Is it ever too late to repent? How much do you have to steal, how many do you have to kill, before you become irredeemable? Lilac Carmine wrestles with the question every day.

An criminal childhood.

Born with the surname Rabenda, Lilac was the daughter of a notorious Mistralian hunter. Her father abandoned his team and his career after learning of the rampant corruption among his employers, who facilitated drug trades and trafficking rings all over the kingdom. Not wanting their secrets revealed, the elite in Mistral sent assassins out to kill him, starting with his former allies. He bested them all in combat and went into hiding. The assassins always tracked him down eventually, and his wife was a casualty of their many raids. Still, he survived every attempt on his life and worked hard to ensure his daughter remained hidden.

On one fateful day, Lilac’s father was visited by two hired thugs: Morgan Carmine and Verna Vidkinstein. He fought with all his might, but it was not enough; Morgan put an end to the legendary hunter once and for all. They searched his hideout, looking for any information for their betters and any valuables for themselves, and that was when Morgan found Lilac. No older than two, she was terrified of the mysterious women within her home and cried out for her father. Unaware that her mission would result in creating an orphan, Morgan was struck with an unfamiliar weight on her conscience. She soothed the child, showed she meant no harm, and informed her that her father would not be coming back. Morgan took Lilac into her arms and covered her eyes as they walked back to Morgan’s camp.

After that day, Morgan treated Lilac as a daughter, training her in thievery, martial arts, and assassination. The trio of Morgan, Verna, and Lilac became known as the Carmine Gang, and they pulled various jobs together, whether that be robbing armored transport or killing rival gangs. But as the gang grew in notoriety, their operations became covert. Excursions to town became fewer and fewer, and although Lilac had always lived on the fringes of society, she longed for it more and more. The only way she figured to return to it would be to utilize her skills as a bandit for hunting, and after much convincing, she forged enough information to be admitted to Beacon.

As alert as she is unaware.

Her time within the Carmine Gang has left Lilac with a lack of social skills that teens her age would have developed by now. Jokes go over her head, and the unspoken rules of academy life constantly elude her. Folk like Pahi try their best to guide her, but they can only do so much to save her from making a fool of herself.

While she is not socially adept, she is far from naïve. Her life as a criminal assassin has taught Lilac to be distrustful of everyone she meets. It can result in a distance between Lilac and her team, as well as a hesitance to any display of affection, especially that of the romantic feelings Kari feels toward her.

A born and bred killer.

Lilac always caught on quickly to the rules of combat. She is swift and accurate, weaving and slashing between enemies with her sai. Human opponents are her specialty, as she spent her life dealing with armed thugs and police officers. Grimm pose more of a challenge, but her improvisational skills allow her to manage. Whether she is striking from the shadows or fighting in the middle of a battle, Lilac is a blessing and a terror to friends and foes, respectively.

Her semblance, Lavender Cloud, allows her bright, glowing hair to turn to smoke. While inside the smoke, Lilac can teleport within it to other instances of it. For example, if Lilac were to create a smoke cloud at point A, then move to point B and form a smoke cloud there, while within cloud B, she could teleport to cloud A.

The lonely lioness.

Even before she was born, Lilac was excluded from wider society, the daughter of a wanted man. Now, she has a reputation of her own, preventing her from ever integrating in the way she would like to. She has no idea how long this charade will hold up; how long will it be until she is kicked out of Beacon, exposed as the criminal she is?

Some days, she regrets ever coming to Beacon, ever making all these friends, all these memories, because they are destined to fade. One day, they will all find out. And she knows she will not be able to face them in anything but combat when they do.