Lantana McMoria

[wicked]

Name:
Lantana Elaine McMoria (Lahn-Tahn-Uh)

Age:
104 years.

Race:
Elven

Occupation:
Healer

Allegiance:
Ilirea

Physical Description:
Lantana has a sort of timeless, unique beauty about her. Several generations back, a red-headed human man was mixed into her all-Elven genes. Every few generations, one of the Elven children would be blessed/cursed with the bright red hair. This hair, of course, was to be the luck of Lantana.
All of her other features are distinctly Elven. From the high arch of her ears to the soft, childish curve of her face. Her eyes are large and exotically shaped and are a soft golden-red color. These eyes are her most distinguishing feature, probably. The flecks of dark red inside of the beautiful golden irises make her seem other-worldly. Her eyelashes are huge, dark, and full and her eyelids are naturally slightly darker than the rest of her skin, probably because she doesn't sleep as much as she should. She definitely stands out in a crowd, that's for sure. Sometimes it's a blessing, but mostly she finds it to be a curse.
Her body is a little strange for that of an Elf. She stands at roughly 5'5". It's on the shorter side, but it's still a decent size for an Elf. Her shape is strange, and almost childish. Her legs are thin and long with a set of decent hips she's acquired from years of eating and exercising and hunting. Her upper-body is incredibly thin and almost appears as if she doesn't eat very much. Her sides curve in to her ribcage and she has a smaller chest with her collarbone and shoulders prominently sticking out. Her face is softly curved with a little nose and full lips.
Her pale skin generally dresses in softer, neutral colors. Creams, soft pinks, and grays are all of her favorites. She doesn't worry too much about her dress. In fact, most of the time she can be found in a pair of trousers, hunting boots, and a fitted, long-sleeved shirt. She prefers comfort over extravagance.

Personality:
Lantana is not only the elf's name, it is also a type of beautiful flower. Known for being colored brightly and beautifully, these flowers attract beautiful creatures such as butterflies. The flowers, like the girl, are extremely hard to get rid of - sometimes they are even known as weeds. The flower itself is similar to Lantana's personality. The elf girl has a very genuine heart, however once she's rooted herself inside of you she's almost a curse that you cannot be rid of. She's like a weed, constantly growing inside of you until she consumes your life.
Lantana is a very magnetic girl. She's the kind of girl that you would want to be around a lot of the time. Her approachable nature and soft, sweet voice makes her extremely easy to talk to and confide in. She's got an all-knowing sense about her. She's extremely good with giving advice and seems to almost never be wrong about anything. Having grown in the woods, Lantana knows a lot about herbs and flowers and plants. She knows what will help for burns, cuts, infections, all of it. She also has her magic abilities as a healer. She isn't able to cause harm unless she has a bow and arrow on her; in that case, she would be deadly. She is certainly the Elf that you would want to have on your side.
Despite this, Lantana can be very unforgiving. Once you have broken her trust once, there is no turning back. There is no forgiveness. Forget the gentle hands and the soft smile, once you've betrayed her there is no turning back. This also goes for anyone who might have laid hands on her family or friends. Once you are on Lantana's list, she will be out to get you. It's not always easy to read when she doesn't like you. Although very sweet, Lantana can be quite devious and disturbingly good at lying. She'll convince you that she's on your side, and then stab you in the back and leave you to die. Literally.
Lantana has had her share of lovers, too. She's doesn't fall easily for one person, but maybe two or three have her attention at once. She hates the idea of being with only one person forever, and she has no idea how others do it. She may have adopted this habit from her father. She has a habit of making men adore her and then leaves them in the dust. She's easy to infatuate, but as a general rule, impossible to hold on to. She hates herself for hurting people, but she cannot help it.
In fact, Lantana can hate herself for many things. Secretly she's tormented. Nightmares consume her every night so she tries her best not to go to sleep unless she desperately needs it. She dislikes herself most of the time, and it's mostly for the little things. She would never share this part of her personality with anyone, though. Unless they had gotten extremely close to her. Which isn't unlikely, it's just not likely that she'll have gotten extremely close to you.

History:
For the first twenty years of her life, Lantana lived with her mother. The woman was a sweet, gentle, kind-hearted elf with a genuine love for her daughter. She taught the girl all about herbs and spices and cooking and healing and most anything she could possibly want to learn about.
Except, for the subject of Lantana's own father. Seeing other elven children with their fathers made Lantana wonder where her own was. A dark look crossed her mother's face any time she brought it up, and the Elf simply said to her offspring, "You don't have a father." Lantana accepted this. It wasn't something she wanted to hear, but it was a logical answer, right?
Twenty years into her life, still very young, Lantana's mother disappeared. They found most of her body lying broken, pale, and half-covered in dirt a week after she had gone missing. At this discovery, Lantana was told that her mother had slipped and fallen and broken her neck, dying instantly. In reality, it was clear that her mother had been mauled by wolves, dragged off, and eaten. Slowly.
Lantana did not find this out until she moved in with her father.
Living on the other side of the city, near the woods, her father was a hard man. He wanted nothing to do with his child but accepted her into his home anyway. The conversation she overheard about her mother's death was shocking and painfully icy.
After being left with her two suitcases at her father's house, the Elf man told her to unpack and that her room would be the second one on the left at the top of the stairs. She stood at the top, hoping to hear what the men were going to talk about down below. The conversation was as follows:
"What was so tragic that Jzahli had to leave me with her child?" asked her father.
The man in black was clearly not fond of Harrah, Lantana's father. "Your child is being left with you because Jzahli was tragically killed."
"What happened to the woman, anyway?" snapped Harrah.
"We are almost certain that she was dragged away by wolves, and half-eaten and then left to die. You're sick for feeling no remorse."
"I never loved her. It was a one-night stand. How can she even prove that's my kid?" he spat. Heart cold as ice.

Lantana took an instant disliking to her father. However she was quick to learn that she had to agree with him, or he might slap her hard across the face. The only time this became more than face-slapping was if he had been drinking too much of the human's rum and that's when he became violent with the child. That didn't happen too often, though.
Lantana quickly became used to Harrah's girlfriends coming and going. Each one innocent and sweet and kind to Lantana. Each one was gone within a few weeks, and Lantana was sad to see each one go.
As she grew, Lantana and her father became closer. She did what he asked of her, and he was almost nice to her. Sometimes he would buy her beautiful gifts and necklaces from far away places when he would leave for a few weeks. He never told her he loved her, and she never expected to hear it. She cooked, cleaned, healed him when he became sick. He traveled. Being a diplomat that was his job. She was always done up like a doll when he would host any sort of public event at their house. He would always explain the tragic loss of Lantana's mother, and re-write the story to make him sound like a hero. "No, she's not really my child, but I took her in because she has no where else to go." It was stories like these that gave Lantana the ability to lie.

At the age of eighty-three, Lantana had her first sick man come to her. He had a stab wound in his shoulder and a deep gash in his arm. She recognized him to be a friend of her mother's and a worker of her father. He promised her money if she promised to heal him. So, she did. She cleaned his wounds with her mother's herbs and made him swallow an anti-bacterial medication. She healed his wounds, slowly but surely, and nothing but gentle pink scars were left. Quickly word spread that Lantana was an excellent healer, and her father even built her her own wing of the house to do her medical practice in.
By this time, Lantana and her father had grown close. She was brilliant and he could tell. She was kind and he was decently nice to her. He finally accepted her as his child, to Lantana's great relief, but she never truly let it leave her heart that he denied her as his child for so many years.

It was when she was eighty-five years old that Lantana had fallen in love. It was the first and only time, in fact. A beautiful, perfect, fairy-tale romance; like none that Lantana had ever experienced. She loved the boy more than anything. He was darker and quieter but passionate about loving her. She gave her all to him. She met him as he was dying, having been whipped nearly to death. She dressed his wounds and used all of her energy to heal him. She got to know him as he sat there by her, and she never left his side. Something about his dark golden eyes and soft black hair and olive skin got the better of her. She fell for him, instantaneously. He seemed to like her the way she liked him.
After he was healed, they began to do things together. He came to eat dinner with her, she went hunting with him. They exchanged tips on how to fight, she taught him to swim. She loved him.
And then he left.

It was that simple. He was gone. She had no idea where he had gone to, but he left. There was not even a note. She waited for a while, convinced he would return. Had he died? Where did he go? But he never came back.
After that, she never loved anyone the way she had loved that elf again. He was absent from her life, forever. And that was that.

Currently, Lantana still lives in a beautiful house on the edge of the woods with her father, who is rarely home. She heals and she hunts and mostly does as she pleases. That's the life of Lantana McMoria.

Roleplaying Sample:
The cool liquid quickly refreshed her dry mouth and brought her to her senses. Suddenly she was ready to go. She kept her tail above the water and then looked down at the clear, cool blue water once again. She decided to take one more sip; besides, no dog or wolf or creature was around her anyway.
The fear she had obtained while in her nightmare were slowly being shaken away. Still, she would probably be sure to exit the wolf's territory for the night. The only reason she had strayed in was because the rain diluted the smell and blurred boundaries. She'd fallen asleep underneath the nearest warm, dry place she could possibly find. In this case, it just happened to have strayed a few yards into the wolf's land. She would be sure to high-tail her behind out of there as soon as she'd gotten her drink, though.

As she stopped lapping up water, it seemed quiet. Far, far too quiet. 'Keep your cool, baby..' she thought to herself. She looked up from the spot she was drinking water from and saw a wolf. A wolf. She kept her pokerface on and didn't intend to have that change. See, Pax was the kind of dog to keep her cool all the time, no matter what. Quickly she had to think of what she would say. The wolf had said nothing to her, which meant a) he meant to immediate harm to her or b) he was going to make an effort to sneak up to her. Which next meant that a) he was stupid if he thought he could sneak up on her and therefore wouldn't be a problem or b) was waiting to have her notice him to 1) attack or 2) be friendly.
So really, this could either go really well or really badly.
In any case, she decided she should probably get out quickly.

"It's rude to stare," she commented quite plainly. The sound of her voice was neither worried nor nervous. She acted as if she was an equal. Of course, he was much larger to him, but they couldn't possibly be that different. She wasn't a house pet and she'd lived in the wild her whole life, too. He was bigger than her. Woohoo, so where a lot of dogs. She was just little. She had grown accustomed to that, too.
Her hatred of wolves burned inside her heart though; she hated running into them she hated speaking to them and usually, she was accidentally a bitch to every single one she met.
But hey, if one had half-blinded you as a child you would probably be bitter and hold grudges as well.

[Emma]

It's a lovely profile! Accepted! =D