what’s the definition of the species?

BIOGRAPHY

listen, i tried to write a bio, i really tried – i scraped it twice, it’s been horrible so here’s a bullet point list for now

She had a very sheltered childhood. Not in the sense that she never got into trouble – if Ella couldn’t get into trouble, she’d usually make it – but more in the sense of her family sort of building a micro cosmos around her, which might have felt big at the time, but in truth she was under constant supervision and steered away from any true danger.

She was something of a child prodigy – she impressed all her tutors and studied numerous disciplines, soaking up knowledge like a sponge. She was a joy to teach, but a nightmare student, seemingly incapable of accepting anything at face value and finding it imperative to ask countless follow-up questions. She likes reading, but she likes talking about books more, especially with people who have already read them. She wouldn’t read something just for herself, she’d always rather pick something someone else mentioned to her so that she could discuss ideas with them.

 She’s quite athletic, she likes riding and has climbed (and will continue to climb) plenty of trees in her time. She loves sailing and has never in her life suffered from seasickness when out on the water.

She’s a painter and keeps a journal – well, sort of. She’s very flaky about writing in it, and she could go months without longer entries. It’s mostly a collection of thoughts she’s had, or others have had that she found interesting; snippets of poems (she never writes more than a verse, most of the time, it’s just one-two lines), occasionally even some stories she’s made up. If anyone were to read her journal, they’d probably just end up more confused as to who she is than before, as it’s an absolute mess of anything that caught her interest for a fleeting minute. I mean, she’s a bit of a mess too (who isn’t, amirite?) but it’s normally gathered around specific pain points. Generally speaking, Arabella acts quite put together and confident – and she’s quite good at making herself believe it, too. Needless to say I’m looking forward for that to change.

She’s the sort of person who’s a lot smarter than people give her credit for, but not as smart as she thinks she is. Enthusiasm doesn’t make up for experience, though it might hide the lack of it for a while, but that’s still a lesson she needs to learn. Surrounded by people who have known her most of her life, her tendency to bite off more than she can chew and take pointless risks was a relatively consequence-free endeavor. She’s only half-aware that this is not the case now that she’s in France, but – well, she also doesn’t fully understand what she could get herself into, so her caution is barely skin deep and it isn’t likely to keep her out of trouble for long.

She was really shaken by her eldest brother’s death, yet she refuses to grieve him. She cannot bring herself to think about him now that he’s gone and doesn’t want to talk about him with anyone, especially those closest to her. The one thing she can admit (only to herself) is that she’s angry at him – she even hates him for dying, at times. Everything was under control until he got sick, after all. She worries about her older sister and, although she wants to see her succeed, she cannot bring herself to believe she will, at least not without help.   

 She’s very much the youngest child: lacks any sense of responsibility, expects other people to swoop in and solve her problems, is accustomed to getting her way and being indulged, would even throw a temper tantrum every once in a while, though the outbursts have grown rarer with time.

 CONNECTIONS

SIBLINGS

Dependent on plotting but Ella is a handful under any circumstances, but I do think she has some redeeming qualities that would endear her to her siblings, at least on occasion. She is generally in high spirits and quite fun to be around, she’d talk to anyone about anything and would, somewhat infrequently, shower them with affection. She’s impervious to teasing and normally would just banter back without missing a beat. When she was younger, she was convinced nothing bad could ever touch her family, and that even if it did, it wouldn’t matter, but that changed when Ebba died. Since then, she’s started to pull away from her siblings, terrified of her own emotional dependence on them, but also determined to prove to herself and everyone else that she’s capable of taking care of herself.

FRIENDS/ENEMIES/ACQUAINTANCES

She isn’t shy about meeting new people – she isn’t shy in general, really. Awkwardness and embarrassment are not emotions she’s particularly familiar with and would typically be friendly even towards complete strangers. It’s not necessarily that she is trusting (though she might be, a little), she’s just very confident (and conceited – she assumes by default people would want to talk to her, she’s a princess after all, and so many have said she’s smart, surely she’s interesting to talk to, right?!) so she doesn’t feel out of place in France at all and she adjusted quite well to the transition. She can also be quite forceful and candid about things that maaaybe would’ve been more polite of her to ignore, so she’s definitely an acquired taste. If something a character does bothers her, they’ll know of it at once – her temper runs too hot for careful, planned revenge. She’d either retaliate immediately, or not at all.

BETROTHAL