#eulaliabio

Laia definitely never wanted to go to space. She thinks it’s a silly solution and that people ought to be focusing on saving the Earth if it really is dying. But her sister had begged and pushed, and, well, Dianne always got her way. Besides, it seemed like it might be fun. If absolutely terrifying.

Her biological mother gave her up for adoption when she was a baby, and she was adopted by a lesbian couple in Essex, Ontario. One of her mothers - Emilie - worked as an optometrist, while the other - Anissa - stayed at home and sometimes did tattoos as a hobby. Laia was always very close to both of her mothers, but especially Anissa, the more outwardly affectionate and cheerful of the two. She was also very close with her sister, Dianne, and they were each other’s best friends.

Laia was very good in school - though not nearly the natural genius her sister was - but she struggled to make friends, and she was always very shy. The older she got, the more intense this got, and when she was fifteen, she developed severe anxiety, and she would have a panic attack every time she entered her school. She was pulled out of school and homeschooled for the last few years of school, and she went to therapy and learned to manage her symptoms.

Once she was old enough, she made the bold decision to go to Oberlin College, in the United States, because she wanted to “start fresh”. It was terrifying, and there were many times where she wanted to drop out (sometimes she still thinks she should have), but she made it through premed and went on to medical school at the University of Virginia, even farther from her home. It was difficult, but she loved everything she was learning, and she knew she wanted to become a surgeon more than anything, so she stuck to it.

Eventually, she got a job in Boston, Massachusetts working as a heart surgeon, after completing her residency when she was 31. Her anxiety comes and goes in waves, so there are times when she’s just fine, if a little high-strung, and there are other times when she can’t even leave her front door. But…her sister wanted her to go to a space station, and Laia would do almost anything for her sister.

Laia is very shy, caring, and trustworthy. Although she can come off as distant or nervous, she has a powerful inner passion that shines through when she’s around people she knows and trusts. She’s an optimist who always looks for the good in people and bad situations. She hates large groups, and she can run out of energy and become overwhelmed when she focuses on too much at once. She loves to consider hypotheticals and philosophy, but she can often get lost in her own mind and withdraw from the people around her. She’s cautious and indecisive, but she’s also very loyal to the causes she values, and she’ll fight fiercely for her friends and family. 

She’s very aware of her anxieties, which only feeds into her self-doubting nature. She works hard to build a network of trust and, once she befriends someone, she will do just about anything to maintain that relationship. Unfortunately, this means it’s easy for her to be taken advantage of. She tends to take things personally, and she prefers to focus on the big picture than details. She can be a bit impractical.