Name Ceilidh ní Dubhan (Gaelic 'singer of the shadow'; KAYlee nee DOV-van)
Nicknames Cei (KAY)
Age 20
Birthday August 17
Sign Leo
School Marco Technical University (MarTech)
Likes reading, writing, cats
Dislikes scarey movies, being alone
Fav Stone rose quartz
Fav Food dark chocolate
Fav Subject creative writing
Fav Colour teal / jade green
Hated Food french fries, spinach, turnips
Hated Subject almost any hard science
Hair
red-brunette
Style
loose
Eyes
graygreen
Skin
golden tan
Height
5'2"
Weight
115
Appearance
Ceilidh is short, slender, and wiry. Although strength is not in her list of attributes, she is agile and quick. Her long hair is a rich red-brown, and her eyes are graygreen, set in an oval face. She moves very gracefully, like a dancer, and dresses like one too, in close-fitting clothing that nevertheless allows freedom of movement.
Personality
Ceilidh is very much a loner person. Large groups of people bother her, except in a classroom setting, where she feels very free to speak out and often does, to the detriment of her reputation. Not that she cares much. She has a few friends, and remains very close to them. She's constantly on the lookout for 'soul-sibs', other people who think like her and her friends. She looks down on the usual kind of college person, and even though she's only 20, tends to think of herself as being much older than most of the people around her. Strangely, although large crowds bother her and make her feel small, she dislikes being left alone as well. She thrives in small groups and will tend to dominate the conversation in such a group of 'soul-sibs'. Among her friends, she's incredibly affectionate and often calls them pet names, hugging and touching often. She likes to be there for her friends to bring problems to. Her own biggest problem, in her eyes, is her inability to find a long-term boyfriend. When she's without a serious interest, she's been known to fall 'in love' on average of once a week or so. Sometimes the infatuation lasts considerably longer than that. Right now, she's having a serious time dealing with some major trust issues in that area, and it'll take someone out of the ordinary to catch her attention. (See story)
Family
She has a full family: mom, dad, younger sister, but since she's away at college she doesn't interact with them much. She's the 'outcast' of the family.

Henshin

Apollo Power, make-up
Ceilidh chants this phrase and flings her arms wide, then brings them back in close to her body. As she brings them back in, shadow wings appear and fold over her body, hiding her from view completely. A sudden breeze blows everything straight up, hair, skirt, wings, you name it (no you can't see anything you hentai!), and when the wind dies Sailor Apollo appears in her fuku. Both hands are crossed over her breast in the classic 'death' pose, her head is thrown back, and feet are in right ballet fifth.
Fuku Design/Colours
Apollo's fuku is the normal fuku. Skirt, collar, bow center, choker, and chest band are the primary colour of teal / jade green. Gloves, bows, and skirt band are the secondary colour of midnight blue. Shoes, not visible, are flat midnight blue sandals, with a band over the toes, behind the ankle, and over the top of the foot.
Powers
Shadow Rings
Apollo describes a circle over her head with one pointed finger, saying, "Shadow…" A ring of shadow follows her finger, and when she says, "Rings!" rings of shadow begin to spin off the one over her head, encircling the enemy. These shadows will burn the skin, however, and stick to whatever they land on. Plain water will wash them off; they can be brushed off carefully; they pretty much react like bits of flame, but without smoke. It's as if the smoke itself is burning the enemy, and can be pretty unnerving.
Shadow Hurricane
Apollo holds her right hand out to the side. Brilliant energy flares around it, and she raises it over her head, saying, "Shadow…" She begins to spin around very fast, and shadow-flowers appear around her. She says, "Hurricane!" and the flowers spin out from around her and strike the enemy. The effect is rather like being struck by someone with remarkably good aim and a large supply of BBs. Unlike BBs, as before, the shadow burns and sticks to whatever.
Apollo Wind Energy Blast
Apollo crosses her hands in front of her face, hiding it from view, palms inward and thumbs meeting. She chants, "Apollo Wind Energy…" and rising wind begins to spiral up around her, much like her henshin sequence. When the wind begins to whips her hair, she thrusts her hands down and through, like a loop, keeping the wrists crossed, and says, "Blast!" A full mach 1, category 5 hurricane wind smacks only the enemy, basically flattening them. This is an extremely powerful and focussed attack, and Apollo generally collapses afterward. Depending on the strength of the target, it will flatten Apollo for anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes to several hours. When she wakes up, she'll be more or less hungry, also depending on the length of time she spent passed out.
Little Known Facts

Ceilidh attends MarTech because it's one of the few schools where she can double major in computer science and creative writing, with a minor in parapsychology. Keeps her busy.

Ceilidh's a natural empath; that is, she can read even strangers' emotions with uncanny accuracy. When she's tired, drunk, or extremely upset, this ability can and does go extremely haywire, resulting in various minor emotional explosions.

Ceilidh got her name when her grandmother noticed her constant laughter, as a baby, sounded very musical, as if she was singing instead of laughing. 'Ceilidh' means singing or singer. Although she rarely laughs that way now, sometimes you can still hear that clear musical laugh when she's being very open.

History

Ceilidh's your typical upper-middle-class eldest child. She's rarely wanted for anything, and lived a fairly normal life. Her family doesn't have any serious problems, although she hates being the odd one out, the one who's not quite in sync with the rest of the family. But they all love each other, and Ceilidh is pretty much normal in that area. She's been at MarTech for 2 years now and is entering her junior year.

Writing Sample

Ceilidh darted around a corner and slammed her door behind her, fumbling at the inside lock. She slid down the door, panting, holding her sides, eyes closed. Tears spilled out from under the closed lids. Sobs began to break loose from the tight control she held over herself. She opened her eyes to darkness and something inside her screamed. Stumbling to her feet, she snapped on the light and flung herself on the bed, crying softly. "How could he? How could he? Why did you do this to me?!" Over and over she repeated the litany. "I thought you liked me … I was sure I had another friend … how could you do this to me?" She moaned to the empty air.

Memories rolled her under, sucking her back into the maelstrom of pity and fury. So kind, he was, so gentle, so foolish she to fall so fast for someone who gave her what she thought she wanted. She had met Jesse in class, noticed him because he walking in late. Felt flattered because he had sought her out afterward. Each poured out half of their lives to the other in the first night, oh stayed up so late they did, all night and saw the dawn the next day they talked so long. More fool she, to tell him she wondered what it would be like to kiss him, much less let him do it. Even worse, to believe him when he said, I wanted it too. Deeper and deeper under his spell she fell, in a week no less, all but entrapped in the first few days. Run to him with the fury, try to help him with his pain, nihao, his PAIN that she could feel like it was her own. And then, to find out that he was only using her, only playing with her to ease that pain and yet she knew that it did nothing for him and still she longed for him, missed that friendship …

Hours, or maybe mere minutes later, Ceilidh rolled over, pressing her cheek against the cold metal of her henshin rod. Trustable, useful, the one place where she was consistently needed, as a Sailor Senshi. Just this once, she hoped for an enemy, someone else she could release the anger and hurt on. "Cancel that thought, Ceilidh," she muttered to herself. Just because she was hurting was no reason to become angry with him. The true hell of it was the she understood his motives almost perfectly and truly wasn't angry. "Damn you, Jesse, you made me care and now I can't hate you."

She scrubbed the sticky tightness of tears off her face and sat down at the computer, intending to record her thoughts and feelings in poem form. Half an hour later, she was singing along with the mp3s lustily and making headway on a second poem. In between one note and the next, the very air seemed to change, becoming more oppressive and heavy. She broke off mid-word, hands automatically reaching for the henshin rod. Rapidly, hands no longer trembling after 15, 16 repetitions of this scene, these movements, she saved her work, locked the door behind her, slipped unseen out of the building. There was a conveniently placed stand of trees not 10 feet from the door.

"Apollo Power, make-up!"

© Panya Covin-Gwynn & PawPrint Productions.