Tanya Woven (Cataclysmic Gerosha)

Tanya Anita Steffan (neé Woven) is a supporting character and later superheroine in her own right, who briefly held the mantle of Ciem alongside Candi Flippo.

Skills, accessories, and weaknesses
Unlike Candi, Tanya doesn't technically have any superpowers. Her cousins in Seattle encouraged her and her family to move there, in order to escape the failing economy in southern Indiana. Her need to push the Kerpher Gang out of the region led to her asking Candi and Nancy to ensure that Imaki could make her a Carbonica Ciem suit capable of compensating for what she lacked that Candi had. Her wish was granted, and the Madison facility kept most of this a secret from SCALLOP.

Most of Tanya's accessories as Ciem pertain in some fashion to letting her simulate Candi's centipede-like physiology.

Skills

 * Gymnastics training
 * Parkour training
 * Comms training
 * Espionage
 * Weight training
 * Fitness training
 * Social media expertise
 * Expert tracker
 * Skilled volleyball player

Accessories
Courtesy of Imaki, Tanya has a variety of tools in her Ciem arsenal as well. Most of these focus on allowing her to do what she otherwise couldn't given she doesn't have all of Candi's abilities.


 * Mask built-in radar / infrared: This is the closest that Tanya can get to centuition. However, it cannot sense the difference between friend and foe, requiring her to have to exercise her best possible judgment.


 * Artifical centilegs: Short stingers that protrude from her upper wrists, shoulders, hips, thighs, and lower calves. They contain a venom that is comparable to bee or hornet venom, which can incapacitate someone.  Enough stings can cause temporary paralysis, making it easier for her to subdue adversaries.  These are mechanical, and must be laced with the same venom as her dart shooters.


 * Dart shooters: These glorified "staple guns" contain numerous staples which can be fired at enemies, allowing for limited capabilities for ranged combat. The staples are marinated in a solution that mimics the chemistry of Candi's centileg venom.  They allow Tanya to remain hidden in shadows for longer.  A regular-size wrist packet of dart shooters gives her 250 staples per wrist, whereas a large pack can carry up to 500 staples - but at the expense of costing her the ability to keep their location discreet.


 * Zeran wardrobes: Quantum storage packages that enable her to store and change clothes quickly. They are modeled after the Zeran technology that was first developed by the Marlquaanite Lord Zeras in the second century AD.  She is able to inherit these from Candi.


 * Night vision eyepieces: Similar to Candi's.


 * Body light lines: These assist with intimidation of targets during interrogation, as well as making her suit look more futuristic. They also assist with helping her see her way in dark places.  However, they must be deactivated if she wishes to remain stealthy.


 * Zeran teleporters: Battery-powered devices that allow her to move from one place to another quickly, though her small-size models are very short-range. She can transport about two football fields tops in distance, though she usually teleports shorter distances to preserve battery life.  Combined with roof-hopping, she uses Zeran teleporters to get around town when nobody is able to fly her across.


 * Remotach pills: A Marlquaan-bound drug developed by a scientist with help from the Phaelites. Tanya is given her own supply, in the event that she ever risks losing her head.  She thankfully never needs these for more than added bullet resistance.


 * Strength enhancers: Built into the suit, these allow Tanya to constrict enemies almost as efficiently as Candi could.

Weaknesses

 * Self-doubt: Tanya frequently wonders why Candi would be so willing to trust her with the Ciem legacy, given she doesn't have superpowers. She feels tremendous pressure to live up to Candi's prowess as Ciem, never feeling entirely adequate.


 * PTSD: Tanya can be distracted by past trauma over the guilt she feels related to the death of her best friend.

Early life
Tanya was born on August 30th of 1999 to parents Brandon and Katrina Woven, just a few days before the Flippo triplets were born on September 9th. She led a fairly uneventful early life until her hometown of Richmond, IN came under attack in 2014 from the Kerpher Gang. Her father vanished while investigating Kerpher activities in Vancouver, leaving Katrina to raise Tanya on her own. Brandon's friend Hubert Rechere called to inform Katrina of Brandon going missing, and promised that the Padua Network and the Navyrope Society were doing what they could to track down the missing Victor Nanale - who was quickly rising through the Kerphers' ranks of leadership. Nanale was described as "like Clyde Spendelworth, but somehow even slimier."

Becoming Ciem
The Kerphers came to town in an effort to capture Tanya and Katrina; but Tanya's quick thinking and gymnastics allowed her subdue her attackers long enough to flee. She and her mother hid with her friends until police were certain that the Kerphers were gone. Even so, the close brush with death and lack of Emeraldon showing up became evidence that there weren't enough heroes in the world.

Traumatized, she supplemented her gymnastics training with parkour and martial arts training. Things became even more dangerous for her and her friends and family when a turf war erupted a year later between the Kerphers and Gleeful-N'-Young. The latter organization sent agents Reece Hamporton and Kyle Brandis to Richmond to finish what Frank Morvel started in Gerosha. Tanya's friends Yong Steffan, Damian Warnier, Ajeerma Casey, Shantal Combine, and Di'Shent Roaste all became targets for Gleeful-N'-Young abduction attempts.

Inspired by the reveal of what happened to Candi Flippo, Tanya called up Rechere, asking him for advice on how to make a Ciem suit. Rechere reluctantly agreed to go along with the ruse, even using an underground connection to get Tanya some Zeran teleporters. As a makeshift and very crude Ciem, Tanya was able to protect her friends from being trafficked - even managing to rescue Yong after Brandis captured him.

Tanya's friends were grateful, promising to do their part to keep her secret should SCALLOP come for her. Ajeerma in particular warned Tanya that under the Kirby Act, impersonating a well-known Altered could be considered a crime - especially one that was already behind bars!

Death of Ajeerma
The new Ciem's operation in Richmond didn't last very long. In 2016, Tanya was with her friends partying at Yong's uncle's house, with love in the air. Damian Warnier, Ajeerma Casey, Shantal Combine, and Di'Shent Roaste - Tanya's "Team Ciem" - were all present. However, the party ran late. Ajeerma was careless online a night prior, and stated something on her Instagram about how she would see to it there were a thousand Ciems if need be, until those that burned her aunt's home down and abducted her cousins were never again able to set foot outside without fear of centipedes.

The Hebbleskins intercepted that post, and concluded that the reports of a copycat Ciem in Richmond may be connected to Ajeerma. Since the war baton had been handed back to Rappaccini, the Triumvirate sent Screwworm operative Vance Rancon to Ajeerma's last-known location in order to spy on her. He stalked her all the way to the party, then set a trap. Yong decided to stay out of town for the rest of the week with his uncle, while the others had to return to Richmond.

Rancon began following their Jeep that Tanya was driving. As they entered a patch of woods, he began firing an ice cannon from his vehicle. Tanya swerved to dodge his attacks. He then attempted to run them off the road, as well as shoot through the windows. Tanya and her friends panicked, as they knew that their secret had been exposed somehow. Tanya was able to pull a daring move that sent Rancon flying off the road and into a tree, killing him. But as she tried to get back to driving, she got confused by a sharp turn in the road that lacked a guardrail.

She and her friends were in a ditch before they knew it, and then crashed into a culvert. Damian, Shantal, and Di'Shent were all injured badly. Tanya herself sustained only mild injuries. Ajeerma, however, flew from the vehicle. She was dead minutes later. Checking through posts, Tanya discovered Ajeerma's fatal mistake of a post. She heard the sounds of something loud, high-pitched, and almost demonic in the distance coming for her, unaware they were Anitos. A car stopped by hers to check on the situation. With the Anitos' screams getting louder, however, the unwitting rescuers abandoned the scene, letting Tanya and her friends drive in the back to flee.

That same night, the owners of the home nearest to that culvert were torn to pieces by the Anitos, who were frustrated in their fruitless search for Ajeerma and her ties to the new Ciem.

Conviction
SCALLOP patrols finally arrived to put the Anitos down. However, police at the scene were still very confused by what happened. Tanya informed her friends that it was only a matter of time before Ajeerma's post - and Tanya's own efforts to copy Candi - put everyone in even more danger. That retiring from being Ciem was not something that she'd be able to do overnight - as much as she would've liked to believe that doing so would make all their new problems disappear. They noticed her acting especially sheepish and sad. She admitted that the culvert incident was due to her own panicked driving, and that she blamed herself for Ajeerma's demise. That the Anitos would've killed all of them anyway was a moot point.

As the weeks passed, Tanya's depression got worse. In desperation, her mother called Rechere for advice. Rechere responded by having a conference call with the new Team Ciem. He urged as many of them as possible to come to Seattle and work for him. Fearful for her job with the failing economy in southern Indiana, Katrina stated that Rechere's advice may be best for everyone. However, Rechere warned them that they needed to square things away with SCALLOP if they were to continue - lest there be Kirby Act crackdowns.

Tanya informed the others that the only way to become better at their business, was to talk to Candi herself - to learn from her. Tanya needed a way into Madison in order to seek Candi's advice. At the same time, guilt over Ajeerma's death was consuming her. Knowing that prosecutors were hungry for a case, Tanya made the decision to surrender herself to IDOC juvenile authorities. Her friends were supportive, as they knew only whatever Tanya encountered in Madison would allow her to forgive herself - and learn more of Candi's secrets.

Tanya was sentenced by a local judge to spend the better part of almost a year at Madison Juvenile, a sentence she accepted without contest.

Meeting Candi
Tanya met Candi finally a day after she was admitted in January of 2017. She very quickly endeared herself to the Last Legs; but was hesitant to officially join them right away. She pretended to be there only because of the accident; but her noble demeanor sparked curiosity. Eventually, a mother of one of the other girls mentioned a new Ciem being spotted in Richmond. Candi quickly deduced that Tanya was the copycat, and went to confront her about this. Candi initially wanted to scold Tanya about the dangers of impersonation of a Centhuen Prototype. However, she soon grew inspired by Tanya's story. She was furthermore impressed by Tanya's ties to Padua. Candi quickly took Tanya's side instead. She agreed to share what she knew with Tanya.

Candi was able to develop a phone connection to Rechere along with Tanya, and the two began talking about the situation in Seattle. Rechere claim=ed that he had jobs and more all lined up for Tanya, her friends, and her family. All that needed to happen, was for Tanya to complete her sentence and move out west. Candi was able to set up Tanya with Nancy and Imaki. With Randy and Jordan as liaisons, Nancy helped design a modified suit for Tanya to wear in Seattle - one that would allow her to compensate for most of what she would otherwise require Candi's powers to pull off. After Imaki looked over some of the materials, and developed a crude design, Ruchere took over the engineering process. He developed suits for Tanya that improved on Imaki's designs, further accounting for the fact that Tanya wasn't Candi.

Capture by the Hebbleskins
In November of 2017, right as Madison Juvenile was being slowly decommissioned in favor of moving the girls to LaPorte, SCALLOP arranged to put up MPF generators around the greater Madison Correctional campus. They hoped that their own version of a "Tug" installation would protect the facility from further attacks from the Triumvirate. However, they underestimated one Bernie "Quoll" Mudster. This mutated man-quoll hybrid had become a master illusionist; though he preferred practical effects and gaslighting as often as possible. He staged an invasion of Madison Juvenile by way of spraying the region with a hallucinogenic gas. From there, he laid traps that only those with centuition could hope to see through.

This monster, donning a director's hat to further illustrate his egotistical approach, also had saboteurs disable the MPF generators. An army of True Milthuens and Qalupaliks raided the greater facility, leading to chaos and confusion. He initially pretended like his goal was to capture Candi and bring her head to Duke Arfaas - as initially ordered. However, he assured Arfaas at the last minute that he had a better plan to wear Candi down.

With much of the Madison staff centered around protecting Candi, they failed to note that Quoll's new targets were the girls making up the Last Legs gang. Quoll's men were able to capture several correctional officers and Last Legs prisoners. Quoll initially sent out a loudspeaker message to raid Gerosha, and hide these victims throughout the city as he turned it into his playground.

Candi and Randy Lapborn set to work disabling Quoll's traps across Gerosha. However, Quoll wasn't interested in the surface buildings. He was interested in the catacomb and bunker systems that Imaki and others were building beneath the city, in the event of a takeover by Halal Affadidah. The two of them began solving some of Quoll's riddles, and learned that the traps were mostly non-deadly for a reason: the whole setup of his men in Gerosha was itself just another diversion! The threat to destroy Madison Correctional's entire campus if Candi didn't disable the traps in Gerosha turned out to be a lie. When news breaks out to Randy that the Heart of Pele was somehow stolen from a vault located in the basement of SCALLOP Women's Containment Center, Candi and Randy know that the missing girls must be located somewhere closer to Yellowstone. Candi remembered Korsicht commenting on how Yellowstone was the true target of Kaiakahinali 2, and that Louiville and Cincinnati were warm-up sessions.

Candi made sure to give a backup of her new Carbonica series of Ciem suits to Tanya, in the event that anything should happen that would render Candi as unable to protect the Last Legs. With the COs' lives on the line, Leopaw and Tanya set to work scheming to free the guards and inmates from a cage where Quoll was holding them hostage. Tanya and Pearl disabled enough security to ensure that the Last Legs were able to steal some quads. The inmates headed east, trying to avoid detection. This got them as far as Ward. The guards got a hold of a radio tower to signal for help, alerting SCALLOP and anyone else in the area who could respond to a distress call that the Hebbleskins had set up shop on a basin located near Apache Peak in Colorado. The staff of Madison were about to follow, but discovered that Danny Loffin and a few other prisoners were also being kept at the Hebbleskin base. They attempted to save the children, but most of them were killed by Hebbleskin reinforcements. The staff and Danny got lost, and found themselves avoiding capture by heading southwest through the woods. The staff eventually arrived at Devil's Thumb Ranch and Resort, but Danny slipped and fell. He survived, and was saved by a mysterious mountaineer.

Randy Lapborn attempted to get Candi as close as possible to the Hebbleskin base, believing that that girls were still there. However, they were soon shot out of the sky by a rival jet. Candi attempted to battle Quoll directly after a parachute landing; but she was caught off-guard, and sent falling off the cliff edge. She survived, only to find mountaineer Earl Yeng fighting for his life from a bear attack. Candi was able to fight the bear into submission long enough for Earl to shoot it dead, but soon collapsed from exhaustion. She awoke some time later at Earl's cabin, and learned that Danny was also there. They made radio contact with Tanya and the Last Legs, who'd made some new friends and arrived in Boulder. Tanya and Leopaw debated whether or not to have the other Last Legs join in the inevitable showdown with Quoll. The girls eventually decided they all needed to regroup. Sympathetic townsfolk joined the girls, the staff, Leopaw, Tanya, Candi, Randy, Earl, and Danny to take Quoll down.

Candi and Tanya used a double-team approach, in order to create illusions and overwhelm Quoll's sense of direction. However, he landed a blow on Tanya and was about to kill her. With Randy injured, Candi was left no choice but to steal Randy's gun and shoot Quoll through the head at the first given opportunity - several times. The two Ciems then found themselves battling Duzerit, as they learned that Quoll himself was yet another distraction. Duzerit prepared to detonate Yellowstone with the Heart of Pele. It was a quick move on Tanya's part that separated Duzerit from the necklace - but only after he had used it halfway to trigger the eruption!

The crowds of townsfolk and sheriffs' deputies quickly disposed of as many other Hebbleskins as they could in the region. However, the National Guard arrived too late. The girls felt rumbling. In desperation, Lapborn contacted Extirpon. He concentrated everyone near him, in order to charge his Positive Battery. In spite of this, Extirpon was only able to partially reduce the impact. Yellowstone erupted at a VEI 5, rather than a VEI 8. Extirpon tried to contain much of the disaster, jetting as much ash as he could into space. However, his efforts proved to be too little too late. News of Yellowstone erupting quickly arrived to stations all over the country, having a rapid demoralizing effect on the whole country.

New suit
Back at Madison, Candi was given new Carbonica and Forfica Mk. II suits, to replace the damaged ones from her battle in Colorado. Tanya heared from Imaki that he and Rechere had developed for her an advanced suit, so that she could continue to be Ciem. Tanya was flattered - vowing to honor the legacy of what it meant to be Ciem as long as she feasibly could. Tanya was released in early January of 2018, shortly before Candi's release date.

Moving to Seattle
By April of 2018, Katrina and Tanya elected to move to Seattle, and made good on Rechere's offer. Yong stayed behind temporarily, in order to assist the growing Exodus Agenda movement in Indiana. He confessed his feelings for Tanya, and vowed they'd be together again one day. Tanya was quickly able to find daytime work as a fashion editorial writer. Rechere took over assisting her with her operation as Ciem. They were fortunate that for several months, there didn't appear to be much Kerpher activity in the Seattle area.

Chasing out the Kerphers
The Kerphers had a resurgence of activity in October of 2019, around the time that China began moving in aggressively to claim the west coast as "Chimerica." Shantal Combine found herself being shot to death while protecting children from some Kerphers, while Di'Shent attempted to expose a schoolteacher as a Kerpher, and was promptly arrested due to his "politically-insensitive" stance toward "the LGBTQPIZON community." The mayor mades sure to have Di'Shent locked up for an extended period, to make an example of him politically.

Rechere and Tanya wasted no time investigating on their own. However, the investigation turned into a war in the streets when the Kerphers were ambushed by Hebbleskins - eager to avenge their fallen Gleeful-N'-Young operation. Tanya remarked throughout her entire quest to rid the city of Seattle of both gangs that being Ciem only continued to get more dangerous the more she tried it. Rechere urged her not to give up until the job was done. She attempted to get police informed of who was who, so they could do more work. However, she discovered that the corrupt mayor was a Hebbleskin sympathizer - one who then declares Ciem an outlaw!

Rechere responds to this by seeking out constitution-abiding sheriffs who would hold the mayor accountable. For this, he was assassinated. Tanya finally decided to hijack a truck full of kidnapping victims, luring it out of town and using it as bait to lure the turf war between the Hebbleskins and Kerphers out of the city. She saved the girls as best she could; and let the two gangs duke it out for supremacy. However, she only narrowly escaped capture when the mayor had the rescued girls arrested immediately upon entry back into the city.

Chinese invasion
By November of 2019, Chimerica became official. An army of Chinese colonizers swooped in to take Seattle captive. Tanya's battle with the mayor proved a fruitless endeavor, as the chaos from Chinese invasion soon superseded all other concerns. The mayor refused to concede, calling in assistance from Arfaas. This led to a dogfight over the city, and bomber planes. Arfaas made clear that he would sooner kill everyone in town, rather than see it fall so easily under Chinese control. The Chinese were able to kill the mayor and beat back Arfaas' forces, compelling him to stand down from further acts of aggression. However, the damage was already done. Tanya discovered her mother to be among the dead.

Exile to Toklisana
Yong Steffan joins the Exodus Agenda in their mission to cross over into Texas in late December of 2019. However, they were ambushed by Netheeli forces. Yong escaped the killing field with his life, but only after being saved from a Netheeli soldier by the intervention of one Zize Choi. The Exodus Agenda members not killed or captured, were scattered to the wind. Some made their way safely into Texas. Others disappeared into the Netheeli wilderness, hoping to avoid capture. Yong fled westward with Zize. He comforted her, as her husband didn't survive the onslaught. They made their way to civilization in California, and Yong re-established contact with Tanya once both are able to get a signal. Zize allowed Yong and Tanya to reunite, and the couple fled toward Texas. Zize parted with them, obsessed with revenge against the Hebbleskins she knew were hiding in California. She also wanted to turn in her former boss, Kai Yun, for selling out to the Hebbleskins in exchange for being their slave.

While Zize continued her warpath of vengeance, Tanya and Yong arrived in Lake Havasu City - and rekindled their relationship. They proceeded to go to to Phoenix, then Tuscon, then El Paso, before finally settling in the San Antonio area. The couple found themselves hunted by "Cerato," a mutated Hebbleskin monster based on the South American horned frog, using notes reverse-engineered from the Phaelite Society of Earth's prior creation of Donald "Arrowfrog" Walters. Cerato made numerous attempts on their lives, especially Tanya's. One of her suits was damaged badly from Cerato's tongue attacks. Tanya was able to defeat Cerato, and prevent further civilian casualties, after confronting him when he attacked the staff at a chemical plant to get her attention. She utilized her knowledge of the battle between Arrowfrog and Molarity to make Cerato make the same battle mistake the Arrowfrog had made earlier. Coating her armor in dish soap further protected Tanya during that endeavor, as it counteracted Cerato's sticky tongue.

A reckless Cerato smashed a glass of dimethylzinc while battling Tanya in one room, splashing it on himself. The chemical reacted with Cerato's skin rapidly and very violently, as Tanya fled the room to avoid toxic fumes. She warned any others still in the building that Cerato had caused a chemical spill, and urged everyone to evacuate. Cerato, panicking, attacked as many stored chemicals as he could get a hold of, in the hopes of creating a violent enough explosion to take out Tanya along with himself. He collapsed and died before he could generate a large enough explosion, though he did produce a toxic gas fire that caused the building's operations to shut down for a month, as the crew had to clean up his mess. They were grateful to Ciem for ridding them of the pest; but they were annoyed by the fact that police took so long to respond to calls for help.

Almost joining the Sodality
Tanya reestablished contact with Candi after learning of the Sodality of Gerosha - amazed that Candi survived the onslaught at the border. The two kept in touch, but Tanya found that her time was more productively spent with assisting the other girls in the Last Legs, that had set up a charity program across the state after they fled Indiana. She took a few risks in order to assist Candi, Dolly, and the Purge-Flare in ridding Texas of the Kerpher Gang. However, she and Yong soon retreated afterward back to their quiet lives in San Antonio.

When Capp Aard began his reign of terror, Tanya almost agreed to take Candi's place during Candi's maternity leave. However, Candi urged Tanya not to. First off, Aard was deemed too dangerous, and would have required Tanya to upgrade to a full-blown Vanadium Centipede armor. Secondly, Michelle Winston had already volunteered to take Candi's place. Third, Candi wanted Tanya to remain beneath SCALLOP's radar, to avoid the SCALLOP prison rotating door.

Childbirth and retirement
Shortly after the events of the Battle for Metheel, Tanya discovered that she was pregnant. Yong began making wedding arrangements for the two of them. In spite their friendly relations with the Sodality of Gerosha, Tanya and Yong never officially joined either the league nor the associated Sodality Church. The rigors of becoming a mother convinced Tanya that the time had finally come for her to retire from superhero work, and she turned in her costume and accessories to SCALLOP to avoid retaliation from the Beliah mob. Because of this, she and her family are later spared from the Beliah Amendments Enforcement Drive - in spite her being friends with Candi. She was informed that she was being monitored; but that she could otherwise proceed with life as normal. Her daughter, Marissa Steffan, was named in honor of Marissa Hood - the mother of Shalia Flippo.

She played no role in the Second Battle for Dephinapolis, nor in the Second Battle for Little Rock.

Personality
While not as traditionalist in upbringing as Candi, Tanya is still one for personal responsibility and integrity. While she had ulterior motives of interviewing Candi to learn how to be a better Ciem, Tanya's primary reason for going to Madison was to accept responsibility for her role in Ajeerma's death. She was too noble to refuse responsibility, feeling she wouldn't be able to live with her guilt if she ran away.

She finds herself sharing a lot of views with Candi - and being prone to similar mistakes, in spite a lack of superpowers. She loves Yong, sports, gymnastics, and looking out for her family and loved ones. She is much more social media active than Candi, and has little trouble amassing and maintaining several followers. She is often quick-witted, and uses this to compensate for her lack of centuition. She is to some extent more humble than Candi, even in spite her greater social media presence. It takes the Kerpher Gang and Gleeful-N'-Young intruding on her life before she can honestly say that she has ever had true enemies - whereas Candi seemed to have enemies lined up against her from the moment she was born.

Development
Tanya's initial literary universe appearance was reverse-engineered her Earth-G7.2.0 counterpart in The Sims 4. The version of her in that universe, at present, is the version of her from the Ciem: Caldera Story Pack, part of the Centipede and Fire Saga Story Pack Series.

Trivia

 * The vast majority of Tanya's non-superhero life is based on or a direct tribute to the biography of the real life Taryn Twine, who became a celebrity after her appearance in season 1 of the Netflix series Girls Incarcerated.


 * Tanya's expanded role in Cataclysmic Gerosha was inspired by the Insomniac game Spider-Man: Miles Morales. She was originally going to have a much smaller role, being limited only to a decoy for Candi in Caldera.


 * Tanya's daughter, Marissa Komi Steffan, is named in-universe after Marissa Hood. In real life, her name is informed by that of Taryn Twine's daughter, Moni’héir KayLynn Twine.