Name: Leah McCormick
Nickname: Mac, Ace/Lace (Not anymore)
Age: 26

Member of House Ashby: Yes.
History with Archer: Not long, just joining the Ashby household now.
Theme song: Against the Current - Weapon, Saint Chaos - Kick
Faceclaim: Cintia Dicker

Supernatural Abnormality: Hunter (Ex-Possessed by a Demon) - This is all Leah will admit to, but she is clearly more, and that more is Lycan.

Abilities:
・Master of Weapons: Handguns, rifles, knives, swords, crossbows… You name it, Leah has probably held and trained in it, so long as it has practical use against those she hunts. She favors handguns, Scottish dirks, and stiletto daggers and is especially a force to be reckoned with with those three weapons.

・Combat Prowess: Even when disarmed, Leah is highly trained in various types of hand-to-hand combat. Hand-to-fangs and hand-to-claws combat too, of course. She can keep herself out of harm's way while laying down some serious hurt as well. (Fun fact: Most supernatural beings have kneecaps. Hope you're not fond of yours.) She'll tire quicker than supernatural beings, of course, but she just needs to be able to hold out till backup arrives and has proven to possess a superb natural talent for fighting in general. Even older, more trained Hunters can't entirely block or dodge her; she is swift, focused, and hits deceptively hard. She doesn't flinch or hesitate at pain, surprise attacks, or feints, making her seem almost unstoppable when she's in the zone and going up against fellow humans or hunters.

・Supernatural Investigation and Survival: For all their sneaky ways to hide, the Hunters have found and trained their numbers in ways to detect the presence of supernatural beings, whether it be marks left behind on the scene or the bodies, or the distinct lack of evidence. They have tools to aid them in this, none of which Leah has access to anymore, of course. It also makes them great trackers and survivalists in general.

・Supernatural Senses, Strength, Speed, and Resilience: Thanks to her bloodline, Leah has always been just a little bit faster, a little bit stronger, a little bit sturdier. Her family's blessing seems to be strong in her, though she's the first in many generations to present such strong gifts. After her transformation, all of these now match her supernatural peers, with a few additions. Assuming she's kept well-fed and healthy, she recovers faster, resists poisons and illnesses better, and generally has a high metabolism.

・Wolf Transformation: While Leah considers it a curse and loathes the ability to do so, she can transform into an enormous red wolf. Shifting between human and wolf is immensely painful, though it does help heal most injuries sustained in either form.

Weakness:
・Unstable: Currently, Leah is a hot mess. Her emotions are all over the place, and few of them are positive. Guilt. Anger. Bitterness. Regret. Self-loathing. Resentment. Shame. Indignity. It's a long list. She has violent mood swings, but most of them are between being depressed and putting herself down to sudden outbursts of fury and aggression. She picks fights, she demeans others, and mirrors rarely survive long in her presence.

・Prejudiced and Arrogant: Her entire life, Leah has both proven and been told that she is better than her peers. It's hard to tell how much of her current arrogance is the result of her circumstances, and how much was fostered by the demon, but regardless, even in her current state it lurks beneath the surface and dictates a lot of her thoughts and regards toward others. This is especially bad when it comes to the supernatural, whom she has been trained to never trust, to kill if given any excuse to, and to generally treat as beings that are little more than a threat to human society as a whole. Combine this with the fact that she's already prone to lashing out at anyone and everyone, the amount of venom and spite she can spew is almost impressive. It also leads her to underestimate those around her, especially when she flies into a blind rage.

・Communication: Not that kind. Okay, that too, but this is mainly about Leah's inability to speak while transformed. Since her vocal cords are drastically different, she is unable to speak the way humans would when in wolf form. Whether she growls more as a human or as a wolf is anyone's guess. Bets are open, and currently, the odds are her human self is in the lead.

・Young and Inexperienced: While Leah is a formidable Hunter in her own right, she is young by many standards within the supernatural community and lacks the experience that comes with age. Once you're in a fight, there's no one better to have on your side, but she's not good at preventing said fights, predicting ambushes, determining when to retreat and when to push on, etc. In short, while she's a great soldier, she lacks the experience of a commander, leader, or strategist. Her capabilities are heavily limited when brute force isn't the answer and she doesn't always have the insights necessary to realize this.

・Moonbound: The ebb and flow of Leah's powers follow the phases of the moon. She is at her strongest around the full moon and weakest around the new moon, though her self-control is directly opposite of this.

・Silver: This includes anything that contains silver, though small concentrations of silver will result in less concentration, the less damage it will cause. Even lesser damage from silver will get the job done in the end, however, as silver-inflicted wounds don't heal by transforming. The wounds have to either heal slowly on their own and leave silverish scars, or they need to be cleansed thoroughly and all traces of silver removed.

・Still a Pup: Leah has yet to learn how to fight in her wolf form. This does not mean she isn't dangerous - she hasn't learned enough control to suppress the animalistic instincts that more or less take over, but it is something she will have to learn in the future if she wishes to utilize her wolf to the fullest. Or not, to her detriment. She also cannot easily tell ally from foe in wolf form when her transformation is triggered by anger or a rush of adrenaline. Which, since most of them are, happens a lot.

・Unpopular: Due to the deaths on both sides, Leah is at odds with both the Hunters and the local NOLA Pack. Her presence at meetings with either might end up making things worse, though there is some semblance of civility from the Hunters' side.

Physical Description:
Standing at a tallish height of 5'8", Leah is lithe but toned from her many years of training with the Hunters. Primed for swift, precise movements, she's more lean than muscular and has more of a runner's build. Her hair is long, wavy, very eye-catching with its red hue, and usually tied up and out of the way in some way or other. Freckles finely dust the pale skin of her body, though they are more apparent on her face. She likes to emphasize her light blue eyes with light makeup, but mostly sticks to a natural look.

While with the hunters, she would usually be seen either in gym clothes or the combat gear donned by most members, with only the rare casual outfit thrown in the mix when she absolutely had to, needed to blend in with a human crowd. Now, her tactical gear has been confiscated and she's left with just her sportswear and the casual clothing she hardly gave thought to before. On very, very rare occasions, such as after a long and successful mission, she will dress up to go out and she can look quite fetching if she puts in the effort. That being said, she owns no formal wear and doesn't plan to, finding it overpriced, suffocating, and believing it'll just get ruined in an eventual fight anyway.

Most of her clothes are black, white, black and white, or black with a few other accent colors, and matched with a leather jacket. Overall, the armor and gear she wore before was made for stealth and the palette of her wardrobe seems to match.

Distinguishing Features: Freckles, several tattoos. One of the infinity symbol for her ambition, others with symbolic designs the Hunters believe to ward off evil (for all the good it did her). These are on her arms and back, mostly.

Personality Description:
The Leah now is nothing like the Leah of a few months back. Both of them are arrogant, prejudiced, and cocky, but where it used to reach the very core of her being, her previously impenetrable self-assurance has begun to crack. The incident that got her brothers and sisters-in-arms killed and changed her to one of them has thrown the ambitious young woman from the top of the world to the deepest pits of hell. At least, that's how it feels to her, and she struggles to manage any empathy and sympathy at the moment.

Having always been a terrible liar, Leah is, for better or worse, a very easy-to-read and sincere person. This is fine if you're her friend or colleague, but it has not made her current situation easy and will likely continue to cause many problems. If you are of the supernatural community, however, this has always been something that drew out her scorn, spite, and animosity, and she was absolutely sincere about those too. Things are less black and white now, though she refuses to acknowledge it and is very much in denial about her new identity. Having lost her place in the world and all of her close friends and family, the current Leah is very much stuck in a woe-is-me rut that she is struggling to break out of. Constantly going back and forth between dark hopelessness and bitter rage, she has become extremely short-fused, abrasive, and is constantly lashing out - not exactly pleasant company.

Despite her bad traits, this is a stark contrast to who she was before. Leah was arrogant and cocky, yes, but only in very specific situations and when prompted to be, either through challenges from her peers or the missions assigned to her. The rest of the time, she was a fun-loving thrill seeker who laughed easily and made others laugh. Someone you could always rely on to have your back, who valued her friends and fellow Hunters above all else. Honest and kind, she might give hard-to-swallow advice and tough love, but she would always be right by your side to see you through.

Any other information you would like to share: TBD.

Likes: Honesty, honor, fast cars and motorcycles - especially her (now destroyed) Ducati Panigale, sports - anything that gets the blood pumping and adrenaline rushing (MMA, motocross, parkour, bouldering, cliff diving, skydiving, etc.), meditation (though she hasn't managed lately), sweets.

Dislikes: The supernatural (demons in particular), dishonesty, disloyalty, lack of goals and ambition, sexism, red tape and bureaucracy, inefficiency, pranks, pettiness, overbearing and aggressive people (yes, the irony is strong in this one), golf and other 'dull' sports, strong smells, coriander, lemons, and raw onions.

History:

To this day, Leah has no idea when the possession happened.

One day, she was on track to one day aim for a seat on the High Assembly. The next, she was the greatest failure in recent Hunter history. Many even claim it to be worse than losing a Montague to the vampires, for the sheer amount of losses and the involvement of a demon. That the latter was a shared failing seems to be something everyone could agree to overlook, however, because the blame was placed squarely on the young woman who had 'let the demon in.'

Like the Montagues, the McCormick family have produced hunters for several generations, but they have always been less prominent and successful, their blessed bloodline thinner and their skills simply not up to par. This all changed when Leah was born and started showing incredible talents, so much so that many wondered if she would eventually manifest extra abilities. Seen as the biggest hope of her generation in the South Branch, she was trained in New Mexico and sometimes sent to train under other skilled individuals outside of the school as well. She was pushed harder and put to work quicker than her peers, but not only did she overcome all challenges, she thrived on them, an unstoppable force. It was obvious to anyone that she was born to be a Hunter.

Perhaps this is why no one noticed the insidiously slow change in her demeanor.

Leah had always taken pride in her achievements and had a bit of an attitude, but this grew worse and worse, the little voice in her head almost indiscernible from her own. With incredible patience and cunning, the demon built up her flaws and waited for the moment it could cause the most chaos and damage to the organization. Slowly, she became more cocky, more reckless, driven to the point where it could lure her over the edge at any point. Many of her later cases caught attention for unnecessary use of force, for a lack of attempts to solve things peacefully before engaging in physical altercations with the involved supernaturals. Yet for all their supposed growth of the years, sympathy for the supernatural community is still low on the Hunters' priorities most of the time, and those who raised concerns were in the minority.

The day everything came to a head was no different. Ignoring suggestions to back off and plan, Leah led a small group of Hunters into what turned into absolute carnage. Her bike totalled, Leah herself gravely wounded - and three dead, her best friend and a veteran Hunter among them. The supernatural being they fought died as well, cursing them all. Had she not provoked him and started combat in a tactically unsound moment and environment, no one would have died that day. This knowledge will stay with her till the day Leah dies, along with the sinister, raucous laughter that rang out in her head as she lay bleeding out on the ground.

That was the first and only time the demon ever revealed itself. Though much chaos followed, Leah was eventually brought in for a hearing, still heavily sedated. Initially, all blame was put on her, but while it was shameful to admit, she did mention the voice. It took convincing, but she was later proven to have been possessed and cleansed even if the demon seemed long gone by then. This only changed things marginally, however, because now she was a failure for allowing her possession, never mind the many elite Hunters around her who also didn't pick up on it.

With growing resentment building on both sides, Leah was 'sequestered' in 'private quarters' for a while, aggravating her curse and destroying any semblance of trust and camaraderie left between her and her chosen family. At the suggestion of one of the Montagues, contact was made with Archer Ashby, and Leah, begrudgingly, accepted being put in his and Victoria Montague's care for 'the moment.'

---

---