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OOC
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Do you play anyone in Myth Making?: No

IC
Name: Christine Daaé
Canon: The Phantom of the Opera
Canon Point: Immediately after she faints at the end of 'Music of the Night'.
Age: Christine's age is left ambiguous in the stage show and the book, but we do know that she's around the same age as Raoul and much younger than the Phantom/Erik. I've done a bit of research, and based on some posters here that have said that an opera singer at the time undergoing training to be at Christine's status would be anywhere from 17-21, I've decided to go with 20 for her here.

Personality: When we first meet Christine Daae, we find her a dancer in the ballet chorus of the Paris Opera. She's a bright young girl who seems to have her head in the clouds a bit and is easily distracted, though - her ballet mistress calls her out on it within the first few meetings of her dance number. This distraction or tendency to fall into a dreamlike state is something Christine repeats through the course of the show, even as we see her grow and change as a person and as a singer. We see her entranced by the Phantom's voice and teachings during 'Music of the Night', her eyes falling closed as she hangs onto his every word, and during 'Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again', when she gravitates towards the Phantom she believes to be her father's ghost until her fiance Raoul snaps her out of it. She even says that when she sings, she feels that her 'soul began to soar' - she's truly free through music, and it means a lot to her. We also see a bit of self-consciousness in her, and an aversion to being put on the spot - she sings softly in her first 'audition' to understudy Elissa in Hannibal, and even later on when Raoul claims that 'every hope and every prayer rests on' her, as he begs her to take the part of Aminta in the Phantom's opera. She becomes very nervous in both these situations, making herself very small body-language-wise (holding her props close to herself, curling in a chair). However, Christine Daae is nothing if not resilient in all frightening situations, from these to more grave ones with the Phantom later on in the show. She gains the confidence to sing full and ringing in her audition and wins the part, and she grows strong enough to tell the managers and the company that she can't sing the part later on (though she does end up doing it.) She's the sort that might shy away from causing a problem or making a scene at first, but eventually owns up to what she must do for the situation in time.

It's clear that Christine Daae is a dreamer, a young woman with a sort of sentimentality to her. She holds her father, a famous violinist, very dear to her heart, even after his death, and it is this sentimentality and even a sort of tenacity that drives her through the story, keeps her hoping even when she fears. She strongly believes in a story he told her as a child, the story of the Angel of Music, who he said would visit her upon his death to look over her. It's with this that she speaks very highly of her father on multiple occasions throughout the show (she even visits his grave in 'Wishing'), and believes wholly that the voice she hears speaking and singing to her in the halls of the opera house is the Angel, when it is in fact the Phantom of the Opera who has much darker desires for her voice than to teach her music. In this way, she can seem a little bit gullible (and she does acknowledge that she 'gave her mind blindly' in the Final Lair scene) - but once she realizes the Phantom's true intentions she grows out of this a little bit, only returning once to the idea of the 'Angel' in 'Wishing'. Her sentimentality extends not only to her father, but also to others in her past - namely Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny, a boy who she grew up with that she was close to. He greets her for the first time in years by reminding her of a time when he retrieved her red scarf for her, and she ends up finishing his story halfway through, only to exclaim, 'Oh, Raoul, it is you!' and throw her arms around her. It's also significant that she wears a red scarf again in the 'Wishing' scene, a sort of symbol of her longing for times past.

Christine also has a creative flair. She's skilled in many performing arts - a triple threat, being able to dance ballet en pointe as well as sing opera well and be a convincing actress. She has the ability to put her own spin on a role that she's seen performed one way multiple amounts of times - her interpretation of Elissa in Hannibal is usually played as vastly different than Carlotta's. While Carlotta sings 'Think of Me' in a robust voice and is very showy and almost flirtatious in her motions, Christine plays Elissa as a more sweet, reminiscing character - perhaps reflecting on the sentimentality she holds so important in her own life. She transforms herself into the lusty Aminta in Phantom's opera Don Juan Triumphant, acting coy and coquettish throughout the entire number 'The Point of No Return' - a strong deviation from her offstage personality. She even manages to make a silent role she's given a captivating one by adding a sense of humor to it - even though the Phantom demanded she play the lead, lead soprano Carlotta is given the main singing role. This happens directly after her debut as Elissa is described as a 'tour de force', and she's let know of praise in her dressing room. Even when she's given a silent role, she does what she can to make the bad out of a situation that's less than opportune, something she does multiple times throughout the course of the show.

Christine is a naturally curious young woman, as many of the girls in the ballet corps are, and exhibits this behavior many times throughout the show. It's clear she knows who the Phantom of the Opera is, as he's an urban legend in her opera house, and yet she still takes lessons from her mysterious tutor. It's usually played with a look of wonder on her face after 'Angel of Music' when her mirror opens up to reveal her teacher the Phantom, and that look of awe stays with her throughout the entire title song, from when she's walking down many steep passages with the Phantom to as he guides her towards his lair to when she rides his boat across the lake there. In one of her most famous moments of curiosity (found in 'I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It'), she wonders why the Phantom wears a mask and removes it from his face, revealing his disfigurement. In this same scene, Christine has the capacity to show both great bravery and also fear in the same breath. He chases her, calling her names, and eventually corners her and crawls after her sluggishly, but she stands her ground as best as she can and even gently, softly returns his mask to him before he brings her back to the company upstairs.

This particular scene also shows another important trait of Christine's: she is a compassionate young woman, able to try to imagine what life must be like for others and show them some sort of love, whether it be romantic or platonic and even pity. While the Phantom terrifies her and she expresses this to Raoul, she recalls 'in his eyes, all the sadness of the world'. Even after she's expressed her distaste for the Phantom and all the ruin he's brought to her life, she still manages to take pity on the man in the Final Lair and kisses him, wondering what it must have been like to be him. Again, even after everything she's been through and after she does go back with Raoul, the man she loves who tried to save her from the Phantom, she comes back to the Phantom - the man who forced her into a wedding dress and veil, and returns the ring to him with an apologetic expression.

Through this, we see it's clear she has great love for those who are kind to her and show her respect - however, once someone disrespects her or treats her badly, it's difficult to regain that level of trust with her. She definitely proves this with how she treats the Phantom at the beginning, as a revered idol who she so strongly believes in as the Angel of Music. It's a concept she sticks with and insists on for a very long time, especially since so much of the idea of the Angel of Music is rooted in her reverence and respect for her dead father. However, when she takes off his mask in curiosity and she rejects his advances and the Phantom turns on her, her tune changes towards him, even saying in anger towards the end of the show, 'Angel of Music, you decieved me! I gave my mind blindly!' She accepts that she was naive towards the start, but she is a changed woman now and shows that her trust has been broken - where she may have been meek and nervous to sing at the start of the show, she now is a woman who stands up even when she faces one of her greatest fears and expresses herself fully.

Christine is still quick to know, even after one person betrays her, that there are still others in the world who care for her and that she deeply cares for in return, showing she still has some hope for the world regardless of how much darkness there can be. She runs to Raoul who she knows she will be safe, happy, and cared for with - she asks him to treat her right in 'All I Ask of You', and as he proposes to her he reaffirms each wish of hers twofold. Her trust and faith in him is unshaken to the very end and it's clear she loves him very much. She may fear sometimes, like in 'Masquerade' when she asks him to keep their engagement a secret, but she finds resolve and strength in him and through the love they share. Even in 'Notes II', when many of the characters treat her like an object or even Phantom Bait, she begs Raoul not to let them do this to her. She resurges and does call them out on this behavior, especially after Carlotta adds insult to injury, proving again that Christine is not afraid to speak out against injustice even when she's afraid.

History: Here are two links to bios of her, as well as a link to the synopsis of the musical, which follows her through the story more directly than the book. I'll be mostly playing from the musical while using details from the novel to fill in her history prior to the start of the musical, as well as to flesh out the time periods not shown in between the scenes of the musical.

Canon Abilities or Powers: Christine does not have any supernatural abilities. However, she is a skilled singer and actress. She takes on five different, not to mention vocally challenging, roles in the mock-operas throughout the course of the show (A slavegirl dancer in Hannibal as well as the understudy for the lead female role Elissa, Serafimo the mute pageboy and the lead Countess role in Il Muto, and Aminta, the lead role in Don Juan Triumphant). She also can dance ballet well, as when we first meet her she is in the ballet corps along with her best friend Meg.

Fairy Tale Role: The Nightingale of the Hans Christian Andersen story.
Fairy Tale Powers or Abilities: As the Nightingale, Christine will eventually be able to transform herself into a nightingale. At first, though, this will be difficult for her to control and she won't be able to become a full bird - it manifests at first by her sprouting feathers in moments of extreme emotion. She will have to grow into this ability and learn to control it. The nightingale in the tale is able to charm Death so much with her beautiful voice that he brings the sick Emperor back to health from his deathbed - in return, Christine will be able to charm people and heal them through her singing. This will all be quite shocking and a bit scary for Christine, considering the ordeal she'd just been through in her own world, but I'd like to really see her come into her own as the Nightingale and, true to her arc in her own story, really take control of her new role and own it.

Personal Items: Christine will be arriving with only the clothes on her back that she wore when she fainted - her Slavegirl outfit from the production of Hannibal, her white dressing gown, and her shoes.

First Person Sample:

[To say that Christine's a little bit shocked when she sees the magical book before her eyes come to life is a bit of an understatement. She's always been a little shocked by the mystical, whether it be supernatural or just an act of prestidigitation, so this is...new. And frankly? It's even a little scary. After all, the last time something seemed to work before her eyes on its own, she was led down into a dark cavern by her music teacher - the Angel of Music, entranced by his voice, and then shown a wedding dress on a doll that suspiciously looked a lot like her.

So it's natural she's a bit hesitant to even write in this thing, a little worried of what end it might bring her to.

Still, the fact of the matter is that even though she's scared, there's only one thing she wants to do - she wants to sing. She wants to feel her soul soaring again, lose herself in the music. So she begins to write in looping cursive, as if she's composing a letter - it's what she's used to, after all.]


To the creator of this strange book,

I was wondering if there might be someone in this city who is able to read and write music or play an instrument? I'm a singer, you see. I'm feeling...I don't know that the word 'lost' quite begins to describe it! However, I do feel that music can bring strangers together in unfamiliar and troubling times.

[She takes a moment to think again before writing once more, a new sense of confidence instilled in her just thinking about it.]

I should look forward to finding out what sorts of talents the people in this city have.

Yours sincerely,
Christine Daae

Third Person Sample: Here's a Dear Player post!

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christine daae

May 2014

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