Information & Permissions
Name: Leslie
Age: 12
Gender: Female
Country of origin: Rucardius Empire
Content warnings: Child abuse, attempted child murder.
Appearance: White hair and violet eyes. Small with worryingly thin limbs from underfeeding and malnutrition, leading her to often be mistaken for a child of 9-10.
Brief history: Raised to believe herself useless save for being able to serve her older sister and punished at the whims of the household, Leslie remained unaware she was conceived to be a sacrifice to fully awaken her sister's power over darkness until the moment she was shoved into a burning pavilion by her father, Marquess Sperado. As the spirits of previous child sacrifices saved her from the fire, her own powers over shadows awoke. With only six months before the next fire ritual and with her longing for the love of her family thoroughly dashed, she seeks out one of the only people strong enough to protect her from the Sperados: Duchess Salvatore, known as the Monster Duchess, a giant of a woman who is rumoured to owe her strength to demonic blood. Leslie approaches her to propose a contract: in exchange for being raised until she becomes an adult, she promises to serve the duchess with her newly awakened powers. In the Salvatore house, Leslie finally finds a family who loves her, but Marquess Sperado is not about to let the chance to revive the magic of the Sperado house slip from his fingers if he can help it.
Personality: In hostile situations, she is stubborn and strong-willed; in loving environments, she is cheerful and bright; and in neutral interactions, she remains polite and friendly. The results of her abusive childhood still weigh heavily on her: she constantly fears that she is inadequate, she is afraid to ask for anything other than the minimum necessities or to act childishly, and she is rarely intimidated by anyone who isn't hostile regardless of their appearance or behaviour, used to worse from people who did hate her. She is determined to move past her lost childhood, though, enthusiastically following the lead of people who show her love and often expressing her intent to grow up to be tall and strong.
Abilities: From absorbing the accumulated resentment of generations of sacrificed Sperado second-borns, the shadows around Leslie seem to have gained a sentience and granted her unusually strong power for her world, able to envelop a mansion in darkness in the space of a blink or reduce a block of wood to splinters. However, her control over smaller applications is usually imprecise, though she has unconsciously manipulated the shadows more precisely under moments of high emotion. As well, her poor physical stamina has resulted in a similarly low magical stamina. When not being used, this power is undetectable by even mages in her own world, only recognizable by another with the same ability; however, she has been known to talk to her shadows when she is confident that they are alone. In more mundane skills, she is extremely bright. Forced to study subjects like languages, history, and philosophy from a young age, her understanding in these areas is comparable to a senior of the mage's academy. However, her knowledge of subjects outside of the ones she was made to study is less than an average 12-year-old noble, and her knowledge of the mundane parts of childhood are nearly nonexistent.
Fears: Extreme fear of fire. Uncomfortable around mirrors and may freak out if someone puts their hands on her shoulders from behind while she is looking in one.
Hugging: Please do. She is beyond touch-starved.
Kissing, etc.: Keeping in mind that she's 12, this is restricted to things like a kiss on the forehead.
Fighting/injury: I will contact you if I have concerns, though I don't expect to end up in such situations often.
Death: Please be kind to the traumatized child. (Read: ask with the expectation I will probably say no.)
Telepathy: If I'm aware that such a thing is happening, I will be happy to provide the information needed or even try to roughly format it in the style of the canon's telepathy if it's from a visual medium.
Canon: The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess
Canon point: In Æfenglōm, chapter 26. In PSLs and memes...¯\_ (ツ)_/¯. It will basically be "whatever seems most appropriate," including the reasonable possibility of an AU, since I'm not expecting any canonmates. I adjust based on the needs of the thread.
Backtagging: I can be the slowest person on the face of the planet myself. Go for it.
Threadjacking: Sure.
Fourthwalling: I mean probably even most of the players haven't read her canon Preferably only in gag threads, but feel free to ask.
Offensive subjects: As far as I'm aware, I have no specific triggers, so I will contact you if I don't want to explore something that comes up.