♡ ABOUT

[dilettante]

LAYLA 'REIRA' SERIZAWA

ABOUT PERSONALITY RELATION TO OTHER CHARACTERS BACKSTORY

Layla 'Reira' Serizawa NAME 23-24* November 1st, 1978 AGE/BIRTHDAY Female GENDER She/Her WEIGHT 104lbs HEIGHT Blonde (dyed pink) HAIR Hazel EYES

HEADCANON

• she has a serious case of low self-esteem partially due to a combination of factors such as losing her father at a young age, having to suppress her racial identity due to Japanese customs and norms, and her love for Takumi.

HEADCANON

• if pushed to prove she's worthy of being loved by him, I believe Layla is willing to stoop as low as Takumi to break his sister-complex towards her (his feelings towards her are complex and often up for debate but Ren observed he seems to only view her through the eyes of a sibling).

HEADCANON

• Layla has a natural love of all animals and cute things, with birds being a particular favorite of hers (flying away, freedom themes).

HEADCANON

• Despite being in love with Takumi for several years, she has the capacity to fall in love with someone else and move on (this is shown with her affections and attentions towards Shin towards the end of their relationship, wishing to escape to Sweden to relate to him better).

NAME. mimi
TIMEZONE. pst
DISCORD. pinkwestwood
PRONOUNS. she/her
GAME. golden peacock

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❝IF YOU'RE LOST, YOU CAN LOOK AND YOU WILL FIND ME, TIME AFTER TIME.❞

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Upon first impression, Layla comes across as a gorgeous, delicate, and almost untouchable lead singer of Trapnest. With her long pink dyed curls, slim figure, and extraordinary talent in singing, she's often pigeonholed into a specific type of woman by others. Underneath the cool surface is a controversial antagonist trapped in her own world.

VOICE

Light and a bit raspy, her voice is a lot more childish in comparison to her almost femme fatale appearance. Here is her English voice dub which I mainly refer to when writing her.

DEMEANOR

Depending on the situation, Layla tends to carry herself quite professionally when in front of the cameras or put on the spot in regards to her career. She speaks with confidence and has a strong conviction in her tone. With those she's more close to and not 'on' for, she's very childish, naive, extremely friendly and far more carefree. Regardless of setting, she has a light and airy vibe to her, often dressing in fashionable articles of clothing from the early 2000's such as cowboy hats and boots, silk dresses, mini skirts and tube tops as well as other bohemian style clothing. In spite of her more positive glow, there always seems to be a sense of sadness and childlike innocence to her.

UNCONVENTIONAL ANTAGONIST

Selfish

One of the biggest defining traits and flaws to Layla is her selfishness, lack of empathy towards others, and how she puts the burden of her emotional needs onto others. She cannot tolerate being alone due to her lack luster love life, and is often shown relying on characters like Ren and her assistant for all of her needs. When she is feeling particularly emotional and truly distraught, she is shown to run away and throw child-like temper tantrums, sulking away while listening to songs like Layla, or others by Nirvana. She is also shown doing actions that hurt others (unintentionally) such as being physically close to characters like Ren and Takumi despite the two being in committed relationships (leading characters like Nana and Hachi to be suspicious of her intents), sleeping with Yasu and breaking up with him to go follow Takumi to Tokyo, and breaking up with Shin but then wanting to come back to him without considering his feelings (then immediately forgetting about him and moving on). The biggest motivation for her selfishness is her attachment and abandonment issues.

Carefree

Despite showing a great number of concerns over the many trials and tribulations in her life (losing her father at a young age, moving to a new country without knowing the language, unrequited love, and the pressures of being famous), she often deals with these issues with taking a more carefree stance. Despite her position as being under constant scrutiny from both the record label and the public, she is shown to hire Shin for sexual services without a care, often tries to skip out on her work, and shows a general lack of care for things in the 'real world'. Due to this, she is often teased by the other characters saying things like she's not very useful, she doesn't have any real world skills, and her personal assistant is more like a baby sitter to her. Takumi says this about her, "She doesn't know the harshness of reality, aside from singing she doesn't have any other talent."

Devoted

Although she has a very superficial and shallow view in regards to her talents and singing, she is fiercely devoted to the band and Takumi, forcing herself out of her emotional distress to not let anyone down. She is painfully aware that the band's success hinges on her work ethic and dedication and she will often force herself to take on a more professional and dedicated role. Additionally, despite Takumi having a large number of lovers across the world and knowing of them, she remains diligent in her love for him (although she does try often to move on from him and is currently not as devoted to him).

Friendly

Although she can be quite selfish when it comes to her wants and needs, she is shown to be incredibly friendly to most characters throughout the series even to the point of her own personal discomfort. She is rarely shown to get angry or flaunt her talents/beauty towards others, seemingly unaware of her positive qualities due to her own personal issues. If someone calls upon her for help or for anything, she's quick to offer herself to them. She's very easy going and is very affectionate with those she considers friends, embracing Ren during one of his drug lapses and comforting him, even sleeping in the same bed as her personal assistant. When confronted with antagonistic characters, depending on the situation, she seems to either effortlessly disarm them or finds a way to have their words and actions roll off of her, opting to try and become friends with others.

Childish/Naive

Due to the way she was raised and being trapped in a bubble of the band and Takumi since her high school days, she is painfully childish and naive almost to a fault. When she first encountered Shin and flirted with him, he told her a night with him was 100,000 yen and gave her his business card. Without question, she called him up and paid him the full amount, expecting it to be a reoccurring fee, only to be told it was way too much money and he was joking. In the same vein, he made it clear that any interactions they had were strictly business only despite her wanting to have a relationship/situationship with him from the start, not realizing that as an escort he had other clients to be with. Her childish antics come through in the playful manner she conducts herself with people she's close to, often speaking in a 'cute' tone of voice, acting flamboyant and playful, and carelessly giving others affection (or outright laughing and encouraging anyone who anyone puts Takumi in his place).

TAKUMI

It is through the eyes of Layla that we see the true antagonist (or demon lord) through a slightly more sympathetic eye. We see his struggles of growing up in an abusive broken home through her, and how she often defends him despite his flaws. Being one of her first friends when she moved to Japan and knew nothing about the language and culture, she developed a strong crush on him from a very young age, confessing and manipulating him into allowing her to give him physical affection reserved for couples stating that it was a thing everyone did in America. As they both grew up, she did her best to convey her feelings to him asking for him to take the place of being her boyfriend, but he said he was already seeing someone and that 'being a cute' girl meant she could find anyone else to date her. Unfortunately for Layla, despite doing her best to move on from Takumi as she grew older, dating Yasu (eventual drummer for BLAST), and saying she wanted to 'shatter Takumi's illusions'- she ended up being drawn back into his life when he heard her sing and claimed she was a safe space for him, fueling them both to start a band. In an origin story panel we see Takumi's inner thoughts over her, feeling possessive and annoyed that she was even talking to Yasu but ultimately deciding he doesn't care what she does. Currently in the story, despite not being together and Layla using Shin to move on from Takumi and end her loneliness, she clung back to him and had an affair with him. It led to the two becoming bitter towards each other and Layla ultimately deciding she hated him in the end.

SHIN

Upon their first meeting, Layla carelessly flirted with the younger boy in front of an interviewer, stating he was 'the most adorable thing ever' and him offering her his 'sexual' services. She immediately hired him for the night and acted quite seductive, a front Shin immediately called her out on, stating she was far more innocent and pure than she let on. Although the two initially only had a client/worker relationship, the more they saw each other and the more she confided in him about her worries, the both mutually agreed to date each other officially in secret. Eventually the two are caught and forced to break up due to Takumi, however this ends very poorly for the two. Upon seeing Layla incredible depressed and saddened by the breakup, he finally urges her to wait for her 'Prince' to grow up and to hold off, before relenting and trying to get them back together. Layla reached out to Shin once more, he rejected her calling her selfish and uncaring about his feelings before she finally moved on from him.

REN

Initially Layla knew him briefly in high school as the younger adoptive brother of Yasu, not having a close bond with him quite yet. The two eventually ended up joining the same band Trapnest due to Takumi's efforts in recruiting him. Although they weren't too close at the start of the series, little by the little they ended up becoming close friends due to her discovering his drug issues and Ren empathizing with her pain over not being able to be with Takumi. The two are shown to be quite affectionate, sharing and confiding in their feelings with each other and Ren even urging Takumi to sleep with her (despite him dating his girlfriend's best friend). Despite their closeness, Layla isn't shown to have feelings for him and often roots for his relationship with Nana. During a moment where they both were in a rented room and drinking away the night, she ended up falling asleep on a table to avoid pushing boundaries with Ren.

NANA + HACHI

In regards to Nana O.— despite never having met the other woman for a majority of the series, she is aware of her through Ren and knows of their devotion and love. Although she's blind to the fact that their relationship leans on the side of being toxic, she romanticizes their relationship and secretly rooted for it often, even telling Ren they should get married or if they did, all of his problems could be solved. When they finally met in person, she seemed to intimidate Nana with her glamour, but soon ran to the other with much enthusiasm and innocently declared that she 'wanted to become best friends' with her. Whether this was her just being polite or naive to the fact that they are both lead singers to rival bands is unknown.

In regards to Nana K.— although Layla took the news of Takumi marrying her and getting her pregnant very poorly (she has no issues with Takumi having lovers as long as he didn't commit to them), she was willing to invite the other to her birthday party for Shin's sake as the two hadn't seen each other some time in the aftermath of Nana becoming pregnant. She was polite and friendly to the other despite viewing her as competition for Takumi's affections and attentions.

BACKGROUND

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