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OOC Information

Name: Mari
Contact:
Age: 28
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information

Character Name: Lena Kaligaris
Age: 16
Canon: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Canon Point: Just moments before she could apologize to Kostas
Character Information: Lena on Wikipedia, Sisterhood of Traveling Pants Wiki Entry (sadly there is very little useful information in here though)

Personality: Among the Septembers, Lena is described as the pretty one in the group, but she often finds her beauty as a curse than anything else. Having been used to being seen by others for her looks alone and not much for who is she, this makes her feeling rather jaded and judgmental towards people (especially boys, since Ann Brashares based her on Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon and hunt) outside of her social circle. It doesn’t help that this trait almost ripped apart the friendship between her grandparents and Kostas’ grandparents due to a misunderstanding at an olive grove. Later on, she eventually comes to realize that Kostos wasn’t all what she initially thought of him when she was told about his life story and seeing him dancing with the grannies during a major Greek religious holiday. There is still a good chance though that she can may be dismissive at some characters like how she judged Kostos originally, though it is a lesser chance that this trait will show up at times. She is very capable of apologizing for her mistakes and knowing when to admit it as demonstrated with how she made amends with her grandparents after they became aware of the misunderstanding and her attempt to apologize to Kostas at the end of the Santorini trip.

Another weakness of her is her indecisiveness. Good Lord, how right Tibby was when she once said “if you ask Lena to pick A or B, she’d always choose C.” This means that Lena believes that she is not the best in trust and love easily compared to Kostos and Bridget who, despite losing their loved ones, are still able to live and love freely. Lena has a tendency to overthink and justify things all the times, especially when she tried to explain the olive grove incident to Valia, and it hints in the fact that she has difficulties in following her emotions. This can explain why she has a hard time to open up to people and acknowledge her feelings for Kostos multiple times across her series. For much of the series, Lena tries to avoid emotionally difficult situations, which also includes her struggle with the growing feelings for Kostos in the first book. However she couldn’t avoid them altogether for without struggle, there won’t be anything for her to find the inner strength she needs to overcome hard obstacles in life, a lesson that she has to learn the hard way.

She is also very quiet and introverted, she is not a people person unlike her more social and outgoing baby sister Effie or her grandmother Valia. She has very few friends who are not the Septembers and she was left iffy when Valia tried to get her to befriend Kostos who is shown to be a really nice guy despite her attempts to dismiss him altogether. This almost makes her an outcast among a family of extrovert Greeks, especially with her and Effie being raised far away from the rest of the family in the States. It is later on revealed that Lena is no different from her quiet Bapi who shares with her quiet strength and introspective mindset. It does take a lot for her to overcome it and be social towards the people around her, but when she does, it can be rewarding for her, especially with renewing her familial bonds with her grandparents when they in their own ways recognize the misunderstanding in question.

But it is not all flaws as she also has great qualities in her: for one, her greatest strength lies within art. She is shown in a couple of chapters to be an aspiring artist and the artistic one in the Septembers and many a scenery and situations are described in full detail from her perspective with mentions of vivid colors and the use of the five senses, namely visual and tactile. This artistic leaning later on would clash with George’s old-fashioned lawyer sensibilities that he tried to stop her from reaching her dreams to be an artist in Girls in Pants, even going as far as initially declaring that he would not pay for her tuition in Rhode Island School of Design, and her interest in art was the one thing Lena finds solitude in the third story while avoiding the drama among her family over the move to Bethesda that Valia didn’t ask for. She would find the strength to find her own voice with the help of her wheelchair-bound summer art class teacher Annik Marchand who encourages her to go for a scholarship by making portraits of the important people in her life (and Carmen’s stepbrother Paul Rodman) and helps her out by using the ‘draw the chair’ philosophy to overcome the emotional pain rather than shying away from it and to find enclosure with her father, Valia, and Effie, as well acknowledging the pain she felt after breaking up with Kostos. Through art, Lena finds the strength to overcome trials and tribulations in her life and be stronger than she could have imagined.

She is genuinely friendly and kind to loved ones and friends once you get to know her, but it does take a while for her to open up to the people around her depending on the situation she is in. But her growth in her series shows time after time that she does begin to slow open up to people and be more assertive in letting her voice be heard, even if they can be very subtle such as following through Annik’s advice to seek out a scholarship at RISD after George threatened not to pay for her college tuition in Girls in Pants or resolving to fix her grandparents’ nearly endangered friendship with Kostas’ grandparents following her giving a misleading interpretation of the olive grove incident to Valia in the first book. This makes her rather surprisingly adaptable to the situations she is in, even if she didn’t want it in the first place.

And there is no doubt that Lena has her full loyalty to her friends, especially towards the Septembers. The girls have been connected due to their mothers being due to give birth in September and their friendship with each other stays strong over the years whereas the friendship of their mothers didn’t. It’s through their friendship where they learn more about themselves as individuals. Throughout the series, while they may be apart, they’re always there to listen to each other through the words in their letters and support each other during tough times with the Pants serving as the symbol of their friendship and as a way for their presence to be felt whenever one of the girls wears the Pants during a situation related to her, in Lena’s case, learning to trust others and realizing her feelings towards Kostos. Lena does her best to attend to her friends during their time of need, especially when Bridget feels guilty after her self-destructive pursuit to go after Eric Richman went nowhere. She is meaning to go to Baja California to be Bee’s support and give the Pants to her in the end of the first book in canon.

Overall, Lena, in spite of her quiet shy demeanor and her attempts to shy away from emotionally tough situations, is just as complex as the rest of the Septembers: while she may not be as vocal or overtly assertive as either Tibby, Bridget, or Carmen, she is proven to be capable to stay strong and adapt to change, even if they may make her uneasy initially.

Abilities: Lena is a person of average intelligence. She is highly skillful in painting, drawing, and sketching, can read, write, and speak fluent American English and very little Greek. Beyond that, she is just a normal human being.

Items: The Pants Manifesto on paper, the last letter she got from Bridget, and her journal

Digimon:

Digimon Partner: Lunamon

Personality: Lunamon is mom friend incarnated in Digimon form: she is very polite, kind, loving, and caring to the point of trying to make sure that her partner is doing well. She can sometimes act like a well-meaning yet overbearing mother at times with a tendency to nag and worry a lot. Very patient and it does take a lot for her to get really angry. Lunamon doesn’t like unnecessary violence and, while she has the patience of a saint, if push comes to shove, she WILL fight back if she needs to.

Samples:

Roleplay Sample: TDM with Hajime (10+ Comments), TDM with Takato (10+ Comments)