Anja the Ptarmigan

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"*I've got an eagle's eye... for a ptarmigan.*"

— *Anja the Ptarmigan*
*(Click here for additional headcanons)*

## Anja

Drawn by Ryushusupercat (Talk)(Talk)

**Anja the Ptarmigan** (pronounced "AHN-yə") is a member of the Artika Egg Army, and serves under Artika Sub-Boss Ivory the Leopard of the Subzero Glacier Egg Base.

## Physical Description

A slender ptarmigan who stands a fair bit over three feet tall, Anja has a short, slightly curved beak, with fairly long tufts of feathers on either side of her jawline, and medium-length tail-feathers that shape into a point. Her wings are mostly tucked against her arms unless they're needed, and the feathers are Cyberized (as are the nerves and muscles of her arms and shoulders).

Her feathers are mostly white in color, with their head, neck, upper back, shoulders, and tail-feathers being American brown in color with some white markings here and there (as well as white tips to their tail-feathers), while she also has American red markings around her eyes. She has no hair on her head, instead having a tuft of feathers, and her eyes are ash gray in color. Their beak is also black coral in color.

Anja wears the standard Artika Egg Soldier fatigues, which consists of a bright navy blue parka that has white stripes down the arms and faux-fur trim in the hood, sleeve cuffs, and hem, as well as white gloves, black pants, and charcoal-colored boots that also have faux-fur trim cuffs; there are small slits in the sleeves of her parka to allow her wings to come out.

## History

### Childhood

Anja grew up in Icy Outpost, a small Artikan settlement known for its high concentration of avian Mobians, and for being a fishing village. Her life was relatively unimpressive; she helped her parents fish and harvest seafood for trade and for the village to eat. Spotted Tizheruks sometimes competed with the local fishermen for their catches, being opportunistic creatures, and this is how Anja honed her abilities with ranged weaponry (just a slingshot, at first), driving away the hungry creatures without causing them lasting injury.

She also began to develop her aerokinesis at this point, again focusing on long range and accuracy over raw, up-front power. Highly accurate needles of wind were quite effective at discouraging hungry Tizheruks from trying to fight for the village's harvest, and she ended up favoring her aerokinetic abilities over the slingshot for quite a while.

While never having had any hands-on experience with firearms, poachers were not exactly uncommon around Icy Outpost, and she had seen them use their tranquilizer guns on the native Tizheruks often enough to know how said weapons work (on a basic level, at least). And, of course, this gave her new targets to focus her Aerokinetic practice on... except this time, they didn't care if they left lasting injuries.

### Joining the Eggman Empire

At some point, Eggman's forces invaded the small village of Icy Outpost. With virtually no means of defending themselves from such a threat, the residents and their home were quickly overrun. While a few residents managed to flee to safety, most were not so lucky. Anja, having nowhere else to go, offered her allegiance to the Eggman Empire, and Tundra accepted.

After undergoing Cyberization, Anja remained at Tundra's base for a period of time, not doing much apart from helping the other Egg Soldiers stationed there to maintain the base. When Eggman ordered that another base be erected within the Frozen Plateau Zone so that he could continue to expand his influence over Artika, Anja was among those chosen to accompany Sub-Boss Ivory to the Subzero Glacier Egg Base, and she's served under the snow leopard ever since.

## Abilities

A fighter who excels in long-range combat with both her laser rifle and her Aerokinesis, Anja primarily fights from the back lines, and isn't a terribly strong melee fighter. They're quite a formidable shot with their laser rifle, however, and rarely miss. Despite having grown up wielding only a slingshot, she carries enough knowledge of firearms in order to be skilled with her laser rifle.

Being a bird, she is capable of flight, and is quite a bit faster in the air than she is on land, but not by a significant amount. Her beak, while not the best weapon, can deliver a painful peck, and she also carries a magic energy knife with her for close-range protection; the dagger "is imbued" with refined Algidite, giving her an Ice-aligned punch to attacks made with the dagger.

She is capable of basic-level Aerokinesis, and typically only uses low-level techniques of the Wind Element, such as Wind Needle. Her Cyberized feathers are quite durable, and sharp enough to serve as decent bladed weapons in a pinch, but their primary function is to increase her flight stamina.

### Strengths/Resistances

Anja has no specific resistances to any Elements or energy-types, although her thick, insulating feathers give her some resistance to weak Ice-aligned attacks and cold weather in general. She is quite fast, and can easily outpace slower foes and evade their attacks; she can also nullify weak Poison-aligned techniques with her Aerokinesis.

### Weaknesses

Anja is weak to the Element of Earth. Her defenses aren't anything special, therefore she mostly relies on her agility to try and evade potentially devastating attacks. Being physically restrained completely nullifies her Aerokinesis, and her thick feathers can leave her prone to heat exhaustion. She also has highly limited knowledge of technology.

## Friends and Foes

### Friends/Allies

* **The Eggman Empire** -
	+ **Artika Egg Army** -
		- **Ivory the Leopard** -
		- **Baltassar the Owl** -
		- **Artyom the Fox** -
		- **Ingvild the Caribou** - Apart from Lotte, Ingvild is Anja's other particularly close friend, due to their personalities meshing particularly well.
		- **Gerasim the Lynx** -
		- **Ensio the Hare** -
		- **Lotte the Husky** - Due to Lotte's sheer knowledge of mechanics and Eggman tech, and Anja's considerably subpar experience with technology, Lotte acts as a part-time tech teacher for her, and the pair have grown quite close as a result of the time spent together.
		- **Leifur the Ermine** -
		- **Privet the Polar Bear** -

### Enemies

* **Gelid Forest Freedom Fighters** -
* **Ice Clan of Kyanos** -

## Personality

A fairly easy-going girl who's no stranger to hard work, Anja's typically seen as a reliable and dependable person among the other Egg Soldiers under Ivory's command; she gets along with pretty much everyone.

Due to having spent much of her life within a small village that didn't even have working electricity, Anja doesn't have much of a grasp on technology; computers, vehicles, and even telephones tend to be mysteries to her. Their limited world experience has also left them rather naive, and they still don't fully grasp the extent of the advanced technologies they now have access to, causing Lotte to be a part-time tech teacher for the ptarmigan. The two are quite close because of this.

### Positive Traits

* Easy-going
* Confident
* Dependable

## Gallery

Anja ink.pngInked version of current design