You should know… I usually agonize for days building characters (with profiles/backgrounds twice as long as what I’ve been doing here). These 15 (to 30) minutes posts have been fun and allow me to just let go with things. And sometimes you come up with some crazy ideas that turn out fun.
With the last character, I sat there watching the clock tick down as I thought about what role Spook played in the underworld. I wanted something with a measure of reach and influence but not a position that would normally be considered a threat. I finally hit a point where I said to myself, "The first thing that pops into your brain jellies in the next 5 seconds." Craft services king. And well, it kinda works, so I ran with it.
But the great thing about burning through it like that? You have something you can play with. It may not be perfect, but it’s enough to get the job done. Besides, most characters adapt and develop further as you write their stories, so I always need to remember not to sweat over the small details now. And with that, on to the next character…
Name: Caprice aka Jana Robinson
Gender: Female
Marital Status: single but willing
Physical Appearance: The tall, athletic body of a well-trained demon assassin. Nearly 7 feet tall, wiry strong muscles and red skin (but a little on the pale side). Small but sharp horn-like protrusions stick out from her forehead, forearms and shins to give her a more demonic appearance (and some nasty natural weaponry).
Core Personality Traits: Introverted. Shy and a bit clumsy. Smart and well-read, but every bit the reclusive geek/gamer girl with a self-esteem problem… who hasn’t quite adjusted to being cool on two fronts–a fierce, awe-inspiring demon and a ninja.
Flaws: Even though she has this powerful demon body, she’s still just an awkward, geeky teenager at heart and is still "growing into" the body and still encountering your typical clumsiness a la growing pains. The other factor that plays into this is that a demon’s power and strength derive from fierceness and confidence, which is why she’s unable to tap into the full potential of this body. She could have developed that confidence by now, but her self-image gets tampered with on a regular basis by the voice of the original owner of this body chattering in the back of her brain when she’s under duress. If she ever loses enough confidence and "gives up", the original demon could take back control of the body.
Advantages: Demon. Ninja. Enhanced strength, agility, speed and senses. Innate martial skill imprinted into the body from years of training. Capable of surrounding herself with an aura that prevents all detection–sight, sound, smell, heat sensors, motion detectors, etc.
Background: As a child, Jana grew up in the middle of nowhere with no television and a stack of hardcover friends from the likes of Verne, Tolkien, Lewis, and more. When she finally got the chance to go to school, she soured on sociality rather quickly as she buried her nose in books to escape the teasing she wasn’t used to. But she found it easy enough to avoid the rest of the kids attending a small town school.
She never really broke out of her shell and when she first arrived on campus for college, she discovered a brand new feeling… panic attacks. She avoided crowds and ate when the cafeteria wasn’t busy. She spent a lot of time in the library meeting new paperback friends she’d never knew existed.
Then one night as she experienced the crowded library with finals approaching, she decided to walk to the public library in town hoping it would be quieter. It turned out to be nearly barren of people. The perfect place for her to escape the hours. She stayed until closing and made the long walk back at night with more new books to keep her company over the coming days.
But her walk brought her into the middle of a battle between a vigilant human sect and demon warriors that had been waging a secret war on this planet for centuries. The forces were battling over a mystical item known as a merging stone. With it, either side could merge their best warriors into a single warrior with all the combined strength, agility and skills on the ones being merged.
As one of the human warriors ran from the battle with the prize evading an invisible assassin chasing him down, he stumbled into Jana and fell into the street where he was hit by a passing car. The gem shattered on impact and embedded into Jana’s body and merged her with the nearest creature at the time… the demon assassin.
In pain and confused, Jana sprinted back to her dorm room… faster than she’d ever run before. In her room, she spotted herself in the mirror and saw the exotic demon/human hybrid body standing there.
