Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 16:00:36 GMT -5
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: f9f9f9; border: #1f4579 solid 10px; width: 420px; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] At the end of the day you're another day colder FULL NAME: Marius Matthieu Pontmercy NICKNAMES: Monsieur l’Abbe, the Baron HERITAGE: French AGE: 20 GROUP: ABC Member CANON: Yes PLAYBY: Eddie Redmayne ----- PERSONALITY: Two words that could best describe Marius Pontmercy are eager and genuine. It takes him very little time to get passionate about things, and when he is passionate about something, his passion is sincere. Two of his chief passions are the revolution and the law—which is ironic, because the two do come into conflict. Marius believes that with the adjustments necessary after the successful liberation of the French people, the law itself can be used to help people. He is perhaps one of the most honest people you’ll ever meet, which is in no small part attributed to his youth and idealism. That being said, Marius is very naïve—which is definitely accredited to his youth and general inexperience with life’s hardships. Marius grew up with a rich grandfather and rarely if ever left his estate until his eighteenth year, so his experiences with the evils of the world are more recent. He is an idealist—politically and morally—believing that most if not all people are not beyond redemption, and that the people of Paris will rally to the cause of Les Amis de ABC. He also holds the belief that if everyone did try to make a difference in the world, the world itself would be better off. As a result he does try zealously to make his corner of the world a better place. He’ll give generous alms to the poor even though he’s barely managing to pay rent each month. He is stubborn in most of his beliefs, and even though he thinks that people in general can be redeemed, he still holds a bitter grudge against his grandfather. He is not unwilling to see other people’s points of view, but he is committed to his own, and will defend it fiercely if necessary. He was rather intimidated when he first joined their group, but is now more than willing to hold his own against Enjolras in a political debate concerning the reign of Napoleon. In the same way he refuses to adhere to the political sentiments that his grandfather supports, no matter how much he may try to convince him to reconcile with him. He holds a strong sense of loyalty to both his political ideals and his friends. If he returned to his grandfather, he would no longer have to live in a tenement on a meager salary earned from translating old books from English to French. However he refuses—not just because of his dispute with his grandfather over his separating him from his father, but also because of his integrity. Even if it means he must suffer for it, he will not abandon his friends or the revolution. Marius also has a tendency to get carried away with his emotions. He is an intelligent young man but depending on the situation, his feelings may cloud his thinking. When sentiment trumps logic, it causes him to be reckless and sometimes make poor and potentially dangerous decisions. As a general rule, Marius is very reserved and introverted unless he is around people he knows. He prefers the company of a book or some parchment and a pen to crowds, but he pushes aside his discomfort for the sake of the revolution whenever Les Amis decide to hold a rally. He feels he is more suited to writing speeches to giving them, and, although he is not as silver-tongued as Enjolras and in fact possesses a stutter, he is a capable orator. His writing skills are superb, honed from years of practice as a child at his grandfather’s house. He uses these skills in the service of the revolution by penning some of the pamphlets Les Amis de ABC hand out to the public during their rallies. He is passionate about the idea of the new order being a republic once the revolution has ended, which is one of the topics of discussion ( besides Napoleon in general ) that he enjoys bringing up at ABC meetings. Ever since he was young, Marius was almost afraid of the opposite sex. He would always blush and duck his head whenever a woman smiled at him. His demeanor toward Cosette is, ironically, quite the opposite. He adores the young woman despite not knowing much of anything about her aside from her name. The blossoming of love in his heart has transformed him into a completely different person. He often daydreams in the middle of class and ABC meetings, forgetting where he is and what he's doing, because his mind is filled with thoughts of his angel. Because of his averseness to socializing with other people, he has a proclivity to being ignorant of the behavior and feelings of the people around him—not because he wants to be, but because he is easily distracted. He does have not only the ability but the tendency to show compassion toward other people, but his social ineptness causes him to appear awkward, and because he’s afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing he finds it difficult to express his feelings in the spur of the moment without careful thought. APPEARANCE: Marius can best be described as tall and gangly. He certainly doesn’t consider himself to be any sort of handsome, much less classically handsome—what with his shock of red hair and freckled, youthful face—but his usually amiable demeanor and quiet charm allow him to win people over. He has soulful, very expressive, very readable green eyes. He stands at 6’1” and his thin frame can partially be ascribed to the fact that he lives on a paltry salary and is a poor student. Nevertheless he is healthy, since he walks to all of his classes as well as work every day. Carrying the large stack of law and history books he totes around with him almost everywhere has granted him at least some upper body strength and muscle. Despite severing all ties with his grandfather, Marius dresses like a member of the French upper middle class—the bourgeoisie—wearing top hats, tailcoats, frock coats, and great coats depending on the situation. Unless he is studying or meeting with his friends at the café after hours, he always has his cravat perfectly tied and his waistcoat immaculately buttoned, which gives him a rather stuffy appearance. He tends to fidget a lot—something that used to earn him constant rebukes from his grandfather. His favorite colors are blue, gray, black, and green, and his clothing choices usually display some sort of mixture of one or more of those colors. GOALS: Despite his clashes with the leader of the ABC Society, Marius and Enjolras do share a common goal, and that is to create a free France. He is vigorously against the monarchy, and at least vocally and intellectually gives his support to the revolution, though he is not sure if he himself could take up arms and kill another human being. His second greatest goal is to become an attorney. Through knowledge of the law he hopes to help people—in particular the poor, people like Eponine for example—by reforming the penal code so that the rule of law applies to everyone. When everything is settled down, he wishes to marry Cosette. HISTORY: Marius Matthieu Pontmercy was born to Colonel Georges Pontmercy and Madame Andrea Pontmercy on November 5, 1811. The couple were overjoyed at his birth but their joy was short-lived. His mother died soon after his birth, and his father had to leave for one of Napoleon’s campaigns, leaving Marius in the care of his maternal grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand. Gillenormand without a doubt cared deeply for the child—after all, he was the last remnant of his mother on earth. He doted upon him and saw to his education. From an early age, Marius was proven to be very bright, having learned his letters at an early age and reading everything he could get his hands on. His impressive vocabulary was also proof of his being quite precocious. When the Colonel returned from his tour of duty, he wanted to see his son, but Gillenormand refused to let him, threatening to disinherit Marius if he caught him anywhere near him. More concerned about his son’s future than his own happiness, Pontmercy agreed to these terms. However he did write to Marius, but unfortunately never received a letter back. He held no bitterness toward his son, but still wrote him, hoping that he would read them and someday forgive him for the separation. Marius did not know that his father even cared to see him. He desperately did want to see the man, but assumed that he didn’t care about him at all. He went through the beginning of his life resenting his father for abandoning him. He had no friends when he was a child, rarely departing from the manor in the finer section of Paris. He was all his grandfather had, and his grandfather was all he had. He was as fond of his grandfather as he was of him. Gillenormand would read to him each night before he fell asleep, and when he had learned to read, Marius would read stories to his grandfather. Their idyllic life fell apart around Marius’s eighteenth birthday. He was preparing to go off to the University of Paris to read law, and his grandfather told him that his father had died. Marius did not know how to feel—of course he felt sorrow, as he did at the death of any human being, but he had not known his father because his father had not wanted to know him. Nevertheless he did regret the fact that they had never met—but that could hardly be his own fault. He attended the funeral out of duty, not necessarily love, and afterward he was approached by one of his father’s few living friends, Monseiur Mabeuf, the church caretaker. He told him that his father had watched him at every mass Marius and his grandfather attended, but refused to approach for fear of taking away Marius’s inheritance. He also explained to Marius’s shock that he had written to him frequently and without fail, even though he had never written back to him. Incensed, Marius returned to the manor and confronted his grandfather—who had conspicuously not attended the funeral—demanding an explanation. When the truth was revealed, Marius began packing his bags. Gillenormand pleaded with him to stay, saying that what he had done he had done for his own good, but Marius paid his pleas little mind. With the unread letters that had been hidden for years in his hand and a trunk of his most precious belongings, Marius left his grandfather’s house, vowing never to return. He had walked for about an hour, fuming over the confrontation with his grandfather, when he realized that he had nowhere to go. The first night he slept in an alleyway and the next morning realized he had been robbed—luckily he had at least his books and his clothes, but what little money he had taken with him was completely gone, probably stolen by some thief in the night. He spent the whole day looking for a place to live, and it was the first day in his life that he had ever gone hungry. He managed to get himself hired for a translating job once he had proven that he could speak and read English—which he had learned as a child—but inconveniently he would have to work during most of his classes. His boss let him sleep in the book shop the first night, the next night he was told that he would have to find a place to stay. Unfortunately, since he had just started working, he didn’t have enough for even the smallest of flats. On the rare occasions he did show up for class, it was with dark circles under his eyes—and many times he found himself drifting off. He was summoned to the dean’s office one day and told that if he didn’t change his ways the university would expel him. He promised to do better, but found that he simply couldn’t until he had found an affordable place to live. He showed up on campus one day expecting to be shown the door, when a student approached him, introducing himself as Lesgles, and telling him that he had covered for him when roll was taken in one of his classes. He thanked him profusely and went on to tell him of his plight. Another student named Courfeyrac heard them talking and offered to let him stay with him. He appreciated the offer, but was not exactly keen on people simply giving him things, as his grandfather had. Part of the reason why he had moved out was to assert his independence. Nevertheless, he had few options, and Courfeyrac seemed like a nice enough chap so he agreed. The pair were fast friends. Marius didn’t talk a lot, but when he did, he was sure that he could trust Courfeyrac. He didn’t like to talk about the situation with his grandfather other than giving him a brief explanation of why he had been homeless. Now that he actually had a place to stay, Marius could devote more time to his classes. In his spare time he worked and read about the Napoleonic Wars in order to learn more about his father’s political philosophy. Whenever he had the chance, he went to his old church to visit Mabeuf, staying for a cup of tea and a chat about his father. His grandfather had been opposed to his parents marrying because Gillenormand was a monarchist and Pontmercy a Bonapartist. Pontmercy also didn’t have a penny to his name, but because of his feats in battle, he earned the title of Baron. According to his will, he had bequeathed the title to him. Marius was honored to have the title, but he told no one of it, fearing that he would be unable to live up to his father’s good name. He has cards with 'Baron Marius Pontmercy' written on them, but he's yet to hand them out. One day Courfeyrac asked him of his political opinions. Marius was unsure how to answer at first, but stated that he was a Bonapartist because of what he had read as well as his father’s influence. That and his friendship was apparently enough incentive for him to be invited to join a secret society called Les Amis de l’ABC. The intellectual discussions at the Café Musain were both a source of education and entertainment. He liked being exposed to new ideas, yet he also liked the fact that he was making friends. He felt a sense of belonging as a member of the group, even though his opinion of Napoleon clashed with those of several of its members, including their leader, Enjolras. At first he was reluctant to support their plan to start a revolution, but then he realized that in order to fix the socio-economic problems their country faced, scrapping the old regime and starting anew was the only option. If their freedom would be bought with blood, so be it. He became an active contributor to the group, writing and making speeches, and designing and handing out flyers and pamphlets. Marius did continue working and saving enough money so that he could support himself, and when he did have enough, he moved out of Courfeyrac’s place and rented an apartment at the Gorbeau House tenement. When he was walking back to his flat one evening after classes, he collided with a girl who was one of his neighbors, Eponine Thernardier. The two struck up a conversation and by the end he felt that he had made a new friend. She became his closest friend and confidante besides Courfeyrac, and like the latter, he believed that he could tell her anything. He enjoys their banter and her witticisms, and despite their personalities being rather different he does appreciate her company. Recently Marius has spotted a beautiful girl while on his way to a meeting at the Café Musain. He was immediately quite taken with her, but despaired because he had no idea who she was or where she had gone. It was strange, because he never really reflected on the possibility of falling in love—it had simply never occurred to him—yet he wondered what the new feeling that had overtaken him was. He tried to forget about her, but found that he couldn’t. In the back of his mind he is constantly thinking about her, bringing her up at random in conversation, but other than that he is dedicated to the revolution and his desire to practice law. When he finally saw her again at the parade, he learned her name--Cosette--and now he is determined to find her once again to declare his undying love. ----- ALIAS: Mel AGE: 17 GENDER: Female OTHER CHARACTERS: Blaise Combeferre HOW DID YOU FIND US: Link on another site ROLEPLAY SAMPLE: Please refer to Combeferre. And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill |