Ruby City

[kidjoy]

PLAYER
Name: Hattie
Age: Over 18
Personal Journal: gerberadaisy 
AIM/MSN/etc: None

CHARACTER
Name: The Girl
Canon: Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys
Age: Around 10/11, both in actuality and appearance 
Timeline: After running away post her rescue from BLI
Items with character at canon point: She has only the clothes on her back and the satchel tied to her belt 

If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A

Personality: The girl is, like many children, a bright, curious force. As young as she is, much of the world is still new to her and she takes joy in the discovery of everything new, loud and shiny. However, this was a joy she takes in context of the world being safe for her. Fun Ghoul letting her shoot his launcher is the highlight of her day. Other people shooting around her is decidedly not.  She's curious and joyful when she has a safety net to fall back on, much in the same way a toddler will explore a room as long as its mother is in view. 

 

While she is somewhat cautious, she does not fear in the same way many children would. Because of the life she's known, many things that would terrify adults barely phase her. Going over a hundred on a highway? Hilarious. Blowing stuff up? Sounds like a good time. Stealing? Laws are for chumps. Eating puppy chow? Food's food. She's not going to squirm over just anything; she's seen too much to let everything affect her.  Danger is an inherit part of life in the Zones, whether that means facing down Dracs or other zone-runners, or dealing with poison gas or radiation contamination. She was raised to have a reasonable wariness of these dangers, such as remembering to take a rebreather when going into a new area since gas is no joke. But she was also raised to be able to work past that. There’s more to being in the Zones then just survival, and fearing every little thing would prevent her from living. 

 

This doesn’t mean than she’s completely shut off her ability to fear or can’t react to fear in a ‘normal’ manner. Clearly she's terrified by the Dracs and Korse, she fears the loss of her family and, since we see her shut down whenever the Killjoys face off against the Dracs, she hates being in the midst of a firefight. We see in the music videos how easily she becomes overwhelmed when confronted with the Dracs, both times of her new capture she freezes. Her reaction to the lobby fight, is to attempt to shut it all out, scream and cry and stand still in the midst of lasers popping off around her. Considering she lost her mother, it’s only reasonable she would have a healthy fear of losing the ‘fathers’ that too her in. Fear is still a heavy part of her person, it just takes a lot of danger or for that danger presented to someone she really loves for her to start showing it. 

 

Her shutting down shows an important part of her emotional maturity. In that, she clearly has little emotional development when it comes to handling negative feelings. She’s easily overwhelmed by the issues around and within her. Instead of dealing with these feelings or trying to understand them, she either shuts them off completely or will literally run from them. Both are very childish ways of refusing to deal with her problems and their consequences, but on par for someone her age.

 

She can be belligerent and moody, mostly because she is unable to really understand the full scope of what’s going on around her. The girl thinks she’s very grown up, and in many ways she is, but she’s far less mature than she believes she is and that leads her into trouble. She refuses the well-meaning advice and guidance of adults unless they are the lucky few that she truly trusts. Even with them, she gets testy, wanting to believe she is wise enough to handle herself. Part of this comes from wanting to be more self-sufficient than she is. She’s clued in to what life is in the Zones and knows she can’t stay a protected entity forever. She wants to be a bigger help to her group, have a more proactive role. She wants to make her family, dead and alive, proud. But pretending to be adult and actually being one are worlds apart, and she hasn’t figured out that maturity takes steps and trials. She tries to skip to the ‘I can do it all on my own’ part without putting in the work that proves she’s ready. 

 

 This comes a lot from the way she was raised. The Fab Four did let her by with much more than most children. She wasn't raised with a lot of structure or rules, allowed to do mostly what she wanted as long as it didn't interfere with what the other Killjoys were up to. They indulged her often, driving fast just to make her laugh, letting her play with explosives, etc. Often she was even allowed to venture on her own, even though both the times she was allowed to wander ended with her nearly getting captured. In some ways she was spoiled by her childish caretakers who didn't really know how to raise a kid and this hands off approach led her to think she was more capable than she actually was.

 

However, her boys also raised her with a lot of love and made a loving child for it. She knows very few people, a consequence of being hunted all the time, but she cares deeply for them and has a great capacity for love. She doesn't like seeing other in pain and she has an innate gentleness for others when she allows herself to show it. She has a nurturing side that she rarely gets a chance to explore.  We see as she ages, how quickly she takes to having a pet, caring for it with much more softness than she showed around her father figures. She gets upset when seeing the deaths of people she barely knows, morns the loss that others experience and is capable of a lot of empathy when she desires to acknowledge it. Of course being empathic isn’t the most encouraged trait when around college aged men, so showing it isn’t always her first instinct. 

 

Because she has rarely been around people outside her little family and never around other people her age, she has a clear craving for connection. When she, later in canon, is finally presented with the chance to be around other children, she sticks to them like glue. This is despite one of these other teenagers treating her awful. She wants the friendship and social life that children need for development, but has largely lacked the opportunity. Her later attempts to make friends, exemplify that she doesn’t understand what a healthy, function friendship is supposed to be, particularly not with her peers.  She has an easier time connecting on a more functional level with adults, not surprising when people twice her age made up the entirety of people she’d ever spoken to. 

 

She's a quick temper and tends to be judgmental. She has to be talked out of seeing everything at a surface level and holds grudges easily. It's easier to get angry and crave destruction rather than try to understand the situation or the gray shades of other people. Her temper and desire to hold grudges has only deepened after the loss she's suffered.

 

She's a very lively child, full of spite-fire and sass. Being raised by teenagers gave her a firsthand experience with sarcasm, but she only spits back with fire when she feels disrespected. We see her smart off toward Cherri a few times and this is clearly meant to be playful. The sarcasm is simply a part of how she speaks and how she thinks adults communicate. Most of the time, she’s not trying to be rude, she’s just trying to fit in. Another symptom of having teenage boys as parents, is that’s she a little rough around the edges physically too. Rough housing is a perfectly acceptable way to bond in her world. Play fighting, playing with explosives, and other things society more traditionally would assign to young men are her preferred methods of having fun. The boys had parts that were never sanded down and she learned to fit around them by mirroring those rough edges. 

 

Of course, the girl was raised in the tradition of the Zones and those traditions don’t always have to be bad. She was taught to be a hell-raiser, a rebel for the cause and a believer in the arts. She was taught that life was about originality and individuality, that who you are is never something to be compromised. She grew up on the music of desert rebellion, to be angry and loud and ready to die for your beliefs. And because of what she was, she was raised to believe in hope for a far off future where life would be better.

 

Overall, she is still just a child. She has little in way of physical ability and because of her age she was never taught to shoot or how to fight. She has great power inside her, but she isn't aware of it. The loss of her family weighs heavy on her and her status has painted her a target. But, being young gives her a lot of elasticity and ability to bounce back from these things. Despite being constantly on the run, she finds ways to be happy and have fun. She dances, she plays with her robot, and she finds ways to entertain herself. She indulges in her childishness, even while claiming to be mature. She finds a lot of reasons to laugh and tries to make others do so as well. She does generally want to get along with other people, and tries to be polite, even though her idea of polite is a little off thanks to her sarcastic upbringing. She’s passionate in the way children often are, completely swept in the beliefs of the Killjoys. She still faces the world with a lot of childlike wonder. Things are exciting, exceptional, just for existing. When new isn’t dangerous, it’s shiny and perfect for exploring. 

 

Another part of her being a child is her energetic nature. She’s hyperactive, again, thanks in part to being raised by teenagers. Much like the metaphorical battery she is, the girl has a boundless supply of energy. This leads into her curiosity, giving her the fuel to indulge in it, and gives rise to her playfulness. She’s very active, constantly roaming and dancing and finding something new to do. She can’t get bored quite easily, that energy needed to be redirected to keep her steady. This energy feeds into her aforementioned issues with her temper and inability to deal with her problems. It makes her more nervous, anxious, and makes it harder for her to stay focused on trying to think out her emotions maturely. 

 

Her loyalty is, childishly, complete and absolute. There’s nothing the Killjoys could ever do to lose her blind faith in them. They were the center of her universe. Her loyalty is strong when stretched out to others, too. She’s faithful to Dr. D’s broadcasts, faithful to the friends and allies that have helped her and her family over the years. Once she gives trust, she stays steadfast in it for better or worse.

Background: 
Danger Days Wikipedia Entry
Comic Wikipedia Entry

Once upon a few years ago, in the far away land of south central California, the world fell apart. Thanks to war, bombs and bad decisions, the population dwindled and the landscape was left a barren desert. Better Living Industries, known as BLI or BL/I, rose up to take over what was left with pills and technology. Battery City was erected as the headquarters of BLI, keeping all that lived there under iron clad control with the use of brain washing, fear, and medication. Everything was drab and pre-approved, no music, no colors, no individuality allowed. Going against the rules could mean death or being turned into a Draculoid; put under mask that induced hallucinations and brainwashed its wearers. 

 

Outside the City arose the Zones, six near inhospitable areas of the surrounding desert where those who wanted freedom ran from BLI's influence and developed their own counter-culture. There, color was king, art was a weapon and people took on new names to set themselves apart. In response to the Drac masks, the people of the Zones wore their own colorful face coverings developing the idea that everyone had to die with their own mask on in order to stay themselves. 

 

Cue the Analogue Wars, a desperate attempt at rebellion against BLI. During this war rose a young woman, a fierce fighter whose heart was filled with hatred against BLI and whom befriended a group of very strange teenagers. Though she was fiery and strong, she and the other desert rebels lost to BLI with heavy causalities for their side. The woman was captured and put under a Draculoid mask. What BLI had not know was that the young woman was pregnant.  The baby was born, a little girl, and the teenagers, calling themselves the Fabulous Killjoys (Party Poison, Kobra Kid, Jet Star, and Fun Ghoul), stole the child back to the Zones. 

 

It didn't take long for them to realize something was strange about the girl. Born of her mother's hatred, the girl had powers, acting as a living on-off switch for the technology around her. She could power devices without batteries, shut the lights down at will, and, somehow, they knew she was the key to taking down BLI.  The entire desert was soon buzzing with the rumors that the child was the last hope for the zones. 

The rumors spread to BLI and the Killjoys' job became to keep the girl alive until she was old enough to take the fight to the city.

 

The girl grew up on the run. With a target on the backs of her and the boys, they could never stay in one place long. She spent a life bouncing from old buildings to campsites in the Killjoys' car. The boys taught her how to read and write, how to speak and run, and all the legends of the desert. Despite being a constant target of Drac raids and having Korse, a top level mook for BLI, after her family, the girl had a relatively happy childhood. 

 

Much of this may be because the Killjoys didn't reveal everything to the little girl. She was kept in the dark about the nature of her abilities, never told much about her destiny further than that she was special and would be important for fighting back. While the zones whispered about her being a last hope, the Killjoys avoided putting all the pressure of being a savior figure on her. And they avoided telling her the truth about her mother. Instead of telling the child her mother was a Draculoid, the very forces they spent their days fighting, the girl was led to believe her mother had died. 

 

The lives of the girl and the Killjoys was difficult, certainly.  More than once, their encounters with Dracs and Korse went awry. The girl was nearly captured several times, only narrowly saved by the Killjoys intervention. The Killjoys themselves ended up in Korse's clutches a few times, lives constantly on the line for their mission against BLI.  All they had was the Zone's pirated radio station and the reports the radio's owner, Dr. Death Defying, gave of all the on-goings of the Zones to give them an idea of where BLI might be.

 

Over the course of nearly a dozen years, the girl was taught the ways of the desert by her colorful caretakers. They armed her with stories of desert legends, such as the robot Destroya and the mysterious Phoenix Witch. The girl took particularly to the stories of the Witch, the legend being that the figure was a reaper of sorts who guided lost souls on to the afterlife. She believed in the legend that leaving letters in designated spots would make the Witch pass on messages to the dead, and started leaving letters, drawings and a picture of herself there for her mother. 

 

The Killjoys also tried to teach her the more practical side of desert living. Kobra showed her how to use his hacking machine for vending raids. Ghoul would let her 'use' his grenade launcher. The boys let her carry around the boombox, so that she would always be able to catch the pirated broadcasts. This served many purposes. It was an extension of her power, as the radio had no power source and she was able to use it regardless. It gave her a level of protection to have immediate access to the reports. And it made her feel like she had an important job, and was contributing in a way her family could deem safe. 

 

The boys found her toys to play with, a mini replica of Destroya serving as her childhood doll. They helped decorate her clothes and helmet with patches and and the same colors they all wore. They kept her fed, gave her a basic education. They taught her to curse and dance and rebel. They taught her to stay alive.

 

But after a decade of things going rather smooth, Dr. D's reports weren't enough to keep the Killjoys away from Drac patrols and the Killjoys weren't enough to keep Korse from getting his hands on the girl. The Killjoys faced an attack they couldn't escape while they were out.  After a nasty firefight that left the Killjoys heavily injured, Korse kidnapped the defenseless girl back to Battery City.

 

The girl spent enough time in BLI headquarters for the boys to mostly heal from their injuries and devise a reckless plan to save her.  They invaded the city, just the four of them, and attempted to gun down everyone in the building until they found her. They did manage to get the girl out of the room BLI had held her in, but once the Killjoys tried to leave Korse appeared again. He took out Party Poison, and his goons killed Kobra Kid. Jet Star ran with the girl out into the streets and Fun Ghoul died giving them coverage out of the building. Unfortunately, Jet Star didn't last long either, dying before he could get the girl to the car. 

 

All of this the girl witnessed first hand. She watched the destruction of her family, all because they had come to save her.

 

However, the Killjoys had planned for their own failure. A van came rolling up as the girl stood screaming. The DJs working under Dr. D had come as the getaway drivers. They grabbed the upset child and drove her back into the desert. The girl wouldn't let them take her in. Angry and distraught at what she'd witnessed and unable to cope with the loss of the only family she'd ever know, the girl ran off on her own into the desert wasteland.

 

Abilities: The girl has the ability to power and de-power electronic devices around her. Essentially she can act as a battery or an off switch, depending on what she wants to do. For example, in canon she uses this to power her boom box despite the device having no physical power source. She's completely unaware of this power.

 

Canonically, she is also described as a human bomb. This power seems to tie in directly to Battery City, in that she can either 'destroy the city or save it'. This power is only shown to release the citizens from BLI's mind control. Since this is tied so much into canon with no discernible use in any other context and the fact canon never elaborates on what exactly this power is, it should have no bearing on the game.

Network/Actionspam Sample:
[The girl is near covered in mud, bits of grass sticking to the mess smeared along her front. The damp of it has matted down her unruly curls and the muck on her face only makes her eyes stand out brighter. She’s grinning widely, despite the drizzle that’s still falling over her.]

I have never seen this much rain before. And it’s clean rain! This is the most milkshake thing, ever!

[She whips her head back and forth, sending drops of water and mud flying through the air. She laughs, loud and shrill.]

I’ve heard people talking about dancing in the rain, but I never thought I’d get to. So someone should start playing something rad before the sky goes dry. Wasted chances are for losers.

Alternatively: TDM- http://rubycity-ooc.dreamwidth.org/589847.html

Prose Log Sample: The girl swipes at her cheeks as she walks, trying to calm down. She’s not doing a very good job, her breath hitches and despite how she scrubs her face, the layer of grime from the desert makes the tracks obvious. It’s difficult to make herself relax after the day she’s had. Last she remembers she had been on the run, wandering the desert after seeing every…

“Stop.” She whispers to herself, pressing the heel of her palms hard into her eyes. She can’t think about what happened in Battery City if she wants to keep her wits enough to figure out where she is now. She woke in a new place, some terminal that reminded her of the lobby of BLI. There were posters telling her to head into the city. She was definitely not doing that.

She didn’t know how BLI had managed it, but she knows this has to be some kind of trick. Some kind of drug, a hallucination they’d slipped her before the boys came. Some way to trick her back into the city. But she’s not stupid. And she’s not letting what the boys did go to waste. She’ll find her own way back to the desert, back to her diner and boom box and all the Killjoys things. Maybe, just maybe, what she saw back there in Battery City was just a side effect of the medication.

She kept walking, back to the city skyline and trying to keep steady. She’s used to running through sand, not solid ground and the natural dips of the greener pastures are making her stumble like a wave head after too much exposure. The girl can’t keep her footing after her boot catches on a rock and she fall, smacking her palms on the ground. It doesn’t hurt that much, but it shocks loose the sobs that were caught in her throat.

“Stop.” She says again, louder and uncaring who hears. “Stop crying! You have to get home.” She heaves and slaps her hands against the earth again. Something moves to her left and she raises her head just a little, hoping its friend. Maybe the DJs, maybe some kind zone-runner. She doesn't care at the moment, she's half pleading either way. “I just want to go home.”

Alternatively: TDM- rubycity-ooc.dreamwidth.org/589847.html