I am done with my graceless heart. So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart 'cause I like to keep my issues strong; it's always darkest before the dawn
Name: Levinia Grace Ekenstierna (leh-VIN-ya EK-en-STERN-ah)
Formerly Known As: Levi Graham Ekenstierna (LEE-vai)
Alias: Levvy
Age [appearance]: Mid to late 20s
Age [actual]: 26
Birthday: October 29, 1986
Birthplace: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Gender Expression: Woman
Gender Identity: Trans*woman
Sexual Orientation: Ambiguous/Queer
Species: Human
Hair: Her hair is long and dyed to an almost platinum blonde color, with some of the roots dyed black. It falls onto her lower back when she wears it loose. There is a generous wave to it which often allows her not to worry about straightening it. It lacks a significant amount of volume, but it fits her well. She wears it in any number of styles, but loves having a headband over her bangs, which are at least eye-length and usually cover at least part of her vision. Naturally, her hair is a very light brown which borders blonde. Her hair is moderately soft to the touch with very fine strands.
Eyes: Light brown and a bit small for her face. She is constantly seen wearing a thick liner on her top lid and mascara and a very soft, earth-toned shadow.
Face: Levvy has a very interesting face. Her high cheek bones and narrow chin make her very striking and attractive. She has a long, narrow nose that funnels out that seems perfectly placed beneath carefully crafted and maintained eyebrows. Her jawline is very long and her mouth seems a little too big for her face, just above a beautifully rounded chin.
Frame: Levvy is definitely petite. She is smaller than many of her friends and stands at about 5’3” and weighs perhaps 130 lbs. Her height makes her the butt of many jokes and so she's developed a sort of hard skin for short jokes. She is thin and very fair-skinned and has only a handful of freckles all over her body. Her breasts are on the small size (fake), but she greatly enjoys them nonetheless. She has a decent set of hips but she often complains about her lack of a bottom. Fitting into jeans often frustrates her, making her search for hours for the right pair of jeans in department stores. Though she seems small and thin, she has a deceptive amount of strength and a bit of muscle when she flexes. She constantly thinks that her shoulders are very broad, but in reality this is hardly noticeable. Any on-looker would have to be staring at her shoulders in order to see that they were broader than the average female. Her arms and legs are shapely, but tend to portray a bit more masculine characteristics. She shaves her arms, legs, underarms, and pubic region religiously.
Tattoos/Distinguishing Marks: Levinia has half-sleeve tattoos on both of her arms. On the left arm, she has a beautiful array of black, gray, and white flowers with a picture of an acoustic guitar in the middle. On the other, she has beautifully colored flowers, leaves, and vines of dazzling colors. They are not the most artistic tattoos, but they serve their purpose and look good on her thin arms. On her right wrist she has a bracelet tattoo of a blue butterfly on a vine that wraps around her wrist. On her rib cage, she has an surreal-looking tree with twisting branches. Between the falling leaves of the tree is written, "Love isn’t always magic. Sometimes it’s just melting where it’s black and blue, where it hurts the most." For those who are very observant, scars around her breasts detail her implant surgery that she had about five years ago years ago. They are light silver scars under her breasts. Levvy also has all of the scars of her gender reassignment surgery (http://www.healthcommunities.com/transgender-health/surgery.shtml). She has two sets of piercings in her ears (first and second holes), a barbell through her tongue that she got when she was 18, as well as a labret piercing where she has just a single silver stud.
Personality: Spunky. Sweet and shy at first but only at first. She is not very vocal unless she gets a bit of alcohol and/or a microphone. To those who know her, she is very bubbly and friendly. Her voice is very sweet and middle-ranged so she often comes off very girly, despite her tattoos and piercings. She is definitely feminine and passes very well as a woman. She is sassy with lots of sugar and spice. Unlike many of her other friends, she is energetic and playful when she goes into work and loves to interact with people. She could never be described as hands-on (she actually doesn't like to be touched very often), but she certainly radiates a sort of warmth that makes people naturally comfortable around her.
Despite the difficulties of her childhood, she hates feeling weighed down by negative emotion and typically keeps a more optimistic outlook on life. Years of therapy have helped her with this. She doesn't seem to experience much sadness in her life after her transition.
History: She was born the first child of three to Tyler and Nancy Ekenstierna in a big city in Pennsylvania. Tyler Ekenstierna, her father, was a young aspiring musician and composer from Philadelphia. Nancy Lipp was an elementary school teacher from Yonkers, New York. The two met on a blind date six years before Levi was born. By the time that Levi came along, the couple had been married for nearly two years. Levi was a happy baby and was loved very much.
Very early on in life, Levi seemed to prefer more feminine things - she spurned her G.I. Joes for Barbies, loved to wear pink and purple, and often called herself a pretty princess, to her father's dismay. Though the behavior wasn't encouraged by her parents, Nancy and Tyler did very little to overtly change Levi's interested. As a result her creativity and femininity flourished, despite her male body. For the first few years of her life, there seemed to be very little problem with Levvy accepting this about herself, having nothing else to compare or challenge. It was only when Nancy gave birth to twins when Levi was four did the problems start.
Aiden and Abby were fraternal twins born fifteen minutes apart. Levi took great pleasure in helping her parents take care of the twins, though some things started to change. Now that there was a younger boy and girl in the house, Levi started to feel very confused and frustrated. She knew that she looked like Aiden more than she looked like Abby, but she felt more like Abby. When she confronted her parents in a fit of angst when she was five years old, they had no answer for her, hugged her and gave her some cookies, simply hoping it would pass in time and Levi would become a normal boy.
Growing up was difficult for Levi, especially when school came. In a world where teachers often liked to point out differences between the two sexes and never spoke about any gray area in between, Levi began to feel very sad. Her expressions of femininity were looked down upon by her teachers and the other children. To avoid getting teased, punished, or otherwise humiliated in class, Levi began acting like everyone wanted her to act - like the little boy she seemed to be. It was uncomfortable at first and her family definitely noticed a change in her moods and temperament, but they were all relieved when Levi seemed to want to be called "he" again. Still, the compulsions to wear make-up and grow her hair out long and play with pink toys never really left - it wasn't uncommon for Nancy to come home and find her son wearing her make-up and shoes, painting nails with markers.
When puberty came, so did a sort of depression in Levi's life. She began to feel like a freak and would often cry alone about the things she was feeling and what was happening to her. She hated her penis and her testicles and the deep voice that her father called "manly". When the sharp little hairs sprang out of her face, she shaved everyday to keep them - and some other bodily hairs - at bay. She always wore jeans and a tee to hide her secret shaving practices. While the other boys would play football and soccer in gym class, Levvy always chose something less physical and male-oriented like tennis or volleyball - both of which she was horrible at, but at least she didn't have to deal with the boys who pressured her into becoming a man she never really wanted to be. Levvy took this confusion and frustration and turned it into a video diary with a camera that she gotten from her grandparents one Christmas. It was through here that she was able to vent a lot of frustration that she felt at school when the other people didn't understand her and her "choices".
Being the artistic parents that they were, Nancy and Tyler always tried to inspire in their children any kind of artistic ability that they could see. For Levvy, it was music. Her parents bought Levi her first guitar when she was eleven years old and she took to it immediately. Seeing this her parents provided her with both singing and guitar lessons. From there, she was able to learn many other instruments on her own. By the age of fourteen, she knew how to play the piano, drums, and bass guitar, though with varying skill. This eased some of the pain of her puberty as well. She began listening to classic and alternative rock and wanted to be on stage. She wrote and played her own songs for her family until they became too personal for her to sing.
High school life was even more awkward and full of transitions for her. At the age of 15, Levi started calling herself Levinia. There was a lot of mockery and misunderstanding from the kids and teachers at school - a few incidents when Levvy was suspended from school for fighting, confused calls to Nancy and Tyler about which pronoun Levvy chose to use. Despite all her trouble and frustration, her family did the best they could to support her. While her father reluctantly (and poorly) hid his disappointment, her brother and sister were her biggest supporters. Her mother, though kind-hearted and otherwise open-minded, still to this day refers to Levinia as her son and vows that she "always will". She made friends slowly but well. Her good nature and fun personality made her a treasure to those few friends she had. By the end of her high school career, Levvy discovered that there was a whole world full of people like her and that she would make her life devoted to finding the comfort with her body that she has always wanted but never found.
After the awkwardness of high school, Levvy left Pennsylvania for the west coast, where there seemed to be more people like her - gay people, queers, trans*gender folk. At the age of 18, she moved to California and moved in with some friends from school. Wanted to see more of the country, she left California and she moved around a bit before settling down in the nameless city by herself. At the age of 21, Levinia finally went in for her top surgery. She got implants which have been successful in boosting her self-confidence. Her bottom surgery (vaginoplasty) wasn't completed until last year (2011).
Levinia has had only a few romantic relationships, most of which ended really awkwardly when her partners found out she was trans*gender. Her last relationship, which ended only months ago, was with a man named Robert Laplante. He was very open to many types of sexual encounters - he called himself pansexual - and the two met when Levinia still had her male genitalia. The two were intimate lovers and Levinia felt almost complete to finally have someone who loved her for being who she was. She and Rob dated for over two years when they decided to call it quits. It was a very harsh reality for Levinia. Now, however, it is nearly five months since she broke up with Rob. She is fully recovered from her surgery and her broken heart, though she does miss Rob sometimes.
Recent History: After working at Risk for only six months, Levinia was offered the job of Head Bartender at Venture. The exact reasons and ideas behind why she specifically had been picked are still a little blurry to her.
Awareness of Supernaturals: She knows a lot about vampires, a lot about some kinds of demons - especially the demons who worked in Risk, and very little about anything else. She knows that Nightmares, Fae, and Werewolves exist in the city.
Occupation/Job: Head Bar Tender at Venture and part-time performer.
Interesting Facts / Quirks:
- She can't stand Sushi.
- She loves all sorts of music and will cover just about anything that strikes her fancy, though writing and performing music is her favorite.
- When she first moved to the city, she auditioned for several bands in the area and managed to get into a couple and play some gigs. Unfortunately none of the bands were ever really successful, and made very little money.
- She got a job at Risk one night due to a gig she and her friends were playing. She has recently been promoted to head bar tender at Venture.
- Since she was fifteen, she has been keeping a video diary of her life. When she was younger and before she understood herself and her gender dysmorphia, she would often go through "purges" where she would throw out or burn any of her "incriminating" mentions of wanting to be a girl in an attempt to normalize her masculinities. As a result, most of the earlier tapes are lost but at least once a week, she takes a video of herself and her updates, many of which have been about her journey through transition.
- She also can't go into a music store or an electronics store without picking something up.
Hobby/Hobbies: She loves playing acoustic guitar. She has a wonderful singing voice and she is often found at open-mic nights around the city and surrounding areas. She makes lots of money when she and her friends go down into the subways to go busking for fun. In her spare time, she'll often be blogging and writing about trans*gender rights and her own personal journey, as well as looking up fun videos of cats on the internet. She is very active loves to play tennis whenever she can find a partner who is willing. When she gets really bored, she'll make up silly videos of herself and then upload these to her internet blog so the entire world can view her ramblings. Whenever she and her friends are out doing something fun, she has her camera right at her side.
Likes: Music, poetry, blogging, singing, going to open mic nights, alcohol, partying, playing music for fun, taking pictures and videos, being with friends, new cameras, socializing, cats on the internet.
Dislikes: being called a man, close-minded people, misogyny, being cat-called, obnoxiously drunk customers, being touched or groped, dead batteries, being called by masculine pronouns or her old name (Levi - to this day, she avoids saying the name aloud to others).
Strength: She is persistent and ambitious, though not in an overly forceful way. She is very charismatic. Her bubbly personality make her agreeable and kind in most situations. She is very sympathetic towards causes and she is very open-minded. She goes out of her way to make sure that she doesn't offend anyone she comes into contact with. She is optimistic and typically doesn't get sucked into anyone's bad mood.
Weakness/Flaw: She tends to get very self-conscious about gender roles and challenges them too quickly. She doesn't allow people too close to her and she usually comes off very flaky. She tends to also have a sort of hatred towards those who make a gender joke and she takes many jokes very seriously, usually ruining any chance of a friendship forming. She has a very difficult time of verbally or physically standing up for what she believes in, especially if the opposition is numerous and close. Levvy is much more likely to practice avoidance in situations such instances, rather than aggression. She becomes needlessly nervous about stressors in her life, and often finds herself stressing out about a lot of things.
Please Note: Like many transgender/transsexual people, Levinia doesn't talk about her gender identity or surgeries very often. They are very personal spots for her. Please do not assume that you know that she is trans* or that she looks trans* because that's too invasive and uncreative. I'd advise the RPer to say that she looks a bit more androgynous or masculine than they were expecting but you can't look at a person and know their trans*gender identity from sight alone. Levvy only tells a very few people whom she trusts and please also don't just assume your character is one of them. Please ask first.
Like many trans* folk, Levvy has to have hormone therapy replacement. She does take estrogen pills and a number of other drugs that help her to balance her new body. I would imagine that she doesn't smell or taste like you're average female, so any vampire who may want to feed or be around that may be able to pick up on that. That is up to the writers' discretion. However, don't make the mistake of knowing what the case is, unless the vampire/feeder is very skilled in telling about men and women by blood taste alone...
(http://www.deadjournalist.com/DJdc/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/sb.jpg)(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8b/06/76/8b06765414306f47054a196d8c84f2fd.jpg)
Threads with Levinia Ekenstierna
Bad Moon Rising (http://www.roleplaycity.com/forum/index.php?topic=6845.0) (Sam)
Opening Night (http://www.roleplaycity.com/forum/index.php?topic=6969.0) (Morgaine, Sam, Bryant, Jeanne, et al.)
The Breath Before the Plunge (http://www.roleplaycity.com/forum/index.php?topic=7095.0) (Sam)