otherisbetter: (You silly bitch)
Other Mother ([personal profile] otherisbetter) wrote in [personal profile] these_balls 2012-08-24 11:26 am (UTC)

Other Mother | Coraline | Reserved

Player
Name: Titty Fish (or just ‘Fish’ if that’s more comfortable for people)
Personal Journal: [personal profile] fishwithtits
E-mail: theycallherawesome@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: N/A
Timezone: AEST +10
Current Characters in Route: None~

Character
Name: Other Mother / The Beldam
Series: Coraline
Timeline: Post-Movie
Canon Resource Links:Wikipedia Article
Part of what makes Other Mother so terrifying is that she literally has no backstory. All you know is what you see of her when she’s with Coraline. It can be assumed she’s been hunting and killing children for at least a few hundred years (what with one of the children using rather old fashioned language), but aside from that, there’s nothing else that explains who she really is or why she is the way she is. The most personal thing we learn about the Other Mother - thanks to the novel - is that she did have a Mother of her own, but apparently buried her alive. No reason is given for this, and for all anyone knows, she could have been lying.

Personality:

On the surface, Other Mother is the perfect parent. She’s loving, patient and incredibly kind, always willing to go the extra mile to make her child happy.

Just to make Coraline smile, Other Mother creates a whole new world full of circus mice, musical performances and singing flowers, without even needing to be asked. She knows what her children want, and she’ll always give it to them, no matter what the cost. On top of being exceptionally kind to her children, Other Mother is actually rather sweet to adults, too. In the world she made for Coraline, you can see that each ‘Other’ version of a person is given everything they’ve ever wanted. Other Mr. B, for example, is given world wide fame thanks to his mice, while Other Miss Sprink and Other Miss Forcible are both given youth, talent and beauty. It appears that anyone her child appears to favor is automatically in Other Mother’s good books, while those who aren’t exactly liked why her child are in the top three on her shit list.

She’s shown to be rather vengeful when it comes to her children. Wybie, who Coraline can’t stand, is recreated in Otherworld without the ability to speak, the Other Mother claiming she ‘fixed’ him to make him for likable in Coraline’s eyes.

In the novel version of Coraline, Other Mother’s love is described to be the same ‘as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold.’ While she, in her mind, honestly loves her children, her expression of said love comes out warped and twisted by her own madness. She believes that to truly love someone, you must possess every part of their being, shown to be quite literal as she takes her children’s eyes and, eventually, soul. In her mind, this is the most sincere form of love, and she struggles to understand why anyone would view her affections as insane. Even during her final showdown with Coraline, she mentions to her that she really does, in fact, care about the girl, and once Coraline leaves, she screams after her, begging her not to leave her, claiming she’ll die without Coraline. Her relationship with Other Father reflects this idea of possessive love, as well. While Other Mother treats him well around the children, she becomes increasingly abusive towards him the more he sides with Coraline. She wants Other Father to adore the children, but she wants to be his top priority; just like she wants to be the top priority in the minds of her kids. The only issue with this is that even when Other Mother is made the main person in another person’s life, she can never get enough love from them. In the novel, it’s explained that the ghost children were kids who contented to having the buttons sewn into their eyes to make them official members of the ‘Other Family’, but were eventually cast aside and eaten by Other Mother due to her belief they didn’t love her enough, as well as her need to feast on children to remain alive. It seems that no amount of affection will ever be enough for her, though she continues to search for the one child who can give her all the love and attention she needs.

She’s incredibly protective because of her love. While many of us would go to great lengths to protect our loved ones, Other Mother is willing to harm her loved ones in order to save them from an even greater threat (whether or not said threat is real is a different issue). For example, she almost kills Coraline, in her mind, to protect her from returning to a world where she isn’t truly loved. Of course, that’s far from true, but Other Mother appears to genuinely believe that things would be better not only for herself, but for Coraline, too, if her child simply stayed in Otherworld.

Other Mother is an exceptional manipulator. No matter how bad things may be going for her, she can always turn it into a positive with a few well placed words and a smile. When Coraline faces her to demand the return of her parents, Other Mother manages to spin her crystal clear guilt into blame on Coraline’s actual parents, telling the girl that she hasn’t done anything, and that they may have moved to France due to being sick of having her as their daughter. While Coraline doesn’t believe it, it does seem to effect her at some level.

She’s also one cocky woman. It’s undeniable. She takes every challenge and honestly believes she’ll win at everything (although whether she wins by playing fair or not is unimportant to her). She agrees to play Coraline’s game and release her and her parents if she wins, but seems amused by the idea of being beaten, making it quite clear she’s damn sure she won’t lose.

All in all, Wu Tang Clan Other Mother ain’t nothing to fuck with.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
STRENGTHS
An exceptional cook
Extremely intelligent
Perceptive: She’s able to read a person very well, as shown by her masterful manipulation of Coraline’s insecurities about her parents.
Excellent memory: Other Mother remembers everything about everyone. No matter how small the detail, she’ll remember it.

WEAKNESSES
Painfully co-dependent on affection: She literally becomes physically ill when she feels like she’s not being loved enough by her children.
Batshit insane
Literally can’t stay still, she’s always tapping her fingers on the nearest surface
Demanding: She may not show it until she’s pushed to the edge, but Other Mother is extraordinarily demanding. She may not want money or clothes or jewels, but it’s almost impossible to meet her demand of affection.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Definitely a breeder. The world needs more love, after all.
Starter: Drifloon
Password: Scrambled Eggs

Samples
First Person Sample: [Other Mother watches the camera blankly, her blinking slow and breathing shallow. The woman clearly isn’t well, and it’s only further proved by the way her hand trembles as it reaches up to brush a strand of hair out of her face.]

Has... Has anyone seen my husband?

[Her voice is weak; tired, even. Almost like she hasn’t slept in days, which, judging by the dark rings around her eyes, she hasn’t.]

I can’t find him.

[A Drifloon floats onto the screen, just above Other Mother’s head. It’s string brushes against her hair in a comforting motion, finally making the exhausted woman a reason to smile.]

I’m sorry, dear. I know you must be jealous I’m talking about another man while you’re around. Don’t worry, though. You’ll always be the man of the house, alright?

Third Person Sample: She found the creature once again trying to kidnap a child. Her dear little Spigtan, the strange purple balloon creature who’d followed her out of that strange house and all the way to the next town over, seemed to have a habit of latching onto children and pulling. It may have been a little amusing, but when the poor dears begun to panic - much like the one Spigtan was currently tugging upwards was - Other Mother was compelled to step in and put a stop to it.

She was careful when unwinding her Drifloon’s string from the girl’s left wrist, doing her best not to harm the child or her dear Pokemon; after all, she couldn’t really blame Spigtan for wanting to grab such an adorable girl. However, it wasn’t exactly appropriate to just take a child. There had to be a need; a desire they had to come away and stay with their Other Mother. Simply grabbing a little one and running... Well, it just wasn’t right in Other Mother’s eyes.

Almost immediately, the girl took off running, tears streaming down her face as she dashed back towards her house. Other Mother turned, cocking an eyebrow at Sprigtan, watching the strange beast bounce up and down, it’s large, beady eyes watching her right back.

Would it be odd to say that some foreign creature appeared to understand he better than her own husband did?

Yes. It would be, and Other Mother wasn’t fond of appearing strange, especially when she was in such a new place and first impressions were oh so important. Still, she smiled softly, wrapped her left pinky around the Drifloon’s string and gave it a gentle, teasing tug. Her smile turned into a grin as the balloon-like creature released almost a giggling noise, it’s string tightening around her finger and pulling it in return.


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