╰ ･ﾟ✧. ... ( olivia cooke , cis woman , she / her ) VIVIANE BAUDELAIRE is a THIRTY ONE year old working as a OWNER at house of roses with queen isabeau for the foreseeable future. she is known around the palace to be AMBITIOUS & PERCEPTIVE , but also CYNICAL & GUARDED. vivane reminds the queen of HOMESICK FOR A PLACE THAT NO LONGER EXISTS, SCREAMING DURING A THUNDERSTORM, A TEACUP SHATTERED AND GLUED BACK TOGETHER.
✧｡ –– 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗖𝗦 ,
full name : vivane baudelaire. date of birth : november the 2nd. age : thirty one. zodiac : scorpio. gender : cis woman. pronouns : she / her. orientation : bisexual. hair color : auburn. eye color : dark bown. height : five feet , five inches.
✧｡ –– 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗬 ,
unlike so many, you were not born to velvet. there was never lineage gilded around your name. it was only the streets that offered embrace. or.. a form enough to confuse you. cold, merciless, and so unwilling to forgive even a child for hunger you could not control. it was up to you … learn to barter with the silence, to steal coin from careless pockets. and survive. make the scraps worth their weight in gold. learn how to hide in the shadows, becoming a flicker of someone else’s imagination.
you’re lucky. in the beginning. but she is a fickle patron. and had your acts not landed you behind sweat stained doors, beneath the brutal glow of candle’s flame … death might have claimed you. instead, you’re taken in. granted a safe place to rest, though the morning will come with a pile of chores. the madam of a brothel you never knew existed is not soft. except with you. her reputation stretches from tavern gutter to royal ear. and you want to be every bit as powerful, as elegant as she.
it was here you were remade. woven into silk where had once been rag. polished and shiny where you once believed only grime could exist. but … you knew better than to mistake her generosity for pure kindness. every gift carries a price.
and yet, when the house of roses did pass into your hands … it was not so easy to ignore the whispers. tongues telling tale of poison spilled into a cup. and though no truth could ever be proven, no evidence set forth to undo it all, you were looking at differently. only rumor still, there was a shift. a fear that now burned in the eyes of ones you called friend. now, yours to protect.
a careful, calculated, and unreadable smile your only weapon against their lies. because survival was never going to be enough for you. you were meant to reign.
at thirty one, you feel a false sense of security. your dominion is near secured. the house of roses is known by any who venture into versailles. a confessional wall for nobles that know better than to trust those who speak directly to god. velvet beds that whisper secrets worth entire kingdoms. and you … hold it all in the palm of your hand. you have built an empire of want. an altar where power comes to kneel.
even still … ghosts linger at your heel. tenderness you know to keep locked away, a relic too fragile to ever be offered freely. some say you are nothing but iron wrapped in the finest your station can afford. and others, foolish enough to suggest they have glimpsed something softer.
versailles has given you everything. and in that same breath … nothing at all. no matter how high you climb, you are never allowed to forget where it is you began.
( jonathan bailey , cis man , he/him ) ETIENNE BERNARD is a THIRTY-FIVE year old working as a PHYSICIAN with queen isabeau for the foreseeable future . HE is known around the palace to be ALTRUISTIC & EBULLIENT, but also OBSTINATE & RESTLESS. ETIENNE reminds the queen of WARMTH FROM A BLAZING HEARTH, LAUGHTER ECHOING AROUND ROOMS & WATCHING THE SUNRISE THROUGH THE WINDOW .
what the bernards lacked in material wealth, in etienne's mind was more than made up for in the unwavering warmth and love always found in the house. the moment his younger sister arrived, he felt his world was complete.
etienne always had a keen interest in helping others, pestering local apothecaries to teach him about their cures and the logic behind them and treating the scraped knees of young ones in their neighbourhood. medicine was his calling, but it seemed a far off prospect.
was apprenticed to a baker not far from their house, work he didn't mind as it brought extra money home, but was far from his passion. it was pure chance that a physician who'd moved to france from england, seeing etienne's enthusiasm and potential, decided to take him under his wing.
finally seemingly set on the perfect track for his future, at nineteen, his parents passed away from influenza. etienne and his mentor, of course, did their best to see them through, but to no avail. cecile did pull through, but their parents were the first patients etienne lost.
he was left to raise cecile, really still a child himself. the truth of it was, she kept him going. his days were long and busy -- her, always the priority -- but he never let his grip slip from his ultimate goal to become a doctor. he attended university thanks to his mentor and continued working alongside him, soaking up any learning he could.
currently works at a practice with three other physicians. the owner is an older, extremely curmudgeonly old man who doesn't particularly like etienne. the feeling is enthusiastically returned, but etienne has to bite his tongue -- he doesn't yet have the money to start his own practice.
the conflict largely arises from the older physician's refusal to take on board the abundance of new research, experiments, and information and instead choosing to stick to his outdated methods. etienne, on the other hand, is all about the new and very much rubs the older man the rub way.
headcanons.
absolutely reeks of undiagnosed adhd, cannot for the life of him sit still. if he's not hyperfixating on something or actively working, he will jump from task to task like a bunny. frequently has to retrace his steps to locate things he's lost track of, or left behind somewhere ( simply walking off without it ) and such like. would lose his head if it wasn't screwed on.
similarly absolutely has depression, of course he'd never even think to blame cecile for it, but their parents died and he, a teenager, had to raise his teenage sister and finish dragging himself through university. as such, he never really had a second to grieve his parents and not properly doing so has definitely just meant the feeling festered and developed.
cecile is the light of his life. he doesn't know who he'd be or what he'd do without her. he would do anything she asked in the blink of an eye and is, unsurprisingly, very protective of her as he's terrified of losing her. he's so unbelievably proud of all she's achieved and is her biggest fan in the theatre's audience.
biggest conflict in his life at the moment is how desperately lonely he feels. part of him figured he'd be able to fill that whole by throwing himself into work -- he always takes too much on, and when he's not working is almost certainly researching or experimenting -- and it hasn't worked. and because in his mind it should be enough, he's mightily confused that he still feels so alone and like there is a gaping hole in his chest. he desperately wants companionship, but is too scared to put himself out there, is pretty sure he's undesirable and dreads the very thought of loving and losing someone else.
though very secure in his practice and knowledge of medicine and healthcare ( his survival rate and patient quality of late far outdoes the practice owner's ), etienne is insecure about his status in the profession. he's not a gentleman like the rest of them and it is, at times, extremely obvious. he has no family name to rely on for prestige or inherent safety, only the reputation his good work produces. it is partly why he is so work-oriented, filling every waking moment with learning and studying.
wanted connections. pinterest.
childhood friends. school / university friends. a best friend. past hook ups. past relationships -- good or bad ending terms. acquaintances. new friends. a crush ( either way / mutual. ) a confidant. general friends. past / present one night stand(s). patients / family members of patients.
