[b]Name: [/b]
Ariel, sometimes calling herself Leira. 

[b]Appearance:[/b]
[IMG]http://i59.tinypic.com/np0ygp.jpg[/IMG]
Ariel stands at 5'5" and is of slim build with red hair and light blue eyes. When in mermaid form, her tail spans all the colors between blue and green, cast with an iridescent shimmer. 

[b]Age: [/b]
34, though she appears about 19. Mermaids live about 300 years, so she's still considered very young. 

[b]Affiliation: [/b]
On the Fence, leaning more towards evil with each passing day.

[b]Magic Capabilities:[/b] 
Using her knife, Ariel can steal the voices on others and capture them in a shell worn around her neck. 
A bespelled bracelet allows Ariel to change from tail to legs.
As a mermaid, she has seductive abilities in appearance and voice, though the latter is lost to her.
Ariel is studying under Ursula and learning spells, but she is still fairly new to witchery. 

[b]Weapons:[/b]
A knife with a handle of bone and a double-edged blade of about 6 inches. The handle is etched with the magic imbued in it. 
A gold-gilded sea shell resides of a chain around Ariel's neck and acts as a temporary reservoir for the voices she steals. 

[b]Strengths:[/b]
Ariel is adept with communicating with other species that live in her watery home, as well as some birds.
Where once she could sing and enchant, now she can dance - though dancing is terribly painful.
When magic concerns water, Ariel finds she has some innate skill at handling the slippery subject. 

[b]Weaknesses:[/b]
Although she is a typical and healthy mermaid, Ariel is a bit defective for a landwalker. The spell that grants her legs has been transferred to a chain she keeps around her wrist, but the spell is not without consequences: no matter what, her legs are afflicted with sharp, stabbing pain that has no cure. She dehydrates quicker than the average human would and cannot be parted from the sea for more than 24 hours, though she need only return for a few hours. If incapable of returning within that time, Ariel grows dizzy and nauseous, collapses, and eventually dries out. 

[b]Relationships:[/b]
Previously had a romantic relationship with Prince Eric, who she later killed.
Apprenticed to the Sea Witch, Ursula.

[b]Brief Bio:[/b]
A daughter was born to King Triton in the image of her mother, with hair of flame and a song that could entice even the most forbidding sailor. As was the coming of age gift, Ariel was allowed one visit to the surface. During that visit she witnessed a ship being pummeled by a storm and swam closer to save one of the sailors - a Prince Eric. Having saved him, she also became thoroughly enamored and sought the Sea Witch's magic in hope that she might join the prince on land. The price for legs was constant pain, the threat of absolute death without true love's kiss, and the loss of her coveted voice. Ariel returned to the prince, but eventually he fell in love with and married a girl who pulled him from the shore after Ariel rescued him.

Although she despaired, Ariel's sisters sought the Sea Witch and made another bargain that would return Ariel to the sea: Prince Eric's death. When night came and she stood over the sleeping couple, Ariel only briefly wavered before slaughtering the prince in his sleep. She returned to the sea by dripping the blood on her legs and feet and then apprenticed the sea witch. She learned to walk on land, a trick that cost her much but gave more, including the death of the princess who allowed Prince Eric to believe she had been the savior. Although Ariel rejoices in dragging sailors to their watery deaths, she is never quite satisfied. Ursula refused to teach Ariel how to steal voices, fearing the mermaid would figure out to recapture her own, so in a fit of rage Ariel went topside and prowled the docks, looking for departing sailors to hunt. 

The Dark One appeared to her, during which they made a tidy bargain, the result of which adorned Ariel's [hider=neck][IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/r9k6px.jpg[/IMG][/hider]. Since then, she studies alongside Ursula for the most part and surfaces only to steal a new voice or map out the movement of some unfortunate sailors.