G055 - Van Kamp, Leona[/DECEASED]

[Rattlesnake]

DECEASED


Name: Leona Van Kamp
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School:Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: magic, sleight-of-hand, woodworking

Appearance: Leona has a willowy figure at 5'9, 130 pounds. She's Caucasian, but even for a Caucasian she has pale skin. Her slender figure might be indicative of some form of exercise; indeed, while she barely dances anymore, she still retains the build for it. She has an angular face and a longer, somewhat pointed nose. Her cheekbones, while not prominent, do have some definition. She has long, dirty blonde hair that more often than not she keeps tied in a loose ponytail that reaches the middle of her back.  Her teeth and straight, white, and even from years of expensive dental work. While sporting a slightly below-average bust size, Leona has been known to emphasize her own cleavage with push-up bras, especially when doing shows, for the sake of misdirection, as she calls it.

Her wardrobe, while not extravagant, shows that she has some fashion sense. She favors slacks over jeans, button-down shirts and blouses over simpler t-shirts and expensive shoes, usually the Gucci brand, all in darker blues and grays. However, one piece of her clothing seems to be an almost constant, regardless of the weather; a brown tweed overcoat reaching to her knees with slightly baggy sleeves. Sewn into the left lapel of the coat is "M.M." in sweeping cursive. She's rarely without a standard deck of playing cards stored in either sleeve.

On the day of the abduction, Leona was wearing a white peasant blouse with ruffled collar, dark and tightly fitted black slacks, simple black leather shoes and of course, her trademark overcoat.

Biography: Born into a fairly affluent family to Francis Van Kamp, an entrepreneur and owner of the V.K's clothing store franchise, and his wife Mona, Leona has had a life that was never without the things she wanted or needed. Leona is fortunate in many ways; she's an only child, so she's had privileges provided solely to her by her parents. Her father is a self-made man, however, and so he expected his daughter to have the same motivation. How Leona turned out was determined more by her grandfather than either of her two parents.

Leona's grandfather, Maarten Van Kamp, was a child who immigrated to the United States with his family in the early half of the century. As he grew up in New York, a friend of the family that also moved with them got the boy interested in the art of illusion and magic. As he grew older, Maarten showed a certain adeptness for the art. He had enough skill that eventually he started becoming a full-time, professional illusionist by the stage name of "The Magnificent Martin", choosing to Anglicize his name so as to be more palatable for the American public. He continued this profession even as he started his own family.

From an early age, Leona was put into ballet, both as a constructive activity and as a character-building exercise.  Ballet was something she didn't take to, but liked, especially because she met her best friend Rebecca during dance class. While she had some affinity and enjoyment for dancing, Leona was spoiled by the first time she was babysat by grandfather Maarten. When her father and mother were working and she stayed with him, he would regale her with stories of his magic shows, even show her some of his tricks. She was enamored with her grandfather, and she even showed some of the same skill for illusion as he did.

Unfortunately, Leona's grandfather died when she was ten of heart complications. His house and most of his belongings were sold or donated to charities by the Van Kamps, except for a chest that he kept in his basement. Within the chest were relics of his life as a magician; illusion construction plans, cards, old costumes. It was a chest he often dipped into to punctuate his stories of his old life, and Leona knew that. Inside the chest was also an overcoat that Maarten used to wear as part of his stage getup. She pushed her father until he relented and let her keep the chest.

In honor of Maarten, from then on Leona tried her best to get better at becoming an illusionist. Using what she could learn from the internet, what she learned from Maarten, and lots of practice, she slowly got better at prestidigitation and magic. She started with card tricks and moved up to attempting things like escape artist tricks and disappearing acts in secret as early as 11. In order to help her efforts to build some of the more elaborate tricks, Leona talked her mother into letting her take carpentry classes offered at a local hardware store when she turned 13. Her parents thought it was an odd hobby to suddenly develop but indulged her anyway, figuring she might be able to make use of it later. The Van Kamps saw no reason to quell any of this, as Leona was a model, if only slightly above average student. At the same time as all of this, Leona scaled back on doing ballet because her new hobbies took up most of her time and she wasn't as interested in dance anyway.

While her parents allow Leona her hobbies, her father, at least, isn't entirely thrilled with the idea of his daughter taking after his own father.  Maarten didn't make much money from being an illusionist; part of the reason Leona's father was so motivated to get into business was a desire to not be self-employed and penniless.  He watches his daughter's hobbies with interest, in case he needs to bring a foot down and put a stop to it.

Thusly armed with a new set of skills and her grandfather's work, Leona honed her trade. Her friend Rebecca was often used in the "lovely assistant" capacity as she practiced. By the time Leona was 16, she managed to get permission to do shows for amateur night at the occasional teen-friendly club around the Seattle area. Her first few shows weren't all that successful, but as she got better, particularly with her showmanship and sleight-of-hand tricks, she started getting applause and comments. She actually managed to successfully book and do a show in a bar recently, despite the fact that her grand finale trick involving fire and Rebecca didn't go so smoothly.

She started building up her stage persona, The Great Leo, getting Maarten's overcoat retailored to fit her, and took the her hobby with gusto. Oddly enough, the persona followed her to school. She wears the coat as a normal part of her ensemble more often than not, as the sleeves allow for her to hide cards and other things for quick access. While normally a shy and reserved girl, if Leona knows she has an audience she can have a flair for the dramatic, especially if people are interested in one of her tricks.

Leona does alright in school, generally pulling a 3.0 GPA.  While her only desire is to keep doing magic once she's done with school, she has expressed an interest in getting into business.  Outwardly it's to keep her father pleased that she's doing something meaningful with her life; in actuality she sees it as something she can use to help manage her finances once her magic career really takes off.  While Leona usually only hangs out with Rebecca, she does have a few connections in the theater department.  She's toyed with the idea of trying drama, but so far hasn't made the jump into it.

Advantages: Leona's abilities with sleight-of-hand would make it easy for her to hide items on her person for later use. Her technical abilities with woodcrafting would make it possible for her to build things she might deem necessary.
Disadvantages: Leona the girl is quiet, reserved, and is more likely to be at the forefront than Leona the magician. As such, she'd have difficulties forming alliances or socializing. While a former dancer, Leona doesn't perform any sort of physical activity so lacks cardio or other physical advantages other than the flexibility still left over from when she did ballet regularly.

Designated Number: Female Student No. 055

---

Designated Weapon: Chinese Finger Trap
Conclusion: A magician, huh? I hope she's practiced well, because they say not even Houdini could escape the wrath of those little things. Well, I do at least. I should probably stop testing the weapons before we give them out... - Andrew Denning


DECEASED