floriographies

Lapis De Fiore was born in Campobasso, Italy, to Caprice and Giulio De Fiore and with a sister 14 years her elder, Lacuna. Her younger years were peaceful, though she had a penchant for imaginary friends as she grew up - which were actually spirits she could see. The reason behind this is due to her Grandmother, Ginevra, who is actually not human - rather she's an old, old eldritch being who replaced the moon with her eye many years ago. Boredom and a desire for experimentation led her to having a son, Lapis' father, however he proved to be painfully normal - instead, supernatural abilities started to manifest in her youngest granddaughter. She was also the current head of a substantial network of supernatural information, informants and certain unsavoury individuals - this was all hidden from her very normal family. So as Lapis' powers increased in potency, more spirits were drawn to the family household and her parents found themselves at their wits end; not even the local priests were able to help, and it was rapidly putting them in danger.

As it became too much for her family and seeing the fruits of her experiment, Ginevra stepped in, offering to take care of her granddaughter and help her with these strange abilities. Her parents, unsure of what to do, were quick to pass Lapis to her; she barely has contact with her biological family after this, though her elder sister does her best to keep in contact. From there, Lapis spent the next few years home-schooled by her Grandmother, her powers making it difficult to go to an actual school - through her she mingled with many supernatural beings and entities. One important relationship established was with a man called Schwarz, who is the chosen of an old god of chaos and leader of a powerful cult; their relationship becomes sibling-like, due to similar circumstances. And through Schwarz, she meets his "totally-not-a-boyfriend" Weiss and his half-brothers, who are part of the church. In particular she has a... turbulent relationship with one of the brothers, Nacht.

As the years passed, it became clear that Lapis was being raised to follow in Ginvera's footsteps, learning the tools of the trade regarding their business and also embracing her strange abilities more and more; eventually becoming the one to deal with entities normal exorcists couldn't. Her attunement with spirits and her strong spiritual power made her ideal for dealing with more malevolent and dangerous entities; while she would always try to soothe and calm the dead, she also had the power to strike them down when needed.

Except one job she takes goes very wrong; an attempted removal of a spirit thwarted when the spirit takes the chance to possess her when she’s caught off guard. The spirit takes her body, effectively killing her for at least an hour - however, Lapis is able to take her body back, by literally tearing the spirit out of her. It wounds her greatly, to the point where she should be dead, but she manages to survive. This incident awakens some of her dormant eldritch abilities, warping her powers further and granting her a strange form of immortality.

Her grandmother does nothing to shed light on what happened, simply advising that maybe it's time she go spread her wings a little. With this nudge and wanting to leave home after her incident to put some distance between them, Lapis opts to travel across some of Europe - following the trail of Schwarz and Weiss in the meantime back to Denmark.

With contacts slowly made and having established herself once more, Lapis gets to work - soon drawing the attention of a pair of mediums, the Hale siblings Elliot and Michela. While Michela finds herself drawn to Lapis, and Lapis wanting to protect Michela due to how much power she possesses, her relationship with Elliot is... difficult. His intense jealousy over how easily she handles his powers compared to the difficulty he has makes them butt heads repeatedly - yet his desire to know more about her keeps drawing him back. While there had been the beginnings of a romantic fling, it ends poorly and now she barely tolerates the man - especially since he and Nacht are at each others throats whenever they meet.

Supernatural activity keeps steadily increasing over the next year, with Michela’s own powers growing, and Lapis becoming more and more inhuman. Ginevra hints towards something beyond humanity in their bloodline, pointing her towards certain cults that worship a "certain being" that may bring about the reset of the world and is the cause in the spike of supernatural occurrences.

🌙 Lapis, on first meetings, comes across as someone cold and aloof. She rarely expresses herself, appearing eerily calm and almost serene even in dangerous or frightening situations. And when she speaks, her tone is calm and even, rarely letting slip of how she actually feels - which at times can rub others the wrong way, especially with how blunt she is. She has a habit of being coldly short on first meetings, especially if she's working, and seems to have little consideration for what anyone else says.

🌙 The truth it, she actually feels and cares a lot. Having always possessed a difficulty with expressing herself, it only became harder as she grew up and was constantly surrounded by death and the supernatural. But Lapis does care deeply for others around her, wanting to do what she can to help others, despite how terrifying her powers can be; in contrast, she has difficulty accepting help considering she's so used to being independent. Unfortunately being very socially awkward tends to make this difficult to properly show - when one is raised around ghosts and such, they don't develop the best social skills. Combine this with a tendency to have a limited filter and be very blunt, along with a deadpan sense of humour, she can lean towards tactless at times.

🌙 While she speaks softly, she isn't a meek person. Lapis is used to taking charge and making sure her voice is heard, and tends to be incredibly stubborn. Lapis is very much a 'her way or the high way' type of person, though she knows when to fold if it will later benefit her. This usually results into her pulling people into her schemes and ideas, possessing a centered confidence in herself that makes it hard for her to waver. Even in the face of great dangers, horrendous injuries or terrifying monstrosities, she won't waver - being around death and such all her life has made her basically fearless to an extreme degree. Why should she fear them when it's all she's ever known?

🌙 Lapis tends to be incredibly calm, almost frighteningly so, and can keep a level head even in more stressful scenarios; though she's able to be a grounding force for those more anxious than her. Though she won't hesitate to put her foot down if she feels someone is pushing her limits, and she doesn't tend to spare much patience for people trying to be difficult - how she handles her on-and-off partner, Nacht, is an example of this. He's a deliberately difficult man, but she doesn't hesitate to reign him in and chew him out (though it tends to be ineffective). And her anger is a fearsome thing when truly provoked. She has learned to never forgive and forget, and to always get back at someone no matter what - which can lead to her holding onto grudges for a long time.

🌙 Despite caring greatly for others, Lapis also has a very shaky grasp on morality. Lapis has been raised by a criminal, has been surrounded by the more unsavoury types all her life and so isn't one to really care about laws and such. It does allow her to approach everyone with an open mind, caring little if they have committed crimes before, but it also means she will play dirty or do whatever it takes to accomplish her goals. It doesn't help that she does have a slight sadistic streak, as she won't hesitate to mess with and hurt someone who has wronged her. And she is capable of great cruelty if pushed enough, but luckily it takes a lot for her to reach that point.

🌙 When someone does manage to get Lapis to open up, she reveals herself to be someone lonely who deeply cares about the few people close to her. She expresses her emotions with much more ease, and is more in tune with how the people she cares about feels - always quick to do her best to comfort them if they seem upset or provide support if needed. This is also when she reveals she has a more mischievous, playful sense of humour and can lean into teasing when she feels comfortable enough. And while she tends to have issues showing her feelings, she is very aware of them, and she's the sort of person who will confess that she cares about someone with very little hesitation.

Lapis De Fiore was born in Italy to a very normal family, and with a sister a few years her senior. Her childhood was very much normal and average, besides the slight issue that Lapis had always been able to see things other shouldn't. Shadowy shapes lingering in corners, faded figures in the distance, something looking at her from the dark... Her parents said it was all an overactive imagination, and her sister would frequently tell Lapis to stop scaring her with stories like that. Not that it stopped her from mentioning it.

Especially as the sightings increased in frequency as she got older. There was one in particular, something long and lanky and unnatural that put Lapis on edge. But despite trying to alert her parents and sister, they only told her to stop trying to play trick on them. So she did her best to research this... thing, to figure out what it was and to try to drive it away; it always kept its distance, but over time it crept closer and closer. But she was still a child, and there's only so much a child can do.

But she's still able to do something. When it finally makes to strike Lapis is able to protect her sister, who is able to see the figure for the first time, as it invades their home to kill them. Lapis is only thirteen years old when she is killed - and this death awakens both her old memories and powers, reviving her and allowing her to strike back. She doesn't really remember much of what happened after that, especially as blood loss caught up with her. What had happened is that a member of the Black Order had been tracking this creature as well, but arrived a little too late to a mortally wounded but still alive girl and the butchered remains of the creature that escaped from the Spirit Realm. As well as her very traumatised family.

Lapis is brought into the Black Order quickly after that incident, and she's been with them ever since. Her powers and her eerie ability to suppress her feelings makes her perfect for more brutal or unpleasant missions, especially those of a supernatural kind. And while she very much doesn't agree with how they do things, she feels as if she has nowhere else to go. So she obeys and twists the rules in ways that won't get her in trouble, does her best to protect the other Guardians when she can and doesn't let herself think of her family - both in this life, and her previous.

Considering the usual content of her missions, being assigned to Kaisou is more of a break than anything else.