ₙₒ ᵣₑₜᵤᵣₙ ₙₒ ᵣₑₐₛₒₙ

OOC INFO
Name/Handle: Amanda
Pronouns: she/her
Contact: phurbur
Reserve?: Yes.

IC INFO
Name: Taissa Turner
Journal: doomcame 
Canon: Yellowjackets
Age: Early 40s
Species: Human

Canon Point: Season 2, Episode 4 "Old Wounds" (immediately after recovering the file from Jessica Roberts)
Condition: Taissa suffers from both dissociate fugues and hallucinations that first began after surviving the plane crash of Flight 2525. The former usually take place in the form of sleepwalking episodes. She will assume her arrival in game is the result of one of these episodes. Other than being stressed and exhausted, she is in good physical health.

History: (See wiki https://yellowjackets.fandom.com/wiki/Taissa_Turner for reference and further canon after Season 2, episode 4)

Taissa "Tai" Turner was from the town of Wiskayok, New Jersey.

In 1996, Taissa was in her senior year at Wiskayok High School and the star center mid-fielder on the WHS Yellowjackets girls' soccer team. After winning the state championships, the team was set to proceed to the U.S. nationals championship in Seattle, WA.

The team boarded a private plane to fly cross country from New Jersey to Washington state. They'd never make it. Instead, the plane crashed far off course in the Canadian wilderness. They would be forced to resort to nightmarish things in order to survive, including cannibalism. It changed their lives forever. They were not rescued for 19 months.

Back home, Taissa tried to continue the romance she had started with Vanessa "Van" Palmer while they were lost but it did not work out. Taissa finished high school and attended Howard University. She went pre-law and double-majored in history and philosophy. She made first string on the soccer team, dated a bunch of beautiful women, and graduated first in her class. At some point she became a vegetarian. Afterward, she went to Columbia Law and interned at one of the biggest firms in NYC.

She went on to have a lucrative career as a lawyer before taking a pay cut to run for New Jersey Senate in 2021. From the outside, she appeared to have a perfect life with her wife of 15 years Simone and their son Sammy.

During her campaign, Taissa hired a "fixer" to pose as a journalist in order to investigate the remaining survivors to see if anyone has or would talk about the details of their stay in the wilderness. She also threatened to destory the reputation of her opponent and his daughter if he continued to use ads that alluded to rumors of cannibalism that had occured before their rescue. She even turned down a wealthy donor who she believed could turn her whole campaign around because the woman tried to insist upon getting the truth about her past trauma before supporting her.

The stress of her struggling political campaign was only made worse with personal problems at home. Busy working, Tai missed a parent-teacher conference in which her wife was told that their son was having trouble making friends at school. She also found a number of unsettling drawings covering his window. When she asked why he put them there, he told her that a woman has been hiding in a tree and watching him at night. When she took him out to the playground, he hit another boy for calling his mom a "cannonball" even though he didn't realize that he actually said "cannibal". The word "SPILL" was next found written across her door in red paint and she happened upon the paint can and brush hidden beneath Sammy's bed. When questioned, he blamed the woman in the tree. With her son seeming to be so troubled and her spending all of her time working with no success in sight, Taissa promised Simone to drop out of the race to focus on family.

She couldn't bring herself to do it, however. At the last minute, instead of announcing her withdrawal, she showed the paint on her door to the press and blamed the vandalism on her opponents. Simone is very upset at her afterwards.

To add another complication to her life, Taissa and the other Yellowjackets had received ominous postcards in the mail followed by a text trying to blackmail the women for $50,000 or they'd reveal their secrets. Taissa had to meet with fellow survivors Shauna and Natalie to make a plan. While Natalie got the money, Taissa attended a therapy session with Sammy and Simone upon Simone's assistance. The therapist suggested that perhaps Sammy was incapable of remembering the things they've accused of him, but Taissa blew her off and remained distracted by the blackmail.

Before the three women could drop off the money to the blackmailer that night, Taissa suddenly found herself standing next to the tree in front of her house covered in dirt and blood. She realized that she had been Sammy's woman in tree the entire time. During her 19 months in the wilderness, Taissa had begun to sleepwalk in strange and unusual ways and for the first time since then she realized that she was doing it again. When she cleaned herselfup and met with the other women, they attempted to catch the blackmailer in action but he unfortunately got away and with the money.

Taissa then visited Shauna at home and confided in her that the sleepwalking episodes were happening again. Shauna allowed her to spend the night and stayed with her to make sure that she'd be okay, just as she had once done for her back in the woods. The two bonded for the first time in years. The next night, Tai returned to Simone and told her about the sleepwalking for the first time. Simone was initially very supportive but Taissa still insisted that Simone and Sammy stay with relatives because she was afraid she'd hurt them.

When she received a call from Shauna that the blackmailer had been caught, she and Natalie met with Shauna in the apartment of Adam Martin. Shauna told them that he had been her affair partner and when she discovered his role in the blackmail, there was a confrontation leading to Shauna killing him in self-defense as he tried to attack her. Natalie called in fellow survivor Misty to help them dispose of the body and clean the crime scene. Following the gruesome deeds of the day, the women still managed to make an appearance together at their 25th high school reunion that night. Taissa would do nothing if not keep up appearances.

The next day the results of the election were announced. In a surprise upset, Taissa won. She would be the first black woman to be elected to the New Jersey state senate. While Taissa was celebrating with her staff, Simone stopped by the house to pick up some of their things. She found blood on a grate in their basement that led her to crawlspace full of horror. Taissa's dissociated self had constructed a shrine consisting of candles, their son's favorite doll with an eye poked out, the severed head and heart of their missing family dog, and a symbol only familiar to the crash survivors written in blood on the wall.

Hoping to surprise Sammy with a new dog adopted from a shelter, Taissa showed up to his school unannounced to pick him up. Simone intervened frantically and told Tai she had found "the thing" in the basement. She threatened Tai by saying if she didn't step down from office and get help, Simone would go to the press and Tai would never see Sammy again. When she got home, Taissa found the basement shrine for herself and was terrified at what she had done without knowing it.

In a desperate attempt to stay awake from then on, Taissa began to pound espressos, exercise, take pills, whatever she could. In the midst of this, Sammy had surprised her by showing up at house during school hours. Taissa called Simone to come and get Sammy but he disappeared when she arrived. The two drove around looking for him, only for the principal to call and say that he'd been in her office the entire time. Taissa hallucinated her interactions with her son. Simone reiterated to Taissa that she needs to get serious help and something seemed to come over Taissa. She swerved the car and caused a truck to crash into the passenger side.

In the hospital, Taissa continued to hallucinate both Simone and Sammy talking to her until she is awakened by a nurse. She had been sitting at Simone's bedside and drew the symbol from the wilderness on her wife's hand without realizing it. She scrubbed it off once no one was looking. In the restroom, Taissa witnessed her reflection moving without her, gesturing towards her face, and mouthing words she couldn't understand. After speaking with her campain manager in the waiting room, Taissa borrowed her car and left for the apartment of her fixer/investigator Jessica Roberts.

The next thing she would remember felt surreal and as if she was entirely outside her body. She watched herself search for a certain file inside the apartment.

The next place she would come around to would be... (in game!)


Personality:

Pros:
[Leader.] The positive side to her need for control, Taissa has shown herself to be a strong leader. She's decisive and projects strength. While possessing empathy, she manages to be stern and ready to push people forward if need be. She's a firm believer in teamwork and keeping the peace. Whether on the soccer field, surviving in the woods, or navigating politics, other people look to her for guidance. In the wilderness, she was never afraid to speak her mind and suggest plans for the good of the group. She led them away from the wreckage site to the lake for fresh water. She tried to lead a small scouting group south for help before they were attacked by wolves.

[Determined and driven.] She's very goal-oriented. Ambitious and eager for success, Taissa sets her eyes on a prize and then achieves it. Her life may feel surreal at times but she has done almost everything she's set out to do. Her recent political win is only one example of this.

[Observant.] Taissa has a keen eye and a sharp mind. She was the first one to realize Shauna was pregnant in the wilderness when the girl wasn't getting her menstrual period along with the others. Her only major blind spot seems to be for herself and the mysterious things she does while in her fugue states.

[Capacity for kindness.] She does possess a soft side. Tai is a loving wife and mother. She wants to protect her family. She shows herself to be a caring friend to Shauna and is repeatedly supportive throughout their time in the wild. She bonds with multiple other girls while lost, and is to quote Akilah: "not that much of a bitch." She also pays for Natalie's stays in rehab after the survivors are rescued.

Cons:
[Perfectionist.] The need for control has its downsides. Taissa is an overchiever, and sometimes pushes herself further than she should to reach her goals. She's a workaholic. She misses family events for work. The stress of running for senator is presumably what brought back the hallucinations and fugue states first revealed to her after the crash. She got greedy and reached for too much while trying to maintain a picture-perfect life. And she's too proud to seek out help for her trauma or acknowledge her son's until it becomes too big of a problem to ignore.

[Skeptic.] Taissa believes in logic. She openly rejects any of the supernatural beliefs that the other girls begin to develop in the woods. She refuses to believe in ghosts, bad vibes, gods or demonic presences, luck, or anything that she can't explain.

[Capacity for ruthlessness.] Taissa is dangerous. Even aside from her "other" self that comes out during her sleepwalking episodes, there is a darkness inside of her that she has trouble acknowledging. She contests that she only accidentally slammed into team mate Allie and broke her leg, despite voicing that the freshman was the weakest link on the team and needed to be either frozen out or aggressively discouraged before nationals. She also believes one needs to hit back when they need to, as seen when she threatens to ruin the family of her political opponent when he jeopardizes her campaign and image. She's willing to lie. She's willing to resort to less than lawful means when she needs to. She's a friend who will help hide a body. And most concerning, she will do whatever it takes to survive.

[Marked by her trauma.] Taissa's need to maintain appearances has led her to deny any form of psychiatric help for the trauma she has developed since the crash. She hallucinates. She sees wolves, a man with no eyes, her son and her wife where they are not, and her reflection moving in ways that it could not. She enters fugue states that may be the haven of a separate personality altogether. She performs actions that cannot be easily explained by sleepwalking alone such as eating dirt, climbing trees, and speaking. She reveals these troubles only to those that she trusts the most to understand her.

Inventory: Taissa arrives with only the clothes on her back and her jewelry (a pair of earrings and her wedding ring). Anything else was in her purse or car and is therefore lost. 

Powers/Abilities: None. Although her other self seems to be innately and inexplicably drawn to a symbol that her group found while stranded in the wilderness.

TDM Sample: Here. I can also link to her tag-outs if necessary.