Danielle Richioux

A young excubitor, Danielle Richioux has been a part of Bastion in the hope of creating safety for mankind by eliminating it's threats, the Eldritch, and maintaining the order she creates with it. After the Juvenile incident with the United Few she was invited to become a bodyguard at House Beaumont.

Appearance
Danielle has a slim figure, like a dancer. She moves with a certain elegance which is enhanced by her porcelain skin and silky, white hair. Other than that she often wears a white dress above the knees, with black details. A pair of fitting snow-white boots, which end just above the knees, finish her attire. It's unknown what caused the white color of her long hair (which reaches down until almost the knees), yet she doesn't mind it and actually likes it this way. The last aspect that makes Danielle stand out are her piercing icy blue eyes.

Personality
People often mistake Danielle for a introvert person when they meet her for the first time. She has a curt, patient and polite behaviour when it comes to dealing with pleasantries, though this changes when she has to work.

When others are at stake or when she has to reach some kind of goal, Danielle's demeanor remains calm, dutiful and practical, yet her presence is clearly noticed. She works hard with a strong will, staying focused on the task at hand and the goal that has to be accomplished. Hardships are events she passes through with rational decisions. While she tries to keep an eye on individuel qualities and opinions, Danielle choses for effectiveness over empathy. With this, she is often considered honest yet direct towards others and this is something she can appreciate when it is directed at herself as well. Mindgames and manipulation are a sure way to make her see one as a possible liability or worse.

Above all Danielle strives to fulfill her promises, because she believes that loyalty and trust are the foundation for a succesful relationship (of any kind) or companionship. However so, Danielle is not one to blindly follow a person or organisation or continue following a path when it is proved to be 'wrong' after all.

Order and structures are values that are important to Danielle. It is something she feels to be necessary for safety. To ensure this she believes that it is necessary for people to know exactly what is going on and why. Unclear 'agreements' or guidelines and people who break established rules, without a rational and proved reason, undermine this effort, and are rarely tolerated by her.

Danielle is a person who keeps an eye on the whole picture while sorting through specific details. This gives her an analytical mind, with which she can think of multiple solutions to or situations resulting from certain events. She values statisical and factual knowledge above concepts and underlying principles. With this, she has a 'broad' intelligence, being capable of switching between a variety of situations when she has information on them.

Stubborness, insensitivity, bound by the book and judgemental are aspects of her personality that have been thrown in to her face by others on multiple occasions as negative aspects. While Danielle is one to accept her mistakes, she might not always do so on a whim notice. It takes time for her to adjust when she is proven wrong. The accusation of being insensitive usually doesn't bother her too much unless it would be said by one she truly holds dear. With that Danielle knows that she can be judgemental, she doesn't respect people who purposely disagree or remain ignorant of certain facts. However, when someone is able to rationally explain that he/she is aware of the facts and yet choses to bypass those facts with a specific reason or due to another fact, Danielle is willing to listen and consider the options.

Her biggest flaw, however, might be the fact that Danielle is one to take upon too much work and responsibility without accepting good intentions and helpful ideas when she does not believe there is another person to reliably handle certain situations. This usually occurs when she thinks a situation isn't handled with enough of a plan and structure to get through it succesfully. While she can handle quite a workload and responsibility, she can also fail to succesfully deliver if it becomes too much. At the end, Danielle would feel that the failure is hers alone to bear then.

History
Danielle was born in the high-class House Richioux. The family was not closely related to Bastion, yet it had strong connections to the government and a distant relationship to the crown (with the head of the family listed as 53th in line for the crown). Due to the disappearing of several important documents it is unknown how old the house exactly is. It is assumed that the house came in to existence around the same time as House Beaumont. The Richioux house was mainly investing in the development of medical care, which covered regular medical as well as medical care that concentrated on the Eldritch threat.

When Danielle was only a year and a half, the entire family was killed due to an attack of a juvenile Eldritch on the main house. The whole family and a few representatives of other families were present due to the celebration of Danielle's father succeeding his own father as head of the house. At the time, there were only a few excubitors present. The party was taken by surprise by the attack and the vindicator of the excubitors was nearly instantly killed. The remaining excubitors managed to kill the eldritch with extreme difficulty, with only one excubitor surviving his wounds. Danielle was guarded at the time in the family's safehouse, around 20 minutes away from the party. Upon discovering the attack, the bodyguard took Danielle away and left her with Emmanuelle d'Herbay, her legal guardian and an old friend of the family. The d'Herbay family is a small middle-class family known for being servants of high-class families.

While the other high-class families were informed about the survival of the Richioux heir, the family still lost it's position and power. The money and valuable possessions of the family was stored at the d'Herbay safe. Under tutelage of Emmanuelle, Danielle experienced a strict and straight-forward upbringing. With the funds of her family she was allowed to have a decent education.

When Danielle turned 18, she joined Bastion. After passing screenings and final test, she moved to the secluded area where Bastion members reside. Within a few years she managed to work herself up to the position of a veteran and a member of the 2nd directorate.

La Inhibiteur

 * The ability to manifest large ribbons and connect them to surfaces. Able to be controlled by her mind, the bindings are able to take hold of physical objects or attacks from Eldritch. They can have several effects:
 * Slowing down or restraining an object/attack/being (moving or not). Restraining something requires more strength from Danielle than slowing it down.
 * Softening the impact of an object or attack by enveloping it.
 * Stopping an object or attack flinging it back like a catapult.
 * She can generate a great number of them, but their individual strength diminishes with their number.

Épris d'Ordre
Danielle carries two weapons known as Épris d'Ordre. The two guns are her last resort as offense when a vindicator is incapable of finishing off an Eldritch. Her first gun is a cut-down Fusil Automatique Modèle 1918 modified to hold ten rounds and equip a scope, effectively becoming a designated marksman rifle. She mainly uses it when most of her team is still combat-ready and while the vindicator has yet to find an opportunity to strike. Without the scope, the rifle can be used at an effective distance of 400 meters; with a scope, that distance is nearly doubled. She carries the gun on her back with a strap over her torso, making it easy for her to travel with the gun and use it at any time. Her backup is the Bastion standard-issue Colt M1911, a hard-hitting pistol chambered in .45 ACP but with an extended 15-round magazine and lengthened 7 inch barrel. She uses it for closer ranges (40-70m or less) and when handling a rifle would be difficult. The handgun is strapped to the belt at her middle. Both guns are uncharacteristically white, the Colt having custom pearl grips that bear her family crest.

Relationships

 * Emmanuelle d'Herbay - A strict and honest woman. Danielle sees her as a mother-figure though their relationship seems to be more distant and more business-like than a true mother-daughter relationship.
 * Marguerite & Antoine Richioux - Danielle's parents. She doesn't remember them nor their deaths. Due to this fact, she is rather unphased by what happened to her family as she never consciously experienced the loss. She holds respect for her house, though that's as far as it goes. "Dwelling on what I never had is only going to slow me down on my path to a bright future. They were supposed to be my pillars, but they never had the chance and I do not blame them for it, because what could they have done? Chances are that they wouldn't want me to linger on it either, if I'm like any of them."
 * Chloe Martin - Chloe is Danielle's master in house Beaumont. As her bodyguard, Danielle tries to maintain a professional relationship with the girl, treating her with the respect a noble lady is used to. However, over the time that Danielle has served Chloe, she started to notice a growing friendship between them. This development seems to reach the point where Danielle feels like she might actually care for the wellbeing of the girl more so as friend than as a bodyguard.
 * Denis Martin - Chloe's older brother, Danielle has taken a near instant disliking to the young man. She does not trust him and feels like he sees Chloe as the means to an end with his own goals. Danielle's behaviour to him can only be described as cold and cautious.
 * Adrien de Lorraine - The bodyguard of Denis Martin. Just like his master, Danielle dislikes the man and doesn't trust him. She recognizes the bodyguard as a threat and someone who plays a part in a bigger game.
 * Sophia Charretier - A fellow bodyguard within Beaumont. Danielle knows her to be one of the strongest, if not the strongest, bodyguard in Beaumont and that she is still far away from getting close to her level. Danielle is rather uncomfortable with Sophia's teasing, but is learning to know the individual as a kind person with a unique view of the world. Slowly but surely, Danielle is warming up to Sophia and starts to trust her view on certain matters.
 * Aidan Fortescue - The son of Marguerite Richioux's bodyguard who survived the Tragedy. Danielle is intrigued by the young bodyguard, who seems to be somewhat hesitant in approaching her. She feels like there is a lot unspoken between the two of them and wishes to sort it out.
 * Reynard Dufort - Reynard is a person who Danielle initially respected due to his role in the training camp she went through. Because of his position and his genuine demeanor, he still holds some of the respect of Danielle. However, the fact that he disregards orders for the sake of an individual or what he thinks to be right without taking in account the mission's success is something that Danielle is uneasy with.
 * Alexandre Degaré - Danielle encountered Alexandre during the Juvenile incident with the United Few. She utterly dislikes his personality and can be quite hostile towards the man.
 * Cécile Lapointe - A former member of Bastion, Danielle worked together with Cécile on several occassions. The two of them never truly bonded however. Danielle has respect for Cécile's abilities in combat and found her to be a good vindicator. Currently Cécile is looked upon with a certain ambivalence by Danielle, she is unsure what to make of the vindicator's motivations en decisions.
 * Amira Noir - Danielle met Amira during a mission for Bastion. While Danielle has nothing against her behaviour in battles, it seems that there are aspects of Amira's personality which don't appeal to her. To Danielle it seems like Amira lacks a true motivation to reach her goal as she retrieves it from looking at others instead of at herself. The unexplained friction is the cause that Danielle sees her more as some kind of opposite or rival than as a comrade in Bastion.

Trivia

 * Often referred to as Dani by comrades.
 * Politicians have expressed their curiosity for Danielle's future plans. While she doesn't have much influence on her own, she does have the necessary money and can easily be made in to a public face of an organisation. Regardless, it is difficult for them to reach her as Danielle tries to keep a neutral name.
 * It's unclear how the other houses regard her.
 * She used to dance a lot when she was little.
 * Danielle's regular theme, battle theme
 * Flare's character