⫸ B A S I C I N F O R M A T I O N ⫷
" Why yes, I do quite enjoy being the living embodiment of everything you are not."▼
| BIRTH NAME : | Esmé Mercier Delacroix
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| ALSO KNOWN AS: |The Sun King- A self-proclaimed title due to his ability to manipulate light. While, he quite enjoys being addressed as ‘Your Majesty’ by those he considers beneath him few outside of a handful of devoted sycophants do so without prompting or implied sarcasm.
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| GENDER : | Male.
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| AGE : | 25.
⫸ A P P E A R A N C E ⫷
"If you are going to ogle me at least wipe the drool from your mouth first b**ch."▼
| P H Y S I C AL S T A T S : | ▸ HEIGHT : | 6’0 ft.
▸ WEIGHT : | 140 lbs.
▸ ETHNICITY : | French.
▸ HAIR COLOR : | Black.
▸ EYE COLOR : | Blue.
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| PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION : | Esmé carries himself like royalty with an air of pretentiousness; he acts like he owns everything and everyone in any room he happens to walk into. He exudes an aurora of unearned pride and pomposity, even if the situation does not warrant such a display. Even his body posture during daily conversations betrays his arrogance; his arms are usually crossed, and he only makes eye contact with others to display dominance or to inspire fear. He is fond of overexaggerated displays of impatience such as rolling his eyes or audibly sighing. His visage is usually plastered with a look of smug assurance or haughty boredom; the type of looks that are highly irritating to most people. Prolonged exposure to extreme annoyance causes him involuntary facial tics. Esmé primarily equates one’s personal worth to their physical attractiveness and therefore undergoes an expensive and extensive skincare routine every morning in order to maintain his youthful appearance. He unabashedly adorns his face with high-end makeup to further increase his attractiveness. He is considered conventionally attractive, though quite feminine for a male. He has very soft hands due to his cushy lifestyle. While, as of yet never undergoing conventional plastic surgery he has had Botox injections in the past to reduce the appearance of facial wrinkles. While, no longer in the active fencing circuit, Esmé still practices the diet and workout routines he learned in his youth; this accounts for his slim build and muscular thighs.
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| ATTIRE : |For Esmé possessing an impressive wardrobe is as important as maintaining his physical looks. He loves making an entrance and luxurious attire are a part of that. His personal assortment of clothing only includes pieces from the World’s foremost fashion designers. The only thing he hates more than wearing the same item twice in a row is wearing the same thing as somebody else, he is known to pay designers heftily for one-a-kind outfits. His fashion sense to average person would come off as exorbitantly priced and needlessly flamboyant. Esmé also controversially prefers real animal fur in his clothing, he also is a proponent of using alligator/crocodile leather in boots or handbags.
⫸ P S Y C H O L O G Y ⫷
" I live in the grip of vice and pleasure. What is so wrong with that?"▼ | PERSONALITY TRAITS : | Esmé lives a lavish lifestyle on his parent’s dime and isn’t afraid to flaunt it; humility and humbleness are virtues unknown to him. He finds humor and pleasure in his cruelty towards others. The vastness of his parents’ coffers only fuels his persistent lack of ambition. He is not above feigning progress or lying to his parents to secure his monthly stipend. People in general are disposable to Esmé, even those he is initially attracted to, there exists plenty of spurned lovers of his whom he rid himself of when the initial thrill of relationship subsided. Being as narcissistic and self-centered as he is, he is intrinsically afraid of failure and cannot accept even the slightest piece of constructive criticism.; he exclusively surrounds himself with flatterers and bootlickers in order to never be challenged. If he happens to not get his way, is upstaged, or loses he is prone to throw a tantrum.
▼ | SKILLS : | Proficiency with a Sabre – Esmé was trained in the art of fencing at starting at a young age, specifically he specialized in using a sabre as opposed to a foil or epee. He was surprisingly competent and in boarding school he even earned accommodations for competing in regional tournaments. Had he further applied himself to the craft and grew out of his immature views on losing, he could have potentially made France’s Olympic Team later in life. However, at eighteen he decided to study abroad in America and lost any passion he had for the sport. For nostalgia purposes, he will sporadically pick up a sabre and spar with an opponent, but only if he is guaranteed a victory over them.
▼ | BACK STORY : | Esmé was born into a life of wealth and privilege; the only son of a wealthy French shipping magnate he was dotted on by his parents. Due to their problems convincing a child his birth was considered a miracle to his devote Roman-Catholic parents; it is said he simply sparkled when he emerged from his mother’s womb. He spent his early years on his parents’ estate nestled in the heights of Roucas Blanc overlooking the harbor of Marseille; his every whim was catered to by an army of servants. It was here he was instilled with the belief he was better than those around him and others existed to serve him. His parents’ influence enrolled him in the best boarding schools in Europe where he mingled with the upper crust of society. As was a long-standing tradition in his family he was trained in the art of fencing, but Esmé had no love of the sport outside of it being a way to inflict sanctioned violence on others. Esmé manifested a tentative grasp around his powers around this time; he exerted little control over light, but he certainly felt a connection to it. Esmé had of course heard of delta-humans, but from what was circulated about them at the time he considered them to be a mixture of circus freaks and lepers. His fears of being part of the undesirables were dissuaded when he indirectly brought his concerns to Father McDonagh in confession. While far from a devout Catholic as Esmé was quite proud of his sins and vices, he was always respected the majesty and supernatural authority of the church could grant someone. Father McDonagh while confirming Esmé’s suppositions that the large percentage of delta-humans were abominations, also mentioned that God could certainly bestow powers as a sign of His divine favor like He supposedly did with certain characters in the Bible and even members of the pre-revolution nobility. That was all the justification Esmé needed regarding his mysterious powers.
He came to the United States at age eighteen to pursue a business degree at Yale on the insistence of his father, but immediately dropped out to pursue a relationship with a male singer in a local punk band that caught his affections. When the relationship ended a year later in a bitter breakup, Esmé who was that point cut off from his parents’ money re-enrolled in order to return to their good graces. His re-enrollment was short lived needless to say as he left to pursue other fleeting passions. At twenty-one he arrived in Los Angeles and convinced his parents to buy him a nightclub to run. While, he shortly became bored of the operations side of his nightclub ‘Versailles’ and passed managerial duties to someone else, he quite enjoyed the social aspect of it. It became a local hotspot for the city’s well-to-dos and in four years Esmé gathered a devoted following of hangers-on, groupies, gold-diggers, and toadies. In certain circles he was relatively famous and Esmé loved the attention.
When the buildings began to fall Esmé was predisposed with wooing a prospective future employee of his fine establishment. The naïve thing came all this way to Los Angeles from some fly-over state to pursue his dreams of being a famous moviestar, how quaint. Esmé would be more than happy to offer employment to this future star of stage and screen in the meantime provided the man was able to satisfy his desires. When he relayed his proposition to the starving actor it clearly flustered him. Esmé bit his bottom lip in anticipation. Then the ground began to violently shake.
▼ | PERSONAL ARC : | Esmé will have to come with terms that post-disaster despite his wealth and privilege there is no special bailout waiting exclusively for him. No special rescue operation is being mounted. His parents’ money cannot buy him reprieve this time. He is the same situation as everyone else stuck in the city, perhaps he is slightly worse off than some as the little social-bonds he had pre-disaster have dissipated; those that were his allies either abandoned him in their own quest for survival or were just unable to adapt to the new order and perished. No one is holding his hand through this crisis.
⫸ P O W E R I N F O R M A T I O N ⫷
" It has been a long time since I had to actually exert myself, but you see the immeasurable gap between us only continues to grow darling. Just give up already."▼ | POWER CLASSIFICATION : | Type-Red.
▼ | POWER DESCRIPTION : | Light Manipulation - Esmé can use and influence visible light to his own benefits. He is able to use pre-existing light to create blinding strobes, flashes, or disorienting displays that are detrimental to other people's equilibrium. He mainly influences ambient lighting to make himself more attractive or create an impromptu spotlight on himself. His powers only further reinforce his delusions that he is superior to the rest of the world.
▼ | LIMITS : | Esmé can only control existing light as he is unable to spontaneously generate light of his own. He would theoretically be most effective outside in direct sunlight or in well-lit areas. Outside of temporary blinding someone as a prank or manipulating the light in a room to make himself seem more photogenic he has never used his powers in an offensive capacity, so most of his boasts about mastery over light are unproven to say the least. He does not actively practice improving his powerset. He once managed to create a sabre out of light, but the process required intense concentration and the construct lasted for only a brief instant.
▼ | WEAKNESSES : | Esmé’s powers are a double edged sword as if he happens to be looking directly at the light he is manipulating when making strobes, flashes, or disorienting displays he would be suffer the ill efects as well, such as temporary blindness. His narcissism juxtaposed with his hubris are potentially fatal weaknesses psychologically speaking. He is prone to underestimating those around him as he sees most people as inferiors. Flattery even insincere flattery will endear one to him. He loves to have his ego stroked. He is generally paranoid of those around him, but his regular use of cocaine only heightens this paranoia. He foolishly puts undue trust in those he finds attractive.
⫸ O T H E R ⫷
"Like the Sun everything revolves around me."
aladdin_sane