Since I am now on my little lunch break, I decided to go ahead and talk about Amelie. :) I thought about her a lot last night while waiting to fall asleep and I am wanting to do a few things different with her than I did with Inali or Ilani.

First off, my other 2 characters, Inali and Ilani, do not represent me. They have a few of my own qualities, but as a whole, they are not me and I am not them. Now, I do not want Amelie to represent me, either. I see it rather silly to make a character exactly like you. I mean, that's not very fun to play as. :) However, Amelie will have some very strong qualities that I also have, one of such is her fight for women's rights and the fact that she is a very creative individual and writer. Amelie will also have huge differences from my other characters that I dare not let Inali or Ilani experience due to my own convictions.

She will have my creative, eccentric kookiness.

I also want Amelie to really be a true character. Maybe someone I could write about in the future if I wanted to. Both Inali and Ilani are really just there for looks. The only thing I do with them is fursuit as them. That's it. Amelie, however, is already proving to be more fun. Probably because she and I hold our same passion for the creative arts and women's rights. I can relate to her.

As stated before, Amelie will be a brown-and-white Springer Spaniel. She will be 23 years old and live in the year 1910 in London. I guess whenever I fursuit as her, I will have to speak in a British accent. :)

To start, Amelie needs a background. Since I want her to remain a single woman, she needs to have some money. In the Edwardian times (as well as late Victorian), women were starting to be able to go out into town and find real work, but it was mostly seamstress jobs, housekeeping, or being someone's nanny. Those were the nice jobs (with low wages). Other women worked in the workhouses, which I don't want poor Amelie to go through. So, I have Amelie as growing up in an upper-class household. Not rich, but very well off. Her childhood is actually like what I imagine for Marie (which is also Amelie's middle name... I wanted a little piece of Marie to transfer to Amelie). Her mother was often delving around with other women in high-class society and meddling around in all the social clubs. Now, Amelie's mother was a good mom when she was actually around to tend to her children; however, Amelie's father was the real caretaker and he *loved* it. Amelie has two older sisters and they are all daddy's little girls. Amelie is also very close to her sisters and would often put on plays with them (usually daddy would join in on the fun) or make up games and run around the property with all the animals. So, Amelie had a good childhood. She was taught to be a lady and had a very good education, but her daddy always supported her and told her to be what she really wants to be, and to basically "tell society to sod off." She loves her family very much, including her aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins.

As an adult, she lives in her own house in Greater London. I still need to pick an exact location for her. I want her somewhere near both Hyde and Regent's Park since she loves to go people watching. Amelie is, like me, a writer and being an author is her greatest ambition. This is something that Amelie and I have in common. Amelie is also the type of writer that likes to go out and experience the very things her characters are experiencing (whether she is actually writing about the characters or has a part in a community play). However, unlike me, she will actually go against her own beliefs (as long as it only harms her and no one else) for the sake of good writing, and will experience things she really does not want to place herself in. This is where Amelie and I are different. I also will experience the things my characters experience so I can more accurately write about it, however, I do have my boundaries that I will not cross. Amelie really does not have any boundaries. She is a suffering artist. Like me, she is asexual (which will be fun to talk about for a woman in that time period pressured into marriage and motherhood), but....

Before I continue on, I need to talk about Amelie's friend and neighbor. I have no name for him yet, nor a breed of dog, but I know he is an artist. He actually secretly has a crush on Amelie, but he doesn't tell her because he respects who she is. He really admires her bold spirit. He ends up helping her a lot by encouraging her to be who she is when society tells her to shut up and just be a respectful lady. She helps him with his artwork and reminds him of who he really is, as well. It's a give-give situation between these two. So, now that I mentioned him, I can talk more about Amelie's boundaries... or lack thereof. She will engage in intimacy, albeit it is rare. I've never had a personal character actually be willing to do this. Like me, she has no desire for intimacy (or even a relationship of any kind), but unlike me, she will become intimate with her friend (again, this is not often) just for the sake of understanding her own characters better so she can write about them better. Whew... what a writer!

Amelie also enjoys any other kind of art, whether it be painting, sculpting, etc. She loves to travel. She also enjoys costume making and makes money here and there by creating costumes for other ladies (and sometimes fixing their dresses). Generally, she does not really have a job since she is living off her own money, but she does get a lot of costume orders that keeps her busy. Amelie also lives with her cat, a female orange, white, and yellow tabby named Goldfish, and her angelfish (which she adopted... yeah, she adopted a fish) named Reuben. Amelie adores costumes and has a whole wardrobe stocked full of costumes in her guest bedroom. When she is around the house, she'll often dress up as a pirate, lady at a masquerade ball, or Middle Eastern sheik, whatever, and let her imagination take control as she plays. She loves to play and can play by herself very well.

Unlike me, she adores the city life. She likes the fact that she can go watch a play at the music hall, or even BE in a play. She likes to go see the talkies and watch the ships come in on the Thames while she sips coffee. That's another thing about Amelie, she *loves* coffee. She needs a cup a day (it is her creative muse) and likes to try different kinds. Coffee is her weakness (whereas I can only have decaf because I am allergic to caffeine). She loves people watching and trying different foods from around the world. She really will try anything once. She also loves children and loves to play games with them, especially if she gets to dress up in one of her costumes and run around like a mad woman. She adores reading while curled up in front of her fireplace, usually with Goldfish the cat on her lap, and Reuben the angelfish swimming in his bowl nearby. She loves aviation, but there is no way you will get her in a plane (she's afraid of heights). She likes to go to the airfield and watch the shows, though. She also thinks it is great fun when she visits her parents and daddy lets her drive the car (even though she is horrible at it). Her favorite season is winter (she is in love with the holiday season) and she adores Mexican and Chinese food, especially. She also has an affinity for animals.

Her struggles in life are being a woman in that time period, fighting for her own rights, trying to be a professional writer (as a woman, it was even harder), and just dealing with her own swarming thoughts about her environment. She's very sensitive to the things around her and day-to-day living can be very difficult when there are so many things to take in.

As for her personality, I want her to very much be an INFJ (if you don't know what that is, google it). Like me, she is very introverted and needs a lot of isolation to retain her creative energy. Even though she will go out in town with her above-mentioned friend at times, she is usually alone. She is very friendly though. She is also very intuitive and trusts her heart way more than her head. If her heart says take path A, and her head says take path B, you can be damned sure she will be taking path A. She also has that "psychic" ability we INFJs tend to have and knows things about complete strangers that she runs into on the street. She does use logic, however, and does her best to apply her logic with her heartfelt thinking... but yeah, she follows her heart. She is also very emotional and is the one who is crying in the movie theatre. Life is full of passion, so she feels, and sometimes it is very overwhelming for her. Even a beautiful sunset brings tears to her eyes, but that is okay. It just shows her beautiful spirit. She is also very organized and does like tradition. She is a stickler for cleanliness (which a lot of people were back then due to fear about germs... she just likes her environment to be creative and productive). She loves to reflect on her childhood and bring it into her adult life as much as she can. She strives for true freedom.

For negative traits, she can get a bit testy if she does not get enough isolation, just like me. She also has her head in the clouds a bit *too* much and does need brought back down to reality sometimes. She can be too much of an optimist, as well.. which is actually a good trait, but the negativity of the world frustrates her and depresses her. She also does have a temper, especially when her freedom and women's rights are challenged. She can also become depressed easily when faces with the negativity of the world and refuses to function like a normal adult for awhile. However, and usually by the help of her friend, she remembers how beautiful the world is and returns to her generally peppy self. She is also the advocate sometimes and she tries to stand up for the little guy, which usually gets her into hot water. She is also rather impatient, but more like a kid waiting for Christmas Day... that kind of impatient. :) Another bad quality is that she tries to soak in so many experiences in the world and all it has to offer that she sometimes forgets to care for her own self. She'll often not eat due to a creative binge (not the same reason that I sometimes don't eat for days XD) or working too hard.

So, that is what I have for Amelie so far. :) I'm going to do a full character assessment whenever I have the time, as well as draw up her references. Not sure if i want to do that on Sunday or not. I still have other personal art that needs finished on Sunday, as well. I really like this girl so far, though. :)

What do you guys think?