Unicorn Pierrot (Ready!)

[The-Jaded-Bug]

Roleplay Type: World of Equestria RP

Name: Pierrot (PE-eh-row or Pyeh-row)

Sex: Male

Age: Young stallion

Species: Unicorn

Eye colour: A pale, grey-ish blue (#6699CC)

Coat: Ghost white (#F8F8FF)

Mane/Tail: Black (#1F1F1F) with royal blue highlights (#002366). Both are rather wavy, with his mane protruding his face yet not quite covering his eyes. While the tip of his tail hovers just above the ground, his mane just barely inches past his back.

Physique: About as tall as most stallions, Pierrot maintains an agile frame that serves best for quirky hijinks built on stage magic, a secular range of tumbling with a pinch of acrobatics, and circus-induced whimsy. His strength beyond that isn't much useful, however, as he isn't quite athletic in the conventional, jock-that-can-run-the-marathon-and-lift-twice-their-own-size sense.

Residence: Formally on the road by his lonesome, usually being seen about in towns or cities, or at least traveling in the direction of one. Ever since leaving the circus, he’s hadn't a real home to speak of, minus whatever he managed to live on at a day-by-day basis. Though he has now joined The Traveling Players, he doesn't quite have a home base for himself outside of tours and general troupe shenanigans.

Occupation: Once disbanded from his parents' troupe, he was traveling street performer and mime artist in his own right, at one point lacking a stable, concrete job. On-going wanderlust aside, Pierrot was on the move due to searching for a place in the world of theatre...of which, while were certainly sects for non-verbal ponies such as himself in the performing arts, depending of where one l;ooked, he had the tendency to search for roles in all the wrong places.

However? Still being able to do what he loves, joining "Celestia's Court" as some call it, has changed his job luck for the better.

Cutie Mark: The comedy (grey) and tragedy (blue) masks overlapping by the chin, with the overlapped section coloured a deep blue as though the middle of a venn diagram. The comedy's smile appears asymmetrical while the tragedy's frown is replaced/hidden by the venn diagram-like middle. Both are surrounded by four golden yellow stars.

The hidden frown of the tragedy mask represents a few things: How Pierrot tends to prefer comedy over the latter in his routines (both archaically and in today's usage), and those occasional moments where he’s prone to ‘mask’ his sadness for the wellbeing of others, even at his own expense. The lop-sided smile of the comedy mask represents his creativity as well how he can be particularly expressive – even if it's not through talkative means. As for the overlapped bit and the stars, the former links both masks as two intertwining forces; the latter merely shows that he's a bit of a dreamer.

He received his around mid foalhood. The troupe settled down for a few days of rest within the countryside, and the colt’s aunt – known as Golden Curl or “The Bearded Mare” while performing – was teaching him how to balance on a ball. Whilst following her instructions, he could barely stand on the large sphere without losing his balance, the only thing preventing a painful fall each time being Curly as his spotter. Disappointed by his lack of progress, the young colt was about to give up on the ordeal when the mare had halted him to a stop. With that, she said the following:

“But mon petit poney, it is just as important to learn how to fall as it is to perform! Consider it as part of an act.”

With that in mind, Golden Curl quite literally taught him such: Lessons on balancing were put aside, and they acquired a practice mat used for stunts to review landing techniques. While he may have known how to position himself in case he fell without a spotter, he hadn’t quite learned how to ‘fall with style’ per say. It was a surprisingly fun little activity which was put into practice with a few tumbling techniques, and after that and a small lunch break, the two went back to practice and set the ball onto the mat.

The young Pierrot wasn’t perfect, and he again was spotted for his falls, but he was growing better with each try as the afternoon went on. Some of the troupe’s performers, mainly other relatives as opposed to his immediate family, began to watch him practice from a distance before eventually surrounding the foal like an audience, and at one point even attained near-perfect balance…until he had rolled the ball under his hind legs a little too fast, and Golden Curl wasn’t fast enough to catch him. The unicorn foal would have landed hard on his back, at least had he not managed to use what he’d learned to angle himself just enough amid the fall to land the other way. With quick thinking, he made a speedy summersault as soon as he landed on the mat, the witty save – once shown that he was okay – having prompted the familial audience to laugh heartily and hoofclap for his amusing showmareship.

Wearing a wide grin the young colt had bowed, barely even noticing his Cutie Mark's presence until after the fact.

History:

Being the youngest of Commedia and Lunaire’s two sons, Pierrot comes from a long line of ringmasters who run Circo dell'Arte. Though he is of both Itailian and rather Fancy descent, his family’s troupe being on the move, along with tall-tale retellings from extended family of his circumstances, makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact locale of his birth. Either way, being raised in a circus brought forth happy memories as well as its tiresome growing pains.

In normal circumstances, or at least “normal” as far as the family business went, oddities of all sorts have always been received with open hooves – that is, if they didn’t get in the way of – or even better: If said oddity enhanced – a performance. Being one of two direct airs of the troupe’s most important members made way for plenty of pressure, and when compared to his flashy and rather vocal brother Harlequin, Pierrot’s muteness made it quite clear that the elder would presume the role as the future owner of the circus. After all, what was a ringmaster without a compelling voice? While his brother’s life had been planned out to a vigorous degree, the younger of the two was left with, more often than not, in the care of a certain floofy facial-haired aunt, as well as with Circo’s illusionist, his uncle Phantasm, on occasion.

Though never intended from the start, Lunaire and Commedia didn’t know what to make of his condition, and their unassuming lack of attention from both sire and dam made it so that he was never quite as close to them as many are to their parents. Still, it wasn’t as though he was left in complete neglect, and aunt Curly and uncle Phan did their best to ensure that, in spite of the circumstances, he still had as happy of a foalhood as anypony could have.

His intermediate years were, in his mindset, not the greatest in retrospect. Cutie mark notwithstanding, finding one’s place in the world is not always easy for a pony, and Pierrot found it increasingly harder to, pun not intended, find his voice within the family-run circus. Exactly why he left isn’t exactly lucid upon explanation, but one thing was clear: He often found himself typecasted amongst the sidelines, usually as somepony’s assistant fool or working behind the scenes, roles that didn't quite emphasize his theatrical strengths. Piling that with a growing case of sibling rivalry, and perhaps a pinch of heartbreak involving his former colthood sweetheart, a renaissance mare – or filly in this case – named Colombina (try as you might, he normally doesn’t like talking – figuratively – about the specifics behind the breakup), one could say that bad luck was ever pertaining before he struck out on his own.

As one may figure from what was mentioned beforehoof, he's been on the road ever since he reached the cusp of stallionhood, eventually coming across and joining The Traveling Players. With nothing in his possession but his talents, will, and the occasional random object he finds that serve useful performance-wise, Pierrot is making his mark in the world, one performance at a time.

Character Summary:

Sentimental yet playful, Pierrot is an animated young stallion for a pony who can’t vocally speak. Since even a story-less, acrobatic performance containing bright/gaudy costumes requires a stirring act, and because as opposed to in spite of his mutism, it’s easy to say that this prevalent quirk had been retained and honed relentlessly whilst living amongst the circus, even when out of the spotlight. Bearing an outward streak of upbeat perseverance, he may come off as rather naïve to a seemingly comical degree, especially when in the face of new encounters of many sorts: For example, Pierrot has been known to thrown mini-performances – usually with harmless, amusing (though nothing huge-scale) stage magic during interviews for temporary odd-jobs, even when said interview is not related to his actual expertise. Though his spontaneity can make for some pretty irrational premises, his tendency to try and impress is most often met with genuine intention.

For convenience sake, of course, he’ll write things down that he needs to ‘say’ so to speak. Yet even then, he has a fondness for using illusion magic (mainly caricatured, even cartoon-like representations of living beings and objects as opposed to overpowered grandeur) and various gestures with both fore and hind legs to get the (literal) message across whenever he can get away with it – charades in other words, though with a pinch of magic.

Though perhaps not a total living example of the ‘sad clown’ archetype, Pierrot’s special talent pertains to the performing arts, whether through improv or within the means of many a visual gag and expressive fancy – and in particular, seeing ponies light up to what he shares and pours his heart into is what, to him, makes it all worth it. Due to this – especially as a colt – he was prone to putting more value in the audience, or just about anyone he would perform for, over that of himself, sometimes to the point of disregarding his own worth. While he’s grown as a person since such brooding habits, on rare occasion he might lapse within these seemingly forlorn thoughts, particularly when he’s down on his luck. Through and through however, inspite of being on the go having its drawbacks, Pierrot still manages on his own with a steady stride, the young the unicorn’s buoyant moxie still urging him on.

Picture/Reference:

Most likely one of my best OC drawings yet. *-* Also, the words written in the pic are bits and pieces from

Listen and weep, my pretties

[Rosewind]

Hi, is this application ready for review soon? Please tag it as [Ready] when it is!

[The-Jaded-Bug]

Oi, not quite. I've been a busy bug, but his application I do plan on getting done. :3

[colour=#FF0000]Edit:[/colour] Finished I am!

[SonicRainboomGirl]

How do you say his name?

[The-Jaded-Bug]

How do you say his name?

Roughly speaking, it can either be pronounced "PE-eh-row" or "Pyeh-row", if you're going by the English pronunciation (Pierrot is named after a stock character/a type of clown known in French pantomime/Commedia dell'Arte).

...so uh, yeah. Sorry about that. Will add that to his application, because Fancy names are too Fancy not to have them.

[Dio]

Still waiting for Harlequin to make an appearance

[The-Jaded-Bug]

Still waiting for Harlequin to make an appearance

Silly Dio, don't you mean Lovestrong? Er, I mean, there's always a chance I may app him too at some point, though not at the moment. Because Sibling Wars: The Older Brother Strikes Back would totally be worth the wait.

[flutterscotch]

I get the impression that Pierrot was rather groomed by his family to be an illusionist, and he ended up spectacular at pantomime. Illusion magic is supposed to be fairly difficult though, and his special talent is definitely a complex mixture of making people laugh and masking his own feelings, not necessarily illusion magic, which is a dicey subject within board canon as it is.

HOWEVER, I am 100% OK if his "illusion magic" is really just regular lifting things in a fine tuned manner. If the magic users in the troupe just as a family secret perfected the art of ethereally manipulating a particulate matter like glitter? The audience wouldn't know the difference...plus it'd be SPARKLIERER! It would be great if he could hone his skills one day to actually form words above his head!

Prench-Itailian Hmm. Prance hasn't been officially incorporated into the map. I get it, I get that the accent definitely exists in-universe, but I am trying to think of what you can call it without referencing a place that technically doesn't exist!

Also, is he left in care of both his aunt the bearded lady, and his aunt the illusionist?

Other than that he is fantastic and well thought out. I want to snuggle his little face

[Rosewind]

Hi, we're waiting on some clarification on this application. Please reply to us soon or we'll need to remove it. Thanks!

[The-Jaded-Bug]

I get the impression that Pierrot was rather groomed by his family to be an illusionist, and he ended up spectacular at pantomime. Illusion magic is supposed to be fairly difficult though, and his special talent is definitely a complex mixture of making people laugh and masking his own feelings, not necessarily illusion magic, which is a dicey subject within board canon as it is.

HOWEVER, I am 100% OK if his "illusion magic" is really just regular lifting things in a fine tuned manner. If the magic users in the troupe just as a family secret perfected the art of ethereally manipulating a particulate matter like glitter? The audience wouldn't know the difference...plus it'd be SPARKLIERER! It would be great if he could hone his skills one day to actually form words above his head!

Prench-Itailian Hmm. Prance hasn't been officially incorporated into the map. I get it, I get that the accent definitely exists in-universe, but I am trying to think of what you can call it without referencing a place that technically doesn't exist!

Also, is he left in care of both his aunt the bearded lady, and his aunt the illusionist?

Other than that he is fantastic and well thought out. I want to snuggle his little face

Oi vey. Where have I been all this time?

Anyhow, time for critique respondence!

1. While you've definitely an interesting suggestion for ammending the whole illusion bit, I wasn't even intending him to be an uber amazing illusionist in the first place. *-* I thought that mentioning being 'caraictured' would have given the intended implication that it was just that: Cariactured. Mostly just symbols and figments that, while they may be used to form shapes and the like with particular concentration, don't even begin to measure into something close to, say enveloping an entire area in realistic, dramatically overpowered glamour. Basically, at most, it's just something that would be amusing to see in a performance for its novelty instead of how 'ermerger eets AMAZING'ness, and likely to be used when trying to communicate to somepony without words (therefore explaining why he normally doesn't nail a lot of jobs, since they're more nonsencical than impressively overpowered).

Perhaps it could even be said that it aids in his special talent, as opposed to seeming completely different from it (as it involves both making ponies happy as well portraying emotion - whether he hides it or otherwise). Mentioning Phantasm* was just a way to hint at explaining how he even managed aquire even that level of magic usage, as opposed saying that he had a higher percentile of magic mastery.

Also --- and I'm really really sorry for coming off as a pest, Scotchie. I don't like arguments, and I know you and the others have dealt with people nitpicking at your critiques while completely missing the point of them --- Rarity, while it's generally assumed that finding gems is the only thing she can do beyond telekinesis, may also have used illusion magic in "Suited For Success" for the scenery surrounding the Mane 6's attire near the end (skip to 18:35 to save time). If going by the notion that Twi's didn't help behind the scenes or something, it appears that the Element of Generosity has plenty more powerful illusion magic that mister mutepony, hmm?

2. Fixed that tout de suite (right away). Replaced Prench with Fancy. Yeah. Not the most ideal way of going about that, but it'll have to do.

* = 3. Oh. And the illusionist is his uncle, not another aunt. I read the app over and added a word or two here and there to make it a little more clear.

4. And because I'd rather not finish on a sour note....aww, thanks Scotchie. I think he'll appreciate all the snuggles he can get. Poor guy.

And for what was mentioned in note number 1, I'm just gonna wait to see what your/anyone elses' thoughts are as far as magic usage goes, so I won't make too many edits beyond what was listed under 2 and 3 until there's either a final say or more persuasion/replies indicating to make the changes as listed. Jadebug shall be ah waiting~

[flutterscotch]

I am definitely going to disagree about illusion magic for Rarity because she's a primadonna and would use it all the time if she could, but for Pierrot...are we talking just lit up slightly glowing shapes and sparkles and stuff like that? Like that part of Fantasia where the music is suggesting shapes?

[The-Jaded-Bug]

^A point you do raise, yeah, that's very intention for the most part - they don't quite exactly fill up an entire room, but yeah. It's more of something that he might on certain occasions use in acts, or charades and the like. Or both. Sillyllusions of lightheartedness they are, m'dear Mamascotch.

[flutterscotch]

Keep it in with the tone of the show, missy.

As long as it's kept somewhat simple and not actually genuinely fooling any adult ponies (foals are fooled easily though, and that's fine) you should be good