CHARACTERISTICS

Homemade

Will cook for her friends whenever they crash at her home. "Do you want a slice of cake? What about some tea? Did you have lunch already? Let me whip up something for you". It's almost like your own granny. She won't let you in her kitchen, nor allow you to wash the dishes. Do not insist, for your own safety.

Inferiority complex

Will listen to all her friend's troubles, but hardly opens up about her own. Always willing to give everything for her loved ones, but will never ask for help when she needs it. Thinks herself undeserving and inferior; always worried about not being a burden to others. 

Love language

Loves to give presents and spend quality time. Not very good at keeping up a conversation, but be sure that she loves your company. Appreciates some words of affirmation here and there - it eases her insecurities.

About

Hala is the me that I aspire to be, based in a scenario where I didn't let the phantom of depression and trauma take away from me all the things it did, such as the music school and my passion for literature. The combo of poor mental health + lack of proper support made me a shut-in, locking my deepest feelings away and isolating myself from everything and everyone that I loved. I am slowly improving, however, and one day I wish I can reclaim everything that I lost. 

She is also a way I found to cope with the loss of a person very dear to me -- my mother, who's fallen ill to pre-senile Alzheimer's four years ago, slowly losing herself and her memories.

Trivia

• The name "Hala" means "moon ring" in sanskrit - chosen as a reference to the origins of my own name, Clara. I was told that my mother, when pregnant with me, had been looking at the moon, while singing this song. The first verse roughly translates to "Clear like the moon / Rare like the air / Oh! If only I were yours / Your light in my eyes".
• In her first design, she used to have other visual elements that alluded to the Moon, like a crescent moon highlight under her irises. I wasn't able to execute this in a way I'd get satisfied so I just gave her star-shaped pupils. This alludes to my first pseudonym when I started out in the RP community like 13~15 years ago - "st⋆rgazer" and "seeker of starlight".
• The species choice - snowy owl × bengal tiger gryphon - is an homage to both my mother's favourite animal (owl) and mine's (tiger)