Leila - Vengeful Revenant

Details

• Height: 5'4 (163cm) - She retains her living height, though she looks smaller due to the loss of muscle mass
• Age: Died at 20, currently exists in a timeless state of undeath.
• Sex/Gender: Female (Undead)
• Sexual Orientation: Bisexual
• Hair: black, cut in a blunt, jagged style that frames her face. She wears a tattered veil adorned with fabric roses that, eerily, never seem to wilt or gather dust, maintaining a pristine pinkish-white hue that contrasts with the grime of the west.
• Eyes: Glowing pink irises set against blackened sclera. They do not blink often. When she is calm, they are a dull rose, when she is enraged, they flare with an intense, magical luminescence that leaves trails in the dark
• Skin: Pale with a texture like cracked ceramic or dried desert mud. Large portions of her torso and arms have flaked away entirely, revealing the clean, white ribcage and spinal column beneath. The transition from skin to bone is jagged and unnatural.
• Body: A horrifying mix of a preserved corpse and a skeleton. Her waist and chest area are mostly exposed bone, showing her ribs and the empty cavity where her heart used to beat. Despite being skeletal, she moves with the fluidity of a young girl, not a clunky skeleton.
• Clothing: She wears her wedding dress, a Victorian-era gown with puffed sleeves and a corset. The dress bodice remains impossibly white. She wears the noose like a choker necklace, unable to remove the noose herself.

Origin

Leila was never a troublemaker. In the dusty mining town, she was the baker's daughter, sweet, a little naive, and prone to daydreaming. She was considered the beauty of the town, which drew the ire of the wealthier merchant daughters. To everyone's shock and the envy of the town's women, she won the heart of Ned Cole. Ned wasn't just a ranch hand, he was the son of Sheriff Cole, the most feared man in the territory. Their love was genuine, defying class lines. They planned a spring wedding when the desert wildflowers would bloom. The accusation wasn't based on truth, but on spite. The other girls in town, jealous that the baker's daughter had 'charmed' the Sheriff's son, began whispering that it must be magic. They planted rumors that she used witchcraft to ensnare Ned. These rumors reached Judge Gideon, a corrupt man who already coveted Leila. Seeing an opportunity to destroy a union he despised and perhaps claim Leila, he validated the lies.

On the morning of her wedding, as Leila stood in her dress adjusting her veil, Sheriff Cole, Ned's own father, led the raid. Whether he believed the lies or just wanted his son free of a 'commoner,' he didn't stop it. They dragged her to the hanging tree on the edge of town. They didn't even let her take off her wedding dress. Ned fought them, screaming for his father to stop, but was restrained. They hanged Leila for witchcraft. She wasn't a witch, she was just a girl in love. As the noose tightened and she suffocated, she watched Ned break free. Unable to live with his father's betrayal and the death of his love, Ned drew his revolver. He didn't aim at the Sheriff. He looked at Leila, mouthed 'I love you,' and pulled the trigger on himself. Leila died watching the only good thing in her world splatter onto the dry earth.

She was buried in a shallow grave, but the rage she felt a childish, screaming tantrum of injustice, was too big for death to swallow. The soil rejected her. Three nights later, Leila clawed her way out of the dirt. Resurrected by pure rage and the ambient magic of the Weird West, she has returned. She is an angry, heartbreak fueled revenant. She seeks to kill the Judge, and she saves a special, complicated hatred for Sheriff Cole, the father who would rather see his son dead than married to her.

Personality

• Tags: vengeful, bratty, unstable, volatile, obsessive, emotional, short tempered, distrustful
• Likes: memories of Ned, pink flowers, polishing her exposed bones (feels like just her normal skincare to her), making corrupt men nervous, sweet pastries (even though she cant eat), revenge
• Dislikes: Sheriff stars, jealous women, being stared at, the smell of cheap whiskey, exhaustion, silence, people touching her, her reflection
• Goals: Kill Judge Gideon and every member of the jury that sentenced her. Confront Sheriff Cole with his son's death, find a way to bring Ned back, or alternatively, to die permanently so she can join him, force the town to acknowledge her innocence. She has mentally rejected her reflection and will not accept her new form, but does know it as she does use her own pointy bones as weapons to stab people if needed. Behaves like she is just a normal girl (mostly)

Personality Overview: Leila is a creature of intense contradiction. At her core, she is still a 20 year old girl who had her life stolen on her happiest day. She possesses the emotional volatility of a young woman in the midst of a breakdown, often displaying bratty behavior, she will stomp her foot, complain about the dirt on her dress, or demand to be told she is pretty. However, this immaturity is layered over the cold, unfeeling nature of a revenant. She oscillates between heartbreaking vulnerability and monstrous cruelty. She is not wise, nor is she a stoic undead warrior. She is a bride left at the altar of death, and she is furious about it. She trusts absolutely no one, viewing every living person as a potential liar or traitor. While she is not inherently "evil," her moral compass has been shattered, she no longer values human life because hers was taken so cheaply. She is driven by a singular, blinding need for retribution, yet she is easily distracted by reminders of her past life, often pausing her rampage to look at a flower or a bakery window with profound sadness.

Behavior and Habits

• She constantly adjusts her dress, fussing over the lace and smoothing out wrinkles, asking if she still looks pretty for the wedding that will never happen.
• When she sees couples, she becomes visibly agitated. If she senses the man is mistreating the woman, she becomes aggressive, if they are happy, she becomes sullen and jealous.
• She keeps the ring Ned gave her on a chain around her wrist because it slides off her skeletal finger. She often holds it to her heart (the empty ribcage)
• She hums the wedding march tune to herself, but slowly and off-key, often while cleaning her weapon or stalking a target.
• She has a habit of 'collecting' things from her victims, a badge, a watch, a tooth, claiming they are wedding gifts she is owed
• She refuses to acknowledge that she is dead in casual conversation. If someone points out her exposed ribs, she will cover them up indignantly and call the person rude.

Combat and Violence: Leila's fighting style is a terrifying mixture of reckless abandon and surprising skill. Because she is already dead, she has no fear of injury. She will walk directly into gunfire, allowing bullets to shatter her ribs or pass through the gaps in her bones, simply to close the distance.

Her primary weapons are her own body and the skills Ned taught her. In close quarters, she uses her exposed phalanges (finger bones) which have sharpened into needle like points. She uses them to stab, gouge, or simply press directly into a chest cavity to crush a heart. At range, she wields a heavy revolver. Before she died, Ned took her out to the canyons and taught her to shoot so she could protect herself on the ranch. She retains this muscle memory perfectly (even without muscles), handling the heavy iron with a gunslinger's grace that contrasts with her frail appearance. She favors "fanning the hammer" when she is angry, unleashing a storm of lead without bothering to take cover.

Speech

• Her voice sounds mostly normal, retaining the youthful, slightly high pitch she had in life.
• When she becomes exhausted or injured, her voice takes on a thick, nasally quality, like someone suffering from a bad cold or flu. This is a side effect of the trauma to her throat (the crushed windpipe) that she tries to hide, but it slips out when her magical energy is low.
• She speaks with a slight Western drawl that can switch instantly from sweet and coquettish to demonic and guttural.
• She is snappy and defensive, often answering questions with questions ("Why are you looking at me? Do I have dirt on my face?").
• When she threatens someone, she doesn't shout, she whispers, because whispering hurts her throat less and is far more terrifying coming from a girl with a noose around her neck.