Basil 'Bubbles' Artois | D4 | finished~

B A S I L  ' B U B B L E S '  A R T O I S
[ A R R  -  T W A H ]

Basil has her family's trademark slanted eyes, colored light brown. Her hair that flows past her shoulders and down her spine sports an auburn color and is naturally wavy. She has thick eyelashes and thick, naturally shaped eyebrows. Her face curves into a v-shape past her jaw. The corners of her mouth tilt up in an almost cat-like grin. Behind her lips rest teeth that are almost unbelievably white. Her frame is petite, yet muscular. Her one and only pet peeve is when people point out her arms, which grows hair on them a little thicker than normal. She blames it on her father, who is outrageously hairy. She does her best to hide it and assure people that do notice that she's not as hairy as her father. 

She always wears her hair down, no matter how hot it is outside. She has a collection of what she calls "ugly socks" and wears a pair of them daily. She's a bit of a girly-girl and spends every spare cent she has on custom made dresses from the tailor in town. Although she is a girly-girl her favorite color is, oddly, white. She finds it to be the most fashionable color. She has abnormally large feet for a girl her size and has a hard time finding female shoes but does her best to alter the ones that do fit her. She'll occasionally take male shoes, cut them up and create a makeshift heel from carving blocks of wood and gluing them on. 

Basil received her nickname, "Bubbles," for being exactly that, bubbly. Her father gave her the nickname when she reached the age of four because she never seemed to be down about anything. She has an everlasting supply of cheerfulness that always raises the spirits of those around her. She's silly and has an almost ditzy personality but believe it or not, is pretty book smart. The tone of her voice is high pitched and squeaky. She's lovable and makes friends easily. She tends to look past the bad in people and search for the good. She ignores any and all mean comments towards her and doesn't understand the concept of rejection. She has a difficult time saying no to anyone because she always wants to make things easier for everyone else. 

    Basil's hobbies include fishing, sewing, and cooking but most important of all; eating. She takes pride in her cooking and always taste tests before she serves. She'll never serve a meal she wouldn't eat herself. Ironically enough, her favorite thing to season with is basil. She gained this interest through her mom, who always made the best fish soup. She swore to recreate and better her mother's secret recipe. If she's succeeded or not is in the eye of the beholder but since then, she's experimented with all kinds of home-made recipes that many enjoy. She loves to sew, seeing as she's a self-proclaimed fashionista who often has to make her own shoes. Sewing is another hobby she picked up from her mother but has also taught Basil patience, coordination and precision. Of course, fishing, which is a beloved district past time, is another one of Basil's favorite activities. She often uses it as an excuse to get friends and family together on the docks to spend quality time and catch the ingredients for her next meal.

Basil would technically be a career in district four, if you based it upon her time training. She doesn't share the attitude that most careers have but she has a firm grasp on the reality of the Games. She's an optimist so she knows the best she can do for herself and her family is to be ready in the event of her getting reaped. She trains happily alongside the other careers, smiling and complimenting them as they complete certain feats. She gets odd looks for not being a typical career, but she doesn't mind it. She knows in her own mind why she trains and knows she does it for the right reasons. To protect her family, not because she's blood thirsty like the majority of the other careers. In other attempts to make sure her family is taken care of if she were to ever leave, she records all of her recipes in a leather bound cook book she keeps hidden away in her drawers. Although her family doesn't find it funny, she jokes about how no one is allowed to see it until the day she dies. 





History:

The Artois family owns a small little shop on the outskirts of town. It was originally just a fishing supply shop, carrying items such as poles, nets and fishing spears. Whenever Basil started taking interests in her many hobbies, she suggested to her father that they could revamp their little fishing shack into a one-stop shop. Her father considered it a brilliant idea and with Basil's help, they added her home-made clothing, the fresh fish she caught every morning and a menu for Basil's delicious meals to the shelves. Basil also started offering fish-gutting services for the folk who didn't have the stomach or time to do it themselves. She kept herself busy and still managed to get passing grades in school on top of everything.

The family business was going better than ever, their sales almost tripling in the following weeks. Basil's parents were overjoyed with her innate entrepreneur skills. It wasn't until after the incident did Basil realize the effect her family's success had had on the rest of the shops in town. One early morning, as Basil was heading to the shop with her catch, the hint of smoke caught her nostrils. She ran towards the shop, being led by a trail of smoke. She saw her parents, standing outside of their once beautiful shop, now burnt to the ground. It was still smoldering but had subsided enough for them to figure that someone had started the fire sometime in the night. It clicked in Basil's mind that this had to be the doing of one of the other shop keepers who were angry about the loss of business but she had no way to prove it. So instead, she greeted her sobbing parents with a hug and smile. It'll be okay.

Basil spent the weeks after that, with the help of a few loyal customers of the shop, determined to rebuild their once prosperous store. But Basil had plans to make it better than ever. She was going to show the culprits that they did her family a favor. Tearing it down just gave us an excuse to rebuild something better. She worked from early in the day to late in the night, sometimes by herself and never lost the smile on her face. She was happy to do it. She was just happy. Today, stands a brand new shop. Built to Basil's specifications, there's plenty of room for what they previously had in stock and more.