Jay's Diner

Sylrad and Rhyme, post Sylrad's "kidnapping" when he returns, injured and sans-tattoo, taking care of him

The others ignore him, for the most part.

Helvetica comes around occasionally, but he's in and out of other work he has to do. He knows that the toothy short-stack would stay, but he has important things to take care of.

He doesn't blame them, can't start to expect Fenrir and Papan to accept it even though he very visibly played the part of traitor. If they ever forgive him (if they do) he doesn't think it'll be anytime soon.

Sylrad lays propped up against a large oak tree on the outskirts of their camp. It took a while to track them down and find them, but at least now they seem to be slowing down. He's mostly concerned about being them all being followed so he makes sure to cover their tracks when he can.

Today, though, is peaceful enough and he rests.

Until, at least, he hears footsteps approaching and looks up to see a fond and familiar face. 

Alfred and Matthew seeing each other face-to-face for the first time in years (and moving in together in Liberty City!)

It had been years.

Matthew adjusted the strap of his backpack on his shoulder carefully. New airports were always exciting, but overwhelming. Realistically none of them were really all that different- but at the same time they really were. They all had gift shops and certain food places, they all had grumpy old people and excited children, they all had long stretches of hallways that you could watch people get turned around in for ages.

But, besides being American, this airport held a special meaning now. Or at least it would- if said meaning would ever show up.

Exhaling, Matthew checks his phone again for the third time. Still no message about being late, or anything- maybe he'd just gotten lost? Or something. Maybe he should just text him? No. No.

He'd show up, right?

It wasn't like he was in this alone. It had been years for him too, and the same excitement and nervousness certainly had to be going through him too, right?

  Thirteen things you need to know about Francis Bonnefoy;

  Un

flirteur: A flirt to his very core, Francis Bonnefoy has been known to have no boundaries. He will hit on anyone and everyone, it’s just part of who he is. Sometimes he just tries to pass it off as being very affectionate but anyone who falls for that will probably find themselves naked in his bed the next morning. Always satisfied, but more than a little embarrassed. At very least you'll have one of the best breakfasts you have ever had before you're booted out of his apartment, right?

  Deux

passion: Upon his return to Liberty and discovering that Bon Séjour had been burnt to the ground, Francis decided that it was fate and started a brand new career. Why not share his sparkling personality and wonderful advice with the world? Or at least Liberty city. He started his own radio show known simply as “L’Coeur”, a helpline for those in need of a… bit of romantic aid.

  Trois

travail: But since a radio show host isn’t exactly the most lucrative of careers and Francis was quick to find yet another new job to keep up his lavish lifestyle. With hair that good it was hisduty to help spread this along with his love advice. Saving one poor head of hair at a time for a... worth while fee. Opening a small, classy hair salon next to Theatricality- Gilbert’s adorable costume shop- he’s assembled himself quite the elite clientele. The two boast about how well they work together (even if the truth couldn't be farther from that)- now if they could only get someone to move into the empty office next to them and open a nail salon they could offer the whole package.

  Quatre

cuisine: Just because he abandoned his job as a sous-chef doesn’t mean he’s stopped cooking completely. He’s much too proud of his French heritage and still quite the daft had at it (thanks to a little expertise taken from around the world). Francis can make anything from a light and delicate soufflé to the heaviest and spiciest of pulled-pork sandwiches, and even a mean PB&J. He’s entertained the thought of even opening up a restaurant of his own but prefers to keep his cooking to private kitchens now where he’s free to cook what he likes, as he likes.

  Cinq

langue: Speaking of French pride, this carries on into Francis’ tongue. He loathes English and would like nothing more than to turn all of Liberty City French so they could all learn the beautiful language of love. In his own kind of protest towards the monstrous language, he’ll only speak it with a heavy French accent, usually intermingled with a smattering of French words and sometimes, for entire days, he will refuse to utter a single word of the disgustinganglais language.

  Six

conversation: But enough about how brilliant Francis is. There’s a big part of him that most people don’t really see, or, rather, he just hides it amazingly well behind the compliments about hair, the sly French tongue and those sultry blue eyes. Francis is a manipulator and when push comes to shove, despite being a leader in restoring love to the world, he is out there for himself most of the time and will do (almost) anything to (almost) anyone to have his way, even if it means seducing them. but that’s usually his favourite part.

  Sept

amant: This doesn’t mean that Francis is a manipulator everytime he makes a move on someone. He does honestly love (almost) everyone he’s just a bit of an idiot at times. Being a leader for love, he is often a bit of a failure at times, almost naïve. He romanticizes everything and usually this gets him into a lot of trouble verbally and physically. Usually it's just best to swat his hand away and give him a pat on the head.

  Huit

hobbies: He also has a surprisingly soft side when he’s not being a full of himself. With a few little odd hobbies that he doesn’t really brag about but does share with those that are close to him. He has a large number of potted plants kept in a sunroom in his apartment. These are all in wonderful shape and Francis usually spends his mornings talking to them while drinking his coffee and reading the paper. The smell of flowers mellows him out completely, especially lilies. Along with gardening, Francis also has a soft spot for photography. With both a Polaroid camera and a digital one, at times, Francis will spend entire days going around and taking pictures of whatever peaks his interest that day. There is an entire shelf in his bookcase dedicated to albums.

  Neuf

couture: Francis, being from France, considers himself the height of haute couture (a French term). Because well, it just makes sense, doesn't it? He is a very stylish man, from his clothes, to his hair, to what he reads and what kind of coffee he’s drinking (obviously it’s the same as what they’re serving at the Café Beaubourg on Rue Saint Merri). This has made Francis a pompous snob when it comes to his clear stylistic-superiority over everyone else.

  Dix

famille: This hauteur spawned from his uncle Bonaparte- no, not Napoleon, but rather Léon. An old war veteran, he filled Francis’ head with stories of beautified French victories (yesvictories.) when they’d spend summers at his villa in Corsica. He often added to the pride by telling Francis about the great line of French nobility he was descended from. At the same time, he bullied Francis into learning fencing, something Francis is quite happy to throw into a conversation, after all, which girl doesn’t fall for a French knight-in-shining armor, non?

  Onze

amusement: Because of his fencing, Francis has kept rather fit and this allowed him to engage it yet another activity. Liberty’s rave scene. Already knowing that he loved a good party after his cross-world adventure, Francis was quick to jump on the French techno scene upon his return to Paris and, later on, Liberty’s raves. He doesn’t go often, just when he feels the need to do something wild (and maybe just pick up a few people to take home).

  Douze

technologie: However this love of techno does not equate to skills on the technical side of things. Francis is inept with technology of almost any kind; televisions, VCRs, DVD players, phones, iPads, and anything else that new fandangle Granny Smith company comes out with. Francis cannot handle them or even begin to try and comprehend them (read: they actually scare him a bit). He has a Macbook and can receive emails and reply to them but that was after a month of intensive training and he has no wish to go back to them. After all, technology is just pulling people apart! Love is more important than updating his Bookface or whatever it’s called.

  Treize

d'un certain âge: Some of this technology-fail (read: all) can be blamed to Francis’ almost-middle age. When not gloating about his prowess in bed or his fabulous taste in food, usually when he has had a few drinks or is around friends and family, he complains about how old he is. He will talk about his creaking bones or his sore back and his need to go to bed early and sleep in late (and often uses it as an excuse to sleep off his hangovers).

  And one thing Francis would not want you to know;

  Francis hates being alone and there is a very important, and very personal reason why.

  When he was young, Francis was in love. He had a girlfriend when he was in his late teens, a beautiful young woman called Jeanne de L’Arc. Francis would do anything for her and had promised his life to her but the romance was not to last. Taken from him after a long fight with cancer, Francis was completely ruined. Instead of moping, Francis left Paris as soon as he could, too much reminded him of his lost love. This was the start of his shenanigans around the world, allowing him to see the world and almost forget the woman.

  (But... he never did.)

Settling down two years after leaving, first in Paris, then later on in Liberty, his fear of being alone never left him and this is the true reason for his need to have someone in his bed almost every night and to surround himself with people. At the same time it's become the reason why he also refuses to have those people stay in his life, terrified to open himself up again and lose someone again.

  This is also the source of Francis’ adoration of flowers and lilies in particular as they were Jeanne’s favourite.

  Writing Sample;

The machines buzzes quietly through Francis’ small spare room, equipment freshly set up and a very content looking Frenchman holding a few letters as he sits comfortably in a large, plush chair. It had taken a sizeable amount of money, sure- but money was something Francis had, something he still had to spare to a certain extent.

 So it was with the greatest confidence and assurance that at precisely 5:00pm that night he pressed the ‘on air’ button for his brand new, utterly wonderful, radio talk show.

 “Boujour and bienvenue to 104.5~ L’Cœur with your trés super host, Francis Bonnefoy. Oui, oui, I am sure you all ‘ave missed me in zee time I ‘ave been absent, but despair no longer! I am pleased to announce zat you will ‘ave my trop beau voice keeping you company through out zee evening, offering love advice and whatever else your heart may desire~”

 He shifted a few pages around chuckling to himself and grabbing the first letter.

 “I can see zat some of you wonderful people already found my internet site zat I started a little bit back and I would be more than happy to read an email or two with your undying… ador…ation? Quoi? Qu’est-ce que-”

 There’s a pregnant pause over the air waves as he reads over the short letter again, his normally calm and easy expression turning into a hard furrow between his eyebrows.

 == Dear eejit, what the hell is with you and meddling with peoples love lives? Don't you have anything better to do?                 -Mac ==

“Well ‘mon cher’ Mac.” he deadpans, “You certainly 'ave no appriciation for my help and are obviously jealous of my ability to offer my help to others. Per’aps you should take ze stick out of your derriere and go get laid.”

Francis clears his throat and his voice returns to it’s low, calming tone again.

“Well, let us see if another letter is any better oui? Ah- ‘ere is one! Oh- Zut alors this poor thing! Elle s’appelle… Iztel. Bon, Iztel ma belle, you are ‘aving un peu trouble avec… âge? Ecote.

Âge is a number that defines not zee passions and true love in life, you do not see a number on someone’s forehead! You see their heart, their soul and zat is all zat truly matters in this world! Age, race, gender mean nothing in zee name of love, they are factors that distract one from another’s soul!

So my advice for you is to not put zat… ‘seven year difference’ label onto what you ‘ave. Zee true enjoyment and bliss will only come when you are able to put those things be’ind you both and just love each other!

Plus older men are always much better in zee bedroom, rest assured.”

It’s with a pleased sigh that Francis put away the letters again, glancing up at the clock and yawning away from the microphone. His hand lifts and hovers over the on/off air switch as he finishes up speaking.

“Eh, bon- mes amis I am afraid I must leave you without zee sound of my voice for a bit! But worry not, I ‘ave prepared a wonderful mix of French singers and music for you zat you are sure to enjoy~

 1. Lucy-Marie’s home is Seychelles, but her parents often travelled to France and England for business (her father is a fisherman, mother a designer) or holidays to enjoy the more modern and convenient environment. She, personally, would be more than happy to just stay in her sea-side shack and rough it out.

 2. Lucy-Marie’s family finally moved to Liberty, USA when her mother became discontent with the lack of quality education in their hometown. They immediately enrolled her in Liberty University and are very strict when it comes to her grades. More often than not, Luce normally ends up being yelled at by the end of the day for spending more time at that “silly” aquarium than on her class work.

 3. Lucy-Marie is obsessed with her job at the aquarium. Well, obsessed might be and understatement. Whenever she’s not studying for her classes at LU or actually in class, Lucy is always at the aquarium. She’s become somewhat of a pest after an incident where she caused a patron to faint when she decided to clean the shark tank during hours. After that, they’ve tried to have her work after the aquarium is closed, to avoid further hazards.

 4. Lucy-Marie has a small, blue tuna plushie that she takes everywhere that her mother made for her when she was a little girl that she lovingly calls ‘Tuntun’. She considers it her good luck charm and isn’t ashamed to carry around a toy in public. But do be warned, if you do end up making fun of the little fish, she won’t hesitate to hurt you.

 5. Even though Lucy-Marie loves aquatic life, Lucy cannot stand octopi (or spiders resembling them). When she used to swim in the oceans near her home town, an octopus wrapped around her leg and almost drowned her. She was lucky that her dad hadn’t been away on a fishing trip and saw her panicking in the water before she went down. Since then, she’s always been deathly frightened of the multi-legged creature and let’s face it, spiders are just creepy.

 6. Lucy-Marie hates her full name. She thinks it’s too long and is especially embarrassed of her middle name for being so- well, weird. She will normally introduce herself as Luce right off the bat to avoid having to beg people to not call her by her proper name. As far as she’s concerned, she hasn’t heard a nickname that she likes less than her real one.

 7. Lucy-Marie speaks both French and English fluently as well as the lesser known Seychellois Creole that was more popular with her younger playmates than professionally. Her mother insisted that she know both proper French and English and not only Creole at a young age because it would be ‘better for her’ later in life. She didn’t protest much, though she sometimes has trouble spelling things in English because of her love of French and habit of breaking into Creole.

 8. Lucy-Marie is a closet romantic. She’s only had one fling of a relationship with a boy that she won’t talk about unless you strong-arm her into it but she does think of him sometimes when she reads her romance novels our watches a romance movie. Otherwise, love is far off of her list on important things to experiance.

 9. Lucy-Marie is a bit of a hot-head when you insult her or her friends (or fish) and she will not hesitate to resort to physical violence. She is stronger than her small frame lets on due to her swimming and has a nasty shin-kick when she’s feeling particularly nasty.

 10. Lucy-Marie is most definitely a tom-boy. You say this conflicts with the summer dresses that she constantly wears? Consider the fact that she refuses to go clothes shopping and all of those ‘girly-dresses’ are things her mother has made, and insists that she wears. Plus, when you’re hiking on hot days, the dresses keep her cooler than any pants would.

 11. Lucy-Marie desperately wants to cut her hair; but her appearance as a proper young lady is too important to her mother for her to have a guy-cut style. She’s somewhat managed to solve the problem with her pigtails, they keep her hair off of her neck and even she will admit… the red ribbons are cute on her.

 12. Lucy-Marie has somewhat of a bad mouth, most likely picked up from her father’s conversations. Her favourite word seems to be ‘bastard’ and if she thinks you’re not a very nice person yourself, prepare for that new nick-name.

 13. Lucy-Marie’s second love is art. After she’s come home from school and work, she loves to just relax on her bed and draw. Unsurprisingly, her favourite things to draw are fish or ocean views from her window, but people are a close second. All of her drawings end up meticulously coloured and if she really is proud of one, hung up on her bedroom wall.

 A Secret: