Lady Austine Juuenis of Gria

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Name: Misha
Age: 21
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Character Basics
Full Name: Lady Austine Juuenis of Gria
Alias(es)/Nickname(s): Aussy (by family and friends in Cornu); Stina (by friends at court)
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Species: Human
Status/Title: Noble of Archenland
Affiliation: Archenland, but only by default (Doesn't think much about politics, etc.)

Character Appearance
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Overall: Lady Austine Juuenis of Gria is pretty, but not strikingly beautiful. She has long, blonde hair, which falls halfway down her back in natural ringlets and which she tends to wear mostly down, so that others can admire it. Her face is round, her eyes are bright blue, and her mouth can normally be found turned up in a smile. She has fair skin, particularly since she doesn't spend a huge amount of time outside. Her height is slightly less than average, while her weight is about average for her height. Her shape can be defined as "curvy". Austine loves dressing up in the latest fashions, and jumps on any excuse to display her fine clothes and expensive jewelry.
Portrayal: Kirsten Dunst

Character Personality
Likes:

Pretty things
Being the center of attention
Sweets
Anything new or different
Gossip

Dislikes:

Anything dirty or disgusting
Politics
Responsibility
Being alone
Having nothing to do

Strengths:

Kind
Good-natured
Has a natural but undeveloped talent for music
Imaginative and creative
Optimistic

Weaknesses:

Rather air-headed and shallow
Naive
Flighty
Selfish, though not really on purpose
Doesn't think of consequences

General Personality:
Lady Austine Juuenis of Gria is a kind and sweet young woman, if also rather flighty and shallow. She is a very social person, who hates being alone. She also hates silence, and will babble on about anything that comes to her mind to prevent it. Austine revels in being the center of attention, and is proud of the fact that she has married a man with wealth and position. However, she is not the type to get spitefully jealous if someone else takes center stage (although she may pout a bit if she feels she is being ignored). In fact, she is good-natured in general, and is eager to please and to be pleased. She doesn't tend to take things personally, and it takes quite a bit to get her truly upset or angry.

Austine has (rightly) been accused of being frivolous and flighty. She never takes anything too seriously, and doesn't ever focus for long on any one thing. Her interests change from one moment to the next. While at any given moment, she may be completely determined to stick to whatever has sparked her fancy, she invariably abandons that new interest for the new and the different. Her emotions are similarly changeable. It is not unusual to see her crying at one moment, and then laughing not long after. She never bothers to hide her emotions, for she doesn't see the point. Generally, however, she is in a good humor; there is little around her to make her sad.

Austine has never really had any sort of major responsibilities to attend to, and wouldn't know how to handle them if they came to her. She does not have the patience to deal with difficult tasks, or to pursue a goal relentlessly. She has a natural talent for music, but as she doesn't have the discipline for regular practice, this talent has gone mostly undeveloped. She loves to sing around the castle or sit down and play a ditty on the harp from time to time, but those with less talent but more determination far surpass her in skill.

No one would ever call Austine a deep thinker. She can read and write, but rarely engages in either unless it is necessary. She finds books and scholarly debates boring, and can't imagine how her husband can be so absorbed in them. She is not stupid. In fact, she is quite imaginative and creative, and could likely do well in intellectual pursuits if she tried. But no one has ever pushed her to do so (she is a woman, after all), and she lacks the interest or the drive to pursue any sort of studies on her own. Austine tends to go with the prevailing opinion rather than thinking for herself, and while she may seem to be very set in her stance, she can actually be quite easily persuaded to change her mind.

Lady Alina and Lord Gere tended to spoil their children, and Austine therefore has the mindset that the world is centered around herself. She just doesn't ever even think to consider how her actions or desires might affect other people. Servants are there solely to serve her; it doesn't occur to her that they have their own lives. On the other hand, Austine is not mean-spirited. If someone explains to her that something she has done has caused problems for someone else, she is quite sorry, and will try not to do it again. She actually has quite a kind heart, and if she sees someone who hurting or needs help, she will do what she can to fix the problem. She's been known to take in stray animals, or to stop and give a beggar child a generous gift.

Character History
Family:
Parents - Lord Gere and Lady Alina Conti of Cornu
Siblings - Criso (age 16; Austine's twin) and Trina (age 8 )
Husband - Lord Dacian Juuenis of Gria - Heir to Gria, scholar, and courtier. Austine's marriage to him was arranged, and she still knows little about him (and really does not have any desire to know more.)
Children - None, as of yet. She'd really rather not have any, either. While she knows she'll have to at some point, she's put off thinking about it until it happens.

General History:
The Count and Countess of Cornu were thrilled when Alina gave birth to not just a single baby, but twins. The first to arrive was Criso, a baby boy to be heir to Cornu. Close behind him came Austine, a baby girl to be shamelessly spoiled. In fact, Gere and Alina doted on both of their children. Austine therefore grew up living a very privileged life, without a care in the world. As the Contis were wealthy, there were few responsibilities that were not delegated to servants, and so the girl was mostly free to do whatever she chose. Like every young lady, Austine was given lessons in etiquette, embroidery, music, dancing, managing a household, and the like. However, while she learned what was necessary, she never took anything too seriously. Her parents indulged her too much to force discipline on her, and Austine simply took for granted that she'd always have someone around to do all the work for her.

The first fourteen years of Austine's life were fairly uneventful. The only big change she faced was when her mother bore a third child, Trina. Austine, already used to sharing her parents attention with her brother, did not resent the new addition. In fact, she adored her little sister. For her, Trina was a doll, to coo over and dress up and play with.

Shortly after her fourteenth birthday, Austine was sent to the court at Anvard, to be a lady-in-waiting for Queen Calista. Her parents hoped that such a position would help her learn the ways of court, make friends of her own age and class, and help bring her to the attention of eligible young men. Austine herself loved the change. Anvard was quite different from the more rural Cornu, and there was therefore so much to do and see. More importantly, Austine's prettiness and the family wealth attracted the young lady quite a bit of attention. Austine was often the center of attention, a position she quite enjoyed. Her duties to the queen were light, and so she had plenty of time to gossip with female friends or flirt with male suitors.

Just under two years after her arrival at Anvard, the Count and Countess of Cornu announced that they had arranged a marriage for their daughter to Lord Dacian Jueenis, heir to Gria. Austine had been consulted about the matter prior to the announcement, for her parents did not want her to be unhappy, but she readily agreed to the arrangement. True, she had some reservations about the marriage. She knew Lord Dacian only by sight, but thought him rather old and boring. However, the benefits of the situation far outweighed the disadvantages. Upon his father's death, Dacian would be a duke, which meant that Austine would be a duchess. She couldn't secure a much better position than that. Further, Lord Dacian lived at Anvard (or more accurately, in the castle's libraries), and went home to Gria only occasionally. An indefinite stay at Anvard suited Austine quite well.

Austine traded her position as a lady-in-waiting for that of a wife just a few months after her betrothal. Life as a married woman seemed to be little different from what she had known before. She spends little time with her husband, for he prefers to surround himself with his books, while she prefers to surround herself with her friends. As such, Austine and Dacian know about as little of each other as they did before they'd met, though they've now been married half a year. Since she does not yet have a household to manage on her own, Austine's responsibilities as his wife are few, and only take up a little more effort than being a lady-in-waiting did. She still has plenty of time to amuse herself with her friends, and even continue to engage in harmless flirtations with the men of court.

Recently, Austine has received word that her twin brother will soon be married to foreign princess. She is extremely excited about the fact. Calormen might be only the next country over, but it seems to her to be an exotic and fascinating place. Also, this means that she will have a princess for a sister! That fact will certainly raise Austine's position in court.

Other/Notes: N/A

Sample
See posts by Lucy Pevensie, Natissa Tescar, Adimon Tescar, or Swiftshadow.