Luceti application
Name: Leo
Fandom: Pandora Hearts
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Time Period: Retrace 47.
Wing Color: Black.
History:
A hundred years ago, there lived a man named Glen Baskerville. Except that he wasn't a normal man- he wasn't allowed to die. Instead, he was doomed to transfer his soul -and all of its memories- from container to container after each had outlived its usefulness. It was unknown how long he had lived, though he had been almost at the end of the lifespan of his current container when he was killed by a certain Jack Vessalius.
His soul, partially sealed by Jack, was left to wander,till a hundred years had passed.
A hundred years later, that fragment of soul was reborn as Leo, an orphan boy. People would note his strange eyes, even as a child (for they were black with flecks of gold-- the gold were reflections of lights from the Abyss that only the Baskervilles could see) and his mother forced him to grow out his hair to cover them. His father? Dead. His mother would soon follow in his father's footsteps, except that young Leo was dragged up for questioning in regard to her death. He'd thought that he'd be blamed for her death and sent to jail; instead, he was sent to Fianna's House, a Nightray-run orphanage in Sablier where he would live for some time. There, he was taught to write, to read, and developed an adoration for books (for they wouldn't judge him and brought him to all sorts of magnificent places). It seemed that his life could have been rather average after that...
...until he met Elliot Nightray. Despite starting off on a relatively bad foot, he soon became friends with Elliot. Such good friends, in fact, that the teenaged Elliot soon extended an invitation to him to be his attendant- an offer that Leo accepted. This appointment was however vetoed by Elliot's own father, Duke Nightray- until a tragedy befell Elliot himself.
Fianna's House was situated in the ruined city of Sablier- at the cusp of the deep pit that was rumoured to lead into the insane world of the Abyss itself. Several children from the orphanage had gone down into the hole one day, and Elliot, impatient to wait for backup, went in together with Leo to rescue them. They had found some of the children not far in- dead, as if they'd been stabbed. A Chain (i.e. a monster from the depths of the Abyss), Humpty Dumpty was behind these murders and appeared just as Leo managed to locate one of the surviving stray orphans. Elliot drew his sword to protect Leo- and was promptly attacked.
Humpty Dumpty, it would seem, was only looking out for Glen Baskerville's own safety and Elliot had been seen as a threat. However, as Elliot lay dying, Leo pleaded for help from Glen, who presented him an option: Make Elliot an illegal contractor to Humpty Dumpty or let him die. Refusing to let the second option happen, he forced Elliot to form a contract with the Chain, thus prolonging his life (though of course, once the contract term was over, Elliot would be pulled into the Abyss himself). The bright side about Humpty Dumpty? Elliot would remain blissfully unaware of all that had transpired due to his own Chain's ability to erase and modify its contractor's memories.
After this unfortunate turn of events, Duke Nightray eventually approved of Leo as Elliot's attendant. He would go on to spend the next eventful two years (in which it involved the death of Elliot's two biological brothers as well as attempts on the lives of the latter's adopted brothers) as Elliot's attendant, even enrolling at Latowidge Academy alongside him and this was where he would meet the protagonist of the series, Oz Vessalius.
A series of coincidences would lead both him and his master to be involved in Oz's quest to find out the truth about the events that occurred a hundred years ago- alongside the re-emergence of the so-called Headhunter who apparently targeted the Nightrays.
Personality:
A quiet bookworm, Leo hardly stands out under normal circumstances. Under most social circumstances, he's polite in both speech and mannerism with a relatively patient demeanour- though he tends to tease those whom he's familiar with. Relative, in this case, would refer to a comparison between his master, Elliot Nightray and him; who wouldn't seem patient when compared to Elliot and his amazing temper, after all? No, Leo's weapon of choice is the occasional sarcastic barb, which despite its sharpness, seldom has any malicious intent. Despite being a servant of the heir of a dukedom though, he doesn't have airs, preferring most of the time, to speak to others informally unless the situation calls for it.
He doesn't panic easily, possessing a level head and the ability to think quickly when the occasion demands it. Perhaps this comes from being the reincarnation of Glen Baskerville- being aware of exactly when he has to apply diplomacy and when to withdraw and cut his losses. Take for example, when both he and Elliot were ambused by the Baskervilles in Sablier. Doldum's (a Chain) ability is to wrap its marionette threads around its victim and control their actions and thoughts but to be able to do so, its victim has to struggle enough to be entangled. Leo, despite having his hand caught in the threads, chose not to panic and instead focused on releasing himself from them. Earlier in the series as well, when he first meets Oz, he comments that he didn't see the need to raise the alarm (for Oz was an intruder in the school and security was looking for him) since Oz didn't "seem like a bad guy". It was not a facetious judgement, for Leo is not prone to thinking the best of people whom he's just met (most notably in his meeting with Elliot; Leo comes to the impression that Elliot is "really a bore" after speaking four sentences to him). Instead, he draws the conclusion based on Elliot's conversation with Oz- pure observation alone. He's frank in stating his thoughts when he feels that he should participate in the conversation, though there can be times when his tact is lacking.
Elliot: Then tell me why you were with Isla Yura! Why didn't you say anything about him when I told you about my mother?!
Leo: ...what? You were eavesdropping? Such unbecoming behaviour for a scion of one of the dukedoms
- Pandora Hearts, chapter 50, page 6
When faced with subjects that he is uncomfortable with, however, Leo tends to become evasive, preferring to avoid the subject at hand. This has been shown to run deeper than just avoiding subjects in conversations; despite knowing that he hosted a shard of Glen Baskerville's soul from the very start, Leo chose to reject this, going as far to refuse to see the world (aka rejecting reality) because he didn't want to acknowledge that fact. He wears glasses for that very reason- not because he wants to correct his vision, but more of because he wants to obscure it even more (on top of having hair that he can hardly see through). He absolutely refuses to confront things that he doesn't want to deal with unless he absolutely has to, and he has no qualms about shutting up until he can get his way. Leo is, after all, quite prone to tantrums despite his mostly taciturn nature. In fact, he is known have quite the fiery temper when riled up. Not that it emerges often- unless his buttons are pushed, Leo is amazingly difficult to piss off.
Admittedly, most (if not all) of Leo's motivations lead back to Elliot Nightray. Elliot is his sun, his light and Leo is willing to do all that he can to see that no harm comes to him, even if it means going as far as to ask the protaganist to kill him if the situation becomes dire. He owes Elliot his life, bound to him partially by guilt and partially by the desire to have a friend who puts up with him despite his strange quirks, no questions asked. That's all he really wants- to live in his own world where he can watch over Elliot and read all the books that he wants. To be normal- and yet, that is a wish that can never be fulfilled.
Strengths: Leo has very few physical boons; he is strong for a boy of his age (having lifted tables and chairs to throw at others, but I'd argue that they weren't particularly heavy in the first place) and is only passably proficient in handling a pistol and a sword. He has been shown to be able to take a few hits (the most severe so far is surviving a push down a flight of stairs) although once again, his stamina is that of a normal boy of his age, nothing more.
No, his strengths are more of mental variety- his aforementioned level-headedness and tact when having to deal with delicate matters that require diplomacy. Take, for example, the time in Sablier where he had to defuse a potentially disastrous argument between Zai Vessalius and Elliot. He knew that angering Zai would not bode well for Elliot (and not just socially- Zai possessed his own Chain and could literally kill Elliot if he wanted to), thus Leo stepped in to place distance between the two before anything untoward could occur. Things ended, thankfully, in the way that he'd hoped that it would, Elliot's dislike of the man aside. He is very much a pragmatist.
He also has an extremely patient temperament, honed from watching Elliot blow up in his temper tantrums over the two years that he's been his servant, and is extremely difficult to rile up. Of course, one would have to be able to find a reason to pick a fight with him in the first place- Leo's quiet and non-intrusive presence often makes him a good listener. It is also worth mentioning that Leo is also quite an accomplish pianist- self-taught, granted, but able to match up to Elliot who had been tutored in playing the piano.
Weaknesses: Despite being passably proficient at handling a sword and a pistol (he knows how to use them, at the very least), Leo has absolutely terrible aim, to the point that Elliot himself remarks, "Ah...that's because you're hopeless with guns and swords." This is probably due to the the vision-impairing glasses and his hair (that blocks out so much of his sight that it's actually amazing that he manages to see anything at all), and for him to hit something at a distance would actually be a miracle. He probably does better at fistfights.
When his patience runs thin, he's also prone to violent temper tantrums when issues sensitive to him are raised- most notably when people try to cut his hair or when he's stressed to the point of snapping. He usually resorts to very physical brawl-y attitude: hitting people with whatever he can get his hands on including vases, tables, chairs. When he's in one of these moods, it doesn't matter to him who the other party is- he's hit young orphans (probably half his age) as well as Elliot when he's in a rage. Of course, he has never done any serious damage, but in the first case, he'd been stopped by Elliot before it could escalate, and in the second, Leo stalked off on his own accord. These die down very fast, but when he's in these moods, he's a danger to everyone around him.