| Introduction
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xxxxxA mutant born in Seattle, Taylor Marinov is a student at Xavier's who is trying to find a place they fit in.
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| History
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xxxxxTaylor Marinov was born to Rebecca and Alex Marinov under pretty ordinary circumstances. The couple were trying to have children for a long time and were having difficulty conceiving, but eventually after enough effort and planning, they managed to conceive. Alex worked as a grocery bagger while Rebecca worked as a department director for Staples, so they had decided that Rebecca would be keeping her job after a brief maternity leave, while Alex would become a stay at home father.
xxxxxWhile the pregnancy progressed normally, Rebecca and Alex decided to be surprised by their child's sex, preparing a gender neutral room in keeping with their rather socially left politics. They were indeed surprised, as Taylor was born with ambiguous sex, brought on by partial androgen insensitivity syndrome. The doctors tried to convince Rebecca and Alex to surgically assign their child a sex, but they refused, again due to their politics. They thought that such a decision should be left to the child, but because they had to choose something to put down on the birth certificate, Taylor's birth certificate would have the 'F' gender marker.
xxxxxGrowing up, Taylor was treated neutrally with regards to gender, and generally lived in a loving household, raised by Alex as a stay at home father. Indeed, they were actually spoiled rotten as a child due to being an only child who was very much wanted. Anything that they wanted would be provided, at least as far Rebecca could afford. Many dolls were purchased for the child, due to the child's interest in dressing them up and making up little worlds for them to play in. Taylor didn't make much of a distinction between GI Joes or Barbies or any other kinds of dolls, so long as they were generally people shaped. Entire soap opera worlds would be conceived in the child's mind, with increasingly detailed and intricate handmade costumes for all of them. Taylor also enjoyed playing video games, always keen on getting the next age appropriate game for their age category.
xxxxxIn school, Taylor did not associate much with their peers, mostly because the boys thought Taylor may be a girl and the girls thought Taylor might be a boy, and Taylor did not particularly help to clear any misconceptions up. Their grades were mostly average, Bs and Cs, with As in chemistry class, which was the only class that captured the youth's imagination. They didn't tolerate being picked on by classmates, even though it happened frequently, and would get into frequent fist fights with other students as a result of the bullying from being a kind of outsider.
xxxxxAround the age that most children start going through puberty, Taylor opted to take puberty blockers to avoid gaining any sort of undesired secondary sex characteristics, with the support of their parents. It was also around this age that they met Timothy Glass, a boy who had transferred into the same grade. For once, Taylor actually grew a friendship with the boy, and then even more than that, a sort of romantic relationship started to bloom. One boy, named Joseph, decided to give Timothy a black eye for being involved with Taylor, and Tay decided to give the boy a piece of their mind. That piece of mind was delivered on the end of a fist, and delivered multiple times to the boy's face. This landed Taylor in anger management.
xxxxxAs part of anger management, Taylor started (reluctantly) writing in a journal to keep track of day to day emotions, and having unproductive meetings with the school counsellor. A month and a half after the anger management classes started, Joseph with a few of his friends decided to show Taylor and Timothy that he was not to be trifled with. After classes were over, and many students were getting ready to practice in a Halloween play for drama class, Joseph and his friends sought out Timothy and Taylor in the darkened halls of the school. A couple of the boys pinned down Taylor and beat them up, while Joseph slammed Timothy's head into a locker over and over and over until Tim's body lay limp while Taylor could do nothing but look on.
xxxxxThe stress of this situation started the trigger of Taylor's mutation, and they snapped, throwing the boys pinning them down off with untapped strength, striking the boys hard enough to knock them down and frighten them enough to run away. Taylor called for a teacher to get help and get Timothy to the hospital, where he would be able to recover. Timothy remained in a coma for a few days due to the head trauma, but after getting to the hospital, Taylor would also need to be hospitalized.
xxxxxWhile Taylor's mutation was triggered on the fight, it only started the changes in the teen's body. Tay's bones and muscle started to reshape, causing the youth extreme pain during the slow transformation into something entirely inhuman. It took one week for Taylor's body to change entirely, becoming entirely covered in fur and animalistic features that caused many in the hospital to be frightened, and Taylor would detail the horror of the experience in their anger management journal, explaining the physical and emotional pain of the process as a way to cope. But more than anything, Taylor was still more concerned for Timothy Glass's well-being.
xxxxxTay checked on the boy daily while still being kept in the hospital for observation (under close scrutiny by some of the frightened staff). When Timothy woke up, however, he was frightened by Taylor's extreme shift in appearance, and quickly rejected the youth and whatever relationship that they had built up was quickly ended. While Taylor was used to being an outsider, the pain of isolation, the new and sometimes painful senses and from being visibly a mutant was too much and caused the teen to break down.
xxxxxForseeing that Taylor would likely experience problems going back to the same school, Alex and Rebecca decided to contact the Xavier's institute to get help in finding Taylor a place to fit in and reform healthy relationships, still wanting what would ultimately be best for their child.
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| Powers
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-Feral Form: Taylor's body has shifted into that of a humanoid ocelot, and simply will not shift back. This is a permanent and obvious mutation that they have had to adjust to. This form comes with a number of advantages and drawbacks.
-Senses: So long as it is not pitch black and there is at least a little light, Taylor will be able to see. Taylor's peripheral vision is also enhanced, to the point where they can see movement that is off to the side and slightly behind, in a 200 degree field of vision. However, the teen needs reading glasses to read anything up close, having lost strong near vision.
Taylor can pick up and distinguish sounds that are outside of normal human hearing, whether due to low intensity or it being out of range. 40Hz to 70000Hz is Taylor's hearing range (though Taylor finds very high pitched sounds to be intensely uncomfortable to listen to), and sounds as quiet as a mouse rustling 40 feet away in grass can be heard. Any whispering around them will almost certainly be heard. The flipside is that very loud sudden noises can be startling and painful: when watching television or playing games, they keep the volume quite low. Finally, it is easier to pinpoint the exact location of any sounds that are heard, and the teen's ears can swivel to listen more closely to different things or to help block out a loud noise that is not as sudden.
In terms of smell, Taylor is about 20 times better than a human, and they can even determine emotional states based on scent alone after enough experience with this ability. As with other sensory powers, the drawback is that intense smells are much more unpleasant for Taylor to deal with. People can be recognized by scent, and if so inclined, Taylor could feasibly track someone.
Taylor has a generally normal sense of touch, but the whiskers on their cheeks and eyebrows make it easier to pick up air movements. The whiskers are sensate, they affect balance and help Taylor know what spaces can be crawled through. Taylor is liable to get stuck in crawlspaces if they're cut and will seem generally less familiar with environments until they regrow.
-Strength and agility: Taylor's reflexes are greatly improved, three times as fast as a regular human, with the physical speed to back it up (this actually makes Taylor seem rather skittish if people come too close with little warning). They can run twice human speed, and can keep up this speed for almost an hour without tiring out. The teen is able to jump from the ground to latch on to objects that are up to twenty feet high, and due to these strengthened leg muscles, can deliver bone shattering kicks. They also seem to possess a strong sense of precision and balance, and so can jump from branch to branch in trees or walk on a railing, for example, without too much difficulty and without losing balance. Learning agility related skills comes more naturally, as well. In general, Taylor is also much stronger than before, and is about as strong and tough as a professional boxer in most respects, with Taylor's leg muscles being particularly enhanced beyond that into the range of superhuman.
-Natural weapons: Taylor has strong retractable claws that can pretty easily tear through flesh, but are not so useful against non-organic targets. They can chip off, and if the vein is torn, it will bleed and be quite painful, but the claws will regrow with time (about a week). The claws can help with clinging to surfaces and climbing. Taylor's teeth are very sharp, but still just made out of teeth material. Still, they can bite with a lot of force, enough to crack bone.
-Limitations: Taylor has a mostly carnivorous diet, most greens will cause illness and vomiting, though some grains can be ingested even if they don't carry much nutritional value. The lion's share of food will have to be meat. There are also circumstances where their feline nature will take precedence over reason. For example, if there is the smell of certain foods in the air, Taylor is likely to try and steal it without really considering that other people are preparing that food for a reason. Or if Taylor is sleepy, everywhere is a fine sleeping spot. The teen will be apologetic if these actions are pointed out, but wont really notice or think anythings wrong until someone else mentions it.
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| Skills
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-Doll making and tailoring: Taylor is good at putting dolls together using parts, and then making outfits for them, however elaborate. This can be translated to full person sized clothes as well, and Taylor designs and makes a lot of their own clothing. The doll clothing tends to be of higher quality than Taylor's own outfits. That isn't to say that Taylor's own clothes aren't of high quality, just that they are really well dressed dolls.
-Chemistry: Taylor really enjoys chemistry class and has a genuine interest in it, and would be able to tutor other students. Other than that, Taylor is an average student, but knows a lot of trivia about various intersex conditions, and knows a fair bit about androgen insensitivity syndrome just because of their experience with it. Otherwise, the finer points of biology are lost on them.
-Video gaming: Taylor enjoys playing video games, and while not a professional gamer, is one of those people who seems to have a knack for pretty much any game they pick up. Enhanced reflexes don't hurt.
-Brawling: Taylor is able to cause some damage in a fist fight, just from experience, finding it easier to make people shut up with violence and use fear as a deterrent. Taylor can normally fight and win against teens of about the same age who have no serious martial arts training, but the edge diminishes with a trained opponent.
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| Description
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The first thing one might notice about Taylor Marinov is perhaps the feline appearance, a pattern not unlike that of an ocelot. They appear to be about five foot eight and one hundred and forty five pounds, if you're an expert at estimating animal people weights. They have yellowy orange eyes with little slits in them when it's light out and twitchy feline ears. Their exposed fur has a goldish colour as a base, with some black stripes around the eyes and black rosettes everywhere else.
They wear any number of outfits, depending on their mood, but almost always something skillfully crafted. In general, their build gives no real gender impression, nor does their voice or face (with ocelot faces being actually especially difficult to determine for most persons).
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| Reputation
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Xavier's students:
- "That kid seems really high strung. They could learn to chill."
- "Marinov's really helpful! They helped me make alterations on a sweater so I could actually wear something I like!"
- "I heard a panther lives in the woods."
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| Connections
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Bespoke
- Taylor: Bold, with a certain joie de vivre. Makes a statement.
- K.C.: Easy to pass over on first glance, but the longer you look, the more you see.
- Shane: Original, eccentric and sharp. Trendsetting.
- Lyric: Creative, elegant and hard to miss. Absolutely inspiring.
- Harm: Comfortable but unconventional. Up and coming.
- Ryan: Iconic.
Comfortable
- Cassy: A bit loud, but in a good way.
- Nessie: Vibrant and lively. A diamond in the rough.
- Daiki: You'll always want to come back to this one.
- Sarah: Colourful and bright. Reminiscent of springtime.
- Jax: Colourful and bright. Reminiscent of candy.
- Kurt: A curiosity, but one to indulge.
Ill-fitting
- Kavalam: Unremarkable. Like wallpaper against wallpaper.
- Hive: Technically well executed, but a reminder of bad times.
- Nanami: Jarring at first, but may grow on you.
Unfabulous
- Xavier: So last season, many seasons ago.
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| Trivia
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- Marinov makes most of their own clothes, and is willing to help others with special wardrobe needs with design ideas.
- Their father is a Russian immigrant (despite having a Bulgarian name). Marinov speaks Russian, having learned it from their dad.
- They used to be a vegetarian before their mutation forced them onto an all meat diet. Marinov is still a bit sore about this.
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| Gallery
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[[Image:|x150px]]
[[Image:|x150px]]
[[Image:|x150px]]
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| Taylor Marinov
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| Codename
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None
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| Birthdate
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November 4, 2001
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| Birthplace
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Seattle, WA
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| Species
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Mutant
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| Affiliation
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Xavier's
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| Alignment
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Chaotic
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| Powers
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Ocelot powers
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| Occupation
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Student
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| Registration Status
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Registered
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| Played By
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None
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| RP Hooks
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| Athletic - They spend a lot of their time running, climbing, jumping and playing any kind of games or sports involving those things.
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| Passion for Fashion - They keep up to date on current trends in fashion, but also hopes to become a trendsetter. They will be happy to discuss anything having to do with design. They are a founding member of the Xavier's fashion club.
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| Hot-Headed - They are very easy to provoke. Want to start a fight? They'll certainly oblige.
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| Obvious Mutant - They wear their mutation on their face, and have come to let that affect their activism.
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