Tessa

Levinson, Tessa

Gender: Female

Age: 26

Weapon: None

Love Interest: None

Orientation: Uninterested, though if she must choose then either is fine.

Appearance: Tessa stands about 5'6 and weighs 120 pounds. Her wavy hair is a deep red color and hangs just below her shoulders if left down, though she usually puts it in a ponytail on the back of her head. Her bangs are a hot mess, left to hang as they please no matter the hairstyle. Her eyes are also red in color, and often look towards a clock just to watch time pass in disinterest. On each earlobe is a ruby stud earring and her fingernails are painted red to match the rubies. A stark look of discontent is always upon her face, openly displaying her displeasure with life. Rarely does it change. When not on the school grounds, it's not often that you see Tessa without a cigarette between her lips, lit or not. She prefers button up blouses with long sleeves and dress pants or a sweater and jeans. A lot of the time she looks as though she hasn't slept in a few days. She has a white pocket lighter.

Personality: Tessa is quite obviously a troubled soul. She doesn't show too much interest in anything, and her face seems to be stuck in a constant state of bored out of her mind. She spends a lot of her free time reading or wandering aimlessly around the city. Most nights she spends a lot of time laying in bed and staring at her alarm clock, getting only an hour or two of sleep. She chain smokes and, even when not smoking, she's often got an unlit cigarette between her lips. Her explanation for this is that she's used to the feeling of it there. The exception to this being when she's on the school grounds, of course.

Tessa also seems to be a very unpredictable person. While her outside emotions don't usually change from the default bored, she does preform actions and say things that indicate anger or sorrow. For example, she may occasionally knock something over in her house when she walks by it, or curl up and hug her knees when she's alone. Often times she makes decisions on a whim, without really saying anything about it. She may, for example, just go train out of the blue. While some of these decisions are simple, others are rather important decisions that are made very brashly.  

Being depressed as she is, it can often be hard to work with Tessa. Her lack of motivation or general interest in anything makes carrying a conversation with her hard. Yeah, she'll answer any question you have, but she won't usually ask you anything back, making the talk very one sided. Despite this she does care about the well being of her students, and if asked for help with anything, she'll usually provide it. If a student is failing her class for some reason, she will consult them. She also encourages students to ask her if they need a training partner, though the motivation on that is a selfish desire for combat.

History:
Early Years
For starters, Tessa was born into a pretty bad life. She grew up in a bad city in Pennsylvania. When her father wasn't in jail, he was stealing to keep the family afloat. Meanwhile her mother was drinking away what little money they did have. Ironically, her father died the victim of a brutal mugging when she was three, and her mother seemed like she couldn't care less. Unable to keep a job due to her alcoholic tendencies, her mother soon lost the house when Tessa was four. Of course, Tessa was blamed for this, and was often reminded by her mother that it was "her fault" they had no house. Eventually, at age six, Tessa was taken away from her mother and put into foster care by the local police. She hasn't heard from her mother since.

Spending a lot of time in the foster system, Tessa never really had a place. When she turned twelve, she gave up on waiting for a home and decided to run off. In the cover of night, she took what she could stuff in a back-pack and fled. It was a hard life, but she managed another two years on the streets by sleeping in abandoned buildings and other odd places. During this time, she took a page from her father's book by stealing food and clothes to get by. She fell into a pretty bad crowd that prompted her to take up smoking as a pass-time, giving her another reason to steal.

A Sudden Change
Tessa's life changed when she was fourteen. One night, while Tessa was trying to fall asleep in a dirty old house for rent, she heard something upstairs and realized that she wasn't alone. Realization turned to panic as footsteps came down the steps. The man who came down was by no means a human. Yes, he looked like it, but the look in his eye, and the knife in his hand... That told her instantly... He was a killer. She would have ran, if he hadn't grabbed her by the hood of her jacket. She struggled, managing to avoid the man's attacks. Eventually tearing her hood and running out across the street, she was cornered when she tried to run between two houses, only to hit a tall fence. Just when she thought he had her trapped, she was saved. A girl wielding a spear came to her rescue, knocking the man off balance and ending him, leaving only a small red orb in his place.

It was that girl and her living spear who truly saved Tessa. This is because, after a little questioning, they took Tessa back with them to their school, the Death Weapon-Meister Academy. There Tessa was given a bath, taught to fight, and even sent to school. This was truly a new experience, and things began to look up. The once broken girl was opening up and making friends. Pretty soon she even met her weapon partner, a young man named Adam who could turn into a halberd. The two worked together and, when Tessa was fifteen, they were allowed to go on missions.

Risk and Reward
Things went pretty smoothly for a time after that. Adam and Tessa went on a few missions and found that they were pretty good at it. Tessa's fighting style was always kind of reckless, but she was good at thinking on her feet, so they always made it out just fine. With time, Tessa began to study wavelength properties. She developed a half-baked soul menace, though it wasn't very practical for using in battle yet. Adam and Tessa later achieved their first resonance, which really sped up soul hunting. Teachers were excited when they realized that Adam was halfway to becoming a Death Scythe.

A couple times they were injured, or failed a mission, but they'd get back up and head out to the next one. Finally, they had them all. The ninety-nine souls. The witch mission was all that was left. With that soul, Adam would be a Death Scythe, and Tessa would have a weapon to be feared. By now, Tessa was seventeen. It had been a rough life, but this would make up for all of it. There was NO way they could mess this up. It was just one witch, no Kishin Eggs, no Dark Weapons. One witch.

One Witch
The mission was a go. The pair was never more ready than in this moment. Together, they made their way into the witch's layer, a small chapel stationed in the middle of nowhere, Europe. Sure enough, the witch was in there, and wasted no time launching an attack on the pair. Taking the battle into the field outside, Tessa quickly found that this witch easily outclassed every Kishin Egg they had ever fought. Something was off though... She hadn't used any magic, only the sword in her hand... What was up?

The battle drug on for quite a long time, and Tessa was losing. She showed signs of fatigue, and even the witch could see now, Tessa was afraid. They were on the defensive, and even Adam was beginning to show signs of weakness. Then it happened. One strike ended the fight. One strike that Tessa blocked with Adam's handle. The witch had mumbled some words, and the sword's blade had began to glow. Tessa held Adam up to prevent the downward swing that followed. A fatal mistake. The witch's blade hit the handle and with a mighty snap, the handle broke in two, spraying a torrent of red and blurring the traumatized girl's vision. As Tessa hunched on the ground, crying over Adam's broken form, the witch told her that it wasn't worth killing someone so pathetic looking. On that whim, the witch left, leaving Tessa alone in the blood-stained grass with her partner's soul and shattered form...

Rebuilding
Tessa stopped trying after that. She once again turned to smoking, her grades dropped to the bare minimum to graduate, her attendance went down, and she worried Teachers. After awhile, she picked her self up for the most part. She spent a year working part time around the city to support an apartment. At age nineteen she was contacted by a man who told her she was gaining an inheritance from her grandfather on her mother's side. It was supposed to go to her mother, but her mother had died last year. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough for her to get herself through college.

With that, she spent four years in college to become an English teacher. She figured since she spent a lot of time reading that she may as well teach people about the language. She mostly kept to herself through college, and spent a lot of time honing her skills from her time at the academy, even managing a full soul menace. Despite no longer being a meister, she had begun to miss it, causing her life to further lose it's shine. When she graduated college at twenty five, she determined that it best suited her to look for work with the school. She was hired, and now at age twenty six, she teaches some of the English classes at the DWMA. While she hasn't gone back to working in the field yet, she still trains herself, hinting that she's still interested. Tessa's currently living alone in a two bedroom apartment in the residential district.

Abilities:
Combat Training - Tessa is highly adept at fighting both bare handed and with pole-arm weapons. While she prefers a halberd or a scythe, pole-axes, spears, and other weapons of the sort can easily be adjusted to.

Natural Physical Ability - Without any of the abilities from the Rose-Colored resonance line, Tessa can lift around 400 pounds with effort, and run at a speed of around 25 mph. While large numbers, they are still just barely on the edge of human limits.

Utility Meister - Tessa is a type 1 and 2 Utility Meister. Because she's trained her wavelength while attempting to learn Soul Menace, Tessa's wavelength is more accepting of adjustment to others'. This allows her to wield twin weapons at the same time or use a weapon that she may not know very well.

Soul Menace - Tessa can use a full Soul Menace. This means she is able to channel her wavelength into her palm to create a "lightning" effect and strike with a convulsive force. If hit, even a weapon in their weapon form will take damage, seeing as this attacks your soul along with your physical form. If needed, she could also use it to hold off weak soul resonance attacks with her hands, but this takes a lot of effort and it's easier to just dodge them most of the time.

Special Technique: Rose-Colored World - When Tessa gets excited, angry, or upset in a fight from now on, her wavelength will become red in color. This will turn things like the sparks from her Soul Menace red. Currently, this has no effect on the abilities or her power output, and is believed to be the basis for a future ability. Tessa is now capable of activating this mechanic on a whim. Formerly no use, this ability now seems to be the source of Tessa's rapid growth. While using Rose-Colored World, Tessa's wavelength coats her soul in a red layer, which seems to be what makes self-resonating second nature to Tessa now. She also seems to use her wavelength to augment her physical capabilities, which is what appears to give her the exceptional physical capacity she displays. This must be active to use any Rose-Colored Technique. When this is active, Tessa's eyes glow red now.

Special Technique: Rose-Colored Blade - When this ability is activated, Tesa's forearm is engulfed in a red light, this being her wavelength. It will run from her elbow to her fingertips, and come to a bladed point. Being dense wavelength, it can be used to protect her arm from attacks, essentially turning her arm into a sword. Blocking with this blade is still risky, as a hard enough attack could break through the wavelength and damage or even sever Tessa's arm. Tessa's blade now extends one foot from her fingertips.

Special Technique: Rose-Colored Twin - Tessa is capable of generating a single clone from her wavelength. It appears identical to her, however to those with Soul Perception, it clearly lacks a soul. This clone will act independently from Tessa, even going so far as to attack the enemy. It is not, however, tangible, therefore it cannot attack or be attacked. A wavelength attack will make it vanish, anything else will go right through it. Tessa can maintain this clone for three posts before she has to wait three posts to use it again. If it is destroyed, she must wait 5 posts to use it again.

Special Technique: Rose-Colored Step - Tessa's speed and agility are augmented to the extreme, easily causing her to "vanish" to the untrained eye. When this is active, the bottoms of Tessa's feet seem to glow with an odd red color. Cannot be used at the same time as Rose-Colored Fist.  Tessa can use this ability for 5 posts before both this and Rose-Colored Fist go onto a cool down for the same amount of posts it was used.


Special Technique: Rose-Colored Fist - Tessa's strength is augmented to the extreme, easily allowing her to throw a car if she so pleases. When this is active, Tessa's hands seem to glow with an odd red color. Cannot be used at the same time as Rose-Colored Step. Tessa can use this ability for 5 posts before both this and Rose-Colored Step go onto a cool down for the same amount of posts it was used.

Miscellaneous:
Tessa will speak in red.

Tessa's inspiration and theme song is "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" by Set It Off.

The witch that killed Tessa's partner was later hunted and killed by DWMA staff.

Have You Read the Rules?
"Come with me, overwhelming power and madness await."

As of 8/12/2016, this character is in perfect compliance with the current rules.

If she teaches though, dearie, can she be moved to the Death Scythes & Teachers section?

Elsewise, if you plan on dropping/deactivating this character, please let me know and/or add the appropriate tag to his CS title. Thank you. :)