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Character Basics

.:Name of Character:. Taryn Cain
.:Species:. Mutant
.:Alias:. Contra
.:Year Born:. 1942
.:Affiliation:. Unaligned

Appearance

.:Physical Appearance:.
Taryn is not the tallest of women standing only at 5’4”, with light brown hair and blue eyes. Her style varies from time to time, but in her earlier years she mostly wears bright colours and opts more for comfort over style. Her hair is just like all the other girls her age in the 60s – big and full of life, rarely to be seen tied back. As she grows older her style changes, playing all sides and her decision not to choose an affiliation makes for a more hardened personality over time. The bright colours, comfort and big hair are left behind much like the days of her youth, and are replaced in favour of a far more monochrome colour scheme, tighter fitting clothes and her hair remaining tied up to remind her she’ll never be the girl she used to be, regardless of how she looks.
.:Height:. 5’4”
.:Portrayed by:. Claire Foy

Personality

.:Personality:.
In her youth, Taryn is an outwardly bright and bubbly girl, displaying obvious intelligence and resourcefulness with her girlish looks and charm. She gets along well with others and is always there when a personal conflict needs to be resolved. Behind this though, she is hiding a troubled recent past. After an accident that took the life of her parents and saw her taken in by her wealthy English relatives, her life took a turn for the worse. Getting away from her new family has allowed Taryn to feel more free and given her new desires about the world before her and the power she has manifested. She is learning to control what she’s already been able to do with her newfound ability, and pushes herself to see just how far her ability to oppose things can go, despite constant fears that there may be another accident like the one that took her parents away from her.

As she gets older and her power continues to develop and she learns to control any emotional outbursts that may cause further harm. Now more detached from personal relationships, the young girl she once was is gone, replaced with a much harder outer shell. Cold, calm and strict about the usage and dangers of mutant abilities, Taryn has learnt that her powers and those of others may not necessarily be something that should be accessible. She sees the conflict between Humans and Mutants as futile, and refuses to choose sides now because she believes that neither side will win. She has the power to oppose that which has an opposite force, yet finds herself standing in the middle ground, opposing no-one and everyone.

.:Powers/Abilities:.
Taryn’s abilities lie within opposing that which has a logical opposition e.g fire with water, darkness with light, death with life etc. With what would seem like such a broad scope of power, there come many limitations. Firstly, the physical aspects of thing cannot be altered. Taryn could not simply turn fire into water to counter it, but would instead bring forth water from the universe to cancel it out. As with many non-physical powers, the larger the thing to be opposed, the more energy it would require. For example, bringing forth water to tackle a small fire would be simple, but doing the same to instantly tackle a forest fire would weaken Taryn greatly. Given her ability to oppose things, Taryn also has the ability to protect herself from any physical harm by countering what would hit her with equal and opposite forces to stop the motion of what would hurt her. This obviously can only be used when she is aware of the incoming harm however, accidents and sneak attacks will still easily affect her. In the case of prolonged harm, Taryn must concentrate the entire time the harm would come to her, and any break would cause her to still get hit, meaning she may not be able to compose herself enough to recover her cancellation.

Taryn also has the ability to suppress other mutant’s powers to a certain extent. Firstly, this can only apply to those whose power is not a permanent physical alteration. Beast, Deadpool and Wolverine’s powers could not be suppressed for example, but physical powers that require activation, such as those of Colossus or Darwin could be. For any other power, Taryn must know the full extent and details of the ability. If she were to attempt to suppress Jean Grey’s powers for example, it wouldn’t be enough to know that she had psychic powers. She would have to be aware that Jean is Telekinetic with a small amount of Telepathic ability, aswell as being aware of the Phoenix’s potential buried within. Similar to this, Taryn also has the potential to suppress peoples thoughts that can be opposed, such as those of violence with peace. This part of her power has always been very difficult to access though, and is almost impossible to use when she is in her youth. It’s only in later life that she discovers this ability, and even then it’s very difficult to control and use effectively.

History

.:Birthplace:. Aurora, IL, USA
.:Family:.
Cpl William & Esther Cain (Parents) (Deceased – 1957)
Annabelle Cain (Sister) (Missing – Presumed dead)
Jeremy & Wilhelmina Cain (Aunt & Uncle)
Genevieve Cain (Cousin)

.:Occupation:. Waitress/Mercenary
.:Current Location of Residence:. England
.:History:.
Taryn’s childhood was one of happiness. Her parents William and Esther were loving and thoughtful, and though born at the height of the second world war, with her father often away and her mother working in one of the many factories in Aurora, Illinois, she was always cared for very well. William had come to America from England several years before after deciding to leave his wealthy family for a new adventure, where he had met Esther working as a waitress and eventually made her his wife. His family back home were not happy that he had chosen someone of her stature as his wife, but he refused to allow them to influence him. As Taryn grew older, the war ended and her father came home safe, life became very comfortable and settled. For many years they were the epitome of a happy family. Then, Taryn hit her teens, and started displaying strange abilities when her emotions were heightened. She tried her best to them of course, through fear of ridicule. When her parents asked her if she was having problems with some of the children at school, she began to feel a swell of emotion like she had never felt before. She’d bottled up her thoughts, her fears, and inevitably, her power. All this rushed out in a flood of power and emotion, and with no understanding or control of her power, she stood and watched helpless as she simply opposed her own parents life. They fell, lifeless before her, and from that moment her life was up in the air.

Months after the incident, she now resided with her father’s brother and his wife and daughter in Coventry, England. Now knowing that keeping her power and emotions bottled up could be catastrophic she began learning to control what she could – still in secret and away from others. The family had never approved of William’s marriage, and as such treated Taryn like she was somehow dirty and not a desirable part of their life. Though she often attempted to get along with Genevieve who is only a year younger, her attempts were met with spite and discord. Beginning to feel unwanted, Taryn began seeing her powers as a way of escaping. She found a small unused library in the Manor owned by her aunt and uncle where she could learn to control her emotions and her power. In this library she discovered a photo album of her father when he was younger. Towards the end of the album, there were photos of a little girl, who Taryn assumed to be her, but soon realised her father was far too young in the photos for it to be her. Upon realising this, she quizzed her Aunt about the little girl. She was told that the girl was her father’s first daughter, Annabelle. Her mother had died giving birth, and her father looked after her. Shortly after the photos had been taken, Annabelle disappeared while on holiday, and despite searching for many months, she had never been found. The police officially reported her as missing, but informed the family she was likely no longer alive. Taryn’s aunt told her that that was the reason William had left England to begin a new life.

After this new revelation and several years of torment and shutting herself away, Taryn decided at the age of 18 that she would leave her aunt and uncle’s charge and find her own way. She left shortly after her birthday, and travelled north, first to London and then eventually she would leave London for Manchester. Arriving in London with the money her parents had left her and some she had saved herself, she found a small flat and a job at a local café, ready to experience the big city life and find others like her. She figured she couldn’t be the only person that was different in the way she was and tried her best to seek out others, not to align with, purely just to know she wasn’t alone.

Sample Post

Waiting tables in a small London café didn’t really sound like the best life, and it was definitely a step down for Taryn Cain from life at her Aunt and Uncle’s manor, but for her, it was freedom and that was good enough. For so long she’d wished herself away from that place, from those people, and now she’d finally done it. She thinks about how her life had gone downhill since her parent’s death. About how her new family had seen her as undesirable, about the sister she never knew she had and will never know, and about the three little boys today had thought it was fascinating that she had an American accent. That’s the thing, she can think about all this and still be happy, still see the positive, because she’s free now. She can do whatever she wants, she can be herself, and she can find others like her.

Her powers had always been something she had feared a little bit, especially since her outburst that caused her parents’ death. But she knows that if she kept that fear and her powers bottled up again, the same thing could happen. So instead of shutting them away, she learns to control them whenever an opportunity arises. And if that means she intentionally drops a plate every now and again so she can counter the force of the fall before it smashes on the ground, then who needs to know. That’s her thing, she can oppose whatever she likes as long as there is a logical counter to it. Sometimes she’ll push a boundary, find out just how far she can go with it. Can she oppose darkness with light? Yes. Can she oppose fire with water? Yes. Can she oppose people she doesn’t like hitting on her by hitting them? Yes – but that’s just by using her hands (and occasionally feet).