Post by ALAIN LECORBEAU on May 26, 2013 21:53:19 GMT -5
At the end of the day you're another day colder
FULL NAME: Alain ‘Le Corbeau’
NICKNAMES: Le Corbeau (the Crow)
HERITAGE: French
AGE: 44
GROUP: French citizen
CANON: No
PLAYBY: Nathaniel Parker
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PERSONALITY: Alain is a good leader; he was reluctant to take on the role but in the end accepted when it was dropped in his lap, though he'd much rather be off chasing adventures. With his troupe and his secret work on the side, he's been able to get the best of both worlds, enough of the excitement he craves, but centered around a family of his own choosing. He'll take risks on his own behalf, and with his inquisitive nature he does take risks, but he won't put the others in danger. That's an important thing to him, family, but not in the traditional sense. Blood doesn't mean nearly as much as devotion, loyalty, and love; a family you choose is worth more to him because you chose it.
Choice looms large for him too, and freedom. Alain doesn't like feeling trapped in any sense, whether physically or because there's only one real choice in a situation. He's not chained to any ideology either. If he thought there was a chance that things could ever change enough under a monarchy, if equality and fairness were possible without a revolution, then he would have been content. However, he saw how life was under a republic for ten short years, and he longs for those freedoms to return. And so he saves his loyalty for his troupe, not the king, though he has nothing against the monarch personally.
He likes a good story, perhaps too much for his own good. He's prone to exaggerating his tales or throwing in a detail or two to spice things up, though it's usually harmless. Often as not it makes him look like more of a fool than a hero, so it's nothing to do with ego, he just appreciates the art of storytelling and has a flair for the dramatic. But he also knows how to listen as well as spin a yarn and is always willing to give advice if it's welcome. Alain is outgoing, laid-back, generally friendly with a rich but restrained sense of humor. It's only in defense of his family that the fierce side of him comes out. Even then he favors the indirect approach, appealing to reason before resorting to violence.
APPEARANCE: The Alain of now looks a good deal different from the Alain of two years ago. Before his incarceration, he looked rather dashing with his brightly-colored clothes and air of confidence, especially when coupled with his warm smile. His hair, thick and black, is left relatively long and is often unkempt. He’s of average height with a solid square build, and was quite strong from working as a blacksmith for so many years. However, in prison this strength has atrophied, as much as he’s tried to maintain it; there’s only so much exercise you can do in a cell. His clothing, too, has lost its vibrancy, but he’s glad they at least allowed him to keep it instead of forcing into some prisoner’s uniform. Better faded glory than the bright red of a convict, after all…
GOALS: In general, he seeks adventure (where he probably shouldn’t) and wants to know what’s going on (when it’s probably none of his business). Currently he would like to regain his freedom. He’d like to be reunited with his wife and former troupe, if against the odds they’re still together. Also, since he recently learned his protege Mylène has gotten mixed up in danger and intrigue, he wants to keep her safe—but is powerless as long as he remains in the Conciergerie.
HISTORY: Born in 1788 to an upper middle-class family, Alain never felt as though he belonged with them. Sometimes in his darker moments he would muse that he must have been a changeling, switched at birth, and that his parents’ real child was off having adventures that were meant for him. Mostly though he just found his existence dull, and as he grew older it only got worse, because worse than having nothing to do, studying entered the picture, and if there was one thing he found less appealing than idleness, it was books. He loved listening to his uncle’s stories whenever he would visit— only half of which could possibly be true— but reading itself was hard for him and gave him headaches. So one spring day he went riding, and never came back.
At least he knew where he was going; as if there could be any other destination for a young person in search of adventure. Within a few days he was in Paris. He was just thirteen and his escape had been mere impulse, so he had no money. Finally he decided to sell his horse, and found when he stumbled on the military college that because of the wars they were in great demand; the army paid him a pittance for it, but one of the junior officers saw that he was new to the city and pointed him in the direction of a band of entertainers that often set up shop near the academy.
He joined the wandering troupe of carneys, discovering that he had a knack for juggling, but they fell apart after their leader got pressed into service in the wars. For a few years he continued on alone, trying to earn a living on the streets. It was here that he earned his nickname of ‘the Crow,’ for the way he was inquisitive, curious about everything, every scrap of information, regardless whether it concerned him or not. However, eventually he was tired and hungry and cold enough that he gave up and accepted an old farmer’s offer of a day’s wages for his help unloading the man’s cart. After that he went from job to job until he finally settled down to working for a blacksmith. He stayed there seven years and even got promoted, but wasn’t happy.
Then one day he happened to run into a girl from his old troupe, an acrobat. Estelle, as it turned out, was still working as an entertainer of sorts, living on the streets and earning her bread with magic tricks and a trained monkey. At first Alain just felt sorry for her and would join her in her usual spot on his lunch break, but soon he was facing two related problems. One, she’d asked him to leave his job and help her with her act; two, he wanted to say yes, because he’d fallen in love with her.
He found it hard to decide until she convinced him to take a holiday in the country, where she reminded him how good things used to be, how good they could be again. They spent just a few hours putting on a show for a small town, but Alain instantly recognized what he’d known all along. This was the life for him, not spinning his wheels at some smithy. The instant they returned to Paris, he went to the master smith and resigned.
From then on he and Estelle wandered from town to town, entertaining the populace. As they went, they seemed to attract the outsiders, the weird, some of whom wanted to join them. Estelle in particular welcomed them with open arms; Alain was reluctant at first, but as the tiny band grew into a healthy-sized troupe, he was reminded of the old days, but this time he was the one in charge.
If you were to ask him beforehand, he would have said leadership didn’t suit him. After all, he’d left his own family just to get away from responsibility. Why should he willingly take any on, and what about his background indicated that he could handle it if he did? But once it happened, Alain found it was less onerous than he’d thought. In fact, he rather enjoyed it. The group took on a familial feel, and he supposed that made him the patriarch. That was just as well, because although he and Estelle married soon after they took up the roving life together, they were not blessed with children. So they made do with the troupe, which came to call itself ‘Le Corbiers’ in honor of his appellative.
A family of sorts and the ability to make a living at something he enjoyed, that should have been enough for him, but somehow it wasn’t quite everything he’d wanted out of life. He still longed for adventures, and so when a mysterious man approached him on the street of some nowhere-town and asked him to deliver a message for him, Alain jumped at the chance. He could tell from the man’s attitude that this was no ordinary request. So his dabbling in the world of intrigue began. It helped that he also believed in the necessity of a republic.
If only it had remained so harmless, but Alain being Alain, he didn’t know when to stop prying, he made things a little too complicated, one too many clients served; and eventually he became more of a liability than anything else. Unfortunately for him, this wasn’t just some factory job where a firing just meant you were back to looking for work. It meant arrest for treason, then incarceration, without so much as a trial. At least he’d had enough foresight to see this coming and had given Estelle instructions for what to do in case this happened. He knew she would however reluctantly fulfill his request, however, being locked up in the Conciergerie, he couldn’t know that the girl they’d taken on four years earlier, Mylène Lacoquine, had stayed in Paris and was still hoping to find him.
That was two years ago, two impossibly long years, and by now he almost wishes they’d killed him rather than let him rot away in a cell. But recently he’s received a fresh spark of hope, coupled with new worry. He’s learned that Mylène has been looking for him, happy news, but the fact that she’s gotten so close as to make contact with the Falcon means that she may be putting herself in danger. And knowing Mylie, he’s sure she has.
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ALIAS: Levi
AGE: 26
GENDER: Female
OTHER CHARACTERS: Émile Javert
HOW DID YOU FIND US: an ad on Caution 2.0
ROLEPLAY SAMPLE: See Javert for evidence of my meager but adequate writing abilities.
And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill
