![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
app for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
disney_academy
Mun
Name: Amy
Contact Info:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
ladyvoldything
Other Characters: N/A
Character
Name: Danielle de Barbarac
Appearance: Here and here.
Canon: Ever After: A Cinderella Story
History: Here.
Canon point: The last day of her servitude to Monsieur Pierre le Pieu.
Personality:
When you first meet Danielle, the first thing many notice, depending on the situation, is her headstrong and outspoken nature. When she reaches the end of her rope or the situation allows it, she is not one to allow an injustice or insult go unmentioned; in a crisis she will launch into combat mode by beaning a horse thief with apples. This doesn't always present itself at the most socially appropriate time; when the Prince of France himself made a comment she found distasteful, Danielle ran her mouth about classism, stopping just short of blatantly calling the Prince an arrogant ass.
Her prince describes this quality as "conviction"- the passion she shows when decrying his classism, the fervor she has towards books, the overwhelming joy with which she recalls the sound of her father's voice reading to her. She holds her beliefs fiercely, arguing them intensely no matter how disadvantageous the situation, and does nothing at all halfway. When she finds something to truly believe in - especially anger, love, or hope - it can unseat her gentle nature and socially appropriate default, making her reckless and unsensible. This is evident when, after experiencing the first throes of true love with Henry, she goes home and oversleeps, sasses her stepmother, and punches her sister in the face. She found something that lit a fire in her heart, making the drudgery and indignity of the day-to-day seem hollow and shallow, making her reckless and objectively stupid, at least temporarily. It didn't help, in that situation, that her sister pressed one of Danielle's hot buttons - her mother's legacy - and made her screamingly, irrationally angry, which is a situation that often drives Danielle to bad choices. It's about the level of emotion she feels: passionate love for her dead parents, passionate hopes, passionate dreams. By the same token, those very passions and convictions will drive her willingly very far outside the lines in pursuit of them. She doesn't just defend her man, she screams down a band of violent gypsies for her man. That's called taking things up to 11.
Speaking of up to 11, the woman is possessed of a vibrant and powerful sense of adventure. Her spirit longs to soar, to be free, to laugh in the face of danger or good sense. Why stay on the ground like a good girl when you can take off your clothes and climb the tree yourself? Where her equally common friend Gustave was afraid to venture outside his comfort zone and speak to Da Vinci, Danielle is quite unshy about taking extreme measures and doing daring things in pursuit of goals or simply of adventure. Simply put, her balls are pure brass, and she will never let herself be cowed in the face of circumstance, whether the circumstance is facing a band of raiding gypsies, or being a chained-up slave in a powerful pervert lord's castle filled with guards and servants.
When faced with such circumstances, she often reacts by falling back on a commanding air, which honestly translates to being loud and very bossy, repeatedly yelling her demands until whoever she's yelling at proves her the alpha in the room. It isn't just under duress, either; Danielle can be imperious and judgmental in many facets of her life. If you abrade her sense of justice or her vision of how people should be, then she won't hesitate to piously pass judgment on you, and you'd probably deserve it.
However, Danielle's life isn't all speedboats and supermodels. The core of all that passion and bravery is an astonishingly pure soul, which allows her to believe in things as purely as she does. She is highly principled, believing in charity, kindness, equality, God, and the importance of social compassion. While she understands very, very sharply how selfish and cruel others can be, she will always have some trouble understanding why, because while she has seen firsthand a lifetime of class-based superiority and cruelty, she came out of it still wondering if her reluctant "mother" had ever loved her, entirely baffled as to why or how someone could be so closed-off and harsh. There's something in her that, while pragmatic as women and commoners are forced to be, wishes in her heart of hearts that fantasies could be real, because- wouldn't that be nice?
That same purity of soul also ties to another quality of hers: generosity. It's why she, upon receiving 20 gold francs as a seeming act of God, immediately thought to use them to free her friend from servitude. The thought of using them for herself never even entered her mind. Danielle has room in her heart for as much love as life will give her, and she gives it back freely to those who deserve it - and, sometimes, those who don't.
Despite her occasional willingness to engage in deceptive behavior, Danielle has an extremely strong sense of integrity. She is regularly disgusted by her stepmother and stepsister's intrigues, describing it as "hunting royalty like game" and calling it disgusting. Even the deceptions she perpetuated in the movie rankled at her conscience, and she tried repeatedly to tell Henry the truth about who she was, at least until he poured so much love onto her that she couldn't find it in her. Even so, though, her inability to tell the truth ate at her, because of the high value she places on honesty. If she has to lie, she'll do so unhappily, and only to a point. It's one of the things that she is loath to compromise on- from passion to stubbornness to honesty, she has a somewhat intractible nature at times. It can work to her benefit and give her strength, such as the strength she found when in Pierre le Pieu's clutches. That integrity, stubbornness, and firmness of will gave her the strength she needed to fight back, rather than lie down and accept a blow to her dignity.
However, her spirit isn't completely indomitable. Nobody's is, and Danielle is no exception. She's only human, and she can be beaten down with enough rejection, enough ill treatment, and enough defeats. In particular, she can be hurt badly by hitting her in her weak spots. These weak spots happen to include her desperation for love and her parents.
The thirst for love is a strong one- she knew it for eight years of her life, then was starved of any form of family affection for ten years, pushed from her old room and into the demeaning life of a servant. The only mother she ever knew was the arbiter of this cruelty, frequently raising her voice, insulting her, whipping her when she "deserved" it, and allowing her monstrously mean-spirited daughter to constantly abuse Danielle at every opportunity. What's more, Rodmilla played on her stepdaughter's vulnerability by dressing up the servitude as simply "asking her to help around the house without complaint", in exchange for the monumental sacrifice of feeding and clothing the daughter of the man whose wealth she lived off of. Danielle consequently suffered from a desire to please, even once professing that she would sit by herself at times, wracking her brain for a way to satisfy her loveless stepmother. There was once a time when Danielle would have done anything to attain the woman's approval, even when in other company she mocked Rodmilla's actions. Even then, when she shared her friends' disdain for her stepmother's mismanagement of the estate, Danielle still thirsted desperately for some scrap of motherly love that she endlessly and desperately needed.
It isn't just about motherly love, either. When Henry's love was taken from her in the movie, her shoulders slumped just a little in every scene after that, until she saw him again. Being faced with his love for her was powerful enough to eradicate her resolve to tell him the truth; so potent was the effect of love on her. And beyond romantic love, there is the memory of her parents- the most potent source of real love in her life, however past. One insult to her dead mother was enough to make Danielle physically violent with her noble stepsister, sending her into a rage that had her chasing Marguerite around the manor and screaming threats at her. Losing her father's beloved book into the fire (helped, no doubt, by the cruel whipping she received after) very nearly broke her spirit, at least temporarily, causing her to give up hope and decide to break off her dalliance with Henry. It wasn't necessarily the physical pain that did it- she started sobbing long before the whip was brought out. It was the book, that tie with her father (the only person in her life up to then who well and truly, constantly, loved her) being severed- that kind of loss, the severance of a love once held dear, is something Danielle has a very hard time bouncing back from.
Honestly, all these society-bucking and deeply internal traits aren't the first thing most people in Danielle's universe see. In the day to day of her existence, what gets pushed to the surface is a head-bowed, socially-appropriate servant, who has learned over the years that her eyes should point to the floor when faced with her betters, and that her betters are plentiful and all around her. To this day, even after her liberating and sometimes traumatic experience with Prince Henry, she still has a hard time not inclining her head slightly when someone of noble blood is in the room. It's been ingrained through years of socialization and hard lessons from her stepmother and stepsisters' treatment. Servants are lesser, firmly beneath the nobility in every way. Though Danielle has a self-possession and firmness of will that some might characterize as uncommon for a servant girl her age, her class-borne self-esteem will rear its ugly head when someone pokes at it, or when a situation seems to call for it. If someone treats her less for being common, some tiny little part of her, however small, wonders if she should believe them, or will at least tell her to moderate her behavior based on it. She mustn't initially admit feelings for the prince, because what common girl should ever have such a dream? She mustn't even try to go to the ball tonight, because how could she ever have a chance? In some regards, she sees the divides that exist in her world as real, tangible things- a bird may love a fish, she says sadly to Leonardo, but where would they live?
All this sadness, this class humility, and her aforementioned thirst for love add up to a single, sad picture: that of a little girl hiding inside her heart, surrounded by a shell but still very much vulnerable to predation. If preyed upon the right way, Danielle will show her very young age. Rodmilla may have had a strong influence on her, but it's hardly a unique thing- Danielle may be similarly vulnerable to any parental or maternal figures, if they are near and dear enough to her.
That vulnerability applies to everyone she loves, not just authority figures or those seeking to manipulate. Danielle is fundamentally a creature of the heart. If you well and truly take ahold of her heart, then you have a powerful influence over her soul and her being- and that is not something taken lightly. She may like or love, but she was bouncing back from losing Henry at one point in the movie, and she could do it again. What she never bounced back from was losing her father- that is the kind of love that makes her vulnerable. It would have to be more than a crush- although that stripped away her defenses too, changing her behavior entirely. If a simple crush can affect her like that, then a real love, a deep love, gives the person with her love immense power over her and the chance to experience the depth and warmth of her heart.
However, all is not bleak! The majority of the movie has Danielle facing life with her back straight and head held high, with some goal or destination kept brightly in her mind. For in her heart of hearts, Danielle is a little girl inside a firecracker- inside a gentle lady who still believes in happily ever after. Whether that comes from fairy-tale marriage or reforming a small country farm, she keeps the faith.
Powers/Special Abilities: None! She can read rly well and is decent with a sword, but that's about it.
Inventory: A selection of clothes both rich and plain, including some men's clothes, both noble and plain. The clothes includes a fine white gown, a pair of costume wings, and a pair of jeweled glass slippers. She has a trunk filled with books and some trinkets from her mother, as well as a larger selection of valuables, including candlesticks, paintings from her father, some smallish valuable tapestries, jewelry, and silver. It all fits into four quite large, densely-packed trunks, and a chest she plans to use for the things closest to her.
Greatest Fear: To grow old while still a downtrodden servant, never escaping her situation or knowing any measure of peace, and being cut off from all ties to her dead parents. Danielle has generally dealt with her lot in life well, coming up generally good-natured and not complaining too bitterly about how she is treated. However, her sharp demeanor hides some well-repressed anger, and her independence and some things she says (about her stepmother leaving to go to court) hint that she wants nothing more than to get out from under her Rodmilla's cruel thumb.
She also desperately wants love. The way she thinks about true love and the little-girl desperation in her eyes in some scenes with Rodmilla, her stepmom, show how badly she wants to love and be loved in return. The thought of spending a life with neither independence nor love, that her current terrible situation represents the entirety of her future with no hope for improvement, scares the living shit out of her. She doesn't want to end up like some old peasants she's met: pained, tired, with broken spirits. Having her strength, independence, and mind taken from her (through abuse, degradation, deprivation, what-have-you) and reduced to something unrecognizable from the girl her father raised represents her worst fear. And in the world she lives in, where social status is literally everything in a person's life, that is a depressingly likely fate.
How is your character appropriate for this game? She is an adult who has her own demons, while not necessarily confronting them on a regular basis. The story is a tale of her escaping a horrible situation, laden with the insecurity and attachment issues brought about by being orphaned and seeking the love of her abusive, hideous stepmother. She's depicted facing abuse, having her spirit nearly broken, sobbing and shaking from fear of losing ties to her parents, and being sold to a man who clearly wanted to break her spirit and rape her. IMO she's perfect for a game with darker themes.
Rooming request section Hoover Hall! Floor 4, if you don't mind. <3
Year/Position: High school junior. She's an excellent reader and has read about philosophy and history on her own, and she's fluent at French (and could probably tutor!), but she'll need remedial math and science.
AU Specific Section
AU history:
Though she had heard some whisperings and rumors about it before, the first time Danielle encountered the Mist was 3 years before the events that led her to Disney Academy. It swept through town for more than a week, increasing sharply in density until everyone was trapped in its horror, unable to escape or do anything to shake off their own demons. People vanished, people went insane, people died. Danielle always remembered the spectre of her mother reaching through the Mist calling to her in a soft, broken voice that drove a chill down her spine. Come with me, that demon begged softly, stay. She wakes up at night years later remembering her father, how he reached out to her and her stepmother both in the darkness. The thing that resembled her father grew fangs and tried to kill her stepmother, and the resulting scene (that was more dream than reality) still gives her nightmares. The rest of the week was awful, with people turning violent on each other. Everyone was severely out of their mind that week.
It was horrific and terrifying, leaving paranoia and fear in its wake for years. The density and intensity of that first experience left everyone who survived it deeply frightened of it ever coming back.
Unfortunately, it did, and at a terrible time: over a month after the Masked Ball that went so terribly wrong for Danielle, the day of Prince Henry's wedding, when she was already deep in slavery to Pierre le Pieu. The morning of the Prince's wedding, she awoke in her cell to find a piece of parchment inviting her to Disney Academy. The invitation made her heart lift for a moment, her mind taking flight with fantasies of going to this fabled place she had heard of, a place of learning and wisdom, one of safety. The very idea of making a life for herself away from this place was attractive. She tucked the paper away in her dress, keeping it close to her heart.
The Mist rolled in that day, at a much lighter density than the first time, but still strong enough to heighten her distress and despair at her captivity. Her head filled with anxieties she was accustomed to repressing, such as terror about the prospect of being property for the rest of her life. It was inevitable, she began to fear, and as the Mist settled heavy around her heavy heart she began to see shadows on the wall with claws and lips smacking around rotting teeth and she began to feel hands on her sliding slimy under her dress. It was inevitable, she thought, there was no escaping it, Monsieur le Pieu would break her down into a spineless, spiritless creature for his own savage use and all remnants of the girl from her parents would be gone forever.
Her heart sank with terror, heart beating faster, nerves on edge. She could hear Henry's voice in her head, cruelly jeering at her with Rodmilla and Marguerite's words, calling her Cinderella and gutter-rat and lying cockroach. Every jangle of the shackles about her ankles seemed to cut her and grow into her flesh as a permanent part of her body, symbolic of the captivity that would surely become a part of her.
Then Pierre began to speak. Stupid words about horses and breaking her spirit, and her eyes widened, agitated already. Pierre himself was dealing with his own issues from the Mist; every word from Danielle seemed to hit his ears as mockery and emasculation. She could see it happening, see hate and contempt glowing in his eyes, with that same chill of insult and disgust that men tended to have for women who dared to raise their chins rather than bow their heads.
When he put his hands on her, impatient and lustful, she smacked him away with harsh words, incensed by the Mist's influence. His pride and chauvinism inflamed to hateful rage, he attacked her viciously, hitting her around the head with a candlestick and attempting to sexually assault her. Danielle defended herself viciously, made more aggressive by distress from the Mist, and dug a knife into him before stealing back the keys to her shackles and shoving him, still living, into a Strangeling.
She then proceeded to steal as much of Pierre's money as she could without getting caught, taking advantage of the servants' distraction and distress. With her ultimate goal of Disney in mind, she knew she'd need gold for the journey ahead. As for her normally uncharacteristic violent and criminal behavior, well- she was terrified of what was happening at home, convinced it would turn into a bloody pandemonium as it had 3 years prior. Everything else was secondary. Her panic was such that she stole a horse without fear of reprisal in her drive to get home.
As for Prince Henry, he never made it to Le Pieu's manor that day to rescue her. In fact, he never made it to Danielle's former home, either. The Mist descended on him during the wedding ceremony, preventing him from ever learning that Danielle had been sold. Thus, the beautiful reconciliation scene from the movie never happened.
Meanwhile, the first day of the Mist, Danielle arrived home to find her stepmother and stepsisters there as well. They had made for home the instant the Mist descended, fearful of chaos happening without Rodmilla's watchful eye. Danielle helped them and everyone else hold down the fort for the next several days, still believing the Prince to be married and hating her. During that terrible week, her stepmother and stepsisters went missing. The next day, Danielle saw Jacqueline running towards her, waving her arms and calling out to her for help- "Danielle!" she cried, "Danielle! Help! Help, please, it's awful!" Danielle, of course, ran to her - praying that she could hope to save at least one member of her family - when she saw the dark tendrils of a Strangeling take hold of her and drag Jacqueline screaming into the Mist.
Danielle fell to her knees in horror, screaming at the death of the only family member who had loved her since her father died. It was something she'd feared for a long time: how life would change for her in small ways if her sister vanished, whether life at the manor would sour if somehow Jacqueline married first, and now- now, she saw it happening. In truth, she never touched her sister, and so never knew for certain whether the sister she saw was a hallucination, but Danielle believed it ardently, for she didn't know that the Mist could produce illusions that vivid. It was horrifying, and after that she was alone.
The next day, while the Mist was still strong, a vision of Prince Henry showed up at their manor and entreated Danielle to come with him. Tormented as she had been by visions of abandonment and rejection, she wouldn't listen. The angry clutches of the Mist were still upon her (and possibly him, if he were real at all), and emotions ran high, nerves were frazzled, and and all perceptions distorted. She saw things that weren't there and he reacted strangely at times, as if his eyes deceived him as well, which only aggravated Danielle's artificially frazzled nerves. She heard things from the other's mouth that were never spoken and sometimes she would have sworn he did the same. The experience of him behaving as erratically as she was, and not being sure whether to trust her eyes and ears and whether he was real, made the entire experience incredibly surreal, and the brief visit degenerated into a terrible argument. She screamed at him to leave, just as he had at the ball, and never come back, to which he replied angrily that he would, as he'd rather not compromise his dignity by marrying a lying, deceitful servant. Henry rode off into the shadows, leaving a tearful Danielle to wonder if he was ever really there at all, or if the Mist dreamed the encounter up to torment her. It was so vivid that she wound up believing in it implicitly, as the Henry she saw had sounded exactly as she imagined he would sound.
Soon the Mist receded and she waited, hoping (or fearing) that her family would return from wherever they had gone- hoping they hadn't been lost to the Mist. When they didn't come back, she decided they were lost, and convinced some able-bodied servants to come with her, including her childhood friend Gustave. With her stepmother and stepsisters gone, Danielle relieved the manor of many valuables and every belonging of her dead parents that she could carry. They filled two enormous trunks with books, clothing from both her stepsisters, her own clothing, and some male clothing in case she needed to travel safely. They took candlesticks, paintings from her father, a few smaller valuable tapestries, jewelry, and silver- all things that her stepmother had sold in secret to Pierre. That she felt no qualm about. While it was wrong for Rodmilla to sell them to a horrible old lech, Danielle needed money to get to Disney Academy, where she would become part of the world's only effort to banish the Mist. It was for the greater good. And besides, she didn't take nearly as much as Rodmilla had sold. There was ample left for the servants to sell and live on or for the de Ghents to sell, if the Mist saw fit to return them.
She didn't think it likely. Those things belonged to her now, and to the servants who labored for that house, and that is how they saw fit to use them. Her friends were happy to give her what she needed for a new life, including a horse and carriage.
Armed with gold, valuables, and her belongings both cherished and necessary, she and five other servants set off. As Danielle wished to avoid all possibility of meeting Prince Henry on her travels, who she believed could never love her, they went a roundabout way, making immediately for Scotland, where they spent some time. Once they bought passage onto a ship that could take them south of France they were off, sailing to the mainland and winding up on the shores/outskirts of Halloween Town. From there, she and the servants (friends, really) remaining went to Radiant Gardens, from whence they found their way to the sky port station that could take Danielle to Disney Academy.
That is when she said goodbye to her old friends, who she sincerely hopes to see again, when the Mist has been dealt with. Danielle wanted to bring Gustave and the others with her, but learned that one doesn't get in without an invitation. Her childhood friend reassured her that all would be well, reminding her that he had work waiting for a household in Radiant Gardens, and that she shouldn't fret too much about him.
Reassured, she got into the sky.... thing and went to her new home.
How has it affected them? Danielle's experiences with the Mist have unsettled her to the core, as it did to so many others. Most people go long stretches of their lives without forcefully encountering their greatest fears and innermost demons, and can therefore distance themselves from their own emotional baggage; Danielle was given no such luxury. Having seen hallucinations of her dead parents, she emerged more anxious and thirsty for love. Having had rejection and abuse hurled at her in Mist-driven altercations, she worries that much more about the road that lies ahead.
Having to encounter her deep fears ingrained by her station in life made her act on them, and acting on fears tends to worsen them. Everything about her is just a little bit edgier than in original canon; while she has far from lost the gentility, kindness, and generosity that characterize her, the fiercer sides of her personality - the fire, the defensiveness, the sharp tongue - come with slightly sharper edges now.
Additionally, the loss of Henry that the Mist brought about has affected her deeply. Danielle is only 18, and at that young age had never felt anything like that love before- so to lose it, and in such a spectacular fashion as the failed Masque and that horrible fight in the Mist, has devastated her. Her shoulders are heavier now, her eyes a little less bright now that life has shown her yet another dark side of possibility. Just as regular encounters with Pierre le Pieu taught her caution around old men, her encounter with Henry has taught her caution around young men. It's not likely to make her afraid of love at all, simply careful about giving her heart away so freely to someone she could have misgivings about. After all, she initially thought Henry to be arrogant- a large part of her is convinced that she was right, and wondering if she ought to listen to her first instinct next time, rather than the fantasies of her heart.
Still, despite these losses and triggers, experiencing so much pain has made her determined, and taking back her life by force has strengthened her will and resolve. Nobody rescued her, nobody helped her out of le Pieu's castle, and it was her resolve and courage that got them all out of the manor and into the wide world. Losing her family both freed her from their oppressive shadow and - especially in Jacqueline's case - filled her with a singular, driving purpose that was always missing from her life: to go to Disney and be part of the solution.
Truth be told, part of that determination is fueled somewhat by guilt over Monsieur le Pieu. Not about stealing from him, no, even though open theft of gold and horses is a severe moral compromise she wouldn't have been willing to make in canon. The guilt is over his death. He was a monster and he may have deserved to die, but she's quite certain he didn't deserve to be thrown into the arms of a Strangeling. Danielle refuses to accept and dismiss the fact that she was willing to do that. Additionally, the memory of how frightened she was still haunts her. Danielle prides herself on keeping her composure and dignity even in the face of terror or situations far beyond her depth; that any force can make her take leave of her senses so thoroughly and lash out like an animal scares her more than she's willing to admit. Between her shame about le Pieu and trepidation about what the Mist brings out in her, Danielle is anxious to redeem herself in her own eyes, in the eyes of God, and to help figure out a way to drive this noxious influence from the world once and for all.
Writing
First Person Sample
028 | video;
[Danielle comes into view with her characteristic lack of technological grace, fixing the communicator in place distractedly. She seems to be struggling with a great many emotions- a battle between a great and righteous anger, the desire to smack someone upside the head, and a MIGHTY NEED to laugh. Her mouth twists in an obvious need to smile.]
Whoever replaced all of my furniture with terrified fainting goats-
[She bursts out laughing at that sentence before getting control of herself mostly.]
-I will whip you. Those poor creatures are scared out of their minds. I opened the door and four of them swooned into my bedclothes.
[She shakes her head, choking back more laughter for a moment before giving in and letting her giggles dissolve into a good, satisfying belly laugh. It's nice, to laugh like this amidst all the stress of exams, relationship foibles, and the ever-looming shadow of Mist. Whoever pulled this prank will get what's coming, but they'll also get her love.]
You know, I had hoped to give an announcement about the Philosophy Club's library luncheon next Tuesday, but I'm afraid in light of this I cannot find my focus.
[She holds up a finger at the camera, lips twisting, then points to a place off-camera.]
They are devouring every single scrap of fabric they can get their teeth into. If this has anything to do with Flynn Rider, he can assure himself as to the severity of my revenge. Or perhaps it was Simba- I did see those teeth marks on the doorknob.
[Shaking her head.] This is absurd. I shall make a proper announcement tomorrow. Until then, I beg someone with magic help me restore my room, and someone with a strong back help me with these beasts. I fear they may ruin my carpet and curtains before nightfall.
Good day.
[Click.]
Third Person Sample
Danielle simply stared after the enormous mouse capering away from them with red underclothes and confusing white gloves. The mouse that was to be her Lord- her principle, to be specific. The mouse.
She was having some trouble not immediately calling for a giant cat.
Danielle had known at the beginning that this would be a brand new experience for her, full of wonders she had never even imagined, but nothing had prepared her for the level of newness this place already had to offer. From strange clothing to enormous vermin overlords, Disney Academy was already giving her plenty to scratch her head over.
Not the least of which was a low current of stress regarding her status. Many of the students around her looked noble, richly-dressed enough to be courtiers or even royalty. She saw a few crowns gleaming on select heads. Some part of her believed that if she dropped the necessary facade of Countess that she had assumed on the journey here, that someone would come and take all this away from her. Sure, some of the people around her were dressed more plainly, but surely this place wasn't for a simple commoner. If she was honest, someone would snatch away this chance to, as the mouse so succinctly said, save the world.
All this luxury, this promise of belonging- gone before she had the chance to taste it. No.
For a few long seconds Danielle let the fear take hold of her. She took deep, uncertain breaths, expression knitting in unhappiness, reminding herself to just breathe. Until a count of ten, and then she swallowed hard, raised her head up, and straightened her shoulders, pulling the guise of nobility around her like armor. Nobody could look down on her here, and hopefully- nobody would try.
It was time to make some friends.
Name: Amy
Contact Info:
Other Characters: N/A
Character
Name: Danielle de Barbarac
Appearance: Here and here.
Canon: Ever After: A Cinderella Story
History: Here.
Canon point: The last day of her servitude to Monsieur Pierre le Pieu.
Personality:
When you first meet Danielle, the first thing many notice, depending on the situation, is her headstrong and outspoken nature. When she reaches the end of her rope or the situation allows it, she is not one to allow an injustice or insult go unmentioned; in a crisis she will launch into combat mode by beaning a horse thief with apples. This doesn't always present itself at the most socially appropriate time; when the Prince of France himself made a comment she found distasteful, Danielle ran her mouth about classism, stopping just short of blatantly calling the Prince an arrogant ass.
Her prince describes this quality as "conviction"- the passion she shows when decrying his classism, the fervor she has towards books, the overwhelming joy with which she recalls the sound of her father's voice reading to her. She holds her beliefs fiercely, arguing them intensely no matter how disadvantageous the situation, and does nothing at all halfway. When she finds something to truly believe in - especially anger, love, or hope - it can unseat her gentle nature and socially appropriate default, making her reckless and unsensible. This is evident when, after experiencing the first throes of true love with Henry, she goes home and oversleeps, sasses her stepmother, and punches her sister in the face. She found something that lit a fire in her heart, making the drudgery and indignity of the day-to-day seem hollow and shallow, making her reckless and objectively stupid, at least temporarily. It didn't help, in that situation, that her sister pressed one of Danielle's hot buttons - her mother's legacy - and made her screamingly, irrationally angry, which is a situation that often drives Danielle to bad choices. It's about the level of emotion she feels: passionate love for her dead parents, passionate hopes, passionate dreams. By the same token, those very passions and convictions will drive her willingly very far outside the lines in pursuit of them. She doesn't just defend her man, she screams down a band of violent gypsies for her man. That's called taking things up to 11.
Speaking of up to 11, the woman is possessed of a vibrant and powerful sense of adventure. Her spirit longs to soar, to be free, to laugh in the face of danger or good sense. Why stay on the ground like a good girl when you can take off your clothes and climb the tree yourself? Where her equally common friend Gustave was afraid to venture outside his comfort zone and speak to Da Vinci, Danielle is quite unshy about taking extreme measures and doing daring things in pursuit of goals or simply of adventure. Simply put, her balls are pure brass, and she will never let herself be cowed in the face of circumstance, whether the circumstance is facing a band of raiding gypsies, or being a chained-up slave in a powerful pervert lord's castle filled with guards and servants.
When faced with such circumstances, she often reacts by falling back on a commanding air, which honestly translates to being loud and very bossy, repeatedly yelling her demands until whoever she's yelling at proves her the alpha in the room. It isn't just under duress, either; Danielle can be imperious and judgmental in many facets of her life. If you abrade her sense of justice or her vision of how people should be, then she won't hesitate to piously pass judgment on you, and you'd probably deserve it.
However, Danielle's life isn't all speedboats and supermodels. The core of all that passion and bravery is an astonishingly pure soul, which allows her to believe in things as purely as she does. She is highly principled, believing in charity, kindness, equality, God, and the importance of social compassion. While she understands very, very sharply how selfish and cruel others can be, she will always have some trouble understanding why, because while she has seen firsthand a lifetime of class-based superiority and cruelty, she came out of it still wondering if her reluctant "mother" had ever loved her, entirely baffled as to why or how someone could be so closed-off and harsh. There's something in her that, while pragmatic as women and commoners are forced to be, wishes in her heart of hearts that fantasies could be real, because- wouldn't that be nice?
That same purity of soul also ties to another quality of hers: generosity. It's why she, upon receiving 20 gold francs as a seeming act of God, immediately thought to use them to free her friend from servitude. The thought of using them for herself never even entered her mind. Danielle has room in her heart for as much love as life will give her, and she gives it back freely to those who deserve it - and, sometimes, those who don't.
Despite her occasional willingness to engage in deceptive behavior, Danielle has an extremely strong sense of integrity. She is regularly disgusted by her stepmother and stepsister's intrigues, describing it as "hunting royalty like game" and calling it disgusting. Even the deceptions she perpetuated in the movie rankled at her conscience, and she tried repeatedly to tell Henry the truth about who she was, at least until he poured so much love onto her that she couldn't find it in her. Even so, though, her inability to tell the truth ate at her, because of the high value she places on honesty. If she has to lie, she'll do so unhappily, and only to a point. It's one of the things that she is loath to compromise on- from passion to stubbornness to honesty, she has a somewhat intractible nature at times. It can work to her benefit and give her strength, such as the strength she found when in Pierre le Pieu's clutches. That integrity, stubbornness, and firmness of will gave her the strength she needed to fight back, rather than lie down and accept a blow to her dignity.
However, her spirit isn't completely indomitable. Nobody's is, and Danielle is no exception. She's only human, and she can be beaten down with enough rejection, enough ill treatment, and enough defeats. In particular, she can be hurt badly by hitting her in her weak spots. These weak spots happen to include her desperation for love and her parents.
The thirst for love is a strong one- she knew it for eight years of her life, then was starved of any form of family affection for ten years, pushed from her old room and into the demeaning life of a servant. The only mother she ever knew was the arbiter of this cruelty, frequently raising her voice, insulting her, whipping her when she "deserved" it, and allowing her monstrously mean-spirited daughter to constantly abuse Danielle at every opportunity. What's more, Rodmilla played on her stepdaughter's vulnerability by dressing up the servitude as simply "asking her to help around the house without complaint", in exchange for the monumental sacrifice of feeding and clothing the daughter of the man whose wealth she lived off of. Danielle consequently suffered from a desire to please, even once professing that she would sit by herself at times, wracking her brain for a way to satisfy her loveless stepmother. There was once a time when Danielle would have done anything to attain the woman's approval, even when in other company she mocked Rodmilla's actions. Even then, when she shared her friends' disdain for her stepmother's mismanagement of the estate, Danielle still thirsted desperately for some scrap of motherly love that she endlessly and desperately needed.
It isn't just about motherly love, either. When Henry's love was taken from her in the movie, her shoulders slumped just a little in every scene after that, until she saw him again. Being faced with his love for her was powerful enough to eradicate her resolve to tell him the truth; so potent was the effect of love on her. And beyond romantic love, there is the memory of her parents- the most potent source of real love in her life, however past. One insult to her dead mother was enough to make Danielle physically violent with her noble stepsister, sending her into a rage that had her chasing Marguerite around the manor and screaming threats at her. Losing her father's beloved book into the fire (helped, no doubt, by the cruel whipping she received after) very nearly broke her spirit, at least temporarily, causing her to give up hope and decide to break off her dalliance with Henry. It wasn't necessarily the physical pain that did it- she started sobbing long before the whip was brought out. It was the book, that tie with her father (the only person in her life up to then who well and truly, constantly, loved her) being severed- that kind of loss, the severance of a love once held dear, is something Danielle has a very hard time bouncing back from.
Honestly, all these society-bucking and deeply internal traits aren't the first thing most people in Danielle's universe see. In the day to day of her existence, what gets pushed to the surface is a head-bowed, socially-appropriate servant, who has learned over the years that her eyes should point to the floor when faced with her betters, and that her betters are plentiful and all around her. To this day, even after her liberating and sometimes traumatic experience with Prince Henry, she still has a hard time not inclining her head slightly when someone of noble blood is in the room. It's been ingrained through years of socialization and hard lessons from her stepmother and stepsisters' treatment. Servants are lesser, firmly beneath the nobility in every way. Though Danielle has a self-possession and firmness of will that some might characterize as uncommon for a servant girl her age, her class-borne self-esteem will rear its ugly head when someone pokes at it, or when a situation seems to call for it. If someone treats her less for being common, some tiny little part of her, however small, wonders if she should believe them, or will at least tell her to moderate her behavior based on it. She mustn't initially admit feelings for the prince, because what common girl should ever have such a dream? She mustn't even try to go to the ball tonight, because how could she ever have a chance? In some regards, she sees the divides that exist in her world as real, tangible things- a bird may love a fish, she says sadly to Leonardo, but where would they live?
All this sadness, this class humility, and her aforementioned thirst for love add up to a single, sad picture: that of a little girl hiding inside her heart, surrounded by a shell but still very much vulnerable to predation. If preyed upon the right way, Danielle will show her very young age. Rodmilla may have had a strong influence on her, but it's hardly a unique thing- Danielle may be similarly vulnerable to any parental or maternal figures, if they are near and dear enough to her.
That vulnerability applies to everyone she loves, not just authority figures or those seeking to manipulate. Danielle is fundamentally a creature of the heart. If you well and truly take ahold of her heart, then you have a powerful influence over her soul and her being- and that is not something taken lightly. She may like or love, but she was bouncing back from losing Henry at one point in the movie, and she could do it again. What she never bounced back from was losing her father- that is the kind of love that makes her vulnerable. It would have to be more than a crush- although that stripped away her defenses too, changing her behavior entirely. If a simple crush can affect her like that, then a real love, a deep love, gives the person with her love immense power over her and the chance to experience the depth and warmth of her heart.
However, all is not bleak! The majority of the movie has Danielle facing life with her back straight and head held high, with some goal or destination kept brightly in her mind. For in her heart of hearts, Danielle is a little girl inside a firecracker- inside a gentle lady who still believes in happily ever after. Whether that comes from fairy-tale marriage or reforming a small country farm, she keeps the faith.
Powers/Special Abilities: None! She can read rly well and is decent with a sword, but that's about it.
Inventory: A selection of clothes both rich and plain, including some men's clothes, both noble and plain. The clothes includes a fine white gown, a pair of costume wings, and a pair of jeweled glass slippers. She has a trunk filled with books and some trinkets from her mother, as well as a larger selection of valuables, including candlesticks, paintings from her father, some smallish valuable tapestries, jewelry, and silver. It all fits into four quite large, densely-packed trunks, and a chest she plans to use for the things closest to her.
Greatest Fear: To grow old while still a downtrodden servant, never escaping her situation or knowing any measure of peace, and being cut off from all ties to her dead parents. Danielle has generally dealt with her lot in life well, coming up generally good-natured and not complaining too bitterly about how she is treated. However, her sharp demeanor hides some well-repressed anger, and her independence and some things she says (about her stepmother leaving to go to court) hint that she wants nothing more than to get out from under her Rodmilla's cruel thumb.
She also desperately wants love. The way she thinks about true love and the little-girl desperation in her eyes in some scenes with Rodmilla, her stepmom, show how badly she wants to love and be loved in return. The thought of spending a life with neither independence nor love, that her current terrible situation represents the entirety of her future with no hope for improvement, scares the living shit out of her. She doesn't want to end up like some old peasants she's met: pained, tired, with broken spirits. Having her strength, independence, and mind taken from her (through abuse, degradation, deprivation, what-have-you) and reduced to something unrecognizable from the girl her father raised represents her worst fear. And in the world she lives in, where social status is literally everything in a person's life, that is a depressingly likely fate.
How is your character appropriate for this game? She is an adult who has her own demons, while not necessarily confronting them on a regular basis. The story is a tale of her escaping a horrible situation, laden with the insecurity and attachment issues brought about by being orphaned and seeking the love of her abusive, hideous stepmother. She's depicted facing abuse, having her spirit nearly broken, sobbing and shaking from fear of losing ties to her parents, and being sold to a man who clearly wanted to break her spirit and rape her. IMO she's perfect for a game with darker themes.
Rooming request section Hoover Hall! Floor 4, if you don't mind. <3
Year/Position: High school junior. She's an excellent reader and has read about philosophy and history on her own, and she's fluent at French (and could probably tutor!), but she'll need remedial math and science.
AU Specific Section
AU history:
Though she had heard some whisperings and rumors about it before, the first time Danielle encountered the Mist was 3 years before the events that led her to Disney Academy. It swept through town for more than a week, increasing sharply in density until everyone was trapped in its horror, unable to escape or do anything to shake off their own demons. People vanished, people went insane, people died. Danielle always remembered the spectre of her mother reaching through the Mist calling to her in a soft, broken voice that drove a chill down her spine. Come with me, that demon begged softly, stay. She wakes up at night years later remembering her father, how he reached out to her and her stepmother both in the darkness. The thing that resembled her father grew fangs and tried to kill her stepmother, and the resulting scene (that was more dream than reality) still gives her nightmares. The rest of the week was awful, with people turning violent on each other. Everyone was severely out of their mind that week.
It was horrific and terrifying, leaving paranoia and fear in its wake for years. The density and intensity of that first experience left everyone who survived it deeply frightened of it ever coming back.
Unfortunately, it did, and at a terrible time: over a month after the Masked Ball that went so terribly wrong for Danielle, the day of Prince Henry's wedding, when she was already deep in slavery to Pierre le Pieu. The morning of the Prince's wedding, she awoke in her cell to find a piece of parchment inviting her to Disney Academy. The invitation made her heart lift for a moment, her mind taking flight with fantasies of going to this fabled place she had heard of, a place of learning and wisdom, one of safety. The very idea of making a life for herself away from this place was attractive. She tucked the paper away in her dress, keeping it close to her heart.
The Mist rolled in that day, at a much lighter density than the first time, but still strong enough to heighten her distress and despair at her captivity. Her head filled with anxieties she was accustomed to repressing, such as terror about the prospect of being property for the rest of her life. It was inevitable, she began to fear, and as the Mist settled heavy around her heavy heart she began to see shadows on the wall with claws and lips smacking around rotting teeth and she began to feel hands on her sliding slimy under her dress. It was inevitable, she thought, there was no escaping it, Monsieur le Pieu would break her down into a spineless, spiritless creature for his own savage use and all remnants of the girl from her parents would be gone forever.
Her heart sank with terror, heart beating faster, nerves on edge. She could hear Henry's voice in her head, cruelly jeering at her with Rodmilla and Marguerite's words, calling her Cinderella and gutter-rat and lying cockroach. Every jangle of the shackles about her ankles seemed to cut her and grow into her flesh as a permanent part of her body, symbolic of the captivity that would surely become a part of her.
Then Pierre began to speak. Stupid words about horses and breaking her spirit, and her eyes widened, agitated already. Pierre himself was dealing with his own issues from the Mist; every word from Danielle seemed to hit his ears as mockery and emasculation. She could see it happening, see hate and contempt glowing in his eyes, with that same chill of insult and disgust that men tended to have for women who dared to raise their chins rather than bow their heads.
When he put his hands on her, impatient and lustful, she smacked him away with harsh words, incensed by the Mist's influence. His pride and chauvinism inflamed to hateful rage, he attacked her viciously, hitting her around the head with a candlestick and attempting to sexually assault her. Danielle defended herself viciously, made more aggressive by distress from the Mist, and dug a knife into him before stealing back the keys to her shackles and shoving him, still living, into a Strangeling.
She then proceeded to steal as much of Pierre's money as she could without getting caught, taking advantage of the servants' distraction and distress. With her ultimate goal of Disney in mind, she knew she'd need gold for the journey ahead. As for her normally uncharacteristic violent and criminal behavior, well- she was terrified of what was happening at home, convinced it would turn into a bloody pandemonium as it had 3 years prior. Everything else was secondary. Her panic was such that she stole a horse without fear of reprisal in her drive to get home.
As for Prince Henry, he never made it to Le Pieu's manor that day to rescue her. In fact, he never made it to Danielle's former home, either. The Mist descended on him during the wedding ceremony, preventing him from ever learning that Danielle had been sold. Thus, the beautiful reconciliation scene from the movie never happened.
Meanwhile, the first day of the Mist, Danielle arrived home to find her stepmother and stepsisters there as well. They had made for home the instant the Mist descended, fearful of chaos happening without Rodmilla's watchful eye. Danielle helped them and everyone else hold down the fort for the next several days, still believing the Prince to be married and hating her. During that terrible week, her stepmother and stepsisters went missing. The next day, Danielle saw Jacqueline running towards her, waving her arms and calling out to her for help- "Danielle!" she cried, "Danielle! Help! Help, please, it's awful!" Danielle, of course, ran to her - praying that she could hope to save at least one member of her family - when she saw the dark tendrils of a Strangeling take hold of her and drag Jacqueline screaming into the Mist.
Danielle fell to her knees in horror, screaming at the death of the only family member who had loved her since her father died. It was something she'd feared for a long time: how life would change for her in small ways if her sister vanished, whether life at the manor would sour if somehow Jacqueline married first, and now- now, she saw it happening. In truth, she never touched her sister, and so never knew for certain whether the sister she saw was a hallucination, but Danielle believed it ardently, for she didn't know that the Mist could produce illusions that vivid. It was horrifying, and after that she was alone.
The next day, while the Mist was still strong, a vision of Prince Henry showed up at their manor and entreated Danielle to come with him. Tormented as she had been by visions of abandonment and rejection, she wouldn't listen. The angry clutches of the Mist were still upon her (and possibly him, if he were real at all), and emotions ran high, nerves were frazzled, and and all perceptions distorted. She saw things that weren't there and he reacted strangely at times, as if his eyes deceived him as well, which only aggravated Danielle's artificially frazzled nerves. She heard things from the other's mouth that were never spoken and sometimes she would have sworn he did the same. The experience of him behaving as erratically as she was, and not being sure whether to trust her eyes and ears and whether he was real, made the entire experience incredibly surreal, and the brief visit degenerated into a terrible argument. She screamed at him to leave, just as he had at the ball, and never come back, to which he replied angrily that he would, as he'd rather not compromise his dignity by marrying a lying, deceitful servant. Henry rode off into the shadows, leaving a tearful Danielle to wonder if he was ever really there at all, or if the Mist dreamed the encounter up to torment her. It was so vivid that she wound up believing in it implicitly, as the Henry she saw had sounded exactly as she imagined he would sound.
Soon the Mist receded and she waited, hoping (or fearing) that her family would return from wherever they had gone- hoping they hadn't been lost to the Mist. When they didn't come back, she decided they were lost, and convinced some able-bodied servants to come with her, including her childhood friend Gustave. With her stepmother and stepsisters gone, Danielle relieved the manor of many valuables and every belonging of her dead parents that she could carry. They filled two enormous trunks with books, clothing from both her stepsisters, her own clothing, and some male clothing in case she needed to travel safely. They took candlesticks, paintings from her father, a few smaller valuable tapestries, jewelry, and silver- all things that her stepmother had sold in secret to Pierre. That she felt no qualm about. While it was wrong for Rodmilla to sell them to a horrible old lech, Danielle needed money to get to Disney Academy, where she would become part of the world's only effort to banish the Mist. It was for the greater good. And besides, she didn't take nearly as much as Rodmilla had sold. There was ample left for the servants to sell and live on or for the de Ghents to sell, if the Mist saw fit to return them.
She didn't think it likely. Those things belonged to her now, and to the servants who labored for that house, and that is how they saw fit to use them. Her friends were happy to give her what she needed for a new life, including a horse and carriage.
Armed with gold, valuables, and her belongings both cherished and necessary, she and five other servants set off. As Danielle wished to avoid all possibility of meeting Prince Henry on her travels, who she believed could never love her, they went a roundabout way, making immediately for Scotland, where they spent some time. Once they bought passage onto a ship that could take them south of France they were off, sailing to the mainland and winding up on the shores/outskirts of Halloween Town. From there, she and the servants (friends, really) remaining went to Radiant Gardens, from whence they found their way to the sky port station that could take Danielle to Disney Academy.
That is when she said goodbye to her old friends, who she sincerely hopes to see again, when the Mist has been dealt with. Danielle wanted to bring Gustave and the others with her, but learned that one doesn't get in without an invitation. Her childhood friend reassured her that all would be well, reminding her that he had work waiting for a household in Radiant Gardens, and that she shouldn't fret too much about him.
Reassured, she got into the sky.... thing and went to her new home.
How has it affected them? Danielle's experiences with the Mist have unsettled her to the core, as it did to so many others. Most people go long stretches of their lives without forcefully encountering their greatest fears and innermost demons, and can therefore distance themselves from their own emotional baggage; Danielle was given no such luxury. Having seen hallucinations of her dead parents, she emerged more anxious and thirsty for love. Having had rejection and abuse hurled at her in Mist-driven altercations, she worries that much more about the road that lies ahead.
Having to encounter her deep fears ingrained by her station in life made her act on them, and acting on fears tends to worsen them. Everything about her is just a little bit edgier than in original canon; while she has far from lost the gentility, kindness, and generosity that characterize her, the fiercer sides of her personality - the fire, the defensiveness, the sharp tongue - come with slightly sharper edges now.
Additionally, the loss of Henry that the Mist brought about has affected her deeply. Danielle is only 18, and at that young age had never felt anything like that love before- so to lose it, and in such a spectacular fashion as the failed Masque and that horrible fight in the Mist, has devastated her. Her shoulders are heavier now, her eyes a little less bright now that life has shown her yet another dark side of possibility. Just as regular encounters with Pierre le Pieu taught her caution around old men, her encounter with Henry has taught her caution around young men. It's not likely to make her afraid of love at all, simply careful about giving her heart away so freely to someone she could have misgivings about. After all, she initially thought Henry to be arrogant- a large part of her is convinced that she was right, and wondering if she ought to listen to her first instinct next time, rather than the fantasies of her heart.
Still, despite these losses and triggers, experiencing so much pain has made her determined, and taking back her life by force has strengthened her will and resolve. Nobody rescued her, nobody helped her out of le Pieu's castle, and it was her resolve and courage that got them all out of the manor and into the wide world. Losing her family both freed her from their oppressive shadow and - especially in Jacqueline's case - filled her with a singular, driving purpose that was always missing from her life: to go to Disney and be part of the solution.
Truth be told, part of that determination is fueled somewhat by guilt over Monsieur le Pieu. Not about stealing from him, no, even though open theft of gold and horses is a severe moral compromise she wouldn't have been willing to make in canon. The guilt is over his death. He was a monster and he may have deserved to die, but she's quite certain he didn't deserve to be thrown into the arms of a Strangeling. Danielle refuses to accept and dismiss the fact that she was willing to do that. Additionally, the memory of how frightened she was still haunts her. Danielle prides herself on keeping her composure and dignity even in the face of terror or situations far beyond her depth; that any force can make her take leave of her senses so thoroughly and lash out like an animal scares her more than she's willing to admit. Between her shame about le Pieu and trepidation about what the Mist brings out in her, Danielle is anxious to redeem herself in her own eyes, in the eyes of God, and to help figure out a way to drive this noxious influence from the world once and for all.
Writing
First Person Sample
028 | video;
[Danielle comes into view with her characteristic lack of technological grace, fixing the communicator in place distractedly. She seems to be struggling with a great many emotions- a battle between a great and righteous anger, the desire to smack someone upside the head, and a MIGHTY NEED to laugh. Her mouth twists in an obvious need to smile.]
Whoever replaced all of my furniture with terrified fainting goats-
[She bursts out laughing at that sentence before getting control of herself mostly.]
-I will whip you. Those poor creatures are scared out of their minds. I opened the door and four of them swooned into my bedclothes.
[She shakes her head, choking back more laughter for a moment before giving in and letting her giggles dissolve into a good, satisfying belly laugh. It's nice, to laugh like this amidst all the stress of exams, relationship foibles, and the ever-looming shadow of Mist. Whoever pulled this prank will get what's coming, but they'll also get her love.]
You know, I had hoped to give an announcement about the Philosophy Club's library luncheon next Tuesday, but I'm afraid in light of this I cannot find my focus.
[She holds up a finger at the camera, lips twisting, then points to a place off-camera.]
They are devouring every single scrap of fabric they can get their teeth into. If this has anything to do with Flynn Rider, he can assure himself as to the severity of my revenge. Or perhaps it was Simba- I did see those teeth marks on the doorknob.
[Shaking her head.] This is absurd. I shall make a proper announcement tomorrow. Until then, I beg someone with magic help me restore my room, and someone with a strong back help me with these beasts. I fear they may ruin my carpet and curtains before nightfall.
Good day.
[Click.]
Third Person Sample
Danielle simply stared after the enormous mouse capering away from them with red underclothes and confusing white gloves. The mouse that was to be her Lord- her principle, to be specific. The mouse.
She was having some trouble not immediately calling for a giant cat.
Danielle had known at the beginning that this would be a brand new experience for her, full of wonders she had never even imagined, but nothing had prepared her for the level of newness this place already had to offer. From strange clothing to enormous vermin overlords, Disney Academy was already giving her plenty to scratch her head over.
Not the least of which was a low current of stress regarding her status. Many of the students around her looked noble, richly-dressed enough to be courtiers or even royalty. She saw a few crowns gleaming on select heads. Some part of her believed that if she dropped the necessary facade of Countess that she had assumed on the journey here, that someone would come and take all this away from her. Sure, some of the people around her were dressed more plainly, but surely this place wasn't for a simple commoner. If she was honest, someone would snatch away this chance to, as the mouse so succinctly said, save the world.
All this luxury, this promise of belonging- gone before she had the chance to taste it. No.
For a few long seconds Danielle let the fear take hold of her. She took deep, uncertain breaths, expression knitting in unhappiness, reminding herself to just breathe. Until a count of ten, and then she swallowed hard, raised her head up, and straightened her shoulders, pulling the guise of nobility around her like armor. Nobody could look down on her here, and hopefully- nobody would try.
It was time to make some friends.