name: eloise “ella” grace dawson
Cabin Room: cabin 2, room 1
How long have they been at Broadripple: a year and a half
Where are they from originally: boston, ma
Extra curricular: swim team member, women of broadripple, chamber choir
Positive Personality Traits: daring, imaginative, friendly, fun-loving, thrill-seeking
Neutral Personality Traits: romantic, inquisitive, book-worm, theater geek, fantastical, talkative, curious
Negative Personality Traits: impulsive, careless, immature, pushy,
ella never wanted to attend broadripple. she was sent to the school due to her parent’s inability to control her rebellious behavior
the final straw for her parent’s was ella’s involvement with a rather unsavory young man, one too many nights sneaking out her bedroom window, and two one-way tickets to new york hidden in her blue journal.
ella is technically a middle child but was raised as the eldest. her older brother is a half-sibling from her father’s relationship with a woman proceeding his marriage to her mother. it’s something of a scandal and remains a tense knot in the dawson family dynamic. regardless, ella has always gotten along well with both of her siblings. due to restricted contact with her parents and little brother, most of ella’s correspondence is with her older half-brother.
ella has always loved to swim. it was once a hobby that brought her and her father together. however, as ella has grown older her father’s expectations for her performance have also inclined. split between an unspoken and unrecognized desire to please her father and the uncompromising weight of his standards, ella’s love for swimming as faltered. she switches from being a determined and competitive teammate to a lax participant content to enjoy the pool as a recreational activity rather than a sport
it was not ella’s choice to participate in the women of broadripple club. her father’s strong encouragement ( what others may call threats ) pushed ella into dragging her feet into one of the meetings. although she wouldn’t otherwise admit it, ella actually enjoys women of broadripple, mostly when they listen to her obviously amazing ideas. while she might complain about how boring the meetings are, she genuinely enjoys the time she shares with the girls at her school.
ella’s deepest passion has always been books. ever since she was small she was an avid reader, perusing her father’s library and climbing on her mother’s lap so the two could spend the afternoon reading together on the parlor sofa. stories came to her with the same ferocity and ease. before she could write, ella was telling stories. to her older brother, her younger brother, her parents, to the trees in the backyard, students on the playground, and her darkened ceiling in the middle of the night. her mother still holds on to a spiral notebook filled with ella’s first attempts at ‘stories,’ a jumbled mish-mash of letters that didn’t form real words, but ella would fervently assure were telling a story ( and thus would promptly rehearse her most recent magnum opus )
ella attempts all genres but her most frequent is fiction. although, as of late she has made more attempts at poetry and a few meager attempts at song writing at the encouragement of her swim captain, damian fitzgerald.
ella lives for the rush. it prompts her reckless behavior, rule breaking, and frequent ‘explorations’ out of the dorms ( or cabins ) after lights out. it also fuels her love for acting and theater. although she doesn’t have any lofty aspirations for becoming an actress, she lives for the opportunity to perform on stage, study a character and embody them for an audience. she considers it a study for her own literary pursuits as well as a hobby she can enjoy shamelessly, as her father has been content to keep his hands out of it.
ella’s favorite artist is Daughter. don’t even get her started on it because there is a high probability it will make her emotional. she actually owns all the CDs daughter has released and keeps them in a decorative box under her bunk. an ‘emergency stash’ in the unfortunate case of a zombie apocalypse that takes out her spotify account in the wake of complete fallout.
ella has a favorite bracelet. she is almost never seen without it, although she will occasionally put the bracelet in the pocket of her backpack if teachers are being especially obnoxious about the dress code. it has an adjustable wrist with a silver sparrow figure.
ella always, always has her light blue moleskine journal on hand. it’s messy, filled to the brim with sketches, quotes, lyrics, ideas she haphazardly wrote on the corner of her chemistry notes, pictures etc. the original strap is worn down with use and as a result ella has macgyvered an additional ribbon onto the journal to keep it secure. it is her most prized possession. she is very secretive with its contents and will go out of her way to keep it hidden from prying eyes. she can often be seen hunched over it, scribbling away, far more involved with the world she is creating on the page than the one surrounding her.
her favorite food is cinnamon rolls. rather than eating cake on her birthday, her mother baked a pan of home made cinnamon rolls drizzled with creamy icing. the closure of the copper kettle was particularly devastating because it meant the loss of the best cinnamon rolls in the area. sure, the local bakery had decent enough cinnamon rolls, but they were never quite as good. as a connoisseur of cinnamon rolls, ella holds her opinion on the subject in high regard.
ella deeply enjoys singing but is rather shy about it. while she may participate in chamber choir, she’s more a supporting vocalist and little more. despite every aspect of herself being unabashed and open, ella is very secretive with her singing. the only time she has ever had any form of ‘solo’ was with damian fitzgerald after a night of drinking. although she looks back on the event with some embarrassment, it has encouraged her to try to be a more confident performer and incorporate singing into more of her creative works
the transition from the dorms to the cabins has caused a bit of a shift in ella’s writing as of late. with so many strange occurrences piling up, ella finds the subject of her prose leaning towards macabre portrayals of hungry, consumptive woods and sudden vanishings. although ella has playfully teased freshman with a few spooky variations of the edith lynch tale, she mostly only ‘believed’ in the story because it was more exciting than letting it be little more than small-town folklore. now she finds herself leaning into the rumors more and more, although her motivations are rather self-serving, seeking inspiration for her writing and other projects rather than genuine concern.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RETREAT
What do they think about The Retreat?
Ella has mixed emotions about the retreat. she’s excited to finally have an excuse to be off campus, but bemoans the lack of wifi and other luxuries she’s always taken for granted. in spite of being a self-proclaimed lover of adventure, she has little experience with camping. she has enjoyed day-hikes, but long stretches of time in cabins is very out of her element. family vacations included hotels, European cities and sandy beaches, not centipedes, several students to a room, and mosquitos. there are times where ella enjoys and thrives in the environment, making the best of her situation, clowning about with her peers, or digging into her writing. there are also times where she wishes she could cuddle up in her air-conditioned dorm room and binge-watch avatar: the last airbender on netflix with wendy sanderson without risking a spiderbite.
Do they have any previous experience with camping or other outdoors?
ella has 0 experience camping. she has gone on day-hiking trips and brief vacation to mountain resorts, but it has always been a very upscale experience.
What does their cabin bunk look like? How will they decorate their space?
ella decorated her space as much as she could to make it feel like her own. she has pictures and quotes pinned up on the wall along with a few glow-in-the-dark stars ( each with their own made-up constellation ). she strung up a few paper lanterns from her dorm room and always has a flashlight handy for late night reading under the covers. above her bed, either on the ceiling or the bottom of the mattress above her, ella has secured a tapestry of the night sky. as an individual with many books, she’s had to be creative with her storage. she has one ‘shelf’ she made out of command hooks and a cloth bag that contains her ‘current reads’ and rests on the wall closest to her head. the others are stored beneath the bunk or in a duffle bag.
Do they believe in the supernatural? To what degree?
ella believes in mermaids, aliens and changelings more than she believes in demons or bigfoot. and even then she believes in them in a whimsical, day-dreaming sort of way rather than as a scientific pursuit. in a sense, she ‘believes’ in things because of how they make her feel rather than genuinely believing in them. she doesn’t want to prove such things exist. she finds far more enjoyment in the mystery of it all. that being said, recent events have shifted her perspective a bit. although ella plays it cool, she is unnerved about everything going on in her school. although a rather brave girl, being in the woods has shaken her more than she initially thought. for how much she’s fantasized about running off into the darkness herself, now that she’s halfway there she’s beginning to doubt her willingness to leave the security of four brick walls and a sturdy gate behind.
not exactly. in fact, ella is more likely to investigate something ‘spooky’ rather than flee. if another person scares her, she’s more likely to react with laughter and teasing than to be upset. but she does get spooked by strange shadows or sounds, often enflamed by her overactive imagination. she just choses to face her fear as an opponent rather than flee from it.
A very dumb but (hopefully) fun quiz made by your admins, please share what result you got
“the lord will protect me from any evil” !!!! I have no idea how this bitch got it, but somehow she did?? guess god is also a fan of cinnamon rolls, reckless endangerment and a rad story.
