Yoooooooo, it’s Abella’s turn this week! Astraia would say her legal name is “Belles,” but Astraia is no lawyer, so that wouldn’t hold up very well in the Zakumba courts, so I’m calling her “Abella.”

But, yes, as last week’s foreshadowing would dictate, it’s now time to speak about the other main character of Zakumba: Astraia, Abella. But this is a much more difficult topic for me, purely because there’s a whole lot about Belles that I’m unable to talk about. Or, at the very least, there’s a lot I shouldn’t talk about, and parsing through what I can and can’t will take up at least half of the time it takes to write this thing. As such, I’ll do my best to shed at least some light on this enigmatic character.

Abella, a girl of 15, would be described as a vagrant, wandering from place to place as she sees fit. People often notice her neck tattoo, but fail to follow up on a deep conversation about it, as she’s probably gone by the time they’d think to ask. Also, she probably wouldn’t tell them to begin with.

Her incredible observation skills pair well with her cautious nature, allowing her to form quick and safe predictions on how to handle almost any situation. These very traits, though, often clash with Astraia’s brash headstrongness, leading to inevitable conflict. In that vein, if one was to inverse Astraia’s traits, one might end up with Abella. Or, at least, something kind of resembling her.

But perhaps there’s more to Abella than anyone knows…

…

Look, man, I thought this was a good idea, but I didn’t realize how little I could say about Abella in comparison to Astraia. And, while a better, more thoughtful writer may put this topic on the chopping block and write something they can talk more about, I am NOT that. Dirtying my butcher’s knife would mean I’d have to wash it, and I don’t want to do that.

So, instead, I’m going to pivot and say that writing for Abella, the jaded 15-year-old, is infinitely easier than writing for Astraia, the optimistic 12-year-old. Like, man, obviously the 24-year-old guy who doesn’t have kids would find it more difficult to write a kid, but the sheer thought that’s required to make Astraia sound like a natural human being eclipses the rather seamless Abella-writing process.

Basically, I think you’ll enjoy Abella’s character, and when the opportunity comes and our game is released (or, like, the Vertical Slice demo, at the very least), you shall understand the difficulty of writing a blog like this.

Also, I’m not lazy—this blog actually has a larger word count than the Astraia one. So eat THAT!

Character Characteristics #2: the Abella Blog (and Also a Tangent Because of Inevitable Disaster)