Character Profile | Destiny's Dance: Nina

CONTAINS SPOILERS

All information is relevant to the time in which the story was written or set.

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Name: Nina Couture

Birthday: 1 August 1979

Age: 39

Species: Human

Gender: Female

Height: 170cm (5'6'')

Status: Unknown (officially declared deceased)

Aliases:

• Ms. Couture
• Le Paon
  

Affiliation:

• The Couture fashion company
• The Order of the Guardians (formerly)
• City of Paris (formerly)
  

Occupation:

• Businesswoman
• Fashion designer
  

Family:

• Marinette Dupain-Cheng (daughter)
• Cheng Xing (former lover)
• Gabriel Agreste (ex-boyfriend) 
  

Appearance:

Nina is a beautiful woman of medium height and thin build. She has a very glamorous and classy appearance, always keeping herself well groomed and dressed, determined to always look her best. This is in large part due to her growing up fairly poor, leading to many other children bullying her over her appearance. Nina has short, golden blonde hair that is styled in a thick bob-cut. Her eyes are a very unique deep blue that often sparkle in the light. She has pale skin and often wears a modest amount of make-up. Nina's attire usually consists of a white, frilly long-sleeved blouse that is tucked into her black pencil skirt that falls just above her knees. She also wears knee-high, black high-heeled boots.

Personality:

Nina is very emotionally unstable, but also a cold and calculating woman. On the surface, she can appear rather charming and quick-witted, wise to social ettiquette, and also innocent looking. Though she does not possess the ability to easily make friends, she is able to manipulate those around her to appear as a rather strong, but kind woman. She has little tolerance for bullies, as seen when Chloe is rude to both her and Marinette, with Chloe reminding her of the children who used to bully her when she was a child. She is very stubborn and determined, almost to the point of obsession. She is hard-working, and a talented fashion designer, which allowed her to rise through the ranks and start her own fashion company, even coming to rival the Gabriel Agreste brand. As a result of her success, she enjoys a life of luxury, often overcompensating due to her deprived upbringing. 

However, due to her traumatic childhood, Nina was already fairly mentally unstable upon reaching adulthood, and struggled to make friends. The only person she felt like she could trust was her best friend, Emilie, and she loved her friend like a sister. However, Nina's relationships are often anything but healthy, often either using people, or becoming obsessed with them. She has difficulty expressing her emotions in a healthy way, often throwing tantrums or becoming aggressive and violent when things don't go her way. She possesses a sharp tongue that she often uses to put other people down and attack them verbally. Her moods can change dramatically from one moment to the next, to a point where many people around her fear her. 

Due to everything that has happened in her life, Nina has severe trust issues and doesn't believe that she can rely on anyone. These traits of her personality were only worsened when Gabriel, a designer she was in love with, and her best friend Emilie started dating. Soon, Nina no longer even trusted Emilie anymore when she was tasked with confiscating her miraculous. Nina also become very power-hungry, even more so when she lost her miraculous, trying obsessively for years to get it back. She was willing to use, manipulate and destroy anybody who got in her way. She was even willing to hypnotize her own daughter, Marinette, for her to use as a mindless slave in her mission of revenge.

History:

Not much is known about Nina's earlier life, other than that she was orphaned at a very young age and was placed in an foster home upon their deaths. She had trouble making friends and often kept to herself as much as possible, and this, coupled with her often scruffy and hand-me-down clothes, made her a target for bullying. At school, other children would tease her, with one of her prime bullies being Audrey, Chloe's mother. It is here where Nina first met Emilie. At the time, Emilie was a new student who stood up to Audrey one day when she had been bullying Nina. Nina was incredibly grateful for this, and the two of them became instant best friends. 

The two remained inseparable for most of their lives, becoming as close as sisters. Emilie helped pay Nina's way through university and the two lived in an apartment together in the city of Paris. Nina began her fashion business, promising to pay Emilie back for all of her support during her life, even offering Emilie a job as an actress and model within her new company. While looking for inspiration for designs, Nina comes across the legends of the miraculous, and she became engrossed, much to Emilie's chagrin at the time. Nina soon became obsessed and came to believe that these magical items were indeed real. She tricked Emilie into taking a trip to China with her under the guise of looking for more fashion inspiration. However, Nina had really wanted to begin looking for the temple of the guardians of the miraculous.

Upon finding the temple, the guardians were shocked at their abilities and determination. This aided in proving themselves to the guardians to become worthy holders of a miraculous. They easily sensed that there was something special about the two women. The decision was ultimately left to the guardian named Master Fu, who bestowed upon Nina the peacock miraculous while the butterfly miraculous went to Emilie. Nina was very excited by the whole situation, while Emilie on the other hand was still in disbelief over everything and the fact that the legends Nina had become obsessed with were true. Futhermore, Emilie was also angered over being obviously tricked into coming to such a place. However, Nina was eventually able to calm Emilie down by explaining to her all of the good they could do now that they were both in possession of a miraculous.

For a while, Nina was very happy with her life. Her business was a continuing success, and both her and Emilie were enjoying being heroes of Paris. They were adored by the citizens, and Nina soon even began dating a fellow up-and-coming fashion designer, Gabriel Agreste. While dating, Nina was very obsessed and clingy, something that ultimately aided in pushing Gabriel away. However, Gabriel and Emilie soon fell in love with each other, with Gabriel ending his relationship with Nina as a result. This broke Nina's heart and she began to resent her best friend, especially when Gabriel and Emilie announced their engagement. Nina was even further hurt and angered when Emilie asked her to be a bridesmaid at her wedding, alongside Audrey. Nina was shocked and betrayed that Emilie had befriended her childhood bully, still resentful over the way Audrey had treated her over the years. The two women fought, with Emilie confessing just how worried she had been over Nina's behaviour and deteriorating mental health. The argument then becomes explosive when Nina threatens to use her miraculous in order to make Gabriel come back to her, disgusting and angering Emilie even more in the process. The two get into a physical altercation, but Emilie expresses her wishes for the two of them to remain friends and that she still wants Nina at her wedding. 

Now that Emilie was preoccupied with other matters, Nina sunk further and further into her obsession for power. Her company continued to grow, she reluctantly attended Emilie's wedding, and she threw herself even more into her work and study of the miraculous. At one point, Emilie even left Nina at the temple of the guardians in the hopes that they could help Nina in some way. At the temple, the guardians kept a close eye on her, and the only way for Nina and Emilie to communicate was through letters. During this time, Emilie gave birth to Adrien, and Nina sent her a letter of congratulations. However, while staying at the temple, Nina overheard a prophecy that she was destined to give birth to the next chosen one of the ladybug miraculous. Nina then siezed this as her opportunity to gain more power. She used a guardian named Xing, who had had a crush on Nina for a while, and seduced him in order to get pregnant. Once she had achieved this, Nina headed back to France, resulting in both Xing and Emilie realising that she was planning something. In turn, Nina also suspected that Xing and Emilie were up to something, and so she fled back to Tibet in order to give birth in secret.

While fleeing, Emilie had managed to track her down before Nina could reach her hiding place deep in the mountains. The two of them battled, and all of the stress caused Nina to go into a very difficult labour. Emilie remained by Nina's side and helped her give birth to her baby girl in the middle of a snow storm. Nina was fading away fast due to blood loss and exposure, and she desperately wanted to hold her baby, only for Emilie to begin backing away. Nina screamed and pleaded with her friend, but was ultimately abandoned and left to die alone on the mountain, while Emilie took the baby away to safety and took the peacock miraculous with her. 

On the verge of death, a hiker named Leon stumbled across Nina in the storm. He was also someone who had heard of the legend of the miraculous and was in search of the temple in the hopes of gaining their powers. In return for his help and service, Nina promised him as many miraculous as he would like. Leon agreed, and helped take Nina to safety, carrying her back down to the nearest village where a helicopter rescue was called for her. Nina then spent the next few weeks in hospital, recovering and planning her next move. She figured that the first place she should check was wherever Xing was, figuring that Emilie had probably left her baby with him as he was the father. This indeed turned out to be correct, as the two had been under the assumption that Nina had died on the mountain. Due to this, Nina easily tracked him down just as Emilie discovered that Nina was still alive. Emilie raced to Xing's home, but Nina had already beaten her there. Xing was attempting to flee with the baby when Nina had intercepted him. Xing handed the baby over to Emilie and begged her to escape with her while he distracted Nina. As Emilie managed to escape, Nina murdered Xing in a fit of rage. 

Not much was known about Nina's whereabouts after Emilie escaped with the baby, who's aunt and uncle, Tom and Sabine, had adopted and named Marinette. However, Nina was determined to track down her daughter and gain the power of the ladybug miraculous as a result. At some point, Nina made it back to the temple of the guardians where she sneaked her way through the temple and murdered all of the monks apart from Master Fu who managed to escape with the miracle box. 

Over the next fourteen years, Nina attempted to track down Marinette while also avoiding being captured by Emilie. She moved from place to place until one day, the two former best friends came across each other again in the temple. Emilie was now determined to finish things properly and defeat Nina once and for all, however, she was shocked to find Nina in a depressive state. She began threatening to open the long sealed portal of the rip in time and space caused by previous ladybug and black cat miraculous holders. Emilie tried to talk her out of it, but Nina ignored her and opened the portal. Before she could be sucked in and scattered into atoms, Emilie grabbed hold of her and tried to save her. She again pleaded with Nina and stated that she just wanted to help. However, Nina then caught Emilie by surprise by stating that she can never forgive Emilie for everything she had done and then yanked on Emilie's arm so that she would lose her balance and grip. 

Nina walked away, not once looking back as her life-long best friend was pulled into oblivion. With her main obstacle out of the way, she could now fully focus on finding Marinette and gaining back her lost power. 

Powers:

As the wielder of the peacock miraculous - 

• Improved strength, speed and agility.
• The power to sieze control of her enemies' minds so they become her slaves.
• Improved fighting skills.
• Yielding the peacock fan as a powerful weapon.
• The ability to better recover from physical harm/attacks. 

Trivia:

• The name 'Nina' means 'little girl' or 'innocence', which was meant to be ironic and represent her childish emotional state. It is also a popular girl's name in France. 'Couture' translates to 'sewing' in French, a reference to her occupation and gift of fashion designing. 
• Nina was inspired by a mixture of people I have known in real life. However, the idea of her character was first created when I noticed that Marinette did not possess the same colour eyes of either of her parents, making me jokingly question her parentage.
  
• At the time of writing, the identity of the peacock miraculous holder was still unknown, and most suspected it to be Emilie, so I thought it would be an interesting twist to have Nina as the former miraculous holder instead. 
• Due to the powers of the peacock miraculous being unknown at the time of writing, her powers were inspired by the symbolism of the peacock and its seemingly close relation to the butterfly miraculous. 
• Peacocks are known to be beautiful, prideful animals, much like Nina herself. 
• The blue of Nina's eyes also match the deep blue feathers of the peacock.
• Le Paon was the name that was originally thought to belong to mysterious peacock miraculous holder before it was revealed to be Nathalie as 'Mayura'. 'Le Paon' translates to peacock in French, however, the grammar is incorrect and not realised by me at the time of writing. Technically, her superhero alias should have been 'La Paonne' as Nina is female. This is a translation error that is now too late for me to rectify.