Bella Toynbee

  In Ville Monstre, like many small towns, strangeness is common. Most of the citizens have seen things they don't wish to talk about. The wise among them keep quiet and the unwise don't last long. The majority escape with memories they can convince themselves were part of dream, but sometimes people aren't so lucky.

  Sometimes, Ville Monstre changes you. 

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  Bella Toynbee was only three years old when she disappeared. It was a bright, sunny afternoon surrounded by friends and family at her cousin's birthday party. It was only a moment her mother's back was turned while Bella stood near the treeline. A mere second alone in broad daylight and then Bella was gone.

  but she didn't stay gone.

  Three days later, Bella's parents found her asleep on the doorstep. She wasn't sick or injured, thank god, or even particularly traumatized. She just came back Different. Her words turned to gibberish, her writing into messy scrawls, and her drawings into haunting icons. Doctors diagnosed her with a type of aphasia. She could listen, read, and comprehend just fine but couldn't outwardly communicate. They decided she must have fallen down at some point in the forest and hit her head.

  Her odd behavior caused the superstitious community some distress, Some claimed she'd been replaced by a changeling, but cold iron didn't cause her skin to burn and prayers didn't make her cry. She sat quietly in church just like she always had. She was just as social, as happy, as normal as before. She just couldn't speak English anymore. Once the novelty subsided, people accepted her again with oddities included. They simply listened more intently.

  The thing is, even aphasia in Ville Monstre is strange. 

  If you listen long enough to make heads or tails of what Bella says, she's always right. Every riddle and garbled prediction comes true. No one knows what really happened to that happy toddler in the woods but they have a popular speculation.

  The forest needed a prophet.

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  Bella is a normal, happy child. She has the privilege of two loving parents with good heads on their shoulders who always tried their best. Even after she disappeared and came back, they never stopped teaching and loving her. They tried to prepare her to face the world when she was older. Unfortunately they were out of their depth. All things considered, she's remarkably well adjusted.

  That being said, her inability to communicate has left her frustrated. Her peers have long grown out of baby babble while she still speaks in riddles. She hates when people talk down to her like she can't understand them. It's not her fault the words are corrupted on their way from her brain to her mouth. She has grown to distrust strangers, mostly adults, after some creepy ones followed her around for a summer trying to snoop on her conversations.

  She is prone to ennui and behavior unusual for a child her age. She sometimes sit silently for hours, staring or muttering to herself. At those times, Bella is not herself. She has gone missing and returned many times over the years but no one knows where she goes. 

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[LIKES] books (story time at the library), stuffed animals, and exploring (the forest)

[DISLIKES] unfamiliar adults, condescension (a word she doesn't actually know yet), and bullies

[STRENGTHS] why is the child so fast??? sixth sense for danger and avoiding it. good at hiding. favoritism

[WEAKNESSES] is literally a child. physically weak. not a lot of life experience. target for cultists.

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She Belongs to Ville Monstre Now.

In the future, she accurately predicts her parent's death and disappears after they die. She's still in town, but seen only rarely. How can she be so well-fed and clean if she lives in the woods? 

Time will only make her stranger, but no less kind. 

"Since the time Bella went missing, her sleep has been filled with dreams so vivid they're indistinguishable from reality, and they get confused with her own real memories even after she wakes up. She has these kinds of dreams every night without fail. Is it related to her prophecy stuff?? Who knows 

Bella also loves listening to music-- her aphasia makes linguistic communication hard but she loves how music alone can convey feelings without language. She's shown interest in playing various instruments and her parents are happy to get her lessons!" - Aarix