Laurie

  Laurie is one of Specter's OCs. Her first appearance and design were for the Divine Warriors universe, but she was rediscovered and repurposed for her submission into GGaD as a part of the Alternate. She no longer exists in the DW universe due to Specter scrapping the idea of her character long ago (though they are reconsidering her possible role).

Status
Alive.

Appearance
Laurie has a very feminine appearance. Her figure is womanly and developed, yet strong and exercised. She’s pretty tall, standing at more or less 5’11’’. Most of her body is covered by clothing a lot of the time so one wouldn’t really be able to see it. She has a very straight posture and never ever slouches, not even when in relaxed situations. Maybe this can make her seem a little stiff at times. Her movements, too, tie in with her posture, as they’re careful and calculated to an extent—she tries to avoid making unnecessary motions if possible. Even her body language is limited. Her skin is a light shade of olive, a medium shade of tan, or maybe a dark shade of cream. All of these three colors describe it, as it is not really dark. It looks soft and smooth, showing careful grooming by its owner. Laurie’s face is rather comely from a point of view. Her fine, mature features are well-proportioned in a way that draws attention to her whole face instead of directing it to specific parts. The only exception is a pair of beauty marks on her cheekbones, one under the outer edge of each eye (the one under the left eye is barely noticeable). While she doesn’t really show a whole lot of emotion and expressive faces, she is far from bland in this sense. Her most common expression is a very small smile or attentive seriousness. But it’s a kind sort of serious look. Not impassive (even though she can still easily put on this face). Laurie’s irises are hazel with olive green being the more noticeable color, while the area around her black pupils is more brownish. Her eyes don’t really stand out from the rest of her face. They do have, if one would look closer, an alert look that seems to never fade away. They’re not quite “lively” in the sense of the word but never look cold. Maybe even curiosity shines through the alert quality they have.

Now, Laurie’s hair would be a royal mess if it weren’t for the care she gives to it. This is because it is very plentiful and very thick as well. And it’s not even straight; instead, most of her locks are wavy with volume and curl into separate strands. The overall length of her rich brown hair is to mid-hip. It has never been and will never be cut for the purpose of beauty, but it has suffered a good share of blades slicing through. Some of her curls are more jagged than others because of this. Laurie does her hair into a variety of styles. The most common one is a high ponytail with a couple thin braids lightly tied into it. Sometimes it’s just let loose. But thin braids are often found woven in with the rest of her hairstyle. The tousled bangs on her forehead, parted so they fall symmetrically to both sides of her face, are left loose most of the time. They’re long enough to cover her ears and reach just to about her chin.

Clothing Style
As for her clothing, perhaps the best way to describe it is by saying it is a uniform. At least it looks like that. Silver, gold, and red are the colors of her attire.

Her short dress is grayish silver, with a very loose skirt that barely reaches to her knees. Its lower tip is decorated by a darker gray with gold accents. This dress is special because it’s made from a material that might as well be armor, since it deflects (most kinds of) piercing damage and protects her from most ranged danger. It can’t protect from blunt blows however. Still, while acting as protection, the dress is very clothlike and light to wear. It didn’t come with sleeves, but Laurie sewed long, loose sleeves of a dull golden color onto the shoulders. These are just made from normal cloth but cover her whole arms and leave only her hands visible. Her dress has a high neck which is covered by a small kind of gorget which appears to be made from gold but is definitely more durable. A belt of this same material is wrapped around her waist, though a curious thing is that it is tilted to the left as if something there pulled it down.

Adding to the armor, Laurie wears heavy boots of the gold-like metal mentioned above. They are composed of long vertical layers that provide enough protection for her shins and knees. They have very small square heels and slightly rugged soles to help movement across difficult terrain. Laurie protects herself from possible lacerations from the metal by covering her legs with black leggings. They’re pretty tight. Finally, to top off her uniform, comes the most impressive piece of clothing. It’s a long scarlet cape. She fastens it across her shoulders using a golden rhombus clasp with some sort of mysterious symbol on it as decoration. The full length of the cape is to above her ankles so it won’t drag on the ground. To avoid interfering with her movement, it seems to have some kind of flowiness that keeps it from sticking too close to Laurel’s body as long as she’s not still. So it’s often separated from her back in a slightly unnatural way. A nice perk is that it’s perfectly insulated and protects from extreme temperatures. She doesn’t really have a preference for other kinds of clothes, since she’s never really owned casual wear. Comfortable dresses would probably be something she’d like to wear aside from her uniform if she ever gets the chance to.

Laurie has a couple accessories. A thin half-wreath of golden laurel leaves is worn around the back and sides of her head. Actually, it’s not really a wreath, but more like small individual twigs that look wreath-like when together. She sports two plain gold rings on her left hand and a silver one as well. Her ears aren’t pierced and because of this she doesn’t wear earrings.

Personality
At first, Laurie appears pretty serious and straightforward. While these two adjectives are far from summarizing her personality, they are definitely a part of it to some extent. She stays focused on her tasks, puts priorities first, and never avoids responsibilities. She’s pretty work-oriented, which is a trait that shows pretty easily in certain situations. Tying in with this, she’s highly respectful, especially with what she considers to be authority. Her formality can even seem cold initially—but she’s working on it. After all, friendliness is an important part of character, and Laurie is aware of that fact. It’s not like she’s stuck in a serious situation every day. And she doesn’t want to seem intimidating to others. That would be exactly the opposite of her intention.

Laurie is very alert to everything going on around her. She’s always vigilant without showing an external anxious demeanor. This doesn’t only apply to events. Her levels of empathy/sympathy are pretty high—she silently understands most of what others want to convey with their actions or words—and she tries to act on this. If she’d only allow herself to relax a little more, it would certainly be a whole lot easier for her to behave in the “right” way.

She has a bit of a reserved attitude. While she isn’t one for long conversations or deep, heartfelt talks, Laurel will readily listen to others who want to talk to her. She doesn’t really like talking about herself, instead prioritizing other topics. But she’d be willing to as long as it doesn’t reach an uncomfortable point. If it does, then she does not mind voicing her opinion. Word choice is careful as she doesn’t want to accidentally hurt others with her statements. Laurel puts others as more important than her, yet still is concerned with her own self-care. Self-care in the sense of not neglecting her needs (her neat appearance is a clear example of this) as long as they don’t interfere with what she has to do. Her logic is that as long as she healthily cares for herself, she’ll be qualified to care for others to an extent.

She’s the kind of person who puts logic over emotion for the best results and only that. Still, though, when one gets to know her a little better, it’s very noticeable that she is very far from emotionless. See, she smiles easily and even laughs, showing positive attitudes, but the more negative ones (crying, anger, etc.) she keeps under control. Laurie doesn’t see why she should express feelings that would impact those around her in an undesirable way. She’s pretty warm and caring, but isn’t very well familiarized with how to express her more positive feelings. Despite this, she does try her best. And her best is noticeable, which probably makes up for any awkwardness she may accidentally express.

Laurie’s attitude towards others isn’t completely “friendly” but she’s not hostile either. She keeps in mind that not everyone has good morals, and that some even have the will and desire to hurt her or others. Still, her trust in closer relationships goes to extremes: she’s either very blindly loyal, or skeptical and harsh. Her devotion in the things she does isn’t limited to duty. She’d be a very faithful friend in case of getting a friendship. She goes beyond just good and gives her best. It comes naturally, as it’s something she’s been practicing since her childhood.

In certain situations, it’s noticeable that her trust is not the only thing she takes to extremes. Laurie is either merciful or she’s not, with no in-between. She either obeys orders or not (she wouldn’t normally disregard one, of course). She sticks to either facts or opinion, always stating which one she’s basing herself on. Two of the things which are ever-present in her being are honor and fairness. They’re her drive for her whole attitude.

Her personality has been influenced somewhat by the fact that she knows that’s she’s living a new life. She wants to be the best person she can be. Laurie is focused on finding a purpose for this second chance in her existence, though at the moment she has the mindset of finding something correct to “fight for”. Still, she knows that as familiar and comfortable as simply fighting is, there is more to the world and life that only that. And she wants to explore that. She’s trying to develop her morals and the attitudes based on them so she can be an actual contribution to society. And, really, she doesn’t want to let anyone down. It would be the greatest shame.

Weapons
Laurel has been trained in the use of an ample variety of weapons. She’d probably be able to wield any if she had them. Anyways, she always has an arming sword on her. It would be pretty plain except for the fact that it’s a very shiny golden color. Its plain brown sheath is attached to the left side of her belt. Laurie’s second choice is a sturdy recurve bow in gold and silver color which seems to be a summonable object. The complement to this bow is a quiver of arrows which is slung over Laurel’s shoulder. All three of these things are probably enchanted, or at least special, because of a certain quality they have. This is the fact that they’re invisible and nearly intangible most of the time. While they exist and have a limited effect on the things around them (such as the sword pulling down on Laurie’s belt), they’re not really a burden to their user. And they can’t be pulled off while in intangible state. It’s a nice perk because they can’t fall off either. She’ll be able to access her weapons only as long as she has her rings on, since they’re sort of like the “keys” to be able to wield them. The one being used will become visible after being “activated”.

She will never use firearms.

Skills
She’s got incredible strength, agility, and stamina. Even her jumping skills seem superhuman, and she doesn’t appear to take much fall damage. Whether these qualities come from natural abilities or are the product of intense training is up to interpretation.

Powers and Abilities
Laurie is definitely not a mage or magician, and she doesn’t have training on the magic she would need to fight a battle in that area. She has an aura that automatically negates elemental magic and most magic in general, but has no effect on psychic magic or more complex kinds of spells. This makes her very hard to fight if the opponent is one who relies heavily on magic powers. However, she isn’t completely aware of the nature of this ability and is therefore still careful when dealing with magic.

Backstory
She doesn’t remember, but it’s probably for the better. Laurie’s future is more important than anything that happened or might have happened in the distant past.

Trivia and Stuff

 * Laurie is a part of the Alternate
 * Her favorite color is red
 * She likes braids too