Player: S. Contact: PM or thewriteway Age: 35 Current Characters: N/A Link to Reserve:Here
Character Name: Michel Character Canon:Find Me Canon Point: Post the Cadenza chapter; Elio has left Michel behind to tour the States. Age: 62 approx; he's almost twice the age of Elio who is in his early thirties in that chapter.
Crime: Severe child neglect leading to death; a crime Michel hasn’t committed physically, though if you ask his estranged son, part of it’s probably true, emotionally. They never see each other, he might as well be dead to Michel. Michel would say differently, but who cares about a child murderer's opinion, really?
Background: Born as the only son of parents who, in his own words, hated each other, trying to hide that fact and mostly failing, Michel, a Parisian lawyer, grew up in an if not completely loveless home, then at least a home in which love was always in hiding. His father, formerly a concert pianist, now a lawyer, like Michel would later become, too, at his mother’s insistence, never openly expressed his emotions, never played the piano anymore and was quietly unhappy with his life, the life to which Michel belonged. They had a deep understanding of each other, his father and him, but it was never voiced or talked openly about, so as not to rouse his mother’s controlling streak.
Throughout his life, Michel would find that his father became a beacon, both someone he longed for, dutifully followed and kept secrets from, when he discovered that he was gay around his late teens, in a time when homosexuality wasn’t widely accepted, if at all. To live up to his parents, in particular his father’s example, he would marry a woman whom he’d stay with for twenty years, have a son with and later, after yet again falling in love with a man, divorce to pursue his true self. That move wouldn’t just lose him his wife, but also his son who resented him and cut all contact.
In the following period of his life, Michel would begin seeing an architect whom he'd be with for years, but like all his relationships, this one would also end prematurely, the other man moving to Canada eventually and the two falling out of touch. What followed was a string of brief affairs with men, though nothing that lasted and perhaps nothing that was meant to last. His focus now is good food, expensive wine, young men. Living alone in a Paris apartment, he lives by habit.
That is, until he meets Elio Perlman, a concert pianist half his own age, at one of his habitual concerts in a local church, and the two share an immediate, mutual attraction. After the concert, the two go to Michel’s favoured bistro and enjoy a meal together, agreeing to meet the following Sunday before parting ways for the night. Before the week is over, however, Michel seeks Elio out at the conservatory where the other man works, and their relationship becomes intimate from that day forward. Their affair lasts all winter, until Elio has to go on tour to the States, where he – at Michel’s encouragement – looks up an old flame he never truly got over. Michel, in turn, lets him go without complaint or objection.
Personality: "Again the warm, fetching smile, a blend of wisdom, irony and just a dab of sadness to remind me that there was nothing light about this gentle, possibly unhappy man." - Elio about Michel at their first meeting
Possibly unhappy; skeptical; pessimist.
Michel describes himself as a man of many contradictions which especially shows in his approach to Elio, whom he dotes on, shows open appreciation, love, infatuation and other similar emotions for, while at the same time always keeping a slightly ironic distance, not just to Elio, but to their relationship as a whole, because he has seen enough relationships in general break and crumble, but especially because he’s in perfect tune with Elio and senses that the other man is not giving himself over as much as Michel is and maybe never will. Yet, Michel doesn't hold back as a result, rather he's someone who gives himself away in the face of a constant expectation that his relations won’t last and he’ll end up alone again. He gives and gives and gives, although he never expects anything in return. He has never stopped giving, but he has stopped believing anything will change from it.
Elio describes him as someone who doesn’t believe a word he hears. That’s to say that Michel knows from himself what deception looks like and that many things in this world deceive, that you can’t trust your eyes, your ears and least of all, the people around you. People have secrets, secret agendas. You can only trust your own feelings and even they will sometimes trick you. He approaches the surrounding world openly and with a bombastic, open-armed attitude, but not because he is naïve, most likely because he isn’t. His job as a lawyer has no doubt showed him the worst sides of humankind and although he hates having to work in this field, it has prepared him for the realities he’s part of.
Shy; gentle; habitual.
On the other hand, Michel describes himself as shy. Behind the bombastic façade, the loud talking, the extroverted behaviour, he hides a deep sense of insecurity. Not to have lived up to his father, not to have made him proud, to have failed his ex-wife, his son and himself, lastly. He hides behind his dinners and his alcohol, but in reality, Michel is a man who fundamentally doubts himself. Doubts his life. The worth and meaning of it all. There are things he holds back and which he doesn’t do, due to this shyness, mostly things that pertain to him taking care of himself and meeting his own wants and needs, emotionally. Materialistically, he has everything already, but the material is only one half of a whole.
Instead, perhaps as a result, Michel is very focused on meeting the needs of others. He isn’t selfless out of a lack of self-awareness or self-worth, but he is desperate to be something to someone else. With Elio, he tries answering to all his needs, even before they have been spoken, he wants to be sure he isn’t hurting him, physically or emotionally, and he will eventually let him go to pursue his old lover, rather than try to hold on to him and their relationship for his own sake. Elio roused him out of his stupor, the habitual living from scotch to scotch, from concert to concert, from day to day at the office. And still, he lets him go – to return to that habit? Or to overcome it finally? The book doesn’t say.
Abilities: Has an extensive knowledge of law, since he’s studied it and worked in the field for thirty+ years. Other than that, he’s a completely ordinary human.
Inventory:
+ Underwear + Shoes (Corthay) and socks + Forèstiere jacket + Scarf + A white shirt and a dark blue sweater + Black trousers + A small planner in his back pocket + A cellphone (2001 model) + A briefcase in leather full of notebooks and various writing tools + A wallet
Questions: Michel is never mentioned by last name in canon, though given the modern world framework he's from, he's bound to have one. In RP land I usually call him Michel Laurent when a last name is necessary, but Laurent is a choice made by me and not taken from canon - can I use it in the game when introducing him to characters and such?
michel | find me | reserved
Contact: PM or
Age: 35
Current Characters: N/A
Link to Reserve: Here
Character Name: Michel
Character Canon: Find Me
Canon Point: Post the Cadenza chapter; Elio has left Michel behind to tour the States.
Age: 62 approx; he's almost twice the age of Elio who is in his early thirties in that chapter.
Crime: Severe child neglect leading to death; a crime Michel hasn’t committed physically, though if you ask his estranged son, part of it’s probably true, emotionally. They never see each other, he might as well be dead to Michel. Michel would say differently, but who cares about a child murderer's opinion, really?
Background: Born as the only son of parents who, in his own words, hated each other, trying to hide that fact and mostly failing, Michel, a Parisian lawyer, grew up in an if not completely loveless home, then at least a home in which love was always in hiding. His father, formerly a concert pianist, now a lawyer, like Michel would later become, too, at his mother’s insistence, never openly expressed his emotions, never played the piano anymore and was quietly unhappy with his life, the life to which Michel belonged. They had a deep understanding of each other, his father and him, but it was never voiced or talked openly about, so as not to rouse his mother’s controlling streak.
Throughout his life, Michel would find that his father became a beacon, both someone he longed for, dutifully followed and kept secrets from, when he discovered that he was gay around his late teens, in a time when homosexuality wasn’t widely accepted, if at all. To live up to his parents, in particular his father’s example, he would marry a woman whom he’d stay with for twenty years, have a son with and later, after yet again falling in love with a man, divorce to pursue his true self. That move wouldn’t just lose him his wife, but also his son who resented him and cut all contact.
In the following period of his life, Michel would begin seeing an architect whom he'd be with for years, but like all his relationships, this one would also end prematurely, the other man moving to Canada eventually and the two falling out of touch. What followed was a string of brief affairs with men, though nothing that lasted and perhaps nothing that was meant to last. His focus now is good food, expensive wine, young men. Living alone in a Paris apartment, he lives by habit.
That is, until he meets Elio Perlman, a concert pianist half his own age, at one of his habitual concerts in a local church, and the two share an immediate, mutual attraction. After the concert, the two go to Michel’s favoured bistro and enjoy a meal together, agreeing to meet the following Sunday before parting ways for the night. Before the week is over, however, Michel seeks Elio out at the conservatory where the other man works, and their relationship becomes intimate from that day forward. Their affair lasts all winter, until Elio has to go on tour to the States, where he – at Michel’s encouragement – looks up an old flame he never truly got over. Michel, in turn, lets him go without complaint or objection.
Personality:
"Again the warm, fetching smile, a blend of wisdom, irony and just a dab of sadness to remind me that there was nothing light about this gentle, possibly unhappy man." - Elio about Michel at their first meeting
Possibly unhappy; skeptical; pessimist.
Michel describes himself as a man of many contradictions which especially shows in his approach to Elio, whom he dotes on, shows open appreciation, love, infatuation and other similar emotions for, while at the same time always keeping a slightly ironic distance, not just to Elio, but to their relationship as a whole, because he has seen enough relationships in general break and crumble, but especially because he’s in perfect tune with Elio and senses that the other man is not giving himself over as much as Michel is and maybe never will. Yet, Michel doesn't hold back as a result, rather he's someone who gives himself away in the face of a constant expectation that his relations won’t last and he’ll end up alone again. He gives and gives and gives, although he never expects anything in return. He has never stopped giving, but he has stopped believing anything will change from it.
Elio describes him as someone who doesn’t believe a word he hears. That’s to say that Michel knows from himself what deception looks like and that many things in this world deceive, that you can’t trust your eyes, your ears and least of all, the people around you. People have secrets, secret agendas. You can only trust your own feelings and even they will sometimes trick you. He approaches the surrounding world openly and with a bombastic, open-armed attitude, but not because he is naïve, most likely because he isn’t. His job as a lawyer has no doubt showed him the worst sides of humankind and although he hates having to work in this field, it has prepared him for the realities he’s part of.
Shy; gentle; habitual.
On the other hand, Michel describes himself as shy. Behind the bombastic façade, the loud talking, the extroverted behaviour, he hides a deep sense of insecurity. Not to have lived up to his father, not to have made him proud, to have failed his ex-wife, his son and himself, lastly. He hides behind his dinners and his alcohol, but in reality, Michel is a man who fundamentally doubts himself. Doubts his life. The worth and meaning of it all. There are things he holds back and which he doesn’t do, due to this shyness, mostly things that pertain to him taking care of himself and meeting his own wants and needs, emotionally. Materialistically, he has everything already, but the material is only one half of a whole.
Instead, perhaps as a result, Michel is very focused on meeting the needs of others. He isn’t selfless out of a lack of self-awareness or self-worth, but he is desperate to be something to someone else. With Elio, he tries answering to all his needs, even before they have been spoken, he wants to be sure he isn’t hurting him, physically or emotionally, and he will eventually let him go to pursue his old lover, rather than try to hold on to him and their relationship for his own sake. Elio roused him out of his stupor, the habitual living from scotch to scotch, from concert to concert, from day to day at the office. And still, he lets him go – to return to that habit? Or to overcome it finally? The book doesn’t say.
Abilities: Has an extensive knowledge of law, since he’s studied it and worked in the field for thirty+ years. Other than that, he’s a completely ordinary human.
Inventory:
+ Underwear
+ Shoes (Corthay) and socks
+ Forèstiere jacket
+ Scarf
+ A white shirt and a dark blue sweater
+ Black trousers
+ A small planner in his back pocket
+ A cellphone (2001 model)
+ A briefcase in leather full of notebooks and various writing tools
+ A wallet
Samples: ONE, TWO
Questions: Michel is never mentioned by last name in canon, though given the modern world framework he's from, he's bound to have one. In RP land I usually call him Michel Laurent when a last name is necessary, but Laurent is a choice made by me and not taken from canon - can I use it in the game when introducing him to characters and such?