15

Darkness

Despite her past, Leanne is a relatively relaxed individual who can be generally friendly, and possesses a bit of a hedonistic aspect to her in the form of enjoying hot baths, savoring chocolates, flirting shamelessly if she desires, etc. This all being noted, when she puts her mind to something she goes all-in to do her best and make her best efforts. She can be as emotional and chaotic as a teenager in general could be, and is admittedly a bit afraid to mention what her element is to others based on opinions the elementalist community has about it. In fact, the awkward parts of her life are things she is less inclined to tell others, but would perhaps open up about to someone very close to her or is romantically involved enough with her that she has that level of trust in them. Her past taken into account, trust issues are actually not really a thing for her as they could have realistically been, as in her words "yeah, I went through stuff, but that does not mean everyone is out to hate me or hurt me, and life is too short for that crap". Still, she can be cautious when the situation demands, not taking on some extreme naiveté in this mindset of hers.

Of course being as she is, lazy moments can occur, especially when video games are involved. Further, she does not take kindly to those who actively seek to harm her loved ones in any fashion, getting defensive for them without having to think twice on the matter. Though it is of note that when her work ethic does come into play...there is that risk she will push herself too far or get a bit stubborn, and it is also of note that a serious betrayal of her personal trust is something she finds hard to let go of in general. She does not hate her parents, still loving them even after all of this, though for her there is also the conflict of this with the frustration she feels at the tension there was around home with them after the "incident". To her, family is family, and that should be a stronger bond than the hate for her element and its dark past. I

Leanne was born a middle-class child into a middle-class home, to a middle-class family of sorts in the Southeastern United States. Her mother was a lightning elementalist, a prodigy of her own generation who was helping local groups show how elementalists can work along with normal people. Her father, however, was a normal man, no powers, no elements, no anything. His grandmother had been a water elementalist, as was his younger brother being an earth elementalist, thought he had become a business man himself. He eventually met his future wife at a recently-opened local cafe one day that he was going to in order to get some "peace and quiet". The two fell in love, and together began a family that included Leanne as the oldest and a pair of twin boys afterwards. It was a normal life for them for the first ten years of Leanne's life as well. The girl had school, friends, listening to some music, a bit of anime as she hit her teens, an enjoyment for video games, and regular exercise, possessing a rather average but modern suburban life, though some minor discrimination due to her parentage did occur.

Yet, never did the two think that their daughter would one day manifest the one element no one hoped she would ever possess. At the age of 10, Leanne was walking home from the suburban bus stop she normally would be dropped off at after school, when the unthinkable happened. A man attempted to kidnap her off of the normally rather safe street she lived on, to try to force her family to pay a ransom. The end result was emotionally-charged, accidental unleashing of her element, with writhing shadows flaring out to kill her attempted kidnapper on the spot, the police coming, her being knocked out and cuffed after a wrong assumption she had murdered the guy somehow, and eventually her exoneration and name and identity being withheld from the media once the truth about the matter came in. This would make her life a bit harder afterwards as locals began to suspect her as being involved with the incident, but this never came to an extreme of sorts even among her peers and teachers. Yet despite the greater discrimination she faced, she always tried to be friendly, to "kill them with some kindness at least" and not let them weight her down.

There was of course some struggle in all of this for her despite those efforts, though in truth her positive efforts and current personality in good part came from the advice and nurturing of a certain source: her paternal grandmother. With her parents suffering from the tension of hating their daughter's element but loving Leanne herself, she was often taken to stay with her paternal grandmother (who lived just under an hour away) for many afternoons each week. This was to give the girl space to breathe, live, and escape the suburbs and the craziness of general life. However, this was also so her parents could attempt to cope with their feelings, a source of tension that even for her was painful to an extent. Yet as one incident showed, this being where an attempted campfire she tried to make at her grandmother's place burned a portion part of her back severely when things went wrong (this scar being visible still even now on her back), her parents did always still love her to some extent.

Once when questioning about her own her element whilst talking to her elementalist grandmother, she was given the following advice:



As Leanne turned 15 years old, it was decided that she would be sent to the Elemental Academy, to help her learn to at least cope with her element and be among her other peers who also wielded other elements. Really, it was seen as being for her good in the future, as rumors of anti-elementalist activities from the high school staff being covered up by the principal at that school in their local area were not encouraging for Leanne's future. Not wanting things to get worse, and desiring that Leanne have a hopefully future, the girl was signed up and sent there using links from a family friend who had gone there himself.



A one handed axe (blunted; to be given to her as a training weapon)



A gold necklace from her grandmother, which was owned by her grandmother's mother. A family heirloom that she keeps close.