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Fly away, fly away |
Circe Vogelsang (she/her) is the next witch of Jorinde and Joringel. Before the destiny conflict, she was most known for her secret tent in the Enchanted forest, a dizzying cross between a circus and a dream. Circe wholeheartedly dedicated her time to creating an environment with the express purpose of allowing students to forget about their miserable endings and life's worries.
However once the destiny conflict arose and people began to question whether their destinies really had to be followed, they stopped coming. Having no need for a drug like comfort most considered shameful, Circe fell into an obscurity punctuated by general disdain. No longer possessing any purpose, Circe spends her time a drifter, with very little clue as to what she wants from her destiny or her life.
Character[]
Personality[]
Basically considered a drug dealer, no one who interacts with her actually likes her, even feeling shame or disgust when they have to approach her. She always seems to be surrounded by a hypnotic and surreal aura which is created through magic. When someone is worried or stressed, she strengthens this aura in an attempt to help the person forget about it. However this incredibly obvious touch on other's emotions more often than not causes a negative reaction and is perceived as a form of manipulation. This is why she is disliked- she is either trying to trick you or you'll give in to the hazy forgetfulness and feel resentment at your own weak will that causes you to fold in favour of fleeting pleasure.
Her attitude doesn't help her reputation either. With a permanently upbeat attitude and constant smiles, she errs on the wrong side of positivity for most and it is seen as artificial, a salesman's ploy to bend you to their will.
The most distinctive thing about Circe is her constant magic use. She's constantly firing off a quick spell behind her back, editing her surroundings as she sees fit and altering what she can to simplify life around her. It's not permanent for the most part, only lasting for as long as she remains in the area but this can actually make people more uncomfortable. With everything in her immediate radius folding and changing, it gives her an otherworldly atmosphere, as if she's living on another plane of reality.
This constant elimination of any potential discomfort means that Circe experiences very little unpleasantness and this has built an unbreakable confidence in her. She acts as if she is untouchable and any trouble or insults receive no attention from her, apart from a small amused smile. Treating the world as separate, it's next to impossible to rile her up. Her entire personality seems built to annoy. She's smug and acts so confidently that even if you disregard the magic, you're still inevitably going to be irritated.
Not to mention the way she interacts with others. Excessively complimentary, she lavishes them to the point of discomfort. It's considered yet another ploy for manipulation or mockery. And once you've all but forgotten about her after ignoring her for several months, she will one day approach you out of the blue to ask a favour. It's done so directly and pushily that before you know it, you'll have ended up agreeing to it. Objections are ignored and it's done so quickly that you barely register what's happened. She'll throw in an insincere "I'll return the favour" as she walks off too.
Mind you, if you ask, you'll find her absolutely prepared to help. She'll drop everything she's doing and meet your request with so much enthusiasm that you'll be knocked off balance. She'll come up with several different plans and be far more excited than you ever were. She doesn't bat an eye if the scheme is illegal in nature either. In fact she'll be able to procure all the magical items and potions you need for it to succeed. She has no qualms about doing anything considered 'evil'.
She's an intelligent person with the sort of natural book smarts that mean they seem to have mastered every school subject with minimal effort. However she's notoriously book shy which means that her grades tend to fluctuate wildly depending on how much coursework is required. Generally she'll memorise everything in class and rely on that for the rest of the semester. When it comes to magic classes, she always gains high nineties to one hundred percent scores which is the main reason she's seen as effortlessly intelligent.
This, plus an evil destiny, means that all in all, she's a morally dubious person whose intentions are always second guessed. That said, she doesn't do anything evil if she's not attempting to assist someone.
Though she's generally just considered a creep you don't want to associate with, it's when you step into her space that you realise the true measure of her power. Environments she calls her own, such as her dorm room are so altered that you wouldn't even recognise them as being of earth. It becomes alarmingly obvious that she has the ability to back up any evildoing she would ever want to do and the loss of control associated with being in a place wholly controlled by her can be panic inducing.
Although she seems suspicious, there are two reasons behind her actions. Her home life was extremely study based, Circe being treated more as an apprentice, meant to work and learn. This meant Circe grew up a sheltered and nervous person, eager to please and dedicating every waking moment to work. Her only respite was sneaking out at night to various festivals at the neighbouring towns and villages, when they were on. The wonderful atmosphere provided a means of forgetting everything and total immersion in the moment. Due to this, Circe doesn't view enjoyable situations as a pastime, but rather as a means of total escapism. She isn't comforted, she forgets. Dedicated to a thoughtless happiness that only exists in the moment, Circe refrains from thinking too hard about anything- potential future consequences, responsibility...
Under all her bravado, Circe is just the bookish lonely kid. Isolated in a forest, she's seventeen with no social skills, pitiful life experience and nothing remotely interesting about her. Just magical knowledge. She is doing absolutely everything for the first time and feigning complete understanding in the process. She appears eccentric because she's trying to catch up and learn everything she missed, everything that comes naturally to others and the outcome frequently ends up as a poor facsimile of what it should be.
Circe is actually somewhat of a fatalist which causes her to seek escapism with desperation. With an external locus of control, she understands the world to be composed of absolutes-a specific destiny, a puppeteered childhood, and a prewritten fate. Though she is constantly manipulating the environment, she still doesn't feel she has much potential to truly affect anything. This is another factor in her behaving as if she had total impunity.
The second reason for her actions is a twisted sense of altruism. Feeling sympathy for those trapped in horrible roles with nothing but death in their futures, Circe used to run a type of 'pleasure den' after hours, hidden within the enchanted forest. Consistent with her ideas of a prewritten world, rather than helping to defy anything, her motive was to help people forget about their fates, even fleetingly. In this environment, she proves to be a somewhat good entertainer, better than anyone would anticipate.
So overall, Circe is a cheery, arrogant hedonist who takes life so lightly that even spelling out plainly that you hate her wouldn't concern her, right? Well... do you really think someone wouldn't be hurt by that? Despite her cheery infallible demeanour, Circe is extremely bitter. She's bitter that she never had a childhood, she's bitter that she was forced over her natural biological limitations several times over but is expected to just give that up for a random obscure story and she's bitter that she was easily forgotten as soon as a better option came along. However she suppresses these emotions, for herself as much as for others.
Abilities[]
Her magical heritage basically makes her one of the most skilled magic users at EAH. A high inherent magical potential, she isn't restricted to any specific area of magic like snow maidens or fairy godmothers. While perhaps lacking in raw power compared to specialised casters, she's an amazing all rounder with her most extensive knowledge lying in shapeshifting and transfixing spells, courtesy of her mother. However her habit of using magic far more than other students enhances her repetoire dramatically. She also likes illusionary spells a lot.
Another ability she has is enhanced sensitivity to magic. At this point she can instinctively sense magical and cursed items and if she desired, mess with the magical energies within them. Woodland witches with nothing to do but loom ominously over a cauldron in a bird dome are to be feared apparently. This ability was brought on due to her upbringing of intensive training, daily magic use, as well as basically being given power enhancing potions since infancy.
Enhanced sensitivity can also be an issue. Powerful destructive and evil magic tend to grate very painfully on her mind and high intensity situations cause dizziness and hallucinations where she physically feels the effect of malevolent forces. Neutral magic, such as elemental spells don't have the same effect, however. She can tell exactly where they originate, if close enough, type can be identified and feels environmental effects a little more strongly.
Interests[]
Her main hobby is aiding others, mainly in their more... suspicious... pursuits. Someone needs a dragon fang or hallucinogenic mushroom, she has them covered.
She's really fond of carnivals and circuses which contribute to the way she presents herself. She's surprisingly skilled at circus tricks and magic tricks (despite having real magic...) with a skilled slight of hand.
Appearance[]
Circe is a curvaceous girl, with a large bust, thick waist and hips. This extends to her limbs which are also round and defined. She has light brown skin, a product of her Japanese-Indian heritage, a round heart shaped face, defined lips and a rounded nose. Her most prominent facial feature is her grey eyes, with dark eyelashes giving them a half-lidded dreamy look. She also has relatively large round ears, with a very slight point to them. She's below average in height.
Circe prefers to keep her golden hair short, and frequently accesorises with hats. Her clothes take inspiration from typical 'witchy' clothes, but have colourful patterns rather than black, as convention would dictate. Gold or pastel yellow are very common colours in her wardrobe. Circe's love of optical illusions, means they are incorporated in outfits, in patterns or in jewellery. She also uses bird and birdcage motifs and loose inspiration from sixties psychedelia. Finally as a reference to her magic, she loves things with stars.
She almost always wears a strange ring that she claims is 'able to steal thoughts'. It definitely is abnormal, with an indescribable fluctuating shape that should not be possible in three dimensions. Sort of a geometrical bird cage-y type thing. Sometimes. Staring at it too long tends to cause headaches and extreme confusion as no one (from this plane of reality at least) can wrap their head round it. Sometimes a small secondary shape (usually a blue triangle but even that is not a constant) appears within it. Circe uses it similar to a magic eight ball as it does indeed have the ability to collect random thoughts. It can only hold one at a time and stronger or constant thoughts are more likely to be caught. It's an extremely simplistic and limited mind reading tool so it's mostly just a strange accessory. It apparently causes bruising if worn for too long at a time so when Circe leaves it off, a series of bruises sit in its place. Rather than forgo it entirely, she usually switches it to the other hand.
Story[]
Two people with complementary names are in love and wandering through a forest. They get too close to a witch's castle and magically get transfixed to the spot. The witch comes over, turns Jorinde into a nightingale and takes her to her home to put her with the rest of the songbird-girls (well I suppose you need a hobby...) and lets Joringel go. He's p sad and takes a nap in a field. He has a dream about a magical flower and immediately goes to find it. Carrying it means the transfixing magic has no effect. He goes into the castle, touches Jorinde with the flower, turning her human then touches the witch with it, making her magic vanish forever. They turn the birds back to girls and cue happily ever after.
Circe's role[]
Turn girls into birds basically. (What a random thing to do. Who knows what the purpose of that is supposed to be.) As far as villain destinies go, Circe gets off relatively unscathed. Well, losing all her magic is actually mildly terrifying seeing as she has an over reliance on it. She would probably need several years to learn how to do anything regularly.
Parallels[]
- Witch turns pretty girls into nightingales, Circe wants to help others 'fly away' from their troubles.
- Additionally nightingales in ode to a nightingale are considered a symbol of flying away from earthly troubles.
- Nightingales were said to be sleepless, she's an insomniac.
- Witch loses power due to a special flower, Circe has pollen allergies.
- The magic.
- Having both a witch and fairy parent references the fact that the antagonist is called both depending on the variation.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Her mother is extremely old at 125 years of age and the age gap creates some awkwardness in their dynamic with a lack of emotional intimacy. Circe more often than not opts for privacy over contact at home. After losing her powers, the witch takes to using previously enchanted items to perform magic, albeit in a severely limited capacity. As she couldn't exactly do much with her vast magical knowledge, she instead concocts a potion and with a fairy as father, has a child, Circe who she proceeds to teach everything she knows to. Her home life now and forever has been magical training.
Her mother would and did do anything to ensure she'd become a powerful sorceror. From administering enhancing potions to sending her under seventeen difficult fairy world apprenticeships under legendary warlocks, ogres and everything in between, to even creating a spell to prematurely grant the powers the Storybook of Legends would give. It's no surprise that Circe has a very specific idea of what needs to be done to get maternal approval. Basically her home life is one with little love displayed on the surface and a single minded mother who made her desires very clear from a young age.
Friends[]
Her suspicious nature means she has quite a bit of difficulty making friends. No one really trusts her as ever speaking honestly which is quite a barrier when it comes to deeper or closer friendships. To those who like her, she's more the zany fun friend than one they would confide in. Villain legacies are more willing to put up with her, viewing her as simply being villainous.
Fionnuala Beadsley[]
Aquaintances[]
Reina Maledi, Lilura Goya, Nobelle Fox (The Court)[]
While she's not directly involved with, or interested in their various endeavours, Circe is frequently visited by the Court, seeking out her services.
Romance[]
Lesbian, no idea how to talk to girls she likes.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Circe was the Greek goddess of magic who turned her enemies into animals. I wanted to name a character after a mythological figure for some reason. So I did.
- Vogelsang is a German surname meaning birdsong.
- A converted touhou oc. Basically she starts a cult to steal thoughts which could be used to create magical servants. Also she had a zombie servant.
- Circe hasn't cried once since age seven.
- Despite inheriting the ability, she's not a fan of shapeshifting ever since she was shot by a hunter while in deer form. She still has a nasty scar on her thigh from it.
- Crafty Merchant is the song I associate with her, esp her nightly exploits. I'm not good at explaining, but idk this is the song that describes how she appears.
- Second theme is this one
- She can do the Apple White 'bird summoning' thing. Mostly nightingales but other birds too.
- Birds actually like her for some reason. She keeps mixed nuts and berry mixes in her pockets to feed them.
- She's the type to navigate by places rather than street names. Most likely due to living in a forest. She's got such bad knowledge of street names that she can't name any roads past Book End.
- Circe speaks in relatively formal English as it's not her native language. (German and Japanese are)
- She's used to speaking English, but as she's only used it in very formal situations never learned slang or a more casual manner of talking.