Leside Araceli

Leside takes good pride in looking far younger than her fifty-five years. She takes great care of herself - working out, wearing careful make-up, and investing in discrete body and facial procedures, although she's too proud to actually change any of her features - to continue looking like she's a natural thirty years old. She has her mother's lean build, hair, and pale complexion, with her father's large, wide-set eyes, nose, and unusually short legs.

Those large eyes are a watery, pale blue that, while not necessarily unattractive, can be highly disconcerting when, at first glance, many people can't tell where the iris ends and the whites begin. Leside's nose, while not particularly small, is very flat and tends to blend in with the rest of her face, making it appear smaller than it really is. Her lips are a bit on the thin and wide side. Her hair, of which she is very proud, is thick, long, and a staggeringly pale blonde. It is the color of a peeled banana, and can appear to be a bright, white-gold color in the right light.

An unremarkable height, 5'6", Leside's legs are disproportionally short to her body due to her partially Peruvian heritage, causing her to look taller while sitting than she really is. Her invisible eyebrows are usually drawn together towards the middle of her forehead - Leslie's thoughtful expression. She carries an aura of paradox with her - blonde hair, reflective expression; long torso, short legs; large, round eyes and pale skin, a nose that is definitively not Caucasian; skinny body, surprisingly deep, rich voice and weird accent that not even the language techs could place - that sometimes adds up to the impression that she's thinking because she's lost something, or is confused.

Truly, the reason Leslie is always thinking is because in her spare time, she reads. And she spends every other moment thinking about the books, breaking them down, reading into the themes, allusions, and ironies, and predicting to herself what will happen next. Leside has read everything from Shakespeare to the authors on today's best-seller lists and, thanks to her Babel chip, has been able to expand her boundaries to original, untranslated versions of War & Peace, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and the like.

In her own life, Leslie isn't nearly as analytical as she is with the made-up ones she enjoys. She played soccer as a child and still loves contact sports; the immediate reaction, fast pace, and jostling get her blood going (it's the only action she sees, any more). She has a do now, think later tendency in life that she tried hard to keep in check as an agent, but doesn't really have to worry about too much, these days. She loves to talk, and tries to have friendly relationships with all the staff and students. Whenever someone wants or needs someone to talk to, Leside is available at her front desk, much less intimidating than a shrink. She loves the fact that she's able to keep up with all the younger people at Deveraux, and sometimes can't help thinking she really shouldn't be out of the field yet.

Leside, for all her personality and experience, just doesn't have the patience, planning, or teaching ability to hold a teaching position at Deveraux, although, if asked, she would be quite willing to give a student extra help in their lessons.

Her mother, a wealthy white South African, met her father on a vacation to Peru after graduating college. The two got married after a fairly short courtship and moved to South Africa, although they visited Peru frequently. Leside was born two years into their marriage, and her parents both taught her their native languages (her mother spoke Tswana and English among three other languages, but declined to teach her daughter English until later, and Leslie learned it with an accent). Leside loved both books and sports from a very young age, but never tried very hard in school. She always got decent grades, but never the best, as the books they had to read for school were boring, and sports were more fun than homework.

Leside won the coveted Most Valuable Player in a national South African youth soccer tournament when she was twelve years old, which first brought her to the attention of Deveraux selector agents. The agents were at first doubtful of her intelligence because of her just-above-average grades and lack of thinking things through, but her avid reading showed them another side of her. Leslie was asked to attend Deveraux College and accepted.

Leside was on Hannay Team during her days at the College, her best subjects being Martial Arts, Skybiking and English. After her school days, she was stationed in Region Lime and performed well. Now, though, she's considered just too old to continue in agent status, despite her protests. Part of Leside, however, really was ready for a steady, commuting job where she could actually have friends outside work, so she took the job of receptionist.