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re: Cricket Verdigris's Bio
 by Cricket Verdigris on Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:37 am
Just some basic info on the little green teen Green Lantern of the team.
Name: Cricket Verdigris
Real Name: 
Allignment: Hero
Age: 16
Birthplace: Oa
Occupation: Green Lantern Recruit/High School Student
Powers:
Green Lantern Ring- Cricket's ring grants her the Lanterns' ability to create hard light constructs based on the power of her will and design of her imagination. Being the "most powerful weapon in the universe", she has shown to be exceptionally skilled not only in creating and maintaining constructs, but also her creativity in how they are used. Aside from the constructs, her ring also grants her the typical Lantern abilities of being able to shield herself and others in a sphere of hard light, switch between her costume and civillian clothes (and augment her costume to her will), and grants her flight abilities. She also fires charges of green energy from her bare hands as a form of ranged weapon, or uses her ring to create constructs that protect her hands and empower melee attacks in battle. The ring also gives her important information, guides her where she needs to be, or gives her commands from the Guardians. Her ring needs to be charged with a Lantern Power Battery, which she also possesses, about once every 24 hours (see "natural abilities" below for more).
Exceptional Memory- Cricket's able to remember a large number of facts, including which planets are located in which Space Sectors and, in many cases, the Lanterns assigned to the Sector. She also remembers many of the teachings from the Guardians, which come from the Book of Oa, and other assorted stats and information of various importance. Her memory isn't perfect, but it's superior when compared to the average teenager's. She knows a great deal about the cultures, beliefs, and even anatomical facts about many alien races due to her interactions with other Lanterns and exceptional memory retention skills.
Multilingual- Cricket speaks at least three languages fluently (a universal language spoken on Oa amongst the Lanterns, her father's native language of English, and her mother's native language), as well as varying degrees of other languages spoken by Green Lanterns. Growing up, she would sometimes confuse the languages she knew, creating "her own language" that was a mixture of words and syntax from several languages. Although that's more or less sorted out, she still sometimes switches to another language when a word or phrase in the language she is currently speaking escapes her. She can also read and write in both of her parents' languages fluently, and is also able to read and write in Interlac (which appears to be her primary written language).
Natural Abilities- Although Cricket herself isn't aware of this, she actually naturally acts as a type of low-level Green Power Battery, due to being conceived, born, and raised so close to the Central Power Battery of Oa. It is also the reason for her green features. Because of this, she can supercharge her ring for a short period of time, or continue to power it past when it should have run out of energy, although doing so causes her great physical exhaustion and she only does so in emergency situations, usually without realizing she's doing it. She is also especially sensitive to things that effect the Central Power Battery and the Emotional Spectrum as a whole, but she generally assumes that this is true of all Lanterns, so she doesn't address this.
Personality: Cricket is usually a very upbeat, optimistic, and excitable girl. Although she is very knowledgable in certain areas (namely, the ones involving the Green Lantern Corps), she is ignorant or naive in many others. She doesn't let this get her down, however, being eager to learn more and experience more, especially on Earth (as she was relatively sheltered on Oa). At times, she can be very blunt or tactless, not understanding that certain people have certain hang-ups when it comes to some subjects, which can take people off guard. She usually does this when she connects something she doesn't know to something that she does, and wishes to clarify she and the person she is speaking with are thinking about the same thing.
However, in battle, Cricket's personality shifts entirely, and she becomes almost a completely different person. She is incredibly driven, refusing to give up or lose a fight, even stating flat-out that she will either win or die trying. Failure is simply not an option to her, especially where her loved ones are concerned, and when people she cares about are threatened, she can get incredibly aggressive, almost to the point of excessive force. It's not hard to imagine that when she is like this, she could easily be tipped to give in to her rage completely.
No one in the universe is harder on Cricket than herself, and this includes her short-tempered father or notorious task-masters like Kilowog. Whereas many people with a similar upbringing would automatically assume they are better than recruits who know nothing of the Corps before joining, Cricket instead believes that it's her duty to perform to a higher standard, perhaps unreachably high. Failure will result in her being melancholy, followed by rage at herself and her situation, followed by trying again, even if it's not authorized or wise. Not only does this extend to actual battles, but to training, studying, and carrying out other assignments. Her intensity makes her both feared and admired amongst the reservists and other new recruits, but worries many of the veterans, who admire the strength of her will but fear that if she continues on this path, her career will be cut tragically short.
Also, Cricket has a level of perceptiveness that she tries to hide, preferring not to upset people or cause more problems by vocalizing her own observations. For example, she has figured out her mother's cheerful, ditzy demeanor around her is all an act for her own sake, and pretends that it work on her so that her mother can have peace of mind. She knows more about what her father and some of the other Lanterns she has become close to have gone through, and the guides some of her behavior around them, but she still has to act blissfully naive of these tragedies lest she dig up their old wounds, even if she wants to know more.
In all, Cricket is a rather complicated girl, who tries to hide it by acting simple, sweet, and cheerful around those she cares about so that they don't worry about her (and she IS genuinely happy, for the most part), and displays an incredible ferocity where the Corps is concerned, as it has been not only a big part of her life, but for most of it, her entire life, period. She is a person of extremes, giving all or nothing, either being radiantly bright or disturbingly dark, depending on the situation at hand. One can only hope this extreme attitude doesn't lead her to become an example of the phrase "it's better to burn out than to fade away".
History: Cricket was born on Oa, her real name being Sabrina Kr'Tera Gardner. Her father is Green Lantern Honor Guard member Guy Gardner, the infamous hot-head of the Corps known for his rash actions and abrasive personality. Her mother, on the other hand, is Rn'Gara, one of the two Green Lanterns from the planet Thaza in Sector 729, and the one representing the Tinali race, one of the two major sentient races of the planet (the Tinali are somwhat insect-like in appearance, but are closer to mammals biologically). Her parents were never officially together, and Cricket isn't sure if they had an actual relationship at one point or only the one time when she was conceived (and frankly, that's a bit more than she wants to know about her parents' sex lives).
After Cricket was born, it was decided for her own safety and for the sake of convenience she would be raised on Oa largely by her father, who had taken up permanent residence there. At least, this was the story she was always told by her parents, and the story her father seems to believe. The truth, as Cricket has come to suspect from hearing stories of her mother's successes as a Green Lantern in a troubled Sector on a troubled and divided planet, is that her mother "sacrificed" her for the sake of Guy. Namely, because of everything Guy had endured physically and emotionally over the years, and the fact that there were still volatile powers within him that could destroy him and possibly many others if they were to surface, Rn'Gara agreed (on the suggestion of the Guardians) to let Guy raise Cricket largely alone so that he would know unconditional love at last, and she would bring him happiness and give him a reason to keep himself together.
Rn'Gara visited her daughter whenever she could, adopting a ditzy and absent-minded persona around her in order to hide how difficult it was for her to see the child she was essentially forced to give up, something that Cricket, as she began to see through it, not only came to admire about her mother, but adopted a bit of herself. As for her father, Cricket has never had any illusions about how others see him or regarding his temper and attitude, but at the same time, is quick to defend him, and truly adores him. Aside from her relationship with her parents, she also developed relationships to varying degrees with many other Lanterns, but especially the ones from Earth, including Hal Jordan (who she calls "Uncle Hal" privately), who has acted as a more stable influence in her life and offset her father's obstinate and unyielding attitudes and ways at times, acting as a buffer between the two when they disagree; and Kyle Rayner (who she sometimes calls "Uncle Kyle"), who was more avuncular toward the little girl, using his skills with design to entertain her and give her ideas for her own costumes and constructs (and eventually, he became her first crush).
On Oa, Cricket was educated as much as possible by her father and whoever was available to handle her education. Aside from learning the basics, from a very early age she also went through much of the same training that the new Lantern Recruits go through, including learning about the Corps and what it means to be a Green Lantern, how to use the rings effectively (although she didn't have one herself), and much of the rigorous physical training involved. Also, because of the huge number of active Green Lanterns, from day to day she could expect to see many different races around her, with different languages, beliefs, and cultures, which educated her further, but also made her fit in "everywhere and no where", a fact that she is not entirely disappointed by.
Despite her upbringing and training, it was never taken for granted that Cricket would one day be a Green Lantern herself. After all, knowledge was only part of the job, and proving herself worthy and necessary would be the rest. Eventually, it came to pass that she became a recruit: shortly after the Brainiac invasion of Earth, she recieved her ring and power battery and was told she would report to Earth in Sector 2814 to help deal with the emergency. There was some confusion over whether she is viewed as being like the reservists (the many temporary Lanterns recruited short-term until the Brainiac crisis is resolved) or if she was an actual recruit. Although the latter seems the most likely, Cricket herself has only theorized as much and doesn't dare hope she'll get to keep her ring when her assignment is over.
On Earth, she adopted the name "Cricket Verdigris" (picking the first green thing she saw a picture of and a synonym for "green" from a dictionary) in order to have her own "secret identity", and in part to hide her connection to two active and high-profile lanterns from the other recruits and reservists. Only Corps members recruited before the Brainiac crisis and Pollux Protean know what her real name is, and she has given them strict orders not to use it or reveal it while she is working on Earth.
Not only has she had a chance to be a "true Lantern" on Earth, at Hal Jordan's encouragement, she enrolled in high school in order to better understand Earth culture and history. She also met Pollux Protean, a boy her age that initially interested her because he was green in color, unlike other humans she had seen. Although this shallow interest/curiosity is what initially caused her to introduce herself to him, she has become increasingly close to him during her time on Earth, not entirely understanding (or is unwilling to admit to herself) her strong feelings toward him. She does, however, enjoy that he can make her laugh, that he is brave and selfless in situations that most people in his position would deem over their head, and that he is both very smart and compassionate. She feels that he, like herself, has hidden depths to his personality, and would enjoy getting to know more about him, although she doesn't want to dig up any old wounds or dark secrets (one of the things that makes her hesitant to have very serious conversations with him) and is still wary of letting him see her own vulnerability.
Last edited by Cricket Verdigris on Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:53 am; edited 1 time in total
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