Kara Balmer

Kara (right) playing Hop Dance Mania with Eli.

Spirit Guard Charity.

**Kara Balmer** is a character in *Magical Girl Policy*. Reincarnated from the Mender, Kara was chosen by Fate to become a Champion to protect Earth, and took up the guise of **Spirit Guard Charity**, the fourth member of the Spirit Guard, about four months prior to the start of the series. She battles monsters in Kessia City, with her secret identity known only to the Spirit Guards and their allies. She is a freshman at SAU, residing in Room 218 of Butterworth Hall, the women's dorms. Living with her are her friend and teammate Vivian as well as Noriko, eventually being joined by Rob.

## Appearance

Kara has a slim build and is short, though she is noted to be taller than the 5'2'' Robynne. Her hair reaches just past her chin and is a sky blue color called bluenette. She has blue eyes. She is soft-spoken and has a high-pitched voice. According to Eli, her most attractive features are her legs and rear. Artwork often depicts her in yellow clothing, matching the color of her Spirit Guard costume.

As Spirit Guard Charity, her appearance is largely unchanged, but her hair slightly shortens and its empathokinetic charge keeps it still, though Charity can move it herself. Her costume consists of a yellow two-piece cheerleader uniform and heeled boots, with artwork also giving her white gloves. She carries a recurve bow. Though the bowstring is made up of conjured light like the arrows Charity creates, when not in use it becomes invisible yet still tangible, making it appear as if Charity can carry the bow on her back with seemingly nothing to hold it in place. The Disconnection Effect and Hush Corps work to block those who would associate Kara with Charity.

Prior to transforming for the first time, Kara was an inch or two shorter. She also struggled with asthma.

## Personality

Taralynn Andrews describes writing Kara as a "streetwise homemaker" who likes to take care of others. Kara has a gentle, motherly demeanor, and envisions herself as becoming an excellent stay-at-home mother. She is perceptive of other's feelings and can easily insert herself into a group. Growing up in a family with five brothers has made her skilled in conflict resolution, often using a kind statement to lower the tension. She credits her tact to one of her brothers being a defense attorney. She prides herself as being approachable, always willing to offer advice to her friends. She is affectionate and likes to hug others. She also has a stern side, however, and will chastise her friends for unbecoming actions. This is driven by her greatly valuing self improvement, and her sincerity tends to make her frank remarks less cutting and more an invitation to emotionally open up.

Kara is one who prefers to look ahead and has concrete goals laid out for her future. She believes that analyzing the underlying causes of issues has limited practicality compared to confronting the challenge head-on and learning from the experience. Placing confidence in her forward-facing nature, she apparently fears losing her way because she is uneasy at changing her plans, such as the idea of switching her major from nursing to business.

Kara takes after her father with her love of cooking, as she's liked to help him in the kitchen since she was young. She is health-conscious and prefers to make wholesome foods, but also enjoys baking sweets, and in general likes to experiment with different flavors. She is a skilled cook and likes to share her food with others, feeling it is a strong expression of love. She believes her fondness for sharing sweets in particular stems from her finding it was an effective way to connect with her sometimes aloof brothers. At the suggestion of her brothers, she has started trying her hand at selling her foods, and she dreams of someday opening a sweets shop. She once considered pursuing a bakery, but after working at one she found the work too intense for her liking. Kara's industriousness is a trait common among her family.

Kara's other hobby is the dancing video game *Hop Dance Mania*, which she finds to be a great form of exercise. She uses this as her portal into SFEERS, though she mainly joins the club to be with Robynne and Eli. Unlike other members of the club, she doesn't interact online and thus doesn't create a handle, simply going by her first name, and is generally unfamiliar with nerd culture.

While transformed into Spirit Guard Charity, she is granted access to the Mender's combat instincts, though she was initially very nervous about entering battle. She takes a defensive role in battle, fighting from a distance, creating barriers, and healing allies. She feels it would be cheating to use her powers for convenience in everyday life since so few people have access to them.

## Abilities

Kara is prominently skilled in the kitchen: she is very good at cooking and baking. Her treats are considered good enough to sell, which is something she would like to pursue. She once worked at a bakery, but found the job too demanding, so she would rather have the less intense job of running a sweets shop.

Like the other Spirit Guard, Kara has an aura of a plant scent: a grassy, dewy field of daisies during sunrise. The aura flares up while transformed into Charity, protecting her from most forms of non-empathokinetic damage, including bullets.

Kara's empathokinetic perception is average among the Spirit Guard, being slightly keener than Vivan's but noticeably weaker than Angela's. She is pained when Investiture is drained in her vicinity. Her EKP improves as Charity and allows her to sense even regular emotions. Because her healing is empathokinetic in nature, Charity's EKP can guide her when performing surgery where her eyesight does not suffice, such as when Placid Mist renders both her and her patient invisible.

Kara's complex Investiture grants her a strong resistance to having it drained by a monster. Prior to transforming for the first time, calling upon her Investiture revealed her Ardent Resonance, which presumably took the form of a yellow glow around her body and the Ardentian symbol of charity on her forehead, which marked her as a future Spirit Guard.

Kara transforms into Spirit Guard Charity by holding her Spirit Stick and, while feeling charitable, pulling the baton apart and speaking a key phrase to it. This obscures her in a yellow glow that renders her invulnerable during the transformation. She is placed in a sort of pocket dimension dubbed the Transformation Station while the process completes. She reverts to her normal form by either losing consciousness or willing her power to return to her Investiture while subconsciously feeling out of danger, though her body returning to normal leaves her feeling weak for a short time. She initially took a few minutes to power down due to trouble being collected enough to do so, but now her power-down time is relatively quick and comparable to Vivian's.

Transforming into Charity grants superhuman attributes and the Mender's combat instincts to use them. She usually fires arrows of light to keep the monster on its toes so her teammates can capitalize on an opening. Her healing and barrier abilities make her adept at defending her allies and civilians, but such skills require her to give away portions of her energy and thus can fatigue her. Her energy-intensive power set can exhaust her, so she often falls into a deep sleep not long after a difficult battle.

Charity can mentally summon her weapon to her hands as well as dismiss it. It initially takes the form of a pair of yellow pompoms, but clapping them together switches between this form and its true appearance of a bow, with its string and arrows made out of conjured yellow light. Her special moves require her to speak the name of the move, which utilize the element of light. In addition to her special moves, she can create a small laser from her fingertip for surgery and use hand gestures to control its width, conjure a string of light for uses such as tying her hair back, and fire an incorporeal arrow to illuminate an area.

Charity has a fast-acting healing factor that seals up wounds, prioritizing the smaller ones. It also attempts to keep her appearance consistent, but her powers being particularly energy-intensive often makes her fatigue apparent. Powering down resets Kara's body to how it was when she powered down for the first time. Kara herself has a lesser healing factor that acts like an accelerated version of the human body's natural regeneration. Both forms of healing are fueled by calories, so Kara tends to eat a lot throughout the day following an exhausting battle.

The Disconnection Effect causes those who look at Spirit Guard Charity or her image to mentally view her as an entity distinct from Kara, but it's weakened via repeated exposure. The effect applies on some level even to those who know she's Kara, perceiving the two forms slightly differently. It also prevents Charity herself from accidentally calling her fellow Spirit Guard by their real names.

Kara occasionally receives visions of her past life as the Mender during her sleep, complete with the Mender's emotions and other sensations. While said visions provide information on the Ardent Empire and thus some background on the Spirit Guard's mission, the team believes they're actually granted in order to help the Spirit Guard in the future.

### Special moves

* **Altruistic Barrier:** A round barrier of light that can absorb attacks appears either near herself or at a selected point some distance away from her. Empathokinetic attacks that aren't completely blocked are reduced in intensity. She has control over a barrier's size, with its durability usually inversely proportional to its surface area. Charity has also been shown to create very small barriers without needing to say "Altruistic Barrier", and can manipulate them in a manner similar to a pump during surgery.
* **Generous Barrage:** Fires a flurry of arrow-shaped projectiles made of light from her bow. The arrows have homing capabilities and each can fly in different trajectories to reach their target. The target is selected as soon as the shot is fired, and EKP can detect this to predict how each arrow will fly.
* **Clement Pierce:** Fires an arrow of light from her bow that, when it hits a target, dulls the target's pain and accelerates their regeneration.
* **Giving Hands:** Balls of light appear from Charity's hands. They can be directed into a target to serve as a sort of X-ray, displaying medical data pertaining to the displayed area as well. They can also be used to channel her energy into the target in order to heal them.

## Biography

### Background

Kara Balmer grew up in the Kessia City area as the youngest child of a family with five older brothers, who are very protective of her. Liking to join her father in the kitchen since she was little, Kara took up cooking at an early age. She developed a fondness for sharing treats with others when she found it was an effective way to connect with her sometimes aloof brothers. Kara took a job at a bakery one summer, but the backbreaking work made her decide she would rather have the lower-maintenance task of running a sweets shop. During high school, Kara joined the yearbook staff and befriended fellow member Vivian Feliz during this time. When Kara was volunteering at a hospital, a monster attacked and the Spirit Guard arrived. Kara was overwhelmed to learn she was to be the next Spirit Guard and was too nervous to join the fight until she saw Valor's elbow pulled from its socket, so she transformed into Spirit Guard Charity to attack the monster and heal Valor. According to Rob's research in Chapter 5, Charity's first publicly known appearance was a battle against Confection Cathy at Kessia City High School's bake sale four months prior to the start of the series, but this contradicts Angela's story of the hospital monster in Chapter 16.

Kara decided to attend Schuyler Adamson University to pursue a nursing degree, sharing a dorm in Butterworth Hall apartment 218 with Vivian and Noriko, with Ms. Kuna arranging for a slot to be left open in Noriko's room in case a future fifth Spirit Guard needs it.

At an unspecified point, Angela brought Kara along to discretely observe Cammy's unusual aura, and while Kara found it quite vivid with a taste similar to a cooking wine, she couldn't sense its stranger properties like Angela could.

### Week 1

Kara goes to the Loose Change arcade to play *Hop Dance Mania* like usual when she senses some *Zombie Mansion* players get their Investiture drained, so she leaves the area to alert her teammates and transform. Charity is the first to arrive at the scene, freeing Robert from Polygal's grasp and giving him, Cory, and Eli time to hide behind a counter. When the other Spirit Guard arrive, Charity stands in front of the boys so she can defend them using Altruistic Barrier. After Polygal is defeated, Robert is convinced to give the heroes his phone number so they can contact him on why he glowed.

The Spirit Guard contact Kunapipi and the Hush Corps for more information on Robert, and it is confirmed that he is to be the final Spirit Guard. Kara meets with her teammates and Noriko, who discuss their findings on Rob. Eli visits to retrieve a graphing calculator Mallory had borrowed, with he and Kara recognizing each other, as he works at the arcade Kara had frequented; the two hit it off as he helps carry the cookies she baked to her dorm. Later that day, the Spirit Guard decide Rob can be trusted to join them, so they have the Hush Corps text him to meet them at the Standridge Hill Stone Circle tomorrow night.

The Spirit Guard and Kunapipi meet Robert at the Standridge Circle, where he is told about Fate, the Ardent Empire, and his own role as the last Spirit Guard. Robert turns down joining the team, as becoming Spirit Guard Serenity would transform him into a woman and ruin his life. When he mentions having to leave Cory and Eli as a reason why he won't do it, Tenacity tells him he could remain part of their lives and convinces the Spirit Guard to reveal their identities to him. Kara is mortified to see Noriko appear with Cory and Eli, who had been spying on the meeting. With everyone sworn to secrecy, the meeting ends.

The next day, Kara visits Eli's dorm to return Cory's laptop, which has been relieved of its recordings of the night before. Eli apologizes for spying on the meeting last night, explaining that while he had the right to know his sister is in mortal danger, it wasn't fair to learn the other Spirit Guard's identities along with it. As a way to make it up to her, Eli allows Kara to borrow Cory's GameStation console so she can play *Hop Dance Mania* at home while the arcade is closed.

The Spirit Guard go to Rale Valley Mall for some shopping, but sense a strange empathokinetic humming from seemingly random locations, so Kara and Vivian split up from Angela and Mallory in order to find the source. A little while later, the heroes sense Investiture being drained in Rob's direction and transform. The team gets split up by Day LaMode's mannequin army, with Charity finding herself awkwardly stuck on the front lines with Felicity. When the mannequins suddenly return to normal, Charity, Felicity, and Valor regroup and rush to the wounded Tenacity's side. They're surprised to see that Robert had transformed into Spirit Guard Serenity to kill LaMode and save Tenacity's life. Noriko appears to warn everyone about the incoming police, so Charity operates on Tenacity while Serenity renders them invisible. On the way out, Charity tells Serenity how proud everyone is of her for her heroic sacrifice, then teaches her how to warp via the Standridge Stones and gives instructions for Tenacity's treatment to relay to Kunapipi. Exhausted from the operation, Kara falls asleep almost immediately after returning to her dorm and powering down. While she sleeps, the renamed Robynne is moved into the dorm.

### Weeks 2-4

The next day, Robynne brings Kara, Vivian, and Noriko along to help buy a wardrobe for her new body. Kara assures Robynne that her failure to find anything comfortable is due to her unfamiliar body. Kara and Noriko suggest Robynne dress similarly to but more modest than other girls on campus to avoid unwanted attention, downplaying her red hair with clashing colors and obscuring her age and figure with a suit jacket.

That Monday, Kara, Vivian, Cory, and Eli check out the booths set up for Club Week. They visit the SFEERS booth manned by ergoAwesome and Zemiron. Cory and Eli are quick to join the nerds' club, but Kara surprises Vivian by joining as well. Kara explains that although her only overlapping interest is *Hop Dance Mania*, she predicts Robynne will join the club and wants to be there for her, which convinces Vivian to sign up too.

The next day, Robynne tells everyone how her first day back to class went, saying it could've been worse. She had signed up for SFEERS, but sensed an unusual textured aura on club president Fretribution. Angela appears along with Mallory, the latter of which Kara chastises for walking about while still recovering.

An impromptu Spirit Guard meeting is held the next morning when it's learned Robynne had a vision of the Shrine Maiden during the night. Afterwards, Robynne complains that her backpack is digging into her breasts as Kara had warned, so Kara suggests she take Mallory to find a new one, as Mal uses a backpack of her own and will be glad to have something to do while recovering. Kara admits that she joined SFEERS in part to get closer to Eli, though she annoys Robynne by revealing she's not going to use any sort of handle in the club.

Kara, Vivian, and Mallory eavesdrop on Robynne and Angela's surprise private conversation, where the latter reveals her theory of cheer captain Cammy DeCroix being reincarnated from the Empress, something she hasn't told the others out of fear they won't believe her since they can't sense auras as strongly as she or Robynne. Robynne senses the others behind the door and opens it so they can cry out their misunderstandings with Angela. The gang figures that their best option is to have Robynne accept Cammy's invitation to the cheer team and act as a spy, as the expensive tailored dress Cammy sent to Robynne as a bribe makes it clear she's desperate. Robynne finds herself wanting to take Cammy down due to being reminded of her past, so Kara convinces her to tell everyone about how Robert's last years of high school were ruined by Evelyn Gray, a cheerleader who was just like Cammy. They decide to go through with the plan, with Robynne returning Cammy's dress bribe and presenting several demands in return for joining the team, such as Vivian joining as well so she won't be alone.

Kara goes to the SFEERS opening social with Cory, Eli, Robynne, Vivian, and Stacy. She brings a change of clothes for Robynne and Vivian so the two can exploit a loophole in Cammy's order to "make an appearance" in their cheerleader uniforms. The group watches Cory play rounds of his *Invokers* card game before Kara and Eli introduce Stacy to *Hop Dance Mania*, though Stacy eventually leaves the two when she thinks they want some one-on-one time. After the social, the group hang out at Eli's dorm for a while, with Robynne leaving shortly after Stacy to let her coupled friends be. Eli eventually walks Kara back to her dorm before returning to sleep.

The next day, Kara finds Robynne packing up her old computer and teases her for consoling it. Robynne explains her attachment to Windswept as the last thing she invested so much of herself into as Robert, then talks about her plan to let Angela borrow it to play *Aspect Realms* with her, as Robynne had extorted a new computer from Cammy in return for joining the cheer team. Mallory and Noriko arrive with the components that were delivered to Cory and Eli's dorm as planned. Robynne is annoyed to find Cammy had spited her by getting parts in a completely different style than what was demanded. Kara suggests switching Windswept's case with the new computer's, but Robynne decides to leave it for now when Noriko suggests it would let Robynne subvert expectations of people who judge her by the rig's colorful exterior, offering the name CandyStrike for it. Later, Nick and Will come over so the latter can check the parts for potential bugs, though Kara recognizes this an excuse by Noriko to spend time with Nick.

At some point over the next following weeks, a meeting with the complete Spirit Guard team is held to lay out a more complete plan of Rob's cover story and infiltration of the cheer team, with Kara teaching Rob ways to blend in. Kara and Eli start dating during this period as well. At her suggestion, their first date is at the reopened Loose Change arcade to play *Hop Dance Mania* together. At the suggestion of her brothers, Kara starts trying to make her cooking into a business in her spare time.

### Week 5

Kara receives a text from Eli that Robynne has sensed a monster at a Buy Bright store, so she transforms and heads over. She arrives to heal the injured Serenity and fight Cell-celia. The pair struggle to gain the upper hand, as Cell-celia has signal-based vision and can turn verbal communication into visible text boxes. The battle turns around with the appearance of Valor, who blocks the monster's detection with Rising Spirit's walls, then has Charity hinder Cell-celia with a barrier long enough to allow a finishing blow from Valor. Serenity is chewed out for recklessly starting the fight alone. She then leads the police on a chase to allow her teammates to escape. The Spirit Guard, minus Vivian, debrief at Kunapipi's office. Cell-celia's human disguise, signal vision, and low-key Investiture collection has the team conclude that Platicore is shifting his monster designs in hopes of harvesting as much Investiture as possible before the Spirit Guard find them. Mallory suggests nightly patrols of the city in order to snuff out newly planted monsters, but the plan is put off until Robynne explains her situation to her uncle.

The next morning, the team discusses Robynne's vision, which notably featured the Princess utilizing her religion's forbidden emotions to lie her way past the corrupt Vice-Archon Liff. The others are concerned as none of their visions had any signs of this, which leads them to wonder if the Shrine Maiden, like Robynne, had the keenest empathokinetic perception among the team. Tanya visits to give Robynne and Vivian a surprise promotion assignment, which frustrates Robynne since Cammy had agreed to only give her skippable jobs. Kara tells Robynne that Cammy is trying to gauge her loyalty to see if she can be trusted with the next part of the plan.

Later, another team meeting is held, where Robynne tells the others how during the promotion she ran into NightKnight, who has a different appearance from their previous encounter, sports a new textured aura, and is a member of the ConSpiriters. The team wonders if there is significance in Rob happening upon the textured auras of NightKnight, Dale, and Fretribution in such short time, as before this Cammy's was the only one they knew of. Kara gets a text from Eli saying Dale intends to go to the *Mega Mash Family Battle* tournament tonight, so the team figures it would be an ideal opportunity for Rob, Vivian, and Kara to study his textured aura alongside Fretribution's. Angela also wants to attend the tournament, but Noriko fears Cammy might learn of Angela's appearance at SFEERS, so it's decided that she could go in a goth disguise. Mallory and Vivian accompany Angela to prepare the disguise, while Noriko goes to meet Nick and Will to create ID for this "Alison Ward" alter ego and see whether Cammy will have a spy at the tournament. Rob messages with NightKnight and convinces him to come to the tournament so his aura can be examined too. Kara, meanwhile, makes cupcakes to share at the tournament, which she believes will be an opportune time to promote her sweets business.

After Robynne is done speaking with NightKnight, she helps Kara frost the cupcakes and carry them toward campus. Kara brings up her concern about Rob's recent increase in reclusiveness and unhealthy eating habits, saying what was once a coping mechanism for her life's problems has evolved into a harmful attempt to avoid important issues like her Uncle Taylor's arrival. Rob deflects from the sensitive family issue by attributing her stress to her social hangups making her fail to reciprocate the attention her friends give her. Kara assures Rob that being able to handle big tasks while struggling with small social ones is not unique, citing her brothers' relationship with her growing up, which Kara learned to tackle through her cooking. Kara suggests that if Rob wishes to figure out how to manage her social problems, the most effective way would be to occasionally force herself to join her friends in situations she normally shies away from. One issue Kara wants Rob to deal with right away is Dale, who has been making unwanted advances on Rob, so Rob plans to, ideally with Stacy's help, find a way to have Dale meet Lilly, who has expressed interest in him. Proactively moving the conversation away from how she'll deal with NightKnight, Rob gets Kara to talk about her plan to sell her sweets as a side business, which Kara explains is only a part of her larger ideas for her life as a whole, which includes the unnerving possibility of shifting her major towards business, and eventually becoming a stay-at-home mother. Curious about Rob's alien family situation, Kara asks why Taylor never married, and Rob explains that Taylor never maintained a serious relationship because he is a less outgoing person who's hesitant to shake up the life he's content with, and he is also apparently uncomfortable with bringing a woman into his home that his late mother lived in. Kara and Robynne are then greeted by Stacy.

## Relationships

### Balmer family

Kara's known relatives include her father, five older brothers, and nieces and nephews. Kara got her penchant for cooking from her father, who she would join in the kitchen from an early age, and he often asked for her opinion as he cooked. Kara's brothers are very protective of her, but they initially struggled to relate to a little sister and could be distant as a result, but Kara found that sharing the treats she made helped connect her to them, which she believes fueled her love of baking. Taralynn Andrews imagines Kara's brothers learned to fear her ability to see through whatever tricks they might try to pull on her. Kara credits her conflict resolution skills to having picked things up from her defense attorney brother. One or more of Kara's brothers has children of his own, whom Kara is fond of.

### Vivian Feliz

Kara has been best friends with Vivian since high school after meeting as fellow yearbook staff, joining the Spirit Guard three months after her. Once at SAU, the two share a room. Kara is often the one to reign in her irreverent friend. She is used to Vivian's antics and will even cause some minor mischief of her own and pin it on her friend. Kara disapproves of Vivian's habit of enacting poorly thought-out plans in battle and using her healing factor to bypass grooming and eat unhealthily without consequence. Though Kara's gentleness gives her the image of being Vivian's opposite, Andrews compares the two characters, saying Kara "can go toe-to-toe with [Vivian] in conversation. In some ways she can even go further than Vivian because she earns that extra latitude with how sincere she is about advice she gives... and because she constantly is providing people with awesome food."

### Angela Warrant

Kara met Angela through Vivian. Kara first transformed into Spirit Guard Charity to heal Valor after the latter got her elbow dislocated saving her. In battle, Charity relies on Valor to keep the enemy's attention so she can fight from a distance.

### Mallory Drake

Kara and Mallory met through Vivian. Kara looks out for Mal, especially given her tendency to overexert herself. She also keeps Mal's temper in check by doing her best to diffuse arguments. In battle, Charity finds Tenacity's recklessness frustrating and often has to heal her wounds.

### Kunapipi

As a Champion on Earth, Kara has Kunapipi as her assigned Guide. While Kunapipi has unusually little information from Fate to mentor the Spirit Guard with, she does help manage their affairs, and uses her position as a counselor to keep their Spirit Guard work from hindering their regular lives too much.

### Noriko Yukimura and the Hush Corps

The Spirit Guard are aided by the Hush Corps: Noriko, Nick, and Will, in order to keep their secret identities safe. Once attending SAU, Kara has Noriko as a roommate, and understands how the ninja's upbringing makes it hard for her to integrate with people. When tensions run high between Noriko and the others, Kara will appeal to the ninja's work ethic to cools things down. Kara is aware that Noriko creates menial Hush Corps work as an excuse to get closer to Nick but is glad whenever the two are together.

### Platicore's forces

As a Spirit Guard, Kara opposes Platicore and battles his monsters to protect the people of Kessia City.

### Mender

Due to the intervention of the High Spirits, Kara is reincarnated from the Mender, and thus inherits part of her soul, including Investiture. This Investiture is what allows Kara to achieve her Spirit Guard Charity form, which grants her the Mender's battle instincts and empathokinetic powers. She also sometimes receives visions of the Mender's life while she sleeps.

### Fate

Kara was selected by Fate to be a Champion. Unlike the other Spirit Guards, Kara's opinion on the deity has not been clearly stated. It is implied that Kara does not like the destiny that was thrust upon her, as she was initially too terrified to fight when presented with her Spirit Stick and the experience of being a Spirit Guard was overwhelming for her.

### Robert Dreese/Robynne Darling

Kara, in her Spirit Guard guise, meets Robert when she saves him from Polygal. Unlike her teammates, Kara doesn't get the chance to meet him outside of Spirit Guard business before he transforms. Afterwards, the renamed Robynne becomes Kara's roommate. Kara's empathy makes her well-equipped to help Robynne in the awkwardness of her new life, especially when it comes to social interaction. Though Kara is patient and understanding of Rob's shortcomings, she is the only Spirit Guard who readily challenges her to improve herself and is willing to be frank with her. Kara would like to teach Rob how to cook. Kara apologizes in advance for her tendency to hug her contact-sensitive friend and tries to control her urges around her. Kara joins SFEERS in large part to be with her new friend, explaining that anyone would do it for someone facing as much difficulty as Rob is. Like with Vivian, Kara voices her disapproval at Rob's plan to liberally use her healing factor, but only manages to convince her to try showering and such in her new body for a few days. When the plan to have Rob infiltrate the cheer team and spy on Cammy is put into motion, Kara starts teaching her ways to fit in with the other cheerleaders, which Rob has little patience for and pejoratively calls "Girl Lessons". Since Kara has a large family, she is curious about Rob's experience growing up as an only child raised mainly by just an uncle.

### Eli Drake

Kara had heard about Eli through his sister Mallory, but didn't realize he actually works at the arcade she frequents until they formally meet after the Polygal attack, where they immediately hit it off. Eli spying on Robert's meeting with the Spirit Guard hurts her, but she understands Eli's position of worrying over Mallory as a younger sibling herself, and Eli's sincere apology as well as lending her Cory's GameStation to play *Hop Dance Mania* at home patches things up. Kara joins SFEERS in part as a way to get closer to Eli. When Robynne asks about this, Kara explains that Mallory's praises of Eli and his willingness to help Rob stand up to Polygal and Day LaMode is proof that he's worth getting to know. The two eventually start dating, with Kara liking to cook for Eli and play HDM with him.

### Cory Frost

Kara was initially only aware of Cory for being a friend of Eli's that Mallory would mention. The two meet since Cory is inseparable from Eli and the target of Vivian's affections. When the four of them are together, the atmosphere often changes to something of a double date.

### SFEERS

Despite only having *Hop Dance Mania* as a notable shared interest, Kara joins the nerd club SFEERS alongside Cory, Eli, and Vivian, due to predicting Robynne will join too and appreciate having her friends there, and would also like the chance to know Eli better. Kara is considered unusual for limiting herself to in-person events and thus doesn't have any sort of online pseudonym that club members often know each other by.

### Cammy DeCroix

Unlike the other Spirit Guards, Kara has no connection to Cammy. Her only experience with Cammy was in her early days as a Spirit Guard when Angela brought her along to inspect the captain's aura. Kara could sense the aura was unusual but doesn't pick up its special effects, so Angela kept her concerns about Cammy to herself out of fear Kara wouldn't believe her. When these concerns are later revealed, Kara's position in the Spirit Guard's plan to stop Cammy's schemes is on the sidelines supporting Robynne and Vivian.

### Stacy Ambrose

Kara first hears about Stacy as Robynne's unlikely cheerleader friend, and gets to meet her herself at the SFEERS opening social. She and Stacy play *Hop Dance Mania* for a while, and also hang out with the group at Cory and Eli's dorm afterwards.

### Tanya Tell

Kara hears all about Tanya from Robynne often complaining about the lying snoop of a cheer team officer. Kara likes to annoy Tanya by pretending to not know her whenever they meet.

## In *MGP Alpha*

In *MGP Alpha*, Kara had largely the same role as her *Magical Girl Policy* counterpart. She is a freshman at the Peavy Academy boarding high school and is also Spirit Guard Charity. Beyond her age, the main difference of *Alpha* Kara is her personality: gentle, caring, and soft-spoken like in MGP, but she is shy and lacks the sass of her MGP incarnation. Taralynn Andrews has criticized the *Alpha* version of Kara, calling her a flat character, which is why Kara's personality was greatly reworked for the reboot.

## Gallery

Kara and Mallory watch Robynne assemble her new computer.Eli and Kara play *Hop Dance Mania* together.Charity with the rest of the Spirit Guard.Charity's appearance in *MGP Alpha*.Kara in a devil costume.Kara in a Santa outfit.Kara and Vivian as engineers from *Crew Shift*.
## Trivia

* Kara's personality and background was based on an aunt of Taralynn Andrews. Said aunt was the youngest sibling in a large family, and grew up to be one who speaks with snappy words but has a very kind character.
* Kara selling her cooking as a side business was based on a friend Andrews met in college, who similarly started his own side hustle.
* Kara was referenced in two headers on the original Taralynn's Desk:
	+ "Spirit Guard Charity Says that... Vivian! Stop eating all the cookies!" It is a parody of "Sailor Says", an educational segment in DiC Entertainment's English dub of the anime *Sailor Moon*.
	+ "Loaning out more of Cory's things so Eli can get some action!" This calls back to Eli letting Kara borrow Cory's GameStation as a way to make up for spying on the Spirit Guard's meeting with Robert.
* In the October 2016 Q&A, Andrews says Kara never had a steady boyfriend in high school due to her protective brothers intimidating interested guys.
* In the November 2016 Q&A, Andrews imagines Kara spends her Halloweens trick-or-treating with her nieces and nephews.
* In the December 2016 Q&A, it's said that if Kara were prompted to name her computer, she would give it a pet name so she can humanize it.