faerietale: the casting pispam.
This awesomeness is the brainchild of allthelivesofme, who has managed to mash ALL OF THE FAIRY TALES together into an incredibly epic and sexy slice of win. If you find yourself shipping all the wrong people according to the pesky canons, this is the fairy tale epic for you! (This hits at least five levels of kink for me, NGL.) Also, the Thor and Sherlock Holmes and Primeval fans definitely need to take a gander at this, because I've the feeling that you'll be very excited by some of these casting choices. :D :D :D :D
It's not that Captain Hook is a particularly evil or cruel pirate -- in fact, he can be quite absentminded and has a hard time holding onto grudges. Except for one, that is; the immortal grudge he'll keep until he's finally had his vengeance. And it's not just because of a lost hand, either. No, the deep-seated hatred he feels for Peter Pan has only deepened since an unforgivable betrayal...
Hook can be dashing, devilish, and still knows how to handle a sword. He's the sort of guy who goes with his gut feelings and acts on impulse; his piracy mostly consists of seeing a pretty ship and immediately firing upon it. He's not the sort who thinks ahead, is what I'm saying. But in the world of Faerie, where there are so many schemers about, the unpredictable man of impulse can be the wild car in the deck.
Peter is a jovial trickster, to be sure. But there's a darker, sharper edge to his pranks at times. He's never grown up, and as a result he's never lost his childish cruelty. His immaturity makes him incredibly selfish and spiteful, and he often lashes out without thought and can be emotionally manipulative -- he's fully aware of how useful crocodile tears are.
Pan's a mercurial sort of fellow. One moment he can be playful and sweet, your chummiest friend and bosom buddy. He certainly has the capacity for kindness. But get him riled, dare to deny him what he wants, and he's likely to lead you into the forest and leave you there with darkness fast approaching...
Tinker Bell has been with Peter for practically ever. He may be a human (physically, anyway; mentally he's far more imp or goblin), but she's more devoted to him than she is to the rest of her kind. It could be because he did her some great favor in the past -- perhaps saved her life -- or it could be because she simply enjoys his company and finds him to be a likeminded soul. While Peter can be selfish and cruel, Tink can be quite jealous and spiteful herself.
No matter what, though, Tinker Bell will always be devoted to her Peter. Nothing will ever discourage her enough to leave him. Her devotion may prove warranted someday; or perhaps she'll simply be proved deluded.
Wendy Darling was quite charmed by Peter once upon a time. She wasn't ready to grow up, and here appeared this impish boy who promised to whisk her away to a magical land where she'd never have to grow up. But playing den mother to a group of unruly Lost Boys fast lost its charm, and Wendy found herself disillusioned with her new "magical" life. Then she met Captain Hook, a roguish scamp of a far different and more mature cut than Peter Pan, and Wendy Darling found herself growing up and falling in love.
But Peter wasn't ready to let go of his new Mother. When he dosed Wendy with a potion meant to keep her loyal to him, he accidentally overdid the dosage. Wendy fell into a horrible coma, and Hook was forced to make a devil's bargain to keep her alive. But her scrape with death has irrevocably changed her -- Wendy's eyes are now pitch black, and she can't help but see the mystical Doors between the words of myth and reality. Wendy now helps people through these Doors.
The Queen of Hearts rules over the world of Faerie and is outwardly a very benevolent and kind ruler. The castle is a place of great beauty and luxury, and those loyal to the Queen are amply rewarded. But beneath the surface lay the Shadows; when the Queen feels betrayed or is disappointed by her subjects, she gives them a potion that drains them of their vital essence, reducing them to creatures of mere Shadow. She'll do anything to hold onto her power and throne -- even kill her own children.
Not to say she is a completely heartless person. She does show small mercies, as with the White Rabbit, and has the ability of inspiring great (and sometimes naive) loyalty.
The Queen's daughter Snow White has long been uneasy with her life in the castle. She knows that her mother has been up to something; that she's been wearing a phony mask of kind indulgence. She also knows that her mother is purposefully encouraging her brother's vices so that he will be especially weak-willed and hedonistic when he finally comes to rule: having a malleable son on the throne will make it that much easier for the Queen to hold onto her power.
Snow White has begun making contacts with resistance groups, and is finally beginning to learn the true extent of her mother's machinations. She's determined to make a difference and help her kingdom.
The Prince has been indulged by his mother for so long, he has no interest beyond himself and his own pleasures. He spends most of his time in the harem, surrounded by guards and castle walls, more than happy to wile his life away in lazy luxury. Unlike his sister, he doesn't care a whit for public policies and the well-being of his subjects. And he's in no rush to ascend to the throne, not when his mother is more than happy to handle tiresome things like taxes.
But when Snow White disappears from the castle, the Prince may be finally shaken from his relaxed stupor. His sister told him to look more closely at the Queen's actions and now may be the time to actually explore the darker corners of the castle and see exactly what their mother has been hiding all these years...
Red Riding Hood is devoted to the Queen of Hearts. She wouldn't hesitate to give her life for her Queen, and answers her every summons and order without a heartbeat's hesitation. She's the Queen's most trusted spy and assassin, outwardly beautiful and innocent with her wide-eyes. But she wouldn't hesitate to slide a stiletto between your ribs while she smiles sweetly at you.
She may or may not have a flirtatious relationship with the Prince, who may be a useless dandy but still has a witty mouth on him.
The Huntsman may be loyal to the Queen, but he's still a good-hearted man with a sense of decency. When he's ordered to take Snow White into the woods and kill her as a punishment for her interference, it isn't hard for him to make his decision. He can't bring himself to kill Snow -- he's known her since she was a child, and knows her to be a good woman with the best of intentions for her kingdom -- but he also can't bring himself to fully disobey the Queen, either. So he leaves the princess deep in the woods, utterly lost and devoid of any helpful resistance contacts.
The day sticks with him, and a deep doubt begins to grow in his heart. Perhaps his loyalty has been misplaced all these years...
The White Rabbit was once a wise and well-respected doctor in our world. But when his child was taken by faeries through one of the Doors, he followed in desperation. He had no way of knowing that traveling through a Door without a magical being drives a human insane. A shattered wreck, he was found by the Queen. In one of her rare moments of true mercy and pity, the Queen tended to him with magical potions, and helped to restore him to some semblance of sanity. Though that has a tendency to slip at times.
Completely in love with the Queen, the White Rabbit serves as one of her spies. He was Wendy's salvation, and Hook is now eternally in his -- and the Queen's -- debt. Wendy finds herself bound to him now as well, as he helped her to understand her newfound ability and taught her about the Doors, and now sees him as a sort of father figure.
The mermaids of the Lagoon are well known by Hook and his men, but they don't often cross one another's paths. They may be beautiful, but they can also be vicious. While they may sometimes offer up interesting conversation or sing beautifully to the sailors, they can just as easily drag one of them down in a drowning embrace.
No one knows their names; not even Hook. The pirates call them Purple-Tail, Green-Tail and Blondie. Knowing a mermaid's name gives you power over them. There used to be ten mermaids in the lagoon. They don't reveal their names anymore.
Before Wendy came to play Den Mother, Mister Smee was one of the Lost Boys. But when he fell in love with one of the mermaids in the Lagoon, he left Peter to grow up and join Hook's crew. It was the first betrayal that began the rivalry between Pan and Hook, which only reached its breaking point when Wendy followed Smee's example.
Smee knows it's dangerous to love a mermaid, and that there's no way for them to ever be happy together. But he couldn't ignore his heart any longer, and knew he had to make a choice. He'd rather be closer to her on Hook's ship, able to see her every day even if it would be unwise to touch her, than stay with Peter as one of his immortal Boys.
Beauty was aptly named, as the most beautiful woman in her village -- possibly in any village -- and she well knew it. Her every wish was indulged, and she became an incredibly spoiled, vain, and selfish woman.
One day she was on the verge of doing something completely uncharacteristic: she was about to give a beggar child some gold. Instead, her eye fell upon a booth of pretty combs and trinkets. A powerful witch witnessed this, and to pay Beauty a lesson for her selfishness she cursed the comb the girl purchased. As soon as Beauty slipped it into her hair, she transformed into a horrible beast. And she can't get the comb out. With her old sycophants now terrified of her, she escaped to the woods where she lives in a secluded cabin in loneliness and misery.
The big bad Wolf isn't nearly as bad or as beastly as his reputation claims. Wendy can't spirit away all of the people in Faerietale who need sanctuary; he does his best to pick up the slack. He might not be able to use the Doors as Wendy does, but he knows the woods better than even the Huntsman. And Beauty may think herself utterly alone and forgotten in the world, but the Wolf knows her still.
He once worked in the castle, but when he was just a teenager he saw something he shouldn't have: the Queen turning a rebel into a Shadow. Horrified by what he saw, he immediately fled into the woods. He's since realized that he could have better served the resistance against the Queen by remaining at the castle, but that was a lesson only learned in retrospect, with the wisdom of age.
Alice Serafina was named after her mother's two favourite fictional heroines. She's the human caught up in this magical mess. When she offered her assistance to a wounded Wendy, caught on the wrong side of a Door in our world, she finds herself in the midst of a rebellion, political scheming, and starcrossed lovers. And with her growing feelings for Snow White, she doesn't have much of a choice but to throw her lot in with the resistance against the Queen.
She's a cynical young woman, who has never been the romantic her mother was. She stopped believing in fairy tales long ago, and isn't very surprised when the stories her mother told her end up being a lot more fractured than "happily ever after".
OKAY, SO THAT'S THE MAIN CAST! Be sure to shower any super excited ~feeeelings~ and flailings for this project on the fantabulous Stephanie (allthelivesofme). And you better believe that I'll be contributing some ficlets for this! :D :D