The Application
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Ella Enchanted
Canon Format: Movie/Book
Character's Name: Eleanor "Ella" of Frell
Character's Age: 20
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/a
What form will your character's NV take? A book!
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: She's a normal person - she's cursed, but it doesn't especially give her an ability.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Would like her to have the ability to survive whatever her curse makes her do. (Whether this is through accelerated regeneration/healing or just being able to suffer it until she can get somewhere to heal up, short of someone chopping her head off or ripping her heart out, she can't be killed permanentlike.)
Weapons: None
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
The Beginning
All good fairy tales begin with 'once upon a time'. Ella's story, for all of its fairy tale elements, will not start that way because it is cliche. Instead, it begins with a baby's cry, when Ella was only a few days old. Lucinda the fairy was reknowned for her well meaning but HORRIBLE gifts that she bestowed upon newlyweds and firstborn children. She was so famous for it, in fact, that people cringed when they heard her name, and oft did whatever they could to prevent the flashy fairy from finding them.
Ella's mother, Eleanor, was not so lucky - her husband, a trader, was away on business at the time, leaving only his wife and her servants - one of which was a house fairy by the name of Mandy - at home. On hearing Lucinda planned to visit, Eleanor and Mandy quickly hid baby Ella, but to no avail. Lucinda made clear her intention to 'bless' the child with a gift, though she couldn't concentrate on what it would be through Ella's crying. Thus, inspiration. To Eleanor and Mandy's horrified eyes, Lucinda blessed Ella with the gift of Obedience. When Eleanor protested the horrible gift, Lucinda grew offended and threatened to turn Ella into a squirrel instead. With that threat hanging over their head? You can bet they thanked Lucinda oh so nicely for her "wonderful gift".
As the years passed, Ella-whose name was also short for Eleanor-was not told about her curse initially. Mandy and Eleanor did their very best to try and make Ella's life as normal as possible, and they were exceptionally careful about how they phrased their requests. Even the most carelessly phrased order would trigger her curse. They didn't tell Ella's father, Peter, about the incident with Lucinda either. He took a 'children should be seen and not heard' stance, and barely tolerated Ella as it was - he would no doubt think the curse was a blessing as Lucinda did. Also, he was away from home nine times out of ten, and was little more than a stranger to Ella.
On her ninth birthday, Ella finally was told the reason she was ... different. Ella had grown accostumed to her father's long absences. Mandy and her mother prepared a wonderful cake for her. An accidental command for her to "eat" when the cake was delivered, had Ella forcing herself to shovel down bite after bite of cake until she felt like she would explode. Her mother was the first to notice, and quickly ordered her to stop eating. Her mother explained in the privacy of her room later that day, the reason that Ella was forced to be obedient. Ella wasn't happy, but at least she knew the reason for her behavior. It made her want to rebel against the orders more than ever. She discovered that while she could delay obeying, she developed nausea, dizziness and felt pain until she finally obeyed the command. So while she couldn't disobey for long, she would start trying to find loopholes in the commands she was given, most of which were done on accident.
A few months later, while she was with one of the servants daughters, Pamela, Ella mentioned the difference between Pamela having to obey her parents, and Ella herself having to obey. She hadn't learned to be cautious about who she should and should not tell that sort of thing. As expected, Pamela immediately took advantage of the situation when she learned Ella was under a spell to be obedient. Also as expected, Ella put up with these shenanigans for precisely one hour before punching her former friend in the nose. After Pamela and her mother were sent away to another position outside of Frell, Eleanor scolded her daughter and gave her a formal order. "Don't tell anyone about your curse."
Two years later, Ella and her mother both fell ill. As usual, Eleanor's husband was away on business. He had no idea that their affliction had the potential of turning fatal - nor did Ella or her mother. Mandy, who had been - unknown to Ella at the time - their house fairy, prepared a soup that was meant to cure their sickness. Part of the ingredients of the soup was the hair of a unicorn - neither Ella nor her mother wanted to consume the soup, seeing the hairs in it, but Ella had no choice when she was given the order. Eleanor removed the hair from the soup - as a result, when Ella recovered from her ailment, Eleanor grew worse, and passed on shortly afterwards.
At the funeral, beensy Ella was quite a bit distraught, understandably. However, raised in a time where women were meant to keep to a certain standard, her father didn't approve of her sobbing and carrying on and - in his eyes - "making a scene". Ready to rid himself of the embarrassment her crying brought, he sent her away until she could compose herself. She was gone for so long, that the funeral services were long since over by the time she had stopped crying. When she went to rejoin her father, she encountered the Prince, Charmont, who engaged her in sympathetic conversation as he escorted her back to her father.
After the grieving period was over, her father was home a bit more, but not by much. Ella's upbringing was left to Mandy, as he was still more concerned with making money than in his daughter. He didn't see her as anything more than a bargaining chip, someone who could be married off to another rich person, who would open more connections to yet more riches. Ella was perfectly fine with having an absentee father at this point - it gave her the opportunity to be as free as she liked, without the cloud of 'being proper' hanging over her head. Most of the time she helped Mandy in the kitchen, or read, or found herself running into the Prince during one of her walks. If her peaceful life could have remained that way, she would have been perfectly happy. So imagine her shock and horror when her father informed her that he was marrying a woman by the name of Madame Olga. Ella didn't support this marriage, even after meeting Olga's daughters, Hattie and Olive. They were near Ella's age, but just as nasty as their mother - obsesed with money (particularly Olive) and shrewd (particularly Hattie).
Ella's father was hardly concerned with Ella's opinion. As she was getting to a marriageable age, her father and Madam Olga both insisted on enrolling them all in the same school. Up till then, Ella's schooling occurred at home; she was taught by her mother or Mandy. Her father decided that wasn't enough if she was going to be married off to someone rich. One good thing did happen while she was in school however - and that was meeting her best friend, an Ayorthian by the name of Areida. Ella and Areida bonded quickly both over mutual dislike of Hattie and Olive, and effectively being mutual outcasts in their community. Ayorthians weren't looked upon kindly in Frell simply because they were different, while Ella was an outcast because she had her own opinion and didn't follow what was popular.
Shortly after Ella was enrolled in school, the King - father to Prince Charmont - passed away. There were rumors about how he ad grown sick and then passed on, despite the best efforts of all the greatest healers in the kingdom. Ella and her father both attended the funeral, but she was unable to see the Prince. They had grown to be friends up till then - or at least, Ella thought that they were friends - certainly as friendly as they could be with the amount of times they ran into each other. He'd even come to her father's wedding, though he spent more time socializing with Ella than he did the happy couple. For some reason, Hattie made him nervous.
Still, she gave little thought to being unable to speak with the Prince as she did before - after all, he was now in line for the throne, and he had new responsibilities. Unfortunately it seemed that many of the responsibilities Charmont had was to approve policies and laws that were just wrong for Frell. Enchanted animals, even ogres (who had a bad rep already) were suffering from near extinction and other enchanted animals were losing their territories; even the peaceful giants were suffering, forced into servitude, while a law was passed that all elves were only permitted to sing and dance. That was well and good for those that liked that sort of thing, but many elves wanted to pursue other things. Ella and Hattie often butted heads over whether or not the Prince's policies under his Uncle were right for Frell. Ella thought them unfair, but Hattie and the majority of Frell followed along whatever the Prince said like docile sheep, simply because he was cute and rich.
As for Ella's situation, she had more and more trouble keeping her curse a secret. Hattie was far too shrewd, and already disliked Ella. Being that both Ella's father and her own mother took Hattie's side in every situation, she took every opportunity to make Ella's life difficult. Sadly, she had more brains than Olive, so it didn't take her long to figure out about Ella's curse. She didn't know the reason Ella couldn't help but obey when someone gave her an order, nor did she care. All it meant was that now she had a servant of her own who could take the fall or make herself the fool with just a word from Hattie, or (when Hattie felt generous) Olive.
Fortunately, most of her evil-stepsister's commands were little more than petty things - sending her home when she got in the way of talking with the Prince, deliberately forcing her to lose a debate, with the most severe causing her to steal and then blame her best friend for the theft. This was the final straw as far as Ella was concerned. Not only did Hattie know she could tell Ella to do anything and she would have to do it, but making her lose her best friend was unforgivable. She had to find the fairy responsible for her curse. Mandy, the house fairy, supported her decision fully, and gave her a magic book -- that was her boyfriend (it was a magic accident okay) to help her find Lucinda. Elle's final revenge against Hattie and her kin before she set off on her quest? When they demanded that she pick flowers for them, she slipped them poison ivy. Revenge was sweet.
Point in Canon: Before she and Slannen encounter the ogres.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: None
Character Personality: (Intelligent) From her early years, Ella set herself apart from her peers by not following the crowds and instead using her mind. When most women in her town were concerned with their hair and nails, Ella made frequent trips to the library in her home, and read every book she could get her hands on. When other girls would talk fashion and cute boys, Ella discussed politics and unjust laws that surrounded the villages in their kingdom. When the Prince came to speak in town, and all the eligible young women in the village rushed to get his attention and coo about how much they loved him - Ella and her friend stood up and led a rally of two protesting his policies. But those are just a few examples - women weren't supposed to be terribly smart in Frell, they were just there to be pretty. In many ways, Ella was a disappointment to he father, because she refused to conform to being like all the other women present. She was notorious in her village for being as outspoken as her mother, and yet her mother had been loved by many - even by the Royal Family themselves. The few people who complained about Ella's outspoken-ness did so to her father, which often led to an argument between them, and always ended with Ella storming out in disgust.
Ella is not completely serious and book-smart however - her tendency to speak out and argue with people is well tempered by a mischievous nature. While she is not particularly prone to playing pranks on people -- at least not MEAN pranks -- she enjoy a good joke and will crack jokes herself. She can be a bit of a kid at heart, as she will be prone to sliding down bannisters - and there is certainly temptation to dropping water balloons on people from above. More of that mischeivous and spunk comes out in her personality, especially when confronted with someone who is being particularly difficult - while women of her time are likely to walk away or be offended, Ella will sass them back as much as she herself has been sassed. Generally she has a good-natured spunkiness, and will sass others back more to demonstrate she does indeed have a backbone.
Ultimately she is a good person at heart - she is human, and she is flawed - prone to making poor decisions just like anyone else. She knows the difference between right and wrong, and does her very best to uphold what she believes to be "right", to make the memory of her mother proud of her. If she sees someone being bullied, chances are she will jump to their defense. In many cases her decisions are influenced by her emotions, but she is capable of thinking more rationally, researching information to back up her reasoning and support it with evidence, examples and proof. That isn't to say she isn't above sniping at her opponent a little.
Ella's pretty independent, which is also a trait that was encouraged by her mother. Her mother had a good relationship with the help, and that carried over to Ella - since her father was gone most of the time, much of the responsibilities her mother carried out, went on to be carried out by Ella herself when her mother passed away. Though they had more servants prior to Ella's mother's passing, afterward - to save money - her father let all but one of them go. As such, Ella helped Mandy around the house whenever she could by choice, primarily going shopping and running other small errands. She personally doesn't believe in having servants, despite being born into a family that was fairly well off, so if she needed anything done, she would do it herself whenever possible.
Lastly - Ella isn't perfect. She is human like anyone else, she can carry grudges (very weak ones), she can hate, and strongly dislike people. She learned her lesson long ago about who she can and can't trust, and given the nature of her curse, she tends to not trust ANYONE. At least with certain details. As such, her mannerisms come across as evasive and dodgy half of the time - she's not that great at lying either, but she gives it the old college try. Lastly, she can be a bit...bitter at times. Completely understandable when you know the reason for it. Anyone would be a little bitter to be forced to do things against your will because of the curse of a whimsical fairy - even if she did it with good intentions. All that aside, she doesn't let her bitterness surface beyond a brief grumble now and then, and instead lets her determination to break her curse drive her.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: When she finds out Lucinda isn't here, she's going to plan on researching the types of magic in the hopes of finding a spell to break her curse. Spoilers: She'll fail miserably.
Appearance/PB: Anne Hathaway