Josephine Montilyet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
somewhatfallenfortune) wrote2014-12-29 02:03 am
somewhatfallenfortune) wrote2014-12-29 02:03 am
app
OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Dove
Other characters: N/A
IN CHARACTER
Name: Josephine Montilyet. Her name rendered in full, with titles, is Lady Josephine Cherette Montilyet of Antiva City, Ambassador of the Inquisition.
Alias: Ruffles and Josie--but unless Varric Tethras or Leliana show up, neither of those nicknames are likely to become relevant.
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Canon point/AU: Soon after the Inquisition moves to Skyhold.
Journal:somewhatfallenfortune
PB: Josephine Montilyet as rendered in-game.
Age: 28. (Her writer places her age at "around 27-29," so I figure we might as well take the average.)
History: Dragon Age Wiki.
At the point in time from which I've taken Josephine, she's unromanced, though she and the Inquisitor (a female Lavellan) have perhaps flirted a bit. Her personal quests have not yet begun.
Presentation: Josephine Montilyet is the eldest daughter of Antivan nobility. As the first-born child, it is her duty to take over the running of her family's affairs from her parents; while her siblings are the ones who do much of the day-to-day work with the Montilyets' business holdings, she oversees her siblings and ensures the family name continues without additional tarnish.
In addition to that, she is an accomplished diplomat with years' experience within the cutthroat world of Orlesian politics and an international network of friends and acquaintances.
These qualities add together to create the image of a formidable woman: someone capable and at ease within social situations, comfortable with asking for the things she wants, and able to dress up such requests until they're palatable to the person being asked. (Also someone who dresses quite well, even if she and her likewise fashionable bff can't agree on whether taupe is a spring colour.)
Josephine is an excellent reader of people in general, and she's also quite intelligent--the Dragon Age wiki describes her as cunning, and not without merit. When presented with a man she has never met before, she's able to figure out through conversation and her wits alone that he's an imposter. And she's a shrewd enough card player that she and Cullen once ended a card game with her winning and Cullen completely naked...and they weren't playing strip poker.
(Seriously, don't play Wicked Grace with her. As she puts it, "Never bet against an Antivan.")
Despite her considerable skills in moving among the nobility of Thedas, she's not unshakable or cold. Josephine's voice actress describes her as "sweet and caring" and as having "a lot of integrity." She genuinely cares about the causes the champions: the Inquisition, of course (and she would like to believe the Inquisitor really was touched by the Maker's hand), but also her family's status. Josephine considers her duties to the Montilyet heritage extremely important; it is for that reason that she cares so much about restoring her family's ability to trade in Orlais, thus allowing them to begin to gain back some of the Montilyet house's former glories.
And though she can play things close to the breast, it's possible to shake her. She describes her one brush with murder (described in more detail in the next section) as a situation in which she scrapped rather than fought, noting that both she and her opponent were both terrified. When assassins attempt to attack her in Skyhold, she seems similarly unsettled. Josephine isn't a desk jockey--she has plenty of real-world experience, as described above--but she's not accustomed to being in the thick of violence. It doesn't agree with her.
It's even easier to fluster her. Flirt--genuinely, when she isn't expecting it--and her words stumble. While Josephine takes issue with Leliana's characterization of her as an innocent in love, there's some truth to the matter; she's far more experienced with courtly intrigue than courtly love. Part of that might be playing the Game, of course--blushing and being clearly flattered by flirtation isn't an inappropriate reaction in her circles--but part of that is also just plain Josephine being Josephine.
Motivations: Josephine has a history with violence, and it isn't something she's proud of. As a young woman, she was a bard--and in her world, that entails spying and assassinations as well as entertaining courtiers. She became a bard for love of the idea; it seemed romantic to her to participate in Orlais' Grand Game in such a role. In practice, she killed another bard sent to assassinate her patron and discovered too late that she was never made for murder:
The thrilling stories she knew were about secrets and intrigue, not about the terror of fighting to the death or the guilt of knowing she ended someone's life before its time. Josephine regards that part of her life as a mistake she must bear for the rest of her life, a series of foolish choices she made when she was a university student in Val Royeaux.
She also draws a clear line from her distaste for the bardic life to the work she's done since--first as the Antivan ambassador to Orlais and then as the Inquisition's ambassador. As a diplomat, she spends her time entertaining guests, writing innumerable letters sent to nobles and others throughout the continent, and generally doing PR (albeit under a different name) for the organization. As she puts it, "Every guest we receive--and we will receive them--will spread the Inquisition's story. An ambassador should ensure the tale is as complimentary as possible."
Through this work, she uses her voice to change the world. While she does recognize the need for fighting and sneakiness--she works closely with the Inquisition's commander of forces and spymaster, and the latter is her closest known friend--Josephine prefers using social pressure, persuasion, and tact.
Setting: Josephine will, first and foremost, be horrified by the world she's entered into. This is her past turned up to eleven: murder, misery, and the ignorant being taken in by misguided notions of glory. (The very idea of children fighting to the death is too close to her past--and even if it weren't, she would find it barbarous.) She will do her best to a) stay alive, b) kill no one, and c) find some way to put her skills to use to try and end this nightmarish practice of Games. Whether she succeeds is yet to be seen, but as a tribute, the odds are not likely in her favour.
If she can make her way into the Capitol's society, she will be of significantly more use all around. It isn't, after all, so different from Orlais.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread:
My current feelings? I was killed and then brought back to life, and you wish to know how I feel about that?
[It's difficult to remember the pain of being stabbed; she knows it happened, remembers seeing the sick plunge of the knife into her chest, but the actual physical sensation is gone. All that remains is knowledge and the lingering fear and horror.
Her hands are trembling. She lifts one to brush a few strands of hair back from her face, hoping that such a task might be enough to steady her.
It isn't.
Josephine closes her eyes, wishing the memory of the dark tang of blood in her mouth had disappeared as easily. The horror of this place is palpable, and in this plain, ugly little room, the images of the Arena feel more vibrant than they might somewhere better-appointed. Children died on that field; are they, too, being asked to recount their experiences for some unseen audience?]
No. No, I will not share that with you. You have already gotten what you wanted, have you not?
[She waits for some change, for the disembodied voice to return, but she receives no response. With a sigh, she tries again.]
I am upset. [Her voice wobbles on the last word, but she catches it, masters that momentary tremor.] Is that what you hoped to hear? Please return me to this Capitol of yours. I...I would prefer not to stay here any longer.
Prose:
Josephine entered the room with her head held high, as assured as if she were returning to Halamshiral. The proceedings here would involve a similar level of scrutiny as she might find at the Winter Palace, so far as she could tell. The information provided before she was brought to the room was less than satisfactory; she'd attempted to ask questions up to the point the door opened, but nothing she learned had prepared her for this.
Unfortunately, the tools of these Gamemakers were not the tools of the Orlesian court. While Josephine recognized some of the weapons set before her, others were entirely foreign--and of those she could name, she couldn't use any of them.
Hardly a surprise. Josephine's presence here was already something of an absurdity; who brought a dignitary to a fight to the death and spoke to her of winning? Even if she had the necessary skills to heft a sword or pluck a bow with any real prowess, she was certain she would prefer not to use them. ("Don't be so stubborn, Josie!" she could hear Leliana saying, if only in her mind, but the point was moot anyway.)
(They should have brought Leliana. She would be more than capable of such displays.)
So long as these were tools she could not use to fight, she decided, she must resort to those tools she did have at her disposal. Turning to the people gathered at the other end of the room, she clasped her hands at her waist and cleared her throat.
"I beg your pardon," she began, "but I am not accustomed to conducting my affairs through violence, and I would prefer not to start now."
What is your character scored: 3 at most. Josephine has considerable expertise when it comes to the skills like persuasion and rhetoric and is a well-educated woman in general. While she has successfully killed a person in the past, however, she is not well-trained in fighting and does not have the practical skills (or frankly, the heart) necessary to succeed within the bounds of the Games.
Token: Her pen.
Name: Dove
Other characters: N/A
IN CHARACTER
Name: Josephine Montilyet. Her name rendered in full, with titles, is Lady Josephine Cherette Montilyet of Antiva City, Ambassador of the Inquisition.
Alias: Ruffles and Josie--but unless Varric Tethras or Leliana show up, neither of those nicknames are likely to become relevant.
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Canon point/AU: Soon after the Inquisition moves to Skyhold.
Journal:
somewhatfallenfortunePB: Josephine Montilyet as rendered in-game.
Age: 28. (Her writer places her age at "around 27-29," so I figure we might as well take the average.)
History: Dragon Age Wiki.
At the point in time from which I've taken Josephine, she's unromanced, though she and the Inquisitor (a female Lavellan) have perhaps flirted a bit. Her personal quests have not yet begun.
Presentation: Josephine Montilyet is the eldest daughter of Antivan nobility. As the first-born child, it is her duty to take over the running of her family's affairs from her parents; while her siblings are the ones who do much of the day-to-day work with the Montilyets' business holdings, she oversees her siblings and ensures the family name continues without additional tarnish.
In addition to that, she is an accomplished diplomat with years' experience within the cutthroat world of Orlesian politics and an international network of friends and acquaintances.
These qualities add together to create the image of a formidable woman: someone capable and at ease within social situations, comfortable with asking for the things she wants, and able to dress up such requests until they're palatable to the person being asked. (Also someone who dresses quite well, even if she and her likewise fashionable bff can't agree on whether taupe is a spring colour.)
Josephine is an excellent reader of people in general, and she's also quite intelligent--the Dragon Age wiki describes her as cunning, and not without merit. When presented with a man she has never met before, she's able to figure out through conversation and her wits alone that he's an imposter. And she's a shrewd enough card player that she and Cullen once ended a card game with her winning and Cullen completely naked...and they weren't playing strip poker.
(Seriously, don't play Wicked Grace with her. As she puts it, "Never bet against an Antivan.")
Despite her considerable skills in moving among the nobility of Thedas, she's not unshakable or cold. Josephine's voice actress describes her as "sweet and caring" and as having "a lot of integrity." She genuinely cares about the causes the champions: the Inquisition, of course (and she would like to believe the Inquisitor really was touched by the Maker's hand), but also her family's status. Josephine considers her duties to the Montilyet heritage extremely important; it is for that reason that she cares so much about restoring her family's ability to trade in Orlais, thus allowing them to begin to gain back some of the Montilyet house's former glories.
And though she can play things close to the breast, it's possible to shake her. She describes her one brush with murder (described in more detail in the next section) as a situation in which she scrapped rather than fought, noting that both she and her opponent were both terrified. When assassins attempt to attack her in Skyhold, she seems similarly unsettled. Josephine isn't a desk jockey--she has plenty of real-world experience, as described above--but she's not accustomed to being in the thick of violence. It doesn't agree with her.
It's even easier to fluster her. Flirt--genuinely, when she isn't expecting it--and her words stumble. While Josephine takes issue with Leliana's characterization of her as an innocent in love, there's some truth to the matter; she's far more experienced with courtly intrigue than courtly love. Part of that might be playing the Game, of course--blushing and being clearly flattered by flirtation isn't an inappropriate reaction in her circles--but part of that is also just plain Josephine being Josephine.
Motivations: Josephine has a history with violence, and it isn't something she's proud of. As a young woman, she was a bard--and in her world, that entails spying and assassinations as well as entertaining courtiers. She became a bard for love of the idea; it seemed romantic to her to participate in Orlais' Grand Game in such a role. In practice, she killed another bard sent to assassinate her patron and discovered too late that she was never made for murder:
"When I took off his mask, I knew him. We'd attended parties together. If I'd stopped to reason, if I'd used my voice instead of scuffling like a common thug...! I'll always wonder who that young man would have grown into."
The thrilling stories she knew were about secrets and intrigue, not about the terror of fighting to the death or the guilt of knowing she ended someone's life before its time. Josephine regards that part of her life as a mistake she must bear for the rest of her life, a series of foolish choices she made when she was a university student in Val Royeaux.
She also draws a clear line from her distaste for the bardic life to the work she's done since--first as the Antivan ambassador to Orlais and then as the Inquisition's ambassador. As a diplomat, she spends her time entertaining guests, writing innumerable letters sent to nobles and others throughout the continent, and generally doing PR (albeit under a different name) for the organization. As she puts it, "Every guest we receive--and we will receive them--will spread the Inquisition's story. An ambassador should ensure the tale is as complimentary as possible."
Through this work, she uses her voice to change the world. While she does recognize the need for fighting and sneakiness--she works closely with the Inquisition's commander of forces and spymaster, and the latter is her closest known friend--Josephine prefers using social pressure, persuasion, and tact.
Setting: Josephine will, first and foremost, be horrified by the world she's entered into. This is her past turned up to eleven: murder, misery, and the ignorant being taken in by misguided notions of glory. (The very idea of children fighting to the death is too close to her past--and even if it weren't, she would find it barbarous.) She will do her best to a) stay alive, b) kill no one, and c) find some way to put her skills to use to try and end this nightmarish practice of Games. Whether she succeeds is yet to be seen, but as a tribute, the odds are not likely in her favour.
If she can make her way into the Capitol's society, she will be of significantly more use all around. It isn't, after all, so different from Orlais.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread:
My current feelings? I was killed and then brought back to life, and you wish to know how I feel about that?
[It's difficult to remember the pain of being stabbed; she knows it happened, remembers seeing the sick plunge of the knife into her chest, but the actual physical sensation is gone. All that remains is knowledge and the lingering fear and horror.
Her hands are trembling. She lifts one to brush a few strands of hair back from her face, hoping that such a task might be enough to steady her.
It isn't.
Josephine closes her eyes, wishing the memory of the dark tang of blood in her mouth had disappeared as easily. The horror of this place is palpable, and in this plain, ugly little room, the images of the Arena feel more vibrant than they might somewhere better-appointed. Children died on that field; are they, too, being asked to recount their experiences for some unseen audience?]
No. No, I will not share that with you. You have already gotten what you wanted, have you not?
[She waits for some change, for the disembodied voice to return, but she receives no response. With a sigh, she tries again.]
I am upset. [Her voice wobbles on the last word, but she catches it, masters that momentary tremor.] Is that what you hoped to hear? Please return me to this Capitol of yours. I...I would prefer not to stay here any longer.
Prose:
Josephine entered the room with her head held high, as assured as if she were returning to Halamshiral. The proceedings here would involve a similar level of scrutiny as she might find at the Winter Palace, so far as she could tell. The information provided before she was brought to the room was less than satisfactory; she'd attempted to ask questions up to the point the door opened, but nothing she learned had prepared her for this.
Unfortunately, the tools of these Gamemakers were not the tools of the Orlesian court. While Josephine recognized some of the weapons set before her, others were entirely foreign--and of those she could name, she couldn't use any of them.
Hardly a surprise. Josephine's presence here was already something of an absurdity; who brought a dignitary to a fight to the death and spoke to her of winning? Even if she had the necessary skills to heft a sword or pluck a bow with any real prowess, she was certain she would prefer not to use them. ("Don't be so stubborn, Josie!" she could hear Leliana saying, if only in her mind, but the point was moot anyway.)
(They should have brought Leliana. She would be more than capable of such displays.)
So long as these were tools she could not use to fight, she decided, she must resort to those tools she did have at her disposal. Turning to the people gathered at the other end of the room, she clasped her hands at her waist and cleared her throat.
"I beg your pardon," she began, "but I am not accustomed to conducting my affairs through violence, and I would prefer not to start now."
What is your character scored: 3 at most. Josephine has considerable expertise when it comes to the skills like persuasion and rhetoric and is a well-educated woman in general. While she has successfully killed a person in the past, however, she is not well-trained in fighting and does not have the practical skills (or frankly, the heart) necessary to succeed within the bounds of the Games.
Token: Her pen.