Post by VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN on Jan 8, 2013 14:55:23 GMT -5
Victor Marius Jonathan Frankenstein
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
OOC: Hey there, I'm Gabby, been roleplaying for ~3 years (though only ~1.5 forum) and I found this site through Leffie.
Canon: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Face-claim: Jonny Lee Miller
Social Status: High class, he comes from an incredibly wealthy family and his father was a well-known politician.
Occupation: Freelance scientist.
Age: 27
Appearance: Victor, like an properly bred young man, has always been taught to stand up straight and look confident, address everyone with friendlies. However his years of reading and leaning over his desk at night has deteriorated his straightness and he slouches often. His dress rarely wavers though - the most casual you'll see him in is a t-shirt and jeans. Never swear pants, God forbid. He most prefers smart dress, often jackets and button downs (though not ties, ties are a disadvantage), sometimes scarves. His shoes never go unpolished unless he has not left the house in some time. His brown hair, grown darker of the years, it usually kept short, though hardly what one would call neat. He looks older than he is, mostly due to his inability to care for himself.
Overall Personality: Victor is an incredibly selfish person. He is empathetic and can be caring, yes, but ultimately, he lives for himself. He will always find himself bringing a topic of conversation back to himself, though he doesn't meant to. He is not unkind; despite his inherent need to be paid attention to, he does love, and wants to help others. He just doesn't know how, and anyways, surely they can take care of themselves? He loves his family, but he likes himself more.
However Victor is the epitome of a gentleman. His manners are top notch - that is, when he's trying. Now, with his mental state rapidly deteriorating and improving between days, there's not telling how Victor might act. He has a one track mind, and will become obsessed with something until he achieves it, then throw it away in despair, thinking it useless. On good days, he is loving, wants to be loved in return, but often he is neurotic, bordering on neurosis, and becomes terrified of the slightest things.
Sometimes when he becomes depressed, he also becomes violent. Additionally, he does not take kindly to strangers. His default defense is either to flee, or stab people (he's strangely fond of that defense.), mostly with writing utensils though he has also almost-stabbed-with-knives many of James' dance friends who come to practice in James' studio. He will stay indoors for days and forget to eat or sleep, until James makes him - James is his only staple.
Victor does not know how to take care of himself. His one-track obsessions force him to forget about needs, but now that he has very little hobbies, he mostly can't find the energy to care anymore. His depression makes him sluggish and tired, always tired. He still loves the outdoors, but often he feels like he's looking at it through a glass, one he can break but can't find the strength to do so. When he's in a situation, he closes in on himself, freaks out. Usually there's tears, and a few days stayed inside not letting James leave him.
Likes, dislikes:
Likes: James, dancers, math, explanations
Dislikes: The creature, university, being alone for too long, bad manners
Goals, fears:
Goals: he doens't have any, except to maybe heal some more... eventually.
Fears: The creature, his uni days, too many people in one place, shops
Overall History: Victor was born in Naples, where his incredibly wealthy and ever-loving parents were staying to be closer to his mother's family. He grew his first year in the city before they moved back to home, to Geneva, where Alphonse and Caroline raised him with utmost care and attention. He wanted for nothing. Their large estate gave him many opportunities to play outdoors. A curious child, he loved nature and wanted answers to all of his questions. He was home schooled from a young age by his mother, a priest's daughter who had a degree in psychology, and his father, a well-respected politician who had published many papers in political journals. Victor was the first of three boys: next came Ernest, and then William.
When he was four, his second-cousin (by marriage), Elizabeth, was orphaned, and Victor's parents took her in. Together with Elizabeth and his best friend and neighbor James (Henry Clerval), the three children explored their hometown with excitement, getting into mischief and loving one another dearly. Victor, however, was a bit different than the other two. Elizabeth and James were smart, sure, but Victor was observant, more so than the other two. He saw the world differently, with angles and diagrams and everything was reduced to polygons. He felt empathy, but it was he could not understand why, and wanted to know.
As the children grew older, Victor and Elizabeth grew infatuated with each other - rather, Elizabeth was infatuated with him, and Victor went along, more interested in science than girls (or boys, like James started to seem). He was fascinated by the old art of alchemy and properties of metamorphosis. When they were ten, Elizabeth asked him to marry her, and he said yes, not really paying attention. To this day, he's not quite sure if they're actually going to marry or not. But he doesn't much think on it - he and Elizabeth just write letters back and forth and they're happy to do just that. At any rate, Victor much preferred staying with James than Elizabeth by the time they were teenagers, the awkward gender divide somewhat separating them. And anyways, James went to a fantastic school with all sorts of scienc-y things - Victor more than once snuck into the prestigious boarding school to either steal science equipment or watch James and his dance class (something he liked, though again, he didn't exactly know why). He found himself calculating the body angles, and admiring James' versatility as a dancer.
But, the time came when the two boys had to split, and James was to go off to England for a BFA, Victor to the University of Ingolstadt in Germany to study science. Right before he was to leave, his mother succumbed to scarlet fever. He was devastated, but his father urged him to continue on to university, make his mother proud, so Victor did. He was bored with classes and teachers though, and made few if any friends, mostly keeping to himself and reading advanced biology, anatomy and chemistry. It was with this knowledge that he began to wonder: what was it, that truly made the body tick? What was the secret to life itself? He studied this tirelessly, going so far as to find dead animals and attempt to resurrect them. And one day: he did.
He worked all year, going to enough classes only to pass and hardly doing his assignments. Eventually he stopped going to classes all together by the end of the year, obsessed with his creations. His one-track mind would not let him off the hook; his sole focus in life during this time was to create life. He ate little, hardly ever slept until his body forced him to collapse with exhaustion, and finally, at the end of June right before the end of term, he finished it. A body, made of a stolen body from the morgue and various other fresh parts, or humanistic qualities of animals, was created. It was a genetic duplication taken from many, and it opened its eyes and groaned for the first time: and Victor, terrified, ran.
When he came back the monster was gone, and Victor tried to convince himself it was a dream. Surely, nothing so ugly as what he had created could be real. The hideousness was unthinkable! And yet, he could not quite assure himself that it was a creation of his own mind. Quickly, he threw away all of his science materials, flinging them, terrified. They were of no use to him anymore - he had succeed, and he hated himself for succeeding. He stayed in a horrible stupor until James came to visit him as a summer vacation and saw what a mess he was.
James, horrified with Victor's condition, brought him back to England with him to spend the summer. Victor still remembers little of those horrible months, though when Victor was not recovered by the end of the summer, his parents withdrew him from uni and he stayed with James in England. Eventually, he recovered under the careful care and love of James and some therapy, and a fascinating man named Sherlock Holmes, who made him think again. He did not get a job, seeing as he had more than enough money from his family to survive and James was hardly poor either. Some days were good, and he found the strength to go outside and take a walk, go to one of James' performances. On bad days, he stayed indoors, afraid of moving too much in case the man - no, it wasn't a man, it was a creature, the hideous disfigured being he's brought back to life in such a horrible way - he had created came back. A few years went by, though, and he began to
Eventually James decided he would go to NYC to join dance there, so Victor, naturally, went with him. He had healed since uni, but was still a nervous man, afraid of progress, change. New York was a huge adjustment for him, and for the first few months Victor barely left the apartment. Eventually, though, he got more used to the traffic, the noise, the people. He shared a two-floor apartment with James, terrified of James' dancer friends who sometimes came to practice in the upstairs studio. There is a study downstairs, and Victor, finally, has begun to read again. Though he is still terrified of ever discussing his days at uni, even with James, he keeps himself together well enough. Finding Sherlock Holmes once again was a coincidence, and Victor has found himself becoming more and more (regrettably) interested in science and life once more.
Most Influential Event: Finding the secret to human life... and running away from it.
Sample Writing:
"Victor?"
He stopped rocking - why was he rocking again? He couldn't remember, but James was here, now, and that made it better. He stopped. He was on James' bed. He seemed to be there a lot.
"Victor, are you okay?"
Victor stumbled over his lips - it was hard to talk, not with all the shadows around, and the darkness was choking him, lining his throat - "Th, the um, the," he started, and there wasn't enough air in this room, it was stifling, and - "I broke it, I broke all of it, and time..." Victor stopped, staring with wide and confused eyes into James.' He took a huge, shuddering breath, and then suddenly, he seemed to see more again, and it wasn't so dark, and James wasn't an angel, he was just him again.
"Sorry," Victor gasped, and he could feel tears in his eyes, they stung and burned with them. James took him by the shoulders, held him closer. He spoke words of comfort and sounds of silence and Victor became limp. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Later, he sat on the rug, James on the couch, because he liked to be closer to the ground, it was like being grounded. He waits, and waits, and then James asked him, does he want to talk or anything? Victor said nothing, because they both already know the answer. James turned on a stupid game show, because Victor likes stupid game shows and James knows this.
He stopped rocking - why was he rocking again? He couldn't remember, but James was here, now, and that made it better. He stopped. He was on James' bed. He seemed to be there a lot.
"Victor, are you okay?"
Victor stumbled over his lips - it was hard to talk, not with all the shadows around, and the darkness was choking him, lining his throat - "Th, the um, the," he started, and there wasn't enough air in this room, it was stifling, and - "I broke it, I broke all of it, and time..." Victor stopped, staring with wide and confused eyes into James.' He took a huge, shuddering breath, and then suddenly, he seemed to see more again, and it wasn't so dark, and James wasn't an angel, he was just him again.
"Sorry," Victor gasped, and he could feel tears in his eyes, they stung and burned with them. James took him by the shoulders, held him closer. He spoke words of comfort and sounds of silence and Victor became limp. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Later, he sat on the rug, James on the couch, because he liked to be closer to the ground, it was like being grounded. He waits, and waits, and then James asked him, does he want to talk or anything? Victor said nothing, because they both already know the answer. James turned on a stupid game show, because Victor likes stupid game shows and James knows this.
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