Name: Marlena Lucille James.
Age: Twenty-three years.
Birth date: January the 27th.
Birth place: Corus, in the really bad slums of the Lower City.

Occupation:
She's a shiftyshifty con artist, along with her twin sister Darcy. Since they were about seventeen they've been conning people out of their money, and at this point in their lives they are very, very good at what they do. Their routines vary, but most of them involve feminine wiles and the twin factor.

Important people:
    Family: Mother, Annie James. She owns and runs a flower shop in the Lower City. Darcy and Marlena were the unexpected result of a very whirlwind romance, which involved her lover leaving her as soon as he realized she was pregnant and he might have to take responsibility for that.
    Darcy Monroe James is her twin sister. They are incredibly close, and very much fit the twin stereotypes. They finish eachother's sentences, communicate wordlessly, and they think almost exactly alike. It can get a bit creepy sometimes. They grew up having only eachother to rely on and it shows. Darcy is the only person in the world that Marlena trusts, and she's also the only person that Marlena refuses to lie to. They're perfectly functional separated, but they work better as a team.

Magic:
They have a really minor Sight that, nonetheless, helps their line of work a lot. It's less actually Seeing anything than a kind of sense. They can feel what a person's particular weaknesses are, like if they've got a thing for money, or a soft spot for redheads, really small insignificant details like that. This sort of thing allows them to concentrate on a person's weak spots when they're conning them. They can also see in the dark a little better than most people, but only enough to allow them to not trip over things. Their magic is exactly the same.

Appearance:
    Hair: Really dark brown. It looks lighter in the sunlight, with natural highlights, but when the lighting is bad it sometimes looks almsot black. Her hair is a few shades lighter than Darcy's and it's a bit longer. It's really thick, and the texture is a little on the coarse side. They both have bangs that cover their forehead, but can be pushed to the side. Marlena generally likes to keep her bangs in her eyes, though.
    Eyes: Exactly the same as Darcy's. They're large in her face and tilt up almost exotically at the edges. They're light, almost ice blue-grey in colour and can be super cold when she wants them too, or honey soft and warm. Marlena can easily turn on the girlish charm using just her eyes. Her eyelashes are naturally really dark and long, so she was blessed in that category.
    Features: She's pretty, but not extraordinarily so. Her mouth is wide and full and pouty to the maxcore. Her nose is just a little wide-set and kind of buttonish, turned up a bit at the end. Her chin is sort of square, but the rest of her bone structure is very, very soft. She's got lovely features, and has been known to use it to her advantage more than once.
    Body: Marlena isn't quite as small as her sister, but pretty close. It's obvious that they're both used to living under conditions that aren't so great. Like Darcy, she's got a tiny waist and her ribs show. She doesn't exactly give the apppearance of being famished, but she really is a skinny thing. Her shoulders are thin and her arms are long and slender. Her legs are also long and pretty well-shaped, and toned from walking everywhere, and her stomach is toned from riding horses for years. Her chest is small, around an A cup, but proportionate to the rest of her body.
    Clothing: They've made a fair bit of money traversing the various cities and countries, but they don't flaunt it. So their clothes are well-made but inconspicuous. She usually wears dresses and skirts on the job, because most of the time it's her job to look cute. Whenever she can get away with it, though, she prefers breeches. Her boots and shoes are all very sturdy and well-worn. She'll wear cloaks when it's cold out.
    Extras: Marlena has a lot of jewelry, but she hardly ever wears it. Partly because dressing up in the slums is a bad idea, and partly because she just has no interest in it. She does, however, wear a ring that one of her previous romances gave to her at all times. Not that she cared about him or anything, she just likes the ring.

Personality:
    So. Let me start this off by saying that Marlena really is not a nice person at all. She's highly ambitious, and completely self-serving. Once she knows what she wants she will never stop until she gets it. She doesn't care one bit about who she hurts. The way Marlena and Darcy work is that they are fairly nice to people until they figure out their weaknesses, desires, etc. Once they've gotten that far, they do whatever they can to get as much money out of that person as possible, and then move on.
    Both of them have a ridiculous obsession with money, brought on by their poor upbringing. They quite literally had nothing but each other when they were growing up and that reflects on the way they act towards other people. Marlena is highly untrusting of anyone who isn't Darcy. Growing up in the slums made her completely lose faith in everyone. She has soso much hidden resentment for just about everyone in the world except for her sister. Her interest in other people is so nonexistent, it's actually kind of creepy.
    Marlena and Darcy are both pathological liars. It's actually kind of impossible for Marlena to tell the truth. Except she never feels a need to tell the truth to anyone except for Darcy, so it's all good. Nearly everything that comes out of her mouth when she's talking to people is a lie. It doesn't matter what she's talking about or how important it is, she just hates the thought of anyone coming close to getting an idea of what she's really like. She lies to often that it would seem as if she believes her own lies, but she doesn't. She's way too smart for that. It's incredibly rare that she gets caught in a lie, because she can always remember what she says to whom.
    They're best at conning men, because they're best when it comes to seduction. Because, in case you were wondering about big fatty fat heterosexuals trying to seduce women and con them out of their money? It doesn't work. Marlena is best at sweet-talking men, while Darcy is the better seductress. Marlena uses her (seemingly) natural charm to get what she wants out of people, but Darcy could never hope to do that. But then Marlena isn't so great at the seduction game, so things even out. As far as men go, neither of them have ever had a meaningful relationship. That's not to say that there haven't been relationships, it's just that they never care about the people they're seeing. Marlena actually does the relationship thing a whole lot more often than Darcy, simply because she's so charming that most men can't help but to fall for her. That's something she kind of prides herself on.
    In order for you to even come close to understanding Marlena you have to understand how much Darcy means to her. They only have eachother to depend on, and if something were to happen to Darcy, Marlena would fall apart. She loves her sister more than anything in the world, and they both have this huge fear that something bad will happen to the other. Darcy knows everything about Marlena and vice versa. It may seem like I'm repeating myself, but Darcy is a huge part of Marlena, and I really can't stress that enough. They just really, really love eachother.

Reputation:
From the ages of eighteen to twenty-three, Darcy and Marlena lived under a series of aliases. Twins are just too recognizable, and it was way too risky to give out their real names in any situation. They generally stuck to certain names for certain countries. For example, she was Elizabeth Miller in Galla. She was Alayna of Hillshire in the Yamani Islands. Usually they kept one name for both of them, because they didn't like people to know there was more than one. But because they ripped off so many people in different cities and countries, the names they lived under developed reputations of their own. If you were to drop Elizabeth Miller into conversation with the head of law enforcement in the Yamani Islands, he might burst a blood vessel. Things like that. People might have heard of the twin criminals under different names in the Lower City, but nobody would recognize them for Darcy and Marlena, seeing as they're now living under their real names.

History:
(it's the exact same as Darcy's. deal.)
    Darcy and Marlena were so, so poor when they were growing up. They were a mistake that almost killed their mother. Annie had a relationship with a man who dropped her cold when he realized she was pregnant. Giving birth to twins almost cost Annie her life. It's not that she held any amount of bitterness toward her children about endangering her; it's just that she'd never wanted them and she didn't have time for them. She ran a flower shop by herself. So, growing up, Darcy and Marlena were street rats. They stuck fast to each other, stole what they could in the way of food and trinkets, and generally kept to themselves. They could have joined a street gang for safety in numbers, but they always felt safer with each other, and they didn't want to have to share anything they managed to steal. As soon as they started getting older, the two of them gathered pickpocketing, lockpick, cutpurse, and general petty thievery skills just by living on the streets.
    The con thing started when they both decided that they were sick of living so poor and agreed to take a shot at making more money in one go. It helped that they were almost indistinguishable from each other. They'd work one man, but never let him see them both at a time; after a couple weeks he'd take one of them out and the other one would go to his home and steal anything valuable. Anybody watching his house wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary with his lover going in and coming out, and they had tons of hidden pockets in their skirts. They generally just got very, very good at cheating people out of their money. When they were eighteen they left Corus because they were far too recognizable. They made a collective killing in Galla, Tusaine, and Carthak.
    When they were nineteen and living in Galla, they marked a merchant heir named Charles Markson. Marlena was generally the more adorably charming of the two, but he happened to see Darcy first, and fell for her (as Elizabeth Miller) pretty hard and fast, and things just happened that way. She was with him for six months, the longest time they'd ever spent on a con. At the end of the six months, Elizabeth Miller married Charles Markson. A week later, Charles woke up with an empty bed. Every penny of money he'd kept in his house along with valuable jewels, clothes, trinkets, silver, anything that could possibly be sold for money, was cleaned out. Darcy and Marlena took their hoard to the fair in Cria and sold every last piece of it.
    From there they travelled to other countries, finally landing in the Yamani Islands. While they were there, they started to pull a con on a nobleman who was smarter than they gave him credit for. He smelled something fishy and set someone to investigate Marlena (who was under an alias as well). The detective reported that she was a twin, and the nobleman immediately sicced Yamani justice on them. They packed up and left the Islands in one hell of a hurry, and headed right back to the place of their birth: Corus. They are currently living under their real names for the first time since they were eighteen, and it's quite an adjustment. Their plan is to lay low for awhile until the law's stopped looking out for them.

Likes & Dislikes:
    Likes: Darcy. Money. Lies and secrecy. Her job. Horses. Travelling. Dressing up. Overcast weather.
    Dislikes: The human race. Nosy people. Lie detecting magic. Noblemen who aren't as dumb as they look. Rain. Too much sunshine. Energetic people. Girls.

Strengths & Weaknesses:
    Strengths: She's an amazing liar, and she can remember what lies she tells to whom, so she never gets caught. She knows how to get what she wants out of people. Her Gift is a big advantage, too.
    Weaknesses: Darcy is her biggest weakness. She really does not know how to tell the truth. Her social skills aren't up to par, but she really just doesn't care. For more flaws and weaknesses see "Personality".

Fears:
She has a huge, huge fear of something happening to Darcy. The only way of getting to one twin is through the other, and she's terrified that someone will figure that out. Marlena is also really afraid of people, as lame as that sounds. The thought of people learning how to get to her really scares her. She's afraid that people will figure her out, so she spins a huge web of lies to protect herself.