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Natasha "Tash" Marquand
Name Natasha "Tash" Marquand
Gender Female
Age 24
Introduced In "Insert Poncey Sounding Elvish Here"


Natasha "Tash" Marquand is one of the four Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society leaders. She is currently Assistant Librarian of the Library Arcanium. Tash is the second-in-command of the Society, but in the absence of Harriet, she deals with the day-to-day running of the Society.

Description[]

"As de facto leader, I can safely say... welcome to the Society. If you have any sanity left, please leave it at the door." -Tash

Tash's official status in the Society is Operations Leader; thus, she is the leader first alerted to any new threats, and in charge of finding and sending agents to deal with the problem. She also determines duties, teams, and recruitment in the Society's ranks. These duties also mean she probably has the largest amount of paperwork to do out of all the agents, thus her time to take missions of her own is often limited (unless she feels like coming back and finding her office inacessible from the breeding paperwork).

Whilst she was Acting Librarian, Tash was being assisted by the other Counter Guardians, however upon Adrian's return, the role of Librarian reverted to him.

Appearance[]

"Sorry Tashy! I think I just kicked you in the chest!"
"Oh relax. It's not like there's much there to kick..." - Harriet and Tash during a Society dog pile.

Tash is in her early twenties, and since her status as Librarian was not a result of a contract with The Powers That Be, she is not immortal as Adrian was, and therefore will continue to age as normal. She is 5'10", has blue eyes, and sometimes wears purple glasses. Tash's friends have often commented that her figure is Sue-worthy; however, Tash has severe hang ups about her chest (or lack thereof).

She has blonde hair, which has changed length several times over the course of her time with the Society. It is currently half way down her back, with the front shorter around her face. Previously it was waist length, but after being attacked by Volt, the Elemental of Lightning, most of it was chopped down to bristles, save for a few unattractive patches.

Tash will wear anything as long as it's comfortable. As a long time cosplayer, she is always up for dressing up (the more outlandish, the better). She will always wear flat shoes, as high heels are likely to send her to A&E, either from breaking her ankle or walking into door frames. She wears two necklaces; one is a flat silver disk with two phoenixes on it, where she stores her sword Nephthys. She never takes this off. The other is a wire cage with a piece of obsidian in it, which she wears on advice from Valerie, in order to shield her emotions.

She is British, very proud to be, and therefore speaks with a British accent, though not one specifically relating to any particular region. She will impulsively correct any American terms she hears, and when things go wrong "bollocks" is always an appropriate response.

Personality[]

"We're the Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination Society. We throw parties on the Fourth Wall (bring your own lampshade)."

Tash's personality has been summed up in one word - mad. Or if you are being polite, eccentric. She is prone to impulsiveness and reckless decisions in battle, particulary when those she loves are in danger or threatened. She carries some insecurities about herself, mostly stemming from her self-consicousness about her appearence, though these have become much less noticable since she fell in love with Adrian. She is also strong-willed, being able to keep the rather eccentric and sometimes unruly Society Agents in line.

When Tash feels threatened or uncomfortable, she usually resorts to sarcasm and snark to defend herself (this can often be taken as rudeness by those of a more sensitive nature). She does not react well to touch from strangers, but when around close friends (or at an anime convention) she will usually be totally up for a hug.

Tash is a veteran member of the WARGS.

History[]

Season One[]

Tash had admitted on many occasions, that her astonishment at the speed with which the Society grew, is eclipsed only by her horror at how many Sues suddenly sprung up at about the same time.

Tash has admitted to creating Sues herself, though hers have all been Self-Insert Sues, which now languish in the Vault of Abandoned Ideas. She has been reported stating that this is a good thing as "the world can only handle one of me at a time!". Like many authors, she is ashamed of her first fanfictions and stories, and admits to being a lot wiser now. When asked about her previous Self Insert Sues, she refuses to comment on any of them, quickly changing the subject. It is generally assumed that she is too ashamed to think much about them.

As the Society began with the sole purpose of capturing Willowe Foxblade, Tash, along with Harriet and Lauren are the founders, and have been there since the very beginning. Their first missions involved chasing Willowe through the Lord of the Rings, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Harry Potter fandoms, with no success. After these disasters, Tash began recruiting people she knew to help with tracking down Willowe.

In the beginning of the Society's expansion, Tash often appeared to issue missions to other agents, but occasionally she took missions with other people. When Willowe's sister Juniper was spotted in the Cardcaptor Sakura fandom, she took Miriku and Michael with her, however that mission was a failure after an accident with a Plot Device.

Tash's next big mission was to the Pokémon fandom after Michael confronted Alastor's team of Legendary Pokémon. Tash's Pokémon in the battle was her Typhlosion. Along with Claire, Miriku, Harriet, Marcus, and Adrian, they succeeded in beating back the Legendaries and Copyrighting Mewtwo. Alastor was subdued, but escaped before he could be Prohibited.

Shortly after the Pokémon mission, Tash accompanied Adrian to the Fate/stay night fandom. In order to enter the fandom and participate in the Holy Grail war, Adrian required a Master, and Tash ended up filling the role. After Adrian ditched her to go find Runoa, Tash wandered around before stumbling into the middle of the fight. Adrian shielded her from Runoa's Gate of Babylon attack, severely wounding himself in the process, and causing Tash to realise just how strongly she felt for him.

Not too long after Adrian wound up in hospital, Willowe cropped up in the Elfen Lied fandom, and Harriet and Tash set off to confront her. After a brief fight, which resulted in both leaders being beaten up badly, Willowe was driven away by Emma, Beth, and Kate, and both Harriet and Tash wound up in the hospital with a furious Adrian.

During her time in the hospital, Tash managed to cast a spell on Adrian to give him white kitty ears and a tail. Shortly after, Tash and Adrian admitted their love for each other.

During a rescue mission to the Percy Jackson fandom, a DNA sample from Tash was retrieved by the Sues, and used to create the pseudo-Tash. That night Tash was kidnapped and replaced with her dopplegänger. When Tash woke up, she found herself in the Kingdom Hearts fandom, as Runoa's prisoner. Runoa explained that she had been taken to be used as bait for Adrian, and she revealed her own past as the previous Librarian. Tash broke free and fought Runoa, but wound up being defeated just as a severely crippled Adrian arrived. The two were rescued by Saito Hajime and the rest of the Society.

Tash assisted in the capture of Willowe when the Sue infiltrated the Society to steal the floppy disc with her fanfiction saved to it. Tash was surprised to learn that Willowe was Harriet's own creation, and was hurt that her friend had never told her the truth. However she knew that she herself had done her fair share of Sue-creation and did not feel that way for long.

In the lull after Willowe's capture, Tash and Jess headed to the Underworld fandom to capture a Sue named Alina Corvin. Ill prepared though they were, the two managed to Copyright the two main characters of the movie and found that they can leave all the fighting to them instead. However Jess managed to compromise the mission after she discovered Leonard in her handbag, and her powers go out of control. Alina escaped, and Jess and Tash were left dusting books for a month as penance for entering a highly dangerous fandom.

Alina was finally captured after Jess, Miriku and Tash cornered her in the Luxe fandom, after a brief fight with their dresses, dancing, and the strain of behaving like proper ladies.

During the Society's Halloween party, Tash assisted in trying to find the counter curse to the sleeping and flashback spells, but wound up being bitten by a brainwashing Potential Subplot. After being trapped between the ceiling and a pillar of ice by Aster, she was given the antidote to the bite, just as the spells are reversed. She and Harriet led the Society in finding those responsible - Chi and Xavier, and along with several other Society agents, vanished the next morning to begin their NaNoWriMo.

When Willowe invaded the Library, Tash and Valerie are caught in the midst of training by Harold and battled him briefly with the aid of Kyle, before Tash orderd a general retreat to the Briefing Room in order to regroup. She and Val, after receiving Adrian's Codex of Index from Aster, were among the last to arrive and shortly afterwards, Adrian ordered the Agents to return to the Real World and knocked Tash out in order to prevent her from staying with him when he went to fight Willowe.

Later, in the Real World, Tash awakened and immediately demanded that the other Counter Guardians go help Adrian, but was devasted when they told her that the way to the Library was sealed off. She then used the Codex of Index to access Adrian's final letter and read it aloud, revealing his plan for dealing with Willowe's invasion of the Real World.

She remained unresponsive and withdrawn after this, until Mary-Ann tossed her Adrian's blood-covered pendant. Tash finally realised that he was dead and snapped, screaming into the sky, the air around her igniting in response; her sword, Nephthys formed in her hand, and Tash sliced off Mary-Ann's arm, too fast to been seen and then burnt the Sue to ash before flying off to go confront Willowe in the Sahara Desert.

Tash and Willowe engaged in a harsh battle, Tash's flames actually glassing some of the surface of the Sahara. Willowe challenged Tash, asking why she was fighting the very things as she and her comrades had given life to, but Tash was too engraged by Adrian's death to care. Though she was nearly beaten by the Sue, Tash managed, with a little prompting from a memory of Adrian, to use her Juari-Ken Succession move and kill Willowe. She then broke down and wept, managing recover enough to return the Agents to the Library and was later comforted by Valerie, who expressed her belief that Adrian was still alive, in their hearts.

Season Two[]

In the weeks following the War, Tash sealed herself away for a long time, barely speaking to anyone and walking around in a zombie-like trance. This began to morph into a more bitchy persona as time went on. After a mystery Sue cropped up in the His Dark Materials fandom, Tash was required to have a daemon to blend in with the fandom, and she ended up unsealing an old fanfiction in order to gain access to her daemon, Sati. After a failed attempt at arresting the Sue, Sati gave Tash a chewing out about her attitude and behaviour. Though the Sue was not caught, Tash made the decision to take a week off from the Society, and along with Harriet, instate Michael as a Society Leader.

The next mission she participated in was after the Sue from the His Dark Materials fandom (going by the name Lisa Vine) reappeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures fandom. During this mission, Tash and Emily finally revealed the secret project they had been working on for the past few months - they had been attempting to resurrect a spaceship from one of Tash's old fanfictions. Although Emily ended up hitting the Sue with a face full of fangirl disinfectant, she still managed to escape.

Later, Tash journeyed to the Rome fandom with Michael, Alice, Louise, Claire, Ben, Cristoph, Phoenixia, and Rhia. After cornering Merle, Robert, and Richard at Atia's party she battled Merle on a rooftop, Merle dealing a surprising amount of damage before fleeing the fandom.

The loss of Adrian was brought back home to Tash when, after Valerie found a piece of Adrian's soul in Aster, it came to be that she too happened to have one of Adrian's soul pieces, as did Michael.

Just after Adrian was resurrected news came through that Aster was missing. Tash jumped into action, along with most of the rest of the Society. After entering Runoa's base in Fate/Stay Night and much fighting she entered a Yu-Gi-Oh! duel with Runoa, teaming up with three other Agents. Although they beat Runoa in the duel, she proceeded to attack them until Adrian arrived and took over. Phoenixia arrived not long after, with a heavily injured Aster. Being the only one that could fly to the Manta and outrun the Sovereigns, Tash took Aster for medical attention, and remained on her ship until the end of the mission.

Tash and Adrian celebrated their second anniversary in the Final Fantasy X fandom, where they encountered Purity. The Sovereign appeared to have a developed a fixation on Tash (the nature of which is still not clear) and attacked when Tash refused to go with him. She was eventually overcome, but Adrian rescued her and the pair escaped.

Tash was on the mission to Sea Monsters, and spent most of the trip yelling, due to her ears being blocked. She went on the Jurassic dive with the Liopleurodon, and greatly enjoyed the mission overall.

When Emily ventured in the Twilight fandom as part of a trap laid by Runoa, Phoenixia, Adrian and Tash went in after her. Adrian and Tash focused on fighting Runoa, until Phoenixia's alter ego Crickette appeared, and they were forced to fight her instead. Crickette managed to badly injure all of them, but Phoenixia took over again before she could kill anyone, and ran away in horror at what she had done. Tash took Emily back to the Library, leaving Adrian to search for her. Phoenixia was eventually declared missing.

Not long after, Tash went on a mission to the Tales of the Otori fandom, as a means of blowing off some steam after a massive fight with Louise. Though she succeeded in catching the Sue, she was attacked and kidnapped by Purity and Order, who took her back with them to their hideout. After spending a surprisingly enjoyable time with the Sovereigns, she proceeded to irritate Runoa as much as she could, before a timely crash landing by Emily gave her the chance to effect her escape. While fighting with Purity, she discovered his true angelic form, though this did not impress her in the least, and managed to knock him out in order to escape with Emily.

A few months on, Michael and Tash decided to step up their training to deal with their new enemies. During a training session in the Twilight fandom, both brother and sister were ambushed by Wisdom and Purity. Tash fought with Purity until Combee arrived on the scene. Combee attacked and incapacitated Purity, before dragging Tash off to help Michael. Tash diagnosed Wisdom as having a heart attack, and both she and Michael took him to hospital nearby. Though Wisdom survived, his Sue powers seem to have been cancelled out, and his body shut down into a coma to recover.

A week after Roxelana's escape from the Basement, Tash, along with Harriet, Valerie, Michael and Jared, was selected as a mentor for Passion's next challenge in the Hunger Games. Using techniques learned from The Jenny School of Good Kidnapping, Tash and Harriet made it their mission to irritate the Sovereign mentors as much as they could, including constantly demanding cups of tea, sleeping with Creation and slipping insults in wherever they could. After all the Sue tributes were killed, Passion disappeared to the arena to confront them himself, leaving the Society mentors to face off against the Sovereign mentors. Tash fought against Purity once more, the battle ending when all the leaders escaped to find the tributes.

Relationships[]

Harriet and Lauren were Tash's housemates for two years during their stay at University. Tash personally refers to those two years as the best of her life. Harriet and Tash met in a screenwriting class in the first week of university in which all students were asked to name something that inspired them to write. Harriet's slightly timid response was "the voices in my head", to which Tash replied "you too?!". Tash was introduced to Lauren soon after the girls began looking for housing for their second year. All three of them are enthusiastic writers, and often sit together and bounce ideas off one another.

Michael and Miriku met Tash three years previously, and all three are incredibly close, to the extent that Tash is frequently addressed by them both and as 姉貴 (aneki, or 'big sister'). Tash adores them both, and is particularly keen to help Claire convert Michael to the "British side" often with promises of cookies. She is also known to pick Miriku up and swing her around wildly when sugar high, and chase her around with hair straighteners in an attempt to tame her hair.

She is also particularly close with Claire, Valerie, Rhia, Jess, Emma, Beth, and Kate, most of whom she knows somehow in Real Life. She also has friends in the form of Gareth, Dave, Alice, and Louise, all whom are members of the Winchester Association of Roleplayers and Gamers, making Tash, of course, a WARG herself. Tash has also developed a great deal of affection for Emily, and the two have taken to vanishing together for a few hours (often with Phoenixia) to work on Tash's spaceship, the Manta.

Tash is in love with Adrian, and spends most of her free time with him (when the Librarian isn't doing his own duties too, though she becomes lethargic and distracted when he is gone for long periods of time.). She is also the one responsible for giving him kitty ears, and on a prior occasion, turning him into a full cat for a week, and she prides herself on being able to halt his thought process with a few rubs to the ears. Adrian is one of the few people who is able to snap Tash out of a panic attack, and she remains one of the few people who can help him with his nightmares. Their - apparently active - sex life has obtained a few fans, including Harriet, Ossa, and Aimee, after a small incident with Phoenixia and some pre-recorded footage.

Whether Tash is straight or bisexual remains a mystery. She has expressed attraction to several women before (including Harriet and Phoenixia), but she is unsure if this is a sexual thing or just a severe case of breast envy.

When the Society first begun, she and Harriet suffered severe bouts of fangirlishness, and had a habit of jumping their canon crushes in favour of catching their target Sue. Since falling in love with Adrian, however, most of her fangirl crushes have died down (though she still remains an adamant fangirl of Bakura and Kurama (the former because he's hot and badass, and the latter because he's "just so damn adorable").

Unique Abilities and Items[]

Juari-Ken[]

Tash has small amounts of magical ability, and under Adrian’s instruction has mastered Juari-Ken, a fighting style that, when combined with fire magic, makes for a destructive offensive force (the style is not meant to defend, rather to attack in response). Until recently, Tash used a staff to channel her magic, and when not in use, it transformed into a necklace, rather like Adrian’s. Now, however, she uses her sword, a red-coloured longsword named Nephthys.

An old and forgotten style, Juari-Ken is a powerful flame-based method of fighting, with its masters being called ‘Phoenixes’, as when a Juari-Ken user goes on the attack, very little can withstand their fiery powers. However, the style lends very little to defense, preferring to counter-attack rather than block or parry, though most users are quite adept at dodging, hence the style’s name of "Dancing Flame".

  • Juari-Ken - Tairenso (Dancing Flame - Whirling Hell Wind): The wielder crouches, extending their left foot out in front of them and resting their weapon on their right shoulder. Then they launch themselves forwards, their weapon igniting as they spin. The attack's centrifugal force and strong momentum make it impossible to block or counter, and experienced users can even continue the attack up walls or other flat surfaces. Strangely, no user has ever become dizzy from this attack.
  • Juari-Ken - Rinwi (Dancing Flame - Searing Flame Strike): The user pole-vaults with their weapon and slams both feet into their opponent, following that with a ferocious spinning strike with their staff.
  • Juari-Ken - Shinanori (Dancing Flame - Sky Rocket Burst): A move used to counter aerial attacks, the user plants their weapon into the ground and vaults off the hilt, allowing them to jump much higher than normal, while at the same time whipping their weapon up from the ground to strike at their opponent.
  • Juari-Ken - Doryuto (Dancing Flame - Rising Star Slam): A basic move of the style, Tash sweeps her staff at her opponent and then lands a precisely timed kick on the staff, doubling its force and speed.
  • Juari-Ken - Doryuta (Dancing Flame - Falling Star Crush): Similar to Doryuto, but is a downward-swinging attack, Tash striking her staff with her palm in place of her leg.
  • Juari-Ken - Gihardi (Dancing Flame - Striking Phoenix Talon): A counter-attack, this move requires a block and the user spins on their heel, smashing their weapon through their opponent’s guard and delivering a powerful blow.
  • Juari-Ken - Abari (Dancing Flame - Meteor Burst) One of the style’s aerial attacks. Tash dives at her target, staff first, spinning rapidly and effectively becoming a ‘meteor’ that unleashes a massive explosion upon impact.
  • Juari-Ken - Silinoi (Dancing Flame - Meteor Shower): A second aerial move and one designed specifically for enclosed spaces. Tash pushes off the walls, floor and ceiling, raining a flurry of blows on her target with each pass.
  • Juari-Ken - Silinoa Ehardi (Dancing Flame - Dance of the Stars): The strongest aerial attack, this move is powerful, as Tash flashes past her opponent and strikes them six times, each strike leaving a trail of fire that forms a six-pointed star, her opponent at the center. Then each line collapses and explodes, eveloping the target in an sphere of inferno.
  • Juari-Ken Ougi- Seferaite (Dancing Flame- Dance of the Phoenix Goddess): Juari-Ken's Succession Move, it starts in a manner similar to Tairenso, but instead of the blade extending over the shoulder, it is held in a reverse grip, with the blade resting diagonally over the back and over the opposing shoulder, the left arm extended to continue the blade's path. The user's body is treated like a spring, launching their half-circle strike so fast that it inverts reality, letting them strike from three directions at once. If this does not killl the opponent, the flames created from the attack suck the heat out of the air surrounding the target, trapping them in a thin, but strong, layer of ice and leaving them open for a true killing blow.

Flash Step[]

Thanks to a combination of her fighting style, and a few visits to the Bleach fandom, Tash has mastered the flash step and a couple of its techniques. This allows her to cross distances in the blink of an eye. She is the fastest agent in the Society, though prolonged use of the flash step will exhaust her legs.

Kickboxing[]

For a while at university, Tash took kickboxing lessons, and regularly utilises the skill when magical means of attack are unreliable. She has a tendency to attack first and ask questions later if she feels threatened. Though her punching leaves something to be desired, her kicks have been reported to be very powerful, to the extent that she once knocked out two of Runoa's teeth with a single strike.

Plot Summary[]

Main article: Plot Summary

Tash holds the one functioning Society Plot Summary in her possession (though she has been known to loan it out), for the simple reason that of the three leaders, she is the one most likely to have need of it. Other Plot Summaries are in production, but due to their complex nature, creating them is difficult. As they are slightly bulky to carry around, most agents do not particularly want one, preferring instead to call the on-duty agents in the monitor room and get a more detailed reading from the Library's computer system.

The Manta[]

Main article: The Manta

The Manta is a spaceship which Tash designed for a fanfiction when she was sixteen. So far it has only been used to provide a distraction in a sci-fi fandom, and it is yet to be found if it will come to much use. For now, Tash and Emily spend most of their free time messing around with it, and trying to get it back into proper working condition (it deteriorated drastically during its five year confinement in the Vault of Abandoned Ideas).

Other talents[]

First Aid: Tash is qualified to give first aid at the scene of an accident.

Belly Dancing: Though not really useful in battle, Tash is very dexterous from years of belly dancing, and can keep time with rhythm very well.

Deck Strategy: Tash is a competent duelist, though her inability to think things through properly often leads to her being defeated. She runs a spellcaster/spell counter deck, though her favourite monster, the Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, is always present too. She often states that she doesn't have a particular strategy, preferring to change her methods to suit how the duel is going. If she has spell counters to spare, she'll power up one of her heavy hitters, swarm the field, or clear her opponent out. If she's in a tight spot, she'll lock her opponent out and burn their points away. And if her opponent has a powerful monster, she'll summon her Phoenix and power her up any way she can.

Trivia[]

  • Feeding Tash coke, ice cream, oreos, or pocky will result in a severe amount of hyperactivity.
  • She is teetotal.
  • Her blood type is AB.
  • Tash has a copy of the music box from Elfen Lied in her office (unless Aster has stolen it).
  • She has a photographic memory when it comes to movies and certain television shows, and will often walk around quoting them at random moments.
  • Her left elbow regularly clicks out of place, due to an accident she had when she was a kid.
  • Tash claims to only have a third of her soul in her possession – where the other two thirds are, she has never stated.
  • Tash is allergic to adhesive and for this reason should never have plasters (band-aids) or stickers stuck to her skin.
  • Tash is coulrophobic, arachnophoic and kenophobic. She also has an anxiety disorder with many triggers, though her control over panic attacks has been strong for a long time.
  • Tash is a fully qualified student of The Jenny School of Good Kidnapping and ranks being kidnapped as one of her favourite things to do.
  • Her theme song is Fuckin' Perfect by P!nk.
Agents of the ACMSES
Leaders HarrietMichaelTash
Department Heads AdrianCharisDaveValerie Shockley
Current Agents AimeeAkai MinamiAlice WoodAster SeleneAvakBenChloeClaire UpwardCristoph AsahinaCrystellia 'Chrys'DanielleDrake DragonsoulGarethInaraIngrid NunnJames 'Jamie' CoulthardJaredJessJoeJohnKarissaKyle GriswoldLily AdamsonLouiseMarcus PateMiriku WassonMizuhoMonikaOssaPeteRedRhiannon 'Rhia'RobertStacey/EzraStephenTheresa 'Terrie' BridgesTomTyler KahnWillie
Retired Agents BethBlakeCamilleDouglas KreigDoyleEmmaKateLaurenRiaSumire
Non-Agents Emily SmithPhoenixia
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