Master George Gracey
Dec 29, 2009 18:57:47 GMT -5
Post by gracey on Dec 29, 2009 18:57:47 GMT -5
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introduce yourself.[/ul][/font][/i]
charrie basics.[/ul][/font][/i]
age: Over 100 years
species: Human Ghost
birthplace: Northeastern USA
movie: The Haunted Mansion
title:The Ghost Host
why: The Haunted Mansion is my favorite attraction and I've always had a fascination with it. I love the history behind it that has been invented over the years and honestly, I prefer the Master Gracey from those cast member invented stories to the one used in the actual movie. I hope it's all right.
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charrie appearance[/ul][/font][/i]
facial description/mood expressions: The well seasoned ghost's face is a sort of diamond shape. His complexion is pale, flawless, and seems like he is permanently stuck just past the threshold from youth to adulthood. His cheekbones are high and prominent and he has a round, cleft chin. His round nose is well sculpted and his thin lips look as though they could hold no expression other than a tight frown, but it is quite the contrary. His bright blue eyes are deeply set in his sockets, always giving him dark circles around the expressive orbs. His eyebrows are thin and normally worn crimped in complex thought.
clothing style: As a man of wealthy background, it is no surprise that Master Gracey dresses in wealthy clothes. The man is hardly ever seen wearing something besides a suit. As a ghost, he can very easily pick and choose his wardrobe with almost literally the snap of a finger. His most common garb is a deep cerulean blue suit. It is very simple in design, complete with coattails and matching slacks. His first undershirt is a brighter blue and easily seen under his unbuttoned overcoat. The shirt even further underneath is a stark white and buttoned all the way up to the collar halfway up his neck. A bow tie the same hue as his first undershirt is tied over the collar completing his simple, yet effectively regal outfit.
body build: For a man whose title and status demand respect, Master Gracey's form certainly does not. George is actually a petite and unassuming man. He stands at about 5'8" with proportional arms and legs. His muscle mass is limited, so it is quite obvious that physically showing his strength is not on his agenda.
any unique traits: There is literally an aura that almost always surrounds the Ghost Host. This cloud of ectoplasm is normally a transparent, pale blue. It is at its dimmest when the Master is in daylight or in a brightly lit room, sometimes looking like it has disappeared completely and he is a living mortal. In contrast, it makes him practically his own light source in darkness, but is more ambient than bright.
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original charrie analysis.[/ul][/font][/i]
There are a few things, however, that can bring a smile to Master Gracey's face. Most of them are at the expense of some other poor mortal, but it is all in good fun for him. He values the dead more than the living now that he is among them. Despite how often he talks about death and wanting others to join him in it, he never actually harms a living person in order to get his wish. Rather, he uses his smooth tongue and sharp wit in one of his favorite past times, persuasion.
A consistent trait of George's is an unlikely one to most: he is a hopeless romantic. Having loved more than once in life, Master Gracey carries his passion into death. He is a devoted family man, having been the glue that kept most of the Gracey clan together. He often eyes other couples dreamily and is only truly happy when he sees a smile on his late wife's face, which has been rare since her untimely death.
history:To hear the story of George Gracey, Jr. and his legendary Haunted Mansion is not the typical tale of the Disney gospel. There is rarely a happy moment and the ending is more bitter than sweet. Then again, it has not really ended where most people would think that it should.
The young Master was born on none other than October 31. The year was 1890 and his origins were in the northeastern United States. He was not actually affiliated with the Mansion at all until his father, George Gracey, Sr. bought the southern antebellum estate as a winter home after the strange death of a wealthy businessman. Even then, young George was not around the Manse very often. Rather, he was almost constantly in boarding school after boarding school. He even attended Yale for college, where he made a number of friends that he would certainly know for a long, long time.
George's return home was not a happy time nor did he return for a happy reason. He had received news that his father, George Sr., was dead. On top of that, his mother had mysteriously fled after the death. No one knows for sure why she vanished, but most suspect that foul play had been involved between the couple. Devastated, George Jr. could barely fathom his inheritance of the estate. He was right to be mourning and desperate for the family interaction that he lacked at school. Thus, he convinced two of his aunts to move in. The first, Elma Belle, was an artist and painter. She was to go on and paint portraits of present and former residents of the Manse. She was slowly going senile and even owned a pet crow that she named after her late husband, Robert. The second Aunt was Victoria Abigail Boufant, who was much more amiable and loved to socialize. She often tried to cheer her young nephew up by hosting parties for no real occasion. at the Mansion.
However, it was not enough for Master Gracey. Having been away at school, he never really got to know his father. The more obsessed with it he became, the more he dabbled into the taboo and the occult. He even brought ghostwriters from his days at Yale to stay at the Mansion and collect artifacts and books on the subject. Unfortunately, all four of them died after a bookshelf of the very tomes they collected fell on them.
Despite the death that still surrounded his home, George did not quit. He wanted to know his father and would do anything to achieve it. However, even the obsessed have their distractions. While searching through a carnival one day, Master Gracey came across a young, beautiful tightrope walker named Lilian O'Malley. It was love at first sight and three months later in 1912, the two were married. However, Lilian was still recovering from the death of a former lover, so was very delicate with her emotions. George did everything that he could to make his wife happy, but he still had his old mantra in mind: connect with his father.
This seemingly unimaginable goal brought him back to the carnival, where George finally found just the tool he was looking for: a psychic medium by the name of Madame Leota. Immediately, Master Gracey brought the gypsy back to the house. Every night, they held seances together in the deepest confines of the Mansion. Many spirits were contacted, but none turned out to be his father. This caused somewhat of a rift between George and his wife, Lilian. The former carnival performer was growing suspicious of Leota and wanted her out of the house. However, Gracey would not hear of it. As much as he loved his dear Lilian, he could not let go of Leota and her ability.
Things tensed, though, in 1919 with the arrival of the fist child to be born at the Manse. It was not the offspring of the people to be expected, though. It was Madame Leota. She had a beautiful daughter that she simply called Little Leota. The girl quickly took after her mother and seemed her clone in nearly every way. The question always arose, however, of who Little Leota's father was. You are certain to not get an answer out of George, but even to this day, whenever the girl talks, he falls dead silent.
One would think that even with a conflict such as this, there would at least be some ray of hope for the progressively aging Master. The answer is no. The series of unfortunate events just continued to escalate and escalate. Death surrounded the Mansion more than ever before. In his efforts to cheer Lilian up, Gracey hired three men and an organist from her carnival to play for them. The three men became the Manse's gardener, handyman, and liveryman. However, after being warned by Madame Leota that the organ was haunted, the instrument closed on the poor musician's hands. He later hung himself. George's beloved and talented Aunt Emma Belle, died in her bedroom one night in 1920. No one knows how or why it happened, only that her lifeless corpse had a hand pointing at the window where her pet raven, Robert, was resting. To this day, that Raven wanders the premises. No one knows if it had died and was a ghost or if it ever alive at all.
The house remained trapped on that narrow line between quiet and chaos for the next decade or so. Not much happened, other than the tension between the family. George was trying his hardest to keep his family together and the house afloat financially. Having spent most of his inheritance on artifacts to fuel his obsession with the occult, the family had to resort to more desperate measures. As a result, Little Leota beckoned guests to hold the funerals for their loved ones in the house's conservatory. Gracey largely ignored the practice and the girl's pranks on some of the poor attendees, still wanting to avoid the growing child as much as possible.
In 1932, death struck Gracey Manor once again. George's Aunt Victoria was hosting a party in efforts to cheer up her stressed nephew and his melancholy wife. The Gracey couple had not shown up yet in the ballroom, however, choosing to be fashionably late. It was one of the few fortunes the family had, for during the course of the night, the party goers had died of a strange illness. It was discovered that the tea they heavily consumed contained contaminated well water. No one knew who the participants were, for they were masked at the party and only had nametags that had puns written on them, such as "M. T. Tomb" and "Bea Witch". Aunt Victoria had retired early that night, unknowing of what happened. She was later found dead in her bed, a peaceful smile on her lips.
With their main source of party going and entertainment now gone, Master Gracey struggled even more to keep smiles on his family members' faces. A couple years after the tea party incident, Gracey attempted to gather a few friends from his college days to attend a reunion. The five singers, who took Gracey's suggestion to call themselves the Mallow Men, agreed. One of them, Sherman Thurl, was a radio announcer and turned the whole soiree into a broadcasted show. Everything started off wonderfully. The group performed and sang a song that two other members of the Mallow Men, Richard Ravens and Robert Croft, wrote, called "Grim Grinning Ghosts," in satirical honor of the rumors surrounding the Manse. When the group went up to the mic to perform an encore, though, tragedy struck. Lightning struck the antennae that the radio show was being broadcasted on. The group was electrocuted. Feeling responsible for the death of his friends, Master Gracey had busts made in the likeness of the group and placed in the graveyard.
George did not try to bring outside entertainment to the house until three years after the lightning accident. In another attempt to cheer his beloved Lilian up, Master Gracey hired the Jones Family Opera singers to entertain at the Mansion. Everything seemed to be going well, until George's own hospitality turned against him. You see, George had recently taken in his mentally ill uncle, Gus. The short, scruffy man having a napoleon complex with murderous undertones, killed the entire group in a complicated scheme of trapdoors and a domino effect that resulted in a decapitation. Though sympathetic that his short uncle was sick, George had Leota confine Gus's soul to the Manse's grounds. Gus later died after falling in a well that he was trying to drown cats in.
The fact that all of these attempts turned out worse that better did not help Lilian's condition. As Gracey started to get depressed, himself, Lilian grew worse. She started to grow desperate for attention from anyone, seeing as he husband withdrew more to his studies and obsession with the occult. On a lovely day in June 1937, it all came to fruition. While hosting a tea party for the few friends she had, Lilian received a bit of advice from Leota: if she wanted to revive the spark between herself and her husband, she should bring up some things she used to do that he admired, such as her old tight rope act. Eager for the spotlight, Lilian agreed. The rope was set up over a swamp and the performance began beautifully. Master Gracey came outside to join the onlookers, reveling at his wife seemingly to cheer up as she performed her old act. Halfway through, however, everything started to go wrong. To Lilian's and her audience's horror, he rope was breaking. Before she could escape, the rope snapped and Mistress Gracey fell to her death in the swamp and was devoured by the gators that occupied it.
Darkness fell on the Manor. George was rarely seen outside of his quarters and the seance room. He hardly spoke, devastated at the death of his beloved. Madame Leota often spoke for him on matters and the rest of the residents were left in a melancholy state, like their Master. The silence was only broken a few years later when Master Gracey came across a young girl attending her parents' funeral. Her name was Emily Cavanaugh and she had unexpectedly become the inheritor of a vast fortune after her mother and father's demise. Relating to the girl, George took pity on her and her plight. He decided to take the 16 year old under his wing and teach her how to come to terms with her loss and the sudden responsibility on her shoulders.
It did not take long, however, for joy to come back to the aging Master's eyes. Emily youthful liveliness gave him a happiness that was no longer in the Gracey home. He enjoyed her company and soon fell in love with her. Emily, naturally, became smitten with the Master, taken by his kind hospitality and talent of aging very well. As a matter of fact, he still had boyish, good looking qualities to him, despite being in his late 40s-early 50s. A wedding was close in the future.
The Manse was filled with joy for once in a very long time. However, George was very possessive of his young bride. Many say that it was because of her fortune, since Gracey spent most of his on his obsession with the occult. Whatever the rumor, the Master would hear nothing of it and only grew more protective of young Emily. Just days before the wedding, George heard the voices of his young fiance and another man in the attic. Fearing the worse, Gracey waits for Emily to leave before storming into the attic with an axe. Without even thinking, he decapitates the interloper, only to find that the poor soul was a runner from the hat shop. He was showing Emily a few hats to surprise George with for their wedding. Mortified at what he had done, George panics. He once again seeks the help of his ever faithful Madame Leota. Under her guidance, Gracey has a few of his servants bury the runner in the graveyard under an unmarked grave. The innocent man was buried with a hatbox that his stiff corpse refused to let go of.
Knowing that he murdered, it was only natural that a few guests to the wedding noticed that the Master was looking a little... pale at the ceremony. Emily noticed, as well. Concerned for her new husband, she figured that she would cheer him up with one of the games that they played before they were married. After the vows were exchanged and the party was over, the teenage bride could not even wait to get out of her wedding dress to play hide and seek. While George tried to humor the girl and play along, he wandered the mansion in search of her. Ash Emily sought out a place to hide, she ran into Madame Leota. The gypsy gave the young bride a very helpful hint to go into the attic and hide in an old, empty trunk. Ecstatic, Emily quickly rushed to the hiding place. It took Master Gracey hours to find his young bride and when he did, he was never the same for the rest of his life. The trunk Emily hid in was mysteriously locked from the outside. The teenage girl suffocated to death.
Of course, the wedding was called off. The rumors flew about the latest Mistress Gracey's death and the possible conspiracy that accompanied it. It was like salt to the wound for George. He was a wreck by now, but he had to redeem himself. He had to prove to the town that he truly loved Emily and not her money. On the day of her funeral, Gracey climbed onto her hearse and presented her wedding ring to the people that had come to mourn the young girl's death. He proclaimed his undying love for Emily and was about to put her ring on his little finger, but something spooked the horse pulling Emily's hearse. The animal took off running, through George off of it. Thankfully, the Master was not injured, but when he went to find the ring, the horse's hooves pounded it into the cobblestone.
This was the final straw. After that day, no one outside of the Manse was permitted to enter its grounds. Completely devastated with his loss, George gave up on his health. Over the next few years, depression overtook him and it showed. He aged considerably into an emaciated skeleton of his former self. Nothing seemed to break him of this eternal sadness and guilt as it ate away at him. Even Little Leota's death, the child that he avoided at all costs, left him further past his brink of despair. That night after he discovered that his handyman, gardener, and liveryman were lost to a sink hole, he found he body in the near by river. The frigid waters shrank the poor girl to the size of a doll.
It seemed like nothing could get worse for the Master. The house that he was trying to turn around from its dark history had turned on him. The living servants fled, fleeing their lives while they still had them. Everyone that he loved and that had been faithful to him was gone. The only one that was left was Madame Leota. With no one to blame but himself and the strange accidents that took everyone away, George's despair turned into rage. Leota finally gathered the gall to approach him and inform her real reason for being at the Mansion... It was not what he hired her for. She wanted to use the Mansion as a portal to the other sides and bring spirits into the mortal world. Wanting nothing to do with it, the conversation escalated into an argument. The two fought and in the heat of it, Leota confessed everything. She admitted that many of the mysterious deaths at the Manse were her doing: Aunt Victoria and her party... even Lilian and Emily. She claimed that no one was good enough for him. Horrified and fuming with this news, Gracey lunged at the gypsy he once trusted. He attempted to strangle her to death, but the Madame fought him off. Now vengeful of this attack, Madame Leota chased Master Gracey through the Mansion, trying to trap him within her crystal ball to remain hers forever.
George fled everywhere he could, but Leota cut him off at every turn. His last resort was a place where he never wanted to set foot in again: the attic. He had no choice, though. Rushing up there, the Master whirled around for a way out. There was none. No, wait. There was one way. The only way that anyone could escape the Mansion when they were trapped within it. The coward's way. He had nothing left. What else could he possibly lose? Thus, George found some rope and the highest rafter he could reach. Fashioning a crude noose, the Manse's last Master dropped it over his neck, then stepped off his support.
On February 29, 1943, Master George Gracey, Jr. was dead.
Do not think that his story ends here, though. After all, what would the Haunted Mansion be without it's haunted host? George who knows much longer after the incident, but not in Heaven or Hell as he thought. He was a half rotten corpse, but never felt lighter or better. He was a ghost, a spirit, the very thing he had been spending his adult life researching on. His sudden death and longing to be with his loved ones kept him from crossing over. This lead to the second part of his discovery. Many of the friends and family that died at the Mansion were ghosts, too. Nearly all of them were carrying on like nothing had ever happened. Some even seemed to be happier as spirits. Even his Uncle Gus seemed at least a little happier, having been joined in death by two of his friends from the Asylum. Then again, they seemed to constantly be trying to hitchhike a ride off the property. With this information, George immediately went to search for the two most important people in his life. He went to the swamp where Lilian had fallen to her death... and nothing was there. George searched everywhere he could, but he just could not find her. Lilian, for whatever reason, was one of the few that crossed over to the other side. Though distraught to never be joined with his first love, George found some consolation in the attic. Emily was there waiting for him, her heart beating a haunting rhythm in her undying love for him. Just as she figured out how to stay forever beautiful, George soon learned how to transform his rotting exterior to look young and handsome again, like he had when he was in his young, corruptible, mortal state.
Ironically enough, everything in death was looking far better than it did in life. Master Gracey was joyous again and reveled in this new afterlife. All is not well, however, for Madame Leota also stayed behind in the Mansion. Entombed in her crystal ball by the very spell she tried to use on George, she now forever tries to regain her revenge on the Mansion. George has once again become the peacemaker of his home and with supernatural abilities of his own and more experience, he does a better job at it. As his final resting place, George vows to guard his Manse and all that inhabit it, even inviting others to join under the wing of his hospitality. Of course, one must take at least some joy in such a heavy duty. George has regained his sense of humor and has become a bit of a jokester, himself. He was living it up in the afterlife and enjoying as much as he can.
Then again, there is that teeny tiny bump that makes up this entire roleplay's plot. After decades of unliving as forever Master of the old Gracey Manor, something changed for George. It was quick and painless. In fact, all he had to do was open a door. While making his rounds, Master Gracey simply opened a door that led him to a part of the Mansion he had never seen. Everything looked overdone and artificial. Before he could go back, however, the door he went through was gone. Panicking a little, Master Gracey wandered through this new Mansion. He saw many familiar faces, but they were merely copies of his friends and family. When he found this parallel Mansion's attic, he was shocked and confused at all the possessions and images of grooms and a bride he had never seen before. Who was this Constance? Why did she marry and kill so many husbands? Why was she in this strange replica of his house? This was never in the history of his home?
Determined to find answers, Master Gracey now wanders the grounds of Walt Disney World. He longs for the sight of a familiar, real face and seems to have spiraled into another state of melancholy. Will he ever find his way home to the ones he loves and his adored Emily?
Sources include www.gaiasdreams.com/ghostgallery/index.html & www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CpYpLFWGHI
ambitions:
-To find a way back to the REAL Haunted Mansion
-To find Emily or anyone else he knows
-To figure out how in the world he got here in the first place
-To be the greatest Ghost Host the World has ever seen.
strengths && abilities:
-Can fly for short periods of time
-Can control his tangibility
-Invisibility
-Able to materialize objects and change his appearance to suit his needs
-Can throw his voice
-Teleportation
-Charismatic
-Knowledgable
-Witty
flaws:
-Prone to moodswings
-Easily depressed
-Sensitive to light
-Stubborn
-Knows a little too much about things he shouldn't
-Dead
-Tends to be bad luck to others (open for interpretation)
likes:
-Being dead
-Death related puns
-The Haunted Mansion
-Books
-The Occult
-Emily
-His family
-His friends
-Meeting new people
-Learning
dislikes:
-Remembering his regrets
-Madame Leota
-Little Leota
-Threats to himself or his family and friends
-Actual, ill willed violence
-Himself, actually
fears:
-Never seeing Emily or the others again
-Crossing over
-Killing again
what makes this character unique: Master Gracey is a very ominous character. Some may think he's a villain, others think he's a hero. Either way, I have always been interested in his story and would love to experiment with ways on expanding it and getting to know him better.
RP SAMPLE: (From another roleplay.)
Such a variety of personas roamed the streets of the Magic Kingdom. Each emerged from one of the seven fabled lands with their own story and antics. Aptly named for a common gathering place, they often massed around the Hub in the very center of the park. There, their original creator watched over them all with bronzed eyes and hand in hand with his ever loyal and inspiring mouse. After all, it was all started by him.
But the Hub around the Partners statue is not where this character's tale begins. One must trek to Walt's right and towards a cluster of trees off to the side of Cinderella Castle. Lanterns lit by wicks dimly illuminated the concrete bridge that led into Liberty Square. The ever present howls of wolves and a skeletal Hellhound echoed from the right. A winding path led to a sprawling Mansion made of rot-iron and red bricks. Numerous windows were alit with both candles and an eerie blue aura. Screeches and impish laughter emanated from all directions on the property. A hearse stood in the courtyard, just behind the gates. The reigns outlined an invisible steed as it bobbed its head up and down impatiently. High up the steps, the massive front doors creaked open. Something emerged from the Manse, but it was far from what would be expected from this haunted place. On nicely shined dress shoes, a rather handsome young man passed the threshold and began his descent down the steps. The front doors slowly swung shut on their own.
He wore a blue suit that was dark enough to be mistaken for black, of which he was neatly adjusting to his liking with his slender, pallid hands. His dashing face was nicely sculpted, half lidded eyes revealing a pair of irises that shone as clear as sapphires. In the night, however, he seemed to give off his own source of light. It was a soft, barely visible blue and wisps of the aura danced around him with their own life.
Upon reaching the courtyard, the man paused and glanced about with relative indifference. Hearing the snorts of the unseen horse, he turned and calmly paced towards the hearse. Going immediately for the hovering bridle, he gently stroked the air between the eye blockers. The equine noises ceased and the bridle bobbed up and down. The man let out a soft chuckle through his nose as his thin lips curled to a smirk. Letting his interest fall elsewhere, he man continued his initial walk towards the gates. Meeting and spending time with the other inhabitants of the parks was an enjoyable one for the ghost, especially since most were unfamiliar with his face. Well, that was probably to be expected when your only depiction ever created was a portrait that withered into a decomposed skeleton. Still, Master George Gracey always thought it suited him.
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