#dianefay

[mobscene-london]

BASIC INFORMATION:

NAME: Diane Fay. AGE: 33. PLACE OF BIRTH: Dudelange, Luxembourg. AFFILIATION: Neutral. OCCUPATION: Psychiatrist. FACE CLAIM: Yael Grobglas. AVAILABILITY: TAKEN.

              BIOGRAPHY:

(Warnings: Brief mentions of domestic abuse.)

Born to an older couple, Walter and Juliette Fay, Diane started her life with nothing but the warmth and love of her family. The two of them tried for a child for most of their marriage, and Diane was the miracle they had prayed for. Walter was an honest man who ran a flower shop in a bustling village market. Diane grew up with an infinite love for flowers of all kinds. There wasn’t a color or a scent that she didn’t admire, and the girl would carry that love into adulthood. In many ways she learned to model her life after the flowers that her father peddled. To be delicate, but vibrant; soft but strong enough to return in bloom year after year. With such a simple, pleasant life, the Fay’s were happy to afford this tender nature to their daughter. She would have want for nothing, and they would work tirelessly to be sure of it. 

Naturally, Diane grew up behind a delicate veil that prevented her from glimpsing the troubles that befell her parents. Walter struggled for many years financially. Luxembourg failed to provide for the family in the same way that it used to. The economy was shaky, and tourism was on the decline, thanks to the erratic nature of political unrest. By the time Diane was thirteen years old, they’d moved from her home country to Manosque in France, and then to Ghent in Belgium. The girl never had trouble fitting in, and thankfully, her parents had been proactive in teaching her English, along with (their) native French. But their troubles did not disappear with their change in residency. Soon, unfamiliar men shrouded in dark vehicles and smooth suits began to show up when Walter wasn’t home. Juliette remained shaken, even as Diane’s nerves calmed once her father reappeared. 

“Who were those men, mère?” Diane would ask. “Never you mind, love.” Juliette always replied with a gentle simper. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Diane was eighteen when she last saw her father. Juliette would explain when she came home from school, that there’d been an accident. A drunk driver. The details were fuzzy, but then so was Diane. He couldn’t be dead. How would they go on? What kind of life could they possibly lead without the leg that made them whole? Walter didn’t drive, so how could a driver have killed him? She wanted answers, but she didn’t know what questions to ask. The girl was distraught. Unable to process physically or emotionally. Her life was perfect, and nothing bad was ever supposed to happen. 

That was the day that Diane understood that fairy tales weren’t real.

Receiving her university acceptance was bittersweet. Was she expected to abandon her mother in their time of mourning? Diane found herself plagued with guilt, desperate to start her own life, but filled with sorrow over the idea of leaving Juliette. It was hard for her to accept, but Walter hadn’t worked so hard his entire life for his daughter to give pause to her dreams. At Juliette’s insistence, Diane left for France after graduation. “It’s what your father would have wanted, dove.”

The first three years of her schooling were hell on her. Suddenly she was in an environment that was unfamiliar, without the comfort of her family that made anywhere she’d settled feel like home. Her nights were cold and lonely, filled only with long hours of study, and memorization. Lucky (or was it?) that her dorm mate, Tyla, was both palatable and outgoing, or she might never have met the man who’d one day become her husband. Julian Géroux was the dreamboat that any simple woman would’ve dreamed of. His dark hair and bright eyes captivated her. He spoke in sonnets, and his body language was both rhythmic and expressive. During the time that he courted Diane, he brought her large, colorful bouquets of flowers; treated her to dinners in the countryside. Together they shared their passions, and their dreams. For family. For love everlasting. Soon after, in a spur of the moment decision, (and a ceremony that included few else besides a pastor and two of their friends) they were married.

Diane would someday bemoan how easily she’d allowed herself to be seduced by him. But who could look her in the eye and say they wouldn’t have done the same? Knowing what she knew now, with all ten years of education and experience under her belt… She’d have realized that all the signs were there. When it came down to it, she’d count herself as young, naive, and desperate for a connection.

The first time Julian put his hands on Diane, she cried and cried for forty-eight hours straight. Tyla did her best to assure her friend that it had been an accident, just as Julian said. That in the heat of the moment, his passionate and fervent nature had overcome him. But it didn’t stop there. The bruises were more frequent, but they became easier to hide. With bulky sweaters and concealer applied by a shaky hand. Diane stopped making excuses for Julian. In fact, she stopped talking about him at all. As far as anyone else knew, they were happy and content.

And it wasn’t until her mother took a turn for the worse and Diane was forced to return home, that she gathered the strength to leave.

Ever thankful for modern technology, Diane was able to finish the final year of her degree between home and a local university. Taking care of her mother was a heartbreak that she couldn’t afford to nurse. At first, she wept thoughtlessly; crying herself to sleep most nights when Juliette had finally fallen asleep. Neither of them had realized how fast the illness how was progressing until one morning Juliette nearly burnt the house down, forgetting how to work the stove top halfway through making her breakfast. What was worse was that Diane had swept in to save her, and her mother didn’t recognize her at all.

Hospice was the very best choice for the both of them, though once again Diane was left feeling that her inability to help one of her parents earned her a culpability that she couldn’t reconcile. Even now, she visits her mother twice a week, though most times Juliette mistakes her for a different family member.

Diane is determined to make something of her life, even despite the deterioration of her conscience, and the paranoia she harbors in regard to Julian. It took her a while, but she finally secured a studio style office in the Kentish Town neighborhood. Granted, the rent was cheap because the atmosphere had a tendency to be clamorous, but that didn’t bother her. In the beginning, she wouldn’t give any consideration to the possibility of violence, and disorder. It was a home away from home for her, and things could only get better from here.

…Right?

              SOCIAL CONNECTIONS:

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Separated. Julian Géroux. (Soon to be ex-husband) FAMILY: Walter Fay (father, deceased), Juliette Fay (mother, unplayable)