger of the gods means that there is no room for communication errors or language barriers. Taylor inherited this from her father and has the ability to both understand and speak most known languages in the mortal world. Every dialect of every known language, and some languages that aren’t. This also includes writing in most languages, no matter the alphabet. [color=8781bd][i]I see you haven’t lost your silver tongue.[/i][/color] - Another perk of being the daughter of Hermes is that Taylor is incredibly well spoken and has the ability to persuade the vast majority of people. Persuading demi-gods may be a bit more work, but it is certainly possible. Gods on the other hand? Well, there’s a first time to try everything. [color=8781bd][i]It’s like email, just…better.[/i][/color] - She couldn’t be the daughter of the messenger god without some way to send someone a message. Taylor has the ability to send anyone she can think of, a completely tangible and physical letter. Any envelope she marks with the Caduceus of Hermes can be whisked away with the flick of her hand to the recipient of her choosing. Instantly. [color=8781bd][i]Key to the city...sort of.[/i][/color] - Some may call it technomancy, but to Taylor it's just plain and simple. Given a bit of time and direct contact with the lock, Taylor can manipulate the internals of any lock to open it. It gets exponentially harder to the bigger the lock gets, medium-sized safes requiring upwards of a few minutes and bank-sized ones not being possible without near perfect concentration. However, the upside to this is that it does not tamper with the lock in any way and entry is near undetectable. [/indent] [center][sub][b][color=8781bd]Sydney Sierota[/color][/b] | [color=8781bd][b]Code:[/b]8781bd[/color][/sub][/center] [/hider]