Bonnie-Marie de Chagny was the Sueniverse's very first Sue. Her name was taken directly from the hilariously bad fanfic All I Ask of You by TripleHsgirl4life, and her dark secret was inspired by one too many viewings of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical CATS by her Suethor Mandy.
Appearance[]
Bonnie-Marie in human form.
Bonnie-Marie is very slight, standing at only 4'11" tall and weighing a mere 100 lbs. Her stature is in direct disproportion to her exceptionally large and expressive brown eyes, which often sparkle with happiness or grow dark in times of sadness or worry. She has thick, wavy brown hair that reaches the middle of her back and that she sometimes fastens with ribbons.
Her most notable physical features are only visible during the full moon (which, apparently, occurs whenever it makes for a good plot or her Suethor just feels like it), when she transforms into a Jellicle. At these times she resembles an attractive anthropomorphic calico cat, complete with a spiked collar which has shockingly never been used for anything remotely sexual.
Bonnie-Marie's character model is Veerle Casteleyn, the Belgian musical theatre performer who portrayed the kitten Jemima in the 1998 CATS video. Images of her in real life and in-character as Jemima are both used.
Bonnie-Marie in Jellicle form.
Personality[]
Bonnie-Marie's disposition is most often obnoxiously sunny, regularly introducing herself to every person she sees and skipping from room to room, but she has also been known to become extremely emotional and angsty when confronted with a problem or remembering her childhood. Being reminded of her "condition," especially by or around men she is involved with romantically or sexually, generally sends her into nearly uncontrollable panic attacks characterized by actions such as melodramatic sobbing, vocal abuse of innocent Walmart customers, and attempts to throw herself off the Opera House roof. Her mood swings are often so sudden and so severe that she may be bipolar.
She is generally considered to be very innocent and naive due to her sheltered upbringing, yet seems to be surprisingly open to sexual experimentation, having had sex in such locations as the Opera kitchens and under a table at a bistro. Despite this, she rarely understands sexual innuendo and often acts very sensual without having any intention of doing so.
She rarely gets angry at anyone other than herself, but she did once attempt to kill Nadir out of rage.
Backstory[]
Bonnie-Marie was born to an upper-class family and raised on an estate outside of Paris, France. When she was very young it was discovered that she was a wereJellicle, one who transforms into a cat at every full moon. How she came to be a wereJellicle is unknown, but her parents were so ashamed of her condition that they kept her locked inside the mansion day and night, never even allowing her to make any friends her own age. Her only companions were the manion's staff, which including a butler named Jeeves who became her closest friend.
Despite having never taken a formal lesson in her life, Bonnie-Marie showed a great ability to dance ballet from a very young age. Her parents refused to send her to dance school for fear of her condition being found out, so Jeeves the butler trained her himself in the attic of their house. By the age of 17, she had become one of the best young dancers in all of France (though, of course, she was unaware of this) and was desperate to get away from home and perform for audiences around the world. Her cousin, Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny, was a patron of the Opera Populaire, and he offered her the chance to come join the corps de ballet there. Her parents were completely opposed to the idea until Bonnie-Marie sat them down and explained to them just how much ballet meant to her. In a moment of pure OOCness, they allowed her to go.
On the Sueniverse[]
Dominic and the Angel of Food[]
Not banged him, but betrayed him...
Bonnie-Marie showed up at the Opera eager to finally make some friends, but terrified of what might happen should her dark secret ever be found out. Shortly after her arrival, she made the discovery that Anneke was the younger sister of Christine Daae, the ex-wife of Bonnie-Marie's cousin Raoul, making Bonnie-Marie and Anneke cousin-in-laws. Both were very happy with this discovery of a family member at the Opera.
While in the Opera's kitchens, Bonnie-Marie encountered Nadir, who cooked a chicken for her and offered her cooking lessons. Because of this, Bonnie-Marie began referring to Nadir as her Angel of Food, having no idea that Nadir was falling in love with her.
When Bonnie-Marie met the stagehand Dominic on the roof of the building she began an immediate flirtation with him. Just as the scene was becomming romantic, Bonnie-Marie suddenly belt over, clutching her stomach and screaming in pain. (Her transformations often take place in the middle of such important scenes.) She tried to get away from Dominic, but he followed her downstairs and witnessed her transformation into her Jellicle form. Horrified by what has just happened, Bonnie-Marie rushed back up to the roof, vowing to throw herself off of it and end her cruel life. Naturally Dominic followed her and, in typical badphic fashion, proclaimed both his love for her and his indifference to her condition. Overcome with joy, Bonnie-Marie jumped him and the two made love on the roof.
Their encounter was interrupted, however, when both The Managers and Nadir showed up on the roof. Firmin and Andre were shocked (and thrilled) to see it, but Nadir was heartbroken.
- "...he turned from the rooftop and went back the way he had came, wanting no one to witness the shattering of his soul and the breaking of his mind. On his way through the attics, he punched a hole in a wall. I cooked you a chicken...gave you both the wings...and now how you've repaid me--not banged me but betrayed me. He was bound to love you when he heard you swing...((between Jellicle and human, that is...))"
When Bonnie-Marie cried out to him, more worried that he would never give her another cooking lesson than anything else, Nadir mistook her tone and assumed Dominic had taken advantage of her. A fight for Bonnie-Marie's honor quickly followed, ending only when Bonnie-Marie exclaimed to Nadir,
- "Angel please, stop! Dominic didn't do anything wrong, I put the moves on him! He didn't hurt me, I enjoyed it! But that doesn't mean that I don't still want you to give me cooking lessons, because I really, really do!"
Dominic was soon fired for all of this, but that didn't stop him and Bonnie-Marie from becomming engaged.
Ichy and Roux[]
Sharpening her claws?
A short while later, during a time period when Dominic was nowhere to be found, Bonnie-Marie took up with Ichabod Crane after meeting him in the foyer and offering him a tour of the Opera. The two wound up in the kitchens and had sex on the floor in a puddle of egg slime, the result of Bonnie-Marie having dropped a carton of eggs. Afterwards, Bonnie-Marie annoyed "Ichy" by losing all interest in cooking and having one of her oh-so-sudden mood swings, leaving the kitchen on the verge of tears.
Out on the back steps of the Opera House, she made a grisly discovery: the remains of Dominic, who had jumped off the roof when he heard Bonnie-Marie had become involved with someone else. In her terror, Bonnie-Marie assumed he was pushed to his death and wildly accused Ichabod of committing the crime out of jealousy. She soon realized she had jumped to a very rash conclusion, but the damage was done; Ichabod was angry and Bonnie-Marie was more distraught than ever before.
Upon her return to the foyer, Bonnie-Marie met Roux, a gypsy newly arrived at the Opera. He comforted her, played his guitar for her, they tangoed passionately together, and soon found themselves having sex underneath a table at the Opera House Bistro, which is (naturally) where Ichabod found them. During the confrontation that followed, Ichabod slapped Bonnie-Marie and she inconveniently transformed into her Jellicle form and ran away. This entire situation was best summed up by Ichy in his diary:
- "Has been interesting day. Went to catch up with lady love; discovered she'd been canoodling with some guitarist. Gave her what she deserved, and she promptly turned into a cat. She wailed and moaned for a bit, but when I said enough was enough, was screamed at and scratched. Hmm. Now have dashing scar."
The two remained seperated for quite awhile, reuniting only when neither of their Suethors could think of anything else to do with them. Once they were back together, Bonnie-Marie discovered she was pregnant, though the identity of the father is unknown. Feeling neglected, Bonnie-Marie went to Walmart and began angrily shouting and knocking things off shelves, slipping on a can of pickled beets in the process. The severity of the fall she took resulted in a miscarriage, though it was never actually diagnosed by anyone who knew what they were talking about.
Ichabod and Bonnie-Marie never reconciled, mostly due to Ichabod's disappearance from the 'verse. In the days that followed, Bonnie-Marie had an angry confrontation with Nadir on the stage, during which he accused her of being fickle and she attempted to kill him with a prop goblet.
Completely, 100% Human[]
After wandering for quite awhile, depressingly plotless, Bonnie-Marie greeted the witch Malefica upon the latter's entrance to the opera, and out of gratitude Malefica fulfilled Bonnie-Marie's lifelong wish: to become completely, 100% human. No longer a wereJellicle, she felt a strange mixture of freedom and loneliness, and so travelled to the de Chagny estate looking for family and a place to stay. She created a sort of bond with her distant cousin Scarlett O'Hara, born almost entirely out of desperation and a desire to please (Bonnie-Marie's) and boredom and pity (Scarlett's).
Scarlett confided in Bonnie-Marie that she was tired of being alone (her husband having died at war) and was quite interested in Andrew Blakeney, so the two have now set out on a quest to catch Blakeney's attention for Scarlett. Their first outing, to the Opera Populaire, found Bonnie-Marie reunited with Derek Wilhelm von Schwartz, whom she had previously met while dancing in the foyer at night. The two had had some very obvious chemistry, which was dampened only slightly when Derek found out (while eavesdropping on a conversation between Bonnie-Marie and Malefica) that Bonnie-Marie was a wereJellicle.
Please note[]
All of the images on this page were lovingly borrowed from The Unofficial Veerle Casteleyn Fan Site.