"I think there are two kinds of women in this world: those who look good in the rain, and those who don't."
A charming and pleasant young man, few people in the world would ever suspect that Leonard Testarossa is in fact "Mister Silver," one of the most powerful and influential members of the enigmatic organization known as Amalgam. Leonard is personally responsible for much of the technological innovations present in the ruthless syndicate. Leonard acts as something of an official go-between and diplomat between his organization and the Divine Crusaders, as well as one of the DC's primary suppliers. An impossibly brilliant individual, Leonard nevertheless typically displays a carefree and pleasant demeanor that belies his intimidating position. Few people would think such a young man would hold such a conspicuous occupation -- or that such a magnetic charisma obscures a distinct cruelty that lies beneath his pleasant mask.
Background Information[]
HA HA, TOTALLY CLASSIFIED
Personality Traits[]
Leonard Testarossa is a young man who has become too smart for his own good. While there is no way of knowing from looking at him on the surface, he is a deeply disturbed young man, whose nature and past has aided to shape him into someone wholly determined -- but also someone wholly emotionally removed.
At the surface, Leonard is a calm young man. He takes all things in stride, approaching life in an easy going manner that suggests an affably relaxed personality. He is ineffably pleasant and open-minded. He has a certain kindness and charity to him that belies his position as a member of a global arms-dealing/conspiracy group.
It's this casual sort of appeal and kind-heartedness that makes Leonard easy to trust. But more than that -- people /want/ to trust him. It's more than simply being kind, or relaxed. Leonard has a magnetic sort of charisma and an eccentric mannerism that simply draws people to him. He is kind-hearted, but he is bold. He is generous, but he is clever. He has a natural yet unusual charm about him that combined with these seemingly noble surface traits, lead people to want to believe in him. To want to strive for him. It's this very fact that helps account for his meteoric rise in Amalgam, and his overwhelming popularity with many individuals - management excluded - in the organization. In his own way, Leonard Testarossa is alarmingly, dangerously charismatic.
Past these surface-level traits, things become different. Extended interactions reveal things slightly off about Leonard. He rarely if ever indulges others with his true thoughts. In his own words, "speaking bluntly is not always the right choice." Though kind, he is emotionally distant, a fact that is hardly noticeable beneath the gentle facade of smiles and laughs. He enjoys toying with others, though this owes to a more playful and mischievous manner he shares with his sister, Tessa. He will dance around subjects and keep his plans and motivations entirely to himself.
To some degree, this reclusive, distant sort of behavior can be attributed to the sensitive nature of his plans. The closer he plays things to the vest, the less chance there can be for failure. More than that, though, Leonard is simply incapable of emotionally connecting to people. Since the events of his past, Leonard has become a scarred young man who hides behind insincerities in order to protect himself. This is especially true of women: he will charm them, he will enjoy their company, but very rarely will he attempt to connect to any of them on an emotional level. At least, not in any sort of standard way.
Despite his seemingly delicate appearance, Leonard is an unusually bold person. Due to the lack of emotional ties that he developed growing up, he has certain eccentricities that can be written off as "bizarre" by some and "sociopathic" by others. He has very little if any regard for the personal space of others; he'll hardly think twice about breaking into someone's house and waiting for them there if he feels he needs to. He will dare people to shoot him - even hand them the gun to do it with - he will goad infamously dangerous individuals, and he will push right into the heart of enemy territory with little regard for the potential dangers. To be blunt, Leonard has a basic inability to feel fear, and while he is hardly irrational and will often exercise caution in order to ensure he achieves what he wants, he has absolutely no qualms entering even the most lethal of scenarios.
To a certain degree, this has to do with his arrogance. Leonard expects things to go his way simply because he feels it is what he deserves and that there is no possible better outcome than his path. He has very rarely failed in any of his endeavors, and thus has come to expect this success -- though he pulls a tremendous amount of legwork to achieve any of his aims, there is still that basic expectation in everything he does. While he is hardly arrogant to the point of foolishness - some may even just consider him simply 'extremely self-confident' than arrogant, to be truthful - he nonetheless cannot help but think of himself as 'better' than the common mass of stupidity. This has been engendered by the fact that he has had no family or friends to truly temper his personality and, even more so than this, his arrogance has been further exacerbated by the simple fact that very few people can understand or relate to him on an equal intellectual level. A degree of separation is only natural -- and it is one that has certainly not been helped by Leonard's association with - and essentially being raised by - a criminal organization.
Leonard appears nice, but there is still a cruelty that lies beneath the surface. He has things that he hates, with every fiber of his being. Types of people that he hates. Sousuke Sagara is an example of this: a person who stands at almost the direct opposite to everything Leonard is or believes, Sousuke's blunt personality does not nearly grate Leonard as much as the seeming divide there is between them. Sousuke can be forgiven for killing hundreds of people, yet Leonard is a monster for even killing one. It perplexes him. Sousuke perplexes him. And Leonard hates him for it.
Leonard hates Amalgam for killing his family and tearing him away from his normal life, but to a certain degree he has forgotten this hatred in light of the fact that they are his best resource for achieving his aims. His goals of unraveling Amalgam from the inside out and toppling its structure with one of his own - while largely driven by practical purposes - is in part an expression of this hatred. Besides his subordinates, the people whose trust he's gained, there is no love lost for Leonard with the agents and especially the managers of Amalgam... and as such he really has no qualms sending people not directly under him to their death.
More than anything else, though, Leonard hates Black Technology and, perhaps paradoxically despite his great confidence, he hates the Whispered. It is because of the Whispered that this world is awry. It is because of the Whispered that he was never allowed to live a normal life. It was because of the Whispered that his father died, that he was torn away from his family, that people around him continued to die. Everything has become warped and distorted, not just for him, but for the entire world. As such, one could say the thing that Leonard hates the most is this entire timeline. Everything he has done, and everything he will do, is all centered upon correcting the 'mistake' of the Whispered... and wiping this timeline off the face of the earth.
In Leonard's perception, nothing in this world is correct. In simpler words, this world could be considered an anomaly or, even better, an "illusion" in which consequences simply are not reality. This defines much of his actions and personality. He has so little qualms with killing because this world does not matter, and at the end of the day he is ultimately helping them to start a new chance at a better life -- in the /correct/ time. He can freely manipulate and ruin others because the ends more than justify it. In his view, all the "lives" of this world are "false." It's like playing a video game: in his mind, since he is running through a false world, the consequences of his actions do not matter nearly as much when the ultimate goal in the end is hitting the "reset" button.
It is because of this that Leonard can act so Machiavellian. It's a somewhat nihilistic outlook, but it is because Leonard truly believes that his end offers everyone -- even the people who suffer, or even the ones who have died -- a chance at a new life, a new hope.
In many ways, Leonard is simply not emotionally mature enough due to the actions of his mother and the nature of his life growing up. Despite this, he is not a monster - not in the strictest sense, anyway. He does not hate his sister, despite the fact that they stand on opposite sides. In fact, to a certain degree he does what he does for her sake as well, so she can live a normal life -- not a life of a military colonel, constantly putting herself in danger for ill-defined, disgustingly abstract reasons. In his own way, he is glad to see his sister growing up, becoming more independent. But much like everything else in this world, Tessa is "false." And while he will try to protect her if he can, if she chooses to oppose him, well...
It’s not like it will matter what he does to Tessa in this present world once everything is wound back.
Talents & Abilities[]
Leonard is a Whispered. What this means is that he very literally receives "whispers" from the future that gifts him the ability to comprehend and innovate technologies well in advance of the current era. Essentially, Leonard is a genius, and aside from extremely intelligent Coordinators and Whispered, there is really no one capable of comparing to his knowledge of math and science. Even amongst other Whispered Leonard is "above the average." His primary specialty seem to be Lambda Drivers and Arm Slave development, but has crafted a number of other miscellaneous technologies and seems to have a slightly wider berth of knowledge than most.
Whispered can produce other phenomenon besides simply developing technology. For one, they are able to "Resonate" with each other, sharing their conscious thoughts by connecting with one another over the Omni-Sphere. While this is a convenient method of communication, it runs the risk of their two consciousnesses becoming one. Leonard is particularly knowledgeable in Resonances, able to focus specific events of his past onto an individual if he desires it.
Leonard has been trained by Amalgam since he was a child to excel completely as an agent - including training on how to defend himself on foot. Leonard is extremely skilled at most forms of combat, strategy, and warfare, and is good enough at both close-quarters and long-range fighting on-foot to give Sousuke Sagara a run for his money.
Relations[]
|
Totally Soulmates |
Kaname Chidori |
| Friendship | |
| Trust | Sabina Refiona, Lee Fowler, Wilhelm Casper, Samuel Flynn |
| Affinity | Teletha Testarossa, Cagalli Yula Athha, Fable Ardross, CONCEPT-X 6-1-2 Turn X, Gauron, Gym Ghingnham, Andrei Kalinin, Ilyse Amsel, Aoba Tsuzaki, Elenia Weyland, Sovi Reincam |
| Ambivalence | Gates, MITHRIL, Shadow-Mirror, Xia Yu Lan, Xia Yu Fan |
| Caution | Most People, Macua Huitl |
| Distrust | Mr. Gold |
| Contempt | Sousuke Sagara, Akira Tadokoro, Maria Testarossa, The Whispered |
leonard is a leothario
Logs[]
- 2010-07-08 - La Calisto - Leonard Testarossa invites Cagalli Yula Athha to dinner for uncomfortable conversation and even more uncomfortable requests.
- 2010-07-09 - La Bohème - Leonard makes a job offer.
- 2010-07-15 - Muzio Scevola - Leonard meets Gym, aka kismet in action in the very worst way possible.
- 2010-07-16 - Così fan Tutte - Gates wants to experiment with Fable Ardross and Leonard Testarossa wants to watch. You heard me.
- 2010-07-19 - Cutscene: Obscurity - A meeting to discuss the future.
- 2010-07-19 - Cutscene: Transparency - A meeting to discuss the past.
- 2010-07-21 - L'incontro Improvviso - Sovi and Leonard have a Big Fat Greek Meeting.
- 2010-07-23 - Il Palazzo Incantato - Fable Ardross is offered an island and totally laughs it off.
- 2010-07-26 - Le Nozze di Figaro - The best kind of coffee is the most bitter.
- 2010-07-30 - La Cena Delle Beffe - Leonard and Aoba discuss dreams.
- 2010-10-23 - Cutscene: Opportunity - A meeting to discuss the present.
- 2010-10-23 - Il Diluvio Universale - While driving down the Californian coast, Tessa Testarossa and Elenia Weyland receive a rather unusual encounter - and a rather ominous warning.
- 2010-10-27 - Chi Soffre, Speri - While Merida Island and the rest of Mithril are targeted for destruction by their mysterious adversaries, Leonard Testarossa decides to pay a visit to a particular apartment in Tokyo-02... and the protector of the young woman who lives there.
- 2010-10-31 - La Circe - Recovered by an Amalgam task force from the ruins of Merida, Elenia Weyland finds herself in the company of Leonard Testarossa - who has some particular bit of news to deliver to her.