Skittering noises bounce through the vent as Leslie scrabbles back to their den. They nabbed a lot of food, -enough for a whole week!-, from that birthday party in apartment 8-16 and they didn’t want to get caught. Bursting into 9-20 and scrambling into the crack in the wall, they pushed their way through the small area and finally landed face-first into the concrete floor. Huffing, the rat sat up and whooped victoriously. Honestly, Leslie never expected themself to get so lucky in life. They had started out as any other street rat living in a den with too many family members. Life mostly consisted of digging around the trash for scraps, being suffocated by ten different bodies while sleeping, or running from exterminators while carrying your dying thirty-seventh cousin. It took so many years until their family finally let them separate from the pack to pursue a life of their own. And boy-did they make it great out there! A high-rise flat with minimal pest control, cracks in the wall leading to small nooks and crannies, and vents with access to all apartments? An urban scavanger’s playground! As Leslie surveyed the food they brought back, they decided to save the morsels of cake for the next time they visited their family back at home. Just because they made it big in life doesn’t mean that they should leave the others to suffer.

Leslie is a character I never had a plan for initially. Their creation was directly linked to the creation of their puppet. I did try to portray them as sneaky and crafty, yet sweet-natured and caring. 

It should be noted that I am referring to Leslie with they/them pronouns. Leslie was created with no defining characteristics or ideas that indicate what gender that they are. Even after developing their backstory and personality, I kept their gender ambiguous to make their character more flexible, allowing them to be portrayed in both masculine and feminine situations.

The idea of Leslie being a scavenger living in a high-rise came to me after observing the behaviour of pests in living areas. Our house has been dealing with a lizard invasion for a long time. Manga time, stories of strange ways lizards were caught and thrown out would be exchanged.. It came to a point that we keep our lizard-disposal equipment (flat sheet and food container) in arms reach at all times. And even then, there would be occasions where the lizards would escape. That got me thinking: where do these household pests go when not invading our homes?

In my mind, Leslie was an impoverished member of society that rose to a better standard of living. Yes, they have to scavenge and steal while avoiding humans out to get rid of them, but it’s considered a far better and easier way to to live than to be crammed into a small space with hundreds of others, fighting to get that rotten fish in the trash bag. Their sweet nature makes them want to give back to their struggling family, but there’s only so much food you can steal before the humans notice. It’s a struggle to want to live in safety, yet sacrifice enough to safeguard your family.

Leslie’s one character in a set of (currently) two that I am working on. The new character will act as a moral balance to Leslie’s generosity, allowing them to see farther than the concrete jungle they are so used to.