Aria Kim

General

Full Name: Aria Kim

Aliases/Nicknames: None

Title: None

Preferred Name: Aria

Age/Date of Birth: 24, July 12

Sex: Female

Sexual Orientation: Demisexual

Voice: Her voice is rather average. Neither particularly smooth nor particularly husky, all that you can really say about it is that it's definitely a female voice, and is a bit on the high side.

Languages Spoken: English, Japanese (conversational), Korean (barely conversational), Chinese (can understand, but not speak).

Occupation: Fantasy Novelist

Appearance

Facial Structure: Her face is very round, and made rounder when she smiles, with high cheekbones and somewhat small eyes. She's got a button nose and ears that stick out slightly. In essence, it is a cute, but slightly goofy-looking face.

Body Structure: Her limbs are slightly on the longer side, but not so much as to be really noticeable. She has an hourglass figure and a delicate neck, but is in no way exceptionally beautiful, considering her facial features, hair, and stature are all pretty normal. She is not at all strong, has bad balance, and weak lungs, so there's little muscle build-up for her, but her genes are such that she just doesn't gain a lot of fat in general. She's actually proud to finally have a "healthy" height to weight ratio, a pride her sister finds annoying, and her mother finds hilarious.

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Brown

Height: 5'5"

Weight: 117lb

Skin Tone: Not dark, but ever so slightly tanned and with a mild yellowish tinge to it most Asians have.

Scars: One on the first knuckle of her right middle finger, where her father accidentally slammed a car door on it when she was little.

Tattoos: None

Piercings: None, not even ears.

Marks: A birthmark on her right leg.

Style: Casual, and not very stylish, she dresses without really thinking about fashion or other things that relate to clothing. She never wears make-up, but will occasionally wear sundresses when she feels like it, even in the winter. This is California right next to the bay, after all. How cold can it get? She keeps her hair down, and it tends to be pretty messy and unkempt, but she'll occasionally put it up in random styles for short periods of time (too long and she gets a headache).

Outfit one (Warm Weather): Plain T-shirts with plain shorts or comfortable jeans. On days she's feeling shameless, she wears cropped tops, and when she feels like it, sundresses. She usually sticks to plain flats or sneakers.

Outfit Two (Cold Weather): Comfortable jeans or casual hiking pants of some sort, with plain shirts, either long-sleeved or T-shirts, but always with a sweater too large for her. Occasionally, she'll wear a dress of some kind. The sneakers or plain flats stay the same.

Outfit Three (Formal Wear): This is quite usually a long dress of some elegant kind, with her hair pulled upwards in some elaborate style. She also wears high-heeled shoes, clip-on earrings, and enough fake jewelry to make her sparkle like a vampire.

Personality

Five Good Traits:

• Unshakable in her moral code

• Unerringly loyal once her trust is gained

• Tries to think for other people and serve them the best she can

• Listens when people speak

• Strong enough to continue to have joy, and believe in some good in the world and in the people in it, even after having been hurt

Five Bad Traits:

• At times stupidly stubborn

• Has depression spells and bouts of insecurity both about herself and about the state of the world in general

• Is a hopeless procrastinator

• Can find the thing people hate the most about themselves, and confront them with it

• Is half-sadist in that the more she likes someone, the more she wants to bully them a bit

Ideals/beliefs: Being a Christian, Aria's understanding of the world is built upon her faith, and what she's decided to draw from it.

1. Every human life is valuable and both the quantity and quality of it should be protected.

2. Not everyone can be great, but everyone can help others in their own, quiet ways.

3. Violence is never acceptable.

4. Humility is worth more than vengeance.

5. Everyone is messed up, so NEVER judge a person based on first impressions, and definitely not on their beliefs.

6. Never pity, because it means you think you're better off than them.

7. Never take responsibility for someone else, because it means you think you have authority over them.

8. Honesty is the best policy, always, but remember to phrase it as gently as possible.

9. Try your best not to hate anyone.

10. Do not always think with straight logic, because straight logic can be so incredibly cruel.

11. Be tolerant and patient, as best you can.
    

Details: ISTP - Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving. Introverted = Internalizes issues, prefers quality over quantity when it comes to interacting with people, and need to recharge by spending time alone instead of constantly together with others. Sensing = Takes in information on a factual basis, rather than by using intuition, or gut feelings. Thinking = Makes judgments based on logic and reasoning, as opposed to acting on emotion. Perceiving = Prefers to keep their options open, and don't feel as comfortable once a decision has been made, not very action-oriented.

Quirks:

• Chews on her cuticles.

• Gives a casual salute to people when she says goodbye.

• Shakes her leg when sitting down or impatient.

• Sometimes wears her favorite stuffed animal on her head.

• Will sometimes blurt out things she's thinking, or start humming or singing to herself without realizing.

• Can still laugh or cry when watching or reading the same thing for the umpteenth time.

• Blinks a lot, and it actually takes effort for her to slow it down enough to blink once per second.

• Sometimes forgets to eat or drink water.

• Occasionally has a slight symmetry OCD.

Hobbies:

• Reading

• Singing

• Designing clothes and buildings

• Watching TV shows and anime

• Collecting piggy banks from around the world

Interests:

• Biology

• Languages

• Photography

Likes:

• Rain

• The Moon

• Music (of all kinds except for rap and hard rock)

• Garlic

• Cheese

• The Sea, Beach, Tidepools

• POKING PEOPLE

Dislikes:

• Ginger

• Laundry

• Deadlines

• Fighting

• Driving

• Squirrels
  

Relationships

Father: Roland Kim - Aria always was a little daddy's girl. Although he's never been the type to show affection openly, she's always been able to see his love for her, and loves him very much in return. She knows he worries a lot about her, especially the stability of her profession, and so tries not to worry him too much. The both of them suck at long-distance communication, and so rarely talk now, but that's alright. They always kind of understood each other with fewer words than most people need to exchange.

Mother: Kelly Kim - Her mother has played a pretty active role in her life, being the one to teach her life lessons, drive her around, and in general help with management. In college, this worried Aria a lot, as she wasn't sure if she'd be able to survive on her own, and even now she has difficulties asking her mother for help, because she doesn't want to be too dependent on her. However, they do keep up a fairly decent communication, and she finds it easy to laugh with her mother, and ask her for advice when it's offered.

Sisters: Jamie Kim - Her sister is three years and two months older than her, and they've always had a very close relationship. When she was little, she had a hard time asking for help or expressing pain in front of anyone besides her sister, and so her sister has always known her best, though perhaps not understood her best. For some reason, no matter what happens, and no matter how far apart they are, she has always felt comfortable telling her older sister most of her problems, worries, and moods.

Brothers: N/A

Grandparents: As she refers to them by their titles in Korean, she doesn't know their names, but she cares a great deal for her grandparents. It's always been a little bit difficult interacting with them and understanding them, because they speak more Korean than English, but she tries her best not to be awkward around them, and doesn't want to disappoint them, as much as she has no intention of letting their expectations rule her life. She does not see enough of them to admire them or look up to them, but a the very least she wants to be able to make them happy.

Uncles: She has three uncles, two on her father's side, one on her mother's. The two on her father's side she knows fairly well. Her father's younger brother she certainly doesn't respect, but she does find him the funnest of the uncles, as he is the silliest and the most reckless. Her father's older brother, on the other hand, always struck her as a serious person, and although she doesn't feel at all uncomfortable around him, she doesn't have quite as much sheer fun around him. Her mother's brother-in-law is the person she is the least familiar with. As he is from her aunt's second marriage, he's been around for the shortest time, but his temperament also confuses her, as he can get angry rather suddenly, and his personality is naturally so boisterous, she can't tell when he's transitioned. She just hopes that her aunt will continue to be happy with him, and doesn't interact with him too much.

Aunts: She finds all three of her aunts unique. Her father's older sister-in-law is a semi-strict woman, who might seem laidback about the law, but has certain, non-negotiable ideals of respect between elders. Still, she's fun to be around, and wicked clever. Her father's younger sister-in-law is a gentle, serious, homely woman, who is still rather pretty, and doesn't know how to get angry properly. To this day, she doesn't know how her goofball of an uncle managed to score this lady. Her mother's sister is an energetic person, with a bright way of approaching the world even with all of its problems, but is also unafraid to express her anger and fear more freely than the other two. Overall, she likes and actually respects all three women a great deal, and enjoys their company.

Cousins: She has four cousins, and all of them are younger than her, the eldest being a full nine years younger, to be exact. The two sons of her younger uncle are both brats, in her eyes, though she still loves them. She has played with them the most, because they live closest, and is the most fearless with them about rough-housing it a little. The elder one used to have severe allergies, and the younger one is a financial nut, with severe paranoid about people lying to him, but she still thinks they're fun to be around, or they used to be. Now that they're teenagers... "ah, you guys used to be so cute." Her aunt's son is slightly autistic, so Aria doesn't always know how to interact with him, but she does treasure him, and hopes he understands that, on a basic level. Her older uncle's daughter, is the one she's most interested in. This girl actually scares her a bit, because she's the most... girly. She's always liked dolls and ponies and make-up, and whatnot. Aria just never knew what to make of that. However, she could see one thing very clearly. Her only female cousin also happens to be very clever about human relations. While a very cute girl, and good at being polite to others, she's used to getting her way, and knows how to get it. With this understanding, Aria just tries to be that vague "older sister" figure the girl doesn't remember too much.

Strengths

Arsenal: Keys? - She doesn't use weapons and doesn't have a pepper spray, so she figures, if she get assaulted, the best things she's got on hand are her keys and her own two hands.

Abilities: She doesn't really have anything she could call an ability, though she's not bad at math, knows how to deal with all-nighters, and learns things fairly quickly, once she's had the chance to figure them out herself.

Physical: She has taken some martial arts and self-defense courses, and has always been fairly healthy, but that's about the best that can be said on this account.

Mental: She can always rebound. Sometimes it takes a lot of time, but no matter what she goes through, she'll always find a way to go back to being happy. According to her, it's just one of those things she can do for the world. She can have hope for them, even when she can't see it herself, and she can shed light for others, even if it means taking on their darkness. That is what she believes, and in these things, she holds fast, and always rebounds.

Weaknesses

Fears: There are four, no five main things Aria is afraid of. The first is falling in love, because she believes it makes her the ugliest version of herself. The second is losing someone important to her, because once she's become attached to someone, she puts everything she has into that relationship, and becomes so emotionally tied to them that their pain and joy become hers as well. The third is pain. While she isn't too scared of death itself, as she figures it's bound to happen, she is deathly afraid of pain. Aren't most? The fourth is being forced to choose. Her worst nightmare would be having to decide situations where people's lives hang in the balance. Stories where the bad guy forces the hero to choose between their best friend and the world, or their family and 3,000 other lives, things like that scare the s**t out of her. The last thing she's afraid of is killing. She doesn't like killing bugs (especially spiders), and whatnot. No matter how nervous little creatures or insects make her, the only things she's ever been okay with killing are ants and mosquitoes. For ants, she feels like their lives seem so squandered, that it's more like putting them out of their misery. Mosquitoes have made her sister cry before, and she's never forgiving that.

Physical: On top of having a naturally weak physique, with difficulty building muscle, small lungs that make her wheeze easily, and a naturally bad sense of balance, Aria also has a condition called Optic Nerve Hypoplasia in her right eye. This makes it such that her right eyesight is significantly near-sighted, as opposed to her 30/20 left eyesight. She does not wear glasses, but she does try to use a contact to equalize the difference. As her left eye automatically takes over even when she doesn't use it, though, she'll often forget to put it in, and that makes her depth perception... horrible, to put it nicely.

Mental: Being the youngest in her family, with very capable parents and a socially strong sister, Aria can sometimes feel a strong sense of insufficiency, and worries about herself. As her mother says, ever since she was in middle school, she'd act like a 5 year old, but think like a 30 year old. Now that she's less than a decade away from being 30, she somehow doesn't think that sentiment's basic feel has disappeared at all. As childish as she can sometimes act, she worries about the person she is, and her lack of special abilities, constantly. In particular, she's prone to feeling like a monster - a bad person - and experiencing serious bouts of guilt for every unkind word and action that comes out of her.

Misc She has difficulty dealing with almost all animals except for horses, for some reason, but she adores studying them. In another life, she thinks she might have become a good animal researcher, or something.

For some reason she doesn't understand, when something soft presses against the side of her neck, whether it be hair or a scarf, she freaks out. This makes her suspect that she might have been hung in a previous life, except she doesn't believe God could be cruel enough, or humans like her stupid enough, to grant a second chance at life.

She feels as if she has no place in this world. Having jumped from culture to culture, she has difficulty identifying with any one, and on top of a difficulty connecting with other human beings, has decided that she simply doesn't belong on this earth. While she's usually okay with this, as she's come to terms with it, it also leaves her feeling incredibly lonely at times.

Aria kind of likes spiders. Sure, they make her feel a little scared when they're crawling around, but she firstly believes they do a service to the world by lessening the amount of buzzing insects, as buzzing is one of those things that make her involuntarily flinch. Secondly, she likes the fact that they appear once, then just disappear, instead of showing up again and again to scare and bother her. Finally, they don't buzz, and she's never been bitten by one, which makes her thing that they must be rather kind, perhaps.

She classifies herself as a Hufflepuff in Harry Potter terms, and on a scale of 1-10, considers herself a level 8 for weirdness.

Aria has a sort of double personality. With people she feels she should look up to, she's almost painfully polite, but with everyone else, she deals with in two modes. Depending on her mood, she can be childish, endearing, bright, and friendly, OR she can be quiet, bad at smiling, and almost threateningly serious. Her mindset, though, never changes, just the way she interacts with the world.

She is self-declared un-photogenic, and hates photographs.

Her room is always a mess, but feels compelled to clean and organize everyone else's places. She declares that this is because if her cleanliness switch were flipped for her own room, she'd become unable to function as a normal human being.

Unlike most people, she consciously categorizes people's actions and personalities in terms of archetypes, and is not bad at reading what type of person everyone she meets is, though that doesn't make her any better at actually dealing with them.

She hates hearing this, but she tends to look younger than she is. In this case, maybe right around 20.

History When Aria was a little girl, her loving family moved from the comfortable, Korean-American community they'd been living in, to China where they lived for a few years, before moving to a different town back in America. Her high school was a tough time for her, as she fell in love with a boy, but found herself constantly hurting him. Convinced that someday he was going to leave her, she eventually broke up with him herself, breaking her own heart in the process. Since then, she's afraid to really trust anyone, much less love anyone. She went through her college years with almost no close friends, except for a girl named Maggie Silver. Maggie was the one who found the advertisement and pressure her into at least signing up.