CAMP ROSE WHALEFART

⚘ Camp Rose ⚘

Wattpad Username: @whalefart
Password: f(x)
Slot: Sleep Talking
Backup Slot: s k i p
Love Interest: Joshua Hong
Face Claim: Ok i know i reserved @kickiyangz but i think @hyulari would be better for narcolepsy bc she looks tired and pale as if she doesn't go out much y'know?
Backup Face Claim: @kickiyangz
Gender: Female

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Birth Name: Choi Ara
Other Name: s k i p
Nicknames: Nicknamed "Mrs. Benedict" after the children's book character Mr. Benedict who also had type 1 narcolepsy, only her parents and close friends call her this; Called "ice queen" by peers because she treats everyone and everything with indifference due to her condition.
Birthday: June 9, 1995
Age: 23
Height: 5ft, 7in (170cm)
Weight: 121lbs (55kg)
Nationality: Korean-American
Ethnicity: Korean
Birthplace: Newport Beach, California (true story yo)
Hometown: Yorba Linda, California
Blood Type: O+

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What is your mental illness?: Narcolepsy 1

How did you get your mental illness?: Narcolepsy is believed to be due to an autoimmune process. When the immune system turns against itself, specific syndromes may result, including hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and even narcolepsy. In narcolepsy, the body’s immune system begins to target and destroy a small population of neurons within the hypothalamus of the brain. These neurons contain a neurotransmitter called hypocretin or orexin, a neuropeptide that regulates arousal, wakefulness, and appetite. As the disease evolves, the entire collection of 60,000 to 70,000 nerve cells in the hypothalamus are permanently destroyed. As a result, the level of hypocretin detected in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that bathes the brain drops to zero. When patients have cataplexy, the paralyzation of the body or certain parts of the body triggered by emotion, the hypocretin levels are usually zero and this characterizes type 1 narcolepsy. People with cataplexy will often fall asleep after or while they are paralyzed. For Ara in particular, her “naps” last from 15 minutes to 2 hours.

When did you get diagnosed with your mental illness?: Due to a long period of doctors misdiagnosing her, Ara was officially diagnosed with narcolepsy at the age of 12. Her family knew about it by the time she was 10.

How do you cope with your mental illness?: Ara takes two different medications called provigil and xyrem every morning before she goes to work to get her through the day without any major issues. The xyrem makes cataplexy less likely to occur and provigil helps her with excessive daytime sleepiness. she avoids taking the medication when she isn't in at work since they both give her headaches and nausea. because she doesn't take it during that time though, she end sup not going anywhere so that her narcolepsy doesn't affect her in public.

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Background: Ara’s life has been fairly simple without the inclusion of her narcolepsy. She was raised in Yorba Linda, California with two loving parents, and a pretty decent older sister who took care of her often. Her narcolepsy started around the age of five, but was dismissed by doctors as just general kid sleepiness and told her parents to have her take more naps. Her sister is only three years older than her, and acted like her little sister was just a little pest as older sisters do. That behavior stopped when cataplexy set in for Ara and she started dropping to the ground while running around with her friends. Her sister took Ara’s condition a little harder than others, feeling bad for treating her like a pest and taking it upon herself to look after Ara as much as she possibly could. Their parents split when Ara was 13 under the pretext that they had fallen out of love. It didn’t end on bad terms, and both parents still loved their daughters. The girls travelled together every weekend to go see their dad, who moved to an apartment near his work in Los Angeles. He started dating again, and he had thought he found a woman he would like to spend more time with, until she started complaining about Ara’s condition and how much work it is. He dumped her on the spot. He’s still trying to find someone to connect with who will treat his girls right. Her mom, on the other hand, is staying single and independent. She drags Ara to a fitness class with her every Saturday morning, saying that she needs to get in shape, but Ara thinks it’s just because the instructor is hot as balls. Her sister now works as an editor for a beauty magazine and visits home quite often to make sure their mom isn’t annoying Ara too much. Ara recently finished up online college courses to get her general education requirements out of the way, but is still living at home because her mom doesn’t want her to be alone with her condition, just in case cataplexy strikes and Ara gets hurt and no one is there to help her. Ara has a day job working in the storage area for a Target. She figured it would have the least drama and interaction with customers, plus there are always people there who can help her if her pills stop working (and they definitely know about her narcolepsy after her mom followed her to work one day and talked to the manager about it).

Personality:
-  Lazy . Ara has basically been confined to her room for most of her life, so she kinda just developed a lazy trait. She doesn’t really like to get up and leave her room. I think the most she moves is when she gets up from bed to go to the restroom or go to work. Even then, though, she is given large break times to just sit around.
-  Emotionless . Cataplexy strikes most often when strong emotions are felt, so naturally Ara has to keep her emotions in check to avoid becoming temporarily paralyzed. She misses being able to express herself and feel pure happiness, but she simply can’t risk it. She can still manage small, polite smiles, but that’s about it. She can’t even feel sad without dropping. Thus, she doesn’t like to spend time outside with people who are likely to draw out strong emotions in her.
-  Confident yet insecure . Ara is very confident in her abilities and her intelligence, and she is fine saying what she thinks (she is very blunt due to this)
-  Foodie . One of Ara’s joys in life is trying different types of food. Her mom brings home food from different types of restaurants, and tries to make it a different dish each time. Ara gets so happy about it that she tends to send herself to sleep right before eating, resulting in her special meals being a little later than intended.
-  Sleepy . Ok this is a given. I think this might even count more as a physical trait rather than a personality trait. Ara is always tired and needs to sleep a lot more often than the average person. It’s not optional, it’s a simple fact, so look out for my girl and keep her in a cabin with less people who are particularly silent and/or actually sleep at night. If she doesn’t have those conditions, her cataplexy will act up much more often due to stress and anger.
-  Creative . Obviously she had to do something while cooped up in her room the whole time. She dabbles in 3D Digital Animating, taking on different little projects like making a digital egg bounce like a ball and weird shit like that.
- Hopeless . Sometimes she gets a little hopeless about her situation. She feels that there is nothing that can ever be done and she will never experience the best moments that life is all about.
- Blunt. It was hard to find the word I needed, but I guess blunt will have to do. Ara calls things as they are, with no thought of how it could make another person feel. She doesn’t necessarily intentionally insult people, but if they are looking like shit, you can bet she will say “you look like shit” without a care in the world. I think it’s more of an attempt to notify people of certain things without sugar-coating it.
- Insensitive . Ara literally gives no fucks for certain things. These things include narcissism, suicide, self harm, as well as simply suicidal thoughts. It’s not that she doesn’t care that people die from those things, but rather she would rather they not happen at all. Her way of showing that is just…odd. She thinks that suicide is for cowards and self-harm is stupid and unnecessary. I would trust her, since she has done it before and discovered that for herself. She figures people should feel fortunate for even being able to feel different emotions without any consequences.

Likes:
- Fish
- Birds
- Sushi (there is a really good, tiny sushi joint near her house)
- Her Angel (Her best friend since high school, Alice Nguyen, who comes over every Tuesday and Thursday to hang out with Ara. Ara has told her to stop going out of her way just to give her company, but Alice insists that she does it because she just likes hanging out with her best friend)
- Baking different kinds of sweets
- Her lemon tree (planted it when she was six, has tended to it since)
- Studying botany
- Watching sped up process videos
- Honeydew melon
- Lemongrass tea
- The internet (gives her entertainment while she is shut in)
- Reading manga
- The Jonas Brothers

Dislikes:
- Large amounts of people
- People asking her uncomfortable questions about her narcolepsy
- People with a lot of external emotion since she has to work harder to keep her own emotions under control around them
- The doctor
- Her pills since they make her have bad headaches and nausea, which she has to take more medication to get rid of
- Excitement
- Insects
- Heat
- Loud noises

Hobbies:
- Reading manga
- Sketching plants according to their ecological classifications
- Sleeping
- Eating
- Watching birds through her window

Habits:
- Sitting in very odd positions without realizing it
- Staring at nothing in particular and drifting into deep thought
- Thinking about people she hasn’t seen in years and wondering how their life is going

Fears:
- Spiders (who doesn’t?)
- Large crowds (if her cataplexy is triggered in a crown, she is scared that people will trample over her or she will freak people out)

Allergies:
- Nothing major, just gets sick easily when winds pick up, but she has allergy meds for it

Trivia:
- Somehow almost always ends up speaking for the opposing side of a point even when she doesn’t support it just to show the other person what they aren’t thinking about
- Eats Nutella right out of the jar with a spoon
- Genuinely likes music from the late 1900s or early 2000s (2000-2013) and considers anything outside of that range as lacking originality
- Still has a Jonas Brothers x Hannah Montana concert poster from when she was little in a glass photo frame
- Her favorite sleeping position is laying down with her legs in the criss-cross-applesauce position
- Will literally trust any sushi chef to feed her any type of sushi. If they tell her it’s good and she should try it, she will. This is how she learned that sea urchin is disgusting.
- Sometimes wishes she was Japanese instead of Korean
- Once got tipsy after drinking what she thought was simple watermelon juice but was apparently watermelon juice mixed with sake.
- Is really bad with spicy food
- Literally almost all of this has to do with food I’m so sorry I’m eating right now it’s all I can think about
- She has a personal wheelchair to roll around in for days that she feels especially tired so she doesn’t fall or anything
- Ara aspires to be like Mr. Benedict because she thinks he is her James Bond

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Slots you're closest with: THERE ARE SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM I-
KeePer - probably wouldn’t be bothered by them
Trap - similar needs & probably won’t stress her out

Slots you're least closest with: I’m not gonna specify because I don’t think she would be close to a majority of the people at the camp due to their freakish sleep patterns and conflicting emotions. Let’s just say she doesn’t like anyone except KeePer and Trap.

On a scale from 1-10, how much do you like it at Camp Rose?: 10 because she can go outside and not feel judged for randomly falling and passing out

Do you think that spending time at Camp Rose will help you get better?: not really. narcolepsy isn't something that can be treated by spending time with others. only medication helps those with narcolepsy so far. She might feel more comfortable with her condition after talking to the sleep specialist I guess.

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