The Mask

Ledger ("No relation to Heath") is gaunt and pale, though his features suggest Latinx heritage. He dresses in dark colors, and often wears round sunglasses (though never mirrored) even indoors. He speaks quietly and steadily. Between the dark glasses and the way he tilts his head to listen rather than look at people when he speaks to them, it's easy to assume he's blind. Ledger isn't, but his eyes don't always focus on where his attention is pointed. There's something compelling about the lines of his face and the set of his shoulders, though it's hardly anything you'd want to put on a runway.

(Striking Looks 1)

The Mien

What is pale in the Mask becomes chalk; what is dark becomes ink. Ledger's hair is messier, his eyes pitch black. The fellow's fingers seem longer, and sometimes brush away matter nobody else can see. His frame remains the same, but if he can be persuaded to remove his voire—a dark blue robe—a discerning eye can pick out long, neat scars of white on white that trace the entirety of his skeleton. His eyes are filmed over, but seem to see more, a window to the soul, but of frosted glass.

(Striking Looks 1)

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On the Other Side

Rafael's counterpart was sold by one of the Old Puppeteer's hobgoblins to The Ebony that Burns in Empty Fires, a creature of secrets, obscurity, and pain. In a realm made of different shades and textures of darkness, Rafael's counterpart was sculpted into a shining thing. His Keeper braided every lie Rafael had ever told and every promise he had ever made into into a single strand of silver, then hammered that strand into the nib of a pen. With that pen, The Ebony recorded pledges on Rafael's bones. When it wished to review them or to record new ones, it peeled back his flesh to read.

Between the times of screaming light, Ledger's task was to roam through the manifold darkness of Tree, listening for lies and promises to report back to his Keeper. Those lies and promises were as good as currency, the whispers in the dark that determined who was in favor and who in disgrace.

Rafael's counterpart has forgotten his lies, but he remembers all the promises (even though he can't remember whom he made them to). An off-handed (or was it?) command from his Keeper to "keep your promises" sent Rafael back to the other side.

A Creature of Vows and Secrets
In demeanor, Ledger is skittish and quick to react to slight changes in the environment. Having spent his whole durance in different shades of darkness, he's prone to sensory overload now that he's back Ironsides. Ledger tends to observe and choose his words very carefully. When he does speak, it's often in short statements that are simultaneously incisive and ambiguous.

Ledger lacks Rafael's history of charming mediocrity. Despite his wariness, he's more ambitious and less tolerant of his own shortcomings. He reads people like others read books, and he'll use that knowledge to help them or himself as the situation warrants. Ledger's slow to trust but that trust is hard to shake once he's let you in.

Lost to the Thorns
Part of what drew Ledger to freedom was a promise he made to his grandfather. He remembers only that there's an important promise he has to keep to an old man. As an icon, it might appear as a toy Chevy Impala or a socket wrench.

Somewhere in the Thorns is a small, brightly colored bird that, if caught, could give Ledger his old habit of pleasant small talk back.