Karolina Dean

Wow, I wasn't expecting to get in this round

Character: Karolina Dean
Series: Runaways
Character Age: 16
Canon: Karolina's childhood was picture perfect. She was the daughter of two successful Hollywood actors who worked to give her to have a normal childhood in spite of their fame and helped foster her peaceful nature. Then she found out that not only were her parents evil, but that she was secretly an alien, that her parents had been tricking her into suppressing her sun-powered alien abilities (which include flight and her body becoming rainbow-colored energy) for almost all of her life, and that they had only been interested in having her to begin with as a publicity stunt. All this when she was already troubled about not being "normal" because she was just realizing that she was gay.

At first this made her enter a manic-depression state; alternating between loving her new powers, and hating that she was, in her own eyes, a freak. At her very lowest point she essentially attempted suicide, only saved by her alien blood being poisonous to the vampire she allowed to attack her. After that brush with death she finally starts coming to terms with herself, becoming increasingly self-assured (although she never loses a tendency to stammer a lot when things start going badly unless there's a fight going on), and also starting to stand out as the peacekeeper in the group of Runaways. Even with their enemies she'll often try talking things out if she thinks it might work, although she won't hesitate to fight when it doesn't.

She got her biggest boost when she discovered that she had been betrothed to a shape-shifting alien named Xavin who wanted to bring peace to their home worlds. By accepting the engagement she was able to both learn more about her powers and heritage, and, with a fiance who could turn into a girl, finally come out of the closet. Unfortunately a fight broke out on their wedding day that ended in both her and Xavin's worlds being destroyed with only the two of them escaping. With permission from the characters already in camp, Karolina is being apped from during that escape, before she reaches Earth.

Sample Post:

This can't be Earth already, can it? I'd swear I only closed my eyes for a minute, not close to long enough to miss the whole trip home. And this definitely isn't L.A.; even Skid Row is nicer.

So we either had to make an emergency landing on a planet I've probably never heard of, or Xavin forgot where we were supposed to land and got us lost in what might be Latveria for all I know. I... I guess she didn't wait for me to wake up before leaving to scout out the area. She didn’t mean to disappear, and this isn’t going to turn into one of those urban legends where someone goes off for help and, like, gets killed by a crazy swamp mutant no matter how much these woods remind me of them. God, the only way this wedding day could get worse is if I end up having to write a "death list five", and I just don’t think I’m cut out to be Uma Thurman.

At least I think I can hear people from here. If they look human, I'll guess Earth. All I need to do is follow my ears and I'll find a... a gay pride parade? Oh, wow, the middle of nowhere must be way more progressive than I've always heard. Um, hey there!

Huh? ...No, I'm sorry, but I'm not here to play your rainbow flag. I mean, I'm totally into the whole cause and everything--out of the closets and into the streets!--but I need to find someone and get to L.A. I don't have time to participate, even though it would be fun to see what one of these things is like in real life. My parents always taught me that the news only covers the parts of events that they think will sell, but I never would have guessed that what they weren't showing was that there's as much monster make-up around as there is glitter and feathers. And that smell is... did you all rub yourselves with rotting meat?

It's a statement, right? Like, a lot of people think we're monsters because of the way we were born, but if they just look closer they'll find out we're all just hu-- people at heart? It's really cool that you'd go all out to get your message across; I... I think it might have made the time before I came out a little easier if I'd gotten that through my head.

But I've gotta say, you know what's not cool? Animal cruelty. I really don't want to be a downer for you guys, but I can't just stand here and ignore it. Being out and proud is one thing, but dyeing gorillas purple to show it is just taking things too far. Okay, it is a little funny to imagine the fit Jerry Falwell would have over 'em if he thought Tinky-Winky was bad, but that doesn't make it a good thing to do. They might just be animals, but... but why are you giving them a... Hey!

Geeze, I already said I'm not gonna be your flag! Even if I was, it still wouldn't be cool with me to try to shove a flagpole up my-- God! Stop it!

Okay, girl, let's think about this. You're outnumbered, you aren't at full strength, and you don't want to hurt the innocent animals if you can help it, so the right thing to do would be... You know what, I already know Plan A never works. No one else is around to call the shots, so this time I'm going straight to Plan B.

Run away!