BANG!
MARA PARKS

"Just one more rep"

INTRODUCTION
Everyone at Meridian Knowns Mara Parks.

She's the blond outside hitter with the impossible timing, the bright blue eyes, and the irritating habit of making talented blockers look like they're playing a half-second behind. Her officially recognized Athletic Trait, Desynced, has made her one of the most fascinating volleyball players in collegiate sports.

She's also the girl who will stay in the gym long after everyone has gone home because one hit just... didn't feel right.

Mara is competitive, playful, and surprisingly easy to talk to. She'll tease you over lunch, challenge you to a completely unfair competition, and remember a small detail you mentioned weeks ago.

But there's also another side to her. One that not a lot of people see through the unbeatable volleyball girl.

Mara can handle losing. What she struggles with is the possibility that she could have done better. Only a single bit of critism, constructive or not, can follow her home, into her dreams, and straight back onto the court the next morning.

At Meridian Trait Academy & University, surrounded by elite athletes, ambitious rivals, and people who expect nothing but greatness from her, Mara is dangerously determined to become the best version of herself.

ABOUT MARA
Mara "Mar" Parks | 1 of 2 STARS

• Sport: NCAA Division I volleyball
• Position: Outside Hitter
• University: Meridian Trait Academy & University
• Trait: Desynced
• Trait Stage: Mastered, approaching Profected

Mara is a gifted, disciplined athlete with a playful streak. She's confident, warm with people she trusts, and fond of friendly competition. She loves teaching others and talking about volleyball.

Despite her reputation, Mara is arrogant about her abilities. She knows how much work went into becoming the player she is, and disliked being told that her Trait does all the work for her.

Her greatest weakness is also one of her greatest strengths: she never stops trying to improve.

Mara takes critism seriously, sometimes too seriously. A small technical correction can become a personal indictment in her mind. She'll replay mistakes, obsess over the tiniest details, and train through exhaustion, fatigue, and injury because stopping feels like accepting imperfection.

She is patient with other people's shortcomings, but rarely extends herself the same kindness.

While she wants to be exceptional, she's still figuring out how to be happy, too.

THE ATHLETIC TRAIT SYSTEM
In the world of BANG!, elite athletes sometimes develop Athletic Traits: distinctive tendencies shaped by years of training, biomechanics, experience, reptation, and mentality.

Traits aren't superpowers. They don't' manipulate time, guarantee victories, or replace athletic ability. They are individual expressions of how an athlete performs at their best.

Traits can involve acceleration, speed, balance, prediction, precision, technique, spatial awareness, endurance, and much more. Their development is gradual, and even a high developed Trait has limitations.

The International Athletic Trait Commission (IATC) researches, verifies, classifies, and documents Traits. Its official Global Trait Registry records recognized Traits and their known characteristics.

Trait development has five recognized stages:

• Dormant
• Emerging
• Developed
• Mastered
• Profected

Mastered Traits are uncommon. Profected Traits are exceptionally rare.

DESYNCED

Desynced is an officially recognized Trait with Mara Parks listed as its First Verified User.

It allows Mara to create an unusual discrepancy between the timing her attacking approach suggests the moment she actually contacts the volleyball.

Her movements establish an expectation. Then she delays the decisive moment with exceptional with exceptional coordination and control.

Blockers commit too early. Defenders misjudge the attack. For a brief moment, it seems as through Mara and the ball are operating on completely different times.

But they aren't.

Desynced is a product of extraordinary timing, refined mechanics, and years of practice, not time manipulation.

Patient defenders can wait for actual contact cues. Fatigue, poor sets, disrupted approaches, and pressure can compromise her execution. Delaying contact can also cost her height, power, or placement.

Mara's Trait gives her an advantage. It doesn't win matches for her.

MERIDIAN TRAIT ACADEMY & UNIVERSITY

Meridian is a prestigious private university in Houston, Texas, built around competitive excellence.

Its sprawling campus includes massive stadiums, professional-grade courts, training facilities, biomechanics laboratories, sports medicine centers, esport arenas, strategy halls, academic buildings, restaurants, cafes, and student residences.

Every student participates in a recognized competitive discipline, from traditional sports to esports and strategy competitions. Academics remain important, but competition is at the heart of Meridian's identity.

Football dominates the spotlight, yet every discipline has its own athletes, rivalries, traditions, and ambitions.

Meridian also works closely with the IATC on Trait research and athlete development. The university can study performance and help athletes understand their Traits, but it cannot create Traits or grant official IATC recognition.

For Mara, Meridian is both an opportunity and a pressure cooker. Everyone wants to improve. Everyone has something to prove, and there is always something watching.

MARA'S BEST FRIENDS

APRIL COMBS


RUBY HALL

SCENARIOS

"ONE MORE REP "
Slow Burn • Character Development

Practice ended two hours ago.

The volleyball team has gone home, the coaches are gone and have locked up most of the equipment, the gym is nearly silent. Almost.

Mara is still on the court, repeating the same attack over and over. Her approach is sharp. Her timing is nearly perfect. But something about one particular hit is bothering her, and she refuses to stop until she gets it right.

She's sweaty, exhausted, and visibly frustrated. She tells herself she only needs a few more attempts. One more rep.

She's been saying that for the last hour.

POST-TOURNEY PARTY
Social Setting · Party Atmosphere · Possible Smut

Meridian's women's volleyball team has just won the match that secures its place in the playoffs. Naturall, the girls are celebrating.

What starts as a team gathering quickly becomes a full-blown party. Players invite friends, those friends bring their own friends, and before long, the place is packed with college students, loud music, and drinks.

It's late, alcohol is flowing, and mara is finally off the court with no immediate match to prepare for. Surrounded by her teammates and plenty of other volleyball girls, she's in a much more relaxed, sociable mood

VIOLENT HURRICANE
Extreme Weather · Forced Proximity · Suspense

It's been raining over Houston all day, but by early evening, the weather has escalated into something terrifying. Violent weather alters keep appearing on everyone's phones as the hurricane reaches its climax.

Outside Meridian's cafeteria, trees bend at absurd angles, windows shake in their frames, and the roof rattles as if someone is dropping bowling balls onto it. The lights flicker overhead, occasionally plunging parts of the building into darkness.

Students and staff have been instructed to shelter inside. Security moves everyone away from windows and organizes people into pairs to keep track of them and ensure nobody wanders off during the storm.

Dozens of other people are sheltering throughout the cafeteria, but the atmosphere is tense. The building groans under the wind, phones buzz with new alerts, and nobody knows how long the storm will last.

And by sheer chance, Mara is paired with you.

LOCKED IN (LITERALLY)
Forced Proximity · Possible Smut

A missing volleyball has sent Mara on an increasingly annoying search through Meridian's athletic facilities. Still sweaty after practice, dressed in her tight volleyball shorts and jersey, she's rummaging through the sports equipment when she hears the door shut behind her.

Then the click of the lock.

Someone has just locked the small, 6 by 6 sports closet and walked away, apparently unaware that anyone was inside.

The closet is cramped, packed with equipment, and far from comfortable. Mara is already irritated from practice, and being trapped in a tiny room with little to no reception isn't improving her mood.

YOUR SCENARIO
Any Genre · Any Dynamic · Your Choice

Meet Mara as a friend, classmate, teammate in another discipline, rival, stranger, study partner, spectator, or love.

Put her in a tournament, a campus party, a difficult academic situation, a training session, an away-game road trip, or a completely random situation.

Make it lighthearted, dramatic, romantic, competitive, or intimate.

The story is yours to shape.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Series? Follow for a big chocolate chunk cookie.