metemmods

Player Information
» Name: Kate
» Age: 28
» Journal: No personal journal
» Contact: rahne8 on aim.

Deity Information
» Pantheon: Egyptian (eschewing all her Semitic aspects).
» Deity: Astarte
» Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte#Astarte_in_Egypt
http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=75 http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/astarte.htm

And this excerpt: http://books.google.com/books?id=YxKlRxXsY58C&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=astarte+egypt&source=bl&ots=qCMRW7yWfL&sig=eLdlwk1En-4JsjZkm0uA_qPXhSk&hl=en&ei=ljJsToHFKsTZgQep4YnqBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCEQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=astarte%20egypt&f=false

» Divine Family: Ra: Father Anat; Sister. Seth: Husband

» Mythology:
The Egyptian Astarte was a goddess of battle, often symbolized by crossed arrows on a shield, and pictured with horns on her head.

She was a daughter of Ra (although sometimes it was claimed it was Ptah, but this was a common enough problem) closely associated with horses and the cutting-edge military technology of war chariots. She and her twin sister, Anat, were often said to watch over the chariots of the pharoahs and 'delight' in their skills with the technology.

One of Astarte's most notable incidents in Egyptian myth is when the goddess Neith, in determining that Horus should rule Egypt and not Seth, instructs Ra to award his daughters, the war-goddesses Astarte and Anat as 'consolation prizes' to Seth along with added lands. Seth was not willing to settle for this at all and continued the legal battle for quite some time, ignoring the brides for years.

Anat and Astarte were said to have become pregnant by Seth but miscarried or otherwise not given birth, that their 'wombs were closed.' (Possibly not completely surprising for wives of a god whose attributes included infertility) And yet statuary was often shown of Astarte with a child, much in the same style as Isis, and she was said to have a Sphinx-headed son named Hauron who protected herds.

Another myth involves a primeval sea monster named Yamm, who continuously demanded more and more tribute from the gods of Egypt in order not to destroy the land. Astarte was entreated by the fertility goddess Renenutet to bring tribute and placate him. Astarte brought the treasures to the shore and presented them in a dance. Rather than be calmed, Yamm demanded her as well. The other gods, still concerned about Yamm and glad he wasn't after anyone more important, provided a dowry, but Seth -- apparently more interested in his minor brides once they were going to be taken away -- challenged Yamm and defeated him to reclaim Astarte.

Character Information
» Played By: Pauley Perrette
» Journal:

littlebithorny
» Current Name: Tara Davison
» Birthdate: 08/13/1987
» Height: 5'9"
» Distinguishing Marks: Pigtails and several tattoos
» Family: Parents: John and Dorothy Davison, Marital Status: single
Siblings: Benji, Bart, Susie, and Sara
Children: Meriset Davison Fizzini by Seth ((UPDATED))
Pets: Rex the kingsnake.
» Occupation: Weapons engineer, vocational hacker.
» Currently Residing In: New York City

» Ability: Astarte possesses immense technological genius focused on weapons construction and innovation. This mostly involves replicating and modifying various types of personal firearms when given the right materials. In normal circumstances, Tara is a pretty good engineer. If the project has any relation to weapons, she becomes a very good engineer and craftswoman.

UDPATED ABILITIES: Astarte will go from 'gifted weapons engineer' to 'mad scientist,' essentially. Give her some material, and she will make cutting edge tricked-out stuff. Oh, and improved hand-eye coordination. No longer embarrassed about being the goddess of the crossed arrows and a horrifically bad shot.

» History: This is Astarte's very first reincarnation..

Born into a lower-middle-class Southern family, the second-youngest of five children, Tara had an okay childhood. Her parents had gambling problems and wouldn't accept help for them, which lead to Issues, the kind Tara hid in her room to avoid. The happy times as a family were when they took her hunting or to the racetrack. Guns and horses and statistics just appealed to her.

There was no way all five kids were going to fancy colleges. When Tara got a scholarship at Columbia, they couldn't even afford to give her room-and-board or books-and-fees money. Tara packed up and moved to New York anyway. When she needed more cash than work-study could provide? Thanks to her parents, she knew all about playing the ponies.
And she knew that the place to be, soon as one could, wasn't placing the bets, but running the book. She got mildly tangled up in the very local gambling scene, dealing with a very minor member of one of the crime families, as she pursued her engineering studies. It was around this same time that memories started resurfacing. As she became more aware of her old self he found herself more and more interested in working on weapons-based engineering projects: including replicating a notorious device she'd read about known as the Zappo -- a cigarette lighter which doubles as a gun, capable of firing three small-calibre rounds.
She ended up having to use that little project during a meeting with her gambling contact when someone else meeting him got ugly. The troublemaker's injuries weren't fatal, and the mobster wasn't exactly impressed by 21-year-old Tara's combat skills, but he had to know where she got a weaponzied cigarette lighter. When he found out she'd made it herself, things got interesting. And Lucrative.

Before she knew it, she was putting herself through the remainder of college and her master's degree as an in-house arms-dealer, building and refining everything from guns to computer viruses and protection therefrom out of her little workshop in the back of one of the organization's many cover offices.

She's worked her way up in the organization a little, and although her immediate supervisor doesn't know she knows, she's seen the orders, and the files even on the local network, and she's aware that she's an employee of Aldo Fizzini.
And it's funny, because Aldo seems familiar, from the stuff she remembers when she lies awake and misses having horns. Yeah, the guy she remembered wouldn't settle for anything less than a criminal empire. Maybe a few other kind of empires, too.

Tara got an e-mail the other day. She's been checking out the site, but she's not posting yet. First she wants to talk to the Boss, and see what he has to say about it.

» Personality: Tara's most striking quality is her enthusiastic energy. She is perhaps the perkiest mafia arms dealer around.
From an unladylike naked-horned charioteer, she is now an unladylike geeky-goth-girl. She loves animals -- often treating her pet snake like a baby, and cooing likewise over many other creatures she encounters, saying that if she never manages to settle down and have kids, she'll be a 'crazy cat/bird/reptile lady' instead -- and takes great joy in her work.

Tara is, as she ever was, a total high-tech junkie. Not only does she make the newest, shiniest, things that attack other things or people, but she checks the HubbleSite gallery every day for the coolest pictures of the cosmos and squeals when it was pretty.

She doesn't often have cause to use the weapons she makes and innovates. Her focus is more on making them. She's not much of a combatant at all. But she'll happily squeal like a schoolgirl in explaining how her latest work is for 'when you absolutely, positively, have to kill every son of a bitch in the room, no exceptions!'

Tara is friendly and a Team Player -- in this life as in her previous incarnation, she had sisters to be paired with, rely on, and share things with. In the end, despite her going off alone to New York.... she doesn't like to be alone. At all. If you're alone, nobody can protect you from the rest of the world.

But being a team player doesn't mean she doesn't miss the worship -- from a certain point of view, you're never alone when you're worshipped. And she's willing to work any way she can to get back to the old days -- the good parts of the old days. Even with Seth, who despite rescuing her from the sea monster wasn't the best husband ever. Still, better the chaos you know than the monster you don't. She knows she might get used, but at least she'll be useful.

Notes: In addition to not being combat-capable, Tara cannot swim.

UPDATE: Also mother to Meriset Davison Fizzini by Seth, PB: Alice Hamilton

» Sample Journal:

I got a spider-web tattooed on the back of my neck. It turned out so well, the artist and I did a joint throw-up-the-horns. This always makes me happy. I miss my what I used to have where there's only pigtails now.
I also miss having my own horses. But you just can't keep a horse in New York. Maybe a motorcycle. I still wish my parents had named me Harley.

» Sample Log:

"Joey?" Tara asked her superior. It was the first time she hadn't called him "Mr. Lucani" or, more commonly, "Boss-man."

He raised an eyebrow. "What is it, Tara?"

"I need to see the Boss."

"I'm right here."

Tara smiled cheerfully. "And you're great, Joey. You really are. But the rest of the squad's not here right now, and you know and I know that we work for a certain clotheshorse, and I really gotta meet Aldo, Joey. I gotta." The smile grew more and more concerned. "I'm so worried about how I need to meet him that I can't concentrate."

Joey Lucani was in a bit of a bind. If it sounded like he was loose on security, he was in trouble. If Tara, who'd been supplying them with stuff that really gave them an edge, suddenly dried up, he was in trouble.
"...Okay," he finally says. "Tonight."

NAVIGATION