Lise de Lys

Lise de Lys was born (x years of) the Last War in Saint Malo, France. Her childhood was defined by war and struggle, learning bomb drills, air raid drills, and what to do if you came upon an enemy soldier. Her mother, Katherine, is a high school teacher and her father, Jacques, is a chef. Jacques had gone to university to get his degree in economics before pursuing his culinary career. When the Last War ended, almost the entirety of governmental economists, and an old professor’s of Jacques’ called him to help with the rebuilding of France and a joint program with the Former United States, before he returned to being a chef. Lise’s uncle is a fisherman, and her mother’s parents own an old family winery. Because it has been passed through generations, her grandparents live in a large, manor-style home. But no one in the family is particularly well off.

Before Lise was born, her parents’ best friends were killed in a bombing in Paris, and Lise’s parents took on the care of their young son, raising him like their own. He was incredibly important in Lise’s life. Although he was considerably older, he always made an effort to be a part of her life, going so far as to take her to dance class, have tea parties and play dolls with her, and always be home for birthdays. When Lise was four, he enlisted in the International Corps as a soldier, and he was killed when she was five. It was Lise’s first direct connection to death and in many ways, defined how she coped with things. Losing the boy who had been her brother was extremely hard on her, but especially hard on Lise’s mom.

Growing up, Lise was given the nickname Lutine which has stuck through her entire life with almost everyone referring to her that way. The origin of the name, which loosely translates to elf, was because of the way her ears came to a point like an elf, paired with how much she loved to play outside in the woods behind her grandparents’ home. Many stories arose throughout her young life that she was really a changeling, a fairy child who had been switched out at birth.

Growing up, Lise’s family was incredibly close to the Aikens family. The father had immigrated from England to be with the woman he loved, a French woman. They had a son named Mackenzie, usually called Mack. Him and Lise were immediately fast friends, with him being just under a year older than her. The two of them were also quickly very close with Lina Willet, who’s mother worked on Lise’s grandparents’ vineyard. The three of them did everything together.

When the three of them were only six years old, they were playing in a playground, and a bomb detonated. Three kids were killed, Lise took some shrapnel to her stomach, and Lina was seriously injured by a piece of the merry-go-round. Although their lives had already been defined by war, this was the first time Lise truly understood the dangers going on around them.

When the war ended, Lise’s parents had another daughter, Lise’s sister Fleur. As soon as she could walk, Lise nicknamed her Caneton, which means Duckling. It was connected to the way she waddled a little when learning to walk, but was also a bit of a joke since Mack’s nickname was Canard. His little brother, born just a month after Fleur, was nicknamed Farfadet, which is a small sprite-like fairy, furthering the connection between the two families. When they were in the eigth grade, though, Mr. Aikens’ father died and he inherited the family fortune and manor, and the family moved to England to live on the estate. Mack, Lina, and Lise, tried to keep in touch as much as possible.

Lise was incredibly smart and good at school and dedicated to learning. In the third grade, her teachers requested to fast-line her through two grades in one year, moving her up into Mack’s grade, going straight from grade 3 to grade 5.

Lise grew up loving dance, specifically ballet, and belonged to an elite ballet school in northern France. She was a classically and contemporary trained ballerina who had a special talent for pointe work and duet work. Her duet partner, Mason Veret, was one of her best friends. In the eighth grade, when all students consider which high school they want to be sent to, her dance teacher and Mason convinced her to consider pursuing dance at a national dance school. She made it through the first two rounds to get into both Ballet National school in Paris and The International Ballet Training School in London. But when her acceptance letter to Mysbac came, where her cousin had gone to school, she chose the multi-disciplinary school over focusing on ballet, keeping it as an extra-curricular. She continued to dance during her time at Mysbac through the after-hours dance company run on campus. In her grade 11 year, she was paired with the studio’s new male dancer, Jamie, and the two became good friends and loved dancing together. In her grade ten year, she performed a variation of the Emerald dance from the Jewels ballet, and performed with her class in the more contemporary dance Grief. In grade eleven, she danced the Juliet variation, her contemporary duet with Jamie, and was part of the Northern Lights group dance, complete with glowing tutus. Her grade twelve year, she was supposed to do a choreographed solo to a song from Les Miserables, and a classical duet from Midsummer’s Night Dream ballet with Jamie, before she had to go away.

She had applied to go to Mysbac partly on a whim because her cousin had gone there and loved it. Lise, who is extremely smart and very good at school, felt the academics and option to take part in arts and sports, would be a way to challenge herself. Her father, who could feel some of the unrest starting to boil again, thought Vancouver Island, Canada, was one of the safest places for her to be. When she was accepted on full scholarship, she immediately accepted and when she was only 13, she moved to start grade nine at Mysbac. She was very shy at first, being a year younger than the majority of the students in her grade because of being moved up a grade when she was younger, but soon found her place, and became close friends with her roommate, Andy Norkus, and close with a boy a grade above her named Wren Taite.

#### **Grade 9**

In her first semester at Mysbac, Lise signed up for the Search Squad, another suggestion by her cousin. She was immediately hooked, and it helped her make three really close friends – Jamie Kipson, Yakob Wytt, and Wyatt Dev. On Contract Night, when all the new Searchers and their mentors go down to the Lieutenant-Governors home to sign their Search Contracts, Lise was one of only two women in the room aside from the Lieutenant-Governor herself. While all the boys wore their nice tuxes, Lise showed up in a white dress, and the Lieutenant-Governor was extremely impressed by her. She trained hard every day, getting extra training from her mentor (mentor?), and the only girl on the Sierra team at the time, Taylor North. Once she was put on a Juliette team, complete with all her friends, she had Charles Mackay and (alpha) to get her extra training every morning and many weekends. Her hard work earned her the nickname ‘The Prodigy’. (competition). In the end, she was able to challenge the Sierra tests at the end of her grade nine year, the day after her 14th birthday. Because of complications with her age and having to vote to have her challenge the tests, she did her testing slightly after the rest of the Juliettes did. When she passed, with one of the fastest times ever on the Running test, she became the youngest person ever to do so. This really reinforced her nickname of ‘The Prodigy’, and the name ended up sticking for the rest of her high school career.

The one person who really had a problem with her was a fellow Juliette named Thomas Brita. While a lot of sexism was present across Search Squad globally, it was actually not too bad usually at Mysbac. But Thomas really didn’t like Lise being there, specifically accusing her of diverting attention away from the rest of the Searchers. He often tried to beat her in training, but was often left feeling humiliated when he lost. One of those most prominent times was when they first ran the obstacle course, and he threw up and passed out, having to be taken to the Hospital Wing. Lise went to the Hospital Wing to see how he was doing, assure him it could have happened to anyone, but he was only mad at her. From there, their hatred for each other grew, Thomas’ ambition and sexism constantly getting in the way of any contact with Lise. They were placed on separate Juliette teams, to minimize their contact with each other.

That summer, she worked for her uncle helping to haul fishing nets, and for her grandfather working in the stock and barrel room. For her, it was also a way of staying fit while away from Search training.

#### **Grade 10**

Lise went back two weeks early when starting her grade ten year, because the Sierra team starts early for training. She was put on Sierra-4, under Joey as her Uniform, along with () as her Echo, and () as her fellow Mike. () did not like having a girl on the Squad at all, let alone on his team with him, and it caused a lot of tension between him and Lise, who already had to demand respect as one of less than 20 female Searchers around the world. They started her off on a lower team to give her time and space to get used to all the work and different activities that go into being a Sierra Searcher (best example being Ground Sweeps). On her first ever ground sweep during training, a man showed up on campus and tried to take her out, but her instincts kicked in and she got him pinned on the ground. When they took the man back to the Search Shack, her and Taylor saw the very first woman Forces officer they had ever seen. That same day, Miss Dally, the new Papa arrived, who was the first woman Papa the world had ever seen. Lise and Taylor felt extremely lucky to have her as their Papa, being the only Squad with two girls on it, including the first girl to be Yankee.

After the man had been found, some of the boys took Lise back to her room where they explained Thegowbarbine, and what it meant that it was showing up again. That night, she was ‘kidnapped’ from her bed by members of the Squad, and taken to the initiation bonfire.

During move in, Lise was put on check in duty, and helped with some of the ground sweeps. After the welcome ceremony, when the Searchers were given some well-earned rest, they all went down to the water where Lise planned to sit and read, but the boys tossed her in with them. When she tried to pull herself out onto the dock, she ripped her thighs open on the mussels and barnacles on the