Tarissa Irian

[Tarissa Irian]

who is the one I see
BASIC INFO
staring straight back at me

PICTURE

• Name? Tarissa Irian (pronounced eye-rain)
  
  
• Alias? Elizabeth Marie Raine (real name)
  
  
• Nickname? Ree (from the Ri in her name)
  
  
• Age & Birthday? unknown- she was born in the late 1400s
  
  
• Sex & Sexual Preference? Female, she's also bi-sexual
  
  
• Species? Vampire
  
  
• Abilities? None
  
  
• Occupation? Currently unemployed
  
  
• Faction?

She thinks of herself as 'in her own faction'.

when will my reflection show
APPEARANCE
who I am inside

Even before she became a vampire, Ree was a beautiful woman. Her hair varied from a pale gold to dark brown depending on the seasons and her eye colour also changed, although it was naturally a grey-green, different lighting made them appear a vivid green or stormy grey.

Ree was slim but a little small for her age to begin with although, as time went by, she hit a growth spurt and managed to reach the average for a nineteen year old just before she became a vampire.

It was only when she became immortal however, that the tiny flaws in her body vanished. Ree's pale skin became became porcelain and flawless, her facial features became perfectly symmetrical- delicately arched eyebrows, a perfectly straight nose and high cheekbones- and her entire body took on a timeless-beauty.

As far as clothes go, Ree's fashion choices have- obviously- changed over the years she's been alive. Currently, she prefers jeans and a plain top with a jacket to anything else. She never wears short skirts- she thinks of 'short' as knee-high or above- and mostly wears either trainers or ballet-flats. She prefers to wear dark colours and always carries her three-quarter length black coat with her in case she gets caught in the sun. The coat would protect every part of her except her face- which she'd cover with the high collar of the said coat.

The final thing to note about Ree's appearance is her tattoo. It's found on her left wrist and is in black ink. It's in the shape of an omega sign: images1.cpcache.com/product/79386051v9_480x480_Front.jpg and is curved around her wrist with the two bits at the bottom of the symbol interlocking at the top of her wrist.

i am now in a world where i
PERSONALITY
have to hide my heart

To see that Ree's a pessimist is like saying that she's lived "a longish time"- it's an understatement. Her pessimist, cynical nature is border-line paranoia as she often takes every situation and twists it into the most dangerous possibilities before going well out of her way to deal with any possible problems.

While Ree doesn't view humans as being lesser beings, she doesn't think of them as good to get to know. Her reasoning is simple-they'll all be dead in less than a century so there's no point in even saying 'hey'. This state of mind has made Ree seem like quite a cold, heartless person as she always rates her own well-being above other peoples, she's got all the time in the world to do important things while others only have the rest of their lives.

Despite this, when Ree gets to know someone, she goes far beyond loyalty. To the few she counts as her friends, Ree would willingly risk her life for. This isn't bravery though, it's simply that she counts her friends as people who're more important than she is. With these people, Ree leaves the protective shell she's formed around her mind to stop herself from becoming friends with people who'll just die and she's a perfectly nice, if a little depressing woman.

Due to being alive for so long, Ree's got an awful lot of skills. Although she dislikes modern technology and has a particular distaste for computers, cameras and phones, she loves I-pods and carries around her music selection in it wherever she goes. Ree's taken several medical degrees- all under different names- and is fluent in French, Latin, Italian and German. She was fluent at Spanish at one point but constantly forgets most of the words. Ree's good at gymnastics and has astounding reflexes although that's probably just a vampire thing. She's a good horse rider and can fight decently with a sword and bow (although they're not exactly useful any more). She's also quite good at karate and hones her skills at a weekly training centre.

While there was no religion Ree chose as her own, her beliefs were quite similar to Buddhism. In particular the part about the Tibetan Wheel of Life. To Ree, being a vampire put her right in the hell realm for all eternity. She'd never wanted to become a vampire but tries to make the best of it by learning as much as she can and passing the knowledge on to others.

Her Anathema is her 'daughter' Mary. The girl is dead but Ree still thinks about the child and is willing to suffer the pain to remember the Mary's face.

and what i believe in
FAMILY
but somehow

Her parents weren't actually known to Ree although their names were Erik Raine and Jane (formerly Night) Raine. Neither parent was around in Ree's life and- while she learnt the reason when she was nine, she was never able to forgive them.

As far as Ree is aware, she has no living brothers or sisters. Her older sister- Lilly- died when she was two and before Ree had been born. Ree had spent days looking at family tree sites to try and track down her father's grave- and any other siblings- but she found it hard as neither of her parents had been marked in most of the sites and she had no family members closer to the current year to look up.

While Ree had never had a husband, Ree did have a child. Not a genetic child, an adopted child. Ree found Mary and brought the little girl up to be her own. Of course, Mary died and Ree- eventually- sort of moved on. Although Ree had never truly forgotten Mary- the girl is her Anathema after all.

i will show the world
HISTORY
what's inside my heart

Ree was born in London in the late 1400s- she never knew the exact day. Her parents had already decided that Ree's name was to be Elizabeth Marie Raine. Elizabeth because it was her mother's sister's name and Marie because it was her father's mother's name. However, Ree was orphaned almost instantly. Her mother died in childbirth and her father left in a mixture of horror and despair. The people at Ree's orphanage only decided to tell her this when she was nine.

The orphanage Ree stayed at wasn't very nice. The children were forced to work and, if they didn't, they got thrown out. When she was ten, Ree joined the children living on the street simply by leaving through the front door. She then joined the numerous beggar-children and managed to make just enough money to survive on.

It was then that Ree met Mary. Mary was only three years old when Ree found her lying on the floor in the snow. Instead of doing the sensible thing- letting Mary die, Ree took the toddler in and looked after her as best she could.

It was during this time- when she was fourteen- that Ree met her first vampire. The vampire- named Joseph- looked like he was in his very early twenties but was, in fact, almost thirty. Despite this, the two got along well from the start and became firm friends before Ree hit her fifteenth birthday. Joseph offered to change her into a vampire but she declined on the basis that she was too young to make that type of decision.

On her nineteenth birthday however, fate made her decision for her. She was attacked- she didn't see who by- the person stabbed her in the arm, grabbed her money and then ran. With the nowadays technology, the arm blow wouldn't have been so dangerous but at the time it would have killed her had Joseph not arrived.

Ree never knew what her friend had done to the mugger although the screams of pain hadn't all been her own. Joseph had then, ignoring Ree's protests, turned her into a nineteen year old vampire. That was when her real life began.

The two vampires stayed together for a few decades and met up at least once a century after that. Their reason for separating was simple- the witch hunters that raged England were becoming far too dangerous for them both to stay together. Neither wanted to hurt anyone and so, to avoid this, they had to split up to avoid being noticed as easily- for some reason two beautiful and fast people often attracted unwanted attention.

It was a while before Mary died, she lived to the age of forty- a tiny amount of years as far as Ree was concerned but constantly refused to be 'turned' by Ree. To this day, Ree constantly wonders if she should have ignored Mary's wishes and turned her anyway. But she didn't.

Despite having lived through countless wars and historical moments, Ree always tried to be as far away from the action as possible. The only things she really got engaged in were protests, namely Woman's Rights. Ree wanted to be able to do the same things as men and so she joined the campaigns and, eventually succeeded.

There was a definite pattern to the world. As far as Ree was concerned it went like: war, victory, peace, war, victory, peace, war. A never-ending cycle that would probably continue for the rest of eternity. For Ree, that was fine: there was always plenty of spare blood when wars occurred.

Then came the year 1960 and everything, for Ree, changed. For one thing, portable music players became available- which was something Ree grasped the first second she could. (she still has that first, antique player in case she runs out of money, she could sell it for a lot nowadays).

From that time, things went up for Ree. She travelled the world, spending years in first Spain, then Italy, Germany and America although she was in Spain for the least amount of time. When she went back to England she was fluent in all the languages although she'd mostly forgotten Spanish. After returning to England she started at school, pretending to be a tall sixteen year old to give herself extra time there.

That was where she learnt to write. It was strange but, despite being able to write in Italian, Spanish and German, Ree couldn't write in English although she could read. That first time at school went badly for Ree so, instead of attempting the same thing again, she went to a library and learnt there instead. The next time she went to school, she passed her exams and got her first, of many, university places on a medical course.

Time continued to pass and Ree got into the flow, she'd start school at 16 mostly although sometimes she'd try to be a fifteen year old instead. Then she'd finish school and go to university, each time a slightly different course with a new name. There were new subjects opening all the time so she never had to worry about lack of choice.

Eventually Ree gave up school. They just taught her the same thing over and over again and she'd understood it years ago. She took a few years off to travel to Japan and China, where she studied martial arts as well as found some interesting translated books on Buddhism.

Then she returned to America at the start of the twenty-first century, she hadn't been there in years and it was, as expected, a little different. She'd only arrived at America because the thought of returning to England bored her for some reason- she'd spent most of her existence there after all.

and be loved
ABOUT YOU
for who i am

• Name/Alias? Bubbles
  
  
• Experience? um...1-2 years, on and off?
  
  
• Other Accounts? N/A
  
  
• How You Found Us?

[/color] Interesting question... As it happens, I was thinking then I just typed 'my own shadow' into google and clicked on this link. The website felt familiar...like deja vu

[ĸara вelova★]

Beautiful back-story!

Love how you found the site. It sounds like you belong here.

♥Nicki.