Patience Williams-Desmonda
The Viscount Solanceae Patience James Williams-Desmonda
"The count eased him back. To see them together only emphasized their differences, literally like day and night. The son’s sunny hair against his father’s night, the sky-blue gown to the midnight suit, sun-kissed to pallor: they barely looked related." ~ The Honourable Assault, Chapter 4
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Patience has the immune system of an elephant, is in great health, and excellent physical condition thanks to his continued lessons in fencing. While agile, he has low physical strength.
Body Features
Aristocratically pale, delicate golden curls, pretty blue eyes. Has a claw-mark scar on his left thigh.
Facial Features
Patience looks very similar to his mother, and adheres to the fashion of the times by staying pale and lying about wearing makeup.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Patience's birth nearly destroyed his mother, who's slender hips couldn't deliver even the tiniest of babies. He was unceremoniously deposited into his adoptive father's arms and chased out into the hallway. He spent the next two weeks without the touch of his mother, and even then only for a moment. He had a nasty bout of colic for the first bit of his life, and tortured the household with it.
He spent his early childhood completely enamoured with his mother, and many long hours posted outside her sickroom. She finally died when he was four years old, which he had accepted as inevitable. With her gone, he turned to his father's family for support, spending nearly all of his time with his Papa. Anthony doted on Patience for everything he could possibly want.
When he was five, he was introduced to his three-year-old 'cousin', Anabelle O'Leary, the ward of his father's friends. She followed him around like a duck, demanding his attentions, which he reluctantly bestowed. When they were seven and five, a lynx wandered into the garden where they were playing. Patience took off for the house and locked himself inside without thinking of Annabelle. The gardener scared the lynx off, but Patience felt very bad about abandoning his friend, and vowed to be nicer to her for the rest of their lives.
So far he hasn't been, but their bond remains strong despite their vitriolic behaviour. The pair shop together, attend the operating theatre, horseback ride, fence, and lounge about the Beaulieu estate.
Patience discovered his love of feminine clothing shortly after the death of his mother. He used to sneak into her room and try on all her dresses, one day being caught by Monsieur Le Roux, the family butler and Patience's great-grandfather. The next week, Anthony presented Patience with a pretty dress of his own, and Patience has been shopping for corsets and petticoats ever since.
While Annabelle was abroad in Switzerland, she met with Monique Rouselle, a mortician's daughter attending finishing school. Miss Rouselle was a member of the Order of the Sunstone, and tempted Annabelle to join. They returned to Paris and inducted Patience as well.
At the age of nine, Patience developed a nasty cough and was kept on bed rest for a week. Luckily it didn't develop into tuberculosis, but it put a scare into his father. By the age of twelve, Patience was living full-time on an airship, travelling to exotic locations but viewing them only from the airship windows. However, since he began his airship travels, he's never had so much as a case of the sniffles.
Being a very pretty young man, Patience has had no shortage of lovers knocking on his door whenever he's in town. The first, a boy of eighteen, came when he was just twelve. Naively, Patience lavished in the attention he received and the respect it gained him from his peers. The 'relationship' didn't last very long, as one day the young man ceased turning up at all. Rumour has it that certain members of the Desmonda family had a private chat with the young man, which may or may not have involved a one-way carriage ride. Likely town gossip and nothing more, but nobody's seen the boy since.
At fifteen, Patience began grinding his virginity into dust with a very long line of attractive boys, from princes to the hired help. He found that, sooner or later, they all began to talk of feelings, and Patience realized he had none. He cut each of them loose the moment they spoke of courting. Sometimes, when he is particularly bored or inebriated, he writes them passionate letters and burns the responses without opening them. The few gents he keeps on the permanent rotary have learned that the less they say, the better.
When he was seventeen, he met Miss Persephone Sinclair, the youngest sister of the ship's new medical crew. Wildly self-absorbed and eccentric, Patience took to her immediately. The two shared a love of painting and tea parties, and both were displeased with the relationship with Anthony and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sinclair -- Persephone's eldest sister. While Patience was kept on the ship, Persephone departed and brought him back a huge trunk filled with clothing from the shops she'd visited. He responded in kind when they were back in Paris, and the two have been disastrous friends ever since.
He met Lord Minn Jae-yon shortly after he met Persephone, when the latter kidnapped the former and hid him in her stateroom. Patience was the one to convince his father to let them keep the young lord (not that Anthony really needed much convincing). Jae-yon endeared himself immediately, and often chastizes Patience for his more unsavoury behaviour. To date, he's one of the only people who can do this effectively.
When Susan lost her leg during their South American trip, Patience harassed his uncle until he agreed to build her a mechanical replacement.
At nineteen, he met the Heulen twins when they joined the voyage to India. Patience and Lucinda/Lukas butted heads from the start. Patience saw her as another clueless, angry rad, out to topple a system of power they didn't understand. He didn't think of Jakab at all until they were stuck in the jungle together.
Unsurprisingly, Patience did not enjoy the jungle. After gouging the eye out of the tiger, he harboured a delusion for the first day that his father would pick him up within hours. He fell into a depression very quickly after -- during which he threw Lucy into the swamp, where she was nearly eaten by a crocodile. The event gave him a crisis of conscience, and he decided that if all rules have fallen apart, he would be a better person. Apparently, the revelation was too much for his body, because he passed out. When he woke, he managed to track down the missing bag of supplies and kill monkeys to provide food. He and Lucy teamed up to catch the tiger when Jakab came down with sepsis, and they managed to reunite with the rescue team.
Killing the tiger did something to Patience -- what specifically has yet to be seen.
He harassed his uncle to make a prosthetic arm for Jakab, which he helped design. He then had to rebuff Jakab's affections, which for the first time in his life, caused him distress. However, he still begged his father to allow Jakab to work on the ship.
Gender Identity
Male
Sexuality
Aromantic Homosexual
Education
Patience was privately tutored until the age of twelve when he began travelling aboard The Honourable Assault. Since then he has mostly self-educated, and in his boredom has plied crewmembers to teach him assorted knowledge and skills. When he returns home to France, he continues his training in shooting, fencing, and horseback riding.
Failures & Embarrassments
When Patience was five, he abandoned Annabelle to a lynx in the garden. Since then, he has resolved to be a better friend to her.
When he was nineteen, he abandoned Lucy to a crocodile in the jungle and similarly resolved to gain control of his own cowardice.
Mental Trauma
After the Sundarbans, the phrase "Hey!" now triggers a deep fight/flight response.
Intellectual Characteristics
Patience has an impressive understanding of parlour politics and knows how to push and prod people to make the impression he wants. He's also a master of trading subtle insults and making social deals.
Morality & Philosophy
Patience is a hedonist concerned with his own pleasure and satisfaction, with little regard to the feelings of others.
Social
Social Aptitude
Charming and flirtatious. Biting wit and fondness of the passive-aggressive. Must have control of a group when speaking.
Mannerisms
Uses French slang and curses. Frequently adjusts other people's clothing without asking.
Hobbies & Pets
Has a white Persian cat named Marie Antoinette, or just 'Marie', whom he spoils above all else in his life. He is frequently seen carrying her around.
Speech
'Rôh, lah' - 'That's enough'
'Oui, Papa'
Patience generally speaks in a breathy, coquettish voice due to his corset, but is capable of dropping it a full octave when he is annoyed or wants to make his friends laugh. His voice changing was his least favourite part of puberty.
Relationships
History
Patience and Anthony were introduced to each other when the midwives deposited the newborn Patience into his step-father's arms and chased them both from the room. Ever since the death of Patience's mother, Anthony has been endlessly devoted, indulging, and overprotective of his son. The whole reason The Honourable Assault is in the air is because of Anthony's desire to keep Patience away from the polluted air of London and Paris.
Nicknames & Petnames
"Papa" - Patience to Anthony "Lapin", "mon coeur" - Anthony to Patience
Commonalities & Shared Interests
Fencing, global exploration, shooting, horseback riding
Shared Secrets
Both are aware that Patience is a member of the Order of the Sunstone
Wealth & Financial state
Patience, by virtue of his wealthy mother and father, has more money than God and all the time in the world to spend it. Most of his allowance is spent on the Parisian boutiques he frequents.
He pays his yearly dues to the Order of the Sunstone, from his private allowance.
He currently finances a scholarship for deserving young beloveds who can't afford a social season.
Current Location
Honorary & Occupational Titles
The Viscount Solanaceae
Currently Held Titles
Year of Birth
1856
19 Years old
Circumstances of Birth
The illegitimate son of Miss Verity Williams and the gardner's son, James. Saved from being born a bastard by the marriage of his pregnant mother to Lord Atropine.
Birthplace
Paris
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
Beaulieu Estate, Paris
Gender
Male
Eyes
Light blue, round
Hair
Golden, slightly curled
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale white
Height
5'10''
Aligned Organization
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