#I couldn’t believe someone finally had a HE

[angeltannis]

Salem Pride was awesome!!

[pearl-renaud-blog]

  ---            A B O U T

“At every sunrise, I renounce the doubts of night and greet the new day with a most precious delusion.”

Skeleton: The Guileless

Age: 19

Gender/Pronouns: she/her

Hometown: Gatineau, Canada

Major: Political Science and Economics

Faceclaim: Josefine Frida Pettersen

Character blurb:

Her lips are painted a soft red, and you imagine it’s stained on the rim of a coffee cup somewhere. She’s shorter than average, her camel coloured coat coming down to her knees. You smile as you watch her struggle with her luggage, seeing her flush as she accepts help from an attendant, muttering a flustered and unnecessary apology. A lock of short, white-blonde hair has unhooked from behind her ear, and her voice is high and accented. She’s looking past you, mouth pursed as she rolls up onto her toes to scan the platform as it empties. She doesn’t seem to find who she’s looking for, the crestfallen expression could break your heart. Her name is on the tip of your tongue, you know she is an Augustine student, and you remember it as something precious. Pearl. Taking care to pull her bags close to her, she waits as the next train comes and vacates. Finally, she perks up at the sight of someone at the very end of the platform, nearly bent over under the heft of a cello case. She’s hopeful again, her green eyes are bright and her smile inches upwards, her hands clutched together like a child.

Developed Head Canons:

There’s often a baby in a big family like her own. She was the accident, the unplanned, with two older sisters in their teens at her birth. With her status as the youngest, it would’ve been easy to take advantage of the perks that came with it-- but Pearl was content to simply shine. She was her mother’s favourite, and she remembers her mother the most. The woman’s life had not been kind to her. She faded with each of her pregnancies, each swollen belly leaving her hair a little grayer and her crow’s feet a little more visible, each birth leaving her a little more hollowed out until she was nothing more than a living ghost. Her father was a crooked French-Canadian; his breath was always sour with whiskey. He didn’t bother with her much, his youngest, his bird-boned girl. She doesn’t remember a cruel father, just an absent one. She does not recall a weak mother, only a soft-hearted one. Her older sisters grew up like weeds, fast and strong; but she was allowed the languid, unhurried growth of a delicate ivy vine.

Hers was a soft prologue. If Pearl’s early years could be any colour, they would be painted in broad pastel shades– gentleness curves around all her earliest memories. They mask the darkness that really haunted the entire Renaud family. When she closes her eyes, Pearl doesn’t remember half-finished bottles of Jack Daniels sitting on the kitchen counter, or her mother’s lonely tears; her memories are rose-hued, paired with calliope music and romps up and down rickety steps, harmless misadventures and wonderful discoveries. In those days, her fingers had grasped at everything, but she’d always been kept safe and protected from real danger. She’d been given the opportunity to embrace a childhood of innocence, one that her sisters were ushered out of so quickly.

Her family wasn’t that good together, but at a time, at least they’d been whole. Patrice Renaud had inherited the family business, a trucking company that had expanded across the country. Trucks bearing the Renaud name cut the distance between provinces, carrying everything and anything. It was profitable, and it took her father away from home often enough. Bernadette Renaud was a high school sweetheart, too young to know what real love was until she was two babies deep into a relationship that was empty of it. She stayed at home to raise the children.

There are ten years between Pearl and her sisters. Adeline is the eldest Renaud sister. She’s finished medical school and her residency in Vancouver is almost complete, she hopes to lead her own family practice in the next two years. They keep in touch, the odd guilty phone call exchanged between them. The middle child is Laila, she took the most after her father, inheriting his best and worst traits. She should’ve been the one closest to Pearl, but she’s the furthest away. A lost girl, and one Pearl mourns just as equally as she does her parents.

They owned a decent chunk of property, the family home backed onto the Ottawa river. The house was old, it’d been in the family for generations. The porch was rotting and sagging, her father always swore he’d get someone to repair it, year after year. It looked like it was smiling at passerbys from the street. The stairs all creaked and the windows didn’t seal properly-- you could hear the wind howling through them in January. Her mother would stuff blankets into the cracks so they could sleep warm at night, and the little wood stove in the kitchen puffed a curl of white smoke into the sky. Development on the banks of the river made the property sell for something grossly inflated, and split three ways the profits of the sale were enough to line the pockets of the remaining Renaud’s significantly. With this money and a partial scholarship, Augustine turned from a pipe dream to a reality. The house has long since been bulldozed over, and the skeleton for a condominium has been erected over its bones.

Hardly sixteen and the glass walls of her snow globe world shattered, dissolved into headlines and sensationalized media stories. They called it a drunk driving accident, but this is what it was: man, late fourties, driving a sports car painted baby-blue, a few harsh winters away from speckling with rust. It’s between two in the morning and daybreak, and he’s travelling fast eastbound. His blood is soaked with alcohol. Witnesses say the vehicle swerved for fifteen miles, weaving between the yellow lines like a needle pulling through dark fabric. His wife is seated beside him, her face is scared and pale, her right cheek brushed with faded purple and yellow. The car drifts into the other lane. It’s chased out once by blaring horns, but the second time-- impact. There are no survivors.

It wasn’t childhood that was painful, it was growing out of it. After her parents passing, Pearl couldn’t find anyone to take her in. Her sisters had their own lives. Adeline was across the country in school, and Laila was thought to be somewhere along the east coast, hard to pin down and unwilling to be found. Pearl, still underage, was sent to various estranged aunts and uncles, tossed between the scattered remains of the Renaud family. She couldn’t always find kindness when she was intruding on other’s lives. She couldn’t count on the compassion of people she didn’t really know. Acceptance to Augustine with a partial scholarship promised her a home.

She’s a different girl now. She’s still soft, but she’s not reaching out blindly anymore; there’s no one left to protect her except for herself. Life without the rose-coloured glasses is certainly a little bleaker, and facing it can be too much at times, but it’s better this way. Now, she can finally see clearly. Now, she has to apply all her hard-learned lessons. This is her downfall, and her most precious, most beautiful quality. She still believes that the world has a way to right itself, to pick up the pieces and mend. She still believes in purity, in picket fences. Her heart will still beat and break in her chest, and it will continue to bleed for the girl she once was, and for the girl she is bound to become.

She has such a delicate heart; she doesn’t wear it on her sleeve so much as she offers it up in open palms. Life has been cruel to her, and it has made her stronger, but she hasn’t allowed it to make her hard. This is Pearl’s most prevalent theme-- she loves this world, even when it makes itself difficult to love. Her hopefulness is stubborn like that; she’s a girl who chooses to see the best in people, not because she’s unaware of their capability to do harm and cause pain, but because she believes that the good always outweighs the bad. She’s so hopeful that it’s almost naive, so hopeful that there’s something beautiful about it.

More Headcanons

Her roommate is a Russian musician named Oksana. She’s absolutely terrifying, and Pearl has spent the past year and a half treading carefully as she navigates the murky waters of Oksana’s dark humour.

She’s a double major, and also doubles up on multiple clubs and activities on campus. She’s always busy with something, even in the isolation of the Alps she manages to maintain a packed calendar. Slotting in time for her friends and Peter are high on her priorities, and you can always count on her to be there, exhausted, but present.

[stephicness]

I couldn’t sleep again, so here! Have Sheridan, now with a complete profile. c: Check below!

General Information

Name: Sheridan Edmonton

Other Names: Sheridan Emmingard (Current Alias), Yukinori Jyuusei (Real Name), Sher, Sherri, Mon Sherri

Age: 24 Years

Gender: It’s a complicated matter, you see. Sheridan directly identifies as male. However, he isn’t opposed to the idea of being labeled as female, gender-fluid, or another other gender identity. To him, he takes it as a compliment whichever gender he’s referred to, though it’s not unusual for him to be mistaken as a female. Often, however, he’s written with a combination of ‘they/them/their’ pronouns or just the usual male pronouns.

Nationality: Niflheim, but recently gained citizenship in Accordo.

Occupation: Ex-Corporate Heir, Florist

Affiliation: Niflheim Empire (Formerly)

Sexuality: Bisexual, but prefers men.

Appearance

Eye Color: Ice Blue

Hair Color/Style: Predominantly black with a white section of hair in his bangs. He usually parts his bangs offset to where most of it hangs to the right, as he often pins his hair back into ponytails, updos, buns, and curls, but he always lets to long sections hang over his shoulders to feel more comfortable about his hair. If his hair isn’t pinned up or pulled back, it should reach his lower back to backside area.

Height: 6’0” or 180 CM.

Body Build: Slim and slender build, Sheridan has a rather petite form for a male, something he’s quite proud of. It merely adds to his androgynous figure, but he tends to have broader shoulders than most women, a skinnier waist than most males, and he’s incredibly tall for a lady. However, in addition to his slender build, it is noted that Sheridan possesses two Magitek prosthetic legs, usually hidden behind stockings of some sort. He doesn’t take much pride in that little fact, unfortunately, so he does his best to conceal them.

Fashion: He often finds himself wearing color schemes of white, black, and blue, and he enjoys clothing that allows him the leg-room to move as well as something that enhanced his beauty. He believes beauty is power, so he makes sure that his wardrobe always manages to fulfill such by getting the latest styles of dresses and more. However, he tends to favor styles with high-necks or turtlenecks, flowing or larger skirts, or styles that even fall under the gothic Lolita style. Anything that he looks cute in, he’ll like usually.

Combat

Weapons: None. However, his prosthetic legs supply him with a good combat advantage after Sheridan was trained as a soldier for a good period of time. If you get kicked by them, something is bound to be broken after that.

Abilities: Enhanced Strength (Legs), Enhanced Agility, Acting and Theatre Skills, Costuming and Make-Up

Background

Family & Relatives: Soratami Jyuusei – Father (Deceased), Beatrice Edmonton – Mother (Deceased), Yukinori Jyuusei – Cousin (Deceased), Mikkelis Bjorgenson – Caretaker

Biography: The wealthy Edmonton family, a Niflheim business group who made their name and corporate mark through their cybernetic technology and research. They were developing ways to better enhance how the mind interacts with technology through magical and scientific means, making them an asset to the empire. The Edmontons’ worked tirelessly in close relations to the empire to help supply them with the technology needed for them to create and enhance their armies, as well as supply them with the technology needed to help in Verstael Besithia’s research of daemons and magical technology. Perhaps not morally correct in the aspects of business, the Edmontons were a family that took pride in the idea of being able to use their technology in the future to help those in need, especially if their technology can be used for medical purposes.

Sheridan was born under the name Yukinori Jyuusei as an illegitimate child between his mother, Beatrice, and her suitor, Soratami, much to the rest of the Edmontons’ dismay. Despite their dismay, Beatrice pleaded for the chance to be able to reside with her lover and her child, willing to even give up her status as the heiress to the company to her brother and his daughter for the chance to simply live with her family. This was a deal they were willing to give into, allowing Beatrice to raise their son in peace without the responsibilities of the business lingering over them. Yukinori lived a rather simplistic life despite the luxuries of wealth. He went to school like every other child, learned the things he needed to as well, and eventually created a set path to potentially pursue a career in theatre and acting. He was raised without any worry of having to take up the family name. Or so he thought.

Even at a young age, it was soon discovered that the heiress to the Edmonton family name was sick, slowly dying until she soon passed away when Yukinori was about eight years old. With news of her brother being without an heir, Beatrice was pressured by her family to make a decision: to force Yukinori to become the next heir to the Edmonton family or to be disowned completely? Beatrice was forced to accept their deal, beginning to raise Yukinori to become the future heir to the family. But not under an illegitimate name such as ‘Yukinori Jyuusei.’ Thus, Yukinori was eventually renamed as Sheridan Edmonton.

When Sheridan was ten years old, the rumors began to spread that the Edmontons’ were secretly selling their technology to Lucis. It was noted that most of their sales were for technology to help for the sake of medicine, but what belonged to Niflheim stayed with Niflheim. And so, in a move of corruption and political action, the Edmontons were attacked in their home at night, most of the family being assassinated by the Magiteks and being labeled as ‘traitors to the empire.’ Sheridan was able to survive the executions, but not without taking some damage himself. While trying to escape, a Magitek soldier had crippled Yukinori, making him unable to walk ever again.

Sheridan was left as the survivor of the attacks, arrested by the empire instead of left to die. Why would they execute someone so young, after all, when they could be used for other things? Thus, to test out what technology was confiscated by the family and what use they could have to the empire, Sheridan was sent under Verstael Besithia’s care, becoming one of the first test subjects for an experimental Magitek prosthetics, combined with the Edmonton cybernetic technology as well as the essence of daemons. The process was grueling and one that haunts Sheridan even to this day. But despite it being a curse, it was also a gift. Verstael worked tirelessly to perfect the technology until finally, a miracle happened and Sheridan found himself able to walk once again.

After five years of rehabilitation and experimentation, Sheridan was ‘released’ as a prisoner, but was held more as a trophy of Verstael’s work. The technology was a revolutionary idea, to allow proper movement and sentience to Magitek equipment to allow them proper usage and manipulation, even more so than they already had. Even more so, the technology granted to Sheridan allowed the young man to be able to run at distances and speeds no human was able to travel at, to be able to kick so hard that it could break through metal with enough force, to give a human being the chance to be stronger and more powerful than they were ever before. A remarkable feat. Sheridan was paraded to many events, social galas or press conferences, even standing before the emperor to show what the technology had to offer. Sheridan was treated as nothing more than a doll to show off before being locked away until the next showing occurred, leaving the young man to feel colder to the world than he had ever felt before.

But soon, when Sheridan turned the age of twenty, he found that life wasn’t with Niflheim. No longer did he want to be the empire’s doll. And so, with the help of a soldier who also wanted free from the empire and a grumpy mechanic who Sheridan came to find out ‘hated his job,’ the three rebels decided to hatch a plan to escape from the empire for good. And so, as Sheridan was being transported VIA airship to one of the Magitek bases, their airship ‘accidentally’ blew up, resulting in their bodies to ‘never be found.’ Or so the empire assumed. The mechanic, the soldier, and Sheridan managed to escape just before the ship went down. And thus, with their freedom ensured, the mechanic went along his merry way as the soldier and Sheridan fled to Lestallum to escape the empire.

Sheridan stayed in Lestallum for a good two years until thing settled down. Sheridan started taking odd jobs to try supplying for himself, but found that his disabilities made it harder for him to do anything. Thus, to allow himself the chance to keep his prosthetics from being caught and torn up by pants, he started to dress as a woman, a beautiful one who could hide his prosthetics behind stockings and charm men and women into giving him smaller and less strenuous jobs so he could make it by in the city. And soon, after generating enough money to relocate, he and the soldier traveled to Altissia, where they took up individual lives there in hopes the empire would keep out of their business for good.

Personality: For someone with a beautiful face and form, Sheridan has a rather nasty personality. Always angry or complaining about something, it’s not an unusual sight to see Sheridan with a disgruntled expression on his face. He’s a very spiteful young man who lingers on his past insecurities so much that it’s often hard for him to socialize with anyone without being rather rude when you first meet him. He isn’t afraid to say what his first impression of someone is, even if it means him outwardly telling you that you have a face he isn’t particularly fond of. He often expresses these thoughts in the form of sarcasm and sass.

Think of his neutral expression as a ‘resting bitch-face,’ if you will -- Sheridan’s hardly seen without it. And when he is seen with a different expression beyond that, he’s probably twisting his face into a frown or smirking about something mischievous. With such a face, people often find him to be a bit intimidating to talk to at first, often making him a rather isolated or ‘reserved’ character due to his lack of proper socialization that he tends to drive himself from. He isn’t a loner though, mind you. He still can talk with people, but that usually when he has to or when he’s looking for a booty call that night.

Sheridan is also a rather prideful figure, never liking to accept anyone’s help even if it means he has to take a good portion of damage and troubles for himself. He’s not one to want to burden people with his issues, perhaps being more worried about others than himself. But he also refuses to let his insecurities about his injuries or his stature show. Thus, he forces himself to take on tasks that are often strenuous on him and his prosthetics, find himself shaking and nearly collapsing from fatigue more often than he’d like.

Though despite his negative traits, Sheridan’s beauty is matched with a rather kind personality hidden underneath all that ice he shows. He’s a rather sentimental character, enjoying to linger and notice the tiny things in a person’s appearance, the things they say, and he always takes note of it in the longer term. That glaring that he does usually is often because he’s narrowing his eyes in thought about what kind of flower would best suit you or if he could work up the courage to ask you to go get a drink with him. He really does want to develop proper relationships with people, but it’s often hard to with his normal demeanor and rather aggressive and blunt personality.

Likes: Flowers, Liquor (Vodka and Cola), Dating, Reading, Fashion, Candy, Muscles

Dislikes: His Injuries, Tourists, Rude People, Overly-Chivalrous People, Being Bound, The Dark

Other Facts

-        Sheridan has a notorious sweet tooth, liking to eat a lot of different candies and sweets even more than he enjoys having sex. Hell, it’s even better than that.

-        He’s often seen with either the soldier/caretaker he traveled with, who helps him in his day-to-day life, or seen with a friend he first met when arriving in Altissia. He’s usually grumpy around both of them too.

-        Sheridan’s a fairly well-known cosplayer around Altissia’s convention scene. With his androgynous nature, it’s easy for him to dress as a female character one day and a male the other. People can hardly tell the difference.

-        His favorite season is the winter time. He often finds himself missing Niflheim because it snows there unlike in Altissia, but he unfortunately has to take what he’s given. One day soon though, he can return to the snowy climate he loves so much.

-       It’s not unusual for him to be mistaken as a woman in his day-to-day life. But he never really bothers to correct people when they call him a ‘very pretty lady.’ He merely shrugs, takes the compliment, and waits until later when he has to awkwardly explain himself. Hey, at least they called him pretty.