Ilonda McCoy {Complete}
Oct 12, 2014 15:31:20 GMT -5
Post by Ilonda McCoy on Oct 12, 2014 15:31:20 GMT -5
The easy S T U F F . . .Name: Ilonda Rose McCoy
Nickname: --
Age: Sixteen years
Member Group: Student
Power(s):
Bio Growth: Ilonda can grow plants over her skin, limited to flowering plants such as the violet, the gardenia, or even the dandelion. The plants grow at a vastly accelerated rate, achieving full maturity in seconds; however, they also die quicker, usually within a day. Once grown, Ilonda must wait until they wither and fall off on their own. She can attempt to pull them out, but that can be painful.
Side Effects: Growing the plants can take up a lot of her energy, especially the larger varieties, and will continue to drain her energy and nutrients for as long as they remain alive. Ilonda may also find spontaneous plant growth once in a while, usually overnight, though thankfully these are the smaller, less intrusive kind, like small wild flowers. Plant growth can cause itching. Perhaps worst of all, they also attract insects.
Accelerated Plant Growth: Ilonda can induce plants of the flowering variety, off and on her body, to grow quicker, at any stage of the plant's life.
Side Effects: It also takes up her energy. The plants die quicker, as well.
Play By: Ajiona AlexusLet it F L O W . . .
Her sister walks her home from school. They used to hold hands, when they were small, but now they’re too old. Ilonda is almost in the sixth grade; Deandra is in the seventh. “I had to tell the teacher my name’s Eye-londa, again.”
“She call you Ill-londa?” Deandra asked.
“Yeah.”
“Just like Eye-llinois,” Deandra went on.
Ilonda smiled.
Her sister nudged her arm. “Like eye-legal.”
“I’ll eye-legal you,” Ilonda said, shoving her arm in turn.
***
Ilonda sat outside on the porch, her head buried in her hands. She thought she’d curl up into nothingness, so that she’d disappear inside herself, like a black hole, if only her spine would bend and her ribs would cave. She almost doesn’t notice her sister Deandra put a hand on her shoulder. Even then, she didn’t look up.
“Ilonda, why didn’t you tell anyone?” she said.
Because Deandra’s always been the strong one, the bold one. It was in Ilonda’s nature to keep things in, until she couldn’t take it anymore. If it had been her sister who’d grown these strange powers, instead, then it would have been better for everyone; no one would have to wait until Institute officials showed up at their door to know. Ilonda just shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said.
"How long's it been?"
"I don't know - a few days." Ilonda shook her head. "Four, five, or something like that. It was last week."
“Well, what is it?”
Ilonda lifted her head. She swallowed, sniffed, and held out her hand. There was something blooming on it: a bud, slowly growing, opening to enwreathe veils of violet petals. It was the most perfect little thing you could imagine. Her sister stared. What would she think of the roots, underneath her skin like veins of blood?
“Girl, what’re you gonna do with those?” Deandra said. “You gonna fight crime with roses growing out your arms? You gonna give them a bouquet? What about the laser beams out your eyes? You can’t do none of that?”
Ilonda’s face cracked, and she laughed. She laughed so hard she cried.
***
Going to Hammel was her first time away from home, outside of Richmond. It was so different here. They only had old buildings in Richmond: small, tight, crumbling, no air conditioner. What would they say in her old neighborhood, if she told them what it was like here? It was like going to a private school. Her grades weren’t good enough for a private school. They were okay, they were passable. They weren’t the kind that thrived in a grand old place like this.
“Do you listen to rap?” Someone asked her.
“Can I touch your hair?” They say.
She tells someone she’s from northern Richmond. “My friends all say I’m ghetto on the inside.”
Each time, she wrinkles her nose. Ilonda doesn’t talk to many people here, only a few. But the teachers are nice – they tell her parents that they think she is kind and studious.
***
Ilonda spent so much time away from her sister, but they were still so close. Every summer and every break Ilonda regales her tales of her time at the school, and Deandra does the same.
This time, it’s different. Deandra’s changed. She’s growing thin, and she says that her treatment will make her bald. The news rocks her world, shatters her.
Her pastor hands her a rosary after service. There’s one for her sister too, of course, but this one is just for her. “I will pray for you every day, too. You will be her anchor, and through God’s light, she will be healed. You are both good Christians, you and Deandra. God will know that.”
Ilonda wrapped her hand about the rosary. Its beads press into her fingers; she bows her head and clutches them to her chest. “Thank you.”
***
When Deandra is taken to her new room, she found it full of flowers. Roses of every kind: black, yellow, cream, red, white. Violets, her favorite, peeking from the right corner of the room. Daisy stalks climb up to the ceiling and droop their heavy heads. Tiger lilies, tulips, forget-me-nots. The hospital room was a bloom of color. Ilonda’s bright smile matches her sister’s when she sees it.
“Oh, Ilonda, it’s beaaaautiful,” she said.
“I found ‘em. I bought ‘em, and I took ‘em here.”
“It must have took you all morning.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she responded. “Sooner or later, they got to take them all out.”
***
“Deandra, what’s the use of this?”
Her sister looks so thin, and so weak, but it’s Ilonda that’s weeping. Deandra’s always been the stronger one.
“Why’s God give me this power if I can’t use it to save you?” she wailed.
Her sister’s hand lays limply on the sheets. “There’s nothing that can help me, Ilonda,” she said. Except God, she usually said, but it’s left out this time.
They held hands like they used to when they were kids, for a long time.
***
A few weeks later, Ilonda packed her suitcases. She’d taken a few weeks off the Institute, because of her sister’s illness, but the toll the sickness had taken on her extended even beyond that. To them, it was only writing on a paper, a couple of signatures, and some failing grades...just another year. Ilonda had lost contact with the friends she’d had here since she was thirteen.
Starting next year, she’d be building from the ground up.Behind the M A S K . . .Name: Day
Age: 20s
RP Experience: long time
How did you find us?: RaeShow your S K I L L S . . .***Ilonda beats up a nerd and swims 10 miles****
