Post by ERIK DANIEL LENOIR on Feb 17, 2013 21:30:58 GMT -5
Erik Daniel Lenoir
"Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in..."
OOC:
Name: Rachel
Roleplay experience: Several years in different venues
How I found Rewritten City: An ad on Phantom Manor
Canon: Phantom of the Opera, 1986 Musical
Face-claim: Michael Crawford
Social Status: High Class
Occupation: Works for an architectural firm, but from home, using his own version of an AutoCAD-type software. Writes other software and games on the side.
Age: 45
Appearance: Erik, called Dan or Danny by his family to distinguish him from his father, is medium height, 5’10”, brown eyes, blondish-red curly hair, medium build, slim long fingers and expressive hands. His skin is light with a peachy tone, and looks as if it would burn easily in the sun. He looks somewhat younger than his 45 years. He has a very nice, rather shy smile. The most important things about Erik are actually hidden from view. He was born with a facial deformation inherited from his ancestor who was born in France in 1847 with a terrible facial deformity. This caused his ancestor, also named Erik Lenoir, to hide himself away from the view of most people and wear a mask. His deformity consisted of a skull like appearance on one side of his face with his mouth almost turned inside out in a large teardrop pattern on his cheek. Deep discoloured scars ran down the side of his cheek and a large hole like area appeared at the right forehead, in which the skull actually showed through. His lips were red, thick and puffy. He was bereft of hair and was forced to wear a hairpiece and a false nose. His descendant, the present Erik Lenoir, inherited much the same deformation, except for the heterochromia iridium, two different coloured eyes and his lips are normal except at the right end where they turn into the same deformed bright red area that almost looks as if his cheek is turned inside out. His ancestor was partially blind in his right eye, but this modern Erik was born with perfect eyes, both brown, and he has excellent eyesight, which he needsl for the computer work he does.
Due to modern technology, this contemporary Erik was able to find a solution much better than the white mask which his ancestor was forced to wear. Erik wears a prosthetic nose and skin covering his right face which is nearly impossible to discern that it is not real. However in some strong light it is noticeable to a certain degree. This is why Erik prefers the night and eschews strong sunlight. His condition also left him bereft of hair and so hair transplants were done for him. Altogether, it makes him resemble his own father in his younger days very much and he is quite pleased with the effect.
The other important thing about Erik is his tendency toward mental psychosis. He was in a mental institution in England for several years before he came to New York City. He was given therapy for the strange states he would go into when confronted with a situation that was overwhelming for him. He would become delusional and obsessive, and at times retreat totally into himself, not being able to be reached by anyone until the psychotic state lessened. However, when he was released from the hospital in England, he was told he must take his medication regularly for it would prevent most of his aberrant behaviours.
Erik walks silently and sometimes slowly for his mind is usually at work all of the time. His posture could use a bit of help, as he is constantly slouching and scrunching his neck and back, working on his computer. He has always wished to be taller, although he is not particularly short, and when he wants to impress women, he will often wear shoes with lifts and slightly higher heels to compensate. Unfortunately, most women are not impressed with a computer geek.
Wardrobe:Erik wears casual clothing when he goes out, light coloured sweaters and shirts with open collars, light coloured slacks and a Donegal cap to cast a shadow over his face. At home when working, a pair of sandals, tee shirts or sweats and a pair of jeans will do. However, he will wear a shirt and tie for those rare occasions where he actually goes anywhere interesting with someone. He has some expensive clothing for times when he must appear at the architectural firm or other places, but he likes the comfort of casual clothing. However he is always neat and clean. He does not care for the ripped jeans look.
Overall Personality: Being from London, Erik has a British accent. He has a tenor speaking voice and is rather soft spoken, but tends to be a bit arrogant about his knowledge, intellect and accomplishments. He is much above average intelligence, in fact a genius and fancies that he can do most anything he sets his mind to. He is a prodigy at music and art and his hobbies include playing the piano, the violin, the organ and singing. He has a tenor singing voice which can reach three octaves. Even though he loves music, he has not gone into it as a profession, considering that he would do much better in computers...he likes to work alone and if he had gone into music, he undoubtedly would have had to perform in front of an audience, which rather terrifies him. His natural ability in architecture and his amazing skill with computers have combined to make his designs well received and sought after. He writes music on the computer in addition to graphic art and sells much of it for good prices. Because of his intellect and wise investments in the stock market, Erik has amassed quite a fortune. There are other reasons why his fortune is so large though, and they are things that the NYPD, the FBI and the IRS would be quite interested to learn about.
Erik can sit for hours working on his computer projects, or composing and playing music. He sometimes forgets to eat or sleep if he is involved in his projects. Because of not needing to keep regular hours and strange sleeping patterns, he may be up any time of the day or night, but prefers the night if he is planning to take a walk. But once in a while the pangs of loneliness hit him. The only people he regularly speaks with would be his cleaning lady and people at the firm. The cleaning lady, he trusts her, but not too much. Paranoia lurks just beneath the surface in Erik. He locks away anything that might be of interest to prying eyes. He can't afford to have anyone know his secrets.
Mental problems have tormented Erik him since the time he was a child and only become worse with time. Just before coming to New York City, Erik had been in a mental institution for help with his paranoia and often psychotic personality. On his medication, he is almost normal, although he presents some odd behaviours. But without the medication, Erik can become quite demented, although, so far, he has never been dangerous.
Erik is a dreamer too...dreaming of that one perfect woman who would love him and share his life and his music and other interests. However, that could only come true if he ever figured out how to meet a lady and keep her interested. Erik is very shy of people, but he's also a good actor. He can put on a good front, as surely as his prosthetics keep his real face from being seen. His problem is how to keep a potential lady friend from finding out about his face. So he stays in his own little world.
Likes:
1. Music, Art, Writing, Composing
2. Architecture
3. Computers
4. Nice things, expensive things
5. Power and Control
6. Prestige
Disikes:
1. Authority
2. Anyone telling him what to do
3. Anyone who thinks they know more than he does
Goals:
1. to fulfill himself by his computer ventures and his criminal endeavors
2. to amass a fortune and prestige for himself
3. to keep out of the public eye
4. to perhaps meet a lady who would be interested in him and fall head over heels for him
Fears:
1. the police or FBI or IRS finding out what he is really doing on the computer
2. anyone seeing his real face
3. anyone finding out about his past mental problems
Good Qualities:
!. Sense of humour
2. Appealing shyness
3. His intelligence
4. Kindness
5. Good listener when he has someone to listen to
6. Very polite
Bad Qualities:
1. Arrogance
2. Secretiveness
3. Using his position, money and intelligence to do evil instead of good
4. Has a bad temper at times, although usually it builds up slowly
Health/Mental Issues:
1. Severe mental problems at times
2. Acts irrational when angered which can lead to a psychotic state
2. Obsessive behaviours
3. Bipolar
4. Paranoia
Overall History:
Erik Daniel Lenoir IV was born January 19, 1968 to Erik James Lenoir III and his wife Letitia Helene Smith, in London, England. His father known as James, plays the violin with the London Symphony and his mother, Letitia was an actress and singer before her marriage. On becoming a mother, she gave up most of her career, but occasionally takes a part and her voice is still very beautiful. Erik Lenoir IV has quite a few versions of his name. E. Daniel Lenoir is used sometimes in business as it sounds rather high class. His family used to call him Danny or Dan. He has a myriad of names on the computer, most of which have no relationship to his name. However one notable one is "Phantom."
Erik is the descendant of the original deformed Erik Lenoir who lived in Paris in the 1880’s and was popularly known as the “Phantom of the Opera” for things that he caused to happen at the Paris Opera House during some of those years. That first Erik married late in life and fathered a son who was not at all deformed. Because of the bad reputation of the father, Erik II, after he had married in Paris took up residence in London with his wife in the late 1930's, just after his wife had borne a son. Erik II and Erik III, the father and grandfather of the contemporary Erik were also not deformed. But the deformed genes showed themselves in the child who was christened Erik Daniel Lenoir the Fourth. The poor child was deformed just as his ancestor had been. In fact his father had found some photographs of his ancestor, with and without the mask, and yes, it was the same deformation. Erik IV was not treated cruelly by his parents, no, in fact they knew that cruel treatment had deformed the original Erik’s mind as well as his face. But Erik was taunted at school, especially for his lack of a nose and called a monster and even his teachers had a difficult time with the boy, for he reacted badly to the taunting and jeers and acted up quite badly. And Erik's reactions to the taunting became more and more aberrant. It became clear to his parents that he was suffering from some type of mental problems. His parents opted for therapy which was only partially successful. It was hard for Erik to get a job as a teen and he tried making a mask as he had seen his ancestor wore in the photographs. But he was jeered at for that too and finally he gave up. Fortunately, Erik’s parents had money inherited from his ancestor and those who came after. Being of quite high intelligence, Erik studied architecture and music on his own, and a bit later discovered the joys of cyberspace and computers. Taking to programming as easily as most people read a book, Erik learned his way around the virtual world. He was quite the prodigy and his parents were generally proud of him, except for some of the times when he did things that were rather puzzling to them. At the age of ten, he broke into the school mainframe computer room and punched cards to change one of his grades. He was caught and punished, but the high from just doing that simple thing was worth the punishment for Erik.
He had a few entry level jobs at architectural firms as a teen, but then always found computers and programming were his element. Still in his mid twenties,Erik's face held him back and kept him from advancing in any of the firms, although at this time he had been committed to the mental institution and to the strict medical regimen prescribed by his doctors. One day, from his psychologist, he learned of a new surgical procedure could makeover some birth deformations. However, he shied off of that after hearing about the many mistakes and how some who had even minor plastic surgery looked stranger than they had before. There were celebrity examples. Erik kept looking until he found a doctor who didn’t do surgery, but fit people with special prosthetic skin which would look completely natural. By this time, he had been cleared by the doctor and allowed out on his own with the caveat that he take his medication regularly. This new doctor was in Paris and Erik wrote to him and made an appointment. His parents put up the money for Erik. He was quite impressed with the doctor’s work. The physician made the prosthetic for Erik, which made his right face look normal, along with a new prosthetic nose and hair transplants. When finished, Erik resembled younger pictures of his father. He was delighted! Back in London, many who had known him before didn’t recognize him.
Erik decided at that point to take up a new life. He was done with having people stare, first at his deformation and then at the prosthesis which covered it, and of course many shied away from him because of his former strange behaviours. He emigrated to America and took up residence in New York City, in a moderately priced apartment. It was risky, not having a job, but working up a portfolio from previous designs he had done at the jobs he had held before, and drawing new ones, Erik procured a job working from home, at the prestigious firm of Feinstein and Fitzgerald. Sure that it was his new looks that had helped him, he was glad he had made the effort and spent the money. This was now some twenty years ago, and Erik had been a New Yorker and an American citizen for a while. He now holds dual British and American citizenship.
In the years since his emigration, Erik had amassed quite a bit of wealth and had moved to an expensive Manhattan penthouse. There he could indulge his lifestyle of creativity, music, art, computer programming, writing and still work for the architectural firm. His home is elegant, but he doesn't have a lot of things, other than pertaining to his work and hobbies. Erik could probably afford a Porche, but in New York, one can walk most places or take a taxi. He is not too keen on the closeness that one must have in the subway, with some folk who are not the cleanest of people, so he rarely takes the subway, and prefers to take a taxi. Considering what the firm pays him as a consultant, albeit an important one, his only occasional sale of artwork and computer programming, one might wonder how he can afford this luxurious lifestyle. But that is Erik's secret.
Most Influential Event: Erik's deformed face and his mental problems have made it difficult for Erik to ever feel normal and those are definitely the things that formed many of the strange ways of this odd man.
Sample Writing:
Erik pulled open the drapes and looked outside. New York. A city that never sleeps. It was nigh on ten o'clock. He was restless and needed to take a walk to think and burn off some energy. The street was still teeming with people. That's what he liked. Anonymity. No one ever spoke to him as he walked down the Big Apple's busy streets. No one gave him a second thought. He didn't stand out in any crowd any more since he had started using the prosthesis on his face. Before that, he didn't dare go into any crowds. He was embarrassed just to walk outside. So he rarely went anywhere.
But now it was different. He looked like anyone else. Just an anonymous face in the crowd. A nice looking man, but not one you would give a second look to in a crowd. And that was just as it should be. He liked to disappear into anonymity. That was the place he liked best. That and the darkness. The darkness hid a myriad of sins. And Erik had them, oh yes. Quite a myriad. But it was all right. Life was good. He wasn't in any danger because he always covered his tracks.
He took the lift down to the street level from his penthouse apartment in Manhattan. Dressed in a tan jacket and Donegal cap, he blended in with the amazing ethnic ménage that is New York's population. In and out and between people, he simply walked. Then he spotted a jewellery store. There was a metal fence across the front of the glass windows to ward off would-be thieves, but one could still see what was displayed in the window. "Very lovely," he thought. "If I had a lady, I would buy her such a thing of beauty..." Of course he didn't have a girl, and while he wished he did, and hoped that in this huge megalopolis that is called New York City, there would be someone who would love him and need him to care for her, he didn't really expect it to ever happen.
He stood near the door of the shop, watching the women walk by. Every shape, size, skin colour and ethnicity. He wondered what it would be like to have someone really love him. Certainly he had had girl friends, but after a bit, they had always found some reason that they couldn't stick around for more than a short time.
He had almost everything one could wish for in life, except why did he not find one girl that would be his own, his very own, who would love and cherish him. He sighed and moved on. No use thinking about things that could never happen...
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