The truth is, nobody
knows how Ana Mendieta
met her death. It would appear
she was pushed. Some distance below,
the doorman said he heard
a woman shout No, and then
the sound as her body
hit the top of the diner
so hard her face left a mark
like a postal stamp. In this photo
she is naked and feathered. She looks
like the first woman
like she doesn’t know
what a camera is, that somewhere
in the world it is believed
that these things can steal a soul.
Her arms are out, as if saying
you move them like this, to fly—
like this, sí? Her feet are
apart, you can see the
sphere of her hips, the delta
between her legs.
I look at her, sated, and think
here is the true work of the body:
to adorn itself and be
comfortable, unaware. I myself
am bored of fig leaves,
of shames I did not choose.
Disillusioned with life, Ana takes to hedonism. She looks out for herself first, padding her life with comforts often at the expense of people around her. She's lonely at heart, but doesn't know how to connect, building herself a network of blood donors around the world as a way to compensate. She has distanced herself from her humanity and uses power and control to counter her insecurities.
Abilities:
Superhuman strength, speed, smell and hearing
Super Healing
Compulsion - A fancy term for mind-control, indicated by bold text. Eye contact is needed for the first command, but it doesn't need to be maintained.
Weaknesses
Sunlight, holy water (burns her, will not kill her. Sunlight must be direct. Holy water is less effective.)
Stake to the heart
Decapitation
Older vampires are stronger than her, though she is remarkably fast for her age
Cannot enter a home without an invitation. (Once the invitation is tendered it cannot be revoked)
Hunger weakens her. (It also makes her more dangerous.)
Background (WIP):
(tldr: born in Ireland, emigrated to America with the potato famine. Killed in the civil war after joining to find her brother, her only surviving family.)
Ana was 4 years old when the potato blight hit. Her family was already living in squalor. By the time her mother scraped together enough to take her and her older brother aboard a ship to Boston, her father and most of her extended family had died. Her first memories were of hunger.
They weren't well treated in America. Her mother died of typhus within the year. Her teenage brother found work at the docks, and she begged for food until she was old enough to work a sewing machine.
They scraped by until 1861, when the civil war hit. Her brother dutifully joined the war to fight for the Union. He was going to free the slaves, show everyone what the Irish could do, and finally have a steady paycheck to send home.
About a year in, the letters stopped. Ana, sick to death of waiting and working with no end in sight, disguised herself as a man and signed up. She spent the whole time on the front lines looking for her brother, or word of his death. She found neither.
In 1864 she was severely wounded and captured by the confederacy. While imprisoned, her secret was discovered. Before she could be transferred, a confederate soldier who "liked the look of her" broke into her cell and killed her-- but not before draining her blood and forcing her to drink his.
She woke up in a mass grave, crazed and hungry and alone. In a daze, Ana went on a mass killing spree, coming to lost and confused, covered with blood in enemy territory.
She kept losing control, at first. And she was angry at all of it, the whole war. Ana wandered the battlefield, not sure how to rejoin the ranks or if she ever could. When the war ended she kept wandering.
Slowly, Ana learned control and rediscovered herself. Her life had never been happy but the war had changed her, made her bitter and disillusioned. She used her new powers for herself, paving a path to gain power-- to stop everything from happening to her all the time. Now she happened to other people.
Ana now is well-travelled and well-educated. She made sure of it. She's also wealthy and manipulative. She doesn't like to kill much anymore though. She's tired of death.
1) Thanks both to her love of history and fantasy and her stepbrother Jasper's talent for stage combat, Ana absolutely loves antique swords. Her favorite kind of blade is a rapier -- she always feels like Westley in The Princess Bride whenever she duels Jasper with one!
2) Ana is an avid letter writer. She often loves closing her letters to her friends and loved ones with quotes or passages from whatever book she's currently reading, especially if it relates to the letter or she just thinks it'll make them laugh.
3) Ana's most successful book series is for the fictional adventuring dragonologist Ardon Ronne (inspired by her husband Charlie), but she has also written several other fantasy books geared for the Wizarding World as well. One book, inspired in part by the anime/manga Fullmetal Alchemist, involves a pair of magical siblings -- one of whom was turned into an Obscurus after he was shut away by their abusive mother -- who have to face off against a government run by seven Dark wizards and try to prevent them from throwing the entire world out of balance by invoking necromancy to bring back their long-last master.
4) Ana is all about the Gothic Victorian fashion aesthetic. She'll very frequently wear dresses, but when she's outdoors with Charlie, she also loves dressing in waistcoats with tails and pants tucked into heeled boots.
5) Speaking of fashion, when Ana goes flying either on a broom or on dragon-back, she always wears steampunk-style goggles. (Hey, it's aesthetic, okay??)
6) Although Ana has been intimidated by some of the dragons Charlie's introduced her to over the years, she still just about always gets hearts in her eyes and gets silently giddy when she sees their babies. They're just so cyuuute!!
7) When Charlie and Ana have kids, the two read to them every single night, often acting out all the voices, just like they used to when they'd read together in bed alone as a couple. One of the first things Ana picks out to read to their children is The Hobbit, which Charlie ends up having a love-hate relationship with, given that it ends with the dragon Smaug being slain. In response, Ana actually wrote a new installment in the Ardon Ronne series inspired by The Hobbit, only with the dragon as the hero instead of the villain.
8) When she attends one of her stepfather Bradley's rallies, she'll often dress in the same color as he is and stand right beside him, to show silent solidarity.
9) Ana has written several strong-worded and controversial letters to the Daily Prophet over the years advocating for Squib and Muggle rights. It's frankly testament to how well-received her books and her views have been received by young people that her staunchly progressive views haven't put much of a dent in her book sales.
10) Ana and Charlie's wedding was a masquerade hosted on Halloween. Their looks were inspired by Princess Serenity and Tuxedo Mask, respectively, with Ana securing her veil with a pink crystal tiara that's a Pinkstone family heirloom and Charlie wearing a cape with traditional Scottish tartan on the inside.
real name: Anastasia Romanov-Callahan (Renamed after joining Clan)
single or taken: Single, Open to multi-shipping/open and closed relationships/AUs
abilities or powers: Enhanced/Superhuman; strength, senses, agility, speed endurance, stamina, etc, Fire breathing/manipulation, transformation, aura reading/self aura manipulation, limited flight, magic (to an extent)
eye color: Fuchsia
hair color: Copper Brown, with a silver streak. Always grows back as such no matter how often cut.
family members: deceased
pets: none
something they don’t like: Cults/Radical/Racial groups
hobbies/activities: reading, fitness, working
animal that represents them: cats
worst habits: smoking, drinking, lack of self preservation, indiscriminate to a fault
role models: Allistair (CC Leader/Founder), Matthias
sexual orientation: Pansexual, DemiRomantic
thoughts on marriage/kids: It has been her dream for as long as she can remember to have a normal, mundane life; a house with a large expanse of land, a loving spouse to grow old with, and children of her own. Alas, she doesn’t foresee any of these dreams ever reaching fruition, and it kills her. She doesn’t like to talk about it.
style preferences: Good quality, easy to move in, sexy but practical.
approach to friendships: Hesitance, caution, pushing away, acceptance, unyielding loyalty
“Feeling so easy, make me skin and bones, I'm always on my knees for you, you break like it's even, when you're leaving and, thin, where the hell have you been?” - Skin and Bones by Marianas Trench
