Sakura Tsukino

The Basics:
First or second character?: First... technically? I was Elizabeth Ward though.
Name: Sakura Tsukino

Age: 17

Birthday: October 16, 1997

Species: Moon Elf

The Other Stuff:
History:
Sakura did not just grow up in Harajuku, Tokyo—she practically breathed and emulated Harajuku. Growing up, she had worn ice cream earrings, peppermint sunglasses, lace tights with quirky lolita dresses and nekomimi headbands. But her quirky fashion choices wasn't what turned people's heads whenever they saw her. Her eyes, large and bright, had a strange, almost alien glow to them. Sometimes at night it seemed as if she had bluish skin. After glancing at her for the second time, most people would shrug it off and mutter 'kids these days and their fashion choices' under their breath.

Gwestiel and Calaian Vanlinde believed that the best place to hide was in plain sight. The first option was a travelling circus, but the circuses' cruel treatment of the animals drove the nature and animal-loving couple away. During their travels, they sought shelter amongst different supernatural communities, but moon elves are full of wanderlust and so Gwestiel and Calaian would always end up hopping from one country to another. But when three-year-old Sakura (then called Arthea) would not eat anything after losing her vampire friend due to moving, Gwestiel and Calaian decided they needed a place where they could settle down. At the time in 2000, they were living with a community of witches in Yamagata. The witches suggested that they move down to Tokyo, where they would be able to hide in plain sight.

Though Gwestiel and Calaian (who eventually adopted the names 'Kiyomi and Akira' respectively) grew to love Tokyo especially for its 'stillness' despite the constant motion in the city, Sakura only felt out of place. Despite looking like the locals, she could never be quite like the locals—she was too impulsive, too temperamental, and her teachers always complained that she just could not stay still. Eventually Sakura's only solace were the Internet, the pets people walked in the park, different sorts of sashimi and bike rides around the city. Ironically, she hated cherry blossoms, for they denoted that she would be seeing the bullies and bossy teachers again.

Sakura eventually became some sort of YouTube celebrity when she started posting covers of herself singing songs in different languages whilst playing the Japanese harp. Some lauded her for combining the traditional with the modern whilst others accused her of being a mere hafu gaijin who did not understand the solemnity of traditional music. It was during the height of these discussions when Sakura received the letter from Masquerade. Tired of the controversies and burdened with an identity crisis, Sakura decided to accept the offer so as to train more in music whilst learning about herself.

Personality:
If there was anyone who could be a loner whilst still being an extrovert, that was definitely Sakura. 'Curious' is the perfect word to describe Sakura, after all. The word captures her strange old soul whilst describing her desire to learn about everything. Because of this, Sakura likes to experience things, but only as a traveller passing by. This means that the moon elf had not only indecision and commitment issues but also an inability to stick with people. One day someone is her best friend, the next day they are nothing but lint for her—easy to brush off and forget about.

Some people say there is a certain melancholic vibe to Sakura, and that is probably because Sakura has the ability to get lost in worlds she can never enter. When she had first read Harry Potter, she was overcome by the sadness of how it was just a fantasy world. Receiving a letter from Masquerade had been like receiving a letter from Hogwarts, but now that she's in Masquerade she longs to see Diana Wynne Jones' worlds. To deal with this longing, Sakura daydreams a lot and sometimes writes about fantasy worlds. She still hopes that someday she would find out she was a Moon Princess, like Tsukino Usagi from her mother's favourite manga called Sailor Moon.

Despite her commitment issues, Sakura is generally kind towards people. She values authenticity and justice and dislikes intolerance and prideful people. She can be flirty occasionally, but she has very high standards when it comes to dating and falling in love.

Appearance:
Since the Tsukinos settled down in Tokyo, the family had begun to look more and more Japanese despite being of pure Moon Elf origin. If it were not for Sakura's strange bluish glow under the moonlight along with her bright eyes, she would be seen as just another pretty Japanese girl. Sakura has round eyes, a small nose with a rounded tip, and plump lips. She is about 5'5", though she's got a tendency to slouch and therefore looks a bit shorter than that. She is on the skinny side despite her constantly huge appetite, and often keeps her hair long.

Though the Tsukinos used to dress her up in weird (and typical) Harajuku clothing, Sakura has since adopted a more natural sort of style. True to her elf origins, she favours bohemian clothing, but she prefers the sort that give off an enchanted forest princess vibe. However, despite her very feminine taste, sometimes Sakura can dress down and look like a complete tomboy, although she would only look like this around people she's comfortable with. Generally, Sakura really cares about her appearance whenever she's outside or with other people, and she always makes sure that she looks presentable wherever she goes—even when she's in her tomboyish clothes.

RP Sample:

Lauren usually spent her mornings avoiding training, and this morning was no exception. Her fencing classes pre-Camp had been fun, but that was before life at Camp Jupiter could distract her. In the mini New Rome area of Camp Jupiter, there were so many things that looked more fun than dancing around with swords. There were the bakeries and restaurants which sampled anything from Italian to Vietnamese. There were clothing and jewellery stores probably owned by children and legacies of Venus. There was a garden that overlooked mini New Rome and had grapevines making a canopy. There was also an antique store and bookshop situated near the garden. She had heard of how the Romans were barely able to salvage anything from the first Camp Jupiter’s ruins, but there were older demigods and legacies who donated their own collections just so they can rebuild Rome again. It was one of those times when Lauren really enjoyed being a Roman demigod and didn’t pine for the Greeks’ more individualistic ideals.

She was carrying quite a lot of shopping bags before she realized she had spent half the morning buying thrift store clothes, macarons from the patisserie, sashimi from the Japanese restaurant, two volumes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, three spools of roll film for her camera and mineral makeup from a well-known stylist and designer who was apparently a son of Venus. That was when Lauren felt the guilt of avoiding training only to shop and be gluttonous. If this went on, her toned body would bid her adieu, and she’d be back to feeling sickly and depressed due to the lack of exercise. Horrified at the thought of looking and feeling sickly, she headed to the barracks as quickly as possible to leave her shopping bags there and pick up her weapons for intense training. She noted the empty barracks and paled at the thought of being made to clean the latrines again. Lauren ran to the Arena, completely forgetting how she had forgotten to change into proper training attire.

The Arena was full of demigods training, probably because of the fine weather. She looked for Ronnie, hoping she would at least be there, but there was no sight of Ronnie in the crowd. The First Cohort weren’t training together, which made Lauren sigh with relief. Missing training was one thing, but missing scheduled training with your cohort was something only masochists dared to do. Lauren saw an unused dummy and decided to head for that when someone called out to her. “Soldier. Is this an Arena or Neiman Marcus?”

Lauren looked down at her outfit and blushed.  She was wearing relatively normal clothes. She had on a lavender tank top, black skinny jeans and a pair of ankle boots with three-inch heels. The outfit was simple and very Buffy-inspired, but it certainly didn’t go with the baltei that held her gladius and pugio. Lauren looked up at the demigod who had sneered at her and smiled sweetly. ”As far as I’m concerned, soldier, I’m dressed to kill. Besides, I like testing my skills even when I’m not wearing armor. Can you fight without yours?” 

Lauren flipped her hair and turned away, silently cursing the demigod who had called out to her. While she talked to that demigod, another one had taken the dummy she was heading for. Lauren usually would have just looked for another dummy and paid the new guy no attention, but she noticed how he was also wearing skinny jeans and shoes too nice to be used for swordplay training. Lauren found herself walking towards him. She wasn’t even paying attention to how he was hitting the dummy, but he turned and said, “I suppose you’re here to tell me I’m doing this wrong?”

Lauren’s lips curled into a smirk. ”I don’t usually tell people they’re wrong. I show them instead. So no, I’m not here to do that.” She studied the guy’s face, noting his playful expression and confident demeanour. He was much taller than her 5’3”, so she had to look up as she did so. He was good-looking, with brown eyes, brown hair and a well-defined jaw. His clothes showed how he was the sort of guy to take care of his appearance without overdoing it. He definitely oozed charm, and the way he held himself made Lauren wonder if he was a model or something of the sort. She has met a lot of attractive guys at Camp, but they usually held themselves with a different sort of confidence—the sort you’d usually see amongst heroes like Aragorn, Captain America and Jaime Lannister. This guy in front of her reminded her more of Spike from Buffy, and she wouldn’t be surprised if they had the same sort of snark. This will be fun, Lauren mused to herself. She looked pointedly at the guy’s jeans and shoes. ”Well, looks like I’m not the only one dressed for walking around Neiman Marcus right now. So, tell me, do you usually go to battle guided by the formidable Anna Wintour? Not that it’s a problem.”

Lauren looked back at the demigod who had called out to her. The demigod was now busy sparring with someone. They weren’t bad, but Lauren couldn’t help feeling a bit smug. After all, while Roman swordplay training enhanced your technique and teamwork, it didn’t exactly help your resourcefulness in battle, which is something Lauren prided herself in and loved about the Greeks. She wasn’t sure how skilled Mr. Skinny Jeans was in battle, but he certainly gave off the vibe of being resourceful and creative as well. Perhaps, if he was interested, they could show up Ms. Is-This-Neiman-Marcus. Perhaps Lauren could also check Mr. Skinny Jeans’ snark meter, and see who would win New Rome’s Next Top Buffy Summers between them.  As much as she liked the guy’s style, she sure wasn’t ready to relinquish being the most fabulous one in the Arena. Especially not when he took her dummy and now she has to prove to Ms. Is-This-Neiman-Marcus how she is the embodiment of Fabulous Fighter / Action Girl. 

”Anyway, I’m Lauren. Unclaimed, First Cohort, blah blah blah. And you are?” Lauren asked the guy and mirrored his playful smile. She sheathed her weapons and held out her hand. “Care to spar? I’d like to see how well I can move in these jeans and boots, and I don’t think we can spar with anyone else in these outfits.”

Love the charrie sheet! Accepted, and welcome back to Masquerade!