Tanya Graves
Tanya Graves || Graves || 19 ||Shapeshifter -- subspecies: Hyena || Bisexual
Abilities
Being a shapeshifter, her main ability is obviously to change form from a human into an animal--specifically, a hyena--and back again. She also has a form in between them, a sort of half human/half hyena creature, roughly bipedal but digitigrade, with long arms and big, clawed hands, large and bestial with a hyena's head. It's something like the gnoll creatures from modern fantasy stories. It's probably stronger than either a full human or full hyena form, but it's also harder to take this form and uses more energy to stay in it. She's always exhausted after she turns back.
About Hyena Shifters
Hyena shifters are clannish and protective of their own, even compared to the close-knit community of the shapeshifter species in general, so hyenas have the advantage of having a lot of contacts to fall back on, and a ready network of allies wherever other hyenas live...at least, so long as they stay in the good graces of the local Clan. Hyena shifters usually also share some characteristics with the animal they're connected to. They culturally consider the oldest and/or most capable woman to be the "head of the household", and consider themselves part of a local Clan made up of many families, the head of the oldest family line being the local Matriarch, much how like wild hyena clans live under their alpha females. Also like them, the women are stronger and taller than the men, who don't typically get to be much more than 5 foot-something, with slimmer builds and more social interests, usually. The women, like Tanya, are taller, frequently over 6 feet, strongly-built, and typically athletic. Confidence and aggressiveness, of course, in all your pursuits is prized in everyone.
Skills
Tanya is cunning and ambitious, and excels at contact sports. She's been training for some time at boxing, wrestling, and martial arts, which let her get her job working security at the local bar. She likes backpacking and camping, and hunting--usually deer--and used to go on expeditions with her mother, before the non-humans were sent into segregation, and is pretty good with a hunting rifle. She's good with her hands, and does well at repairs around the house and property. She knows how to drive.
Weaknesses
Hot-headed and short-tempered, makes rash decisions and takes too many risks. More idealistic than is good for her, and can see things too black-and-white sometimes. While she believes strongly in what she feels is justice, she's a little too willing to take justice by unjust means. Extremely protective of her own Clan and non-humans in general. Biased against humans.Self Explanatory. Can be personal flaws, allergies, etc. Minimum 3
Fears
Being on the losing side (she's very competitive). Losing people like she lost her parents in the riots before segregation. To a certain extent, humans, which she masks with a belligerent grudge against them.
Likes
Hunting, bbq venison, fixing the family truck, sports and working out, beer, her security job, the pro-nonhuman movement, her friend Riley Donovan
Dislikes
Indoor activities, cold weather, humans, most vegetables, situations that force her to wear dresses
Tanya is headstrong and stubborn, with a passionate conviction in what she believes is right. Her most deeply-believed cause is the pro-nonhuman movement, for which she writes and protests, and has been cultivating ties to some slightly more extreme groups she sympathizes with on the subject. Tanya is rough around the edges, and even pushy at times, hiding a brave girl who cares deeply about the citizens of Teraton. She talks about her views with Riley Donovan, her friend she works with at the bar. While he agrees on paper, he doesn't agree with her more aggressive views, but Tanya thinks it's passive thinking like that that got the world into this situation. Since she was adopted when she was younger by the local Matriarch, she has nothing she's going to inherit or anything from her parents, since all that will go to the Matriarch's eldest daughter, so Tanya is always on the lookout for an advantage or edge she can have over other people, to make up for not having the advantage of a birthright.
Her activism and protectiveness for the non-human community extends to a lot of areas of her life, from her day job as security at a bar in town, to her notions of possibly training as city defense when she was older, like many of the women in her family did. It's also something that runs in in the family: her mother was a protester against non-human oppression and discrimination since day one, and in the last days before segregation, was among the last still on the front lines, and among those who let themselves be driven to violence. Her father hadn't been at first, but as things got worse and her mother's fury flared, he got involved in the movement, too. In the end, they were both shot during the last riot before the segregation laws were forcibly enacted. The Graves had been a fairly prominent couple in hyena circles, so young Tanya went to be live with the Matriarch of the Teraton area hyena clan, at their farmhouse near the woods on the edge of town.
Theme Song
Run With Us--Lisa Lougheed
Tanya Graves || Graves || 19 ||Shapeshifter -- subspecies: Hyena || Bisexual
Abilities
Being a shapeshifter, her main ability is obviously to change form from a human into an animal--specifically, a hyena--and back again. She also has a form in between them, a sort of half human/half hyena creature, roughly bipedal but digitigrade, with long arms and big, clawed hands, large and bestial with a hyena's head. It's something like the gnoll creatures from modern fantasy stories. It's probably stronger than either a full human or full hyena form, but it's also harder to take this form and uses more energy to stay in it. She's always exhausted after she turns back.
About Hyena Shifters
Hyena shifters are clannish and protective of their own, even compared to the close-knit community of the shapeshifter species in general, so hyenas have the advantage of having a lot of contacts to fall back on, and a ready network of allies wherever other hyenas live...at least, so long as they stay in the good graces of the local Clan. Hyena shifters usually also share some characteristics with the animal they're connected to. They culturally consider the oldest and/or most capable woman to be the "head of the household", and consider themselves part of a local Clan made up of many families, the head of the oldest family line being the local Matriarch, much how like wild hyena clans live under their alpha females. Also like them, the women are stronger and taller than the men, who don't typically get to be much more than 5 foot-something, with slimmer builds and more social interests, usually. The women, like Tanya, are taller, frequently over 6 feet, strongly-built, and typically athletic. Confidence and aggressiveness, of course, in all your pursuits is prized in everyone.
Skills
Tanya is cunning and ambitious, and excels at contact sports. She's been training for some time at boxing, wrestling, and martial arts, which let her get her job working security at the local bar. She likes backpacking and camping, and hunting--usually deer--and used to go on expeditions with her mother, before the non-humans were sent into segregation, and is pretty good with a hunting rifle. She's good with her hands, and does well at repairs around the house and property. She knows how to drive.
Weaknesses
Hot-headed and short-tempered, makes rash decisions and takes too many risks. More idealistic than is good for her, and can see things too black-and-white sometimes. While she believes strongly in what she feels is justice, she's a little too willing to take justice by unjust means. Extremely protective of her own Clan and non-humans in general. Biased against humans.Self Explanatory. Can be personal flaws, allergies, etc. Minimum 3
Fears
Being on the losing side (she's very competitive). Losing people like she lost her parents in the riots before segregation. To a certain extent, humans, which she masks with a belligerent grudge against them.
Likes
Hunting, bbq venison, fixing the family truck, sports and working out, beer, her security job, the pro-nonhuman movement, her friend Riley Donovan
Dislikes
Indoor activities, cold weather, humans, most vegetables, situations that force her to wear dresses
Tanya is headstrong and stubborn, with a passionate conviction in what she believes is right. Her most deeply-believed cause is the pro-nonhuman movement, for which she writes and protests, and has been cultivating ties to some slightly more extreme groups she sympathizes with on the subject. Tanya is rough around the edges, and even pushy at times, hiding a brave girl who cares deeply about the citizens of Teraton. She talks about her views with Riley Donovan, her friend she works with at the bar. While he agrees on paper, he doesn't agree with her more aggressive views, but Tanya thinks it's passive thinking like that that got the world into this situation. Since she was adopted when she was younger by the local Matriarch, she has nothing she's going to inherit or anything from her parents, since all that will go to the Matriarch's eldest daughter, so Tanya is always on the lookout for an advantage or edge she can have over other people, to make up for not having the advantage of a birthright.
Her activism and protectiveness for the non-human community extends to a lot of areas of her life, from her day job as security at a bar in town, to her notions of possibly training as city defense when she was older, like many of the women in her family did. It's also something that runs in in the family: her mother was a protester against non-human oppression and discrimination since day one, and in the last days before segregation, was among the last still on the front lines, and among those who let themselves be driven to violence. Her father hadn't been at first, but as things got worse and her mother's fury flared, he got involved in the movement, too. In the end, they were both shot during the last riot before the segregation laws were forcibly enacted. The Graves had been a fairly prominent couple in hyena circles, so young Tanya went to be live with the Matriarch of the Teraton area hyena clan, at their farmhouse near the woods on the edge of town.
Theme Song
Run With Us--Lisa Lougheed
