Name: Ivory "Ivy" Tessa Blake
Age: 23(Looks) 31 (Actual)
Species: Initia
Element: Earth, Water, Air
Face Claim: Alycia Debnam-Carey

| Protective | Self-Assured | Relaxed | Aloof | Deceptive | Secretive |

BIOGRAPHY

They tell the story of an Actress who just disappeared off the plane of existence one day. It was about 4 months into her affair that Diana Blake discovered she was pregnant with her lover’s child. Her name was renowned with the work she had done, from television to film to theatre, acting and singing was her life. But the moment she saw that little line on the test, she knew everything was going to change. Diana called her publicist and asked her to cancel all of her current projects, she left a note for her husband letting him know she knew about his year long side lovers and she got on a plane to Australia to start a new life with Richard Mercer. 

You see from the moment she saw that little line, Diana knew she had a secret to protect, one which was bigger than her career or her love. A child, one conceived out of passionate love and her first chance to have a baby after 5 miserable years of trying and failing. It was enough for her, she knew that much the moment her baby was born, Ivory Tessa Blake. And for the first few years of her life, no one knew whether little Ivory, nicknamed endearingly Ivy would take after her mother and be human or after her father and be gifted in elemental control. 

Diana knew there was a possibility that her child may be born supernatural which is why she went into hiding, rarely going out with her young newborn for fear someone would recognize her and news would travel about Ivy. Diana would protect her child at all costs, even  giving up freedom if necessary. From a young age, Ivy was a curious and inquisitive girl, the kind who constantly asked questions her mother didn’t want to answer. She was boisterous and enjoyed running around in the yard and investigating every new thing she could find. Which was a handful for a first time mother and an unexpectant father but from a young age, Ivy had many happy memories with her parents. 

But it was lonely for the little girl who spent almost all of her time around adults, Diana hired private tutors for her daughter along with a nanny to take care of her whenever she was away. Thanks to the excellent schooling however, she quickly began to pick up the things she was being taught, from words, to math to art, there were many things she enjoyed. She was a bright and energetic child who was always more than happy to dance or chat with the birds she saw sitting atop the fence. 

But her favorite thing of all was stories. Ivy loved stories and playing pretend, one day she would be a princess and the next a pirate, most of her inspiration coming from her father who would read her a few pages of one every night. She especially loved fantasy stories which talked about knights and elves and everything out of the realm of possibility. Or at least that’s what she thought at the time anyway. Ivy was also good at making up stories of her own, about great adventures in the sky or deep in the ocean, it was clear she was a very imaginative and creative girl who often overwhelmed those around her. 

And her childhood, she remembered as a happy one. Right up until a couple months after her 6th birthday when Ivy waited up all night for her father to come in and tuck her goodnight. She waited as long as she could, trying to force her eyes to stay open so she could find out the ending to the story they had been reading and whether the prince managed to save the princess. But he never came. Ivy fell asleep to the muffled cries of her mother downstairs and while she understood little about what happened. She did understand that her father was gone and wasn’t coming back. And fairytales weren’t real. 

After he left, things became more lonely for Ivy. Her mother became more distant and somewhat resentful to the young girl, especially after her 7th birthday when a mark appeared on her back confirming that the young girl was indeed an Initia. Diana didn’t know the first thing about raising a supernatural child and she felt lost, she struggled to cope without Richard. Ivy tried her best to be strong and good for her mother but it was difficult, a part of her started to wonder if all of this was her fault or her mother was scared of her. She tried her best to be good at her studies, to impress her mother but it didn’t stop her from sitting her down one day and explaining how she was going to be sent to a school who would be able to teach her more about who she was. 

Ivy hated the idea of going to boarding school and she begged her mom not to leave after she dropped her off in the dorms but it didn’t stop the inevitable. Ivy was enrolled in a private academy specifically tailored for young Initia to foster their learning in both elements and schooling. The school did bring her one good thing in her life though, the chance to make friends with other children her age. Ivy enjoyed playing with the other kids on the sports field, always playing tag or climbing trees with the other kids. She scraped and bruised herself more than most could count but it was generally a fun experience for her. She made a lot of friends, though it quickly became clear she was quite a tomboy and made friends with boys much easier than girls. 

One of Ivy’s favorite places in the school was the gardens, they weren’t exactly supposed to go in there without supervision but by the age of 12, the young inquisitive girl found herself with somewhat of a rebellious streak and she would often wake in the middle of the night so she could sneak out and just be around nature. In hindsight, she should have realized the connection she felt to the gardens was more supernatural then it was a simple liking for the space and before long it became evident that Ivy’s affinity element was earth.

But the time Ivy was in her mid teens she had expanded her sneaking out from just the school grounds to places outside of it. Her school and specifically her mother’s instructions about what she could and couldn’t do were strict. But what they didn’t know didn’t hurt them and Ivy got to see some of the world. She didn’t go anywhere to cause trouble, just waited until the teachers went to sleep and snuck out through a gap in the fence to head out into the city. 

Most of the time she would find herself in little cafes or parks. She saw many people come and go and every time she would meet someone new she would invent some new crazy story about the life she lead which led her there. She began really great at telling stories and making people believe them, she started learning accents and thinking of complicated backstories. She didn’t feel like she had to be just the girl without a life anymore, she could have many lives, full of exciting adventures but before the night ended she would always return back to her preppy private school life. 

Ivy also started training under a master for her earth element which she enjoyed much more than her day-to-day classes, it always seemed to amaze her every time she learned something new she could do with her elements. It wasn’t just lifting rocks and throwing the, it was improving ecosystems and growing plants. It was making the world a little more beautiful with a little wave of her hand and she kinda loved that. She didn’t hate school either, she just hated being there all of the time and feeling like she couldn’t have a life outside of it. 

In her later teens, Ivy started to get more of a sense of the person she was, she found her fashion style, which mostly consisted of comfortable but fashionable items. Most of the clothes her mother sent her to wear were left in the closet untouched, she didn’t have the same sense of taste that her mother did and she didn’t feel like most of them suited her or the person she wanted to be. The more time she spent away from her mother the more she realized how different the two of them were. 

As age 16, a girl by the name of Cassie was recruiting other members of the school to audition for the school theatre group and while Ivy refused at first the other girl had noticed Ivy’s ability to make up stories on the spot, plus her ability to remember and recite information. She insisted Ivy at least consider and for once in her life, Ivy felt wanted. So she went to the audition, with the intention of watching at first but after a while she decided to put her name down to try out and before long found herself a member of the theatre group.

Ivy really enjoyed theatre, there was something about becoming another person entirely that always suited her and she gained confidence in herself. She even found new friends within the company and enjoyed working on scenes with them. It was a good experience for her but a confusing one at the same time. After showing some interest, the music teacher had decided to take Ivy in for some private piano lessons and the young Initia found a love for playing the instrument. She would spend night after night in the auditorium learning to play rather than sneaking off the grounds, she found herself in the music and acting.

And every night when she would show up to practice Cassie would be there to practice her lines or sing along to whatever Ivy was playing. The two of them slowly became good friends and before long Ivy realized that she that what she felt for Cassie was more than just friendship. When every other girl talked about some crush they had on a boy they would talk about a fluttering in their chest or being nervous around them. Ivy felt all of that around Cassie and that knowledge scared her a little. She had always given the impression she didn’t care much for what other people thought of her and she didn’t but she did care what Cassie thought. Perhaps she would have said something if it wasn’t for the fact her friend was talking about a guy at their school who she evidently wanted to be with. 

She never acted on it though, always too afraid to lose her best friend to feelings she wasn’t all that sure about, so she said nothing and just continued about her life. It was hard for her, keeping such a secret to herself but she knew losing the one good person in her life would be harder and with time and some distance, the feeling began to fade. By graduation, the two of them promised they would keep in touch but Ivy knew it was time to move on. Which is why she decided to declare diversification when she turned 18 and made the decision to move back in with her mother. 

Things had been difficult between Ivy and Diana over the past few years. Ivy felt more and more disconnected from her mother the longer she was away, when she came back for the holidays she was pretty distant and mostly kept to herself, always reading books or watching TV just so she didn’t have to interact. Her mother met a new boyfriend in the town she moved to all those years ago and a few months after Ivy’s 18th birthday they got married. Ivy didn’t hate her step father by any means but they didn’t get along that well either, didn’t really have much in common and she saw him as part of the reason she felt so distanced and neglected by her mother.

Ivy tried to reconnect with her mother again. She told her about her passion for theatre back in school and how she wanted to go to college for theatre to further that passion, perhaps even go into acting. But at that very suggestion her mother shut her down, talking about how she had given up the life she had to raise her daughter and it wasn’t so she could out herself in the way she had been trying to protect her from all this time. Her mother’s rejection for the idea only made Ivy want it more though, wanting to prove she wasn’t some frail leaf waiting to crumble. 

Now she was 18 though, her mother had less control on her life and so if Ivy wanted to go out in the evenings and meet friends or just people watch for a few hours then she would. Her mother would never come out in public with her though, they weren’t listed as friends on social media and her friends weren’t allowed to visit the house. Ivy supposed she was a nobody, a ghost who could be whoever she wanted to be except herself. It was hard for her and perhaps after a while she started believing the lies she told to the world because they were all she seemed to have to hold onto. 

It was in a vulnerable moment one night, after her mother came home from work late and was making jokes that Ivy confessed that she thought she might like girls more than she liked boys. Her mother pretty much dismissed the conversation saying that Ivy had always been a strange girl and that this would be another one of her phases. It hurt, hearing the person she had always wanted to love and care for her say that but she swallowed her tears and agreed. A phase. A passing moment. Ivy knew better than to believe that was reality.

So she did exactly what everyone in the world seemed to want her to do and showed them what they wanted to see. To her tutors she was the quiet and studious girl who kept her head down and studied hard. To her mother she was the superficial daughter who was appeased by her expensive gifts and passing moments. To her step-father she was the girl who stayed out of the way and didn’t bother him too much. To her friends that she was a sweet and bubby girl who pretended like she didn’t feel a little lost for direction. But to her grandmother, someone who had lived in Australia for her whole life and seemed to understand Ivy’s hopes and dreams better than most. 

Which is why it was incredibly hard for her when she passed, but also uplifting reading the letter she read insisting she take the money left to her to explore whatever it was her passion wanted her to do. The young Initia thought about it for a while before she decided she wanted to put aside her element studies for some time and focus on acting. She wanted to know if she could make something of herself. Her mother completely opposed it, of course, cutting Ivy off when the younger girl insisted to go anyway. And so that was how they left things as Ivy got on a plane destined to LA with little more than her suitcase and hopes and dreams. 

From the moment she arrived in the US, the very first thing she got for herself was a fake ID, she was already 21 but for acting applications and the general world around her, she was 18. It was her way of ensuring she could lengthen her career should anything ever come of it, because she would always look young for her age. Ivy lived in a shoebox apartment in LA and worked every night at the cocktail bar around the block. It didn’t pay all that well but it made sure there was just about enough to make rent every month.

With the little additional money she made, she funded her own way to auditions but eventually also began using it to take small acting classes when she wasn’t on shift. She enjoyed them and learned a lot about technique when it came to performing. Her teachers were surprised by her ability and confidence to completely absorb a story or a character and make it her own. She also managed to get herself into a few community theatre productions which generated some buzz around her name and brought a talent scout or two to visit.

It was almost 2 years in LA with very little for luck and for a while, Ivy wondered if perhaps her mother was right and she wasn’t cut out for a life in showbusiness. Though she had found some minor exposure in the form of a couple of commercial gigs and then a role in a music video for a famous pop artist which eventually helped her to meet an agent. Her agent, Rachel, helped greatly in shaping up Ivy’s career, helping her to pick the jobs she was most likely to get and make recommendations on how to protect her image. It gave her a renewed sense of determination to find a role that was right for her.

After many months of rejection, hitting no after no, she finally got her first real role on an up-and-coming new sitcom which made her almost explode with excitement when Rachel called her to say she had gotten the part. The character, named Rose Delaney, was one that Ivy resonated with and connected deeply, it focused around her struggles as a young adult in the world. Experiencing all her firsts as the story progressed. What started as a small part gained her somewhat of a fanbase and the writers liked her work a lot and invited her back for several more episodes and in the next season she was made a series regular.

Now that she had finally found he break though, Ivy didn’t want to put the breaks on her career, her goal was always to one day star in movies so she could share the great stories she saw herself with everyone around them. While working on the show she continued to audition for film parts, waiting for the right piece to come along and offer her the chance to show what she could do. She also gained a couple of modelling contracts with a few designer clothing brands who likes her casual and comfy style and wanted it to market it out to other young girls like her. 

Ivy made a specific social media account which she also used to start to talk with her fans online and learn about the things they liked and disliked about her work only to discover that a lot of news websites often posted rumors about her sexuality, spreading false information about girls she was dating including a friend of hers she went to dinner with a few years ago. It bothered her, seeing people debating about her personal life like they knew her, thinking they had the right to know about her personal attraction. Especially when she didn’t feel like she had figured it out for herself. 

After a few movie roles were turned down due to the dislike for Ivy’s name always being in the press she grew more and more frustrated about how unfair the industry was and that opportunities were being taken away from her because of who she might one day choose to love. The hardest part was that she had never even experienced it. Her only kisses had been ones that were scripted on set and were purely professional. She honestly hadn’t met anyone who ever really stood out to her, at least not since Cassie and it wasn’t like she was still hung up on her, the two of them were still friends and talked often, she just didn’t feel all that interested. 

Perhaps it was a mistake to agree to it, but her publicist proposed that Ivy and her co star Dylan Spark begin a fake relationship in order to quieten the rumor mill and to boost both of their careers and while it felt unsettling for her, Dylan seemed happy to go ahead with it and they were already good friends. It worked for her because it kept everyone quiet while she figured her own self out and also brought her good publicity which later led her to her first real film role, a supporting character in a romantic comedy where she played the sister of the lead.

The film was a great success and opened a lot of doors for Ivy who now found the world in her hands, she had lots of opportunities, directors who wanted to work with her, brands who wanted to partner with her or for her to talk about on her social media. By the age of 26 she had hit a very good place in her career where she could afford a nice apartment in LA along with a nice car and to wear designer versions of her usual comfy clothes. The word was steady but albeit hit and miss like movies were. She said goodbye to Rose in the third season of the show after it was cancelled and said hello to her new, movie focused, career. 

Things were going well for Ivy and she was happy, she felt like she was really achieving something with her passion which could only mean that a snag in the road was due. Because there, one night as she returned to her apartment after her shooting. Was her father. He told her how his life had fallen apart since he left and that he wanted to make amends. And her, being the child who had lost him so young and missed him ever since, felt the tug at her heart strings and allowed him inside. It turned out her father had a gambling addiction and that he had lost near everything, he explained that he walked out because he didn’t want to put that burden on her and her mother. 

It was way too naive a way for the usually cynical girl to act but this was the person she had always looked to for most of her life. So she let him into her house and offered him a place to stay while he got back on his feet again. Which worked out for a while and Ivy felt herself slowly being able to connect with someone again. But of course, it was too good to be true, because before long Ivy found out her father had been taking things from her and selling them for money. Playing on her empathy and her love for him and twisting it to his own benefit. And she snapped. It felt like every time Ivy allowed herself to just be her, the world had to remind her that the real her wasn’t what the world wanted to see. 

She insisted that he leave and felt herself utterly broken and alone. She didn’t know where to go or what to do with herself anymore. She felt like she had spent so much time thinking about the person she wanted to show the world that she had started to confuse the lie with the truth. She wasn’t even sure what kind of person she was on the inside anymore and that scared her. For a long time she had been considering doing a film which she wasn’t completely in love with but this happening caused her to turn it down. Instead, she chose to get herself involved in a directing and self produced project that Dylan was doing, one which was sending him to a different state. So she went with him and before long found herself arriving in Evermore, CO. 

After spending a few months in Evermore, Ivy quickly realized how much easier it was for her to disconnect from the show business world when it wasn’t constantly surrounding her, she went off to set, did her scenes and talked to her coworkers before she went home and had a peaceful evening alone. She fell in love a little with the quietness of the city and how serene it all felt. She could go out on morning jogs and get a friendly smile from a neighbor rather than people following her and asking for pictures and autographs constantly. She felt free to be herself but also do the work she loved too.

And eventually she found the will to reach out to the Evermore Initia faction so that she could finish her elemental training in earth and then take up two new elements, water and air. She enjoyed accepting these new elements into her life and embracing what she was. Even if bad memories felt a little tied to it, there were a lot of good too. She enjoyed learning on her own terms, not something her mother had forced upon her and she felt happy for a time. 

But it wasn’t long after this that Dylan got himself a real girlfriend, which while he kept their media relationship for publicity reasons, started to raise questions about the closeness of her and his relationships, the tabloids yet again abuzz with questions about her personal life she didn’t have the answer to. Here she was, about to turn 30 years old and she still had no idea what real love would even feel like or be like. She informed her agent that after her current projects ended she wanted to take a career hiatus until the rumors die down and focus on herself, on finding the person she was. 

So she bought herself a little apartment on the section of the Initia territory closest to the city, it was a modestly sized home which she hired an interior designer to help her with and she made it completely her own. Pretty wallpapers, big enough closet for all the free stuff she had been sent and barely opened over the years and a big grand piano tucked away in a room just for her. Because Ivy realized she had felt most at home when she was younger, letting her fingers glide across the keys and she wanted to find that again. 

She also got clever with the things she wore and where she went again, keeping a low profile so that she could go out and enjoy herself without worry. She was attempting to find some stability and happiness in her life. Not from the fake character she was so used to putting on but in the little things that made her who she was, the ones she felt like she had lost touch with over time.