Lydia Marie Kenthright
Lydia is Clarisse's niece in a future storyline. She shares Clarisse's ability to use magic (which could be problematic, since I'm not actually sure Clarisse *can* use magic. Continuity is for the weak.) Her mother is Clarisse's older sister Jean (born Jeanetta Celeste Silmarien Samuels - she had her name legally changed to Jean Samuels Kenthright when she got married), and Lydia is the youngest of two or three children. The family doesn't have much contact with Clarisse - Jean would just as soon forget about her crazy sister. They do not know about Clarisse's magic, and would not believe if they were told; Jean disapproves of Clarisse because of Clarisse's odd personality quirks and lack of a "respectable" job (Clarisse writes fantasy novels. I wonder where she gets her ideas from...). Clarisse kept an eye on the family to watch for signs that any of the children had inherited the magic ability - Lydia seems to be the only one.
Personality:
Lydia is a pretty down-to-earth, practical person. She's never been much of a person for unrealistic ideals, and people who seem to ignore reality - either because they're living in their ideal worlds, or because they're just too stupid - really annoy her. She usually speaks her mind, although not without consideration for others' feelings. She has a very low tolerance for fantasy cliches.
History:
Lydia first learned of her powers when her Aunt Clarisse invited their family to stay at her summer house for a week. Lydia's mother didn't really want to, but didn't want to offend her sister, either, so they visited Clarisse for a short time. Lydia really enjoyed her stay (partially due to a suggestive spell by Clarisse - but only partially. Lydia got kind of mad when she found out, though) and readily agreed to stay another week when Clarisse asked if she wanted to. Jean reluctantly agreed, and once the rest of the family was gone, Clarisse explained about the whole magic thing. Naturally, Lydia took quite a bit of convincing, but she eventually started getting the hang of it. She was in high school at the time, and started spending a week or two with Clarisse studying magic every summer. Jean wasn't too happy about it, but Clarisse had begun to take pains to convince her sister that she was "normal" and acceptable to society, and Clarisse and Lydia usually went on camping trips as a cover for the magic-learning. Since they both like being outdoors, and the rest of Lydia's family doesn't, Jean accepted that and allowed Lydia to spend more time with her aunt.
Physical description:
Lydia has short brown hair that she usually keeps tucked behind her ears. She wears glasses and has grey eyes. Her skin tends to freckle in the summer. She's about 5'6", average weight. (I wanted her to be shorter, but then she'd really be far too much like me in appearance.) She usually wears jeans and a t-shirt, whatever's comfortable.
Author's perspective:
Lydia was originally invented as a main character for a short comic I was writing (I'm still working on it, and hoping to get it printed in "Chotto," an independently-published comic collection that gets sold at anime conventions). I wanted to do something Spiral Dance-related, but not from the main storylines, so I invented Lydia. I'll post the comic here as I finish it.
In Due Time and Spiral Dance are (c) Hinode and hosted on Keenspace, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics. Keenspace is our friend. We love them very much.