Vincent Fournier

Personality
Vincent seems outwardly cold and uncaring, and it could be said that he is those things to a certain degree. He is a fairly reserved person, and in a crowd he would prefer to melt in than to stand out. He tends to keep neutral or sarcastic with strangers and acquaintances, depending on how he feels about the people on question. However, when he warms up to a person, he gradually drops some of his guard, although Marie is probably currently the person who has seen most under Vincent's walls, and even she hasn't seen everything. Vincent doesn't like most people, but the ones he cares about are very dear to him.

A childhood with quarreling parents and ultimately a father who left and never came back left Vincent disappointed in life. Rather than deal with the issue with anger like his brother, Vincent slowly came to accept that bad things in life were unavoidable, and that he himself would rather simply steer his float down the river of life than fight against the current. More aggressive people, such as his brother or Clip, may see Vincent as someone who has given up, but Vincent himself feels that a passive approach is one of the reasons he is still alive and moderately well, despite having two gangsters using his apartment as some sort of hideout.

All in all, Vincent is a person who keeps his emotions mostly in check. He isn't completely stoic, and in the company of familiar people he does exhibit feelings, but not in an extreme or extravagant way. His passive way of life applies here as well. Vincent is also a man who enjoys his solitude, and is extremely pleased of his job where he mostly works graveyard shifts alone in a vast room of server towers. Therefore he is understandably sometimes annoyed by Damien and/or Clip rooming at his place, often unannounced. Yet Vincent is too kind to throw them out and lets it happen every time. Besides, despite his love for solitude, he recognizes his needs for social contact, mostly taken care of by Marie and his brother, with Clip as a new addition.

His past with Anthony has left Vincent struggling with depression and lack of self-worth. He gets anxious very easily, and has a hard time dealing with people getting aggressive, and depending on the other person, anger is an issue as well. Thanks to his family putting him in therapy, he isn't as bad as he could be, but he still has a long way to go in terms of healing. When things get bad enough, Vincent shuts down, retreating into his own mind, curling up into a defensive position. It's a trait Clip learns to tread around, and others learn to use to their advantage.

History
Vincent was the first child born to Isabelle and Elroy Fournier. His parent's marriage was not doing too well, and the couple tried to patch things up with children, hoping that would glue them together again. Yet, two years later when Damien was born, things were still steadily going downhill, with quarrels becoming more and more commonplace, Elroy not caring whether his sons heard and saw or not. Finally, when Florence was born, Elroy walked off, leaving Isabelle to care for three children on her own. Her parents helped her occasionally, but being a proud woman she asked for very little help. Vincent, being the oldest child, understood it was all for the better. He hated that his father simply left them never to return, but he was also grateful that the endless arguments stopped. He had always been a quiet child, and even though he was upset about how things turned out, he slowly accepted it as things that just had to happen. Vincent also felt he had to be there for his siblings, as he could tell his mother was having a rough time. All in all his parents' divorce forced Vincent to mature very early.

Vincent wasn't an exceptional student, but he did well enough. He was also stuck helping out with Damien, who turned out to be much more rowdy, having inherited the stubbornness and pride of their mother. Not being very outgoing, Vincent didn't really make many friends at school, and the ones he hung out with didn't last to later stages in life. Yet he didn't feel lonely or outcast, he just did not feel that he connected with anybody or needed to spend large quantities of time with others. Getting berated by his former good friend and crush for being gay didn't encourage him to seek out any lasting friendships either. Vincent moved on to study in the IT field, finding more like-minded people in polytechnic, but still not making any lasting friends. He did well enough to gain a job at a data center upon his graduation, and liked the job so much that he still hasn't considered applying for anything else.

During polytechnic, Vincent met Anthony. They fell in love, and moved in together fairly quickly. For the first couple of months Anthony was loving, caring and sweet, making Vincent feel luckier than he should have been. Then he started messing up, at least in Anthony's mind. Forgetting things, staying late at school or getting too enveloped in his studies and computers all became things that were no longer endearing, but instead had Vincent punched and beaten. Each time Anthony would apologize, make excuses and promise to make it up to Vincent, and Vincent was in too deep to get out. It lasted for three years, with Vincent focusing more and more intently on his studies to escape what was waiting at home, resulting in an increasing number of bruises and scars on his body. The biggest permanent scar was left on Vincent's right arm, after Anthony forcefully pressed his arm onto a hot stove. After Anthony threatening to kill Vincent, the technician finally snapped and escaped the apartment while Anthony was out. He returned to his family, where he lived until he finally graduated. During that time he went through therapy, but he quit going when he moved into his own apartment after finding a job.

The first safe person he truly connected with, apart from his family, was Marie. After moving into his own apartment, Vincent had taken to sitting in local bars and watching people go on with their lives. On one such night, a young latina woman approached him, obviously trying to make a move. Vincent, being a straightforward person, let her know it wasn't going to work. Yet she stayed, and they ended up talking until closing time. Something about the woman's, Marie's, sincerity made Vincent enjoy her company. Marie did not try to be someone else or hide her weird interests, instead she stood up for her ideals and lived life as herself. Instead of going home alone, Vincent followed his new acquaintance to her place, where they ended up drinking wine and watching some supposedly occult ritual videotapes Marie had found god knows where. From there blossomed a friendship of mutual trust, with Vincent visiting Marie's apartment fairly often. Marie was good at relieving Vincent's stress and anxieties, and Vincent became a reliable and caring friend for Marie.

Having looked out for his siblings in their childhood, Vincent cared a lot about Damien and Florence. He led Florence to the altar on her wedding day, and regularly visits her family. Damien on the other hand chose a more hazardous life, complicating Vincent's life in the process. After finding out about Damien joining a gang, his brother briefly considered leaving Damien to fend for himself. His kind heart wouldn't allow for it, and he ended up doing his best to help Damien out, letting him stay at his apartment, lending him money and lying about his activities and whereabouts to Isabelle and Florence. It was very important for both brothers to keep their mother and sister out of the mess, and Vincent was ready to take as much of the burden as it was necessary to help his brother and save the rest of the family. Although heavily disapproving of his brother's life choices, Vincent doesn't have the heart to do more than sigh and make crude remarks.

The latest development left Vincent in a situation that could in no way be described as any better than it was before. Due to Damien messing up a delivery and costing a fine amount of money to the gang, Vincent got roughed up as a warning to his brother. Grateful for his life philosophy, Vincent took the violence quietly, waiting for it to be over so he could crawl home and never to walk dark alleys again. Instead a young man half carried him home, insistent on helping him despite kicking Vincent a good fifteen minutes earlier. The young gangster, Clip, had had to beat a defenseless man up for the first time in his life, and wasn't dealing with it quite as expected. Instead of reveling in the violent act, the man felt immense guilt and tried to soothe it by helping his victim. The odd circumstances lead Clip into sleeping at Vincent's place quite often, and the two began developing an odd bond.