Character Survey
Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is she heavyset, thin, short, rangy?
Around 5' 2", mayber a little thinner than she should be. She's concerned about her weight, even though she really doesn't need to be.
2. How old is she?
Sixteen.
3. Describe her posture. Does she carry herself well or does she slouch?
She doesn't try to stand up perfect model straight, but she has good posture.
4. How is her health? Is she fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities?
She's in good health and has no disabilities, but she's not very athletic.
5. How does she move? Is she clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid?
She's pretty clumsy. She can walk and chew gum, but when she gets excited or nervous, forget it. She can trip over nothing.
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does she perceive herself in the mirror? She's very cute, and she knows it, but she doesn't think she's "beautiful" or "pretty." Rather, she's a little wide eyed and young looking and and get a little jealous of girls who look mature and pretty.
7. Describe her complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred?
Light complexion and clear. She works pretty hard to keep herself free of blemishes and uses facial scrubs, creams and the like (even if she does still get the occasional pimple.)
8. Describe her hair: color, texture, style.
Her hair is blonde and kind of curly, reaching just about halfway down her back. She goes back and forth between putting it up and leaving it down, depending on how she feels or what she's doing, but almost always has a ribbon in her hair.
9. What color are her eyes?
Blue
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features?
Not really. She's really kind of average and "normal" looking.
11. What are her chief tension centers?
Her shoulders, I think? She spends a lot of time cooking and baking and tends to tense up if she's not sure what she's doing, so her shoulders can get pretty stiff.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does she have six of the same suit?
Very stereotypically "girly" with lots of pink and pastel colors. She likes "cute" clothes, loose skirts, ribbons and the like. Some people think her wardrobe is a bit childish for her age.
13. Do her clothes fit well? Does she seem comfortable in them?
Her clothes seem to suit her well, though they are a bit childish for a 16 year old. However, she does seem very comfortable in them.
14. Does she dress the same on the job as she does in her free time? If not, what are the differences?
The outfit she wears at school suits her style pretty well, with the addition of an apron and headscarf. Her school uniform is a little less cutesy, with it's grey blazer and dark red skirt.
15. You knew it was coming: Bikinis, briefs or commando?
dem panties
I MEAN.
Brief-style panties, plain white.
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse?
High pitched, very "girly" with a slight tinge of valley-girl. Her voice tends to get squeakier when she's panicked or nervous.
2. How does she normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does she talk easily, or does she hesitate?
She speaks pretty evenly. She speaks easily, but if she's talking to omg a handsome guy, she'll probably hesitate and get all shy.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics?
Having grown up watching tapes of old old TV shows, her speech is peppered with outdated slang like "Keen" and "Jeepers!" or the occasional "gee whiz!" along with various "Valley girl-isms."
4. What language/s does she speak, and with how much fluency?
She's fluent in both French and English.
5. Does she switch languages or dialects in certain situations?
She usually only speaks French when visting relative in France or accompanying her father on a business trip, but if she runs into a French person in the US, she may switch languages and converse with them.
6. Is she a good impromptu speaker, or does she have to think about her words?
She usually just says whatever, but in serious situations she needs to think about what she says, or it all comes out as a mess.
7. Is she eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change?
She speaks well, most of the time. When she gets really nervous, she speaks a mile a minute and her words will run together into a blur.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is she book-smart or street-smart?
She has a good amount of common sense, but I wouldn't call her street smart. She can be kind of innocent and naive at times.
2. Does she think on her feet, or does she need time to deliberate?
She definitely has to deliberate to make good descisions. When forced to think on her feet she tends to panic a little.
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is she more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical?
She tries to be practical, since she spent a lot of time with her grandparents, who tried to instill practical values into her, but she usually wants to do what she thinks will make people happy.
4. What kind of education has the character had?
From kindergarten until middle school, she attened public school. Starting in middle school, her father enrolled her in the Lillian Rose Academy for Young Ladies.
5. What are her areas of expertise? What, if anything, is she interested in learning more about?
She's good at baking. Any other cooking she does is a disaster, but baking is something she's good at and is always open to learning more about it.
6. Is she an introvert or an extrovert?
Extroverted, though she does have introvert tendancies in certain situations (again with omg handsome guys.)
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is she even-tempered or does she have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven?
She's usually pretty peppy, but she has mood swings. She can go from cheery to "slap you blind" enraged with one misunderstood comment.
8. How does she respond to new people or situations? Is she suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic? She's pretty quick to be nice to people she's meeting for the first time, but is a little more nervous about new situations. She's pretty quick to trust people unless they either give off a creeper vibe or give her an obvious reason not to. In other words, if you're nice to her, she'll probably trust you.
9. Is she more likely to act, or to react?
She reacts more than she acts. She's not very proactive unless she really pushes herself.
10. Which is her default: fight or flight?
Flight. She's not very strong and she would rather run from any danger.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does she appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks?
She doesn't...get jokes very well unless they're obvious jokes, like knock-knock jokes or something. Pranks can be funny to her unless she's the victim.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does she deal with them?
No mental disorders here. Just a girl and her hissy fits.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined her as a person?
Not a lot of specific moments that influenced who Pilouette is, more so specific people.
14. What does she fear?
Pilouette fears being completely alone and unloved. She seems to need approval from other people and can get defensive if she doesn't get that approval.
15. What are her hopes or aspirations?
She wants to grow up and own a bakery. She also wants to get married and raise a family one day.
16. What is something she doesn't want anyone to find out about her?
She stuffs her bra (not that it helps.) Seriously, though, she doesn't want people to know how insecure she gets at times, wanting to keep up the appearance of a happy girl, because she believes that a "good" girl doesn't make others worry.
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with her parents.
Pilouette gets on well with her father, Armand, though he's often on business trips and she wishes she could see him more. However, he's also so protective of her that she often gets the impression that he doesn't believe she can do anything important on her own, which fuels her insecurities.
Her parents are divorced and she rarely, if ever, speaks to her mother, as she's still pretty resentful of her for picking her career over her family. When people ask about her, Pilouette usually answers "I don't have a mom." and leaves it at that unless pushed.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like?
She's an only child.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom she is close? Are there ones she can't stand?
Pilouette is very close to her grandparents. Since her parents both worked much of the time, she spent much of her early years under their care and always looks forward to visiting them. She is especially attached to her grandmother and will always go to her when she needs advice.
On the other hand, she can't stand her cousin Giselle. A good deal of this is because of Pilouette's own jealousy; Confident, popular with boys and mature-looking, Giselle seems to be everything Pilouette isn't and she never hesitates to remind Pilouette of this. However, a lot of their bad relationship stems from a particular event in their childhood before which they got along very well. However, though they know something happened, neither of them remember what it is, but they'll insist they do.
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom she considers part of her family? What are her relationships with them?
The Hartell family is like a second family to her. Having been friends with their son, Peter since kindergarten, she's come to know them very well, even staying with them on occasions when being at her own home isn't an option.
Mr. and Mrs. Hartell are again, like second parents and she really looks up to them. Mr. Hartell is a baker who Pilouette always wants to learn from. She also goes to Mrs. Hartell about advice about things nearly as much as she does to her grandmother.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet?
Her best friend is Peter Hartell. When Pilouette started attending kindergarten in the US, she still had a bit of a French accent was teased by the other kids for "talking funny" and ended up avoiding them. Peter, on the other hand, was a pretty shy kid and didn't know quite how to approach the others and came to be seen as being "unfriendly and snobby."
The two of them, having trouble making friends with the other children, more or less becamse friends because no one else would have them. However, the two of them being around one another helped them along with others better; Pilouette helped Peter become less shy and being around Peter and his parents, who were happy that he'd made a friend, helped her learn to stop avoiding the other kids.
6. Does she have other close friends?
Patty Summers, is Pilouette's best friend at school. The two of them started the Lillian Rose academy at the same time, Patty having just moved and Pilouette having transfered. They ended up in a lot of the same classes and became good friends.
7. Does she make friends easily, or does she have trouble getting along with people?
She makes friends pretty easily as long as the initial meeting goes well. She can really be a very sweet girl. However, she tends to get along easier with girls, though she takes criticism and the like more seriously from girls than boys.
8. Which does she consider more important: family or friends?
Though she values them both, family definitely trumps friends in Pilouette's mind.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has she been married more than once?
She's never been married.
10. Is she currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse?
Nope. She's yet to even have her first kiss, much less her first boyfriend.
11. Who was her first crush? Who is her latest?
Her first crush was an older boy who lived near her grandmother. Her latest...well, it changes day to day.
12. What does she look for in a romantic partner?
Having been raised on Fairy Tales, Pilouette tends to fall for "princely" guys: handsome, sophisticated and well mannered. Though these are usually just infatuations.
She doesn't know it, but she really wants someone she can bicker with and fuss over.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does she relate to them? If no, does she want any?
No babies for her. If she had a baby now, her father would have a heart attack. She does want children someday, though.
14. Does she have any rivals or enemies?
The closest thing she has to an enemy is probably her cousin, Giselle. The two of them seem to thrive on antagonizing one another, though if they could stop fighting, they might see they're more alike than they think.
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does she fall on the Kinsey scale?
Heterosexual. She does have the occasional "girl crush", but it's little more than "omg i want to be as cool as her." Nothing romantic or sexual.
16. How does she feel about sex? How important is it to her?
She understands the kind of gravity sex holds in a relationship, but it's not the most important thing to her. On the rare occasion that sexual advances are made toward her, it can be expected that she'll just...flip her shit, get very skittish and start spitting out verbal keymashes, if she can say anything at all.
17. What are her turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits?
She's pretty innocent both romantically and sexually so...yeaaaahhhh, let's just... leave this one alone.
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does she fit type?
She's a Virgo. She fits it pretty well, I think. She can be pretty sensitive to criticism ad can worry about making things perfect, though she doesn't always fit the "civility and manners" stuff.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in her life?
She's...not too terribly spiritual or religious. She believes in God, but she's not hardcore about it.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it? The only code of ethics she follows is usually what's "socially acceptable," though she does occasionally step out of those boundaries if someone really crosses her.
4. How does she regard beliefs that differ from hers? Is she tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent?
She's pretty indifferent to some; her philosophy is "When it starts affecting me, I'll worry about it."
5. What prejudices does she hold? Are they irrational or does she have a good reason for them? She doesn't hold a lot of serious prejudices, but the few she does tend to be pretty childish and petty. Nothing major. Really, it's more like she holds grudges against specific people.
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is she rich, poor, comfortable, in debt?
She lives pretty comfortably. Her dad holds a pretty good job that's left them pretty well off. Plus, she works part time at the Hartell's bakery so that she can earn her own pocket money and show her dad that, yes, she can do things on her own.
2. What is her social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected her? It...hasn't changed all that much, if at all. Really, she's still a young girl in an upper-middle class household. As far as the teenage social hierarchy, while she's not popular, over the years she's been able to make more friends since she's become less shy since she was a child.
3. Where does she live? House, apartment, trailer? Is her home her castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does she share it with others?
She lives in a two story house in a quiet little neighbor hood in a small (fictional) city in New York. She lives there with her dad, though he's usually at work or on business trips, and Oscar, a dog her grandparents gave her because they were worried about her being home alone so much. It's a pretty nice house, though, it feels bigger than it actually is to her since she's alone so much.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does she spend her money on?
Since her dad pays the bills, she mostly spends her money on "fun" stuff. Though, for her "fun" stuff includes cake pans or a new waffle iron, along with the usual clothes and CDs. She also has a weakness for teenage girl magazines and fairytale collections.
5. What does she do for a living? Is she good at it? Does she enjoy it, or would she rather be doing something else?
It's not really something she does "for a living" but she works part time at the Hartell's bakery/cafe, along with Peter as waitstaff. She's okay at it, though she does occasionally trip and spill and crash into things. She does enjoy it, though part of her reason for doing it is to get baking lessons from Mr. Hartell.
6. What are her interests or hobbies? How does she spend her free time?
She loves cooking and reading gossip magazines. She also draws a little bit, though, it's not something she's especially good at. Much of her free time is spent gonig out with friends or shopping, though some days, she'll just stay at home with her dog and relax.
7. What are her eating habits? Does she skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods?
She unecessarily worries about her weight and probably doesn't eat as much as she should, though at times she'll indulge in sweets claiming that it's okay because "I walk to school every day anyway; I'll work it off." She does her best to cook her own meals, but unless it's something simple, there's a chance she'll have to go buy something to eat anyway.
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is her favorite:
Let's go with her favorites on this.
1. Color? Pink
2. Smell? Chocolate cake
3. Time of day? Afternoon
4. Season? Spring
5. Book? Grimm's Fairy Tales
6. Music? Love songs, almost any genre
7. Place? The zoo
8. Substance? F...Flour...?
9. Plant? Sunflowers
10. Animal? Crocodile
END
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