"I've gone by many, but this is the original."
Mariette Bianca Le'Rouge
Nickname
"I suppose this depends on who's inquiring."
Over her years, Mariette has gone by various aliases, but she prefers Mariette, though she'll answer to any name, so long as she considers the person calling her worth listening to.
Age
"You can't expect a lady to answer that question, can you?"
Although she holds the appearance of a woman around twenty-five, Mariette is over a century old, coming in at about 125 years old.
Race
"I can show you, if you like."
Mariette is a vampire- and a relatively powerful one at that.
Powers
"It's not very clever to lay down one's cards like that."
Other than the normal Vampiric abilities of accelerated regeneration, and her gift of Immortality, Mariette has the ability to absorb the properties, for a limited period of time, of nonliving materials. She can touch a diamond and have nearly invulnerable skin, or touch rubber and be able to limit the effects of electric shocks on herself. Other than this, she is Cryokinetic- able to control ice. The rareness of having two abilities is what allows her to, despite being younger than several of her coven members, still keep a grip on her spot at the top- for now.
Sexuality
"Curious, aren't you?"
Pansexual
Control || Hot Tea || Knowledge || Challenges || Sarcasm || Obedience || Wit || Winning || Sex || Dim Lighting || The Cello || Heights || Adaptation || Marksmanship || Fencing || Pasta || Loyalty || Fast Cars || Dark Clothing || Usefulness || Chases || Respect || Instrumental Music || Experimentation || Chess || Confidence || Ice Cream || Dark Lipstick || Cigarettes || Backup Plans || Debate || Constructive Input || Intelligence || Security
Dislikes
Foolishness || God Complexes || Luck || Religion || Helplessness || Being Outsmarted || Those who can't grow || Dubstep || Television || People Threatening Her Sister || Werewolves || Ignorance || Cold Drinks || Bubblegum || Summer Rain || Dogs || Unworthy Opponents || Satisfaction || Being Woken Up || Romance Novels || Uncertainty || Failing || Betrayal || Discourteous Behavior || Sluggishness || Excuses || Clumsiness
Fears
Passivity - Mariette has seen immortals who distanced themselves so much from the world that they became hardly alive, seeming to do naught but watch others, collecting dust. The concept of resorting to such a thing herself is quite terrifying for Mariette, though it may not seem horrifying to others.
Losing Her Sister - In all honesty, there are times where Mariette acts as though her sister is just another member of the coven. In actuality, though, Genevieve is all that she has left of her human life, and she would slaughter anyone who touches a hair on the girl's head. She's been doing this for the past century.
Being Helpless - There is a reason for Mariette constantly pushing herself to be stronger, or for her keeping such a tight grip on her place of power, and it has everything to do with a fear for the alternative to being in control. She doesn't like the feeling of being dependent on others, or having to watch atrocities and being unable to do anything about them. She'll do quite a lot to avoid it.
Dreams
Mariette doesn't often come across as the sort of person who thinks much about the far future, too focused on keeping everything together in the present. That being said, everything she's done up until now has been moving towards a dream of living without any sense of fear. She believes control and power to be the way to achieve this dream. Most other things are an after thought or a temporary distraction. She's not horribly sentimental, really.
Secrets
Viewing it as a circumstance of vulnerability in herself, Mariette doesn't talk about the way in which she was changed to a vampire- which happened after she was kidnapped, assaulted, and nearly killed. They thought they had killed her, anyway. She also keeps secret the affection she feels for her sister, not wanting people to use her only remaining family as a tool against her, and hurt Genevieve in the process. Mariette also hides the fact that she has a contingency plan for every member of her coven, because that might be considered a step too far in the ways of not trusting them completely. The amount of people she has killed is also kept tightly under wraps, because it is a sizable amount that she, for all her cynicism, is hardly proud of. She doesn't trust other people because she knows that she's got a good deal of blood on her own hands.
Mariette has been around for long enough to witness quite a bit of death, betrayal, and atrocities. She's got quite a bit of red on her own ledger, in fact, though no one knows exactly how much, whether the rumors are exaggerated or downplaying, except for the girl herself. Over a century of vampirism and immortality has taught her that the world is hardly a pretty place, though it can be very beautiful. Still, for all of the beautiful scenes, she perceives there to be three more terrible ones. Basically, Mariette is something of a cynic, and therefore always seems to be skeptic of any good to come her way. She very rarely trusts people, but she keeps those whom she does trust at arm's reach at all times. It can be hard to tell when she has let someone in, or decided to trust them, because she doesn't always make it obvious. Those who know her, however, might notice a slightly more relaxed air, or a less controlled manner. Still, very few can boast of her trust, and most all of them are within her coven. Just as she distrusts people, the girl doesn't trust anything that seems to. . .good, or perfect. If there aren't consequences, she is immediately on her guard, rather than lulled into a sense of security. The world doesn't just hand out gifts, as far as she's concerned. This perhaps is why she is a firm believer that there is no such thing as luck- only skill and timing. She sees luck as something for people who are willing to accept silly reasons for their misfortunes or successes, not for someone like herself. Anything she achieves can be explained through sweat, blood, and intelligence. Anything she fails at is just as easily understood through moments not on her guard, or poor timing, or not quite being at that level.
As far as that goes, Mariette does not believe in forces outside of people and nature. She is a humanist, so to speak, believing that things come from people, not from some deity in the sky. It suits her to not believe in a god, because she would certainly not be walking to heaven if such a thing existed. Regardless of this, she holds people accountable for both their wins and losses, not the whims of some greater force. While this means that she almost always acknowledges when someone has done something praiseworthy, it also leads to an expectation that people take full responsibility for their actions. She simply doesn't have time for those who would try and excuse away their own incompetence- and that includes herself. If she fails once, the girl follows up by practicing it fifty times. She expects more of herself than from her peers, her coven, and thus works herself to be bone at times- not that one would guess it, because she likes to keep her own training on the down low, for it gives the image of vulnerability that she simply cannot tolerate from herself. She's seen enough people persecuted for meaningless reasons to allow enough vulnerability from herself to make it seem as though she can be used as a target. To those outside her coven, and even some within it, the girl is a steel wall with an edge of sarcasm, but hardly flesh and blood. And that's exactly how she likes it, and is what she works to maintain- even if it means working when everyone is asleep. She's never been big on sleeping, anyway.
If her expression is one of steel, melding only at her command, then her tongue is diamond- capable of cutting through almost anything. The girl was a bit snarky when she was human, but years have given her a tongue like a knife, and one that she is certainly unafraid of using. Mariette is a sarcastic sort of person, to the point where she seems to never speak with complete frankness, restricting herself almost entirely to sarcasm. She finds it difficult to get along with those who don't use, or at least understand, sarcasm, viewing them as either dull or suspicious. She, thus, prefers those with whom she can go back and forth, conveying her meaning without every saying a genuine word. She's got the wit to keep up with such banter, and has spoken with some of the sharpest minds of the past century through her travels. She's been humbled before masters of irony and sarcasm, and has grown better for it. Basically, one must be confident in their ability to go back and forth if they want to engage her in a decent conversation. That being said, those who can equal or best her are that much closer to gaining her favor. She values wit and the ability to think on one's feet above all else. The girl isn't against flirting, given these things- it is the perfect situation in which to stretch a slightly less hostile wit, after all, and is an excellent way of getting a feel for those around her. In fact, she can be quite flirtatious at times- usually when she's trying to accomplish something, or perhaps relieve stress.
A recurring theme with Mariette is her fear of being vulnerable or helpless. She's the 'once bitten, always shy' sort of person, and after a few incidents when she was human, ultimately leading up to her involuntarily becoming a vampire, she has been avoiding any situations in which she might be at the mercy of others like the plague. This fear has made her somewhat controlling, though it doesn't quite reach the line of control freak. She likes to know whats going on around her at all times, and hasn't been a fan of surprises in a very long time, even in the case of very good ones. The girl doesn't necessarily track people, or freak out if one of her coven members stray a bit from a task, but she is not merciful towards people who betray her, or those who exhibit frequent disobedience. It is something up with which she shall not put. The woman seems to have information on everyone in her coven, and while she likes to have people think that this is because she's all-knowing, it's more of a 'put a lot of time into researching every vampire who sets foot in the city' sort of thing. Knowledge is power, and she's trying to gain enough power to use as security. She likely has a contingency plan for everyone that she has ever encountered for extended periods of time. Maybe she's a little bit paranoid- the girl prefers to call it careful.
Mariette has ways of keeping people in check outside of brute force, which she honestly tends to overlook in favor of more subtle tactics. While she lacks her sister's power of manipulation, the girl is still quite good at making people do what she wants without the supernatural ability. It's not nearly as failproof, and she's hardly kept everyone in line with it, but she has an understanding of human nature, at least the darker parts of it, that allows her to nudge at people's fears and desires just enough to ensure that they will remain loyal to her. That's all she wants, really- to feel safe in the knowledge that she is not going to be stabbed in the back by her own peers. Everything she does is for this feeling of safety, though it continues to elude her. Point is, she's got a way with words and body language that can keep people, especially those who don't realize she's doing it, drifting towards her own goals for them. She's clever about it, of course. She's got a decent mind for strategy, after all, developed primarily through experience.
Cynical || Distrusting || Humanist || Skeptic || Hardworking || Guarded || Sarcastic || Witty || Flirtatious || Controlling || Paranoid || Manipulative || Cunning
Along with her siblings and father, Mariette was born and raised in Lyon, France, during the late 1800s/Early 1900s.
History: Two-three paragraphs minimum, please. Your character's life up until now, but keep to high points. Reading the life of a 100 year old vampire or witch might be a bit much, I mean... I love to read but that's just too much reading for just their history. So what I'm trying to say is to be a bit picky with what you choose to write down in that case.
Hold my hand
Ooh baby it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand
Ooh baby it’s a long way down
A long way down
If you get sleep or if you get none
The cock’s gonna call in the morning baby
Check the cupboard for your daddy’s gun
Red sun rises like an early warning
The Lord’s gonna come for your firstborn son
His hair’s on fire and his heart is burning
So go to the river where the water runs
Wash him deep where the tides are turning
And if you fall, if you fall
Hold my hand
Ooh baby it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand
Ooh baby it’s a long way down
A long way down
The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight
Drunk and driven by a devil’s hunger
Drive your son like a railroad spike
Into the water, let it pull him under
Don’t you lift him, let him drown alive
The good Lord speaks like a rolling thunder
Let that fever make the water rise
And let the river run dry
And I said hold my hand
Ooh baby it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand
Ooh baby it’s a long way down
A long way down
Lay down your swords, lay down your pistols
Call off your dogs, show no resistance
You'll fall like a guillotine, and kneel before the queen
You'll fall like a guillotine, and I will rise
Raise up your walls, tighten your blindfold
(?), hide in a foxhole
You'll fall like a guillotine, and kneel before the queen
You'll fall like a guillotine, and I will rise
I don't need blue blood running through my veins because
Like a queen, like a queen, I can make you say you love me
I don't need blue blood running through my veins because
Like a queen, like a queen, I can make you love me
I can make you love me
Lay down your swords, lay down your pistols
I'll hit your heart from any distance
You fall like a guillotine, and kneel before the queen
You fall like a guillotine, and I will rise
I don't need blue blood running through my veins because
Like a queen, like a queen, I can make you say you love me
I don't need blue blood running through my veins because
Like a queen, like a queen, I can make you love me
Envy and I, darkness and light
Gods can have it all, so why can't I?
Love and desire, life after life
The gods can keep it all, if you'll be mine
And I will rise, and I will rise
And I will rise, and I will rise
I don't need blue blood running through my veins because
Like a queen, like a queen, I can make you say you love me
I don't need blue blood running through my veins because
Like a queen, like a queen, I can make you love me