Toujours OOC journal

( Patience predicament! )

This is Hector Redgrave, the son of a wealthy London merchant who works alongside the East India Company, selling on goods once they reach Britain from the subcontinent. Despite having a fantastic education, and all the material goods a man could want, Hector was hardly a satisfied young man, especially after his younger brother Jeremy married Margaret Beeton, the elder sister of Louisa Beeton. The loss of his only ally against their father, albeit by marriage led him to go out into some of the seedier areas of London, and look for women to occupy his time and thoughts with.

That is how he met Vivian Thorpe. He was quite taken with the young prostitute, and visited her several times before beginning to visit her less for physical pleasure but more for companionship. At 35 years old, he realised he was falling for the young woman, and no matter how much he tried to ignore it, he knew that he would never be permitted to marry her.

Unable to stand the idea, he left, travelling to India where he stayed and made his own personal fortune, bestowed the title of Count of Ajmer by the East India Company and her Indian Ally, the Raj of Sutlej-Indus, after a long campaign in the region which Hector funded. The inheritance of this title not only improved Hector's social standing, but also earned him large sums when gold was discovered in the river valley.

However, things were not to continue. After nearly a decade, Hector returned to England on the news of his father's death, only to find Vivian disappeared and his confident, Louisa Beeton managing her family's home by hiring rooms out to Navy Commanders, and, as far as he can see, very interested in a certain Quaker.

Now back, Hector is determined to find Viv, and if at all possible, correct the mistake he made before and marry her. But finding her is turning out to be harder than he expected, especially as it seems Harry Fisher, Viv's oldest friend, has kicked her out of her lodgings, and worse than that, is rumoured to have bumped her off.

So, any friends and contacts, colleges or confidants for Hector?

It seems like every time I really start to plot with someone, they end up not being too active. I'm trying to stay active in the game, but it's hard when I don't really have many plots, and Melisande doesn't have any friends at all. I know some of you have made offers to befriend her before, but it's so hard to keep track of that with all the characters running around here. What I'd really like for her at the moment is to have a few good female friends, either a couple of women to get into trouble with or someone opposite of her to have a love/hate friendship with. I'd also love her to have a love interest, either someone she has feelings for who isn't really interested in her, or someone who's trying to win her over (weather it be out of true love, or just to use her) who she's not really interested in though I'm sure she'd come around eventually, or maybe she could just fall for someone her father would never approve of, and they could have to keep it secret? and then a few random affairs would be great too if that's all I can get. I've got a lot of free time lately but in a few weeks school starts so it would be nice to thread with you all asap, while I still have time.

~R~

Hi! 
 I'm Afton (aka Mary Roper, Angelique Worthington and Abigail Mountford-Miles). This is Ensign David Hale, your average disillusioned enlisted man. He's 28, he's spent 12 years in the army and he's not too impressed with a lot of officers who he is supposed to obey. He just pissed off another one of them, and he's back in England to sort things out. Maybe life as a civilian wouldn't be so bad; it might pay better at any rate. 

He's had a few mistresses here and there, to put it mildly, but he's got a past with a lady who is now married to a country squire and he's still not exactly gotten used to that. Not that she should have married him of course. Just someone better than that idiot. You understand. 

David's a good soldier- good at somehow getting his men out alive and killing lots of other people in the process, really. But he doesn't have the cash to buy an advancement... yet. He's working on that. 

So... yeah. Anyone need a bodyguard? Mercenary? Drinking buddy? Romantic interest?

Hello!

I'm back after being ridicously busy. Is Josephine's and Adelaide's players still active? Who else is here?

Before I go to bed just time to introduce this new character to you all.

This is Eleri Bowen, she’s Welsh and came down from the valleys a few years ago to try and make her fortune although it didn’t quite work out that way. She now works at Madam Isabel’s house for Constance Mosely who she admires greatly.

Eleri is also two months pregnant at the moment although she doesn’t know that yet and she’d have a hard time naming the father thanks to her occupation.

If anyone has any plots they’d like to play out I’m open to anything!

Just to remind everyone that if you have pb or character on hold it's nearing the time when they'll be removed.

So please get those applications in soon.
Also if you have joined the comm with a new character but not yet introuded yourself and your character now would be the time.

The friends_button has been updated with all the new characters added to it.

However, I also have some bad news.
Penny, who plays Charles Hurst and Ella Wexley, has had to leave the game which means Charles and Ella are no longer in play.
If anyone would like to take on theses characters to help fill up these families and continue the storylines that were started that would be fantastic and you would be given priority over outside apps.

Mods

And D'oh! I posted this to my journal first.

Now there are over a hundred characters in game the ‘Characters in play’ list is taking a longer time to load and is beginning to look unkempt and hard to read. Therefore we will be re-doing the ‘Characters in play’ list – making it easier to navigate and dividing the characters into three groups based on social class:
Aristocracy,
Middle and Merchant classes
Working and Lower classes.

Hopefully this will make things easier for new people and also make the comm look a little more pretty.

And by the end of the day the friends button will have been updated to include everyone who is new.

Mods

Hi, Elyse here. Due to some personal health issues (now resolved, yay for modern medicine) I've been out of the game for about a month. Since there are so many new people and characters, I thought I'd just re-introduce all of mine to see if anyone wants to plot and/or play.

-Jacques Belmont: The son of the French ambassador. He's passionately Jacobin, extremely hard-working and perfectionistic, and, though he just passed the bar, works as a secretary in the French Embassy in London. He's also a satiric playwright and had one of his plays performed by a provincial French theatre company.

-Lady Gwendolyn Linley: Daughter of an Irish earl who made his money through the East India Company. She's a total gossip, thrives on scandal (as long as it's not about her), and hosts a political salon. Lady Gwendolyn's a Whig through and through and adores fashion and any sort of character defamation she hears.

-Robert Lovering/Richard Brinsley: That would be this guy/ the journal I'm using, an erstwhile, open-hearted American who fell in love with Daphne Lovering while in Paris, and then was thrashed within an inch of his life. Ouch. His plans to go back to the States and embark on a brilliant career somewhere or other now crushed by his bad health, he became addicted to opium and something of an alcoholic. He's now living under an assumed name (Richard Brinsley) as an MP of a rotten borough.

-Miles Rochester: Brother to Katherine Rochester. He has a host of books published in his name, and is extremely embarrassed whenever anyone asks about them because his sister actually wrote them, not him. He's quiet, mild-mannered, devoted to his family, and half-heartedly running his father's trade business. He also hates Lord Eward with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, but that's another story.

-Eliza Ferrars: Eliza made a name for herself as one of the new types of actresses, known for their character and characters as opposed to their lists of lovers, and is very proud of that. Someone ought to clean up the theatre's dubious reputation. She is a member of the Drury Lane Theatre Company, and is self-controlled, cool, extremely talented, and nigh-on puritanical in her morals.

Hello there everyone, Mari here again with my 3rd character. Antony Blackwood, Earl of Gourock, PBed by the wonderful David Tennant. Since you can find out so much from his profile I'm just gonna put up some of the important things.

1. Yes, he is Scottish, he knows this and while he is proud of it if your character meets him he will most likely be speaking with an English accent. He's afraid of being treated like an oddity. But if any of the ladies get him alone he'd be more than happy to slip into his scottish brogue if they would like to hear it.

2. He's completely mad about women, loving everything about them to the point of obsession with the entire gender. He's never met a woman he did not love instantly, and he always does his best to make them feel special. Trouble is, he's always falling in love with women, he can't commit to one for very long without finding another. Time with him would be short, but very, very special.

3. He paints. He is an artist, who has decided to paint nothing but the nude female form in all of it's glory. Being an Earl, though, it is not the right sort of hobby/occupation, so he pays another man to play the artist for him. It breaks his heart that he cannot truly be a fully fledged artist, and he only shares this secret with the women he paints. Oh, and if he ends up sleeping with a woman more than once, he must paint her if he has not already, it's one of the many quirks he has.

There was going to be a #4, but I started looking at pictures of David and got distracted... Anyway, he's open for plotting and would love some ladies to be his models.

Lord Hurst will shortly be holding a party for his blackmailer good friend, Sergius Petrov. Everyone is invited, especially those who Sergius knows and has business dealings with. Even Slater, Constance, Demetri and others.

So, those who want to go can, and have a wonderfully awkward time in the Hurst’s townhouse!

This is Thaddeus Henry Chadwick, Mayor of London and father of three adorable, mischievous children.

He studied law and rhetoric at Oxford University in his youth, and soon after graduating he became engaged to the socialite Sarah Ernest-Jones before travelling around Europe. He returned, married, and became involved with politics, the family business.

His first son, Isaac, was born when Thaddeus was 36. A year later, William was born, just as his father left for his post in Tuscany, acting as ambassador to the Duke. Sarah moved too, with the children, but the move was too much for William, who died before his first birthday. Sarah moved back to England, with Isaac, and two years later, once his term was over, Thaddeus moved back too. Now 40 and with a position in the shadow cabinet, and another child, Bianca, Thaddeus moved his family to a large country estate. He was shadow grain minister in the Tory government, a popular man, and rich. His family, although living some way from court and high society, did not go without luxury. But while on a business trip to London, Thaddeus fell ill, and once more the family moved to join him, coming to London to be together.

Sarah, not sure if her husband was going to live or die, and frankly bored of her life; exiled, as she saw it, to the country, she fell in with a handsome foreign young man, a play-boy con-artist. She gave him money, property, and was even seen attending parties with the man while her husband lay in his sick bed.

Thaddeus recovered, however, and soon after Sarah gave birth to Oscar, her youngest son. Rumour suggested that he was not Thaddeus’ child at all, and gossip only became worse when Sarah left one evening, travelling to Europe with her playboy.

Even so, he was given the position of London Mayor, and juggles looking after his children with his duties and political responsibilities, and coping with his wife’s betrayal. He's been told to divorce her, but hasn't begun proceedings yet, perhaps in the hope she'll return.

In the meantime, however, he needs friends, advisors, perhaps some sort of young lady interested in his money or in his children, and maybe someone who likes to spread gossip?

PB: Jeremy Irons

Yes. Another post. I'm sorry. For your sakes, I'm going to put this under a cut.

( Meet Lalla. )

Roz again because it’s the summer and I have no job and what’s a girl to do but play all day? This is Meredith Fairchild, he’s twenty-four and the forth son of a wealthy upper-merchant-class family who own a factory that makes rifles for the British Army.
Due to a falling out with his older brother Meredith left the family home and is now working as a tutor for a prestigious London family. He sends most of his pay check home for his mother to spend on medical care for his ailing father.

I’m looking for friends for him – he used to be at Cambridge studying History so would he have known any one there?
And his family, his mother will be joining him in game soon but he has three older brothers and a younger sister who I would love to see:
Gordon (32) who has taken over the factory from their father.
Benjamin who brought a commission in the army and is now a major,
James, a wastrel who is into gambling, women (or boys) and only comes back to the family home when he needs more money
And Joanna, a smart young woman with ideas on how to improve the family business who is ignored due to her sex.

I look forward to playing with you all in game and the pb is the most lovely Simon Woods who I am now a massive fan of because just yummy.

Hello, all, tis Poppy again.

I thought I should inform you all in advance that I shall be going on a semi-hiatus from August 23rd to 31st. This weekend, my parents decided to switch our Paris vacation to a Florida vacation, and now, rather than being able to have my Sidekick with me, my internet capabilities will drop significantly. However, as I said, it's only a semi-hiatus. The villa will have Wi-Fi and my mother has a laptop, so I'll be able to use that once she goes to bed in the evenings (this is evening, EST!).

Just for clarification, the characters affected by this will be Tessa du Labarre, Vivian Thorpe, Olga Fedorova, Marie Hardwick, Patrick Byrne, and soon, Diana Fairchild and Lalla Stephen.

I'll put up another quick post saying goodbye just before we go, so you're not expected to actually remember this. I just thought I'd inform you all now, and now I'm going to go back to finishing the apps for those TWO NEW CHARACTERS. And I just had Paddy, too. Blame Roz. It's all Roz's fault. And perhaps Nicole Kidman's.

Hello all! I'm Sheri and will be adding to your population with the character Claire Harwood. Claire is 24, English, the daughter of the Duke of Somerset, and she may be just a little naïve.

She is convinced whole-heartedly that there is good in everyone and with enough patience and effort even the worst of people can be helped. That ideal could stem from her mother's religious fanaticism - though she's quite the hypocrite, unlike Claire who is determined to be a do-gooder. She's not the preachy sort but tries to keep on a straight and narrow path.

No one's had the good fortune to corrupt her in all her years because she's generally always accompanied by an attendant and closely monitored by overbearing parents and a brother though she does think some sneaking about is necessary if she's going to rid the world of evil one person at a time.

Really, she's a sweet girl, clever in most conversations, but has been swayed on rare occasion (much to her horror) into gossip circles in an attempt to fit in with her own age group and social situation.

Feel free to try to ruin her charming view of the world. It'd also be very nice to have a girl near her own age as her two-faced friend.
Plots and things are more than welcome!

Hello everyone!
 Mary's lovely player got me thinking the other day about doing Harry's trial, well, the first of two he's been to. It'd be backdated to when he was 16 years old, and was caught house-breaking but spared hanging because of the testimony of a priest (paid, of course, by Harry's own gang-boss).

I was going to have Judge Burnbridge presiding, but I'd like to know if any of the figures from his past- Viv, Ann, Mary and Anna, would want to be present so after the boy's got away with the whole thing with only a whipping then can tell him to never, ever be so stupid as to get caught again.

Any ideas?

And another new character!

This is Reuben Saint John, your local friendly neighborhood deacon [assistant priest] of the Church of England. He helps minister to a parish in London, and although he has technically finished his religious training, he hardly thinks he is fit yet to manage a parish by himself. PB is Mr. J. Phoenix.

He’s come to the conclusion, you see, that he’s actually a very wicked and sinful human-being, who uses and betrays others for his own desires. That all comes about from his treatment of young Sebastian while they were both growing up in an orphanage, and Reuben has never forgiven himself. By day he is a calm, if somewhat haunted, leader of the community, and by night he is an ashamed, deprived pervert who seeks the company of young man in order to slate his lusts.

Reuben thinks himself a monster, and slowly, the idea is turning him mad. How much of a monster he really is remains to be seen, and how worried the local parishioners and the priest in charge are is also up for discussion, but please feel free to come visit him during or after the Sunday service!

I’d love to see the priest in-charge of the parish in-game, PB of Michael Caine, as well as some of his parishioners. Also, any volunteers for his companion at the Bridge Theatre?

-Jon

Roz again with a new character, Sebastian Pleasance who is currently working as the secretary of the manager of the bank and helping Sergius Petrov with his blackmail – providing him information and creating false accounts.
He lives at Miss Louisa’s in the top room for a small fortune.

Sebastian was the result of an ill advised liaison and was abandoned on the door-steps of the local church when he was only a few days old. Given that his mother, whoever she is, could have simply left him where no-one would have found him or smothered the child at birth he was extremely lucky and more so that she cared enough to leave him to the church. He was taken in, an orphan, and named by the men who worked there – Sebastian after the Saint.

Sebastian received an education beyond the expectations of other orphans, learning not only to read and write but also numbers and Latin and French. A smart child he excelled at all of these things but his intelligence and small frame made him a target for the other boys who lived in the church orphanage who bullied him incessantly.

He was also a target for the religious men who ran the orphanage but Sebastian used their attentions to protect himself from the other boys and gain perks the others never saw. At the age of eighteen when the others found placements in the church or apprenticeships Sebastian knew neither of those paths were for him. Using the evidence of their affair he blackmailed his priest, Father Pleasance, into finding him a job in the bank.

Sebastian started as a low level junior clerk but soon, being pretty and clever, had worked his way up to the secretary of the bank manager. But still that was not enough for Sebastian and he used his new position to begin stealing small amounts of money from the banks patrons. He met Sergius through such attempts and the man gave him a choice – either help Sergius in his blackmail, provide him with account and investment details or he would summon the constable and have Sebastian carted off to prison were he’d no doubt be hung.

Quite happy not to be hung Sebastian began working for Sergius, feeding him information in exchange for invites to social functions and a split of the profits.

So who is up for some plots with Sebastian? I think he could certainly have dealings with Demertri or anyone who’s using the bank he works at or who’s blackmailed by Sergius.
I’d also like to maybe do something about discovering who his parents are. Sebastian is twenty-two years old just to help get ages in order.