Application for Upcycle

[nerine]

Name: Mai
Age: 28
Contact info: Plurk: maiscribbles | Discord: Maiscribbles#6780

Character: Marianna "Monts" Medina
Canon: Original
Canon Point: One year after she starts working at the Midnight Grind cafe.
CRAU, Canon AU: N/A
Character age: 21

Canon Abilities/Powers:

Monts has an extraterrestrial creature in her body that's lived in her since she was a child. It is a creature of unknown origins and it acts out of self-preservation using her as a vessel of sorts. Normally, it rests on the back of her neck, looking like a floral tattoo. Her monster reacts to danger and threats by spreading itself throughout Monts like a living membrane and alters her appearance and behavior to varying degrees.

Partial take over is just the creature spreading itself throughout different parts of her body, reacting to an immediate danger. Her base personality and sense of self is still intact.

100% takeover mode is the creature completely covers her body and Monts displays more aggression, cryptic eldritch verbiage, and some bloodlust. This form is rarely seen unless Monts is in a near-death state or is facing an emergency situation that she can't overcome normally.

Healing Factor: As part of its self-preservation instinct, the creature has made Monts have a body that is nigh unkillable. Minor cuts, scrapes, burns, and bruises fade away near-instantly. Broken limbs and other physical injuries are restored within minutes and even bullet wounds seal themselves up. Based on experience, even a broken neck and spine can be restored thanks to her creature so it's confirmed that for the most part, she cannot truly die by some conventional means. Injury to the brain may disable her for a while, but that can also heal given time.

Pain Insensitivity: Similar to a numbing agent, Monts' monster also causes her to feel little to no pain. She barely notices if she's gotten hurt due to her healing factor and even when injured heavily she only vaguely registers that her body is non-functioning for that period of time. It takes extreme and repetitive actions to make her aware of pain. Her sense of touch is affected to a lesser degree so she's still aware of sensations such as coldness and heat or moisture and dryness and other textures. Monts can also tell if she's being touched by something or someone else.

Enhanced Strength and Speed: Monts is fast and agile enough to outrun a speeding car or dodge bullets making her particularly tricky to hit. Her strength is enough to cause small craters in walls or the ground if she puts her fist into those, but she can't say, lift a building like Superman. But when she hits, she hits hard and could break walls and tear apart limbs with little effort.

Heightened Sixth Sense: The creature is particularly sensitive and alerts Monts of magic, psychic, and other supernatural auras. She can perceive things that aren't normal to the human eye, but this tends to not work if the person or object intentionally hides their aura. She can't really distinguish between auras and just categorizes things as "normal" to "not normal" and "strong" to "weak."

While Monts refers to the alien as a separate entity, in truth they are just one being; an oddity from the beyond fused with a human resulting in a being using the name Marianna "Monts" wearing a human shell and inhabiting her mind even if she struggles to come to terms with it. Although it has yet to be noticeable, Monts has an inkling that she will not age due to the creature's healing abilities.

It is worth noting that Monts is not a skillful fighter. She leans more on the side of a berserker especially when her creature completely takes over her body. One simply just has to be creative in able to stop Monts in her tracks because otherwise, she will just keep getting back up.

And while this is mundane, it's worth noting that Monts is a barista so she knows how to make a large variety of cafe drinks. Nifty.

What is their greatest negative emotion towards an object, situation, or person in their past?:

Throughout her life and even still now, Marianna's most negative emotion is frustration towards her state of being and the experience of straddling the line between life and death and never being able to achieve the latter. The traumatizing incident that involved her first 'death' (or rather, incapacitation) strengthened this emotion considerably.

Monts first encountered the creature that is now one with her when she was a child during a trip to the beach. It took the form of a semi-sentient flower that plunged into a small scrape on her hand. She woke up from the shock aware that she was not the same as before. Not quite human anymore, it was as if two sides were struggling to mix and fit correctly into this humanoid mold.

Growing up, Monts would lash out and her behaviors and words towards others would be volatile and cryptic. Along with that, her insensitivity to pain and unnatural strength would create a distance between her and her immediate family (her father and brother) and it was only the care of her paternal grandparents that helped Monts endure, grow up, and live a normal life as a (previously) rebellious youth. By indulging herself in questionable activities such as heavy drinking and partying with a wild and rowdy group of friends, she could at least experience some sensations and call herself human even if her body was abnormal due to the thing beneath her skin. Monts felt stable if emotionally unbalanced with this lifestyle throughout her high school years up to her first few years of college.

Although the major incident of her 'death' was able to come to a close, the frustration with her existence continues to linger because it largely emerges from a sense of loneliness. There aren't many other people in her life who are like her even when she's able to meet all sorts of unique visitors who come to the magical cafe she ends up working in. And sure, she's able to make friends with a witch and golem and several psychics, but they don't have her baggage. Monts is aware this is a very self-pitying attitude, but regardless, it remains within her. She's both a monster who hates how fragile her human body is and a human who hates her monstrous qualities.

How aware are they of this negative emotion, and how do they act on it in canon?:

Monts is able to identify her frustration easily as it developed and grew throughout her childhood into her young adult years. As stated above, throughout high school and early on in college, Monts had a rebellious and reckless streak in terms of lifestyle. One could almost call it a form of self-harm because she was rarely, if ever, truly satisfied and would slowly push her limits. She acted selfishly and aggressively so that she could try to connect with other humans, but Monts had yet to understand the concept of herself since she had to hide her insensitivity to pain and her quick recoveries from injuries and ignore questions about the strange "tattoo" she had on the back of her neck. Surrounded by people she only called friends for convenience and hiding what was literally beneath the surface, her negativity continued to grow and her patience, thin.

It took a drunken altercation with her so-called friends and a broken neck to make her snap.

At a house party, Monts and her group of friends had several rounds of drinks which resulted in an inebriated female acquaintance. Seeing how the situation could go downhill as the guys at the party were speaking loudly of taking advantage of her, Monts called a ride home for the friend right away. While she was safe, Monts found herself arguing with the rest of the group escalating the tension, which led to her being pushed down the stairs resulting in a broken neck. Her body did not move and it looked like she was as good as dead. Panicking (as it was unintentional murder), the men quickly disposed of the body in a large disposal bin in a distant parking lot.

Of course, she wasn't totally dead. She was even fully aware of what was happening all around her and she was not happy. Marianna hated this body that broke so easily, hated that she was killed in a foolish manner, and hated the people she tolerated as friends for throwing her away like a literal piece of trash. It wasn't much of a stretch for her to finally vent her frustration on the ones who had caused her the greatest agony for the first time in her life.

So over the next week or so, Monts stalked her former friends and terrorized them with her presence, fully intending to return the favor. No matter what damage they were able to do in retaliation, she got back up. Her rampage came to a complete stop when local witch, Iona J. Oakes, and her golem, Oren confronted her. Iona faced off with the monster that fully taken over Marianna and the witch's magic was able to disable her in the end and avoiding the mass murder the monstrous girl would have engrossed herself in.

After that, she was returned to her grandparents to recover mentally and emotionally. During that time, Iona and her golem visited Monts to hear her side of the story and to try and comprehend what kind of power was within her body. Just as she feared, even they did not know what kind of creature was in her body or whether it was entirely separate from her. The moment the extraterrestrial being took her body, it was difficult to say if Marianna standing before them was a human anymore. Monts was tired of herself and the prospect of her life having to continue as is. But instead of leaving her in existential despair and dread, the witch offered Monts a place where she could start anew.

Sometime later, Monts became an official barista dabbling in accounting for the magical cafe known as the Midnight Grind. It was an unusual place where individuals from not only their world but from different worlds could come in, relax, unwind, and enjoy a drink and a light meal. The change of pace proved to be beneficial for Monts. She had cut most of her ties with her old friends and slowly, but surely become accustomed to the warm atmosphere of the Grind. Iona had suggested that perhaps that one day there could be a visitor who would understand or even know the true nature of Marianna's creature. She doesn't want to get her hopes up, but even if Monts views her own existence with disdain, her interactions with all kinds of customers and her friendship with Iona have softened her outlook.

Her frustration with herself still remains, but she moderates it by living a more simple life and enjoying all the people who visit the Midnight Grind. Instead of focusing on what can bring her to the edge, Marianna "Monts" tries to turn her attention to what gives her joy and what she can do to alleviate the fear and pains of others even if it's just serving coffee to whoever opens the door to the Midnight Grind.

What is their greatest virtue?:

Monts is lighthearted and is known as a serene presence at the Grind. She is flirtatious to a degree, but for her, it's all in good fun and part of her cheerfulness. Otherwise, she greets friends and strangers alike with a bright smile and has a laidback persona in her everyday dealings. Although she is deeply contemplative and prone to languishing in her own dark thoughts, Monts is not one to burden anyone else with them, not without established trust and respect. If anything, she is more concerned with cheering up others whether it's through offering her assistance in some manner or through friendly teasing.

Some of it comes across as her being airheaded or a daydreamer. She passes her days more peacefully (unless there's a wild and busy day at the Midnight Grind) so she has more time to goof off and just enjoy the simpler things in life. Before she would have been dismissive of things such as a good cup of coffee or what would make someone laugh or blush, but nowadays she tries to be engaged in other's interests and definitely likes seeing reactions she can cause.

Her lightheartedness helps others relax around her even when they have a sense of unease due to her monster's presence. The way she is around people helps them realize that even though she harbors a terrible and incomprehensible being, she herself means no harm. Monts is the type of person one can confide in because she does not cast heavy judgment on others and in general, she likes making friends because she doesn't keep a lot of close company, to begin with. She is comfortable around other people and likes them even if she doesn't feel the same way about herself.

How aware are they of their virtue, and how do they act on it in canon?:

For Monts, she is keenly aware because it is the complete opposite of how she used to act. This trait of hers came about because she has a good understanding of what it is like to be wallowing in misery and self-pity; it was what made it easy for her to fall into her murderous rage and to the point of no return. It is a state of mind she does not want to return to so Monts steadily and actively changed her former habits and the way she reacts to different situations. After being able to confide in her background and troubles to Iona and reeling from the fact that she willingly wanted to kill with abandon, Marianna made the resolve to be someone who wouldn't put herself in circumstances that would force her to become a true monster.

Working at the Midnight Grind is what helped soften her edges. At first, she was more reserved and quiet, sullen even, as she was still trying to come to terms with what she nearly had done. As a year passed, so did the darkness that lingered in her heart. Being able to meet customers from all corners of the globe and even corners of different worlds piqued Monts's curiosity and awaken a more open-minded attitude. She found that keeping things light was what helped put newcomers at ease in the strange cafe and Monts found that she liked helping others relax and enjoy their cafe fare. Iona and Oren encouraged Monts on adopting this demeanor and their feedback on various aspects of her life and perspective made her change for the better.

A year later, Monts is a fixture at the Midnight Grind, known to the regulars as the charming barista who is only slightly unsettling, but welcoming. The Grind wouldn't be quite the same without her and she continues to try and put her best self out there even if it is behind a veil of teasing and mild flirting. Nowadays, Monts is slow to anger and opts to just jest her way out of a difficult spot before having to resort to more desperate measures. As far as Monts is concerned, however, she'll just try to not put herself in harm's way.

Items:

☞ x1 French press
☞ x1 Bag of coffee beans
☞ x1 Smartphone, non-functioning

Samples:

TDM Thread here!

Special notes: Monts and the extraterrestrial in her body basically can't be separated. Any forceful extraction would just kill her.

REVISION: To clarify, she is a character with extras. To expand on this part:

"Monts first encountered the creature that is now one with her when she was a child during a trip to the beach. It took the form of a semi-sentient flower that plunged into a small scrape on her hand. She woke up from the shock aware that she was not the same as before. Not quite human anymore, it was as if two sides were struggling to mix and fit correctly into this humanoid mold."

When the extraterrestrial took to her body, upon waking up, the two merged into a new personality. This is what causes the conflict between her and loved ones as she grew up due to this uneven persona that lashed out. So while Monts ended up being a genuinely laidback and nice person of sorts, in certain situations such as extreme danger, new characteristics emerge as a reaction to the endangerment. The reason why she refers to it as a separate entity is due to her self-frustration and dislike of herself. She is a singular person whose internal struggle is coming to terms with her existence and the fact that the monstrous qualities are part of who she is as a whole.