Florida Riley

[Fiori]

Name: Florida Riley
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Science Fiction, Creative Writing, Linguistics, LDS, Volunteering

Appearance: Florida stands at 5’2” and weighs 140 lbs, possessing a slightly overweight full-figured physique. She’s of Anglo-American ancestry, her skin pale and round face covered in freckles. Said face also features a pair of light green eyes, a button nose and full lips. Her auburn hair is long and wavy, reaching just past her shoulders. Florida is severely nearsighted, as such she’s very rarely found without her green-framed prescription glasses.

Florida tends to dress conservatively, feeling deeply uncomfortable showing skin even during hot weather. That being said, she dislikes wearing socks and prefers wearing sandals whenever possible. She also dislikes the sensation of wearing anything on her hands or wrists, nor does she have any desire to get her ears pierced, as a result she doesn’t wear any jewellery and avoids wearing gloves if she can help it. Her most consistent article of clothing is a white ribbon neckerchief, one she often wears in conjunction with a long-sleeved shirt or blouse. On the day of the trip, she was wearing this neckerchief along with a lime green long-sleeved blouse, khaki pants and a pair of brown sandals.

Biography: Florida was born November 7th 2006 in St George, Utah. The third child of Harold and Olivia Riley, her parents met at a Star Trek Convention in Salt Lake City shortly before going on their respective missions, the two being lifelong members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Once married they had their first child Montana in 2002, followed by their second child Carolina two years later, with Florida being their third and thus far last child.

Florida has always gotten along well with her family, her childhood growing up in St George being a relatively happy one. Her father Harold is a professional book reviewer and househusband, whilst her mother Olivia is an English teacher for a local elementary school, both of whom had a distinct influence on Florida’s love of reading. She looks up to her older siblings, her sister Carolina having recently left home to complete her mission in Bucharest, whilst her brother Montana has recently married and is expecting his first child.

Like many people her age, the most significant event of Florida’s childhood was the 2020 pandemic, which led to her mother getting furloughed from the school she used to work at. Given that she was the primary breadwinner, the following months proved to be a struggle until Olivia was able to attain her current position at an Elementary School near Meadowbrook, which led to them moving from St George to Las Vegas. Unsurprisingly, this move coinciding with both the pandemic and puberty proved to be quite stressful to Florida, leading to her being very reserved upon her initial arrival at her new home. Nevertheless within a year she managed to adjust for the most part and return to her prior cheeriness.

For as long as she can remember, Florida has always possessed a compliant disposition, rarely if ever questioning the authority figures in her life due in no small part to her conservative upbringing. Whilst she has the same conservative leanings as the rest of her family, the Rileys as a whole tend to lean closer to the center than to the right, Florida even going so far as voting democrat during the recent election. Like the rest of her family, Florida is a devout Latter-Day Saint, and remains so to this day as she plans to go on her mission just like her older siblings.

To this end, she has spent a good portion of her life growing up trying to learn skills she believes necessary to complete her mission, most prominently taking a distinct interest in linguistics and learning foreign languages. In addition to her natural fascination with etymology, she had made great efforts to learn as many foreign languages as she could in preparation, primarily focusing on languages of European origin. Thus far she can speak reasonably good French and Spanish, and has recently begun teaching herself Portuguese.

One area of expertise that remains a difficulty are social interactions. Florida is an introvert by nature, and whilst she’s not exactly shy she has never been great at picking up social cues or recognising when someone is displeased with her. This has only grown worse since moving to Las Vegas, often leading to situations where she puts her foot in her mouth whenever she’s interacted with her more liberal-leaning peers. Whilst she never does so out of malice or ill-intent, she often fumbles when it comes to discussing sensitive subjects, leading to her feeling distressed and confused about why her peers are upset with her. Nevertheless, she always tries to maintain a cheerful disposition towards her classmates, taking great efforts to remain polite and cordial even towards those who are actively antagonistic towards her.

As such, her reputation at Southwest Red Rock is a mixed bag. Most tend to regard her as a bookworm and teacher’s pet, made worse by occasions when she’s reported on bullies and other miscreants, unknowingly breaking the unspoken omerta held amongst her classmates. That said she’s naturally friendly and genuinely means well, as such she’s not entirely without friends amongst her classmates, even if most of her closest friends are either from the local LDS church or all the way back in St George.

One thing that has endeared her to an extent is her dedication to local charity events, frequently volunteering during her spare time and helping however she can to support the community. She often pushes for supporting local charity events during her Relief Society classes and weekly Young Women’s Program activities, strongly believing that it’s important to be compassionate towards others. Florida has also gone so far as joining the Student Council, where she helps organise fundraising events and assist in general bookeeping.

Whilst many of her classmates only associate her with her religious background, those who are close to her quickly realise that’s far from her biggest interest. That without a doubt would be her passion for Science Fiction, brought about at an early age when her trekkie parents introduced her to the sci-fi programs they used to watch in the 90s and early 2000s. For years she’s consumed as much Sci-Fi media as she could get her hands on, with novels and tv shows being her favourite outlets by a significant margin. Amongst her favourite franchises would be Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, Honor Harrington and—the one that started it all—Star Trek.

As such—beyond her plans to complete her mission following graduation—her greatest ambition is to publish her own sci-fi stories. She’s always been enthusiastic about creative writing, taking great joy in creating short stories and coming up with ideas for expansive epics, spending a fair amount of her spare time engaging in worldbuilding exercises and researching ideas for future stories. She’s even made several attempts at writing novels, though most remain perpetually unfinished.

One recent project however has led to her questioning aspects of her identity, after realising she had inadvertently written her two female leads to have significant romantic tension with one another. After which she began to realise that throughout her life she has never found herself drawn towards any of her male peers, whilst simultaneously finding herself deeply infatuated with several of her female peers.To this day she remains resistant to the notion that these feelings are significant in any way, and has kept them to herself out of fear of people getting the wrong idea.

Academically, she performs well. Whilst English is undoubtedly her best subject, she’s studious by nature and regularly scores highly across the board. Gym however remains a weak point, as she struggles with sports and other physical activities. Whilst Florida intends on attending college someday, most likely to take a course in Creative Writing, she’s planning to go on her mission once she turns 19 and has yet to decide where to apply once she’s completed it.

Advantages: Florida is friendly and polite, which may make her an undesirable target for her more morally conflicted classmates. Her understanding of multiple languages could be situationally useful.
Disadvantages: Florida is meek and already on several of her peers’ bad side, making her an obvious and easy target for her less morally conflicted classmates. Her lack of physical fitness and compassionate nature will be a severe detriment, as would her nearsightedness should she find herself without her glasses.