Naida possesses a nature that is independent of mind and action, thought and expression. She is both mentally quick and penetrating, with an absorbing curiosity. Thus, she is a ready student, precocious, and wanting to make rapid strides in the world. Her superb logic and analytical abilities are wrapped in a wave of emotionalism. There is spice in her nature, excess and extremes in her actions. On the surface she can seem docile and amiable, but underneath she'll fight at the drop of a hat.
Naida is a born idealist and rebel, a radical, always on the side of change, progress and novelty, but also a courteous and agreeable person who attempts to be considerate of other people's feelings. She has a personal charisma attracting friends. Functioning well when working in harmony with other people, she is an excellent team player and likes being on the winning team. She is often an enthusiast, and has little time for people that pussy foot around and seem to lack conviction. Her interests are broad and sweeping...ideas, philosophies, the arts and she's inclined more to the artistic, instead of a business career.
Naida prefers working in a pleasant and very orderly atmosphere, with people who don't put undue pressure on her. She usually casts herself in the role of peacemaker. Peace and tranquillity are so important to her. The least sign of hostility or discord is very upsetting. In many ways, she is dependent upon the approval of others. Because of this feeling of dependence, she can put her mate's needs and desires ahead of her own with no problem. She is the true helpmate and very stable and dependent in a relationship, even a bad one.
When cast in a supervisory role, Naida has difficulties. This is because she weighs each decision before choosing her direction. She'll experience problems if she is called on to make frequent snap decisions for the group. She is, however, an excellent go-between. Unfortunately, such a balanced view of situations sometimes makes decisive action more difficult. She can have a hard time making everyday decisions of little or no consequence. On the big issues, she may vacillate indefinitely.
One of her main personality traits is a love of justice. She is insistent on fair play. Accordingly, she is often called on to be mediator in family disputes or in disagreements at work. Her usually impartial judgment can always see both sides of a matter. She is very cool and detached, keeping her feelings well under control in pursuit of fairness.
Naida has extremely good taste in matters of the arts, and can always be captivated by good plays, opera, artwork, or music. This carries over into her dress as well, making her a refined and elegant dresser. Courteous and refined, good manners are important to her. She exhibits them and she expects them, repelled by vulgarity and coarseness. Tactful, diplomatic, refined and socially successful, she strives to say and do the right thing.
Naida was born. She grew up. She went to school.
Okay, okay ... all of that is true, but there is more to the story. Isn't there always?
When Naida was young, she loved sports. She played soccer in the fall, tennis in the spring, swan in the winter. She was good but not great. Grandmama Asuna spoiled her, her parents disciplined her. Her grades were good, but didn't come easily, although Naida isn't stupid by any means. When she was 9, Grandpapa Marc died. She mourned, of course, but wasn't really devastated.
The next year she broke her leg playing soccer. What was already a bad fracture was compounded first by an asshole on the opposing team who stampeded over her and second by an incompetent field doctor who set it wrongly. It never healed right, and she chose, later, not to have it reset. To this day she has a slight limp, and doesn't play sports anymore.
In order to help her depression, Naida's parents coaxed her into singing lessons. From the first she took to it like a duck to water. Here was the thing she excelled at with ease. Naida quickly became a proficient singer with a flexible range, command of dynamics, and emotional skill. When her parents offered to have her leg reset, she asked them instead to let her go to Juillard. They agreed, and at 14 she went to New York.
She went to live with Grandfather Marcus and Granda Deatres, her mother's African-American parents, but she didn't stay at Juillard more than a year. It didn't feel right, she said, but she liked New York fine. So she transferred to Elymus High School, and she's been there for two years now.
Naida's had a few bad parts in her life, but on the whole it's been happy and fulfilled. She loves her parents, gets to go to a good school, and has good friends.
Opalpapillon's fuku begins with the standard bodysuit, in white, but instead of it being a solid piece, the midriff section is a more translucent material that shimmers in iridescent colours. The bows are made of the same material; the front one is centred by a fire opal butterfly and the back one is topped with another bow in pale salmon. The sleeves are, obviously, constructed of the same material, in huge billowing folds, and reach her wrists, where they are cuffed and pinned with lil fire opal butterflies. The skirt is short, like all fukus, and double layered, with the bottom one being the pale salmon colour and the top being iridescent white. A salmon ribbon encircles her waist just above the skirt. The sailor collar is also salmon. She wears white ankle height boots with fire opal butterfly designs and has iridescent butterfly wings. Lil sparkly butterflies decorate her hair.
Naida raises her hands to the sky, calling out her henshin phrase. A swirl of shimmering butterflies rises up from her hands, vanishing into the sky. When she brings her hands back down, an opal mosaic in the shape of a butterfly is in her hands. She dashes it to the ground, where it naturally shatters, and releases dozens of butterflies. As her body goes translucent-iridescent, they all land on her covering the area where her fuku would appear and begin to flow and merge into her fuku. Once her fuku appears, she springs forward and kneels, holding a hand out. A slender staff appears in her hand, and Sailoropalpapillon poses, kneeling with head bowed and hand clasped around her staff.
Sailoropalpapillon casts both hands up to the sky, and tiny opalescent butterflies come down out of the sky, swirling around her hands and then down around her body. She flings her hands downward and the butterflies fly out from her hands to surround the target group in a shower of sparkles.
effect
This spell causes a surge of hope and energy in the target group. Instantaneous in effect, the energy it gives is enough to fuel one low power attack in any Senshi. It causes the target group to feel fresh hope and recognise the possibility of winning, or at least surviving. Its chief effect is the lifting of despair/hopelessness. The target group can be as large as 7 or as small as 1, but the effect does not increase or decrease by group size.
variation --> Butterfly Nightmare
appearance
The attack phrase changes from 'Butterfly Dream' to 'Butterfly Nightmare', and the butterflies become black opal.
effect
The effect is a complete inversion from before. 'Butterfly Nightmare' causes despair instead of hope, and a slight energy drain. The energy drained is slightly less than the amount it would take to power a low level attack.
Opalpapillon CANNOT under any circumstances use both variations in the same battle. 'Nightmare' is the corrupted version of 'Dream', and only appears when Opalpapillon or her papillon is under a dark influence. For the first battle after either being healed or being corrupted, Opalpapillon cannot use either variation.
Sailoropalpapillon summons her staff again, as in her henshin, and whirls it before her. All the leftover energy and emotional reside from previous attacks collects at the center of the whirl in a scintillating flock of butterflies. Then she releases it at the target as a ball of pure energy.
effect
At the beginning of a battle, this attack is incredibly weak, and won't do more than distract a person. As battle coninues, it grows steadily more powerful until by the end of the battle she can knock a high-powered enemy off their feet and out cold. This attack wipes the residue from the field, so she only gets one really good shot, but that's often enough to turn the tide and to renew hope for her side.
[Thanks to Em for helping me develop this attack.]
Kai tells me that my nearly-achieved degree in Creative Writing is sufficient to demonstrate my superb command of this tangled language we speak. God forbid the typo daemons!
Pictures
Opalpapillon [by wonderful Mei]
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I'm Panya. That's reason enough. ^^
I'm kidding! Real reasons are that I have many many characters, most of whom took very little revision before being accepted, I am about to graduate college with a degree in Creative Writing, and I GM a chatbased RPG called Twilight Ascension. To see the list of my characters, go to the Codex. Also, while I can be a bit of a slacker on stories, if you tell me "PANYA! WRITE!" I will. I get along with people well, I don't take offense easily, and I'm a nice person.
And of course God has feet.
... Oh, yes. I forgot. Email will be opal(a)firechildren.net, but that doesn't work yet.
