Vaughn, Shelby Nicole

[shelby nicole vaughn]

Character Name: Shelby Nicole Vaughn
Nickname(s): Shell
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Grade: Sophomore
Sexuality: Straight
Clique: Gossip
Weight: 121
Height: 5'6
Appearence:

Not everyone can be over the top on the hotness scale, but that's never been an issue for Shelby. No one would ever call her a sex goddess or say that she's got Adonis DNA, but she's a solid 8 on a ten-point scale when she's trying, and at least a 7.5 when she's not. Even goop-eyed and with bedhead, she's always been at least "cute", and that's good enough for her. When the baby fat she's retained since childhood fades from her face, she'll likely turn into a carbon copy of her mother, bony cheeks and all. Until then, her looks cause people to estimate her age at at least two years too young even with her height.

It doesn't take too much to get ready in the morning. She'll usually take a curling iron to the natural waves of her mid-back length dark brown hair to create soft ringlets which frame her face and spritz those with a bit of hair spray to hold them in place. A swipe of shiny lipgloss easily puts the "pow" in her typically grinning pout, and a little shading with black eyeliner, the amount much smaller than that of the emos or goths, brings out her light brown eyes. Last but not least, she usually slips in a pair of silver captive bead earrings or simple studs.

She's not athletic or skinny - "thin" would be the best way to describe her figure. She's never been called a stick, but she doesn't have a six pack or a toned butt. There's a bit of a womanly curve to her hips which matches her smaller, but not too small, breasts, enough fat for padding but not an ounce extra.

Shelby's style is a mix of some strange hippie styles picked up from her parents and the trendiest clothing she can afford. She doesn't always have exactly what's in at the very moment but she usually has something close. Long flowing skirts are a staple in her closet, but pinstriped pants are as well. Her favorite shirts have ruffles or sashes, things that add just a little extra flair without a separate accessory, though she does have them. Shelby has a bit of a thing for vintage purses and jackets, particularly her mothers old brown leather jacket with Grateful Dead patches.

Personality:

"Knowledge is power". This single statement can summarize Shelby's outlook on high school and life in general. So long as she knows who's who, what's going on and why, she remains relevant and somewhat powerful. While her philosophy and function in the food chain might cause some to despise her, she's good with that, because to get to the top, you have to step on a few people. Not that she wants to be on top. Oh no, she'd never know how to rule the school as a queen bee, but she does know how to get the attention of one.

Three things in the world feel as natural as breathing: writing, singing and listening. Listening the trademark of a great journalist, isn't it? It's also a tool of the trade when finding the best rumor around the school. It's the little things that really matter, the inflections and tones, the little expressions that cross faces in a conversation. Those speak volumes. Shelby adores TV shows about mentalists who can entirely manipulate a person's perceptions on a few tiny things or know if they're lying instantly. Those are the kinds of tricks she wants to learn. Not do things like that get her through high school, she hopes that they'll eventually land her a job in LA as a columnist for Us or InTouch.

Shelby is very hard-working and she really strives for the things she wants. She was the kid to set up a lemonade stand so she could earn money and buy a new toy. Her parents instilled a work ethic into her from a young age, something she feels most kids at her school are lacking. While she's not a nerd, she does very well in school and consistently is on honor roll, though she wouldn't even think of joining the honor society.

Of course, it isn't all about what she knows at school. Though she might have friend issues she is a loving older sister to her little brother, Matthew Luke, who would be going into his Freshman year. She keeps up a front of complaining about her parents and sibling at school, but in truth she's quite close to them and loves poring through old photo albums of her grandparents and the commune she was born on. Her parents are a little disappointed that she's so in touch with the mainstream media, but they tolerate her constant watching of news (both celebrity and regular) and her insistence that they get a daily newspaper as well as several weekly magazines. Occasionally they do fight over her clothes budget, but that's just about the extent of parental conflict in her life.

The mal in her function is the danger of every gossip - being used, being fed the party line and becoming a tool to spread propaganda. While alliances can be useful from time to time, Shell rarely swears by or for anyone. If she feels she's being used, she'll turn her back on that source or find something to counter them, firing back a bit of information or a slight snide phrasing of an article to put the person, no matter who they are, in their place. The unfortunate reality of this is that she thinks herself quite a bit higher than she actually is and has the bad habit of feeling invincible.

Of course, Shelby has a couple quirks. The biggest is her fear of the dark - she always sleeps with a light on and can't stand to be left alone in a dark room. Even being in the dark with another person can be traumatic for Shell. She always carries a small flashlight in her bag in case of a power outage. Of course she hides this fact from everyone and is wary of it getting out and being teased or having it used against her. She's a vegetarian just like her parents and the idea of eating meat is gross to her, though she doesn't have a problem with sitting near someone consuming it. Like any good hippie's kid, she loves animals and has a strong relationship with the family cat, a brown tabby named Leo.

History:

Father: Mark Matthew Vaughn - Electrician
Mother: Susan Linda Asbury Vaughn - Stay-at-home mother

Shelby's parents met in a California park in 1974 when a young woman named Susan Asbury fell head over heels for a long-haired guitar playing teen named Mark Vaughn. It was love at first sight in the most traditional sense. Only hours after meeting they seemed to know they were meant for each other and became entirely inseparable. Barely three months later the pair was wed in a drum circle ceremony led by a local self-styled shaman. They remained in California for six years, embracing the deep spiritual scene of Northern California before word of a new commune in Idaho began to float around.

This new community was religious, which at first put the pair off - after all, they had been raised by deeply Catholic parents who unintentionally created a bitterness toward religion in them. These people said they were different, that they lived simply off of the land and revered all of God's creation. Long candle-lit nights were spent in their tiny ramshackle apartment discussing a potential move. By the time spring blossoms peeked from their buds, Mark and Susan were in a bus caravan headed toward a flat stretch of plains just north of the Nevada state line, a place where they would spend the next fifteen years living in harmony with nature, raising cattle as "Jesus People", religious hippies with a fervent love of God and nature as one. Even though the commune was founded on the tail end of the Jesus Freaks movement, it thrived all the same, becoming one of the last true outposts for their beliefs.

That changed in 1995 when Susan became pregnant and gave birth to their first child, Shelby Nicole. Suddenly, there was this tiny human being dependent on them for everything and it shook their world. Everything was much more dangerous and unstable - they needed to provide for their little girl and the commune full of sex and drugs, even if they were deeply religious and loving, just wasn't the right place for a child to grow up. With heavy hearts Shelby's parents gave up their hippie lifestyle and moved back to her mother's home town in California. Mark had finished trade school on the wishes of his parents before he met his wife and was able to get a good job as an electrician, enough to support his family and have some money to spare. Susan stayed home to raise Shelby and, two years later, their son, Matthew Luke. Though they yearned for freedom again, it was so much more important to make sure their children were happy and healthy.

Like a weed back in the Idaho commune, Shelby grew, fed by the sun and surf. Her first word was spoken when she was fifteen months old - it was "No", a word which would set some of the tone of her life. She was an active child and spent much of her time in the playground of the apartment building her family lived in, quickly going from crawling to walking, running and climbing on everything. This talent for movement was only second to her talent for words and, more importantly, repeating them at the right time. In nursery school this turned Shelby into a tattle tale until she learned subtlety some time during second grade, the art of how to ask questions, listen in on conversations and say things with just the right tone and expression to get a good reaction. Indeed, for her age she was adept at reading others and using information gained to her advantage.

Over the next few years, little talents began to crop up and blossom in middle school. Shelby joined choir, excelling and loving the stage and performing. She also was helped along by a mentor, her English teacher, Mr. Woods, who spotted her writing abilities in sixth grade and encouraged her to build them up. Two summer writing camps later, Shelby had found her niche as a founding member of the middle school newspaper. With a staff of five people from grades six through eight, they created a force for change with a fierce editorial page and pressed the principal for fewer restrictions and more freedom in their own editing. By the time Shelby left, the little newspaper was in full swing.

Freshman year, however, was tougher. Shelby was torn between the drama geeks and the gossip hounds, her urge to write and perform causing a split in her friend groups. Eventually she mostly left performing arts and took refuge in the already established high school newspaper and branded herself a gossip. In fall semester she entered a CNN-sponsored young journalist contest and won, receiving leave from part of the spring semester to travel abroad and report with a group of the best high school journalism students in the country. This experience cemented her love of writing and reporting, but it made her much less interested in "real" hard journalism as she had found it too uptight and overly serious, which was exactly the opposite of the intended effect. Instead, Shelby began to read more celebrity magazines and gossip blogs when she came back to California and returned to her preschool talents of tattling, albeit at a more sophisticated and refined level, subtly reporting the juiciest going-ons in the school paper.

Sample Rp:

((If you'd like a more traditional roleplay post, please say so.))

In the mid 1970's, a few parents around the world began to report strange behaviour in their children, things which were unexplainable. There were reports of a five year old boy lifting a car over his head and throwing it across the street, of a little girl who could pick up flames from candles and play with them in her hands, of a child who was thought to be drowned found swimming under a river without need to come up and breathe. In some countries, the children were killed by their parents or community out of fear or superstition. In others, they were kidnapped or given up to the government, who put them into special institutions to be studied. One in every five million children born around the world were found to have some variety of powers. These children were the first wave of transhumans, mutants with strange abilities ranging from benign to highly threatening.

An international commission was formed to figure out what to do about them. Gradually, they came to a consensus. Those with powers would be reported to a group which was dubbed The International Commission for the Control and Regulation of Transhumans, or ICCRT. The job of the ICCRT would be to determine how to deal with each mutant on a case-by-case basis. The transhumans were assessed for how potentially dangerous they were and action was taken based on that assessment. It included not only the current magnitude of their abilities but also the potential they held, their mental state and family history of mental illnesses, as well as a long list of other factors.

After being evaluated and assessing the threat level, the ICCRT determines what to do. In some cases, it's as simple as putting them on a watchlist and telling them to behave themselves. In others, the transhuman needs to be contained in special facilities to be medicated and controlled as they're too dangerous to be allowed to roam the streets. Some are asked to do government work, being put on police forces, diplomacy or the military.

Over the years, more and more children were born with powers. In 2010, it was estimated that one in every 100,000 children would be born with some kind of ability. The abilities are as diverse as humans themselves, ranging from literal spot-on-the-wall powers, where the person can create a colored spot on a surface, to fully functioning wings, to shapeshifters able to alter anything about their appearances. Early childhood screenings for superpowers have become as common as screenings for autism.

While multiple studies have been launched, no one can identify what creates a transhuman. Diet, environment, genetic history, mental state and presence of chemicals have all been found to not be factors. Many spiritual groups have formed theories, ranging from New Age practitioners lauding them as the advancement in humankind which they had been predicting to some very strict religious groups saying that they are demons in human skin. The only steady factor for potential of transhumanism in a child is if they have one or more parent who is also a transhuman. A single transhuman parent can raise the likelihood by up to 25%, while two parents with powers can double that. Though there hasn't been much time to evaluate it yet, it seems that particular powers can run in family lines.

The diverse beliefs about transhumans has led to a variety of reactions. Many of the mutants choose to live in complete seclusion, fearing for their lives if their powers are discovered. Others openly flaunt what they're able to do in front of "normies". A number of hate groups have formed, with some dangerous. Many advocate to revoke all civil rights from transhumans and to lock them away. Some take matters into their own hands - lynching has been on the rise and those with minor powers have been found beaten to death. On the other hand, supporters have rallied around those with powers, petitioning their governments for more rights and protections for transhumans and forming groups to keep them from being hurt.

Most transhumans try to live normal lives. They have their powers but go about day to day acting entirely normal. They go to school, hold jobs, get married and have children. They are, by all measures, good and normal people who happen to have a special ability. Others have taken up the mantle of superheroes, working with police forces and using their powers to fight crime. Still others go in the other direction and take up a life of crime. Mafias the world over have been recruiting transhumans through any means necessary to assist in their endeavors. This sometimes means kidnapping them, and indeed, transhuman children do go missing, taken by criminal enterprises and raised to be supervillians. Transhumanism has expanded the global battle of good and evil to epic proportions.

Celeb:

Ali Lohan

Out Of Character:

Hello everyone. I'm Annika, or Anna if you'd prefer. I'll be twenty in August, and I've been roleplaying for just shy of nine years in all sorts of formats.

My site list is rather non-existent at the moment as my roleplaying has been focused on Second Life and not forums for the last year. In SL, I am Arwyn Quandry. On House Eros I am Innsomnia, which is the same name I go by on Gaia Online and that I use on AIM. I'm usually logged on AIM if you need to contact me.

I'm hoping that roleplaying here will challenge me and make me a better writer. I haven't done a high school roleplay since before I entered high school and feel it's time to change that and expand my genre experience.

[( shannon )]

Shelby's character is amazing! I loved the appearance to start off. It had a sort of flare to it with her character coming out through the description. Her personality fit extremely well to the gossip clique and also added a lot of different dimensions after a well written appearance. I also like how she's not just some shallow rumor rat either but a sly reporter with the ability to realize that the smallest things can turn into something big. But she also isn't afraid to snap back at somebody who uses her which is another great quality. The history was the perfect ending to the application as well, giving a unique backstory to her parents as well as her. It wasn't so far out there that it was unbelievable, but subtle and interesting! Accepted, absolutely, and welcome to the site!