So, starting with definitions! Ari would say that she stopped being a child at the age of thirteen - she was actually told this, lots of 'you aren't a child here, you're a trainee starship officer' etc. She became officially adult at about sixteen and a half, when she passed her lieutenants' examination. In-between is a sort of liminal space that she doesn't really have a label for - thirteen-year-old apprentice spacer Tayrey might have insisted she was an adult, but with hindsight? She doesn't think so. Either way, she would not want to go back to being a child. She likes having authority and real responsibility and being taken seriously by the people around her, and she finds it faintly horrifying that on Earth she wouldn't have been able to start her career until eighteen. Her cultural norms around age are completely different.
She'd describe her childhood as very fortunate, but very restrictive. Her adoptive father is one of the Directors of Cardalek, the corporation and colony world, and she grew up on the upper levels of Cardalek Tower. Young Citizen Arilanna very rarely got to leave that Tower, and that's part of what prompted her later rebellion. Her education was extremely competitive and pressurised, and this, along with the knowledge that she's genetically enhanced and so should be better than others, resulted in perfectionism and workaholic tendencies, even though she'll say that she joined the military to defy everyone's expectations. She was very precocious - the model child who would attend Company dinners with her father and ask clever questions - but by the age of eleven or twelve she was becoming very troubled and prone to believing conspiracy theories about the future of genetically engineered children. Too analytical with not enough data to draw accurate conclusions.
She matured very quickly when she left home. Going from protected Company daughter to trainee Tradeliner was a shock, even if it was exactly what she wanted and she expected it to be difficult. After some initial wobbles and unhappiness, she began to do very well at it, and considers the fact that she progressed very quickly to be proof of her maturity and trustworthiness. She still has her moments, though, and there's definitely an emotional immaturity about her sometimes, because she's used to repressing the difficult feelings and getting on with her work. Ari herself is unaware of this, though - to her mind she's just doing what everyone else does, or ought to do.
Re: Arilanna Tayrey
She'd describe her childhood as very fortunate, but very restrictive. Her adoptive father is one of the Directors of Cardalek, the corporation and colony world, and she grew up on the upper levels of Cardalek Tower. Young Citizen Arilanna very rarely got to leave that Tower, and that's part of what prompted her later rebellion. Her education was extremely competitive and pressurised, and this, along with the knowledge that she's genetically enhanced and so should be better than others, resulted in perfectionism and workaholic tendencies, even though she'll say that she joined the military to defy everyone's expectations. She was very precocious - the model child who would attend Company dinners with her father and ask clever questions - but by the age of eleven or twelve she was becoming very troubled and prone to believing conspiracy theories about the future of genetically engineered children. Too analytical with not enough data to draw accurate conclusions.
She matured very quickly when she left home. Going from protected Company daughter to trainee Tradeliner was a shock, even if it was exactly what she wanted and she expected it to be difficult. After some initial wobbles and unhappiness, she began to do very well at it, and considers the fact that she progressed very quickly to be proof of her maturity and trustworthiness. She still has her moments, though, and there's definitely an emotional immaturity about her sometimes, because she's used to repressing the difficult feelings and getting on with her work. Ari herself is unaware of this, though - to her mind she's just doing what everyone else does, or ought to do.