Welcome to Gaia! ::

Name: Starling Finch

Nickname: Star, obviously. Birdie, also obviously.

Age: 26

Birthday: August 18th

Sign: Leo

Gemstone: Citrine

Blood Type: AB+

Fav. Food: Pizza and anything that you can put on a pizza. Alcohol.

Hated Food: Shellfish. Eggs. Potato chips.

Occupation: Dog-walker, bartender, and notary public - did you know that just about anyone can become a notary? Starling does. She's also a doctorate student at DCU, pursuing a Ph.D. in gender studies.

Hobbies:

Media blogger- Starling runs a moderately-popular blog where she critiques movies and television shows on matters of diversity, representation, etc. She does bimonthly videos where she reviews films or just talks for twenty minutes, and is always happy to talk shop or give another blogger a shout out - as long as they recommend back, of course.

Master chef- Starling is a stupidly ambitious amateur chef who thinks that because she saw someone do it on Food Network, she can totally get the same results in her apartment kitchen. She loves to try out recipes and then foist the results on her friends - usually accompanied by matching, thematic cocktails, because everything goes better with alcohol.

Thrifting and antiquing- Starling doesn't look at the past with rose-colored glasses, but she can sure agree that they had some mad style. The more previous owners her clothes have had, the better, and she can spend hours on weekends thumbing through thrift shops and antique malls for decor pieces for her apartment and new additions to her wardrobe.

Virtues:

Ambitious- Starling doesn't think that there's anything in the world that's out of her reach, and if she puts her mind to something, she can do it. She is a go-getter and a goal seeker, unafraid of working hard to get whatever it is that she wants. In her education, she has always strove to get the highest grades. In extracurriculars, she aims for the awards. In life, she wants certifications and proofs of competency. Starling gets things done, and she gets them done well, and then she moves on to the next project and gets that done, too.

Open-minded- Starling's father works in theater, and that means that her parents' living room has been host to an endless parade of diverse and interesting friends and collaborators for as long as she can remember. She learned tolerance and tact at her mother's knee, understanding early that not everyone is going to look and act the same way as she does and that's great. Starling accepts people as they are and is open to all walks of life - as long as your walk of life doesn't involve hurting other people, or claiming that your right to be a jackass isn't more important than someone else's right to safety.

Clever- Starling is brainy. She's been honed by years in academia and growing up with her zoologist mother and theater-critic father to pick up on small details and analyze subtext. She's a good student, and is good at riddles and puzzles of most kinds. Starling is also good at reading people and figuring out what to say to make them feel better (or worse, when she wants to), a skill that comes in handy at her night job as a bartender.

Flaws:

Competitive- Starling grew up with three siblings close to her in age, and four close family friends who might as well have been siblings. Her parents have always encouraged their children to be the best they can be, and in such a large band of children, it was hard work to stand out and be on top! Starling wants to be the best, and she wants to be acknowledged as the best, and she'll work herself ragged and burn every bridge she has to to get there. She's a perfectionist in the worst way and is easily goaded into contests of one-upmanship, even if that means trying to punch far above her weight class.

Loud- Starling lives life with the volume turned to eleven. When she has an opinion, she wants everyone to know it, and she wants to be right. Frequently, this leads to her talking over other people. She has also never quite grasped the concept of indoor voice and frequently speaks more loudly than a situation calls for, and her vocabulary is decidedly vulgar. Also, if she's having good sex, she wants the neighbors to know and be jealous. So, like, yeah.

Bitter- When Starling was seventeen, she and her best friend emerged as front-runners for their high school's valedictorian title. Despite a year's worth of one-upmanship, all-nighters, and working themselves to the bone, neither gained a clear lead, and they were finally declared co-valedictorians. Starling held the grudge for six years. She's the kind of person who catalogues past wrongs (or even just perceived wrongs), and lets go of them extremely slowly, but she's not the kind of person to directly seek vengeance: the best revenge, in her opinion, is success, and she's far more likely to treat people she dislikes rudely or simply choose to ignore them than outright seek to sabotage them.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Eyes: Navy blue, not quite black but getting there. Almond-shaped; Starling favors her mother's Chinese heritage.

Hair: Chestnut brown, long enough to wear in a ponytail on top and buzzed short on the sides, with long bits right in front of her ears (see the reference in the next post). Starling went through a phase in undergrad where she bleached and colored her hair so many times she basically had to cut it all off and start over - now she just lets it be.

Face: A happy medium between truly round or truly oval. Starling has thick (but expertly plucked!), expressive eyebrows, a very straight nose that is slightly broad across the bottom, and thin, wide lips with an almost permanent smirk. Her skin is light, but with strong gold tones, and she tans very easily.

Clothes: Starling dresses like the year is 1993 and she publishes her own Riot Grrrl 'zine. She likes thrift-store floral dresses, granny sweaters, skinny jeans, ripped tights, band tees, and the chunkier the soles on her shoes (to make up for her appalling lack of height - she's 5'2"), the better.

Cambridge looks good to me! (Holy s**t, Cambridge is old enough to be a Wonder that is a weird thought.)



A GM will be by soon<3