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PERSONALITY PROFILE
1. People don't behave the same way all the time. In fact, they generally have a mask for every social group -- friends, family, business. Sometimes they have a different mask for different groups of friends. How does your character act around different people? How does their personality shift and change?
Arabella is well-known for her diplomacy, level-headedness, and calm demeanor. She is ofted regarded as "wise" and is usually very somber. She speaks clearly and confidently, but she has an amicable personality that enthralls people -- she is animated, she uses her hands when she speaks, she draws people in.
Ari is estranged from her family, so it is hard to say how she would act, should they come back into her life. After several hundred years of not seeing them, even she would be shocked if she came across someone she knew from so long ago, and might falter ever-so-slightly in her otherwise flawless calm. Many would assume that the subject of her family is a sore spot for her, but it is long forgotten and she regards the entire issue as being well worth the result.
Around her friends, she is, externally, enthusiastic-- she is chipper, talkative, always asking questions and showing interest on a level even further than simple courtesy. She goes out of her way to make sure that those around her are enjoying themselves. She makes an extra effort to make people happy. Internally, however, she is reserved-- this extroverted friendliness is a very easy way to manipulate the attention away from herself. She can play "therapist" to her friends, listen to their problems, and redirect any question that might lead to something being revealed about herself or her past. She finds she only needs to reveal small, insignificant details of her life in order ot satisfy the minds of her friends.
At the workplace, Ari is fiercely intelligent and confident. She has spent many years working her way to the top of the foodchain, and she is determined to keep it that way. Coming from a family that discriminates against women, she holds it as a sort of personal vendetta and feels that being a woman in charge of dozens of men is proof that she is capable of anything.
At home, around her wife, is the only place that Ari will unwind and truly reveal her demons, her excitements, and her general grievances. During the day, Ari is a cold, calculating robot of a woman but the moment she walks in the door of their little home, she melts into a gooey mess, only for Katarina to hold it all together. Every moment with Kat is a massive relief, is a rare moment of actual calm and peace.
2. Your character has been brought to a party and promptly ditched. They don't have a ride back home. How does this work? How comfortable are they around all of these strangers? Do they interact?
This is not something that would come as a surprise to Arabella, as she is used to being the "babysitter" or "mom" of the group, which usually involves cleaning up after others' messes. While it is exhausting to be constantly chasing after people and keeping track of everything, it is a role she takes with pride. As far as being surrounded by strangers, Ari would have absolutely no trouble befriending every person in the room and starting some friendly conversations about supernatural politics. Every social setting is an opportunity for polling and platforming. Eventually she would find her way home either via walk or she'd just grab an Uber.
3. It's kind of awkward - what subjects are likely to make your character hesitate, flush, stumble on their words, etc.?
Her family, her sex/romantic life, and her past relations. Arabella has a very damaged past due to the nature of her family, and has worked for many years to push those memories to the back of her brain. She can usually easily brush off or redirect conversation that brings up her family so that she doesn't have to reveal anything -- but if someone is persistent, she will become uncomfortable and even a little bit angry. She also does not like to speak about her personal life with Katarina because she is a strong advocate for privacy and feels no inclination to be advertising their relationship to the world.
4. Is your character more dominant or submissive to the people around them? Do they tend to follow others' orders and wait for people to give them instruction in life, or do they charge ahead and make decisions on their own?
She is 100% dominant, the picture of an A-type personality. She takes charge of every situation, takes leadership of every group, organizes every move and prioritizes every task. She has her shit together and she knows it.
5. What happens when your character doesn't get what they want?
C'est la vie. You can't always get what you want. However, it is very rare for her not to end up gaining some sort of benefit from a situation if she really wants to. She has an impressive command of spoken and body language, and can get basically whatever she wants in one way or another -- she just doesn't take advantage of it. If she somehow doesn't, she is quick to brush it off and move on.
6. What's the character's self-esteem like?
Arabella has a very strong sense of self-confidence that has been created over many years of "faking it til she made it." The only way she saw herself making her way up in the world was to grit her teeth and pretend she knew what she was doing, when in reality she was scared and felt helpless. This has shown nothing but positive results, so she has kept to it throughout her life. The only person who ever sees the more insecure side of Ari is Kat.
a. Does it change over the course of the story?
From the beginning of her life, yes. As a child she was not nearly as confident and well spoken -- she was scared and helpless. Her love for Katarina was what sparked the change that would last forever, and her confidence has built and grown over the course of several centuries, and only seems to be increasing continually. She has her moments of insecurity or fear, but her self-esteem persists.
7. What's one flaw about themselves that they hate the most and wish they could change?
She always wants to be the helper, the hero, and the babysitter -- she wants to take care of everyone, take in every stray, and she always ends up biting off more than she can chew and becoming overwhelmed or getting herself into a bad situation. While this all comes from a place of pure compassion, she wishes she could be ever-so-slightly more stoic and less caring, simply for her own sake and for the sake of her relationship.
8. How does their personality shift when someone gets to know them well?
That all depends on how you define "well." There are very few individuals who have known her very long at all. One or two vampires and witches who she and Kat met along the way of their journeys before ending up in Chicago have seen more personal sides of Arabella -- or, better yet, they've seen her in a situation during which she was unable to keep up her constant calm (ie. during combat, after the death of a loved one, etc.) Aside from witnessing emotional situations, which cannot be helped in certain circumstances, no one other than Kat has really seen her shift in personality.
9. Do they prefer time alone, or with other people?
She actually can't stand to be alone, but that isn't to say she enjoys being in large groups of people either. She mostly enjoys her time at home with her wife and cats, but occasionally she will enjoy an outing with two or three other people at the most. She is involved with large groups of people all day during work, and prefers a little more intimacy in the evenings.
10. Is it easy for this character to tell someone "no" when they don't want to do something?
In all honesty, no. She wants to make everyone happy, and will usually sacrifice her own well being for others.
11. If this character were to describe their own personality, how would they do it?
"What a silly question! Describe my own personality. It is both too vast and too simple to put into words. All it boils down to is that I care. I genuinely, whole heartedly care about just about everything."
12. Is this character aware of their flaws?
Overly so. She dwells on them, internally, quite often. She is extremely self aware, to a fault.
13. How has this character's personality changed from childhood to adulthood?
It's almost made a complete 180 degree flip. As a child she was shy, quiet, and fearful. She has developed over time into a fearless, outspoken and confident woman.
14. Who influenced this character's personality? Did they pick up any mannerisms or traits from someone?
While the traits did not come directly from anyone, being in a relationship with Katarina has led to a lot of her development -- she felt the need to change so that she could properly care for her wife and ensure that they lived a long and happy life together, free of fear or struggle.
15. Does this character express affection? Are they comfortable doing so?
When it is just her and Kat, she is a cuddly teddy bear who constantly ahs to be touching Kat, laying in her lap, playing with her hair, etc. When others are around, she is still very affectionate, but politely -- kisses on the forehead, a hand on the small of her back, etc. Little signs of love that would normally go unrecognized if others weren't paying too much attention.
16. When frightened, will the character "fight" or "flight"?
This all depends on what has frightened her. Ari doesn't scare easily -- even the deadliest creatures can not intimidate her, and she shows a strong determination to destroy anything in her path that threatens the life of herself or her wife or loved ones. However, some of her more deep-rooted fears -- like her family finding her -- would ilicit the "flight" response, no question.
17. Does this character ever put someone else's needs in front of their own?
a. If there are only rare exceptions, why is that the case?
This question has been answered through previous descriptions. To keep it short, yes, absolutely. The only exception is if she loses trust in someone -- she will no longer go out of her way for that person. But it takes a *lot* for someone to make Ari not like or trust them.
18. If this character suffered amnesia and lost all their memories, what would they be like?
This is very difficult to imagine. If she lost all memory of everything in her life, she would likely revert back to her childhood traits of being shy, scared, and quiet. However, if any of her current personality persisted, she would be very confused and angry and determined to figure out what's going on.
19. How does the character's living space reflect their personality?
She is a lot like Monica from FRIENDS - she is compulsively clean and organized. Everything has its place, everything goes a certain way. It doesn't help that her wife owns and operates a dusty old library of a psychic shoppe.
20. What's one thing that other characters wish they could change about this character's personality?
They would make her more open -- some of them recognize the deflections away from her personal information, but only in hindsight, and they wish to know more about her and dive deeper. They would probably also have her be just a little bit less uptight, and insist that she just enjoy things instead of insisting they go a certain way or in a certain order.