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| User: | sonnenschein (122830) |
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| Name: | Gretchen Juliane Varner | |||||||||
| Bio: | Name: Gretchen Juliane Varner Birthdate: November 12, 1922 Age: 18 Citizenship: German Loyalties: Neutral Occupation: Seamstress Background: The Varner household in Wiesbaden, Germany was never exactly a pleasant one, especially in the years between the World Wars, but from the time she was a baby, Gretchen had an unshakable optimism about her. The youngest of four and the only daughter, she was fortunate enough to have been shielded from most of the hardships her family faced -- the post-war troubles, the loss of the eldest sons, the sudden disappearance of her brother Hans. Despite the family's precarious position on the border of poverty at times, her thoughtful mother made sure that she was always well-dressed and had the proper lessons any smart German girl could wish for. She grew up ignorant about the reasons for her father's frequent rages, the political unrest sweeping through the country, and the circumstances of Hans' running away. By the time Hans returned to the family, Gretchen was 11 and hardly knew him aside from the (albeit biased) stories she heard from her parents. Their father often spat his name out distastefully, but she decided to get to know her brother on her own terms and very quickly became attached to him. After having grown up alone, she found a charming companion in Hans, one who never spoke down to her or treated her like she was unintelligent. He told her stories of Berlin, of politics and the world outside of German borders, though he left out the part about his own sexuality. Gretchen was forever changed after Hans came home; as the next few years passed, she went from being an ignorant little girl to an outgoing and adventurous teenager who wanted to know more about the world. She no longer wanted to be babied by her parents and sometimes even tried to intervene on the nights their father would beat Hans for reasons she couldn't understand. Despite the taboo that came with it, she began listening to American and British music when she could get her hands on it. She fell in love with the theatre. Essentially, she began to grow out of her humble roots. When Hans was shipped out to battle in Poland, she worried that he would never come back. He'd told her the story of their older brothers in the first war and she witnessed for herself the effect that war had on the country. She knew loyalty to the government and the Fuhrer was very important, yet she couldn't shake the disgust she felt about warfare in general. Eventually word got back to the family that Hans had been transferred to France and had gotten promoted, and even their father couldn't supress a slight smile at his success. Hans wrote to them often; Gretchen would devour the words on the paper in hopes to, in a way, live vicariously through him in a city she loved from afar. All the while, she was becoming more rebellious and petulent towards her parents. She'd finished her schooling and spent most of her time out with friends in Frankfurt, ignoring her concerned mother's warnings about her male companions and her ever-blossoming beauty as a young woman. She was tired of being treated like a child. She wanted out. When she turned 18 -- almost to the day, really -- she decided to take that risk. A boyfriend from Frankfurt was on his way to Paris to join the service and without blinking, she agreed to go with him. True, she was smitten with him and had romantic notions of their running away together, but above all, she wanted to see the world outside of Germany and she wanted to see Hans. It wasn't long after they arrived in Paris that the boy went his own way, essentially leaving her stranded. At first, she was frightened, out of her element and experiencing culture shock, but she was not about to go back to Germany and admit failure. She wanted to see if she could handle surviving on her own, even before she went to go find Hans. She eventually got a job with a seamstress, Clarisse, who gave her a place to stay and some spending pennies for her work, which she picked up on rather quickly, and has been doing fairly well on her own ever since. Now, it's a matter of tracking down Hans so that they may be reunited. And a matter of enjoying this city and this new life, no matter how much it really scares her. Special Skills/Abilities: For someone who had a fairly sheltered childhood, Gretchen is incredibly bright and can easily adapt to situations. She learns quickly and if she has to, she can talk her way out of a sticky situation. Personality: Gretchen is friendly and outgoing, still an optimist despite the environment she grew up in. There's a certain amount of spunk to her, a restless energy that has her chasing one fancy to the next without much thought of the consequences. In that respect, she can be quite reckless and quite stubborn to boot, never willing to admit when she's wrong. Still, she'll never leave a friend hanging when she can help it; when she trusts someone, she trusts them completely and when she loves someone, she does so with all of her being. Appearance: Slender and tall, she has a certain grace to her that often gets her mistaken for a dancer. She has blonde hair, which she wears neatly curled and styled, and misty blue eyes that are often lined with carefully applied make-up. There's a certain dreamy quality to her, her pale skin and lithe build giving her a sort of vulnerable appearance that makes her strong personality quite a surprise. Portrayed-By: Evan Rachel Wood | |||||||||
| Memories: | 2 entries | |||||||||
| Schools: | None listed | |||||||||
| Friends: | ||||||||||
| Mutual Friends: | 24: adalhelm, agent_faust, bibliothecaire, bonjour_benoit, endofnight, fancy_lamorne, gentle_gene, heil_hans, iceskatecharlie, jackiepearson, la_boheme, little_scary, oh_nurse, oscar_ontherun, paperlucy, selfimposed, shadowysibyl, sonnenschein, the_businessman, thelittlerose, v_victorious, vie_mods, viveka, wolfwork | |||||||||
| Also Friend of: | 1: ginou | |||||||||
| Member of: | 2: la_vie_ooc, la_vie_rpg | |||||||||
| Account type: | Free Patient | |||||||||
