Liana Marceau

[Liana Marceau]

Scarlett Johansson

Who is it there staring?

Name: Liana Marceau (Nicole Lianette Deloncre)
Age | B-day: 19 l December 27
Position: Singer

Hair: Wavy blond hair that falls just beyond her upper back. The color of blond is very distinct. Some people call it flaxen but others who see it in the sun and out of the opera light often prefer to call it a golden hue. Very often she used to curl up her blond hair to make it even more doll like, but as she grew older she stopped doing such things unless it was a special occasion. Now she often lets it hang loosely and naturally in its slightly curly waves. Only in rehearsal does she usually bind it back into some sort of bun.

Eyes:Liana has a light green that almost looks gray the color is so dim but somewhere in them, despite the dullness, you can see a whole myriad of emotions. Her eyes are often very expressive and perhaps the one feature that cannot mask a lie on her face. Most of the time they are marked with fear, or sadness, but one that is very hard to see unless you look closely.

Markings: Liana has one scars on her back from when she was young. It is small, straight, and linear from where her skin split from too many hits from a cane. It was the only time she was permanently marred.

Learn to see, to find the man

Phobia:
Being found by her father
the dark
being forced back to her old life
men
her father
attention
nobility
stairs

Habit:
Bites her lower lip
picks at her nails
does not look into the eyes of whomever is addressing her

Pet Peeve:
Chauvinistic attitude
abusive behavior
messy people
entitled upper classes
people who chat too much, especially when their chatter is gossip

Personality: Unlike most of the chattering or plotting chorus and ballet girls, Liana is very soft spoken. She often does not raise her voice above a whisper, hates attention, and, for the most part, does not speak much. She listens and observes most of the time and prefers to do so. For this reason most of the girls in the chorus and the ballet come to her for sound advice. Other than that, Liana keeps mostly to herself in order to keep her secret safe as well as everyone else in the opera house. However, if approached she tends to be very kind and good hearted as she was taught in her younger years. It would take time and a good bit of effort and she could prove to be a good and loyal friend if given the chance.

Despite her ability to be a good friend and confidant, Liana would rarely become one. Because of the loss of her old life and her inability to stay in one place for more than a few years at a time Liana rarely makes friends. She stumbles in her speech and is awkward when starting or finishing conversations- especially when she is nervous. She keeps herself closed for fear of hurting people or getting too close and hurting herself. Very often she does this by reading quite a bit and keeping her head down; preferring to masking her talents rather than gain attention for them- even when provoked.

What kind of life have you known?

Family: Father l Marquis Gerard Deloncre l 38 l Alive
Mother l Marquess Marguerite Delconcre l 21 l Deceased

History: Born to a Merchant and his wife Nicole was never expected to be extraordinary. Her mother had a shamefull past as she was born of a gypsy family and then had worked for money in the Moulin as a singer and a dancer. Her father was a buisness man who frequented the place. One day they both got drunk and eloped. It had been the last straw for her father's family, and a new start for her mother. It was easy to say that it was an unhappy marriage, but one that could not be undone. It was for that reason her mother stayed at home and her father thrust himself into his buisness with more furvor than ever. The only proof that they were even married was the birth of their daughter: Nicole.

For the most part Nicole was her mother's daughter. She was kept in the house and privately educated as her father's buisness flourished and they could afford such things. Soon her father was rich enough to buy the family a starting title followed soon after by similar honors that brought them into the ranks of nobility. Of course, with these changes in rank, Nicole's education was taken far more seriously. If she failed to perform her father, despite her mother's pleading, often was punished corperally. Her mother was also abused for failing to educate her daughter properly. It seemed the more money her father got, the more she and her mother suffered. In this suffering however Nicole and her mother grew very close.

It was in those dark days of family power growing that Liana's mother taught her to sing. Singing is what the two of them lived for, singing and riding. Very often Nicole's mother would take her out for rides from their country home and stop with a picnic lunch somewhere in the field. The two of them would sing and play in the open air. Very often they were punished for it, but those sweet moments of freedom from their guilded cage was worth it. Any transgression they made against their captor was worth it untill the day one of them payed a price too high.

It had been three days before Nicole's sixteenth birthday. Her father had decided it was time for her to be introduced into society. He already had several men of high importance and wealth interested in his pretty little girl and he was willing to give her to them for the right price despite the soil on the girl's blood by her mother's former profession. They were all excellent matches politically, but Nicole's mother had not been interested in selling her daughter like a whore. In the midst of the heated argument on this subject, Nicole's father pushed her mother down the stairs. The woman hit hard and was put to bed when her weakness became too much.

Later that day, the doctor came. The servants, nor Nicole said a word about what had truely happened, they were all to afraid, or too well paid in some instances. The doctor said her mother had not long to live for a bone had broken and marrow was leaking into the blood stream. In the few minutes they had alone before death broke them apart, Nicole's mother gave her two things: a golden locket and the key to a secret safe in the attic her father did not know of. Nicole's mother gave her these things and the story of her past and begged her daughter to escape before she would befall the fate of her cruel father either as a bartered bride or through death as her own mother had. With these instructions Nicole left, never to see her mother again.

After the cold day of the funeral, Nicole's life became unbearable. Every day there was a new suitor or a new group of suitors over for dinner. They were all either openly rude, or old. Most stared and did not even bother speaking with her. Her father humiliated her, forcing her to sing and say pretty things to them. She hated every minute but was too afraid to answer back, for if she refused, she would be beaten. It was a harsh and simple life, but Nicole had plans. One match had almost been finalized but it was never to occur, for with her locket, all her jewelery and her mother's meager money in hand Nicole ran away.

Out on the streets life was hard for Nicole. She had changed her name to Liana Marceau. For those first few days the newly chrisined Liana managed to sleep in a stable for a bit of money as rent while she searched for her mother's family. She sang on the streets for a bit extra now and again. Liana was always careful to clear out before anyone of noble birth saw her and reported her wereabouts to her father. It was however, a short run at freedom. Money on the street was hard to come by and her pension for her stay in the warm stables was running out, as well as her money for bread each day. It was mere luck that Liana then found her mother's family.

She was found by her singing. While singing on the street, the gypsies noticed her because of her resemblance to her mother. They asked of Marguerite and she told them what happened. Through her mother's family Liana perfected her singing. She learned the songs of the gypsies, how to dance while singing them. She learned how to run and how to steal. She also learned how to stay silent. Still, every day she learned she also feared, for it seemed that more and more frequently, Liana seemed to see friends of her father's peering at her.

For the safety of her family Liana knew she had to leave, but what talents did she have to sustain herself? She would not go to the Moulin where her mother's past was connected and therefore she would be expected to go. She would not stay with her gypsy blood so she had to start new. It was then that the opera house popped into mind. It was not uncommon for orphans to go there. She would pass herself off as an orphan and join the chorus or the ballet rats. It was even better now that the opera house was reopening and they would be hiring new talent.

Liana's plan worked successfully. She came in one day and auditioned for Madame Giry and Monseiur Reyer when the opera house reopened its doors and was looking for new talent. She was deemed a rather abysmal case at dancing, but Monsieur Reyer found her singing to be signs of a promising talent though she seemed to be barely promising. He accepted her and she was given a place to live in the dormitories of the opera house as well as a small pay for her work there. Still, despite her new home, how it pleased her to sing such beautiful music, and all the people to hide her presence Liana kept to herself rather than getting attached knowing that someday she might have to move, and quickly. It was best not to explain.

So now, Liana waits quietly. She plays a shy girl in the dark corners of the opera house. She is not the best singer and not the worst. She is, for the most part, invisible, and hopes to stay that way; safe from the other girls, safe from the patrons, and safe from the past that haunts her.

Whose is that face in the mask?

Name: Layni
Experience: A LOOOOOONG time
Contact: email or through Jen
Other Characters: none yet

RP Sample: It seemed that every day she set foot on this holy yet forsaken place it was dreary out. The last time she had visited the dull grey cemetary was in the winter. It had been cold, covered in snow, and dead as the people in it. As her feet had hit the snow covered grounds Liana could not help but think that this dark depressing place was no decent ground for her mother to be burried in. After all, it was so unlike the woman who had been so full of beauty and love in life. She should be honored with similiar beauty in death. Even now, in the spring when all of life should be greeting the earth the cemetary in which her mother remained was not green. There was not a single flower, only yellowed grass, dirt, stones, and grey angels of cold and stoic features.

To Liana, the only bit of life in this place was the white rose she had come to put on her mother's grave and herself. The beating of her heart proved she was alive and well. And her heart should well beat loudly. Liana was after all alive, but only with fear in this cold place. After all, her father knew she was alive because of her occasional visits to pay respect to the mother she loved and knew so well. They two of them had been closer than any mother and daughter were that she knew of. Certaintly closer than a noblewoman and her daughter should be according to society. Indeed, they had been more like sisters than parent and child. For that reason she risked her freedom for a slight greeting. She wanted the dearest woman in the world to know her death had not been in vein.

With a slow motion, Liana finally reached the simple stone that marked her mother's grave. Her mother had been the last common mark on her father's name so it was no wonder he buried his wife so simply and quietly. It was too bad he had let her go the same way. Liana bent low to the ground and kissed the cold lifeless stone wishing that it would just rise up into human form and become her mother so her life of exile would just be a bit less lonely. Liana sighed and shook her head knowing it would not occur. Such things only happened in the fairytales in books or legends. It was not to be in real life. The only thing that could happen is what was: the rose Liana carried was placed with gentle love on the ground in front of the stone and the girl stood there staring.

She still felt slightly crazy after all this time looking down at that single white rose she had spent her small pension from the last performance on, talking to do the ground. Her mother was probably up in heaven. She probably knew all that Liana had gone through and all she was to go through in the future. She would not be suprised if her mother even was guiding her through it with the greatest of care. Her name may have changed after all but she was still the woman's daughter no matter the distance or time that passed when they were apart. Their spirits would always be together.

With a deep sigh, Liana gripped her locket and murmered quietly to the ground, trying to keep her voice soft, and her tears from over flowing as they always did when she visited. "I am alive and well mother. I am free as you wished it. Somehow I feel you know that, but I came to tell you once again none the less. Still, as I have fulfilled your wished mother I am unhappy. Every day I fear for my future. I feel I can talk to no one but you and I cannot risk this more often as much as I long to. I just feel lonely mother. Lonely and afraid. I suppose less so than if I stayed, but I wish you were here with me every day. Every day and with all my heart."