#connection:yvette

[infernorp]

name: acel tremblay

age: twenty five

gender and pronouns: non-specifc non-binary, they/them preferred but he/him is acceptable

loyalty: neutral

occupation: personal assistant to mathieu reyer

criminal occupation: none

faceclaim: miles mcmillan

Your family could always afford the best, and they insisted on giving their child no less. In everything, they selected the best neighborhood in France for raising a safe family of privilege, sent you to the most elite schools, encouraged every hobby and every glimmer of talent, afforded every friend you made along the way with gifts which effectively bribed your peers into treating you well. And you were... happy. You didn't know any other way to be. You knew that they were trying so hard to keep you content, but you never knew joy. Your friends never truly loved you; they loved the way they were treated, the lifestyle into which they caught a glimpse when they were around you. And it was obvious. You could be in a crowd of people who had gathered just for you and still be lonely. But you were grateful. Always grateful. You loved your parents, loved your friends. You just didn't truly know who you were.

As you grew older, you began declaring yourself an artist. The title somehow felt right. But you were useless with a paintbrush, with charcoal, with a pencil. So your parents hid away the oil paints and the canvasses, bought you the most expensive cameras on the market instead, digital and instant and film. That was no good either. You overheard them on the phone with art curators trying to pay to get the photographs your teenaged little hands had taken into magazines. The cameras went in the garbage. You tried again with clay, with wood, with glass. All you got was splinters and burns and endless frustration; nothing even resembling a good sculpture came of that endeavor. But still, you were an artist, with your scarf tied around your neck and your beret. Someone suggested a different kind of art this time, and you tried. Dance classes, music lessons with instruments of all kinds, voice lessons, acting classes, improvisation classes. You fell to the bottom of each. This time, though, something was different. You could tell what you were doing wrong, even if you couldn't get it right. You could look around the room, eyes sharp and bright and alert, and listen to your instructors and know what your classmates should be doing, what the room should look like, what everything should sound like. Something clicked. You watched films, books with titles like How to Watch a Movie open in front of you, and everything made sense. Your parents were thrilled. The next school year, they finally enrolled you in the best performing arts school they could find, and you were a director now. You graduated, and moved on to college, spending double the amount of time to get two majors and two minors before moving on to the real world. And now, a university placed internship has found you at Le Théâtre de Nuit.

acquaintances: gigi destler, joseph buquet, kristos vallas, lucien rousseau, and rahim ahmadi

charges: baylen moreau, carlotta ciudicelli, christine daae, enzo durand, fleur renard, gregory renard, hadley perrin, lea jammes, lisette sorelli, meg giry, odessa faust, sebastian renard, ursula braun, and xavier carmen

employers: annabella chaney, erik destler, gabriel prideaux, gille andré, madalene giry, michel lefèvre, philippe chaney, raoul chaney, and richard firmin

MATHIEU REYER

Your boss. The only person Mathieu was able to personally hire in the entire company, as he doesn't even have an assistant director or choice of his choreographer or musical director. No, Mathieu hand-selected you and you only, pulled from the pile your meager little resume, typed up in the middle of the night on a computer in the school library while you were running on fumes and not much else, and called you in for an interview. It's obvious you weren't selected for your experience, since you have none. No, more likely you were the only person who could survive the veritable warzone that is the way he runs his rehearsals. You'll never really know how the cast takes it, as most of them seem much more fragile than you. And while this internship is only barely paid -- room and board in one of the ballet dormitories and a food budget -- it's more than anyone else in this area would give you. So you endure it. Even endure Mathieu himself, though the more you get to know him, the less awful you find him, as is the way with most people.

REMY BOURQUE

You understand each other, as the only PAs on the premises. Oftentimes the tasks your respective employers ask of you are obnoxious or ridiculous -- errandboys to old men who can't even use their expensive toys half the time, much less be bothered to get themselves coffee. And of course, being around the same age yourselves helps as well. You often find yourselves wandering from Remy's office outside of Michel's own quarters to Mathieu's worn seat in the back of the house and back again, back and forth until one of them needs something, which of course then you and Remy will go and get together unless there's circumstances preventing it. While Remy can be much louder than you'd personally prefer, she's the only other person in the theatre whose station in life is comparable to your own.

YVETTE MERCIER

It's funny; people often take you as a serious, no-nonsense type, but you're the strongest believer in energies that you've ever met. When it comes to Yvette, she shares quite the same energy as you, more than nearly anyone else in your life, past or present. You find you have in common the energy of a trapped bird; something beautiful which longs so desperately to be free. She's an artist just like you are, though in a different medium. You can sit and talk with her in your downtime for hours, helping as much as your clumsy hands can to paint the set pieces or mould props or give opinions as she sketches out stage designs and costumes. She has such an eye for these things, it's incredible. Were your heart a little harder, you could find yourself envying her. The door to your cage is wide open, you're just too comfortable where you are to fly beyond it. You wonder who holds the key to Yvette's cage; herself, or someone far away.

THIS CHARACTER HAS A FLEXIBLE FACECLAIM AND IS TAKEN BY RED

[infernorp]

name: gabriel prideux

age: twenty six

gender and pronouns: trans male, he/his

loyalty: chaney

occupation: music director

criminal occupation: emissary for the chaney crime organization

faceclaim: laith ashley

You’re someone that has grown up understanding the superstitions and the ghosts that haunt the darkened corridors and dimly-lit streets. Your childhood was filled with countless hours hidden under bedsheets and scanning old novels, their pages dog-eared with time. You had always seen something that nobody else could; an almost divine power in everything, no matter how others laughed and taunted you. They didn’t understand, because nobody could, really. They would never understand your mind, you realised, or the words you spoke to their unreceptive ears. You have always double-crossed your paths and believed in protecting yourself from the spirits surrounding you, the type of person to carry a rabbit’s foot for luck and throw salt over your shoulder. It has become a controlled aspect of your personality now, to always see everything twice and to analyse the shadows behind doors, to see something that nobody else would. To understand the danger lurking where others walked forward, completely innocent to it all. You consider it a gift in many ways, as you have connected your soul to something beyond reach for others, something that you believe harbours a space in your body and spirit. Still, you understand that it won’t be enough to save you from the dangers of the city, where blood pours down doorways and taints even the most innocent of souls as easily as rain drowns your skin, forever changed and unable to be saved and made pure once more. You understand, but you still hope.

Your identity has come in shapes, moulding itself as you have grown and revelled in your discoveries; religion is something that has given you comfort, that has guided you in lights shone colours nobody else can decipher. They frown at you, they call you strange; they don’t understand how you could turn to God when there is nothing to save you. They don’t see salvation in the spirits, in the superstitions that shape your daily life. You don’t mind, although you are not refrained from your sarcastic retorts when they speak to you with their gaze fixated downwards, seeing you as something small. You’re not weak, and they need to know that. However, you do find yourself steering away from the chaos that bleeds into your life, the Phantom and his work leaving you shivering. You may act innocent to those you can fool, eyes widened and voice tilted to play the part, but you can’t contain your fear when you hear of the man you may believe to be the Devil himself. You hear the spirits chant, you hear them warn you of him, of the one that could bring everything down to the ground. You hold your rosaries a little tighter in your hand, and you pray for salvation again and again.

associates: annabella chaney, dulce vilaro, enzo durand, indira puri, narissa king, philippe chaney, raoul chaney, rhys falcon, richard firmin, tempest noble, veronica perez, and zhu lau

cast: baylen moreau, carlotta giudicelli, christine daae, fleur renard, hadley perrin, lea jammes, lisette sorelli, meg giry, odessa faust, sebastian renard, ubaldo piangi, ursula braun, and xavier carmen

coworkers: erik destler, gregory renard, joseph buquet, kristos vallas, madalene giry, and michel lefevre

GILLE ANDRÉ AND MATHIEU REYER

Co-workers and comrades-in-arms, not that you would necessarily call them friends, although you aren’t opposed to drinks over a bit of particularly juicy information every so often. You get along well enough with them despite artistic differences, and you tend to simply keep your distance and work well on your own. Working with them, you’ve created one of the most exciting places in Paris; a place where people can forget the darkness and embrace the artificial light that seems to glow through the stars sweeping the stage. They can pretend they’re in the face of something good. You know better, however, understanding that there is nothing but the higher power that can truly cleanse the sins of the soul, specifically those of the people around you. Therefore, you can stand alongside them and hear their guffawing, you can work and play and down too many drinks to understand what they can be whispering to you in bars, and you simply close your eyes and allow it to overcome you.

REMY BOURQUE

You don’t hate many people, believing it to be a negative energy in the temple of your body, but you despise the woman. She doesn’t seem to be able to mind her own business, constantly speaking when she is not asked to and placing herself in your space. Your relationship is strained, to say the least, and it almost takes you by surprise your vehemence of disgust for her. She irritates you, and as someone who doesn’t usually have passionate feelings for anyone, it takes you by surprise. You try to avoid her if you can, made difficult daily, but when you are placed in her company you speak shortly and let sarcasm and annoyance flood your words, trying to convey as meaningfully as you can. Still, she doesn’t seem to understand and take the hint, which leaves you walking away with the feeling of beating your head against the wall.

YVETTE MERCIER

Yvette might be a little more rough around the edges than the people you would normally acquaint yourself with, but, an open mind and non-judgemental spirit have led you to discover that she has a kind heart and only the best of intentions. Her quick wit and sarcastic tongue are only bonuses. Some think she's to blame for the way you've become much more clever and even cutting as of late, but you're still the gingerbread man you've always been, even if you might seem a little more crisp now. In dire straits and when absolutely needed, your heart and soul are still tender, soft to the touch, and, while you know the same to be true about Yvette, the two of you make a good team purely because your intentions are more obvious while she keeps her cards a little more obscured, only showing them when absolutely needed.

THIS CHARACTER HAS A SEMI-FLEXIBLE FACECLAIM AND IS OPEN