Galen Song

Galen Song [she/her] is the daughter of the Nightingale. She was meant to take on her father’s role, but complications arose and she forfeited her destiny to her brother.

Without the hold of legacy, Galen has been quite fond of freedom. Currently, she’s working as a paramedic, and is determined to see herself on some Public Health board with the intention of going into legislation reform.

Personality
Galen goes through life with a cocky, confident air that’s one parts inspiring and two parts intimidating. She's a bit blunt and to the point, and refuses to sugarcoat what she says. If she has a complaint, she will always voice it - even at the risk of offending people.


 * She's pragmatic - desperate for practical situations and can be irked by overly flowery methods.
 * Generally has philanthropist beliefs, but with a practical/utilitarianism edge to them.

Appearance
She’s slim and relatively tall, with long black hair that’s generally slung over a shoulder. Brown eyes. Isn’t spelltacularly pretty - in fact, she’s quite regular looking, but it’s hexpected: nightingales are plain birds.

Although she does not require glasses, Galen dons a pair anyway. It makes her look more smart, which means people will take her more seriously.

Hobbies, Skills and Interests

 * Currently works as a paramedic.
 * Public Health - wants reform and legislations.

Fairytale: the Nightingale
see: Daulis Song for further details, I refuse to rewrite this section.

Parallels

 * She and Tereus Dentori are incredibly similar in attitude and personality. After all, she was originally supposed to be the Nightingale, and Tereus was modeled after her.
 * The Nightingale was supposed to represent Jenny Lind.
 * Kit Andersen is absolutely in love with Galen. HC Andersen was absolutely in love with Jenny Lind.

Backstory
Galen Song never could sing.

She was born as the Nightingale’s son - born into a life where music lessons were integral to the family and song was embedded in their name itself. She was born into a family that loved her, and yet she could never love what the family loved.

Music eluded her. Poetry eluded her. Pretty much everything along the lines of that eluded her.

Galen Song insists that she was
 * cursed
 * really, really unlucky; or
 * both

because frankly, this was a terrible position to be in when you're destined to be the next Nightingale.

I was going to write up this section all nicely and poetically, but let's face it. This is not a poetic backstory.

Anyway, Galen went through Ever After High, pretty bummed out and miserable, had a breakdown in Junior Year and dumped her destiny onto her brother, then took off.

Family
Generally a pretty supportive/healthy family dynamic.

Galen is the black sheep of the family, going into medicine/Public Health instead of performing arts.

Aedon Song (father): Galen wonders if she's disappointed her father in the sense that he ended up with a daughter who can't sing instead of a son who can, but her father shows her no animosity and is pretty supportive in her decision to go into medicine.

mother: not at all opinionated

Daulis Song (brother): She adores him, though Daulis is an awkward idiot most of the time. They get along, he looks up to her a lot.

Co-Workers
They exist.

Friends
She has them. They're not particularly relevant.

Romance
Here’s the answer you seek: Galen Song has never been in love with Kit Andersen.

They kiss, they do more than kiss, they hold hands in public and go on outings together and sometimes she’s his plus one to hexclusive literary events.

It’s not “dating” - Kit refuses to use that word when there’s other people who take their fancies. It’s not “dating” when she’s but an idealistic image and he will never be taken seriously by her.

(He knows that she doesn’t love him back.)

(They play along with it, together, anyway.)

Trivia

 * The name Galen is a double reference.
 * The name of the story is Nightingalen.
 * Galen was a Roman physician - a nod to the nightingale’s ability to push back Death and this Galen’s enthusiasm for Public Health.