Ruby City App

[thisismycurse]

PLAYER
Name: Pumpkin
Age: 21+
AIM/MSN/etc: pir8_queen

CHARACTER
Name: Regina Mills ( Evil Queen )
Canon: Once Upon A Time
Age: Late 30's looking? She's way older than that.
Timeline: 4x01 Tale of Two Sisters
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A

Personality:

Regina is a woman with a gentle heart pushed to the edge of her own sanity by circumstances of life. Before anything ever happened with Snow she was actually quite nice. She lived, she loved, but she was under the influence of a very controlling, narcissistic presence in her life--her mother. Psychology says that we build our personalities based off of the ones presented by our parents. Regina may have resisted being as manipulative as her mother for a time, but her exposure to such behavior is what brought the 'Evil Queen' in her to life. When we lose someone it can make us do unspeakable things.

To truly understand what triggered the turn in her personality first we have to picture having our first love.

Once upon a time there was a girl, her name was Regina Mills, and she was born to a Miller’s daughter. In her world women, as well as men, were still very much seen as tools to advance social status. They were property. In the eyes of her mother, Cora, Regina was the key to advancing their social status. She was made to marry a man she never loved, but isn’t that the tale of most peasants who are trying to work their way up the social ladder. Cora saw Regina as a tool and that’s how she was treated throughout her childhood. Regina was bred to learn the ways of a courtly woman with horseback riding, a keen eye for preserving her beauty, and a gentle heart so to speak.

But Regina took a liking to one such activity very fervently. That is to say she fell into a whirlwind romance with the boy who ran the stables, Daniel. They met in secret, exchanged passionate kisses at any opportunity. Like the young naive kids they were they were sloppy with their affairs, but so long as they had their love they would be truly happy. . .right? Daniel gave Regina everything she desired. Love, devotion, praise, validation in her actions--everything she was never heard from Cora in any meaningful way.

The problem in these fairy tales is that the women made to marry in nobility hardly ever see their new consort as the one they love. Regina convinced herself, in the throes of idealism and passion, that she could have her happy ending—her true love—with a man who worked stables. She believed with all of her heart that one day she could run away from this life thrust upon her and she could live happily ever after. It’s just too bad such an ideal wasn’t in the cards for her. Tragedy struck at a very young age in the medium of an innocent child who just didn’t know any better; Snow White. Snow is the girl Regina saved in a riding accident, set up by Cora, who intended for Regina to impress a prospective king. Well, she did save Snow but there is something to say of naivety. Snow caught Regina with her secret lover and Regina made Snow promise never to tell Cora.

Well, Snow broke that promise as she claimed she never wanted Regina to know what it would be like to live without her mother as Snow had cherished hers so much.

The girl ruined Regina, disillusion her. By telling Cora she ended up getting the stable boy, Daniel, killed. Mother is god in the eyes of child so instead of Regina turning her hatred toward Cora, she turned it toward Snow White. Love makes us sick, it haunts our dreams, and destroys our days. That is exactly what happened to Regina. She took her fury, her grief, and her hatred and she channeled all toward Snow White. If we truly mold our personalities after our parents Regina inherited her evil nature from Cora. She learned to twist words, to lie, and to hurt from her own mother. Cora said she killed that stable boy for Regina’s own good. The cruel and unusual action gave Regina the drive to start on her path toward becoming the Evil Queen. She discarded the hurt in her heart and pursued a marriage with a man she couldn’t stand.

So much of Regina’s hatred and loathing for Snow is what drives her personality. Snow ruined her happy ending, and so Regina made her vows to ruin Snow’s. An eye for an eye. Regina, much like Cora, is incredibly cruel. When she cast the curse that brought everyone to Storybrooke destroying their lives as they did hers.

Regina goes so far as to kill her own father, his heart needed as an ingredient to enact the curse, so that she can have her vengeance. While she had hesitence in this decision she ultimately decided to end his life for the sake of improving her own. She convinced herself that she was the only one who mattered and she wanted nothing more than to see everyone else suffer if she had to as well. In a way, the curse was the manifestation of Regina's misery. It was resentment toward Cora for not allowing her to marry who she wanted, and an unspeakable amount of rage for Snow White who believed that Cora was a good woman. No, this miller's daughter was meant to marry royalty, was meant to be property, so that her mother could have the slice of life she wanted in the Enchanted Forest. Not once were Regina's wishes considered. Well she made her vows and she's finally going to get what she wants.

The problem with Regina is, unlike her mother Cora, she was never satisfied with the misery of others. There was something unfulfilling about the monotonous years she spent watching everyone live their cursed lives, but don't jump to too many conclusions. She didn't let any of them off the hook right away. It was twenty eight years of her peaceful little lie wrapped up in Storybrooke before things started to change again in the form of Henry's birth mother showing up in town. What Regina really strives for is something stable to cling to. Regardless of second chances, or of opportunities to do good she would rather keep her life the way she envisioned it than ever have to admit that she has done something wrong all those years.

You see with someone like Regina having it all isn't enough. That's how she got Henry. She came across a man who wandered into town and he had a son. She loved him instantly and decided that's what was missing from her curse. She wanted a family. When that man refused to stay, even though his son was rather fond of Regina, she killed the father. She killed him and tried to keep the boy for herself. Too bad that didn't work out. So instead, after trying to extort a family she decided to adopt. Who would have thought the perfect baby boy she became attached to would be the baby that Emma Swan had to get rid of?

I think that's what makes Emma coming to town even more of an open wound on Regina's heart is that what Emma seems to be a better mother than she is. For a time, Henry wanted nothing more than to be with Emma. He ran away at night, saw Emma behind Regina's back, and that started to disrupt Regina's sense of importance in his life. Henry was another version of love that hadn't already been tainted, and with Swan back in the picture, even that was being taken from her. Regina did her best to be a great mother, to have something happy in her world, and to love. As you can imagine she didn't react well at all to someone challenging her view of life. She lashed out and she fought for what she believed in. On the surface it may not seem as if it doesn't hurts her at all, as her facade is very practiced, but it does. She bottles it up inside.

The darker side of her personality is completely ruthless. She has hearts that she has collected from others as ways to control and blackmail them. She has prisoners that she locked in a mental institution that bother her none at all. Belle was one of the captives who escaped as a huge 'fuck you' from the Mad Hatter. Who knows who else is still locked away down there and hasn't seen the light of day in almost thirty years. This is the legacy she has created, and if anyone thinks she is substantially improving, they're probably wrong.

That being said Henry and Emma started to rub off on her. Henry demanded of his mother that she start to use her magic for good, that she stop trying to kill others, and that she finally just make him proud by being a better person. Motherhood is the only type of love that Regina honestly has left, in her eyes, at this point so she took what he said to heart. Perhaps it wasn't easy, and she relapsed on her old ways time and time again at the cost of people's lives, but she eventually started to turn a new leaf. It became more important to her to be there as a mother for Henry, and as a better person for people who care about her, because she didn't want to be hated. She reacts so violently to being accused of heinous acts and the evidence is all over her face each and every time anyone made a dig at her as the Evil Queen in the Enchanted Forest or as Madam Mayor in Storybrooke. She so desperately wants the approval that her mother never gave her, but she isn't self sacrificing enough to let people walk all over her to get just that.

Regardless of how she is viewed by the public, that's just it--it's part-act part-truth. The residents of Storybrooke may now accept her as a person trying to change because she lets them. In one of the more recent episodes Regina frees another captive from the asylum which was her mirror. (You know Mirror, mirror on the wall. . .) Funny how she never thought that she should let this person (or others) out once she started to turn more benevolent.

I like to think of Regina as Neutral Evil in terms of tropes/alignment (and lbr Once Upon a Time is full of tropes) :

"A neutral evil villain does whatever she can get away with. She is out for herself, pure and simple. She sheds no tears for those she kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. She has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make her any better or more noble. On the other hand, she doesn't have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has.

Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies.

Neutral evil beings consider their alignment to be the best because they can advance themselves without regard for others.

Neutral evil is the most dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil without honor and without variation."

This is basically Regina in a nutshell as the Evil Queen before she started to realize that caring about others meant that they cared for her in return. She is still learning to live by that notion, and the section above, is frequently what she falls back on as a safety net. When she is wronged she only wants to right it to make herself feel better, and when people insult her she has a hard time not burning them to the ground. With this in mind one can always assume Regina will be on the side of the fence that serves her, and those she loves. Selfless acts will be few and far between, but that doesn't mean they're impossible.

Loneliness predominates majority of Regina's life. Her love has been taken from her, Emma seems to be a better mother than she'll ever be, and she has no one to blame for this but herself in her eyes. She caused this pain and it came back to her. For Regina it is infinitely easier to hate everyone than try to open up her heart to care for a few. When she does she exposes herself, like a livewire. This is a woman who has to cope with killing her father, murdering her mother, and ultimately pushing Henry further and further away from her the more dark magic she uses. In Once Upon a Time, magic is often equated to an addiction that some of the characters can't resist. Rumpel failed to do so, and Regina is no worse off than he is. She does have something in common with Rumpelstiltskin, however. They are parents first. Regina would never do anything to hurt Henry and she would sooner see herself in a grave before anything happened to her son. That was driving force behind using light magic for the first time on an evil witch named Zelena. She has someone she wanted to protect and that was enough to overcome her darkness, but that doesn't mean the darkness is gone. Maybe one day she'll finally get that happy ending she so desperately desires.

Background: Here for Regina and Here for the Evil Queen.

Abilities:
☽☾ Telekinesis: Using magic she can throw people, or possibly pick up objects if she wanted to.
☽☾ Pyrokinesis: She can conjure fire out of thin air to throw as ball or make a stream directed at someone.
☽☾ Shapeshifting: She can make herself appear to look like other people, and even take on the tone of their voices and mannerisms.
☽☾ Teleporting: Basically she can get from place to place using this magic, and does so very often as the Evil Queen in the Enchanted Forest.
☽☾ Conjuring: She can conjure objects out of thin air.
☽☾ Heart magic: She can remove, replace, hex/enchant, and squeeze hearts into dust. That last option results in death for the person she stole the heart from. She keeps a chamber of these things. It's kind of creepy.
☽☾ Magic: She can use spells, write spells, but there are limitations to magic. It always has a price. She learned everything she knows from Gold and most of what he can do, she can do. His powers only far exceed hers as he is the Dark One.
☽☾ Transmutation: She can turn people, and objects, into other things. Such as trapping Sidney in a mirror, essentially turning him into one. To make his mirror more portable she made it into a compact, ect. Those sorts of things.

First Person:
[ The last thing she remembers is the incessant banging of Emma Swan against her office door. An apology she didn't care to hear, nor one she planned to acknowledge. Even selfless acts have consequences. As soon as the train lulls into the station, coming to a stop, Regina finally notices that she isn't sitting on the floor of her office. She's in Ruby City. Panic immediately comes over her. The first concern on her mind, as any mother's would be--

Henry.

She fumbles with the bag she finds and opens up the pocket watch. Fortunately for her she's used to having something of this size to carry around. The buttons are unlabelled, hard to figure out, but her face finally pops up for the network to see.

She's distraught from crying earlier, her eyes are still red, but the glare she gives the watch--

I wouldn't mess with her if I were you. ]

Why am I here, and where is my son? [ She sets her jaw, angling her head to the side. ] His name is Henry Mills and let me make this abundantly clear to whomever I am speaking with.

If you touch one hair on his head, [ She sets the watch down on a ledge and makes a curved motion with her hand, fire igniting in her palm, forming into a ball. ] there will be hell to pay.

I want answers. Now.

[ Tick, tock..

Don't keep a lady waiting. It's rude.

Maybe she is being a little too uptight about this but. . .no. She almost lost her son to a psychopath with a wish for eternal youth. She's not going to apologize for being concerned. Not now and not ever. ]

Third Person:
Gold & Regina