DE CAELO | Vesta Lyon | -queenofinfires

   “ BASICS ”

NAME | Vesta Kriselle Lyon
NICKNAME(S) |
    ° Vivi > Ace would call her this just to piss her off (he earned many bruises from this)
    ° My Little Lion > Deanna would call her this. In a way, it was to remind her that Deanna knows Vesta would never hurt her, but to anyone else, it was just a pet name given to the assassin by the handmaiden who was foolish enough to feel comfortable around her
    ° The Lion > (explained in the background) The nickname was started after one of her victims had been left alive, but he ended up with scars across his face from her fingernails (they looked like claw marks) and who’s attacker had said their (he couldn’t tell gender) name was Lyon/Lion.

BIRTHDAY | 4 July 27353
AGE | 22 y/o

BIRTH KINGDOM | Karom (if Karom is one of the kingdom’s that doesn’t recognize bonds as sacred)
CURRENT KINGDOM | n/a (she doesn’t feel as though she is actually connected to any one kingdom, and she doesn’t want to be, honestly. She just kind of wanders. She feels as though she belongs to herself, and that’s enough)

HEIGHT | 6’ 0” (183 cm)
WEIGHT | 141 lbs (64 kg)

SPECIES | Vampire (with witch blood from her great grandmother)
SEXUALITY | Heterosexual
GENDER | Female
GENDER IDENTITY | Female

SLOT | THE UNSEEN
BACK-UP SLOT | THE WATCHFUL

FACE CLAIM | Neelam Gill
BACK-UP FACE CLAIM | Senait Gidey
    ° (I’m adding a few links to media in the “anything else” section at the end. Neelam Gill has more media stuff, from what I could find.)

   “ ABOUT ”

BACKGROUND |
    Vesta’s parents have been working in the royal guard for many years now, and have been able to work their way up the ranks to where even the royal family knows them by name. Her parents had been told by the king to start searching for candidates for the next royal assassin, as they were preparing to have the current one “discharged” (aka sent home, then killed in order to protect the secrets of the kingdom). Although her parents did look for a few months, they were never satisfied with the men and women they found, whether they felt they would break under the pressure or weren’t trustworthy enough. They needed someone powerful, loyal, and who knew what they were doing. After speaking with the royal family, it was decided that Vesta’s parents should have a child who would then be raised into the job as royal assassin. Being a full-blooded vampire, she would certainly be strong enough, and would be raised to be utterly loyal to the throne.
    Vesta was raised with a knife in her hands, and she’s still ready to die like that. Her average day was comprised of private lessons of both regular school things and of training sessions. She could identify and use dozens of weapons by the time she was twelve. She was denied the usual (healthy) bonds most children make. She never had friends (there weren’t any kids her age in the castle, except for the royal children, and there was no way she’d be allowed to spend time with them. She didn’t even know who her parents were. Her parents lived in a completely different wing of the castle, and only saw her to train her. She spent her time with the teachers, trainers, and handmaidens, and she was never with any of them long enough to ever have a chance at getting to know them.
    She was twelve when she killed her first victim. She remembers the day quite vividly, actually. It was the 12th of December. She doesn’t know the name of the person—a man, who had stolen the one of the queen’s diamonds while he was visiting the castle posing as an ambassador—but she knows the how his blood stained the snow beneath them.
    At fifteen, she was used to it. When she was at the castle, she’d be training or reading, both things she actually found she enjoyed. When she wasn’t, she was off on some mission, getting the see the continent, as well as the literal inner working of people. When she was seventeen, she had spent time in every country on the continent. She didn’t mind it all, actually. She grew up with it, so there was nothing that struck her as morally wrong (many of the people did deserve what they got), and she got to travel and experience the world, something she was quite grateful for.
By the time she was sixteen, there were whispers of “The Lion” who protected the kingdom of Karom. If anyone did the kingdom wrong or did enough wrong to catch the attention of the royal family, the Lion would get them. After this name reached the king’s ears, he made sure all of her kills were known to be The Lion’s. The Lion was rumored to be a dragon, a werelion, a human who had been cursed or gifted by a witch—it all depended on who you asked. Some even said The Lion was only a myth. In all honestly, this title filled Vesta with more confidence. She was now infamous for all she had done.
    She had never liked having handmaidens. Vesta had hiked up dangerous mountains, trekked across endless stretches of desert, been to each end of the continent, leaving bodies in her wake, she could sure as hell dress herself. When Deanna, a human woman approaching eighty, was assigned to her, something was different. Deanna never had the same fear or hesitant around Vesta as all of the other handmaidens she had had. In Deanna’s mind, she had a job to get done, and she’d be damned if she let some pampered teenage girl get in her way of it. Her stubbornness clashed with Vesta’s, but Deanna had had many more years of being stubborn than Vesta. There were bruises, there was yelling, there was many, many broken vases, but, eventually, they grew used to each other. As much as they acted like they hated each other, Deanna had become the grandmother figure Vesta had never had and Vesta had become like a granddaughter for Deanna, because she hadn’t been able to watch her own grow up.
    Vesta was seventeen when Enzo, a nineteen year old dragon, arrived. Enzo was an infamous assassin, as well. He was known to everyone except for himself, and, later, Vesta, as Ace. He approached the king of Karom, offering his services and loyalty in exchange for protection, as he had managed to piss off the leaders of a particularly large guild in another kingdom, and was certain they would kill him if he didn’t have any royal protection. At first, Vesta was someone envious of him (although she would never, ever admit this). All her life, she had been the one the royal family would always turn to whenever they were in trouble, she was the thing that was in charge of standing between them and an arrow to the throat. And now, there was Ace, the new, “shiny” thing that everyone fawned over. They seemed to have grown tired of being awed by the idea of a woman that powerful, and now couldn’t take their eyes off of the muscles of the new guy.
    Ace and Vesta were often sent to travel together. They would have a list of missions to complete in a certain area and a deadline to complete them by. He tried his hardest to get close to her, to break through her armor, and, eventually, he did. She doesn’t really know how, but she knew it was too late to turn back the time she took a knife to the shoulder for him. He was still a cocky asshole, but she kind of was, too, and so they became inseparable. Neither of them had had a “normal” childhood. They both grew up fighting, her as the king’s assassin and him as an orphan, trying to survive. They had never experienced a bond or even just being close to someone in general. Everyone else was held at arm’s distance, unable to bring themselves to fully trust another person. And so, they worked together to fix each other. They learned to fight together seamlessly, they learned to be comfortable and how to relax around each other. They learned how to have fun, and ended up having quite a bit of it while messing around on missions (their favorite was wreaking havoc at dinner parties, whether that’s slipping in a few comments that got two gowned women ripping each other’s hair out or dropping something that looked suspiciously like a mouse or a wad of hair into some Lord’s soup, and watching his response).
    Everything seemed...perfect. Utterly idyllic. She had a best friend, a grandmother, a job that allowed her to travel and enact justice on evil people.
    Until she found out who her parents were. Until she found out that her parents had been around her her entire life, had trained her into what she was. Until she found out that they had many, many chances to form a familial bond with her, putting an end to her childhood of loneliness and detachment, but they never did. After this, her parents worried about her. Not about how she hurt she was by this betrayal and blatant denial of familial bonds, but of whether this would make her begin to question her life at the castle and her loyalty to the royal family.
    Her parents fears, although told to the king, were never apparent to her. Vesta and Ace were still sent on the same missions as usual, went through the same training sessions. When she was nineteen, she and Ace were sent to a city in Zoria. Deanna, who somehow knew everything about her and all of her schedules without being told, asked her to make a detour to a small town near the city, where Deanna’s daughter and granddaughter were living. She just wanted to know that they were safe and happy, nothing much. It would only be a few hours out of their way. The town was attacked by Zorian soldiers that day. Vesta and Ace, of course, did all they could to help the people of the town (who were claimed to be rebels by the soldiers). Vesta had taken a sword to the gut during the battle, and wasn’t fit to travel. Someone had told the king that Deanna asked them to go visit a different village, and she was brought in for interrogation. They thought she was trying to get Vesta and Ace killed, because of the attack. Although Deanna didn’t confess to anything, they were going to convict her as a traitor either way. Until the king remembered her parent’s fears. One of these fears was that bonds would be dangerous for her to make, because they were connections to people other than the royal family, who should have been her primary focus. And so, they needed to break this bond.
    When they arrived back at the kingdom, they were three days late. Usually, only one of them was needed to report back to the king on how the job went within a ew hours of getting back, so they had planned on Ace speaking to him, while Vesta went straight to her rooms to rest. Instead, they were both immediately summoned to the throne room. Vesta was told to behead Deanna. She was a traitor, and that was her job, was it not? To rid Karom of anyone who tried to question them and disturb the peace. Deanna said nothing, only stood there with her head held high, glaring at the king as he spoke. When Vesta hesitated, Ace stepped forward. He tried to block Vesta’s view of Deanna as he raised his sword, but the king told him to stop. This job was assigned to her, not him. Vesta shut herself off. She had grown up alone, her old true goal being to survive. She told herself that other people didn’t matter. Deanna had remained silent until Vesta unsheathed her sword. She looked Vesta directly in the eye, and said, “Lions don’t belong in cages.” Vesta doubled over right as her handmaiden’s head hit the ground. Ace told the king it was because of her wound, which had begun bleeding again from the horse ride to the castle, but they all knew what it was. They all knew that breaking bonds cause physical pain.
    She withdrew a lot after this. For months, she wouldn’t even talk to Ace. She just threw herself into her training and her missions. It was almost as if drowning herself in blood would be enough to cover up the stains on her heart from having Deanna’s blood on her hands. She stopped reading and had only a bored expression on whenever Ace would drag her to some new art gallery or to watch a new band playing in the square.
    It took a while, but Ace was able to bring her back. They had bonded, whether she regretted that now or not, and so he was able to reach her. Once again, he helped to fix what of her that was broken. She wasn’t back, not fully, but she was talking again, if only to him and never in public.
    Vesta was twenty when her world shattered.
    Karom and Hazvir have had many struggles over territory in the past. One of the missions Karom’s king had always talked about sending her on was one to kill the king of Hazvir. This had never happened, because Hazvir was much too heavily guarded. He knew it would be a suicide mission for her. That is, until they were having some kind of country-wide celebration. They were letting in many different performers and merchants for this week of parties, and the king of Karom saw on in.
    As usual, Ace went with her. This was the kingdom he grew up in, so he was able to get them an even more safe route to the castle. By some stroke of, what seemed to be, luck, they made it into the castle. Ace had been there before, so he led the way, presumably to the king’s chambers. Instead, they ended up in the throne room, the king and a number of his guards waiting. Vesta didn’t understand what was going on until Ace drew his sword and lunged for her throat.
    There had been no guild Ace pissed off, no one he needed protection from. Sure, he grew up an orphan, but he, like Vesta, was raised in the castle. The king of Hazvir had plenty of assassins, so he was able to spare one to gain the trust of the king of Karom. Hazvir’s king knew that Karom only had one royal assassin and that, without her, the royal family would be much less protected.
    Ace had tried to mark her on the way to Hazvir. He had thought that there was a chance she had lost all desire to protect Karom after all they have done to her. He gave her many chances to prove this to him. He even tried to convince her to run away with him after Deanna died. He thought it would be perfect to have such a strong vampire at his side, and at the side of the king. With her protection and the king’s, he would be untouchable.
    When Ace attacked her, he hadn’t realized that they had a bond, as he had never made one either. Or that it breaking would hurt so damn much. Vesta was still numbed by the death of Deanna, and she already knew what it felt like when they broke, so she wasn’t as affected by it. She managed to deliver what she still believes to be a killing blow to his back. After the soldiers advanced on her, it was a wonder she could get away with her life intact.
    Vesta stumbled back to Karom, physically and mentally broken. She was tired. She was tired of being at the beck and call of someone who had a fancy crown that all they had to do to get was to be born into the right family. She was tired of being caught of up in the middle of kingdom politics. She was done with all of it. Something in her had snapped. No longer would she lie to herself that she was loyal to the royal family. She was loyal to herself and herself alone.
    When she entered the throne room for the final time, the first thing she saw was the queen paling at the sight of the blood dripping onto the tile from the wounds that had reopened. There was no respect in her voice as she laughed at the foolishness of them for trusting Ace. The king made a show of yelling at her that she was discharged from her position as assassin, but she only smiled. Everyone knew she was never coming back, and the king had only just proven his powerlessness over her.
    A while back, Deanna had managed to track down Vesta’s great grandmother. As Vesta began her journey to the town where she lived, she had to once again smile at how Deanna had always known what Vesta needed, even before she asked for it. Her great grandmother let her stay. She seemed to care for Vesta, but still acted distant from her. (Although, her great grandmother did help her a bit with controlling her witch powers, because she had never had a true teacher when it came to those.) She was able to see the person Vesta could be, once she was able to heal herself, and, being a witch skilled in divination, she knew that would happen, but that Vesta would be stuck with a few more hardships until then.
    The first hardship she experienced again was the reason her great grandmother never got too close to Vesta. She had known her great granddaughter would be forced to leave the village soon, so she couldn’t have anything or anyone holding her back.
    The king of Karom wasn’t finished with Vesta. He had sent his soldiers to find her and bring back her head. The moment Vesta saw the uniformed soldiers of Karom march into the village, she snapped. They didn’t stand a chance against her, not when she was that angry and so broken she didn’t know how or when to stop herself. She killed all of them. It was very, very public, and she knew word would get back to the king quickly, and that he wouldn’t ever stop hunting her.
    So, she ran, and she’s been running ever since, not staying in one place for longer than two weeks. She was actually on her way out of Zerunia when the Luarea came around.

PERSONALITY |
Hiding has been something Vesta has spent her life perfecting how to hide. Even though she’s six feet tall, she knows how to disappear in a crowd or in the corner of a room (the fact that she can control shadows may or may not have anything to do with this). She knows how to hide her identity. She can come up with believable lies easily and is quite a good actress (Ace used to say that she should write books, because of how good she is at telling imaginary stories). Because of this, she’s also very good at hiding her emotions.
Vesta loves messing with people. Not like pranking them, but like testing their patience or starting bar fights in order to sit back and watch the show. She’s got this air of confidence and almost arrogance and fearlessness to her. It’s a kind of swagger that makes her presence known whenever she’s not trying to hide. There’s always rude, witty, and/or sarcastic comments coming out of her mouth, and she doesn’t try hard to hide them. She grew up being told and taught to be the best and the most powerful, and so she’ll never back down to anyone or anything.
Honestly, though, on some level, she doesn’t really care for her own life anymore. She’s just kind of...surviving, and letting things happen as they do, and dealing with them when they come along. She’s always had a kind of apathy towards things that don’t concern her, and she’ll push things out of her mind that don’t concern her at the moment, but will later on. She knows she’s done a lot of (what many people would consider to be) bad things in her life, but, even now, even after she’s left the kingdom, they don’t really bother her. Sure, there are those that she’ll never forget—the innocent ones, the accidents—but, on the whole of it, killing or thieving doesn’t really bother her, because it’s not her that’s being harmed by it. You could call her selfish for it, but her has a strong sense of self-preservation, and, because she’s learned never to trust bonds, there isn’t a chance protecting anyone will really come before protecting herself.
Vesta is a quick thinker and is quick on her feet. She’s had a lot of experience in life-threatening situations, so she’s prepared to think her way out of anything. (This also goes with how she’ll always have some snarky comeback for everything.) She is usually able to keep a cool head when she’s thrust into some kind of dangerous situation. It’s that apathy all over again. She just forces herself to shove away her emotions and become like a blank slate. If she doesn’t have any emotions attached to whatever she does in moments like this, she’s less likely to feel things like guilt or regret. She simply acts when it’s necessary, and doesn’t let her feelings get in the way.
She does have some control over her emotions in this way. She was trained to be able to shut down and just get the job done. Although, there are times that she’ll just snap. Vesta mad is akin to all hell breaking loose. When she snaps, there’s no reasoning with her. She’ll isn’t able to determine friend from enemy when she’s like this, and she usually won’t stop until someone it dead. This is due in part to her PTSD and in part to how often she pushes away her emotions. She doesn’t like to deal with them, because she doesn’t feel as though they’re necessary “in the moment,” and so they’ll build up. They’ll build up and up until something triggers her PTSD, and it’ll all fall. After she has these kind of moments (usually from someone pissing her off to the extreme), it takes a while for her to come back from them. She gets quieter and more withdrawn. Usually, this is the time when she’ll pack up and leave wherever she’s been staying. She finds that a new place that doesn’t have stains from the blood she’s spilt usually helps her to calm down.
Vesta loves to make people uncomfortable, and to watch them flinch in fear of her. Seeing that gives her a sense of power and reminds her that she’ll never again let anyone, nor would anyone be able to, control her or to cage her. She’s done being anyone’s prized show pony. She likes to be the one in control. If she feels like she’s in a situation where she’s helpless or that someone else could do something to affect her, but she wouldn’t be able to stop them, she’ll leave. She’ll find whatever way she can to get out of the situation, and she won’t come back until she’s sure that she has control over what happens to her.
She doesn’t trust people easily...or at all. She has learned that, when you trust someone with secrets of yours, you lose control. Suddenly, they have some kind of power against you that they can use to exploit or hurt you whenever they wish. This is also one of the main reasons that she has trouble relaxing around people. She never feels safe enough to let down her guard, because she feels as though, the moment she does, she’s letting people see parts of her that they’re not allowed to see.
She can be very, very stubborn. If you want Vesta to do something, you better word it in a way that will make her actually want to do it. Now that she feels like she has freedom, whatever she does is going to be her choice and her choice alone.
    One of the main reasons she has never gone to Karom since her last trip to the throne room, is because she’s scared of what she’ll do. She knows that she snaps whenever she sees one of their soldiers, and that’s already bad enough. Although she isn’t consciously aware of it, she wants revenge on Karom for taking her life away from her. And she also knows that, if she ever got that revenge, she would die from it one way or another. If she ever was able to kill the royal family, she would probably let the soldiers kill her afterward. From all of the pain and fear and stress that they’ve caused and continue to cause her, she would be so overwhelmed by all of those emotions she’s buried coming to a point, that she wouldn’t feel like there was anything else to do, anywhere else to go.
    She’s always been able to handle being alone, even if she would much rather have someone she can trust and relax around. Being so tense all of the time is tiring. Even though she knows how to charm and seduce and trick her way into people’s good books, whenever she lets the veil fall, and is just herself, people fear her, and no one would dare go near her, physically or emotionally.

    ° (She’s so complex, that I really don’t feel like I was able to explain enough about her. If you want me to explain it differently I can try it again.)

FAMILY |
    ° Eona Leon | 96 | mother | vampire | mid-to-upper class | a trainer for the soldiers and a high-ranking soldier herself | Karom | 1
    ° Shercon Leon | 104 | father | vampire | mid-to-upper class | general for the royal army | Karom | 1
    ° Maleah Karez | 143 | great grandmother | witch | peasant | she doesn’t have a job, but she occasionally sells vegetables and potions to get by | Mivaol | 1
        ° (I’m not sure how long vampires or witches in this world live, so feel free to change their ages)

CONDITIONS, DISORDERS, ETC. | PTSD
    ° Re-experiencing symptom: Flashbacks
        ° mental symptoms: “reliving” the time she spent with Ace and his betrayal, Deanna’s death, her first kill, all of the people she killed that she regrets, etc.
        ° physical symptoms: fast breathing, shaking, racing heart, feels like she can’t breathe. She knows when these are going to happen, because her vision will get fuzzy and her head will ring. If she’s around people, she’ll find a way to not be. She’ll find a room with a large window (night/day doesn’t matter) or she’ll go outside.
        ° occurs: kind of randomly? There’s no specific trigger and even the things that can trigger her (like someone touching her scars, her being reminded of Deanna in some way, etc.) don’t always cause the flashbacks. There will be times when she’ll wake up in the middle of the night having flashbacks.
    ° Avoidance symptom: staying away from places, events, or objects that are reminders of the traumatic experience
        ° for her, this manifests itself as her not allowing herself to get close to and to trust people, because it was other people and the bonds she made with them that hurt her in the past
    ° Arousal and reactivity symptoms: Having difficulty sleeping and feeling tense or “on edge”
        ° Vesta doesn’t fall asleep easily, unless she’s utterly exhausted. She usually stays up late into the night, sleeps for only a few hours, and wakes up early. Being a vampire, she doesn’t need as much sleep as humans, but she still needs it at some point. She also is more likely to get flashbacks when she’s asleep, because she’s less able to try to suppress it
        ° Vesta is rarely able to actually be “comfortable” around other people. The moment she enters a room, she instinctively searches for all of the exits and potential weapons. The moment she enters a conversation, she instinctively searches the other person for any sign of malice and notes how close they are to her and where their weaknesses should be. She has been doing this all of her life, because it was trained into her, but she never felt the same level of foreboding until after she was betrayed.
    ° Cognition and mood symptoms: negative thoughts about oneself or the world and feeling detached or estranged from others
        ° although she had never really been one to open up to people immediately, after she was betrayed, she kind of lost the ability to even consider trusting anyone else. She began to see everyone as more of a threat than she used to, so she doesn’t even bother to act like someone approachable. She’s just...herself, she’s just there and trying to survive
    ° where I got most of my info: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml

LIKES |
    ° horses > she had to learn how to ride (and how to fight while riding) at a very young age, and she ended up falling in love with them ; they’re always the innocent ones in everything. They never do anything to hurt unless they’re being hurt themselves, and, even then, they’re always quick to forgive
    ° cloaks/capes > they can both hide her and make her feel much more powerful than she already is
    ° soup > as much as she disliked having handmaidens who would try to help her with everything, Deanna, the one person who truly felt like family to her, would always make her (read: force the chefs to make her) soup when she felt sick
    ° large, wide open rooms > if she’s in too small of a room, she feels as though she can’t breathe
    ° being outside > it makes her remember that she is free
    ° rain > she loves the feeling of it, and it makes it easier to hide
    ° high places > she feels less vulnerable if she’s higher than everyone else
    ° going for runs in forest while it’s raining > she’s able to forget about people and civilization and just enjoy nature
    ° the arts > whether it’s music or paintings or books, Vesta loves it. It reminds her that there are good people in the world
° dual-weapon combat > whether it’s two knives or two swords, she likes having the weight split evenly between both of her hands
° travelling > she loves being able to see new ways of life, new scenery, and new cultures

DISLIKES |
    ° crossbows > to her, they’re both annoying due to the amount of time it takes to reload them and they’re a “weak man’s weapon” because you don’t need to use that muscle strength to hold the arrow back while you’re trying to aim
    ° seafood > it smells disgusting, it tastes disgusting, it looks disgusting, don’t even bring it near her
    ° people being “in her space” > she always hated having handmaidens assigned to her, especially when they were sent to ready her for some kind of party. She quickly discovered that it only took one broken finger for them to be reassigned somewhere else ; if she can kill a man with her bare hands, she’ll be damned if someone tries to help her put a shirt on
    ° unbalanced and/or cheaply made weapons > weapons, to her, are very fine, beautiful things that should always be given the utmost care
    ° rooms with no windows > they make her feel trapped, which is something she can’t stand
    ° slaves or seeing others in chains > unless she knows they absolutely deserve it, she knows what it’s like to have no freedom, and she can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for them, because she was at least lucky enough to live a luxurious life
    ° crowded places > she feels like she can’t breathe in them
    ° cats > if she met the right cat, she’d probably fall in love with it, but, until then, all of the cats she’s met were either little assholes who scratched her or werecats who tried to kill her. So, yeah, Vesta isn’t a cat person
    ° heavy skirts > they are always getting in the way, even when she’s only sitting down
    ° tall heels > although she can both walk and run in them, it makes things much more difficult, and the chance is much higher that she’ll trip and break an ankle

HABITS |
    ° religiously cleaning her weapons > she tells herself it’s because seeing the blood could set off her vampire persona, but seeing a of old, dried blood wouldn’t really do anything. She mostly does it because it gets rid of the reminder of Ace’s blood and the blood of those she regrets killing on those same weapons. She does it every night or every time she has some kind of memory about what happened, and even does it with new weapons
    ° standing along the wall > it makes it easier for her to observe everyone and it’s less likely that someone could sneak up behind her. She was trained to never leave her back open, because it’s a blind spot.
    ° humming to herself > maybe she picked it up from Deanna, who would always hum when she worked, but she doesn’t really know why or when she started doing this. She tends to hum whenever she’s deep in thought and trying to figure something out. Although, she never hums loud enough for anyone else to hear
HOBBIES |
    ° reading > there are times when she just needs to not be in this world. She developed this hobby during her times as an assassin, and she would turn to books for comfort after a job that was especially mentally and morally taxing for her
    ° exercising > it allows her to just...work, and gives her a chance to clear her mind. She took up this hobby because she kinda had to be fit and athletic as an assassin
    ° throwing knives > it’s a stress reliever for her (and she enjoys watching people flinch as she hits the bullseye while they’re talking to her)
TALENTS | optional, max. 5
    ° singing > surprisingly enough, she has a really nice voice, but she never sings for anyone, and she very rarely even sings for herself
    ° firing a bow while riding a horse > let’s just say, this has gotten her out of a lot of sticky situations in the past

TRIVIA |
    ° the Karom king once tried to convince her to get her fangs tipped in gold > she was very adamantly against this, because she didn’t like the idea of being any more his prized show pony than she knew she already was
    ° she has the worse period symptoms > her cramps leave her immobile, her migraines make it so anyone walking within earshot is like a blow to the head with and every step, and her nausea makes it so she can’t keep anything down for longer than an hour
    ° Vesta can survive on human food, if there is no blood available > she just needs more of it than a normal human, and she’s much more easily taken over by her inner being (basically the more bitchy, “give me blood or I’ll rip your throat out and get it myself” version of her)
    ° she’s not impacted at all by alcohol > she loves to drink, and she can drink an entire bar of soldiers into a stupor, without getting the slightest buzz ; she loves the almost painful bitterness of it
    ° low-key has separation anxiety from her weapons > not having any weapons on or near her make her feel naked and vulnerable (it’s not like she’s got vampire and witch powers or anything)
    ° ALWAYS has a weapon on her near her > she even sleeps with a knife under her pillow ; she likes to have at least four knives (two in her boots, two on her thighs) and her twin swords with her at all times
    ° she doesn’t really care for “modesty” > to her, a body is a body, and, if, say, someone is injured or there needs to be a quick outfit change in order to escape from someplace unscathed, there are more important things to worry about
    ° on the twelfth of December, she always goes off somewhere alone and tries her best to avoid people > it’s the anniversary of her first kill ; it reminds her of what she was born to be, and how she had little choice in her life while growing up ; she doesn’t want to add another body count on to that day, because that only makes her think that she is feeding into the destiny given to her by her parents, when freedom is all she wants
    ° she prefers to have her hair loose than tied back > although it can definitely get in the way during a fight, she’s found it makes it much easier to hide her face quickly
    ° she has a lot of scars > most notably: a three centimeter long one on the skin between her right thumb and forefinger (her first kill tried to fight back), a one inch one on her left shoulder (the first time she took a knife for Ace), a five inch one across the lower part of her stomach (from the fight in Deanna’s daughter’s village) and a light one that cuts across her neck and collarbones (from the first swipe Ace took at her in Hazvir)

   “ CREATURE ”

NAME | her inner being would just be a little voice in the back of her mind (if it needs to still have a name: Amora)

COLOR(S) | Her eyes are naturally a dark red color, but they can get brighter when she’s feeding or around a lot of blood or can darken to black or near it when she’s controlling the shadows.

EXTRA FEATURES | in my mind, because she’s a full-blooded vampire (born a vampire to two vampire parents), she would always be in her “vampire form” (like, she couldn’t shift between looking human and looking vampire).

PERSONA |
    ° when her vampire senses are more awakened than usual (typically around blood, when her emotions are quite strong, when she’s in the middle of a fight, etc.): her senses are much sharper, as well as her reflexes, in this form. This means that she can think of scathing comebacks much quicker, and there’s little that’ll get in her way. She becomes driven by a desire for blood, and she often has to struggle with remembering the reason she’s wherever she is. Also due to her intense bloodlust during this time is how the lines between friend and foe get more difficult to discern.
    ° when she’s using the powers from her witch blood: there’s a definite difference between this persona and her vampire persona. This persona is much more cold and calculating. When she’s mostly using her powers, she takes her time, unlike the “kill first, ask questions later” style she adopts when she is relying most on her vampire heritage. She thinks things through more fully, taking time to consider each and every outcome. She’s just as deadly, though. This persona is driven by results and ending a problem, than merely killing as many people as possible.
    A lot of times, when she’s able to cut through the red haze of her vampire persona, she’ll start using her witch powers more, even if they tire her out. She knows she needs that sense of clarity more than she needs the pure rage and violence.
    She relies on her vampire persona to help her to get revenge and forget about her problems when she’s in a situation where she just needs to kill.
    She relies on her witch persona to help keep her sane when she knows she’s going to do something she really shouldn’t.

   “ OPINIONS ”
**None of these are optional and must be answered in at least one sentence.

HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT LUAREA? | Apathetic, overall, but it truly does sicken her a bit, knowing the kings are just...taking people without their consent, and believing that, because they have the shiny crowns and the thrones, it’s their right to do whatever with their subjects.

HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT BONDS? DO THEY AGREE WITH HOW SACRED THEY ARE? | She hates and fears them. She never had a bond with a friend or a family member, so she never really got to feel what that was like, Ace turned out to be a traitor, Deanna died—all she really “knows” about bonds at this point is that they’re temporary and hurt like hell when they’re broken. She doesn’t really care whether they actually are sacred or not, but she likes that those who consider them to be sacred never try to make them with her.

WHAT ARE THEIR OPINIONS ON THE THREE KINGS? DO THEY SUPPORT THEM OR NOT? | She’s apathetic about them. Or, at least, she was until she was chosen for Luarea (which, I assuming she will be). She doesn’t want to be placed again at the beck and call of another group of arrogant royals. She’s not afraid of them, and she’ll do anything she can to earn her freedom again. Although, on some level, she pities them and can relate to them. She was able to leave Karom because she didn’t actually have any ties there. Like her they were born into their position in the kingdom, but they weren’t allowed to leave, because they were always in the spotlight.

IF THEY COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF ZERUNIA, WHAT WOULD THEY CHANGE? | She doesn’t particularly care about Zerunia, actually. She doesn’t want to be caught up in the politics of a kingdom ever again. She’d say to give the people more freedom, if she was forced to pick something.

IF THEY COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT THEMSELVES, WHAT WOULD THEY CHANGE? | She likes to think she would change her entire upbringing, that, if given the option, she would erase her entire past. Her killings, the pain of losing Deanna, the betrayal of Ace—that it would all be gone. But, in all honesty, she wouldn’t change a thing. Even though there are parts of herself that she hates (such as her PTSD and inability to trust) she knows that that’s...her. That that’s just who she is.

HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT THE RANKING OF SPECIES? DO THEY THINK IT'S FAIR? | She thinks it was a good idea, but it’s based on not actual evidence. To her, there is no one species that’s inevitably stronger than another; it all depends on the individual. She’s been in many fights with many different species. She’s known dragons that couldn’t even lift a heavy trunk, and werecreatures that could probably kill someone with only a look. She would also say that, although she’s “only a vampire,” she’s pretty damn powerful. It just depends on the training.

HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT MATES? DO THEY THINK THEY'RE POINTLESS OR DO THEY LIKE THE IDEA OF HAVING ONE? | She’s afraid of the mate idea. She’s known just how easy it is to be tricked into believing you love a person, only to have them betray you. The idea that a person can only ever have one mate, and that they may die because of them, freaks her out, no matter how much part of her still dreams for that fairytale perfect ending of a mate.

   “ LOVE LIFE ”

LOVE INTEREST | THE ELDEST (Korin)
BACK-UP LOVE INTEREST | THE YOUNGEST (this section was written mostly for Korin, but I can rewrite it when you decide who her love interest will be (if you even want her to have one))
    ° (To make it easy, I’m just going to refer to my love interest choices as “the king”)

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THESE TWO WOULD BE GOOD TOGETHER? | I feel like they would need to fix what was broken with the other. Vesta has her terrible past, and the king doesn’t seem to have the most “approachable” personalities, so there are definitely things they could help each other with. Once they do manage to help one another out of whatever dark places they have manage to get themselves stuck in all of their life, imagine just how much of a power couple these two would be. A vampire assassin and a dragon king. Now that’s a pair you don’t want to piss off.

HOW DO YOU WANT THEIR LOVE STORY TO GO? | Vesta always acts as an equal when she’s around others, and her being around a king would be no different. At the beginning, there would be no bowing or obeying from Vesta. If those chosen in the luarea were to be made to help the kings or kingdom with something, the kings would find her right at their side, looking over whatever plans they had in front of them. The king would probably be a bit shocked, but somewhat intrigued at the fact that she doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind around them and will even cut them off while they are talking. For the king, he might be curious about her, and Vesta, not loving or loathing the kings, would just kind of be there. Eventually, after working together and around one another for a while, they might find themselves becoming more comfortable around each other, which leads to them actually talking about things like their past or families, and feeling as though they had an ally there. And then, yeah, romantic stuff I don’t know how to write, rip.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER AND THEIR LOVE INTEREST ACT AROUND EACH OTHER? | Their significant other is the greatest test to both of their patience that they’ve ever had. Sarcastic comments, (loving) insults, eyerolls, scoffs—basically things that would make people assume they’d rather watch the other in a tank of sharks than actually touch them. Despite him being a king and her being a criminal, they act like equals (Vesta doesn’t really give him much of a choice, and he doesn’t mind that much). They share a lot of things with one another, whether that’s food, couch space, their deepest and darkest secrets, alcohol. They never really have a vibe of romance around them. They usually just look like they’re two people who are really comfortable with one another.

COUPLE TRIVIA |
    ° everyone is probably taking bets as to when they’ll rip each other’s throats out
    ° they’re not very touchy in public, but when they’re alone or with people they’re comfortable around, they’re always touching in some one
    ° they wouldn’t be the type to give each other gifts (except maybe like a really special ring for each of them that they never take off)
    ° they have lots of late night outdoor conversations
    ° most people are surprised that both Vesta and the king were capable to actually love someone (idk if that matches the king’s personality or not, but that’s what I got from the slot descriptions)
    ° Vesta would be fine with making a bond (after a while of knowing she could trust them), but she may never agree to choosing one another as mates

SUGGESTED SCENES |
    ° Vesta and him being stuck together somewhere, and him having kind of a panic attack or something, and she starts singing to him (something that shocks both of them)
    ° lots ! of ! bitchiness ! and ! sarcastic/scathing ! verbal ! sparring ! matches ! (like, being verbally at each other’s throat to the point they seem more a danger to each other’s lives than to anyone’s ship/OTP)
    ° Vesta having a nightmare or something happens that makes her freak out, and he has to calm her down without getting gutted or having his throat ripped out
    ° a scene (full of them insulting each other and being all-around bitchy) where they’re talking about the past and helping each other to get over it all, without really realizing it
    ° him doing something that makes Vesta remember why she doesn’t trust royalty
    ° her experiencing really bad period symptoms, and him comforting her (despite her yelling at him to go away)
    ° her having just brutally killed someone in front of him
    ° him trying to sneak up behind her to surprise her, and Vesta flipping him over her shoulder or something (“It’s your fault. You should know better by now.”)

   “ EXTRA ”

SUGGESTED SCENES |
    ° Vesta being a badass (could be just a fight, could be her killing someone, it really depends on the context)
    ° Vesta being very disrespectful to the kings (then again, when is she not?) in her own way of “I doubt you’ll do anything to me because you’re too afraid,” and freaking out the servants or any of the king’s other subjects because they think that, surely, she’ll be executed for her behavior
    ° Ace somehow coming into the story (maybe he’s “working with” the kings or is coming to the castle to present his services as an assassin)
    ° The tenth anniversary of her first kill coming around, and her just disappearing for the day (or trying to) (also her nearly having to kill someone, maybe for an important reason, but not being able to do it)
    ° Vesta seeing someone with scar across his face, and being reminded of just how powerful she is (she earned the nickname The Lion because of a victim with “claw marks” across his face)
    ° The kings and others chosen for Luarea finding out she’s The Lion
    ° maybe the king of Karom finding out she’s at the castle, and offering a peace treaty or land or something else valuable in trade for Vesta

DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR THIS APPLY FIC? IS THERE ANYTHING, IN PARTICULAR, YOU WANT ME TO DO OR INCLUDE? | n/a (but feel free to pm me if you ever need someone to bounce ideas off of!)

ANYTHING ELSE? |
    ° links to Neelam Gill
1 || http://emirateswoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-15-at-15.42.15.jpg
        2 || https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Neelam_Gill_2015.jpg
        3 || http://www.glamour.com/images/beauty/2015/09/neelam-gill-model-zayn-malik-2-main.jpg
        4 || https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/5f/74/89/5f7489822df4b3e5731474812ff5bbaa.jpg
        5 || https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/640397592933756928/NMa5yttY.jpg
        6 || http://www.haathichiti.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Neelam-Gill.jpg
        7 || http://www.uoftastemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/nee.jpeg
        8 || http://68.media.tumblr.com/0dd41f1cc6eed4cdec72ad42a403867c/tumblr_nx74oeraYT1ryq2zfo2_1280.jpg
        9 || https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/25/b7/75/25b7757328ceff87e0513389e1f53814.jpg
        10 || https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/12/32/b1/1232b1baddb6035865354021d721221f.jpg
        11 || https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/89/17/9b/89179bcec2c2f93ed5831e608f5aa0eb.jpg
        12 || http://38.media.tumblr.com/aadcb7ef716dafc3e56125c734f8c2e7/tumblr_nk3lwp1XQ51u5lrz2o2_r1_540.gif
        13 || http://68.media.tumblr.com/06aa14595b2b6f8d712bf8d56f835c68/tumblr_mxa8lmaTCK1t1yysko4_1280.jpg

    ° links to Senait Gidey
        1 || https://i.mdel.net/i/db/2014/7/276467/276467-500w.jpg
        2 || http://www.artandcommerceproduction.com/content/gallery/senait_gidey_img/senait_img_1.jpg
        3 || http://az617363.vo.msecnd.net/imgmodels/models/md10002855/5d5e02b8-6104-458f-b660-e6a37d6b4520_thumb.jpg
        4 || http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H5jiXcFjmwE/UYk0vBenstI/AAAAAAAAXQs/k14GiX1xbic/s1600/Senait+elmerolsenmodels.com1.jpg
        5 || http://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/6334776/933full-senait-gidey.jpg
        6 || http://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/5920890/1000full-senait-gidey.jpg
        7 || http://modelloungenyc.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Senait-Gidey.jpg
        8 || http://images.fashionmodeldirectory.com/model/000000360606-senait_gidey-fullsize.jpg

NOTE TO SATAN | Even if you don’t choose to use my character, I hope this was at least an interesting read! I can’t wait to read this story. Also, if I filled out anything wrong (like the kingdoms and their politics from her background or the creature section) or in a way you don’t think you could work with, please, either change it yourself or yell at me to fix it.
PASSWORD | bnha (I think. I'm terrible at these)