Post by Kisha-Ra on Aug 17, 2008 20:23:25 GMT
Position: Teacher
Name: Zola Uzuri Nakimera
Nicknames:
Codename: Legend
Age: 53
Gender: female
Appearance: Zola has just about the darkest skin tone available to ordinary humans, an inky sort of brown that looks black in low light. She’s on the tall side standing at 6’1’’ and has a rather slight figure with good muscle tone.
Her face is an oval shape and dominated by large mid brown eyes; her mouth is broad and filled with extremely white teeth, which tend to flash in an amused grin. Zola’s greatest sign of her age is the thick streaks of white in her once night black hair. This mane of curls is either totally untamed or elaborately braided.
Zola has a magnetic attraction to bright colours and loves to dress in bold shades; she also wears a huge amount of gold jewellery.
Personality: At first Zola seems like the ideal teacher from any student’s point of view, that is her innate sociability and her earnest desire for everyone to enjoy learning make it look like she’s easy to get around. However anyone who tries to wriggle around Zola soon slams up against walls of steel, it’s as if something in her says ‘this far but no further’ as beyond a certain point she is utterly unyielding.
Zola can be pretty pig headed at times, once she has formed an opinion it doesn’t reform easily, for her it’s easier to hold to a hard misconception than to see an easy truth, once she can be made to face facts Zola will be pretty embarrassed about things and probably avoid the topic forever more.
Zola hates to depend on people, she can handle taking money from Xavier because she’s working for him, in a sense but even with this justification it sets her hackles up. Above all she hates to depend on people emotionally and will rarely let anyone get closer than friendship, though she has many people she considers her friends to her ‘friend’ means ‘someone I talk to about non work related matters once or twice a week’.
History: Born in Arusha city in Tanzania to a fairly well off family Zola had everything she needed growing up, but not everything she wanted. Though her mother’s job was as a farm worker, her father brought in a higher income as a gem cutter, both parents had great expectations of their children and planned for Zola and her brothers Zene and Issay to have the best education possible so that they could get good jobs.
Most of the family funds went toward sending the three children to an international school, where their parents believed they would get the best education. Zola’s brothers grumbled about school a lot and she copied them even though she actually enjoyed learning and meeting all the new people who came to the school on student exchange programs.
When Issay was 16 the reason that Zola’s family never had any spare cash was revealed. The parents had been saving practically forever to send their children overseas to go to college. Issay headed to the US to as soon as he was 16, to be followed by Zene three years later. Zola decided to stay in Arusha for two years after leaving school and get some money of her own together so that she wouldn’t have to live entirely off her parent’s money to start with. At eighteen Zola went to a college in England and studied to become a teacher.
Needless to say studying wasn’t all that Zola did in England; she worked a series of dead end jobs and took up a few hobbies. Most notably she got into rock music and went to every concert she could get to.
After leaving collage Zola got a permanent job at a London school, which she stayed in for the next twenty-five years, often seeming as permanent as a mountain. She was well liked among younger students for her opinion that students learn better when they are at least finding the lesson interesting, and respected, as well as sometimes disliked, for an iron policy against disruptive students.
However seven years ago her mother became seriously ill and it was Zola, rather than either of her brothers, that her father called home; Zola handed in and worked her notice and returned home to find that round about the time she left from Heathrow airport her mother had died.
Zola’s father held his children responsible in some way for their mother’s death and became an embittered, twisted man. However Zola remained in Arusha with her father, though she didn’t admit it she, too, held herself responsible for her mother’s death, thinking that if she had just dropped everything and run home then perhaps she would have thought of something, though that seems unlikely as her mother died from advanced lung cancer. In any case Zola remained with her father as a kind of self imposed penance. Her father was often verbally abusive, and tried on several occasions to ‘punish’ Zola for her mother’s death, however as he was now an old man there was not much he could physically do to his grown daughter.
Zola was content for the next few years to teach at the school of St. Jude in Arusha and attempt to care for her elderly and increasingly deranged father. This state of affairs continued until the day when Apocalypse made his world domination bid, in the short time that Apocalypse’s web covered the world Zola’s dormant mutation was activated. In the middle of teaching a class basic English Zola’s legs started changing, visiting leopard, baboon, and what seemed to be a dolphin’s tail before settling on being the lower body of a horse. Needless to say both she and the class were shocked by this turn of events, plus her favourite jeans were ruined.
Returning home Zola retreated from her father, who was now raving about how she was evil, to her room. She remained there for several days, only leaving when necessary despite the fact that she had resumed her human shape. On the fifth day Storm came to offer a place at Xavier’s school. Zola laughed and said she was too old, and too used to being the teacher. However she had nowhere else to go, at least in her view, so Zola packed up her things, and left home to go to school at the age of fifty-two.
Zola showed little talent for the X-men’s she was no born leader and at the same time far too used to being in charge to take orders easily, nor was she any great diplomat, nor, to be truthful, was she an exceptional fighter. Zola realised this and settled back into a teacher’s life. Apparently Xavier saw Zola’s true use as well as she did because he asked her to go to England and help set up and run a branch of his school there.
Powers: partial metamorph: Zola can shift the lower half of her body into the part of any mammal, sometimes most of the animal appears, leaving Zola’s torso sticking out of the animal’s neck, and sometimes only the back legs and tail replace her own lower half. This is a matter of subconscious choice; however once she has used a form her body will always shift the same way. Her favoured form shift is horse, which leaves her looking like a centaur, hence her codename.
Power related weaknesses: Zola’s mass and centre of gravity can change quite dramatically when she uses her power, so is often unbalanced for a time after shifting, as a general rule she can take an old form quite well but a new one requires practice to use.
There’s no guarantee when she takes on a new lower half for the first time that it will be useful, her torso may fit on in a really stupid way or she simply might not be able to balance.
Fighting style: She’s an average fighter with a solid base in martial arts but not much skill. She prefers to fight in her centaur form due to the sheer size and weight though.
Pets (if any):
Anything else: Despite being old enough to be someone’s mom, if not their grandmother, Zola is still a huge rock fan and can dance the night away at concerts with seemingly very little effort.
Name: Zola Uzuri Nakimera
Nicknames:
Codename: Legend
Age: 53
Gender: female
Appearance: Zola has just about the darkest skin tone available to ordinary humans, an inky sort of brown that looks black in low light. She’s on the tall side standing at 6’1’’ and has a rather slight figure with good muscle tone.
Her face is an oval shape and dominated by large mid brown eyes; her mouth is broad and filled with extremely white teeth, which tend to flash in an amused grin. Zola’s greatest sign of her age is the thick streaks of white in her once night black hair. This mane of curls is either totally untamed or elaborately braided.
Zola has a magnetic attraction to bright colours and loves to dress in bold shades; she also wears a huge amount of gold jewellery.
Personality: At first Zola seems like the ideal teacher from any student’s point of view, that is her innate sociability and her earnest desire for everyone to enjoy learning make it look like she’s easy to get around. However anyone who tries to wriggle around Zola soon slams up against walls of steel, it’s as if something in her says ‘this far but no further’ as beyond a certain point she is utterly unyielding.
Zola can be pretty pig headed at times, once she has formed an opinion it doesn’t reform easily, for her it’s easier to hold to a hard misconception than to see an easy truth, once she can be made to face facts Zola will be pretty embarrassed about things and probably avoid the topic forever more.
Zola hates to depend on people, she can handle taking money from Xavier because she’s working for him, in a sense but even with this justification it sets her hackles up. Above all she hates to depend on people emotionally and will rarely let anyone get closer than friendship, though she has many people she considers her friends to her ‘friend’ means ‘someone I talk to about non work related matters once or twice a week’.
History: Born in Arusha city in Tanzania to a fairly well off family Zola had everything she needed growing up, but not everything she wanted. Though her mother’s job was as a farm worker, her father brought in a higher income as a gem cutter, both parents had great expectations of their children and planned for Zola and her brothers Zene and Issay to have the best education possible so that they could get good jobs.
Most of the family funds went toward sending the three children to an international school, where their parents believed they would get the best education. Zola’s brothers grumbled about school a lot and she copied them even though she actually enjoyed learning and meeting all the new people who came to the school on student exchange programs.
When Issay was 16 the reason that Zola’s family never had any spare cash was revealed. The parents had been saving practically forever to send their children overseas to go to college. Issay headed to the US to as soon as he was 16, to be followed by Zene three years later. Zola decided to stay in Arusha for two years after leaving school and get some money of her own together so that she wouldn’t have to live entirely off her parent’s money to start with. At eighteen Zola went to a college in England and studied to become a teacher.
Needless to say studying wasn’t all that Zola did in England; she worked a series of dead end jobs and took up a few hobbies. Most notably she got into rock music and went to every concert she could get to.
After leaving collage Zola got a permanent job at a London school, which she stayed in for the next twenty-five years, often seeming as permanent as a mountain. She was well liked among younger students for her opinion that students learn better when they are at least finding the lesson interesting, and respected, as well as sometimes disliked, for an iron policy against disruptive students.
However seven years ago her mother became seriously ill and it was Zola, rather than either of her brothers, that her father called home; Zola handed in and worked her notice and returned home to find that round about the time she left from Heathrow airport her mother had died.
Zola’s father held his children responsible in some way for their mother’s death and became an embittered, twisted man. However Zola remained in Arusha with her father, though she didn’t admit it she, too, held herself responsible for her mother’s death, thinking that if she had just dropped everything and run home then perhaps she would have thought of something, though that seems unlikely as her mother died from advanced lung cancer. In any case Zola remained with her father as a kind of self imposed penance. Her father was often verbally abusive, and tried on several occasions to ‘punish’ Zola for her mother’s death, however as he was now an old man there was not much he could physically do to his grown daughter.
Zola was content for the next few years to teach at the school of St. Jude in Arusha and attempt to care for her elderly and increasingly deranged father. This state of affairs continued until the day when Apocalypse made his world domination bid, in the short time that Apocalypse’s web covered the world Zola’s dormant mutation was activated. In the middle of teaching a class basic English Zola’s legs started changing, visiting leopard, baboon, and what seemed to be a dolphin’s tail before settling on being the lower body of a horse. Needless to say both she and the class were shocked by this turn of events, plus her favourite jeans were ruined.
Returning home Zola retreated from her father, who was now raving about how she was evil, to her room. She remained there for several days, only leaving when necessary despite the fact that she had resumed her human shape. On the fifth day Storm came to offer a place at Xavier’s school. Zola laughed and said she was too old, and too used to being the teacher. However she had nowhere else to go, at least in her view, so Zola packed up her things, and left home to go to school at the age of fifty-two.
Zola showed little talent for the X-men’s she was no born leader and at the same time far too used to being in charge to take orders easily, nor was she any great diplomat, nor, to be truthful, was she an exceptional fighter. Zola realised this and settled back into a teacher’s life. Apparently Xavier saw Zola’s true use as well as she did because he asked her to go to England and help set up and run a branch of his school there.
Powers: partial metamorph: Zola can shift the lower half of her body into the part of any mammal, sometimes most of the animal appears, leaving Zola’s torso sticking out of the animal’s neck, and sometimes only the back legs and tail replace her own lower half. This is a matter of subconscious choice; however once she has used a form her body will always shift the same way. Her favoured form shift is horse, which leaves her looking like a centaur, hence her codename.
Power related weaknesses: Zola’s mass and centre of gravity can change quite dramatically when she uses her power, so is often unbalanced for a time after shifting, as a general rule she can take an old form quite well but a new one requires practice to use.
There’s no guarantee when she takes on a new lower half for the first time that it will be useful, her torso may fit on in a really stupid way or she simply might not be able to balance.
Fighting style: She’s an average fighter with a solid base in martial arts but not much skill. She prefers to fight in her centaur form due to the sheer size and weight though.
Pets (if any):
Anything else: Despite being old enough to be someone’s mom, if not their grandmother, Zola is still a huge rock fan and can dance the night away at concerts with seemingly very little effort.
