The Wake App

[mon_dieu]

Personal Information
Name: Melissa
Age: 26
Personal Journal: melplayspersonal
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk:
Melcat33@aol.com (email)
Melcat33 (plurk)
Current Character(s): N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Antoine D'coolette
Fandom: (Archie) Sonic the Hedgehog

Character History:
Antoine was raised in a small, peaceful land where being a gentleman was as important as being a hero. Under his father's tutelage, Antoine became an excellent swordsman and a surprisingly good pilot. His talents were so great that his father entered the boy in a 'citizen swap' of sorts, sending Antoine to a foreign land, Knothole, where he would become a knight and bodyguard to the Acorn Royal Family. Antoine was thrilled at the chance to become a brave hero, and win the heart of the fair Princess Sally, just like a fairy tale. But instead of a happily ever after, he got a horrible plot twist, as the nefarious Doctor Eggman attacked Knothole with his maniacal machines. Antoine fled with Sally, and found himself absolutely terrified of battle.

As Sally and others tried to recover from the awful invasion, Antoine became deeply self-loathing - men weren't supposed to be afraid in battle, yet every time he fought, he was scared out of his mind. To compensate for this, he put on a facade of being snooty and proud. He thought this would win him friends and allies, but instead his arrogance drove people away, and it didn't make him any braver. Also, the girl he was into flat-out rejected him. Just when he was ready to give up, he finally realized he wasn't the only one suffering - he saw Bunnie Rabbot, another victim of Doctor Eggman, struggling to walk with tears in her eyes. As a result of the Doctor, she'd lost most of her limbs, having them replaced with painful, ugly robotics. Yet she continued to move forward every day, and refused to give up.

Inspired by her, Antoine resolved to become a better person. He drew courage from her, and in battle they made an excellent team. Under the guidance of Princess Sally, Antoine and the others became the Freedom Fighters, a group that strove to protect others and defeat Doctor Eggman. Antoine and Bunnie fell deeply in love, which led to him proposing and marrying her. Years later, as his wife was working in an undercover mission, his friend Sonic revealed that Antoine and everyone else had an alternate life - one where Antoine had almost sacrificed his life to save the royal family. However, this and other events from his past life are slowly and surely fading from his mind, though it occasionally haunts him to know he came that close to dying.

When Bunnie encountered the same trauma - and learned her body had become whole flesh in the other life - he stayed behind to comfort her while the current mission was completed. Afterwards, the team understood what had caused these memories and the current disruption of the world - reality and the planet were literally being torn apart! While reality was sown back together, the pieces of the world still floated about. Sally decided the way to cure this was to find the seven chaos emeralds, which might have enough power to fix things. The team set out to collect them, while also aiding the people who were suffering from the planet's unusual activity. Antoine bravely volunteered to do both, but while he and his team managed to save several people from floods and catastrophes, getting the emeralds was much harder. One mission involved risking their lives to protect a beautiful cave, while another had them fall into a deadly trap by Doctor Eggman. Though they managed to escape, it was a low blow for the team's pride, and as a result, the current mission - get the next chaos emerald by winning a fighting tournament - has him waiting in the Sky Carrier for the outcome.

Character Personality:
Initially, Antoine was a somewhat selfish and arrogant young man who was terrified of his own shadow. Raised on beliefs that bravery and heroism were things you could inherit, not earn, he believed things would happen without him having to do much work. Obviously the princess would fall for him, obviously he'd be a fearless hero, and obviously all will go well for him. And obviously none of this became true - the princess was annoyed with him, he fled from the first sign of trouble, and the kingdom he was supposed to protect was invaded by an evil maniac. Suffice to say this was a heavy blow to his fragile ego and ideology.

However he did do the right thing, despite his fears - he did protect the princess, and he continued protecting others. This wasn't just because of his duty, but because it was the right thing to do. For all of his egotism, he did have a good heart and genuinely didn't want to see others hurt. But he was so blinded by his own self-loathing that he couldn't see his own good nature. To compensate for his fears in battle, he turned up his vanity and haughtiness to an almost unbearable degree, which only made things worse. He didn't even enjoy puffing up his own chest like that, he thought it was expected of men to do, and that if you said you were brave enough times, it would come true. It didn't, and he hated himself even more. Thank goodness he met Bunnie!

Once he realized how deeply she was struggling, and yet how she never gave up, he was inspired to put aside his facade and be his true self. As a result, he became far less selfish, and found himself making friends he cared for very deeply. Yet he still found himself terrified in battle, and didn't understand why until Bunnie pointed out that fear and bravery can go hand in hand - for all of his fear, he STILL went into life risking battles to save others! Antoine had spent so much time loathing himself he'd never seen his own good points, until Bunnie showed them to him - and as a result, he fell for her hard, and made her his wife. His love and devotion to her has never been questioned, and she is a major part of his life. She is still his inspiration, and he considers himself the luckiest man in the world to be with her.

The Antoine of today is very ashamed of his past attitude, and is almost an entirely different person. He goes out of his way to help others, and has a deep affection for those he once thought of as inferior - the best example would be his relationship with Sonic the hedgehog. As kids, Sonic would tease him, and Antoine considered him a ruffian, but now they are best friends. They still rib each other, but only in good fun, and when Sonic started becoming the Werehog, Antoine was very concerned for his companion, and insisted that Sonic not blame himself when he couldn't be there for his friends. He still calls Sally "princess", not as a sign of how distant they are (as they're also good friends) but because of how deeply he respects her and the royal bloodline. He's a sweet guy, when he wants to be.

He's still afraid in battle, but not as much as when he was younger, and he doesn't let fear dictate his life. He's become so comfortable to the routine of fighting and rescuing that he can even smile and say clever quips while in danger. He's not above teasing his friends, either, as long as it's harmless. As a result, he sometimes still pretends to have an ego, and will even lie and say he isn't as scared as he really is. But he keeps it toned down enough that it doesn't become aggravating, and he enjoys his flair for the dramatic.

Powers and Abilities:
Antoine ‘s favored method of fighting is with his trust sword. However he is also skilled at hand-to-hand combat, learned from Bunnie, and even do an effective sword-spin dash, as learned from Sonic, where he can roll into a ball and spin around, hitting his targets. He can adapt to new weapons fairly easily, and he’s an excellent pilot. He’s also a great cook.

Samples
Network:
Greetings, fellow awakened of Nautilus! For those who do not have ze privilege of knowing, I am Antoine D’Coolette! No doubt my good friend Sonic has already been telling you all about me!

… Please to be ignoring anything he said.

Moving on! Eet has come to my attention that some of you are wishing to improve yourself, and I have come upon ze best solution! I am willing to teach you poor, hopeless souls ze fine art of swordsmanship! Eet ees a most noble art, and ze best line of defense and offense! And eef you are not ready to take on such a task, fear not! I also have ze skills to be teaching hand-to-hand combat! Never again will you be caught defenseless!

I am only asking ze smallest of favors in return. Eef anyone from my world happens to awaken, I wish to be informed at zee once! Princess Sally, Rotor, Amy Rose, and most importantly, ze most beautiful person who will ever grace your presence, my one and only darling wife Bunnie. You shall know eet’s her when ze angels start singing and the ze sky becomes brighter and warmer.

((OOC: Just wanted to say that the spelling and grammar errors are entirely intentional, as this is the way he speaks. Really.))


Third Person:
As he left Tails' workshop, Antoine left another mark on his self-designed map. It had been his own idea to personally map out the entirety of this strange place, along with little notes here and there that he deemed important. His next stop was The Castle That Never Was, which currently had five question marks around the name. He knew his English wasn't perfect, but even he knew that name was illogical. As his eyes darted back and forth on the map, he chewed on the tip of his pen. It was a bad habit he wanted to stop, but there were more important things to do.

He managed to glance up at his surroundings as he walked, and he couldn't help but feel a little perturbed at how easily the building designs changed from one to the next. It was not only an insult to someone with stylish integrity, but it just felt wrong. These people shouldn't have to be here, he thought as he tapped the pen to the notebook. With these homes and offices and such, it was like they had adapted and settled here. He knew it wasn't his place to judge, but the idea of becoming so compliant to this world spooked him. He wished he could speak these thoughts, but the few friends he had here... Tails and Knuckles were from different worlds, and Sonic might make a joke out of it. For now, he'd have to bottle it up.

When he eventually came to The Castle That Never Was But Apparently Was I Mean Come On It's Right There, he hesitated. "Bonjour?" He called out, sprinkles of fear beginning to crawl up his spine. "Hello? Is anyone being there?" He kind of hoped there would be no reply. A place with that name couldn't mean good news. Yet he found himself knocking on the door, and he swung open for him. He grimaced, but swallowed his cowardice and made his way inside. If he wanted to really understand this place, he'd had to learn everything's ins and outs. He just hoped whoever was inside wouldn't want to turn him inside out.