esmae beau benoit
beau le roi
nadar | thirty-eight | lil lady
esmae looks an awful lot like héloïse lattisier
esmae's appearance: 5’7”, square jaw, soft brown eyes sometimes accompanied by broad wireframe glasses, casually messy brown hair that ranges from just above to just beyond shoulder length, fairly pale skin. Calm and welcoming demeanor unless you mess with her.
esmae's past: Though Esmae was dealt the unfortunate hand of being left to fend for herself at a young age on the streets of Stonecraft, her cleverness and wit were quickly noticed by the young leader of a local pack of crime kids. Leader of the pack, then-13-year-old Inés, welcomed 8-year-old Esmae into her tightly-knit and self-sustaining street posse, where Esmae gave up her given middle and surnames in place of the group’s collective surname of ‘Benoit’ and her chosen middle name of ‘Beau.’
Under the guidance of Inés and with the camaraderie of her peers, Esmae learned to use her confident demeanor and manipulative tendencies to make a name for herself in the city. As a scrawny, assertive, and ambitious kid with a knack for dressing androgynously, many clio thought she was just some skinny boy — but even then, she quickly gained a reputation of being resourceful, reliable (to the right clio), and creative. For a while, she was simply called, “le penseur rapide,” or “the quick thinker,” by other street kids, one of the many names that eventually took root across the city.
Esmae soon found herself to be Inés’ favorite, serving as they got older as a bodyguard, errand boy, and intimate mentee to her. Despite their age differences and obvious power dynamics, Esmae and Inés had a longtime non-exclusive on-again-off-again love affair that often caused explosive outbursts between the two and sometimes ended in deep fractures among the larger group, which Esmae unofficially co-managed by the age of 14.
Ten years later, Inés — who by then had served inappropriately fluidly as a mentor, boss, lover, and abuser to Esmae — was found dead off the shores of Deilig. Gossip made its way throughout Stonecraft, which sometimes felt like the size of Amelia: claims were made of overdose, hit jobs, suicide, and most often, murder by Esmae herself, which she adamantly denied.
Regardless, Esmae quickly filled the leadership void of their group, which had significantly expanded and organized in the last decade and a half. Even if Esmae hadn’t been named by Inés to be her successor (which she had, for years — sometimes cryptically, other times explicitly), Esmae’s reputation spoke for itself. After she decided to re-brand herself professionally by using her chosen middle name to maintain a level of privacy and deception as needed in her work, whispers of “Beau le Roi,” or “Beau the King” were common across Stonecraft, not exclusively out of fear but at the very least out of respect.
Many clio only even knew of her as "Bo LeRoy," usually a simple misinterpretation of her alias (and gender), but she didn’t mind. Better to protect her identity, and the clio close to her, which were few and far between but deep and intense when they came around.
Keeping many of the traditions Inés had established in her short lifetime, Esmae served as a leader and mentor to kids who found themselves on the street, though Esmae found herself to be a bit more liberal and empathetic than her predecessor (and definitely less inappropriate and abusive). Esmae put in place a sort of “moral code,” which prioritized the underserved, targeted the “unreasonably" wealthy, and promoted a communal structure that Inés had initially attempted to put in place but had let slip away with her abusive rise to power.
esmae's present: Esmae now lives in a large apartment in Stonecraft filled with tons of plants, a few pets, and various street kids crashing on her couches. She continues to manage the group that she joined as a kid, working the streets for the kids that live on them.
esmae described in five words: confident, resilient, adaptable, manipulative, protective
esmae's other half: remy
remy is a lil man
remy is a trumpeter swan
esmae & remy are played by luka buka
