staging: character-character-name-slug.md task=113914d1-804b-4b8c-b124-dbd6d79e9357

projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-character-name-slug.md

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+# Character Sheet: Lena Duval
+
+## Identity
+- Full name: Lena Duval
+- Age: 29
+- Role: protagonist
+- Faction/School: Swamp Witch (bayou magic practitioners tied to Cypress Bend's cypress groves)
+
+## Voice Signature
+(REQUIRED -- this section is injected into every chapter to enforce consistent voice.)
+- Stress expression scale: "dang it" = minor | "hellfire" = upset | "by the bayou's bones" = furious
+- Verbal tic: mutters "gator's truth" when stating an undeniable fact about nature or people
+- Sentence length pattern: clipped and rhythmic like bayou chants when casting or focused, meandering like swamp vines when reminiscing
+- What they REACH FOR: tactile (fingers trails moss, water, bark to ground herself)
+- What they NEVER say: "I give up" (she barters, bends, but never surrenders)
+- Imperfection signature: repeats words when panicked ("no no, not that, no no")
+- One example line of their dialogue that could not belong to any other character:
+  "The cypress don't lie, cher—the roots whisper what your heart's too stubborn to hear."
+
+## Magic / Power / Special Ability
+- School/Discipline: Bayou Binding (manipulates swamp elements via blood-oaths and natural conduits)
+- Core principle: Power flows from symbiosis with the land—take without giving, and it turns venomous
+- Signature move or approach: Weaves vines or summons fog illusions by pricking her palm and murmuring to the water
+- Limitation: Magic drains her vitality (fevers, visions) and binds her to Cypress Bend's geography—leaving weakens it to nothing
+- Shared uncertainty: Does the swamp choose the witch, or does the witch awaken a hungry land spirit?
+
+## Arc
+- Want: Escape Cypress Bend forever to build a "normal" life in the city
+- Need: Embrace her heritage to heal family rifts and protect the town from encroaching developers
+- Fatal flaw: Stubborn independence that isolates her from allies
+- Wound: Witnessed her mother's sacrificial drowning ritual at 12, blamed herself for not stopping it
+- Transformation: Forges communal bonds, using magic not alone but with loved ones, becoming the bend's guardian
+
+## Relationships
+- Jax Harlan: love interest + brooding outsider boat captain who challenges her isolation with raw honesty and shared swamp runs
+- Aunt Maribelle Duval: antagonist + manipulative coven elder who hoards power and grooms Lena as her heir against her will
+- Remy LeBlanc: supporting + childhood best friend and comic relief informant who lightens her burdens with gossip and gumbo
+
+## Notes for Writers
+- Physical habit or tell: Twists a silver locket (her mother's) chain around her finger when lying or hiding emotions—readers spot it as her guilt signal.
+- Speech quirk specific to this character: Peppers Cajun French endearments ("cher," "mon couer") only for those she truly cares for, never sarcastically.
+- Thing readers must NEVER see this character do or say: Never apologizes preemptively ("sorry if...")—she owns her words fully or says nothing.
+- Always smells faintly of magnolia and mud; writers forget this grounding scent detail, making her feel unplaced.
+- Hates loud music—flinches from it like a spooked gator; use silence or natural sounds (frogs, wind) in her scenes for authenticity.
+- Collects oddly shaped driftwood as "swamp talismans"; fiddles with one when plotting, revealing her strategic mind over impulsiveness.