Post by Yves Castel on Aug 15, 2010 7:02:15 GMT -7
THE HANDLER
NAME: Yves Castel.
NICKNAME: L’Etudiant/the Student.
CLASSIFICATION: Human.
GENDER: Male.
AGE & BIRTHDAY: 22, born on January 30 1988.
APPEARANCE: Tall and rather skinny, Yves is 1 m 87 in height. He seems to be constantly tired, probably due to his occupation. He has dark blond hair, which is usually unkempt although never dirty. He also lets his hair grow quite long before cutting it back down to size, like some odd hair cycle. His face is pretty angular, with high cheek bones, a pointed, upturned nose and a cleft chin, the lot being complemented by greyish green eyes and a small scar running down the side of his nose. For his tall and slightly skinny frame, Yves has a surprisingly deep voice, something which he jokingly claims was brought on by years of « passive smoking ».
ATTIRE: Yves does not have a specific way of dressing, although it can usually be reduced to the following : in winter, army boots, jeans and a simple dark grey anorak, and in summer, longshorts with a bland t-shirt and a pair of tongs/trainers. On the job, he often wears a pair of disposable rubber gloves and a balaclava to hide his identity.
PLAY BY: Nobody, hurf durf.
THE CREATION
NAME: None.
POWER LIST: Nothing.
DETAILED POWER: Rien, nada.
THE POTENTIAL
ALIGNMENT/OCCUPATION: Unaffiliated, hired assassin.
WEAPONS: Beretta 93R, Steyr AUG, pistol crossbow, knife, garrot.
PERSONALITY: Yves is a very quiet person, and not very sociable. Not that he dislikes human company, he does have quite a few friends, but he is a shy person and suffers from mild social anxiety. This shyness often makes him seem aloof, cold and distant to other people, which is perfect for his rather distasteful work, but a handicap in daily life. As a consequence of this, Yves is not very good at conversing with other people, although when he gains enough confidence he can have a perfectly normal conversation with them.
His job often taking place at night makes Yves somewhat of a night owl, staying up till the early hours of the morning, completely unable to sleep. Yves only knows two ways of relieving stress : to be active, or drinking. The second one usually takes place when he’s sitting at home, or after doing an « assignment ». His weakness for alcohol often means that if he is offered something to drink, be it during a social gathering, or a private event, he will end up drunk quite quickly.
When he is at university or with friends, Yves often appears to be tired but casual, smiling, joking and playing it off as your average lazy student. On the job, he is silent, swift and rather meticulous in disposing of any evidence that may incriminate him, but despite this he is still slightly clumsy, and can occasionally make mistakes which he will rush to correct. He is also very nervous about inviting people back to his home lest they should accidentally discover his weapon cache, even though said cache is hidden behind the boiler, not the kind of place a guest would go nosing around in. When questioned about his job and how he manages to pay the rent for his flat, he always says that he works for a private translation company.
SKILLS: Good at using firearms as well as disposing of people quietly. He also speaks two languages fluently : French and English. He also speaks Spanish relatively well. He is also good at close quarter combat.
STRENGTHS: Has good endurance, can stay calm in very stressful situations and is good at blending into the crowd.
WEAKNESSES: Lack of sleep and alcohol abuse can lead to mistakes, his social awkwardness can make him stand out when standing out is not a good thing. Despite being able to handle stress most of the time, his constant juggling between his life as a student and his shadowy profession as a hired assassin can lead to a build up of anxiety which unless relieved can cause him to break down.
THE STORY
HISTORY:
Yves was born in the Dordogne, from English parents who had left England to look for nicer weather and an « authentic » lifestyle in rural France. The house they lived in for three months was quite literally lost in the middle of nowhere, near a tiny village called « La Tour Blanche » which had a total of 80 inhabitants and houses that seemed to have been lifted straight out of the Middle-Ages. The Castel family did not live there long however, and moved to another small village in Provence named Beaumont-de-Pertuis. Yves spent most of his childhood in that village, going to the small school there and playing with the village children, many of whom were the offspring of the village’s community of exiled hippies (one of which was a Chilean ex political prisoner).
This eccentric childhood came to an end when he turned 10, as his parents divorced and he went to live with his mother in a neighbouring town. It was in this town that he subsequently went to collège (French high school), thus heralding the beginning of 4 of the most miserable years of his life. He was often bullied during those years for his social awkwardness, as well as the fact he had a very high voice till the age of 14. Ironically, when his voice broke he ended up with a very deep and masculine voice, a voice of which he is quite proud of even today.
After the ordeal of collège was over, Yves went to the lycée. The three years spent there were thankfully a lot better than the ones spent at collège, although the final year was ruined by an identity and existential crisis coupled with nervous depression. It was in that year that Yves developped his weakness for alcohol. After the baccalaureate (which he barely managed to get), he took a sabbatical and travelled to Australia. In Australia, he travelled to the outback and stayed in a small town which was being plagued by a supposed “min-min” outbreak, the Jack-o-Lantern of Australia. At first, Yves did not take the local’s warnings and frightened tales seriously, but after five people vanished one night, followed by three more the following night, he decided to barricade himself in his hotel room. A few days later, some odd people arrived, asked the locals, and Yves, a few questions about the Min-min lights and the disappearances, and proceeded to go off into the outback. They later returned, and the Min-min outbreak seemed to cease abruptly, enabling Yves to leave the town and continue his trip.
After returning from Australia, Yves took up various jobs, mostly as a translator and interpreter. Subsequently, he started university, studying applied foreign languages (English and Spanish) in the city of Marseille. The start of university also heralded the start of his current problems, as he found it increasingly difficult to pay the rent and other expenses, while his parents were unable to support him financially. After half a year of fruitless, poorly paid work, worry and unpaid rent, Yves found himself on the verge of being evicted. In despair, and unable to cope with it all, he left his flat and roamed around the city, finally ending up in a shady bar filled with non-recommendable people. As he sat down and drank, he was approached by a short, bald man who introduced himself as “Pierre Durandal”, head of a small company whose activities he did not specify. After a brief talk, the man left Yves with his business card and lef the bar.
Curious, and desperate for a job, Yves called the number written down on the card (strangely enough, there was no address), and was given directions to a small street in the outskirts of Marseille. After a bus ride, and a short walk, he arrived there and saw what was basically an old warehouse with a tall and pale man standing next to the door. Yves was shown inside quite courteously, but this ended as soon as he got into the building, as he was manhandled and forced to sit down on a chair with two armed men keeping an eye on him. The very same man ‘Mr Durandal’, that he had seen the other night at the bar, arrived at the scene and made him an offer. Durandal’s company’s “activities’ was basically training hitmen whose services would then be hired by criminals who needed someone to disappear. Durandal told Yves that he only had two choices: to accept the offer, or get shot and dumped into a ditch out of the back of a car. Evidently, Yves preferred to accept the job, and so began his shady work as a hired killer. He spent several weeks being taught how to use a gun, how to knock an attacker unconscious and even kill him without any weapons and how not to leave any evidence behind him.
After his training was complete, Durandal handed him a pistol, a photo of a stranger and the location of said stranger. Yves was then quite simply told to go and shoot the stranger, and if he didn’t or botched the job, he would be killed. Yves set out, and his first idea was to go to the police. He quickly abandoned that idea after remembering Durandal’s threat, and simply went to the location where he was supposed to find his target. The location turned out to be a small, rand down and seedy suburban park in Marseille’s banlieue, and Yves sat down on a bench, waiting for his victim to arrive. The victim finally arrived, and Yves went over to him. The stranger, who was obviously a dealer of sorts, offered to sell him some heroin, and Yves accepted, taking the man to a quieter part of the park in order to haggle over the price. Once there, Yves whipped his pistol out and, with a trembling hand, shot the stranger in the head.
The job having obviously succeeded, he was then picked up by a van and driven back to the warehouse. He was given the pistol he had used, and was given the nickname “l’Etudiant” or the Student. This was the beginning of his double life as a student and hired assassin, and over time he was given better paid, but riskier assignments. Yves has always considered the possibility of giving up and changing his identity, or even going to the police, but they pay and Durandal’s threats have pretty much succeeded in keeping him in the business.
