Lucy Ellingson

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Lucy Ellingson is one of the protagonists of Pale.

Personality

Rarely shows fear or weakness.<ref>Her friend was quiet, alert, and tense.  Lucy’s whole thing was showing no fear, no weakness. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref>

She likes horror movies,<ref>“I love horror films,” the Fox told him. “But I wouldn’t want to live in one.” - https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/17/back-away-5-c/</ref> and misses sarcasm as a practitioner.<ref>“I’ve really missed sarcasm,” the Fox said. “Hearing this really drives that home.” - https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/17/back-away-5-c/</ref>

Lucy feels a strong sense of responsibility and protectiveness. Of the three Pale protagonists, she's the one who is most driven to solve the Carmine Beast mystery,<ref>“It’s a starting point, if we’re looking for sets of suspects,” Lucy murmured. “Even if we don’t know what it means.”

“Edith but not Matthew?” Verona asked.

“There’d be a lot of questions. The how. How it came together. What roles they had. If anyone outside was involved,” Lucy said. “Choir ritual is tonight.”

“Let’s hope it goes okay,” Avery said.

“For the participants, yeah,” Lucy agreed. “And that we get our chance to ask some questions.” - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.9</ref> and takes the lead in organizing the investigation.<ref>“I thought you wanted more chances to be a cat and stuff.”

“Duhh!” Verona retorted. “No freaking duhh, yeah, that’s great, but also I wanted to not make you have to be the one who takes charge and manages us two. I’ve been trying to be more focused on the investigation, and keeping tabs on things, and keeping track. I’m not good at the direct stuff, so like… the thing where we don’t tell Alexander our personal info, and stuff.”

“It’s good, Ronnie.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.3</ref> She is often concerned for the safety of her friends, and has appointed herself as their de facto guardian.

Relationships

Kennet Trio

Lucy has been friends with Verona since kindergarten, and has recently become friends with Avery. The three of them Awoke together to form the Kennet Trio, the official Practitioners of the Kennet Others community.

Ellingson Family

Lucy lives with her widowed mother, Jasmine, who works as a nurse. Her older brother Booker is attending university; Lucy looks up to him as a mentor, particularly with advice for socializing.

Lucy's mother's ex-fiancé, Paul, left the Ellingsons after being pressured by his family to discontinue the mixed race relationship. Lucy feels resentment and pain from this abandonment.

Other connections

Lucy is dating Wallace Davis, one of her classmates. She is close to Melissa and Mia, two other friends from school, as well as Tymon whom she met at the Blue Heron Institute and who currently resides in Halifax.<ref name="lucy-strong-connections">Strong Connections:
Wallace (Boyfriend), Dr. Mona (Therapist), Melissa, Mia (Friends), Tymon (in Halifax)
School
GUILHERME
ROOK (Absent)
DOG TAGS (All but G.Father & Doe Absent) - excerpt from Keeping Tabs, Kennet</ref>

Lucy has also formed a strong connection with Guilherme, who mentors her in the Practice, and with John Stiles, whom she invited to be her Familiar. After John declined her invitation and subsequently died in the fight for the Carmine Throne, she remained close with the other Dog Tags John released, particularly Grandfather. Lucy also has a strong connection with Crooked Rook.<ref name="lucy-strong-connections"" />

Lucy is seeing a therapist, Dr. Mona, to help her resolve her feelings of anger and resentment towards Paul.

Appearance

Lucy is black. Her hair is light brown with red-blonde highlights.<ref>" Lucy’s words were aggressive, and it was a stark contrast to how her hair bounced behind her head.  It was combed close to her scalp with only a few kinky hairs escaping near the forehead and ears, and was held back with an elastic, where it formed an almost perfectly round afro-poofball behind her.  Even though Lucy was black, her light brown hair had even lighter red-blonde highlights to it." - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1 </ref> In Verona's memories and to the Sight her highlights are pink,<ref>Whenever Verona didn’t see her best friend for a few days, she somehow imagined her as having pink in her hair.  No idea why, no rationale, but it was something that had been consistent since kindergarten. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref> even drawing an image of Lucy with it when they first met as kindergarteners.<ref>“I’ve had this since I was ten. Verona gave me this.” Lucy took out a creased piece of paper. It had a cartoon drawing of Lucy with pink hair and Verona, done up in the style of a cartoon Avery remembered seeing but couldn’t name. Cute. There was something that looked like alien language all over the rest of the page. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.10</ref> Her eyes are hazel.<ref name="1.8e1" />and tends to reflect her personal power.<ref name="4.6e1" /> She has full lips and her eyebrows have a perpetual frown. She's the tallest of the trio, slightly taller than Avery; with a long neck, slender shoulders, and a "ballerina's frame".<ref name="WB description"> Lucy is thirteen, with brown eyes, brown skin, and what is sometimes described as a ballerina's frame; she's a bit taller than Avery (only a bit), with a long neck, slender shoulders, and a fairly straight body line. Part of this idea is accentuated by her hairstyle, by how she holds herself a bit rigidly, and her clothes. Will get to each of those below. Hairwise, I would note that while Nocturne did a very good job with the banners, my art direction that I gave her and what's in the story differ from what ended up in the banner; Lucy keeps her hair pulled close to her scalp, where possible, and gathers it up into a ponytail that she keeps in a fair-sized afro puff. There are reddish-brown highlights and locks and it may have a hickory color when catching the light. If you're putting them in a practice-active situation where the Sight is active, the highlights may be pink instead, and post-arc 3, may be bigger in size, with more free strands along the sides of her hair or the puffball, all in tight curls.
Her clothing style is covered in an Extra Materials, and tends to be wrinkle-free material, or tight enough it doesn't rumple. Baggy clothes annoy her. This plays into the straight/rigid impression of earlier. Many clothes are branded, carefully matched, and she likes to wear her sneakers.
Lucy's face and expression includes full lips and eyebrows that are perpetually drawn together like she's frowning at whoever or whatever she's looking at. Posturewise, if Avery's default is movement, Lucy's is 'ready', or defensive. Standing straight, or arms folded, or holding something, even if it's a backpack strap. She wears the dog tags at her neck with house keys and sometimes the weapon ring strung on it, sitting at her collarbone, usually hidden by her shirt collar.
Her Sight turns the whites of her eyes blood red or bubblegum pink, depending on the mood (angry vs. whimsical). The irises and pupils remain the same, but may be darker, in contrast. Her hat is fairly straightforward as witches hats go, black, and her mask is an orange-red fox's mask with hints of white here and there, to outline the eyes and mask's edges. In battle mode, her fox's mask has eyes that smoke and glow red and she may be smoking due to the backpack rune. Her cape is a mantle, charcoal black like the hat, and doesn't extend much further down than the elbow or small of the back. If it's not at her neck (usually when she's ready for a fight), she has the weapon ring on, a ring with an inch-long sword that extends so it either extends over the base knuckle and onto the back of the hand, or forward, along the finger.

-Wildbow on Reddit</ref><ref>At least like this, she could look at herself in the mirror and look at each part of her body in isolation.  Long neck, good chin, full lips, ears a little big but whatever.  Eyes a little glare-y by default but whatever.  Nose… whatever.  She liked it.  Hair… under control.  Skin… better than most girls in her class, if she was honest.
Objectively… she could rate the angry ballerina in the mirror a seven out of ten.
-excerpt from Stolen Away 2.4</ref>

When she uses the Sight, the whites of her eyes often seem to turn solid red<ref>Lucy looked over the town, her eyes turning red as she used the Sight. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.4</ref><ref>“Provisional on Avery saying it’s okay,” Lucy spoke more seriously, meeting Verona’s eyes, her Sight active so the whites of her eyes were red.  Her hair took on a pink tint.  “I will swear to step in before you end up like that.” - excerpt from Back Away 5.5</ref> or pink<ref name="1.8e1">“Don’t distract,” Lucy said.  Her expression was stern, and in Verona’s Sight, her eyes were red where they should be white, pink where the irises would normally be a hazel color.  Loose strands of pink hair that had come free of the ponytail shifted in the light breeze. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.8</ref> depending on her mood,<ref name="WB description" /> sometimes with white or pink irises.<ref>Snowdrop could see Lucy look around with her Sight, the whites of her eyes turning red, the irises turning white.  Seeing her do it, Verona and Avery did the same. - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.x</ref><ref>“Don’t distract,” Lucy said.  Her expression was stern, and in Verona’s Sight, her eyes were red where they should be white, pink where the irises would normally be a hazel color.  Loose strands of pink hair that had come free of the ponytail shifted in the light breeze. - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.8</ref>

Her hair is usually worn pulled back tight to the scalp, with an afro-puff ponytail. Her body language tends to be defensive and at the ready, with a rigid, straight posture.<ref name="WB description" /> Her ears are pierced,<ref>Lucy’s hair was down to her shoulders, wavy and glossy.  She had hoop earrings in, which looked great against the dark hair.  Avery hadn’t even noticed the earrings when Lucy had worn her face. - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.1</ref> and once acquired she's usually wearing the Eavesdropper's Earring.<ref>Cutting Class 6.7</ref> She chooses her clothes and applies makeup aiming to be 'bulletproof': beyond reproach from even silent bullies.<ref>She moved to her bedroom, and picked her clothes with a similar mindset.  She hadn’t said as much out loud to even Verona or her mom, but her mindset when it came to picking clothes was that she wanted her things to be bulletproof.  Not in the literal sense, but in the sense that it had no weak points, gave her critics nothing.  No fading, no rips, no tears, no stains.  The material was often from the higher-end athletic brands, because it was hardier and tended to hold up better over time.  Anyone who pointed and laughed at stuff branded with the Vikare swoop or the Dassler waves just looked like an idiot.
Again, not that her classmates did or would, because any obvious bullies would get a harder time than any potential targets.  The thing was that the bullies were still out there, only they were silent.  They thought it.  This kind of stuff was protection against that thinking and those observations. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.4</ref> She tends to wear tight clothing that won't wrinkle, often branded and carefully matched, usually with trainers. She wears her keys on a chain around her neck, later joined by magical dog tags and sometimes the weapon ring.<ref name="WB description" /> Her outfits include a new-looking red sweatshirt-dress worn with white and red sneakers decorated with maple leafs on the tongues (worn to look "nice".)<ref>Lucy was wearing what might have been a red sweatshirt dress with a stripe down the side, and her legs were bare from the knee down, her feet in red and white sneakers with little maple leafs on the tongues.  It looked new, even though Verona knew the shoes weren’t.
“I wanted to dress nice.” - excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1 </ref>

In her practitioner garb, she wears a fox mask that was created for her by Avery, as well as a witch's hat made by Verona and cloak. The mask is painted orange<ref>Verona had put her bag down, and now she unzipped it.  She pulled out the mask.  A deer mask, carved out of wood and painted with tan at the nose and around the eyes, a speckled darker brown at the edges and ears.  She handed it to Avery.
Avery handed Lucy a fox mask, painted orange.
“Damn,” Lucy muttered.  “You’re way better at carving than I am, Ronnie.  That deer mask is great.  Sorry yours is…”
Verona shook her head.  A black cat mask.  It was simple, but she liked it.  She hugged it to her chest with one hand while offering Lucy the hat she’d made herself.  Each of them had a gift for the other two. And for themselves, short cloaks.

- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref> with white detailing around the eyes and edges.<ref name="WB description" /> The cloak is very short, more of a shawl, not reaching her elbows.<ref>They’d shared online videos about the mask carving and a website with tailoring templates for the making of the hats.  The differences in mask were intentional, any differences in the hats accidental.  Verona’s hat was just a bit floppier at the brim.
When they’d done the search for the capes, they’d agreed to use the first blueprint on the list.  They’d been halfway when they had discovered the cape designs were all different.  Not that it mattered.  Verona’s was closer to a cloak, and Lucy’s closer to a shawl, it was so short.  Avery’s looked like more of a cape, with a wreath around the neck and shoulders.  She wore it ajar, so it covered most of one arm.
- excerpt from Lost for Words 1.2</ref> Both hat and cloak are charcoal black.<ref name="WB description" /> Her mask is later enchanted to have glowing red eyes she can activate to appear more intimidating.<ref name="WB description" /> In certain magical contexts, her mask appears real, as if she has the head of a fox.<ref name="1.ze1">Three figures were approaching.  They could almost be mistaken for the children that were scattered everywhere, but they were too animated, and too curious about their surroundings, looking around and looking up at the moon, where the children of this place were focused wholly on the ritual’s participants.  They couldn’t be Witnesses, because they had faces…

Animal faces, two of them wearing wide-brimmed hats, the other with a cord tying her hat to her neck.
[...]
The one with the fox’s face was literally smoking, the smoke flowing down her body and cloaking most of it, forming a whorl at her feet.  When traces of the smoke graced her orange-furred face, the glowing of her red eyes extended to the smoke.  Her hair did something similar, fox’s fur becoming long, tight curls with a faint red tint, the ends of the hair impossible to distinguish from the rising smoke.
[...]
He felt like he should recognize the voice, but every time he tried to put a face to the sound, he could only picture the fox’s face. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.z</ref><ref>She lifted up the dense, metal dollhouse, setting it in a metal box with about 20 segments.  There were a horrendous number of figures, pieces of furniture, accessories, animals, and little colored blocks inside, sliding around, rolling down stairs, and falling out.  The box itself had zipper-like creases at the edges of each segment, knitting them together.  She centered the dollhouse and then collected the fallen bits, pushing them in through windows.
[...]
She whispered, “Show me the three girls with animal faces,” and opened it up.
Three simple figurines with rectangular blocks for bodies were topped with the heads of a fox, cat, and deer.  They were within a cabin with an open top.  Ribbons filled the space, tying to a center mass.  A circular bit of wood, shallow, sat in the center.
There was no sign of the other figurines that had been within, or the diner, or the old house.
“Why animal faces?” she asked.
“If it’s this omnipresent, it may be the Sight equivalent of labeling something at the root level.  I could see changing or obfuscating your name, taking on a title as part of the implement or demesnes rituals, but faces… I don’t know.  If it was one individual, I could say it’s a Host with an exceptionally strong rider, or a practitioner with a familiar strong enough it was leaking through, but I’d expect to see that leak somewhere else.”

- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref><ref name="4.6e1">The room’s appearance shifted, to become something very much like the spirit world Lucy had visited together with Verona and Avery.  The floor was covered in an inch of water, littered with flower petals.  She could see the nose of the ‘mask’ she wore in spirit, and her hair was far longer, pale pink tendrils blowing across her shoulder.
Other students changed as well.  Avery had the deer mask.
[...]
The lighting changed.  Everything became a slow-motion flow of smoke, but where transparent wisps overlapped, they painted silhouettes and details.
She wore the fox mask here.  More smoke traced the outline of her cape.
“This is what one might see with a particular variety of the Sight, ignoring connections.  [...] Lucy here makes a good example.  As we get stronger or weaker, we may be able to see that in the Sight.  Look at the color in her hair.  Like a blush-tinted ember, glowing from within.  From the roots, a bit darker.  I could interpret that she spent power recently.  Draining this power.  These gauges can be very useful, for judging where we stand, and if one does not naturally manifest, then they can be handmade and designated.  A practitioner of the practice of Law, concerning themselves with the rules of the universe and of karma, may wish to keep a barometer for that type of karma, or even count the different kinds and origins of karma.  Another may wish to track the state of their body, or even the magical trinkets they have in their possession.  They can be overt, for status, power, and that ever-so-important presentation, like Ms. Ellingson’s wonderful hair here, or they can be hidden, a painted picture of a bouquet in a locket.  How many flowers does it have?  What color?” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref>

She hates having things on her wrists.<ref>I hate having stuff on my wrist.  Can’t even wear a watch without getting annoyed.— excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.9.</ref>

Abilities and Art

In addition to the shared abilities and gear of the Kennet Trio, Lucy has her own distinctive Second Sight. She can see watercolour-esque "stains" and blades piercing things which seem to indicate danger, pain, negative emotions, or harm. It can also help her see stained outlines through smoke, darkness etc.<ref>With the Sight on, she could see the drama, the watercolor stain spreading out into the air and sometimes turning fluorescent, glowing brightly or reflecting the flames.  The darkness was deeper, and faces white. She could see the blades impaling people.
Two guys and three girls were sitting on the side of the hill, barely any illumination around them, and the stain that spread around them was colorful, taking on vague shapes like faces.  The blades that had been digging into them before were now pulling away, drifting like they were underwater and swords could float.  They looked up at the night sky, and because they were on the hillside that wasn’t directly facing Kennet, there wasn’t a lot of light pollution to block off the view of the stars.  Even the milky way was visible high above.  Lucy had to turn off her Sight to see it, before she turned it back on.
[...]
Lucy’s eyes stung with the smoke from the cabin.  She used the Sight, and saw silhouettes like black stains against the smoke, throwing water on the couch that was over the couch.
[...]
Her Sight helped identify stains where the tree branches could scratch and the especially brambly bushes and weeds were.
[...]
To Lucy’s sight, the black cat mask was white, the white rim around the eye sockets like smudged blood.  The stain at Melissa’s foot was black in a way that made the gloom around it seem pale, threads reaching up and into her body, where the threads of stain transfixed her heart, the slashes that extended out like blades unto themselves.
[...]
As the light faded, she used her Sight to scan the surroundings, judging the slopes-

And saw Guilherme, stained a deep green-blue, approaching from the shadows.  He was in his boy form, shirtless, his only real clothing like a kilt worn over leather pants, and he had a weapon.  A long spear. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.3</ref> Lucy describes her Sight: "I see violence, or the effects of it, or negativity, sickness, badness. I see swords to represent wounds, with things tied to the handles, like ribbons, for the connections those wounds draw out."<ref>Cited from Playing a Part 15.9.</ref>

Fox-like actions and quirks are easy to come by for Lucy such as concealment. During her implement ritual smoke became codified as an element of association to Lucy, leaving her as better able to breath, navigate, create, hide and generally make proficient use of it as a tool in her practice such as throwing her voice through smoke or crafting illusions out of smoke. Whenever she enacts her version of the dualist's arena its aesthetic boundaries are defined with a ring of smoke.

Through her propensity for accusations around the moral failings of others Lucy is a prolific user of curses with a heavy bent towards being karmically righteous variety and her use of them use elevates her into a minor arbiter of justice. After receiving her Implement any diagrams Lucy draws are automatically elaborated upon with complicated flourishes, making simple diagrams impossible for her but some more complex and powerful magics easier.

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Official art from 1.8 Bonus Material: Inventories.

She later looked into Law magic.

Tactics

She's also been receiving one-on-one lessons in combat from Guilherme as his gift to her which elevates her skill in combat generally and formalized single combat in particular. This continued even after he "fell" to winter which changed the training somewhat. Bubbleyum added her own training as well,<ref>Don’t panic.  Guilherme’s lesson.

Panic effectively.  Bubbleyum’s. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.10</ref><ref name=wr7>Guilherme had always been a striker. Any time he was in position to grab, he’d be in position to take her out in a single blow… so why bother dealing with the multi-part process of grabbing her and figuring out what to do with her after?

It was Bubbleyum who’d gotten into the training with grabs and stuff. Hands reached for Lucy, and she punched out, meeting reaching fingers with blunt force-

A woman, a grown man, and a teenager came at Lucy from three directions. Lucy applied a principle she’d learned with use of the weapon ring against Guilherme in their earlier sparring, back in the spring and very early summer. There, she’d used the weapon ring, meeting the furthest targets with whip, then switching her weapon to the spear as they got a few steps closer, then switching to a blade, then something shorter range- always enough that the enemy had to walk into a waiting weapon swing if they wanted to close the distance.

Here, as fingers reached for her, she punched, connecting knuckle to finger. As she focused on one set of hands, others got closer- so she met them with elbow.

And then forehead, for the last set. - Excerpt from Hard Pass 22.3</ref> including a "charm" to help her heal from minor injuries.<ref>“Ah, but the cold can give you frostbite. You’re protected by your attire. You’re protected from the little cuts and scrapes by the charm Bubbleyum taught you.” - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.2</ref> With further training by John and other Dogs of War,<ref>Lucy wore a red jacket, military style, her earring caught the light, dog tags were out from beneath her top.  Faerie trained, goblin trained, Dog of War trained.  She talked with Anthem, who was in Kennet found.  That was… pretty spooky.  She’d fought Anthem and managed.  She’d gone after Joel the dragonslayer and some of the boys.  Now Joel was out sick, too hurt to go to the Abyss, and he’d be out of commission until Maricica came up to visit him directly.  It hadn’t been obvious, but Dony had apparently cut fingers to the bone trying to hold onto some dragonslayer weapon when she’d disarmed him.  There was the bruise, black eye, sore ribs…

She was annoyed all over again, thinking about it.  That they hadn’t gone to their goddess of glory and blood to get healed.  They had a goddess on tap, God damn it.
[...]Verona would be annoying, but Lucy…

That earring was apparently her implement. Her declaration to the world about what she was about. She listened. She caught things.

Kira-Lynn didn’t want to get caught here. She had work to do. - Excerpt from Let Slip 20.f</ref> is part of the reason she called herself a Trifold Duelist. She also trained with Anthem.

She has taken to using the trio's training in glamour to shrink down her magical gear into images that she can store in a locket and has taken. She also makes glamoured-up fox decoys, hiding herself among them in a metaphysical Shell game. Latter she hid effects and allys within the foxes.

Basics

• Implement is the Eavesdropper's Earring, accepted from Verona and Avery who constructed and donated the materials.<ref>As Lucy had signed the far side of the line, this other her had signed her side.
  
  :Eavesdropper’s Earring, Implement of Lucille Desiree Ellingson. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.7</ref>

Tools

She generally keeps the Weapon Ring which Miss gifted her, she developed many techniques to use the weapons it gives her.<ref name=wr7/> the trio, and often the elementally-charged lead John Stiles gave them to power it.

After the contest for the Carmine's throne she gained John's dog tag, guitar and Yalda's ring.<ref>Going home, a battered old guitar with new strings slung around her back, a dog tag she’d never throw to the ground at her neck, in the company of his Songbird.- Excerpt from Fall Out 14.6</ref>

History

Arc 1: Lost for Words

Lucy and her two friends were brought into the world of practice, in order to uncover the mystery of the death of the Carmine Beast. Her Personal Item was a set of two knives, handmade by her cousin.

References

<references/>