[Background] Lonely Girl and the Pallid Moon

[nerine]

Name: Marianna "Monts" Medina
Age: 21
Birthday: September 21st
Affiliation: The Midnight Grind
Likes: Teasing others, warm breezes, and treating friends
Dislikes: Overly aggressive men, her insensitivity to pain and healing factor
Talents: Accounting, arithmetic, bullet journaling
Image Color: Blue-green and scarlet

ODD ONE

Upon first glance, Marianna "Monts" Medina is a pretty young woman who teases, flirts, and gets by with a lightly sardonic attitude towards life. She lives with her grandparents, attends college, and works at a (magical) cafe as a barista. Customers would describe her as likable enough even though she sometimes has her head in the clouds. There's a certain charm to Monts and the way she takes things at her own pace and is not offended easily. It takes some extremes to push her buttons.

Beneath the surface, there is something that fundamentally sets her apart from others. Many cannot fathom why there is a sense of unease in their gut when they talk with this pretty young woman who by all accounts is friendly and easy-going. They are right to feel that way; Marianna's body is combined with an unknowable being that originated from the stars. It appears as a flowery mark (mistaken as a tattoo) on the back of her neck or a thin shimmering membrane that spreads all over beneath her skin and altering her appearance to various degrees.

SEASIDE CLIFF

Once upon a time, a girl of about 7 years old went out to the beach with her family consisting of her father and older brother. Like most children, the girl wanted to explore and wandered off to look around the rocks and seaside cliffs. A small cave caught her attention and she wandered inside to find some imaginary treasure. What she found was a beautiful flower (not unlike a spider-lily), the color of blood, and its surface shimmered like it had its own starlight. The girl wanted to pick the flower and bring it back to show her father and brother. In her attempt, she scraped her hand. Suddenly, the girl found the stem of the flower growing longer, wrapping itself around her arm and plunging into her wound. The eldritch bloom forcibly became a part of her; part of her blood, her flesh, it made its home under her skin.

The girl blacked out and was only found an hour later by her brother who had been searching for her. Disoriented she did not quite feel like herself or understand what had happened. She remembered there was a flower, but when she looked around, there was nothing to be found. What was even stranger was the scrape on her skin had disappeared and what was left was just fresh new skin.

BLOOM

That's how Monts remembers the series of events anyway. It didn't take long for her to realize the abnormalities within her body. She felt little to no pain when running and falling and getting into usual scrapes children her age would get into. Any scrapes or cuts Marianna would get would immediately disappear. She also reacted more aggressively and displayed an unusual amount of strength and speed. Sometimes Monts would speak and sound entirely abnormal. When she wasn't sullen and closed off, her words were cryptic, threatening, and mocking.

These not-so gradual changes proved difficult for her father and brother to deal with and thus she was handed over to the care of her paternal grandparents. They were patient with Monts, recognizing that there was some sort of monster or demon possessing their granddaughter. They reached out to her and nurtured her to the best of their abilities and they were able to bring the better parts of Monts out to a certain degree. She was still willful and rebellious, but her stranger qualities brought about whatever was beneath her skin lessened. Monts was able to live a mostly uneventful life but hung out with unruly company late into high school and in her first year of college.

Everything changed on a night where Monts could not ignore how inhuman she was anymore.

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 which shifted into an altercation that led to her being pushed down the stairs resulting in a broken neck.

Panicking (as it was unintentional murder), the young men quickly disposed of the body in a large disposal bin in a distant parking lot.

The problem was that she didn't die.

Monts woke up, neck completely restored, and burning with anger. For once her mind was completely in sync with the monster in her body and she began to hunt down her murderers one by one fully intending to return the favor. For the perpetrators, her presence was a nightmare, causing some of them to go into a frenzy since they thought she died. Some of them tried to go into hiding, but she would either find them and directly or indirectly injure them, planning for a slow type of demise. They would try to retaliate, but Monts would heal from any injury on her person.

Her roaring rampage of revenge was put to a stop when a witch, Iona J. Oakes, and her golem partner, Oren, intervened after they caught on to the rumors of the unkillable girl with starlit skin. Iona faced off with the monster that fully took over Marianna and the witch's magic was able to disable her in the end.

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.

But instead of leaving her in existential despair and dread, the witch offered Monts a place where she could belong for as long as she wanted and perhaps even start anew.

PRESENT DAY, A YEAR LATER

When one walks into one of the many doors of the Midnight Grind cafe, it's one other barista, Marianna "Monts" Medina who is there to greet customers from all corners of different universes. She is serene around most people and can be a gentle or sharp tease depending on the character of the person she's dealing with. The regulars are vaguely aware of her "condition" but they would all say Monts is of the decent sort. She's abandoned most of her rebellious habits and hobbies and works diligently at anything she sets her mind to.

Monts is best with customers who have dark pasts or personalities that paint them as outcasts due to her own traumatic background. She's friendly, but pragmatic in how she deals with them, but sometimes she literally likes flirting with danger. People are drawn to her (even despite the automatic unease brought about by her monster's presence) because she accepts the flaws of others without much judgment. Who is she, a failed murderer, to judge after all?

She's been able to make friends with some customers such as the two espers, Ai Thao Kha, and her clone twin, Lien Kha. The water dragon, Rokuro has become her self-declared No. 1 regular and has a particular interest in Marianna's unique existence. A mysterious hunter from a wintry world, Maxim Vasiliev, becomes the second regular of hers, and despite having a very rocky first encounter, they now share what could be called a friendly bond even if he sees her existence as abnormal and frightening.

Although she still deals with her inner angst about her state of being, working for the cafe has brought about a calmer thoughtful approach towards most situations and with so many different kinds of people who come in and out of the Midnight Grind, she's able to form a better picture of who she is currently and how she wants to continue her uncertain existence towards the uncertain future.

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 are 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 its 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. 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 her 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.

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.