Arc ⚜ Biography
PLAYER
Name: Meta / Panda (either works :3)
Age: Twenty-one
Journal: metanaitosama, but I rarely check this, if at all. It's best to get ahold of me below.
Contact (MESSENGER/E-MAIL/ETC): metathepanda @ AIM, gilded.carousel@hotmail.com @ MSN messenger, metanaito @ Plurk (send me private plurks or friend me). You can also contact me on one of my two main muse's accounts with a private message - paysdelamour (France) or cactusnwhiskey (Jake Marshall).
CHARACTER
Name: France, the French Republic or République française; Human name Francis Bonnefoy
Age: 1200 years or more, it depends on what you define as “pre-modern France”. He appears as a 26-year-old.
Canon: Axis Powers Hetalia
Canon Point: Modern day
History: History of France on Wikipedia.
Personality: Francis is an easily likeable man, very friendly toward everyone who is obviously not trying to be a threat toward him, particularly when it comes to beautiful ladies. He is a very kinesthetic person, touching others without any hesitation, sometimes in rather inappropriate places. He also loves to give out hugs and kisses - he needs to spread his love around to everyone, even if they don't want it. As shown in the canon, he loves loving people, and that really shows in the way he talks. His smile to greet you is really genuine - or at least a very convincing fake - and his gestures are warm and inviting. He usually calls himself "Papa Francis" or "Big Brother Francis" when speaking to someone, depending on their age, when it comes to taking care of a need he believes he can supply - for example, "Let Big Brother Francis make you some real food" to someone who has not been eating well, or "Spend the night with Papa Francis, you poor thing" to a child who has no place to go. The only exception to this rule is Germany; France and Germany have been working together for many years now, true, but he still can't help but be instinctively afraid of the German giant.
When asked about something he passionately loves, whether it be art, wine, or beautiful men and women, he does tend to rant quite frequently. Inheriting this from his Grandpa Rome, he can speak for hours about the things he loves. Usually the things he hates get quite a lot of words dedicated to them, just, not in a good way. He does have an opinion about practically everything and really does not mind sharing it with anyone who will listen. He really just loves to hear himself talk, though he does love to talk with someone else much more. Anything he can do to get someone to have a conversation with him, he'll usually try, unless they're obviously a threat to him.
When around people that he has befriended, or even started to befriend, he will usually try to come up with a pet name for them, to add a sense of familiarity between them. Usually they are in French, such as "mon petit", "ma belle", "mon chou", and "ma chérie". However he eventually runs out of them and starts calling people "my dear", "my friend" - anything to get on someone's good side. He tries to pick out ones that people will not find annoying, however, if they make too much of a fuss about being called by any name, he will just try and shorten their real name to get a nickname. He does love to tease people if they make a bit too much of a fuss about something so simple as a pet name.
Francis is known to be quite vain, so vain in fact that if you insult his looks he will immediately begin to weep and turn into a drama queen. He always wants to look good, always wants to give that perfect first impression, or second or third. He has quite a romantic mind, which often likes to paint things in a better light than they actually are, but when it comes to his looks he is obsessed. The slightest thing wrong with his outfit will put him in a mood for the rest of the day. A wrong glance at him from a stranger could send him into a tizzy, wondering what part of his appearance is out of place.
Francis really is a hedonist and a pervert, always trying to enjoy life more than actually working for said enjoyable life; however, when the situation calls for it, he is a very hard worker and will not give up until the job is done. In this universe, he will more than likely be doing much of the latter compared to his days spent in France. His priority is always to keep life enjoyable for him and those that he cares about, whether it be in simple gestures like adding extra chocolate syrup to a friend's ice cream, to splurging on someone's birthday present. Making others feel good makes him feel good, especially since his enormous ego gets quite a bit of stroking from their praise.
While being a hedonist, he does really have a need to protect those he loves and take care of them. From many years of being a father to Canada and Seychelles and his many former colonies, Francis has developed a sort of father complex toward anyone he feels needs his help - whether it be a little child or a big crybaby like his "little brother" North Italy. Around others, he is extremely sympathetic and empathic, wanting to help them if they are in trouble or just can't make ends meet. He has been tricked a few times, but once you get on his bad list it can be extremely, extremely difficult to work your way back up into his circle of friends.
Abilities/Strengths: France is a renowned warrior and soldier; after all, he's been fighting against other nations practically since he was born, in one fashion or another. He is known to be a fantastic fencer (after all, France has won the gold medal for Fencing in the Olympics more than any other nation in the world, and he practically perfected the art after it was invented during the Italian Renaissance). He is also an excellent marksman (French sharpshooters have been known to be some of the best in the world, even going as far back as the "Golden Age of Piracy"). He's also known to be a wonderful musician, composer, painter, artist, and actor - not only in his rich artistic history, but also in his real life. He has a great knack for studying things such as history because, well... he's a nation, it makes sense he'd remember his own history. He's also extremely talented at some things which are not approved for general audiences. ;3 As far as his actual abilities in canon, as are most of the nations, he has a remarkable knack for being injured and remarkably not dying. It is known that only Nations can injure other Nations - Germania killed Rome, and China has a huge scar on his back courtesy of Japan. But as for other sources, he is technically immortal, having lived several centuries.
Weaknesses: Most of his weaknesses are, unfortunately, emotional, because physically he has been injured many many times and has still survived. Mentioning any extremely dark time in his past (particularly involving a well-known French figure he deeply cares about, like Joan of Arc or Napoleon; or involving a very dark period of his history, such as the Black Death or the French Revolution) will cause him to get defensive immediately, and if pushed far enough, may cause a mental breakdown. He also has a weakness for England, as much as he hates to admit it; if England is involved he will be compelled to join on the opposite side of the argument most times, or he joins England's side and tries to one-up him. He also has a weakness for any of his Nation friends, as he's spent several hundred years building friendships with them and wants to keep them happy. In the case of children, most notably his children, he is particularly adept at falling into a fatherly frenzy and doting on them. As far as fine dining and beautiful men/women are concerned, he is extremely willing to give into temptation. And finally, gaining parts of his denizen will wear him down naturally, because of how dissimilar they are in personality and... how hideous Erik is. No offense, Erik.
ARCANARUM
Story: The Phantom of the Opera (musical), with trace elements from the book (and the silent movie). The reason I've chosen this way is that people will be more familiar with the musical version (seeing as the new one came out in 2004), but the novelization has some differences from the musical that are unfortunately important to understanding the truth behind some of the points of the musical. For instance, The Persian character was pulled out of the story, and was melded with the character of Madame Giry. When she says "Keep your hand at the level of your eye", this is really The Persian's line in the book, and is referring to the Punjab lasso (a simple hangman's noose that is used as a garotte) that Erik learned how to use while being a personal assassin of the Shah of India. The only way to rescue yourself from it was to "keep your hand at the level of your eye", so that were he to successfully slip it around your neck, your arm would block it from tightening fully, and you could escape it easily. This lasso and its countermeasure are never mentioned in the musical (therefore Giry's warning and the scene in the dungeon where Raoul is tied up by the Punjab lasso comes from pretty much nowhere as a result). Therefore it will be 99.9% musical with... 0.1% book so I don't break my brain XD
Story Character: Erik, "The Phantom", "The Opera Ghost", "The Angel of Music", "Le Mort Vivant", whatever you wish to call him.
Plans: I really want to play with the duality of France's character and personality versus the character and personality of Erik. The reason for this is because, even though they are essentially exact opposites on the personality spectrum, they are extremely similar in their capabilities, talents, and some beliefs about life. For example, France is a master of swordplay, an exceptional marksman, and has been a soldier in dozens of places all around the world; Erik is also a master of swordplay, an exceptional marksman, and has been a soldier in dozens of places all around the world, including Persia (now modern-day Iran). France is a brilliant artist, composer, and musician; Erik is as well. France is known for his complicated and extremely skilled spy network during both World Wars, as well as being quite a spy himself with England in the canon; Erik also has a very complicated way of spying on the patrons of his opera, so much so that he is nearly invisible to everyone except Madame Giry, who knows most of his tricks. France and Erik both crave love of all forms, and both desperately want to be loved (albeit for different reasons). However France loves mankind and is very caring and gentle with most people, and is an extrovert and social butterfly; Erik, however, despises mankind for the wickedness they inflicted upon his life, and wants to be away from them, and keep only Christine by his side. Erik has many twisted thoughts that France, although he does have, are not often commonplace, and therefore he will be fighting with his denizen's personality for control. Also, he's vain, and Erik's appearance will make him flip out because he does not want to be ugly and wear black all the time.
Also I really want France to go on rants about French fairy tales to Prince Leandre and some of the other fairy tale guys and gals, if that isn't against the rules XD If it is, ah, well, the Emperor can make him shut up before he gives too much away.
Also, hanging with the Hetalia cast because the Hetalia cast always gets into shenanigans.
SAMPLES
First Person: Found here.
Third Person: Francis hadn't shown any signs that something was wrong. Speaking to all the new friends he'd acquired, spending time at the Fluffy Duckling with Spain and Prussia in the wee hours of the night, torturing England in every other waking moment. At any other time, in any other place or moment, it would have been the best day of his life. And yet, in France's heart, something ached. Something screamed at him that he couldn't understand, a tortured and fierce scream that wouldn't go away except when he was in complete quiet.
He hadn't shown any signs that something was wrong.
Finally, he slipped through the door to his bedroom, the furious cry in his heart subsiding slowly, an echo that only held on until Francis took a breath. It was a sick relief, to feel the silence down to his very soul. In moments, he had pulled off the signature cloak of his denizen and tossed it rather angrily to the side, in an uncaring heap. He passed by one of the large mirrors in his dark room, to his modest collection of spirits, so he might have a glass of wine and go to bed. He reflected a bit on the day, on Arthur's foolish frog-related insults, on Prussia's drunken small talk and Spain's oblivious smile. Any other time, any other place, he would have laughed, and mimicked and mocked Arthur, or even Prussia. But something inside him made him angry, irritated to be speaking with them. He shouldn't have been feeling this way. Another soft sigh, as he poured the dark liquid into its proper glass, immediately corking it again and taking a soft sip from the dry red he had chosen. It was then that he caught his reflection out of the corner of his eye in the mirror, and dropped the glass in shock, not even registering the shatter of the glass as it hit stone. He rushed over to the mirror, pulling his hair away from the right side of his face to get a better look.
"... m-my... my face! Nom de Dieu, my beautiful face!" Quickly he backed away from the mirror, eyes widening in horror, as he touched it to see if he was just imagining things. Sure enough, the skin felt bumpy and was painful to the touch. And it was growing more hideous with each passing second. In a blink of an eye he covered his face with his hand, ignoring the pain as he felt his skin swell and blister under his hand. Finally, after a few moments, it seemed to have stopped. Slowly, he took a few breaths, then drew his hand down to look at his face. Immediately he was repulsed by how hideous his face had become, and he turned his face away with a grunt of disgust, pulling up his arm to hide his reflection. He tried pulling his arm down again, but it still showed the same horrifically scarred skin. He couldn't bear looking at himself for a moment longer before tears welled up in his eyes. So, the Emperor had won, in the end.
Cursing in French, he dried his tears with his sleeves. Now was not the time to be crying; he had to find a way to hide his face. Others might think him ugly, and he couldn't have that. Instinctively, his arm reached out for the white half-mask that sat on his bedroom table - and then he realized what he was doing, and jerked his hand away. But what other choice did he have? There was nothing in the room that could hide his face quite like that mask would, and he would not dare let his compatriots see his face in this state. After a moment's more hesitation, his hand slipped over the smooth curves of the mask, and he grasped the edge with curled fingertips. Pulling it up, he placed it on the side of his face, and realized it had been a perfect fit all along. Then, he looked at himself in the mirror one more time, his eyes welling up with tears again. "M-merde...!"
The Emperor had won.
Name: Meta / Panda (either works :3)
Age: Twenty-one
Journal: metanaitosama, but I rarely check this, if at all. It's best to get ahold of me below.
Contact (MESSENGER/E-MAIL/ETC): metathepanda @ AIM, gilded.carousel@hotmail.com @ MSN messenger, metanaito @ Plurk (send me private plurks or friend me). You can also contact me on one of my two main muse's accounts with a private message - paysdelamour (France) or cactusnwhiskey (Jake Marshall).
CHARACTER
Name: France, the French Republic or République française; Human name Francis Bonnefoy
Age: 1200 years or more, it depends on what you define as “pre-modern France”. He appears as a 26-year-old.
Canon: Axis Powers Hetalia
Canon Point: Modern day
History: History of France on Wikipedia.
Personality: Francis is an easily likeable man, very friendly toward everyone who is obviously not trying to be a threat toward him, particularly when it comes to beautiful ladies. He is a very kinesthetic person, touching others without any hesitation, sometimes in rather inappropriate places. He also loves to give out hugs and kisses - he needs to spread his love around to everyone, even if they don't want it. As shown in the canon, he loves loving people, and that really shows in the way he talks. His smile to greet you is really genuine - or at least a very convincing fake - and his gestures are warm and inviting. He usually calls himself "Papa Francis" or "Big Brother Francis" when speaking to someone, depending on their age, when it comes to taking care of a need he believes he can supply - for example, "Let Big Brother Francis make you some real food" to someone who has not been eating well, or "Spend the night with Papa Francis, you poor thing" to a child who has no place to go. The only exception to this rule is Germany; France and Germany have been working together for many years now, true, but he still can't help but be instinctively afraid of the German giant.
When asked about something he passionately loves, whether it be art, wine, or beautiful men and women, he does tend to rant quite frequently. Inheriting this from his Grandpa Rome, he can speak for hours about the things he loves. Usually the things he hates get quite a lot of words dedicated to them, just, not in a good way. He does have an opinion about practically everything and really does not mind sharing it with anyone who will listen. He really just loves to hear himself talk, though he does love to talk with someone else much more. Anything he can do to get someone to have a conversation with him, he'll usually try, unless they're obviously a threat to him.
When around people that he has befriended, or even started to befriend, he will usually try to come up with a pet name for them, to add a sense of familiarity between them. Usually they are in French, such as "mon petit", "ma belle", "mon chou", and "ma chérie". However he eventually runs out of them and starts calling people "my dear", "my friend" - anything to get on someone's good side. He tries to pick out ones that people will not find annoying, however, if they make too much of a fuss about being called by any name, he will just try and shorten their real name to get a nickname. He does love to tease people if they make a bit too much of a fuss about something so simple as a pet name.
Francis is known to be quite vain, so vain in fact that if you insult his looks he will immediately begin to weep and turn into a drama queen. He always wants to look good, always wants to give that perfect first impression, or second or third. He has quite a romantic mind, which often likes to paint things in a better light than they actually are, but when it comes to his looks he is obsessed. The slightest thing wrong with his outfit will put him in a mood for the rest of the day. A wrong glance at him from a stranger could send him into a tizzy, wondering what part of his appearance is out of place.
Francis really is a hedonist and a pervert, always trying to enjoy life more than actually working for said enjoyable life; however, when the situation calls for it, he is a very hard worker and will not give up until the job is done. In this universe, he will more than likely be doing much of the latter compared to his days spent in France. His priority is always to keep life enjoyable for him and those that he cares about, whether it be in simple gestures like adding extra chocolate syrup to a friend's ice cream, to splurging on someone's birthday present. Making others feel good makes him feel good, especially since his enormous ego gets quite a bit of stroking from their praise.
While being a hedonist, he does really have a need to protect those he loves and take care of them. From many years of being a father to Canada and Seychelles and his many former colonies, Francis has developed a sort of father complex toward anyone he feels needs his help - whether it be a little child or a big crybaby like his "little brother" North Italy. Around others, he is extremely sympathetic and empathic, wanting to help them if they are in trouble or just can't make ends meet. He has been tricked a few times, but once you get on his bad list it can be extremely, extremely difficult to work your way back up into his circle of friends.
Abilities/Strengths: France is a renowned warrior and soldier; after all, he's been fighting against other nations practically since he was born, in one fashion or another. He is known to be a fantastic fencer (after all, France has won the gold medal for Fencing in the Olympics more than any other nation in the world, and he practically perfected the art after it was invented during the Italian Renaissance). He is also an excellent marksman (French sharpshooters have been known to be some of the best in the world, even going as far back as the "Golden Age of Piracy"). He's also known to be a wonderful musician, composer, painter, artist, and actor - not only in his rich artistic history, but also in his real life. He has a great knack for studying things such as history because, well... he's a nation, it makes sense he'd remember his own history. He's also extremely talented at some things which are not approved for general audiences. ;3 As far as his actual abilities in canon, as are most of the nations, he has a remarkable knack for being injured and remarkably not dying. It is known that only Nations can injure other Nations - Germania killed Rome, and China has a huge scar on his back courtesy of Japan. But as for other sources, he is technically immortal, having lived several centuries.
Weaknesses: Most of his weaknesses are, unfortunately, emotional, because physically he has been injured many many times and has still survived. Mentioning any extremely dark time in his past (particularly involving a well-known French figure he deeply cares about, like Joan of Arc or Napoleon; or involving a very dark period of his history, such as the Black Death or the French Revolution) will cause him to get defensive immediately, and if pushed far enough, may cause a mental breakdown. He also has a weakness for England, as much as he hates to admit it; if England is involved he will be compelled to join on the opposite side of the argument most times, or he joins England's side and tries to one-up him. He also has a weakness for any of his Nation friends, as he's spent several hundred years building friendships with them and wants to keep them happy. In the case of children, most notably his children, he is particularly adept at falling into a fatherly frenzy and doting on them. As far as fine dining and beautiful men/women are concerned, he is extremely willing to give into temptation. And finally, gaining parts of his denizen will wear him down naturally, because of how dissimilar they are in personality and... how hideous Erik is. No offense, Erik.
ARCANARUM
Story: The Phantom of the Opera (musical), with trace elements from the book (and the silent movie). The reason I've chosen this way is that people will be more familiar with the musical version (seeing as the new one came out in 2004), but the novelization has some differences from the musical that are unfortunately important to understanding the truth behind some of the points of the musical. For instance, The Persian character was pulled out of the story, and was melded with the character of Madame Giry. When she says "Keep your hand at the level of your eye", this is really The Persian's line in the book, and is referring to the Punjab lasso (a simple hangman's noose that is used as a garotte) that Erik learned how to use while being a personal assassin of the Shah of India. The only way to rescue yourself from it was to "keep your hand at the level of your eye", so that were he to successfully slip it around your neck, your arm would block it from tightening fully, and you could escape it easily. This lasso and its countermeasure are never mentioned in the musical (therefore Giry's warning and the scene in the dungeon where Raoul is tied up by the Punjab lasso comes from pretty much nowhere as a result). Therefore it will be 99.9% musical with... 0.1% book so I don't break my brain XD
Story Character: Erik, "The Phantom", "The Opera Ghost", "The Angel of Music", "Le Mort Vivant", whatever you wish to call him.
Plans: I really want to play with the duality of France's character and personality versus the character and personality of Erik. The reason for this is because, even though they are essentially exact opposites on the personality spectrum, they are extremely similar in their capabilities, talents, and some beliefs about life. For example, France is a master of swordplay, an exceptional marksman, and has been a soldier in dozens of places all around the world; Erik is also a master of swordplay, an exceptional marksman, and has been a soldier in dozens of places all around the world, including Persia (now modern-day Iran). France is a brilliant artist, composer, and musician; Erik is as well. France is known for his complicated and extremely skilled spy network during both World Wars, as well as being quite a spy himself with England in the canon; Erik also has a very complicated way of spying on the patrons of his opera, so much so that he is nearly invisible to everyone except Madame Giry, who knows most of his tricks. France and Erik both crave love of all forms, and both desperately want to be loved (albeit for different reasons). However France loves mankind and is very caring and gentle with most people, and is an extrovert and social butterfly; Erik, however, despises mankind for the wickedness they inflicted upon his life, and wants to be away from them, and keep only Christine by his side. Erik has many twisted thoughts that France, although he does have, are not often commonplace, and therefore he will be fighting with his denizen's personality for control. Also, he's vain, and Erik's appearance will make him flip out because he does not want to be ugly and wear black all the time.
Also I really want France to go on rants about French fairy tales to Prince Leandre and some of the other fairy tale guys and gals, if that isn't against the rules XD If it is, ah, well, the Emperor can make him shut up before he gives too much away.
Also, hanging with the Hetalia cast because the Hetalia cast always gets into shenanigans.
SAMPLES
First Person: Found here.
Third Person: Francis hadn't shown any signs that something was wrong. Speaking to all the new friends he'd acquired, spending time at the Fluffy Duckling with Spain and Prussia in the wee hours of the night, torturing England in every other waking moment. At any other time, in any other place or moment, it would have been the best day of his life. And yet, in France's heart, something ached. Something screamed at him that he couldn't understand, a tortured and fierce scream that wouldn't go away except when he was in complete quiet.
He hadn't shown any signs that something was wrong.
Finally, he slipped through the door to his bedroom, the furious cry in his heart subsiding slowly, an echo that only held on until Francis took a breath. It was a sick relief, to feel the silence down to his very soul. In moments, he had pulled off the signature cloak of his denizen and tossed it rather angrily to the side, in an uncaring heap. He passed by one of the large mirrors in his dark room, to his modest collection of spirits, so he might have a glass of wine and go to bed. He reflected a bit on the day, on Arthur's foolish frog-related insults, on Prussia's drunken small talk and Spain's oblivious smile. Any other time, any other place, he would have laughed, and mimicked and mocked Arthur, or even Prussia. But something inside him made him angry, irritated to be speaking with them. He shouldn't have been feeling this way. Another soft sigh, as he poured the dark liquid into its proper glass, immediately corking it again and taking a soft sip from the dry red he had chosen. It was then that he caught his reflection out of the corner of his eye in the mirror, and dropped the glass in shock, not even registering the shatter of the glass as it hit stone. He rushed over to the mirror, pulling his hair away from the right side of his face to get a better look.
"... m-my... my face! Nom de Dieu, my beautiful face!" Quickly he backed away from the mirror, eyes widening in horror, as he touched it to see if he was just imagining things. Sure enough, the skin felt bumpy and was painful to the touch. And it was growing more hideous with each passing second. In a blink of an eye he covered his face with his hand, ignoring the pain as he felt his skin swell and blister under his hand. Finally, after a few moments, it seemed to have stopped. Slowly, he took a few breaths, then drew his hand down to look at his face. Immediately he was repulsed by how hideous his face had become, and he turned his face away with a grunt of disgust, pulling up his arm to hide his reflection. He tried pulling his arm down again, but it still showed the same horrifically scarred skin. He couldn't bear looking at himself for a moment longer before tears welled up in his eyes. So, the Emperor had won, in the end.
Cursing in French, he dried his tears with his sleeves. Now was not the time to be crying; he had to find a way to hide his face. Others might think him ugly, and he couldn't have that. Instinctively, his arm reached out for the white half-mask that sat on his bedroom table - and then he realized what he was doing, and jerked his hand away. But what other choice did he have? There was nothing in the room that could hide his face quite like that mask would, and he would not dare let his compatriots see his face in this state. After a moment's more hesitation, his hand slipped over the smooth curves of the mask, and he grasped the edge with curled fingertips. Pulling it up, he placed it on the side of his face, and realized it had been a perfect fit all along. Then, he looked at himself in the mirror one more time, his eyes welling up with tears again. "M-merde...!"
The Emperor had won.