Daniela DeLancie

[Daniela DeLancie]

Daniela Rose DeLancie

....the mask

Your Name: Trist
Where did you find us?: A little bird told me
How long have you been roleplaying?:like… four years… ish
Password: It was in the rules, find it Solstice fire!

...basic character information

Birth Name: Daniela Rose DeLancie
Nickname: Dani, Rose, Dizzy, Diz
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 11th
Birth date: May 4th
Program: Bachelor of the Arts
Major: Vocal Music
Major Explanation: Daniela loves becoming lost in music and feeling like she is a pat of it, it makes her feel like she is in sync with something for once. Hummingbirds, like most other birds, communicate through their songs.
Animal Identity: White Eared Hummingbird [ size]

...personality

Likes:(at least 10)

• Singing – Singing is one of the only things Daniela is good at, she loves getting lost in the music and becoming a part of it through her voice.
  
• Music – Singing to music is one of Daniela’s passions. Listening to it is another favourite pastime, she can forget the world and be taken into a new one.
  
• Cake – Pretty much any kind, whether for an occasion or not, Daniela loves making and eating cake. She loves the very idea of cake. It’s like if birthdays were a single object.
  
• Friends – Simple enough; there’s nothing better than spending time with a few good friends.
  
• Chatting – Just sitting and having a talk with someone can be more entertaining than anything else. Even if you’re just calling up your parents to see how they are doing.
  
• Having Fun – Who doesn’t like having fun? However it’s accomplished, its… well, fun.
  
• Being Warm – Cuddling up in a blanket or lying under the sun, its all the same to Daniela, she just loves the feeling of being warm.
  
• Family – You only have one, right? They helped make her into the best she could be, and stuck with her through everything.
  
• Kittens – They’re just so fluffy and cute, and when they go exploring it just makes your heart melt.
  
• Baking – Daniela loves spending time in the kitchen baking cakes and treats for her and her friends and family, even if she isn’t very good at it.
  
• Colouring – Another thing she might not be the best at, but loves all the same. There’s just something so childishly fun about colouring a picture.
  
• The Sounds of the World – Just sitting and listening to whatever is going on around you. Waves hitting the beach, the wind in the trees, cars rushing along a road.
  
• Romance – the movies and books about true love and happily ever after and that kind of thing. Daniela would love to experience it herself, even if she’s not sure who she wants to experience it with.
  
• Stealing – Daniela is a kleptomaniac, so she compulsively takes things from people or shops. They are almost always of little value, and she does nothing with them but horde them in a box under her bed. It’s not so much the action itself as much as the feeling that comes with it.
  

Dislikes: (at least 10)

• Rainy Days – They just get her down. There’s only so much you can do inside, and rain makes everything seem dark and miserable and boring.
  
• Arguments – People should just get along, and even if they can’t they should learn to live with it.
  
• Confusion – Daniela gets confused pretty easily, it makes her feel stupid.
  
• Blood – She just can’t stand the sight of it, or, more accurately; the thought that goes with the sight, the thought that it shouldn’t be outside of a body.
  
• Getting Things Wrong – Even when she tries her hardest sometimes things don’t go her way. It’s pretty disheartening.
  
• Disappointing People – Daniela tries to please everyone, no matter how impossible that it. When she disappoints someone, especially her family, it hits her pretty hard.
  
• Her Vision – Having problems with seeing straight since she was young, Daniela can’t help but feel like it holds her back from doing a lot of things properly.
  
• Her Clumsiness – Daniela lacks co-ordination and quite often bumps into things or trips or drops things. She can’t help it, but no matter how hard she tries she can never quite co-ordinate herself.
  
• Her Memory – Daniela’s memory is about as retentive as a sieve, and it always seems to be the important bits that she forgets.
  
• Animal Cruelty – It’s just wrong. People shouldn’t do it.
  
• Scary Movies – She scares easily, and the scary memories are some of the few that stick with her, coming back when she goes to bed.
  
• Stealing – though she hates that she does it she can’t stop herself. She always feels guilty, even though the things she steals are often of very little value.
  

Fears: (At least 3)

• Insects – She knows they aren’t doing anything wrong, but they just creep her out.
  
• Nightmares – Daniela is pretty easy to scare, and something scary stays with her for a long time, popping up in her dreams and giving her nightmares for weeks.
  
• Letting Everyone Down – Daniela always tries her hardest, but always gets scared that she’s going to mess something up and upset everyone.
  
• Being Cut Open – It’s a bit of a strange thing to obsess over, but she just can’t stop thinking about it once she gets onto the topic. She generally avoids knives.
  

Strengths: (At least 3)

• Kind – If you mention an upcoming birthday to Daniela don’t be surprised if she presents you with a cake. And if you have a problem or need a favour she’ll try her hardest to help you out. She may not always be successful but it’s the thought that counts, right?
  
• – Persistent – Daniela never stops trying. Even her fears and failures can’t stop her for long. The only true failure is to give up.
  
• Singing – One of the only things Daniela excels in.
  

Weaknesses: (At least 3)

• Clumsy – Daniela is uncoordinated and klutzy and generally physically inept
  
• Forgetful – Besides song lyrics and bad thoughts most things float right out of her mind if she doesn’t keep track of them.
  
• Poor Eyesight – Her left eye doesn’t work as it should, resulting in poor depth perception and generally lower visual ability
  
• Trying to Please Everyone – Daniele is a people-pleaser; even when she can’t please everyone she tries anyway, which can lead to disappointing everyone
  
• Persistent – Sometimes she just doesn’t know when to quit, and can wear herself out hopelessly trying to succeed.
  
• Kleptomania – Daniela just can’t help taking things. She can’t explain why she does it but at times she just sees something and gets an urge to take it. It feels great for a while when she succeeds but afterwards she just feels guilty.
  

Overall: [300 words minimum]

Daniela seems pretty easy to understand. She is generally a happy-go-lucky girl. She enjoys the simple things in life. Just sitting and talking, or having fun with friends is enough for her. She doesn’t often hide her emotions, and even when she tries to she isn’t very good at it. She lives, as they say, with her heart on her sleeve. One quality Daniela possesses is the ability to never let life keep her down. She might become unhappy for a while, or she might get angry or stressed or frustrated but she will inevitably bounce back. She enjoys making other people happy, and will always endeavour to please people. Sometimes she tries a little too hard. One of Daniela’s flaws is her desire to please everyone, no matter how unreasonable that seems. Even if someone clearly dislikes her she will constantly attempt to make them like her. This isn’t because she wants to be loved, but because she feels that if she is disliked it is through some fault of her own. This feeling is hard to shake, even when she is clearly not at fault.

Despite her shortcomings and desire to please everyone, or perhaps because of them, Daniela is incredibly persistent. She may not have the skills suited to a task but she’ll give it a go anyway. Not only that but she’ll keep giving it a go until she succeeds or is convinced it’s not worth pursuing. That’s not to say that she will relentlessly pursue every task without giving up until she’s told not to, she has some common sense, even if it is often vague. She will give up herself if she sees it isn’t worth it, but when it comes to certain things, such as other people’s feelings she often just doesn’t see it that way.

Anger isn’t something that Daniela openly expresses often. She does get angry sometimes, but she tries to keep it inside until she’s alone. Her anger doesn’t last long anyway; it usually boils down into frustration or sadness. The greatest anger she feels is at herself and her shortcomings. Her tendency to herself others over others leads her to dwell on what she has failed at rather than what others might have done. She has been told it’s unhealthy to always blame herself but she can’t help it. Daniela knows she has flaws, and, as such, blames more on herself. Sometimes she just can’t help wondering what things would be like if she wasn’t so clumsy or forgetful or if she could see straight. It gets her down sometimes, and it takes some time for her to get back to her usual self.

Daniela’s mind doesn’t always work properly. A childhood injury left her with something of a poor memory. Most things just don’t stay in her head for very long, not entirely anyway. Everyday things just slip out unnoticed. It always seems to be the important things; names, dates, times. It makes things pretty difficult when it comes to studying. She tries her best but something always slips her mind at a crucial moment. Because of this she both hates and fears exams. Daniela is pretty easy to confuse, even if her memory was perfect. She isn’t stupid, it just takes her a little longer to work things out sometimes. Oddly, song lyrics are one of the few things that stick in her head for the most part. Maybe it has something to do with how they fit with the music, maybe something else, but whatever the reason you can trust Daniela to remember the words to a song. Another kind of memory that sticks with her is the scary stuff, the things she wants to forget. She avoids scary movies and TV shows like the plague. When she sees something that scares her she’s likely to have nightmares for days on end.

Daniela likes making friends. She doesn’t need everyone in the world to like her, but it wouldn’t hurt if they did. So long as they don’t dislike her Dani is happy to leave people perfectly alone. She never stops trying to make new friends though, and can always find a reason to have fun. Birthdays are Daniela’s favourite events ever. She loves giving gifts and making cake even more. She makes sure that every birthday party she attends has a proper cake, even if she has to make one herself, usually after many failed attempts. Family, of course, is even more important than friends to Daniela. Friends may come and go but family is forever. There are a few friends Daniela would consider just as close as family, but for the most part her relatives inhabit a special, exclusive place in her heart. She loves her entire family no matter what. If one of her relatives committed a terrible crime Daniela would still hold some love for them, even if she hated them as well. Of course, it would take some convincing to make Daniela believe that a member of her family would do such a thing.

When it comes to closer relationships Daniela is stuck in a state of confusion. She is a big fan of romance as a concept, even if people think it’s silly. She loves the idea that two people can fall completely in love to the point where nothing else matters, and make each other feel like they are the most important person in the world. But when it comes to actually engaging a relationship she is completely lost. She isn’t even sure what kind of person she wants to be with. Adding to the confusion is the fact that she finds girls just as attractive as boys. In an ideal world things would be just as they were in the movies. In reality Daniela is hopelessly lost.

...appearance

x x

Celebrity Play By: Dakota Fanning
Appearance: [300 words minimum]

Daniela is pretty average in frame and size. She stands at five feet and six inches tall. She is a little on the skinny side, which is a little surprising considering the amount of sugary snacks she eats. She chalks it down to pure luck and a high metabolism. She has a pretty slim figure, lacking much definition. She isn’t muscular in the slightest, sticking just on the edge of looking like a stickman, or stickwoman. Daniela weighs in at about 123lbs, again, just on the verge of being underweight. It’s not that she doesn’t try to maintain a healthy weight; she just finds it hard to put weight on. Most people would consider that a blessing, and to a degree Daniela does as well. However, it does get a little annoying when people are constantly telling her to put a little meat on her bones. The end result is an appearance that does little to make her stand out in a crowd.

When you get a little closer you start to notice the things that make Daniela unique. She has blonde hair that, when straight, falls down to her shoulder blades. It is naturally quite straight, requiring only a little combing to straighten properly. It does have a tendency to curl at the tips a little, though she often just lets it. Her face is rather rounded and her cheeks retain the last small remnant of baby fat, giving her a bright, innocent look, especially when she smiles. Her mouth was made for smiling; she looks at her best when she is wearing a smile. Her parents always told her to keep her smile beautiful, so she made sure to take care of her teeth. Her nose is rounded like the rest of her features. It seems less of a feature in itself and more of a divide between the rest of her facial features. Her eyes are the first thing most people notice when they see her. They are bright, cheery and blue. She has a lazy eye, and so her left is usually looking away and often down. It can be a bit unnerving to some, and she gets a little embarrassed if people stare, but it’s a distinguishing characteristic. Daniela usually has a good few cuts and bruises from her daily life. One mark you won’t notice though is a two-inch scar on the back of her head, on the right, hidden by her hair.

Daniela’s dress code is pretty simple: nothing boring. She prefers jeans for their versatility and resistance to damage, but she is diverse in her clothing style and will wear almost anything. She sometimes wishes she could wear dresses more, but her tendency for damaging her clothes make shirts and trousers more practical. Every shirt she owns has some design on it, usually something happy and colourful. She often throws the odd accessory into the mix, her favourites being flower designs. No matter what she wears she always bears a gold pendant in the shape of a cross and a small, plain golden ring on her left hand ring finger. These are gifts from her family and she very rarely takes these off.

As a hummingbird Daniela is around nine centimetres long and weighs barely more than three grams. She has a darkly feathered head with white streaks starting above the eyes and moving right back to her neck. Her beak is thin and brightly orange with a black tip. Her wing and tail feathers are dark like her head, and the rest of her body has a green, almost scaly look to it, with the exception of a small patch on her stomach. Her feet are small and greyish.

...history

Parents:
[/li][li] Raymond DeLancie (Father, 40, Sika Deer Shift)
[/li][li] Catherine DeLancie (Mother, 41, Eurasian Lynx Shift)
Siblings:
[/li][li] Diana Lily DeLancie (sister, 12, not yet shifted)
[/li][li] Kaimi DeLancie-Turner (Adopted Sister, 15, human)

At the time of her birth Daniela’s parents were living in Omaha, Nebraska. Daniela is half Italian, with both her mother’s mother and father’s father originating from Italy. Catherine’s father and his family had lived in America as far back as they could remember, and Raymond’s mother and could only trace her heritage back to a single Irish great grandfather. Raymond was the eldest of two brothers, Catherine was an only child. Though Daniela’s family was undoubtedly more American than anything else they still held a few values, one of them being the importance of family. Daniela was born on the evening of May the fourth. It had been a bright, cheerful day. Some might say that the day reflected the personality of the one born. Her early life was pretty perfect, or as close to perfect as was possible. Catherine worked as a business executive and Raymond as a police officer. This meant they were free from financial troubles. Daniela was never left alone, her father’s parents were always more than happy to look after the young child while her parents were working.

As Daniela grew she developed a love for performing. From when she first learned to talk she would sing to her family members. Maybe it was because it made them happy, maybe it was just being the centre of attention. Either way she loved putting on a show. Daniela was a perfectly happy and bouncy child, if a little reckless and clumsy, but then what child didn’t bump their head every now and then? Death first visited Daniela’s life when she was three years old. Her grandmother on her mother’s side died of a disease of the lungs. Though Daniela was too young to really understand she was still sad that she couldn’t see her grandma any more. Barely a year later her grandfather died of a heart attack, just a fortnight before the anniversary of his wife’s death. Again, it didn’t make much sense to Daniela, but she was upset when she found out that her granddad had to go away forever.

Catherine was, understandably, upset at having lost both her parents within the space of a year, but she was a strong woman, and made sure never to show it in front of her daughter. Raymond’s mother, Gillian, and his father, Carl, had always been kind towards their daughter in law, but after the deaths of her grandparents they made sure to take every opportunity to play the parts of parents that she no longer had. Shortly after her father’s death Catherine found out she was pregnant with a second child. The whole family was thrilled to hear the news, and Catherine decided to name the child after her father if it was a boy and her mother if it was a girl. During that summer Raymond’ parents invited the whole family, including Raymond’s brother and his new wife, to go with them on their annual trip to Florence, where Raymond’s uncle lived with his family. The trip was the most amazing the family had ever experienced, and Daniela loved showing off her singing skills to her new family members. It became a family tradition for all of the DeLancie family to visit Italy each summer and be with their family. Just after returning from their holiday Daniela’s little sister was born. They named her Diana after her deceased grandmother, and raised her in the same manner as they had raised their previous child; with all the love and attention they could give, plus a little help from the grandparents.

Diana was coming close to her first birthday, and the family was taking their second holiday in Florence with their Italian relatives. They were visiting a market on a Saturday, when Daniela had an incident that nearly cost her life. While her parents were browsing the wares being sold at a stall near the edge of the market Daniela dropped the plastic ball she had been playing with. It rolled away and into the road beside the market, which was packed with a great many vehicles owned by the market salesmen. As Daniela caught up with her runaway toy a car manoeuvring in to a parking space a little too fast reversed into her. The rear bumper hit her face on the left hand side, damaging her eye irreparably. The force of the blow knocked the young girl backwards, where her head collided with the kerb. Her parents were by her side in an instant, her father frantically trying to stop the blood coming from her head, which was soaking her golden blonde hair. Her mother called for an ambulance, and Daniela was rushed off to hospital. The accident left her with a scar on the back of her head and a mild case of amnesia. After returning home it took her a week to remember that she had a sister. The doctors warned her parents that there was a possibility that her memory would suffer in the long-term, and that all they could do was hope for the best. The man who had caused the accident had visited Daniela in the hospital, apologising to her and her parents repeatedly. His name was Michael; he should have been helping his father at the market, but had overslept. In his rush to get to the market and park up he hadn’t noticed the small girl run out in his path. Though she was angry and scared for her daughter’s future Catherine managed to forgive the man, though Raymond could not bring himself to even speak to him.

Daniela recovered remarkably well from the accident, resuming her normal, everyday life. As she grew it became apparent that the accident had affected her memory and ability to take in information somewhat. In addition she never lost that child like clumsiness that she had always had, though no-one can be sure if that was caused by the accident or not. Her vision was irreparable, though not so bad that she couldn’t live a normal life. When Daniela was seven Death made another call, this time taking her other grandmother. Daniela was distraught at this death, having spent a great deal of time with her grandparents while her parents worked. This marked the turning point for the DeLancie family. Carl decided to move back to Italy permanently after his wife died. Raymond’s younger brother and sister in law went with him, having little to keep them in America, and both sharing a love for the lifestyle in Italy. Raymond and Catherine decided to move too, but not to Florence. Both were shifters, and knew that there was a good chance that their children were as well. They knew about the academy, and had both attended it in their youth, and decided that it would be better for their children if the family stayed together during this period rather than forcing their children to leave them for months on end. So they sold their home, packed up their belongings and moved to the island near the academy.

The DeLancie family managed to settle in quickly on the island, enrolling their children in the school and finding jobs similar to what they had on in Omaha. Raymond became a police officer, as he had been before, and Catherine a business consultant who worked from home. Now that their grandparents weren’t here the children would need someone around to look after them, even if Daniela was coming to an age where she could do things for herself she wasn’t exactly mature. After a year on the island Catherine expressed her desire for another child. Raymond was fond of the idea too, but proposed that rather than Catherine bearing another child they should adopt and make someone’s like better if they could. Daniela, who was eight by now, was thrilled at the idea of having another sibling, Diana seemed to be for the idea too, though being only three years old she wasn’t entirely capable of making an informed decision. So they went through the process and adopted Kaimi from a local orphanage. She was two years younger then Daniela and attended the same school. Her mother had been a local and had died shortly after giving birth, living only long enough to name her child, her father had been a visitor and had left without ever seeing his child. All they knew of him was his surname: Turner. Though Raymond would have liked a son he agreed with his wife that it would be much easier for another girl to fit into the family than to bring in a boy. The family welcomed Kaimi into their group, though she was quiet and closed off for a good while. She had an uneasy relationship with Daniela, who tried to make her feel welcome. The older girl’s overly emotional attempts at making Kaimi feel loved ended up annoying her more than anything, and she was constantly pushing Daniela away. This, in turn, made Daniela try even harder, creating a cycle of annoyance.

During the next year Raymond and Catherine received a call from Daniela’s teacher asking for them to come and see her. They were unsure what it could be about, as Daniela’s past had been made known to the teachers and she wasn’t failing at anything, despite her minor disadvantages. When they met with the teacher thy discovered that Daniela had been caught stealing. Her desk had been half full of missing stationary and personal items of the students and teacher. Both parents were shocked to hear their daughter had done such a thing, and asked the teacher to keep a closer eye on things. When they returned home they sat their daughter down and asked her why. She could offer no explanation, and quickly broke down into tears. For the next few months Daniela was often caught by her parents or teacher trying to sneak something away from its owner. She was always punished, and asked to explain herself, which she just couldn’t do. After around it seemed to stop, but in reality Daniela had just learned to avoid the gaze of those watching her. She wasn’t taking as much as she had been, but things were still going missing. She had found new hiding places and methods of keeping her thefts hidden and, though she felt terrible after she took something, made sure no-one would find out. Her parents dismissed the previous thefts as being a phase she was going through, thinking it might have been a result of repressed anxiety about the changes in their family.

Daniela’s rough relationship with her adopted sister came to conflict just before Kaimi’s seventh birthday; ten months after she had become part of the family. They had taken Kaimi to meet her family in Italy, which hadn’t gone as smoothly as they had planned, and shortly after the new school year started Kaimi discovered that one of her favourite Nintendo games was missing. Kaimi had always liked computer games, and had been bought a gameboy by her new grandparents as a ‘welcome to the family’ gift. She had barely let it out of her sight. When she discovered the game missing she immediately blamed Daniela, after all, she was the one who had stolen all that stuff from school in the spring. Daniela denied the theft, and insisted that her younger sister must have misplaced the game. Their parents searched Daniela’s room top to bottom and found no trace of the game. A further search of the house revealed nothing. Even though the game still hadn’t been found Kaimi blamed Daniela, demanding that the game be returned to her daily. Daniela became so upset that in the end she locked herself in her room for an entire weekend, refusing to come out. The night before Kaimi’s birthday the family received a phone call from Raymond’s brother. The game had been found in the room Kaimi had stayed in in Florence, and was being sent back to her by post. Rather than being happy at the news, Kaimi burst into tears and ran into her own room, feeling terrible for what she had done to Daniela. The next day, when she emerged, she found the house had been decorated with streamers and paper chains and a hand-made banner reading ‘happy birthday Kaimi’ in Daniela’s handwriting. Catherine explained that Daniela had been planning a party for Kaimi from the moment they returned from Italy, as she did for Diane ever year. Kaimi was so amazed that Daniela would do such a thing for her after the way she was treated that she started crying again. Daniela, who had been in the kitchen trying to make cake with her father, heard and came running. The two hugged and, though they have fought since that was the moment they truly became sisters.

The next couple of years were uneventful. Daniela, Kaimi and Diane become the best of friends, almost inseparable when they weren’t in class. Kaimi decided they should give each other nicknames, and started calling Daniela Dizzy because of her clumsiness and the slightly dazed look she bore. Daniela was a little upset inside about her shortcomings being brought up in a name, but she knew that Kaimi didn’t mean to be insulting, and that she just didn’t think about how it could be seen as insulting. So she let her call her that, and eventually started calling herself by the same nickname, even among friends. Kaimi became known as Sparky because of her love for all things technological, and Diane was called Minnie because, as well as being the youngest and smallest of the three sisters she was the smallest in her class. The three showed very differing personalities that both complimented and contrasted each other. Daniela was the kindest and most sensitive, but also the most emotional. She loved music and singing even more. Diane was the most artistic, she loved drawing and colouring, and she was the most hyperactive of the three. Kaimi was the most prone to anger, but also the first to stick up for her sisters when they needed her. She was a technical whiz, and the only one who could fix their aging computer when if broke. She was also the biggest thrill seeker, and would often stay up late to watch scary movies. Daniela tried staying up with her one time. This resulted in a week of nightmares and her resolution to stay away from al scary movies.

A little after Daniela’s twelfth birthday Raymond and Catherine sat all of their children down and explained something to them. Their family had a special secret; some of them could become animals. They told their children straight up that it would be a strange and scary experience. They also told Kaimi that she almost certainly wouldn’t shift, but that it didn’t change anything. She couldn’t help but be upset by the news, but had grown less volatile in her time with the family, so she kept her emotions in check. It wasn’t until Daniela’s thirteenth birthday that she finally shifted. Her parents had gone out to buy a cake for her party the next day, and had taken Diane with them to help them pick. Daniela was in the house with Kaimi, though they were both in their rooms when it happened. Daniela began to feel a strange tug in her stomach, like she was being pulled inward. The feeling got worse, her whole body felt tight, and soon she began to feel her bones changing. It was the most painful thing she could remember experiencing, and screamed out for help. Kaimi came running, but by the time she got in to her sisters room there was only a hummingbird, darting around the room in a panic. Kaimi knew what had happened, but couldn’t do anything to stop her sister as she flitted about the room, terrified. When she finally settled down and landed in a corner Kaimi watched as she became a human again. She moved over to her sister who lay curled into a ball, naked and crying. She covered her in a blanket and soothed her until her parents returned. A week later Daniela was sent off to the academy.

Though the islands are easily within travelling distance of each other Daniela decided to stay at the on site dormitories after her first year, so that she could focus on school more. She returned home each weekend and called her parents and sisters during the week. She attended the school with few problems for the next few years. When she was fifteen she became friends with a boy in one of her classes. He was, to her eyes, perfect. Whenever he was around Daniela somehow managed to become even clumsier, she tripped over her words as much as over her won feet, and found she couldn’t stop thinking about him for hours on end. It was just a crush, but to Daniela it was love. She tried to figure out a way to tell him, spending nights without sleep, thinking about what to do. A few days later he introduced her to one of his friends; a girl in another of his classes. Daniela, to her surprise, found this new girl just as perfect as the boy was. It threw her into turmoil inside, and she spent a week in hopeless confusion. She wished life could be like it was in her romance novels, hoped that things could really be that simple, that fate could play a part. Sadly, fate had something else in mind. Upon returning to school after a weekend at home Daniela was met with the news that both her crushes were now dating. She felt crushed inside. She just didn’t know what to do.

It took her a while to get over that experience, and after a while of going out with each other the two gradually stopped talking to Daniela. Secretly she was glad of this, she didn’t think she could manage being around them all the time. She heard later that they had broken up, but she didn’t try to talk to either of them again. Though years have passed Daniela is still hopeless when it comes to relationships, and has never experienced one first hand. She doesn’t swell on it so much now, but sometimes the thought creeps into her mind when she is trying to sleep. For the most part she is happy, her life is stable, even if she does still wrestle with her secret obsession with stealing. She keeps everything she takes in a box under her bed in her school dorm. It causes her shame every time she looks at it, but she just can’t stop herself. [/size]

...connecting human to animal

Daniela is active, cheerful and energetic, in the same way a hummingbird spends most of its time in the air she spends most of her time in a happy mood of activity, though that may be because of the high sugar levels she usually has. She can never match her youngest sister in hyperactivity, but she can maintain constant activity for a long time, matching the flying endurance of a hummingbird. Daniela is kind and gentle, dealing with people the same way a hummingbird gently drinks from a flower. She likes to avoid violence, preferring to find a gentler solution, hummingbirds aren’t built for fighting, they are far too delicate. And, of course, Daniela’s passion is singing, something a hummingbird does as regular as a human speaks.

...literacy

RP Sample[/i]

The room was filled with discarded wrapping paper and boxes; the debris of Christmas. Five inhabitants sat around the room. Two on the floor, three in the sofas arranged around the television. A Christmas special was playing, though no one was really watching it. The youngest of three girls lay across the middle of the floor, scribbling away at a piece of paper with brightly coloured markers. By her side sat another girl, a few years older, leaning against one of the sofas, tapping away at the keyboard of her laptop and bobbing her head to the music playing through her headphones. And on the sofa, wrestling with the packaging on a box of sweets, sat Daniela, one leg curled beneath her, the other over the arm of the sofa. Both her hands were gripping the box tightly as she tugged/at the plastic wrapping with her teeth. Why did they make these boxes so hard to get into? Sweet chocolatey goodness was less than an inch away form her mouth and she just couldn’t get through to it. She probably would have gotten in if she had got the scissors from the kitchen, but in order to do that she would have to move, and she was perfectly happy where she was now. Well, almost perfectly happy, she still didn’t have her chocolates.

Her persistence was rewarded after a few more moments tugging at the packaging. It gave a little, coming apart just a bit. Spurred on by her success, Daniela gave an ‘aha!’ of triumph, or at least as close to it as she could with her teeth clamped on the box. A moment later the packaging came apart all at once, causing her head to snap backwards with the force of her pull and her arms to fly in the other direction, which in turn caused her to strike the box against her knee. The cardboard split open, sending chocolates flying. Luckily only a few escaped. The sound of her victory caused Diana to look up form her drawing for a moment, and her parents to glance over from the other sofa where they sat together looking through the photo album Daniela had made for them. They didn’t look for long though, it wasn’t unusual for Daniela to go a little crazy trying to open sweet packets.

The girl shifter recovered a few of the chocolates from the sofa and popped them into her mouth, then offered the box down to her sisters. Both, of course, took a pretty big handful. Daniela didn’t mind though, better to share anyway. She offered the box to her parents just as her mom picked up the camera. Daniela made a sound which, to trained ears, sounded just like ‘want some?’
”No thanks sweetie, why don’t you sit with your sisters so I can get a photo.” Her mother’s response still carried a trace of tiredness, after all, Daniela and Diane had woken everyone else up at a time when they would usually all be sleeping.

Daniela hopped down from the sofa and onto the floor in between her sisters. Diane had already moved into a sitting position, putting down her markers for the time being. Kaimi, however, hadn’t heard a word that had been said. Daniela tapped her on the shoulder, trying to swallow her chocolate quickly so she could speak. The girl looked up from her laptop as Dani swallowed and nodded over to her parents sitting with the camera.
"Mom wants to take a photo of us,” she said, as though it wasn’t already obvious. On most other days Kaimi would have resisted in some way, she didn’t like having her photo taken. She knew though that on Christmas it was impossible to avoid. So she took the headphones from her head, letting them fall around her neck, and moved over so that she was next to the other girls. Daniela put her arms around the two younger girls, pulling them closer, and grinned ear to ear as her mother counted down.
”Three, two, one… there, perfect!”
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[Remi]

Accepted! Great job! C: Excellent writing!