[hider=Magical Girl Sarah][b][color=e6579e]Name:[/color][/b] Sarah Cordell

[b][color=e6579e]Gender:[/color][/b] Female

[b][color=e6579e]Age:[/color][/b] 26

[b][color=e6579e]Appearance:[/color][/b] 
[img]https://i.imgur.com/H52948i.jpg[/img]
Standing at 5'4", with soft features, Sarah would look unassuming if not for her typically unfriendly body language and near-constant scowl. She's learned from an early age to cultivate an air than makes people not want to get on the wrong side of her. She opts for practical, loose-fitting clothing that's easy to move in and that she doesn't mind getting dirty. Her light blonde hair is kept reasonably short at shoulder length. Her eyes used to be brown, but turned pink when she got her dream, making it difficult to hide that she's a Dreamer.

[b][color=e6579e]Personality:[/color][/b] A no-nonsense pragmatist, Sarah is focused on doing what it takes to get by, and has no time for heroism or any nobler goal - at least, that's what she claims. Raised to be cynical, distrustful and ruthless, she never really had any childhood sense of wonder. Upon gaining her dream, however, she's developed more of a sense of idealism. Instead of merely being bitter about the state of the world, she's caught herself doing little things to make it a slightly better place for some people - all while denying that was her intent. Wouldn't want anyone thinking she's gone soft, after all.

Between having lost loved ones and being on her guard against betrayal, she tries not to grow too attached to people, and has a hard time getting close. Not helping is her gruff and grouchy demeanour. Once she spends long enough around others though, she does often develop more of a soft spot for them than she outwardly lets on.

[b][color=e6579e]Dream:[/color][/b] Magical Girl
A cheery and colourful fairytale realm, where the stars shine bright. A dream of battling against monsters, taking down evil royals who dare invade, bringing hope and joy to civilians. A dream of clear-cut morality, where justice always prevails.

From this dream, Sarah can currently summon two things. One is a frilled and ribboned white [url=https://i.imgur.com/wS7pnZx.png]costume[/url] with pink, blue and rose gold highlights, which replaces whatever she's wearing and gives a further boost to her already Dreamer-typical strength and toughness, as well as increasing agility. The downside is that it's about as practical as it looks, and can snag on things if she's not careful. It's most likely only thanks to the agility boost that she can even run in those shoes.

The other is a pink heart-shaped wand with a ribbon tied around it. This allows Sarah to use a basic smite attack which takes the form of a glittering energy blast, and also grants minor healing abilities. As she learns to delve further into the dream, she'll be able to summon different wands, granting fire, ice and lightning powers. Naming her moves, shouting them out, and posing adds to their strength.

Only she can use the wands, and she can only summon one at a time, although she can summon both the costume and a wand at once.

[b][color=e6579e]Bio:[/color][/b] As the daughter of two Shardhunters, scraping by in the poorer outskirts of a Nova Republic city, Sarah grew up with no illusions of how unforgiving the world was. When they weren't away on perilous searches, her parents taught her to take what she could from life and give back as little as possible. A world like this was no place for kindness; it was best to look out only for oneself and one's immediate family. Anyone else was either not worth caring about, or a potential threat.

These words rang particularly true after her father passed away when she was 14, murdered by a group of scavengers while on a mission. After that, her mother doubled down on her self-defense lessons, as now Sarah would have to join her to gather shards and secure resources. For a few years, they worked together, but shards were few and far in between. One day, her mother also failed to return from a hunt - this time, it had been a rival Shardhunter who'd literally backstabbed her. At age 19, Sarah was now on her own, save for the tense alliances Shardhunters formed when necessary. Growing close to anyone was a liability - all too commonly, they'd either die, or betray their allies.

More years passed, and it was only a matter of time until one of Sarah's hunts went badly awry. She'd been lucky enough to find a shard, but as she and her group travelled back towards the city, a creature attacked. A mutated being that bore only the vaguest resemblance to a human. A Nightmare, whose territory she'd just stumbled into. In desperation, she tore off one of her gloves and grabbed the crystal with her bare hand. Images of a brighter world, starkly contrasting with hers, flooded her mind as the shard vanished into her skin. She mentally called out into the dream for something she could use to defend herself and her fellow hunters. In a flurry of sparkles, her shabby old clothes turned into - a frilly dress? And the "weapon" she now held was a pink, beribboned, heart-shaped wand?

For all her confusion, she found her physical skills significantly boosted, allowing her to evade the monster's attacks - until she tripped up in her high heels. As it made to lunge, she pointed the wand at it. The words "Sparkling Smite" echoed in her head, and feeling more than a tad ridiculous, she repeated them. A glittering energy burst knocked the monster back, giving her time to stand. A few punches and Sparkling Smites later, the Nightmare fell dead.

The immediate threat was gone, but now Sarah found herself faced with another problem - specifically, that she was now a Dreamer living in a city that hated and feared them. She couldn't exactly blame the fearful either, considering the non-infintessimal risk that she'd turn into the same abomination she'd defeated. So, she wasted no time in getting registered, in order to capture criminals and take down more Nightmares. Her intentions were more pragmatic than heroic; it was a matter of surviving and keeping her home. Even so, she found some of the dream's idealism rubbing off on her. There was something rewarding about saving people and bringing dangerous thugs to justice, and it wasn't just the money.

But as her view of the world slowly changed, so did her view of the job. She grew to despise having to represent the Republic as flawless beacons of morality, when they really only cared about power, rather than about their citizens. And some of the "criminals" they told her to go after were hardly that bad. Some were just desperate, like she'd once been - she'd committed her own petty thefts from richer folks when she was younger.

Which is why she ended up turning her back on the Republic for a Dreamer settlement, surviving on her wits and resources as she always had - while deep down, wondering if things really could change for the better.[/hider]