Profile

Character Name: Flute
(AKA Princess Flute of Sforzando)

Series: Violinist of Hameln *MANGA VERSION*, shortly after volume 16/chapter 69

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Species: Human with Holy Blood

Sexuality: Straight. Much to her disdain she's harboring a crush on the biggest asshole in existence.

Appearance:
Flute is a small, cute and innocent-looking girl, light-skinned with brown eyes and brown hair usually kept in impossibly voluminous pigtails underneath her trademark bright pink hat. When her hair is untied, it falls down near her waist. She normally wears a pink dress with a white apron over a white blouse, pink shoes, and is never without her golden cross necklace. You will rarely if ever see the cross-shaped birthmark on her back that only appears when she's flustered, angry or physically warm.

Personality:
Flute is the ultimate optimist, a cheerful and daydreamy girl who rarely stops smiling and tries to remain upbeat no matter the dark circumstance. This is all in spite of the fact that she has the worst luck in the universe and recently her life has been a neverending series of missteps, accidents, humiliations and disasters. She is compassionate, sensitive, forgiving and almost inhumanly patient, happy to volunteer herself as emotional support for anybody who could use a sympathetic shoulder. She is especially fond of animals and small children and will never abandon anyone who needs help. Flute has been known to dedicate herself heart and soul to the well-being of others, and this combined with her motherly nature her make her very easy to befriend and well-liked by others.

Flute is also very headstrong and won't hesitate to rush into a situation, even if it's dangerous or if she'll ultimately be little or no help. She has a tendency to flip out, scream, turn beet red and even curse when embarrassed or appalled, though spastic as she may seem, it's very hard to genuinely upset her or make her actually angry at you. Being selfish or a jerk is a good start, though, since nothing pisses her off worse than people being intentionally rude or cruel, and those who dare to do so in front of her will receive a tonguelashing- or if it's available (which it's not here), a whack upside the head with her ultra-sized Cross of Divine Retribution.

Abilities:
Flute is of the Sforzando Royal Family and as such was born with the powers inherent in the holy bloodline. Her blood and soul both have special properties to them, attractive particularly to demons and those who can sense such things. Along with her holy blood she is granted some special abilities, including an increased natural lifespan and the power to heal others' wounds and sickness. Her healing powers come at a price though; using them depletes a little of her lifespan every time and it usually leaves her weak and exhausted. She's not terribly skilled at using her powers yet, so she saves them only for real emergencies.

In Manhattan, Flute's holy blood has been weakened and her healing abilities made even more difficult for her to summon. Using them takes extreme concentration and she is limited to AT MOST one use per every few days, lest she completely exhaust herself.

Weaknesses:
Despite some resilience her holy blood grants her, Flute is still a small and weak girl. She's hopeless in a physical battle and has absolutely no skill with weapons. She will need to find and stick very close to somebody for protection.

Flute's rash boldness is a weakness as well, since she doesn't know when to keep quiet or hold herself back from rushing into a bad situation. Determination is all well and good until it gets you killed by a monster. Her sympathetic nature is another drawback. She's a sucker for a good sob-story and will instantly trust anybody who gives her one, often forgetting about her own needs and exhausting herself in attempts to help other people.

And though her patience and optimism are truly legendary, once she's been really upset or angered she's prone to slide into periods of melancholy that it's tough to snap her out of.

Manhattanite or outsider?
Outsider

History:
Flute's world resembles a renaissance-era Europe, though one plagued by cruel and bloodthirsty demons who mercilessly torment and slaughter humans. In the darkest point of the Mazoku War, kingdoms are falling left and right and the great nation of Sforzando has become humanity's "capital", the last sanctuary against the mazoku. Unknown to her for most of her life so far, Flute is the heir to the matriarchal throne of Sforzando, the second child and only daughter of Queen Horn. Soon after Flute's birth Sforzando fell under attack by a huge batallion of the mazoku army. Flute's older brother Prince Lute sacrificed himself in order to protect the castle, providing time for Queen Horn to pass the infant princess along to a group of soldiers for protection as she headed out to fight. She was later found by the elder of the faraway country village of Staccato, bundled in a basket and clutching a golden cross necklace. He took her in and raised her as his own granddaughter, and Flute grew up happily with absolutely no idea of her royal heritage.

One day when Flute was fifteen, Staccato came under the assault of a traveling gang of mazoku, who held the villagers prisoner and tortured them with threats and violence. Flute tried valiantly to stand up to them in defense of an innocent child, but was nearly killed, rescued at the last minute by the interference of the traveling hero Hamel and his crow companion, Oboe. She was instantly intrigued by the mysterious character, though her admirations were abruptly cut off when in return for saving the village, Hamel demanded a massive sum of money and a tribute feast attended by village maidens dressed in Playboy bunny outfits. As Flute confronted Hamel for his selfishness, the mazoku returned and Hamel managed to overcome them permanently by using his magical music to possess Flute's body and use her as a weapon. In the aftermath, intrigued by the girl who had been bold enough to call him out, Hamel agreed to forgive the villagers' supposed debt to him if the elder allowed him to take Flute along on his journey.

Flute set off cheerfully, dreaming of how she could provide some assistance to Hamel as he journeyed northward to save the world from the mazoku threat... dreams shattered about ten minutes later as Hamel attempted to sell her into slavery as they hit the open road.

Though Flute initially suffered humiliation after humiliation at Hamel's hands (dressed up in monkey costume and forced to dance for change, thrown at enemies as a projectile weapon, continually subjected to the Marionette Version), she sensed that beneath his incredibly selfish demeanor lay a kind soul in deep pain, and determined to help him she doggedly insisted on trying to befriend him. She soon discovered Hamel's secret-- that he was half-human and half-mazoku and furthermore, the son of Demon King Chestra, constantly battling his demonic nature and in danger of succumbing to his bloodthirsty side should he ever lose his temper. According to Oboe, Hamel was interested in bringing Flute along because she seemed to have a calming effect on him and he hoped she could prevent him from ever losing control of himself. Flute swore valiantly that she would stick by him through thick and thin and began to harbor feelings for the antisocial violinist, even despite his continued attempts to embarrass her or use her as a weapon.

The three traveled north together and their party increased to include Raiel, a magical pianist and Hamel's childhood friend and Trom, the orphaned boy king of Dal Segno. When the group reached Sforzando they were abruptly arrested by the stern High Priest Clari Net-- in reality, the arrest was planned in order to reunite Flute with her mother, Queen Horn. Meeting face-to-face with the mother who'd "abandoned" her and in denial about the shocking revelation, Flute became distraught and locked herself in her room for several days. Flute continued to despise her mother until Horn saved her life in a sudden mazoku attack-- and when Horn used her healing powers on her injured daughter, memories of Flute's early childhood came rushing back and at last she understood why her mother had sent her away.

Though Horn was sad to let her daughter go so soon after they'd finally met again, she wanted her to be happy and thus allowed Flute to continue journeying with Hamel shortly after her coronation. The queen gave her a magic crystal that would allow the two to communicate over long distances and meaning well, sent Clari's psychotic little sister Corr along to teach Flute how to use her powers. The following nightmarish trip could very well fill up an entire memoir. Suffice to say Flute still has a lingering aversion to the smell of seafood. Further travels introduced the group to Sizer, the mazoku-raised angel and Hamel's twin sister and Ocarina, Sizer's mazoku guardian- and together the party ventured northward, their ultimate goal to defeat Demon King Chestra and save humanity.

Most recently, Flute had a brush with death when a berserk mazoku Hamel plunged his hand through her chest as she tried to calm him down. She managed to return him to human form before collapsing in his arms. As Hamel sobbed over her dying body, Queen Horn teleported in and saved Flute with her own healing powers.

A short time later, it seemed like an ordinary night on the road-- Hamel tried to cook Oboe for food again, Raiel went off on a rant about the power of love, Trom fought endlessly with the both of them and Sizer had no idea what was going on-- but when Flute woke up after what she thought was a brief nap, she found herself in the ruins of a very strange place, and all alone...