Zuri Khattar-Varne
 | |
| No. 14 – Arizona Demons | |
|---|---|
| Position | Guard |
| Species | Ribbon Seal ( Phocidae ) |
| Gender | Female |
| Nickname(s) | |
| Ribbons, Zipline | |
| Personal information | |
| Born |
July 28, 2002 Amethyst Harbour, ON, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Listed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Listed weight | 245 lb (111 kg) |
| Shoots | Left-handed |
| Career information | |
| School | Thunder Bay Predator College |
| FBA draft | 2022 / Round: 1 / Pick: 15th overall |
| Selected by the Arizona Demons | |
| Pro playing career | 2022–present |
| Career history | |
| 2022 - present | Arizona Demons |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Contract information | |
| Contract year | 2024 |
| 2026 Salary | $7 million |
| 2027 Salary | $8 million |
| 2028 Salary | $8 million |
| Player Contacts | |
| (IC) Agent | Intaurnet |
| (OOC) Creator | Intaurnet |
| (OOC) Actor | Unknown |
| (OOC) Usage | Ask me before any use |
Biography
Assigned male at birth, Zuri Anneliese Khattar-Varne was born to ribbon seal parents in Amethyst Harbour, Ontario. She attracted attention from a young age, not always for her physical abilities, but moreso for her ""mermaid"" body shape. Unlike her bipedal parents, her lower half was a large tail, with big pelvic fins. She learned from a young age to move forward as feral seals would, using her pelvic fins to push herself forward. While she would never be as quick as her faster bipedal friends, she gained some very respectable movement speed as she became used to the motions required.
Over her time in elementary and middle school, she discovered a love for basketball, unlike many of her peers who preferred hockey or football. When Winnipeg joined the FBA in 2011, Zuri was just about to turn nine. Despite her many pleas to her parents, the Khattar-Varnes were unable to secure tickets to the inaugural game at Riverside Arena. However, they caught a Voyageurs game roughly halfway through the season, while the seal was on vacation from school. With her own skills growing, and encouraged by the sight of the centauric-bodied fennec Antony Rufkin on the Winnipeg roster, Zuri made it her goal to reach the FBA.
It was around age ten that Zuri noticed that she didn't feel ""right"" in her body. It wasn't anything to do with her mermaid body, but moreso with the way she presented herself. She expressed this to her parents, who seemed just as confused as Zuri did. But they supported her in her personal efforts to figure out what was happening. She spent four years questioning herself, all the while juggling puberty, basketball camps, middle school, having twin brothers two years younger than herself, and the complex social webs created by preteen/teenaged furs.
At the beginning of high school, she met a very special crocodile named Lynette, and the two began dating. While talking to her girlfriend, Zuri discovered several things revolving around gender identity and sexuality, which began putting things into place. She realised she was transgender, though her love for her girlfriend never wavered, and the two continued dating all through high school. Zuri's family worked to get her gender affirming hormones, and while she didn't socially transition immediately, she worked on a bodily transition, finally coming out as trans and lesbian to stunned, but supportive, classmates at her grade twelve prom.
Her high school basketball years were filled with strong performances, the seal outperforming her bipedal contemporaries on a regular basis. Scouts noticed her abilities quickly, and after a particularly strong senior year, she was offered a full-ride scholarship to Thunder Bay Predator College, which she readily accepted. Her girlfriend also accepted an academic scholarship to TBPC, and the two moved onto the much larger city, ready for whatever might follow.
Year one at TBPC was filled with uncertainty, as Zuri was no longer far and away the best player on her team. She began to worry that she truly couldn't make the FBA, until she saw that Isidora Séverine, a mermaid-bodied shark, had been signed by the Texas Lone Stars, renewing her faith that a mermaid could make it to the ultimate stage.
Zuri was taken under the wing of her senior teammate Rebekah Huotari, for whom the young seal developed a crush, ignoring the more troubling signs of the badger's less savoury side. After a freshman season that saw the team fall just shy of the CFIS championship, Zuri was about to declare for the FBA draft when Lynette talked her out of it, convincing her that she would be best served with one more year of experience.
She reluctantly agreed, earning captaincy in a narrow vote the following season. Unflattering details about Rebekah surfaced, and the seal dedicated that she would refuse to tolerate any undertones of predator supremacy from her teammates. They mostly laughed at her, pointing out that Zuri had done nothing about Rebekah. She vowed it would be different, and less than a week into practices, Zuri discovered a senior starter bullying a prey couple. She called a practice the next day, taking the offender's jersey and ripping it to shreds in front of him. After he attacked her, she fought him off easily despite his larger size.
She was initially suspended for her actions, but following an investigation the senior was found guilty and expelled. Zuri did, however, accept a single-game suspension and had to pay for the damages to the uniform. After serving her suspension during a season-opening loss to Guelph, she came back, leading a focused team, with their only other defeat coming in overtime to Eastern Ontario University.
Zuri made a name for herself in the CFIS tournament following the season, leading her team to victory in both games of the conference tournament, and all three in the national tournament. She was player of the game all five times, and named to the all-CFIS tournament team. After this victory, Zuri declared her intentions to join the FBA draft.