Tala is a middle-aged wolf. She is one of the four protagonists of The New Low.

Appearance

As is normal for older black wolves, Tala is mostly white, with black remaining on her muzzle, ears, and back. Her eyes are pale.

Tala is physically healthy, impressively so for her age. She mostly achieved this through physical, traditional means: good exercise, a healthy diet, and so on.

She usually wears clothing over her body, legs, and paws.

Personality

Tala is shy, cynical, and intelligent. She speaks quietly and briefly.

She sees beauty in novelty and nuance. She enjoys learning every intricate detail about physical and biological processes.

Tala is health-conscious and tidy. She doesn't care too much about how others perceive her physical appearance; she only keeps herself looking nice because she feels "gross" otherwise. She only seldom consumes meat, and she prefers walking up stairs over using an elevator.

She holds a lot of guilt and self-resentment due to her traumatic experience at Titan. She refused to talk about it with other fae and may even grow hostile at anyone insisting she talks.

Backstory

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Titan

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Tala received her degree in biology and continued to work in Titan. She specialized in bacteria and antibiotics.

The Shattering

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Disaster

At the time of the fire (one year before the events of The New Low), Tala worked on the fourth floor. At the start of the disaster, Tala and her coworkers assumed the fire alarms to be a drill, so they were not in a rush to leave. Tala was in the middle of an observation, which she insisted on completing first. She and some of her coworkers remained, leaving only after a coworker noticed fire trucks outside.

Tala reached the ground level first, ahead of her coworkers. Already, the fire had spread enough to block her off from the nearest exit, requiring her to take a different exit. On her way, she noticed strangely-colored water starting to run along the wall. Though she did not know this was an aqueous metamutagen solution, she felt inclined to avoid it.

In her escape, Tala witnessed one of her coworkers, a wolf, fall into the discolored water. He was promptly poisoned, causing him to rapidly and painfully mutate. Tala fell into shock from witnessing it. Another firefighter found her paralyzed in fear and carried her out.

She and the firefighter were among the last of the fae to make it out. None of Tala's coworkers escaped.

Though Tala survived the incident, she remains traumatized and experiences tremendous survivor's guilt. She believes that, had she taken the alarm seriously, she would have convinced her coworkers to evacuate with her.