Post by rhys jones on Sept 25, 2011 11:30:39 GMT -8
rhys peter jones
[/b]
name: laura
age: twenty-one
gender: female
writing experience: ten years role-playing and a little longer just writing generally
how’d you find us?: i followed the link from the old site
a favorite book: Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
other character(s): i used to play ben casey ages ago but i thought it was best that i applied with a new character. i hope that's okay.
name: rhys peter jones
age: eighteen
citizen? upper or lower schooling?: upper schooling
previous residence: wrexham, wales
eye color: hazel
hair color: a light reddish-blond
height: 6’2”
distinguishing features: lots of freckles, small but expressive eyes that crinkle up in the corners whenever he smiles, a permanent hint of nervousness around the lips
four good personality traits
four bad personality traits
three quirks
important people
Robert Jones, 48 – father
Lisa Jones, 46 – mother
Samantha Jones, 26 – half-sister
Craig Jones, 24 – half-brother
Owen Jones, 17 – brother
OTHER:
Dominic Barlow, 19 – childhood friend
Adrian Swiecicki, 20 – distant cousin[/ul]
history
Although he was only born a short hop away over the English Channel Rhys often feels like his background has moulded him in a different way to a lot of his peers at the Académie d’Ouvrard. He comes from a council estate in a fairly large but deeply provincial Welsh town after all, a far cry from the elite connections and old money wealth that a significant minority of his fellow students display. He came to Normandy believing that people are people wherever you go and still has faith in that but he’s less sure of that now that he has been. In just a couple of months what has really stood out for him is the sheer variety of human experience.
His own story began on an otherwise unremarkable frosty afternoon in early January. He was the third of four children born to his mother, Lisa, who already had a son and daughter from a previous relationship, but the first child for his father, Robert. Both of his parents were from quite blue-collar, working-class backgrounds and for the first year or so of his life they struggled to support their fast growing family. His mother earned a fairly modest wage as a trainee midwife and his father’s job working at a soft drinks factory didn’t pay much either. Luckily, in a pattern which would continue throughout his childhood and beyond, Rhys was an easy baby. He was left with various extended family members while his mum and dad were working from a very early age, but he rarely cried or made much of a fuss about anything. His mum jokes that he slept through the night almost from birth.
Things began to change somewhat when his younger brother Owen was born. At only eighteen months old Rhys was unable to really understand what was happening. His older siblings, aged six and eight, were thrilled but all he knew was that no-one, including his much-adored brother Craig, had time for him anymore because of this terrible, squalling intruder. Consequently the relationship between the two youngest Jones boys got off to a bit of a rocky start, and it took a while for Rhys to get over those feelings of displacement and really enjoy his new role as a big brother. He ended up regressing back to using a dummy, a stage he had just outgrown, and if he had been able to he probably would have entreated his mother to take the new baby back to the hospital. He was a late talker though and had to undergo speech therapy regularly until just after his third birthday, when he finally began to catch up. This period, from two and a half until he started school, was probably the only time during his entire childhood where his parents were forced to worry more about Rhys than any of his siblings.
The day he started at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School marked the beginning of a much more harmonious time. Despite their choice of school his parents were not particularly religious. It was done more to please his grandmother, Mary, than anything. While his mother’s side of the family were typical Welsh Nonconformists, his father’s family were nearly all Catholics, mostly because of his Polish great-grandfather, Kacper Kosinski, who had settled in Wrexham after World War II. Both his parents were a little apprehensive when he first started, thinking that his speech delay might cause problems, but within a week or so he had settled in very well. His older siblings both had friends round the house regularly so he was used to interacting with other children and since his easy-going nature had by this time reasserted itself he managed to make friends more quickly than most. He became especially close to a boy in the same class called Dominic Barlow, the two bonding almost instantly over a love of football, bird-watching and playing with Pokémon cards.
His relationship with his younger brother improved a lot as a result, since the two were now out of each other’s hair for most of the day. By the time he was six and Owen four their relationship was fairly good, all things considered. He even began to like teaching things to the younger boy and looking out for him, relishing the chance to be the older, wiser one for a change. Their personalities had developed very differently though, so the relationship was never quite as smooth as that between him and his older brother. Mellow older children and high-maintenance younger ones were something of a tradition in the Jones family and while Rhys was laid-back with a penchant for quiet activities and the ability to focus on things for an extended period of time, Owen was loud, highly-strung and got bored extremely easily. Inevitably Rhys would get tired of dealing with his brother’s constant yammering. His mother did her best to talk to them and work things out whenever they’d fight though, which was a huge help in ensuring that he never felt totally overlooked or forgotten.
Life continued in a similar vein until he began secondary school at the age of eleven. Sharing a space with seventeen and eighteen-year-olds was rather daunting at first but Craig, now fifteen and one of the school’s sporting heroes, was there to keep an eye on him (his sister Samantha had left school at sixteen the previous year) and he again adapted quickly. There was quite a lot to live up to as both his siblings were known throughout the school, albeit in very different ways, but he soon got used to being referred to as ‘Craig’s little brother’. Academically at least he certainly didn’t disgrace himself. He was always hopeless at maths and at eighteen has pretty much resigned himself to being one of those people who count on their fingers, but at the same time he has a good memory for facts and a knack for writing essays. He finds it much easier to express his thoughts and ideas on paper than to talk about them out loud. Not surprisingly his best subjects were always English and the humanities, with foreign languages not far behind.
His teenage years didn’t change him too much. While many of his friends were swept up by adolescent rebellion and surging hormones Rhys remained thoughtful and level-headed, interested in birds and deeply grieved that Craig now seemed to regard himself as too cool to hang out with his little brother. There was some compensation in the form of his nephew Jordan however, who was born when his sister Samantha was just seventeen. While their parents tried their hardest not to be too judgemental the situation still created a rather tense atmosphere at home. Rhys would try to escape it by taking off round the neighbourhood on his bike or visiting friends. His social circle had expanded somewhat from the closely-knit group he spent time with in primary school and some of the lads had quite a cavalier attitude to drinking and parties. He looked too young for most pubs and clubs though and would always hang back when it seemed like things were moving in the wrong direction. The thought of what his parents would say kept him out of any serious trouble.
So instead of drinking cider in the park his weekends were mostly spent working part-time at the local leisure centre, riding his bike and occasionally going out for pizza with his best mate and a couple of other guys. He and his dad would also often drive out round Snowdonia way to go walking, something that Rhys really treasured. Growing up he always felt like his dad appreciated Owen more, since he was more assertive and ambitious like him, but during these treks he came to realise that it wasn’t really like that at all. They just had to work a little harder at understanding each other. Of course he had a little help in coming to this realisation, mainly from his first serious girlfriend, Zoe. They broke up after just two months but even in that short time she made him realise that he did have a little fire in his belly and that he could do more than he thought he was capable of.
With encouragement from his dad he then started to think seriously about being the first in the family to apply for university. But although he now knew he had the desire to get the hell out of dodge and into a brighter seeming future he still lacked direction. There were a lot of things he was interested in studying and countless places where he could go to do it. He had chosen to do A-Levels in History, English, Art and French, which narrowed the field a bit, but it wasn’t until his (distant) Polish cousins suddenly got back in touch one day that he really decided what he wanted to do. One of them had just finished his first year at the Académie d’Ouvrard and spent most of the visit telling Rhys how much he enjoyed it there and what a fantastic opportunity it was. Tentatively he applied for a scholarship too, hoping that his projected grades and the personal essay he had written would be enough to get him in. Nothing was heard for a while after that and he applied to several other universities in the meantime, but just as he was about to give up a letter bearing the hoped-for news finally arrived.
The adjustment to living at the Académie was in many ways one of the hardest things that Rhys has been through. Having never been away from his family for more than a couple of days at most he was massively homesick. He missed not having his brother or his parents to talk to at the drop of a hat and worried that his friends back home would forget him. A couple of months in and he’s settled fairly well however, finding himself to be more resilient than he’d anticipated. St. Michel isn’t quite home yet but he appreciates the quiet, secluded beauty of the place and his French has improved beyond all recognition.
if you could be anywhere, where would you be?
“That’s an interesting question. I like it here in St. Michel a lot but if I could go anywhere I’d probably have to choose the cottage on the west coast of Scotland where we used to go on holiday. It backed onto a seawater loch and those few weeks spent canoeing, exploring the countryside and just relaxing with my family were some of the best in my life.”
character’s play-by: Adam Hicks.
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courtois
arcséne
heaven gregoire