Bonnie

Bonnie owns a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant situated in the Research District, colloquially known as the "Cat Cafe". She's a single mom and loves her child, Kip, more than anything in life.

She is a prolific roller derby player - you may know her as Bruiserella of the Step City Sweethearts! The Sweethearts are a heel team in the Step City Roller Derby League, of which Bonnie is the captain and Pivot.

9 years ago, she stepped down from the Roller Banditos. She's trying to leave those years behind her. But she lends a helping hand to the 'ditos when asked, even though she doesn't know most of these newbies... (how do you do, fellow kids?)

Most folks' first impression of her is that she is strong - both physically and personality-wise. To her friends, she is affectionate, generous, and fiercely loyal. But to her rivals, she is brash, stubborn, and sometimes even downright rude.

If you manage to earn Bonnie's trust, she will drop anything to come to your aid. Having spent most of her life in the RD, most of her friends are Squares and Banditos. She remains distrustful towards anyone she perceives as "having an easy life"; high-ranking Mafia and UG. But perhaps her heart has softened over the years, because she's begun to face her biases and make acquaintances from all factions.

She has a soft spot for cats, children, and folks down on their luck. She has a thing about taking in strays...

She is stubbornly independent. She struggles with accepting help from others.

But she's also (not-so-secretly) a romantic who craves companionship.

Tropes:
Mama Bear | Action Girl | Team Mom | Amazonian Beauty | Badass and Child Duo | Violently Protective Girlfriend | Red Eyes, Take Warning | Bruiser with a Soft Centre | Kind Hearted Cat Lover

- There's lots of speculation about who Kip's "dad" is. In truth, the other half of Kip's parentage is an anonymous donor. Bonnie is upfront about this, but folks still like to spread rumours...
- Bonnie was separated from her twin sister Rachel on V-Day. She spent the last 25 years believing that Rachel was dead. In truth, she's alive and well, aligned with the Funk Mafia. Recently, Bonnie stumbled across Rachel's profile on StepBook... she hasn't worked up the nerve to message her just yet.
- She was raised secular Jewish, and carries on some childhood traditions in her adult life. But she currently considers herself agnostic.
- In her teens/young adulthood, she played drums in a riot grrrl band that she started with a few friends. They were very... loud.

Punk, hard, and classic rock are her brand. Spent her youth going to punk shows, thrashing in the mosh pit.
She likes to sing; she has a deep, slightly raspy lyrical soprano voice.
She can play percussion and a bit of guitar.
Due to her friends' influences, she listens to a bit of swing, jazz, soul, and R&B.
She likes disco, but she will take that secret to her grave.

Bonnie's trademark dance style is her own freestyle form of roller dance.
Off her skates, she likes swing and ballroom dance.
She spent her formative years thrashing in mosh pits.
She privately thinks roller disco is pretty fun.

Vibe
Strength Amplification - Bad Reputation

Bonnie has the ability to power herself up through dance; she can greatly increase the strength of her body. She can also intimidate targets. Through physical training, Bonnie can lift her current weight - that amount can increase up to 3x through the power of her Vibe. When her Vibe is activated within a tolerable range, she still has complete control over her strength and will only use her full strength if she wants to.

Physical blows against others will hurt the target physically; a more powered-up Bonnie = a more powerful punch. If Bonnie is also powered up enough, her blows will expel a small green energy blast that will knock the target back. Targets may also be intimidated by her increased strength; some may even flinch or run away.

It is a Vibe that is strongly tied to Bonnie's emotions. The longer she uses her Vibe, the angrier she becomes, and she may lose herself to that rage. If she begins dancing while she's already angry, her Vibe will power up a bit faster. Therefore, her Vibe is extremely beneficial in a fight.

Amplifying Others - Whip It!

Through physical touch, Bonnie's strength amplification can affect other Steppers. The target's physical strength is increased by 2x. As long as Bonnie is touching the target, this ability persists. When she lets go, the effect lasts 30 seconds before the target's stats revert back to normal. Bonnie also loses a bit of her own strength while amplifying the target's. She regains her fully amplified strength as the target's returns to normal. The target may feel a bit exhausted afterward if they're not a naturally strong person.

While this ability is beneficial to Bonnie's allies, it unfortunately also works on her foes. Punching a foe will both hurt them physically and assist them by amplifying their strength for 30 seconds.

It does not affect the Jamdeaf.

Since her Vibe is so strongly tied to her emotions, on rare occasions she may share her anger with others, and feel their emotions in return. This depends on the constitution of the other person; they also have an emotion-related Vibe, they are dancing in perfect sync with Bonnie, etc...

Passive Vibe Effects - Eye of the Tiger

When her Vibe is activated, Bonnie's eyes glow a faint green. The longer she uses it, the brighter her eyes glow.

When her Vibe isn't activated and she gets angry, her eyes may flash green.

Dangers - Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherry Bomb!

The biggest downside to Bonnie's power is that if she uses her Vibe for too long, it will begin to affect her sense of judgement. This usually manifests in the form of anger; anger will begin to cloud Bonnie's mind, eventually leading to her "raging". She has no control over her increased physical strength, and most weak targets will run away. If she doesn't calm down soon enough, the energy of her Vibe will explode out of her in a green burst, causing anything around her to be blasted away. If this happens, Bonnie will immediately pass out. When she comes to after exploding, she'll be in an extremely weakened state and won't be able to use her Vibe for a few hours.

It's been a long time since she's exploded. She's learned the limits of her Vibe through experience.

Step 1 - after a few moves
Bonnie's strength increases by 1.5x. Her appearance may intimidate a weak target.

Step 2 - 30 seconds of dancing
Strength increases by 2x. Her punches are extremely powerful and will badly injure targets. Bonnie can amplify the strength of others through touch.

Step 3 - 4 minutes
Strength increases by 2.5x. Bonnie will intimidate targets and may make them flinch/run away. Punches will knock a target across the room. At this stage, Bonnie feels overstimulated but is still in a sane state of mind.

Step 4 - 30 minutes
Strength increases by 3x. Punches will expel an energy burst and blow the target back across a distance of a city street. The target will most likely be severely injured. At this step, Bonnie begins to feel extremely agitated and aggressive.

Step 5 - 1 hr
Strength increases by ???? Bonnie's mind is overcome by anger. She loses control of her actions and cannot distinguish between foe and ally. Blows to others will knock them out (or cause life-threatening injury, with the player's consent)

Step 6 - ???
An explosion of energy from Bonnie's body knocks anything around her across the room. Bonnie passes out.