Character Name: Tsubame Sasaki 燕 佐々木
Tsubame is the Japanese name for the Barn Swallow.
Sasaki is made of 佐 (sa) meaning "help, aid" and 木 (ki) meaning "tree, wood"

Gender: Female
Age and Date of Birth: 16, November 2nd (Scorpio)

Used Canons: HC Event's Iron Tokyo Canon

Appearance: Standing at 5'6" and often wearing a determined and serious expression, Tsubame strikes an imposing figure. Her eyes are a stone-grey, and often don't give way to what she's feeling one way or the other. Despite her rather serious nature, she is not inexpressive. She will smile or laugh in appropriate situations, but it is not her default state of expression.

Her hair is a blue-black color, wavy when left to its own devices, and at times a tangled mess of curls. But she rarely ever leaves her hair loose, opting to keep it bound back in a braid. Not only does it keep the hair out of her way, but it also keeps it from getting too knotted during jobs or scavenging trips. At times she thinks to shave it all off, as she is not terribly concerned with her hair in general. But she likes having longer hair so that she can properly use the spinel hairpin, her one true personal possession. And, she's come to enjoy her long hair, and enjoys the relaxing process of combing out the knots at the end of the night, and likes working her fingers to create the braid every morning.

She's quite muscular, after years of being on the move and fighting against those who want what she needs to bring home. The contours of her muscles show up even more as she's more on the malnourished side of things due to her upbringing and way of life.

Her right leg has been amputated, replaced by a somewhat ill-fitting prosthetic. Tsubame always wears long pants and boots to keep this fact hidden, a weakness she doesn't want known. Though the leg has taken time to come accustomed to, it hasn't been much of a weakness and instead gives her an edge during fist fights, as it gives more power to her kicks. She has taught herself to walk without giving anything away about her disability, but sometimes, if you know how to look, you might notice a slight limp after a long day on her feet.

Tsubame doesn't show much of her very pale skin, opting to wear clothes that cover and protect more than revealing anything. She doesn't have much in the way of a wardrobe, owning only a few variations of to the same outfit. The clothes are worn in places, but either she leaves the holes as they are, or she fixes them with patches scavenged from bits of fabric. Her arms are covered with long fingerless gloves that reach up to her upper arms. Along with her pants and boots and sleeveless shirt, she always wears a knitted wrap around her waist, as well as a belt affixed with pouches. The wrap is worn, but she's had it for years, one of the first things she was gifted when she joined the Sasaki Tree, and she always keeps it with her. It works well in case of rain or in case she gets cold.

She doesn't own any accessories or excess jewelry and only wears things that have a use, except for her spinel hairpin, as that is special to her.

Reference Image:

Personality: All her life, Tsubame has worked towards a single goal: survival for herself, and survival for her Sasaki family. There is rarely anything she does in her day-to-day life that isn't intricately wrapped up in this goal. There is a kind of weight placed upon her knowing that there are others relying on her, people that would perish without her help. As the oldest and most experienced person living in the Sasaki Tree, Tsubame feels this weight every day. She has to keep going, keep pushing. Living in the center of Iron Tokyo is a tall order for anyone, but she is determined to win.

She is a girl of action, preferring to do things rather than talk about them. Instead of telling someone she likes them, she will do something for them instead. If she doesn't like a person, they will find a fist in their face far sooner before she tries to argue against them. Words are not her forte, and she doesn't apologize for that. But she does pay attention to what others say, even if she tends to not say much herself.

Despite living in a place that calls itself a family, Tsubame has never truly been close with anyone for longer than a year at most. The family around her is constantly changing and growing, new children coming in while others disappear, with herself as the only true constant at the moment. She loves them all, in an almost abstract kind of way. Instead of hardening herself against the inevitability of a family member disappearing, she accepts it and continues on. She knows that love isn't all good, that sometimes it has to hurt in order to mean something. Just like everything in life. She may be a little cynical at times, a view born from a life lived in such terrible conditions, but she still understands the important of love in the world. Her particular family might not be the typical way, but that doesn't make it any less important.

Tsubame takes a while to trust anyone, as most of the people she meets outside of the Sasaki Tree are out to harm her or steal what she needs. There's no true malice towards any of the people she meets in the metal forest, she understands they need the supplies just as much as she does. But that doesn't stop her from taking what is necessary. She will fight for it, and will continue to do so.

Her world view is rather small, focused solely on the world she lives in within the metal heart of cramped and filthy buildings and too many people with far too little resources. If Tsubame thinks of anything outside of this area, it is similar to thinking of something mythical. Maybe at one point, she would become frustrated or angry at how unfair the world may be, but what is the point? Anger doesn't change anything. If she wants to change something, it will have to come from her own hands, and so she puts more effort into scavenging runs, works harder to fix up the Tree into something worthwhile. These, at least, are attainable goals.

She desires a better life for herself, knowing that, just as everyone who comes to the Tree, she can't stay here forever. She has trained others in the Tree all of the best routes and areas to search, the way to smile just so at the company official looking for cheap work, the right places to invade, and the gangs that are the easiest to steal from. In a perfect world, Tsubame thinks she might like to get a job working with her hands. Maybe creating new things no one has ever seen before, something that might help bring fairness to her cramped section of the world. But this is not a perfect world, and she doesn't lose sight of that. She knows that, sooner or later, she will disappear just as all the others have, perhaps during a difficult job or at the end of a fight gone bad.

Tsubame isn't afraid of conflict, and if she feels wronged, she can become far too passionate towards that anger and loses her temper. She tends to resort to violence when this happens, having learned that when she can run to safety, her fists and kicks can help win her a victory instead. Instead of working something out with words, she would prefer to use her fists.

She doesn't have trouble noticing subtle things, however, but she rarely comments on them unless she needs to. Tsubame has a soft spot for people in need, often going out of her way to help them if at all possible. But if someone betrays her in any way, she will never forget it. She likes a bit of competition, but seeing as she doesn't have any true friends, the person she most often competes against is herself, always striving to do and become better every day.

As a senshi, Tsubame tends to take the leader role, especially after having spent most of her life being the defacto leader for those who living in the Sasaki Tree. Her goal-orientated way of thinking of things and ability to keep all of her family in mind as she manages resources and supplies helps her in keeping in mind all of the different aspects of her powers versus her allies' powers. The main problem she has as a leader is she is very much of the "attack now and ask questions later" mindset, and needs to be talked out of that instinct.

Tsubame hates her powers, dreads using them no matter how powerful they may be. She can feel the radiating warmth of the power inside of her, threatening. Everyone knows the general destructive and dreadful power of radiation, it's a common problem in Iron Tokyo after all. The fact that she now has to have an intimate and close relationship with this terrible thing is something she hates. More often than not, she'll try her best to not use her powers at all, still relying on the tried and true method of just punching something until it submits. Unfortunately, as a senshi, the unique powers they've been given are paramount and their effective use determine whether they are defeated or victorious.

Any Unique Abilities/Skills:

• Hand-to-Hand Combat: A life spent in the heart of the iron forest has helped Tsubame develop both defensive and offensive skills. Although there is often enough debris lying around for use in fights, Tsubame prefers to use her own fists and kicks.
  
• Scavenger: She has a lot of experience looting and finding ways to make broken things useful once more. She might not know how to fix those broken things, but she does have a knack for finding a new use for it altogether.
  
• Nimble: Getting in and out of dangerous situations is paramount for her way of life, and Tsubame has honed this skill over years of practice.
  

History: Deep in the heart of the metal forest known as Iron Tokyo lies a small and thin building that reaches upwards, twisting around other buildings. Broken and repaired countless of times throughout years and years of time, it has a strange texture of various materials, giving it a bark-like quality that someone has enhanced with etched swirls and leaves. The effect works, if you squint and are not completely certain what a tree actually looks like.

To those who are privy to its secrets, the Sasaki Tree is a safe haven against the gangs and crime that run rampant around the heart of Iron Tokyo. It is here, if you know how to find and follow the signs, that one can find a small group of young people who have made a home for theirselves despite the odds stacked against them.

Her first few memories find her somewhere lost and covered in filth, hungry and alone. She fought to survive, finding scraps when she could and going without when she couldn't. It is lucky that she was found by Azumi, who took pity upon her and brought her to the the Sasaki Tree, a place for the odds and ends of the world, and shared with her kindness and the name of Sasaki. It is here that Tsubame learned the tools of survival, to be quick and nimble, to fend for herself against anyone who would try to steal back her stolen goods. She honed her skills to be one of the first recruited for the undesirable jobs that some companies offer for a paltry pay, jobs that often held far more risk than they did reward.

Residents of the Sasaki Tree try their best to remain out of the crime wars around them, preferring to be safe in their tree and finding proper "jobs" whenever possible, but even they are not innocent. Stealing and fighting are commonplace down in the heart of the iron forest, a necessity one cannot ignore if they wish to survive.

Crime has ravaged the Tree, and there have been times when the Sasaki Tree family have had to take the fight to another place just to keep theirselves safe from any more retaliation. Often, however, they try to keep out of sight of the many gangs and police alike, as neither of them are very trustworthy in their eyes.

Although bonded as a family, no one stays at the Sasaki Tree for long. Whether it be through finding a legitimate job, getting recruited by a gang, getting arrested, an illness, or worse, everyone leaves the Tree eventually. Typically sooner rather than later, as time is not on anyone's side within Iron Tokyo. Even Azumi disappeared only half a year after Tsubame joined. But Tsubame doesn't have aspirations to leave. Now the oldest and most experience by far, she is the main provider for the Sasaki Tree, and she plans to stay around for them all as long as she can.

It is during one of these undesirable jobs that Tsubame severely injured her leg, falling debris pinning her into place. Alone in the area, she was able to dig herself out of the wreckage and crawl home, but her leg was ruined. Tsubame knew that she was done for. What use would she be, if she could not move? Not to mention the fact that infection would soon set in, killing her slowly if the pain didn't drive her mad first. Still to this day, Tsubame isn't certain how her family pulled it off, nor what deals were made, but somehow they were able to find a doctor. Not a good doctor, but a sufficient one. One that might be able to keep her from dying due to the injury.

The leg had to ultimately be amputated, and, through some lucky scavenging and a bit of stubbornness, she was able to mock up an ill-fitting but functional metal replacement. It took a long time, to become used to this change, to recover from the pain both mental and physical, to keep it from infection and to take the hit to her family's resources now that the main provider was out for the count. It took even longer to get her old skills back. But now most people don't even realize when she walks next to them, and she prefers to keep it that way. The metal of the leg reminds her too much of her cramped home, and it feels strange to have the metal so encompassing in her every day life now a part of her as well. It doesn't help that the ill-fitted leg often leaves her sore and uncomfortable after her long days of work. But she carries on regardless.

Tsubame doesn't who her biological family might have been, once upon a time, but she is certain who her family is in the here and now. She loves her Sasaki family, and knows that they rely on her. Whenever a memory might brush upon her mind, a whiff of perfume or a snippet of a long-lost song, she doesn't search any harder for missing memories. Why expend the energy for something like that, when she has enough to worry about with finding supplies for a small hoard of children who are under her care?

Still, she finds that song humming on her lips when she is at her most peaceful, and it warms her. It bolsters her dream of maybe, one day, seeing an open sky and green growing things, like the beautiful trees that the Sasaki Tree pretends to be.

Other Noteworthy Facts:

• Metal Leg Replacement: It's a crude facsimile for a proper prosthetic, but it gets the job done. Tsubame has practiced for hours and hours in order to be agile with it, and has even found that it often gives her a certain edge in fights when she uses it to kick her opponents who are not expecting such a powerful or solid hit.
  
• Name History: Tsubame doesn't know what her given name might have been, if she ever had one to begin with. Instead, Tsubame is a name she claimed for herself, and Sasaki is the last name everyone in her ragtag family takes, solidifying their bond in name as well as ideals.
  
• Illness: Just like most people, Tsubame isn't at her fullest health and has no clear way of getting any care she might need. The most prominent of her problems is a pressing headache that strikes her sometimes, and a cough that she can't quite shake.
  

Storyline Specific Information:

Moonless Sky:

Source: N/A


Senshi Name: Sailor Deimos
Realm(s) of Influence: Radioactive Decay
Henshin/Transformation Phrase: Deimos Matrix, Activate!
Senshi Fuku: Her main color is red, with secondary accents of purple and black.
Deimos's senshi symbol starts with a circle that then arcs out in an upwards curve and ends in an arrow pointed downwards.
Powers:

• Radon Mist: A hybrid attack. Clasping her hands together, small sphere of red pulses in her hands before disappearing. As Deimos directs her attack towards the enemy, she creates a wall of invisible, odorless, and tasteless radon gas. This gas is radioactive and a danger to soft tissue. If inhaled, the gas gets into the enemy's inner workings, poisoning them and doing damage over time. The softer the tissue, the stronger the effect which might even affect the creature without needing to be inhaled. If the creature uses anything electronic, the electronics can short-circuit or malfunction under the effect of this attack. If the creature doesn't breathe or is not made of organic material, Radon Mist doesn't harm them at all.
  This attack can act as both a kind of invisible trap as well as a way to debilitate enemies if they are caught in its mist. It's rather slow moving and dense, so she needs to be in close range for it to be effective, but it also can affect her allies so she needs to be careful. She also could get caught up in her own attack, but she can sense the mist through her powers which helps her to avoid it, but being a close-range attacker means she needs to remain close and at risk.
  
  
• Ionized Strike: An offensive buff. Deimos's hands glow and distort the air around her as she strikes out with a powered up punch buffed with ionized radiation. The base attack does extra damage when compared to her regular attacks, but with each successful hit, there is a small chance for a random detrimental effect to occur. Accumulative strikes against the same enemy increase the chance of one of these things occurring to that enemy. But the longer she holds the buff, the more likely the random nature of it will backfire on her and hit her with one of these detriments instead.  
  While this buff is active, she may do more damage but she'll need to keep a wide berth from her allies as the radiation from her attack lingers in the air, potentially damaging anyone who gets too close. The random detriments include: dizzyness, internal bleeding, skin blisters or burns, physical weakening, or difficulty breathing. The attack can also short-circuit delicate electronics.  
  

Notes for Future Powers at Later Levels:

Weapons or Magical Items:

• L.U.N.A Deimos Pager: A modified pager-looking device that requires Tsubame to press her fingertip on it to transform. When activated, it resonates with her
  
• Spinel Hairpin: A hairpin Tsubame found tangled in her hair when she was young, and has kept with her ever since. Even when at her hardest times, she never once thought of selling it, and uses it every day within her usual braided hairstyle. It is made of thin gold-plated metal that pierces through the hair, and on the opposite end, several small chains of beads dangle and clink together. At the end of the longest chain is a sphere of polished spinel, with the Deimos symbol etched into it. This hairpin resonates with her pager during transformation.
  
• Crimson Betalight: A thin rod capped in metal that hangs from her hip that, once activated with her powers, emits a red light of radioluminescence, essentially becoming a type of flashlight. The red light helps preserve night vision, allowing a person to see from the gentler brightness but keeping the eyes adjusted for the darkness. It also is harder to spot at a distance, affording its user a bit more secrecy and cover.
  

Guardian: N/A

RP Sample:


She didn't often look up. The sky was not a part of her world, so blotted was it with overhanging buildings vying for limited space. What wasn't obscured by metal was dimmed by light pollution and the kind of thick filth that coated everything in the heart of Iron Tokyo. Her main concerns were always solidly placed upon the ground, amongst the tunnels and alleyways, the dirt and the grime, and the hidden twisting building that made her home. The sky was not a danger to her and she didn't spend much of her time pondering its significance.  

But, for some reason, Tsubame found her eyes glancing upwards, hand stilling from etching a new leaf into the metal siding of the Sasaki Tree.

She should have been in bed, resting for tomorrow. It was late. The flickering of dying lights should have been a distraction, blinking her attention away from that small light in the sky. But its brightness glimmered strong and so very red, and she could not take her eyes away from it. Tsubame felt a frown tug at her lips. Was it a star? She didn't know much about the way things in the sky worked, and she couldn't be certain. Stars were large. Or at least, she thought that was correct. Maybe not all stars were large, because, despite its brightness, this one was tiny.

Tsubame's eyes widened and she took a step back, dropping the etching tool as her hands curled into fists upon instinct, pulling upwards to protect her chest and ready to strike. The red brightness was coming closer! What kind of trick was this? She frowned at it, curious despite all of her senses telling her to hightail it out of there. Instead of seeking cover, however, Tsubame stayed still, arms at the ready.

It came closer, that tiny ball of red, and for a second, she could have sworn it lingered, hovered just above her. Was it a jewel? Some new form of lighting fallen from someone far more wealthy? She had half a mind to grab it—something strange like this could sell for a pretty penny.

Stone-grey eyes still focused on the strange phenomenon, Tsubame had no chance to dodge when that red pearl shot straight at her and into her body. Tsubame recoiled on instinct, one fist having already struck out although there was nothing to strike. Her hands went to her chest after that, expecting pain. Surely something that bright would burn her skin upon contact?

But there was nothing. She couldn't even find a remnant of that red bright ball.

Eyes narrowed, Tsubame searched the dusty ground for a sign of the red pearl, but there was no trace of it. She couldn't ignore what she knew to be the truth of the matter, no matter how much it unsettled her. Somehow, that thing went inside of her. Inside!

Her mind raced with possibilities—was this a new way to control civilians? A new technology gone awry?—and already a new headache was beginning to form. Tsubame tried to write off the entire experience as being exhaustion. Her right leg did ache and it had been a long day. But she wasn't one to lie to herself. She knew what she had seen, what had happened before her very eyes.

Tsubame pressed her fingers to her chest once more, but at least she did not feel any pain. She shook her head, glancing once more up into the unreachable sky. No other red bits of brightness twinkled up there, and for now, she had no answers for what that thing could have been. Some weird technology, it had to have been. Maybe the inventor or company behind it all would come searching for their rogue ball of light, and she could demand something in retribution.

Feeling slightly more settled at that idea, Tsubame entered the Sasaki Tree and found an empty space on the floor next to a snoring little boy. Soon, she snored softly next to him, having covered them both with the multi-colored wrap that she wore around her waist.

The next few days passed in a blur of her usual activity and a new sense of pain and unease. Tsubame, as with most people who lived in the heart of Iron Tokyo, was not a stranger to feeling pain or illness at inopportune times. But this was something far stronger than she'd ever remembered feeling before. The headaches were bad, pulsing like someone was driving a nail into her very skull, and nausea made it hard to keep any food down. It didn't help that sleep was hard to come by these past days, her dreams full of strange images where she wore a uniform that seemed to mean something, and her hands boiled.

The kids were concerned, she could see it on their faces, and she tried to put them at ease by making up a special dinner. It was enough of a distraction for most, but she could see the second eldest still staring at her with worry clear in her eyes.

Her mind went back to that night, the night with the strange red bright pearl. Tsubame placed her hands on her stomach, but still could not feel anything out of the ordinary. Whether it was the culprit or not, she couldn't say. But something was obviously wrong.

The reports the next day, whispers that traveled through the alleyways like wildfire, caused that unease in the pit of her stomach to skyrocket. A section of the Wall was down? Just like that? That an earthquake would do such significant damage rang untrue, but Tsubame wasn't concerned about the officials lying—that was what they did, every day, so what was one more lie?—but she was concerned by what would change due to the Wall's destruction. What would it mean for all of them? Would security lessen? Or worse, strengthen? Would her usual scavenging routes become blocked? What would she do then?

Tsubame shook her head, writing off the other rumors—the ones that spoke of shadowed creatures of all things—and instead took to the streets. She would need to begin finding backup plans, in case something ruined her normal routine.

That night, she went to bed in pain, headache worse than ever before, hands seeming too hot and far too cold at the same time. Somehow, her hands hurt worse than the headache, despite the fact that she had done nothing to them at all. Was this the new illness spreading through the city? Perhaps this was how she was meant to die. She wouldn't be the first to perish due to sickness and she certainly wouldn't be the last.

Still, she'd thought her exit from this world would have been more exciting than wilting away into nothingness. Going out with a bang felt far more her style.

The soft and rhythmic blips woke her from another uneasy dream, and stone-grey eyes snapped open. The place was bright. And clean.

And so very wrong.

Memories made hazy by illness and pain broke through her confusion. Hirota saying they needed to get her away from everyone, that she was contagious. It wasn't said out of malice but from fear. She couldn't remember how she ended up out of the Sasaki Tree and in this bright place, however, and it bothered her.

Tsubame sat up, glancing down at the clean sheets and soft bedding, and the strange sterile quality to the air. A hospital? She knew of them, of course, but had never been inside one before. Even with her severe leg injury, she'd never sought professional medical care. So how did she end up here, now?

Well. If they expected her to pay for this, they were going to be sorely disappointed.

Besides the fuku that we still are debating as a group, this profile is ready for review! <3 <3 <3