Character Profile: Marissa

I am trying to get a decent amount of writing done for my story, my post on Ashely's blog has got me working a little extra hard to try and make some progress. So as a treat here is the first of my character profiles on the characters from my Archangel book. Marissa is the first main character I created for this story and yes she is based a little on me. This is her character profile for book 1 because I can't give everything away yet. Enjoy!

Marissa Emera West: Daughter of Archangel Uriel

Nicknames: Riss, Rissy (Eli)

Title: The Leader of the group

Powers: Power over water, ability to see the best in people and forgive them, telekinetic

Weapon: Knives

Special Skills: Her power over water combined with her father’s dominion over thunder have given Marissa the ability to cause it to rain when she is upset.

Physical Appearance: Five foot two inches tall with a curvy body type, and pale skin. Marissa wears glasses for reading and writing after spending years straining her eyes looking at the pages of books. She has dark brown hair that has a red tint to it in the sunlight, and usually keeps her hair cut shorter. Had long hair as a child but after high school she chopped it off and it only got shorter and shorter; her first semester of college it was in a very edgy cut that only reached her jawbones. She has always been a full-figured girl and hasn’t gotten very much romantic attention because of it. Her height and weight are her biggest insecurities but she has learned how to have confidence in her looks anyway. Her favorite features are her deep, multifaceted green eyes; everyone has always told her they are her best attribute after her bright smile and contagious laugh.

Personality: Marissa’s Zodiac sign is Aquarius, and she is a textbook example of one; weird, quirky, with a deep want to change the world. She is friendly and humanitarian, honest and loyal, original and inventive, independent and intellectual. But on the darker side Marissa is also very emotional, easily hurt, and when angered, she can be seriously rude; alternating between deafening silence and sudden outbursts of temper...and boy does she have a temper when pushed Marissa is very headstrong, stubborn and sure of herself, but not in a cocky way. She has always taken the lead in anything she does so when she was called upon to be the group’s leader she didn’t think twice about it.

   When she was younger, before her mother left, Marissa was very quiet and hid behind her mother and her brother a lot. Then after Trista left her children, Marissa learned how to speak up and hasn’t stopped since. She is very loud, opinionated, and not afraid to speak her mind even if it might make her some enemies. She has a very quick wit but always tries to think at least a little before she speaks. Another flaw of Marissa is that she trusts a little too easily and will forgive anyone no matter their offenses against her. Even if someone has deeply hurt her she would forgive them again and let them back into her life. Marissa takes most people and situations at face value and sometimes that can cause her a little trouble.

    Marissa is the bookworm of the group and an English Literature Major; very content to sit in a bookstore or a library all day and read, write or even research. She is a straight A student who schoolwork has always come very easily too. When she was in high school she had a few of her essays, short stories and even poems published which is where she got some money for school from, along with scholarships from writing. Marissa has a wonderful singing voice, and stage presence but found out when she was thirteen that she has crippling stage fright, and can only perform in front of people she is comfortable with which limits her to performing at her brother’s club where everyone loves her.

 Relationships

 Eli West: When asked who the most important person in her life is Marissa wouldn’t even have to think twice before answering. Her older brother Eli has been the parent figure in Marissa’s life since she was 11 and Trista Norris left her children to jet around the world as a fashion photographer. Since then Marissa and Eli have been living together in their childhood home while Eli continues to run his successful gay club. Eli is only Marissa’s half-brother but the two were never raised that way, in fact Marissa didn’t find out until she was 18 that she and Eli were only half siblings. Eli is the person Marissa trusts the most mostly because for awhile it was the two siblings against the world. Eli and Marissa are very similar when it comes to personality, both loud, outspoken extroverts but Eli doesn’t have the ability to trust as easily as his sister does. He is very overprotective of Marissa to the point that he can be a bit clingy but Marissa would do anything for him as he would do for her.

Lily: Lily and Marissa have been best friends since middle school where they met not long after Lily moved to Maryland. They first bonded over their lack of parents; neither had known their fathers and Lily’s mother died when she was very young. Lily is very close to Marissa and her whole family. Eli considers Lily to be his younger sister as well and when Trista is home Lily is like a daughter to her. Lily and Marissa are quite opposite of each other, Lily is more quiet and withdrawn than her best friend, until she is surrounded by people she knows or is in a situation she is comfortable with. Marissa has always been the tutor to Lily as her best friend is not the student Marissa is. The girls act to each other like the mother that they both crave so much. Like any other friends they fight but it is rare and when they do they make up almost immediately because within a few hours they already have something new that they need to tell the other.

Penny: Marissa liked Penny from the moment the two met but at the same time sometimes the girls butt heads. Penny is everything that Marissa always wanted to be; thin, pretty, the center of attention, every man’s fantasy and as much as Marissa wants to say it doesn’t bother her it does. Over all she and Penny become very close friends but a lot of the time Marissa plays referee between Penny and Lily who go through stages of liking and hating each other. Penny looks up to Marissa because while she might have the looks Marissa has the confidence that Penny still lacks. Penny and Marissa are similar when it comes to their emotional personalities simply because both of them are very self aware people and willing to acknowledge their emotions unlike Lily and Z.J. who try to deny there’s more often than not.

Z.J.: After Lily, Marissa is probably closest to Z.J. She was the first person ever to get Z.J. to open up about his past and some of his fears or short comings. Marissa saw Z.J. as a shy young man who needed some friends so she decides to take him under her wing. Marissa is also the one who shields Z.J. from most of the good natured ribbing that he gets from Penny and Lily she admires his innocence and naiveté because it means he is less jaded then the rest of them. Marissa also finds it very easy to talk to Z.J. and can tell him things that she isn’t comfortable telling Penny or even Lily. Z.J. is also the least judgmental of the four so when Marissa does something that Lily or Penny might not like it is usually the only male of the four who will back Marissa up.  

Trista West: To say Marissa’s relationship with her mother is strained would be the understatement of the century. Before Trista left her children to further her career Marissa was her mother’s little girl but being abandoned turned Marissa cold to her mother. Trista never intended to hurt either of her children but she felt that they both would do better without her. Trista also left because the pain of seeing her daughter became too much for her. After Marissa’s difficult birth Trista was left with a cesarean scar that pained her whenever she set eyes on her daughter so she left mostly for her own comfort. When Marissa found that out she was torn in two not knowing whether to feel guilty that the simple sight of her caused her mother pain or anger that her own mother couldn’t put up with it for her children. Marissa hasn’t actually seen her mother for over a year but they keep in touch via email and telephone. Most of the time it isn’t enough for Marissa and all of her mother’s pretty words and broken promises fall on deaf ears. Marissa’s greatest wish is that one day her relationship with her mother will be what it should be.