[APPROVED] AV's Book Child Application {Bella} | Page 1 | Circulation [ Quests & Character Crit ] | Guild Forums

[A.V.]

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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:04 pm

"Oh! U-um, hi... may I help you?"

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Name: Bella

Nickname(s): Bell, Belle, Bel (Something Bell, lol)

Age (Appearance Wise): 16

Age (Actual): 8

Personality:

«Sweet/Polite»
No matter what the occasion, she'll always use a soft gentle tone when speaking with others... that is, if she ever works up the courage to approach you first. Regardless, if someone else approaches and greets her, she will always bow and offer a soft reply. Whether it be someone older, younger, polite, rude, reckless, etc., she will always greet them the same way, with the most utmost respect. Despite her lack of self-confidence, the story she had manifested from taught her to always treat others fairly, and to never judge one based on appearance or first-impressions. Beyond this, nothing else can really be expected from her, and if more is pressed from her, she may revert to shying away and staring at you nervously until you decide to get fed up and leave.

«Shy/Insecure»
As mentioned, Bella will often never approach another book child or city person out of free will. It's not that she doesn't like them, but... more along the lines of she doesn't know what to do/say, and constantly fears rejection. Always self-conscious of herself, she fears she may offend the other in some way, be it the way she talks, walks, presents herself, etc. She often lacks self-confidence, and needs to be reassured several times before she actually decides to do anything, but even then, she often questions herself, and she spends more time debating with herself than actually getting anything done. It is often hard for her to make any real close friends, as the other party will have to be quite persistent and be really insistent on pushing her out of her own comfort zone. But if one succeeds in doing so, they will find that she is a faithful loyal friend to the end. Sometimes... a bit too faithful, and her clinginess due to fear of losing a beloved friend may make you wish you had left her the way she was in the first place.

«Clumsy»
Trips over her own feet... which often leads to more frequent bowing and frantic apologies. It probably is pretty ironic that she's dressed like such a lady, despite not really acting like one. Her hair can constantly get snagged on a branch, the tail end of her ribbon tangling with her legs, or her heels end up getting caught in a crack, causing her to stumble. It's not on purpose though, and it is because of this that largely contributes to her low self-esteem. One may wonder why she doesn't dress in a safer, less hazardous fashion, but this couldn't of been helped. Tied in with her desire to act more lady-like and femine and the tale weaved by her book, her clothes were produced from the combination of both, and despite all the wishing in the world, her natural clumsiness would often prevail, regardless of whatever she did or wore.

«Neat-freak»
More irony to her character. Has slight (or major) OCD at times, and can't bear to see anything dirty or unkempt. If you have a crooked tie, she'll fix it for you. Mess on the floor? She'll sweep it up. It's a constant uphill battle as her clumsiness is often the result of such mess, and she'll frantically try to fix it up, at the expense of making it worse.

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:21 pm

Thoughts on the Forest:

The forest is a terrifying place for her. It's cold, dark, scary... not to mention lonely. She is always in constant need of having others around, as she is often quite insecure... not to mention the forest guardians pretty much scare the living daylights out of her.

Thoughts of Book Children:

She hasn't met many yet, but would probably throughly enjoy the company of them, considering she is one herself... as long as they don't look like the forest guardians. Yet due to her shy and quiet personality, it will take her some time to get to know others, let alone warm up to them.

Thoughts on City People:

As she's not too familiar with them, they too, present some fear in her. Not as much as forest guardians, but still enough to make her try to avoid them. Their figure only reminds her of darkness, as they don't contain any colours to them, and their strange speech pattern often startles her, as she doesn't quite understand what the strange words twirling and twisting around mean. Some more feminine and gentle speech patterns may calm her, making her hesitant, yet curious about approaching them, but large raucous speech-types will terrify and scare her away, as she hates loud noises.

Physical Appearance:

She has long, wavy blonde hair that reaches her hips. She is dressed in a very sassy victorian-esque style covered with frills and ribbons, yet despite this very elegant and bold look, she is anything but. She has a light blue sash wrapped around her waist with the loose end draping down behind her, often the cause for her stumbling, and green flared up heels, the other cause of her misfortune with sidewalk cracks.

[A.V.]

Dangerous Hunter

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[A.V.]

Dangerous Hunter

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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:57 pm

History:

Not a lot is known about her, as she often keeps to herself and doesn't talk a lot, but it seems like she came a fairytale-based book, judging from her appearance and personality. She often daydreams and imagines herself being whisked away off to faraway lands, exotic and majestic in every way. Library City doesn't quite appeal to her, as the cathedral-like structures frighten more than intrigue her, and the eerie shadows cast by the city's oil lamps only make her more paranoid as she watches her shadow grow and stretch on the cobbled streets.

Night time frequently terrifies her, and she often clings to the oil lamps, being reassured by whatever little light it offers. During the daytime where it's not so dark and she's not as fearful, she often ventures to the upper layer of the city, as it seems to be the most appealing to her (at least, out of everything else the city has to offer), and will often be found staring at the gardens, gently touching each flower and humming softly to them.

Hobbies:

«Cleaning»

When she's not making a fool of herself, or done making a fool of herself, she can be often found walking around picking up pieces of trash that may be left behind and throwing them out properly, or more often, trying to clean up the mess she just made. If she's really caught up in her work, she may randomly wander into the shops on the lower level and start straighting out things, much to the dismay of the shop owners (they usually end up with having MORE to do).

«Dancing»

Despite her normal klutziness, if she is particularly happy and cheerful, she may start humming softly and dancing. It may be the only thing she is actually graceful at, but only if she knows for sure no one is watching, which is why she never does so near the lower and middle parts of the city where it is most crowded. Her most favourite place to do so is in the garden, where she is constantly surrounded by beautiful flowers, giving her the guts to be willing to dance in the first place. But once she notices someone watching her, she'll start tripping over her own feet.

«Singing»

Also almost as uncommon as her dancing, she will only do this when happy, and usually only in the garden, where she knows no one is watching. If someone hears her and starts to inquire about it, she'll immediately stop and look for a place to hide.

Birthday: August 26 (Virgo)

Favorite Things: Flowers, Nice clothes, Daylight (or whenever the city isn't pitch-black), singing and dancing (depends on occasion)

Hated Things: Darkness, loud sounds, forest guardians (more of a fear than hate), the forest (she just hates the loneliness)

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 7:05 pm

Story: Swan song
Favorite type of Ending: Anything happy, sweet and romantic
Favorite Illustration: [x]
Dreams: To one day overcome her many, many fears (and stop being a klutz)

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Gender: Female
Hair (color and style): Light wheat-like colour, long and wavy
Eyecolor: A gradient, from light blue to grey
Skintone and features: Very fair-skinned, round face (baby face?)
Outfit element, style or time period most preferred: Sassy victorian outfit, LOL. Something with short skirts and frills. xD

Or these can be used as visual refs, including image at top

[x] [x] [x]

[A.V.]

Dangerous Hunter

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[A.V.]

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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 2:56 pm

Open for crits/suggestions!

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 10:25 pm

All in all she seems pretty good! You probably will want to expand on Sweet some. Right now it only covers how she talks to people when it has the potential to have wide-reaching effects on what kinds of actions she takes when a friend is distressed, or angry, etc. Consider what her personality traits will cause her to do in different situations.

Mostly I think - this is a rather opinion based crit - her personality right now doesn't have a vice of any sort. She does have a problem in that she's sweet and polite if you get to know her, but she's scared of approaching people so getting to know her is hard. But (arguably) that isn't a conflict that can continue to drive the character after a certain point. If someone else reaches out to her it's something that's rendered sort of moot, and once she makes a few friends she can start to come out of her shell. She's clumsy and a neat freak, but that clash is kind of more adorable than it is genuinely distressing. I feel like she needs something else to keep her striving and growing.

The difference is kind of hard for me to explain, someone more eloquent could probably tell you this in half the text I am using.

Here's an example: Say she's sweet, but she's also insecure. Insecurity can manifest as shyness, but it also extends into other parts of a character's personality so that once their initial shyness has been overcome by a particularly persistent character there's still some kind of inner conflict underlying her actions. She may be sweet, but her insecurity and her shyness cause her to cling jealously to the friends she has for fear of losing them, driving her to be obsessively attentive to her friends and turning her sweetness into a double edged sword.

A persistent darkness that is unable to be overcome, an ugly part of us that crops up again and again to cause us emotional distress and inner turmoil, exists in everyone and it's something that can keep a character interesting in many different ways for a long time to come. If you find yourself having some trouble finding something like that for her it might be easier to take one of her positive traits and think about what kind of complications can arise from it. Too much of a good thing almost always turns into something bad.

Mundane Egg
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 10:56 pm

Thanks for the crit Egg!
This is the first time I've done a quest character, so there's still a lot I have to learn.

She's the kind of person who is more than willing to lend a helping hand when needed, and the person you can really depend on to be there for you, but her lack of self-confidence and fear of rejection often prevents her from approaching others in the first place, yet if someone else reaches out to her, she sees this as acceptance from the other party, and slowly begins to open up. Though I guess her constant fear of losing that approval, or even fear of her ending up hurting her friend can make her paranoid and distant. It's a conflicting personality, lol.

I can see what you're trying to get at with the example, and I agree. I guess I should work that into the description of her personality. I just have trouble wording it sometimes. I will attempt to add what you said into her profile. Thank you!

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:34 pm

The new changes make her profile much more meaty, I think. I can gather some more about her daily interactions now. Also, I like how her neat-freak trait can potentially combine with her other traits to produce a sort of doting effect (straightening your tie, etc) ... which accentuates her sweetness~ D'aw. It looks good!