Marian Esperanza

Marian is neither imposing nor friendly: she's easy to ignore if she doesn't interact with barely having much of a presence in a crowd if she prefers. Her mannerisms always appear animated but it's not hard to notice how she's actually conscious of it, as if she's actively watching how she projects herself. Marian's the type to dress comfortably, often prefering turtleneck sweaters and cardigans that looks one size larger on her. During the warm summers, she prefers to go for lighter wear, going for loose and flowy clothing. She likes to wear forest to earth tones just to match her eyes. Marian leans towards the taller end of the scale, standing at about 5'8 feet, a lean build with a very nice form. She's a bit lacking on the chest department but that never really bothered her much to care. She keeps her long brown hair tucked behind her in a lose ponytail, often tied with ribbons of almost any type. Her eyes are a vibrant green with a twinkle of mischief in them, decorated by thick lashes with a sickly sweet smile to match. Her facial features lean a little angular with a bit of a squared jaw and high cheekbones. She might seem elegant and gentle outwardly but that really doesn't make up for her attitude when she decides to be a little shit. Her Shade form is nothing too different from most: a thick smoky blackness that's easy to shape however she wants. At random times, her form shimmers, but that was probably the jar of glitters she dumped on herself. When not camouflaged, her shadow form stands at about 6 feet when standing on its own, appearing slug-like that happens to have a mask that resembles butterfly wings.

One thing about Marian is that she's more than meets the eye. She acts like a real sweetheart: cheerful, humorous and upbeat. You'd think she's the type to offer you support and worry over you. When she talks, her voice is sweet and bubbly -- the sort of voice you'd hear from a curious little girl. But the more you listen to her, the more it grates on your ear; the more you pay attention to her, the more you start to notice this isn't right. For someone who's been raised by a Catholic school teacher and a police detective, you'd expect Marian to be honest to goodness an angel but really it's just a surface thing. A few people would agree that she's unpleasant. She has a pretty bad humor and she likes to mess with others for her entertainment. She sometimes finds it difficult to tell right or wrong but not that it matters to her. She's fun-loving and excitable, but also very mischievous without care. Without denying it, Marian's pretty selfish. So as long as she gets something in return, she wouldn't say no even if it means stabbing her friends in the back. She can also be rather impatient, inconsiderate, and demanding. Not to mention a habitual liar. Her strong personality makes it almost impossible to intimidate her, and any form of interrogation doesn't work on her. Marian can't be scared away, if anything, the idea of danger only draws her in. Marian isn't completely heartless, though. She holds people at a distance, but that's only because she prefers keeping to herself than trusting others. For one thing, she cares a lot about her family: she loves her mom and her dad to bits, and she loves her brother despite their odd, disconnected relationship. She wouldn't want anything bad happening to them and if you dare slight their name then you better be ready for her coming your way. As far as hobbies and interests goes, Marian goes for almost anything as long as it occupies her time. Mostly though, she likes the thrill of breaking in and trying not to get caught. Though at other times, she also tries her hand with drawing and reading mystery books. As for talents: She has a nice voice, no lie and she'd probably do great in theater musicals if she actually tried. Her acting isn't half bad either but it would definitely need some work. She's great at school, never getting a grade below A-'s though sometimes you have to wonder if she got all those grades honestly considering her track record. The only classes she'd ever been honestly terrible at is P.E. considering she's not the most athletic.

Shapeshifting: As a Shade, Marian naturally has access to two forms: a human form and a shadow form. Being half human, her shadow is actually more like having a literal phantom limb for her than most other shades having a puppet body so shifting into her shadow form has some difficulty and repercussions. If she stays in her shadow form for too long, she eventually starts losing her sense of direction and space to a point until she can barely grasp reality. Her Shade half shows itself in her human form in her quick-footedness, producing almost no discerning scent, and having muted footfalls. She also weighs half of what a normal human her size should be. Shadow Manipulation: Marian's ability to manipulate both her shadow and shadow forms aren't exactly bogged down by her human half. She can manipulate the shadow she projects in her human form like an extra limb. Her shadow can't move away from her of course, it's always just connected to her since it's part of her. She can easily manipulate her shape when she shifts into shadow form. When stretching herself out, she can cover up to 30 meters floor space, enough to plunge the room in darkness in the middle of day. She can also squeeze herself into tight spaces, allowing herself to travel in the dark more efficiently than in her human form. She cannot control shadows she did not cast and making contact with other shadows doesn't make much of a difference with her overall volume. Nightmare Theater: To her delight, Marian can be more of a nightmare than she already is on a normal day. Shades have the ability that puts the target into a state of nightmarish hallucinations. The illusions do not inflict physical damage unless the target ends up harming themselves or put themselves in harm's way. She can induce the spell through eye contact in human form, but her target can just stare into the dark where she's hiding in when in shadow form. Marian can dispel the illusions herself, but the target can also overcome it with sheer willpower or if they black out. The illusions aren't controlled by Marian and is simply formed by the mind of the target. The spell itself only needs to be cast once and the version Marian can use more is the weaker version, allowing her to use up to an hour. This version only puts the target into a frozen tranced state, as if hypnotized by the magic. The full version of this spell can fool the targets senses: sight, touch, hearing and smells to make it appear that the nightmare is real, but this one takes a toll on her. She has managed to use this ability at its full for about 20 minutes before she had to undo it herself, leaving her disoriented and unstable for sometime. She isn't sure if she can use it without suffering consequences again.

Night Sight: Along with being a creature of the dark, Shades have excellent night vision that allows them to move in the dark with ease without the need for any form of lighting, though it always takes a moment for Marian's eyes to adjust to the dark -- imagine it like she's switching lenses and letting it refocus but instead of camera lenses, it's her own eyes. Once she adjusts, she can move about normally. Camouflage: Their shadow form allows them to melt into the darkness (whether its from the lack of light or the presence of shadows) as a form of cloaking. They can still be picked out of the darkness though with a level of difficulty, feeling like a warm, thick smoke within the dark space. This camouflage does not protect them from any instance light is directed towards them. Due to Marian's limitations, she cannot hide for more than 2 hours in the dark. Immortality: Marian luckily inherited the immortality from her Shade half. Being functionally immortal, she cannot die by normal means like from diseases and old age but she can actually die from severe injuries. Poisons and intoxicants affect her, but shifting into her shadow form and hiding in the dark can flush out the chemicals faster. Doing the same can help heal her injures but it cannot save her if someone tries to straight-up murder her. She cannot "reset" her human form like full-blood shades due to being... well, half-human which places some limits on her regeneration.

Trouble Magnet: Shades tend to be attracted to negativity (emotional or otherwise) and also attract them in return. For Marian, this weakness only affects herself rather than those around her. She has a compulsion to throw herself in dangerous or troubling situations which includes her tendency to lie and her constant disregard for rules. This doesn't mean she enjoys all the consequences that come with these though. This can be controlled if she is properly supervised but otherwise, she tends to act on these urges. Discounted: Marian is half-human and half-Shade. It saves her from having the full weaknesses of a Shade, but this also becomes a cap for reaching the peak abilities of one. Apart from healing and regeneration limits, her being half-human keeps her from staying in the dark for too long. Staying in her shadow form for longer than 2 hours (without breaks) can start to affect her senses and using her abilities further shortens this time limit. The drawbacks can start from just disorientation and nausea, to having paranoia, and at worst, PTSD-like symptoms. The more she pushes on these limits, the longer it takes for her to recover. The damages do not show in human form, but it affects her psychologically and also appears as cracks on her mask in her shadow form. Species Weakness: A Shade's main weakness involves light in general including light (or fire)-based magic, artificial lighting, and pretty much the average everyday sunlight. Shades are naturally light sensitive, but Marian's human half gives her a higher tolerance when she is in her human form. Unlike full-blooded Shades, she can withstand light exposure as a normal human would as long as she is in human form. Of course, her sensitivity to light comes back in full force when she shifts to her shadow form, along with other common weaknesses of Shades. Direct sunlight exposure in shadow form can become lethal within minutes so it's impossible to see her in Shade form in broad daylight. A Shade's mask is a weak point in their shadow form, being the only wholly tangible part and it can be damaged with almost anything. It also has a direct link to their psyche. Breaking or even just leaving a crack on a Shade's mask can incapacitate and even cause lasting mental effects such as memory loss, disruption of motor skills, etc. These damages can be permanent/irreversible, depending on what caused it.

Marian's family background seemed pretty ordinary. Her mom is an ordinary teacher at a nearby Catholic school, while her dad was a successful detective. Was because he's dead now and she doesn't have much else to talk about him. She did have a half-brother, though she didn't really grow up with him since he had studied away from the family before she could remember anything. Marian Josephine Esperanza was born and raised a Catholic girl by both parents, not ever aware of any magic dealings until she discovered she could move her shadows when she was eight. She played around with her abilities on her own until she learned she had inherited this ability from her dad. Her dad was ecstatic but her mom was wary, telling little Marian that the reason her brother couldn't stay with them had something to do with the same abilities she had. Still, that didn't scare her and she took her time learning the basics with her dad. Once she'd learned to be able to shift into her shadow form, she started practicing on her peers by pulling pranks when no one could see what she was doing. Things escalated by the time her dad went missing when she turned ten. She took it into herself to investigate her dad's disappearance while finding every opportunity to test the limits of her abilities. As time went on, Marian grew more defiant. She got herself into a lot of trouble, getting a record of suspensions for breaking school property, and a couple of accounts harassing school staff, and breaking into school records. Marian kept it from her mom, but she could only do so much and she got reprimanded everytime news got to her. That never stopped Marian though: in her time of schooling, she had to change schools at least thrice. During all this, Marian didn't actually have close friends, keeping her peers at arm's length, so there came a point where no one was ever at her side. The thing is, not everyone went along with Marian's shenanigans: mostly from classmates who didn't want to deal with her bullshit, and a few others who never fancied her cute little face and eventually, that started showing. Now, Marian liked to think she could just ignore it, but there was just no end to it. It took months of her lockers getting filled with leaves and a bunch of bugs, sometimes she found her desk with writings on it, pulling the seat on her as she was about to sit down, finding rocks in her bag, or finding it in the trash -- once she even found it in the school fountain. She'd hand it to them, they got really creative on her. She could deal with the spider on her back, really, but she had to draw the line somewhere when they tried publicly humiliating her. Her parents had always told her never to fighting back but they asked for it. There was a school camping trip and she was going to make the most out of it. Her bullies decided to sneak away during the night and Marian thought this was the perfect opportunity to give them hell. Unfortunately, it didn't come without any consequence. Long story short, this led to Marian's expulsion. Her mom heard of the story from the school board and the other children's parents. She firmly denied accusations of Marian being a 'monster' as one of the kids insisted. Nonetheless, her mother found no other reason appeal for the expulsion. Marian was in a really bad shape after the incident, with her powers fluctuating from the sudden overuse. She locked herself up in her room, and she was so out of it that it was difficult to talk to her most of the time. That went on for days, longer than her mother could have handled. It was time to call her older brother for some insight on the out-of-control-Shade situation. He seemed rather easy to talk to, as if he'd been expecting the call to happen. Her mother explained the situation and came to an agreement, and it was to send Marian with him to Manta Carlos. But on account of her condition, her brother proposed she had to be sent to the Corrections Facility in the islets until she was better. Marian has no recollection of the whole exchange; her memory begins to clear up some 2 months into her stay in the facility where they started gradually explaining where she is and why she was there -- just slowly guiding her back to reality. The first few months really just came as a blur to her, mostly as dream-like impressions but she remembered getting muzzled a lot because she kept biting people. Her brother visited her every other week but she doesn't recall much of the first few. She was told she tried attacking him a few times like with everyone else. She was stable enough to be allowed to roam the premises without a guard breathing down her neck by her eight month due to lapses and poor impulse control, and after spending almost a year on islets, she was free to move to the main land and continue her studies in the academy.

Marian lives with her older half-brother, Eleazar, who's a senior police officer in the MCPD and is currently her on-island guardian. They both reside in Eleazar's childhood home in the Residential Area.

• Owns a Tarot Deck. Her predictions are good and pretty spot on, but she charges so much it still feels like getting cheated out of your money.
• Due to her stay in the Behavioral Corrections Facility in the islets, she's been held back for a year.
• For some reason, she has a relatively high resistance for sleep-inducing chemicals, possibly after building a resistance to it.
• Art credits @ me.