she is an only child to absent wealthy parents.
growing up she was left alone most of the time, meaning she had to rely on herself and only herself.
as a kid, orca played and excelled at the piano.
the silence of the house was oppressive, so she would often play the piano to cover it.
no one ever showed up to her piano recitals.
when she first joined the taskforce, she struggled to adjust to the sheer amount of noise in the base. going from a entire childhood of silence, to a period of mild noise in medical training, to an entire base full of rowdy soldiers? seems pretty overwhelming tbh.
she had to adjust to the constant presence of people too. again, an overwhelming drop into pretty much chaos.
INCREDIBLY touch starved. very little physical contact with anyone even during training, and it was always practical, never just because.
she stayed cold and distant when she arrived, hiding her emotions and seeming apathetic to most things in an attempt to protect herself. she still maintains this mask, but more out of habit than out of feeling its necessary.
she only started to really talk and leaver her shell after someone asked her to, specifically asking about one of her interests and letting her ramble about it without interrupting or complaining and staying engaged the whole time. she still struggles to start talking about things she likes by herself, but shes gotten better with starting conversations and speaking to people.
when the base is quiet, orca starts to slip back into her apathetic lone-wolf type mindset. it reminds her of an empty house.
she'll start going through her day without acknowledging anyone fully, not bothering to speak to them and letting her eyes slide right past everyone.
the best way to get her to come out of this state is gentle redirection and gradual warmth.
lead her to a couch, drape a warm blanket over her, and sit on the couch a bit away from her. give her the time to come back to herself enough that she leans into whoever is on the couch with her when shes ready.
aspen has a couch and blankets in their office, and orcas favorite blanket is soft and baby blue, patterned with cartoon seals, orcas, and little icebergs. if she ends up in aspens office, thats always the blanket they give her.
someone in the taskforce ends up getting her a music player to help combat the quiet days. she carries it on her nearly all the time.
during holidays and birthdays she had only ever been sent generic, impersonal gifts such as expensive jewelry, perfumes, etc.
whenever someone from the taskforce gives her a personalized gift she gets emotional. no matter how cheap it is, someone had seen it and thought of her, and bought it for her because they thought about her. they knew it was something she would like.
after getting attached to her teammates, she decided that she would do anything to keep them, that she would try her best to never lose them.
