Application for entranceway
Name: Kristen
LJ: mouthofbrass
E-Mail: kristen[at]spectrumvoid.net
IM: MadMadPhineas
Character Name: Sh'lainn Blaze
Series: Roswell Conspiracies
Timeline: Queen of the Banshee part 2, just before she returns to Alliance HQ
Canon Resource Link: Wikipedia article, episode list
Character Background:
Sh'lainn is a Banshee, an alien race that landed in the British Isles around 527 BC. This race lives in harmony with the earth and are poisoned by the spreading influence of electronics. Their lifespans range over hundreds or even thousands of years, and throughout the series, Sh'lainn makes comments hinting that she is at least several hundred years old herself, though she refuses to say just how old she is. She was, however, born on earth and not on her race's home planet.
She begins the series on the run, targeted by her clan because of her insistence that the Banshee should team up with the Alliance, an organization based in Roswell that is bent on controlling the presence of aliens on Earth. Along the way, she teams up with Nick Logan, the series' protagonist, and the two of them head for Roswell looking for answers. They don't find many of these and are instead recruited into the Alliance as partners.
Sh'lainn and Logan go on a number of missions together, normally with the intention of finding and neutralizing an alien threat. She can't drive or fly any of the Alliance vehicles (though she's learning as she goes!), and in fights she normally plays a defensive and supportive role rather than taking the lead. Though Sh'lainn sometimes plays the damsel in distress, she is in no way helpless (though she does tend to scream a lot). Through the use of her powers, she saves Logan's life (and the lives of other Alliance operatives) just as often as she is in need of saving herself. In fact, she's so intent on saving the lives of her teammates, especially Logan, that at times she can be reckless, and she refuses to let anyone else die for her sake.
Over time, Sh'lain and Logan develop a bit of a thing for each other, though neither will admit it for the longest time. Later in the canon, she reveals to Logan that a banshee can initiate a "deep mind probe"--a skill that will allow her to reveal forgotten memories that may help him solve the mysteries plaguing him--but that this process will form a permanent bond between their life forces, like a banshee version of marriage. Her willingness to bind herself to him forever to no benefit of her own shows just how deeply she cares for him. She also becomes quite close to the other Alliance operatives, working with them and living in their Roswell bunker despite the seeming contradiction between this lifestyle and her own origins.
This isn't to say that Sh'lainn has turned her back on her clan, however. When she is called upon to aid them, she does so without question or a second thought, abandoning the Alliance and even declaring war on them in order to avenge the apparent kidnapping of their queen. Though this all turns out to be a ruse, and she is forced to return to the Alliance and turn her back on her clan in order to save both her queen and the clan's home. This particular incident makes clear that Sh'lainn's greatest motivator is the good of her people. Joining the Alliance and working alongside Logan, at least initially, was something she felt she had to do to safeguard her clan's position, even if it meant being forced to live apart from them and be looked down on by them. She would rather be estranged for their benefit than sit back and do nothing when she knows she can contribute.
Despite her sometime role as damsel in distress, Sh'lainn is very independent and not very motherly. This is because her race is entirely matriarchal. When she and Logan have to take care of a Lycanthrope child, she expects Logan to take care of it and never creates a bond with it the way Logan does. She also exhibits disgust at the idea of helping deliver a child, because it's "men's work".
As a banshee, she's very much a proponent of environmentalism, but not to the detriment of human society. She also likes animals a lot and they seem to like her right back. However, like all Banshees, she hates vampires, a snake-like alien race that promotes technology at the cost of environmental destruction. Though normally gentle, the mere sight of a vampire will send Sh'lainn into a rage that causes her to ignore her orders and nearly botch missions.
Abilites/Special Powers: A list!
❀ Strength - Sh'lainn's no Incredible Hulk, but she's strong for her size. She's able to pick grown men up off of their feet and hold them at arm's length with no visible effort.
❀ Levitation - She can fly. 'Nuff said.
❀ Energy beams - These are powerful beams shot from her hands.
❀ Death prediction - This prediction is not definite and is almost always avoidable. In the canon, she usually predicts within a matter of seconds, and then starts to count down, and the longest time gap was twelve hours. However, her race can probably predict a death from days to seconds beforehand as long as the banshee is in the presence of the person who is going to die.
❀ Teleportation - At times, Sh'lainn exhibits an ability to teleport from one place to another, either instantaneously or in the form of energy.
❀ Connection to the earth - At times, Sh'lainn is able to make the earth do as she wants it to. For instance, she once detects and uncovers the hidden entrance to a buried bunker by moving the dirt out of her way (similarly to earthbending, but without the physical motions to accompany it), but it's implied that this power makes her very tired and can only be used occasionally.
❀ Deep mind probe - She will probably never use this in-game, because of the implications it has on her continued relationship with the other character.
❀ Banshee powers are disrupted by electromagnetic pulses and if they are cut off from the earth for too long, they become poisoned and corrupted by technology and metal (which is actually really cool but unlikely to ever happen).
Third-Person Sample:
There were a lot of things Sh'lainn had experienced in her long life--far more things than she was often willing to own up to--but this was by far one of the oddest and most alarming. Despite the strong urge to storm around with her hair wild and her eyes glowing, for the moment, at least, she was able to keep herself from panicking. No matter how many times Mab compared her to a child, she knew full well that panicking did no one any good. The best reaction, even to the strangest of situations, was to remain calm and learn as much as possible as quickly as possible.
Unless of course Logan made her the back up driver. Then it was perfectly appropriate, as far as she was concerned, to scream her head off as she attempted to wrangle his accursed flying automobile into submission.
She couldn't help smiling ruefully as she took in the area around her. The roof of the single building she had found afforded her quite an expansive view in all directions, but she could see nothing she recognized for certain. She'd levitated up to the roof in order to see what she could, but it had offered her nothing but more questions. Logan would probably know what to do in a situation like this--then again, Logan had help just a phone-call away at all times.
Thumbing the odd device in her hand, she still wasn't quite ready to try to use it. It wasn't that she couldn't figure it out--she'd used a cellphone and computer often enough for it to be pretty straightforward. She just didn't like the idea of trusting a machine over her own senses. She would use the little thing when she had no other recourse and not before.
Of course, by then, she probably would be so flustered that she would resort to intimidation rather than cajolery to get answers. She grimaced at the thought but couldn't deny that it was true. As much as she was the voice of logic and reason among her clan, no matter how progressive she was compared to the other Banshee, she was just as resistant to change as the rest of them. It just didn't come naturally.
That was why being teamed up with Logan was such a--
But Logan wasn't here. She sighed and lifted off of the roof, drifting downward until her feet hit the grass, her hair streaming behind her. She'd have to "fly solo" or whatever phrase it was Trueblood might have used in this situation. Perhaps there would be people inside the great mansion who could answer her questions.
First-Person Sample:
[The user of the device is apparently not quite sure what she's doing as she pokes at the buttons with one finger, a small frown on her face.]
Ah, it's on. [She composes her expression into something akin to politeness, edged with just a bit of urgency. She continues in a lilting Irish accent.] I do no' know where I am exactly, or how I came t'be here. This isn't any land my Clan lays claim to, nor does it seem familiar t'me from my travels. But 'tis very important that I be on my way as soon as possible. I've given m'word, you see, and it truly would be disastrous if I could not keep it.
[She looks a bit abashed as she says the next part, smiling sheepishly.] This bit o' technology probably has all th' answers I need right on it, but I'm afraid I don't know how t'use it properly. I'll have t'rely on the kindness of those here t'set me straight, if y'would.