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15:44, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Lena Engelstad

Name: Lena Engelstad
Home: Bergen, Norway
Height: 5'10" / 1.78 m
Weight: 150 lbs / 68 kg
Activities: Cooking, drawing, swimming, sailing, going for long walks at night
Quote: "'Fair'? You want to talk about 'fair'? What, did you just find the word in a dictionary or something?"

Relationships: Marit Johansen was Lena's best friend since primary school. When Lena's parents got divorced, she ended up pushing most of her other friends away, but Marit stuck with her through thick and thin. She never got into the goth scene the way Lena did, which made them an odd-looking pair, but neither of them cared. Blonde, well-spoken Marit was usually seen as the level-headed, responsible one, but in reality she was often the instigator that got both of them into trouble. When Marit died, it devastated Lena, and she hasn't let anyone get close to her since -- not just because she's afraid, but also because it would feel like giving up on Marit, which she is determined never to do, no matter what.

Ingeborg Alme is Lena's next-door neighbour in the apartment building she's currently living in. An elderly woman of about eighty, Ingeborg shares her apartment with her giant Newfoundland dog, whom Lena sometimes takes for walks in exchange for a few kroner each month. Seeing Lena's unhappiness, Ingeborg occasionally makes attempts to include Lena in her life, or at least involve her in conversation, but has had very little success so far. Still, some part of Lena appreciates what she's doing, and Ingeborg is probably the person she feels most positive towards right now.

Goran Lillefjell is a self-proclaimed businessman in his late twenties who ostensibly owns a small shipping company. This company has never been profitable, however, so Goran makes most of his actual money as a petty criminal, smuggling and laundering money for other, bigger criminals. A few months ago, Lena made the mistake of accepting a loan from him which she hasn't been able to pay back yet. At first, Goran didn't do much about it other than making some unsubtle threats, but he's recently come under pressure himself to come up with a large sum of money, so now he's trying to collect from whoever he can. He's already sent a couple of goons to Lena's door once, and he's not likely to just let the matter rest.

Description: Even though she's left her goth days behind her, an aura of gloom still seems to hang around Lena most of the time. Tall, pale, and dark-haired, she seems to be made for lurking in shadows, and her face wears a scowl so often that it's almost her default expression by now. She can sit motionless for hours, thinking or just staring out of a window, but when she moves, it's often with an abruptness that startles people. She still wears almost exclusively black, but instead of the elaborate outfits of before, her wardrobe now consists mostly of faded jeans, t-shirts, and the occasional leather jacket. She speaks English fairly well if she has to, although with a noticeable accent.

Personality: Quiet and dreamy as a child, Lena's experiences as a teenager have made her angry at the world and everyone in it. She's as cynical as only an embittered romantic can be, proclaiming not to believe in anything and covering up any emotional response with a sarcastic quip. In reality, part of her is still trying to reclaim the sense of wonder that she used to have, but she's not yet ready even to admit that to herself. She is at least aware that the way she treats herself and others isn't healthy, and she's trying to find ways to improve, but for now the best she can manage is often just an apology after the fact.

Having grown up in a city of islands and fjords, Lena has always liked the sea, and many of her nightly excursions end up taking her to the waterfront. She originally gave up on all kinds of art after Marit died, but slowly took up drawing again in the following months, and nowadays she rarely goes anywhere without her sketchbook. She has lost all taste for music, however, and prefers silence whenever she can get it. Never an orderly person, the last two years of living on her own have turned her into a slob who will have to relearn how to share a living space with others. During that same time, she discovered that she has a passion for cooking, and she's become quite good at preparing a variety of vegan food.

History: Lena grew up as an only child in a suburb of Bergen on the coast of Norway. When she was eleven, her parents went through an ugly and lengthy divorce that left Lena confused, angry, and even more withdrawn than she had already been. She became even moodier as a teenager, and found herself drawn first to goth music, then the entire aesthetic. The fantasy drawings she liked to make became darker, she started to dress in ever more elaborate costumes, and wrote poems and stories about tragic and romantic deaths that she found oddly comforting. Her father, with whom she was living now, reacted with even less understanding than before, as did most of her former friends, but her best friend Marit continued to support her, which Lena told herself was all she ever needed. For a while, she found a new equilibrium and was happy.

Then, without warning, Marit was diagnosed with leukemia. Lena stayed with her through a year of chemotherapy, sickness, false hopes, and endless days and nights in the hospital, but in the end Marit died, and seemed to take Lena's entire world with her. Afterwards, Lena closed herself off completely, ignoring her father's clumsy attempts to console her and spending almost all her time locked away in her room. She threw out her costumes, her music, and her drawings, telling herself there was nothing romantic or beautiful in anything, certainly not death, but not anything else either. She left home as soon as she turned eighteen, and for the last two years has barely supported herself with odd jobs, selling drawings, and occasionally even petty theft. Aware that her rage at the world is threatening to consume her life, she keeps telling herself that she needs to find a way out, a way towards something else, but right now she doesn't even know where to start.

Strengths/Virtues: Despite her attitude, Lena is actually quite smart, and thinks much more deeply about things than her snarky, dismissive comments may suggest. She's also extremely loyal and would do anything for her friends. She hates injustice of any kind, and will go to great lengths to defend even strangers against it. Also, for some reason, she's good at dealing with children and animals, who don't seem to trigger her defenses the way older people do.

Faults/Weaknesses: Lena's anger often makes her short-sighted, especially in her initial reactions to things. She also has a tendency to act recklessly, and even put herself deliberately in danger. With all the walls and defenses she's built up around her, trying to have a conversation with her can be a challenge to say the least. Her sarcastic comments also sometimes cross the line into being hurtful, although she does her best to rein herself in when it comes to people she's living or working with.

Powers: Lena is studying the practices of Akhesis, a possibly legendary philosopher, witch, and/or half-goddess from antiquity, who made great discoveries about life and death, and the lines that divide the two. From these writings, she has so far learned how to judge someone's health by the aura she sees around them, and how to heal wounds. In the same book that describes these insights, Lena also found some notes about the unnatural storms of another world called Locan, and she's learning how to summon aspects of these storms as well.