Adora

Amara is a pleasant, mid twenties woman with a no-nonsense air to herself, that works as a firefighter.

Background
Born June 6 th, Byron and Amara Matthewson came into this world, four minutes apart. Early on, it was obvious that the twins enjoyed the often questioned silent bond of such pairings. When Amara would run wild to play and get hurt, it was Byron who would set up the first round of cries, and vice versa.

It was clear early on that while Byron preferred quiet, thought provoking activities, Amara preferred physical ones. Amara would prefer to climb a tree to the top, while Byron would classify the species first, and then follow her at least to some of the lower branches.

Their parents both worked for one of the bioengineering companies in Virginia, their father Chad as head of security, their mother Megan as one of the scientists. When the twins were in the third grade, they went to stay with their Grandma Doris in Maryland and told that their house was going to be worked on for a while. Megan's work had drawn attention from outside sources that were pressuring her to turn over her findings to them. When blackmail didn't work, the threats began. After weeks of this, Megan and Chad died in what seemed to be just a car accident on one of the many busy highways. This was what the twins believed for years, still living with their grandmother.

Byron was often the one to wrangle his tomboy sister into studying, keeping her grades high enough to keep their grandmother pleased. She never reached his near perfect GPA, instead excelling on the soccer and softball fields. At her urging he went out for soccer himself, finding an aptitude for the sport. Amara found something similar when she joined him for marching band as the compromise for getting him into soccer. His trumpet led to her drums, and they both marched in high school for the three years they were enrolled there.

The twins were always close, though rarely considered weirdly so, with their varied choices for activities and friends. They spent time together, but never alienated friends or possible romantic partners. The June before sophomore year of high school was when everything changed. Byron and Amara went to their parents' graves on the anniversary of their death. It was while there that Byron could suddenly 'hear' and 'see' the truth about the way their parents died. There had been evidence they had been run off the road, but the vehicle that had done it was never found. He could see the letters, see his mother in tears...he looked at Amara who didn't seem to be aware of anything going on out of the ordinary. It was when he looked at Gran, that he knew where all this was coming from. The truth came out and Byron's head was thrown into chaos. Amara refused to believe any of it, storming off angry and on her own. It wasn't too long after that when Byron knew something was wrong with Amara. It seemed while Byron's mind was no longer just his own, his sister's body was evolving as well. While she was striking out at an old punching bag in the garage, she missed, skimming knuckles along the leather to end up punching the cinder block wall. Or rather, punching into it.

It was their Aunt Melody and Uncle George who took the twins in to help them learn to cope with these changes. Melody herself was a minor psionic, nothing to brag about, but she knew enough to know how to help Byron learn to focus, shield, and explore his powers.

Melody and George owned a small machine repair shop/garage and 'pick and pull' junkyard/scrapyard on the outskirts of Philadelphia, which gave them the opportunity to help the twins as well as show them how to run a small business. Melody had the time to work with Byron while keeping up with the office, and in the garage itself there was little Amara could easily break. She could use things in the garage for slow tests of how much she could lift, push, and so on, while learning from Uncle George useful things like how to rebuild an engine. She also had nights after the junkyard was closed to the public to demolish things for practice.

She found her real limit on her ability to dead lift overhead was quite a bit less than what she had to guesstimate was her force with her punching or kicking. She could also push more weight than she could lift, though it was harder to get a good lock on how much that was. It was an interesting thing to her, that when she was doing something that required her strength, punching or kicking, or even lifting things that should strain her muscles, she was never injured, not a scratch. But when doing ordinary things around the house, or at the garage, she would still suffer scratches, bruises, and nicks like anyone else.

When Amara and Byron went home in time for junior year at school, Amara was thrilled to be home with Gran and everything familiar again. Once school started she found herself a bit at loose ends without the ability to go and burn energy at night. It was Byron's suggestion they look into lessons at one of the martial arts schools in town. She enrolled in Kung Fu and later in Mixed Martial Arts, while Byron took Tai Chi, both suited to their newest facets as best they could be.

After High school, the twins finally diverged. Byron went to university at Harvard, while Amara chose to go to Columbia in New York. It wasn't long before she'd become a volunteer firefighter, eventually quitting school before her junior year to become a full fleged member of the NYFD. This was when the crisis hit, keeping Amara and her brethen very, very busy, even before she had passed all her exams and been fully vetted into her station house. During the Crisis, some of her fellow firefighters came to be aware she was different, but let her keep her head down, and keep her secret instead.

Personality
Protective - Amara became a firefighter, both out of feeling a need to use her powers for something proactive, something physical, while still doing something to protect people weaker than her. Amara's twin brother Byron, though minutes older, doesn't have her same powers and was a bit of a bookish nerd until later teens. This gave her a protective streak from early on, that has never gone away. Any time Amara feels the stronger or more powerful are mistreating or 'picking on' the weaker, she gets protective. Whether it's really true, or not. She's gotten flak from more than one man, for coming to his defense.

Blunt - Amara tends to be either completely blunt and plain-spoken, or she bites her tongue and says nothing at all, because she can't figure out how to say it right. This works in her favor in her firehouse, as the guys have come to respect that they don't have to mince words just because there's a 'girl' in their midst.

Secret Softie - Amara has a weakness for things in private that would get her mercilessly teased by the guys at work : Romance movies and novels, Sunsets, beautiful music (including classical), and girly things like prettily polished fingernails, a cute dress, etc.

Anger - In her earlier years, Amara had trouble controlling her temper. She was the hothead to match Byron's cooler, more thoughtful manner. It's still one of those things that if she doesn't suppress it as soon as it starts, could rage out of control.

Logs

 * TBA