Ebony Aria Ryder

[Ebony Aria Ryder]

Ebony Aria Ryder

....the mask

Your Name: Rachel
Where did you find us?: My friends, but I have other characters
How long have you been roleplaying?: A few weeks
Password: [admin edit!]

...basic character information

Birth Name: Ebony Aria Ryder
Nickname: Ear, Stripes
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Grade: 9
Birth date: February 29th, 1996 (she celebrates her birthday on the 28th, though)
Program: Bachelor of Commerce
Major: Tourism
Major Explanation: Ebony wants zebras to be able to roam free, and not be in zoos. She wants people to be able to see them in their natural habitat, Africa, so the zebras can stay out of captivity. She figures tourism is a good major to try and get people to see them in Africa.
Animal Identity: Zebra

...personality

Likes:

• Running -- it makes her feel so free! Plus, it's always good to be able to run away.
  
• Stripes -- they're awesome.
  
• Food!
  
• Marty from "Madagascar"
  
• Cross country teams.
  
• Watching the Olympics -- the running, mostly.
  
• African folk tales -- she finds them really interesting, especially the ones about how zebras got their stripes.
  
• "Racing Stripes" -- one awesome example of a kick-butt zebra. Except the voice was Frankie Munez...
  
• Track teams.
  
• IDs -- they're kind of like zebra stripes!
  
• Dr. Seuss books -- her favorite is "Horton Hears a Who." She knows that many think liking those books is childish, but when you think about it, Dr. Seuss was really smart! Who else could have thought of the possibility that there's another world on a dust speck?
  

Dislikes:

• Lions -- scary!
  
• Remembering if zebras are black with white stripes or white with black stripes -- she thinks it's the first one...
  
• "The Lion King" -- TOO MANY LIONS!
  
• Zoos -- captivity...ugh.
  
• Hunting -- gross.
  
• Leopards -- scary, just like lions!
  
• Waiting for water fountains.
  
• Hawaiian shirts -- tacky.
  
• Things made of animal fur.
  
• Meat -- vegetables are so much better.
  

Fears:

• Zoos -- she used to think that if she shifted, someone would see her and take her to a zoo.
  
• That zebras will become extinct --
  
• Nuclear power.
  

Strengths:

• Stamina -- slow and steady wins the race. Not really. Ebony is fast, but not crazy fast. Stamina helps a lot.
  
• Excellent eyesight -- no cumbersome glasses for this girl!
  
• Sociable -- she's not shy, and can make friends with just about anyone.
  
• Adaptable -- she's not afraid of change. She even accepts it, sometimes.
  

Weaknesses:

• Panics under stress.
  
• Unpredictable -- you never know what she'll do.
  
• Stands out -- she can never blend in the background.
  

Overall:

Ebony is a caretaker. That's one thing you should really know about her. She's kind, loving, and extremely protective, but even though she loves taking care of others, she wants someone to take care of her, too. She's not a strong as she appears to be; the only reason she holds in her tears is so that no one will see her cry. She wants to be strong, but sometimes that can come off as her being a kind of tough-poser. She's very social and can make friends with just about anyone. She's very unpredictable though, and has a hard time blending into the background because of that and her ability to talk to anyone. She's very able to adapt to change, but she doesn't necessarily like change, though. She's easily stressed out, and she panics when she's stressed. She's tries to hide her panic, to be more confident, but she rarely succeeds. Ebony can't stand meat, hates the idea of hunting, and is a vegetarian. She's pretty impatient, especially when it comes to waiting for food or the water fountain. Ebony loves food, but by food she means veggies. Two of her favorite movies are "Madagascar" and "Racing Stripes" because they have zebras in them. She's terrified of lions and leopards, but she doesn't know that her parents were lions. She might be a little less scared of lions if she knew that, but she doesn't. Ebony definitely doesn't know everything, and she doesn't try to. She's pretty content with where she is in her life, and doesn't want to be the type of person who thinks they know it all. She loves stripes, zebra stripes specifically, and loves to run. She doesn't care that she's not the fastest, because she knows that she has better stamina. She really wants to run a marathon sometime in her life. Ebony has always loved the fact that zebra stripes act as identification, and she loves IDs because they're similar to that. She doesn't want to stand out, but she definitely doesn't want to be forgotten. She's a little claustrophobic, and definitely isn't agoraphobic. She loves it when she doesn't have anything restraining her, and that's one reason she likes to go outside. She likes African folk tales a lot because she loves how they were passed down and how even though they're not true, they're still around and so full of character. She doesn't think she's very interesting, and secretly wants to be full of character like the tales.

...appearance

x x

Celebrity Play By: Alexandra Daddario
Appearance:
Ebony has the same dark red-brown hair that her father had. At birth it was a dark brown, almost black, which gave her the name Ebony. It's past her shoulder, and at it's longest to the middle of her back. It doesn't really curl, and it's usually straight, although sometimes, very rarely, it has a few waves. Her eyebrows are extremely close, if not the same, color as her hair. Her eyes are a blue-grey, the color of the sky of the Serengeti. Her eyes are like her zebra's ears: they reveal what she's thinking. The way she looks at things changes depending on her mood, and she's very easy to read. Her skin is pale, though not porcelain. She doesn't tan, but she doesn't sunburn, either. Her nose is a sort of round square shape, and she doesn't really like it. She has a heart shaped face, but her chin isn't pointed.
She's 5 feet and 7 inches tall, and weighs about 140 pounds. Her legs make up a lot of her height. Most of her weight isn't much muscle, though, because Ebony is a vegetarian. Her shoulders are kind of wide, and this is portrayed when she is a zebra through her stockiness.
Her zebra stands at 4 feet and 7 inches tall at the shoulder, exactly one foot shorter than she is as a human. She is about eight feet long, about the average length for a zebra. Her legs as a zebra are the opposite of her human legs, for they're actually kind of short. She weighs about 500 pounds. Her muzzle is dark brown/black, the color her hair was as a baby. It would be hard to pick her out of a harem of zebras, as expected, but she does have her own distinct stripes.
Ebony doesn't wear glasses, thanks to her excellent vision, and doesn't have her ears pierced.
She doesn't wear jewelry usually, although sometimes she will wear a bracelet her father gave her as a kid.
Ebony doesn't wear makeup that much, either, except for cover-up and the occasional little amount of either lipstick or lip gloss. The lip gloss or lip stick she would wear is either colorless, natural, or a very light pink.
Her style is kind of quirky. She usually wears some kind of zebra print in her outfits, but she can have a hard time finding those items.
She loves shoes although she thinks it's more comfortable without them. Her hooves are pitch black, and black is her favorite color for shoes.
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...history

Parents: Cady (pronounced as Katie) Soleil Ryder*
Kayden "Hercules" Ryder* (Deceased at age 25)
Guardian: (Grandmother) Mallory Petunia Ryder*
Siblings: Ivory Katelyn Ryder* (Deceased at age 18)
--Ebony*--
Bryan John Ryder (Miscarriage, shifting unknown)
*Shifter gene

In high school, Cady Soleil and Kayden Ryder were on the top of the food chain. Even out of high school they were that too, for their shifts were lions. They had never gone to the Academy because they had hidden their shifts from their families, though. They loved being the most popular couple in school, for they were athletic, smart, musical, and perfect in every way possible. Until Kayden got Cady pregnant in their junior year, that is. They then became outcasts in a town full of very traditional citizens. Cady and Kayden became engaged the day after they found out she was pregnant. They were in love, no matter what people said about their shotgun wedding, and probably would have gotten married even if they never had Ivory. Ivory Katelyn Ryder was born during their senior year. She was born with white blonde hair that inspired her name, and after her birth, Cady dropped out of high school to take care of her. Kayden continued, and graduated as valedictorian. After graduation, he went on to community college for two years with a degree in Fire Science Technology, choosing a major where he would be able to take care of his family. Towards the end of his second year of college, Ebony was born on Leap Day. She was named for her head of dark hair, that would eventually become more like the dark red-brown of her dad's hair. Ebony was luckier than Ivory in the sense that her first years of childhood weren't a struggle. Soon after Kayden's graduation, he got a job at the local fire department, only a few blocks from the house the family rented. Ebony grew up in fear for her dad's life, and the day after Ivory's eighth birthday, her worst fear came true. Kayden had died when a burning support beam had fallen on his head and on his tombstone is the etching of a lion. The day after the funeral, Cady learned that she was pregnant with their third child. A few months later, she went into a depression, after the miscarriage of her son, Byran John Ryder. Ivory automatically assumed the role of mother, and to Ebony, she was the mother. Cady had never been a great mother, but her depression only made her mothering skills worse. A year after Kayden's death, Cady was still in her depression and Ivory and Ebony were relying on their Grandmother Ryder* for help paying the rent. Two years after his death, Ivory was ten and Grandmother Ryder came on her birthday, announcing that she was moving in. She was their only relative who actually cared about them, for Cady's parents lived in Spain, and hated their daughter's "mistakes," and Grandfather Ryder was killed at Chernobyl, a reason Ebony is scared of nuclear power. G.R., as Grandmother Ryder became to them, took care of her depressed daughter-in-law and her granddaughters by working at the local grocery store. They lived like that for two years, and then Ivory changed. Her shift was an African elephant, and she confided in only G.R. and Ebony. She didn't trust their mother, especially now, for she had finally come out of her depression. Cady definitely wasn't her old self though: she became an alcoholic, a stripper, and a prostitute. Ebony waited in anticipation for her twelfth birthday, for G.R. hadn't explained that Ivory had been early. G.R. hadn't known though, for she had shifted into her own giraffe at the same age. Ebony's birthday came with hearbreak and disappointment, for not only was she still just a human, Ivory was diagnosed with cancer, Cady was dying of HIV, and G.R. now had Alzheimer's. All of their conditions only got worse: Ivory was hospitalized, G.R. was losing her memory faster, and Cady went to rehab. Ebony now became the caretaker, and on her fourteenth birthday, she shifted. She shifted at school, to the horror of the town, because she shifted during her performance in the talent show. The pain was almost as intense as the way she felt when her father had died. Her bones were popping and changing shape. Her arms became legs, she grew a tail, and her hair changed into fur and a mane. Her ears allowed her to hear more than she ever had in her life, her face extended and her vision increased. On her legs she felt hooves, and with those hooves she did the only thing she could: run. She ran as far as she could, out of the school, out of the town, her animal fighting her human self the entire way. Ebony ran until she reached the cover of trees. She noticed her reflection and panicked: she was a zebra. Ebony managed to shift back, and using twenty dollars she had found on the ground, bought new clothes at the closest place, the zoo. In her new clothes, she walked back to her house. She didn't think as she walked, she just walked. She didn't know how far she had gone, or how long it would take to get back, either. When she reached home, Ebony learned that Ivory had died in the hospital. G.R. told her of Shifter Academy as well,and then said, "Who are you?" Ebony then knew she had to go to the place. She had to escape the pain of Ivory's death, and of the memory of the school's faces. She knew that to live a normal life, she would have to go to this place, this...Shifter Academy.

...connecting human to animal

• Stamina -- slow and steady wins the race. Not really. Ebony is fast, but not crazy fast. Stamina helps a lot. Zebras are not as fast as other horses, but their stamina is what helps them get away from predators.
  
• Excellent eyesight -- no cumbersome glasses for this girl! Zebras also have great vision.
  
• Sociable -- she's not shy, and can make friends with just about anyone. Zebras are very social animals.
  
• Adaptable -- she's not afraid of change. She even accepts it, sometimes. Zebras are very adaptable, especially when it comes to their food (as long as it's not meat).
  
• Panics under stress -- so do zebras.
  
• Unpredictable -- you never know what she'll do. This is one reason why attempts to domesticate zebras have failed, as well as the above point.
  

...literacy

RP Sample[/i]
Ebony started to stretch, psyched as she got her muscles prepared.
She wished it weren't so windy and that the sun was out. It would make her much more comfortable and more fun. The wind whipped her hair around her face, annoying her, and she pulled it back into a ponytail. Better, but still windy...
You can't always get what you want though, she thought, thinking of Ivory in the hospital, dealing with her cancer and her grandmother's Alzheimer's.I'm going to win this for her, though.
Ebony looked around at her competition. Skinny, skinny, skinny. She glanced down at her own body, definitely not skinny, but in better shape than the others around her.The others were like twigs, except when it came to their legs. Their legs were all muscle, and they all looked like they were born to sprint.
She prepped herself, ready to run. They blew the whistle, and off she went.
This was what she loved most about running: the feeling of freedom, the feeling of being invincible.
She took a few looks at where she was; she wasn't in first, but she wasn't in last. The people ahead of her were using a lot of their energy, sprinting from the get go.
And that's why Ebony would win.
Stamina beats speed anyday.
Everyone continued running, and those who used to be in first were now lagging behind her.
She didn't think to see what place she was in. She just concentrated on her breathing and her pace.
Ebony ran harder since she was near the finish line. There was only one person in front of her, and they were slowing, so she sped up to a sprint.
She quickly overtook them, and she crossed the finish line, everyone behind her.
Ebony wasn't even breathing heavy, while everyone else, now finished, were gasping for air, and rushing to get to their water bottles.
She put on a smile for the crowd, who was politely clapping, no doubt thinking of "what a disgrace that child's mother is."
She locked eyes on one person, and ran through the bleachers, exclaiming "Ivory!" She grabbed her sick but smiling sister into a hug, as happy as could be.
She ignored the shocked faces of the crowd. She had just gone past the table where she was to get her medal, while all the other runners glared at her enviously. Ebony didn't care about the medal though. Right now, all she cared about was her sister. Her sister, who had taken care of her all of her life.
Sure, it was awesome to win, especially at something so important to her, but that didn't matter. If Ivory was out and about, that meant the treatments were working, right?
Ebony hoped for that with all of her heart.
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