Character Avatar: Phillip Suddick (aka James S Phillips)
Character Name: Grégoire Jourdain Duchamp de Bertrand
Age: 33
Rank/Title: Duc de Bertrand, Former Adept of Mandrake House (fully marqued)
Race: D'Angeline
Country/Province: Terre d'Ange/L'Agnace
Player: Merle
Appearance: Standing at 6'1, Grégoire is a tall, fit man. He isn't particularly broad, nor scrawny, and keeps his slender, muscular physique in peak form... perfect for the domination, and frequent intimidation, that comes with being an adept of Mandrake House. His features are striking, chiseled. Those icy blue eyes lending themselves well to the cool indifference or cruel humor most frequently seen in them. That said, his dimpled smile can transform that cold countenance with disarmingly boyish charm.
He generally keeps his wheat blonde hair long, rarely very much above his shoulders, and often, though not always, ties it back. It gets somewhat darker in the winter months, just as his skin does the opposite. With the lack of sunshine, Grégoire can be quite fair, even downright pale, but he acquires a rather decent tan when the weather warms.
Personality: Grégoire is as cruel and sadistic as the worst stereotypes of his House. He's every bit as well-trained and mannerly as any other adept and can employ a good deal of charm when he wishes, he simply rarely has the desire to. While he likes causing pain as much as any Mandrake, what he really gets off on is seeing people squirm. He seems to have an uncanny knack for knowing what will shame and humiliate his patrons most, a fact that makes him very popular with a certain set.
That penchant remains true outside of the bedchamber, and with those who aren't his patrons, as well. Grégoire likes to make people uncomfortable. He will often prod or provoke someone to raise their ire, or create awkward tension, just because he finds it amusing. Along this line, his sense of humor can be quite off-kilter, and he's certainly not above laughing at another's misery and misfortune. Especially if it happens to be the result of a cruel quip or prank of his.
Even moreso than one would think of someone with his proclivities, he rarely gets close to anyone. The tragic circumstances of his childhood and the less than tender conditions he was raised in have left Grégoire with some unresolved issues, whether he actively acknowledges that fact or not. For one, he's not particularly keen on attachment or affectionate displays. Outwardly, and even to himself, his explanation is that of someone who simply spurns anything deeper and more intimate than a casual carnal encounter as being pointless, but at the heart of the matter, he fears a repetition of the past. Loss, abandonment, pain, death. In his mind there is no positive association with romantic love.
History: Everyone who knew her thought it was unbelievable when the cool, distant Reine nó Mandrake fell in love with and married a patron of hers by the name Bertrand Duchamp. By all accounts he was a rather unremarkable man. His background a mystery, his finances not particularly impressive. The entire House wondered what it could have been about Bertrand that broke Reine out of her icy shell. But whatever the reason behind it, the fact was that he had, and no one could recall her being happier. That is until she bore him a son. Grégoire.
Reine adored her little boy, who seemed to take very much after her, but it was Bertrand who really owned her heart. So, when he developed an infection from their rough play, and later perished from it, she was consumed by guilt and sorrow. Unable to care for herself, much less a child of not even five, Reine took Grégoire to foster at Mandrake. It was some days later that a couple friends of Reine's went to the small house she had lived in with her husband and small son to check on her and found that she had hung herself.
Though there were a few friends and acquaintances, Grégoire 's parents had no family to speak of... none that could be found, in any case. As he grew up, he remembered little of them, save his impression that they didn't care about him at all, but rather only loved one another. His pain at their loss was muddled with anger and bitterness, which led him to detach himself from those around him, becoming a rather solitary youth... except when he was taunting and tormenting the other fosterlings. Used to that sort of thing, the teachers of Mandrake disciplined and molded those cruel tendencies into a promising young apprentice.
His debut went well, though was marked as unusual in that the young Mandrake had his patron strip and follow him out of the crowded room on her knees. Bold from the very beginning. Always confident and with that intuitiveness about a patron's weaknesses, Grégoire soon became the adept to go to if one wanted a more psychological bent to their abuse. His shamed and degraded patrons frequently return to him, begging for more. By twenty his marque was complete, and having no other plans for his future, he has remained at Mandrake since.
Updates: If not particularly discontent at Mandrake, Grégoire has never been truly fond of the place. That isn't to say that he hasn't enjoyed his work, but despite being raised there, it simply didn't feel like a real home to him. So, in light of his growing friendship with Comtesse Andraiya Lefebvre (one of the few people he would actually consider such), the sadistic enjoyment he's gotten out of toying with her ex-Valerian lover, and with all of the rash, cavalier, imprudence of youth... he has decided to leave the Night Court and move in with the pair for no deeper reason, that he's aware of anyway, than his belief that it will be entertaining.
~~~
After some time the arrangement became less about meaningless entertainment, and the former Mandrake grew legitimately fond of the other two, much to the surprise of everyone involved. Unfortunately, as soon as it seemed he'd found his heart, it was breaking. Andraiya started to drift away from them, and the men were left to comfort and console one another. Becoming even closer than they had been before. So close, in fact, that the two became consorts, and Grégoire asked Noe to take his name. Telling himself there was no longer a reason for his lover to bear Andy's, and not liking the idea of him taking back the name he'd gotten from his cruel parents. Though, true as that may be, his motives may have been more sentimental than all that.
Given the change in their relationship, the two decided it was time to live on their own, and found a little place to rent for the time being. A much humbler way of living than the two are used to, but Grégoire is determined to save every copper he can from his resumed work as a servant of Naamah so that they can afford to buy a place he and Noe can truly call their home.
~~~
In a shocking revelation for all involved, it has come to light through an odd series of events, that Grégoire's father was not who his son had thought he was. Revealed to him by his occasional lover and plaything, Prince Iulus de Somerville, it was discovered that his father was in fact Jourdain Bertrand, missing heir to the Bertrand duchy. The man also happened to be the prince's uncle.
So, Grégoire has suddenly found himself with an excess of family where he once had none, a very prestigious title with lands and all of the accompanying privileges and responsibilities, and also the awkward knowledge that unbeknownst to either of them, he has been dallying with his cousin. Though having known the man far longer in the previous role, he's not inclined to feel bad about it so much as he is still simply coming to grips with the situation as a whole.
Having inherited the title of Duc, he has also inherited the family's country estate which is the seat of the duchy, but being City born and raised, he's opted to move into a posh manor in the West Borough with the unlikely name of Rosée du Matin Manoir. There, he and his fiancé can once again live in the luxury they are used to, having been reared in the opulent Night Court and then living with a noblewoman.
