Opal Jeanne

Opal was born to a rich family, two parents and a slightly older sibling. Her parents always pitted Opal and her sibling, Edwin, against each other, but from a young age it was clear that Opal wasn't as talented or interesting as Edwin. So they began to ignore her. She acted out to try to get their attention, to no avail. She tried to be the perfect child to try to get their attention, but this didn't work either.

Money was something her parents seemed to love, so she aimed for financial success in the hopes they'd love her if she made a fortune, too. She got into art. All of her oldest art was centered around her loneliness, and how hollow she felt. She posted her art online, and grew a small following. And her parents took notice. As her skill increased, her parents paid more attention to her. They didn't intend to make up for lost time, no, but they started bragging about her to their socialite friends. They started keeping tabs on her social media and would cook her favourite foods whenever she reached milestones (they always had to ask her what her favourites her). She ended up getting a scholarship to university based on her art. She had the attention. She had what she wanted.

But when people talked to her, they were quick to realize that there wasn't much to her other than that.

She was lonely. She was so soul-crushingly lonely. Maybe she had hundreds of thousands of followers on every social media but she didn't have anyone that she could really talk to. So, last year of high school, she bought a bunch of self help books and studied them like holy texts. They didn't do much for her, but they taught her to get hobbies. Get interests. Her whole life had been about getting attention, so theatre seemed like a natural choice. She tried out for local plays, and she joined a theatre troupe for the summer before she moved away for uni. She studied popular musicals, she drew fanart, she practiced her singing. And to her surprise, she really enjoyed it! She really, really enjoyed it! Musicals and theatre became a huge part of her life.

By the time she arrived at university, she had re-invented herself, at least externally. She still had that pressure to succeed that her parents had recently put on her, and she still needed the attention from other people. But she wasn’t so one-sided anymore. Through auditions, she learned that she had a strong competitive streak. Certain scenes and a crush anon she got once taught her how to flirt and she learned that she loved doing it, she thought it was really fun! She was so elated to finally have a personality! She learned she loved talking to people and building friendships. She craved the affection and approval that her parents had never really provided for her. So she had a lot of flings. Through a combination of those and the LGBT group on campus, she learned to accept herself as bisexual. While she still has to be constantly producing content for her social medias, and her parents check up on her and still place pressure on her, she finally feels happy. She finally feels like she’s no longer hollow.