pumpkin pie

Name: Maya Tesia Walker (Formerly Maria Lacoste)

Age: 31

Gender: female

Type: Aspect

Appearance:

Maya looks at first appearance like a fragile little thing - though she's taller than some at 5'6", she's rail thin with no much in the way of curves. She always dresses to flatter her frame, however, and has a seemingly innate sense of grace and style, along with a real air of poise and sophistication. She has absolutely no problem in turning heads and attracting attention wherever she goes. Of course, this is helped by the fact that she has some serious wealth behind her, which allows her to maintain herself, her wardrobe and her extensive collection of jewellery.

Personality:

Maya is a very together person - all of her moods are carefully judged, be that anger, sadness or happiness, she very rarely truly lets go, though the observer would never know this. Sometimes she can come across as having lost control, but the instances where that actually happens are few and far between. She is good at giving people what they want and expect to see - she's had years of practice in doing this.

For all the control she has over her moods and the way she presents herself to people, Maya does have mood swings - in fact, these are heightened by the fact that she presents a face. She can switch from roaring bitch to sweet as pie in an instant.

Maya is a consummate hostess, a society queen. She knows the rules, she knows what's expected of her and whilst she may not always be in the mood for playing the game, she knows that who she is and the life she leads is her job, and she loves it and wishes to maintain it. Nobody loves their job all the time, do they.

Sexuality:

heterosexual

Constants:

Aspect: fairy godmother

* Maya makes things better for people. Some special, chosen people anyway. She doesn't much care about the rest of them, but for her children, her special one - she takes them away from their pitiful realities and gives them a different life, one full of glory and opportunity.
* She can be vindictive and spiteful if you cross either her, or someone under her care
* She cannot stop meddling in the lives of her children, doing what she sees is 'best' for them.

When Maya visits the village, she becomes very much her aspect. As the fairy godmother, she has an aura around her which inspires others to feel like she can achieve whatever she promises. Her focus is very much upon getting that happily ever after for people under her care, and her mind is forever thinking through how best to achieve that. If you're one of her chosen, then she tends to be motherly, bordering on overbearing. She has the strong opinion that she knows best and everything will turn out just perfectly if you would just trust in her. If you are someone else, she will be weighing you up for your potential - either as a match for one of hers, or to see if you would be a threat that needs to be taken care of.

Maya has a house in the village - a small place on the far edge, set back into the trees a little. From the outside, it looks like a fairly ramshackle place, in a cute, pretty kind of a way. It has whitewashed walls, and a crooked chimney that always has wispy white smoke curling from it. It's half covered in rambling pink roses that are always in bloom. Inside, it feels larger and more spacious, and there's a spiral staircase leading up to an upper storey that didn't appear to be there from the outside.

City History:

Maya was born Maria - the first child of humble origins, of a couple with no money and big dreams. Big dreams for them, anyway. They wanted to be able to provide for their family, but with no money and no prospects, they couldn't find a way to do that. The future looked increasingly bleak for the couple, with a baby daughter and another child on the way, when they were offered a loan by the DiGiovanni family. The terms were almost too good to be true, even lacking the crippling interest that usually came from most loan sharks. That was until they got to the fine print - the DiGiovannis wanted collateral. They wanted Maria. That way, they said, they could be confident of being repaid in good time. They would look after her, they said. Care for her, they said. She would be safe - and she would have a better quality of life with them than she would do living on the streets with her parents who couldn't get the cash together to give her a better life. And when they had the money to repay the loan? Well, then they could have their daughter back.

The Lacostes agreed to the deal, tearfully. And they handed over their daughter for the money. And when the day came to repay the loan? Well, by that time, Maria was Maya, and Maya was a beloved child of the Walker family. And the Walkers, and the DiGiovannis, didn't want to give her up. And so it was that the Lacostes had a little 'accident' - a fire in the pawn brokers, which destroyed both the flat and the couple. Maya knew nothing of it, she knew nothing of her origins, and live continued on regardless for her.

Yet Maya always knew she was different - the colour of her skin showed that. Whereas most of the other Walker children were raised to believe that they were the natural children of the family, there could be no such lies told to Maya. And she asked questions, and was given answers. When she was little, she was told that she'd come to live with the family because they loved her very much and they wanted her to have the best in life. They told her that that's what they did - they gave children the best in life. And she got the best in life - she was always treated just the same as all the other Walker children, but yet she always felt different, separate. Growing up, she always wanted to belong properly. She found out younger than most the realities behind the Walker façade, because she asked questions and kept on until she had the answers - and because she didn't have any problems with anything she was being told. In fact, she wanted it - she wanted all of it. She wanted to belong.

She married Gregory, one of the elder Walkers at 16, becoming his second wife. She was expected to be no more that a pretty bit of stuff on his arm, but Maya had other ideas. Whilst most of the family considered that her marriage to Gregory had been arranged by them, Maya considered that she arranged it just as much as they had. She had certainly manipulated the situation to her satisfaction. Of the various Walkers she could have paired with, she had wanted Gregory because of his role within the family at the time: Gregory arranged the taking of the soon-to-be Walker children. Gregory brought needy children to a better life, and Maya wanted in with that. She wanted to give children what she had had. It wasn't long before the couple was running the operation jointly. And it wasn't long after that before Gregory dropped dead of a heart attack, leaving Maya in sole control of the operation - control which she weilds to this day.

As far as the public is concerned, Maya Walker is a society mainstay. She's seen in all the right places, talking to all the right people, wearing all the right clothes. She is rarely, if ever, the centre of negative gossip and she doesn't put a foot out of line. What she gets up to behind closed doors, the reality of her role within the Family is not widely known and has never been made public.

Special Skills and Abilities:

For all her poise and pretty looks, Maya knows how to handle herself. Though she may not be much good hand to hand (though she has nails on her that could gouge your eyes out if you gave her half a chance), she's a pretty good shot with a range of fire arms. She's also occasionally taken part in the 'interogation' sessions of the Walker family and knows a thing or two about getting a guy to talk.

Weaknesses:

Maya has some sociopathic tendencies. She has embraced the reality behind the Walker family wholeheartedly, all of it. She has been able to separate out her wish to give chidren a better life and the reality that she is arranging for them to be torn from their families - if necessary taking out their families in the process. She has arranged (and also on occasion carried out) murder and torture. She may present a smiling, society face to the world, but that is little more than a mask for a very hard, calculating and twisted woman.

Maya is very aware of the reality of things - she just doesn't care. Her focus on life is 'her' children, the Walker family, the DiGiovanni family and keeping her world in place. Maya truly doesn't care about anyone who is not conencted to her. She wouldn't bat an eyelid if anything happened to them, or lose a moment's sleep at causing anything to happen to them.

She is vindictive and never forgets a slight, or perceived slight, though she would never show this openly. Maya is the type of person who, if slighted, would apparently let the slight go and then some time (days, weeks, months... even years) later effect revenge. The one thing she rarely does is to exact vengeance at the time - she is too aware of his public image and the effect that such retaliation would have on it. Her revenge, however, is not always personally sort - she has ways and means of accomplishing things. In the meantime, however, it will eat at her.

Maya is obsessed with appearances, both in herself and the children of the family. For herself, this has led to her maintaining a strict diet which sometimes borders on anorexia (though has never truly descended into the illness itself). For the children, it means that she can come across is a variety of ways - to those pretty and well presented ones, she is all sweetness and light, but to those who may have less care about their appearance and the face they present to the world, she can be a harridan always on their backs, which greatly affects her relationship with some of the children. She sees it as wanting them to be the best they can be, but obviously not everyone would share that point of view.

In a more general sense, Maya cannot help but keep close tabs on her children (whether this is personally, or by having them watched from afar, either with or without their knowledge). She cannot let things go with them, and she is constantly meddling in their lives. She often does what she considers 'best' for them, even if they do not agree with her on this. That doesn't matter to her, she knows best, they just can't see it. This often causes friction, even with her 'favourites' and some of the children often find themselves in a power struggle to control their own lives.

Maya is infertile, she can never carry her own children. Though she is not a natural born Walker elder, it is coincidental that she is also barren, and is a source of deep seated pain for her, though she never expresses this. It is one of the reasons she devotes her life to the Walker children.

Strengths:

Maya has no illusions about her family, there are no great secrets to shock and sway her - she knows what goes on, she's known for years. She just doesn't care, and, in fact, wholeheartedly joins in.

Contacts - Maya has high level contacts in the DiGiovanni family and associates. She knows just who to go to for a range of things.

Family or Connections:

As a Walker, she is one of the DiGiovanni affliates.

Residence:

Maya lives in a gloriously well appointed penthouse apartment overlooking the city, in a building owened by her family.

Career:

Socialite

PB: Zoe Saldana

Other Information:

Maya's Handwriting font can be found here