eclats de voix

Confession: Ornella wasn't supposed to be the sort of character she ended up as. Her conception changed somewhere between her creation and pbv2. to put it short and sweet, Ornella was supposed to wear the pants in her relationship. She had justice dancing on her little fingers, each word on her lips 'right'. But, at the same time, I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing with that type of girl.

And then, Ornella's face influenced me. THAT SMILING FLOWER-EYED FACE! Her face is so plastic and whimsical.  It reminds me of the kawaii frogs i would scribble on my notebooks in middle school. And when i became hypnotized by her happyhappy face Ornella Bellefluer went from tomboy with a basebat hidden under her cake display to a Stepford wife. 21st century perfection became her goal. She also came under the influence of the memory of a college friend of mine who had been in a relationships since middle school and would confide in me that she felt like she never had the chance to find out who she was because she always focused on defining her relationship instead. Ornella is a slave to the 'us' of Justice/Ornela. And while at times it seems she wears the pants, it's really just her husband's laid-back quality regarding most of their plans that leads her to take the initiative.

The keystone of Ornella's character became her relationship with Justice. He married her at a young age. They dated all through high school. He gave her that dream! She felt popular and cool, even though for so long she felt so out-of-place as an immigrant. (She didn't become fluent in English until she was twelve, and she immigrated to Canada when she was eight.) , So she sticks to him like glue. Some teens stick to her parent, but she stuck to her boyfriend. Eventually, she transformed herself to be /for/ him like Sandra did for Danny in Grease, or how all couples are careful to make future plans around each other. Ornella had it in her imagination to marry Justice long before they did!

But Ornella and Justice took it too far and got married very early, I think, namely because of Ornella's pressure. Ornella quit high school her senior year, and they ran away to do their own thing. Coincidental circumstances led them to Nova Athenis. Ornella's parents were furious and didn't understand, but she managed to calm them down with the success of her bakery. (The same pressure to be a proper housewife had made her so dedicated to baking. She has a knack for it that saved her.) (Which is a fun irony - the skills she learns to serve a husband lead her to become the dominant money-making force in her marriage.) But back on point, their relationship is supremely plastic, rushed, and stereotypical.

What's really interesting is that even though they've been together for so long, have made love so many times, and depended on each other financially, Ornella and Justice aren't exactly best friends. Ornella was so transfixed with the idea of her man as a status symbol that she never built up the friendship between them that is the truest glue in mature love. You can see their tension in how Ornella wants children and is gobbling up the trail of what she wants to do, while her realistic husbands knows they are too young and that to have children now will only burden their days. Now that the dragon egg is in their lives, a powerful tension has been introduced into their relationship, and for the first time, Ornella is thinking independently of Justice instead of going along with his word.

Now that Ornella is flirting with jeopardizing her relationship - her over-imaginative, trusting, childish self fascinated by Creation's gift as much as she is with her fairytale romance - she's losing touch with how much she needs Justice. I'm tempted to have a plot twist in which the repercussions of keeping her dragon egg secret (or the repercussions of more lies that stem from that one about the dragon egg) hit her in a grand catastrophe.