[hider=Aoife Fitzgerald]
[b]Age:[/b] 27
[b]Name pronunciation:[/b] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l3CzdNyVJs]EE-fe[/url]

[hider=Appearance]At 5' 2" (157 cm), Aoife is a little bit on the short side. She has green eyes, a small nose, and glasses, which give her a bookish appearance; she typically wears her brown hair in a long braid draped over her right shoulder. Her fashion sense could be described as preppy; she favors sundresses when it's warm and sweaters when it's not. She's cute, in a "girl next door" sort of way, but often has a withdrawn or even nervous attitude; her movements are very direct and efficient, and she doesn't tend to gesture much in conversation, although she's more animated when teaching.Overall, Aoife is most at home in a library or coffee shop, and she likes her appearance to match.[/hider]

[hider=Personality]Thoughtful, reserved, attractive, and with an exotic-sounding accent, Aoife is often seen as hard to approach. This perception has some truth to it, but not for the reasons people think. Her cool, borderline aloof demeanor has less to do with disliking or not caring for people, and more to do with being deeply awkward and insecure. Aoife feels that she doesn't understand people very well, which isn't helped by a degree of social anxiety, nor by her naturally introverted nature. She's been compared (and compares herself) to a cat - she keeps her own company, it's possible to win her over, if you're patient and respect her boundaries. That said, Aoife's uncertainty in social situations is a fairly deep issue, and not helped by her presence in the very male-dominated field of computer science.

Intelligent and technically minded, Aoife has high standards for herself; she can often be heard scolding herself over relatively benign mistakes in a proof, piece of creative writing, or something she's baking. While self-doubt is a chronic problem for Aoife, she's also aware of her successes, and prides herself on her lateral thinking and creativity as much as she does her technical skills. While she has no problem applying her standard for herself to people who should know better, as a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_assistant#Graduate]TA[/url], she's known for being empathetic and skilled at breaking down complex topics into something understandable; to a large extent, this is a reflection of how she herself learns by breaking things down in the same way. Many of the friendships she does hold have started when someone asked an insightful question during her office hours.

Aoife is acutely aware of how few women there are in her chosen field, and it bothers her more than she'd care to admit. She feels a constant pressure to perform and a scrutiny that isn't applied to her peers. She's determined enough to tolerate it, and maintains other interests when she needs to unwind. She enjoys creative writing, and has published several stories online - both fanfic and original works - largely with a focus on science fiction, exploration, and the unknown; her characters are often reflections or idealizations of herself. She also enjoys baking, and will usually bring in something sweet when running a class discussion or exam. Aoife often presents herself as disinterested in romance, but the truth is that she's deep in the closet. She doesn't make a big deal of her Irish origins, but doesn't hide them, either; jokes about Irish stereotypes are as sure a way to earn her ire as jokes about women in the sciences are.

Overall, Aoife is someone who's self-image is largely tied up in her intelligence. She's quick-witted, creative, and insightful, but held back by self-doubt. Comfort and familiarity are very important to her, even as another, deeper part of her craves new experiences and challenges. She can be standoffish around people she doesn't know well, but it's more to do with not [i]getting[/i] them than anything; however, she's not afraid to speak her mind if she perceives someone as acting badly, especially in a way that attacks her identity in some way. While introverted and not very people-oriented, Aoife does value the few strong friendships she does have. Today, she might be considered autistic.[/hider]

[hider=Background]If her name doesn't give it away, Aoife (pronounce "EE-fe") hails from the city of Galway in the Republic of Ireland. Her parents, Aidan and Deirdre Fitzgerald, moved to America when she was fourteen when her father's company asked him to oversee their new American branch, bringing Aiofe, her older brother Eamon, younger brother Finn, and two cats with them. She's currently enrolled at Sanctuary Hills as a grad student.

An awkward, geeky child, Aoife struggled to make connections with her peers, although not for lack of trying. She found more fulfilment in more solitary creative pursuits, and she excelled in her art and literature classes. At first, she didn't care for math, since she found the pace of the class glacially slow; however, she was fortunate enough to have passionate, proactive teachers, who reached out to her parents and helped her get into a newly formed advanced class. Soon enough, she found that math and logic could be just as expressive as art, and fell in love - although it was another way that she was unlike her peers, and at the time, she didn't have the emotional intelligence not to brag about it.

Aoife grew up as a [i]good Catholic girl[/i], the sort of person who never missed Mass, who said her prayers every night, and who was deeply afraid of Hell even from a young age. As she grew up, her blind acceptance of Catholic doctrine gave way to skepticism, questioning, and doubt, and as a teenager, she officially declared that she was leaving the Church. While her family generally tolerated her personality quirks, this was a bit hard for them, and they frequently argued about it. Aoife still values her connections with her family, but now that she's living on her own, pursuing a degree, and generally independent, she finds herself wondering why.[/hider]

[hider=Magic Specialty]Aoife has always been fascinated by computers and the potential they represented. She sees a fundamental similarity between algorithms and spells, and she hopes one day to earn her doctorate in the emerging field of algorithmic spellcraft. ("What [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper]Admiral Hopper[/url] did for computer programs, I hope to do for magic," as Aoife puts it.) She's acquainted enough with magical theory to perform some basic workings, mostly simple things convenient in the day-to-day life of a busy academic.[/hider]

[hider=Relationships]
[b][Everyone][/b] - Aside from her role as a teaching assistant, Aoife is known for her creativity. She can occasionally be found working on short fiction at Phil's coffee shop, although it's more common to see her working on her there with a stack of reference books for her research. She's not openly gay, but she [i]might[/i] act as a mentor figure to someone who's struggling with their own sexuality.

[@Gisk] [b]Georgia Patricia Keen V[/b] - Georgia's certainly eye-catching, and Aoife's peripherally aware of her. Since both are women in male-dominated spaces, she feels a degree of kinship, even if they've never really interacted much.

[@Expendable] [b]Samantha "Sam" Igorina Semenova[/b] - Sam's attractive, in a dark sort of way. Aoife's afraid she's caught her staring.

[@kalanggam] [b]Valeriano "Val" Lumungsod O'Connell[/b] - Aoife TA'd Val's discrete math class. The two developed a professional relationship that turned personal when they ran into each other at Phil's coffee shop; Val's love of music appeals to her.

[@shagranoz] [b]Rose Blossomdew[/b] - Aoife knows of Rose by reputation.

[@Fading Memory] [b]Tobias Malkinson[/b] - Aoife and Toby have mostly interacted online, but they've meet up in person from time to time. She posts as AutumnalTranquility, and it was only a matter of time before they ran into each other on the campus' bulletin board. She'll sometimes critique his work, where she's thorough but polite.
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