Mezzo

Janaína ‘Jana’ Ueda Loncarovik was born in November 11, 1990 in São Paulo, Brazil, the third and youngest daughter of a Austrian-descended restaurant owner and his third-generation Japanese-Brazilian wife. After manifesting as an avatar and wizard and having a magical accident, she was sent to Whateley, but her long-term goal is to take over her father's business and turn it into one of the culinary highlights of the Southern Hemisphere.

It shouldn't need to be said, but since this is a fan contributed character, it probably needs to be. This is not a license to add fan characters. The character must appear in a canon story by a canon author before it can be added. There are, at present, only two such characters: Ponygirl and Mezzo. They appear in most of the Faction 3 scenes. Mezzo also appears in several of the Ayla stories as a kitchen worker.

MID

MID as of 2006-12:

Mutant Identification Card
Code name	MEZZO
Ratings	AV-3, Wiz-2, SH-3(ufnwe), REG-1
Techniques	Shapeshifting (limited), minor spells, ventriloquism
Weak vs	Normal weaknesses expected of human or animal form
Backup / Team Affiliation

General Description

Jana is a product of the Brazilian upper-middle class, a somewhat spoiled teenager. She didn’t like very much being sent to Whateley when her powers surfaced, because here she has to take care of her own chores and <shudder> work to supplement her allowance. It’s not that she’s lazy; she used to enjoy helping in the kitchen of her father’s restaurants, and actually has the makings of a chef if she dedicates herself — but she resents having far less free time than she was used to. Her demeanor is usually friendly and helpful, but she can become annoying and snotty when the subject is food. She's heterosexual, but has no known boyfriend so far.

Appearance

Jana is an interesting mix of Caucasian and Japanese. Cute, not really beautiful, she goes for a more aggressive look than her more traditionally-minded mother would like. She is a bit nearsighted and usually wears corrective lenses — either glasses or contact lenses, depending on her mood that day -- she has three or four different pairs of glasses, and sometimes wears colored lenses, hiding the brown color or her eyes. Her hair is black and straight, typical of Japanese descendants, but she wears it spiked up and dyed flame-red (not "normal" red hair color, but one of those obviously-dyed shades), like if she was trying to make it look like her head is on fire. Being of average height (1.65m) and build (58kg), she has a somewhat athletic body, the results of many hours surfing. Breasts about a small B, but still has a bit to grow. Her fuller lips, not-fully-Oriental eye shape and hips and buttocks, which are more on the Caucasian range than Oriental, betray her mixed heritage. Her surfer's tan has faded quite a bit since coming to Whateley.

Biography

While vacationing with her family in 2004, Jana accidentally captured a spirit, an event which revealed that she's a mutant, more specifically an avatar. She also has shown magical abilities, although at this point it's uncertain if those come from her captured spirit (tentatively identified as one of the minor tricksters known as Saci-Pererê) or from a second mutant trait. After some consulting with experts, a family friend with contacts in the Brazilian paranormal community found tutors for Jana to learn magic. At first this solution seemed to be satisfactory, with Jana managing to juggle her regular life and school and her new special classes. It wouldn't last, unfortunately.

An accident at sea in early 2005 changed everything. Pulled by a strong current, Jana only managed to survive by using her lessons of magic to turn herself into a mermaid. However, being the work of a rank beginner, her improvised spell ended up all "tangled up" and she is unable to undo it.

No longer being able to pass as human, Whateley became the best option. Arriving with other freshmen in September, she was initially placed at Hawthorne due to her special requirements. Eventually, though, improvements in controlling her shape allowed her to move to Whitman. She could now also apply for a school job, and after some convincing began to help on the school cafeteria. Finding out that Whateley has not one, but THREE world-class chefs was the nicest surprise she had all year. After much badgering, they eventually allowed her to transfer to the kitchen, despite their early misgivings about problems from her half-animal shapes.

Powers

Tentatively assigned Avatar-3, Wiz-4 (due to her particular circumstances, testing is not conclusive). The botched spell locked most of her magical abilities, leaving her only with the ones derived from the Saci, which reduced her to a de facto Wiz-2. As the Saci is a trickster, this means she has a good arsenal of small mischievous spells, and some control of small whirlwinds. She can't travel via whirlwinds, one of the legendary Saci powers, though -- maybe she will after she regains her full powers. On the other hand, the transformation and attempts at a cure left her some limited shifter ability and low-level regeneration.

At first, she seemed locked in the mermaid shape. Eventually, with the help of her teachers, she learned how to achieve temporary reversal to human form -- but this is an unstable situation, requiring constant concentration and reverting to her half-human form eventually, and she has to rest before attempting again. By constantly pushing herself, she managed to increase her "human time" to several hours at a stretch -- but this increases her recovery time too; as a rule of thumb, her recovery is never shorter than the time she spent as human.

A further breakthrough came by figuring out that the animal "template" wasn't actually an integral part of the spell. Now, she can choose a different animal to become an hybrid of, after she finishes a stint as fully human.

It used to be that she “half-became” the animal most easily available (closer, generally speaking), but that has also improved: now she can select a specific animal with some effort, even if it’s not the closest one, and by really pushing herself she can turn into a form she has been before, even if the relevant animal is not available anywhere close — if she can "remember" how that animal "felt," that is. As most things, this is a matter of practice; for instance, she has used the centaur form so often that she has the horse "signature" pretty much down pat, so this particular form is no longer hard to get, even without a horse nearby.

Once in a while (usually on weekends, or in “red flag” days) she will push her human time to the limit, both for practice and to have more of a normal social life. When in half-animal form, she tends to prefer animals that won’t disrupt her routine too much and appeal to her vanity. It’s quite common seeing her as an humanoid feline or squirrel. However, when working at the school kitchen, she will usually be in a centaur form, in order to avoid the problems with furry arms. She has tried winged forms, but she never figured out the trick to flying, so she rarely does that nowadays.

While she doesn't seem to be an exemplar of note (she might be an E-1, but that is hard enough to determine even without an enchantment messing things), the transformation process will do a great job of healing injuries: minor cuts and bruises will heal fully, more serious ones will have marked improvements with each transformation. This means that by transforming back and forth, she can heal from most injuries in a matter of days -- depending, of course, on how many transformations she can manage per day; if she's in really bad shape, she will depend on conventional care to improve her health to the point she can attempt even one.

Skills

Jana is an apprentice mage, but not very good at it. She is, however, quite a good cook, which allows her to supplement her allowance working at the Whateley kitchen. As a student, her best subjects are Biology and Chemistry. English, Literature and History are her weakest, mostly from her being a foreign exchange student. Even after more than one year at Whateley, she still has a bit of an accent. She is very good at caring for animals and plants, a skill that probably comes in part from her captive spirit. She is also learning to throw her voice, another of the skills of the Saci.

She used to be an avid surfer, but since her transformation and coming to Whateley, she has had little chance to practice.

Personality

A bit vain (like many teenagers, to be sure), she was used to being pampered, but managed to adapt to the more Spartan (in her view) conditions at Whateley. She’s become a bit of a practical joker under the influence of the Saci, but usually knows not to step over the line. She’s a bit of a food snob, complaining loudly that “you can’t find a decent pizza in this godforsaken country,” usually angering New Yorkers and Chicagoans. On the other hand, although technically outside the rules, she has been known to do “special requests” for other students, which tends to even out the feelings about her. The permanent kitchen staff mostly likes her, since she is far more dedicated and useful than the usual student help.

Weaknesses

Her powers at present are rather undeveloped. Her shape-changing “power” (actually a botched spell) is very limited, and is hampering the development of her real magic powers. Although she can turn into a half-animal shape at the drop of a hat, she has to think carefully before doing that, because she will be “stuck” in that shape for the same time she has lastly spent in human form. Also, turning into an animal not readily available (provided that she did transform in that shape once before) demands considerable concentration and effort, which is hard to do in battle conditions. So, if she sees herself in a pickle, and tries turning into the half-bear form she used sometime last year, she may fail -- and turn instead into whatever is closest, like a rat, a pigeon or something like that.

Story Appearances

Jana has appeared in bit parts as one of the Whateley kitchen helpers, mostly in the Ayla stories.. She had a somewhat larger role in two Jade stories, where she appeared in the Faction Three meetings.