Selena Euphemia Buck- "Sparkles"

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Weirdlet
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Selena Euphemia Buck- "Sparkles"

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Name: Selena Euphemia Buck, aka “Sparkles”
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Species: Human

Strengths: Keen-minded, Selena knows her way around a research library, as well as decent Google-fu. She has a harsh and suspicious mind, and it’s not that she has any kind of sixth sense so much as she doesn’t trust much of anyone, and has a fair talent for ferreting out that people want something from her. She also knows most of the low-level magical community/small-time magic-users hanging around the college and club scenes, having checked out most of them and winnowed out the fakes. In a retail setting, she can be a pushy and effective saleswoman, to the point where her mother is able to be the soft touch when she’s making the hard sell.
Weaknesses: Selena is utterly mundane human. Despite Eliphas’ hopes, she has all the magical potential of a brick, with no magical skills or affinities, no interesting curses or ancestry beyond that which grants her the family fortunes and family curse. She’s not particularly interested in self-defense courses or training to be physically stronger- she is, at the end of the day, a mortal teenaged girl with a lot on her shoulders.

Appearance: Being 5’4” and cute if she’d quit scowling, “Sparkles” looks like she ought to be trying harder to be Goth than she is. She’s already pretty pale, and her hair is only a few shades artificially darker than it already was- with lips and nails painted black and a row of piercings up each ear, the rest of her attire tends to be ‘whatever the hell I feel like’, which can range from tank-tops and jeans in a club scene to black lace skirts and boots at the country club. The inheritance of her mother’s eyes is her one concession to the exotic, and she tends to overshadow those with dark paint whenever she can.
Behavior: When not pushed to her limit, Selena tends to be quiet and watchful, in a way that suggests cautious surveillance rather than wistful observation. Everyone wants something, she believes- and not everyone’s going to ask. Even within the family, the ‘not asking’ may be gentle but it still disregards what she might want.

‘Party mode’ is the bright, helpful persona that she learned to put on and off from helping her mother’s wedding business- otherwise she prefers to keep people away by off-putting appearance and sharpness. Persistence may win tolerance and amusement, but push too hard and she will respond with sharpness and confrontation.

Her one real soft spot is her cousin, Lydia. Neither of them asked to be involved in this whole mess, and neither of them is really happy where they are- but can’t cut ties and walk away, either. Family’s family, whether you sometimes hate them or not. Loyalty and pride will be what kills you in the end, she thinks. And is there really anything else worth dying for?

Goals: Above all, to try and keep what seems like the selfishness and shortsightedness of her clan from harming her cousin further. Lydia’s always seemed- delicate, and if Selena’s vowed not to shed more tears without someone truly earning them, her near-sister is much less callused than she is.

Beyond that? To survive beyond what this stupid legacy has decreed for her- or at the very least, to go down fighting. To try and ‘break the curse’ seems like an impossible pipe-dream, especially considering all the research her great-great grandfathers have put in through the years without anything to show for it- but she can at least start on reading the books and asking around the modern magic community in her off hours.

Catching the latest new band at the club and passing exams wouldn’t go unappreciated either…

History: Selena has watched a variety of tragedies befall her family in the time she spent growing up, from the ones that befell her mother in the time before her birth, to the ones that seem to be shaping up around her cousin Lydia’s parents and her more personal, quietly-kept problems. It was only in the last two years, when she learned where the family came from and a lot more of the history behind it that things began to make sense. Bucks, it seems, can live long lives, or they can be happy, but not both. Something usually happens- madness, accident, a marriage that ends up being a prison, and those who get close tend to come to bad ends.

Prior to Eliphas’s invitation to rejoin the family roots, Selena spent her time reading and hanging out loosely with the gothic crowd at her schools. Her mother and aunt’s business is one where appearances are everything, and she learned early on that problems, no matter how important, had to be put by the wayside in order for everything to go off perfectly. If it didn’t relate to keeping that projection up in the air, it had to wait- and once the rush was over, the problem had passed, so why deal with it?

Self-reliance is one of those things that Selena has turned into a weapon, much the same as her willingness and ability to do the research- it’s how she diagnosed an appendix that her uncle Martin wanted to brush off as bad buffalo wings, and how she knows that Lydia has a touch of schizophrenia (or something darn close to it, possibly a faint touch of psychic ability). It’s why she can spot a fake like an old hand, and knows which of the gals have any real juice among the local whoopee-witches. If her mom and her aunt won’t try to deal with problems they don’t even really understand, then by God, Selena will, even if she has to do it on her own. Coming to Buck Manor has only made it more important that she know what remedies are real and which are just bunkum used to part the public from their money.
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