DotTaiga

.Taiga, formerly Taigá, is a skilled full-body dancer and breakdancer in VRChat. They can often be seen doing their flips and breakdancing in public Void Club, FBT Heaven, and various other worlds. 
She also roleplays weekly at The Golden Gator in Bricktown.
==History==
===History of Taiga - The character===
While in Bricktown, Taiga most often portrays her in-character persona by the same name.
====Loss of Voice====
Her first thoughts were of the day she lost her voice. Taiga had stumbled into the town. She could not remember from where. She could not remember how she got there. She just remembered she had. The town, buildings and walls of brick forming a small city in the blasted and dreary landscape, was large for a place people lived. Few people had lived in villages of more than a dozen people. Not on the surface anyway. Bricktown was different. It was stronger than a lot of the small subsistence places scattered in the wasteland. It could defend itself. It was also the only break in the hellish landscape for many miles around. 
Taiga remembered stumbling into town. She remembered talking with a guard briefly before shakily heading further in. The town, by 21st century standards, was dingy. Compared to its contemporaries however it was almost a paradise. The bare bricks of many of the buildings were some of the few things that could withstand the blasting wind of the hellish environment.
Taiga wandered for a bit. People paid little attention to her as she made her way. Weird sights were normal in the apocalypse so a woman with cat ears and a tail got barely a second glance. Taiga did not have the clothes she would later be associated with at that point. She came into Bricktown with a grey cloak and some loosely fitting clothes. Her grey hair with white tiger stripes was disheveled. She was weak. She could not remember what she was looking for in the town all she knew was she was walking. Then a woman stopped her. It was the inside of a bar, one of the few buildings with electricity. At least, they seemed like a woman. The woman/man Taiga ran into was almost non-descript. Average face, height, build. So average as to almost be unique in their normalcy.
The conversation the two had was a blur. Taiga could not remember if the woman/man was who she was looking for or if the woman/man had engaged the conversation with Taiga. It did not really matter however. The conversation was short. Less than fifteen minutes. Small talk was not had. No pleasantries. It was too the point. Then it happened. The pain in Taiga’s throat rapidly spread around her body. She could not remember much about the day, the conversation or why it had happened. But she remembered the pain. She remembered the people in the bar staring at her. It felt like a hand, burning hotter than molten iron, had gripped her voice box and pulled. It felt like part of her brain was ripped from her, seared and melted away in an instant that left her reeling on the ground. She remembered the pain. Unbearable yet she endured it. Taiga also remembered the woman/man’s name before darkness clouded her mind. MurderCrumpet.
She never did find out why it had happened. Maybe they had just liked her voice. Maybe not. The worst part was, even as her dream came to an end, she knew that she would see them at work in the morning.
The dream was one she had often. Having one’s voice torn forcefully away would do that to a person. It was not surprising to Taiga that she had that dream once in a while. Re-lived that day over and over. She was used to it now. For a long time she would be panicked for several minutes after, trying to scream with no noise coming out. The tingle of a burning sensation, the wisps of heat always hung around her neck and lungs for several minutes after waking up. Taiga was used to it now.
She got up from her bed, the small room of the apartment was just big enough for her bed. The other two rooms were little more than large closets. One had a kitchenette with a small storage area and a chair, a single small window lighting the room with light from the slowly rising sun. The other had a toilet and a barely functioning shower that sputtered and croaked out water like a dying frog. She was thankful that the water ran at all. Less than a year ago, when they first turned the pumps back on, little more than viscous sludge that squeezed its way out of the pipes. The apartment was pretty luxurious in that regard. Taiga felt lucky to have to have the apartment. She’d met people that lived in a dank warehouse filled with nothing but cots. Life was hard and over her tiny luxury made a world of difference.
Taiga put on her favourite outfit. Tight black, fingerless gloves, and matching tights. Tiger pattern, synthetic fur lined the ends of both, the tights ending just past her knees and the gloves ending just before her elbows. Beneath that was a skin tight, slightly see through black on piece that left her hips and and thighs uncovered revealing the thong beneath.  Fishnetting patterned the one piece suit which connected to her legs at her groin. She wore a small ripped t-shirt over her chest revealing just enough below to be tantalizing. Her lower face was hidden beneath a tight mask with white whiskers drawn on. Small, fake knives sat on her mid right thigh. Finally, for shoes she had lifted tennis shoes that resembled the clawed paws of a tiger. As she walked out the door she admired her look in a small mirror on the door. She posed, gave a quick wink with her big blue eyes and knew several men were going to swoon today. She giggled to herself as she threw on her last bit of clothing. A neck cuff that was open in the front, held together by a chain. Her look was complete and she was now Taiga, the Seductive Tigress.
===Bar Job===
She liked her job. It was at a bar, nothing fancy but she did not need fancy. Not in this world. It paid well, that’s what really mattered. That, and it was fun teasing the patrons. Men and women alike. Taiga sometimes wondered if her simple existence at the bar had led to the breakdown of relationships. She was attractive enough. With a near perfect body, toned and having large breasts and butt, she was irresistible. Even her personality on stage was inviting the crowd to come to her, to enjoy her touch. That was only on stage though. Off stage, she would rather stick with Rob or Lawlman. Taiga, despite all appearances, was cripplingly shy. Not least because she could not talk.
The bar came into view as she rounded a corner. Several people were already heading in, both men and women giving her lustful looks as she passed. She enjoyed that, enjoyed the attention her body attracted. Taiga doubted that she could do the job if she did not like flaunting her body to men and women alike.
The neon sign of the bar rivaled the sun for brightness. The bouncer was already stopping some people from entering the bar even as Taiga went down the alley to the employee entrance. The side door led into the back. A small changing room was there for dancers that use the stage in the bar. It was late morning and already the bar was getting busy. A man looked over and smiled at her.
Lawlman was an old friend, he had his usual reserved but cool clothes on. The fashion he enjoyed was almost ancient. Even still, he was a good friend of hers and acted, strangely, as her voice.
“Looking good as always Taiga. Rob says today will be busy. A big caravan came in from out of town and it had a bunch of guards. You know what that means!” He gave her a wink and made the motion of rubbing his hands together making it look as if he was making it rain paper money.
Taiga smiled, stuck her tongue out at him. It was a brief moment as the two stared at one another before Taiga leaped. In a single bound she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend. She nuzzled him and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. Unconsciously his cheeks reddened slightly.
“Good to see you too hon. You should say hi to Rob before you start serving customers or dancing. The co-owner is not in yet either so you are good to go.” Lawlman told her. She frowned. It was bad enough she had nightmares about that co-owner, but she hated whenever she had to see the guy.
MurderCrumpet was the co-owner of the bar. The man was very feminine and so her dreams were always filled with the androgynous nightmare person. She appreciated, however, that he at least allowed her to work at the bar. Rob was okay with it from the beginning but Crumpet had taken additional...convincing. Taiga was glad she did not need her voice for dancing. It did make things outside of work hard though. She thought about how she had gone to buy some potatoes from the market and it took her half an hour just to communicate that she wanted them.
She gave Lawlman one last peck on the cheek and a wink before strutting out into the bar proper. The bar played various kinds of music. Rock, punk, techno, even jazz sometimes. Right now though, and usually was the case when she was not performing, it was playing upbeat techno that she could feel rattle her bones. The bar was filled with tables and chairs, the stage extended well into the bar area, a thin peninsula for dancers to move on extending nearly halfway across the length of the bar before ending in a circular island. It was built to be changed for whatever the dancer wanted. Right now, no one was on stage but Taiga was going to change that soon.
As she walked up to Rob, also known as Roflgator, she tracked the entire bar with her eyes and ears. Taiga picked up the smallest detail, heard a slight change in someone’s voice. She did it automatically. It was drilled into her from a different time. It was not her anymore but like a bad memory it clung to her. She felt an itch behind her left ear as she heard anger enter a man’s voice. It was directed at nothing, lamenting the world the man found himself in, yet she still flinched. She wanted to pull non-existent blades off her thigh, grab a silent weapon and defend herself from an assailant that was not there. She shook her head, clearing her mind of the thoughts of her past.
Rob was behind the bar, serving drinks to customers as they came in. She walked into the bar and up behind him. He was finishing a conversation with a man in a long, tattered coat.
“...no problem, enjoy.” He gave the man a smile then turned to Taiga. “Ah Taiga, good to see ya.”
She gave him a short hug. Taiga wanted to jump on him, rub up to him and give him a kiss on the cheek since he was a good friend. But she also did not want a welt on her head. She could see it in Rob’s eyes, he was not, and never would be, in the mood for that kind of greeting.
“Just get started on stage in say, ten minutes? Take breaks when you need it. Lawlman tell you about the people coming in today?” Taiga gave a quick nod of acknowledgement. “Good, don’t fuck it up. I know you won’t but I still gotta tell you. Good numbers and Crumpet won’t come down on anybody right?”
Taiga gave a nod. She frowned at the mention of the co-owner. She hated that guy but Rob made the job bearable at least. So did Lawlman. She saw her ‘voice’ off serving customers already, his talkative nature making him almost louder than the music. Taiga gave a quick wink and a peace sign to Rob before turning and heading to the back to get ready for her number. She wanted to get some movement in for the morning.
“Oh Taiga, one last thing. Do one of the sensual numbers later in the day. I know you don’t like it as much as the more energetic stuff but it brings in good money. Hey, maybe after this you could see about figuring out why you're stuck here. Just make it nice yeah?” Rob called out to her. He was serious, sometimes a little too much for Taiga’s liking, but he meant well. She hated the slower style dances but Rob was right. It made good money.
The back was empty, as usual. It was rare for other dancers to be in Bricktown. She was the best and it intimidated other dancers. It made her smirk. She was always nervous around new faces. She took her neck piece off and checked herself in the mirror. Taiga was hot. Taiga knew she was hot. It made her smile, knowing that the men watching would be lusting, some grovelling to get a peak at her. It helped get her tips.
She got up behind the door to the stage. It was going to start in a few minutes, she listened for the music to change. The beat changed, it took up a fast hip-hop style. She smiled, it was her time. She ran out and started her routine. Her legs moved like a blur then slowed as her arms moved in time with the beat. Both movements connected with her torso. Taiga changed body position as fast as the song changed lyrics, moving low to high at near impossible angles. At one point she was on her toes, bent backward at the knees to the point she felt her hair brush the stage. With each new movement her hair might spin or swish back and forth. She was one with the music, and the music loved her. The lighting was perfect to display her curves and her movements. Despite it being filled with strong movements that highlighted her strength, she made her routine slightly sensual.  For almost ten minutes she danced, the sweat and exertion only making her more tantalizing. All eyes were on her. People began spending more as they became distracted by her mesmerizing movement.
As her routine came to an end and she struck her pose, she saw Rob grinning holding a pile of money. Applause filled the peninsula around her and money was put out for her. She did little kiss faces, blew kisses, and winked at men as they handed her money. She sauntered into the back. Taiga began counting the money she got. Rob was right, today would be a good day. If she was making this much with  a simple routine, then the pole routine would get her even more.
Dancing hip-hop was the only time she felt alive. The day continued. Taiga had several more routines as time went on. She made even more money. She wondered if she would get enough today to start searching for clues about her past. In her last routine before she would have to do the pole dance, she saw him. The effeminate man, ostentatious clothes and pompous hairdo. MurderCrumpet walked through the bar and started talking with Rob. The two men had some sort of conversation as Taiga began dancing. She lost sight of them as she went through her energetic dance, flowing with the music and forgetting her surroundings for a moment.
A memory came to her as she moved. The lights of the bar faded away. The men tossing money for tips fade. Her anxiety for her current situation was replaced by an old anxiety. Taiga found herself reliving an old memory.
Neon lights filled her vision. There was a light drizzle, people passed her holding umbrellas up. There were more people in that intersection, in the center of that old city, than lived in all of Bricktown. Cars zipped down the street, headed off to some unknown destination. Above, a plane cut through the grey sky, climbing toward the blue sky beyond the dreary veil. She had a hood up, dark colours. Beneath the cotton and polyester mixed clothes Taiga felt her skin tight suit. Its enhanced systems perfectly integrated with her movements and thoughts. Her right thigh held her kunai, hidden but ready to be used at a moment's notice. Her other hip had the weight of a holster filled by a pistol. A backpack felt like a comforting blanket on her back.
Taiga was on a job.
The building across the street was well lit, inviting. The club was filled and she had her fake access codes for the employee entrance. She was trained for this, bred for this, made in a lab on a now forgotten island with a history of training assassins. Taiga was the best. She was always the best.
The door slid open to let her in. Women moved by, in various stages of uniform dress for the club. Taiga quickly found a side area to peel off from. The multi-storey club was blasting music loud enough she could feel it even this deep in the building. Hip-hop. She found the vent and danced inside.  Silently she made her way through. Straight, up, right, straight, left, straight, drop. She had memorized the building plan. It was simple. Like a routine. Her outer clothes were off. The tanto and submachine gun in her backpack came out and she moved quickly. She knew where the penthouse was, where her target was. The music in the building picked up in time with her movements, as if her infiltration was a dance.
The first couple guards barely had a chance to register that she existed before they were on the floor and she was sliding her tanto back into its sheath after it had let blood for the first time in months. They were early and there were not supposed to be this many guards. She grit her teeth. ‘Intel is always off.’ She shook her head and silently continued down the hall. Right, left, straight, left. The guards fared better than the first couple. They were able to raise their weapons, one even was able to fire a bullet. Taiga danced along the walls and curved around them. It was easy. They too met the same fate as their comrades. The problem was the one shot.
‘Now all of China knows you’re here.’ She had thought, laughing internally.
Without a second thought, she ran down the last hall. She heard men shouting behind her as the two guarding  the door fumbled for their weapons. They never got the chance as two kunai found their throats.
Taiga burst into the penthouse only to find half a dozen guards already shooting at her. Deftly she swayed through the bullets, time seemed to slow and her suit helped her already impressively agile form slip through the maelstrom of fire. She raised her submachine gun and pulled the trigger, feeling the soft thudding as she fired. One, two, three, four. She counted as each of her assailants fell. Unlike the ninja’s of old, modern technology let her fight many, possibly dozens, of enemies simultaneously. With the last one dispatched she quickly searched the room. She found the secret exit easily.
Opening it she found two terrified serving girls that immediately ran the moment Taiga so much as glanced at them with her icy eyes. Down the hall behind the secret escape door she saw him. A stereotypically pudgy man, so stereotypical she almost laughed. She clipped her now empty gun to her back and began sprinting after her quarry. Taiga was fast. She could move nearly 50mph in a sprint. The pudgy man could not run. He was turning the corner, desperately scrambling and almost losing his footing when Taiga hit him. She was essentially flying, the impact a sort of hug of death around the man’s neck. The tanto in his neck at least killed him quickly. She took evidence of her kill and was about to leave. Before she could, however, she heard a sound behind her.
Taiga looked up into a bright flashlight that blinded her, and the butt of a rifle slammed into her face.
The memory ended with her dance set. She was breathing heavily, back in the bar in Bricktown. In a moment of panic she looked around but realized quickly she was safe. It was just a bad memory, a different life. A different world. Now she was in a much different life. She actually liked it better. She could just dance now.
The tips were piling up. The slower dance that followed the last set almost doubled her earnings. She hated it, the looks from men were different, more intense than she was used to. Taiga liked the looks normally but the dance that accentuated her very prominent hips and chest always made the looks somehow more animalistic. They were primal in a way that made her skin crawl. It was not like the hard, fast and precise movement of her preferred style of hip-hop. She preferred to be energetic.
With  a few blown kisses and winks, she took the last of her tips. She had not seen this much money in a long time. She had so much she knew she would have to borrow a bag from Rob.
“That was a good set, gorgeous.” The voice flowed over her like cold lava. It grated her nerves, like it always had, even though the person speaking had told her they meant no harm to her it was hard to shake the feeling. “Made some good money right, dear?”
MurderCrumpet gave her a sultry and predatory grin. Taiga felt a shiver go down her spine upon seeing him. His voice, the grating almost squeaky high pitched effeminate voice piercing her brain with each word. She could only nod in response to his query, too afraid to try for something more information heavy.
‘Please, just go away. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to give you more of my money.’ She thought that would be the only reason for the co-owner to talk to her. He only ever wanted money.
“Well I just came by to ask for the bar’s cut off your tip. You know we can’t just have you running around with it all. Some of it is rightfully ours, per our contract.” The venom in his voice was so thick Taiga expected him to actually sprout fangs. Instead, he just adjusted his long, feminine hair back out of his face.
Taiga sighed. She looked down at all the money. So much money. MurderCrumpet held a hand out and made a motion to hand it over. She reluctantly did, feeling him almost snatch it like it was the last money on Earth. He quickly counted it.
“Seems like that covers it. From what I heard from Rob, you had a good day yeah? Lawlman did too. I’m glad I got the two of you to work here. Makes this disgusting place a bit better don’t you think?” His grin was little more than a thin line of malice. “ Anyway, you should get back to work. I pay you mostly for your body anyway so flaunt it will you, more money to be had. It’s not like you actually get paid for the dancing.” MurderCrumpt chuckled, in only the way he could that made each sound like a dull knife jabbing at your senses.
Taiga still did not understand why Rob agreed to work with that man. Every time she had gotten Lawlman to ask about it Rob just said he ‘had his reasons.’ Taiga hated that. Hated not knowing. Hated MurderCrumpet. She found herself kicking a broom that was leaning next to the door. It clattered to the floor breaking her out of her rage. She looked out at the crowd as she cooled off.
Everyone was like they always were. Dirty, tattered clothes. Scarred faces, missing fingers, hands or whole limbs. Poor but willing to spend what little wealth they had on drink and entertainment. It was the only way to push out the constant suffering. These people seemed like what Taiga had been, a wanderer. She remembered wearing clothes like that, and remembered the day she came to town again. Remembered coming into the bar just like they did. Only difference is that they would leave and she stayed.
With a small laugh she realized she was lucky. Lucky that she had something steady, something that paid as well as it did. Those poor sods, the ones ogling her and wishing they could even get a glance in her pants, would probably be dead in only a few years' time if not less. The world was unforgiving.
It would take you, chew you up and spit you out like a piece of gum. It would take everything you loved and then laugh at you as you suffered. There was nothing anyone could do. Taiga was glad she could go home to her little apartment at the end of the day.
The day at the bar came to an end and Taiga hugged and kissed Lawlman and Roflgator goodbye. Her trek home was short, as always. She had food. She noticed a new apartment block was lit with soft artificial light. Bricktown was improving even if it was slow. Her apartment was just as she had left it. She sat down and read a book. Taiga had read it over and over but it kept her entertained in her off time. It was long, about fantasy and daring. It was an escape. She did not make enough that day. She had enough for a month of food, which meant she would live. The problem was she was still no closer to figuring out how she got to the town or why she could not leave. She danced to survive and she lived to dance now but she had this feeling she was missing something. Was it something with that memory? Or the dreams?
Taiga put her face in her hands and huffed. She looked outside. The moon hung in the sky and lit the city below. She heard the sounds of the night life below, people talking or walking about. Her throat itched. She wished she could speak. If only for a second, if only to feel it one last time. Taiga wanted to scream and talk to the wind. Wanted to talk about her day, explain her feelings, express her frustration. All she got was the sound of air escaping her lungs and an itch in her throat.
With a flick of an ear and swish of a tail, she angrily stomped to bed. The stomping annoyed her neighbours but only for the short moment it had lasted. Soon she found herself drifting off to sleep.
The dreams were always the same. She could never tell if they were real events, memories of a past life, or if they were figments of her overactive imagination desperately seeking release from the monotony of her daily life. Clothes she had never seen in Bricktown adorned the people, weapons that were so rare if someone had it people paid attention were in every hand. Taiga felt it was normal though, as if that was nothing special in the world that her brain manufactured. Every morning she woke up with the same dream, the recurring nightmare of losing her voice.
When she woke up it was raining. Thunder rolled off the brick buildings, filling every crevice with the vibrating sound of the overwhelming destruction of nature. Taiga stood and stumbled to her bathroom to find a letter under her door. She picked it up and gingerly opened it. Inside, written in beautiful handwriting, was a letter and a small wristband. The bracelet, a series of silver chains, seemed to be made to match her outfit and hair.
The note was simple, only a few words on it. It read:
Taiga blinked. The bracelet was beautiful. It matched her style perfectly and she began to wonder if MurderCrumpet was actually mean. She shook herself. Of course he was. He always took from her, took and took and took. This was the first time he had ever given her anything aside from allowing her to be hired. Which she did not exactly count as something given. She felt she deserved it.
She took a shower, clothed herself and got read for the day. Her breakfast was quick and easy to get. Before leaving she again looked at herself in the mirror. The chain bracelet was beautiful. Looking at it her head began to swim.
She was suddenly being dragged through a dark hallway lit every twenty feet or so by a fluorescent light. Her hands were bound in chains being pulled by a large man in black. Taiga’s vision was blurry. She felt warm liquid running down her face from a wound on her head. Her ears laid flat on her head and she felt her entire body ache. Her training, her breeding, were for nothing. She succeeded in killing her target but she failed the second most important task. She had failed to escape. The man glanced back at her then looked ahead.
“You almost had us Tigress. Almost is not good enough, though.” The voice was grating like knives to her soul. She did not get to think much more about it. She fell unconscious again.
The memory ended. Taiga’s head hurt, an old wound she could no longer feel physically throbbed on her scalp. She had barely enough will power to stand straight and walk to work. That was new to her, but she pushed through. Today, today she would get enough. She had to believe that.
Today would be the first day of a new life, a life that would explain who she was and why she was in Bricktown.
===Out-of-character History===
Taigá first started dancing with an Xbox Kinect in late 2018 at Club Mika. They soon found that the Kinect was extremely restrictive for their dance style as they enjoyed performing floor moves and switched to full-body vive trackers. 
They used to be a dancer for various clubs such as Club Mika, Club Zodiac and others, however, they stopped attending "strip-club" style events so that they could chase a different dance style (breakdance/hiphop), .Taiga found out about the IDA through one of their Twitch viewers, and followed their social media, later getting invited by JJFX-Multimedia after he saw one of .Taiga's dancing videos on twitter. Since joining the IDA, .Taiga has committed to improving their dance style every day.
In Nov 2020 they were invited to The Golden Gator 2020 by MurderCrumpet to dance at the bar after being introduced through fellow dancer LethalLexi. At first she was told by Roflgator that their dance style was too sexual. .Taiga then met Kyokeru, who inspired .Taiga to push themselves further and as a result, formed a close friendship with Kyokeru. 
Before joining The Gator, they were mostly mute, only talking if they really had something to say. After they joined The Gator, they tried their best to be a talker but it didn't work out, and so they committed to going full mute, forming a mute-talker relationship with Twitch streamer M0xyy. 
Across February 2021 Taiga formed a close friendship with fellow dancer Lawlman, and on February 26th 2021 after losing in a pool game Taiga agreed to leave M0xyy to become Lawlman's Personal Mute. This was cemented a couple days later on the 28th during a "Mute Shuffle" event where mutes had the opportunity to leave their talkers.
==Trivia==
*Taiga is known for breaking headsets very often, stating that they have gone through more than 8 headsets since they started dancing.
*Taiga has been dancing for little over a year.
*Taiga can often be found in the Void Club, or other random public worlds break dancing or kicking people in the face.
*Taiga decided to become mute on 11/21/2020 and became Moxy's mute.
==Links==
*Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/TaigaVR
*Twitter: https://twitter.com/TaiigaVR
===Twitch Clips===
*Taiga doing an epic handstand for Roflgator
*Messing around with Kyokeru, Zager, and Lawlman
*Helping Lawlmans confusion about an art utensil
*Cheering up a sad kermit
*Revealing her new avatar
*Roasting Lawlman
*Taiga and Lawlman battle fighting-game style
==Gallery==
Taiga at Zodiac.png
Rofl Dec 4th 2020 11 Taiga petting Moxy.png|Petting M0xyy
Rofl_Dec_9th_2020_10_TaigaUwU.png
Rofl Dec 11th 2020 7 Kyokeru and Taiga dancing for Churrochomp.png|Dancing on stage with Kyokeru for Churrochomp
MeatgrindeR Winners.png|Winning a round at the Mute Olympics 2020
ScreetsDanceBattle Photo1.png|About to participate in the Mute Olympics Screets Dance Battle
ScreetsDanceBattle Winners.png|Getting the silver medal, while Kyokeru takes home first place and Karynn third
Category:Humans
Category:People
Category:Characters