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Senshi: Sailor Puck, Senshi of Fairies

Name: Robin Goodfellow

Nicknames: People generally just call her Robin. It takes someone pretty damn foolhardy to make fun of her, because then they get the nickname of "Target Practice", and that just sucks for them.

Age: 15

Birthday: April 11th

Sign: Aries

Blood Type: O

Gemstone: Ruby

Fav. Food: Sweets and candies, pastries and cakes; she's got a sweet tooth beyond compare, especially when it comes to fresh-baked goodies.

Hated Food: Mushy, bland oatmeal. YECH. Also, diet soda. Seriously, what's the point of that stuff?

School: Meadowview High


Hobbies:

Urban Legends -- When Robin was a child, she lived, breathed and devoured whole folk tales. Back then, it was Robin Hood that was she most loved, because of obvious similarities in name and personality; she dressed up like him for every Halloween, one year getting herself in trouble for stealing the candy of other children to give to children smaller than herself (her father thought that was hilarious - her mother, less so). When she grew older, though, exposure to the world taught her that her favorite stories were unreachable, likely not even true by historical records. That was when her interests grew into something less easy to disprove - the realm of urban legends. Ghost stories and alien abductions, strange creatures that live in sewers; it wasn't the learning of these stories that pleased her so, but in getting her hands dirty and investigating them for herself. It was as though she thought that, if she could find some evidence for one of these stories, it might bring alive every other tale she'd ever learned untrue. Robin pursues these stories with the same sort of enthusiasm that marks all great explorers, sometimes at the expense of less important things (like homework). Most of her days after school are consumed by the pursuit of these things, and often her evenings and weekends as well, if her parents are lenient enough to permit it (which usually depends on how close to the end of the school term she is, and how much make-up schoolwork is therefore waiting for her). Robin's father is usually highly aware of his daughter's investigations, while Robin's mother is a bit more in the dark; when it comes to the more unusual and easy-to-disapprove-of investigations, though, both parents are likely to hear an entirely different accounting of where Robin is planning to be than the truth. Occasionally, Robin brings others along on these expeditions of hers, usually dependent on if she thinks she needs someone's skills; photographers are her favorites, and more than once some poor A/V nerd has been dragged along after school, on the threat of extreme harassment, to take video of what Robin is certain will be the greatest find of the century.

Playing Pranks -- Robin has a special talent for being wicked, raising the act of practical jokes to a nearly art-like status. Her modus operandi avoids certain kinds of pranks - she doesn't usually engage in social pranks, things like (an example from when she was younger) persuading the entire class to giggle whenever the teacher showed her back to the class. She also avoids the willful destruction of property; her parents set strict consequences on her trick-playing a few years back, when she was suspended for an extreme misuse of superglue which had her parents threatened with small claims court. Still, Robin works within the limitations imposed on her with skillful determination, embracing them as challenges which make the stuff of her work into a high-class pranking material. Although Robin isn't beyond an opportunistic little prank on an innocent bystander if inspiration strikes, her most elaborate works are usually vengefully driven, often cruel plots that grow from days or weeks of research and planning before reaching their moment of triumph. An example: At one point, her ire was gained by an arrogant boy in her art class, who was a skilled painter that unfairly tore apart one of her pieces during crit time in front of the whole class. So she set him and another aspiring artist that she considered an a** up each with an invitation to display a single piece in an exhibit with a difficult theme on the other side of town. While they were scrambling their brains to try and figure how to meet the demands of these them, she slipped in to talk with their friends and casually drop ideas, thus prompting their friends to suggest to each of them a specific object of inspiration they could use to complete their pieces. Both following up on the same idea, however, meant that they were directly competing with one another. Both were strong-willed and caught up in inspiration, however, and so would not look for another subject to use. Sparks rose between them both as they argued pettily, making nasty remarks on the other's works, trying to cut down the other for their own since of self-grandeur. Then, after the weeks of trial and rivalry and bitterness, they finally arrived at the exhibit - only to find that the theme they were told of was not just wrong, but the object of inspiration they quarreled over is staggeringly inappropriate for the real theme.

Improvisational Jazz -- Throughout middle school, Robin played flute in the school band. She had a certain skill for the instrument, but her poor study habits kept her from getting the practice she needed in order to really excel - she just wasn't interested in playing the same song over and again to get the status of first chair, and so when high school came, she opted not to enroll in a music program. Her mother (who had been a flutist in school herself) was so disappointed by this decision, however, that they talked and agreed to look for an after-school program that she would enjoy better. Enter Jazz Band; from the second that Robin heard them playing, she knew she was in the right place. Although she is still not the most studious of performers and has been known to let the band down from time to time, she is always enthusiastic and upbeat about performing, and has been becoming much more adept over the past year.

Trying Weird Food -- There's nobody in the world that doesn't love to eat junk food; but, as with many other things in life, Robin has to take the mundane and make it into something unusual. See, she doesn't just eat junk food - she eats the odd stuff. She takes special trips to tiny little foreign markets for the express purpose of seeking out snacks with the oddest packaging, the worst engrish, or just the most unusual flavor, and buys packages by the dozen. Her rule with these foods is that she isn't allowed to eat them until she finds someone else willing to eat them with her; she likes to make a game out of it in this manner, which is what separates this from an idle trait into a true hobby. She has been known to go to great lengths to enjoy an odd snack with a stranger - just think of her as Sam I Am, touting her green eggs and ham!


Virtues:

Clever -- Or perhaps observant would be a better term, since in this case, it ends up as the same thing. Robin can intuitively pick out small, vital details from a situation and quickly find a way to turn it to her advantage. This talent is most often employed in the cause of her pranks, helping her to distinguish quirks in her unfortunate victims that can be exploited for a laugh, but also in her other hobbies as well. Her capability in this respect is one of her most redeeming qualities, and certainly what her parents are most proud of her for.

Adaptive -- So okay, Robin admits to her friends as the site they were supposed to be scouring for missing link tracks is flooded over from three days of rain; she hadn't planned well this time. But really, it's all right! This is the perfect weather to go sewer gator watching! Ten minutes later, she'll have raincoats, boots, binoculars, and a thermos of hot soup for everyone. Robin makes and adjusts plans at the drop of a hat, never getting stuck on obstacles on her lifelong quest of discovery and entertainment. If this was the only night for a thousand years that you might be able to find the entrance to the vampire's tomb, then okay, she might have trouble being flexible - but anything lesser? She's already over it and onto the next thing, so forget about it!

Loyal -- There isn't a lot you can count on in this world. Robin doesn't need a lot of admiration from the masses, but could not exist without a few close friends to support her works - and she knows that you can't earn that sort of devotion without displaying it yourself. By what criteria she chooses these closest of friends can vary, but once she makes that connection, it's there until the end of the world. (Though of course, in proper dramatic teenage fashion, the end of a friendship is the definition of the end of the world, so that means little other than to illustrate her dedication not to let a friendship fall apart.)

Self-Assured -- To hit the level of <******** weird that Robin effortlessly achieves, one of two things must be true; you either have to be such a social reject that it doesn't matter what you do anymore, or be so confident in yourself that it doesn't matter what other people think. Which one of these applies to Robin really depends on who you're speaking to, but the bottom line is that she is fearless of being criticized. She enjoys the attention that her antics bring her, for one, and very easily de-values the opinion of those that would disapprove of her actions. In Robin's mind, the things that she does are things that most people would do, if they weren't so fearful of judgment - so why should she let those same people's opinions dictate her actions? Laugh up your sleeve all you want at her antics! She'll still go about her business of making every day a little stranger for the rest of the world.


Flaws:

Prideful -- It isn't necessarily to say that Robin has a high opinion of herself (although she does), or that she requires your approval of everything she does (though she'd prefer it). It's more that she has a sense of dignity; a concept that there is a basic level of respect which is entitled to her, though on what merits she couldn't say for sure. And so if she should be treated rudely, or her works under-appreciated, her ire is quick to be earned. Sometimes this isn't much of an issue; she makes nasty faces at you from across the lunchroom, you roll your eyes, life goes on. But if you really get under her skin, then she has a habit of taking things a bit further (see Vindictive) - or sometimes too far. More than a few friendships have been lost over stupid matters of the ego, and Robin genuinely seems convinced that it was, for example, Susie's fault that they are no longer friends, and not Robin's for having sabotaged that science experiment which cost Susie her eyebrows. When reaching these extremes, her pride has a way of making both herself and everyone around her miserable. Even on smaller scales, however, it's very easy to egg Robin into a conflict, or manipulate her to do things she otherwise wouldn't consider for the sake of her reputation

Vindictive -- Robin's offense is a dangerous thing to gain, whether it be by insulting her pride or decencies, or by offering injury to one of her friends. Robin is infamous for the grudges she can hold - not necessarily because of how long she can hold them, though her memory is long, but because of the tortures she can inflict once an enemy is drawn into her sights. Spiking people's lunches with hot peppers and sowing discord among their friends are the simplest forms of revenge; as a grudge matures, Robin will grow more inventive, custom-tailoring her tortures to the most hated people on her list. Most people who cross her come to regret it - and if they don't, they'd better at least make it look like they do, or else she takes that as a sign that she needs to try harder.

Improportionate -- Nothing is ever a small deal with Robin, not if it makes her angry or excited. Small slights are easily perceived as huge ones; similarly, small gestures of kindness are blown up into declarations of romantic interest with no effort whatsoever. Her parents call her dramatic, blame it on her teenage perspective -- her friends just consider it another instance of Robin being Robin, and tend to be dragged along by her enthusiasm. She can come off as pretty goofy at times with her wild overreactions, but her family and friends usually just shrug it off as another proving point of her insanity.

Capricious -- As a child, Robin was diagnosed with a severe case of ADOLS - Attention Deficit OH LOOK SHINY. Her parents had tried putting her on medication, and for several years, this seemed to help. However, once she reached puberty, concerns that the medication may have been affected her growth prompted them to take her off of the pills. Today, Robin is nowhere near as bad as she was as a child, but that doesn't mean that she has anywhere near the amount of focus or discipline that she ought to. Trying to get her to do a chore that she doesn't care for is futile; she'll just get distracted at the first opportunity (maybe the second, if she thinks that the work is supposed to be important), and that'll be the end of that. Classmates are quick to learn not to partner with her for projects, and her teachers ever despair of her half-completed homework. Even the things she loves and has the capability to focus on, like her pranks or urban legends, she is occasionally diverted from; for every item she successfully investigates, there are a dozen more research files on her computer that are forgotten about ("saved for a rainy day"), and too often plans she's made to get revenge for old slights are forgotten in favor of fresher ones.

Challenge: "In the name of Puck, I'm gonna @#^% you up!"

Attack #1
NAME: Puck Fascination Tune!
[What it does] This attack summons a magic flute of peculiar design, which is solid only to Puck's touch (so no flute-bashing people over the head.) By playing a simple tune on it, the flute will allow Puck the ability to transfix the attention of a single creature (Puck's choice), distracting them from what they were doing and soothing them into inaction. For creatures of higher intelligence, this effect barely lasts a post, and they can often fight past the distraction in order to complete at least partial actions; creatures (or children) that are more simple-minded can be transfixed for longer. This attack can be dodged simply by interrupting the source of the music (striking Puck) or by covering the ears of one affected so that they can no longer hear it, or - if it is anticipated - making loud enough noises that the music is not heard. Any injury or jostling done to a creature ensnared in the spell will break it. Puck can use this attack multiple times per battle, but there must be a break between each use equal to the number of times it has been used - so after the first time has ended, she has to wait at least one post, the second time, two posts, the third time, three posts, etc.

Attack #1a
NAME: Puck Piper Melody!
[What it does] Using a flute of the same nature as the first attack, Puck can now play a melody which will take the fascination abilities of before to the next step. She can affect multiple targets at once, up to three of her choosing, though only ever one intelligent target. More intelligent creatures or people can now be transfixed for longer durations; less intelligent creatures are now not only transfixed by the song for more extended periods of time, but they will follow Puck for as long as she is playing the flute and nothing happens to snap them out of their trance. This ability cannot be used to make creatures damage themselves - if an impassible or obviously damaging barrier arises in their path, the creature will stop at the edge and listen until the sound is too weak to hold them any longer - but it can be used to lead them into strategic positions. As the first attack, this attack can be avoided by blocking the sound from being heard, or interrupted by forcing Puck to stop playing. This attack can only be used once per battle.

Attack #2:
NAME: Love-in-Idleness Harmony!
[What it does] This is the ultimate distraction. Puck's flute playing causes as many as three people to fall in love with the first person that they see. This attack is indiscriminate, affecting first those closest to the flute other than Puck herself - which can mean enemies, friends, youma, stray dogs. As a general rule of thumb, this usually only lasts for a few posts, although some characters may be more suspectible than others (especially if they were harboring real feelings toward the person the attack made them fall in love with, now brought out of suppression - yikes, awkward!) As with the other attacks, this attack can be avoided by covering or blocking the sound at its onset - however, once a character is affected, interrupting the melody will not stop the effect until it has continued through to its natural duration. This attack can only be used once per battle.

SAILOR PUCK, SENSHI OF FAIRIES

Disclaimer: Artist has final say on all details; anything here are just ideas that they can borrow off of, or else for my own sketching reference.

Fuku Colors: Primarily purple and blue, with the mandatory white to pull it together. Pink is also an option.

Fuku Design: Rather than having named specifics, the following are some general concepts that can be considered her fuku design: Fairy/Ethereal (obvious reasoning), jester (Puck was considered a jester in Midsummer Night's Dream), songbird (a fairy motif in the Sailor Moon Supers movie; if a fairy's flute was broken, they would transform into a songbird and fly away).

Specific Traits: When Puck transforms, her hair gets a colored streak (purple? blue?), keeping in line with the fairy traits from the movie.

Flute Design: Fairy flutes are weird. For example, look at Peruru and his flute on the right here. Puck's flute also keeps in theme with these general designs, with a curvy and exotic appearance. It should mimic themes and colors from Puck's senshi form while keeping these influences in mind.

Attack Design: There are two sources her attacks draw on - the fairy abilities from the Sailor Moon series, and Puck's abilities in Midsummer Night's Dream. In both situations, these attacks are based on the control of others; one can create delusions to lead/brainwash children (Pied Piper effect) and manipulate objects (flying ships); the other instills emotions (making people fall in love) and form (turning people's heads into those of animals). In combat, most of these attacks would be to distract enemies and destroy their focus, so Puck's attacks were selected with that purpose in mind to keep a tactical theme.

Why a Flute?: In light of the fact that weapons/items are only supposed to be given to "special" senshi, I thought I ought to clarify why I felt using an item in her attack was necessary (as opposed to just having a magical effect). First, to clarify: The flute is not a weapon. It has no use other than for these attacks. No hitting people, using it to block weapon strikes, anything; it is not solid and cannot be used outside of the designed parameters. The reason that it is there is because of how rooted the flute is, not just in the sort of attacks chosen (Pied Piper), but in the Sailor Moon mythology for fairies; literally all attacks for fairies are dependent on their flutes, and since Puck's attacks are mimicking fairy powers, and not utilizing fairies themselves, it didn't make sense for her not to use a flute in her attacks. Also, there was an issue about vulnerability; by having Puck actively engaged in her attack, rather than just casting it and having it go, it allows the music to be interrupted and can halt the effects of her attacks. Puck's attacks can be difficult to dodge, especially for those coming across her the first time, so it was necessary for me to find some way that they could be interrupted to even the playing field. If, for some reason, her playing a flute such as she has would be regarding as pushing the "no weapons/items" rule, then her attacks would be altered to have a magic flute playing independently of her, which Puck could move to defend but could be broken with a solid attack in order to cancel the effects of its music.

She looks like so much fun.

First, minor stuff: You have typos around. There's a stray "Puck" in her family details, too. I won't go over all of that here, but I'm always up for proofreading. Another thing is that her family name being "Goodfellow" strikes me as awfully convenient, but this is magical girl stuff everyone has convenient names. So, yeah. Just wanted to mention that I thought too hard about that.

Urban Legends are called "Robin's first and truest love," but then you talk about her interest progression. Also, "aptly-named Robin Hood"-- why aptly? Is it referring to Robin's name or something else? What does Robin do in her investigations? When does she do them? Does she sneak out of her house at night? Does she skip school for her adventures? Or does she wait until the weekend? How dangerous are the things she does? How much do her parents know about her adventures? Considering her Junk Food hobby (maybe "Trying Weird Food" or something like that works better?), does she like dragging people into her adventures?

In Playing Pranks, there aren't any real examples of the kinds of pranks she plays now. How complex do they tend to be? For Junk Food, also, I'd go into why she shares her wacky food adventures with strangers and acquaintances.

Clever is not phrased clearly. I like it, but you've linked together some ideas that don't really follow each other. The last sentence basically says "x, but really-- x'," which doesn't make much sense to me. The second half basically restates the first half, I mean.

Self-assured may need some expansion. I think Robin may thrive off seeming ridiculous, so I'm not sure why other people laughing at her antics would bother her, and being laughed at is not really being criticized. What about her do other people criticize? Why does she feel these criticisms are unimportant?

Also, I wanted to know: what is the difference between her pranks for the sake of pranks and her pranks to get back at people she hates? What makes her form grudges? What kind of things does she find more interesting than schoolwork besides planning out her adventures? Or does she not plan?

Attacks are not my strong suit. I really, really like the challenge you went with. It may not be themed, but it's fun and I think it works well for her.

Entry for the January Schoolkid Contest~

IN THE NAME OF THE MOON! WRITING COMPETITION? SCHOOLKID COMP!

Name: Robin Goodfellow

Nicknames: People generally just call her Robin. It takes someone pretty damn foolhardy to make fun of her, because then they earn the loving attention of the master prankster's attention along with their own nickname of "Target Practice", and that just sucks.

Gender: Female

Age: 15

School: Meadowview

Fav. Food: Sweets and candies, pastries and cakes; she's got a sweet tooth beyond compare, especially when it comes to fresh-baked goodies.

Hated Food: Mushy, bland oatmeal. YECH. Also, diet soda. Seriously, what's the point of that stuff?

Virtues:

Clever -- Or perhaps observant would be a better term, since in this case, it ends up as the same thing. Robin can intuitively pick out small, vital details from a situation and quickly find a way to turn it to her advantage. This talent is most often employed in the cause of her pranks, helping her to distinguish quirks in her unfortunate victims that can be exploited for a laugh, but also in her other hobbies as well; when she does investigations of the bizarre, or is feeling her way through a song for jazz, or trying to pick out the strangest bit of exotic snack food from the Mediterranean market downtown. Her capability in this respect is one of her most redeeming qualities, and certainly what her parents are most proud of her for.

Loyal -- There isn't a lot you can count on in this world. Robin doesn't need a lot of admiration from the masses, but could not exist without a few close friends to support her works - and she knows that you can't earn that sort of devotion without displaying it yourself. By what criteria she chooses these closest of friends can vary, but once she makes that connection, it's there until the end of the world. (Though of course, in proper dramatic teenage fashion, the end of a friendship is the definition of the end of the world, so that means little other than to illustrate her dedication not to let a friendship fall apart.)

Self-Assured -- To hit the level of <******** weird that Robin effortlessly achieves, one of two things must be true; you either have to be such a social reject that it doesn't matter what you do anymore, or be so confident in yourself that it doesn't matter what other people think. Which one of these applies to Robin really depends on who you're speaking to, but the bottom line is that she is fearless of being criticized. She enjoys the attention that her antics bring her, for one, and very easily de-values the opinion of those that would disapprove of her actions. In Robin's mind, the things that she does are things that most people would do, if they weren't so fearful of judgment - so why should she let those same people's opinions dictate her actions? Laugh up your sleeve all you want at her antics! She'll still go about her business of making every day a little stranger for the rest of the world.


Flaws:

Prideful (weakness) -- It isn't necessarily to say that Robin has a high opinion of herself (although she does), or that she requires your approval of everything she does (though she'd prefer it). It's more that she has a sense of dignity; a concept that there is a basic level of respect which is entitled to her, though on what merits she couldn't say for sure. And so if she should be treated rudely, or her works under-appreciated, her ire is quick to be earned. Sometimes this isn't much of an issue; she makes nasty faces at you from across the lunchroom, you roll your eyes, life goes on. But if you really get under her skin, then she has a habit of taking things a bit further (see Vindictive) - or sometimes too far. More than a few friendships have been lost over stupid matters of the ego, and Robin genuinely seems convinced that it was, for example, Susie's fault that they are no longer friends, and not Robin's for having sabotaged that science experiment which cost Susie her eyebrows for three months.

Vindictive -- Whether it be by insulting her pride or by offering injury to one of her friends, Robin's offense is quick to gain, and not without consequences. Robin is infamous for the grudges she can hold - not necessarily because of how long she can hold them, though her memory is long, but because of the tortures she can inflict once an enemy is drawn into her sights. Her keen interest in prank-pulling has grown from laughably childish jokes in her younger years to cruel and elaborate enterprises. Spiking people's lunches with hot peppers and sowing discord among their friends are the simplest forms of revenge; as a grudge matures, Robin will grow more inventive, custom-tailoring her tortures to the most hated people on her list. Most people who cross her come to regret it - and if they don't, they'd better at least make it look like they do, or else she takes that as a sign that she needs to try harder.

Capricious -- As a child, Robin was diagnosed with a severe case of ADOLS - Attention Deficit OH LOOK SHINY. Her parents had tried putting her on medication, and for several years, this seemed to help. However, once she reached puberty, concerns that the medication may have been affected her growth prompted them to take her off of the pills. Today, Robin is nowhere near as bad as she was as a child, but that doesn't mean that she has anywhere near the amount of focus or discipline that she ought to. Trying to get her to do a chore that she doesn't care for is futile; she'll just get distracted at the first opportunity (maybe the second, if she thinks that the work is supposed to be important), and that'll be the end of that. Classmates are quick to learn not to partner with her for projects, and her teachers ever despair of her half-completed homework. Even the things she loves and has the capability to focus on, like her pranks or urban legends, she is occasionally diverted from; for every item she successfully investigates, there are a dozen more research files on her computer that are forgotten about ("saved for a rainy day"), and too often plans she's made to get revenge for old slights are forgotten in favor of fresher ones.


PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Eyes: Robin's eyes are purplish, maybe even lavender hue, and look deceptively sweet and innocent.

Hair: Sort of a light rose color. "Wild mane" is the most apt description of Robin's hair, "textured" or "shaggy" or "out of control" also being fair contributors. She's inclined to let it go wild, growing longish and unhindered by accessories.

Face: Oval-shaped, light skin tone, fresh look.


THE STORY ENTRY


Never the words that a teenager wanted to hear, sneaking up the stairs just a few minutes before midnight: "You're home late, aren't you?"

Evaluation. The moment of decision of whether to lie, how far to take the lie; the sinking realization that no lie would be believed. Robin's mind dashed through the possibilities quickly, discarding all viable falsifications. She simply didn't have a good explanation prepared. So she offered a truth instead.

"Yes, well." Leaning gently against the handrail, her eyes flicked to the silhouette of a man standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "It's quite a story, Daddy."

Her elusive efforts won back a quick little chuckle. "Yes, well, I'll bet that it is," her father concurred, tucking his hands into the pockets of his bathrobe and leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. He was relaxed, not concerned; teens will be teens, his nonchalance implied. Robin had lucked out to find him in such a good mood. "Well? Don't I get to hear it?"

"Well, Daddy," Robin answered, shifting around to face him better. In the dim light of the stairwell, he couldn't see much more than the general form of where his daughter stood - certainly, he couldn't see enough to tell that what she was carrying casually behind her back. "It is quite a long story, and I'm quite tired. May I tell you all about it in the morning?" Through the thin shadows, Robin's pandering smile glinted through.

Her father's voice hmmmed back at her thoughtfully. If he were any sort of scrutinizing parent, he wouldn't let this slide. But it was the story he was after, not the confession; she would have to be out a lot later than this to spark real worry from him, or else be caught by her mother. So he acquiesced. "All right, you can tell me all about it then. Sweet dreams, little Robin."

"Sweet dreams, Daddy." He caught one-handed her blown kiss; impish grins on each of their faces, they parted their ways. As Robin skipped the rest of the way up the stairs, she could hear the drifting sounds of her father tapping on his laptop keyboard in the kitchen, continuing work on his newspaper article for the morning deadline. He would be up most the night working on it, undoubtedly - and when morning came, he'd guzzle up his coffee, put on his best smile, and be waiting at the breakfast table to complete their conversation. He always made time for her stories.

This was one of the first times that Robin could remember, though, that she really wished he wouldn't.

The bedroom door clicked shut behind her. Her room, scattered with books and clothes and old stuffed animals, was unlit but by the monitor of her computer, running the SETI screensaver. Robin did not reach for the light switch, however. Cradling in front of her the smuggled prize, Robin's merry little bounce turned into an exhausted slump; she dragged her feet forward, shoving aside the mess of the floor. Every step was slow, slower, slowing, the effort for each one increasing exponentially from the one before it....

She completed the journey. Knees wobbling slightly, she gently deposited a scuffed-up digital video recorder onto her desk - and then promptly dropped into the loving arms of her computer chair. Her leg muscles ached sorely, but that was the least of her worries that night. There was a rip straight through the arm of her jacket - the gash underneath was mercifully thin and superficial, but looked worse than it was. Her jeans were covered in filth from beltline to pants hem, though, and some dark splotches had already settled in - nothing so innocous as mud - that would stain unless they saw proper laundering. Which would mean explaining it to her mother.

Robin wasn't going to inflict that torture on herself. Instead, she simply stripped the outfit off and dropped them into her wastebasket. Wrapping herself up in the top blanket from her bed, she returned to the computer desk and set herself to work.

The desk was strewn with papers - no good, she needed space to work, space to think. Atop of this stack was a detail of the latest in odd news, the meteorite hanging above Destiny City. This one she picked out from the rest, laying it solemnly beside her keyboard. With fingers too numb for grace, Robin shoved clear her keyboard of the rest of the scraps; blog printouts of conspiracy theories regarding the unusual taste of the water in Destiny City, tabloid pages detailing the arrival of the albino white werepig to the south (indistinguishable from normal white werepigs but for its red eyes), rumors of an alien child being raised right in the city's backyard. You know, all the bits and pieces of research any good urban legends buff needed to have on hand, just in case.

Now that the desktop was cleared, she could find her way around the computer. Flicking the mouse to shake away the SETI screensaver, Robin fished around on the desktop for the proper cable. The camera wasn't hers, mind you, but there'd been a time it had visited her house often enough that she'd invested in the connection cord for it; it had gathered a bit of dust since the last time, but it was still handy. Slot A fitted into the camera here, slot B plugged into the USB here, and quick enough, the video prompt popped up on her screen.

Video detected. Do you want to run Windows Media Player?

Robin's hand hovered over the mouse for several seconds, and she exhaled. She needed to stop thinking; there was no sense making this any bigger than it already was. Resettling the blanket around her shoulders, Robin dragged the cursor over the appropriate button, and began the tape.

The noise cut in swiftly -- "Wow. WOW, I mean, would you lookit that thing!"

Dim little dots of light filled the view; glints and sparkles scattered over a black linen sheet. The area was poorly lit, but that was the best way to see the stars overhead, after all. Among the constellations overhead, one particularly strong light was shining - no expected star was this, and no manmade satellite either. This bright object was a different class of creature altogether, and unremarkable as it might have seemed at a glance, a hand appeared in front of the camera to circle it as the star of the show (no pun intended.)

"There, you see it?" The hand withdrew, and in its place, a face appeared briefly before the camera - green-eyed, framed with tight brown curls, boyish and young. With a grin stretching from one ear to the other, the young teenager reported proudly: "I'm Kevin Brunswick of Supernatural Sleuths dot Com, and you're seeing it here first, folks! The fabled meteorite caught on film, right here in Destiny City!"

Robin knew the boy, better than she'd have liked to admit. They hadn't always despised each other so, of course. He'd been her protege - though he preferred to say partners - and had used his photography talents to record her investigations. For the better part of a year, they'd owned the field of paranormal investigation within Destiny City. Then the summer had come, and he'd grown more and more difficult to reach. Robin would later find out that Kevin had been using this time to cut in on her leads, cozy up to her sources, and essentially take all the steps necessary to render her research expertise obsolete. By the start of the next school year, Robin was distraught to find that some new blogger in town was stealing the traffic from her site - and furious to learn that it was her own little Watson that was the culprit.

And here he was. Scooping another one of her stories, right on tape. Somehow, though, Robin couldn't convince herself to be angry - just numbed, saddened.

"Now uh," there was a bit of a scrabbling noise while Kevin trained the camera upwards, focusing up on the bright dot in the sky, "meteorites. Big deal, right? I mean, you know, you look in the news, you find stories about cults and stuff, who believe that meteors are- they're alien spaceships, right? And there was a whole cult of people that just killed themselves when a comet was near, because they figured that was their trip home...."

One thing was for sure. When it was Robin in front of the camera, the dialogue was way more interesting.

"... Objects of mystery," Kevin's voice continued to narrate. "In some Pagan circles, people believe that the powers of the occult are heightened during-- holy s**t look at that!"

Narration, Kevin might be clumsy with. Camerawork, he wasn't. And what had caught his attention was captured perfectly on camera; a sudden bright streak in the air, tumbling and rotating, that launched itself toward the earth. The air filled with the massive shock of a sonic boom, light flashed - Kevin dropped, either by the force of the sound or sheer astonishment, and the camera kept rolling through the string of profanity to follow.

The meteorite? Or just a shard of it, more likely. It looked like had landed so close! Footage like this was unbelievably rare. Jealousy began to stir in Robin's chest - why was a jerk like Kevin the lucky shmuck to have gotten great film like this? Certainly someone else - like Robin - was more deserving! But ah, luck didn't pick her favorites by who had earned it - and after all, the brand of luck that this had turned out to be, well....

The somber mood of Robin's thoughts had no effect on the rampant excitement being piped through her monitor. "Let's go find it!" The camera jerked around, and then everything was swinging around and unsteady - Kevin had removed the camera from the tripod mount, hoisted his gear over his shoulder, and was jogging in the direction of the impact. His excited breath could be heard the whole trip, interjected occasionally with excited comments of Wow! Wow! I can't believe I saw that! and oh man oh man, I hope it's around here....

Coming to the crest of a hill, Kevin paused, apparently to scope out the area. If he was hoping for a glowing sign to lead him along, though, he was to be disappointed; everything around here was still and silent, perfectly normal and pleasant, in a state of nature.

The confused mumblings began. "It was around here, wasn't it? Gotta be," the camera recorded, while Kevin began to putter around and search through the vegetation. You'd think a thing like that would leave a mess behind, make it easy to find - but looking around here, you sure wouldn't know that anything was about. Kevin began wondering aloud, maybe it was further out than he'd thought-- "OH HOLY s**t." The camera came swinging up - not to try and capture sight of anything, but following the motion of Kevin's arms as he suddenly flung them out in front of them, backpedalling.

Robin's heart began to beat faster. She felt her hands, her feet, her lips all go cold, and buried herself a little more in her blanket. This had to be it - where it started....

She was right.

The next thing caught by the camera was it. That creature - monster, alien, whatever it was! Not human, not animal, but some bizarre state between. It was done up in the strangest frock, cloth cut into precise shapes that seemed designed not for modesty, but pure decorum. It towered high above the camera, easily a foot taller than the tallest man Robin could ever remember having seen in her life. Its hands were long claws, the nails of which clicked together by idle habit. It stood with a faint hunch, as though this bipedal form was not quite first-nature to it. It looked upon Kevin - the boy who, behind the camera, was gasping and squeaking, all but hyperventilating at the creature manifested before him - and it seemed well-pleased.

"Auva," the hideous thing murmured with an insidious smile. "I've found you."

The video frame was shaking badly in Kevin's hands now. His words were stammered and garbled, nearly impossible to understand, but seemed to form the expected protest - "M-m-m, m'naaaame izzn't...." Thump. Whoops - there went the camera, dropping right into the dirt. The angle of the world was now quite askew, but the monster was still clearly in sight as it dropped to all fours and began a languid advance forward. The tip of Kevin's right shoe disappeared backwards as he began to back away.

"Such big eyes you have, Auta! Have you been born into such weakness as this?" The monster chuckled throatily. It was posturing, teasing, testing - it observed the boy who was out of frame and grinned toothily. "Now what is that, Auta," it inquired of some unseen development, mildly scolding. "Weren't we getting along so pleasantly? And then you have to be so threatening... well then, what a terrible shame." Subtle shifts in the creature's posture were the only warning - sympathetically, Robin felt her shoulders bunching up, pulling the blanket a little closer to her chest - and then there was a blur of speed.

The creature was off-frame. Kevin was off-frame. All there were were the sounds; thrashing, scuffling, frantic footsteps on the soft ground. Indistinct and garbled were the words; Kevin's screeching for help, trying to bluff the creature away from him, while the monster just laughed and taunted him. But then a noise cut through, clear as the cloudless night sky overhead. A scream. The creature's scream.

Kevin came stumbling into the frame, panting and desperate. Considerably more scratched up than at first, limping badly from an injury to his left leg, but alive. In his hand was the silver glint of a pocketknife's blade; an analytical glance would reveal blood on it. The boy staggered off-screen; he hadn't gotten far, however, when the creature's pursuit drew it in-frame. It stooped and bristled, the amusement from before lost.

"You let that pitiful flesh control you?" The thing, beneath its snarls, sounded nearly indignant as it pressed its fingers against the long gash in its side. The cloth of its costume was tattered now, ruined, and it picked at the cut edges of its clothing with more irritation than it had viewed its fleshwound with. Kevin blubbered nonsensically from off-screen. The monster grunted, straightening itself out, and paced forward. "There is no need to fear death, Auva; this body was never meant to keep you!"

CLUNK. Hail-Mary shot from ******** nowhere; a heavy flashlight completed a high arc and struck the creature's head, then went tumbling and flipping away. Robin remembered thinking at the time - whoa, that was ******** cool! I wonder if that looked as cool as I think it did? She could now say for a fact that yes, indeed - it looked every bit as ******** cool as she'd thought it had.

She wasn't on-camera yet. Of course not; she hadn't known it was there, running. Robin wasn't a total camera whore, mind, but if she'd known one had been going at the time, she would have made a better effort to deliver her lines where it could hear here, stage herself to look properly dramatic and brave as she bullied the monster. But snatches of her blowharding came through -- ridiculous bluffs, like stand down, Mr. Wolfenstein, I came packing a silver bullet! and I've got a black belt in Voo-Doo, so get the ******** away from the stooge!

The monster, of course, hadn't been amused. The chances were good, in fact, that Robin would have had those threats made into her famous last words right then, but for one thing: Kevin. Flinging himself on the monster's back like a bat out of hell, stabbing down with that ridiculously puny knife of his.

This part, at least, was all captured on camera. The monster, Kevin, both screaming. Here comes Robin, foot crunching the grass right in front of the camera. She grabs something - she swears and tugs at it. Behind her is a demented rodeo, ended swiftly as the monster's claws rake deep into Kevin's arms. He screams and lets go - Robin starts forward, dragging Kevin's discarded tripod with her. The creature whirls to face her -- KACHANG -- right in time to get a smack on the side of the face with the folded tripod. In the brief window of opportunity while it recovered from the shock, Robin discarded the tripod, produced a short little pocket knife of her own, and went stabbing in for the heart.

Just one problem. Robin was assuming she knew where the heart was on a creature that wore the human form like it was merely the convenient means of the moment.

The monster was injured - it howled - but it was not slain. It was not even capacitated. One claw snaked around the girl's arm, jerking her away from the knife embedded in its chest; with a fling, Robin was sent tumbling away, hitting the ground hard and rolling into the thick branches of a low-lying bush. She came to a stop, and for some seconds, was reduced to moaning feebly.

If the creature had been so persuaded, this again, could have been Robin's final moment. Watching it now, she was horrified to think of how near to death she really had come - when she had been there, living it, everything had seemed so damned - so damned hazy. She went off her gut, and it had all just felt like she was doing what she was supposed to be doing. Here, though, through the slanted window of the camera lens, it was objective and simple. Robin should have died, at least ten times over. And the only thing that saved her now seemed to be the monster's disgust with the whole affair - it was fed up, simply put, and didn't care about one piddling human enough to follow her down to the bushes and tear out her throat.

So instead, while the girl began dazedly battling her way free of the bushes, the monster reoriented on its original target. There was no time for heroics now. Somewhat obscured by the angle of the camera, Robin could decipher nonetheless when its one claw wrapped around the boy's neck - harder to see, its other claw snapped forward. There was a spark between them, like a fuse blowing. Kevin howled, anguished; Robin screamed, frustrated; and in an unfocused blur, the creature went bounding off, clutching something against its chest. Dimly heard to the camera, but burning fresh in Robin's memory, were the words it had cast over its shoulder as it ran:

"Recover and return to us swiftly, Auva. Our time has come."

And then, it seemed the crisis was over.

Viewed from the back, Kevin fell softly to his knees, his cries fading to mere gasps. Breaking across the screen in a sprint was Robin; the damaged tripod was cast aside as she rushed to the boy's side. It was hard to pick out little details on the film, like the worried crease in her brow as she fussed over the younger teen, but quick enough she seemed satisfied that he was not terribly injured. After several seconds, the image of the girl sighed and dropped to the ground, plopping herself down right by the boy. So quickly after the lethal threat, she relaxed enough to joke around.

"You b*****d, Kevin. Trying to beat me to the punch again...." The was-Robin giggled, a moronically relieved sound, and leaned her head over onto Kevin's shoulder. Then his hand pressed against the side of her head, shoving viciously. In front of the screen, the now-Robin winced as she watched her digital form sprawl over, not a bit of resistance offered in the full stupor of her shock.

That flash of passivism melted swiftly away, though. Snatches of an ugly, furious expression could be seen through Robin's mussed halo of hair - "What the s**t?! What the ******** s**t, Kevin?" Wound-up and angry, Robin rose up to her feet. "I just saved your ungrateful a**, you little ********! If that doesn't mean something to you, then--"

Kevin's head snapped around, and Robin shut up with a little gasp. The camera angle was all wrong - his face was entirely obscured by his hair - but from the way that Robin drew back, it was apparent that something was wrong. At the computer, the girl squeezed her eyes shut - something had been so terribly wrong --

Kevin was crumpling over now. The worst was coming.

It could have been a scene from a bad science-fiction movie, or a cheap anime flick. While the lady knight looked on in horror, her dude in distress began to scream. A full-throated sound of deep agony at first, the quality began to quickly degrade, as though the vocal cords were being ripped apart in the midst of the sound; the boy's body was consumed with a sinister light, dull red like the butt of a cigarette, and under the pressure of this energy began to change. The voice became a growling howl, and as more energy was invested in the horrific procedure, a sudden force picked up in the area - even while Robin had not yet lost her footing, the camera itself was caught by the strengthening gusts, and began to tumble away--

The screen sputtered with static, skipped through the darkened scenes to follow. Paused stills revealed only blurs of motion in gaps of static, if anything at all. After a few seconds of this malfunctioning, the feed resumed as normal.

It seemed unlikely that much time had passed since the skip began. The view was buried partially in thick underbrush; it was impossible to tell if the sliver of ground in the frame were the same area as before, or if the camera had traveled a significant distance. To be sure, there was nothing to be seen of the young videographer in the shot.

The scene remained like this for some time, unchanging but for an invisible breeze knocking about the grass blades. Then, hands wrapped around the frame, a finger pressing clumsily against the lens. The world was turned around, capturing a swinging shot of the nighttime sky and the bright streak of the meteorite above. Then there was only Robin's face, white and cold, staring down through the screen. The screen jerked unsteadily as she fumbled in the dark for the "power" button--

That was it. The end of the footage. The screen was black; the seconds kept ticking away on the screen, but the computer had already relayed all the video there was to share. And Robin found herself rocking in the dark, arms wrapped around her knees and blanket pulled tight around her shoulders.

It had been real. It had all been real. Not fancy or imagination or dream. She had an explanation for everything that had happened up to the point she'd arrived -- an account of everything she had seen....

Except for the worst part. Except for the part she least believed. The piece after the creature had left; when Kevin had become something else.

She played the part again. And again and again, from where the creature had gone running off to where the camera had spontaneously stopped recording. Kevin's mutating scream repeated over and over and over again, until her ears were drowning in its sound.

There was something strange that Robin noticed here, though, something she'd missed the first time she'd watched this film. When the monster had caught hold of Kevin, it had pulled something from him. It was just a little glint on the screen, like a pendant he might have worn over his chest, or a gem. Was that what it had been after? Was that what had caused Kevin to... change?

Robin didn't know. She didn't know, couldn't plan, couldn't imagine. She didn't even know what to do with the tape - the fact that she was responsible for it, that the fate and fame of this story was in her power, hadn't even occurred to her yet. All she could do was remain huddled in the dark, face nearly pressing against the monitor, and press replay one more time.



EDIT:

WOOOOW! Got lucky, and Robin was picked as one of the ten winning entries! Thanks to the people who've helped me so far! Here is her diary; from here, I'm going to be working really hard to flesh out her character in RP, but I still need help with crits in order to get her working as a senshi potential. :> If you have the time, please give it a look!

Fair point on the using "posts" instead of "rounds" bit! I tend to think in D&D terms, I think, lol. XD Edited that around, so thank you for the input!

(And I will totally, totally RP with you, anytime. She's available for schoolkid RP right now if you were interested - otherwise, here's hoping I'll be able to win an upgrade sometime so that we can play!)

(Aggie sounds good! If you wanted to start tonight, that would be awesome - otherwise, I'll try and get one started tomorrow evening, and I'll send you a link! ^^)

Aww ;; Thank you, Ende! I really appreciate you looking over the character for me. <3