Kasu is another pronunciation of the kanji for 'spring' (normally pronounced haru), which corresponds to childhood and birth. The -ko suffix means 'child'. Seika means 'flower', 'essense', or 'glory', with a connotation of ethereality. Using other kanji, it can mean 'sacred song' or 'sacred fire'.
Character Position: Sailor Hebe, Asteroid Senshi of Youth
Birthdate and Age: January 14 / 13
Profile
Sun Sign: Capricorn sun Scorpio moon Aries ascendant
Bloodtype: A
Likes:
cats : as secretive and mysterious as Kasuko, cats are the only people (besides selected humans) who can catch Kasuko's playful side, and she does have one. Kasuko will cheerfully engage in a conversation concerning cats, and doesn't mind planning time to spend with cats. She has four, in various stages of Crystal-Tokyo-time-stopped growing up: Ayumi, Keika, Shinibana (Shiko for short), and Namimakura (Nami for short). None of these are magical cats.
genre: horror : You would think Kasuko would like mysteries, but she figures them out easily. Actually, Kasuko doesn't do very much reading at all, but with her general mindset horror stories are what she likes best. Horror manga are even better. Kasuko is a great fan of art, and chooses her manga carefully, based as much on artist's style as plotline.
gemstone: fire opal : January's birthstone is garnet, which Kasuko likes well enough - it is one of the colours she wears well. But her preferred gemstone is fire opal, with its connection to energy renewal and its pure firey colours.
colour: shades of purple : Kasuko considers purple a quiet, soothing colour. It can be either warm or cool, depending on tone, and most shades are restful to the eyes, a benefit after she's spent a day accomplishing all sorts of things.
rain : Rain, to Kasuko, implies a time to be serious and quiet. There are fewer things to do indoors while it's raining that are loud and disturbing. For some reason, also, Kasuko feels that rainy days are okay days to be a little less busy and a little more relaxed. Maybe it's the monotnous sound of the rain. Maybe it's the fact that doing things would be a bit more difficult. Word is, though, that if you want to say something that might offend Kasuko, wait until a rainy day. She might be more willing to forgive then.
Dislikes:
genre: romance : Kasuko is very embarassed by and thus completely despises romance and romantic gestures. She refuses to read it at all, be it ever so camoflagued, and considers it fit only to line the trash can with. Usually she does. She gets the Expression whenever she catches someone she knows reading romance.
music : Kasuko has a tin ear and couldn't carry a tune in an airtight supersealed heavyduty bucket with a vaccum lid. Music pretty much makes no impression on her at all. She really prefers silence to any kind of background noise and has been known to tell the people around her to "Be quiet dammit!" when she's trying to think. She got her room soundproofed.
food: tofu : Kasuko positively will not eat or serve tofu. She considers it bland, tasteless, bad for you, and generally the lazy man's way out. It's a bit illogical, but she even goes so far as to say that eating tofu is irresponsible, shirking the duty of a person to eat right and vary their diet.
being disturbed : Kasuko is very good at concentrating. Hence, when someone BREAKS her concentration, she gets really peeved. It's one of the few ways to really get her to unleash her actual temper, as opposed to her simply giving you the Expression or saddling up her vocabulary and galloping it over you. If Kasuko's door is shut, you just don't go in there. If she looks busy, you wait until she notices you. And for the love of [insert deity's name here], don't even try to bother her during battle. She might turn her attacks on you.
Hobbies:
cooking : Kasuko actually likes to cook. One of the ways she attempts to be nice to people is to give dinner parties. Lots of dinner parties. Fancy, lavish multiple course meals; simple small cookouts; birthday and celebration dinners; you name it Kasuko has tried it. While she's not one to reach out to people, sharing this skill with others is something she enjoys, and her ability to plan well helps out enormously. Kasuko never wings it when she's cooking; she follows the recipes, and still manages to make the food some of the best in Crystal Tokyo.
computer programming : Surprisingly enough, this is something Kasuko does to relax. It is logical, precise, neat, complex enough to be challenging, and requires a certain level of planning, all things that Kasuko prefers in her environment. She is fluent in many computer languages, and carries around a minicomputer with which to keep herself occupied while waiting for anything. She can turn out programs ranging from search-and-destroy to games (rarely) to multitasking cleanup.
jewelry making : By far Kasuko's strangest hobby, she truly doesn't mind making little things for people. Probably the single place where her creativity truly flows, and the most contradictory thing about her, Kasuko's jewelry hobby fills up a lot of her evening time. She designs and makes everything from gemstudded hairbands to huge dangling earrings to elegant and sophisticated rings. If something should turn up in your jewelry box that you didn't put there, chances are Kasuko made it and slipped it in.
general : Kasuko's general appearance is terribly childish. Despite being an adolescent, she looks about 10, or maybe 11 on a good day. Her face hasn't lost that baby roundness, giving her chubby cheeks you'd just LOVE to pinch, and a pouty, babyish mouth. Her face looks eerily like that of a lifesize doll. In a small appeasement to Kasuko's desire to look older, she can achieve an adult tan easily, giving her dark skin with a golden glow. Now, if she could just grow taller than 4"10', and lose the baby fat to attain the willowy and elegant body she's sure she's meant for, everything would be perfect.
In her haste to look older and grow up already, one of the first things Kasuko did after waking and coming to Crystal Tokyo was get her upper ears pierced, so in addition to the normal two holes in her earlobes, she also has another hole in the upper part of her ears. She tends to wear earrings that have a chain between the two holes, connecting her upper and lower earring holes.
hair : Kasuko has probably one of the strangest hair colours of all the Asteroid Senshi. Primarily a shimmering honey blonde, she sports streaks of lavender-blue all through it. This is the same colour as her primary colour. Assuming she would ever break Asteroid tradition to the point of wearing it loose, the stuff would more than likely hang well past her knees.
However, Kasuko is not one to break tradition on that topic, and her typical hairstyle is just as crackfed as any other Asteroid. On the top of her head, about a third of her hair is pulled up into a ponytail, held in place and upright with a steel cylinder about a handspan tall. From the cylinder, three rope braids curve out and backward, one straight back and one to either side. (A rope braid is three strands of hair twined into a helix.) One strand in each braid is a lavender-blue strand. The end of each braid is capped with a lavender teardrop.
Of the rest of her hair, another rope braid hangs from just above her left ear to her knees. The matching one on the other side is pulled back and used to wrap the base of the ponytail of the rest of her hair, which is pinned together halfway down by another steel cylinder.
eyes : Kasuko's eyes are a dark grayish green, similar to the colour of unbroken buds. Super-long lashes so blonde they're barely visible shield the eyes from casual view ... or are supposed to. Given Kasuko's overall youthful look, the effect tends to be more that of a child trying to keep a secret. Probably a naughty one.
clothing : Sadly, Kasuko's taste in clothing runs to things she just can't wear, and she knows it. She would look absolutely foolish in that formfitting jumpsuits or tunic-and-leggings combinations she admires so, and couldn't even pull off the elegant dresses Michiru sported in her 20th century life. Thus, Kasuko tends to appear most often in plain scoopneck shirts and kneelength skirts. She has a fondness for darker colours in pure jewel-tone shades like deep ruby, blueviolet, or shaded emerald, which flatter her colouring well.
voice : Kasuko's voice is ... there's no way around it ... a childish treble. High, piping, and all too often on the verge of whining even when she's not, Kasuko hates her voice. She can't carry a tune in a bucket, and just wishes her voice would drop about an octave, to something sexy and mysterious. Being high and squeaky just isn't to her taste at all.
Personality:
Kasuko's personality is in sharp contrast to her appearance. Since she awoke and returned to Crystal Tokyo she has matured enormously, attaining a very adult outlook and behaviour. ^^; That maturation also carries with it a large dose of pride. Kasuko considers herself an extremely important individual part of the Asteroid team. A certain rigid inner pride keeps her self-respect always at a high level. She has learned to tone down her occasionally violent temper, and now a judicial and rather stern nature rules her personality.
Kasuko is very reserved. As a result of both her incurable lack of anything resembling tact and her sharply highpitched voice, she has learned to speak very rarely. She is, however, perfectly capable of communicating disapproval without saying even a word. On the other hand, she's very honorable, loyal, and devoted, with a keen sense of her duty.
Thoughtful and serious, Kasuko prefers to take the time to think everything through carefully before setting off in any direction. She usually has a sense of the right way of doing everything. She has trained herself to be conservative with resources and to have incredible patience. Combined with her temper, Kasuko holds grudges long past the time they should have been dead and buried. She is the type who would go back and parade around an enemy's grave once a year, rather than dance on it.
Kasuko finds it easy to follow instructions with care and she takes her duties very seriously. She is never one to shirk responsibility and has little use for those that do. That which matters most to her is her public image. Even though she despairs of ever gaining the respect as an adult which she desperately desires, she will still present an adult attitude to the world, expecting their vision of her to catch up and match her vision of herself.
A bit ruthless, Kasuko will sacrifice anyone in her way or anyone necessary in order to reach the goal, whatever it may be. Because she sets herself a bit apart from people, refusing to allow herself to feel very much, she can coolly calculate exactly who or what it would take to achieve a particular thing, regardless of the potential cost.
When she gets a plan worked out, though, Kasuko becomes very headstrong, pushing forward with her idea. Diplomacy and tact are not words that will ever apply to her approach, and she will run roughshod over anyone who opposes her. Very prideful, she usually believes her idea is the best, and has a tendency to simply go ahead with any of her plans without really consulting anyone else. She may spend considerable time thinking, but once she makes up her mind Kasuko charges forward.
At times Kasuko can be too serious. She doesn't really know how to laugh at life or herself, and tends to become stiff in her relationships with those she feels offended by. When it comes to the people she associates with, Kasuko is more than a bit snobbish. Right or wrong, she clings to her first impressions of people, especially if those first impressions were not good. She gives the impression of being fairly reasonable, because of being a good listener and rarely speaking, but this conceals a stubborn core that holds fast to what she believes, no matter if it's wrong. Often she seems untouched by emotions, distant and cool.
Sober and reserved in her dealings with others, Kasuko can seem mysterious. It takes her a good while to allow anyone close enough to be considered a close friend. She rarely speaks of her personal, private self, even to the other Asteroids. Yet once she opens up to someone, she can be a very caring, reliable, and most steadfast ally.
Kasuko uses her public image as a shield against casual aquaintances finding out how shy and vulnerable she can be. Her private side is somewhat different from her public side. Although she still doesn't do much talking, to a close friend she is willing to share her problems, and listen to theirs in return. To her few friends she is known to give good, reliable advice, and can always be depended on in a pinch. However, being a bit of a standoffish person, she dislikes to have anyone presume on their aquaintance with her, and will unleash her full vocabulary without hestitation on someone who intrudes too far into her private life.
She tries hard to make herself somewhat open to aquaintanceships, through her hobbies, but it is difficult and she rarely opens up. When she wishes to do nice things for people, she does them in secret, preferring that the recipient not know who the giver was. Thanks and praise embarass her unless she really believes she deserves it, and doing nice things doesn't fall in that category.
She struggles with more emotionally demanding relationships. Unsure of herself and her possible partners in intimate situations, she tends to avoid even the mention of romance, and even with her adult attitude can't control a harsh blush when the conversation turns to such things. Part of this is due to the chaotic nature of such relationships, which Kasuko is extremely unsure about.
Change is a bit difficult for her to handle, especially abrupt change, because it disrupts her carefully thoughtout plans. Tradition and stability are important to her, and she is likely to become closest to people she has tested over time and believes can be depended on. Fortunately for the team, Kasuko instinctively trusts the other Asteroids, and they are the only people for whom she will waive her strict requirements.
History:
When Seika Kasuko awoke and came to Crystal Tokyo in the company of the other Asteroids, she was, to put it mildly, disappointed. Not in the city, not in her teammates ... in herself. She has been briefly woken by the departure of the four Inner Asteroids, and gone back to sleep with the belief that when she woke up again she would be an adult, a dream she'd cherished through millennia of slumber.
So when she woke up again in the same body -- she was a little upset. Well, more than a little.
She shut herself in her room for about six months. She had violent moodswings and a completely impossible temper, and generally was not someone you wanted to deal with at all. She took her disappointment out on anyone she came across, and the fact that the Neo Senshi resented her existence was quite fact enough for her to use them as scapegoats.
The fact finally penetrated her stubborn psyche that acting the child she appeared as was no way to get people to see and respond to her as an adult. So she took herself in hand, and with the concentration, planning, and determination that would become her trademark, she remade herself. It took another six months before she emerged as the silent, serious, mysterious figure she is today. This is not to say that she completely eradicated her more objectionable traits, but rather that her near legendary stubbornness imposed a rigid control on her equally famous temper and tongue. The Kasuko who emerged bore a physical resemblance to the one who went in, but in a very real way she had been reborn.
Since that time, three years have passed. Kasuko has a few friends, a few enemies, and a few places she frequents. Being a less than social person, she is much more familiar with the Palace grounds than the city they have left. It would probably be safe to say that nothing of significance happened to Kasuko until that fateful day of the launching of the Crystal Moon. She got up in the mornings, had breakfast with some of her fellow Asteroids and Senshi, ran errands, cooked, played with her cats, wrote her programs, made her jewelry, and had what some would consider a very boring life.
She planned well and carefully for that to be so.
Now the careful and traditional pattern of Kasuko's life has been disrupted, and she is unsure how to handle it. She is becoming more withdrawn into herself, since she was much more hurt than she lets on by the abrupt severance from the world they all knew.
planning/foresight : Kasuko has few peers when it comes to making plans that account for every damn bit of information they have and some only she knows. She is always thinking ahead and if she had a to-do list you can be sure that every item would be marked off by the end of the day. However, she never bothers to actually write a list of what she's got planned; she can remember. Her memory may not rival Metis', but she'd never forget a single detail of any plan she's made, no matter how complex. She has a remarkable ability to guess accurately the sort of problems and hangups that ought to be planned for, and a rainy day never catches her by surprise. Too bad it doesn't cover happy things, but then there'd be no way to plan a surprise birthday party for her.
displeasure : this is probably the single place where Kasuko's appearance works to her advantage. She can get an expression that makes the recipient feel like the worst cad you ever met. If someone does something she doesn't approve of, she'll get this expression, and if they catch it that person would probably evince extreme embarassment. She usually pulls this hat trick on someone who treats her like a small child, making them feel like they've just taken candy from a helpless baby or kicked a puppy.
concentration : Kasuko has extreme skills of concentration. When she gets her focus on, she is in the zone, and this is when her best ideas appear. It is possible to break her focus, but you'll wish you hadn't, and she can go right back into her zone very easily. She doesn't get distracted or sidetracked when she's in her zone, but simply sticks to the one problem, solving it before moving on to another.
energy borrow : Kasuko can only use this skill in her transformed state, but it's still not really an attack or defense spell. When Hebe has need of power, she can borrow the energy of some of the people around her. The effect is similar to that one where children are being so hyper the parents say "I'm tired just watching them." This is how the people she borrows from feel. She can't take very much, so it doesn't make a significant difference, but at a point when things are on the line, what power she can pull using this skill can be the difference between life and death -- Hebe's sphere.
Items: Star of the Guardians : Hebe's ranseur, a 5'6" tall polearm which comes to a point and sports two hooked points on either side. It resembles a trident with a much longer handle. Even though Hebe's powers centre on restoration and rebirth, she IS still Saturn's Asteroid counterpart, with all the ties to death and destruction that implies. Thus, like Saturn, she bears a wicked-looking polearm.
Powers:
reborn the phoenix
appearance : Hebe holds her arms out as though on a cross and calls out the words. A rush of purple-tinged fire in three bands whirls upward from her feet, blowing everything upward briefly, then plunges downward toward the target, enveloping them in cleansing fire for about 5 seconds.
effect : This is Hebe's true healing spell. Like her powered up spell, it heals minor wounds without a trace. Minor wounds are things like common colds, the flu, bruises, scrapes, scratches, flesh wounds, hangnails, etc. If the wound goes much beyond the skin layer it is beyond the power of this spell to heal.
Hebe spends half as much energy as the body normally would healing each wound, so how much it costs her in terms of energy depends on what she is healing. Hence, there is no specific limit to how many time she can use this spell per day -- it is dependent on how much she has healed during the day. Hebe replenishes the energy she spends in this spell during sleep.
relevancy : the phoenix is a symbol that has long been associated with rebirth. Phoenixes are reborn in fire, hence the use of fire here. Again, Hebe's triple helix appears as in her henshin.
crystal wind helix
appearance : As Hebe chants this power, shards of crystal begin to appear around her body. A wind rises, slowly at first, and then stronger as she concentrates. The crystals begin to chime melodically until she releases them with a gesture at the target, when the wind whips to hurricane force, driving the crystals in a whirling helix at the target.
effect : This is Hebe's single true attack power, where she uses her powers for harm instead of healing. Unsurprisingly, she'd rather use this one rather than any of her other powers. However, because it is somewhat of a perversion of her sphere, it requires considerable energy, limiting her to one use per day. This attack is strictly aimed, thus the target can use a shield, move out of the way, or otherwise dodge.
When the crystals strike, they cause myriad small cuts in the skin of the target, much like papercuts, then vanish. Skin could be human skin or mecha armour, meaning that this attack affects both but not at the same time -- if she hits the mecha then it's the mecha that is cut, and not the person inside. Oddly enough, the use of this power is accompanied by a gentle floral scent.
relevancy : Hebe needed an actual attack power for one. Concerning the use of wind, air is the element associated with spring in magickal correspondences, and spring is associated with youth and birth, hence air is as well. Scent is another thing that is associated with air, spring, and youth.
powerup attack : phoenix mirage / silence mirage
appearance : As Sailorhebe whispers the words and raises her hands over her head, she begins to rise off the ground, her hair and other loose objects whipping around her. A ball of glowing energy begins to grow in her hands, becoming larger and larger and taking on a purple tinge and a flamelike aspect. She brings her arms down to her right side with hands still cupped and 'fires' the energy at her target, where it envelops them in a windwhipped vague purple glow that gradually fades over a period of about a minute.
effect : This spell has a slightly different effect depending on which words she used and whom she targets. If Hebe targets an ally, she uses phoenix mirage and they appear to return to a baby and grow up rapidly back to their normal age, minus the effects of any other spells cast on them. They don't dehenshin, but any negative spells are removed, and minor wounds are healed, bruises, scrapes, flesh wounds and the like.
If Hebe targets an enemy, she uses silence mirage, and although the target appears to return to a baby state, they take half an hour to return to normal, effectively putting them out of combat. During this time, regardless of what age the target is at, they cannot use any magical powers. However, if they have any kind of protective spell or healing spell on them, this spell will be nullified.
Using this spell requires considerable energy from Hebe, even with being powered up. She can use it on up to three allies per day, in any combination, or one enemy. She uses up 2/3 of her magical energy with this spell, and if she were to push herself to the point of using it on more than three people she would fall down in a faint and sleep for two days to recover her energy. Hebe prefers to plan better than that, so never does it. She cannot affect herself with this spell.
When she casts this, regardless of whom she targets, all she has to do is be facing and thinking of the person or people she wants to hit and the spell will affect them. Because the energy is air-based, it can be blocked but not dodged, since it is targeted. Since the Cavaliers use mecha, unfortunately that means this version is considerably more limited than it appears -- the mecha would definitely be enough protection against this spell. Hebe would have to target the spell through some weakness in the armour of the mecha or catch the Cavalier outside the mecha somehow.
relevancy : about the phoenix, fire, and air, see above. The 'silence' aspect relates to her association with Sailorsaturn, most of whose attacks use the word 'silence' as well.
[My thanks to Em for helping me work out these powers.]
Fuku: Hebe wears the standard seifuku of a Super Senshi. (I wonder why they aren't called Supersailorwhatever ... but I digress.) Her tiara is centred with a sparkly amethyst, her choker has the gold star, her front bow has the heart. Hebe's primary colour is a soft, bluish lavender . Her skirt, glove bands, sailor collar, bow heart, choker, and shoes are all this colour. Her secondary colour is a maroon so dark it's indistinguishable from black. Her front bow is this colour. Her back bow (in the tradition of the inner Asteroids) is a lighter, berry-like shade of maroon . Shoes are ankleheight boots that lace up the front, like roller skates, only shorter and with pointed corners on each flap. They really are the same as Saturn's boots only shorter. And no heels!
Henshin: Hebe Crystal Power, makeup!
Kasuko raises her crystal-less henshin pen into the air, calling out the words. As she says "makeup!", the winged crystal whizzes by her head, trailing three strands of light, one in each of her colours. As the crystal locks itself to her henshin pen, the strands of light form a triple helix about her body, starting at the top and spiralling down to her toes. When the strands of light surround part of her body, that part appears translucent and glows with a pale lavender light. When the helix surrounds her whole body, it begins to revolve downward, revealing Hebe in her fuku. She puts her left hand out to the side, where the Star of the Guardians appears at such an angle that the base is at her feet. Her right hand is behind her back and her head is turned to the right and down.
notes on relevancy: the double helix is the form our DNA normally takes. It could be said to represent life. A triple helix simply adds another strand, and is sometimes used when describing alien lifeforms. In Hebe's case, the three strands represent birth, death, and magic, the part of her makeup that sets her apart from most of humanity.
And I can sound just like a pompous ass, too, can't I? I'm just weird that way. ;_; Why me? Because you love me!
Miscellaneous: I'm cute?
Actually, I have a comment here: I'm a little bit unsure about the amount of clarification I have for her powers, but I put everything I could think of and then asked a notorious nitpicker to look over them as well, so I hope they're at least decent, even if I'm sure they need some work.
I just got a degree in Creative Writing, can I just skip this?
