InsaneJournal

in five words: Small, Tenacious, Ambitious, Intelligent, Agile
in detail:
Martine is the last person you would consider would carry a gun of any sort except perhaps a rifle for shooting grouse on her father's estate. She's from an upper-class old Cheshire family and she was taught manners and deportment to match. She's more than capable of reverting back to "Lady of the Manor" mode, but she tends only to do it now when she's dealing with arseholes. Basic rule of thumb is the more "correct" she is, the less she likes you. If she's overly polite, then she's not sure which way to go and she's summing you up, very likely making use of her empathy to see just what's being conveyed.

She's extremely intelligent, and she definitely DOESN'T take well to people suggesting that it's down to her eidetic memory rather than natural born-and-honed smarts.

Martine is confident in most social crowds and she's more than capable of having a great time greeting the great and not-so-good while casing their stately home for whatever reason she's there. She CAN be fazed, naturally, but her natural bearing does help her to overcome a great deal of potential trouble. It's amazing how, if you act like you own the world, people will actually believe you. A lot of this is for show, however. Naturally, Martine is a fairly shy girl and often seeks her own company or just that of a few close friends - she's just damn good at covering it. It's all in the breeding, don'cha know?

Also, she does have a temper. Well, she's half-French and, stereotypes aside, it DOES make a difference.

history:
Martine Véronique was born on 10th September 1989, the middle child and elder daughter of Stephen and Véronique (née Deshayes) Brereton. She has an older brother, Etienne, and a younger sister, Davina. Her father is from the English upper class huntin', shootin', fishin' set and is a renowned racehorse breeder who met her mother, a French former model, at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and pretty much fell in love with her at first sight. Therefore, Martine is one of those people who can be said to have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She can't remember a time in her life when she couldn't ride a horse and she had high hopes of taking over her father's business, even though Etienne already had his mind set on it. Never mind. She could always be a historian instead and write tomes about the great and good from England's far history.

Her parents, anxious that their children should not turn into obnoxious little brats, sent them to local primary and secondary schools. Martine loved school, taking to her lessons like a duck to water. She always adored history and English and she excelled in those - and, naturally, in French since her mother had been teaching her that from birth. Naturally shy, Martine didn't have vast numbers of close friends, but one or two managed to get close to her.

She had a wonderful childhood and would be the first to admit that not only did she need for nothing, but she actually had just about everything her heart desired, just for the asking. She's totally responsible for the plethora of visits to National Trust and English Heritage sites that her family made every year, and paid no heed to the complaints of her siblings. After all, they tended to get whatever they wanted as well.

She carried her shyness to university. She was delighted to go to York and study History and Medieval Studies in the beautiful old building which housed the department, but she was terribly homesick (she'd been accepted to university a year ahead of her peer class) and, while she did stick it out since she does have a very strong practical side, she would confess to almost giving up altogether more than once in her first year. It was here of all places that she learned about gun kata and she thought it would help her confidence so, screwing her courage up tight, she enrolled and soon discovered that she'd found her niche. She loved it, she was good at it - VERY good at it - and she was getting fit and, for the first time in her life, confident.

It was a gradual realisation that her family life wasn't all sweetness and roses. She'd been kept somewhat sheltered at home, but going to university gradually opened her eyes to the wider world and, with it, the media. She was rather amazed at the amount of interest that followed her parents - her mother specifically. She can't believe now that she was once so naive, but she suspects she had something akin to a "Three Wise Monkeys" reaction to the gossip. If what she eventually read was even half true, her mother had been swanning around Europe, having affairs left, right and centre. This, naturally, was far from unusual in her family's social circles - but her mother was blatant. Hugely humiliated, she confronted her parents during the Christmas break of her second year at Uni. Her mother was highly affronted that her daughter would dare to hold her to account, while her father was clearly upset, but refused to confront the issue at all.

Martine, crushed, left for her next term at University, telling them she never wanted to see them again. She kept her head down, got on with her work, earned the highest accolades and then took herself off to tour around Europe. All of this, of course, was paid for by her parents and Martine never once considered refusing their help. Disgust only goes so far after all. Everywhere she went she found more gun kata schools and kept up her training. She entertained the thought of passing a different level in as many European capital cities as she could, just for the fun of it. Sadly, there weren't enough levels to cover all the cities so she left quite a few out.

She made friends with another quiet woman in one of her classes in Prague. The woman didn't speak a word of English so they both conversed in French. It happened that the woman was a member of a rather select group and she believed that this group might be just what Martine was looking for. Martine had been surprised - she hadn't been aware of looking for anything. Her only concern was that the group was some weird religious cult. Reassured that it wasn't - and Martine would have known if the woman was lying - she thought she'd try her luck.

● VERY privileged background.
● She speaks English and French fluently.
● Loves dogs and horses.
● REALLY wishes she was about 4 inches taller, but woe betide anyone who comments on her size.

player: Alison
AIM: Snakebittenraven
Y!M/MSN: black_narcissus2003 (rarely used)
email: black.narcissus[at]gmail[dot]com

played-by: Winona Ryder
coding: fenostol@rp_tutorials