S128 - Hailey, Elodie

#1

Name: Elodie Piper Hailey
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12th
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Sewing, collecting, camping, cooking, fantasy genre, astrology, occultism, European folklore, goblincore and vulture culture, biology and natural history

Appearance: Elodie has thick, bushy dark hair that reaches around her mid-back. It’s frequently unruly, though she does shampoo and condition, as well as minimize her brushing. Usually, she wears it down, but she keeps hair ties on her wrist for when she needs to tie it back for cooking or hiking.

Elodie’s ancestry is a mixture of French and Celtic. Her skin tone is a warm yellow, though she has a small number of freckles on her cheeks. Elodie’s face is both angular and somewhat childish looking, with large brown eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a pointed chin. Her lips are a little thin, while her nose is turned up. Elodie currently has both ears gaged with wooden tunnels. Elodie’s eyebrows are thick and bushy. Her facial expressions can be a little exaggerated at times; she has a wide smile in particular, which highlights the gap in her front teeth. She doesn’t usually wear makeup, finding the process of putting it on too inconvenient for her to go through on a regular basis.

Elodie is on the smaller side, at 4’11 and 110 pounds. She has some toning from hiking, though for the most part, she remains slender and gangly, with minimal curves. Because of her height and build, she is frequently mistaken for a freshman. Her fingers are long, which only brings attention to the fact that Elodie has a nail-biting habit. More recently, she has been trying to curb said habit by painting her nails a shade of dark green, in the hopes that the taste will discourage her. She is left-handed.

Her dress sense is eclectic, as she usually shops from thrift stores due to convenience and preference towards the aesthetics of secondhand goods. Additionally, she tends to prefer casual, comfortable clothes over fashionable ensembles. As for color schemes, she usually wears earth tones, with dark greens and browns being common. Despite her preference towards comfort, Elodie does wear jewelry, usually things she found from the thrift store and in the form of long necklaces.

This didn’t change much on the day her class was selected, as she wore a baggy dark green sweater, a brown calf-length jumper dress with large pockets in the skirt layered over olive-green tights, and brown calf-length boots. She wore a dark green wool cloak with fake fur along the hood over it, as well as brown winter gloves.

Biography: Elodie was born in Kirkland, Washington, to Gabriel and Julia Hailey. Her sister, Bridgette, was two years older. Elodie does not remember much about her birth parents, due to an electrical house fire that occurred when she was 4. Elodie, who was playing in the living room when the fire started, was able to be pulled out of the house by her older sister in time. However, their parents did not make it; the official cause of death was smoke inhalation. This left the two children orphaned. Since most of the girls’ extended families either were unable to be contacted, had no interest in taking them in, or were unviable guardians, they were put into foster care until Elodie was 13.

Throughout Elodie’s time in foster care, she was shuttled between group homes, caregivers, and shelters across the country. Because she and Bridgette were never separated, they relied on each other a lot, with Bridgette already showing a protective streak towards Elodie. The two quickly learned how to take care of themselves, largely because they only had each other to rely on. Because of her rougher background, she had to learn how to be sharper and more independent than other children quickly. While she’s ashamed to admit it, Elodie and Bridgette did engage in petty crimes such as shoplifting due to a lack of resources and funding in some of their past homes, making things like food and toiletries harder to come by. They learned how to do it through other children in the shelters, and were successful enough at it that there was only one major incident when Elodie was 7, during which the store owner ultimately decided not to press charges due to the girls’ situation. However, she also learned how to obtain things through more legal means, making it uncommon that she’d be desperate enough to steal. A few times she had to deal with homelessness and other unstable housing situations; most of these were brief, due to it happening when she was between homes. Most of the poor caretaking she received had to do with emotional and physical neglect rather than outright abuse. While her social workers did everything they could to make sure the sisters weren’t separated, there were a few close calls.

Because of her background, Elodie was swiftly drawn into the fantasy genre, particularly high and dark fantasy works. While many of the homes she was in were underfunded, there were a few books and movies donated to the children. Some of Elodie’s first experiences with fantasy include the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and their film adaptations, as well as Jim Henson’s productions such as Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and MirrorMask. One aspect of the genre that Elodie related to as she was growing up was the common focus on underdog protagonists who grow into their heroic destinies over time, many of whom happen to be parentless themselves. Her tastes would follow her throughout her life.

As she moved around a lot, she didn’t have that many personal belongings outside of clothes, toiletries, and other necessary items. That said, her hobby of collecting began early, as she wanted to be able to collect souvenirs from the places she had been. Starting from around 9 she began a small collection of various items that she kept with her. While she already had an interest in things like animal bones and shells, most of these were more durable collectibles such as keychains and pressed pennies.

Elodie and Bridgette did attend summer camp programs intended specifically for foster youth, which created some of Elodie’s fondest memories. When she first went to a camp at eight years old, Elodie was drawn to wildlife and began an interest in botany, animals, and hiking. In a sense, she relates more to animals than people, due to people often having ulterior motives and coming off as more fake. Another program that Elodie attended growing up was one intended to teach life skills to foster youth. This was Elodie’s first experience with cooking and working with textiles. While it took a bit longer for Elodie to feel confident with either, she grew to love it. She also found use in cooking and sewing, as the former told her about good eating habits, while the latter made it easier to repair damaged clothes.

When Elodie was 10, the Dallas, TX, elementary school she was attending at the time had an assignment where you had to write about your family history. Since Elodie had few memories of her birth parents and was not in contact with her relatives other than Bridgette, the teacher let her change the assignment some. When she looked into the etymology of her name, she discovered ‘Elodie’ was a French name meaning ‘foreign riches’, while her last name, ‘Hailey’ was Old English in origin and meant ‘hayfield.’ Her actual essay was about a bit of French and Celtic history, and how traditions from those cultures are practiced in the States. While she simply got a B on that assignment, this did start an interest in learning about European culture and history. Because of her love of the fantasy genre, she has an interest in traditional folklore in particular, especially those about fairies.

When Elodie had just turned 13, she and Bridgette would meet their future adoptive parent for the first time. About two months after the two were transferred over to Reading, MA, they attended an adoption party event where prospective foster and adoptive parents could meet children who were in foster care. Trisha Crawford was an older woman who had fostered children before and worked as an elementary school teacher, so she already had experience dealing with disadvantaged youth. After the party, the girls would receive visits from Trisha regularly, as well as occasionally spending the day in her home on the outskirts of Salem, MA. Eventually, they were transferred over as foster children in her care.

Elodie had already started to suspect that Trisha was interested in adopting them, but was skeptical due to her own issues with abandonment. A few times beforehand the girls did have potential parents looking to adopt them, but the arrangements fell through due to either the families not being viable in some way, a lack of resources, or due to the family having trouble working with children of Elodie and Bridgette’s background. However, Trisha had been understanding of their problems. While Bridgette was generally the more well-behaved of the two, Elodie was more energetic, emotional, and prone to mischief. One major problem Elodie has dealt with is her aforementioned fear of abandonment, which she covers up with a more cheerful energetic exterior. Bridgette, on the other hand, has dealt with PTSD symptoms, due to remembering the accident that killed their parents more clearly and dealing more directly with the more traumatic parts of their upbringing; while she did a good job keeping Elodie safe, she still had to personally experience things that had a negative impact on her.

Trisha already had a few points of commonality with the girls, which helped smooth things over. She had an interest in homesteading and had chickens and a cat. This endeared her to the animal-loving Elodie, who enjoyed spending time with the animals and helping Trisha take care of them. After learning about the girls’ love for camping, Trisha began arranging hiking trips as a way to further connect with them. Despite Elodie’s problems with abandonment, she grew attached to Trisha, even if she was scared she would eventually have to leave. Nonetheless, the adoption process continued, with Trisha officially becoming their adoptive parent in 2019 after a long period of paperwork, court meetings, and other bureautic issues.

In her freshman year, Elodie got into astrology after talking about it with some of her classmates. Elodie’s big three signs are Taurus Sun, Gemini Moon, Libra Ascendant. She feels that for the most part, there are some accurate elements, with her identifying with the Taurus aspect in particular. That said, she feels it’s more of a tool for self-reflection and is less about following horoscopes and more about using astrology as guidance for her personal life. While she does take a more skeptical approach to it, she does like the way someone could use it to analyze their own personality. She practices other forms of witchcraft, such as making sure to cleanse spaces, making sigils, meditating, and engaging in basic rituals. Meditating in particular has helped with some of her trauma symptoms, as it has helped her feel more grounded. The experience of acting out specific cleansing rituals, mindful manifestation, and similar has also given Elodie a sense of control over her life, making her feel more relaxed. When asked, she refers to it as a form of self-care.

As a student at John Endicott Memorial Academy, Elodie is actually a good student in the sense that she regularly gets As and Bs. However, she is actually not good at studying; her good grades are because remembers things easily. As a result, she often procrastinates on assignments, does last-minute work, then finishes with a reasonably good grade. Additionally, she often finds studying tedious, and a lot of the material underwhelming in that it seems too easy for her. As of her junior year, she has been taking AP classes, which has helped some. Nonetheless, both Bridgette and Trisha have tried to convince her to study more. That said, when it comes to subjects that Elodie is actually interested in, typically sciences and history, she puts more of an actual effort in. She tends to have a slight difficulty with P.E.; while she’s reasonably athletic, she’s one of the smaller students, which can make certain activities tricky. Additionally, as she is left-handed, she finds using certain tools tricky at times.

Throughout quarantine, Elodie had been expanding her hobbies a bit more. Now that she has a full space, she has been able to fill it up with all sorts of collectibles. Mostly she’s interested in bones, rocks, and botany. While she has been able to get cheaper-priced bones from retailers, she has also been able to ethically find bones by searching the wilderness. She also has a few bird feathers, though she takes extra care that they’re not species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The reason why she is interested in bones in particular is that she enjoys anatomy, and learning about all aspects of an animal. She has a small collection of rocks, and while they aren’t the same as her interest in bones she does enjoy keeping them and showing them off.

As a longtime nature lover, Elodie still camps and hikes. However, aside from helping out with the animals and in Trisha’s garden, she has started taking care of some potted houseplants in her room. So far, she has a Venus flytrap, a spider plant, a hedgehog aloe, and a small indoor moss garden. She enjoys seeing their progress and the various ways the plant subtly react to their surroundings, as well as the entire process of taking care of them. Elodie is an active member of the school’s Natural History Club as a way of further exploring her interest in biology. Aside from Trisha’s chickens and the cat, both of which she assists in the husbandry of, Elodie ended up with a tank of African dwarf frogs over quarantine, which she expresses a lot of fondness for to the point of sharing pictures of them over social media. On that note, since quarantine, she has been active in the goblincore and vulture culture online subcultures, due to both aligning with her interests. She has started her own Tumblr account, both with original and reblogged content, where she roleplays as a goblin and posts images of nature, mushrooms, forests, fantasy characters, and similar. Some of these also include information about fantasy works, various animals, medieval European history and folklore, and related subjects. Elodie is aware of some of the discourse that these subcultures bring, such as whether goblins as a fantasy creature have links to antisemitism, and has tried to sidestep them when she posts as her goblin persona.

Elodie has put more effort into her interest in cooking and sewing. One of Elodie’s favorite things to make is bread, as she enjoys the feeling of working with dough as a textile sensation. A common habit of hers is to bring fresh bread and other food items she’s made to in-person Natural History Club meetings, sometimes with teas and an electronic kettle she found at a thrift shop. As for sewing, she mostly has made small adjustments to existing clothes, though she recently made a cloak which she brought onto the trip.

As a person, Elodie is outwardly cheerful and energetic, sometimes with a more chaotic bent. However, she does have a habit of hiding pain due to the aforementioned abandonment issues. Because of her difficult childhood, it takes her a bit longer for her to fully let down her guard and be emotionally vulnerable. This is because she is inherently a distrusting person, in that she has had enough people pretend to be her friend or that they were being helpful when they had ulterior motives. Thus, while people do see her as friendly, it can take a long time for someone to truly get to know her on an intimate level. Elodie deep down has a fear of being separated from those she’s grown attached to, which results in her keeping her defenses up so if she does get separated it doesn’t hurt as much. Elodie's fears and resulting behavior line up with someone with an insecure attachment style due to trauma; she desires close relationships but is scared that her feelings won't be reciprocated despite her feeling strongly for others. So, she can be closed off emotionally, and bottle up emotions even when it would be better to talk them over. She still has a reasonable amount of street smarts and cautiousness around others, such as being careful not to look at her phone while walking in public. Elodie also has some skills with DIYing and lifehacks and is able to come up with unconventional solutions to problems. That said, she has a naturally distractible personality, due to her being lost in her head a lot while thinking. She is aware of this habit and how dangerous it can be and has tried to stay in the present. Some students do find her a little odd, due to her outwardly energetic and chaotic personality, as well as her interests being slightly on the unconventional side. Elodie is interested in dating and has had crushes on a few girls at school, but sometimes has trouble approaching anyone for dates.

Her past is somewhat of an open secret to her classmates; she doesn’t talk about it a lot, but some of them know due to a teacher bringing it up in conversation. While Elodie hasn’t officially been diagnosed with a trauma-based disorder, she and Bridgette both attend therapy, which has helped Elodie gain some grounding. She does have some triggers, mostly around situations involving rejection and abandonment. She has tried to do research to figure out ways to cope with these triggers, as well as asking Bridgette and Trisha for support. She's found that her abandonment issues tend to make her somewhat skeptical of those she perceives as overly friendly, due to Elodie having some problems with emotional intimacy and not being too used to receiving or giving it in comparison to others. When this happens, she tends to subconsciously withdraw from interacting with people even when she otherwise enjoys spending time with them, which has caused friction with her friend group in the past. This especially caused issues in quarantine due to isolation, during which she experienced anxiety and depression symptoms due to her wanting to reach out and spend online time with her friends, but having difficulty doing so due to fearing rejection. Despite her fear of getting emotionally close to others, Elodie can quickly become attached to those she truly feels comfortable around, to the point where she finds herself striving for their approval. She occasionally feels anxious if she feels her friends prefer spending time with someone else and has had intrusive thoughts about losing them in some way, whether due to a falling out or because of sudden harm inflicted on them. Elodie has found that participating in her hobbies, such as taking care of her frogs and her house plants, baking bread, or posting online about the things she has collected, does help when she is feeling anxious about emotional intimacy. She's particularly enthusiastic about talking about their interest to others, which can be a way to get her to feel less insecure. Elodie has also talked with her therapist about ways to properly communicate her emotions and critique her own negative thoughts in a more healthy way. Her therapist has encouraged her use of meditation and mindfulness, feeling it has had positive results on her. In turn, Bridgette has turned to Elodie and Trisha for her own trauma symptoms, to which Elodie has given her own support. Elodie still has a lot of strong feelings about her childhood, such as how lucky she and Bridgette were that they were never separated, how hard it would have been if they had aged out of the system, and how many of the children she grew up with are still in the system.

Elodie’s plans after high school are to attend community college, then transfer to a university after getting her Associates’ degree. While she is still interested in European history and has expressed an interest in anthropology, for now, she remains interested in biology and natural history. Elodie currently gets an income by working part-time in a witchcraft store in Washington Square.

Advantages: Her experience with camping can be applied to the game, and she does have some hidden street smarts that may be applicable. Additionally, she has some experience with nature, which may mean she would know information about the various flora and fauna on the island. Being small and skinny has its advantages, as it may make it easier for her to hide. Elodie being left-handed gives her a potential advantage in melee fighting, as she would be swinging from a different angle. She has some experience with meditation and mindfulness due to her therapist's advice and her interest in witchcraft.
Disadvantages: Elodie is somewhat distractible, which can mean she could let her guard down at a disadvantageous time. She can come off as somewhat strange to her classmates. Elodie is smaller than most of her classmates, which might make her easier to overpower. Her left-handedness may make it more difficult for her to fire certain types of guns. While she has made strides in dealing with her past, the game’s stressors may reopen old wounds. Her attachment style in particular may cause friction between anyone she decides to team up with, as it may cause issues in communication.

Designated Number: Student No. 128

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Designated Weapon: Finger guillotine

Conclusion: Vive les français, Elodie.- Cecily Lacoste