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Personality
The most important thing about Richelle is that she is shallow. Very shallow. For Richelle, appearances are everything. Her entire life revolves around fashion, and her desire to be a famous actress or model (fame, naturally, is Richelle's greatest goal). In fact, to Richelle clothes are essentially the meaning of life. There is nothing more important to her, to the extent that she can't even really understand fully how other things are in fact much more important than appearances to other people.
This focus on appearances means that the kind of people Richelle looks up to are the glamourous and the sophisticated. These are the people that Richelle wants to be, and when she encounters someone like this she will typically end up studying them and trying to emulate them. Even if she doesn't actually like them (which is much more likely to occur if they are around Richelle's age and someone Richelle views as a competitor), she will still watch them and emulate them. She won't let something like disliking a person get in the way of her learning how to be more glamourous herself.
At the same time, she will avoid anything that might make her less attractive or appealing. She detests getting dirty, or having her hair or clothes ruined. And she positively hates anything that's 'embarrassing'. Anything that might possibly lead to embarrassing situations, Richelle will avoid - and if it's someone else being embarrassing, she's avoid them too. She's even disassociate herself from her own friends (which tends to lead to a lot of edging away from Tom in particular, who has a gift for being embarrassing).
It's therefore no surprise that Richelle is entirely self-absorbed and selfish. She just doesn't consider the things that affect other people to be as important as the things that affect her. It just won't enter her mind, and even when someone points it out to her and tries to explain, she's still not likely to actually consider it more important. As far as she's concerned, if she breaks a nail it is infinitely worse than anyone else spraining an ankle or the like. She usually justifies this as her being more 'sensitive', and thus of course anything that affects her badly must naturally be automatically worse.
But while it's true that Richelle can be emotional and take things to heart (if you suggest that her hair's not perfect or that she might be gaining weight, she can fall into a real slump), she's tougher than she looks. She's managed to pull through plenty of dangerous situations with her friends, and for all her protesting about how 'sensitive' she is, Richelle's not really at all fragile in reality.
And when it comes to the suffering of other people, Richelle can be very cold. Unless you are close to her, she just won't care. Where everyone else will be sitting around thinking about how horrible it is that kittens could be killed for their fur, Richelle will be thinking about how kitten fur is actually really nice and soft. She can, in fact, be very ruthless. And while for the most part Richelle goes through life in a bored, vague state that involves her putting in very little effort, when she gets motivated she can be very cunning. And a good way to motivate her is if you cross her - make a fool of her or promise her things you don't intend to keep, and it's personal.
For those people are are close to her though, Richelle does care a great deal for them. True, she'll still often spend a lot of time putting herself above her friends, but when her friends need her she'll do what she can to help her, even if it's not really what she wants to do. She won't abandon them even if things are getting scary and dangerous. She doesn't want them to get hurt, and she's always glad when her friends come out okay from dangerous situations. She often doesn't understand the things that are important to her friends, and she will always have that mentality of self-interest, but this does not mean that she disregards the things that are important to her friends entirely. She will help them out, in her own way, freely and voluntarily. It is odd that she has the friends she does (especially considering how shallow she is, and how ordinary and uncool most of her friends are), but they're her friends all the same, and she does care about them.
Richelle also believes that she is sensitive to the supernatural. Ghosts, psychic mediums, mysterious occurrences - Richelle believes that she is much more in tune with all of these things, and is a firm believer in them. There's nothing to suggest that these things do in fact exist in her universe, and most likely her 'sensitivity' to the supernatural is just an extension of her own imagination and her own belief. The end result is that she can be easily spooked, and will often warn her friends about things like ghosts and hauntings.
This focus on appearances means that the kind of people Richelle looks up to are the glamourous and the sophisticated. These are the people that Richelle wants to be, and when she encounters someone like this she will typically end up studying them and trying to emulate them. Even if she doesn't actually like them (which is much more likely to occur if they are around Richelle's age and someone Richelle views as a competitor), she will still watch them and emulate them. She won't let something like disliking a person get in the way of her learning how to be more glamourous herself.
At the same time, she will avoid anything that might make her less attractive or appealing. She detests getting dirty, or having her hair or clothes ruined. And she positively hates anything that's 'embarrassing'. Anything that might possibly lead to embarrassing situations, Richelle will avoid - and if it's someone else being embarrassing, she's avoid them too. She's even disassociate herself from her own friends (which tends to lead to a lot of edging away from Tom in particular, who has a gift for being embarrassing).
It's therefore no surprise that Richelle is entirely self-absorbed and selfish. She just doesn't consider the things that affect other people to be as important as the things that affect her. It just won't enter her mind, and even when someone points it out to her and tries to explain, she's still not likely to actually consider it more important. As far as she's concerned, if she breaks a nail it is infinitely worse than anyone else spraining an ankle or the like. She usually justifies this as her being more 'sensitive', and thus of course anything that affects her badly must naturally be automatically worse.
But while it's true that Richelle can be emotional and take things to heart (if you suggest that her hair's not perfect or that she might be gaining weight, she can fall into a real slump), she's tougher than she looks. She's managed to pull through plenty of dangerous situations with her friends, and for all her protesting about how 'sensitive' she is, Richelle's not really at all fragile in reality.
And when it comes to the suffering of other people, Richelle can be very cold. Unless you are close to her, she just won't care. Where everyone else will be sitting around thinking about how horrible it is that kittens could be killed for their fur, Richelle will be thinking about how kitten fur is actually really nice and soft. She can, in fact, be very ruthless. And while for the most part Richelle goes through life in a bored, vague state that involves her putting in very little effort, when she gets motivated she can be very cunning. And a good way to motivate her is if you cross her - make a fool of her or promise her things you don't intend to keep, and it's personal.
For those people are are close to her though, Richelle does care a great deal for them. True, she'll still often spend a lot of time putting herself above her friends, but when her friends need her she'll do what she can to help her, even if it's not really what she wants to do. She won't abandon them even if things are getting scary and dangerous. She doesn't want them to get hurt, and she's always glad when her friends come out okay from dangerous situations. She often doesn't understand the things that are important to her friends, and she will always have that mentality of self-interest, but this does not mean that she disregards the things that are important to her friends entirely. She will help them out, in her own way, freely and voluntarily. It is odd that she has the friends she does (especially considering how shallow she is, and how ordinary and uncool most of her friends are), but they're her friends all the same, and she does care about them.
Richelle also believes that she is sensitive to the supernatural. Ghosts, psychic mediums, mysterious occurrences - Richelle believes that she is much more in tune with all of these things, and is a firm believer in them. There's nothing to suggest that these things do in fact exist in her universe, and most likely her 'sensitivity' to the supernatural is just an extension of her own imagination and her own belief. The end result is that she can be easily spooked, and will often warn her friends about things like ghosts and hauntings.