====== Candidate Besançon-84 ======

|"Ole!" shouted Manon, dancing about with a red towel. Her side had downed one of the gwyllgi in its approach, and now she played the part of the bullfighter. She contorted and twirled, narrowly avoiding the fangs of her pursuer. "Ha ha! Cursed beast, you must do better than that to get the best of Diego Arryano! Finest bullfighter in Oahu!" \\ - //B-84, fighting off [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwyllgi|gwyllgi]] in [[https://bhotr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32662|Oahu]].//|

**Candidate Besançon-84** or **B-84**, also known by her legal name as, **Manon Laframboise**, is a student of Safeholme and a [[om:magic:font|unbound Font]]. She is an unknowing participant-candidate in the French Future for the World project, a public front for a research program to groom and grow stable fonts for the French Bureau des Affaires Mystiques. Manon's magic is typical of any Font, but she is capable of conjuring powerful objects and illusions through the use of a lich death mask.

^ **Pronounciation** ||
| Candidate //bah-seh-SZON// 84 ||
| //Ma-NON Lah-fram-BWAH// ||
^ **Player** | [[users:kokuten|Kokuten]] |
^ **Gender** | Female |
^ **Age** | 15 |
^ **Ethnicity** | Caucasian |
^ **Actual Hometown** | Besançon, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France |
^ **Official Hometown** | Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France |
^ **Affiliation** | Good |
^ **Magic School** | [[om:magic:font|Font]] |
^ **Magic Type** | Blessed |
^ **Active status** | Active |

===== Perceptible =====

==== Visual ====
Manon is 5'11", limber, and toned with gymnastic muscle. Her bright, red hair is kept at waist-length, often tied up in some sort of fancy way to commit to a bit. She has deep, brown eyes and a small, sweeping nose set on an almond shaped face that is often wearing a vulpine expression. 

==== Sound ====
With her native language being French, and being a poor student of linguistics, Manon normally talks with a mixture of the local language and French. Her speech is heavily influenced by her southern accent, and it tends color everything she says.

If she is wearing her fool's outfit, she can be spotted easily by the bells she wears on it, and the sound of a bike-horn.

==== Scent ====
Manon usually carries the smell of whatever role she's taken in her acts, lending to the audience experience. In rare moments where she's not acting or carrying on, she wears a scent of lilacs, to remind her of the family she left behind in Marseille.

===== Persona =====

====Personality====
Possessed of a loud and boisterous disposition, Manon loves to be the center of attention. She's always making jokes, gags and running bits based off whatever situation she's in. To her, life is a stage to be acted on, with all the normal people wearing muted, matte masks to get through their day-to-day, Manon simply wears the masks she finds fun to wear. This can lead to some people finding her personality either grating or disingenuous when it comes to serious situations, but Manon, in her art, is nothing but deadly serious.

She is typically very laissez-faire to the people around her, despite her strong personality. However, she tends to spark against dishonest people who can't be straightforward with themselves or others.

==== History ====

Candidate Besançon-84 was born in Besançon, France, under the observation of the //French Future for the World// project for the French Bureau des Affaires Mystiques. Outwardly, this project was marketed as a cohort study to gain insight on the development of magical children in French society. Parents who opted into the study were only required to submit their children for examination on birth and then commit to a twenty year examination of yearly interviews. Benefits included paid housing expenses, supplementary tuition grants and in the case of some applicants, French citizenship.

Besançon-84 was one of forty-seven children who passed the examination for the true purpose of the project, to study, harness and force the growth of stable fonts. The 'baby' given back to Besançon-84's birth parents was a golem, and, as with all successful applicant-cases to the program, caused the parents to meet their end on their way home from the hospital. Besançon-84, along with the rest of Batch One, was taken to the primary research facility in Paris for in-processing, studying, and experimentation.

When Batch One had become six years old, and began to show signs of retaining memories and experiences, they were cycled into the foster care system for remote observation. The children were placed in homes that had strong associations with the Occultus, before they were further cycled out into mundane households to limit their access to magic. Each candidate was given a legal name to help with this process, Besançon-84 was assigned as Manon Laframboise.

In accordance with the project outlines, the first batch's conduit items were assigned to them in their foster homes. In Manon's assigned case, this was a lich death mask, testing if fonts could capably operate magical items meant to consume the soul of the user.

At the time, Manon had been living with with Jordie and Franciska Dubois, two mundane, non-associates to the project. Her item came to her by way of an 'old-family associate' relinquishing property associated with her name. Manon took to the death mask naturally, taking its harlequin form as some sort theatre prop. Her magic followed in the form of illusions and theatrical tricks with the added spin of having a faint effect on the laws of reality. Besançon-84 had been designated a successful experiment, but, due to her lack of growth afterwards, was eventually retired as a subject.

When she [[https://bhotr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32665|turned fourteen]], Manon came back to the //French Future for the World// project as a candidate for its international outreach program. Instead of as a test subject, she was now vying for a scholarship to a school in Italy to study as a classically trained clown-mage. Despite not arriving for an appropriate scholarship assignment, Elyna Moreau, Besançon-84's former handler, managed to get Manon assigned to a school. While it was not the school that Manon wanted, it was an education, none-the-less.

In accordance with the //French Future for the World//'s contractual stipulations, Manon's foster family could not know she was attending an actual, magical school. Their memories, along with the memories of any children that she had lived with, were modified to exclude her presence. Now, Manon attends Safeholme, as a regular student, learning to control and come to terms with her magic.

It wasn't until she joined a group to rescue [[om:character:drysi_maelgwyn|Drysi Maelgwyn]] from a [[https://bhotr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32638|possession incident]] in the Wilderwood of Safeholme that Manon realized her magic had stipulations. At the end of the incident, her mask and foci were destroyed and she was forced to live dangerously without a focus for her energies. Before her power could go critical, she was given a conduit to stabilize her magics until something could be done. With the assistance of [[om:character:johann_krieger|Johann Krieger]], she began to study the [[https://bhotr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32664|true bounds]] of her abilities, and discover where exactly her power came from.

===== Magical Archetypes =====

Despite having an all-powerful focus for magic, Manon is not an excellent academic student, and prefers adept-style magic. Her magic takes the forms of showy, flashy effects and makes her capable of holding the attention of a crowd. The more into a role she is, the more effective her magic becomes.

==== All-Powerful Stagerunner ====
As a font, Manon's magic is incredibly powerful, but can only be controlled through secondary objects that are specifically designed to work with it. Her primary artifact is a lich death-mask that was recently rebuilt and re-tooled for better and safer control. The mask enables her to influence the immediate world around her in incredible ways, based on her belief. In accordance to Manon's tastes, this usually takes the form of her clown-like antics, and, by extension, her ability to act. She can produce simple objects, influence less-powerful laws of reality, and adorn herself in whatever way her current role requires for what ever act she's putting on.

** Le Masque du Rire Mortelle **\\
Originally an ancient and powerful artifact used by ancient necromancers to achieve ultimate power, this lich death mask is now a harlequin mask that acts as a conduit for Manon's power. The mask can take many forms at Manon's will, but usually hides on her face as painted face make-up, unless she needs to channel a great deal of power. The artifact was recently remade by [[om:character:percival_caxton|Percival Caxton]] to fit her level of power, and improve her overall lifespan.

** The Show Must Go On! **\\
To effectively project her influence on a situation, Manon must be assuming a //role// or //act// in some way. This allows her brain to more easily create the props she needs to carry out whatever gag or task she's trying to get to. Without this focus, her magic is less effective, and sometimes will refuse to work at all if she is unable to get into a bit.

**Skill level:** 40 \\
**Power level:** 80 \\
**Control:** -40 \\
**Fool's attire:** Manon's normal battle-frills are reminiscent of a court-jester. They consist of a wide variety of colors, ribbons, puffy sleeves, puffy pantaloons and a set of multi-color boots, with striped stockings that run all the way up to mid-thigh. Her attire is normally completed with a jingly fool's hat.