⋆⋆ Paris Soliel | 2nd year | Hufflepuff ⋆⋆

I. favourites

food: toffee peanut brittle
colour: burgundy or forest green
film: not watched a ton, but probably monty python and the holy grail
person: xhosa soliel
flower: trichosanthes cucumerina or hydnora africana
drink: mango lassi
song: eleanor rigby by the beatles
hobby: herping, horse riding, climbing trees, people watching
music genre: 1920-40s jazz/classics
type of clothing: leather jackets (not for the sake of looking cool or something, just cause theyre practical), jean shorts, combat boots (ish. not the showy ones. those are useless. like what katniss would wear)
place: cape three points, ghana
book: any herpetology textbook
animal: ooooooh you makin her choose??? well if we have to shorten the list.... dragons, cats, spiders, goats, snakes, lizards, tuataras, horses, chickens, kiwis
weather: a clearing sky after rain. preferably in the evening when you can hear frogs
season: late summer or early autumn

II. questions

what is your character's greatest strength?
not caring what people think about her

what is your character's greatest weakness?
awful at reading body language/knowing how to respond to people in difficult situations

what is your character's best and worst memory?
her best memory started out kind of strange. it was in iceland when she was 8. as she and xhosa walked to the store one evening, she noticed a boy of at least 19 behind a dumpster trying to force a drink into the mouth of another boy who was maybe 14. paris didnt even think before storming up behind the older boy. xhosa called after her, not having seen what she was doing, but she pretended not to hear him as she kicked the older boys legs out from under him and then his face before smashing the bottle on his head (he was knocked unconscious). the younger boy looked at her fearfully, but paris only dusted off his jacket, nodded, and walked away. xhosa ran over just as she was leaving and stopped short, examining what his reckless sister must have done. then he laughed, and paris held back a smile. xhosa hugged her and she pretended not to care. he told her he was proud of her but to not tell mum and paris rolled her eyes but her heart warmed at the thought of a secret from mom to share with xhosa. she had never expected this reaction, but it was better than she could ever hope for. she would never tell xhosa that.
one of her first (and worst) memories (taking place when they lived in ghana) also became a reason for a distinctive behaviour of hers later in life. returning to their designated meeting spot after retrieving grapefruits, 4 year old paris turns in confusion. where did her dad go? she weaves behind stalls and people, finally finding him in an exit alley. but-- he is shoved to the ground. the man steps roughly on his nose, which starts to bleed. horrified, paris runs to the aid of her father, kicking the back of the mans knees as hard as she possibly could. which wasnt very hard. shes 4. the man turns around, leering at her before knocking her back roughly and punching her dad again and stealing money from his pockets. paris continued to fight the man, who pushed her to the ground on top of a sharp brick before leaving. despite being hurt and livid and wanting nothing more than to chase down the offender, paris wisely remains with her unconscious dad (he wakes soon enough but a terrified paris spends 6 minutes believing him dead). both of them healed from the incident (paris only having a small scar on her back and her dad a broken nose that was crookedly fixed), but paris vowed to herself that day she would never allow herself to be beaten that easily against future bullies.

what is your character's biggest fear?
that her rather intrusive and overactive mind will kind of overtake all her suppressive measures to it and she'll just kind of.... break down and not function anymore.... and she'll be someone she doesnt want and shouldnt be, someone who.... takes too many risks and may/may not be a danger to herself and possible others

how would others describe your character?
very....colourful. kind of distracted/lost in her own thoughts. can never seem to stop moving in some way

what is your character's most prized possession?
does her spider count?

what is your character's deepest insecurity?
being bad socially/not knowing how to respond to people in difficult situations. its gotten her in pickles quite a few times and she never feels she handles them well. she suspects this is why she has never had a friend

what motivates your character?
ensuring an interesting life for herself, lived not based on what people expect, but what she really really wants and what makes her happy

what angers your character?
people being mean for the fun of it, people torturing animals

what makes your character happy?
making it to the top of tall trees, when xhosa seeks her out to talk instead of the opposite, finding a new snake/bug, riding horses

what does your character like about themself?
she thinks its honestly kind of hilarious how much she loves and obsesses over animals and is also really fond of her hair

how is your character's relationship with their family?
pretty good with her mom; its a comfortable love, very accepting and calm. kind of strained with her dad; his absences being fairly often, its been hard to build a real bond, and she may not realise that she kind of resents his absence, despite thinking the reason for them is kind of awesome. slightly distant but good with xhosa; she looks up to him a lot and loves him very deeply and would do anything for him, they dont see each other a ton at hogwarts, but xhosa is very aware of his sisters devotion to him. kind of in the background but good with aspen and irini; her closeness with xhosa has caused her to stay pretty much out of the lives of her younger siblings, but she in no way hates, resents, or is annoyed by them.

is your character susceptible to peer pressure?
nope. she is very individual and proud of it

what annoys your character the most?
being forced to talk to boring people, talking to people in general, dumb or haughty people, mmmmmm basically if people didnt exist she would be okay with that

III. descriptions

describe your character's accent
ghanaian with slightly more british influences. a ghanaian accent is already mildly british sounding, just more melodic, with more enunciated, open vowels, crisp and easy to understand consonants at the end of words, and a more deliberate, rhythmic tone. her accent has taken on a quicker pace and a more closed vowel sound since coming to hogwarts and being surrounded by mostly british accents, but the ghanaian roots remain

describe your character's smile
slightly lopsided, right side of mouth lifts higher than left. has trouble supressing it. when alone and talking to self, smile tends more towards being openmouthed, tounge between teeth

describe your character's "tell" for lying
right eyebrow and corner of mouth lift slightly, may/may not speak more vaguely than usual. being an active person, small movements such as this are hardly noticeable, but her older brother can always tell

describe your character's mannerisms/habits
twirling braids around fingers when bored, zoning off and staring intently without blinking at random stuff and looking generally mildly demented/unstable, possibly talking to herself, going up steps 2 at a time

describe your character's typical first impression
weird...., wanna meet my spider, honest/direct, if youre not an interesting person please dont talk to me, maybe kinda nervous/unsure of what to say

describe a recurring dream for your character
an ethereal, misty white tiger pads softly through a monotonous grey-green forest. thick brush blocks its way. persevering despite the obstacle, the tiger presses through. branches that break release small puffs of colourful powder. when the tiger emerges on the other side of the brush, it is a covered in a rainbow of the vibrant powder and no natural white of its fur can be seen. thunderous wing beats can be heard overhead, and the tiger looks up to see a hippogriff land heavily a couple metres away. the darkness and depth of the black feathers and fur nearly seems to glow against the faded backdrop of the trees. it stands stoicly and turns its yellow eyes upon the tiger, who bows before it. the hippogriff huffs and the tiger remains unacknowledged. the tiger looks at itself and shakes of much of the rainbow off its fur. the vibrant powder that remains seems to fade and turn dull. the tiger bows once more and after a weighted pause, the hippogriff returns the bow. the tiger rises before the hippogriff, who stands quickly with muscles suddenly tensed. the tiger flinches and growls, as if in apology, but the hippogriff is unforgiving; with a shriek, it slashes the face of the tiger who falls to the ground. the hippogriff continues to claw at the tigers body, blood staining the white fur and shining in contrast with the grey forest floor. the tiger stands and roars at the hippogriff but does not fight back, the latter shrieking and flapping its wings. there is a focus and depth, something hidden that tries to be vulnerable but refuses in the tigers eyes that the hippogriff cannot match. the tiger turns and walks back through the brush, leaving a trail of blood behind. more powder coats its sticky red fur and every colour seems more determined and intense than the first time. the hippogriff screeches for the tigers return, and in its desperation, its blackness exudes from its body and envelops the forest; the retreating form of the vivid tiger being the last to disappear in its shadow

describe your character's morning/nightly routine
wake up at 4.45am-ish and find rosetón. bored-clean. go to breakfast as absolutely early as possible. avoid people.
bored-clean to avoid homework. 'just one more chapter' in her one of many herp/animal books to avoid homework. maybe pester xhosa if hes not in his common room. find rosetón. go to bed at 00.00am-ish.

describe the contents of your character's bag
well-worn herpetology textbook, hardly used school books, stopwatch, fidget spinner cube/ring, probably some random animal part (like a snake shed, tarantula molt, cat whisker, bird feather, etc)

describe how your character wants to be seen
she doesnt really care for or think about this like ever. people will see her how they want and she cant change that. if they misunderstand how she really is thats on them and its not her responsibility to be concerned about it