( precious lee , cis woman, she/her ) — Look who it is! If you take a look at our database, you’ll find that LEONARDA FAUSTINA LIBERATA DA SABBIONETA is a 502 year old TEXTILE CONSERVATOR that’s been in Chicago for ONE MONTH. According to the file, they’re a mutant on LEVEL 3 with the power of IMMORTALITY. That must be why they’re EFFERVESCENT and FORGETFUL. If you ask me, they remind me of the full body sensuality of medieval devotion, the thick impasto of oil paints beneath your fingertips, and the scent of snuffed out candles. They are affiliated with NOBODY.
QUICK FACTS
full name: leonarda faustina liberata da sabbioneta
(leonarda from lion strength, because she's bold and strong. faustina liberata from the patronesses of childbirth because all she wants is a family and she'll never have it. da sabbioneta meaning from sabbioneta, because old timey naming conventions)
age: five hundred and two - but she thinks she stopped ageing at around thirty
gender: cis woman
personality: bubbly, outgoing, careless, nihilistic
height: 5'0 - because people used to be shorter
star sign: unsure. leo can't remember her birthday, and if she doesn't know then you can't know either x
fc: precious lee
A WHISTLESTOP TOUR OF THE LIFE AND TIMES
trigger warnings: general religious insanity, heavy historical references eg wwii, black death etc, debauchery
1520s. born to wealthy silk traders
1540s. love affair with titian. we are using artistic license because there's so few (surviving/known) portraits of fat black women so if i tell you someone painted her, pls nod. she loves being a muse, and also loved doing needlework to pass the time. talented seamstress
1560s. became apparent she doesn't age like other people. titian left her, claiming she shouldn't be with an old man like him even though they were nearly the same age. they had previously had two children together, a pair of twins, who they decided to give to the church so they had a hope of a normal upbringing. leo tries to follow her family line but has lost track in recent decades. she knows her family is out there somewhere, though.
1570s. debauchery. nothing can hurt her nor kill her, so she drinks and fucks. the following decades are filled with love affairs with artists, meaningless feasts, and frantic prayers. this culminates in her travelling to paris to see notre dame. reality of immortality setting in, she feels abandoned by god. here she meets the guardian of notre dame, ameline. she falls in love. finally feels connected with someone cursed in a similar way to her. she also takes delight in the court of miracles, having never been exposed to the more 'common' side of life.
1690s. plague outbreak. this is icky, so leo leaves europe for the first time, heading for the new world. puritanical americans did not like her lush catholic ways. she was burned for witchcraft on more than one occasion.
1700s. bored of the stuffy americans, she travelled to england thinking that'd be better. they were certainly better dressed, and she enjoyed many dinner parties and further love affairs, sitting for many portraits in this era.
1860s. secondary french era, because she loved paris the first time she was there.
1890s. back to england because she's restless, and she had liked it there and found the language easy. it was nice until...
1914. wwi. being immortal, she has a flippant attitude towards death and atrocity, so her main issue was boredom with all the eligible (or ineligible) men away at war. signed up as an army nurse. regrets that. the trenches are something she can't forget.
1920s. back to america, she wanted to be a movie star! this didn't go well for her, beauty standards of the time being what they were.
1939. another war. this time she contributes by working in a military uniform production factory, where she took great pride in the speed and quality of her work. she slept with a lot of housewives in this era.
1970s. fun decade for leo. she liked the colour and the fashion.
1980s. with the help of a newfangled computer whiz, leo fakes her records to make herself look regularly aged. she applies to university and gets her degree in museum studies! she very almost failed because of her spelling (leo's literacy is pre-dictionary), but her professors let a lot slide because of her obvious passion and knowledge of historical fashion/textiles, which was where her interests lay.
1990s. works in the met, conserving historical clothes. her colleagues find her very strange, but her intimate knowledge of medieval and early modern stitching techniques invaluable.
2010s. they figure out she's a mutant. they're surprisingly alright with it, so she carries on with her work.
2022. losing connection with god. leo drops her job without notice and sets out on a barefoot walking pilgramage to the national shrine of our lady of the snows. she stays there for a few months, reconnecting with her spirituality. modern times are difficult for her, surrounded by so much atheism.
now. already in illinois for the shrine, she decides to move to the nearest big city. chicago. she gets a job with the chicago history museum, her old boss at the met kindly giving her a good reference despite her flaking (the odd meltdown when you're centuries old is to be expected, after all).
feeling adrift, leo spends half her time offering devotion to god and the other half offering devotion to whatever hookup of the night she's found. she's tired. it's been a long life.














