Griselle Damgaard

"Sometimes the good of heart, deemed wretched by looks alone, really do get their Happily Ever After. But there's a catch: they really aren't ugly, just the slightest pinch different from the rest."

- Griselle's card quote

Griselle Damgaard is the daughter of The Ugly Duckling, the protagonist of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name.

In theory, fulfilling her destiny is the easiest way to have her peers eventually realize that she's beautiful as she Is, vitiligo and all.. That being said, while the tale is well-known and ends happily, it's not the most luxorious given the abuse she has to go through. Griselle is motivated for bigger and better things, dance in particular, and wants to feel more comfortable In her skin. Ever since Legacy Day, she's been starting to question if waiting for her Happily Ever After is the only surefire way she can come to terms with it.

Personality
Critical and astute, Griselle is a hard-boiled skeptic and a closed-set book who's prone to judging others – whether warranted or not – before they get the chance to glance at her cover. A tad ironic it seems, when destined to be judged quite harshly herself, but she's never found it easy to open up, being a target of ridicule for her story as well as her skin condition. While not intentionally malicious, the girl's wary outlook makes her slow to trust and introspective to a fault. Needing space isn't a bad thing, no, but there is such a thing as being too prim and reticent.

She's not completely charmless, however, for every hard shell lies a latent, soft center just waiting for the right time to hatch. Her wall of doubt is rather "ugly" so to speak, and she certainly keeps her insecurities under guard, but inside her metaphorical egg lies a loyal, diligent swan with a natural sense of grace. As a bright student and person of intellect, Griselle's analytical nature can also have its perks, as she isn't easily swayed by false flattery and manipulative tactics. The girl has had to deal with a number of bullies, and has a low tolerance for such people in her life. She occasionally finds herself warming up to the occasional misfit, but it's not something she openly admits to.

Overall, this so-called ugly duckling is the last chick that you'd want to push around.

Appearance
Griselle stands taller than average at 5'9" in height, with a lean dancer's build and notably strong legs. Not terribly curvaceous, her torso is straight and she bears shoulders slightly broader than her hips.

She has a pointed chin with high cheekbones, and expressive dark brown eyes. Her hair, having the texture of a cygnet's thick, soft down feathers, is neatly twisted in gray locs that lie 2-3 inches past shoulder length. Griselle wears prescription glasses for her mild near-sightedness, and though her usual rectangular specs are light teal in color, they're frameless along the top border.

While born with a deep, rosy brown complexion, her skin is both rich in melanin and lacking in pigmentation as a result of her vitiligo. Large sections of of pale, pinkish skin appear almost symetrically along her forearms/hands, lower calves, shins, upper legs, ears, neck, eye areas, mouth, among other sections of her body. As these sections can become easily irritated, she makes a concsious effort to apply generous amounts of sunscreen and to take care of her skin and overall appearance.

Basic Summary
The Ugly Duckling is about a young swan, known as a cygnet, who was the last to hatch inside of the nest of a mother duck. His gray down feathers, larger size, and overall not so duck-like appearance caused others to subject him to a disproportional amount of physical and emotional abuse in the barnyard he lives in. The other poultry, the girl who feeds them, and even his mother and siblings abhored him for his so-called ugliness. Disheartened, he left the place he once called home.

Throughout his time in the wilderness, he received a somewhat lesser amount of scorn for his looks than back at the barn. When he's shown at least a pinch of kindness by a pair of goslings, they're shot dead by hunters. He evaded them and their hunting dogs, but rather than being thankful for not being killed, he dejectedly assumed they only spared him because of his appearance. At nighttime he came acrossed a small, rundown house owned by an old lady with poor vision. She mistook him for a female duck and expected him to lay eggs, as did the snippy tomcat and hen that lived with her. The two animals constantly put him down for not only never laying the eggs their master wanted, but found his longing to swim outside the house again to be a silly and ridiculous fancy. Feeling unwelcome in their living space, he left.

One day he noticed a flock of graceful swans flying south for the winter. He admired their beauty solemnly and longed to be just as beautiful as them. In the wintertime he's saved by a man who sees him trapped under the ice of a pond he was swimming in, but growing frightened of his surroundings once arriving at the human's house, he messily fleed. The rest of his winter is spent miserably, having little to eat and mostly in hiding.

When spring arrived he confronted the same flock of swans as he saw during Autumn, wanting them to end him and the misery in his life. They don't, however, and they welcome him as one of their own as he discovered his reflection on the water: a fully grown, well-adjusted swan, just like them. He quickly accepted his swan lineage and became thankful for his past tribulations, as he could further appreciate his matured, beauteous appearance than he could as someone raised among other swans. In the meantime, the children watching over the swans declared him to be the most beautiful bird in the pond, and he couldn't help be feel an odd sense of shame an meekness, yet overall elated in his adult swan form.

How Griselle Ties Into It
A lesser known fact about Griselle's legacy: the protagonist and his forefathers descend from the likes of Swan Maidens. Unlike those portrayed in a certain ballet, the specific Maidens mentioned are shapeshifters known to transform between human and swan form at will by taking on/off a feathered cloak or other swan-made garment. In the case of The Ugly Duckling, the cloak in question was fastened to the UD (Ugly Duckling) in such a way that it would have been difficult to take off until the story's end.

Taiwo Olor, Griselle's mother, is the twin sister of Kehinde Olor. Kehinde was transformed into/had become a swan maiden in Swan Lake via Rothbart's curse, while Taiwo, bearing a Swan Maiden cloak, instead became part of the Andersen tale. She took bird form and met Grisey's father with the other swans in the springtime. Others of her kind supported him, but it was her who worked with the former UD the most in helping him adjust to his adult form. She considered him a handsome man in both swan and human appearance, but with time she fell in love with the sensitive person he was on the inside.

The UD, named Avon, was greatful for his Happily Ever After. That being said, a plethora of people/birds admiring his looks and the short-lived epiphany of his notable beauty was never enough to overcome his crippling self-esteem. In the meantime he married Taiwo and they brought a daughter to the world – christened Griselle Christina Damgaard – and later adopted the son of another swan maiden from Swan Lake, Saaras, who was abandoned after his biological family gave birth to a baby girl. Unfortunately the saying "nice is different than good" applies heavily to the current UD, for while he may be a respectable man, he's far from the greatest parent. He wants Griselle to be the best next Ugly Duckling she can be, dreading that, if his daughter can't live up to expectations, she'll be taken away before it's time for her destiny. This is unlikely though, since the story hasn't even started yet (and therefore she doesn't need to), but the possibility persists in his mind.

Family
Avon's growing apprehension resulted in him pressuring his daughter to be tolerantly humble near an extreme, to the point where Griselle had at one time been a doormat. "Turn the other cheek,"  he said to her after a nasty fallout between her and her cousins at a mandatory family reunion, or "try not to be so loud, maybe they'll leave you alone next time," as she sobbed hysterically after a rough day of schoolyard taunts. Most of Griselle's superiors did nothing to deflect the bullies in her life, and even her father is no exception. She's not close to him at all, and after reaching a breaking point in early adolescence that drove her to mistrust as she does currently, it's safe to say that she pretty much resents him. She's curt and tight-lipped around Avon these days, who doesn't approve of her newfound attitude, but he's too lenient to do anything about it.

Griselle's much closer to her mother Taiwo, despite being the more disciplinary parent. She holds pride in her mother's connection to Swan Lake even though it's not direct, as it was knowledge of the Maiden's family history that influenced her passion for classical ballet. At times the UD has tried to convince Taiwo to stay out of Grisey's bullying troubles, but like any pen (female swan) who protects her fledglings, the woman is as firm as she is beautiful. Tai's concern for her daughter's wellbeing and Avon's apathy on the subject has put a straight in their marriage, as well as similar concerns regarding their adoptive son. Either way, Griselle strongly associates with her maternal family's Yoruba roots despite living under her father's Danish household.

Grisey avoids her Duckling aunt and cousins when she can. As the UD role is traditionally male, they've been known to belittle her with the idea of Saaras replacing her in The Ugly Duckling. She was against her brother's adoption at first (being a 6-year-old at the time), but she happily changed her mind when "Swan Lake" had been mentioned while the papers were being signed. But Saaras had lived at the orphanage run by the Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe, and since the maidens in the ballet are known for their grace and femininity, he'd been bullied there for years due to being a guy. To say the least, he didn't take well to Grisey's enthusiasm towards his lineage.

How the two of them aren't dead via getting at each others' throats is a mystery. But nonetheless, despite all the times Grisey has called him a lazy thorn-prick, and no matter how many instances where Saaras has referred to her as a raging witch, they're brother and sister through and through. They may belittle each other but they sure as hex (for the most part) won't let others do the same.

Friends
As can be assumed, Griselle's friendship circle isn't particularly big. She has plenty of acquaintances as her story is famous, but with some exceptions, She's not terribly close to the majority of the student body.

Pia Danser, eldest daughter of the eldest Dancing Princess, came across Grisey en pointe one day while checking inside the school's dance studio. Though suspicious at first of Pia's positive air and feedback, the princess's likable personality helped to chip at her shell. The two of them formed an unlikely yet ongoing friendship, the two of them sharing a passion for dance

Being a headstrong yet compassionate soul, Cordelia Chopper at one point shooed off Griselle's duckling cousins mid taunt. Despite helping out she initially brushed Cora off, stating that she could have easily done the same without the girl's help. Yet the tin man's daughter kept turning up in Grisey's vicinity despite her irk, until the swan-to-be was convinced in time that Cordelia didn't just defend her because of pity, but out of genuine concern unrelated to her story. Their friendship includes bouts of banter mixed in with legitimate vitriolic spats.

Airmid Valerian isn't exactly considered one of her friends, but the two are acquaintances with a roughly mutual respect for each other. That being said, a few incidents involving the blonde's affinity with fire and bunsen burners has made Griselle ever so slightly wary of the green-eyed teen.

Pet
For her animal companion in terms of book canon, Griselle happened upon a a white-faced whistling duck about the age of a fledgling, who is yellow with dark brown markings, and sports a black beak and legs. She was highly unamused by the irony at first, but didn't have the heart to abandon it (not that she could anyway) and the duckling grew on her with surprising quickness. She named it Ayo (ah-yo), meanig joy in Yoruba.

As the Damgaard household runs a farmstead (the same one featured in The Ugly Duckling – ownership is given to a regular farmer throught the duriation of the story, then restored back to the Damgaards after The End), she helps to take care of the livestock and poultry there. The latter aren't exactly fond of her though, as though aware of her role as the next UD. Nonetheless her favorite animal there is her pygmy goat named Sven (young man/warrior in Danish/Old Norse), who with a bit of convincing and careful arrangements, the male kid resides in the boarding school's stalls whenever she's attending classes.

Romance
Her romantic history is frankly not that great. Griselle has dated one person in her life, who in question was a guy who wanted to invoke the popular-dude-dates-loser-girl-and-makes-her-realize-that-she's-beautiful-all-along-via-spontanious-makeover trope. He tried pressuring her: saying she needed to get rid of her dreadlocks, to wear her contact lenses more often (which she only wears for swimming and Dance Class-ic), even mentioning she should put on "natural" lipstick as opposed to her usual pastels. He wasn't successful, and she broke it off once he suggested that she'd be better off without ballet, hinting that it'd help her conceal and cover up in terms of her skin (he didn't mention swim class since, as swans/ducks are waterfowl, it's part of her destiny).

She doesn't like to talk about her past relationship with him, in fact she's even hesitant to mention his name. As a result Griselle tends to be more hesitant when guys find interest in her, usually feeling more comfortable when her feelings are being requited after speaking up. She finds it difficult admitting her feelings in general however, and sometimes feels at a loss when faced with crushes and the like. She can't help but question why anyone would want go out with her in the first place.

Orientation-wise Griselle is both bisexual and biromantic, and is currently in the closet about it.

Basic
The first thing one will notice about Griselle's casual wear is her cloak. Medium-dark gray, made of a fleece-like material, and embedded with/cut into the shape of a wing-like print. Like a peacoat it fastens around her neck with four lavender buttons, and kept further in place by a thin, medium blue shank to the middle of her chest. What's seen of her dress is a pleated teal-green skirt with deep violet trimmming, and a short layer of netting draping from the sleeves of her top as well as over the skirt in question. While the rest of her top remains concealed, its design has an early Victorian influence.

She wears fingerless, mid-length green gloves over her primarily pale forearms, and gray legwarmers around her ankles and calves. The heels and soles of her shoes take the shape of teal-green pond reeds and leaves, with blue triangular straps and pointed violet toe boxes. Dark blue talon-like spikes peak from the left and right sides, making her footwear appear webbed.

To complete the look, she wears matching green lipstick and attaches two cattail pins to her cloak above her heart.

Legacy Day
Because the following outfits are to be announced, everything between her Legacy attire to her Thronecoming shall be filled via musical 80s interlude:

we're no strangers to love

you know the rules and so do I

a full commitment's what I'm thinking of

you wouldn't get this from any other guy

Getting Fairest
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling

gotta make you understand

Thronecoming
never gonna give you up

never gonna let you down

never gonna run around and desert you

never gonna make you cry

never gonna say goodbye

never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Quotes
"You may want to keep your knob away from any more duffs next time, at any rate."

- From her conversation with Airmid during the Wikia forum RP, Chapter One: Orientation Day

Notes/Trivia

 * Griselle is one of many variants of the Germanic name Griselda, which can either mean 'gray maiden warrior', 'dark battle', or 'stone' depending on the interpretation of its etymology. The former of the three most likely applies to her, if only due to a cygnet's natural gray down feathers and her swan maiden descendance. As for Damgaard, it's a Danish surname meaning 'the farmstead by the pond'. The Ugly Duckling tale begins in such a place, as he was hatched near a pond in the aformentioned locale. Last but not least, when addressing Her middle name Christina, it's a nod to Hans Christian Andersen. The Ugly Duckling is often considered autobiographical due to its parallels to the author's life. Along with Griselle being partially Danish on her paternal side (or its equivalent in a fairytale realm), Anderson was tall as a youth and at one point took dance, similar to Grisey in question.
 * Avon, Griselle's creator's headcanon name for the UD, is a reference to the Shakespeare's nickname "the Swan of Avon". As for her mother's name, Taiwo, her given name is traditionally given to the first twin born in Yoruba culture. Because the second-born twin (Kehinde) is considered the eldest (viewed as wise and careful while the first-born is more adventurous for leaving the womb before them), her mother's sister inherited the swan maiden role in Swan Lake from Griselle's maternal grandmother. Regarding her maiden name Olor,  it's simply the Latin form of swan.
 * Why it was decided that Griselle's Swan Maiden mom would be Yoruba (or its equivalent in fairytale society) when Swan Lake is a Russian ballet? Perhaps Odette's swan maidens come from a variety of backgrounds, as technically anyone of any ethnicity could portray the given roles in the ballet despite how conventionally white most productions tend to be. Maybe it's because swans have been known to live outside of Europe, some species even migrating to North Africa in the winter. Or hex, maybe it's Maybelline.
 * Griselle, like most Swan Maidens (excluding those of Swan Lake, despite her maternal side), can't transform into a swan (or cygnet in her case) without a certain garnment, specifically the Swan Maiden cloak her father once owned. She was given the cloak to wear temporarily on Legacy Day (though carefully fastened/adjusted as to not take bird form), and later recieved it as her Heritage gift before Thronecoming. After she wore it with the intention of transforming into cygnet form for the first time, its color became a dull gray once she she'd taken it off after.
 * There are cases of vitiligo on the maternal side of of Griselle's family. While more insensitive persons will try to connect it to her story, she'll make a point to tell more ignorant acquaintances that her skin condition is purely medical and that it's not something that can magically go away. It will never go away when she grows into her adult swan maiden form, and while she has her own grievances with the condition, it's still down right degrading when others ask this while imply that her skin condition makes her less "beautiful" than her able-bodied classmates.
 * Saaras, Griselle's brother, is owned by leavesofthree on deviantart, and is to be drawn by hers truly. I have her permission to mention him on the wikia.
 * For those familiar with Cynthea Mallard, Jade Encrusted Bugs, have revised her character notably. Her name has been changed, the page title has been altered accordingly, and the rest of her page has been reworked.