CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Tiana Howard
CODENAME (IF APPLICABLE): None (for now)
SOURCE: The Princess and the Frog
AGE: 17
GENDER: Female
ROLE: Student
AU BACKGROUND: Born in New Orleans, Tiana's childhood was filled with the two essential elements of life: love and food. Her father James was a hard-working and passionate cook who dreamed of opening a restaurant in his daughter's name, Tiana's Place. Cooking and dreaming must have been family traits because as soon she could hold a stirring spoon, Tiana was making the best gumbo in town (according to her daddy) and yearned to turn Jame's dream into a reality. Even when he died in the Iraq War a few years back, this yearning only grew into an unyielding determination. Soon enough, she working part-time jobs and saving towards her goals of going culinary school and getting Tiana's place on the map. In favor of school and work, she forgo any socializing and having fun. Her mother Eudora is slightly disappointed at this for she simply wanted for Tiana to have love, happiness and success.
Everything was going according to plan until that fateful night of her friend Charlotte La Bouff's party. There Tiana happened upon a frog who claimed to be the visiting Prince Naveen of Maldonia, who had been cursed by the infamous Shadow Man. The amphibian royal begged her to kiss him, under the belief that it would break the spell; a reluctant Tiana gave in, only to have herself turned into a mucus-covered frog. With some squabbling on the side, the two made their way to the bayou in order to find the voodoo priestess Mama Odie in hopes that she could remove the curse. However, she and Naveen were separated along the way.
Alone Tiana found Mama Odie and asked her to help the both of them. Yet without Naveen, the voodoo priestess was unable to reverse the spell; she could only alter it so that Tiana could remain human most of the time and shape-shift into any animal. There were two catches to her new ability: she turns into a frog whenever she feels too intense of an emotion (e.g. stress, happiness, anger) and the only way to change her back into a human from any animal is a kiss. With her dreams put on hold due to the curse and the unknown fate of Naveen weighing on her shoulders, Tiana wasn't sure on what to do until news of Xavier Institute arrived at her door. On a leap of faith, she decided to continue her education there and reluctantly left the Big Easy for the Big Apple.
At the Institute, she made some friends, got caught in some crazy shenanigans, and had a rather disquieting confrontation with Dr. Facilier. Despite this, she fell into a comfortable routine of attending her classes and assisting Sanji around the school kitchen. This pattern was broken when she one day received news that Eudora was in the hospital. With a heavy heart, she bid her new friends goodbye and head back to New Orleans to tend to her mother.
Back home, Tiana went back to her old habits of constantly working, especially now that there were hospital bills to pay and Eudora to look after. However, readjusting to school proved to be more difficult; signs of anti-mutant sentiment were becoming more apparent. For the most part, there were no huge incidents until one day Tiana felt too much of something and turned into a frog during class. Let's just say the aftermath was messy. Soon, Eudora sent her daughter back to the Institute, this way she could finish school in a safer and much more understanding environment.
PERSONALITY: Hard-working, determined, motivated, responsible, practical, confident, aspirational. Such traits essentially make Tiana is a poster child for the ideal employee. However, don't let that fool you; with her independent mindset and decisive inclinations, she is very much her own boss. She knows exactly what she wants and how it get it, without help from anyone. Her life philosophy is that you have to make your own dreams come true through hard work. She may follow this too strictly for she spends more time working and making money than she does being a regular teenager. Yet despite this, Tiana is quite kind and charming. She cares tremendously about her friends, and is willing to do anything to help them achieve their own dreams. Not to mention that she's one of the most dependable people one could meet.
One thing that Tiana can't tolerate is a lazy bump on a log. She has a bit of the classic Southern sass in her, not afraid to speak her mind when necessary and be blunt about it. For her, there's no easy way out of anything, and the best thing to do is keep yourself grounded. She finds other people who work hard or have set goals to be admirable.
APPEARANCE: Tiana is a tall, slender black girl with curly hair that's usually tamed into a ponytail... at least most of the time. When she shifts into an animal, her big round eyes and slenderness remain the two common features in any form. As a human, she prefers wearing casual, durable clothing, but can pull of a glamorous dress with ease. True to her beloved passion of cooking, her left hand has a knife callus, stretching across her palm and index finger, caused by the repeated pressure of chopping or slicing with a chef knife.
POWERS: Tiana has the ability to shapeshift into animals. Unlike most of the students at Xavier Institute, this particular quirk of hers wasn't caused by the X-gene; it's actually a curse from the voodoo magician. She doesn't have complete control over this ability; if she feels too emotional, she'll revert into a frog. Also the only way she can shift back from any form is through a kiss.
ANYTHING ELSE?: Nothing much 'cept that Tiana is one mean cook. Prepare to have your taste buds to explode and roll around when you taste her food.