( application )
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Noodles
AGE: 20+
JOURNAL: thanoodles
IM: -
E-MAIL: -
RETURNING: Returning (Joe Black).
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Nina Sayers.
FANDOM: Black Swan.
CHRONOLOGY: Post-death.
CLASS: Neutral. She's highly unlikely to be anything but a civilian. HOWEVER! She may take some villainesque actions (clarification in the power section), but in extremely rare and isolated occasions.
SUPERHERO NAME: Her tag will just read I'M THE SWAN QUEEN!!!, because the Grinbitch says so.
ALTER EGO: Nina Sayers, ex-severely delusional OCD ballerina.
♚
BACKGROUND:
▌ The movie begins with a dream sequence that features Nina as the Swan Queen, reenacting the scene she is placed under a spell by Von Rothbart, the main antagonist of Swan Lake. After her transformation into a swan, Nina wakes up.
We get an immediate idea of her household: Her room is mainly pink and white, decorated with girly and infantile objects and patterns. Nina has been living with her mother all of her life. Her father was never present while the mother pampered and controlled the girl, fully supporting her career as a ballerina.
Nina makes her way to the New York ballet company, where she has been dancing for the past four years. It's implied from the start she is one of its most dedicated dancers, with great admiration for its current star (Beth MacIntyre).
The new season begins. Lead choreographer Thomas Leroy announces that he is holding auditions to cast the protagonist of his new project: the Swan Lake. The part will require its dancer to play two completely opposite characters: the White and the Black Swan.
While Nina practices for the audition, she hears commotion coming from Beth MacIntyre's dressing room. Nina finds Beth throw things and cussing, then storming out of the theater without explanation or apology. Nina is won over by her curiosity, stepping into the dressing room to find Beth's lipstick. Nina sneaks it into her pocket and leaves discreetly.
The first part of Nina's audition is enough to impress Thomas, but she is distracted when a new addition to the company (Lily) simply barges into the room. Nina returns home, depressed and certain that she won't get the part. On her way to the subway, she thinks that she sees herself reflected on a stranger's face. She quickly brushes it off.
On the next day, she shows up at Thomas' office to ask him for the part. He explains to her why he is hesitant about giving it to her, then kisses her, mistaking her intentions. Startled, Nina bites him, immediately regretting her reaction with profuse apologies and an urgent exit. When role assignments are put up for everyone to see, Nina's belief that she would not get the main part are proven wrong. She goes into the ladies' room to call her mother and give her the good news, unable to contain her elation. As she's about to leave, she finds the word 'WHORE' written on the bathroom's mirror with lipstick.
When Nina returns home and checks in her mother's room, she realizes she's alone. Being an amateur artist, the mother has many paintings and drawings placed on her wall; most of them portraits of Nina. One of the portrait's eyes seem to move as Nina looks away. Again, she brushes it off.
Rehearsals for the choreography begin immediately. Thomas considers Nina's interpretation of Odette (the Swan Queen) very good, but is still doubtful about her ability to transform into the Black Swan, even if Nina has shown promise. After it's over, she sees Lily dancing with her colleagues and decides to observe. Thomas approaches her and points out that the newcomer's style is imprecise, but effortless -- she can be seductive, an ability that Nina has yet to acquire.
The party to announce the season's new company and star takes place. With the arrival of this new star, Thomas also announces Beth MacIntyre's upcoming retirement. Beth leaves the room abruptly, clearly disturbed.
Still at the party, Nina is in the ladies' room washing the blood from a bruise she spotted on her cuticle. Someone knocks at the door and sees Lily standing outside, apparently excited about finally getting the chance to introduce herself to Nina.
After the party, Nina is approached by a drunken Beth, accusing her of doing sexual favors to get the part. Thomas interrupts their exchange just in time and takes Nina back to his place for a drink. He places several questions during the conversation, several of them of a sexual nature, explaining that they need to be comfortable enough with each other to talk about it. In the end, he assigns her some 'homework', telling Nina to touch herself when she returns to her residence (yep).
Back home, Nina's mother finds the scratches on her daughter's back. Nina tries to reassure her that it's just a rash, but her mother says the pressure of her role is bringing back a nasty old habit of scratching her skin until it bleeds, dragging her to the bathroom to clip her nails.
The next scene shows Nina waking up in her bed, lying around for a while before slowly deciding to masturbate. It seems to be going pretty well (asbdoasbd) until Nina finds her mother sleeping at her bedside and immediately ceases, hiding under her sheets in shock and embarrassment. We get more and more signs that Creepy mother is Creepy.
Nina finds out during rehearsal that Beth was in a terrible accident and broke both legs. When Nina talks about it with Thomas, he admits that he's almost sure Beth did it on purpose, explaining that everything she does comes from within; from a dark impulse. That it is what made her so perfect and self-destructive.
Familiar, anyone? It will be.
Nina visits Beth at the Hospital, finding her still unconscious. Curiosity gets the best of her and she lifts the bed sheets to see the level of damage on her legs. She then leaves the room, shocked and disturbed by what she finds.
It's night time again, and Nina bumps into a stack of wood sticks while she's throwing the trash out. She decides to bring one back with her, placing the stick behind her bedroom door to see if it stops anyone from opening from the outside (a sign of Nina's desire to gain some privacy fro her mother's overbearing concern). She keeps it a secret.
Rehearsals continue to go Not So Well on the Black Swan's part, and Thomas has no problems in voicing his dissatisfaction. Nina sits by herself at the end of the day, crying, after a solo session with the choreographer (that included badtouch). Lily finds Nina and sits down with her, trying to get it out of her, but the wrong words prompt the distressed ballerina to abandon the newcomer.
Taking a bath at her residence, Nina tries to touch herself again, but becomes self-conscious and slips under the water with her eyes shut. As soon as she opens them, a vision of Lily standing above her startles her to sit back up in alarm, finding blood on her fingers and reopened wounds on her shoulder blades. Paranoid, Nina rushes to trim her nails, only to watch her own reflection on the mirror smirk and injure her finger on purpose.
On the following day, Thomas tells Nina he was informed of her apparent dissatisfaction with his methods by Lily. He scolds her, telling her to stop whining and being so weak. Nina confronts Lily about it and tells her to back off.
Late at night, Nina receives a visit from Lily after a discussion with her mother. She invites her to go out for some drinks. Nina accepts and leaves her concerned mother behind.
After dinner at some hip and cool restaurant, Nina tries on a Sexy Top offered to her by Lily in the ladies' room, noticing the aggravating scratches on her shoulder yet again. When she returns to her company, she finds Lily at the bar talking to two young men and mixing drugs into a drink. Nina tells Lily she wants to leave. Instead, she's persuaded into staying. She decides to take the drink with the drugs on impulse.
While the two girls talk get to know the two boys, Nina finally feels the drugs kick in. Lily takes her to a nightclub, where a trippy sequence full of illusions and special effects takes place. At one point, Nina seems to be dancing with an exact copy of herself (when she is actually dancing with Lily).
The drugs wear off and Nina makes her way out of the club, followed by Lily. Both ride back to Nina's house in a cab, where Lily makes sexual advances with some more badtouch.
Nina is still very drunk when both arrive at the apartment and see her mother show up, having waited up all night for her daughter. Said daughter taunts her while Lily sneaks away with giggles. The mother's reaction causes Nina to run into her own room, dragging Lily with her. She uses the previously mentioned stick to block the door.
Nina walks up to Lily for a passionate kiss. Lesbian sex scene takes place; Lily goes down on Nina while the audience asks ISN'T HER MOTHER STANDING OUTSIDE??
After all is moaned and done, she hears Lily whisper 'sweet girl' (the affectionate term her mother uses to address her), Lily turns into Nina and grabs a pillow to asphyxiate the protagonist.
Cut to black.
It's morning. Nina wakes up in her her bedroom, alone and hungover. She then realizes she's late for rehearsals and stumbles to get ready. Upon arriving at the theater, she finds Lily dancing her part. She confronts Lily about the previous night, but Lily claims she spent the night with one of the men they met. Both then realize the last part of Nina's night was nothing but her imagination and fantasy. Nina storms out, distressed, while Lily simply shows amusement.
Back home, as Nina's paranoia increases, so does her resentment. She knocks down the music box she listens to every night before falling asleep, then throws away her entire plush collection.
Different day! While getting measured for her costume, Nina sees her reflection in the mirror move by itself to scratch her shoulder blade. She snaps back to reality when she hears Lily come in, then learns that Thomas has made her Nina's alternate. She runs to Thomas, urging him to change her alternate with claims that Lily is trying to replace her. He says that he understands her distress and tells her to relax and go rest.
Nina remains in the theater to practice to exhaustion, completely alone. This is a turning point in the manifestation of her paranoia, namely when she starts seeing her alter-ego in the mirrors again. The lights suddenly go out and she follows a dark figure into a secluded room, where she sees (or thinks she sees) Thomas having sex with Lily. Lily, however, turns into Nina, and Thomas turns into Von Rothbart. Nina runs away and into her dressing room in a total panic, collecting all the tokens she stole from Beth MacIntyre into a little bag.
She rushes to the Hospital to go see the former star again, pleading her to tell her how to deal with the persecution she's being subjected to. Instead, Beth's own dementia brings her to harm herself in front of Nina. She manages to stop Beth, grabbing the metallic nail file she was using to stab herself, then runs away.
When Nina returns home, she hears 'sweet girl' being whispered in the darkness while washing some of Beth's blood off her hands. She sees Beth staring at her when she turns on the light. She runs into the bathroom to throw up from the shock, then she thinks she can hear her mother crying in her room again.
Upon turning the room's lights on, she finds her mother's paintings moving, taunting her, crying and bleeding, causing Nina to reach a breaking point. As she rips the painting from the walls with screams, she sees Beth's reflection walk in her direction. When she turns around, she sees her mother at the doorstep instead, shocked and concerned.
Nina runs into her room and blocks the door again, ordering her mother to go away. When she feels a sudden pain in her back, she rushes to the mirror to look at her shoulders, noticing that her eyes are completely bloodshot. Focusing on her shoulders again, she spots little feather quails growing out of her skin and pulls on one of them, staring at it in exhausted disbelief. Nina's mother manages to break into the room, only to be pushed back out with screams. She cries and claims that Nina is sick, only to have the door slammed against her hand repeatedly until she backs out. Retreating back into the room, Nina feels her legs break into the shape of a swan's legs. Nina falls and her head slams against the bed's frame, passing out on the floor.
Nina wakes up in her bed. It's the night of the show and her mother has called the theater saying Nina is not feeling well. She won't accept it, though, and forces her way out of the room, squeezing her mother's broken hand.
She calmly arrives at the theater to a surprised Thomas and Lily. The latter seems anything but pleased by Nina's sudden recovery. The choreographer follows Nina into her dressing room, where she advises him not to cause another controversy -- especially after what happened to Beth. Thomas seems to be pleasantly surprised by Nina's attitude, then tells her that the only person standing in her way is herself and that it's time to let her go.
Nina finally gets on stage for the first act. Her delusions and paranoia kick back when she sees Lily being very intimate with the dancer playing the Prince. He drops Nina at the end of the first act, inciting Thomas' rage with their disastrous display. Nina sees her face reflecting in the other dancers and hears a taunting laughter, returning to her dressing room in tears.
It's at this point that she finds Lily inside, wearing the Black Swan costume. Nina pleads her to stop, but Lily turns around with a smile, proposing she dances the Black Swan's part for her. Nina realizes Lily's face is a reflection of her own again. She grabs the manifestation of her alter-go and slams her against a mirror, breaking it. Both fall to the floor. She looks down at the unconscious girl below her, still trying to realize what just happened -- when suddenly her alter-ego tries to strangle her, claiming that it's 'her turn' repeatedly. Choking, Nina reaches out for a shard of glass and, at the climax of their fight, Nina stabs the alter-ego in the stomach.
Realizing it was Lily all along, she drags her body into the bathroom to hide her, hyperventilating with her head against the wall. It is at this point that the metamorphosis into her alter-ego is finally complete.
Nina performs the third act as the Black Swan perfectly. She watches black wings gradually grow from her arms with a daze until the very end of her performance. As the crowd gives her a standing ovation, the visual manifestations of her alter-ego -- none of them real to anyone but her, of course -- wear off.
Back in her dressing room, the mirror is still broken and blood is now flowing from under the bathroom's door. She rushes to cover it with a towel and gets ready to play Odette's part once again. Someone knocks at the door; she opens to find Lily congratulating her for her amazing performance.
Distraught and confused, she realizes that there is no longer any blood, but the mirror is still broken. When Nina looks down, she sees blood sipping through her costume and pulls out the tip of the shard, realizing she actually stabbed herself. In tears, Nina pulls herself together, determined to dance until the very end.
In the final moments of the last act -- just as Odette is about to kill herself -- Nina spots her mother in the audience before jumping off. She lands on the mattress below and remains there. The crowd cheers and her fellow dancers applaud. Excited, Thomas comes to Nina, congratulating her and telling her to go receive the audience's praise. It's only when Lily gasps that he realizes Nina is bleeding profusely. He urges the others to get help, asking Nina what she has done.
"I felt it", she answers. "Perfect. I was perfect."
The last thing Nina sees are the lights of the stage fading into white. The last thing she hears is the continued applause for her performance.
Upon her death, Nina is taken to the City.
♚
PERSONALITY:
IN RELATION TO BALLET
▌ Nina is very dedicated and disciplined, even considered frigid and controlled by her peers. Her career is her life, which originated from her mother's frustrated dreams of becoming a successful ballerina herself (that she supposedly gave up so she could have and raise Nina).
Nina's drive reaches obsessive levels. Her posture is constantly correct and she constantly claims that she just wants to be perfect, only expressing happiness when she collects triumphs (getting the part) and praises from people she admires (Thomas). Nina is passionate about her work for the most part, but often lets her dedication turn into a form of depression whenever things don't go her way, imposing pressure and blame solely on herself (which, among other things, leads to heavily implied symptoms of anorexia and bulimia). For someone constantly focused on seeking improvement, Nina takes every and any criticism very close to heart.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
▌ It's implied that she already suffers from mild psychological disturbances -- we see her crossing paths with an exact copy of herself on the night before she's selected for the role. Nina also rarely seems to be relaxed, presenting herself as a nervous, vulnerable and bashful girl throughout most of the movie. Though polite and soft spoken, she also appears to be very immature in several aspects -- namely in the relationship with her mother; her habits before going to sleep; her room; her admiration-slash-crush on Thomas, etc.
Having grown into a very competitive environment, she is often suspicious and doubtful of people's intentions, driven into an obsession to better herself that forces her to separate from her colleagues. She voices her opinions in a few occasions, always in a hesitant tone, even when her words are accusatory. She isn't very confrontational. There is not a lot of her confidence in her words, even when she knows she's right. When talking to strangers, Nina will smile politely and comply, more inclined to talk about her career than about herself.
Self-absorbed and reliant, Nina focuses on herself and rarely shows empathy towards other people. All of her thoughts are contained and her behavior is controlled. It's hard to get a genuine or extroverted reaction from her, even when she's consoled or congratulated. Votes of confidence don't seem to do anything extraordinary, either. This can be considered humility or arrogance, depending on the beholder. Either way, it's as if she's afraid of letting herself out to be seen by the world -- she's often seen pulling or walking away, either offended or simply disturbed by Lily's approach, for example.
HABITS
▌ As pointed out before, Nina gets nervous easily. She's seen biting her nails and throwing up whenever she gets anxious or shocked (although it's heavily implied that she also does the former on purpose to maintain her figure). Another physical sign of her tension is the rash that emerges on her shoulder.
Nina nods and shakes her head many times. She doesn't seem to have a clear notion of her voice's volume. She will whisper unintentionally or speak too lowly to be heard, especially when she's exceptionally inhibited. She's also seen apologizing a lot, which earns her accusations of being cowardly and weak.
Nina doesn't like to be considered a liar -- but then again, she's also a very poor one. She averts her eyes, looks down, takes a longer time to answer; her tone becomes higher when she's lying, using small words, murmurs and nervous smiles.
METAMORPHOSIS
▌ In addition to everything mentioned above, Nina's personality suffers changes with the movie's progression, causing growing paranoia and psychosis. These changes and her detachment from reality should not necessarily manifest during gameplay (unless there is a collection of situations that trigger it again), but the analysis of her behavior's changes is just as imperative as the rest.
Nina becomes an increasingly colder, selfish and suspicious person. Her resentment towards her mother's habits and control is displayed in snide remarks, instances of disrespect and -- at a later point -- even violent behavior. Nina also appears to have a very intrinsic portion of self-hatred, especially for the little girl she has become (or still is), taking impulsive decisions that would normally go against her better judgment. The delusions she has of self harm also contribute to this interpretation.
The drive to hold onto her role and perform it to the best of her abilities trumps everything else. Perhaps it's the trigger the needed to take notice of every aspect of her life that she was unhappy with. An example of this would be her repressed sexuality and the desire to mature into a woman, breaking free of her mother's 'sweet girl' mold. The first breakthrough is when Nina returns home, drunk, and taunts her mother with claims that she's been sleeping around.
Nina becomes more and more confrontational and isolated, believing that people (namely Lily) are out to get her for her role through false sympathy and sexual favors. This abrupt necessity to depart from her usual self and subsequent denial breaks Nina into a split individual: the one we meet in the beginning of the movie and her alter-ego.
The latter seems to act out on the aforementioned fantasies while attacking her oppressions (be it internal or external), all in a very conscious and raw manner. It's safe to say that the Nina we know completely dissociates it from herself, believing she's being a chased by a doppelganger in Lily's shape. She uses Lily to take the physical form of everything Nina doesn't allow herself to be: ruthless, manipulative, seductive, impulsive... But she eventually becomes unable to stop the two selves from blending in, distorting her notion of reality and identity until it causes her own death.
♚
POWER:
(all of these powers are NON-CANON.)
▌ In moments of extreme distress (namely if/when she is attacked, be it physically or psychologically), Nina's personality will suffer alterations, as will part of her appearance. Although this is a power in itself, it will trigger one of two possibilities (how they affect other characters depends entirely on their respective player's permission):
Odette.
The name of the protagonist in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Odette is an enchanted princess under a spell by the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart; she has been transformed into a swan by day and can only regain her human form at night [copy pasta from wikipedia]. Based on this character, Nina will become (so to speak) the fragile and fearful character, pleading for peace. As such, 'Odette's words will have supernatural influence on those who hear it. If she urges someone to stop, they will believe that they're willingly giving up on their previous action. If she offers reassurance, the person it's directed at will calm down substantially. Part of her supernatural influence will also rely on a level of sensory illusions.
Odile.
Considered Odette's 'evil twin', she is in fact the daughter of the sorcerer that cursed Odette in the play. He has made Odile identical to Odette in all respects, using her to seduce the Prince that would break Odette free of the spell. In this case, Nina's personality will suffer alterations; she will become slightly more sinister and perverse, using supernatural influence to intimidate and trick other people. She can try to convince them to channel their destructive energy on a particular target or deter their attacks through fear. Part of her supernatural influence will also rely on a level of sensory illusions.
These powers will only take place in extreme situations; Nina will have no recollection of her actions or words from the time either Odette or Odile were active afterwards.
SUMMING UP:
supernatural influence ; sensory illusions ; limited metamorphosis.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[The audio feed clicks on. It's silent for the most part, except the very heavy and fast breathing. It's trembled; the person on the other side is very much distressed.
A voice is finally heard, tentative and weak.] Hello? Is this--
I don't--
[she stops, sobbing once. This display is either very alarming or pathetic, depending on who is listening. Nina stutters as she continues to speak.]
I don't know where I am. I think--I think I'm bleeding. [and she was, but now it's just a massive stain on her outfit. Her voice falters into a whisper at the end of the next sentence.] I'm supposed to be at the theater. I--
[Another halt; her breathing slows down. Nina's attempt to understand her circumstances suddenly takes a turn when she remembers those last moments of the ballet, just before waking up in the Porter room.
The silence is prolonged when Nina furrows her brows and parts lips behind the communicator. She lifts her head to look back at it in slow realization... and disbelief.]
Am I dead...?
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
▌ There was nothing but the sound of her heavy breathing, deafened by the massive silence of the cold, metallic room. Nina could hear a voice speaking to her, digital and automated. She turned her head to gape at the faceless machine, palms pressed against the floor to sit up and take a look at her surroundings.
She rose to her feet before the message was over. The surreality of these circumstances and inherent confusion pushed her to find a way out as fast as she could. She stumbled outside and into the streets, hands now pressing against the heavy glass door, eyebrows pinched together in an alarming display of anxiety. The cold of winter prickled on her bare shoulders and her legs, protected by nothing but white tights, while people stared at her (at the outfit and at the blood) as she walked by, wheezing and gulping, feeling every grain and discrepancy of the streets through the sole of her ballerina shoes.
Nina eventually found a place to hide from the stares and the cold. Still a hyperventilating mess, she tried to remember those last moments before she woke up next to the machine, hoping it could somehow explain. Only the final act of the performance came to mind; then the stage lights obfuscating and fading into white as Thomas held her face.
When Nina looked down, she found the very same bloodstain on her outfit that she remembered spotting before the final act. It was still there, only darker and dry. She had a strange feeling of detachment from that moment; she knew that she had felt completely at peace with it, accomplished and so... free. Looking at the mark of her wound then made her feel scared and disgusted.
It seemed so askew when she thought of it, almost as surreal as the both familiar and foreign ground beneath her feet and the buildings above her head. Tears rolled down her cheeks, afflicted and overwhelmed and alone. Nina could remember being so sure that she had finally shed the perception of reality that had blended and intertwined and distorted everything until it made her unrecognizable; she remembered being prepared to accept her death upon the final delivery of a perfect performance.
Instead, she had opened her eyes and risen to her feet again.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
▌ I believe that Nina's death poses as the closing chapter she needed to truly break free from her aggravating state of mind. Believing she's dead and liberated from her past life, Nina will return to the personality we see in the beginning of the movie (for the most part). Still paranoid, yes, but also very vulnerable. She will not pursue a career in ballet because I think she'd be too afraid of never being able to reach perfection ever again (and, you know. Wanting to avoid going through that personal hell all over again).