TAROT

Real name: Marie-Ange Colbert
Occupation: Art Student
Identity: Marie-Ange's mutant status is not publicly known.
Legal status: Citizen of France with no criminal record
Other aliases: Tarot
Place of birth: Lyons, France
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Marie-Ange (Grandmother, deceased), Parents (deceased)
Group affiliation: None
Base of operations: None
First appearance: October, 2000
History:

The earliest memories that Marie has are of her grandmother, Marie-Ange, showing her the ancient of tarot cards which she herself used to look into the future. When Marie looked into the cards she saw more then the pictures, but the patterns and the pathways which would make up her life. While her grandmother called this a gift, Marie would learn to call it a curse as she grew older and the events she'd seen in the cards came to pass.

She knew her parents were to die first when she was ten, the crash of the car shown to her in the cards as she practiced her grandmother's teachings. An hour later, a knock on the small cottage's door revealed an officer breaking the news to both Grandmother and young daughter. For a short period of time, Marie stopped reading the cards scared of what they would reveal to her next but at the same time curiousity of the unknown continued to tug at her drawing her back to them and soon she was sitting beside her grandmother bent over the cards.

As time passed the cards became as important as breath to her and as a result they became a point of ridicule for others in her class to take exception to. When one day Marie sat reading the cards for a classmate, she through down the Sun card and a flash of light arrupted blinding temporarily all those within a few feet except for Marie herself. At the age of twelve, Marie's powers were starting to emerge and in a small village it made her a focal point for anything that went wrong and she was labelled a demon for her abilities. When her grandmother died a year later, Marie was alone and the village sent her to a nearby convent school to live hoping the nuns and church would purge the devil from the girl.

Marie spent the next three years sequestered behind the walls of the school venturing out only for field trips or the occasional shopping trip for supplies. While the nuns punished her for her religious beliefs, and even at one point attempted to take her deck of cards away, for the most part she had a good life at the convent school not minding the isolation she was often assigned in order to let her 'think' about her pagan beliefs. What isolation really resulted in was more of a dependance on her cards, but it also allowed her to become more accomplished as an artist.

When Marie was a little over 16 she graduated from the convent school and as she wasn't exactly a candidate for the sisterhood she was sent out into the world. Marie had no where to go but a desire to see the pictures of the Louvre took the girl from Lyons to Paris where she was shocked by what she found there. Everything was so different there, it was bright and noisy and very busy and she stood out at the bus stop like the naive innocent that she was.

While a few people tried to pick Marie up as soon as she arrived, the fates gently guided her to decline the most generous offers and take a room in a small boarding house in one of the older though less well kept sections of town. The other residents were older and took a grandparently attitude to the girl checking up on her as she shared meals or passed them in the halls. It was for an older woman named Angelique that Marie first started reading the cards as something akin to a profession. While for those in the house Marie charged nothing word of mouth quickly spread to the point she had a small following she would read the cards for in the evenings.

During the day, Marie spent her time at the Louvre and around the other museums about Paris drawing and painting the work of the Masters or occasionally doing sketches of what she saw about the city. It was while she was sitting in the Louvre one day sketching that her work caught the eye of a tourist. The man continued to come by for three days until he finally approached Marie and introduced himself as a Mr. Getty. While the name meant little to Marie, he explained that he was on the Board at Columbia University and asked of she would be interested in coming to New York to study art at the university. Marie turned the offer down unsure if this was just another come on, but instead of pressuring Marie he gave her his card and the number of his hotel if she changed her mind.

At first Marie did not pay the offer much attention after she left the museum that day, but while she was sharing a loaf of fresh bread from the bakery Marie happened to mention it to Angelique. The older woman took the man's card and called the number verifying the offer was on the up and up.

Even so Marie was undecided but when the next day she read the cards they told her to go and hence she called Mr. Getty's hotel and accepted his offer which resulted in her recent arrival in New York City.

Height: 5'7" Weight: 110 lbs.
Eyes: Green Hair: Red
Unusual physical characteristics: None
Strength level: Marie-Ange has the normal human strength of a girl her age, size, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.
Known superhuman powers: Marie-Ange has the ability to tell the future through the reading of the tarot cards. In addition, she is able to bring to life the images from the cards of her deck to do her bidding.
Other abilities: Marie-Ange is a promising young artist.
Weapons and paraphernalia: Tarot Cards
Other notes: Marie-Ange is fluent in her native French, she is also nearly fluent in Latin, Spanish, German, and Italian. Her English is basic at this time.