Post by Francis Bonnefoy on Feb 22, 2012 9:03:09 GMT -5
IC
Character Name: Francis Bonnefoy
Nationality: French
Gender: Male
Birthday: 07/14
Age: 28 (year of birth: 1983)
Education: he attended école élémentaire, collège and lycée in Grenoble, then graduated in Paris, Sorbonne University, with an Art bachelor degree.
Occupation: currently unemployed (see history)
Family:
Mother: Denise Bonnefoy
No siblings.
Nephews: Matthew and Alfred
Hometown: He's born in Montreal, but immediately after his birth his mother moved back to France and to the city where she usually worked, Grenoble. He has lived there until he was 18 years old, when he moved to Paris.
Starting Town: Paris, France
Brief History:
Francis' mother, Denise Bonnefoy, is a famous physics professor and researcher in the field of nuclear energy. At the beginning of her career, one of her first jobs brought her to Quebec, where she met a man who was quite older than her. They had an intense love story which resulted in her being pregnant and giving birth to a blond baby, whom they named Francis. Shortly after his birth, though, Denise was called by the research center in Grenoble (where she had studied and done her PHD), where they had a place ready for her in the research field she was most interested in.
She decided to go back to France, put an end to her relationship with the man and went back home together with her newborn son.
In Grenoble, Francis spent a wealthy childhood. Her mother came from a wealthy family, which had supported her a lot during her studies and did the same as she had to grow up a child on her own and with a job who required her to be away from home way longer than a lonely parent could afford to.
As for his relationship with his father, Francis was brought back to Canada to meet him for the first time when he was 6 years old, during another job trip his mother did. From that time on, he managed to go to Canada every couple of years, during his summer vacations, and therefore he kept in touch with the Canadian side of the family.
Of course, he had no hard feelings towards his father for never coming to France too see him; actually, he saw him more as another granddad than as his real father. He liked his visits to Canada and that side of his family, though, especially his shy young nephew Matthew.
Once he finished high school, he decided to move to Paris to study there. He had had an okay life so far, but he felt the call of a bigger city, of a more bohemian-like style of life, of more fashion (oh, he was fond of fashion) and Paris seemed just the right place for him to live, now that he was 19. So there he moved to study Art at the Sorbonne university. It took him a bit longer than the canon three years to finish his bachelor, because Paris' life completely absorbed him: clubs, friends, lovers, small jobs as a model for some young photographers, a theatre school.
In all of this, he was still able to travel overseas at least once a year (on his own, now that he was old enough), and he would spend most of his time with Matt, and his cosign Alfred as well, and he would introduce them to the kind of life he was accustomed to in Europe: nice restaurants, shopping, nights out.
Then, he finished his bachelor and joined a small, young but emergent theatre company, and his life started to change.
Acting became his primary occupation, along with a number of short-term jobs (mostly as model) which he did more for his own enthusiasm and narcissism than for an actual need for earning money. He did not have the time to go to Canada any longer, but he kept sending presents and cards to his nephews: it was a small something every month, at first, then it became the formal present every birthday and Christmas, together with a short phone call to make sure than everything was still going on well overseas.
Then, when Francis was 25 and busy as always with rehearsing for his next play, he met Jeanne. She was a PHD student in Paris, Law faculty, they met by pure chance during a party at a friend's house, and they started dating briefly after. In a couple of years, the relationship was working in a marvelous way. Francis, who had been through the beds of half the city (both on the male and female side), had eyes for her only, and was in love for the first time in his life.
She was brilliant, beautiful, sweet and strong. Her PHD finished in the summer, shortly before Francis celebrated his 27th birthday. His theatre company was doing great, Jeanne was going to start to work at the university in September, and the future had never seemed so bright.
Francis proposed, she accepted. They were at the highest point of happiness in their lives, but it wasn't meant to last long: Jeanne died in a car accident in November, about a month before their wedding. There was no phone call and no Christmas gifts delivered to Canada from Paris, that year.
Francis spent a few month away from the scene. He went back in Grenoble to recover, but the place felt empty and lonely: most of his old childhood friends had moved or were busy with their lives, his grandparents had both died a few years before, and his mother still spent most of her time inside the laboratories than at home.
Eventually, he went back to Paris, confident that the theatre routine would somehow help him going back to swing of things, but he was wrong: The leaders of the company, wife and husband, split up, destroying their marriage and the company.
Francis managed to carry on another year with a number of jobs here and there, interrupted by long weeks when he would just stay home and read or listen to music the whole day. He was starting to get too old to model, and too old for living too - or, at least, this was how he felt.
Then, on the first anniversary of Jeanne's death, when he went to visit her tomb, he realized that it wasn't really he himself the problem. It was the city around him: Every spot in Paris reminded him of her, every theatre in the city reminded him of his old company and of things he had done and enjoyed but that were gone nonetheless.
There was no way back in time, but there could be a way out in space, he thought.
Another year passed without him calling to Canada, but during New Year's eve, he forced himself to make at least one good resolution: He had to go away from Paris and start somewhere anew. And so he started searching for an opportunity.
Personality:
Extroverted, charismatic, histrionic at times, people who meet Francis for the first time won't easily forget about him. He likes making jokes, keeping up the chatting, flirting, and showing off his knowledge of music, art, fashion, history and food.
He likes to make people at ease around him: if he has guests, he will make sure that nobody feels neglected and that everyone has a good time.
He's prone to teasing others, especially if said others are the grumpy type who will get pissed off by his jokes and reply angrily: Francis might easily decide that teasing them is an entertaining pastime, and they will never get rid of his humor. His jokes can be refined, but he doesn't mind indulging on more vulgar and sexual-themed ones.
He's very self-confident, both about his appearance and his abilities and skills: he has always been good at most of what he has done through his life.
Indeed, he considers himself the best lover most girls and boys will ever meet. He surely is very open about sexuality, ready to try out most things and kinks, and not necessarily with one person only. His friends used to say that he would go for anything that breathes, but this isn't completely accurate: he likes beauty and style, so not everybody will be suitable for his tastes, for as broad they may be.
It is true that his relationship with Jeanne has calmed down this side of him a lot, and although he has barely had any sex since she died (his few one-night stands since then were mostly old friends or lovers who decided to keep him company for a while), he can't really shake off this flirting attitude oh his. What happens nowadays is that he will most probably smile and act very friendly towards his possible sex-prey, but most times this will end here, often leaving the other a bit puzzled.
He loves beauty, be it the body of another human being, the moon in the night sky, the poetry of an old book. It's not unusual to find him awake in the middle of the night, a glass of red wine in one hand and Baudelaire in the other, sitting next to an open window. Nowadays, though, the pages of the books will often be closed, his gaze lost over the surrounding roofs, and you will tell that it's not Baudelaire he's thinking about.
Raised in catholic family (his mother dismissed religion as stupid fairytales for children, but both his grandparents were faithful believers), he does believe in God, although in his own way. He won't go to Mass nor celebrate the festivities appropriately, but deep in his heart he questions what his path will be, and why God in putting him through such hard times.
Appearance:
175 cm (5' 9") of height and a lean (but athletic) body make a good start for a beautiful man as Francis is - or he believes he is: sure enough, his self-confidence about his appearance transpires from all his being, and this is probably what makes him attractive.
He has blue eyes and golden locks. He likes his hair shoulder-long and a bit messy, just as he likes leaving that short beard on his chin. His hair can sometimes be tied on the back of his head, but most strands will come out anyway. He has a few white hair, but it's hardly noticeable since the rest is blond. It used to be a very light blond when he was a child, it darkened with puberty but as long as his hair are exposed to open air and sun they will still maintain a fairer color.
Although being fair skinned, he has a noticeably large amount of body hair, which sometimes pop out from his shirts when he leaves them unbuttoned. Again, he likes the apparently neglected look it gives him.
He has two piercings on his left ear lobe (usually filled by two very small silver earrings) and has the scar of a third piercing on his nose, which he made during his first year of university, but then got bored of it before graduation.
His nails are usually well kept, but lately they are chewed and shorter than usual: he hates how his hands look like when he does this, but the stress he's been through lately seems to have prevailed over his self-control.
Fashion Style:
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Francis loves fashion and loves shopping. He likes branded clothing, but the thing he loves more is to search for small boutiques or young stylists ateliers where he can find unique pieces and original articles such as belts and scarves.
Given his lean body, he can dress up in almost anything and still look good. This said, you will never seen him in just sweater trousers and hoodie - unless he's exercising. Even then, he'll still choose something very flashy and stylish. His favorite trousers are tight, or even skinny ones: he has lean legs, and he likes showing them off. As for the shoes, he'll often be wearing classical ones, or moccasins. He especially loves pointed shoes. You will probably never see him wearing sneakers.
He loves shirts and jackets, and loves wearing bright colors just as easily as he wears a normal black and white combination. Orange, yellow, blue, pink, green: he'll always find a way to combine these colors in his clothing and they still manage to come off as perfectly matched. Even when he wears a dark suit with a classical shirt underneath, he likes to add some colorful or original detail to it, and he will use his fantasy in the choice of the tie, belt or/and shoes. Again, he will never come off as improper or vulgar: Francis knows very well how to dress properly for all the different kinds of events his mundane life has brought him to be part of.
Another thing he loves are t-shirts and jumpers: Stripes, colors, patterns of any kind are more than welcomed on his shirts. Large, colorful shirts over tight jeans and pointed shoes are probably the most common outfit you'll see him in on a normal afternoon, when he sits in some café reading a book. He'll be also probably wearing sun glasses and a scarf around his neck (again, he owes tons of different scarves of any fabric and color).
As for coats and jackets, he likes both short and long ones. Even in the coldest winter, he's the kind of guy who would prefer to freeze instead of going out with one of those fluffy coats that keep you warm but don't match the rest of your refined outfit at all.
Goals:
What he's been through in the last year has left him without any real goal in his life. What he wants right now is just to get back on track and start living again. He knows he needs to go away from Paris and find a fresh new start somewhere, but he doesn't have any precise idea.
Secret:
It's not a secret, but the death of his beloved one and the troubles with his company won't be the first things he'll mention when you meet him. Actually, he will avoid talking about that at any cost.
Other:
He keeps a small picture of Jeanne in his wallet, together with a four leaf clover she once gave him to bring him good luck in his acting career.
He really loves roses. His grandmother used to have a variety of them in her garden in Grenoble. She made marmalade with them, and he grew up admiring their beauty and smell.
RP Sample:
[[taken from a previous role-play - which was basically an adaptation from "Ten little niggers". This is just the start.]]
If Francis arrived late, it was always a calculated delay.
In this particular case, it was calculated on the basis that he wanted to arrive after monsieur Kirkland. If Arthur had seen him arriving, he would have probably turned and gone back to where he had come from. Instead, seeing his features wriggling in a smirk at his arrival would have given Francis some kind of satisfaction: it would mean that, after all, the Englishman would have had to bear with him again.
Francis had a half-smile on, as he reached the gates of the villa.
He wasn't expecting to meet Arthur in that particular circumstance, but since they were colleagues, in a sense, it wasn't going to be the first time they found themselves together on the "scene of crime", so to say. Who knew, maybe Arthur had gotten the same, weird proposal he had received: an eccentric, old, rich man inviting him at his house to talk about his adventurous life, about how he had put together all his richness as well as, Francis thought, the hearts of many wealthy ladies. The implied goal of all this talk would be to become his biographer.
What if the rich guy had invited more than just one writer or journalist in order to choose the most suitable to the task? You never knew, with those rich people…
There was a small crowd in front of the gate, but as Francis approached and was close enough to see their faces, he wasn't able to recognize any of them. There was a blond, short guy with a clearly antisocial attitude, a cute brunette with an even grumpier expression, a tall, dark haired man with an aristocratic aspect (and this one, Francis thought, was worth teasing), one who looked like the butler of the house and then, of course, Arthur.
"Bonjour, gentlemen!" he said, with a smile that didn't betray his surprise in seeing how wild and uncultivated the garden around the villa was and, overall, how different it looked from what he had expected.
"Arthur~ This day blesses me with such an amazing view!" he murmured, getting closer to the Englishman "I've missed you."
OOC
Name: Myst
Age: 25
Contact Info: PM me
Website: mystofthestars.tumblr.com
Other: Hi~
First of all, I always start a new RP stating that English isn't my native language. I have never had issues with this, but please feel free to correct me.
Also, I'm European timezone, which means that I'll most probably be offline during your evenings/nights, and posting at weird times of the day.
A part from this, I can't wait to start playing~
Hey Gloria
Are you standing close to the edge?
Lookout to the setting sun
The brink of your vision
Eternal youth is
A landscape of the lie
The cracks of my skin can prove
As the years will testify
(Viva la gloria!, Green day)