Taylor Lucas Ward

[Dr. Taylor Ward]

The Basics

Name: Taylor Lucas Ward, DVM
Nicknames: Tay, Tay-Tay, Wiley (THANK YOU NICK), Nick/Nicky (Identical or not, when Mom’s mad, the wrong name sometimes gets yelled)
Age: Twenty Seven
Orientation: Heterosexual
Desired Rank/Job: Newly graduated veterinarian!
Powers: Coyote Shapeshifter – Taylor takes the form of a medium sized, sandy coated coyote when he shifts. This unfortunately triggers muscle spasms and aches, joint pain, and a sense of skittishness directly before and after a shift to and from his natural form. As a coyote he remains skittish around people he doesn’t know, but with those he does he is content to act less like a wild animal and more like a lapdog. He still draws the line at his brother begging to walk him on a leash, however. No amount of hilarity is worth that kind of humiliation.
Play By: Chris Evans

The Details

Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Grey-ish
Any Piercings? None
Any Tattoos? None yet, but he’s debating about getting one
Any Scars? None of any real significance – just a few chicken pox scars from spots he wouldn’t leave alone.

General Appearance: Taylor likes to keep himself neat and tidy, and as he tends to be an early riser, this is reasonably easy to accomplish. Working, he prefers button up shirts, or at the very least a polo shirt – anything with a collar, paired with neat pants. On weekends, he’s willing to dress down a little more into jeans and fitted t-shirts. He is never without his watch, both at work and off duty.

His hair is usually kept short and neat, and it’s not uncommon for him to sport a small layer of facial hair when the mood strikes him. Unlike his brother, he has a much slimmer build due to spending less time working physically, and more time hitting the books. He does stand slightly taller than Nick, however, coming in at 6’2”. The whining he hears about this hardly makes it a big deal in his eyes, nor does the gloating that comes with Nick being stronger. But it’s a big deal to Nick, apparently.

Personality:
Taylor and Nick Ward could not be more different. In contrast with his brother’s endless energy and lack of maturity, Taylor is reserved and calm. Unlike Nick, he isn’t so far laid back, but rather just quieter. He’d rather spend his time at home or in a quiet location outdoors than running around and making mischief. Even when they were young, he was content to sit and read, or be read to, rather than do as Nick did and build towers only to Godzilla them down moments later.

Taylor prides himself on being well mannered, and while he can be reasonably good with people, he often finds he’s better with animals. He spent so long studying and giving up the majority of his social life, getting back into the swing of things is harder than he expected. At least he has his best friend and brother to help him along. … Well, as much help as Nick ever is. After working so hard in school to get where he is now, he has a tendency to slip into workaholic mode, though he’s trying hard to curb that.

By nature, Taylor is extremely loyal, and quite protective of those he holds close. Whether it’s attributed to himself or his coyote counterpart, despite his lack of physical strength, he would throw himself into harm’s way to keep his people safe. Like Nick, this particular move wouldn’t be preceded by thought, but rather motivated by instinct alone.

His competitive drive applies mostly to scholastics, rather than physical competitions, because he knows where his strengths lie. No, he isn’t going to win a wrestling match against Nick no matter how hard he tries or how dirty he fights, but going head to head in a test of mental skill? That’s where he knows he shines, and he works hard to be the clever one in the room. It isn’t always an endearing quality, and he’s well aware of that, but sometimes it’s hard not to try to one up someone when it comes to trivia or simply knowledge.

Your Vices

Likes:
+ Being outside
+ Sunsets and sunrises
+ Animals
+ Toffee
+ Iced coffee
+ Reading
+ Math
+ Sciences (especially chemistry and biology)
+ Cooking
+ Driving
+ Strategy/logic/puzzle games
+ Kids
+ Classic Rock
+ Looking out for others
+ Red velvet anything
+ Oreos

Dislikes:
- Loud people
- Bullies
- Intolerance/ignorant people
- PETA (they’re idiots…)
- The joint pain that comes from shifting
- South Park (don’t even get him started on why)
- Heights
- Social media in general
- Loud noises
- Slapstick comedies
- Swearing/vulgarity
- Raspberries
- Practical jokes
- Failing
- Rap music
- Thunderstorms

Strengths:
+ Very non-squeamish
+ Loyal and protective
+ Studious
+ Keeping calm/level headed in most situations
+ Patient
+ Skilled with his hands
+ Decent cook
+ Bilingual – he took French through middle school and Hammel

Weaknesses:
- Can swing into studyholic/workaholic tendencies
- Red velvet anything – he’ll eat it
- Self confidence, in that he lacks it now he’s out of school and in ‘the real world’
- Nick – his brother can twist his arm into just about anything
- Competative
- Nearsighted, so he needs glasses or contacts almost all the time

Fears:
- Nick permenantly damaging himself beyond what Trevor can heal
- Nick and Trevor being victims of a hate crime because they are in a same sex relationship. Not everyone is accepting.
- Heights
- Being responsible for the death of a patient
- Thunder – particularly loud and close thunder sometimes makes him ‘coyote out’ and triggers an unexpected shift. These unexpected shifts tend to make him much more skittish than normal, and he can often be found hiding under a bed or behind a couch until the storm passes.

Secret:
Sometimes he finds himself comparing himself to Nick, and though he feels bad about it he can’t help but feel that despite Nick’s engagement, he feels like he has his own life together more than Nick does. It makes him feel guilty.

He doesn’t think he will ever live up to his father in his career.

Family Ties

Father: Dr. Thomas Ward, 53, Veterinarian, Canine Communication
Mother: Marnie Ward nee Miller, 52, Homemaker, Telepathy
Siblings: Nicholas Ward, fraternal twin brother
Any Other Important People:Trevor Cunningham -best friend and soon to be brother-in-law

History

Taylor Ward followed fourteen minutes after Nicholas was born to their parents. Always a little smaller and quieter than his twin, the boys were always easy to tell apart, even then they were tiny.

As they grew, Taylor continued to prove himself the quieter, calmer of the boys. While Nick was busy alternating between leeching attention from their mother and building things only to bulldoze them over again, Taylor was content to sit and color, or read when he got old enough. Though he loved being outside with his family, he always found himself at home at their father’s clinic. He quickly grew fascinated watching his father and his associates help fix people’s pets. He was set on what he wanted to do when he grew up from the age of six.

By age ten, he was often at the clinic not to observe, but to volunteer. Cleaning kennels, bathing pets, cleaning tables, he’d do anything to stick around and learn more. His father had already imparted to him that being a vet was a lot of hard work, but the payoff was immense. Taylor was only too happy to comply with the idea of hard work, and buckled down at school.

At age thirteen, Taylor was settled into a routine of school, homework, and on weekends he’d spend time at the clinic, carefully documenting his hours as he went. It was after a long day of cleaning at the clinic that he came home and flopped onto his bed for a quick nap. He was woken up by thunder rumbling outside. He didn’t like the noise at the best of times, but this particular one had hit close to the house, and it not only started him awake, but triggered something else. His body twisted and convulsed painfully until he was standing on four legs and trembling. Terrified, he ran through the house, running into walls and knocking over tables and lamps as he skittered through the halls. His parents finally managed to catch him cowering under the dining room table.

After he was calmed, his body twisted back into human form, leaving him gasping out of pain and terror. His parents explained what had happened, and just two days later a recruiter had come for him.

Taylor found it tough to be away from home and from his family when he first got to Vermont, but after meeting and befriending Trevor Cunningham, things started to look a little better. He even found a local clinic to continue his volunteer hours at. When he wasn’t studying or working at the clinic, he was spending time with his new friends and adjusting to life at Hammel. The solace he found was briefly interrupted by Nick’s manifestation and subsequent arrival to the school, but Taylor found himself happy his twin was around. Sure, he was loud, and hung around his friends, but loud or not, he’d missed his brother.

After graduation from Hammel, Taylor applied to and was accepted into Tufts University, where he did his bachelor’s degree in zoology. Following his completion, he was accepted into the veterinary program, where he threw himself into his studies. His social life may have suffered for it, but he still made time during long weekends to make the drive from Massachusetts to Vermont to spent some time with his brother and his best friend. With them he was able to loosen up a little, but once he was back to school again it was all studying all the time. Though he did casually date a few girls during university, nothing seemed to stick, most of which he tended to blame on himself and his drive to succeed in class.

He finally graduated this past summer (after nine years of post-secondary school, it’s about time!), and after looking around and applying all over the place, he was hired by a small practice in Pilot Ridge as an intern - the same one he put so many volunteer hours into years ago. The position starts soon, giving him time to find a place of his own and time to settle in. While he likes the idea of being close to Nick again, he also knows that the chances of his brother relying on him to help out with his Corgi puppy, or bailing him out of trouble are high. Still, he loves his brother, and he’ll always bail him out. Just… not during working hours.

Roleplay Example

-performs a tap dance in lieu of sample-

What About You?

Name: Mads. Again.
Age: Somewhere between twenty and thirty.
Experience: Nnnghhh… forever and a half.
How Did You Find Us? I built this city! … I helped. … I said yes let’s build a site with superpowers.
Ready To Play? RUN AWAY.

[Admin!]

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