[00][Application]
Character's full name: Lenalee Lee
Series: D.Gray-man
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Personality: Lenalee is a kind and friendly person, and it seems like she’s always taking care of someone, even if that just means bringing them coffee every few hours. Her friends, as she says, are her family and her world, and she would and does go as far as putting her own life on the line for their sakes. After all, without them, the world as she knew it wouldn’t exist.
She’s a very strong girl, despite (or, rather, because of) her past, and that strength shows in both her fighting and her no-nonsense attitude. She doesn’t hesitate when she knows something needs to be done, and even the imposing glare of Kanda doesn’t make her flinch. Komui, especially, she does not accept nonsense from, and she’ll tell him so with a nice solid kick if that’s what it takes. Lenalee is intelligent but usually soft-spoken. She does have a temper, though, and can get pretty emotional, but woe to anyone who makes her cry within sensing distance of any member of the Order. Her emotions are tied to her love for her friends and family, and so is her stubbornness.
Usually, though, when things are going well, Lenalee is a cheerful and calm person. She is serious when she needs to be, and would never do anything to hurt her friends intentionally. She typically speaks her mind and others listen; her intelligence and seriousness give her a useful insight into a lot of situations. In a fight she’s tough, refusing to give up until everyone is safe or the battle is over. She does not give off the impression that she needs protecting, in any sense, and while she would appreciate the sentiment in someone trying, she’d rather they didn’t. She wants to protect people.
There’s a vulnerable little girl under all of this toughness, though, and this is part of where her views on friends and family come from. She needs people to love and, in a way, people to love her back, and so is protective of anyone who fills that role, most especially those who put themselves in danger the way the Exorcists always must. She sees the sacrifices her brother made in order to be part f her life again, and because of that there’s a part of her that’s always trying to make up for it, to prove that it was worth it, for him, to give up his future and all his potential to join her in the Order. Part of her strength is her desire to be her best for his sake, and for the rest of her friends as well.
Fairy tale/myth/legend: The Gift of the Magi
Role: The wife (“Della” in the original)
Kingdom territory of origin: Northern Kingdom
Adaptation: (Note: The parts concerning Allen were discussed with the person applying for him beforehand.)
When she was very young, Lenalee lost her parents in a terrible fire. She and her older brother were sent to live with relatives, far from the site of their former home. They stayed with their extended family for almost a year, until her brother returned to school in the city. While he was at school, the family sold little Lenalee into servitude to a man traveling through their area of the Northern Kingdom. He took her home with him, where she became a maid in his household. (Her brother, upon his return, was told she had run away and couldn’t be found.) The man, whom Lenalee calls only Master, told her that if she worked long and hard enough she could earn her freedom.
Not allowed outside the house after her first attempt to run away, Lenalee tried several more times, believing that if she could escape and go far enough, she might find her brother and reform the family she really wanted. Her new master was never hesitant to be brutally physical in his treatment of her, and after her fifth attempt at escape she was beaten and tied up; this stopped her running away for a while.
Shortly after the traveling circus arrives in town, Lenalee runs away again and while trying to hide she meets Allen Walker, a performer in the circus. After learning of her plight, he uses what money he has to buy her freedom, and the two of them leave the North together and head for Axis Mundi, settling there as they grow to love each other.
It’s Christmastime when the story really unfolds: neither of them makes very much money, but each wants to give the other something meaningful for the holiday. Undaunted, Lenalee cuts and sells her long, beautiful hair for the money to buy Allen a chain for his pocket watch - a memento from his late father that he keeps on an old leather strap. Meanwhile, Allen is off pawning the watch for enough money to buy Lenalee the set of decorative hair combs she’s been wanting for weeks. When the two open their gifts, they are at once upset that they have bought their love something now useless, but thrilled at the sign of such deep love from the other’s sacrifice.
The story has a happy ‘ending,’ as Lenalee’s hair grows back and Allen earns enough money to retrieve his watch, and they get to use the gifts bought with love.
[the story offers no background for the characters outside of a vague sense of previous wealth and that they’re young and love each other, so we tried to meld the canon and…canon as well as we could. And I should note that the ‘master’ in question is (and I cannot spell this correctly, I apologize) Leverrier.]
Current area of residence: She is currently ‘employed’ by a Northern Kingdom household and will later leave and settle in Axis or Mundi.
Sample journal entry:
Dear Diary,
Today the traveling circus came to town. It looked like a lot of fun. All of the performers walking by their wagons were smiling and laughing.
I fell on the stairs while I was cleaning. It was very clumsy of me and it can’t happen again. I really should be more careful with what I do. I know…I know I have to be close to the end. I’ve been here for so long, I must have almost earned it by now.
I shouldn’t write such things. I’m going to get caught. But I have to. Maybe if I write down the happy things, it will help. I just went back and read a few of them. It does help a little. When I can, I’ll go down into the cellar and see if there’s ice left in the ice box. They deliver tomorrow.
Tomorrow Master is hosting a dinner. I am expected to polish the silver and the furniture and prepare the dining room. …I don’t know if I’ll be there tomorrow.
[…Without the ‘friends and family to protect’ aspect, Lenalee seems sort of empty…]
Roleplay sample:
Lenalee looked through the window glass as she cleaned it, absently rubbing at a spot on the pane that wasn’t really there. Outside, colorful, decorated wagons and carts made their way down the street. Music played. The colors and sounds of the display brought people out of their houses to the edge of the street, laughing and clapping for the traveling performers.
In the glass, Lenalee caught sight of her reflection. She was almost smiling.
When she noticed the mottled bruise below her right eye again, she went on working. It wouldn’t do to get a matching one for the other side. Lifting the pail of dirty wash-water, she carried it up the stairs and tipped it over the sill of an open back window. Once, she had soaked him doing this. It had never happened again.
Another pail, this one full of clean water, awaited her at the top of the stairs. She added soap and a washcloth to this and began scrubbing the wooden stairs. They were dark and practically shone once polished, an obvious show of wealth. Lenalee kept her long hair tied up and tucked into a scarf, but now the ends escaped their ties, dipping into the pail as she knelt to clean.
Dropping the cloth to the stair, she stood, stretching a little before reaching up to force her hair back into the scarf again. It was hers, the way nothing else could be, but for all she loved its length it got in the way most of the time. Finished, she gave the ragged scarf a pat.
The slam of a door from the first floor startled her so badly she jumped. Only one person in the house slammed doors. Her foot came down on the wet rag, and without knowing quite how it happened, soon she was halfway down the stairs, aching from the tumble and soaking wet from the overturned pail.
A shadow fell across her lap as she tried to stand. Lenalee stared at her knees, not daring to move or speak. The shadow moved, and a sharp pain spread across her cheek as the back of his hand connected with it. She saw colors - red, deep green, and then black - instead of images, but she could hear his voice clearly.
“You will finish these stairs and then report to me immediately.”
“Yes, Master.”
He continued up to the second floor, and Lenalee let out a breath. She had expected him to strike her again. Moving as quickly as she could, she picked up the pail. An inch or two of water remained in the bottom, and she hoped it was enough to finish her cleaning. She couldn’t go outside to draw more.
But no one would notice or care if a few tears mixed in with the soap.
[that's it for the app post stuff. Contact info is in the profile. Happy to be playing here!]