Citrine grew up in Capital Grove, a suburb of Central City. Her parents, preoccupied with demanding jobs, unknowingly neglected her for much of her early years. Owing to this unintended neglect, Citrine was heavily influenced by what she experienced on the streets of her hometown. Crime rates in Capital Grove were high, assault was fairly common, and at her school (and many schools in the town,) bullying and fights were somewhat commonplace. At first, it appeared that Citrine would be a target of bullying; indeed, until fourth grade or so, she was. As she entered middle school, however, she internalized a harsh lesson: you have to be tough to make it, and the only language kids in the town respected was violence. Citrine started watching MMA fights and martial arts movies, and before long, she was able to keep up with and eventually overpower her bullies. Rather than just going after those who bullied her in the past, as she entered middle school she started picking on other kids she considered weak, seeking to establish herself at the top of the "food chain".

Halfway through middle school, Citrine's father got a new job outside of Central City; as a result, the family had to move away from Capital Grove. After transferring to her new school, Citrine quickly learned that things were different. Whereas her old school took a laid back attitude to bullying, her new school went to great lengths to promote a respectful, bullying-free environment; with Citrine keeping up her delinquent attitude from her old school, the bee frequently got in trouble. For the first couple of years after transferring, Citrine would often end up in detention.

However, nothing did more to change Citrine's outlook than her first interaction with fellow student Carlotta, a meek and timid carpenter bee. Based on her meek and timid nature, Citrine thought that Carlotta would be the perfect bully victim. When Citrine tried to bully her, instead of being scared, Carlotta wasn't fazed by Citrine and did something nobody did up that point - stand up to her. Citrine was shocked; at first, she tried to save face, trying to convince herself that she was being merciful with Carlotta, and that's why she "got away" with standing up to her like that. But as time went on, she started wondering why this meek girl didn't seem fazed by her. After all, everyone else was (well, the students anyway) - so why not her? It made no sense. Needless to say, she grew obsessed.

Things came to a head after a few months; Citrine confronted Carlotta, demanding to know why she “didn’t give a shit” about her behavior. It was tearing her apart; someone with Carlotta's attitude towards her didn't make any kind of sense! She should be cowed, scared, fearful even! Carlotta responded that yes, she was intimidated by Citrine, and she wasn't even sure if she was doing the right thing when they had that first encounter. However, she was genuinely interested in becoming more assertive, so when she heard about Citrine after she transferred into her school. While she didn't condone her bullying, she was interested in her assertiveness and confidence - traits that she wish she had. Hence, Carlotta standing up to Citrine the first time they met - Carlotta thought it would impress her, and maybe she would be astonished and be open to teaching her how to be more assertive and confident herself.

Citrine was very confused, honestly thinking that what Carlotta did was insanely reckless. She could have punched the living daylights out of her! Nonetheless, Citrine did admit that as reckless as that was, it was gutsy, and indeed nobody ever stood up to her like that. In the past, people trying to "stand up to her" would try to fight her, which would be futile and just result in Citrine knocking them into the pavement (or concrete). Carlotta did so without trying to lay a finger on her...she was impressed. Citrine accepted Carlotta's offer, and soon Citrine was teaching her in her ways of how to be more assertive, how to be stronger.

That's not to say that Citrine didn't have lingering doubts. In fact, after her first encounter with Carlotta, she started to question the idea that you had to be physically strong to be "strong" at all. What if....what if, there's more to strength than being great in a fight?

Citrine is a feisty, smug, and hot-tempered bee. She's brutally honest and has no filter; she's not afraid to speak her mind and say exactly what she thinks of someone or something, even if her opinion would cause offense. Citrine is known for having a bad temper; thanks to Carlotta's influence she's mellowed out a bit, but she is still very easy to provoke and will not hesitate to throw hands if you push her buttons.

She is incredibly self-confident and thinks that she's the best thing since sliced bread, so Citrine's not the best at taking advice or constructive criticism from others. The bee is quite competitive, but she's both a sore winner and a sore loser; she'll taunt you and gloat if she beats you at something, but if she loses she'll stomp her feet, curse you out, and make excuses for why she lost. Finally, she's not a big fan of authority figures, such as school administrators, as she feels that they always get in the way and keep her from getting what she wants.

However, despite her brash, brutally honest, and hot-tempered nature, Citrine is not one to break promises or fail to uphold her end of the bargain. If you help her out, she'll remember that and won't hesitate to help you out if you're in a pinch. Don't push your luck, though.

At 100cm (3' 3"), Citrine is Sonic's height. She has light orange fur, black and orange antennae, and brown eyes. As a bee, Citrine lacks ears, but her antennae serve a similar function by "capturing" sound waves and converting them to electrical signals that are carried to her brain, allowing her to hear. Her hair is tied up into a flame-shaped ponytail, and she has a tuft of hair that juts out from her forehead. Citrine is usually seen with a pair of goggles on her head - she doesn't actually use them for anything; she just thinks they look cool. Finally, her muzzle is a pale apricot color and is dotted with freckles on each cheek.

Citrine wears a black top (with dark brown shoulders,) black fingerless gloves, a yellow belt with a hexagonal buckle, a black skirt, and black sneakers with gold highlights. The black top is adorned with a gradient honeycomb pattern, and it doesn't reach all the way down to her belt, leaving her midriff exposed. While her skirt is black on the outside, it's dark orange on the inside. She wears a pair of shorts underneath her skirt, but they're not easily visible.

Her sneakers have a similar gradient honeycomb pattern to her top, but the pattern is only present at the back of each shoe. There are a pair of golden strips running along the bottom of each shoe; they can glow if Citrine chooses to activate them, but they serve no purpose other than looking cool.

Citrine's appearance; note the glowing yellow-gold strips at the bottom of her shoes. Image by Dee.

Flight

As a bee, Citrine can fly at speeds of up to 100 km/h (~62 mph). While not Emilia-level, her stamina is quite good, allowing her to fly fairly long distances without issue.

Fast reflexes

Citrine possesses quick reflexes and a short reaction time.

Super strength

Citrine has super strength, allowing her to lift up to 400 kg (~882 lbs.) of weight without showing physical strain. That said, lifting heavier objects will slow her down and prevent her from flying as fast as she normally can.

Devastating punches

As someone who loves physical combat and has super strength, Citrine's capable of delivering devastating punches that can go through solid concrete. While her normal punches are quite bad, she can infuse them with energy to increase their power. That said, delivering energy-infused punches does tire her out much faster than if she delivered regular punches, so she won't do so unless she knows she can end the fight really quickly.

Stinging

Citrine is capable of stinging. Her retractable stinger can reach 13cm (~5 in.) when fully extended; normally it's hidden from view, giving the impression that Citrine is a stingless bee. This is not the case; rather than shy away from stinging, Citrine will not hesitate to sting an opponent. In fact, the longer a fight goes on, the more likely it is that Citrine will sting more than once than not sting at all, as she can sting a target repeatedly.

While not nearly as devastating as, say, Emilia's, Citrine's venom is quite damaging and blindingly painful. Her venom neither paralyzes the victim nor does it cause heart damage or multiple organ failure like Emilia's venom. Instead, when Citrine stings someone, the victim will feel an immediate searing pain followed by intense swelling, redness, bruising, and severe tissue necrosis. Absent an allergic reaction in the victim, it would take many, many hours if not days for Citrine's sting to kill, and generic antivenom is quite effective against Citrine's sting. While Citrine has stung many, many, many people, all of her victims have survived with no more than a 1-2 week long stay in the ICU. That's not to say those who have been stung by Ctrine survive unscathed; thanks to the intensely necrotic nature of Citrine's venom, her sting will almost certainly leave permanent scarring, assuming the affected extremity or limb doesn't get amputated.

Citrine can and will sting with impunity should she get the opportunity. Image by chaoslose.

Carlotta the Bee

Girlfriend

Citrine is fiercely protective of Carlotta and will not hesitate to beat up anyone who insults or teases her. Image by QKora.

Citrine first met Carlotta a couple weeks after she transferred to her new school. At first, Citrine thought that Carlotta would make the perfect bullying victim: meek, shy, and more likely to take it on the chin than do anything about it. Instead, Carlotta did something none of Citrine's previous bullying targets ever did - stood up to her. After this encounter, Citrine grew obsessed with figuring out why Carlotta seemed to be "immune" to her bullying attempts; every time she tried (and failed) to bully her, Carlotta would shrug it off.

Things came to a head a month later, when she confronted Carlotta - not to bully her, but to figure out how she could be so calm when she was trying to bully her. She should be cowed, scared, fearful even! Carlotta responded that yes, she was intimidated by Citrine, and she was a bit scared when they had that first encounter. While she didn't condone Citrine's bullying, she was interested in her assertiveness and confidence - traits that she wish she had. By standing up to Citrine the first time they met, Carlotta thought it would impress her, and maybe she would be astonished and be open to teaching her how to be more assertive and confident herself.

Citrine did admit that as reckless as that was, it was gutsy, and that nobody ever stood up to her like that. In the past, people trying to "stand up to her" would try to fight her, which would be futile and just result in Citrine knocking them into the pavement (or concrete). Carlotta did so without trying to lay a finger on her...she was impressed. Citrine accepted Carlotta's offer, and soon Citrine was teaching her in her ways of how to be more assertive. During this period, Carlotta wouldn't be afraid to tell Citrine if she thought she was crossing the line; ultimately, Citrine started to think that this timid girl was a lot stronger than she thought, and maybe she had things to teach her rather than the other way around. While she wouldn't admit it at the time, Citrine started to develop feelings for Carlotta, with those feelings only growing as the weeks passed.

The two of them started being more frank and open with each other, their interactions going beyond mere teacher (Citrine)-student (Carlotta) ones to ones based out of a mutual respect for each other. At first, Carlotta would help Citrine out with homework, projects, and other tasks as "repayment" for her "assertiveness training", but before too long Carlotta was doing it because she considered Citrine to be a great friend. For her part, Citrine started mellowing out as Carlotta started putting her foot down when it came to her bullying.

A few weeks later, Citrine decided to tell Carlotta how she really felt, confessing her feelings to the carpenter bee at a festival. To Citrine's surprise, Carlotta reciprocated her feelings; as it turns out, she had been grappling with similar feelings for a while, but she never grew the courage to confess herself.