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Name: Landscape Sutton

Nickname: Laney, Elaine

Age: 19

Birthday: March 15

Sign: Pisces

Gemstone: Aquamarine

Blood Type: AB

Fav. Food: Anything with peanut butter on it. Vegetables dipped in peanut butter, gummi bears dipped in peanut butter, fluffernutters, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She really likes peanut butter. (Note: smooth, not chunky. Chunky peanut butter is the devil's work.)

Hated Food: Bubblegum. She has never learned to blow a bubble, and she gets perturbed by the constant urge to swallow something after she's been chewing it. She also chews gum like a cow with cud.

School: None — although once a student at the ill-fated Barren Pines College, following her year-long coma, Laney declined to return to school. She has never completed her high school diploma.

Hobbies:

Bearing Gifts — I saw this Human Centipede t-shirt and I thought of you — I just had to get it for you! This necklace just really seemed like your kind of thing. That ringtone was just so you! Laney loves giving gifts, and usually starts her shopping for birthday and Christmas gifts months in advance. She keeps a small moleskine with her where, among other things, she jots down any gift ideas that come to her, so she can follow up on them later. Not all of her gifts are always spot-on to what the recipient might want, but what she lacks in accuracy she makes up for thanks to the law of averages: if she gives enough gifts, some are bound to hit the mark eventually. (Except perhaps for the Human Centipede t-shirt. Lord knows what she was thinking.)

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway — Laney is a tremendous musical theatre buff. From DVDs to mp3s to local theatre shows to trips to New York City, if she can manage it, she’ll be there and she’ll get ahold of the merchandise. Laney is a somewhat annoying repository of showtunes and their lyrics, and rather melodramatically tends to feel that lyrics can serve as deeply appropriate commentary on serious situations. She has season sponsorships to Destiny City’s local theatre companies, and attempts to see every show at least twice. (This eats up most of her finances, and as a result she has a rather limited wardrobe for her age.) Although she’s never said as much, and has never auditioned for a show, her quietly nurtured dream is to perform onstage.

Gotta find my corner of the sky — Following her year-long coma, Laney has begun to come to terms with her dissatisfaction with her old life and her strained relationship with her parents, whose distantness and unsupportive behavior she finds increasingly intolerable. Her way of rebelling -- and of acknowledging the fact that she's never felt a real sense of self, or of her own wants in life -- is by becoming decidedly unambitious and a disappointment to her family. She's refused to return to school and finish her high school degree, and instead spends her time searching for something to believe in, something to make her own and feel fulfilled by. Some of Laney's time is spent job-hunting, searching for jobs she can manage to get and hold onto and not want to back out of. The rest is often spent loafing around the city or wandering aimlessly -- while she puts forth a very positive, upbeat demeanor, she's a perpetually dissatisfied individual with a wanderlust born out of a need to keep trying something new until she finds what she's looking for -- whatever that is. She doesn't know what she's looking for, but she does know she can't stand to keep going on not finding it.

Virtues:

Focused — More than a bit neurotic about disappointing her loved ones, Laney takes devotion to near-fanatical extents. When she's given a task, she will defeat that task if she has to rip out her own hair and strangle the task with it. She's not easily distracted, and can sit in one place reading or do the same repetitive task for hours. (She can also, of course, become lost for an afternoon reading TVTropes.) She is not a half-hearted human being -- the only time she appears to be half-hearted about something is when, as noted below, she's being passive-aggressively avoidant.

Affectionate — Apparently perpetually affection-starved, once Laney is classified as a friend of yours, she loves you. She obsesses over learning your interests and giving the perfect gifts. She will want to hug you every time she sees you. She will remember your birthday and pay you lots of attention.

Open-minded — Both a tolerant and curious person by nature, Laney is not just any kind of friend, but in particular, a very accepting one. Everyone is welcome at her table who wants to be there; she loves you, warts and all. The only sort of person she doesn’t like is a person who doesn’t like her: getting a negative reaction from a new acquaintance often causes her to shut down quickly. Otherwise, she’s a curious person, interested in broadening her horizons, and is inclined to think the best of the things that interest people she cares about. If you’re into categorizing hermit crab shells, then it must be a pretty neat thing to do! As a result, she is capable of bravery where new experiences are concerned. Bolstered by the presence of a friend, she’s not easily daunted by things.

Flaws:

Cannot Cope, Going to Mordor -- When things go Laney's way, she's on cloud nine. But when they don't, she prepares with hysterical anguish to quit the internet forever. She doesn't handle her problems in the mature, responsible way of an adult -- she hides from them, gives people the silent treatment, and sobs into her pillow and eats Ben & Jerry's. Bolstered by the support of a friend, as noted before, she may be dauntless; but cut by the words of an enemy, she is quick to falter, frequently lapsing into passive-aggressive, broody silence or hysterical sobs (in either case, immaturely). She struggles frequently with feelings of anxiety and bitterness, and can’t seem to find a functional outlet for them.

We're Friends, Right? Right? Let's Always Be Together! -- Clingy, clingy, clingy. Laney is dependent, and smothering, and please don't ever leave her! This kind of neediness is definitely not the attractive, charming kind -- it's the kind that's oppressive and tiring to be the focus of, and can get in the way particularly if you're trying to get Laney to split up with you for any reason. She has some very bad social skills, and chief among these, she has absolutely no concept of personal space. If she says she loves your hair, then it's guaranteed that she is already touching your hair. She also has a tendency to run at the mouth, often offering Too Much Information, and though often she can tell when this is happening, sometimes she doesn’t know how to stop herself mid-sentence or wrap up a thought quickly. She can see the train leaving the station, but she can’t usually stop it.

Enabler -- Of course it’s a great idea, Laney thinks all your ideas are great ideas! Laney is rather easily swayed, aside from which, she’s generally of the opinion that loving someone means supporting them nigh-unconditionally. However far-fetched someone’s ideas or however uncouth their interests, Laney will try to be encouraging, even if she feels it’s a terrible thing to try to do. You should definitely try it, no doubt. You have to try — it’s better to go down shadowboxing than be Casey At the Bat, isn’t it? Of course it is. She’s the sort of person who won’t stop a friend or a stranger from burning their own eyebrows off. She would rather enable someone else’s bad or foolish behavior than speak out in dissent and risk disappointing them by being perceived as ‘too contrary.’ (Her own contrariness is, instead, deeply passive-aggressive: she’ll immaturely disappear or avoid things she doesn’t want to do, or fall stonily silent in conversations she doesn’t want to have, rather than say she doesn’t want to take part.)

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Eyes: Wide, almond-shaped eyes, with bright golden irises. Prone to staring.

Hair: Near-white, in a low-saturation frost tone, Laney’s hair is loosely curly and apt to tighter curls at the tips. It currently hangs near to waist-length. In her civilian life, she wears the top half pulled up and clipped behind her head, with the bottom half left loose. Her face is framed by a pair of shorter twists of hair that have been pulled free of her hairdo.

Face: Pink-peach toned skin, heart-shaped face, round nose, high cheekbones, medium-full lips. Her face is rather average, but not unattractive — just not ravishingly beautiful in any particular way.

Clothes: Laney favors hipster fashion in the style of Amy Pond — baggy, oversized shirts, miniskirts and leggings or hose. She wears comfortable, sturdy shoes for walking, usually high-top Doc Marten’s boots, and likes light jackets and scarves.

Laney, having arrived back at her dorm room, notices a sickly-looking plant sitting on her desk. It is unlabelled, except its species classification. Google is no help. "Oh, my!" she exclaims, "I have a secret admirer." She picks up the plant by its terra cotta pot and dances it in a circle around the room. "I'll call you Seymour. But you look a little bit Charlie Brown Christmas Special, don't you. Well, a little bit of sugar-water, some judiciously applied sunlight, and some TLC will spruce you right up. Ha, spruce, get it, Seymour?" She positions Seymour carefully by the window, and croons an Elvis Presley song to it. Laney resolves to sing to Seymour every hour, on the hour. This is the beginning of a beautiful new friendship.

Laney is awake from her comatose state and is currently living at home with her parents (in Destiny City). She has not re-enrolled in school.

[R] Long Time Gone - Laney, Tara
After a very long time apart, two close friends are re-united at last. But how much of a friendship exists in the heart, and how much only in lost memories that won't return? [being completed off-site]

[R] Paintball and Pigs - Laney, Nate [complete]
Laney spends a night out on the town not getting up to much, and gets up to much anyway. She meets Nate Darrow, who promises to make her life more interesting.

[R] Driving Forces - Laney, Marcella
Two people with two very different outlooks on life and approaches to the world meet as so many people do: while waiting for something. [on hold from earlier, would be happy to resume]

[R] Autumn, Golden and Glowing - Laney, Yvette, Dogby [complete]
Two teenagers meet on the street out of pure happenstance, and discover they share a mutual friend -- and a mutual liking for puppies.

[R] King Arthur Rehearsals - Various
Laney gets a job as the Prop Master for the new production of King Arthur. They hold their first rehearsal.