CIVILIAN . STRAND, ORIEL

FEMALE

HOMOSEXUAL

TWENTY-SIX

SEPTEMBER 17 1985

AMERICAN

ENGLISH, (some) FRENCH

CARROT TOP, RED, GINGER, PUMPKIN, ANYTHING REFERRING TO RED OR ORANGE, FRECKLES, ETC.

0.5

N/A

N/A

N/A

1/30/14 BY SENRI

KNIGHT

JULIETTE DUBOIS
KRISTEN MAYOR
GABRIELLE ALBERTS
ELISE MILNER

MEDIUM-LOW

GINNY WEASLEY - HARRY POTTER

Oriel is indefinitely crashing at her girlfriend Shara's place. She wasn't going to at first, honest to goodness; in the beginning, she was just staying there until she could find her own place. But then one month turned into two, then three, then next thing Oriel knew, she was helping Shara repaint the living room. They're set firmly somewhere in the middle class, and their apartment is HUGE compared to the other flats in the building. (In fact, they live next door to a couple of blond hobbits; compared to them, Oriel and Shara practically live in a castle.) Oriel can't help but wonder when Shara's going to get fed up with Oriel's bumming around, but if it really bothered her she would have said something by now... right? Besides, she helps pay the rent! She's not completely useless! Really!

She's currently "between jobs," meaning she's unemployed. She used to work as a flight attendant and fly all over the world, but once she and Shara had been dating for a while she decided to quit. She hasn't quite found the right job for her just yet; she's allergic to desks, and she's deemed everything else too dull and boring. (To be honest, sometimes she still wishes she was traveling, but only if Shara was with her.) She's got money saved up so she's not too worried, but she really does need to find something that pays!

Oriel tends to stand out, and for good reason: her bright orange hair is often the first thing people notice about her. It's the kind of eye-smarting color that you can easily spot from a mile away, and makes it impossible for her to disappear into a crowd. Not that she'd want to, anyway; Oriel likes being front and center, the lead actress in her own personal play. "Is it natural, or do you dye it?" is a question she hears at least several times a day, but it's like, please, as if she's going to tell. She often wears her hair in a messy half bun at the back of her head, with a few braids added in to the mix for good measure. In fact, there's almost always a few small braids tucked away here and there in her artfully tousled mass of curls; she ends up braiding it whenever she's bored.

Her face is an abstract painting of hundreds of freckles, though they don't stop there: they continue down to her shoulders and arms. There's as many freckles on her body as there are stars in the sky. Her skin is fair enough that she has to constantly worry about burns and skin cancer, especially since she's almost always outside in the sun. She has a straight edge nose set over full lips, and eyes that are a lively shade of brown, with a multitude of various flickers and specks of color trapped within them. One minute they might look like they have some grey in them, then the next, they appear to be hazel. Some claim it's color contacts or witchcraft, but it's all just a matter of lighting and what colors she happens to be sporting that day. No magic here folks, sorry!

(She also has faint scars on her hands that she doesn't like to talk about.)

She stands at a modest height of just a little under 5'6"- not too tall, not too short. Her height tends to fluctuate, however, with whatever size heels she happens to be sporting. Oriel is lithe and lean from a healthy appetite of near constant activity. The girl is a whirlwind of movement all day everyday, and it's not too often that she ever stops and sits still for very long. She has a bad habit of forgetting to eat, sometimes only having one meal a day, but when she does eat it's a lot, and it almost never shows on her stomach or thighs. She's got a metabolism that most middle-aged women would kill for, and she's not one to hold back on how much she eats for the sake of manners, thank you very much. She'll gladly help herself to several helpings of everything!

Having hair the color of a pumpkin doesn't stop Oriel from having an impressive wardrobe of every color under the sun. She wears everything and anything, from jeans and tee shirts to dresses and leggings. She's almost always pushing the envelope with what she can get away with wearing in public- let's just say that she isn't very shy about her body, and leave it at that. She's not particularly curvy, but she does know how to work with what she has so that she looks good. Or at least, y'know, decent. Sometimes you just feel like walking around in a pajama shirt and flip-flops- happens all the time, in fact! While there are days where she can spend hours on her appearance, there are also days where the most she'll do is roll on some deodorant and wipe the crust out of her eyes.

What can she say, she's the epitome of fashion.

she is bright lights and cityscapes
and white lies and cavalcades

vibrant ! She is all color and light and music and laughter. Oriel is full of life and cheer; she's exceedingly happy-go-lucky, often to the point where people think she's a little odd. Eccentric. Weird, even. She doesn't really mind though; someone has to spread some good cheer around, after all! She can be difficult to keep up with at times, both physically and mentally; not only will she walk at a pace that leaves most people winded, but she'll jump from one subject of conversation to the next without batting an eye.

bold ! ... ly going where no (wo)man has gone before! Oriel has the kind of loud confidence you would see in your typical Gryffindor; she's not afraid to do what others won't. There isn't a drop of shyness in the girl- or if there is, it's hidden away where only those closest to her can find it. To the rest of the world though, Oriel is the kind of happy arrogant that most people can only smile and shake their heads at. It's not overbearing, but it's still there, like a heat wave radiating off of her at all times.

naive ! Or is she? It's up in the air whether she's genuinely that silly or if it's all a ruse, but at least she's having fun, right? (Truth be truth, she's not that naive; far from it. It's an act she puts on, when in reality she is well-aware of how the world works. How people work. Do not expect her to blindly trust any stranger who offers her help; sure, she'll accept it, but not without keeping an eye on them at all times, waiting for them to make the move that will only serve to confirm her suspicions.)

optimistic ! Her defining trait is her optimism; her ability to find a silver lining in every gray storm cloud is borderline legendary. Anyone can be pessimistic; it takes true talent to remain optimistic in the face of a world that will try to convince you otherwise. It's hard work! Really hard work. But Oriel refuses to give in to the negativity. That's someone else's job- it's not for her! She's the one looking for sunshine in a storm, and she won't stop until she finds it. Don't underestimate her positivity!

sincere ! Her honesty can often be disarming for people who don't know her; she's not above stopping a random person on the street just to compliment their hair, or tell them how pretty they look. Often, strangers wonder if she's being sarcastic or deceptive, but Oriel is an open book; she just loves making people happy! If she can brighten someone's day just by paying them a compliment, then you can bet your life that she'll do it with a smile on her face. You never know when someone might need a little pick me up.

careless ! Leaving her phone behind in the restaurant? Check. Locking her car keys in her car? Check. Forgetting her wallet at home and only just remembering as she's about to pay for her coffee? Double check. Oriel has a bad habit of forgetting the minor, crucial details in her life; she's trying to fix this, really, she is, but things just slip her mind and next thing she knows, she can't seem to find her purse anywhere. Maybe it's a memory thing. Maybe her head's in the clouds. Or maybe just she's stupid. Who knows.

rude ! While for all intents and purposes Oriel is usually a perfectly polite young lady, there are times when she forgets herself. Just like how she can easily forget her wallet at home, Oriel can also just as easily forget that chewing with your mouth open is generally frowned upon in today's society. As is burping. And looking at pictures of puppies while you're in the middle of a conversation with someone. You might ask, "Were you raised in a barn or something?" And Oriel will happily reply, "Pretty much, yeah!"

impulsive ! Jumping headfirst into things without thinking them through first is practically Oriel's life blood. Whether she's rushing to conclusions, or making a split second decision on something important, you can count on her to do the first thing that comes to mind and just roll with it. On the one hand, she doesn't usually stress out over making a decision. On the other hand, she could probably use to stress out over making decisions just a bit. It's up for debate whether or not she ever stresses out at all.

irresponsible ! Of all her shortcomings, immaturity is certainly one of them. In some respects, she can be a model adult, but most of the time? You can expect her to put every important thing she has to do today off until the last possible minute, then spend all her free time painting her nails, or watching TV, or maybe both at once! She'll get it done eventually though, you can bet on that; it'll just be rushed and last minute and not quite up to par. It'll be the end of the world the day Oriel learns how to manage her time.

emotional ! Let's get one thing straight: there is absolutely nothing wrong with emotions. Emotions are good and healthy! So please don't make fun of her when she starts bawling at the latest Humane Society commercial. She can't help herself, it's just who she is. It's pretty easy to make her cry, but then again it's also pretty easy to make her laugh too. Making her mad is another story entirely, as Oriel had her anger gland removed when she was an infant and had it sold on the black market for a pretty good price.

Oriel was born with wanderlust, a sad fate for a girl from The Middle of Nowhere, Illinois. With a population of just a little over 3,000 and the nearest city several hours away, it's no surprise that any child would dream of something bigger and brighter and better.

When she was one, she would throw her cheerios on the ground just to watch her mom clean them up.

("Do you want me to break my back at such a young age, Oriel? Is that what you want?")

When she was two, she had to watch ET every night before she went to bed, otherwise she couldn't sleep.

(The entire concept of aliens and space was fascinating to her, and it's still one of her favorite movies to this day.)

When she was three, she woke up to her parents fighting for the first time.

(It wasn't the last.)

(Later, mom told her not to mention it to anyone, because it was a "family thing.")

When she was four, she got in trouble at school for shoving sand down other kids' pants.

(She didn't know how to talk to them or ask them to play, so she became a bully.)

When she was five, she asked her mom for a little sister. She just smiled, and told Oriel "maybe someday."

(As it would turn out, she did get a little sister; Oriel just doesn't know she exists.)



When she was six, she rode a pony all by herself... and then promptly fell off a minute and a half later.

(It was the best minute and a half of her six-year-old life though, and she's loved horses ever since.)

When she was seven, she visited an apple orchard with her dad as he tried to explain to her where mom went.

(Because apples were her favorite favorite, and she had been pestering him to take her and mom there for months now. He finally took her, but mom didn't go with them; in fact, she had left the night before, while Oriel was asleep. "Mommy went away, and she's not coming back. But she loves you very much, Oriel, I promise.")

("I'm sorry.")

When she was eight, she became obsessed with maps and taped them all over the walls of her bedroom.

(Any map she could get her hands on, from maps of the world to maps of the next town over, ended up spread across every inch of her walls until you couldn't see any of the paint underneath.)

When she was nine, she confessed to a friend that she had a crush on another girl.

(They stopped talking after that.)

(She realized there must be something wrong with her, and never mentioned it again.)

When she was ten, she decided she wanted to become an astronaut so she could live on the moon.

(That was the year she had no friends, and came to the conclusion that dying alone in space was better than being alone on earth.)



When she was eleven, she tried talking to her mom on the phone, only for her not to recognize her own daughter.

("Hello? Who is this? ... Ariel? I'm sorry sweetie, I think you have the wrong number.")

When she was twelve, her dad told her she needed to stop daydreaming all the time and get serious about school.

("You're never going to get anywhere if you don't crack down on your studies. You need to start thinking about your future now.")

When she was thirteen, she tried to hitchhike out of town only to get picked up by a cop.

(He dropped her off at home with an amused smile, and her dad lectured her for over an hour on stranger danger and safety.)

When she was fourteen, she told a boy she liked him when she didn't, just because she liked his sister instead.

(She had the prettiest black hair and could make Oriel laugh no matter how sad she felt.)

When she was fifteen, she cried over her grades for the first time because they dropped a letter.

(Her GPA barely moved, but she was still terrified that she was going to become a reject.)



When she was sixteen, she told her dad what she wanted to do after high school and he laughed in her face.

("Travel? Oriel, honey, be reasonable. Use your head. That's just impractical, not to mention expensive! Do you want to leave your old man so badly? I'll die of a lonely heart if you go too far away, you know. Why don't we look at some in-state colleges?")

When she was seventeen, she was the last person to talk to her friend before she died that night.

(Oriel had gotten in a fight with her over something silly, and the guilt of it all nearly drowned her.)

When she was eighteen, she shredded her hands on the vase her dad threw when she finally told him she was going to school on the other side of the country.

(She told herself again and again that he didn't mean what he said, but nothing could stop her from crying all the same.)

When she was nineteen, she almost dropped out of college because she didn't think she was good enough.

(There were people way more deserving to be there than her; she was wasting everyone's time.)

When she was twenty, she wore a bright yellow ribbon in her hair everyday because it reminded her of sunshine.

(She didn't care that it clashed with her hair color or that it drew stares from the people around her; let them stare.)



When she was twenty-one, she went out drinking with her friends and had her first kiss.

(She tasted like bad decisions and whiskey and Oriel loved every second of it- until she banged her head against the wall and had to sit down before she threw up.)

When she was twenty-two, a man at her summer internship told her she was pretty as he tried to touch her.

(She tried to report him to the supervisor, but all he told her was that she was overreacting and needed to "lighten up a little.")

When she was twenty-three, she had her fortune read in Rome and was told that she had a lot of good things coming in her future.

(She smiled to herself because she already knew that, but a little reassurance never hurt anyone.)

When she was twenty-four, she met a girl who made her stomach churn and her heart do backflips.

(And she had never wanted to be so close to someone before.)

When she was twenty-five, she went home for the first time in years only to find her dad passed out on the kitchen floor.

(One hospital trip later revealed that he was hungover and severly dehydrated; when he woke up he started yelling at her, and declared he never wanted to see her face again. Whether he knew it was her or thought it was her mom, she'll never know.)