Name: Gillian Hazelton

Kingdom: Third Kingdom

Age: 19 (almost 20 - she'll remind you if you forget)

Birthdate: 13 Corn Moon, 103
A Leo with a cusp of Cancer, if Gillian believed in astrology she'd be surprised by how well this fits her personality type.

Occupation: glass blower and storyteller

Likes:
getting dirty- Gil's the kind of girl that just loves to feel the squish of mud between her toes, or feel the dirt under her fingernails. She'd go play in the sand just to spend the next few hours happily picking it out of her hair again. Need someone to get that disgusting slug off your blanket, or fetch your doll out of the pile of fertilizer your brother stuck it in? She'd love to help you out. Of course, she'd also love to share the experience with you, so if you find a fistful of horse dung flying in the direction of your head, you shouldn't be surprised.

family reunions- Gillian's family is large and still growing, and she is fiercely attached to them all. From good cooking to good stories, family reunions are the place to get the best of everything a family can be. Plus, they have to love her because she's family. She loves the social atmosphere. Still, she somehow always manages to be involved in whatever event causes the rest of the family to wonder if they should even hold a reunion next year...

word games- Whether it's riddles or tongue twisters, Gillian loves to play with words. She's especially fond of the riddles of the “what is yellow and shining but is not gold?” nature, and has spent a good deal of time pondering various answers to these questions. She might see a caterpillar and compose her own riddle such as “What has 100 eyes one day and four the next?” and whether or not the riddle is any good, she's pleased to have put in the effort of thinking of it. She also used to hold swearing contests with the other children in the town, throwing insults back and forth that got progressively more vulgar until the opponent was at a loss for words. She is quick and inventive with her tongue, though it is also true that sometimes what she says doesn't make sense to someone who has not known her a long time and is unable to follow the rapidly firing synapses in her brain.

petty challenges- Winning isn't as important to her as having fun, and she likes setting little challenges for herself and others to make life a little more interesting. Whether it's “I'll set the dinner table only using my thumb and pinky and if I drop anything I'll eat the entire meal cross-eyed” or simply “I bet I can spit watermelon seeds farther than you” if it sounds like fun she'll take up the challenge. Of course, there are times when winning challenges is important, and by holding so many informal ones Gillian is confident in her knowledge of what she is and is not capable of. As such, she will never enter into a truly important challenge if she knows she has no chance of winning. There is no fun in an unfair fight. She never will purposefully lose a challenge either, unless it is to her siblings or some of the younger children in town. They like to challenge her a lot, and she enjoys humoring them.

bright colors- Rainbows, flowers, really cool-looking insects (particularly the latter)...Gillian has a penchant for bright colors. And if they're shiny bright colors? It would be safest to not be in direct line between her and the bright objects, because she's going to be making a beeline straight for them. You could tell her that a lime-green tree frog is poisonous and she'll nod understanding, and then still reach out to grab it. She's never had the patience to maintain a garden, but her mother and sister both have nice ones and it is about the only place you can find her sitting still for extended periods of time.

cats- Gillian finds great kinship in cats. They can seem eerily intelligent or obscenely stupid, depending on their mood. Just like her – you can either say she's quick-witted and smart or lazy and stupid, it just depends on how you see her. She certainly has moments of both. Also, cats are as distracted by bright shiny things as she is. Oh, she's terribly fond of dogs too. They're fun and energetic and loyal like she is, but they lack to subtle intelligence that Gillian admires in cats.

Dislikes:
heights- More accurately, unstable heights. She'll climb trees and sit on rooftops but you try to put her on a ladder, rope, or ask her to climb a rock face or wall and she'll turn into a wibbling pile of goo. She's only comfortable when there are plenty of limbs to wrap herself around, or a large surface area to stay stabilized on. She's currently trying to conquer her fear using the medium of beanstalks – they're sturdy enough that she can entangle herself and ensure not falling, but still higher than anything she's ever climbed and they send her into woozies if she looks down. It's an appropriate challenge.

rabbits and squirrels- Sure they're cute and soft and fuzzy, but they eat her garden. Or they would, if she ever managed to keep a garden. Well, they eat her sister's garden, anyway, and that's good enough reason to dislike them. Besides, they've got those beady little eyes that hint at mass diabolical world dominating plans just waiting to be set in motion. They're too cute to be trustworthy, and she wants to throw rocks at them any time they come near her.

serious conflict- There's nothing wrong with having a spat here and there, Gillian actually thinks it's rather healthy. When things get really heated though, she gets out. She hates it when people are angry with each other, or even worse, at her. She doesn't cope well with that, and instead of facing any problems she'll tend to run away. And since she's pretty athletic, she can run pretty fast. For her, the best way to deal with anger is to let the person cool off on their own for a while. Anyone who wants to talk about their problems is just picking at scabs, in her opinion. It only makes the matter worse. Also, she can't imagine that anyone could be seriously upset with her, and therefore doesn't try to do anything to fix the problem. She's not a mediator type, and though she won't take sides it's more out of fear for her own skin than any sort of help for those involved.

quiet- Silence really unnerves her. She can understand, theoretically, that people don't always want to talk or participate in an abundance of activities, and she tries to respect that. It's not that she can't have her moments of zen as well. It's just that, when no one is talking, or there's no noise of something happening in the background, she gets antsy. She'll babble just to fill the silence, because it keeps the feelings of oppression at bay.

Hobbies:
running- Gillian is pretty athletic, and running is both fun and relaxing for her. She likes feeling hot, sweaty and exhausted – there is something to physically feeling her heart, lungs and muscles all working hard that gives her a thrill. She's been on the move since she was a child and has never stopped, and a good jog helps as an outlet for her energy. She likes to race, though not many people in the town are willing to race her because she is easily one of the fastest girls in the town. It probably came from running away from crime scenes as a child – a trick is no fun to play if you get caught. Since there is no one to run with her, she has taken up running with the horses on the farm or just running through the fields by herself, enjoying the world around her. A jump in the stream after a good run is the best reward she can think of for a cool-down, and she always finishes a run feeling more focused and clear-headed. She thinks straighter when she is running, the rhythm of the run keeping her mind on a straight path instead of letting it wander in any direction like it is wont to do.

glassblowing- She apprenticed herself to a glassmith because it looked bright and shiny, but since then has found real pleasure in the work. She enjoys working with her hands, and all the power that goes into into making something so beautiful and delicate really fascinates her. It takes great control and patience to work glass, and since Gillian is not a person who is necessarily tuned to these virtues she enjoys the challenge of teaching herself new skills and learning to broaden herself. She doesn't think of herself as particularly artistic, which is why when Charles tried to teach her how to make glass animals she failed miserably, but she finds a genuine pride in her work because everything turns out to be beautiful whether she tries hard to make it so or not.

storytelling- In the form of gossip or fireside tales, Gillian loves stories. She's pretty quick with her tongue too and has managed her share of elaborate half-truths to get her out of sticky situations, and for her storytelling is simply an offshoot of that. She likes to spend evenings at the pub, listening to travelers weave fantastic tales of the other kingdoms. After soaking everything up, she'll spread the word. Or she'll transform what she has heard into epic stories for her niece and nephews and other town children to hear. Gil can always be counted on to tell you a good story, and to make you believe every word of it is true the entire time she tells it. It is important, for those who know her, to remember that even though it is believable if it came from Gillian best take it with a grain of salt. She's got a mild case of “Boy Who Cried Wolf” hanging around her from her childhood days.

pulling pranks- Her big prankster days were mostly in her youth, but Gillian will always love a good joke. When she was little and had more time on her hands her jokes tended to be fairly elaborate. In her later teens however she became more stabilized with a job, family and her own romance, and her jokes became vastly simpler – silly things like tapping a person on the opposite shoulder and then hiding, or switching the salt and sugar, or hiding something that a person is looking for. Never anything potentially harmful, though in her youth she was not as careful about that (Mrs Paulus' hip never did heal completely after her fall on some marbles that Gillian had spilled, and Gillian felt so guilty about it that that was the last dangerous trick she pulled). Gillian also likes to tease, and given her love of stories and gossip will often gleefully torment someone with a juicy secret, much to their frustration.

Aspirations:
She'd like to start her own family, nice and large, but first she has to find her fiance. She had dreams in her youth of starting a toy shop, but now that she has taken up glassblowing she thinks perhaps she'll stick with that. Otherwise she's content to simply let life blow her in whatever direction it pleases, and she'll make the best out of her situation. It's not an adventure if you plan for it, after all.

Gillian came into the world wide-eyed and squirming, and it was a state she never grew out of. Tired of being confined by crawling, she learned to walk at nine months (to the horror of her parents). Her older siblings, Adelle and Taylor, were an average handful as far as children go, but Gillian put them to shame. As soon as she was dragged away from the cutting board, she'd be found climbing the precariously tall woodpile out back. After being rescued from there and checked over for bruises, she'd be off trying to see just how hot the stove really was, and then adventure onward to jump off the dining table, or play with mother's breadknife, or go chew on some rocks. She made sure Josephine slept soundly every night- exhaustion can do that to a person. Gillian thrived on the attention, and would often drag her older siblings along on the adventures, which only served to enhance their mother's worry. About the only time she would ever sit still would be at bedtime, when Carson would rock her on his knee and tell stories of the Nine Kingdoms to his children.

By the time she was three, Gillian was so used to the constant attention from her parents and siblings that she could not tolerate the birth of her younger brother, Marcus. No longer the baby of the family and desperate to regain the spotlight of attention, she turned to playing pranks. First she tried to put him out with the trash (but her father found him), then she tried to stick him in the oven (she'd heard how well it'd worked for Hansel and Gretel) but Josephine found him before she started baking, finally she tried to trade him for some magic beans at the marketplace during a family outing – to no avail. She finally settled for petty tricks - putting slugs in the baby basket, stealing the baby blanket, sticking his rattle in a loaf of bread – from the day he was born until their late teens Marcus was, essentially, Gillian's bitch. He always seemed to enjoy it though, or at least never complained openly about his fate.

When she was eight, it was expected that carefree childhood finished and family obligations began. Adelle had apprenticed herself to her mother in order to help maintain the household and look after her younger siblings, and Taylor had headed out to the fields with his father as soon as he was strong enough to lift the tools. Gillian, loving her family and wanting to be useful and praised, tried her best to help out but always fell short. It was never that she didn't try hard, more that she would lose focus quickly. Who wants to spend a day plowing fields when you can set the horses loose and race alongside them? And why would you sit around waiting for dough to rise when you could be making sculptures instead? And babysitting Marcus, well, it was never fun to act like a grown-up.

In 113 there was a surprise addition to the family in the form of a baby boy named Hunter; well, it was nice to know that mommy and daddy still loved each other after all the chaos of raising a family. Since Gillian had not proven to be the best help around the house, and her parents had no desire to let another child suffer through her babysitting techniques, she was sent into the village to try and find something that would capture her interest long enough to make a worthwhile apprenticeship. She tried a variety of things, including basket weaving (too monotonous) and blacksmithing - the shopkeeper laughed at her when she couldn't pick up the tools, and just when she was building up to the challenge of proving him wrong, she saw Charles' shop. All other thoughts were lost, and she knew she wanted to work there.

He had just moved to the Third Kingdom, and hadn't been in town long enough to hear stories about her prankster habits or lack of attention. And he had shiny, pretty things in the window. She was always a sucker for that. Charles specialized in blown glass, and though there wasn't much of a calling for such niceties in such a small farming town he had moved there anyway, ready to be away from the bustle of larger cities. The people of the town were happy to indulge his craft, and soon nearly everyone had at least one piece of glass artwork and felt a little richer because of it. He was nice, and only chuckled slightly when she asked for apprenticeship. She came back every day for a week and sat in his shop from opening until close until he finally caved to her stubborn will.

Her apprenticeship went smoothly, with the exception of the time she accidentally inhaled on the blowpipe. She couldn't speak for almost a month while her throat and vocal chords healed from the burn, and it was the most miserable time in her life. She hated the quiet of everything, and not being able to talk back to people and laugh and joke. Her loathing of silence grew exponentially in that time. Then she managed to prolong the experience by speaking earlier than she should. When she finally healed completely, the timbre of her voice had taken on a husky quality. She spoke a mile a minute for a whole week and no one could get a word in edgewise.

When Gillian was fifteen, Adelle got married to Christopher Emett, a local tradesman who had investments with exporting goods to the coast. Gillian was one of the bridesmaids, and it was the first time in a long time that she had worn a fancy dress. She had worn trousers since she was twelve when she discovered that tying her skirt between her legs didn't do much to help her climb trees or run races Everyone commented on how different she looked, all done up nice and not covered in dirt. At the reception, one of the village boys, Darren, asked if he could kiss her. Unsure of how to respond, she dared him to a contest. If he could climb one of the beanstalks in the Bean Forest higher than she could, then she supposed it was all right.

So they snuck off with some of the other youths from the village (to make sure the judging was fair), Gillian tucked up her skirts like old times, and they clambered up the stalks. The town was about twenty minutes away from the edge of the Bean Forest, dares concerning entry into the forest were quite common, though few actually went through with them. There is something to be said about the continual storming and off-putting smell of the beanstalks, and though the giants had not been down from the Cloud Kingdom in at least half a century, stories were enough to keep most people at bay. Not young teenagers trying to prove their courage, however. They marched right in, and Gillian and Darren scrambled up the same stalk, egging each other on to go higher. Needless to say, she won despite the skirts (and managed to muck up her only nice dress in the process). It was during this contest that she discovered that climbing beanstalks was quite different than climbing trees, and once high enough her fear of heights kicked in regardless of how wrapped around the leaves she was.

A few days later Darren approached her again, asking for a rematch. She accepted, and this time he won. She found out that she kinda liked kissing him. So she let him keep doing it, as long as he kept beating her at whatever challenges she provided. After a few months, she was quite taken with him and made the challenges easier and easier for him to win. After a year, she just gave up on the challenges altogether. They were in love, and it was really quite cute. They had a special place up in the beanstalks where they went to be alone together. It wasn't terribly romantic, true, but it was the place where everything started and it was theirs. No one ever had a sudden urge to go into the forest without reason, and so they were safely tucked away, not to be disturbed. Gillian made him a glass horn for his birthday, shot through with orange and green. She hooked a sturdy leather strap through it and gave it to him in their special place. He wasn't able to blow it, because she was still learning and had accidentally blocked the air passage, but it was a beautiful present and he loved it quite a lot.

Gillian's family continued to grow as her brother Taylor got married and Adelle had her first child. Her parents were thrilled to have grandchildren, and Gillian was thrilled to have a new audience. Though she had grown out of much of her youthful craze with the stability of a job she enjoyed and a man she loved, she still couldn't resist making a scene of herself, and offered her babysitting services to her siblings every occasion she could. Sera loved to design new hairstyles for Aunt Gillian, and Edward was entranced by stories of her wild youth. Jacob just liked to sleep a lot. Being surrounded by kids made Darren and Gillian start to think, and when she was eighteen, exactly three years since they first kissed, Darren proposed and Gillian accepted.

Time flew by with wedding plans, because everyone enjoys a good wedding and the whole town was slated to show up and take part in the merriment – marriage is a very public event. Everything was running smoothly until six months before the wedding date. Darren had sent for Gillian, telling her to meet him in their spot. She went as soon as Charles closed shop, but when she arrived in the Bean Forest Darren was nowhere to be found. Thinking he was playing a game with her, she spent some time searching until, entirely by chance, she came upon a sight that scared and horrified her. On the ground, barely visible beneath the fallen bean leaves, was a shining shard of glass. When she looked closer, there was even more glass, shot through with green and orange. It was Darren's horn that she had made him, shattered into five salvageable pieces and hundreds of tiny shards.

Standing alone in the Bean Forest is bound to make anyone's thoughts stray towards the horrific. Images of rampaging giants and falls off beanstalks flooded her brain, so she gathered up the broken glass heedless of cuts and began her search with renewed vigor. After an hour with no sign of him, Gillian returned to town with the hope that her imagination was just overreacting and he was home, safe and sound. Unfortunately, no one in town had seen her betrothed since that morning. Where most people would fall to their knees crying over how cruel fate is, Gillian had a decidedly different approach. She vowed to go up to the Cloud Kingdom and discover the fate of her lover, no matter what might happen. From that day on, Gillian has been training herself for the excursion. She's managed to get ¾ of the way up the beanstalks before chickening out, and pushes herself a little further every day. She also runs every morning to keep in shape, because she's heard the stories and wants to make sure she is nimble enough to stay out of reach should she encounter a giant while exploring the Cloud Kingdom.

Strengths- upbeat, friendly, devoted, inventive
Flaws- socially dependent, unfocused, catty, gullible

Gillian has a striking physique that can be quite intimidating. She'd love to be short and dainty, instead of 5'10” and 180 lbs (almost entirely muscle). She loves how her legs look in high heels, but is scary as hell in them so she saves them in her closet to wear in privacy. It's like her dirty little secret, but she feels incredibly intimidating towering above nearly everyone as it is, and heels only make that self-consciousness worse. Her face is long and accentuated by a sharp chin and graceful cheekbones, sprinkled lightly with freckles from spending so much time in the sun. Her skin under most circumstances would be a light cream with olive undertones, and it is these undertones that keep her a golden tan color instead of lobster red. Her tan mostly fades in the winter season to it's usual pale color. Her eyes are a rich hazel, somewhere between brown and green, and have a perpetual dancing, playful quality to them.

Her lips are a soft shade of pink, thin, but constantly broken into a smile. Sometimes that smile is impish, curling at the corners and revealing a dimple in her left cheek. Other times her mouth is broken out into a full-out grin, white teeth showing across the board. Generally though, she is simply seen smiling to herself, like she's got a happy little secret or is humming to herself, lost in thought. She may often appear distracted, but never mindless.

She keeps her hair cut to just below her shoulder, long enough that she can pull it back in a braid and keep it out of her face. She'd like to wear her hair shorter, but her mother and sister won't hear of it. After all, she was cursed with Pretty Hair and they want her to show it off. A lovely shade of honeyed wheat with a hint of strawberry, it shimmers in the sun and has a natural wave that makes it easy to style. It's also hard to disguise when she's out prowling, so she'll tuck it up under a cap. When she does this, adding in the husky quality of her voice since her pipes got scorched, she makes for a very plausible boy.

Preferring trousers to skirts if only for better functionality, she likes loose blouses that allow her to breathe like a human being. She'll wear a false bodice over the blouse for formality's sake, and to keep her breasts from going every which way on her runs, but she's of the belief that clothing should free you - not confine you. Logically that means everyone should run around naked but since that would be obscenely indecent and, well, gross, she'll settle for being as comfortable as she can be, damn the public opinion. Like her secret shoe obsession, she does enjoy the feel of flowy skirts on her legs, but they are as impractical as heeled shoes and so she keeps them tucked away in her closet, only to be brought out on special occasions.

Guardian Name: Sailor Jupiter

Personality Shift: There isn't much of a change in Gillian's temperment when she is Sailor Jupiter, though she does tend to be less frivolous and more focused. She's still upbeat about everything, and looks forward to the challenge of a battle. She's one of those people who would enjoy saying corny jokes mid-fight, and would sit around thinking up stupid puns to make everyone pause and groan at their sheer idiocy.

Fighting Style: Gillian is a strategist. Fighting as a Guardian is one of those times when winning is definitely essential, and as Gillian is the type who wants to do right the first time she will study her enemies until she knows how to defeat them. Often this involves running around a lot and annoying them until they show their weakness, but since she runs on a daily basis anyway she can afford to spend the time figuring out what best to do.

Elements: Plants, sky, noise

Fables: Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Killer

Raiment: using the design pictured [here]

Relic: Trumpet
The same glass horn that Gillian made Darren for his birthday, now repaired. The airway is still mostly blocked but Gillian has developed powerful lungs and can manage to get some sound out of it, though it can be blown silently as well. It's main purpose is a focus for her control of Noise. The glass also appears to have become nearly shatterproof - only an incredible force focused on it would cause a crack in the craftsmanship.

Powers:
Sonorous Roar - After saying "I can hear you, [target]" Gillian will blow on her horn, amplifying whatever sounds the target might be making five times their normal decibel. If she targets a person, for instance, their breathing, heartbeat, footsteps etc would be five times louder. If she targets an area she has to be very specific ("I can hear you, Main Street in Beantown" or "I can hear you, forest 10 feet away from me") and all the sounds within that area will be amplified time five - squirrels on wood, people talking, etc. The effect lasts about 5 minutes depending on how close the target is. If she targets someone two feet away the effect can last up to 15 minutes, but if she targets someone a few kingdoms away it might only last 30 seconds. How far the target is from her also effects her state of exhaustion when it wears off - if they were close and she only targeted briefly then she'll be in fine health. If they were very far away and she sustained the effect as long as she could she would be very weak and need at least an hour (probably more) to recover. Theoretically this effect could be used to target someone across the world or even in the 10th Kingdom, but trying that would likely incapacitate her for a week if she doesn't use another power-source. This power is begging for an upgrade, but for now this power is a good way to locate spys, temporarily deafen and confuse followers, and encourage team-bonding should far-senseing ever be needed.

Beanstalk Bravado - Providing the target is on or near natural ground (no cobblestones, sand, stone etc) Gillian simply has to point to the target and ask "Are you afraid of heights?" to begin the attack. As soon as she speaks this, a beanstalk will grow beneath the target and ensnare them as it makes a rapid ascent to the heavens. As it grows, it squeezes the victim like a boa constrictor, but the attack usually disappates before any damage beyond having the wind knocked out and a few severe bruises occurs. Gillian can only maintain this attack for 30 seconds to 1 minute. The beanstalk will then retreat back into the ground at a rapid speed, dragging the victim back to the ground (so no dangerous falls from great heights unless some sort of rescue attempt is botched). This attack can be repeated multiple times, but with each repetition the beanstalk does not grow as high and will not squeeze as tight. The duration of the attack also suffers with each repetition. Ultimately it ends with the target getting whacked in the chin every few seconds with a miniature sapling popping in and out of the ground.

Fairy Gifts:
Nature's Cohort - Gillian likes flowers and they like her. While she doesn't have a green thumb, plants like to try and be close to her. They'll lean in her direction, lift up to greet her, and dance and play with her if she pays attention to them. She also can sense if the plants are unhappy or unwell, and whether they have been well tended or not.

Elemental Aegis - Gillian has minor protection from weather elements - she won't get wet if it's raining, doesn't get cold if it's snowing, high winds will blow around her, won't burn on a sunny day etc. This only works if the weather is natural and in-progress - if it's stopped snowing, she'll get cold and if the rain is done she'll get wet if she steps in a puddle. If the weather is artificially made, the protection does not hold. She can extend this protection to one other person if she is touching them, but it lessens the effect. She may get drizzled upon in a thunderstorm, or sustain a slight chill in a blizzard.

Piercing Resonance - If ever attention is needed to be got, Gillian can make it happen. She can tap into superior projection techniques, and silence a whole street with a single shout. It leaves most people's ears ringing a bit, but it can never be said that she isn't heard. This can be a useful technique to break apart bickering teammates or getting the attention of a frantic mob.

Eternal Voltage - Whether it is a gift or not, Gillian tends to build up and retain electric charges. Mostly these are subconsciously discharged into the ground, but if she's not been paying attention when there is a change in weather currents you might get a little shock if you touch her. If she focuses, she can build up and transfer a greater charge - this can be useful for jump-starting or temporarily shorting out something.