Shade Leonhart

Name: Shade Leonhart

Gender: Female

Age: 19, but does appear older due to her maturity

Race: Human

Home World: Traverse Town

Appearance: She’s about 5’4”. May seem on the petit side, but strong. Dark brown hair, yet appears a bit unkept since she's not one to care for appearance or impressions. Grey eyes and mostly brooding. She wears a light grey tank under a mid-drift black and brown jacket. The right arm of the jacket has been completely ripped off for better maneuver wearing the crossbow weapon attached to the arm. The left arm is long sleeved with leather arm guard and she wears a glove on this hand. Sword belt over regular belt. Black military pants. Quill case belts strapped to both legs and boots. Picture included.

Personality: Shade is fairly quiet. She'd much rather stand in the background and take things in rather than be the one speaking or being any form of attention. Her social skills aren't that all welcoming, but not because she dislikes people. She's just reserved and would much rather keep to herself. Being of a level mind, Shade seems to keep quite calm in a panic situation. She also, almost always, looks to the long run of things. She keeps consequences in mind to any plan. She despises the leadership role, but will do so should someone require it of her.

Elemental Mastery:
Primary: Gravity
Secondary: Wind
Tertiary: Cure

Weapons:
Crossbow/Boomerang “Gryfon”
Also carries a sword, “Wolf’s Bane”

Fighting Style: Long/Short

Alignment: Lawful (mostly)

Affinities: Magic and melee fighting are skills she not only honed on her own, but came rather naturally due to her lineage.

Weaknesses: Her defenses (against magic or physical blows) aren't all that great. She hates armor, so a rather big gain for you if you happen to nail her with a weapon or spell.
People. Although she originally comes from a "team" and normally fights well when other allies are involved, she's not one people favor at parties.

History:

The name says it. Daughter of Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly.

As a child, Shade was quite rambunctious, rebellious, adventurous, and practically no sense of fear. One could barely shut her up unless she was eating or sleeping. Being such an energetic child, she was much like a tomboy and pretty much outwitting anyone who gave her a challenge. Her thriving curiosity often led her into countless troubling situations that were often comical. Poor Headmaster Cid done got a pacemaker after Squall brought Shade to work at the Garden one day. Nevermore….

It was when she was five years old, her life took a most tragic turn. Her home world being attacked by an unforeseen enemy that virtually tore the world apart. The ruthless force gave itself no name, yet used a merciless technique called "Extraction" upon those of Shade's home world in order to obtain the unique abilities and powers of those who beheld them. During the initial attack, Rinoa was pursued, and during her escape with Shade, she felt there was no choice but to pass down her acquired sorceress powers onto her daughter before the enemy would capture her and acquire them for their own means.

Unfortunately, they did capture Rinoa, much to the horror Shade had to witness before she continued running for the lighthouse as her mother told her to do. This is where Squall found her when he abandoned a mission in attempts to find them when the initial attack began. After learning through Shade’s frantic cries what happened to Rinoa, the unknown enemy then appeared to find Squall and Shade as well. Seeing there was little choice and no where else to flee, Squall hid Shade within a storage cellar beneath the floor of the lighthouse before facing off what was to come on his own.

No one knows what exactly took place after that. If Shade remembered witnessing any of it, she never spoke of it, or claimed having no memory of it at all. It was Edea who found Shade as the small search party from Balamb Garden scrambled to find any survivors, but it wasn’t the same lively child everyone had come to know. From that day on, Shade remained pretty much reserved to herself, and more so as time went on. Only a select few friends were raised with her and remained close to her, although Shade simply showed them tolerance and nothing more.

Naturally, SeeD recruits were pressed for, and once Shade was of age, she was expected to follow suite and excel as her father did. This amount of pressure made Shade even more withdrawn since she struggled to be what everyone else wanted from her. The acquired powers she received from her mother didn’t make things any easier as time went on. If Shade showed the slightest irritability, some would suspect her unstable and fear her for what she could be capable of since the Sorceress war was also still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Although Shade did excel, she was never satisfied with her own accomplishments and drove herself even harder to the point that any connection to whatever friends, or any who cared for her were severed. With the loss of her parents and childhood always burning, she made sure never feel for anyone ever again. Seclusion from “feeling” was the only comfort Shade could ever find, and many chided behind her back that she could pass for a lifeless robot of sorts.

Then out of the blue, Cid comes up with a ridiculous (yet he considers, “remarkable”) idea. A newfound mission to send a team into another dimension in hopes to discover the source of this no named enemy that still plagued their world. He had kept the time compression research a secret until his dream team of scientists learned how to harness the ruminants of what Ultimecia left behind after she was defeated. As much as this hidden truth enraged Shade, she went along with it, vowing she would do whatever possible to rid her world of such a deadly threat.

The team was prepared and set. Zell’s daughter Brix, and the Kinneas twins, Jayda and Vex, along with Shade were bound and determined to see their greatest mission prove successful even if it meant their lives. What no one expected through all of the “what if’s” and possible malfunctions was the lab coming under attack just as the team was about to enter the dimensional gateway. The last thing Shade knew of was a massive explosion which sent her into action. Grabbing her teammates, she threw them and herself into the unknown, knowing it was the only way to set things right. But the attack set off something wrong. The team was separated, or so Shade is only aware of waking up into an entirely different realm without a sign of anyone she knows.



Pictures:

hehehehe

Alternate Universes are a wonderful thing. *grin*

Approved.

Grizz