Aurore "Rory" Rex

Her Royal Highness Princess Aurore Rex [she/her] of the Skeezer Isle is a 2019-introduced and all-around character. She is the daughter of Aurex, current Queen of the Skeezers, from the novel Glinda of Oz, written by American “Royal Historian” L. Frank Baum as part of the Land of Oz series.

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Personality
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 * Rory is defined by a passion for hospitality that she doesn’t know how to display properly
 * She is a helpful but casual individual who always seems to be second-guessing herself
 * She relies on others for lots of things, especially in social terms
 * Her most commonly-used expressions are “I guess,” or “I’m sorry”
 * She genuinely wants to help out but is too nervous to even offer
 * Just as well, she doesn’t think her services are even worth much
 * Still, she’s all for encouraging people to be charitable, even if she can't bring herself to set the example
 * She’s got a strong sense of justice for others, and is much more prone to standing up for her friends than for herself

Entrepreneurialism
A bit of a surprising hobby given her typical unwillingness to speak up, it’s not at all unfitting when one considers the love she holds for her home, and how she intends to open it to the rest of Oz as a so-called “two-in-one resort and subaquatic vacation destination”.

Appearance
By virtue of headcanon, the Skeezers resemble Pacific Islanders, and thus Rory shares their features. She has golden brown skin, kinky black hair, and amber eyes.

She may not be a Winkie, but shades of yellow are her preferred colors (by far the boldest way she chooses to present herself), with oranges, reds, and white being used additionally. Inspired by her home, she proudly displays motifs of glass domes, stained glass windows, palm trees, and though as a Rebel not intending to take over her mother’s role directly, she still enjoys sticking a feather in her hair somewhere in the same vein as her predecessors.

How It Goes
Main Article: Glinda of Oz

Full Text: Glinda of Oz

The Great Book of Records reveals that the Flatheads and Skeezers, two obscure peoples of Oz, have gone to war. Princess Ozma decides that it is her duty to stop this, and Dorothy is eager to accompany her.

The Flatheads and Skeezers live at the far northern edge of the Gillikin Country, near Oogaboo and the Deadly Desert. There are just 100 Flatheads, and 101 Skeezers. Both groups practice magic; little else is known, or discoverable, about them.

On their way north, Ozma and Dorothy have to escape capture by giant purple spiders. More pleasantly, they encounter a group of beautiful Mist Maidens. When they arrive at the mountain home of the Flatheads, they learn that the name is literally true: the Flatheads are flat-headed, wearing their brains externally, in canisters in their pockets. Their leader, the Su-Dic (for "Supreme Dictator"), enhances his power by stealing brains from his people. He has gone to war with the Skeezers over a fishing dispute: the Skeezers prevent the Flatheads from fishing in their lake, and have magically transformed the Su-Dic's wife, the witch Rora, into a golden pig. The Su-Dic is hostile to Ozma and Dorothy; they escape his control by turning invisible.

On to the Skeezers, who live in a glass-domed submersible city in a nearby lake. They are ruled by Queen Coo-ee-oh, another dictatorial personality. Once Ozma and Dorothy arrive, the queen retracts the steel bridge connecting city to shore; the girls are trapped. The queen's chambermaid, the Lady Aurex, befriends the "girl prisoners" and informs them of local conditions. Queen Coo-ee-oh learned her magic from three Adepts; she quickly betrayed them and turned them into lake fish. The queen uses her magic to spy on her own citizens, and punishes dissent.

The next morning, Coo-ee-oh submerges her city and leads her men in submersible boats to fight the Flatheads. But the Su-Dic surprises Coo-ee-oh and transforms her into a swan; she is so enraptured by her beauty that she forgets other concerns. The Su-Dic is so pleased that he accidentally spills the poison he intended for the lake; this would have killed the three Adepts, a remaining threat to his rule. Yet he departs triumphant: without the queen, the city cannot return to the surface, and the Skeezer soldiers are stuck on the lake's surface.

Things seems to be getting out of hand; Ozma twists a magic ring that Glinda gave her, sending a call for help. At home, Glinda summons a grand council and organizes a rescue party that includes most of the well-known personalities of Oz — Glinda herself, the Wizard, The Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and Patchwork Girl, the Cowardly Lion, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, Prof. Wogglebug, the Shaggy Man, Uncle Henry, Cap'n Bill, the Glass Cat, Betsy Bobbin, Trot, Ojo, even the largely useless Button-Bright, all head north toward Skeezer country. The three Adepts, still in fish form, contact a young Skeezer named Ervic. He takes them to Reera the Red, a Yookoohoo living in the area. Through cleverness and reverse psychology, the Adepts get the powerful witch to restore them to their rightful forms. Glinda and party arrive, but their first efforts to raise the city and rescue Ozma and Dorothy are frustrated. Working together, the rescue party outside, and Ozma and Dorothy inside, figure out the secrets of Coo-ee-oh's magic, and return the city to the lake's surface.

Aurex is selected as the new queen of the Skeezers, with Ervic as her prime minister. The Adepts and Ozians force the Su-Dic to restore the extra brains he'd appropriated, leaving him harmless. Glinda enchants the Flatheads so that their heads grow round over their brains. Flatheads no more, they are called Mountaineers and accept the rule of the Adepts. Peace is made between the two communities, who pledge loyalty to Ozma. The Su-Dic's wife Rora is rescued from being a pig; but Coo-ee-oh is forgotten about, and left a swan.

How Rory Comes Into It
Rory was born among the Skeezers sometime before the current Coo-ee-oh’s transformation into diamond swan form, and thus a considerable few years before the story was told once more. Having grown up exposed to the reign of the current Coo-ee-oh (former name “Coreen”) while her mother was merely a courtier, she was able to see that despite the malevolence associated with the role, their queen was a decent ruler, who had every reason to be bitter in regards to the circumstances but chose to never take it out on the people obligated to dislike her.

Nevertheless, no story in Oz goes untold if the powers that be have anything to say about it, and around spellementary school age Rory, like her fellow Skeezer citizens at the time, bore witness to the queen’s swan curse and remained trapped in the isle while the subsequent events of the rest of the book occured.

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Viewpoint on Destiny
Though Rory possesses homeland pride in abundance (both in the Skeezer Isle and the rest of Oz alike), she doesn’t believe that retellings are inherently necessary for the well-being of their world (a rarer opinion, it seems). Not just unnecessary, in fact, but ultimately detrimental, especially to the many legacies (many being her current classmates) who are obligated to suffer Happily-Never-Afters on behalf of their lineage.

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Parallels

 * Rory’s hospitable tendencies are in reference to Aurex housing both Ozma and Dorothy upon their arrival to the Skeezer Isle in the story
 * Rory’s shyness and overall hesitancy to speak out are allusions to Aurex’s own unwillingness to reveal information to Ozma and Dorothy regarding the cruelty of Coo-ee-oh’s reign, who monitored her subjects at all times by means of dark witchcraft

Mother - Auralie “Lee” Rex
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Mother - Lady Rex
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Brother - Cooper E. Krumbic
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Friends
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Acquaintances
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Bonnie Cobalt
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Enemies
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Groups
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Pet
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Trivia
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