DI (Lady) Ebony LeBrun
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Nicknames/Alias: Known professionally as DI LeBrun; sometimes introduces herself as Ebony Clifford when going undercover. Addressed as 'Lady LeBrun' by members of the upper class.
Gender: Mare
Species: Unicorn
Mane: Short, wild, and curly; hangs just above her eyes and curls around her neck. It's a deep chocolate brown.
Tail: Long, layered, and textured; maintained just for ease of movement and considered an inconvenience.
Eyes: An indeterminate color that is a mix of blue, green, and gold. Can be described as blue-grey, verdigris, blue, grey, or any mixture therein, depending on the lighting and whether or not she's wearing her scarf. It is a mild case of heterochromia iridum.
Body: Too thin to be considered healthy. Her fur is medium-grey that fades to dark grey at her hooves. Her looks are considered exotically and unconventionally beautiful, which she often uses to her advantage when weeding information out of a suspect. It's often cloaked in the ever-present and mysterious (not to mention
extremely expensive) trench coat and one of various navy scarves that hide her hardly-fed body.
Cutie Mark: A magnifying glass crossed over a case-file.
Age (Baby,adult): Mid-thirties
Personality: Despite being rather good at what she does, her colleagues tend to leave her alone due to her rather snappy approach at everything. Perpetual boredom is etched onto her face unless an interesting (and often grisly) case pops up. Then she's like a hurricane, flying around with glee and giggling at the worst of times. It's only when she's working on said interesting cases that it proves to be safe to interact with the mare, because it's only then that she's truly happy. Ebony tends to work well with a small group of trusted ponies rather than an entire force. Her weaknesses are a need for everything to be clever, a rather bad case of high hubris, and a tendency to avoid social interactions at all costs.
Orientation: Asexual ("I just wanted to let you know that I consider myself married to my work...")
Likes: Tea (but only if it's made correctly; she's very particular), thrilling cases, classical music, playing the violin, chasing down criminals, arresting said criminals, and showing off.
Dislikes: Ponies she deems boring (often everypony), being bored, social interaction, not solving a case, bad tea, eating, sleeping, and being out-witted.
History:
Ebony LeBrun was born into a posh Prench family living in the most extravagant part of Canterlot that had ever existed. She was raised in a large and superfluous manor alongside her elder brother, Sherrinford LeBrun, who was seven years her senior and therefore rather detached. Living in isolation for the beginning of their lives led Ebony and Zefarin to believe that Zefarin (who absolutely refuses to answer to anything other than his given name or M. LeBrun) was smart and Ebony was stupid. It was only when they began to interact with other fillies and colts that they realized that either the rest of the world was stupid or the two of them were far more intelligent than they had originally believed. After the following fiasco involving the tears of quite a few foals, the two retreated back to their home and conceded that the other sibling's company was by far the better choice.
The summer after Ebony's eighth birthday proved to be the catalyst that would put her on the path to becoming a Detective Inspector, rather than pursuing a career more appropriate for someone of her social standing (boring!). A young colt at the Junior Equestria National Swimming Chamionship had a sort of fit in the water and drowned. The police and Royal Guard had ruled the poor foal's death an accident, but Ebony hadn't been too sure about it. The circumstances were just too odd. A little bit of sneaking about revealed that all of the colt's possessions had remained in his locker, save his prized horseshoes. When she voiced this point to the police, they brushed her off, but not before she had made absolutely sure that she was right. Despite not having any effect at all on the closed investigation, the realization that she had been able to spot a crucial clue led to the cutie mark that manifested itself on the side of her flank.
Unfortunately, getting a cutie mark fairly earlier than her classmates did little to boost her popularity. The incident with her brother only a few years earlier did nothing to help her cause, especially since she had managed to drive off any interested parties with her sharp tongue and affinity for picking apart a pony's life and exposing their secrets with little more than a glance and a few words. The fillies and colts learned to avoid Ebony, which was fine by her standards. Less distractions meant that she had more concentration when focusing on crushing her classmates with her fantastic grades and occasionally correcting the teacher. This accumulated a hatred that, combined with her thin and reedy figure, made her a prime target for bullying. She took the verbal abuse in stride, blocking it out, and on occasion, retorting with a witty deduction of her own that often sent the bullies sputtering and retreating. It was only when she showed up at home one day with a patch of bruises along her side from a particularly vicious group of fillies that Zefarin saw fit to put an end to his sister's torture. She never figured out how he did it, but no one ever bothered her again, aside from the occasional "freak" in the hallway as she passed by.
It was only when Zefarin left for university that Ebony realized that she needed to do something useful, rather than lazing around and occasionally blowing the kitchen up. Chemistry had always been a favorite subject of hers, as shown through her affinity to composing various (and often toxic) experiments around their largely empty home. The LeBrun parents were often away, leaving Ebony to herself and the very much intimidated crew of staff. With so much free time on her hooves, it was up to the mysterious unicorn to entertain herself, which involved "playing" violin at ungodly hours in the morning and complaining of boredom when her caretaker declared that she had enough of the experiments and had confiscated Ebony's chemistry set.
While Ebony was finishing high school, Zefarin had graduated from university early and had made his way into the government. The manipulative elder LeBrun worked his way up the ladder, weaving his way into the government to a point that when Ebony graduated, the "minor government official" was anything but. Ebony couldn't care less. Years at university flew by quickly with unrestricted access to the lab and its supplies, and she was a graduate chemist in no time. Zefarin's disapproval manifested when she immediately joined the police force, but he did nothing to stop her when he saw that she was the happiest that she had ever been while working on a case. As the years had passed, she hadn't noticed herself turn from a twig-like, awkward little filly into an admittedly thin but beautiful young mare. Then again, it did very little to improve her social standing, especially when interested stallions ran when she opened her mouth. It, of course, bothered her as much as it had when she was a foal. Quickly, she worked her way up the pecking order at Scoltland Yard, only stopping at Detective Inspector because she saw no reason to continue when she had everything she needed in the homicide department of the only place where she truly felt at home. Of course, that didn't stop her from interfering when other interesting cases popped up in other divisions, but the other DIs learned to roll with it when she let them take the credit for solving cases that would have remained mysteries for far longer than they did without her help.
Despite being in such a place, the memory of the champion swimmer's case still rests heavily on her mind in lulls of interesting cases, and though it resides somewhere in the very back of the heavily organized palace that is her mind, it still makes her wonder if she'll ever get the chance to prove that it was, indeed, murder of the highest degree.
Currently, Ebony lives in a flat in central Canterlot, leaving the LeBrun manor to her increasingly intolerable elder brother and his interfering nature. The number of friends on her list remains at a comfortable zero, while colleagues rests (at most) at two, enemies somewhere in the hundreds, and archenemies at one (which most ponies considered to be far too much). Coincidentally, the number of siblings she has still remains at one.
Example RP segment: It is pouring rain outside. Your OC spots the light of a tavern up ahead. The tavern is filled with ponies that your OC doesn't know. Given your OC’s personality, compose a brief narrative in which your OC identifies and addresses the situation.
Ebony fiddled with the large black umbrella her brother had unwisely left behind at her flat. It was a prized possession of Zefarin's, which delighted Ebony all the more when she realized that he had left in such a haste that he had forgotten it.
Zefarin never left his umbrella behind.
Revenge was sweet. She was certain that he was back at her home, rooting through her mess of a flat to try and find it until he resorted to consulting with his lackeys when he realized that she had left with it.
Might as well have some fun while she was at it.
Spotting the tell-tale sign of a guard's golden armour, she shut the umbrella with a click and ducked into the nearest building, which happened to be... a tavern. What absolute rotten luck. A quick glance confirmed that the guard was looking for her and had no intention of straying from his post outside for a while, and she sighed. Ebony tucked the umbrella into the side of her trench coat and approached the bar, examining the variety of drinks at her disposal. There would be no drunken escapades tonight, or ever, because alcohol dimmed her wits and slowed down her mind, which was distasteful. Instead, she opted for some sort of light beverage and settled down for a night of criminal-spotting and deductions. After all, if she was already here, there was no point in wasting the opportunity. It was still going to be awful.
Then a drenched Zefarin burst into the bar, dripping water everywhere, and it took ever ounce of her being to avoid laughing as she hoofed over his precious umbrella. This unpleasant experience was wholeheartedly worth it for the expression on his flabbergasted "VIP's" face.
She changed her mind. It was going to be a very good night.
[Acceptance]
Subject: DI Ebony LeBrun 
Sun Jun 08, 2014 3:55 pm
