Dawn McKenna


 * Yes, it was best to keep people as bouncy as Dawn at a safe distance, so that if they did go flamethrower mad they would at least be less likely to drag you down with them.
 * &mdash; Edgar on Agent Dawn


 * Please tell me she's not the model for her universe.
 * &mdash; Clint Barton, SBEI

Dawn is a DMS agent who is completely aware of the fact that she is written by Zingenmir. In fact, they've met. It was unsettling. She is currently unpartnered, though this hasn't prevented her from working with other agents temporarily. Should the Avengersverse OFU finally get started, she will be its co-coordinator/PPC contact.

Appearance
Dawn has light brown hair and blue-green eyes, and is about 5'2" tall. She usually wears a black t-shirt with the DMS flash patch sewn to it with purple (or differently colored) thread, black jeans, and dull green hiking shoes, unless she's in the mood for flowy skirts or some form of canonical dress. She also wears very sparkly nail polish whenever she can find time to put it on, which, given the tendency of missions to provide 'hurry up and wait' time, is fairly frequent.

Personality
Dawn has a long-held tendency to epitomize optimistic bounciness, as well as a love for quoting everything in sight and 'stampeding' at particularly bad moments (so long as someone is there to hold her back). This, and her general veneer of PPC-brand insanity, is mostly a persona developed in response to prolonged badfic exposure. Behind the persona, Dawn is...an optimistic, somewhat bouncy young woman, who cares very deeply about her friends and any animals, children, and other innocents in sight, is easily flustered by flirtation (in her defense, she originally learned much of what she knew on the topic from just about anything but real life), and has a growing backbone where it counts. Beginning perhaps a little before 2015, she slowly lost bits of the persona and gained more maturity, particularly outside of missions; by 2020, she is still recognizably the girl who used to to bounce around with a big grin and multiple quotes and silliness for most occasions, but there is a marked difference between who she became as a teenager and the woman she's grown into over the course of her twenties. With over a decade at the PPC under her belt, she's managed to build a small yet solid group of close friends and friends so close they're family, as well as many acquaintances (hard not to recognize much of HQ by face after so long!) and a good six minis and pets. Not bad, especially considering that the aforementioned persona had a tendency to keep non-like minded agents at arms-length or further.

PPC Career
Dawn McKenna was born Shakhar Ben-Or in World One's Canada, where she was living when she discovered Jay and Acacia's missions around 2006. She joined the PPC just after her fourteenth birthday, changing her name for tradition's sake and due to being sick of mispronunciations at school, and hasn't seriously looked back since. The name change was, of course, more of a translation: Shakhar Ben-Or means, in Hebrew, Dawn Son-of-Light. McKenna, meanwhile, means roughly Son-of-Born-of-Fire (in an Anglicized version of an Irish version of a Scottish Gaelic name). Whether Dawn chose the name from a name meanings list or took it from a branch of her family is currently unknown. Her parents, as well as her younger sister, Me'ira (aka Nariel, an OFUM graduate), and even younger brother, Uri, still usually call her Shakhar, as did Agent Desdendelle when they were dating. Dawn has been through a number of departments over the years. She began in the Department of Mary Sues, having first heard about the PPC due to Jay and Acacia (whom she idolized); upon realizing it wasn't a good fit, she requested a transfer and was eventually moved to the Department of Misplaced Flora and Fauna. She remained there for about a year and a half, and developed most of her insanity during that time. In 2009, she was transferred to the Department of Bad Slash; this, too, was a bad fit, and she requested a transfer yet again. This brought her to the Department of Intelligence, which she was quickly kicked out of.

Upon abandoning her short-lived career as a Spy, Dawn joined the Department of Geographical Aberrations, where she was partnered with a Vulcan named T'Zar. T'Zar proved a stabilizing influence on the newly-minted Pyro, and Dawn soon learned to trust and rely on her new partner. The two remained close even after Dawn's transfer back to the DMS in 2012, and were both more content for it. At the start of Dawn's second term as an Assassin, she was partnered with Kozar, a TOS-era Klingon. She discovered that, at nineteen, she was now better suited to the role, and proceeded to actually get along reasonably well with her new partner. This lasted until nearly a year later, when Dawn acquired a tribble and refused to get rid of it. Kozar left for the DIC within the month. Dawn has yet to be assigned another permanent partner, although she was temporarily partnered with Zeb from August to October of 2015 and promptly took the fluffy blue lion-creature under her wing. She has also worked with multiple temporary partners, some only briefly (like Wobbles and the Notary) and some more extensively (like Jacques Bonnefoy, whom she met in 2013 and befriended over the course of the next year or so).

Dawn has not had too much romance in her life, for a variety of reasons. Currently, her longest lasting attempt was with Agent Desdendelle, from July 2015 until his retirement in March 2017. The breakup was reasonably amicable. Dawn has rescued (and helped rescue) a number of badfic children over the years. In September 2015, she and Zeb rescued a young Elf from a Lord of the Rings mission (movieverse). Dawn renamed her Lainduilien, meaning roughly "free river"), in reference to her origin as a female Legolas. (This is a father-name, the first name an Elf is given, which can be used by everyone and typically includes a piece of a parent's name. In this case, -duil, "river", is taken from Thranduil, meaning "vigorous river"). Comments made by Dawn after bringing Lainduilien to the Nursery suggest that she has at least sometimes looked in on past rescues. She has likely done the same with Lainduilien.

Dawn's luck in avoiding missions to Legendary Badfic ran out in December 2019, when she joined Jacques on a mission to "Partially Kissed Hero." What happened on that mission has yet to be revealed; thus far it is known only that they rescued a child, whom Jacques subsequently adopted after their return in January 2020.

Timeline

 * 2006
 * December - Dawn joins the PPC, and is placed in the DMS.
 * 2007
 * January/February - Dawn requests a transfer.
 * March/April - Dawn is transferred to the DMFF.
 * 2009
 * January - Dawn is transferred to the DBS. She requests a transfer soon after, which is eventually granted.
 * May - Dawn is transferred to the DoI. She is summarily kicked out, and transferred to DOGA, where she is partnered with T'Zar.
 * 2010
 * June - Dawn breaks a bone for the first time, while on a mission with T'Zar and T'Zar's former partner Abaddon.
 * 2012
 * early - Dawn is transferred back to the DMS and partnered with Kozar.
 * 2013
 * March 2 - Kozar is transferred to the DIC. Dawn remains unpartnered and in the DMS.
 * April - Dawn is involved in the events of the Blackout, as detailed in The 'Verses Aim To Misbehave (link below).
 * 2014
 * Works with Jacques Bonnefoy on multiple missions.
 * Goes to T'Zar for advice on a serious issue.
 * 2015
 * July - Dawn is called in by Kozar for an Eragon/Twilight crossover mission. She adopts Sam's pov and Tafe the mini-Badgermole.
 * July - Dawn meets Des at Rudi's. They share several cups of tea and a long conversation. Not long after, they begin to date.
 * late August - Dawn Impresses Gwilithiel.
 * late August - Dawn is temporarily partnered with Zeb.
 * September - Dawn and Zeb rescue Lainduilien. Dawn meets the (newly returned) Aviator.
 * September 27 - Dawn introduces Zeb to T'Zar, Abaddon, and Jacques Bonnefoy.
 * October - Zeb is re-partnered with the Aviator, leaving Dawn partner-less once more.
 * October (1 week later) - Dawn meets and works with the Notary and Wobbles the Clown.
 * 2016
 * very late May - Talks to Des about joining the PPC before high school.
 * June 10 - Joins Zeb and the Aviator on a Harry Potter mission, and helps rescue about twenty uncanonical babies.
 * 2017
 * March - Dawn prepares for the annual Purim party with T'Zar and Abaddon. She is dressed as Thor.
 * March - Des retires. Dawn goes to T'Zar for advice.
 * 2018
 * December - Begins a mission to the Legendary Badfic "Partially Kissed Hero".
 * 2019
 * January - Returns from the "Partially Kissed Hero" mission.

Minis/Pets
While Dawn is currently partnerless, she does share her RC with a number of minis and pets. The mini-Balrogs Kelaborn and Gladladriel have been with her longest. They are usually calm and wise; they are also over protective of Dawn, who needs it. Or at least, they think she does. They may even be right.

In early 2013, Dawn acquired a tribble. The tribble (name of Smorgaz) is a very normal tribble: it purrs, trills, and dislikes Klingons (the feeling is definitely mutual, and led to Kozar's moving out several months later).

In July 2015, Sam's pov and Tafe the mini-Badgermole joined the group. Sam's pov is a very normal pov, in that it wanders around being cute and going 'snrf'. Tafe is the somewhat grumpy, no-nonsense sort.

Yet another addition to RC 18, as of late August 2015, is the golden fire-lizard Gwilithiel ("daughter of air" in Sindarin). As befits a gold, she is imperious and loves attention. Admire her, and she'll be your best friend at once. She's also quite playful.

AUs
Dawn has also appeared in some uncanonical stories, listed at the very end of this page. Among these are a solo DC Arrowverse mission, and a Young Wizards AU in which she and Jacques are wizards.

October 2009

 * Interlude 1: "That Blessed Arrangement"
 * That blessed arrangement, that dream within a dream... Humanity’s take on marriage is incomprehensible as ever. Set in October 2009, with a 2016 coda.

June 2010

 * Interlude 2: "Caution: Humans May Be Fragile", with Abaddon
 * Seventeen-year-old DOGA agent Dawn McKenna is injured in a new way while on a joint mission with her partner and her partner’s former partner.

April 2013

 * Appears in "The 'Verses Aim To Misbehave" (Blackout interlude, in-progress)
 * The story of how a Boarder ended up in HQ and Gotham's lampposts went missing (among other things).

May 2015

 * Mentioned in "Completely Mistaken" (Eragon/Lord of the Rings), Kozar and the Reader (DIC), and Rina Dives and Zeb (DMS)
 * Rina and the Reader have a chance encounter in the hallways, and find out that their teams have been paired up to tackle a bad crossover. Dramedy ensues.

July 2015

 * Mission 1: "Of Guilty Pleasures and Utter Tripe" (Eragon/Twilight), with Kozar (DIC), and Kala Jeng and Valon Vance (DF)
 * Kozar calls in his ex-partner and two canon experts for a crossover between two of the worst works defended by the PPC.
 * Interlude 3: "Happy Idiot Talk"
 * In which Dawn meets Des and silliness ensues.
 * Appears in "Arbitrary" (Star Wars x Avatar: The Last Airbender), Desdendelle and The Librarian
 * The fic is arbitrary, the rest is not.
 * Set soon after "Happy Idiot Talking."
 * Interlude 4: "Helpless in the Face of Your Beauty"
 * Des and Dawn drink tea. Fluff ensues.

August 2015

 * Appears in "Fire Lizard Hatching RP Log"
 * Dawn trades for a fire lizard egg and Impresses Gwilithiel.
 * Mission 2: "A Temporary Arrangement" (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
 * Dawn gets a temporary partner and explores a new canon.

September 2015

 * Appears in "Lasting Damage II"
 * The aftermath of "Grey Area" is explored.
 * Mission 3: "Spring Cleaning" (NSFW/B)
 * Dawn and her temporary partner Zeb get a Harry Potter harem fic that leaves them wishing for brain bleach.
 * Set shortly after "Lasting Damage II."
 * Mission 4: "Baby Elf, Ent-queen"
 * The Aviator returns, and Zeb and Dawn go on their last recorded mission together as partners.
 * Interlude 5: "Meeting the Exes", with T'Zar, Jacques Bonnefoy, and the Aviator
 * Dawn makes good on her promise to Zeb and takes him to meet two of her old partners.
 * Appears in "Irregular Apocalypse" (Harry Potter), Desdendelle and the Librarian, and the Aviator
 * Zeb and Dawn come in from a successfully completed Star Wars/Lord of the Rings mission and later leave on another one.

October 2015

 * Mission 5: "Fishing For Competence" (Doctor Who), with the Notary and Wobbles the Clown (DF)
 * There's something fishy going on with Rose Tyler, and Dawn teams up with a Time Lady and a children's television presenter to sort it out.

May 2016

 * Interlude 6: "Invincible"
 * Des and Dawn discuss education.

June 2016

 * Mission 6: "Babies, Babies Everywhere"
 * The Aviator and Zeb call in Dawn for help when food poisoning and mass magical pregnancy become too much for them.

March 2017

 * Interlude 7: "Come As You Aren’t"
 * Dawn, Abaddon, and T'Zar prepare for the 2017 Purim Party.
 * Interlude 8: "What’ll I Do"
 * Dawn turns to one of her oldest friends for advice.

April 2017

 * Appears in "Do-Si-Do"
 * Abaddon has been caught in the power of a Stu; T’Zar must save him, with the help of a well-known Vulcan ability. Set late April 2017.
 * Dawn appears in memory and by mention.

April Fool's Day Stories and AUs (not canonical unless noted otherwise)

 * 'Blade', or "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." (April Fool's Day 2013 version of the mission for "Blade"), Agents Brenda Loringham and Charlotte Shoe (DMS)
 * Agents Brenda Loringham and Charlie Shoe try their best not to kill each other while battling equipment failures and Laiqualassiel, the half-Elf, half-nymph healer of Middle-earth.
 * (Featuring cameos by Agents Edgar and Dawn, over 3,000 words of silliness, and the story that wouldn’t end.)
 * T'Zar's Reassignment (April Fool's Day 2014)
 * Reality falls apart as Agents Abaddon and T'Zar take the Reader’s TARDIS for a joyride (to Gallifrey!) The Reader follows with the Disentangler and the Agent.
 * The Carrot Juice Shop AU (April Fool's Day 2015)
 * In which a new shop has opened up near the PPC, and everyone goes there.
 * A Meeting At Rudi's (Borderline canonical)
 * In which T’Zar talks about her latest mission and Dawn is confused.
 * 'My Perfect Life', or "When I grow up I wanna be famous…" (April Fool's Day 2017. Rated T)
 * An Arrowverse mission from an unusual perspective. Please read the content warning at the beginning.
 * "Far Out"
 * Young Wizards AU, prequel to "Gambit." In which wizards Jacques and Dawn meet for the first time, and work together despite beginning to clash.
 * "Gambit" - T-rated (violence and description/discussion thereof)
 * Young Wizards AU. In which wizards Jacques Bonnefoy and Dawn McKenna face off against the Lone Power.