soheartless | Plotting Post!

Plotting Post!

For anyone interested in taking part in this plot, So here's the lowdown on these heart shards.

First of all, Mytho is originally a Prince from a storybook called The Prince and The Raven. Once he came out of the story to enter reality, he sealed the Raven away by using his sword to pierce his heart. These shards were scattered somewhat randomly throughout Gold Crown Town, and most of them wound up seeking out hearts with matching emotions to enter.

Basically, there's a total of 16 known heart shards that each are associated with a different emotion or aspect of one's being. One of them is actually the pendant that allows Duck to become Princess Tutu, and then there are 5 which only come into play in the last episodes. At his current canon point, Mytho has 10 of these heart shards, and he will lose them all upon entry of Luceti.

The way each heart shard works is that they will try to "enter" the heart of someone expressing the matching emotion. The heart shard appears to the person as a red-tinted version of Mytho and will sometimes speak to them to convince them that they're right in following that emotion. The victim seems oblivious to the whole process and will instead begin practicing out the corresponding emotion in excess. This usually produces effects that are negative but not necessarily evil (but they can be). Duck's pendant will eventually detect the presence of the heart shard, and she will confront the victim as Princess Tutu. She uses dance in order to convince the person to stop indulging in that emotion, usually by helping them through their insecurities while dancing with them, in order to get the heart shard to vacate their body. The heart shard will then take on the form of a red stone, and Tutu returns it to Mytho.

Those are tha basics; some specifics may vary depending on the individual shard. But here's a list of them all and a little summary to give you an idea of how they can make characters act - as well as of course to help you choose one to infect your own character with.

*Disappointment: This shard infects an anteater girl named Anteaterina when she was disappointed that Rue saw no potential for her to become as skilled a ballerina as she herself. Acting out of his bitter disappointment, she tried to get revenge on Rue by taking her boyfriend/dance partner and tried to take her place in the advanced class, taking it out on Mytho when she failed. Her own dance also became something much more destructive until Princess Tutu helped her to become comfortable with her heart's true style of dancing, overcoming her disappointment.
*Loneliness: This shard comes to Ebine, whose chef husband has died. Her own cooking has been subpar, but the loneliness shard causes her to force people to try to keep eating her cold and flavorless food forever, while throwing anyone who refuses out of the restaurant. Tutu manages to find her husband's old recipes, which she uses to help her get through her loneliness.
*Sorrow: This shard goes to the ghost of a maiden who died of grief after her love was unrequited. This makes her tempt Mytho with a sprig of rosemary, which would take him to the land of the dead.
*Affection: This shard goes to, of all things, the spirit of a lamp. The lamp liked to show affection by providing a light for others, but she was forgotten by those important to her. Under the influence of the shard, the lamp spirit tries to capture Mytho so that he exclusively receives the affection of her light.
*Fear: This shard infects Paulamoni, the leading lady of a ballet troupe. She had lived up to her dream of portraying Aurora in Sleeping Beauty and was afraid to dream again. This shard enhanced her fear so that she came to panic on-stage. Unlike with the other shards, this time it is Paulamoni's husband who is able to guide her past her fear with his words. The shard is then separated from her and flees Princess Tutu until she can reclaim it.
*Desire for Knowledge This shard is another odd one. Instead of infecting a person, it becomes part of a river and delights in endlessly asking questions of those who talk to it. It actually speaks to Mytho and draws him into the river without threatening his breathing to ask him more questions. This shard was captured by Kraehe at first, and its innocent questioning of Rue helped to drive her into a breakdown, but eventually Tutu was able to return it to Mytho.
*Devotion: This shard infected a painter named Malen. Rue was among the many subjects she painted, but this shard caused her to devote herself into painting only Rue, and it would hurt for her to try otherwise.
*Regret: This shard goes to Fakir's adoptive father, Karon. It enhances his regrets about raising Fakir, which causes him to be harsh on Fakir and to encourage him to give up on his current endeavors so that he won't feel regret. When Tutu dances with him, she excises the regret shard by convincing him to have faith in Fakir.
*Love: This heart shard is unique in that it does not infect anyone. It instead takes on the form of a pendant that passes hands several times. Rue managed to pull it out as it was re-entering Mythos, which had a negative effect on him and made him temporarily lose his other emotions. The climax of the first part of the anime is then Rue and Duck both dancing to try to earn the favor of the love shard, and eventually Duck is the victor. The shard is reunited with Mytho, but it is later revealed that the shard was doused in raven's blood by Rue, which causes him to gain the persona of the Prince of Crows. This shard will still have that infection in Luceti.
*Pride: The straggling last of the 'normal' heart shards, this one winds up infecting a Ghost Knight. In his life, the knight had carried out his duty with pride and had even killed his own lover when he discovered that she was an enemy spy. Even though the knight's battle had ended, the pride shard drove the knight's ghost to keep battling over and over to carry on his pride. Tutu convinced him that this duty was over to get him to relinquish his pride and rest in peace.

So yeah. All that tl;dr aside, if you're interested in having a character affected by one of the shards, comment with the shard of your choosing as well as any initial ideas, and we'll work something out! Of course, with the number of shards, they will be spread out over time, so some volunteers may have some wait until their turn comes.

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So. Richard recently lost one of his closest friends as well as a pretty good chunk of CR over the past few months. Top that off with some self-identity issues, and he's feeling this in spades right now. HE IS BASICALLY A PILE OF MISERY. Anything that can help make this better would be awesome, even if it means making it temporarily worse first. LET'S DO THIS.

Edit: I'll probably have some ideas tomorrow when it isn't... you know, 4 AM.

Edited 2013-05-14 08:04 (UTC)

That of course sounds great! And of course no need for specific ideas right off the bat - there's still time to think things out especially since I still have to actually IC intro Mytho and such lol.

The only things I can think of based on the description you gave are... fairly dark, so I suppose it all depends on what you wanna do with it!

I'm thinking Devotion would be cool for Teddy, seeing how he feels it all the time with Billy. In which case, the effect will be that if he looks at anyone other than Billy, even just a glance, he'll feel physical pain until he's looking away.

Akai brought up something that I'm curious about as well - if Billy figures out something is wrong and tries to remove the shard with his magic, would he succeed, or would it just cause something else to happen?

~~IF ONLY BILLY KNEW THAT IF HE DIDN'T DO THAT HE COULD WATCH TEDDY DANCING~~

The effect definitely sounds fine. And the idea of Billy possibly removing it? Hm well in the show not all the shards had to be removed by Princess Tutu - in the episode with the fear shard, it's the woman's husband who talks her through her problems and gets it excised from her. So yeah I think I would be willing to go through with Billy being able to take it out.

Vash has been feeling this a LOT lately. He lost his entire family in one hit that was three adults and one child. Then on top of that he's lost about 98% of his close friends shortly after. Those 2% who are left haven't been talking to Vash and he's lost touch so the guy has been feeling incredibly lonely although he doesn't try to outwardly show it.

He has been spending nearly everyday since Jan contemplating how empty his life had felt and how to get Noah the child that was lost back. He's been losing the reason and thought process as to why he use to care about making friends before when he knew people could and often would leave at any given moment.

This is also one of the feelings Vash most fears. So he's basically wallowing in an endless cycle of not wanting to feel lonely yet unable to bring himself to want to reach out anymore as people just get hurt in the long run and he's so very tired of hurting all the time.

Let me know if you'd like to plot at all or if you if find someone else who fits the bill better. As Vash could also very easily fit the bill for Regret in all that he's failed to do back home in Gunsmoke like keeping people alive to here in Luceti that he wasn't able to save and protect Noah from being taken away. I could also say he could make a good bid for disappointment. (Lol, of course, I'm just saying different ones he can fill if say someone had a really good idea for loneliness and would like Vash to pick up something else. Or whatever!)

He seems good for loneliness! That definitely seems like a rut that Tutu could perhaps help him out of. I wonder how it would manifest for him - in the canon, it winds up with a mix of the infected being clingy with people and pushing others away.

Hm, that would be hard to show as that would require CR that Vash just doesn't really have anymore. At least the clingy bit. Otherwise he'd mostly be pushing people away. Perhaps more noticeably then before? As while Vash has been not really out wanting to make good friendships he's also not been actively avoiding people or avoiding small talk/helping people out when he can.

He could just become that grumpy guy at the bar who scoffs at anyone who tries to talk to him about anything.

I see... yeah, however you feel would be best to play it. The bar could probably be a way to go in showing that. If so, then it would primarily just be a matter of how Duck would come across him.

He already spends a lot of time at the bar so that wouldn't be TOO far of a stretch for him. And she could possibly run into him while say he's out eating lunch (he avoids his apartment a lot because it hurts him how empty it is now) or someplace where he's avoiding his house and he's being a seclusive - quiet kind of guy.

Makes sense on both counts. And of course lol Duck is Bayley's character so it probably should be her to talk over how the encounter would happen, but shouldn't be much trouble.

Tossing Eley out as a possibility though I don't have any ideas of the exact effects of this yet. :|9

Basically he already has a lot of regrets about things back home (killing others, not being able to save someone he's very fond of) and now he has even more regret in Luceti for allowing Ganon to possess him not so long ago which led to him attacking and harming his friends. :'D

Which has naturally led to a certain degree of fear as well. He's afraid of allowing himself to be manipulated again, of being too weak to resist it and of hurting his friends again... or worse.

I will try and think of some possible effects of this today but if you have any thoughts feel free to let me know! ;3;

Sounds good so far. There has been another potential for the fear shard so perhaps regret can be the one. That will pretty much make him wallow in regret and roughly discourage others from doing things they could regret instead of having faith in them. But yes, take your time in thinking up possible effects.

Frederic recently got back and found out a lot of his friends are no longer in Luceti, so at the very least he feels disappointment. So he has a lot of disappointment feelings.

If you'd like that, that could be a thing! And we can talk out specifics whenever they come to us; off the bat I wonder if there's some fun way his piano-playing could be used for how he's affected.

That sounds good to me. ♥ And yeah, I was hoping to use piano playing as a way to show how he's affected.

That could definitely be fun! In the show the anteater girl channels her disappoinment in bitter spite towards the one who caused her disappointment - maybe one idea could be him crafting negative songs about the departed friends?

Ah yeah, I remember that from the series (I'm a big fan of Tutu, I forgot to say) and I think it can be arranged.

I think I'd like to nab this one for Artemis if it's alright? It's a lot of her fears and insecurities that play a part in what drives her to do what she does and be what she is, not to mention the whole 'hide who you are at any cost' phase she goes through for a while there. She got past it with her team back home after like a year, but she's in a new place again and still wavering on how much to trust the people here, the strangers she doesn't know and who dont know her back.

That sounds quite legitimate! It could make her back off from people she's close to - and maybe get paranoid about people finding out the truth about her? Whatever you want to go with!

I think coupled with Helios' open-mindedness and willingness to learn about new cultures and things like that this would be a perfect fit for him. Not sure what the effects could be...but I guess they would be stronger and an amplification of his already curious mind. >3>

That could definitely be fun. That shard doesn't wind up possessing anyone in the show, but the way it acts is just constantly asking questions, so that could be one way to go. To just keep on questioning all kinds of minor things.

Loki had several of those in spades (regret, loneliness, disappointment, desire for knowledge, even pride maybe) so he's there if you want to throw one at him.

We talked this over to plurk, but just to record it: Loki is at a maybe for pride or otherwise would be next in line if disappointment or possibly one of the others your listed becomes vacant.

Hi! I would love to join this plot if it's fine with you?

I think Affection will be an interesting shard for her to end up with. Seeing how Adalinda desperately wants affection to validate herself and be acknowledged but, at the same time, can be too affectionate and become clingy and mercurial towards the ones she cares for in fear of them leaving her again.

And I can wait for a long time for my hypothetical turn comes since the shards did take a while to grow in people, so to speak, that ended up with it and took another while for people to notice the differences of the people and Duck to realize it before dancing it out of them. Hope you don't mind me coming in here eep.

Of course this is fine! New and old are welcome to volunteer, and this sounds like a good plan.

And yes, I was thinking something like that. Since of course we can't just clear through all the heart shards in a week, each heart shard encounter will be spaced out over the course of probably the next few months. The heart shards could potentially arrive in Luceti separately, so it can be up to the individual volunteers when they get infected/how long it takes for it to overtake the person/how long until Duck becomes aware of the shard.

Yay! I'm so excited.

I can definitely be down with that happening. The shards coming in separately at different times will be an interesting spin to the plot instead of them entering at the same time so it can build up. It was never stated how long the shards were in the people/things/spirits and how it slowly/quickly it escalated/changed their initial feelings so are those the details you're okay with us deciding for our character if it's okay with you? I already have an idea of how this will go.

(Plus some shards went into a lamp and a ghost as you pointed out in the post so a lot of things are possible.

~~I'll also send you a PM some time later explaining the rough idea of the plans I'm having.~~)

This is more like a question than anything, because rofl damn you I was just going to look this over for interest's sake but ended up getting an idea for the Pride shard, which I think Loki also showed interest in.

ANYWAYS. I'm more than satisfied just being on the backburner for things if people change their minds, but what actually is the time frame for this/what order are you going in? The way it's listed, or?

I'm still thinking it over and should probably confer more with Bayley about it - it will probably depend in part on free time and such. But I'm thinking of possibly spacing it out over the next few months, perhaps a few per month? I didn't think I'd get this many responses this fast so I'm trying to think up what the best plan should be.

The order itself is also not yet set. I had been intending to do them in the story order? But I may adjust it to pretty much be in order of whose ideas wind up coming together cohesively first. That way if some people aren't sure about how to play it, they have more time to think it over and such. And yes, Shikamaru can wait right there on the backburner - the Loki mun is uncertain of it herself so maybe there's a chance of getting it.

Makes sense! And cool, I'll keep an eye on it.

Also rofl, yes, it filled up quickly. IT'S A GOOD PLOT, THOUGH, MAN (I asked my question in part for stalking purposes too). Have fun with it!

Thanks, Pi! And ha you won't have to stalk too hard, I'll probably link things on plurk as they occur.

I would love to get in on this somehow but I'm not entirely certain how to pull it off. :|a

Hmm yeah things did fill up much more quickly than I expected, lol. If you have any heart shards in mind for either of your characters, you can run them by me and I'll keep them in mind in case anyone winds up backing out.

I don't have anything in mind at all, actually! It's a vague 'Ooh, want to play with this' sort of thing, especially after seeing how fast everyone pounced. I'll keep an eye out if openings pop up, I can probably find a reason/excuse for most any of them (except love) for Knives, though Alba's far more limited to the blatantly negative angles.

Ah, understood. Of course, even without getting any heart shards themselves, there's always the possibility of playing off of those who do while they are affected. And otherwise we'll see what other opportunities arise as the plot progresses.

I do want to play (and have started watching your series. :( ) I'm just unwilling to try to gank something from someone whos' already laid claim to stuff. At worst, Vash is a good loop in on stuff, even if not directly affected!

That's definitely noted (and that's cool!), and yeah, I myself don't want to have to pick and choose (to think at first I thought almost thought that ten would be too many!), so we'll see how things go with those who've volunteered so far.

Loneliness triggered Ami's canon dark magical girl arc.

Desire for Knowledge certainly fits her role as senshi of knowledge.

If either of those would be workable/wanted.

Thank you! For now, I'm going with those who answered first, but if any of those positions wind up opening, I'll know to consider Ami next. Feel free to think up ideas just in case!

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Plotting Post!

Sorrow

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Loneliness:

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Regret or Fear?

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Disappointment

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Fear?

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Desire for Knowledge

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Affection

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I'm in another account, I'm so sorry.

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