Aberrant: Mutant High - Character - Aradia "Cirque" McConnell

Cirque · March 24, 2010

Name: Aradia McConnell, AKA: Cirque

Concept: Acrobat/Teleporter/Rebel (Nightcrawler/Gambit)

Nature: Gallant

Background: Aradia was raised by parents who worked very, very hard to make sure she had all the advantages. Neither of them were rich people, but her father worked two jobs and her mother worked a job in addition to all the duties of a housewife and active soccer mom. Except, she wasn't a soccer mom, she was a gymnast's mom. Early in life, Aradia's parents were informed by the instructor of a tumbling class they had enrolled their little girl in for physical fitness that she had a natural talent for it, and that if they were smart they'd get her started young. She had the potential to become a professional gymnast. So he referred them to a gymnastics coach, who took a look at the four-year old little girl, told her parents how much it would cost to train her (and that was at a discount, because of her potential), and started her on serious gymnastics training immediately.

From the age of four through the age of eleven, Aradia worked hard - her parents insisted. She had a gift, and it would be an affront to waste it. Like any young gymnast striving for the chance to compete locally, then regionally, then nationally, and hopefully one day internationally, she put in thirty to forty hours a week in training. However, at the age of eleven, tragedy struck - Aradia's parents were killed in a airplane crash on their way to see her at a tournament being held in upstate California. Her coach found out about it before the performance, but like any calculating businessman, decided that it would be best to inform her afterward. She performed beautifully despite her parents absence - she knew they would expect it of her, whether they were there or not. But then she was pulled into an office, and he calmly told her about her parent's death. Aradia responded with shock, and numbness. The idea of her parents being dead was overwhelming to her - they had controlled every aspect of her life, she'd never had anything remotely resembling a choice in what she had chosen to pursue, or how she'd spent her days. It didn't sink in - not really - until her coach spoke again. He assured her that she had serious potential, that in another 3-4 years she could be competing internationally. He knew that with her parents gone she wouldn't necessarily have the money to continue training - but he was offering her a full scholarship, and would continue to train her for free. He knew that if took her to the Olympics in a few years she would be a shoo-in, if he were able to get her ready for it. She was certainly on track, and even if he never made a dime off of her training fees, he would certainly be able to negotiate when it came to endorsement and sponsorship deals. Besides, just the prestige from being coach to an Olympic gymnast of Ari's potential capability would be more than enough reason to do it.

She looked him in the face, and told him no. All these years, she had worked hard at it because her parents had insisted - and she'd been given no real choice. She'd been screamed and yelled at and called ungrateful whenever she'd complained about the time or the pain. She'd had it drilled into her that she owed it to her parents to be successful, because of the sacrifices they'd made for her training. And Aradia loved gymnastics. But she hated to compete. That wasn't what she cared about. The scores the judges gave out were half based on skill and half on politics - who liked what coach or who they thought had the right "look" to be a professional gymnast. It was hell, and she'd always despised it. So she told him no. She endured his shock and his reproach and his lecture and his screaming. But when he went to hit her, that was enough. She ran out of the office, and found someone else official. She told them the situation, and after much legalities, it was determined that Aradia's parents - as much foresight as they'd had in regards to their child's future gymnastics career - had never considered their own mortality. There was no will. There was a small inheritance, just the amount of the home they had owned and the life support her father had taken out, but all of their excess money had gone into Aradia's training. Her uncle - her father's brother, and the owner and operator of a traveling circus - was contacted. He was Aradia's only living relative, and it now fell to him to take care of her, or she would become a ward of the state.

Well, her uncle was hesitant about it at first. After all, he was a businessman. And while his primary business was the circus, there was plenty of opportunity to expand on your income when your business is the type that involves lots of strangers wandering around distracted and having fun, and a venue that picks up and moves every few days. Most of his crew were trained performers, but he had plenty of people on hand who were well skilled in the subtle arts of lightening people's pockets and other such methods as well. So the idea of having a young girl around wasn't all that appealing. But he decided to meet the girl and make a decision from there. And meeting her was all it took. Aradia was nothing like her father, and exactly like him at that age. Away from the stifling influence of parents whose love for her was exceeded only by what they demanded from her, she was mischievous and playful. She had a sense of humor, but as a result of years of dedicated training and focus she was far too practiced at acting mature to be able to revert very easily back to the natural silliness of most children. He couldn't help it - she was incorrigible, and he loved it. He took her in, and began a homeschooling program as they traveled to keep her up in her schoolwork (otherwise the courts might very well take her away). Once he got the full story out of her and saw what she could do as a gymnast, he also offered her the chance to become an acrobat. She would have to abide by child-labor laws limiting her work schedule (he didn't like drawing any unnecessary attention to his setup), and it was entirely her decision. She jumped at the chance. It was the opportunity to perform the gymnastics she loved, and to revel in the attentions of the crowd, without it ever being scored or judged. She adjusted to the differences between gymnastics and acrobatics beautifully, and in no time she was soaring through the air on the trapeze. She was taken in under the wings of different acrobats who treated her as a younger sister. She became friends with some of the slightly older performers, the teenagers and those in their early twenties, as well as a handful of other younger kids around the place whose parents were involved in the shows. From them, she picked up some of the more illicit sides of the business as well, mostly how to lift things from people and a little bit of info about where to get rid of interesting things you'd picked up along the way.

By the age of fifteen, Aradia was becoming a favorite performer, and one of their most skilled acrobats. Her and three of the other acrobats - two brothers name Jake and Peter and a young woman named Mary, had been working on a really complex trick, something original and unique to wow the audiences with. But while performing the trick during a last-minute rehearsal, tragedy struck again. This time, Aradia was prepared, though she didn't know it. The timing of the throw was just a moment off, and through Aradia and Mary crossed through the air properly, her fingers missed Jake's by a couple inches as Mary missed Peter's grip entirely. The young gymnast could feel herself falling towards the net and she heard Mary's scream, and she braced herself for the impact against the soft mesh. But then she heard a horrifying sound - the sound of fabric ripping as Mary hit a weak spot in the old net and it tore underneath her weight, sending her into another thirty foot drop. Aradia vanished in mid-air, blinking out of existence and reappearing just behind Mary. She grabbed the other acrobat's hand and managed to catch a foot in the torn netting, and that was the first time her abilities surfaced.

As quickly as the carnies had accepted her, their opinions changed. She had some supporters, but they were few and far between. Fights broke out between her uncle's workers between those who sought to defend her, and those who dubbed her a freak. Not only that, but with Ari's unnatural glowing eyes she could no longer perform, it was too dangerous. So her uncle did some research, and contacted Director Drumm, who was more than happy to take the young acrobat in. She's been at the school ever since, for about two years now.

Click to reveal.. (Aradia's Sheet)

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Aberrant: Mutant High - Character - Aradia "Cirque" McConnell

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