Aria Sloane

Aria Sloane is an Ohio State sophomore and a minor character in A Trick of Light.

Description
A self-identified social justice activist, Aria is demagogic and vengeful. She is accustomed to using social media to demonize male figures and other authority who cross her. Regularly spreading vicious rumors, manipulations, and even bullying other girls to support her schemes, Aria holds a self-serving mindset when it comes to being online, feeling she can get away with her actions thanks to the anonymity of the Internet. Even when confronted with the consequences of her actions, Aria denied responsibility for them.

Before A Trick of Light
After being called "coddled" in class for wanting to institute trigger warnings, Aria used her connections to defame the offending student, Josh Woodward. Fabricating 50-75% of the stories herself via anonymous accounts, she accused him of being a Nazi and of engaging in sexual assault. She also coerced other female students to follow suit under the pretense of being "allies" to generate yet more false accusations, even going so far as to convince his girlfriend to break up with him due to his "toxic masculinity". After successfully getting Josh expelled, Aria then managed to get him fired from McDonald's, driving Josh nearly to suicide and resulting in him entering a psych ward. She justified her actions on the basis of Josh being white and male.

A Trick of Light
Aria Sloane awoke one day to Mia Wright rapidly calling her. Angry to be woken up early and considering it to be an act of violence, Aria picked up in case some tragedy had occurred, only to be informed that all her anonymous activity had been mysteriously released to the public. Aria denied Mia's accusations of fabricating the story about Josh Woodward, but Mia claimed she would report Aria's actions to the Dean, including how Aria "bullied" other activists into helping her. When Mia demanded her $500 of donations back under threat of fraud charges, Aria hung up on her, only to receive an avalanche of notifications informing her that her Twitter had been suspended, her Facebook tanked, three of her school clubs disavowed her, and 97 angry emails were waiting to be read. At that moment, her own father called her, prompting her to throw her phone away in a rage. Wishing that it was all a bad dream, someone knocked on her door, and she screamed.