Lian Tian-e

"I'm not badass despite being pretty. I'm both. The two things aren't mutually exclusive, you know."

Lian Tian-e is one of Duchess' Swan Maidens in the ballet Swan Lake. Cursed to be a swan by day and a maiden at night, Lian is destined to dance with the next Odette and the other Swan Maidens until a prince pledges his love for Odette and all the Swan Maidens get to be human again.

Lian's pretty chill about her destiny, because she doesn't die, she loves to dance, and enjoys the honour. However, she remains confused about her alliance since she's not fond of the idea of one of her best friends committing dual suicide with a prince, and wants to be more than just a background character.

Ostentatious, dramatic and confident, Lian is generally seen as frightening to the student population. At first glance, she looks like a shy, withdrawn Chinese girl, but in reality, she's more of a fighter than a lover, her dance style is more violent than peaceful, and she is impossibility diligent and hard-working, and will do anything to get what she wants.

Personality
Lian is loud and opinionated. Whatever she has on her mind, she will say it. Whether that's slamming down people's rude comments or making loud remarks on how 'awesome' she looks today, it'll be said. There's absolutely no doubt in what's going on in her mind, what she thinks, nothing. She's straightforward, she makes everything she does absolutely obvious. If you think she tolerates you, she probably tolerates you. If she doesn't, then run. She's very domaineering, often taking up space by putting her feet up on the table or doing the thing that guys do on public transport where they take up three-seats-worth of space. Lian acts like she owns the space, doing whatever she likes, sitting however she likes. She doesn't walk into rooms, she storms in rooms.

Lian likes to move. She hates being restricted. That's why she's so fond of dancing, because she can express herself however she likes. She's most particularly fond of ballet, because some people have told her that her body wasn't good for ballet, that she didn't look like other ballerinas, and that she didn't deserve to be a Swan Maiden and that she should hand over her position to a ballerina who looked more like how ballerinas were supposed to look. Because of all the criticism she received, Lian wants to prove that she's better than what the cynics say, and that she can do ballet. That's what drives her to do her best in everything – because she wants to prove critics wrong.

Other interests of her including martial arts. Lian has always been a bold and flamboyant person, and ballet isn't her only way of expressing that. Her mother had sent Lian to martial arts lessons at a young age. When the strength and fury of martial arts is paired with the gracefulness of ballet, Lian is certainly a force to be reckoned with.

While martial arts and ballet are good for Lian to let out her anger and angst and general teenage frustration, Lian is a fighter. She adores the idea of proving that she's better than people, and usually that's with her fists. It's gotten to the point where her catchphrase has become "fight me". Usually when she says that, people decline though. She finds it really frustrating because Lian really does want to fight someone sometime.

Interests

 * Ballet
 * Looking cool
 * Action movies
 * Punching things
 * Bringing awareness to important issues in this world that I won't care to elaborate on until later
 * Leather jackets
 * Looking cool
 * Sunglasses
 * Did I mention looking cool

Appearance
Lian is skinny with narrow hips, making her appear taller than she actually is. She has long gangly arms that look awkward and out of place when next to her much-smaller body, and hardly has a butt. She's just really angular and lanky.

She has tanned skin. She was born with pale skin – like, the kind of pale skin that's seen as "ideal beauty", but Lian's skin darkened over time from spending time in the sun. Lian's mother has always lamented the so-called death of Lian's pale skin. Lian resents the idea that only pale skin is seen as beautiful in her culture. She tries to fight that idea by keeping her skin tan and not using powder or other skin-whitening products, but deep down, Lian does resent herself for letting her skin tan. She tries to fight against beauty standards, but still ends up succumbing to them anyway.

Lian has black hair, cut short. It usually hangs by the side of her cheeks tied into a neat bun.

Although Lian adamantly refuses to put on skin-lightening products, she wears foundation to hide acne and for ballet performances, and everyday, she puts on winged eyeliner. That's to make herself look threatening, and she loves looking threatening.

Fairy tale – Swan Lake
How the Story Goes

Wikipedia page

Basically, Odette and her handmaidens are turned into swans by evil wizard dude. They can only turn back when some loser prince declares his love for Odette, but he doesn't, and Odette cries. Then prince and Odette die together, and the swan maidens get turned back and party the hell up.

How does Lian come into it?
Lian is a daughter of one of the Swan Maidens in the previous rendition of the story, and has been chosen to be a Swan Maiden in this one.

Her mother, Willow "Liu" Tian-e was just an ordinary Swan Maiden, who danced all day and partied all night like the rest of her squad. She was sweet and beautiful and admired, and graduated from Ever After High with popularity, confident that she would succeed in her destiny.

She was admired to the point where the 2nd son of a Chinese king even proposed to her after graduation, saying that they should get married right after Willow finished her destiny. She accepted. After all, he was rich and if she got married, her children would be princes and princesses. Life for Willow was happy.

Except, her curse was broken early. Violated by someone who loved and obsessed after her in high school, Willow fell pregnant and couldn't continue to fulfill her role as a Swan Maiden. Odette's squad was one short, Willow was shunned for something that wasn't her fault, and to avoid stigma, her fiancé left her, saying he didn't want "damaged goods".

It was a rather shattering time for the young Swan Maiden, who was suddenly stuck with no friends and no one to help her. In her immediate community, abortion was still frowned upon, so she was forced to continue carrying the child.

Although, the prince refused to marry Willow, his younger brother married her instead, thus reducing a lot of the stigma surrounding her. It wasn't a happy marriage, and it never continued being a happy marriage. It was simply a marriage out of necessity, and one to preserve "honour".

The child was carried to term, and sent away to fulfill a needed destiny. Willow tries not to think much of that child, now. In her mind, she was never a mother to her first child.

Later, she and her husband ended up having Lian. Her Swan Maiden destiny was subsequently handed over to Lian, who will be continuing it with grace and badassery.

Relationships
Family

Lian's mother, Liu "Willow" Tian-e, was the previous Odette's Swan Maiden, and the role has been passed down to Lian. Lian's mother is super fussy about appearances, and finds her daughter a little bit too scary for the role as a Swan Maiden.

Willow lives through her daughter, which leads to high expectations.

Lian's father is an irrelevant Chinese prince. Which technically makes Lian a princess. Hmm. *insert Lenny face here later*

Friends
Lian generally hangs out with Duchess Swan and some other Swan Maidens. She likes the feeling of community and also calls their friend group her 'squad'.

Pet
During Animal Calling, a small pond frog hopped over to Lian. The frog currently resides in Lian's bedroom and attempts to mimic her dancing. Lian has named the frog "Bendan", meaning "silly egg". Everyone else thinks that was pretty rude of Lian to name the froggy that. Lian disagrees.

Romance
Lian is bisexual, and very picky towards both boys and girls. That's because she doesn't think anyone is good enough for her.

However, despite her lack-of-any-romantic-experience, Lian regards herself as a proper wingman/shipper, and likes to pair people up and send them on dates.

Outfits
Lian's style is based off the grunge/punk movement, mixed with swan and leather motifs and traditional Chinese accessories. {| class="article-table" !

Art

!Lian's Outfits
 * Eah oc lian tian e by katechi-d8y2vdz.png
 * Eah oc lian tian e by katechi-d8y2vdz.png



Basic
Lian wears a black leather jacket decorated with feathers and studs. That serves as her swan maiden "cloak", and if she takes her jacket off, she turns back into a swan.

Underneath her jacket, Lian wears an off-white muscle tank with the words " I don't give a flying feather " written on it. Lian also wears black leggings with a silver swan print, and a pair of black boots with studs and feathers on the sides. In her hands, she carries a pair of pale pink  pointe  shoes. Tied around her waist is a short red and black flannel skirt.

Hanging around her neck is a jade ornament of a swan, and another ornament of a golden feather, attached by a piece of red string. A gold bangle rests on her right wrist.
 * Lian_legacy_day_comm_no_background_by_jade_the_tiger-d91ftos.png
 * Lian_legacy_day_comm_no_background_by_jade_the_tiger-d91ftos.png

Legacy Day
Lian wears her mother's old sleeveless qipao/cheongsam dress. She also dons her mother's swan maiden cloak. The qipao itself is a ravishing red, slim and tailored until it loosens into a more breathable shape near her knees.

blah blah i WILL describe later I promise
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Getting Fairest
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Mirror Beach
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Hat-tastic Party
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Wave 2
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Thronecoming
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Spring Unsprung
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Through the Woods
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Enchanted Picnic
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Way too Wonderland
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Date Night
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School Spirit
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Trivia

 * "Lian" means peaceful willow. Peaceful, because her parents always expected her to be graceful, and willows are trees that live by lakes.
 * Tiān-é is Chinese Pinyin for 'swan'.
 * Lian's design will be mainly based off the Chinese Acrobatic Ballet of Swan Lake.

Quotes
"I don't dance for people. I dance for myself, and that's for me so I can know that I'm better than people."

- why Lian dances

"What do you mean it's rude to call my pet frog a "silly egg"? You're a silly egg. Don't tell me what to name my stuff."

- Lian on why her pet frog is named Bendan

"I could crush your head between my thighs. Let's just say, I'm not kidding when I say 'FIGHT ME'."

- Lian dropping threats.