MEDICI, Leonora Elisabet

[Leonora Elisabet Medici]

LEONORA ELISABET MEDICI

FULL NAME: Leonora Elisabet Medici
NICKNAMES: Leo (Preferred Name)
AGE: 32
GENDER: Female
SEXUALITY: Bisexual
STATUS: Single
GROUP: Citizen
GRADE: N/A
MAJOR: Bachelor of Science in Journalism & Political Science from Yale
JOB OCCUPATION: War Correspondent for CNN

HAIR: Auburn curls that hang past her shoulders. She usually doesn’t let it get much farther than that since it tends to get in her way, but she will typically have it pulled back in a braid or bun for work.
EYES: Light Green
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: A jagged line on her right thigh from a piece of stray shrapnel during her first assignment out of school; a bullet hole wound on her left upper arm that is still pretty fresh but is scarring slowly.
TATTOOS: “Grit & Grace” written in calligraphy beneath her right breast; a paper airplane on the insole of her left foot with the phrase “Veni, Vidi, Vici” written in an all caps typewriter font.
PIERCINGS: Ears, twice.
PLAY-BY: Miss Sarah Drew!

LIKES: American coffee, a fresh notebook, smooth pens, minimalism, clean sheets, fresh linen scented candles, Italian operas, European history, ancient ruins, Broadway musicals, the color grey, blown out hair, neat braids, Chinese food, seafood, Dark Chocolate Gelato, audio books, nonfiction books, documentaries, the History Channel, period movies/TV shows, journaling, travelling, local cafes, Alexander Hamilton, yoga, meditation, nature.
DISLIKES: Pushy vegans, new combat boots, Mexican food, heavy makeup, milk chocolate, sugary fluff coffee drinks, country music, strawberries, tourist traps, riding in army vehicles, breaking in new shoes, people with no firm opinions, vanilla, too-sweet scented candles.
FEARS: Living a boring life; catching a foreign disease while abroad; having children of her own.
SECRETS: She hasn’t told her parents about her latest bullet wound and isn’t planning to until she absolutely has to.
PERSONALITY: Leo is a woman who is not afraid of being unapologetic. She does not take time to worry about what people think but spends her life living how she wants to. She is fearless and takes pride in the fact that she is one of the few females in her career field, one that is notoriously dangerous and has earned her a pair of scars to prove it. Leo has a bad habit of being impulsive and often finds herself in sticky situations since she usually acts before weighing the consequences of decisions. She is extremely intelligent and graduated in the top percentile of her class from Yale, possessing a great vocabulary and wealth of random facts that she loves to continuously improve. She has a habit of being too nosy, which she really just considers her journalism side coming out but can often lead her to asking questions she probably shouldn’t have. She is very adventurous and lives for new travelling across the world, whether it be hiking the Rockies or shopping in the streets of Paris. With that, she doesn’t like to be too tied down and often spends a lot of her life running from one job to the next, making her a bit unpredictable. However, she still comes home to New York and has a kind heart that makes her willing to bring candies abroad to give out to the children of war-ravaged villages she reports in for work.

MOTHER: Desi (Desdemona) Christine Medici & 62.
FATHER: Patrick Zander McCallum & 63.
SIBLINGS: N/A
OTHERS: N/A
PETS: Two adult tabby cats, Torta (Female) and Cosimo (Male). She adopted them from a local shelter right after college.
HOMETOWN: Born in Florence, Italy; Raised in Boston, MA.
HISTORY:
Desi and Patrick met in Florence during their graduate school years, both studying at the same university in the heart of the beautiful city. Surrounded by ancient artwork and history, their shared passion for learning brought them together and acted as the foundation of a love that was bound to change their lives. He fell for her unsubdued personality that was full of humor and light; she fell for his strange red hair and charming laugh that was unlike any of the dark features she’d been raised around her whole life. Their love burned brightly and resulted in an unexpected pregnancy that led to a quick elopement and wedding. They moved into a cramped apartment near Santo Spirito, focusing on finishing their schooling and bringing their daughter into the word. They were in love with Florence and each other, and it was only natural that they would honor the city by naming their daughter after it.

Leonora was named for the respected Duchessa of Florence, an inspiration of her mother and one of the most influential women of the founding of the city. Her parents hoped their daughter would inherit the strength and beauty of the famous Duchess, ensuring that their love of art and history was passed down to Leo. One of her first memories is of Palazza Vecchio, touring the apartments of her namesake and listening to her parents gush about the meanings behind the customized art pieces around them that honored the power of the Grand Duchess.

The little family remained in Florence until Leo turned three when Patrick declared that he wanted a true American education for his daughter and to be closer to his family now that she was getting older. Desi was reluctant to leave her home country, but she wanted the best opportunities for Leo and agreed to move back to Massachusetts, his hometown. She and Patrick both got jobs at the local college as art professors where they flourished with their extensive knowledge of European history. They lived in a cramped little house that barely left room to breathe, but it was perfect for them. They were by no means rich, yet they were happy together and that was all they cared about.

Leo grew up constantly surrounded by artwork, both made by her parents and by the famous artists they so admired. Their house was filled with paintings and sculptures and she quickly fell in love with the history behind each one, following in her parents’ footsteps from the time she could understand. She spent many hours in the college campus studio with her mother, playing in clay and paints to her heart’s content. It was a passion that continued throughout her upbringing, but Leo never fell completely in love with the creative side behind the art. Her mind was much more enraptured by the history aspect and she quickly fell into reading anything she could get her fingers on in order to learn more.

In high school, Leo was always a bookworm. She liked to write papers and read books that most students considered dull; she reveled in the dry documentaries that showed medieval wars and Renaissance paintings. That quickly turned into a love of foreign affairs, something that sparked her mind and fascinated her beyond any painting could. She loved analyzing the causes of world war or theorizing about why the rulers made treaties that ended up being the ruin of their lands; it was hard to get her to stop talking about her newest book once she started.

When she took her typical career projection quiz during junior year, she was surprised to see the words “War Correspondent” pop up as one of her top results. However, after looking into it, she could not have picked a better path for herself. She loved the uncertainty of it and relished the opportunity to help record history as it happened in her generation. While it wasn’t the artistic path her mother had sincerely hoped for, it made Leo happy and helped her write a killer scholarship essay for Yale that won her a full-ride into their journalism program.

She studied hard in college, working endlessly to keep her grades up in order to maintain her scholarship status. It never really felt like work for Leo; she loved picking her professors’ brains and getting their feedback on her work to keep improving it. She wrote for the Yale Daily News and had a few articles published online as she tried her best to break into the journalism world and kickstart her career. She wasn’t much of a party girl in college but did rush a sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, where she found most of her friendships. She lived in the chapter house for three years and served as both a Marketing Director and Vice President of Scholarship. It was a large part of her college life and made her into a better leader, all of which she was very thankful for.

Four years came and went and she graduated near the top of her class with a few job offers flying her way. It was a huge decision and one that Leo spent many nights debating over until her dad finally made her flip a coin which landed her at a desk in the CNN office, working under the head correspondent for the war in Afghanistan. She moved to New York for her job, leaving behind her family but staying relatively close-by just in case.

Leo lived and breathed her job in CNN, climbing the ladder and paying her dues as she was given more and more opportunities to succeed. She travelled endlessly, spending more time abroad than in her own apartment, and took on each obstacle thrown her way. It took a few years, but she was finally allowed her own spotlight and found herself taking over the position of her supervisor as he moved on to another beat. It meant more travel and more long hours in even more dangerous locations, but Leo welcomed the challenge. She was just excited to be writing history as it occurred. These trips earned her the scars that are now constant reminders of her job. On one of her first missions out, there was a bomb that exploded while she and the soldiers were out doing a call on a local town. A piece of shrapnel caught her in the leg, tearing through her pants and sticking right into her thigh. The second one, and most recent, resulted in a surprise raid on their transport vehicle as she and the team returned to base. They were caught off guard by some insurgents and, before she knew it, there was a bullet in her arm and she was waking up at the base hospital wrapped in bandages.

Her job was hard but it was so impossibly important, and Leo knew that. These were the stories that needed to be shared with the world so they could see what was happening behind the politics clouding society. Her favorite part of being in the thick of things was sneaking in candies for the children; they would always ask when they saw the soldiers or Americans, and she was only too happy to oblige them by keeping her combat jacket fully stocked. Those were the moments that made her bullet wounds completely worth it.

Travelling has been her life and it hasn’t left her much time to set up roots, but she’s impossibly happy with her life. Leo loves the adventures she gets to go on and it isn’t uncommon to find her at coffee shops typing up the latest brief for the news or website. She’s just trying to make it in New York, like everyone else, but with a few more dangerous situations along the way.

YOUR ALIAS: Emma!
RULE WORDS: These belong to Cali!
WHERE YOU FOUND US: Somewhere in the music of the night.
SAMPLE:

Check Zoe or Bella or Greyson or Loretta or Madelyn!

[Cali]