Name: Aerin Vance
Gender/Pronouns: Currently identifies as a girl and uses she/her pronouns. At some point this might change- as a character, she hasn't done much exploring of her gender identity, and might at a later date.
Age: 17
Birthday: January 15th, 2004
Sign: I'm going to be real with you, I think she's one of those science people that Hates Astrology So Much.
Gemstone: What if it didn't follow the zodiac sign. Here's her favorite rock: Detroit Agate.
Blood Type: There's sure blood in there. Inside her body. And it even belongs to her!
Fav. Food: Nature Valley Granola bars. They're healthy, cheap, and you can shove a million of them in your pockets and eat them whenever.
Hated Food: Honestly? I think she hates yogurt.
School/Occupation: Goes to school at Meadowview High School, takes one advanced placement class a day at Destiny City University. Does volunteer science communication work at the local natural history museum.
Hobbies:
TABLETOP GAMES- Though work and school obligations have currently made it hard to do such, Aerin has had a lifelong passion for tabletop rpgs, especially D&D, and goes down to a local gaming store in a dead mall to play pick-up oneshots whenever she has the chance.
FANTASY- She also enjoys reading fantasy novels for basically the same reason; it's a form of escapism. Real life is complicated, and doing your best to do good things in real life is complicated. Dreaming about simple, uncomplicated heriosm for a bit is very much something she does. Classic fantasy is more her jam, but she has some knowledge of urban fantasy. This is easiest engaged with as a discussion topic and also shapes how she's going to react to magic in general + her own status as a magical girl.
Virtues:
Determined- Aerin is a very passionate and determined person, able to power through and pursue her own goals and passions despite outside disapproval or pressure, ex. Going through with scholarly pursuits in the field of natural history/paleontology despite the disapproval of her parents due to the fact scholarly work pays terribly, the increased workload of AP classes at a different building combined with a job, and the pressure the cost of that and the responsibility therein puts on her.
Altruistic- Aerin has a very strong sense of justice and what is right, and is usually drawn to do what she believes will help the most people. It’s part of what drew her to science communication- it’s a way to help people and better the world, and also science is just very interesting.
Clever- Aerin thinks quickly; she's good at making plans and analyzing situations on the fly. In any given stressful situation, Aerin is breaking it apart in her mind- what's she facing, what are her options, what are her opponents
options, what is her goal, are there any extenuating factors; that sort of thing. She strives to understand most things, because if she can create a general rulebook on how to deal with it, she's that much better off.
Flaws:
Prone to Overwork- Aerin's determination can very easily push her into very precarious situations. At the moment, her life is a very precarious game of balancing plates- she has it handled, but only just, and there's basically no more she can take before she crashes and burns into turbo burnout. This is a situation she is likely to keep creating for herself.
Stubborn- Aerin isn't easily swayed. If she is following a path she is sure of, she is going to follow it, and is very hard to persuade otherwise. This is an incredibly dangerous thing if she's wrong about what she should be doing, if it's dangerous or she doesn't have the full picture or something else. She's used to ignoring criticism from people, even well-intentioned criticism from people she trusts.
Repress it- As clever as she is, Aerin's response to problems she can't figure out how to deal with, especially ones are emotionally painful is to lock them in a box and try not think about them, ever. This is... not a useful strategy, and mostly leads to emotional wounds, interpersonal issues and other problems festering and not being dealt with until they've boiled over and gotten so bad Aerin literally can't ignore them anymore- and usually, she'll still try.
