AMITYVILLE ACADEMY ENROLLMENT FORMName: Valencia
Nicknames: Val
Gender: Female
Age: 36 (a teen in orange tree years)
Faction/Race Demon (maybe?) - Hamadryad
Personality: Just like a Valencia orange, Val has only a thin skin you need to get through to reach her sweet interior. That is to say, when you first meet her, she might be a little elusive, but soon she'll open up to you entirely. Hamadryads tend to be shy creatures at first, and Val is no exception. She just needs to read your personality before she decides whether you're "safe" or not. As they are delicate creatures, they need to constantly keep an eye out for danger.
Once she knows you won't try to hack her Tree down, Val will immediately show herself to be a trustworthy, trusting, and fun-loving girl. Whether she's frolicking in the Weeping Forest (light-heartedly complaining that they need greener plants) or singing with the birds, she does so with a unbridled sense of joy in life. Not very spooky, sadly. But she does try her hardest to at least be a little startling.
In order to stay healthy, Val had to have her Tree (which she always refers to with a capital T) transplanted into her dorm room. So while she may lurk in there a lot, she's just spending time inside of her Tree, and anyone is welcome to come in! Heck, she'd let them into her Tree if it was remotely possible.
Due to an upsetting (and "scandalous") friendship she had a with a human (!!!) boy several years ago, Val takes a lot longer to befriend boys. She doesn't trust them as much as girls, but then, isn't that usually the case?
Another problem with Valencia is that she just doesn't learn. Take her problem with the human for instance. The moral of the story is that people change. Val didn't get that out of her experience with him, and merely distrusts men... She doesn't realise that girls can be just as bad, and that people she originally found to pass her inspections can later fail them.
Why are they enrolled in Amityville Academy? Val's official reason for enrolling is that she wants to develop her FEAR, and create a stronger affinity with plants and animals. Many of her family members can make a plant spontaneously burst from the ground! However, an underlying reason is that her family thinks that she really needs to get out of the house - or, tree, rather - and meet new people. While hamadryads are wary of humans, they aren't exactly an easy find in this particular school, so it was a safe bet.
Also, the concept of a hamadryad isn't exactly terrifying. In the olden days, hamadryads kept their trees safe by telling the humans that the gods would punish them if they cut them down. Today, however, this just doesn't work for a lot of people - there are lots of atheists and religions that make it out that the god/gods don't care about the trees. Older hamadryads are sending their "children" to various schools such as Amityville Academy to learn how to be more threatening, and thus protect nature!
FEAR: Like all hamadryads, Val has a special bond with nature - she is often, literally, a part of it. That and she can speak to and understand both plants and many animals.* She can use this for a spooky advantage in Amityville, commanding plants and animals to do her will, and for a limited time each battle, imbue the plant/animal with her own energy to make it seem more FEARsome than it actually is. She can summon most animals, as they can move, but she cannot summon a far-away plant into battle - yet.
For example, if a Venus fly trap happened to be nearby, she could increase its size enough to fit a student in its mouth. Or, if she summoned a raven to do her bidding, which in real life can imitate human speech, she could increase this natural ability by making its human "voice" sound like that of your worst nightmare.
* - Limitations: While Val can speak to almost all of them, the only animals she can control are plant-eaters and birds. Meat-eaters aren't as connected to her realm of power, and as for insects, she'd need to control a horde of them to be frightening enough, and she just doesn't have the energy/training yet. Also, animals have much more of a mind than plants, so they will need more FEAR and focus to command, and thus be controlled for shorter periods of time.
Natural Ability: On top of speaking to plants and animals, Val can sinuously enter any plant. While most of them are large enough to fully contain her being, a blade of grass is insufficient. If grass is the only plant available, Val would have to painstakingly spread herself out among a patch of it. Thus, not an ideal hiding place if she's in a hurry.
Physical Description:
Build: As her body resembles a tree's, Valencia is model-tall and model-thin. Perhaps about 5'10? This would make wearing high heels and trying to be shorter than boys interesting - but fortunately, Val isn't into heels. She likes being firmly planted (pardon the pun).
Eye Colour: Her wide, inquisitive eyes are hazel.
Hair Colour/Style: Her hair is dirty blonde, long, wavy, and a little messy.
Skin Colour: She has an tanned olive complexion, but... (see extra for more info).
Clothing Style/Colours: Since she comes from California, Val mixed the beachy style of Cali with Halloween to create: an off-the-shoulder white tee tied up to reveal her stomach and decorated with Halloween oranges (ie. carved like Jack o' lanterns), one revealed (orange?) bikini strap, and faded cut-off shorts. She prefers to go barefoot.
Extra: The skin on her legs has a slight grain/whorl (don't misread that xD) design to it, like that of wood, that fades as it reaches her upper thighs. Other remnants of her tree-self include orange blossoms in her hair.
Refs: My Full Sketch - Grain/Whorl Design - Valencia Orange Blossoms - Her Body Type? - Extra Inspiration for Orange o' Lanterns? xD
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