@LostButterfly92 Welcome friend, consider dandelion reserved until further notice. Nice to see someone pick a weed and curious about what you plan to do with it.
I'm gonna do a little worldbuilding now, so we can stay consistent as more people start putting characters together!
The plant or animal essence that bestows a power typically reveals itself as an image in a dream. The dream could happen before or after the powers emerge. The dream and powers usually happen within a couple weeks of each other, but sometimes a greater length of time passes for reasons unknown. (Or perhaps the person didn't realize the significance of the dream and had to be reminded multiple times, lol.) This helps people know and connect with their essence if it's not something obvious, like claws could come from a lot of different things.
@LuckyBlackCat This mostly keeps your backstory intact. A significant time could have passed without knowing the source of her powers, though it would be more of a mysterious "dream" than an objective "test" to finally find out. It also opens up a possibility for characters to not yet know what their essence is.
I'm thinking about setting this (at least to start) in Florida or Georgia, United States. Somewhere around that warm seaside area (for Conner) where you can drive an hour one way to a diverse progressive city and drive an hour the other way to "them animals better go home before open season starts."
EDIT: Bahaha, I just noticed Danielle's incredibly on-the-nose name. On top of Mr. Waters. I welcome the corniness. And would also welcome a corn character.
Shazamrock