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Alalia Ridgely

ic stats canon: Intone (Original) age: 24 species: Human nationality: Fantasy!European game: gachahell		player name: Claire over 18? Yes HMD: Hit me up! contact: PM me or add me at superorbital! time zone: GMT/BST (bolded is current!)


APPEARANCE, FIRST IMPRESSIONS & PERSONALITY
Alalia is 167cm (5ft6in) tall with a muscular, athletic build. She has the body of a trained fighter and has the obvious muscle defenition of a swordswoman. Her fingers are also calloused in a similar way. Her features are sharp -- to those who'd recognize them she gives pings of being European. She has thick eyelashes and a small white scar just under her left eye. Her hair is long, thick and apple red with two small sections of it tied back into pigtails while the rest hangs loose and falls to her lower back. Her eyes are a bright amber. Posture wise, Alalia always holds herself professionally. For those familiar with knights, her body language will seem familiar. She is stiff and often overformal and a little distant. Her expressions are often tight and controlled but when she's riled up she has a bad pokerface -- for all the effort she makes, Alalia absolutely wears her heart on her sleeve. Once she relaxes her body language becomes much more open. Personality Alalia is, first and foremost, a knight. Having trained since she was a little girl to join her country’s order, she’s had the attitudes and conduct of its military drilled into her head and finds the habits and behaviours born from it tough to break away from. She’s rather married to her own self-perception of being cool-headed and rational and makes active efforts to keep up this kind of front. This is particularly pronounced around strangers. This can make her overly formal and a little stiff, unintentionally rebuffing people with her attempts to remain ‘professional’. It’s not that she’s cold or unfriendly exactly, but she struggles with coming down from her position and engaging people on a more equal level. This is less of a problem for her with fellow knights, even those from other orders or countries, as she tends to feel an instinctive kinship with them that helps to strike up a much faster rapport. When Alalia’s walls are down and she’s less focused on being herself rather than simply a knight, she allows much more of herself to come forward. The quickest way to do this is usually to just take her down a peg and let her reactions tell the whole story. After all, under all her posturing and training, Alalia is still only twenty-one and even with her training, she can be just as prone to the same foibles as other people her age, especially when it comes to recovering from losing her cool. Under all her attempts at cool rationality, she actually has a rather short temper and is prone to being short and snappy when she’s appropriately irritated. She’s also not above holding grudges and is in fact terrible about holding onto slights. This is worsened by the fact that Alalia is blunt and doesn’t care much for softening her words. For better or for worse, she’s unafraid to be open about her opinions regardless of any offense or conflict that they might cause. While she tempers this in “professional” mode, it comes out in full force when she’s more relaxed, to an almost comical degree. Alalia is also an incredibly determined person – if there’s something that she wants or needs then she’ll do absolutely everything in her power to get it. If she’s knocked down, she’ll stand back up. If she’s pushed away, she’ll just push back even harder. As expected of someone who’s been in combat training since she was a young girl, she’s disciplined and dogged in her pursuit of her goals. Failure just isn’t a word in her vocabulary. While this is admirable, it’s also one of her biggest faults. Her determination easily becomes stubbornness which can feed further into tunnel vision, especially if she has a defined goal to push herself towards. She’s never cruel in the pursuit of her goals and never goes out of her way to bring harm to anyone to further her own agenda. But when she’s full fixated on something, she has a nasty habit of dismissing the trials and suffering of others as less important than her own. While she’ll never just up and ignore someone who asks for her help, situations that otherwise would have gotten her riled up in righteous indignation won’t inspire the same level of passion. Alalia isn’t just or even primarily her worst traits, however. Despite trying to present herself as being completely self-sufficient and independent, Alalia is at her best when she is around other people. When she’s isolated, she gets caught up in being the kind of person she thinks she should be as opposed to who she is which brings all her flaws into glaring view. When she has friends by her side, they’re incredibly effective at not only bringing her down a peg or two but also coaxing her better qualities out of her. And she’s less intent on being cool and professional, Alalia’s real self shines through. She’s compassionate and can be generous, with a strong sense of justice and a rock-bottom tolerance for bullies. She can be quite crass when she’s not putting thought into what she says and she’s got a terrible sense of humour – shitty puns and slapstick absolutely slay her (though she does her best to pretend otherwise). She’s not above poking fun at herself and her own severity either, easily playing along with the “good cop, bad cop” routines that Aster frequently ropes her into. What’s most important about Alalia though is that she’s loyal. It takes a bit of effort to worm your way into her affections, but once you’re there, you’re there for life. She’s fiercely devoted to the people she considers “hers” and will always believe the best of them, even if circumstances suggest she should be suspecting the worst. When Alalia loves, she loves incredibly fiercely and will put every ounce of energy into making that evident. When you have her trust you have it for life and god help you if you betray it.
PERMISSIONS (IC & OOC)
▷ IC Permissions laaaateeerrrr ▷ OOC Permissions ▶ BACKTAGGING: PLEASE GOD backtag with me forever. ▶ THREADHOPPING: i fucking love threadjacks in stupid shenanigan threads so yes. However, if there's Plot Stuff going down, or if you're otherwise unsure anyway, please ask first! ▶ FOURTHWALLING: Ask first, please! ▶ OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS: I'd really prefer to avoid things relating to sexual assault and rape, as well as abusive relationships particularly emotional abuse and parental abuse. If these things are going to come up in a thread, please contact me first to discuss them rather than just dropping them on me. ▶ ANYTHING ELSE?: Nope!

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