The Leszi

The Leszi in human form

The Leszi

Player: @Fox Lee

Origin:	Magic
Archetype:	Dominator
Threat Level:	16

Personal Data

Real Name:	Confidential
Known Aliases:	Dasha, Dash, The Trickster, Little One, Little Thorn
Species:	Fae-possessed human
Gender:	Male
Age:	19 (as a human)
Height:	5'5.5" (166.5cm)
Weight:	114.5lb (52kg)
Hair Colour:	Dark green
Eye Colour:	Greenish grey

Biographical Data

Nationality:	Russian-Etoile Islander
Occupation:	Paramilitary operative
Place of Birth:	Nikolskoye, Russia
Base of Operations:	The Rogue Isles
Marital Status:	Devoted to The Roman Law
Known Relatives:	None

Known Powers

Reincarnated nature spirit; controls plants and plant-related pheromones. Extreme leaping ability.

Known Abilities

Trained in team tactics and battlefield command.

Equipment

None of note.

No additional notes available.

A former Russian secret service operative, his true name lost to secrecy, the boy was drafted into Longbow for a secret supersoldier project some years ago. It was during the training for said project that his second self emerged - the mortal incarnation of the Leszi (aka Leshy or Leshii), an ancient trickster spirit from slavic mythology. Instead of the powers he was intended to acquire, the boy instead became able to manipulate plants through the Leszi's ties to nature, even sprouting thorns from his own body in times of duress.

After being rescued by his fellows when they escaped the project, Dasha (as he was named by his comrades) slowly gained some control over the spirit and its abilities, enabling him to maintain his own form for the most part. The spirit still retains much strength, however; when Dasha exerts himself too far, the spirit is able to wrest control from him, resulting in a transformation to the Leszi's native form for a few minutes.

The boy and the spirit seem to be quite different people, though they share each others' experiences and memories; the Leszi is mischeivous, carefree and flighty, while the boy is quiet, serious and shy. Although his teammates appreciate the raw power of the Leszi, they are generally very glad when he returns to his far more restrained and sensible mortal form.

The Leszi (or Leshy, or Leshii, or any number of other spellings) was part of the original group of characters made to found the Villain-side parallel to Project Corona, The Eclipse Wing. Inspired strongly by the song Rise by Origa - the title theme from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig - the group were bound together by the theme of being soldiers who had all participated in a Longbow supersoldier project, and had been rejected due to incompatibility. In The Leszi's case, this is due to housing an ancient spirit which resisted the changes made to him, and caused several violent accidents in the process.

The main reason for Leszi's (probably supposed to be pronounced "Leh-SHEE", but "LEE-shee" is what caught on in the group) dual nature was inspired by Talen's dominator from the Freedom server, The Lion of Minos; with the Halloween event salvage made available in late 2006, a character can have two costumes right from the start of their career. In the case of a dominator, binding the Domination ability to a change of costume allows for some very interesting shapechanger concepts (though without being able to change the character's height or gender, this is less interesting than it might be). In any case, Leszi was formed around the idea of a human boy who, when under duress, would be overwhelmed by the spirit within him.

(Incidentally, when I want to specify the human part of Leszi from the spirit, I refer to him as "Dasha", which is a pet name given to him by Roman. Just so you know. —Fox)

Personality

As mentioned before, Dasha and his spirit have distinctly seperate personalities. The boy is the epitome of the obedient soldier; quiet, restrained, and efficient, Dasha has great respect for authority (authority he recognises as important - not authority like Lord Recluse or the police) and carries out his orders with a heavy sense of duty. The youngest, smallest and most frail of his group, Dasha is quietly and ferociously protective of his teammates; he's rarely in a position to protect them, but when he is, his vengeful rage makes him seem an entirely different person. Privately, he's a little worried that his fragility (and the Leszi's presence) makes him a burden to the group, and he probably overcompensates for this in his actions.

The Leszi, on the other hand, is a playful trickster with a penchant for getting into trouble. With a tiny attention span, he's easily distracted by new and interesting things; it's fortunate that he can only manifest for short periods of time, or he would no doubt wander away in the middle of a mission. Though he's a mischeivous soul driven by his own need for amusement, the Leszi does have some deeper emotions, particularly toward his teammates. However, thousands of years of viewing humans as playthings makes it difficult for him to express these feelings, and he mostly resorts to more tricks and teasing.

Despite their vastly different natures, there is one aspect of Dasha and the spirit which unites them; their love for their companions. At first, the Leszi viewed mortals as sad and useless beings; when Dasha was rescued by his fellows, the Leszi took a defensive position against them, sure that they only cared for the boy, and would try to destroy the spirit if possible. However, to his surprise, the Leszi was also accepted as a member of their team - an experience entirely new to him, and rather disquieting. Though he quickly became very attached to the group, this closeness expresses itself as being jealously protective of the team; privately, the Leszi is scared that he might lose this new feeling of acceptance, an emotion which turns into spitefulness toward anybody who might come between them. Like Dasha, however, he views the core members of the Wing as his family, and will do most anything to protect them.

History

Dasha's history has mostly been covered already; what hasn't been mentioned has been lost to secrecy between the Russian secret service and Longbow. A pertinent question in his own mind is why he came to be scouted by Longbow for their project in the first place, and why his country chose to let him go - questions he does not seem likely to have answered any time soon.

Affiliations

One of the founding members of The Eclipse Wing, Dasha has intensely strong ties to all of its members, though none more strongly than the group's leader, The Roman Law. The pair certainly love each other, though this love is only occasionally physical in Dasha's case.

Powers and Abilities

As a spirit of nature, the Leszi has control of various aspects relating to the natural world, particularly plant life - he can summon any number of creepers and vines to bind targets, sprout lethally sharp thorns from his skin to use as knives and throwing weapons, and use an array of spores and pheromones to cloud his opponents' minds. He can also - due to his lithe physical makeup as a fae - turn close combat into a merry dance, and use powerful digitigrade legs to leap incredible distances.

As a human, Dasha has fairly strong but still clearly limited access to the Leszi's powers; he's more like a channeler. The longer he fights, however, the stronger his connection to the spirit becomes, until (at Domination) the Leszi is able to manifest his own form and take on his true power for a brief period of time.

Along with his fellows, Leszi (or rather, Dasha) has had extensive training in battlefield tactics and teamwork, as represented by the Leadershp power pool. He also has his secret service training, which mostly centres around stealth, espionage, defensive combat, and similar techniques.

Weaknesses and Limitations

As mentioned earlier, Dasha is the smallest and most frail of the Eclipse Wing core; against enemies who are not susceptible to his control techniques, he must rely on his more hardy teammates to keep him alive. Emotionally, he is well-guarded, but the chink in his armour is his concern for his teammates; his normal good judgement can be overwhelmed when his companions are in danger.

The struggle between Dasha and the Leszi spirit can prove problematic; The Leszi will take control of the boy whenever he has the chance, so Dasha must be careful to maintain control in delicate situations. Additionally, when the Leszi is in control, his flighty and irresponsible nature can easily lead him into danger.

Other Notes

Trivia

• A "leshy" actually shows up in a newspaper mission in-game - you have to recover its corpse from a villain group so they can't use it as a magical ingredient. The Roman Law has made it clear that great bodily harm will come to anybody who tries to pinch his Leszi for cooking.
• The Leszi does have some physical influence over Dasha even when he's not in domination, hence his ears and hair colour.