Post by qualapec on Mar 12, 2011 21:39:01 GMT -8
Name: Grizabella Marquardt-Hollister
Aliases: The Glamour Cat
Age: 52
Build: She still has a dancer’s physique; her skin has begun to tire slightly over it, but it’s still there in the way she holds herself. She still maintains a sense of pride, even though her prime is passed.
Origin: She came from a moderately rich family trying to establish themselves with the older generation of rich. Her first marriage was at the age of sixteen, and she was disowned following her divorce. Since then, she’s worked her way up from the bottom and had and lost fortune more times than she can count (not all fortunes are monetary). In her 50s, she’s finally learned how to balance a checkbook.
Occupation: When she was little, she wanted to be a ballet dancer. She’s had many careers of varying legality, but dancing – any kind of dancing, really, has always been her favorite. These days, she’s the owner and manager of the Red Ribbon, a Burlesque house in the outskirts of Felidae.
Eyes: Pale - almost silver - piercing blue. She hides a lot behind her eyes, a certain wounded, tragic sensation of looking and seeing something else, but physically they’re as vibrant as she was in her youth.
Hair: A lush mane of waves and curls. She can’t bring herself to cut it all off and maintains a sense of classic beauty no matter what the present fad is (in this case, the bob) but as a compromise she has bangs that fall past her chin and wears the rest in a bun or pinned up most of the time. It’s lost some of its shimmer with age and has begun to grey, but she wears it well and it’s still like silk to touch.
Scars: One nasty slash where her shoulder meets her neck. It’s usually concealed under a scarf or mink pelt and made to blend in with makeup. If someone asks about it, she’ll change the subject.
Fur/Markings: Black and gray tabby markings lapsed into mostly gray. Her hair, previously black with traces of dark brown is finally showing traces of silver. Her tabby markings are very symmetrical, however the gray has faded with the black to the point that it’s hard to tell, it’s most clearly seen on her ears.
Attire: Classic, elegant dresses in wine-dark colors.
Accessories: Jade, rosewood, or ivory pins to hold her hair up. She usually wears either a silk scarf or a fox or mink stole. She has a fan on her usually, it’s mostly to keep cool among all the warm bodies of the Red Ribbon, but it has the side benefit of helping her hide her expression.
WOC: A switchblade hidden in her dress, an old standby from her days as a dancer.
Appearance: She holds herself like an aging baroness. Her style is classy, at times flashy but rarely to the point of truly being overdone. She’s still rather beautiful, but most of it is in her relaxed expression and easy confidence – in her age, she’s come to the realization that beauty is often in how one perceives oneself, and that nature often hides the harsher effects of age she’s suffered. She’s too tired to stress about the future much. When she’s sad, she usually mopes about like a teenager for a few days, drinks some liquor, and perks right up as if nothing bad ever happened in the entire history of the world, which usually leads to a period of extended energy. Her anger is like a cool flame with a side of disgust.
Personality: Grizabella is usually very relaxed, and at times it feels like a forced calm. She’s subject to capricious moods, but usually these bouts of extreme energy or depression don’t last very long. She can be a tad overdramatic, but these moods are almost comical to those that know her well. It’s rare for her to feel truly sickened with herself and her circumstances, and most of that has to do with the recent contact with her eldest son. Not really knowing how to cope with difficult decisions, Grizabella often lies to herself about her mistakes, her real feelings, and often justifies her actions with more self-lies when the other lies fail. She’s guarded around most cats outside of the Ribbon, but she loves her girls (and Jason) dearly, in some ways replacing them with the family she abandoned.
Special skills: Wordplay, a good mind for enterprise, and her ability to read a client or business partner.
Weaknesses: Her girls, Jason, the bouncer at the Red Ribbon, liquor, and – recently – Macavity, her son.
Fears: Death and dying without living up to her mistakes (unfortunately, she also refuses to acknowledge many of these mistakes, which makes it a distinct possibility). Violent toms. Falling in love again.
Likes: Silks. Fine jewelry. The cinema. The ballet. Alcohol. Kits, as long as they aren’t hers.
Dislikes: Toms. She’s become rather misandrist with age. Her tendency to procrastinate. The sound of a kit’s cry.
History: She was born in a moderately wealthy family trying to move up in the world. She went to school until secondary school, which her parents deemed a lost cause for a variety of reasons. Despite her being a queen, had she been the one to demonstrate any sort of academic tendency, they would have supported it (her brother being dim as he was) but Griz had no patience for school and spend more time chatting with her friends and making her wardrobe questionable than doing her schoolwork. Because of her dreamy, unfocused tendencies, they decided to focus their attentions on her older brother and instead began to prep Grizabella for marriage to a wealthy tom.
Griz always had a horribly romanticized idea of sex and marriage. Like the French faery tales her nanny would read to her, she spent much of her childhood believing that if she was pretty and graceful, things would work out in her favor. She almost passed up marriage to a tom from a rich family because of her first love – a young immigrant tom she met when she was fourteen. He was not only her first love, but also perhaps the only healthy relationship she’s ever had with somecat of the opposite sex. He died under suspicious circumstances – many suspected her father to be responsible, but only a handful of cats know the truth. Most of them are dead. Shortly afterwards, Griz married the tom her family wanted her to when she was sixteen. It didn’t last long, the marriage collapsing after a year. The cost of divorce was her family disowning her. The next four years were a blur of dance clubs and liquor and sex.
By the time she was twenty and her friends started having kits, she thought was ready to settle down. Despite the failure of her first marriage, she still had a highly romanticized idea of parenthood. Her years as a dancer also included in this delusion the idea that she had control over toms – and that she could change anycat. This was about the time Old D came into the picture.
The next seven years were a blur of abuse and screaming kits (always the screaming). Griz wasn’t ready to be a mother. Perhaps she could have dealt with it with a more supportive husband, but she was also forced to deal with the frightening reality of a husband with uncontrolled anger, gambling tendencies, and fear as the ultimate weapon of control. A combination of factors following the birth of her youngest son, Tugger, led her to flee the house one night, effectively abandoning her kits to the whims of Old D. She kept track of them, but for the most part, she stepped entirely out of their lives.
Today, she’s the owner and manager of the Red Ribbon, trying to live in the moment while suffering occasional bouts in which she wallows in her past mistakes, acknowledged and unacknowledged. For the first time in 20 years, she’s spoken to her son, and it’s all rocky emotional terraces and hurt feelings. For the first time in a long time, she’s finding her illusions challenged, her feelings and motives under question.
Love Interest:
Quotes:
Theme Song:
Character Colour Code:
Code:
ADMIN NOTE: This character is on permanent adoption. Admin's would like to see acknowledgement of the fact the Red Ribbon is a brothel rather than Burlesque house and enough changes to make the character actually yours.
Aliases: The Glamour Cat
Age: 52
Build: She still has a dancer’s physique; her skin has begun to tire slightly over it, but it’s still there in the way she holds herself. She still maintains a sense of pride, even though her prime is passed.
Origin: She came from a moderately rich family trying to establish themselves with the older generation of rich. Her first marriage was at the age of sixteen, and she was disowned following her divorce. Since then, she’s worked her way up from the bottom and had and lost fortune more times than she can count (not all fortunes are monetary). In her 50s, she’s finally learned how to balance a checkbook.
Occupation: When she was little, she wanted to be a ballet dancer. She’s had many careers of varying legality, but dancing – any kind of dancing, really, has always been her favorite. These days, she’s the owner and manager of the Red Ribbon, a Burlesque house in the outskirts of Felidae.
Eyes: Pale - almost silver - piercing blue. She hides a lot behind her eyes, a certain wounded, tragic sensation of looking and seeing something else, but physically they’re as vibrant as she was in her youth.
Hair: A lush mane of waves and curls. She can’t bring herself to cut it all off and maintains a sense of classic beauty no matter what the present fad is (in this case, the bob) but as a compromise she has bangs that fall past her chin and wears the rest in a bun or pinned up most of the time. It’s lost some of its shimmer with age and has begun to grey, but she wears it well and it’s still like silk to touch.
Scars: One nasty slash where her shoulder meets her neck. It’s usually concealed under a scarf or mink pelt and made to blend in with makeup. If someone asks about it, she’ll change the subject.
Fur/Markings: Black and gray tabby markings lapsed into mostly gray. Her hair, previously black with traces of dark brown is finally showing traces of silver. Her tabby markings are very symmetrical, however the gray has faded with the black to the point that it’s hard to tell, it’s most clearly seen on her ears.
Attire: Classic, elegant dresses in wine-dark colors.
Accessories: Jade, rosewood, or ivory pins to hold her hair up. She usually wears either a silk scarf or a fox or mink stole. She has a fan on her usually, it’s mostly to keep cool among all the warm bodies of the Red Ribbon, but it has the side benefit of helping her hide her expression.
WOC: A switchblade hidden in her dress, an old standby from her days as a dancer.
Appearance: She holds herself like an aging baroness. Her style is classy, at times flashy but rarely to the point of truly being overdone. She’s still rather beautiful, but most of it is in her relaxed expression and easy confidence – in her age, she’s come to the realization that beauty is often in how one perceives oneself, and that nature often hides the harsher effects of age she’s suffered. She’s too tired to stress about the future much. When she’s sad, she usually mopes about like a teenager for a few days, drinks some liquor, and perks right up as if nothing bad ever happened in the entire history of the world, which usually leads to a period of extended energy. Her anger is like a cool flame with a side of disgust.
Personality: Grizabella is usually very relaxed, and at times it feels like a forced calm. She’s subject to capricious moods, but usually these bouts of extreme energy or depression don’t last very long. She can be a tad overdramatic, but these moods are almost comical to those that know her well. It’s rare for her to feel truly sickened with herself and her circumstances, and most of that has to do with the recent contact with her eldest son. Not really knowing how to cope with difficult decisions, Grizabella often lies to herself about her mistakes, her real feelings, and often justifies her actions with more self-lies when the other lies fail. She’s guarded around most cats outside of the Ribbon, but she loves her girls (and Jason) dearly, in some ways replacing them with the family she abandoned.
Special skills: Wordplay, a good mind for enterprise, and her ability to read a client or business partner.
Weaknesses: Her girls, Jason, the bouncer at the Red Ribbon, liquor, and – recently – Macavity, her son.
Fears: Death and dying without living up to her mistakes (unfortunately, she also refuses to acknowledge many of these mistakes, which makes it a distinct possibility). Violent toms. Falling in love again.
Likes: Silks. Fine jewelry. The cinema. The ballet. Alcohol. Kits, as long as they aren’t hers.
Dislikes: Toms. She’s become rather misandrist with age. Her tendency to procrastinate. The sound of a kit’s cry.
History: She was born in a moderately wealthy family trying to move up in the world. She went to school until secondary school, which her parents deemed a lost cause for a variety of reasons. Despite her being a queen, had she been the one to demonstrate any sort of academic tendency, they would have supported it (her brother being dim as he was) but Griz had no patience for school and spend more time chatting with her friends and making her wardrobe questionable than doing her schoolwork. Because of her dreamy, unfocused tendencies, they decided to focus their attentions on her older brother and instead began to prep Grizabella for marriage to a wealthy tom.
Griz always had a horribly romanticized idea of sex and marriage. Like the French faery tales her nanny would read to her, she spent much of her childhood believing that if she was pretty and graceful, things would work out in her favor. She almost passed up marriage to a tom from a rich family because of her first love – a young immigrant tom she met when she was fourteen. He was not only her first love, but also perhaps the only healthy relationship she’s ever had with somecat of the opposite sex. He died under suspicious circumstances – many suspected her father to be responsible, but only a handful of cats know the truth. Most of them are dead. Shortly afterwards, Griz married the tom her family wanted her to when she was sixteen. It didn’t last long, the marriage collapsing after a year. The cost of divorce was her family disowning her. The next four years were a blur of dance clubs and liquor and sex.
By the time she was twenty and her friends started having kits, she thought was ready to settle down. Despite the failure of her first marriage, she still had a highly romanticized idea of parenthood. Her years as a dancer also included in this delusion the idea that she had control over toms – and that she could change anycat. This was about the time Old D came into the picture.
The next seven years were a blur of abuse and screaming kits (always the screaming). Griz wasn’t ready to be a mother. Perhaps she could have dealt with it with a more supportive husband, but she was also forced to deal with the frightening reality of a husband with uncontrolled anger, gambling tendencies, and fear as the ultimate weapon of control. A combination of factors following the birth of her youngest son, Tugger, led her to flee the house one night, effectively abandoning her kits to the whims of Old D. She kept track of them, but for the most part, she stepped entirely out of their lives.
Today, she’s the owner and manager of the Red Ribbon, trying to live in the moment while suffering occasional bouts in which she wallows in her past mistakes, acknowledged and unacknowledged. For the first time in 20 years, she’s spoken to her son, and it’s all rocky emotional terraces and hurt feelings. For the first time in a long time, she’s finding her illusions challenged, her feelings and motives under question.
Love Interest:
Quotes:
Theme Song:
Character Colour Code:
Code:
ADMIN NOTE: This character is on permanent adoption. Admin's would like to see acknowledgement of the fact the Red Ribbon is a brothel rather than Burlesque house and enough changes to make the character actually yours.