Bella Bianchi

[KamiKaze]

Name: Bella Antonia Bianchi
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Hobbies and Interests: Ballet, acting, classical music, dolls and plush toys, action movies, reality television, creative writing

Appearance: Bella has dark brown wavy hair that she prefers cutting into a chin-length layered style, with the back slightly shorter to expose her neck and some semblance of bangs. While she has tried to grow it back out in the past, she oftentimes goes back to her current hairstyle.

Bella is of Italian descent; her mother was born in Italy, while her father has both Italian and Sicilian ancestry. As a result, Bella tans easily, with her gaining an extra shade during the summer and paling during the Minnesota winters. While Bella doesn’t like wearing makeup too much, she wears a light amount of it, usually in the form of lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, and mascara. More recently she has been playing around with her look, so she has been styling her eyeliner in a subtle cat’s eye. Her nose is slightly large but straight. Bella has big green eyes with naturally long eyelashes and trimmed expressive eyebrows. Her mouth is large with thin lips. Bella has a heart-shaped face with slight cheekbones.

As a ballet dancer, Bella has a lean, flexible build, with broad shoulders and long limbs. She is about 5’2 and 106 pounds, making her shorter and the lower end of average weight. Bella is self-conscious about her feet, as they have callouses and other problems associated with ballet dancers. Her background as a dancer also shows through her body language, as she has good posture and naturally stands with her feet and legs turned out. Bella keeps her nails trimmed, with dark blue or green nail polish.

Up until the previous summer, Bella’s outfits were more on the girlish side, with blouses, skirts, and the occasional jean shorts. However, in more recent history she has been experimenting with her look, incorporating elements of alternative fashion, including the style known as dark academia. Her dress sense is somewhat more androgynous and semi-formal, with ties, vests, and blazers. She has started wearing accessories like studded armbands, fingerless gloves, and chains. Bella still wears tights, leggings, and legwarmers as lower body wear. As Bella is still trying to figure out what she enjoys wearing, these elements can be haphazard and mismatched. Her preferred color schemes are shades of olive green, dark blues, and black. Bella values comfort in her shoes due to her practicing ballet, and avoids heels in favor of comfortable boots, and occasionally sandals if she is in private. On the day of the abduction, Bella wore a short-sleeved grey-blue dress shirt with a black button-up vest on top. She wore distressed dark blue tights underneath her black shorts, with long black socks layered on. Bella’s shoes were black lace-up ankle boots. As for accessories, she wore a black velvet choker with a silver jellyfish pendant, a grey blazer, and a belt with pyramid studs.

Biography: Bella Bianchi was born to Berta Bianchi and Giuseppe Mancini in Minneapolis, MN. Berta had a significant amount of success in stage performances as a ballet dancer and actress in her youth, having worked with such companies as the American Ballet Theatre and major Broadway productions before retiring due to a physical injury and moving to Minnesota. While she has not performed since she works as a choreographer and dance instructor for Minnesota Ballet. She met Giuseppe, a surgeon, at a dinner party one evening, and the two hit it off, eventually getting married. However, two years after the marriage, the two decided to file for divorce for compatibility reasons. A complication arose during the divorce process: Berta was pregnant. The papers were only finalized after the child, Bella, was born, who ended up in the custody of Berta.

Berta was often away, either working or with friends. As a result of this, much of Bella’s early childhood was spent at a friend’s house. Luckily, Berta’s friend had a child her age, which kept Bella from being too lonely. While Berta was away often, she was well-off enough due to her previous success and current work as a choreographer, meaning Bella was never in need of any physical resources. Berta was a fan of classical music, and as a result, Bella has grown fond of it too. While she does listen to popular music, she remains fond of classical, either contemporary or traditional, to the point of going on at length about it if it comes up.

At the age of five Bella was diagnosed with low-support autism spectrum disorder due to her missing a few milestones, stimming behavior, and avoiding eye contact. Berta, for much of Bella’s life, was in denial about her diagnosis, believing that nothing was atypical about Bella and that a diagnosis was stigmatizing. She hid evidence of it outside of medical settings, to the point where even Bella herself did not know of her diagnosis until very recently. Berta did, however, attempt to train autism symptoms out of Bella and enforce strict rules about posturing, fidgeting, and speaking styles, believing that most of the symptoms could be treated by adjusting outward behavior. Starting school was difficult for Bella due to her having more trouble with the material, as well as having difficulty fitting in with other students. She wasn't bullied too often, but other students would see her as aloof. Her teachers noted her as mostly well-behaved, but she had trouble preventing herself from fidgeting or initiating social activities with other students, preferring to spend time by herself. A few times she flitted in and out of social groups, as she strived for approval, but would have trouble connecting with others her age because of social expectations, Bella developing a more hectic schedule over time, or differing interests from other children. When Bella was disciplined at school, it was mostly about her feeling emotional from overstimulation rather than conscious misbehaving. She needed speech therapy for an impediment, but most of her speech problems were resolved by the time she was in middle school. Bella typically has clear enunciation from both performing and her childhood speech therapy, though she tends to subconsciously overcorrect herself, as well as occasionally slipping up when she's stressed. However, some of the problems evened out as Bella grew older. Currently, Bella is capable of masking, appearing almost neurotypical a lot of the time, and receives an Individual Education Plan from Aurora Bay, which she is aware of but was unaware of the specifics of why she needed one aside from her speech therapy.

Starting from a young age Bella was introduced to ballet and acting by Berta. At first, this started as simple encouragement, helping her learn whatever she needed to learn. The Bianchi house was large and had plenty of room to practice. Additionally, Berta had plenty of ways to help her improve at that age. Bella quickly grew dedicated to both dancing and acting, which, combined with her natural capability, led people to compliment her on her skill. Berta responded by gradually pushing harder. By the time she was ten, Bella was practicing every day, either with an instructor or her mother. Berta began pushing her to become successful, believing that she had a lot of potential. If asked, Bella believes that she isn’t talented and her skill is because she works a lot. While she has problems expressing herself without it, it helped her to overcome some of her social difficulties, as learning how to act, as well as studying other actors, taught her how to present herself in different situations even outside of performing.

Berta also began taking Bella to auditions in the area for people her age. Usually, these were bit parts in commercials, TV shows, or films. Because of the number of people auditioning, as well as her difficulties with her childhood speech impediment early on, Bella wasn’t usually called back, though she did receive some attention. She has made background appearances in music videos, as well as a secondary role in the obscure drama film Elegant Acts when she was 13, to which Berta was further encouraged. While constantly auditioning and performing has made Bella stressed out, she enjoys being called back, especially as she strives for Berta’s approval and likes making her happy.

Her relationship with Berta has only become more unusual over time. For example, Berta has been known to spoil her if she feels Bella has done well. One of the things she got frequently were dolls and plush toys, to the point where she had a large collection of them. Bella appreciated the validation they represented, and, although she doesn't have any major brands she seeks out specifically, she does like softer toys like Squishmallows, though she dislikes how pricier they are. For dolls, she tends to like them more for displaying and posing, with most of hers being plastic fashion dolls, though a few porcelain ones are also in her collection. Generally, having plush toys to snuggle with is comforting to her, while maintaining dolls by cleaning them, brushing their hair, or repairing them is relaxing. However, Berta has always been strict with her, including about things like Bella’s diet, who she spent time with, what she watched, and similar. As Bella got older and more independent, she began to question Berta and push back against her, resulting in arguments that became more frequent over time.

One such thing that started arguments was that Bella was introduced to reality TV in middle school through a friend. While she always heard from Berta that the shows were trashy fare targeted at the lowest common denominator, once she watched them she enjoyed the drama and high stakes of the cast, especially since they were at least ostensibly based on actual events. She tends to prefer challenge-based shows such as Survivor and The Traitors, particularly the UK version. One of her favorite things to do in her spare time, even now, is to sit down to watch these shows.

As Bella got older, she added action movies to her tastes. It started when she got introduced to the works of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez in her Freshman year, and, despite Berta also disapproving of their style, Bella enjoyed the aesthetics and tones of these movies, even if the extreme content got to her sometimes. From there, she sought out other movies with similar tones.

Bella started writing real-person fanfiction of reality show contestants for a while, before moving on to other fandoms. While she didn’t stay in one fandom for too long, she did enjoy talking about fanfiction and learning how to write specific things well. Most of her works were of a shipping nature. She had to stop writing fanfiction in her sophomore year of high school, due to receiving doxxing and death threats as well as people digging up her past works to make fun of, which was spurred on by Bella being involved in shipping discourse. It took Bella about a year before she started posting her writing online again, though this time under a different name and most of the content being original fiction. She still enjoys writing romance, seeing the appeal in the wish-fulfillment aspects of it. However, she also enjoys action scenes, and in more humorous works has written deliberately over-the-top scenes as a way of stretching her writing capabilities. Bella looks back on her older works with a bit of embarrassed nostalgia, knowing that while most of it was questionably written and now finding the idea of real-person fic problematic, she still remembers how she enjoyed writing them. Bella’s writing style is somewhat eclectic due to her previous influences being varied; she was raised with more classical literature, plays, and music, but her interest in action movies and reality television shows in how she writes about certain subjects or how she inserts certain plot points. Sometimes, when she shows her work to others, they either praise the odd choices or critique her for them. Currently, the original work she posts online has a small audience, but she makes sure to interact with them when she’s able to find the time.

At school, Bella comes off as polite, if somewhat nervous. She is well-liked by her classmates as she is seen as a hardworking and kind-hearted girl. Because of her mother's harshly enforcing manners, proper speaking styles, and posture, she often comes off as overly formal when she talks to people. For this reason, she can also come off as more confident and socially assured than she is. Bella has a long history of anxiety and feeling burnt out, due to her mom’s pressure to do well in performing and school often going on at once. Bella is a perfectionist in that she’ll often practice scripts and dance routines on her own for long periods. When she does get stressed out she becomes snippy and irritable. Although most people understand that she is less controlling and more anxious about things going well, it has caused some friction in the Drama Club. Nonetheless, she has remained a committed member, enough to get a leading role in the school’s recent production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in the form of Mrs. Lovett, a performance that was generally praised. Currently, she is an A and B student; she sometimes has trouble learning the material due to her often being busy with performances, but with some help from tutors she has managed to keep her grades up. Her strongest grades are English and P.E., with her experience with creative writing helping with essays and her athleticism making her able to keep up with physical exercise. However, she tends to have trouble with Social Studies and Sciences, with her notably having trouble with Biology. When she has trouble with school work, it often has to do with her either not having enough time to study due to performing, or her generally needing to take more time to fully understand the material when reading or following a lecture. However, she understands more clearly when someone takes the time to explain to her on a personal level.

Bella often doesn’t interact with people off-campus. While she has been invited to parties and other social outings, she frequently doesn’t go due to being busy. When people talk to her outside of an academic or performance context she can come off as shyer and socially anxious. Bella honestly doesn’t know many of her classmates outside of class, and fears people criticizing her. Her shyness often kicks in when she’s dealing with unfamiliar situations, such as a type of social outing she’s never been to. To a certain extent, Bella feels like she’s acting whenever she’s on campus, even when she isn’t performing on stage. However, as noted, she is well-liked, and many people remember her for being hard-working and always willing to help out with any projects that come up or offer feedback on others’ performances. Bella can be somewhat of a pushover, in that she strives for approval and often lets people walk over her regardless of what she wants. She has made more of an active effort to assert herself and her needs, but she still has some trouble doing so. For this same reason, she can be somewhat clingy; as noted, she doesn’t see people that often outside of school, so she can get lonely easily. While it often isn’t immediately noticeable, she can become protective of those she’s close to.

Another unfortunate consequence of her isolation is that she’s somewhat sheltered and sometimes misses details that others would. Sometimes she just doesn’t understand recent memes, but other times she can say something inadvertently offensive without realizing it. For example, she once accidentally reblogged something online that she didn’t realize came from a trans-exclusionary feminist, due to her agreeing with the general, mostly inoffensive points about gender presentation in women while missing cruel subtext about transfeminine people. Thankfully, someone took her aside and explained what the person meant before it became an actual issue, which embarrassed Bella but prompted her to delete it. Bella is otherwise pro-LGBT: she identifies as lesbian-leaning bisexual and has participated in Gay-Straight Alliance activities.

Ironically, despite Bella’s interest in action media and her current role as Mrs. Lovett, she is squeamish to the point of a blood-injection-injury phobia. While it was much worse when she was younger, she has no memories of potential causes. However, when she sees or smells blood in person she tends to feel nauseated and nervous. She has fainted at least once when someone has injured themselves on campus. Nowadays seeing movies featuring bloody scenes doesn’t bother her as much, as she has grown desensitized towards it. This is helped by her focusing more on performances and character interactions than the violence itself. Similarly, she is affected by the idea of needles and often has to look away when, for example, a character is receiving a shot. She has also admitted that the reason why she writes over-the-top action scenes is because more realistic injuries tend to wig her out rather than deliberately absurd situations. That said, she often has to know in advance if something she’s watching has significant amounts of violence, and often has to take breaks. Her attitude towards actually dealing with injuries has changed much less, in that she is still set off by it due to the smell being a major trigger for her.

Bella is also not good with directions. It’s easy for her to become lost, and even with a map or someone giving her help, she can still have trouble. For example, she had trouble finding her way around Aurora Bay until late freshman year, and even then still has moments where she has to be reminded where, for example, a classroom is. Because of this, she often has to stand close to someone whenever she’s on a school trip.

As of senior year, Bella’s relationship with her mother has grown even more complicated. After a significant argument before the end of junior year, Bella decided to pick up a summer job in an attempt to control her schedule a bit more, feeling overwhelmed by auditioning and performing. Despite Berta’s criticisms, Bella was ultimately able to get a seasonal job in a cinema. When the job ended, she was offered a regular part-time job due to her acting ability helping with customer service and her being a hardworking employee, which she accepted. As Bella now has more money to spend on herself, she has been picking up new interests. She has learned a bit more about doll collecting as a hobby and has made some personal additions to her collection. While she has bought from retailers, she has searched yard sales and secondhand stores, as she enjoys the idea of finding unique dolls and plush toys that are older. More recently, she has been experimenting with her looks, incorporating elements of punk and dark academia into her wardrobe and personal belongings. Bella, as of yet, hasn’t looked deep into the punk scene, and if anything her appearance change is an attempt at rebelling against her mother by changing it to something that makes her feel uncomfortable. That said, she has delved into online uploads of punk music and finds comfort in the anti-authoritarian stances of the subculture. She has not been able to visit any concerts herself, due to concerns about whether she’d find the noise or large amounts of people overwhelming, as well as not finding the time for it. As for dark academia, she relates to it due to being raised with more classical media. Nonetheless, this has led to more friction with her mother that somewhat petered out into Berta being passive-aggressive.

However, it started up again due to Bella’s acceptance into a four-year dance program at a university, which led the school to request medical records from her. This in turn led to Bella discovering her childhood diagnosis, which started up another round of fighting due to Bella feeling that Berta was hiding things from her. By the time of the school trip, it had cooled down some, though she still expressed caution when talking to Berta. She disclosed it to some of her co-workers at the cinema when the subject came up in conversation, as well as some of her fellow dancers in her classes, but she disliked how people talked about her after the fact. Sometimes, when she has talked about it, she feels people infantilize her or dismiss her when she is upset about something mostly unrelated after her disclosure. She has tried to talk to others on social media to get a keen sense of what the diagnosis entails, but she finds the current state of online discourse about the subject overwhelming. A lot of what she's uncovered is from the viewpoint of parents of autistic children or downright toxic viewpoints from posters who themselves are autistic. She spent a few months in a Discord server meant for autistic people, only for the server to die due to huge amounts of infighting over discourse. While she valued the genuine advice she received, she disliked how the community would often get into arguments or be judgemental towards those who don't agree with their exact viewpoints, such as opinions about self-diagnosis, stimming, mental health, and self-improvement. She has not sought out any similar communities for this reason, as her experiences were negative enough to impact her. As such, she experiences some amount of internalized ableism in that she still tends to overcorrect some of her outward behavior, and most of her classmates aren't aware of her diagnosis because she does not enjoy conversations about it. She has, however, picked up a few tricks to help with some of the symptoms that she has trouble with; for example, while auditory overload isn't as common an issue with her, she keeps over-the-ear headphones inside her bag in case something does set her off.

Bella has mixed feelings about performing. On one hand, she feels overwhelmed by her mother's pressure, and oftentimes wishes she could develop other hobbies or skills. Bella subconsciously feels she doesn't have much value outside of being an actress and dancer, and that she's unskilled elsewhere. She also wishes she had more time to socialize with people her age on a more casual basis, often feeling out of the loop on contemporary trends and in-jokes. On the other, she does have a sincere appreciation for the art forms and often develops a deep interest in whatever she's performing to the point of analyzing the work, its characters, and ways it can be performed on a passionate level. One contributing part of Bella's friction with her mother is their differing perspectives on performing: Berta is more purist when it comes to interpreting the text. However, Bella's approach is more transformative, often leaning into different angles and subtexts that can be read in the material. Deep down, Bella wants to continue professional work, but she also subconsciously wants to develop an identity not influenced by her mother because of her differing values and interests in dance and acting. Bella also enjoys the connection she has with other performers, as sometimes she has trouble relating to others outside of a stage context. Because of her often feeling isolated, Bella genuinely values being a part of Aurora Bay's drama club, as her fellow performers are often among those she can connect to emotionally. Some of Bella's interests, particularly in ballet and stage performance in general, are obscure enough that some people out of that sphere might have a harder time getting invested to the same extent, so she finds it easier to talk to them about those subjects. It also helps that she spends enough time with them in rehearsals, performances, and wrap parties to get more acquainted with them. Another factor is that Berta tends to be critical of Bella spending time with friends, as she is the type to try to see fault in others Bella's age, such as being critical of how they present themselves or what hobbies they have. However, she eases up some if she learns they are also performers, especially if it aligns with her interests.

As for her father, Bella doesn't see Giuseppe too often. However, she has visited him throughout her life. Currently, he lives in Ely, which is a four-hour drive from Saint Paul, so Bella usually has to plan out her visits. She admittedly has trouble emotionally seeing him as her father due to his not being in her life as much, but she gets along fine when she visits him. Planning visits to him can sometimes be stressful, not just because of the distance but because Berta and Giuseppe have fought a few times when they both go see him. However, he does pay child support. As for her dad's side of her family, she has tried to reach out to them in an attempt to connect to her roots. Bella has been to Italy a few times to meet up with family on both her mother's and father's sides and is fluent in the language.

Aside from going to a four-year program and working at the cinema, she recently auditioned for a role in an indie horror film as the main protagonist’s best friend. While her squeamishness made it hard to read, the script compelled Bella enough for her to practice for the audition regularly. She has received a callback for the role, which will take place shortly after she gets back from the school trip. In the meantime, she plans to use the trip as a way to relax before then.

Advantages: As Bella is a lifelong dancer, she is more flexible and athletic. Additionally, she comes off as polite and reasonably well-spoken, which can give her an edge in charisma. Another factor is her being seen as kind-hearted, which may help in getting people on her side. As a skilled actress, she can lie or present a specific front. Bella also has a good work ethic, which would mean she is less likely to slack off on any duties.
Disadvantages: Bella has a history of anxiety and burnout, which can affect her mental health throughout the game. While she does have the ability to persuade others, her comparative lack of interaction with her classmates outside of school can make her seem shy and distant. She ironically has a blood-injection-injury phobia, and while she has made strides to overcome it she can still be affected by the sight of injuries. Bella is not good with directions and can get lost easily. While not immediately noticeable, Bella can be somewhat clingy and protective of others, which can be used against her. She can be easily pushed around, and while she has made the effort to assert herself better she can still be coerced into acting against her wishes. Bella is somewhat sheltered, which can lead to her misinterpreting something or accidentally being offensive.

Original Profile: Bella Bianchi (TV2)
Permission: Own character

[MurderWeasel]

Hey, Kami! Bella's looking pretty solid, just a bit left before she's ready.

Can we maybe get this swapped up a bit: "incorporating elements of alternative fashion and dark academia." to perhaps something like "incorporating elements of alternative fashion, especially the style known as dark academia." I just want to clarify a bit here in case the reader has never heard of the style before, as it's a lot less common than, say, punk.

What color was Bella's velvet choker?

Did Giuseppe not have any custody/visitation with Bella at all? If not, why not? What about his parents (her paternal grandparents)? Did he pay child support?

Can we get IEP written out fully ("Individual Education Plan") the first time it comes up, just in case the reader isn't aware of the acronym?

Does Bella actually like her acting and dancing? What about it does she most enjoy?

What about her toy collection does Bella like? Does she like them mostly in their own right, or for the approval they represent, or both? Does she have a specific focus for her collecting?

Can we hear just a little bit about Bella's entrance into school and her earliest years? Did she have an easy time adjusting, or was it more difficult for her?

How does Bella feel about her diagnosis (aside from her anger at her mother for hiding it from her for so long)?

Can I get just a bit more in terms of specifics about Bella's plans for the future/ballet school? My reading suggests that usually ballet school is more of a thing that people attend throughout their childhood/teen/young adult years (which it sounds like Bella's doing already). Is she planning to devote all her energy to pursuing the art in a more professional capacity? Is she going to a four-year college with a major in dance?

Post when you've got that taken care of, and we'll give Bella another look. Thanks!

[KamiKaze]

I feel like she's ready for another look.

[MurderWeasel]

APPROVED