CIVILIAN . MARTEL, AMÉLIE

Amélie Martel

Melancholy. Sweet. Cowardly.

Ami, Ame, or "Miss Martel"

Thirty

May 08

Female

Heterosexual

Civilian

Ballet instructor and owner of her own dance studio.

Personality

APPRECIATIVE | Sometimes, life just doesn't go the way you wanted it to. Sometimes things don't work out like you had hoped. In Amélie's world, this is quite the case. If it were up to her, she'd be a world famous dancer. She wouldn't have any debt, and she would be living the way she had always dreamed. Despite her ambitions, she is accepting of the fact that her life did not end up this way, and she takes what she has humbly and without complaints.

ARTISTIC | There is no better way to express oneself than through the arts. Dancing, singing, writing, and painting are a few of the things she likes to do to express herself. Amélie may be sensitive, but it isn't easy for her to share her emotions. Even though she is crying, she may not tell anyone why. If you study her paintings and her choreography, you may find yourself understanding her mind just a bit better.

COWARDLY | Her life has not been full of adventure, and that's quite fine with her. Amélie is not one to take risks, nor is she one to express her inner feelings. She has many fears in this world, and oftentimes she lets them control her life, so much so that she has forced herself to stay within the confines of her own neighborhood most of the time. When it comes to matters of the heart, it is nearly impossible for her to open up.

FRAGILE | Emotionally and physically, she is a fragile woman. Her heart has been splintered to pieces, and her health is waning. She cannot take yelling or screaming, especially if it is directed toward her. She is timid and afraid of those who are aggressive and mean. It's the reason she can never fully defend herself against verbal lashings. She'll seem like she's taking it, but in the inside, she's breaking.

GENTLE | Her tone, her touch, her presence. Nothing about her is at all harmful nor intimidating. She speaks with a soft voice, she touches as if it may break. Quite dainty, like a ballerina like her is expected to be. With her gentle nature comes the inability to truly stand up for herself, so she is often taken advantage of.

PRIVATE | Her life is her own, and she would rather not involve anyone in it. It isn't that she's a prude, or dislikes people. It's quite the opposite. Amélie would feel terrible if someone else had to take over her problems. It is part of the reason she has not sought a mate after all of these years. Romance and love is something she thinks about, and does sincerely want, but she just cannot fathom opening up her can of problems and pushing them onto someone else. For that reason, she keeps to herself and keeps others out.

SELFLESS | Amélie is ready at a moment's notice to throw her own needs out of the door in order to take care of the needs of someone else. The kind spirited woman just cannot say no to most requests, which is why she has ended up in the state of life that she lives. She owes money to her landlord, but she cannot bring herself to ask for money from the student's who have struggling families. It just isn't in her nature to receive.

SWEET | This one should be rather blatant by now, but Amélie is a sweet, kind and gentle soul who would do anything not to hurt another person. It's partly why she remains so distant and aloof with others. She has experienced pain in the past, as well as experiencing the pain of breaking someone's heart, and she'd just rather not go through that again. Her drive to keep people at arm's length, but yet to be happy with her is a constant struggle with her. Her kindness isn't a front, and it is genuine, though she may seem hesitant to offer it at first.

THOUGHTFUL | This comes as a negative and a positive. For what friends she does have, she is always thinking about them. What to get them for gifts, what they would like for their birthday, and even simple things such as what they're up to while she doesn't see them. Her thoughtfulness passes into the negative realm when she starts thinking too much about things. Sometimes her thoughts leak into the morbid, and she gets scared for what might be happening to them. Did they get in a car accident? Murdered? Mugged? Such thoughts pass through her head frequently. She is very inquisitive and thinks about the nature of the world itself from time to time. It is relieving to her to see someone do good, but then she just remembers that where there is good, there is a bad that is sure to follow. Pessimism reigns in her brain.

History

The Martel family had never been too wealthy. When Lucian Martel's father passed away, he was left with very little money in the will. Being a high school dropout didn't help much either. A full time job as a cashier at Target just wasn't cutting it. Marina Martel, his wife, got pregnant at the worst possible time. Lucian had been laid off of his job, and so they had to live off of well-fare and unemployment checks for some time.

Amélie was born in the spring of 1983. Though her parents were happy to have a child, they couldn't help but be just a bit resentful that they had a child when they were facing such hard times. But they couldn't just give her up for adoption, either. She grew up in a divided household, one which she was constantly reminded that she had ruined their lives. The glee of having a child soon wore off when they realized just how much money they'd have to invest in her.

When Amélie started going to school, she was teased relentlessly. Oftentimes, her parents could not even afford to wash her clothes, so she had to go to school with dirty clothes. Young kids who are oblivious to such hardships can be quite mean without even thinking they are. Amélie spent many nights wondering why she didn't fit in with the other kids. She also missed school quite often because she'd always get sick. Amélie cannot recall a time where she was never not sick from something. The times she did spend at school were often spent in the cafeteria, where teachers had set up alternative programs like band or art for the students that did not like recess, or who did not want to participate in PE.

That was where Amélie met her best elementary school friend. Nina was her name. The two spent a lot of time together, doing what normal little girls did. Amélie would often go to Nina's house and the two would listen to music, or play with dolls. They had remained friends until high school. During her Sophomore year, Nina had to move away. The two exchanged letters, then emails for a while. But then contact between them just... stopped. Amélie has not talked to her since, and has no idea what happened to her friend.

Life went on. She vowed to graduate from high school, and she did. She even had great grades, and many extracurricular activities to boot. Her main reason for participating in so many things was to stay away from home for as long as she could in one day... She dabbled in the more creative subjects, and when given the choice, she took beginning guitar instead of physical education. Her elementary school days had really made an impact on her, and she hoped she would make some new friends there, like she had done with Nina. It was during her time at the film club that she found her calling. They reviewed a movie about ballet, and Amélie quickly became enamored. The ballerinas were so graceful and elegant. She had the body to be a dancer, but she had never pursued it before.

Amélie was then enrolled as a student at UCLA with the help of financial aid and a few part-time jobs to get her by. She took the general courses for her education, but her main focus were the Arts. She took all sorts of dance classes, as well as more music and art classes to learn the basics of more instruments, like violin, as well as different media for painting. For once, she was enjoying her life. She even created a few bonds of friendship and even participated in some ballet performances. An onlooker from the audience noticed her, however, and approached her after the performance. He was from the Joffrey Academy of Dance, and he asked her about relocating to Chicago for a few years to practice there. Amélie could easily say that was the happiest moment of her life. She dropped out of UCLA and moved to Chicago to attend Joffrey.

She could also say that it was the worst mistake of her life.

Joffrey was an amazing experience for her. She learned from the best, and she became a very popular ballerina in shows. It was hard to push past her sick and weak days, which had followed her throughout her life, but she pushed past them and kept dancing. During her stay, fell in love with one of her instructors. At the time, she was very glad that he reciprocated her feelings. The two were in love for a few very short years.

During her last year, Amélie's mother passed away. The woman had been sickly for a time, but nobody knew why. They still did not have the money for extensive treatments to see why. An autopsy showed that she had been infected with HIV. It was unknown how long she had had the disease, so as a precaution, Amélie went to the doctor to have herself checked out. It shattered her life to know that she had been infected with it as well. The doctor explained that there are rare cases where the infected mother can pass the disease to their child. Amélie just had to be that special case.

The next few months of her life were a living hell. She now had to take medicines daily just to keep her sickness at bay. It was also hard to keep this secret from her lover. When he found out, he immediately left her, claiming that if he were to contract the disease as well, it'd ruin his career.

Amélie took it pretty hard. She finished up what was left of her lessons at Joffrey, and she immediately moved back to Los Angeles to take care of her father. With what little money she had, she opened up her own dance studio, with an emphasis on ballet.

For a few years, she was doing fine. However, the economy took a turn, and the price of her medicines had been raised in price, so it was hard for her to cope and manage a business at the same time. As of recently, she is struggling with debt and her landlord threatens to take away her home, her studio, and her life.

Miscellaneous

Amélie could be considered a vegetarian, although she does not classify herself as such. She doesn't abstain from meats because of some spiritual or political reason. She just doesn't enjoy the taste of red meat, so she tends to eat mainly fruits, vegetables and occasionally fish.

She suffers from HIV.

Despite her landlord threatening to shut down her studio, she cannot bring herself to ask anyone for money. She has students who have parents that are in financial troubles as well, so she can't bring herself to take their money when they need it as well.

She can play the guitar, piano and violin, and hopes to someday learn to play the cello, viola, and perhaps the flute.

Her creativity doesn't stop there, however. She also enjoys painting and drawing scenery, though she is far from a modern day Picasso and often hides her creations.

Amélie has quite the green thumb, and grows a large variety of plants, herbs and flowers on a rooftop garden.

Her studio and her house are the same thing. Her studio is located downstairs, while her home and living space is located on a second floor.

Roleplayer Information

ELYSE;; Also plays Samantha Moore

PREFERENCE;; The choice of Kingdom can be left up to the staff!

FACE CLAIM;; Shadow of the Colossus – Mono