usedquack: (Coppelia Duck)
Duck ([personal profile] usedquack) wrote2012-01-24 06:28 pm

ROUTE_29 Application

Player
Name: Mishi
Personal Journal: [personal profile] mishisings
E-mail: ohsarjalim@aim.com
AIM/MSN: ohsarjalim or mishisings
Timezone: Eastern (Canada
Current Characters in Route: none

Character
Name: Duck
Series: Princess Tutu
Timeline: Post-canon, in other words, after Mytho and Rue have ridden off into the sunset and Duck is just a duck again and Drosselmeyer's post-humous writing machine has been destroyed.
Canon Resource Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Tutu

Personality: First of all, although she looks completely normal, there are a few clues that might lead one to suspect that Duck is a duck. Aside from the name. Her clumsiness, her awkward way of moving, her voice, and not hte least, the way she quacks when she's surprised or frightened. Because she started out life as a duck, she's ignorant of many customs and aspects of daily life - she has to be explained things that others take for granted. For instance, even though it was apparently common knowledge in Kinkan town, she had to be explained what the Fire Festival was. Nevertheless, she blithely ploughs through life not worrying too much about things she doesn't understand.

Duck is very friendly, and tends to friendship-ambush people. What I mean by this is that she tends to sneak up on unsuspecting people and engage them in conversation, after which her 'target' ends up warming up to her. She befriended Rue by sticking by her no matter what Rue said and did to keep her at arm's length. It's important to note that even though Rue-as-Kraehe was responsible for a lot of the conflict in the series, Duck never took it personally and always believed that there was good in her. It's quite hard to get on her bad side; she has a good word to say about nearly everyone. If it's at all possible, it's by being pointlessly mean to her or her friends. Of all the characters in the series, the only ones she demonstrated any disdain for were Femio, Autor, and Fakir. Fakir grew on her once she came to understand his motivations, Autor she put up with because he was the only one who could help Fakir learn to use his powers (and she disliked him because he was rude and she thought his methods were cruel). And Femio... okay Femio is just plain weird. Girls drop what they're doing and skedaddle whenever he's in the area. Duck gets a free pass on that one.

Duck's greatest dream is to become a prima ballerina and dance a pas de deux with the love of her life. She's a dreamer, and she loves ballet a whole bunch. She wears her heart on her sleeve. As might be expected from an aspiring ballerina, she's a very physical character, reacts in very energetic ways - at one point when she imagined that Mytho told her he loved her, she got so excited she ran around in circles. Another time when Pique and Lilie were teasing her, she ran backwards straight into a cart full of garbage. She's generally enthusiastic and upbeat and impulsive about everything she does... well, anything not to do with her duty as Princess Tutu and Mytho.

Part of Duck's character arc was her growing realization that for Mytho, getting his heart might not be all she imagined. Many of the first heart shards she returned contained negative emotions, like pain and loneliness, and then she returned the heart shard of love which Kraehe had corrupted with raven's blood. Duck often wrestled with the possibility that returning Mytho's heart might not be what was best for him. In any case, she took her job seriously. Another complication was her feelings for Mytho, and his apparent feelings for Princess Tutu. Duck knew from the third episode onward that she was never meant to be with Mytho, and never questioned that Rue was his destined princess. When he seemed to express interest in Princess Tutu, Duck became confused about her feelings, but still denied the possibility that she might have a chance with Mytho. She thought he only saw "Princess Tutu in her pretty dress."

The fact that Duck makes a distinction between herself and her alter ego goes a long way to explaining her view of herself. While Princess Tutu is obviously a magical ballerina princess who has superhuman stamina and can keep tempo with Giselle (who is dead and doesn't tire), and dances flawlessly besides, she shares all her important traits with Duck. Princess Tutu's heart is no kinder or more generous than Duck's. And Duck has demonstrated a wisdom in matters of the heart beyond her years. But Princess Tutu is beautiful and graceful and an impeccable dancer, and Duck isn't, so if Mytho liked Tutu, it still had nothing to do with her, so her reasoning went.

Not only this, but as the series went on, and the focus switched from GOTTA CATCH EM ALL to how the heck do we stop Mytho's downward spiral into evil, Duck found herself on the sidelines and feeling superfluous. She couldn't fight, she had no special writer powers... what could she do to help protect Mytho? Even Princess Tutu could only return the shards of Mytho's heart, but what good would having a full heart do for Mytho if he was consumed by the Raven's curse?

All this to say that despite Duck's many virtues, she doesn't have a very high opinion of herself. She sees herself as clumsy, useless, talently, plain, of no worth or interest whatsoever. She often second-guesses herself. (Why did she ignorantly assume she knew what was best for Mytho? Was she really so presumptuous as to think there was a place at Mytho's side for one such as her? Did she just want to feel important?) After all, she's only a duck. Compared to Princess Tutu or Rue, she's nothing.

Strengths/Weaknesses: In canon, Duck's darkest moment was when she tried to take off her pendant to give Mytho the last heart shard and she couldn't unfasten the chain. This was a critical moment and she didn't come through for him. Drosselmeyer attempts to convince her it's because she wants to keep on being a girl so she can stay with Mytho forever, but really it's only that she's afraid the story will end and she'll go back to being a duck, which is similar, but not quite the same. It's not so much that she would lose Mytho - at that point Rue has already solidified her claim on him and Duck herself seems more interested in Fakir - it's that, as a duck, she thinks she's not worth anyone's time. She'll be alone. Fakir then promises her he'll stay with her forever, even if she does turn back into a duck. And she does, and Fakir keeps his promise. But it remains that Duck is quite afraid of being abandoned.
+ Knows ballet (though not very skilled)
+ Energetic
+ Stubborn/Determined. To the point where she kept dancing even though she was getting kicked around by raven-minions and became the physical embodiment of hope for a short while.
+ Kind, can find something to like about nearly anyone.
+ Surprisingly astute when it comes to other people.
+ Gets along with animals, especially birds.
+ likeable, gets along with people.
- Easily distracted, scatterbrained.
- Erratic knowledge of human customs.
- Lack of self-esteem.
- clumsy, tendency to quack at inopportune moments (although at least she no longer has to worry about turning into a duck)
- tendency to second-guess herself.
- doesn't look before she leaps
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Pidove
Password: Raspberry Lemonade

Samples
Third Person Sample:
Duck woke up to an insistent knocking at the door. From the other side, a woman who did not sound like Raetsel called "Sweetie, you're going to be late!" She opened her eyes. This was not Fakir's room. This was not the box and blanket nest he had arranged for her. The woman came in and tugged the covers off the bewildered girl. "Up and at 'em! You don't want to keep Professor Oak waiting!"

Duck sat up, protesting. "Quack, quack quack!" she exclaimed. Who was this woman, where was Fakir, and what was going on?! The woman probably wouldn't be able to understand her, even Fakir could only sort of get the gist of what she said, usually. She wished she could speak normally, but she was just a duck, after all. Quacking was the only option available to her. It could not be said that Duck was quick on the uptake.

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady! You're much too old to be playing psyduck! Speak like a human being!" said the woman. Duck raised her wings defensively. That's when she caught sight of them and realized she didn't have wings, she had hands. "Wait, whaaat? I'm human?" she looked down at herself. Yes, definitely human. How come? Was this another story? Had Fakir written her into a human being and the story had gone wrong somehow? Or maybe Drosselmeyer had found another way to mess with the living. How could she tell? She should probably find out. The lady was saying something to the effect of 'of course, dear, now stop being silly' but Duck wasn't really paying attention. "Who ARE you? Where is this?" she asked.

The answer ("You know very well I'm your mother, and this game is getting tiring!") was just confusing. As she was loaded down with a backpack and a lunch and a... whatever that funny looking plastic thing was, and rushed out the door, Duck tried to remember if she had ever had a real mother. She didn't like to think about her past, because it gave her a headache. She recalled a faint memory, of paddling to catch up to the end of a line of six ducklings. But she also recalled her first day of school, when a well-dressed couple she vaguely remembered were her parents dropped her off, and made her promise to write. It didn't help that she knew the one with the ducks must be the real one, because both memories had a dreamlike, unreal quality. Before she met Drosselmeyer the night she spoke to Mytho for the first time, she could have sworn she had always been human. Before she had seen Mytho dancing on the lake, she had always known she was a duck. Thinking about it made her miserable, and anyway this lady claiming to be her mother didn't even look like the well-dressed woman she remembered.

In any case, the reason some woman was claiming to be her mother was the least of the mysteries Duck had to deal with. This wouldn't be the first time Duck had been thrust into a situation with very little information and no idea what she was doing. She guessed there was nothing for it but to go along with things for now. But she had to find her way home!

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