Sayeva Reardon

Full Name- Sayeva Bryn Reardon
Gender- Female
Age- 1830, but claims to be 30
Date of Birth- 13 April 181 CE
Sexual Orientation- Heterosexual
Location- Transient
Celebrity Claim- Towers, Joline
What should we call you?- Rayneh.
Play anyone else?- Rayne Campbell, Dakari Johessman, Sparrow Akiyama, Marshall Quatrevaux, Marcus Rodgers, Fallon Daugherty, Gabriel Constant, Reggie Sawyer.
Have You Read the Rules?- I don't know much, but Jon Snow knows nothing, and that may be all he needs to know.

Personality-

Sayeva has two distinct moods: the sweetheart and the bitch. Usually, she's a sweetheart. She is kind to and considerate of others, loves to make people laugh, and enjoys caring for others. She can be very motherly at times. While she is not an incredibly energetic person, she exudes confidence and strength, and is pleasant to be around. She is patient, and giving to a fault.

Upset her, though, and you will find yourself face to face with The Bitch. She is not easily provoked, but once it happens, her patience vanishes, and she stops giving of herself so freely. Having been used, she becomes more selfish. This is when her bitterness about her past is most likely to show. The most telltale sign of a swing to this mood is her amount of swearing; she curses more when she is angry - and the more ancient the tongue, the more angry she is. At her worst, she may hit someone, or throw the nearest small item.

Beneath both of these veneers lies a regimented, stoic woman who has seen too much and closed her heart to all but two others - her sisters Sera and Sophie. She has few hopes and dreams, and often wonders whether her longevity is a curse. She travels often and keeps few ties, preferring to be alone when she is not with her sisters. She feels that no one, not even other Specials, truly understands her and what she has been through.

Over the centuries, she has developed a vaguely animalistic nature. She loves the chase, and is incredibly free-spirited. She hates feeling caged, whether physically or otherwise. She learns and adapts to situations quickly.

Likes-

• Learning- There is little Sayeva loves more than the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge. She has studied more disciplines than she can count, and even on a typical day, she always watches and listens to others to gain more insight into the experiences of others.
  
• Unusual names- Sayeva loves rare, odd-sounding, and difficult-to-spell names. Most of her aliases fall under at least one of those categories.
  
• Manual transmissions- They're more of a challenge to drive, and for her, they're a little slice of old school.
  
• Rain- The sound of it is almost as soothing as being drenched in a torrential downpour.
  
• Chinchillas- They're sooooooo cute!
  

Dislikes-

• Sleeping- She frequently has nightmares and wakes up exhausted or in pain.
  
• Fur clothing- It feels like cannibalism.
  
• Reality TV shows- They don't seem very realistic to her.
  
• People with poor etiquette- There is always a certain way things must be done around Sayeva, and if you don't follow these very hazy guidelines, you may find yourself on her bad side.
  
• Filling out applications- They're so repetitive to her.
  

Strengths-

• Loyal- When Sayeva chooses something to stand for or someone to support, she remains steadfast in her support.
  
• Determined- She seldom gives up on anything, partly because she is sure she can do anything, and partly because her pride won't let her fall short of accomplishing her goals.
  
• Caring- In her own way, Say does care about certain people- the ones she views as being worth her time and energy. While she cares not at all for the rest of society, she would give all she has for these chosen few.
  
• Quirky- She's weird, she knows it, and she loves it. She enjoys being different.
  
• Adventurous- She loves trying new things and going new places, and likes being the first of her friends to do stuff.
  

Weaknesses-

• Distrustful- Say does not open up to others easily, which makes her difficult to get to know, and she does not believe that people are inherently good.
  
• Immoral- She does whatever she feels is necessary to help herself or those she cares about; whether her actions are acceptable by society's standards matters little to her.
  
• Pessimistic- She expects the worst to happen and sees the worst in most people.
  
• Oversensitive- It is impossible to guess what she will take personally.
  
• Proud- At times, her pride gets the best of her, and she may refuse to yield to it, even if it puts her own safety at risk.
  

Skills-

• Combat- The centuries have taught her how to defend herself. She is trained in many (sometimes outdated) styles of hand-to-hand combat, and is an excellent archer, swordswoman, and acrobat. She is less good with guns, but she can work with those too.
  
• Technology- She latches on to new ideas quickly, and is an early adopter of technologies. She is extremely good with computers, and can troubleshoot software and even put together or repair hardware for some items.
  
• Languages- Having visited or resided in many places in her life, Say is familiar with a great many languages, though in some cases her speech is quite old-fashioned.
  
• Music- She is an accomplished singer (soprano), violist, pianist, and flautist, and can play a number of other instruments passingly well too.
  

Flaws-

• Fear of roaches- She is extremely afraid of the critters. She swears they live longer and die harder than she does.
  
• Tritanomaly- Sayeva has difficulty telling certain green and blue hues apart.
  
• Panic disorder- Often, stressors force her anxiety to manifest physically, as dizziness, nausea, irrational fears, and hyperventilation. This is directly related to her:
  
• Agoraphobia- She dislikes crowded places and is consistently afraid that she will have a panic attack in public.
  

Abilities/Powers/Skills-

Shapeshifting- Sayeva's ability allows her to take on the full physical form of certain animals. When she shifts, her body's structure breaks down and reassembles into that of the animal she is changing into. This may require the mass of her bones, muscles, and so on to grow or lessen. She can only shift into one version of an animal she has "learned," or has been around long enough to understand its psyche and behavior. When this occurs, a psionic link is created between herself and the animal, and her body becomes able to mimic the structure of the animal perfectly.

When she shifts, she retains the mental capabilities of her original form- human- but does experience the heightened senses and some of the instincts of the animal. She does not have to make a full shift; she could change only her eyes to that of a tiger, or her teeth to a hyena's. However, she cannot become a superhuman mix of two species, such as a weretiger or werehyena.

Optimal Restore- This is a passive ability that is connected to Sayeva's shifting. When she shifts, this ability eases and simplifies the process by recalling the genetic and physical structure of the animal she is morphing into, sort of like an "autosave" function. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the ability recalls the best possible structure given the genetic code- that is, if Sayeva has the mutation for a specific disease, shifting will not rid her of it, but it will mend any broken bones, chase out any viruses, and otherwise put her in optimal health for whatever species she is. She also gets reset every time to the exact age the animal was when she "learned" it, or, in the case of her original form, the age she was when she manifested, which was around thirty years old. Her growth is frozen at that point in time.

Limits-

Shapeshifting- Sayeva does not have increased strength in any of her forms. She cannot turn into any animal she sees, and she can only morph into one animal with that species' genetic pattern - for example, she cannot have two tiger forms. If she is dressed during a shift, she will either tear the clothes or become too small for them, depending on the size and build of the animal. As an animal other than human, she thinks like a human, but cannot talk.

Whenever she shifts, she takes on the natural form of that animal. If Sayeva dyes her hair blonde and wears makeup, then shifts from human to another form, when she returns to human form, she will have dark brown hair and will have lost her makeup. She always returns to the appearance that her genes dictate she has in any form, not whatever she happened to look like before she shifted.

Optimal Restore- If Sayeva were negated, she would instantly begin to age, but this would have no real effect unless she was negated for an extended length of time. However, her body would also have to manually fight off any illnesses she contracts during her negation, which would be difficult since she has not been sick in eighteen hundred years. This ability does not make Sayeva any more strong, resistant, or otherwise superhuman. Technically, she is not immortal, as she can be killed; but she would have to be negated, or the blow would have to be fast enough that she would not have time to shift into another form and heal herself.

Sayeva's current shifts are:
Gnaeus Aelius, a male Barbary lion
Morning Star/Danika, an Appaloosa mare
Melanor, a female Bengal tiger
Aamira, a female striped hyena
Astolat, a male peregrine falcon
Leslie, a male coppery titi

Appearance-

Sayeva is a tall, slender woman, at five foot ten and one hundred twenty five pounds. She is small-chested and has small hands, but fairly large feet. She has a narrow face, and her nose and lips are narrow as well. Her entire frame is small and gives a false suggestion of frailty.

While she does try to alter her appearance often, she usually sports long, dark brown hair. Her eyes are naturally blue. She dresses casually, usually in dark colors. However, when she does dress up, she goes for glamorous attire. She does like to experiment with makeup and hairstyles.

At present, Sayeva has five shifts. The first is a full-grown male Barbary lion, with a long mane that flows from brown to black to silver, with light brown fur and white paws. She can also change into a female striped hyena with light grey fur striped by black, a female white Bengal tiger with dark brown stripes, a leopard Appaloosa mare with black spots, and a large brown male Peregrine falcon. She has taken to carrying large handbags, in which she carries at least one change of clothes, in case she has to shift.

During one of her visits to her little sister's home, Sophie presented Sayeva with an odd gift, a monkey from South America. Sayeva named him Leslie. Leslie is brown and fuzzy and adorable, and has a long grey tail. Eventually, Sayeva learned that the monkey was specifically of a species known as the "coppery titi." She cared for Leslie until he passed away, and now she can morph into a cute little monkey. Precious.

Sayeva can often be seen wearing a long gold chain around her neck. The items at the end of the chain are usually hidden beneath her blouse. Two old-fashioned gold rings hang from the chain; one is an engagement ring with no center jewel, the other is a wedding band. The latter has inscribed on the inside a phrase in outdated Italian, which roughly translates as "God for me provided thee." Sayeva claims the rings are family heirlooms, and, if asked, she will insist that she has no idea what the inscription means.

Faction- Hero
Birthplace- Byzantium, Eastern Roman Empire
Mother- Julia / deceased / civilian
Father- Gaius Valerius / small-time official / deceased / civilian
Siblings- Marcus Valerius Augilius / deceased / civilian
Sera / 1831 / Special- Rapid Cell Regeneration
Sophie Nyström / 1828 / photographer / Special- Biokinesis
Spouse / Partner-
Lucius Aelius / public official / deceased / civilian
Claudio Benintendi / composer / deceased / civilian
Children-
Aelia / housewife / deceased / civilian
Niccolò Benintendi / composer and artist / deceased / Special - Illusions
Madalena Benintendi / soprano / deceased/ civilian

History-

Valeria Secunda
Byzantium/Constantinople

Sayeva was born Valeria Secunda, the third of four children in the family of a small-time Roman official. She likes to cite that fact as proof that the gods have a sense of humor. Although men were of more import during her original lifetime - the women being of so little consequence that they bore only one name, except when there was more than one daughter, in which case they got numbers too - the only male sibling she had, Marcus, pulled the short straw and lived a brief life as a civilian, while she and her two sisters have existed for centuries.

She led a fairly pleasant life. Early on she was made to understand that her crowning glory, her one true purpose, would be to strengthen her family's house by marrying well and producing a son. That was fine with her. She found enjoyment in venturing around the city with her sisters, to her mother's disdain. Her father was more open-minded about his daughters' activities. They were all doted on, and had access to the best of everything, including education and fashion.

When the time came for Valeria to marry, her father selected a very nice young man by the name of Lucius. They got along well enough, and after a few stillbirths and miscarriages, she bore him a daughter. Aelia would be the only offspring of theirs to survive childbirth. Valeria Secunda was cursed, of course, for not being able to give her husband a son. That cloud would dampen her spirits and follow her over the course of many lifetimes.

The older Valeria was also married off in this manner, but the third sister got lucky. Valeria Tertia eventually revealed that she was more interested in women, which Secunda was cool with. What irritated her was that her little sister got to choose a husband, while she and Valeria Prima had not been given that option. She carried that grudge for only a short time, however.

As adults leading their own separate lives, Valeria and her sisters met often, whether for lunch or to watch gladiator bouts or other activities. On one such occasion, the three had a lunch date, and Valeria was made to wait a very long time. This irritated her to no end. She was a very prompt woman, and she thought her sisters had come to understand that about her. Eventually her two siblings appeared, and she learned that her little sister had been stabbed to death by a suitor, only to come back to life. Their elder sister had stepped in and killed the attacker. Valeria Secunda became very distraught over this - not only over the near-loss of her little sister, but also over the helplessness she felt over it. She had done nothing to protect her sister; in fact, she had been upset while her sister lay dying.

She swore to herself then that she would never allow any harm to come to her sisters, and would never allow anyone - especially men - to get the best of her. She began to learn all she could about knives and battle without drawing attention to herself, a practice she carries on to this day.

She has no idea when she manifested her abilities. She might have been thirteen; she might have been thirty-one. She noticed no change in herself for a very long time; as she would learn later, the parts of her abilities that gave her longevity could not kick in until she managed her first shift. For that, she first had to develop a close bond with an animal.

Exotic species of lions, tigers, bears, and more were often brought into Byzantium for the purpose of entertainment. In contrast to the common gladiator, who fought other men, the bestiarii were specifically made to fight animals. Apparently these animals were lost from time to time, as somehow Valeria's daughter came across an adorable little lion cub. Valeria begged Lucius' permission to keep the cub, as much for herself as for Aelia. Lucius allowed it, and the cub came to live with them. The cub was part of their household for many years - and grew to be a full-grown lion, though Valeria always referred to him as a "cub" - before he died of an unknown ailment, but since Aelia lost interest in the animal and Valeria took over caring for him, she became quite attached to him. (Lucius jokingly named the cub "Gnaeus Aelius.") They came to understand each others' emotions, and were able to comfort each other. Valeria even confided secrets in the cub.

One night, not long after the lion passed away, Valeria found she could not sleep, and went for a walk in the small garden within her home. She felt quite alone at the time, without her cub confidant. Before long, she began to grow tired and sleepy, but no in the usual way. At first she thought she was having birth pains, though she was not at all pregnant. Soon she was in so much pain that she had to sit down, which led to her lying down, which led to her closing her eyes and letting the pain wash over her. When she opened her eyes again, her hair was a mess, and she felt bulky and furry. She tried to rise to her feet, but wound up walking on her hands and knees. A glance in the surface of the pool gave her the reason for this. She was no longer Valeria, but had become a fully grown male Barbary lion in his prime, one who looked very much like her cub.

She freaked out, of course. It took her hours of retracing her steps, even going back to lie down in the same place, before she was able to shift back into her human form. When she did, she was naked and shivering, her nightgown having fallen to shreds, and she hurried back into her room to redress and escape notice. Once she accepted this odd skill of hers, she began to practice it, usually late at night, until she could easily morph from human to lion and back. At the same time, though she did not notice it, she had stopped aging. She was around thirty years old at the time.

Soon she realized her sisters were not aging either, though their brother was. Valeria Tertia made up some excuse to one of her coworkers on the council about being so favored by the gods that they did not age. That was the biggest crock of shit Secunda had ever heard, but it seemed to work. Whenever she sold that weak excuse, people bought it. Her faith in humanity died a little then.

As the people around her died - most notably, her husband and daughter - she and her sisters remained, though while her little sister continued to work on the council, Valeria Secunda became a recluse, tending only to her home, her small staff, and her sisters. The passing of her husband and daughter tore at her heart; the only solace she found was in her siblings and in occasionally morphing into her cub and prowling the city's shadows.

She slept often, sometimes for days or weeks. More often, she cried. She was condemned to eternal life, it seemed, while nearly everyone else around her was born and lived and died. Occasionally, she lifted herself out of her depression; she found enjoyment in reading, occasionally traveling, and of course being visited by the other two Valerias. Centuries passed for her in this way, during which she lived off her family's accumulated wealth and became little more than an urban legend around Constantinople. She managed to subsist until the city fell in 1453, and even then, she would have remained to live or die (unlikely) had her little sister not persuaded her to flee.

They moved to Italy, and Valeria found the change in scenery most refreshing. She had lived among the shadows of her past life for so long that they had consumed her; now free of them, she felt as though she could live again. Unfortunately, her little sister did not share the same appreciation for their new home. After the downfall of the Italian city-states, the sisters parted, as their elder sister had before. Valeria found herself truly alone for the first time, and for a while, she fell back into her old funk, but soon the magic of the Renaissance lifted her spirits, and somewhat regular correspondence with her sisters kept her assured that they were still close. She decided to start over, to leave the pain of the past thirteen centuries behind, and to begin, she took a new identity, and assimilated herself into the rich Italian culture.

Ginevra Camazarin Benintendi
Florence, Italy; the Renaissance

Around 1496, a young woman named Ginevra Camazarin began to appear in various facets of Florence's art and music scene. She had traveled from a small nearby town, it was said, as a refugee; the rest of her family had perished in either a fire, a flood, or a raid, depending on who you asked. Before long, she was taken in as a live-in student by the well-known arts benefactor Luca Benintendi. Ginevra was seen to paint and sculpt at times, but the real talent was in her voice; once he discovered it, Luca brought in the best voice instructors he could find to help train her. The scion of an old, important family, Luca was easily rich enough to care for Ginevra along with his own children; but the man never did anything without a reason, and when he chose to take Ginevra in, he most certainly had an ulterior purpose in mind.

Luca's lands were large and impressive, and on them lived the massive, cheerful families of his offspring, and the only child of his who remained unmarried - Claudio Benintendi, a middling composer better known for his looks than his works. In that time, any composer who wanted to be successful wrote religious music so that he could be supported by the churches, but Claudio was backed by his father, and composed whatever he wished. This earned him quite a bit of ire among the music circles of Florence. He had been writing mostly keyboard music, but when he met Ginevra, he began to write songs for her to sing. The songs were plain but easy to learn, and as Ginevra's vocal skill grew, so did Claudio's skill as a composer.

Ginevra happily played right into Luca's hand as she began to fall in love with Claudio. Though he was temperamental, the pair somehow understood each other well, and he seldom lashed out at her. But she had no idea what to do. With Lucius, there had been far more duty than love involved, and in any case, their marriage had been arranged; now, for the first time in her very long life, she found herself both spiritually and physically attracted to someone. The tension between her and Claudio began to grow, until, the very night she thought she might snap, Claudio took the initiative and kissed her.

Their relationship progressed quickly from there, too quickly for Ginevra. She felt apprehensive about getting involved, when she knew she would outlive him. But when Claudio proposed to her, she accepted. They continued to live under Luca's roof, and after a couple of miscarriages, Ginevra gave birth to their first child - a son. Ginevra loved the irony of that; she could practically hear Lucius laughing. She later gave birth to a daughter as well.

In 1517, as the Renaissance faded in Italy and spread north- and westward, Claudio moved with his wife and children to France. They settled just outside of Paris, and raised their children to be musicians. Here, Claudio became well known for his vocal music, which Ginevra always had the honor of premiering. Between the two of them, they were able to live comfortably on their own, and Claudio was able to compose without the help of a patron. From Italy, Luca sponsored his grandchildren's educations. It was said that Ginevra was his favorite daughter-in-law.

Ginevra's daughter, Madalena, never manifested any abilities, but when he was nine, her son, Niccolò, developed the ability to project illusions. Ginevra figured that was as good a time as any to explain her own ability to her family. Surprisingly, Claudio and their children took the news well, and even Luca found Ginevra's shapeshifting impressive. That acceptance made Ginevra much more comfortable with her abilities. She was able to teach her son how to use his own. Unfortunately, his illusions were not enough to give him longevity, and after leading a full life with a wife and children of his own, he eventually passed away, as did her daughter, father-in-law, husband, and everyone else.

She had thought she would be strong enough to handle their deaths this time, even as they all aged while she remained young. But their deaths hurt her much more deeply than even her Roman family's had. For a while, she continued to live in their home in Paris, alone except for a small staff, just as she had in Constantinople - but then realized she did not want to fall into the same routine again, of doing nothing but mourning the lost. She doubted Claudio and the others would want her to waste away.

So she began to travel again, mostly through southern Europe, and took on various short-term aliases in each town she visited. Along the way, she learned as much as she could about many cultures, their languages, and even their politics. Often, she jotted down notes in a journal as well. This was a habit she would develop and broaden later on.

Elena Rainier
Madras, India; reign of the EIC

The mid-1600s found her in Asia. During her travels across Europe, she had picked up an Appaloosa mare, and the mare served as her primary transportation. She named the mare Danika, since it sounded pretty. Eventually she found her way to Madras, India, where the ruling party was giving way to a gradual takeover by the East India Company. Here, she picked out the name Elena Rainier, which she felt was a fairly unassuming name; she could be either English or Italian, as it suited her. She had never visited England, but she had heard some things about it from other travelers, and she felt she could pass for one of them. She had learned a substantial amount of English among the traders.

Ironically, Elena found work as an English teacher. She had not forgotten the other languages she had learned, though; and one day, she chanced upon a man who knew Greek. Athanasius Kilvayne was his name, and he worked for the East India Company, a faction which Elena had begun to view as oppressive and corrupt. She made little attempts to turn the people against them or otherwise harm their business, but she was no Sophie; her efforts were to no avail. And despite her best efforts, she could not deny that something was drawing her to the Greek-speaking trader. He was a very primal being, much as she was at times thanks to her ability; and in some manner, he seemed... enduring, much as she was. But she would not allow herself to fall in love again; the pain of losing lovers while she lived on had become too much for her.

They fell into a brief, passionate love affair, despite having conflicting views - at least initially - on the situation in India. But they rubbed off on each other a bit; Elena gained a deeper understanding of the world through the eyes of the imperialist, and Athanasius began to feel disillusioned with the East India Company. Still, Elena found she could not remain in India and watch the drama unfold, and she and Athanasius parted ways. With his help, she gained passage on a trading ship "back home" to England. This was no easy feat; not only was it thought ill luck to have a woman aboard, but she was also bringing her horse -- and a tiger cub. She had adopted the cub while in Madras, and refused to leave her behind. She was a white Bengal tiger with dark brown stripes.

She kept the name "Elena Rainier" after arriving in England, but changed her story somewhat. Now she was the widow of a trader who had perished on the seas, and she had returned home to mourn him. She wore black for nearly a year, and grew to like the color on her. Meanwhile, her new cub grew to be an adult female tiger, and became quite famous in Elena's little town. As English music traditions began to take root, Elena got into singing again, and picked up the viola. Though the viola was less popular than its higher-pitched relative, the violin, Elena preferred its darker, rounder sound. Once her technique was good enough, she began to tour Western Europe, performing viola pieces by little-known composers, including a few of her own, and some of Claudio's songs transcribed for the viola. She was not as successful at this as Ginevra had been as a singer, but at least she had something to do.

Meanwhile, her tiger cub and her horse -- which she had renamed "Morning Star" in England -- had both died, but by chance one night, while she was trying to shift into Aelius, she found she could become Danika, then the tiger (Melanor) as well. She was finally beginning to figure out how her abilities worked, and now she was ready to start experimenting with them. But it had been many years since she had seen her sisters, so she decided to pay them each a visit.

Devi / She of the Cloak / Elena Benintendi
Salem witch trials / the Northlands

Fortunately, Elena knew where each of her sisters were. Her older sister had traveled out to the Americas, and as she was more often on the move than their baby sis, Elena decided to sail there first. The wealth she had accumulated as a Benintendi, plus all she had earned herself over the decades, continued to give her the freedom to go where she pleased. Along the way, she continued to give little concerts of popular tunes as well.

She gained passage from England to the American colonies. She had heard good things about the colonies, and how they were prospering quite well; however, what she found upon arriving was less than savory. It was the early 1690s, and New England was not in the greatest shape. Subsequently, they had begun to execute all those who claimed to be, and who they suspected of, practicing witchcraft.

The first glimpse Elena caught of her sister was of her standing before a noose. Elena's ship had arrived in Massachusetts just in time for a hanging, as the sailors and townspeople boasted cheerfully as Elena made her way through town on horseback. But there was no mistaking the woman at the center of the tumult. Elena watched in horror as her sister - now using the name Seraphina - was led to the noose, and as the noose was fitted around her neck. She knew her sister might survive, but what after that? Would she be on the run? Surely the people would try to hunt her down and hang her again.

Besides, how dare they try to kill her sister?!

As Sera's charges were read aloud, Elena spurred her horse and ran down a man on the edge of the crowd, who must have been a carpenter or the like. As he fell, she wrenched the small axe out of his hands and then wheeled her horse to a stop. Praying that her aim would be true after all those centuries, she threw the axe, which severed the rope before Sera could be hanged. Confusion broke out, and by the time she was seen, Elena had already leaped into the air, vaulting toward the stand. With her lion's claws extended from her fingers, she ripped the executioner apart, then severed the rope that bound Sera's hands. Together, the sisters made short work of the few townsfolk who opposed them.

They found Elena's horse and fled to a home that Sera felt would be safe, and there they spent the rest of Elena's visit, exchanging stories about the past centuries. Elena learned that a suitor of Sera's had seen her heal herself, and had condemned Sera as a witch, leading to the execution Elena had arrived in time for. During Elena's visit, Sera exacted her revenge on the suitor. The years had made all three of the sisters much colder, Elena realized.

When they parted, Elena continued her trip, using money and favors to eventually get her up to Scandinavia, where her little sister had made her home. There, she found her sister, now Sophie, had taken a dim view of the world, and had secluded herself in the wasteland. But Sophie was glad to see her sister, and Elena imagined she had managed to cheer her sister up a bit, if only temporarily. She told Sophie about the family she had made among the Benintendis, and how happy she had been then; about Madras and Athanasius; about her music and animals, and everything in between. Sophie seemed especially amused by her recent adventure in Massachusetts, with Sera. Also, to her own amusement, Elena had heard stories about herself as she sailed north, the story having spread from the fledgling colony. It was being said that the witch Sera had been freed by a cloaked woman, called in some versions "Devi" (probably because Elena had told the sailors on her way to the Americas that she was from India), and then the two witches had killed half the town, destroyed the town, slain all the firstborn children, and other such embellishments. Still, Elena felt like a legend.

Elena's visit with Sophie was a bit longer than the one she had spent with Sera, since she could tell her little sister was deeply troubled. After a few weeks, Elena bid Sophie goodbye and returned to Europe, where she once again took up the viola and traveling and giving concerts.

Eletta Elizalde
North Africa, mid-late 18th century

In the mid-1700s, the music scene in Europe became fairly boring, and Elena found herself traveling into Africa. Since abandoning her tour, she had begun taking on various temporary, spur-of-the-moment names again, but now as she embarked on a new journey, she took on a new identity - Eletta Elizalde, who she decided would be a writer. She began to document her travels more closely, with the intention of publishing a book upon her return to Europe.

She spent years in some places, and only weeks in others. The year 1777 found her in Morocco, around the time when that country became the first to recognize the independence of another, the United States. Since her scant memories of the Americas centered on the attempted execution of her older sister, she was not especially happy about the news, but mostly she didn't care. She was an ocean away; as long as they did not touch her sister, they could hang all the "witches" they liked.

While in Morocco, Eletta happened upon a hyena. The hyena was a solitary huntress, and extremely resistant to being tamed, but Eletta was in the mood for a challenge. She wanted to see whether she would be able to take on this hyena as another shift. After months of hunting her, Eletta finally wounded the hyena, and brought the animal home to nurse back to health. She named the hyena Aamira. Eventually, Aamira grew to trust Eletta somewhat, but she never lost her feral spirit. After a year, Eletta found she could shift into a form identical to Aamira.

There was a downside. Before long, Eletta realized her personality had begun to change. She had always been a touch "animalistic," but since she had taken on Aamira as a shift, she had begun to feel more free-spirited, violent... even bloodthirsty at times. Her patience was shorter, and her sensibilities easier to offend. Her behavior varied between calculated and reckless, and soon she began to alarm the acquaintances she had made in Morocco. Finally, Eletta grew so overwhelmed that she ran away into the wild, where, for the first time, she spent months in another form. She lived as a hyena, alone at first, and learned to hunt and survive in the wild. She even gave birth to a litter of cubs. Finally, after she saw her cubs grow large enough to live on their own, she returned to her life as a human, reappearing in Algeria. It took her some time to adjust to life as Eletta again, but soon after, she was back on her journey across North Africa.

Jocelyn and Sayeva Elizalde
Eurasia, the Romantic Period

Around 1833, a young woman emerged in Europe with travel journals written by "her mother," Eletta Elizalde, who had recently perished of some disease in Africa. Jocelyn had the journals published in her mother's honor, and kept the proceeds. She settled down in France for a while, but she soon realized there had been astonishing developments in the European music scene during her absence, with composers writing more freely and focusing more on melody and complex structures - much as Claudio had three centuries earlier, but on an even higher level. A new form called "opera" had been taking shape as well, and Jocelyn wanted very much to see whether she could become one of the stars of this style.

She was out of practice, she soon learned, and her technique was far too simple. She did not give up that easily, though; she hired herself an instructor, and after a few years, she had trained her voice to sing opera. She began to land roles in small productions, then eventually in larger performances and even a few premieres. But in 1848, the French Revolution took hold; when riots broke out in Paris, Jocelyn fought with the opposition, believing that the monarchy had overstepped its bounds by outlawing fund-raising banquets; but when the new liberal government began instituting universal male suffrage and a "right to work," Jocelyn left the city that had so often been her home, for good this time. She moved eastward, where she occasionally stopped to learn more about various cultures such as that of Bohemia and "modern" Italy.

By the time she crossed into Russia, Jocelyn had become Sayeva Elizalde, Jocelyn's younger sister. Photography had only just started to become more widely accessible, so no one could tell the difference yet. Sayeva became acquainted with many of the Russian composers of the day, and learned to play the piano. She remained in St. Petersburg until 1898, when she began to move between that city and Moscow. Russia suited her so well that she did not leave it until the revolution of 1917, after which she did a bit of traveling to her sisters' homes at the time. Finally, upon the suggestion of a friend, she moved to the United States, hoping the country had matured since the last time she had seen it.

Cora Kathryn Dewey
United States and Japan, Jazz Age - World War II

Fortunately, it had. After spending a bit of time with her friends and earning a bit of money by performing more concerts, Sayeva - now Cora - began to travel around the country. Though she was "classically trained," she grew to like the budding new music style called jazz. As she ventured all across the States, from Chicago to New Orleans and New York to San Francisco, she learned all the popular songs and danced in the best and worst clubs. It was a pleasant time for all - until the Great Depression hit. Cora had enough money saved to soldier through it on her own, but she learned a great deal about American politics and the American state of mind. She began to write again, and befriended quite a few other authors.

Then war broke out again, and, much as she had during the first World War, Cora kept to herself and focused on her work. She wanted to remain as uninvolved as possible. The horrors of this new war astounded even her, but once the bombs were dropped on Japan, Cora decided she'd had enough. She traveled to Japan with a relief crew in hopes of seeing the damage herself and trying to do something about it. While many of her compatriots went about trying to "Americanize" Japan, Cora learned the local culture and language, and even made some friends among the Japanese.

Cora wound up staying in Japan longer than her peers had. When she finally returned to the States, she found the country in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. Immediately she joined the side against segregation. Using a variety of temporary names, she toured the South and participated where she could, in sit-ins, marches, and occasionally less "nonviolent" measures.

She established a pattern during this time, of taking on new identities for no longer than a few years. As it became more and more difficult to prove who she was, she also learned many methods of falsifying documents, and she made sure to learn every new technology as it developed. She also decided she wanted to try taking on another shift, as she had not done since her experience with the hyena. She picked a peregrine falcon, to see if she could fly, and began to train it. As it became more commonplace for women to study formerly male-dominated subjects, she also enrolled in college and university programs, and earned a few handfuls of degrees under various names.

Sayeva Bryn Reardon
USA, Present

The identity "Sayeva Bryn Reardon" has existed since 2007. Born on 13 April 1981 to a pair of writers, she attended Bucknell University, where she studied biomedical engineering. Supposedly, she is a biomedical researcher, and writes as a hobby. In fact, she continues to live off the wealth she accumulated over the centuries, which has been growing in value since she placed it in a bank, and her writing - both fiction and nonfiction - is more her primary job than any researching she might be doing. She has an apartment in San Diego, but she seldom spends time there.

She keeps few friends, and has kept her ability under wraps since the Benintendis. However, since the unwitting reveal of Specials to the world, Sayeva has begun to reconsider her position on that. She is against registration and the like, but, unlike her activities in the past in revolutions and civil rights movements, she is not sure how involved she wants to get. She feels she has too much to lose this time around.

Anything else?- tl;dr Say was born in Byzantium, was married twice, had some kids, hung out with composers, saved her older sis from being hanged, was a hyena for a while, and eventually ended up in the USA, and had a bunch of awesome names while she did all this.

Sample RP-

Blanche Alexa Christisen
Montgomery, Alabama, USA
20 May 1961

In the distance, the crowd writhed, the pulse of energy and adrenaline flowing through it almost palpable. Blanche approached them slowly from the rear. A few of the locals understood which side she was on, and were she recognized too early, the madness could erupt ahead of time and endanger everyone. She had thought about taking that route, but she knew neither side would let the threat of violence stop them.

She had been picking her way across the South, looking for signs of trouble. The Civil Rights Movement had caught her attention. She had seen the like too many times in her long life, and this one, she wanted to end quickly and happily. By changing her identity often and befriending the locals, she was able to obtain information about planned attacks, and when she did, she tried to head them off the best she could. She wasn't always successful.

The Freedom Ride, which had been attacked in Anniston and Birmingham, had started fresh with mostly new riders, and a reluctant Greyhound was hastening toward Montgomery with all speed, escorted by Alabama Highway Patrol cars, and even planes, from Birmingham to their destination. Blanche knew the identities of all of the Freedom Riders onboard; she was even acquainted with a few of them. She knew the route they were taking and what time the bus would arrive that morning, and she knew whose orders the Patrol was following.

She also knew that the Patrol honor guard was going to stop at the Montgomery city limits. She had known about the bus terminal's guards as well, and it was plain to see from where she was standing that they, too, had vanished. Her warnings had never reached the bus, though, and every measure she had tried to dissuade the mob ahead of time had failed. So there she was, a camera in her hands, waiting to capture footage of the event and write an article about it to be sent to every publishing connection she had. It would be the least she could do to get the Riders' story out and make this worthwhile. She slung the camera's strap over her shoulder. She would need her hands free if - when - it came to violence.

The Greyhound bus approached the terminal, and, despite Blanche's whispered prayers, it came to a stop despite the mob there, and the Freedom Riders alighted. The mob of Klansmen fell upon them with bats and more makeshift bludgeons, hurling epithets at their targets, and Blanche raced toward the scene, snapping photograph after photograph. It wasn't long before the camera was ripped from her neck and smashed upon the ground. She whirled around to face the perpetrator, and felt the jagged edges of a broken bottle cut into her neck. Something else crashed into the back of her head, and the world tilted and her face met the ground.

She had always heard that the white Freedom Riders were beat up even worse than their colored counterparts, and as she wrenched her eyes open, she saw firsthand the truth of this. Not far from her, a young white man was being kicked in the face despite already being down. She laid there for a while, hoping to be left alone, and she was for a while. Some time passed before she found the strength and courage to get back up. Someone had drawn a gun on a cluster of Klansmen, but the police were still nowhere in sight. She made her way deeper into the crowd, with no idea what she would do until she found an abandoned hammer. But even as she picked up the weapon, it was twisted from her hands, and someone snarled words at her and swung the hammer at her head.

By the time she came to, the monstrous mob was beginning to disperse, the smell of something burning was on the air and the unconscious Freedom Riders were being served injunctions. Her head was pounding in several places, and she had pains in her legs and chest where she didn't remember being hit. It took more of her strength to crawl into a dark corner outside the terminal, and even more for her to shift into hyena form. She would need a less obvious form soon, she thought. Only luck kept her unnoticed as she skulked off into the nearest wood and hid there until she could come up with a plan.

It wasn't over for her, or for Montgomery. The next night, she watched as the First Baptist Church was attacked by a mob during a service in honor of the Riders. It was not the first time she had heard Dr. King speak, and would certainly not be the last. It was the first time she'd seen a National Guard division force the people they had been dispatched to protect to remain inside a tear-gas-filled building all night.

She joined the Riders on the next leg of their journey.

Sayeva Bryn Reardon
somewhere in South Georgia, USA
30 July 2011

The sky was almost completely dark, as a near-perfect new moon hung overhead. Such nights had often scared Sayeva in her youth, but now she had come to love them. Perhaps it was the predator in her, the love of a challenge. She was not hunting at the moment, however; she was driving across the country, from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro to her home in San Diego. From San Diego, she would fly up to Seattle, where she would visit her sister. Sophie had just moved to the States, and Sayeva was excited to see her sister. She was hoping Sera would join them too.

Sayeva would have preferred to fly home, but she wanted her car waiting for her when she got back from Seattle. That had led to her making the long, long drive across the South. It had been decades since she had attempted such madness. The advent of commercial airlines had really been a blessing.

She was tired of driving, so she pulled off the interstate and found a nondescript gas station not too far away. It was a bad idea for her, a lone female, to stroll around in such places after dark, but she had never had trouble before. Not since the mid-nineties, anyway. She silenced her stereo - the bass line of an M.I.A. track had been bumping at a considerable volume - and set about refilling her car and buying snacks. She deposited a bag of chips and a bottle of Gatorade on the counter, and gave the gas station attendant a bright smile. "G'devenin'. Twenny on pump three, please."

"Sure thing, darlin'." The man's greeting was so pleasant that Sayeva paid little attention to his face - but when she looked up to hand him her debit card, she realized he was staring at her, an odd look in his faded eyes. He was an old man, and nothing about him seemed strange or familiar. Then again, on the part of familiarity, when one has been alive for nearly two millennia, faces tend to lose their distinctiveness.

Nevertheless, she smiled politely and extended her card. He did not move or redirect his gaze. "Is something wrong?" Sayeva asked carefully. Her senses were beginning to give her a redundant answer to that query.

Finally he moved, and his lips formed a snarl. "You don't 'member me, darlin'? I sure as hell 'member you."

This was not good. "I don't think we've met before," Sayeva told the old man, even as she searched his face time and time again for some hint of who he was.

"You're looking pretty good for an ol' troublemaker." He reached under the counter for something, and Sayeva took a step backward. "One from the sixties."

When he held up a hammer, his face broke into a look of mischief, and Sayeva suddenly recalled having been attacked at a bus station in Montgomery. Apparently this old man had a penchant for remembering the faces of those he'd beaten. "You've got me confused with someone else," she tried. "Put that down, please."

Instead, he advanced from behind the counter, and Sayeva took more steps backward, until her back was pressed against the thin glass door. "You one of them Specials, hmm?" the old man taunted. "You know what we do with your kind 'round here?"

Sayeva eased the door open behind her. "I'm guessing it has something to do with hammers."

He chuckled, then jumped at her a moment after Sayeva bolted out the door. He was a sprightly old man, but in any case, Sayeva wasn't running at full speed. She made it behind the station, where shadows covered everything and no security cameras had been installed, and stopped and turned to find the man catching up to her. She pressed her back against the wall of the convenience store.

"So what is it you do? Make fire? Read minds? I bet you ain't see the future...." He broke off his speech and stopped approaching her as the shadows began to fall over her face differently. Sayeva's lips curled into a sinister smirk, right before she opened her mouth to expose the carnassials growing out in place of her human teeth. She had done this so many times that it was completely natural to her; the hyena had become her favorite non-human form. She threw off her jacket and lunged forward in practically the same instant. By the time her teeth closed around the old man's face, she had shifted fully, and she noticed that his frightened screams sounded just like those of the many innocents he had attacked that brutal May morning.

The old man's flesh was too stringy and coarse to make an appetizing meal, so once he was sufficiently tortured, she ripped out his jugular and watched him bleed out for a while. Then she shifted back into human form and draped her jacket over herself just in case, and collected the scraps of clothing that littered the floor. She had a few changes of clothing in her trunk.

Once she was dressed again, in clothes fairly similar to the ones she had just lost, she went back into the store and munched on a pig-in-a-blanket and a fountain drink, then paced a bit as she called the authorities. They would want her to stay and fill out a statement, at the very least, and probably rent a room at a motel. She might even be held overnight as a suspect, if the cops here weren't fools. The stupid old man had managed to add at least half a day to her trip.

She'd probably miss her flight out to Seattle now. Dammit.