Player's Name: S.
Are you over 16? Yes. I’m 26.
Characters Played Here:Enomoto Shiori |
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secretsymphonyMarcel |
futuristicalCharacter: Odette
Series/Canon: Swan Lake
From When? Right after Odile has revealed her true identity to Siegfried at the feast, before he can reach Odette by the lake.
History: Zurich Ballet’s 2009 production synopsis, partial and Odette-focused.Wikipedia’s synopsis of the full ballet, general.Not much is known (or shown) about Odette’s life before she encountered Rothbart and fell under his spell. What we do know is that she was a princess, child of the king and queen of her country and that she lived a joyful, untroubled life in a peaceful environment. However, one day while she was out walking, Rothbart approached her – having targeted her already, chosen her to become the jewel of his collection and casting on her the same curse that he had already cast on a whole flock of other young women, though none of as noble birth as Odette. Their curse was the same, however – destined to be swans during the day, changing back to their human form only at night and staying trapped in this cycle until a man would devote himself to them fully and wholly, promising and proving his love eternal. Himself, Rothbart was half owl, half man and in flight, he brought the transformed Odette back to his lair. Odette would later tell Siegfried that the large lake that had grown gradually into existence in front of Rothbart’s hide-out consisted of her grieving mother’s tears, tears cried over the child that she had lost to the sorcerer’s evil magic.
Because one day, Odette would indeed meet a man who was prepared to promise her everlasting loyalty and love. Their first meeting was chaotic, Siegfried was out hunting with his friends and had targeted a swan that he had spotted on the lake by which they found themselves. Nevertheless, as he was about to fire his crossbow, dusk fell and brought with it night – Odette, for it was she whom he was about to slay, turning into her human form once more. Falling in love instantly with her beauty, her gentleness and serenity, he followed her even as she fled from him in fear, attempting to sway her. To assure her that he posed no threat. Finally, she stopped running, turning to him instead and told him her story – that she was royalty, but had been turned into a swan by Rothbart, reigning now amongst the other swan maidens as their queen. Siegfried declared his love for her and in return, she asked that neither he nor his companions would shoot another swan, since they could not know whether it be her or one of her maidens. He swore, in the same breath promising to always be faithful and never betray her – so that she might once again be free of her curse and live her life as a human queen. By his side.
Hearing these words, Rothbart appeared and with his magic, he forced the maidens and Odette along with them to transform back into swans, Siegfried left behind on the shore to watch them disappear across the expanses of the lake’s wide waters. Returning to the palace, he found that his mother, the queen, had arranged for a party at which he were to choose his bride amongst various princesses presented to him. Siegfried, though, could only think of Odette and dismissed every other girl until, late at night, Odette finally appeared. Clad in all black, she danced with him in the most seductive manner and had he been in his right mind, he would have recognized that this was not the woman whom he had met at the lakeside. This was not the beautiful, the gentle, the serene Odette, this was a seductress. Someone else entirely. But in the end, he fell to his knees before her, kissed her hand and chose her for wife – at which moment, the glamour faded and Odile, Rothbart’s daughter, took her original shape, escaping the castle with a mocking laughter. Siegfried knew it and Odette felt it, his promises had been broken and her curse was destined to last forever. Forever, she would be a swan. In her mind, it left her with no choice. Until then, she had known hope, but now hope had been taken from her and a hopeless existence… She could not bear. Would not. Refused to.
This is when Eli approaches Odette and she accepts his offer, perhaps not gratefully, but in recognition of its opportunities.
Personality: The most accurate description of Odette is
gentle. In the ballet, Odile and Odette function as one another’s opposites, each other’s mirror images – and where Odile is seductive and aggressive, Odette is gentle and serene. Having lived in the shape of a swan for many years, she has grown timid of humans and human interaction as seen by how she flees from Siegfried upon first meeting him. A fear that she only slowly overcomes as she gradually falls in love with the prince. Nevertheless, being royalty herself, she still possesses a certain sense of assertiveness as well, enough to demand of Siegfried that he and his friends no longer aim their weapons at swans, due to the risk of them being Odette or her maidens in disguise. This is the balance, the discord within Odette – that while she nurtures the softest of attitudes, she is also the Swan Queen. Reigning over the swan maidens who share her sad fate. And as one such, a queen of swans, she must remain strong and spirited in the face of Rothbart’s presence, always soaring upon the waters of her mother’s lake.
Beneath, or perhaps beyond her strength and spirit, however, lies a darker streak. A sadness that has become inherent to her character in response to the great tragedy that she has suffered. It would not be correct to assume that Odette is depressed
as such, but at the point in her timeline from where I take her – her circumstances are against her and her reaction to their development is wholly human, despite how she has lived as a bird for so long. She wishes to flee, to escape. In her own reality, there is only one way, for Siegfried has affixed her curse – she must drown herself in the lake that was cried into existence by her mother upon Odette’s disappearance. Unless she wish to remain Swan Queen only, eternally.
In her relations, Odette demonstrates the same traits that define her otherwise. She is soft-spoken and gentle, carrying behind her mask of graceful sadness an understated determination. Her swan maidens are loyal to her and bid her every command, although she makes only few of them, preferring instead to live amongst them as an equal – as merely another waterfowl by day, woman by night. They are the ones to have chosen Odette for queen, Odette has merely accepted the position. I expect it is the same attitude with which she will meet the citizens of New Dodge, so that she will regard herself as just another newcomer who is seeking a new start. No different from any of the others. Except, of course, for the wings and the beak that haunt her underneath the rays of the sun.
As such, Odette is a victim of her surroundings. Constantly. First a victim of Rothbart’s curse, then a victim of Siegfried’s broken promises, next a victim of Odile’s mockery and lastly, a victim of her own desires to die. Yet, however much a victim that Odette is, she is not helpless and she makes her own decisions, takes action so as to uphold her own dignity. Because she may be the
Swan Queen, but queen she has become. Still.
Why do you think your character would work in this setting? Odette has reached the point of no return. She, quite literally, has nothing to lose. Were she to stay in her own world, she would be trapped in the cycle of her curse forever, shifting between being swan and human. The man she loved has betrayed her trust and there is no way for her to overcome on her own the powers that are toying with her. New Dodge offers freedom and she is desperate for it. Her own storyline offers her only one means of escape, that is: death. Eli offers her an escape and
life simultaneously, thus the choice is not a difficult one for her to make.
In the beginning, she probably won’t interact a lot with people in person, since she’s still trapped as a swan during the day, but she will be using the TC a lot and pointedly disregard her own royal blood, truly considering the town her fresh start at life, talking freely with people from all walks of life.
Longer-term, I hope to find some magic wielders in New Dodge that will be willing to try and work out a counter-curse, so that she may eventually escape the spell that Rothbart’s has put her under.
What will your character do for work?If she could be allowed to work night shifts only, being general staff at the Horizons Recreation Center would make a good fit, since there’s a lake and forest there which will remind Odette of home.
Inventory: Nothing beyond the gown she’s wearing.
Samples:Third-Person Sample: She discovers the lake at the Recreation Center quickly. As if drawn to its waters, the cursed waters in her human shape as well as in the shape of a swan. No, cursed it is not, for it is not made of tears – is not salty on her tongue, but fresh and clear. Showing her the reflection of a woman, caught in between stages. Not quite human, not quite bird. She is Odette, yet she knows not what she is. Who she is. Of what material she is made. Once she was a princess, but Rothbart made a queen of her. A queen of swans. Even a queen, however, she is not. Here. What, then?
Who, then?
Sitting by the lakeside, Odette looks at herself, as if contemplating a mirror. She looks at herself, touches her fingers to her face, runs them through her hair and sees only Odile’s mask that may have been thin, but was thick enough to fool Siegfried. Her Siegfried. Has she become but a mere shadow of herself? Has she faded into nothing but Odile’s scornful smile, leaving for the castle, clad in Odette’s appearances? Let it not be so! Let her be free, finally! Of the prince’s broken promises and the black swan’s deceit…
For the lake in New Dodge is not a swan lake, it is not a salt lake, it is not a lake of entrapment. Akin to everything in this, her new world, it is fresh. Representing a fresh beginning. A new start. The days may still be lost to her, for the curse has not lifted and most likely, it never shall – but the nights are her own and so long as she breathes down human lungs and can meet her own eyes in the lake’s still surface, neither she nor the water is cursed. Anymore.
First-Person Sample: 1ST FEATHER | video
[Judging by the moonlight falling across her face and shoulders, it's night when she turns on the TC and addresses the New Dodge community. No one has seen even a glimpse of this woman during the day, for she is as nocturnal as a vampire and equally cursed. Such is the very reason that she now speaks, in a soft (yet assertive) voice - princess as she was, queen as she has become.]I must beg of the hunters here, that they no longer aim their weapons at even a single swan.
[She raises her chin.] Please understand, I feel an affinity with these birds and wish not to see them harmed for their feathers, neither for their flesh.
[Her expression doesn't change, but her eyes darken - whether from anger or sadness is difficult to tell. Her white gown hugs her every curve like - yes, like a plumage and the midnight air adds movement to her waving hair.]I dare make such a demand, for I was royalty once. Though, I understand that this place offers me no crown and I count instead amongst the ordinary women, if no longer amongst the innocent maidens. It is a role that I gladly embrace, preferable to the reality from which I herald and a blessing in comparison to the reality which faced me.
[Odette pauses. Pushes aside the memories, of the sorcerer and his wicked daughter, of the unfaithful prince, of all his promises and all that she lost...]Yes, here I shall stay. Now that I possess nothing of significance, beyond this new opportunity that I surely shan’t waste. Everything I believed to be mine has been -- taken by the unruly winds. Yes, here is my home, here is all to which I might return. There is water here as well, but it is fresh and it will not overwhelm me.
[A long silence follows. One might think the feed is over when finally, Odette continues.]Who can truly claim that death by drowning is not the most tragic of fates?
