application for thewake_rp
Personal Information
Name: Sheena
Age: 28 (February 22, 1982)
Personal LJ: lovedbythesun
Email / AIM / MSN: heartlikeanocean@yahoo.com // saviorsandsaints
Character Information
Character Name: Dawn Summers
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Source: Dawn at the Buffy Wiki (Just in case!)
Character History: Dawn Summers was not born into the world. Her original form is a ball of green mystical energy known as the Key. When the threat arose from a banished Hell-God who sought to use the Key to return home, the order of monks that protected it performed a spell, merging the energy with a part of the Slayer, Buffy Summers, and gave the Key human form. The Slayer was chosen because, as the Chosen One, she possessed the power and ability to protect the Key. Dawn was created to be Buffy's sister so Buffy would be obligated to protect her. Buffy's memories, and the memories of everyone that she had been in contact with, were altered to include Dawn seamlessly.
The coming of Dawn was foretold three times to Buffy through prophetic dreams. First, preceeding the confrontation with Mayor Richard Wilkins III at graduation, Buffy dreamed of preparing Dawn's bed with fellow Slayer Faith. Second, she and Faith were standing in Dawn's future bedroom. Faith acknowledged that "little sis is coming," while Buffy remarked that there was "so much to do before she gets here." The third time, following the enjoining spell the Scoobies used to destroy Adam, mere months before Dawn's appearance, Tara told Buffy to "be back before Dawn."
According to the altered memories, Dawn was born in Los Angeles in 1986, as the second child of Hank and Joyce Summers. At age ten, her older sister Buffy burned down the gym at Hemery High School and her parents divorced, prompting the move to Sunnydale. She discovered that Buffy was the Slayer shortly after the move, and while she may not have been apart of the Scooby gang, she was affected by what happened to Buffy and her friends. She had her suspicions regarding Joyce's boyfriend Ted. She knew about Buffy's relationship with Angel and that he was a vampire, nearly getting killed by him when no one told her that he was evil. She spent her childhood being captured and used as bait numerous times. Dawn forged her own relationships with Buffy's friends, playing chess with Willow and harboring a crush on Xander.
Buffy and Dawn shared a typical sisterly relationship: Buffy, the older sister, was frequently annoyed by the trouble Dawn caused and her little girl neediness, and Dawn, the younger sister, felt left out and frequently overshadowed by her powerful sister. Joyce encouraged the girls to get along, often placing the burden of conforming or bending on Buffy. More often than not, Buffy tried to foist Dawn duty off on others, leaving her in the care of Giles or Tara and Willow while attending to Slayer business. This was pretty much the normal throughout Dawn’s young life.
Everything changed the year Dawn turned 14, which makes sense in the objective view because this was her first actual year of existence. People began to take notice of her and not in the ‘oh, that cute boy’s looking at me’ way. Mentally unstable people could see through the façade, see what Dawn really was, and stopped her on the street, telling her that she wasn’t real. This, obviously, was quite upsetting for her, causing an already seemingly needy child to cling to those she loved even more. Unfortunately, Sunnydale was not lacking in the crazy people, thanks to the arrival of the banished Hell-God Glorificus, trapped in the human form of Ben, a doctor, in the worst time-share in history. Glory fed on sanity, and her hunger was insatiable. She sought the Key, which was her only means of returning to her own dimension. With Glory and Dawn now both in Sunnydale, things were in motion for disaster.
But the first blow for Dawn came not from the Hell-God,but from Joyce’s ailing health. Shortly before collapsing one morning, Joyce looks at Dawn and has no idea who she is. Buffy, fearing that something mystical was attacking her family, cast a spell in the Summers home to detect traces of other magic. The Slayer saw her sister appear and disappear from family photos and Dawn’s room flicker in and out of existence. Later, upon meeting the last remaining monk, she learned of Dawn’s true origin, that she was now completely human, innocent, and in need of Buffy’s protection. She protected Dawn not only from physical harm, but from the truth, first sharing the secret only with Giles, then Joyce after she had worked it out on her own, and the Scooby gang when hiding it was no longer an option. Joyce’s health continue to fail and test revealed that she had a brain tumor. This tumor was why she could perceive Dawn’s true form. Knowing this, she still claimed Dawn as her own child and made Buffy swear to protect her. After surgery to remove the tumor, it looked as if Joyce was going to be okay. She recovered quickly and had resumed working, even going on a date. But a sudden aneurysm kills Joyce quickly, leaving Buffy to discover the body and break the news to Dawn.
Joyce’s death caused a temporary rift between the sisters. Buffy busied herself with arrangements, ignoring Dawn once again and leaving her out of the planning. Angry and grieving, Dawn took it upon herself to find a way to bring Joyce back from the dead. Willow and Tara refused to help her when asked, though Willow does leave a book out containing the right ritual for her. Spike was her accomplice, taking her to the man who had all the things she needed for the spell. Hiding in her room, she managed to complete it shortly before being confronted by Buffy. The two fought, screaming and accusing back and forth until Buffy broke down, explaining that if she hadn’t kept busy, then Joyce’s death would be real and she would have to face it. The argument was interrupted by a knock at the door, and believing it to be Joyce, Buffy rushed downstairs. Realizing that she couldn’t put her sister through losing their mother again, Dawn broke the spell, leaving the porch empty when Buffy opened the door. The two consoled each other and tried to start again.
The other major blow came from the very secret of Dawn’s origin. While Buffy discovered this early on, it was hidden from almost everyone for Dawn’s safety. Shortly before Buffy’s birthday, though, the information was shared with the rest of the Scoobies; hiding it was only endangering everyone else. The turth made them act strangely around Dawn, who was already sensitive due to her mom’s health. Following a confrontation at her sister’s party, she stormed out, breaking into Giles’s magic shop with the help of Spike. Earlier Giles had hidden a book when she came in, and Dawn knew the answers would be there. And they were; they just weren’t what she expected. Learning that she was the Key only made Dawn more unstable, now questioning if she was real and alive or even human. She cut herself, hurling these questions at her family before running away from home. She sought out the mental ward at the hospital, asking the patients to tell her what she really looked like. Found by Ben, who had previously been caring for Joyce, she inadvertently revealed that she was the Key and in his haste to get away (to protect Dawn), he let Glory out. Thankfully, Glory didn’t remember the conversation between Ben and Dawn, but begins interrogating her anyways. After tracking down her sister, Buffy arrived to fight Glory, temporarily sending her away with Willow and Tara’s help. It’s here that Buffy affirmed her sisterhood with Dawn, sealing it with a blood pact, reminding her sister that the same blood flowed through their veins.
Buffy did her best to protect Dawn, but she couldn’t hide her sister forever. Her identity revealed by a now-insane Tara, who was a victim of Glory, Dawn was captured. She tried to reason with Ben, who was temporarily swayed but ultimately refused to help Dawn. If Glory was sent back, then Ben could continue on with his own life in peace. Atop a crudely built tower, the ritual began, using Dawn’s blood to open a portal. Below, Buffy and the others fought the God’s minions, succeeding in defeating them, but not Glory’s plan. The portal was already open, and it could only be closed with the same blood that unlocked it. Dawn was willing to die to save the world, but before she could jump, Buffy stopped her, sacrificing herself for the world and her sister.
The summer after Buffy’s death was hard for Dawn, having now lost both her mother and her sister. She’s looked after by Willow and Tara, who move into the Summers home, and the appearace of Buffy being alive was maintained by the Buffybot, a robot built previously for Spike but reprogrammed to fulfill the duties of the Slayer and keep the social workers at bay. A plan was hatched by the Scoobies, not including Dawn, Spike, or Giles, to bring Buffy back from the dead. The clandestine affair caused them to leave the Buffybot to patrol on its own. The vampire she intended to slay escapes, after “wounding” the Slayer and discovering that she was a robot. Word spread that Sunnydale was no longer protected, leading to an onslaught of demons and various baddies storming the city limits. The night of the ritual to resurrect Buffy was when all hell broke loose. Dawn was left in Spike’s care, but when the chaos started, he sought to move her to a safer location: The Magic Box.
Stealing a motorcycle, Spike and Dawn crossed through Sunnydale, surveying the damage. Finding the Buffybot destroyed, they, along with the rest of the Scoobies, were caught by the demon bikers ravaging the town. Dawn managed to escape, spotting the real Buffy and tracking her to the still-standing tower where she had leapt to her death. The two were atop the structure as it started to collapse, and it’s Buffy’s quick thinking that saved both of their lives. They returned home, followed shortly by Spike who helped Dawn clean and bandaged her sister’s hand, which were bloodied as she clawed her way out of her coffin.
Buffy’s return wasn’t without considerable consequences, though. Raising the dead also brought forth a demon that temporarily possessed members of the group, Dawn included. There’s a great amount of distance between the sisters, and Buffy pushed off her parenting responsibilites on the rest of the group, often ignoring her sister again. A prime example of this was when Dawn lied to Buffy, claiming to go over to Janice’s house for Halloween. Instead, she and Janice went out with two older boys, playing pranks on the neighbors. The boys turned out to be vampires and, after having her first kiss with him, Dawn staked him, as he planned on turning her. Her punishment for lying was left in Giles’s hands to decide and dole out. A demon caused all of Sunnydale to sing and dance, some to their deaths. The demon believed that Dawn was the one who summoned him and was intent on taking her in to the underworld to be his bride. In the confrontation, it’s revealed that Buffy was not in Hell, but in Heaven when she was returned to life, leaving the gang reeling. (Also, it was Xander who summoned the demon, for kicks and giggles. Demon went home empty-handed.) In an attempt to make them all forget about the troubles, Willow’s spell backfired, causing them all to lose their memories. Tara left Willow, moving out of the Summers home, because of the redhead’s increasing use of magic as a crutch. Dawn was abandoned once more by another parental figure.
Despite the minor attention she received after getting in a car accident with Willow, Dawn was pushed aside again and again, not just by Buffy, but by all of the gang. Xander and Anya were busy planning their wedding. Willow was busying trying to get Tara back and kick her magic habit. Dawn turned to attention seeking behavior again, shoplifting from stores all over Sunnydale. This came to a head during Buffy’s birthday party, when she gives Buffy a leather jacket she stole. Her room was raided, revealing other items she’d stolen, including things from The Magic Box. Dawn couldn’t escape her embarrassment, as she had invertenly made a wish to the vengeance demon Halfrek, trapping all the party goers in the house. In her frustration, she tried to explain herself, to point out how the others had abandoned and ignored her. Even Halfrek, once she’s summoned by Anya to undo the wish, commented on how Dawn had been crying out in pain silently, desperate for attention. It was a plea that she couldn’t leave unattended.
By the time Xander and Anya’s wedding rolled around, things were starting to look up. Willow and Tara were talking again. Dawn seemed to be happier. Under the influence of one of her former victim’s, though, Xander left Anya at the altar. The fragile happiness began to crack again and everything unraveled. Buffy, under the sway of a demon’s poison, was convinced she was crazy, and the only way for her to be well again was to kill all of her friends, Dawn included. Spike attempted to rape Buffy and left Sunnydale. Willow and Tara’s reunion was cut short when Tara was accidentally shot and killed by Warren, a member of the trio of geeks that had been causing mayhem around Sunnydale. Dawn was left to discover Tara’s body and it shook her to the core. She spent the afternoon huddled in the corner of the room with the body until Buffy finds her. Her propensity for violence was displayed in her vehement agreeing with Willow on killing Warren. It’s mostly talk though, as her reaction to Warren’s actual death was horror.
With Willow gone darkside in the wake of Tara’s death, Dawn was taken to Spike’s crypt for safety and left with Clem, a rather harmless demon. She convinced Clem to take her to Rack’s, a black magic dealer that had caused the crash earlier involving her and Willow. Upon arriving, she found that Willow was already there, killing Rack and taking his magic to fuel her despair. She attempted to reason with Willow, who decides, tired of the girl’s whining, to turn her back into mystical energy. Willow’s stopped short by Buffy, who tried to reason with the witch as well. A battle ensued, Willow’s magic whisking the three of them from Rack’s to the Magic Box, and the magic store was subsequiently razed by the struggle. Xander pulled Dawn out, to safety. The safety was short-lived as Willow created elementals to kill Buffy. Dawn stood with Buffy, fighting against them, while Xander talked Willow down from her rage, saving the world. This was the beginning of Dawn being accepted as a full member of the group.
Cause she sorta had to. With Spike gone, Anya estranged, Willow in magic rehab, and Giles watching over here, the care and protection of Sunnydale fell to Buffy and Xander. Dawn became the new research maven for the group, picking up where Willow left off and then some. Buffy also began training her, like seriously training her, to fight. On the first day of school, at the new highschool built over the Hellmouth again, Dawn and two other students were attacked and trapped in the basement by vengeful spirits. After calling Buffy for help, she led the others in searching for a way out and trying to fight back. When Willow’s return to Sunnydale coincided with murders reminiscent of how she killed Warren, Dawn helped with the research to prove that Willow wasn’t at fault. In the initial search, she was attacked by the demon and temporarily paralyzed.
Dawn’s experience at Sunnydale High turned out a lot like Buffy’s. She befriended an older girl in order to help her, only to have her new friend die. She fell under the spell of an enchanted jacket, causing a manic crush that nearly caused her to kill herself. In addition to the school being built over the Hellmouth, it had also become the base of operations for the new big bad, the First Evil. Her first encounter with it came when it laid siege to the Summers home while Dawn was alone. The electronics in the house went haywire and disturbing images flashed on the walls. In the flickering light, Dawn saw her mother being attacked by.. something. Determined to get to Joyce, she performed an exorcism, sustaining several injuries before it was expelled. ‘Joyce’, or rather the First in Joyce’s form, appeared, giving Dawn a cryptic message. When things got bad, Buffy wouldn’t choose her; she’d be against her. Willow was the first to find her afterwards, and explained that Joyce wasn’t real. The First had visited Willow as well, to mess with their minds.
It turned out there was more than just the First messing with their heads. It had begun its master plan to wipe out the line of Slayers and bring about the apocalypse. All around the world, Potentials and Watchers were being murdered by the First’s minions. It made a strike at the head of the Council, blowing up their headquarters. Remaining Potentials began to trickle into Sunnydale, housed at the Summers home. Willow cast a spell to identify a Potential living in Sunnydale already, and it mistakenly pointed to Dawn. Initially, she wigged at the idea, realizing that Buffy would likely have to die again for her, or any of the others, to be called. But after speaking to her friend Amanda, Dawn discovered she wasn’t the Potential - Amanda was. She stepped back reluctantly, which led to a moment of bonding between Xander and Dawn as the ‘normal’ ones of the group. She did continue training alongside the girls, though. Every hand would be needed for the fight. Following a disasterous battle with the First’s priest Caleb, in which Xander lose an eye, a vote was taken, ousting Buffy from the house and the mission. Dawn had to step forward when Buffy wouldn’t accept the vote and kicked her own sister out of their home. Buffy’s absence was short-lived, as Faith’s leadership didn’t prove to be much better.
Upon her return, though, Buffy decided that Dawn had to leave Sunnydale and tasked Xander with getting her out. If the First won there, then they could find others to fight and try again to stop it. Under the guise of looking for her crossbow in his car, Xander drugged Dawn with chloroform and made for safer ground. Upon awakening, Xander handed her a letter Buffy had written her, explaining why she'd asked Xander to do such a thing. Pissed, Dawn took a taser to him, knocking him out so she could seize control of the car. Immediately, she turned it around and went back into Sunnydale. The sisters had a brief moment (Dawn kicking Buffy in the shin, Buffy saying that if Dawn died, she was going to tell), and then the group proceeded to the high school to attack the First and its army. There were casualties, but most made it out alive, the Potentials now fully powered Slayers thanks to Willow's spell with the Scythe. The city began crumbling in upon itself, and the group narrowly avoided falling into the sinkhole that was now Sunnydale. Looking out over the precipice, Dawn turned to Buffy, asking what they were going to do now.
Character Personality: Dawn Summers is still very much a work in progress. She's both an awkward, somewhat protected girl and someone who has had to grow up entirely too fast, courtesy of growing up on a Hellmouth and as the younger sister of the Slayer. Hand her a crisis of the mortal-danger or world-ending sort and she's tough. There's resolve face involved and a nose to the grind stone. Filling a vacancy left in the "research" area of the Scoobies, she's learned where to go for information, how to cull the important details, and discarding the rest. She's even gone so far as to teach herself ancient languages, picking them up with more ease than a girl her age should. She knows what she's talking about (most of the time) and can be trusted to have good information, a voice to be reckoned with and consulted. She's learned leadership from the best source available, Buffy, and puts it to good use when no one else will step forward. In a lot of ways, she's still feeling out that role, as she's been in Buffy's shadow for so long and surrounded by other leader or authority type figures most of her life, but monkey see, monkey do, and monkey do pretty darn well.
On the other hand, stick Dawn in an everyday life situation and she's Buffy's geeky little sister again. She's coltish and awkward, with a tendency to ramble on and on until she's lightyears away from the original conversation topic. Combine this motormouth habit with chronic foot-in-the-mouth and, very often, she's the only one laughing at a joke that only she understands how they got there in the first place. Outside of her core group of friends, which are really Buffy's and thus older than her, she has only one or two and has trouble making her own. This stems both from just plain social awkwardness and what seems to be an inability to relate to someone without there being something freaky afoot. And boys? Forget it. The awkwardness all but doubles, leaving Dawn to trip over her own words and gape like a fish on dry land. She's prone to intense crushes, usually on inappropriate subjects (see: Xander and Spike) or a guy that's just plain wrong, showing that this seems to be a habit of all the Summers women.
When she's in her element, though, she's bubbly, downright effervescent. While she may have the same tendency to toss out a cutting quip, she does have kind words for most. She's ridiculously loyal and when she's on your side, she'll both get your back and be your own personal cheerleader. She can be easily excitable, bordering on oh-god-don't-give-her-anymore sugar hyper, but as she gets older, she's learning to put that energy into the important things, like all-night research parties and training with the Potentials. That loyalty holds another edge, though. Burn her, or someone she loves, and you're outside the circle of trust. She isn't afraid to hold a grudge or hold your feet ot the fire if you're in a possible position of trust again.
Underneath all this, at the core, Dawn's a bundle of issues. She's been repeatedly abandoned and/or lost parental figures (Hank, Joyce, Buffy, Tara, Giles). Her childhood was spent being pushed aside as her parents' marriage fell apart and her older sister's "issues" had to be dealt with. Combine this with the knowledge that almost all of her memories, save for the past years, aren't real and that she wasn't real, and you've got a teenage angst bomb of atomic proportions. She'd do nearly anything to get the attention she desperately craved, resorting to self-harm and kleptomania. While she seems to have moved past the negative behavior, she still fights to have her place in the spotlight, to be recognized and appreciated. And she can be bratty and spoiled, as all youngest children are wont to do. She was Joyce's baby and given her way more times than she probably should have been. It's a familiar habit she falls into from time to time.
Dawn may stand by her convictions, but there is a line she wouldn't cross. She has no real qualms with violence, but when force turns deadly, she'll hesitate and back down against all by what she's convinced is evil. The morally grey gives her pause, as she does believe that people can be redeemed through long, arduous work. Dawn couldn't see herself taking another human life.
Powers: Dawn's original form is a bright green ball of energy. As the Key, her blood used in the right ritual opens a portal to all dimensions, creating chaos as the merge until her energy is spent. This was used once, the portal closed by Buffy's sacrifice, and it is unknown if it could be done again. She may still be the Key, but it's likely she doesn't go to anything now.
Samples
First person:
The world didn't just end, did it?
[Dawn looks unsure, even a bit lost.]
We made it out? No, we made it out. I-I didn't think school buses could go that fast, but Principal Wood really knows how to haul as-- rear. And there was the glowy bright light and the whole Sunnydale becoming Sunny Sinkhole.
[She bites her lip, staring into the camera.]
So where am I? If this is some sorta test, then can I ask for a retake? With the whole First and Caleb and almost the end of the world, I haven't really been Study McStudying-Girl lately. Un-- unless that's the whole point, being unprepared and fresh and... really confused.
[There's a pause and she looks away a moment.]
Is anybody from home out there? I'm not alone, am I?
Third Person: The flashlight wouldn't turn on. Dawn was sure she'd checked the batteries before leaving the house, made sure there were fresh ones in it before coming here. It was part of the checklist she'd made when she had planned this. Crossbow? Check. Is the crossbow in working order? Check; there was still a bolt stuck in the wall of her room. She hung her robe on it, hoping Buffy or Willow wouldn't notice. Sensible shoes? Warm clothes? Cellphone, charged and ready? Check, check, check. The t's were crossed and the i's were dotted. So why wasn't the stupid flashlight working? She banged it against her other hand and clicked the button again. Still no light. She tried again, this time against her leg and gave the cheap plastic casing a hard shake. The button clicked and a thin beam of light sliced into the hazy, thick darkness. She punched her fist into the air in triumph.
Now, on to the good stuff. Dawn moved out of the doorway, starting down the stairs. The half-rotted wood creaked under her feet, moaning and groaning with the bearance of her slight weight. Testing one side of the stairs, she found no handrail, just empty space under her searching fingers. Shifting, she tested the otherside and found the wall, bricks scraping her knuckles. Keeping the light aimed at the stairs in front of her, she crept down slowly, guiding herself with one hand on the wall and both feet checking for weak spots in the wood. Sounds echoed through the space: somewhere there was water dripping, accompanying each step she took, the heels of her boots clunk-clunking with each creak. And something down there was breathing. Her heart sped up, beating wildly in her chest as if it was going to burst free, fly out of her mouth, or drop into her feet. Dawn gasped, and something down there gasped as well. Huh. That was weird. She stopped moving, focusing an ear on the noises around her. She took a deep breath, and the sound was repeated. Stupid, she thought to herself. The breathing she heard was hers, of course.
Dawn stood at the base of the stairs, sweeping the immediately area with her light. So far, so good. With her now free hand, she tugged at the strap holding her crossbow across her body. Hopefully she wouldn't get tangled in it, like she had in practice, nearly shooting herself in the foot when the trigger was struck as she wiggled her elbow free. The movies made it look so cool, suave, and easy: just tug the strap and the weapon would pop right into your hands and then, enemies beware. Then again, movies also made werewolves into big hairy dog people and vampires into emo romantics. Movies were not to be trusted. She moved further into the basement, following the dripping sound. Buffy would be so surprised when Dawn got back and reported that she, herself, had checked this out. She was showing initiative and courage and maturity. As a full-fledged Scooby now, these were all good qualities and sometimes Buffy needed to be reminded that her little sister had just as much of them, if not more, as everyone else. Yeah, she'd definitely be proud.
The dripping grew louder the closer Dawn got. For a leak like that, though, she expected to have crossed some water. A puddle or a little rivulet or something. Something big enough for her to step in at least. But the floor was dry as a bone. Were bones really that dry, though? Definitely not in the body and not once they were removed from a body; it would be covered in sticky, better-on-the-inside-cause-it-doesn't-belong-on-the-outside kinda stuff. So where did an expression like that come from? Wait. How did she get thinking about this? She shook her head and pressed on. The source of the dripping was just up ahead, and she was curious now. There were no pipes around here.
She turned the corner and immediately regretted coming down here. There was a strange marking on the concrete floor, though it was hard to see it at all. The floor of the tiny alcove was covered in blood, some already dried, some cooling, and a lot still fresh. Above, suspended by chains, was the body of something. Dawn was almost sure it wasn't someone, but she wasn't about to get any closer to find out. In fact, she'd already begun backing away when she ran into something solid. And that something solid grabbed ahold of her shoulder.
Dawn's scream rang off the bare walls.