Application
Player nickname: Angel
Player LJ: withheld
Way to contact you:
Email: withheld
AIM: withheld
Other: ---
Are you at least 15?: 18 years old :)
Current Characters: Bella, Anita, Katniss, Mal
Character: Candy Quackenbush
Fandom: Abarat
Character Notes:
History:
There are just some towns with in the United States that provide nothing of interest to the world whatsoever. Even the town of Chickentown, Minnesota, with its high population of chickens that almost certainly outnumbers the population of humans has little to contribute. It’s only mark of fame found in any encyclopedia is that ‘There’s a chicken factory’. And just as the name might suggest, chickens were their main and only export.
With a town with so much going for them, it still seemed that life could be quite dull and flavorless. Yet more extraordinary things have occurred within Chickentown that are both unrecorded and unremembered.
Chickentown used to have a harbor. A fact forgotten over years of disuse and pain. But what exactly did a harbor in the middle of Minnesota connect to? The answer is really quite simple to, the same thing that all harbors of the world connect to. A body of water, and more specifically a sea in the case of Chickentown.
Once upon a time Chickentown had been a place of trade between two worlds. The Hereafter (our world) and the Abarat. The Sea of Izabella connected these two worlds and created a bustling economy filled with trade between the two worlds of spices and tactile from the Hereafter and artifacts, and in some illegal cases, even the secrets of the magic of Abarat. Both worlds were fascinated by each other. But one world was suffering for the connection. Abarat’s society was deeply changed by the selfish greed of the Hereafter world that affected its people and turned them inside out. And the Hereafter was forever changed by the culture and magic of Abarat. Neither world could be a part of the other without some influence over the other. And thus it was decided that they should severe the ties between the worlds.
Years have come and gone since the burning of the harbor and the Abarat has been wiped clean of the memories of the humans. Life in Chickentown went on and progressed into the chicken-crazed culture of the present day town.
But sixteen years ago something happened in the Abarat. Something that would affect the Hereafter too as the soul of the dead Princess Boa was brought across the sea and implanted in a delivering mother’s womb on a rainy night at the edge of the highway. The mother had been on her way to the hospital when they had run out of gas and her husband had gone in search of a gas station. And it was there that three women visited her and opened a box of light before they disappeared again.
On that night Candy Quackenbush was born.
Melissa Quackenbush barely remembered the event or the strangeness surrounding it. Like how the weather was particularly bad that day, or why the air seemed to smell of the sea. She even forgot about the women and the light. And thus Candy never really knew of the strange circumstances of her birth. And thus, life progressed as it would normally.
Melissa had two more children, Candy’s younger brothers, and Bill lost his job at the chicken factory. Bill’s loss of a job affected him greatly and transformed him from the once handsome and friendly man into the bitter and cruel drunk Candy had come to know and fear. For sixteen years Candy grew up in this horrible setting of a life. In a town that stifled the oddities out of it, with a father who would abuse her both physically and verbally, and with a mother who had once been so full of life only to have it drained from her weary eyes.
Candy felt suppressed and lost in this world. Always drifting through her life and searching for meaning that never seemed to come.
She never realized that an assignment about Chickentown assigned by the chicken-proud Miss Schwartz would forever change her life and introduce her to a world beyond her imagination.
Personality:
Some of the most amazing qualities of Candy Quackenbush are never seen in the stifling society of Chickentown. The version of Candy living in this world is a highly muted and toned down version of who she really is. But even she doesn’t seem to realize this. She knows things feel off in Chickentown, and that she’s never really felt in. But she could have never guessed that that was because destiny had other plans for her that would forever change her life in ways no one could possibly predict.
The Candy of Chickentown is a curious young woman searching for something to enhance the dulled tones of the life she’s been forced to live. She has what her mother calls a ‘morbid curiosity’ but in reality Candy is just desperate for anything to make her life that little bit more interesting. Even in a town that stifles creativity Candy can’t suppress her want and desire of something more beyond chickens.
Because of this desire and her inability to really hide it well Candy has been the butt of every joke in school for as long as she could remember. Not to mention that her father has made her cry more times than she can possibly count with his own cruelties. Candy’s developed a bit of a thick-skin for this sort of thing now and accepted that she will never fit into place in this society and will forever be the odd one out in Chickentown. A sad life she has resigned herself to, but one she’s been forced into.
But there are sides of Candy yet to even be revealed.
Like her intense bravery and courageousness. When faced with the unknown of the Abarat for the first time her encounter is with a thief and a man out for this thief’s blood. Their appearance alone would frighten away the weak-hearted. But not Candy. Candy is instead intrigued and entranced by all this, and when asked to risk her life to climb the old, decaying lighthouse she does it. Even with a murderer on her heels. She summons a bravery she never knew existed within her soul but somehow felt all too familiar in place.
In the Abarat Candy’s curiosity is all but out of place. Her genuine intrigue and kindness and just that light within her that was suppressed in Chickentown seem to be a beacon leading all kinds of life to her in the Abarat. As Mischief once states, she’s the kind of girl that once in your life, you’ll never not be a part of hers.
There’s also a ferocity to her that she never dreamed possible. When staying with a woman in the Abarat and left alone with her children, a strange bug flies in and spies on the girl, and very blatantly. Thinking the thing to be alive she tries to shoo it out. But as she looks closer at it and realizes its not real there’s a change in her eyes that’s hard to miss. An anger and ferocity that were unheard of before as she attempts to destroy the thing, the poor thing barely escaping with its metallic life.
Candy is far from ordinary. She’s something extraordinary unto herself and it’s hard not to be a part of her life and not realize there’s something special about the strange girl from Chickentown who oddly fits right at home in another world.
Other:
- Taking her pre-canon, before the strangeness really kicks in.
Additional Links:
A Short Wiki.
First Person (entry type):
[There’s a girl, walking into her room. Looking a little tired and angry as she tosses her bookbag on the bed as male’s voice screams at her back. Something about being late or something else. But as soon as he stops she shuts the door. She’d prefer to slam it, but she doesn’t need to bring that fury on.
She finally collapses on her bed in front of the laptop when she notices…. There’s a laptop. Open and running on her desk. She gets up and approaches it now, eyeing it suspiciously as she bends down to stare into the camera. It’s really hard to miss from this angle that she has one vibrant blue eye and one dark brown eye.]
Hey mom. Where’d the laptop come from?
What laptop?
… Never mind. My mistake.
[There’s that male voice again, shouting something about her being stupid or an idiot or something insulting. She just rolls her eyes as she pulls the chair out and sits down at the desk.]
So… this light is on…. Does that mean the camera is on somewhere?
[She clicks around now, trying to solve the mystery of the camera…] Oh there you are… Wait a second. No I didn’t ask you to post this. Why are you tryin-
Third Person:
Chickentown, Minnesota. You know how when people are talking about ‘the middle of nowhere’? Even they aren’t picturing a place as dull and dimmed as Chickentown, Minnesota. A town who’s only claim to fame is… chickens. The chicken factory that nearly every person in town works at. So much to the point that no matter what happens in one person’s life, the whole town knows it by the end of the day once it’s been whispered in the chicken factory.
This was Candy’s life, too.
There was even a school that didn’t cater to the intellectual or the creatively-inclined but rather forced the lifelessness of the town down its students’ throats in hopes that that might intrigue them enough not to pack up their things and never return. The sad thing was the frequency that it actually worked. The town didn’t have a huge population, but the population it did have was comprised entirely of natives who had yet to even attempt to leave. Candy’s class was full of chicken-pride, and she was certain this was the town’s key to success.
While the town seemed to thrive on chickens, Candy’s misery only stemmed from them. The initial torture was in the school that crammed chicken-pride down her throat. Classmates who found her odd and off-putting just for not having certain level of pride for a town that was barely on the map in the first place. Her day was full of Deborahs and their hatred for her and desires to make her life miserable. And Miss Schartzes filled with so much love for chickens that there seemed to be no room for any dissent within their walls.
Yet surprisingly, this slow hell wasn’t the worst part of Candy’s day. The worst part of her day was the walk back to her home from school. The moment of calm before the brewing storm that was her father’s anger at the world, more often than not being directed at Candy herself. She almost felt like a lightning rod for trouble at this point. Her life was made miserable by drawing the hatred of her classmates and teachers at school, and made even worse by being the usual target for her father’s drunken rages.
It made these walks seem like the highlight of her day… hell even her entire life.
These walks were here brief moments of freedom from the stifling hell that was Chickentown. On these walks there was no taunting from classmates, no rage from fathers, no chicken-pride being crammed down her throat. It was just her. For a brief moment in time it was just… her.
That was why Candy drew out these walks. Why she let any little thing distract her from reaching her destination at a reasonable time. And today’s distraction was… well there was nothing to really describe or explain it. Every day Candy walked past the same houses, the same streets, the same fields that made up the town. But nothing was less noteworthy than the expanse of land past the town. Every day candy walked right past it, knowing that it held nothing of interest to her. And every day it continued to be…. Itself.
Yet today, as Candy trudged back to her home with the taunts of Deborah heavy on her mind, she felt a slight breeze that almost tugged her toward the field. And today…. She stopped. She stopped and looked out at the prairies beyond the town as the breeze died down. There was nothing there. Nothing to see. But for some reason… She felt almost drawn to that spot.
With a shake of her head Candy dismissed the thought and continued her walk back home where her father’s screams greeted her as she headed straight up to her room.
Player LJ: withheld
Way to contact you:
Email: withheld
AIM: withheld
Other: ---
Are you at least 15?: 18 years old :)
Current Characters: Bella, Anita, Katniss, Mal
Character: Candy Quackenbush
Fandom: Abarat
Character Notes:
History:
There are just some towns with in the United States that provide nothing of interest to the world whatsoever. Even the town of Chickentown, Minnesota, with its high population of chickens that almost certainly outnumbers the population of humans has little to contribute. It’s only mark of fame found in any encyclopedia is that ‘There’s a chicken factory’. And just as the name might suggest, chickens were their main and only export.
With a town with so much going for them, it still seemed that life could be quite dull and flavorless. Yet more extraordinary things have occurred within Chickentown that are both unrecorded and unremembered.
Chickentown used to have a harbor. A fact forgotten over years of disuse and pain. But what exactly did a harbor in the middle of Minnesota connect to? The answer is really quite simple to, the same thing that all harbors of the world connect to. A body of water, and more specifically a sea in the case of Chickentown.
Once upon a time Chickentown had been a place of trade between two worlds. The Hereafter (our world) and the Abarat. The Sea of Izabella connected these two worlds and created a bustling economy filled with trade between the two worlds of spices and tactile from the Hereafter and artifacts, and in some illegal cases, even the secrets of the magic of Abarat. Both worlds were fascinated by each other. But one world was suffering for the connection. Abarat’s society was deeply changed by the selfish greed of the Hereafter world that affected its people and turned them inside out. And the Hereafter was forever changed by the culture and magic of Abarat. Neither world could be a part of the other without some influence over the other. And thus it was decided that they should severe the ties between the worlds.
Years have come and gone since the burning of the harbor and the Abarat has been wiped clean of the memories of the humans. Life in Chickentown went on and progressed into the chicken-crazed culture of the present day town.
But sixteen years ago something happened in the Abarat. Something that would affect the Hereafter too as the soul of the dead Princess Boa was brought across the sea and implanted in a delivering mother’s womb on a rainy night at the edge of the highway. The mother had been on her way to the hospital when they had run out of gas and her husband had gone in search of a gas station. And it was there that three women visited her and opened a box of light before they disappeared again.
On that night Candy Quackenbush was born.
Melissa Quackenbush barely remembered the event or the strangeness surrounding it. Like how the weather was particularly bad that day, or why the air seemed to smell of the sea. She even forgot about the women and the light. And thus Candy never really knew of the strange circumstances of her birth. And thus, life progressed as it would normally.
Melissa had two more children, Candy’s younger brothers, and Bill lost his job at the chicken factory. Bill’s loss of a job affected him greatly and transformed him from the once handsome and friendly man into the bitter and cruel drunk Candy had come to know and fear. For sixteen years Candy grew up in this horrible setting of a life. In a town that stifled the oddities out of it, with a father who would abuse her both physically and verbally, and with a mother who had once been so full of life only to have it drained from her weary eyes.
Candy felt suppressed and lost in this world. Always drifting through her life and searching for meaning that never seemed to come.
She never realized that an assignment about Chickentown assigned by the chicken-proud Miss Schwartz would forever change her life and introduce her to a world beyond her imagination.
Personality:
Some of the most amazing qualities of Candy Quackenbush are never seen in the stifling society of Chickentown. The version of Candy living in this world is a highly muted and toned down version of who she really is. But even she doesn’t seem to realize this. She knows things feel off in Chickentown, and that she’s never really felt in. But she could have never guessed that that was because destiny had other plans for her that would forever change her life in ways no one could possibly predict.
The Candy of Chickentown is a curious young woman searching for something to enhance the dulled tones of the life she’s been forced to live. She has what her mother calls a ‘morbid curiosity’ but in reality Candy is just desperate for anything to make her life that little bit more interesting. Even in a town that stifles creativity Candy can’t suppress her want and desire of something more beyond chickens.
Because of this desire and her inability to really hide it well Candy has been the butt of every joke in school for as long as she could remember. Not to mention that her father has made her cry more times than she can possibly count with his own cruelties. Candy’s developed a bit of a thick-skin for this sort of thing now and accepted that she will never fit into place in this society and will forever be the odd one out in Chickentown. A sad life she has resigned herself to, but one she’s been forced into.
But there are sides of Candy yet to even be revealed.
Like her intense bravery and courageousness. When faced with the unknown of the Abarat for the first time her encounter is with a thief and a man out for this thief’s blood. Their appearance alone would frighten away the weak-hearted. But not Candy. Candy is instead intrigued and entranced by all this, and when asked to risk her life to climb the old, decaying lighthouse she does it. Even with a murderer on her heels. She summons a bravery she never knew existed within her soul but somehow felt all too familiar in place.
In the Abarat Candy’s curiosity is all but out of place. Her genuine intrigue and kindness and just that light within her that was suppressed in Chickentown seem to be a beacon leading all kinds of life to her in the Abarat. As Mischief once states, she’s the kind of girl that once in your life, you’ll never not be a part of hers.
There’s also a ferocity to her that she never dreamed possible. When staying with a woman in the Abarat and left alone with her children, a strange bug flies in and spies on the girl, and very blatantly. Thinking the thing to be alive she tries to shoo it out. But as she looks closer at it and realizes its not real there’s a change in her eyes that’s hard to miss. An anger and ferocity that were unheard of before as she attempts to destroy the thing, the poor thing barely escaping with its metallic life.
Candy is far from ordinary. She’s something extraordinary unto herself and it’s hard not to be a part of her life and not realize there’s something special about the strange girl from Chickentown who oddly fits right at home in another world.
Other:
- Taking her pre-canon, before the strangeness really kicks in.
Additional Links:
A Short Wiki.
First Person (entry type):
[There’s a girl, walking into her room. Looking a little tired and angry as she tosses her bookbag on the bed as male’s voice screams at her back. Something about being late or something else. But as soon as he stops she shuts the door. She’d prefer to slam it, but she doesn’t need to bring that fury on.
She finally collapses on her bed in front of the laptop when she notices…. There’s a laptop. Open and running on her desk. She gets up and approaches it now, eyeing it suspiciously as she bends down to stare into the camera. It’s really hard to miss from this angle that she has one vibrant blue eye and one dark brown eye.]
Hey mom. Where’d the laptop come from?
What laptop?
… Never mind. My mistake.
[There’s that male voice again, shouting something about her being stupid or an idiot or something insulting. She just rolls her eyes as she pulls the chair out and sits down at the desk.]
So… this light is on…. Does that mean the camera is on somewhere?
[She clicks around now, trying to solve the mystery of the camera…] Oh there you are… Wait a second. No I didn’t ask you to post this. Why are you tryin-
Third Person:
Chickentown, Minnesota. You know how when people are talking about ‘the middle of nowhere’? Even they aren’t picturing a place as dull and dimmed as Chickentown, Minnesota. A town who’s only claim to fame is… chickens. The chicken factory that nearly every person in town works at. So much to the point that no matter what happens in one person’s life, the whole town knows it by the end of the day once it’s been whispered in the chicken factory.
This was Candy’s life, too.
There was even a school that didn’t cater to the intellectual or the creatively-inclined but rather forced the lifelessness of the town down its students’ throats in hopes that that might intrigue them enough not to pack up their things and never return. The sad thing was the frequency that it actually worked. The town didn’t have a huge population, but the population it did have was comprised entirely of natives who had yet to even attempt to leave. Candy’s class was full of chicken-pride, and she was certain this was the town’s key to success.
While the town seemed to thrive on chickens, Candy’s misery only stemmed from them. The initial torture was in the school that crammed chicken-pride down her throat. Classmates who found her odd and off-putting just for not having certain level of pride for a town that was barely on the map in the first place. Her day was full of Deborahs and their hatred for her and desires to make her life miserable. And Miss Schartzes filled with so much love for chickens that there seemed to be no room for any dissent within their walls.
Yet surprisingly, this slow hell wasn’t the worst part of Candy’s day. The worst part of her day was the walk back to her home from school. The moment of calm before the brewing storm that was her father’s anger at the world, more often than not being directed at Candy herself. She almost felt like a lightning rod for trouble at this point. Her life was made miserable by drawing the hatred of her classmates and teachers at school, and made even worse by being the usual target for her father’s drunken rages.
It made these walks seem like the highlight of her day… hell even her entire life.
These walks were here brief moments of freedom from the stifling hell that was Chickentown. On these walks there was no taunting from classmates, no rage from fathers, no chicken-pride being crammed down her throat. It was just her. For a brief moment in time it was just… her.
That was why Candy drew out these walks. Why she let any little thing distract her from reaching her destination at a reasonable time. And today’s distraction was… well there was nothing to really describe or explain it. Every day Candy walked past the same houses, the same streets, the same fields that made up the town. But nothing was less noteworthy than the expanse of land past the town. Every day candy walked right past it, knowing that it held nothing of interest to her. And every day it continued to be…. Itself.
Yet today, as Candy trudged back to her home with the taunts of Deborah heavy on her mind, she felt a slight breeze that almost tugged her toward the field. And today…. She stopped. She stopped and looked out at the prairies beyond the town as the breeze died down. There was nothing there. Nothing to see. But for some reason… She felt almost drawn to that spot.
With a shake of her head Candy dismissed the thought and continued her walk back home where her father’s screams greeted her as she headed straight up to her room.