Post by MetallicSweet on Sept 19, 2009 8:56:07 GMT -5
Canon Character Application
My name is Metallic_Sweet and I am 19 years old. I want to join this site because the premise of the roleplay intrigues me, and it has been far too long since I had a romp in the fantastic. I have been roleplaying for five years on and off on LJ (currently at Nation Corp. as Russia) and a few other private forums and I normally post between the 200 to 500 word mark depending upon the nature of the post. Herein lies my application:
Character name:
Francis Bonnefoy (France)
Age:
1000 years, give or take a few hundred; looks to be about in his mid-twenties
Appearance:
Francis is of a lithe build on the tall side. He isn't exactly the most imposing figure, but he is extremely striking with aristrocratic features and thick, long blond hair that he wears often in either a ribbon tied at the nape of the neck or loose. He normally dresses in the latest fashions, normally in boots, and always with gloves.
Underneath his clothing, Francis is modestly muscled and has very little body fat. He has a number of scars, the most noticeable of which are several stab wounds where his heart is from the French Revolution, deep lash marks on his back from the trench warfare of WWI, and burn scars ringing his neck from WWII. He is not ashamed of this scars, although it is his preference that lovers not stare at them too much. Francis does have the whole rest of his body to attend to, oui?
Personality:
A very friendly and talkative sort of man, Francis loves to attend parties and converse about anything from the current political situations to the archaic nuances of Aristotelian philosophy. At one point, he was a rather religious man and trained in theology, but that--along with a lot of other things--got lost somewhere along the way of his many years of life. He is a very easy person to get along with and knows how to have a good time as well as how to best relax even in a stressful situation. He likes to be brotherly and caring for those younger than himself, and he loves to dote upon those who accept his affections.
At the same time, when Francis is not in the company of others, he has a habit towards deep melancholy. Thus, Francis can be rather moody and, at certain moments, quite volatile when crossed. He takes betrayals--even of the very small sort--extremely seriously, and he can nurse a grudge into a full-blown vengeance if left alone for too long.
Occupation:
Francis is an enchanter, particularly adept in those spells which affect a person's perception of events and others. Thus, he is especially skilled in elaborate disguises and mental and emotional manipulation. He is also a very skilled with knives in close combat, although he would prefer not to get his hands dirty. Once he gets his hands dirty, however, all rules go out the window.
Strengths:
An eye for beauty and all things pleasing, Francis is excellent at spotting potential in others and objects. He knows how to work a crowd and is an excellent orator and vocalist. Cooking is one of his best known specialties, and he's also very good at growing vegetables and certain kinds of fruit that are excellent for wine and liqueurs. Passionate in love and in battle, he is force to be reckoned with.
Weaknesses:
All this being said, Francis is intensely mistrustful of other people's true intentions. He isn't exactly paranoid, but he really dislikes it when people start getting too close to him. Asking him deeply personal questions makes Francis close up, especially if they're out of the blue. He also has a habit of saying things people would rather not hear about themselves voiced aloud when riled up.
Backstory:
Don't believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.
- Albert Camus
- Albert Camus
Francis is not entirely sure when he himself as France was born. Give or take a few hundred years, he remembers his early years of life as a mess of forests and sea and nightingales that sang in the night. Francis remembers having brothers at some point--other Frances that looked a little bit like him--, but they all disappeared after a time. Even now, Francis will occasionally wonder what happened to those other Frances; he privately holds a suspicion that his repertoire of knife skills has something to do with all of it.
Francis spent the majority of his childhood fighting with England and alternatively dancing joyously with or trying to murder everyone else in Europe. It was during these years that Francis became increasingly adept in his enchanting prowess, and he developed a great love for both the finest wine and rare, delicate foods. He went through phases of completely over-the-top flamboyance and relative modesty, living always somewhere just between brutal war and gala balls.
During the Enlightenment, however, Francis underwent something of a personality change, one that ended up dividing him between the Beautiful and the Brutal, which had once been one and the same. Helping America gain independence from England after the loss of Canada was probably one of the major factors that facilitated this division in his personality as Francis himself had been increasingly coming to odd between his own duty to his government and his sentiments which lay with his people. This eventually culminated in the French Revolution and several decades wherein Francis flipped back and forth between extremely violent psychotic episodes of severe depression and manic delusions.
By the time Francis pulled himself out of this period of instability, Europe was well on its way into the First World War. France became the battleground in for the Western Front, carving deep trenches into Francis. In the period between the World Wars, Francis went through a quicker version of his manic and depressive episodes, flickering back and forth between the massive activity and deep despair. The Second World War was a complete disaster for France, and Francis's recovery from it was long and arduous.
Currently, Francis is in one of his calmer periods, resembling--if anything--the careful flamboyance of the late Renaissance. For the first time in several centuries, Francis has some time to himself, which he likes to use to catch up on his reading, writing, and magic work. He enjoys playing chess and occasionally competes in fencing tournaments. Lately, he had been maintaining good relationships with most of Europe, Asia, and Canada, although his relationship with America has been rocky in the past decade. Unfortunately for others, Francis's current good mood and relatively good will towards the world means that he's rather free with his hands and magic when in close quarters with most people.
Sample Post:
It's raining in Paris.
Francis opens his umbrella, ducking out of the Sorbonne and hurrying down Boulevard St-Michel, his heels clicking on the pavement. Thankfully, he had had the foresight that morning to wear his waterproof leather YSL boots rather than his new seude Chanels; they would have been quite ruined in the weather.
He catches the end of Mass by the time he arrives at the old St-Severin Church, slipping in through the back door of the old monk's quarters. The lady who works as the head of security glances up from her newspaper and rolls her eyes at him as he hangs his umbrella on the rack.
"<i>Monsieur Bonnefoy</i>," she sighs, shaking her head, "you may live in the basement, but this is still a church."
Francis just laughs, familiar with her good-natured admonishment of his clothing choices, and slips down the old stone staircase. He turns on the heater--the old church had been recently renovated after all--and slips out of his coat and boots, turning his lights on as he goes. Humming cheerfully, he cuts himself a piece of bread and spreads a bit of pâté on it, munching as he sits down, flipping open his lastest acquisition of occult literature from the bookstore next to the Jardin des Plantes.
Sighing contentedly, he leans back on the chaise longue and begins to read.