Upbringing

Dawn's a California girl. She was raised in LA and Sunnydale. Let it show, there are some local vocal quirks which can give a sense of place. Rephrase statements as questions, use 'totally' and 'like' as all-purpose modifiers, make the word 'whatever' part of your basic vocabulary. Just be careful not to overuse them or you may end up with a Dawn who comes off as an airhead.



"Overprotective, much? I'll be totally safe there, so what's the big?"

This totally sucks. Major suckage. Did I mention that this whole situation, like, sucks? Good, cause it really, truly does.

So she's all, 'No Dawn, I have no interest in him. Really, we're just friends,' and I'm like, 'Whatever, Denial Girl.'

Books

We know that Dawn likes to read. So a few literary allusions won't be out of place. Here are some examples.



I don't believe it. Giles is giving me the 'meddle not in the affairs of witches' lecture, AGAIN! Thanks for the pep-talk Gandalf, but I know what I'm doing.

"I can't. I have a ton of homework. In fact, I'm thinking of renaming myself Hermione and having done with it."

I'm bored. Tara's out. Willow's busy in the kitchen and Buffy's lying on the couch all exhausted, like she's Emily Bronte or something. Isn't she supposed to have super-slayer-stamina?

TV & Movies

Joss goes nuts with the pop-culture references, why don't you try it? Just remember to keep in mind her age. It's not imposible that she's seen movies that she's technically too young to watch, but try to explain how she saw them, (Eg. At a friends house. Anya was babysitting and let her watch.) because neither Joyce nor Buffy are likely to have let Dawn watch Reservoir Dogs.



I'll take 'My Sister Is An Idiot' for 100 Alex.

"She's on the phone," I tell Xander over the intercom. Then I move my ear away from the speaker and start counting down. 5... 4... 3... 2...
"WHAZZUP!"
Sometimes he's so predictable.

I came downstairs this morning to find her swinging a huge sword around in the living room. And she wonders why I never ask my friends over?
"I am Dawn Summers of the clan Summers!"
"There can be only one person in the room when I'm playing with sharp things," she replied. "So go to school!"

Urban Legends

Dawn knows a ton of these and believes them all (or at least acts like she does.) Whether it's the CIA putting itching powder in Castro's beard or the girl who choked to death on her boyfriends tongue, if it happened to a friend of a friend, Dawn's all over it.



I'm sitting in a sewer and I can't remember how I got here. Well that's just spiffy isn't it? Any second I'll look down and find somebody's removed my kidneys to sell on the blackmarket.

Having my blood sucked by my big sisters ex-boyfriend is on my list of really stupid ways to die. Of course, so is drinking coke while eating pop rocks. It's a really big list.

"And the little demon thing is just dancing all over the counters shooting arrows at us. So Buffy shoves it in the microwave and turns it on. I tried to tell her about that short sighted old lady who accidentally microwaved her dog, but by the time I got to the important part, the kitchen was kind of a mess."