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Realistic or Modern The Family Business

Shireling

A Servant of King and Country
The Family Business is a noir RP that follows primarily the adult sons and daughter of a private detective moving past old greviances and uniting to solve their father's murder. They are assisted in this endeavor by a motley crew of family friends, ranging from a postman to an unusually kind mobster; however, in their pursuit of their father's killer, they open up the door to the criminal underworld of the rainy industrial town of Arcanum, Oregon, on the Pacific Coast.


For this RP, I'm hoping to recruit at least 6 people to play the characters I have already written out. When all characters have been claimed, I will allow people to submit ideas for characters and if I like them I will add them to the canon. I am, however, going to accept no more than 8 people besides myself.


The characters have descriptions asigned to them, but you will be allowed to and expected to expand upon and personalise your character as long as it does not contradict their canonical description.


For those unfamiliar with the noir genre, they typically follow hard-boiled private detectives investigating cases on behalf of untrustworthy femme fatalles. Examples: anything with Humphrey Bogart in it, really. This RP will follow a non-traditional set of characters, but will have some of the same themes.


The characters list is provided below. Note to all that I will most likely play as Alexander Pearson.


The Family Business - Playable Characters


Alexander Henry Pearson is the oldest son and first child of the late Andrew Pearson. As a boy, Alexander was groomed by his father to follow in his footsteps as a policeman. Alexander, however, proved a constant disappointment to his father. He had no propensity for violence, or stomach for gore. He much preferred the predictable calm and security of his sequestered study.


In his teenage years, Alexander finally took on baseball as a hobby and went on to study law in Seattle on a baseball scholarship. He returned to Arcanum to work at a local law firm. When the firm was disbanded, he took up work as the Pearson Detective Agency's lawyer and accountant, begrudgingly.


Up until the day his father died, Alexander never stopped resenting him for his pigheadedness and disdain for the law. Now, he somewhat regrets that rift between himself and his father.


Roderick "Roary" Caleb Pearson is the youngest son of Andrew Pearson. Where Alexander was intelligent and reserved, Roary was always brash and loud. Never the brightest boy, Roary was endowed with a great bit of common sense and street smarts came naturally to him. Because of his boisterous and streetwise nature, he was groomed by his father to follow in his footsteps after he "failed" with Alexander.


It seemed like he would, when the War came. Drafted by the War Board, he was shipped off to basic training in 1917 and landing in France in early 1918. The Army robbed Roderick of some of his boisterousness, but he arrived back in Arcanum in early 1919 with the intention of joining his father in the family business, only to find him suddenly murdered.


Amelia Engel Pearson is the oldest daughter of Andrew Pearson. Much like Alexander, she was never close to her father and stuck to her mother's side. When her mother died, Amelia lashed out against her father by associating with thugs and bootleggers. Despite her criminal company, she was always clever, curious, and close to Alexander, with whom she shared much in common. After her first marriage to a small-time Irish mobster ended in her widowing, Amelia moved back into the family home with her father and Alexander. Unfortunately, she had little time to mend fences with her father before his murder.


Other Minor and Playable Characters


Frankie Garibaldi - an uncharacteristically kind-hearted made-man of the Tapani Crime Family who was a close family friend and gave Drew Pearson needed information on the Mob.


Richard O'Keenan - an enforcer for the Irish Mob, related to Amelia's late husband and interested in becoming Husband #2


Percy Dent - a mild-mannered postman who occasionally accompanied Mr. Pearson on cases, respected by the late detective for his skills of perception and keen marksmanship, a close family friend.


Wilma Dent - Percy's sister and occasional tag-along, a young schoolteacher.


Finally, anyone giving this RP consideration needs to be committed to seeing the plot through. If you have the possibility of dropping out, don't join. Also, don't join if you feel you can't provide well-written posts with decent grammar. Other than that, I'm a very lenient storymaster and I will give no set post deadlines or length minimums.


Thank you for your consideration, you may ask to join in the comments below and once I have given you the go ahead you may claim a character. Characters come on the basis of first come first serve.
 
Troy said:
I'm interested in the Roderick "Roary" Caleb Pearson role.
I see that you're new. That's a pretty important role. Do you think you can handle it? I'd like you to send me a sample of some of your writing, if you can. Here or by PM.

NeoLeaf said:
I am still interested.
I'll play along even.
Great. I think I'll probably need you to help me with the plots, even if you don't play a character. Noir plots usually have a lot of loose ends to them and twists and turns.
 
I'll take the liberty to give some information on the setting as well while we wait.


Arcanum, Oregon was founded as a military port by the British in 1832, making it one of the oldest settlements in the Pacific Northwest. The original settlement was confined to Bessimer Island, defended by the large coastal fort, Fort Kearn.


Gradually, with agreements between the British and American governments, American pioneers and settlers arrived in the 1850's, building along the flat, rocky coastline and across the wide open valley of modern Arcanum in a series of small settlements to panhandle for gold and to trap various game for their fur.


With the influx of white settlers, the Klamath tribe was deeply upset by their disruption of game trails and commercial fishing. Klamath warriors ransacked the settlements in 1872, but were pursued by the British Army and the American Cavalry into Washington state where they were slaughtered in a surprise attack at the Battle of the Three Eagles.


In 1878, America gained full control of Bessimer Island and England left for good. Still, a large portion of English citizens remained in Arcanum. In the 1880's Chinese from California arrived to escape mob violence in San Fransisco and other Californian ports as a result of anti-Chinese hysteria. The Chinese lived in relative harmony with the Anglo-Americans until a string of ritual murders in 1892 were linked eroniously to a Chinese man.


After the conviction, the Chinese began to form tongs like they had in San Fransisco to protect themselves from the police and angry union members who wanted them out of Arcanum. At the same time, Irish organized crime arrived, led by John "Six Fingers" O'Connor in Arcanum to take over the bootlegging industry as Arcanum County was made dry in 1890. Following on their coat tails, the Tapani Crime Family from Sicily and the Sindachi from Naples. The families hated each other, prompting a heated gang war that lasted from 1896 to 1901 that claimed the lives of hundreds.


An influx of Japanese arriving in the early 1900's as a result of President Roosevelt's Japanese removal initiatives driving them out of California led to the rooting of the yakuza in Arcanum. These honor-obsessed Japanese gangs clashed with their historical enemies, the Chinese, in yet another gang war that lasted from 1906 to 1909 and was far bloodier. All municipal attempts to curb the violence failed, as the heads of the police force were bent by the Mob.


The year is currently 1919. Prohibition is close to being ratified, but Arcanum has been in a dry county for years, making it ahead of the curb on bootlegging norms. Since the founding of the Ironworks in 1912, an influx of business and commerce has made Arcanum a dangerous but fast growing metropolis. The North Side is riddled with gang activity, while the South Side is reserved for the well-to-do and middle class workers who have been able to "escape across the tracks." Arcanum is a city with great potential for both revitalization and ruin, though the path the city will take is still unclear.


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I'd probably go for the elder siblings Amelia or Alexander.
 
NeoLeaf said:
I'd probably go for the elder siblings Amelia or Alexander.
I've got Alexander, so you get Amelia.

Rui said:
I think I'll go for Wilma. Is it okay if I make her a bit more major?
I mean, she is "major" in the sense that she has the potential to be important but she isn't the focal point of the plot.
 
Shireling said:
I've got Alexander, so you get Amelia.
Oh, I expected you to antagonize us like in the last thread. Alright, Amelia it is.

Rui said:
Yep, that's what I meant. Like, I'll go love interest on someone.
I'm glad to see a familiar face.


Looking forward to posting with you.
 
NeoLeaf said:
Oh, I expected you to antagonize us like in the last thread. Alright, Amelia it is.
I'm glad to see a familiar face.


Looking forward to posting with you.
I will both play a friendly character and all the antagonists.


By the way, I hope nobody is easily offended. I'm not personally a racist, but this is 1919 and I'm playing this historically straight.
 
Still looking for a Percy, Frankie, the Irish guy, and possibly Roary as Troy hasn't said anything.
 
@Shireling it seems as though I have! I'm relatively new to Noir concepts but give me a light to follow and I'll try my best!
 
Rissa said:
@Shireling it seems as though I have! I'm relatively new to Noir concepts but give me a light to follow and I'll try my best!
Well, the best tips I can give you about noir is that it's like normal mystery fiction except A) it almost always follows a private detective and B) it is usually gritty, grim, dark, and violent. If you can channel that attitude, you're golden. It also helps to be familiar with the time period. It's 1919 at the start of the RP. World War One has just ended and the relative harmony of the home front has been disrupted as the doughboys come back from Europe. The United States is racially divided and economically inequal. Meanwhile, the Progressive movement is putting forth what would prove to be it's last gasp in the early 20th Century, Prohibition, which will lead to an explosion in the already booming organized crime industry.
 
Alright, so we have @Shireling as Alexander Pearson, @NeoLeaf as Amelia Pearson, and @Rui as Wilma Dent.


@Rissa, @Troy, since I don't know you guys I would kind of like a sample of your writing if you are still interested in joining up. Troy has expressed interest in playing Roary Pearson. I would also like to have Percy Dent filled before I have Frankie and Richard, as their parts can be played easily by NPCs.
 

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