Fantasy Queensway CS

[Hard Boiled]

Pretty basic CS here. Not looking for anything insane.

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Sexuality:
Appearance:
(Height, Weight, Build, Skin Color, Hair Color, Eye Color, Distinct Features)
Outfits/Normal Clothing (If not in the face claim):
Personality Description:
Peculiarities/Quirks:
Skills/Equipment:
Bio:​

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Myself and queendilettante
NAME
Mary and Helena Nevitt
GENDER
Female
AGE
20
Homosexual SEXUALITY Heterosexual

APPEARANCE

HEIGHT
5'5" (165cm)
WEIGHT
~140lbs (~63.5kg)
BUILD
Average
COMPLEXION
Pale, lightly freckled
HAIR COLOR
Chocolate Brown
EYE COLOR
Blue

To distinguish themselves when necessary, Mary keeps her hair down, wearing less puffy clothes, while Helena puts her hair in a bun and prefers thin dresses or skirts.
Mary also wears glasses, which she is blind without, and often a coat on top of her shirt. Helena wears a simple necklace* with a leather-bound heart.
Mary has a small scar under her left ear, usually covered by hair. Helena is missing the tip of her right pinkie finger.
Besides these small differences, the twins are physically identical.

PERSONALITY
Mary covers up a naïve and childish side through theatrical and dramatic bravado; she presents herself as significantly more in control than she feels to actually ever be.
Her over-the-top and performative nature distinguishes her significantly from her more straight forward sister, who she always aspires to impress.
While often in charge of logistics, Mary has a somewhat bad habit of keeping others in the dark for the sake of a grand reveal.
She can be short with those that she’s close to and a bit gullible, but she’s very loyal to everyone she cares about and her gang.
She always has the best interest of her sister and the gang at heart, even if she doesn’t always know how best to express that.

Helena is both the angel and the devil on Mary's shoulders, grumbling unsolicited advice at any opportunity.
She provides morale that the gang is often desperately lacking, personally taking the time to check with each member during downtime.
While Mary handles the more technical aspects of running the gang, like logistics and planning,
Helena more often finds herself in the mix with the crew, getting her hands dirty. While her infectious confidence brings the gang life, it also
has the potential to drag them into impulsive, avoidable confrontations. Though, usually she sticks by her sister's plan.

PECULIARITIES/QUIRKS
Both sisters are left-handed.
Mary plays chess in her free time and keeps a small White Bishop piece in one of her pockets as a good luck charm.
Helena sleeps with an old, worn rag doll named Louise. She has a pouch on her belt entirely dedicated to colored pens and her notebook.
Mary loves flowers and has a tendency to grab any that she sees to build bouquets and other floral arrangements.


SKILLS/EQUIPMENT
Mary has two Colt 1851 Navy revolvers on her sides that she fights with. Helena carries a Colt Single Action Army. All three firearms were salvage from the Empire's many recent wars.
Both have plenty of plinking practice with their respective firearms, but very little field experience.
Mary tends to walk with a cane, which conceals a sword as a secondary weapon, as well as a dagger in each boot. Helena wears a small heart-shaped push dagger *necklace for emergencies.
Mary keeps a deck of cards with her to try and rob people at bars as a Blackjack dealer or for distraction. Helena owns a trick coin with tails on both sides.


BIO
Mary and Helena were born to Joseph and Elizabeth Nevitt on December 25, 1858. The “Christmas miracle” that was identical twins quickly turned into a Christmas Curse with sickness plaguing the twins’ infant and toddler years. Somehow surviving infancy, the two were then faced with the sudden death of their father to consumption.
Their mother struggled to keep them afloat for a few years, but before the New Year after the twins’ 9th birthday, their mother had succumbed to the same disease as their father.

In a twisted sort of way, being orphans suited the girls. They quickly learned to take control of whatever situation they were thrown into and to live on their own by whatever means they could. Throughout the remainder of their childhood and teenage years, the orphan twins gained a reputation as great thieves and constant schemers.

Now, the two have turned their eyes upward. Ambition may be dangerous for criminals, but what else can they do but play the hand they’ve been dealt? If anyone could turn a group of street urchins from the Queensway slum into an internationally feared gang, it would be them.​

 

[Solar Daddy]

Bruce McIntosh
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Appearance:

Height: 5’11”
Weight: 190lbs
Build: Stocky
Skin Color: Fair/pale
Hair Color: Reddish brown
Eye Color: Green
Distinct Features:
Bruce has many cuts and bruises all over his body, most of which are old scars or remnants of past fights.

Outfits/Normal Clothing (If not in the face claim):

Personality Description: Bruce is a brusque individual with curt sentences and a stoic outward appearance. He is assured in himself and doesn’t back down from a challenge, regardless of the danger nor the threat of reprimandation. Bruce contains enough might to rival the Highlands of his home. He keeps precious care for those he’s fond of while having spite for anyone else. He can seem barbaric or draconian at times, but Bruce means well despite his destructive nature. He’s out of his element in England, which can sometimes set him up as an outcast or a social oddity.

Peculiarities/Quirks: Bruce has a Scottish accent which can sometimes be hard to understand to those not accustomed to it. Additionally, Bruce is known to wear kilts from time to time.

Skills/Equipment: Bruce’s best skill is his might, physically imposing and generally being the brawn of a given operation. Otherwise, Bruce has an Uberti 1875 break-action revolver and a Chassepot rifle (saved for very special occasions). Additionally, Bruce keeps a decorative Highland dagger with him whenever possible. Lastly, despite never actually using it much, Bruce owns a claymore, a familial heirloom that he keeps hidden somewhere in London. He’s used it for dramatic shows of intimidation, while never actually using it in combat more than once or twice.

Bio:
Bruce McIntosh was born in October of 1854 in the Scottish Highlands, just outside of Fort William on Loch Linnhe. Throughout his childhood he learned to love his ancestral homeland and would spend most of his time taking in the breathtaking sights of the Highlands. Bruce was always wild though, and couldn’t be contained by his parents, romantic interests, or anyone else. Bruce always did as he wanted, which made it difficult for those around him to keep him in one spot. From his time in adolescence and up until young adulthood, Bruce was one to enjoy the countryside he loved so much.
He spent most of his time exploring the wilderness and mountains of his homeland, or spending nights in taverns. Bruce grew up quickly, and in addition to his love of all extreme aspects of life, he enjoyed being on the edge of death as well. Brawls, mountain exploration, wildlife hunting; Bruce was good at it all, and it kept his blood pumping through his veins. He never wished for it to end.
Bruce had a particular love for his younger brother, Elliott. The two would often get into mischief together, to which their mother was not fond of. When the two had gotten older, Elliot seemed to have outgrown his crime spree and pursued a more responsible care for his schooling and work ethic. Bruce, throughout his entire life, kept up with casual acts of stealing, brawling, and general unconformity. Bruce and Elliott started growing apart in their young adulthood, once close brothers; by the time Bruce met his flame, the two were little more than acquaintances.
At the age of 19, Bruce McIntosh met Sophie Morrison, who would go on to capture Bruce's interest for some time. The two would go on to form a relationship and eventually unofficially wedded in Aberdeen. Bruce and Sophie had a boy shortly after they married named Logan. Their lives seemed to be set, and Bruce even found his short temper and love of alcohol tempering over time. Unfortunately for the couple, their lives would be riddled with grief and pain. Logan became deathly ill. Bruce's relationship with Sophie struggled through the stress they felt, and Bruce began taking up drinking heavily once again. A few months later, Logan lost his fight against his sickness and Bruce fell into a deep spiral. He'd spend days on end away, out drinking or trying to calm his mind in nature. His already stressed relationship with Sophie collapsed in the following months, and she eventually left with no trace for Bruce to try and find her.
Bruce was living his life on repeat for the next month or so. He'd drink and brawl day in and day out. Over time his heartache lessened, whether it was from his constant inebriation or brain damage from his constant fights.
Unfortunately for him, Bruce was the killer of a prominent English officer. It was a misunderstanding, it wasn’t supposed to go that way; Bruce swung a few times, sure, but how was he supposed to know the old fool would die from it? He was quickly apprehended at the local tavern and brought to London to rot for the rest of his miserable life. No mountain views, just the damp rock walls of his prison.
Bruce remained here for about a year, until the ultimate opportunity arose; he saw a way out, and Bruce took it without looking back. Even being a criminal hiding in the London sewers beat looking at the same walls for the rest of his life. For Bruce, it didn’t have to be a beautiful view; it just had to be new. And fortunately for him, the new friends he made during his breakout offered that for him.​

 

[Aeris]

Name: Eleanor Bennett (Ella)
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Appearance:

• Height
  • 5’3
• Weight
  • 104 lbs
• Build
  • Lithe
• Skin Colour
  • Pale
• Hair Colour
  • Red
• Eye Colour
  • Green
• Distinct Features
  • Freckles

Outfits/Normal Clothing (If not in the face claim):
An ankle length, high waisted, dark brown skirt, with a white blouse and black corset. Brown boots are worn as well. A gold locket containing her family's last portrait together. (Will find pic or make a collage of vibe)

Personality Description:
At a glance, Eleanor comes off as an innocent young girl with a friendly and upbeat attitude. Some would go as far as to call her ditzy. Over the years however, Eleanor has learned to utilize her outwardly appearance and personality to benefit her and her friends. She holds herself with the confidence she had been raised to have and doesn't back down from decisions easily. Beyond that though, is a genuinely kind girl who will do anything for her friends sake.

Peculiarities/Quirks:

• Eleanor twirls her hair when she’s nervous
• Fires of any kind make her uncomfortable, as she's afraid they could get out of control and hurt the people she cares about
• She cannot sit still and if she isn't sitting, she is pacing

Skills/Equipment:

• A dagger she keeps tucked away within her skirts
• Ella is classically trained and, over the years has utilized her singing skills to provide distractions for her or her friends to steal from people
• She uses people's assumptions of her to her advantage. She pretends to be ditzy in order to manipulate unsuspecting people.

Bio:

Born into nobility, Eleanor Bennett’s life could best be described as a fairytale. Her father, George Bennett was a successful businessman, owning several establishments in the city of London while her mother, Amelia, was the socialite of the family. When Ella was born on the 13th of October, the couple, though thrilled, grew worried. If Eleanor was to inherit anything, it would be their property, not the businesses George had worked hard to build up. Their only hope would be having a son. Eight years later, Henry was born.

Before Eleanor could even talk, her life had been planned out. She was to be well educated, dressed in only the best, and do everything she was told. No exceptions. And for years, Ella was okay with the boring future laid out before her. She spent years being dragged to the parties her parents and their friends hosted, forcing herself to talk to any man her parents deemed suitable.

Life wasn’t all about the parties and gowns though. Eleanor developed a love for music early on. Believing this would help make their daughter more desirable to future suiters, George and Amelia gave their daughter all the music lessons she asked for. It was at this point in her life Ella discovered her natural talent for music. Any instrument she picked up could be learned in a matter of days. Though she was to go along with her parents' plans for her, Ella often entertained the idea of performing concerts for all of London one day instead of marriage. Her heart ached at the idea of a more exciting future.

When Eleanor wasn’t attending parties or playing her beloved instruments, she spent her days exploring the property their home sat on. She welcomed the quiet of the outdoors with open arms. The trees and animals expected nothing from her, she could just exist. Despite everything though, Eleanor was content with her life, grateful for all her parents provided her.

Her happiness was soon cut short when, one morning, her parents called her into their study. It was there they announced that Eleanor was to be engaged to an acquaintance of their friend. A man years older than her, but who could provide her with the simple life she had been promised since birth. Though betrayed by the information, Ella didn’t dare let her parents see her true emotions. She simply did what she always did when it came to her parents. Agreed.

The next several months went by in a blur. Full of preparations she wanted nothing to do with. Eleanor rarely spoke to her parents, choosing to stay out in the gardens or in her room until it was time to go to bed. Some days, she considered running away in the middle of the night, changing her name, and living the life she wanted. Ella never acted on such wishes though.

One night however, would change her life forever. Eleanor had been asleep in her room when the smell of smoke woke her up. It didn't take long for her to realize their home had been set on fire. Ella had gone from room to room trying, and failing, to wake her family up. With little choice, she fled the house. Eleanor watched silently as her home burned, hoping, praying her family would come running out any moment. Seconds turned to minutes, which turned to hours until finally, the sun broke through the night sky. Her family never left the house.

Now an orphan with all her inheritance ashes, Eleanor turned away from her old life, refusing to look back. She would find out days later that everyone in the house was declared deceased, including her. Ella decided from then on that she would keep living for her family, though it wasn't going to be the life her parents had wanted. She turned to the streets, performing for local pubs and anyone that would listen.

Starting a life from ground up was far more difficult than Ella had anticipated. As someone who had never grown up with nothing, Ella struggled trying to keep herself alive. Her performances earned her tips, though, it wasn't enough. It didn't take Eleanor long to learn the ways of stealing from her audience, using her looks and talents to distract them from her crimes. One day though, she unknowingly tried her luck on the Nevitt sisters. The twins had caught her and put a stop to it instantly. Ella apologised to the pair and had been on her way. It wasn't until a few months later that Ella was approached by the twins after a small performance. She had stared at them, dumbfounded as they invited her to join their group. Seeing an opportunity at a better life with them, Ella agreed.

 

[Pipsqueak]

Name
Bennet (Benny, Ben) Anderton

Gender
Male

Age
19

Sexuality
Heterosexual

Appearance

Bennet is a young man who stands just at 5'8 and weighs no more than 126 lbs. People will always find a sly smile pasted on his pale, blemished skin, which can be endearing to some and quite the bother to others (Depending on who they are). He's slender with little muscle to show, but who needs the brawn when you've got brains anyhow? His red hair matches prettily with dark brown eyes but is wildly out of place and quite the hassle to keep up with, especially as it's grown longer over the years. The only thing he despises about his looks are his large ears and gap toothed grin, which makes him look more childish than anything.

Outfits/ Normal clothing
His everyday clothes are what's in the picture above^. Typically a simple white cotton shirt accented with a dark vest and dark, patched pants. He refrains from keeping any loose items on his person in public areas, as he's great at nicking them from others but not so good at keeping them.

Personality
Benny's demeanor is typical for a parentless 19 y/o. Learning to harness his smarts to keep himself alive, he's quite the gifted thief and a master at sleight of hand tricks. Although a little reckless and always itching to get up and do something, he's learned best when to keep to himself and avoid confrontation. And he's certainly got enough sass and sarcasm to last a lifetime! He despises being looked at as a kid, believing others see him as no more than dead weight, so he's constantly trying to prove himself even when it doesn't need to be done. Although prideful on the exterior, his worries and doubts will shine through at times. Bennet is also extremely competitive and loves to play games to keep himself preoccupied when there's downtime. Much to the annoyance of others, he's openly flirty with ladies he likes although can never seem to desire any kind of attachment.

Peculiarities/ Quirks
-Has a lung disease which causes him to become short of breath and on occasion cough up blood. Although the survival rate is quite high, it does become a hinderance.
-Often runs his tongue over his gapped tooth when nervous.
-Although good at swiping items from others, he's forgetful and will probably lose them if not kept safe.

Skills/ Equipment
Bennet is not a fan of keeping personal items on him in public in fear of losing it, although there are a few exceptions. Like the others in the group, he keeps a small knife hidden in his long socks in case a situation goes south. He also carries a deck of cards used for entertaining groups while the others steal, although he prefers to be the thief more often than not. Sometimes he doesn't need them at all, enjoying on-the-fly thinking with any item he can find close by.

Bio
Ben was born on July 6th to his mentally ill mother Catrina and authoritarian father Mathew. From the beginning Bennet was handed the short end of the stick, his home life growing more chaotic as the years passed. He had never belonged anywhere, and his parents were too poor to send him to school. His father would provide his studies at home, although became worryingly short and angry if Bennet couldn't get it the first time. When he was just six years old, his mother was sent to live in a hospital, too far gone to care for herself or the family. When he was fifteen, his father had drunk himself to death and finally Bennet was alone. Despite hating his family, he was scared and did not wish to leave the house until he met the sisters.

The two had caught him stealing from an unsuspecting "customer" in front of a local shop. That day wasn't supposed to be anything special, just another day trying to get by. However, one observational member of the crowd saw him, called him out, and was about to report to the police when the sisters had come to his aid. Since then Bennet has shown his loyalty to the little group they've formed, still often unsure if they do want him around but happy nonetheless that he finally found his true home.​

 

[kaito9049]

Name: Conor "Cee" Murphy
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Appearance:

Other Physical Features:
At 172 cm and 52 kg, Cee is fairly underweight, even for being on the shorter side, though he's quite spry, with a thin build. Having an Irish heritage, he's pretty pale with a mostly clean complexion, though it seems to be permanently coated in a thin layer of coal soot. What is a bit more notable is the reddish tint to his hair, which he keeps short, and his slight beard and mustache. He has light blue eyes, but he has such trouble looking others in the face that it's easy not to notice.
Outfits/Normal Clothing (If not in the face claim):
Conor most often wears a grey collared shirt with an old black coat that comes down to his waist. He also wears dark grey cotton trousers and a green scarf, sometimes accompanied by a maroon flat cap.
Personality Description:
Most folks find Cee a quiet man, rarely speaking unless addressed directly. He tends to keep his head down and mouth shut, rarely looking people in the eye. Because of this, he's pretty easy to overlook — a trait that has saved him on more than a few occasions. Behind his unassuming exterior, however, is a sharply observant mind and deep-seated set of values forged during his time in Ireland and subsequent immigration to England. One of the most notable of these attributes is his strong sense of pride; he is loathe to accept help from anyone he feels pities or looks down on him, and though he might not start a fight over an insult, you can be sure he'll never forget it. But despite his own distaste for "bitter charity," he is quite compassionate to those on the fringes of society, particuarly those from areas colonized by the British Empire, and it is not uncommon to see him sharing part of his meal with a down-on-their-luck urchin. However, Cee often struggles to verbally express his frustrations about the world and British society, often fumbling with his words. This discomfort has caused him no small amount of shame, and he usually dedicates about an hour each night studying his pocket dictionary to improve his vocabulary and pronounication skills.
Peculiarities/Quirks:
- Conor's Irish accent is most audible when he's upset or otherwise vocally animated. Otherwise, it tends to be on the slight side.
- A lapsed Catholic, Conor nonetheless crosses himself when nervous and hangs around the local cathedral on Sundays — though he rarely enters
- As a former rail worker, Conor has memorized the general schedules of many of England's trains, and enjoys hearing the sound of their horns
Skills/Equipment:
First and foremost, Cnnor is the fastest and most agile runner you'll ever see, having evaded law enforcement on multiple occassions on foot following a shoplifting or pursesnatching. He's also quite observant, noticing details about locations and people that most miss, though he doesn't always produce conclusions from those observations. He carries a small knife in his left coat pocket, as well as a Colt Pocket Revolver, though he rarely uses either, preferring to outrun threats rather than fight them.
Bio:
Born in the wake of Ireland's Great Famine, Conor Murphy grew to know hunger very well. His family of farmers — including his father James, mother Emily and older siblings Jack, Rosaline, and Sean — was evicted twice for failing to make rent. Despite their shared troubles, Conor doesn't recall ever seeing either of his parents cry, save for when Sean died of disease. Neither did they accept the "handouts" coming from England, which James largely blamed for the Famine, though they benefited from some donations from the United States.

Eventually, the family managed to gather enough money to send one of its members to England. The plan was that whoever was sent would find a job and send money back to the family in Ireland. James was ill at the time and couldn't go, while Jack had recently married and refused to leave his wife behind. Rosaline was denied the opportunity out of concern that she wouldn't be able to establish herself in British society, so the lot fell to Conor.

Fortunately, Conor quickly found a job with the nation's rail system, working primarily with freight trains. He often made a game of running alongside the carriages until they outpaced him, jumping aboard just in time. But he didn't make as much money as he had hoped, and often faced threats from English workers who saw Irish migration as a threat to their unionization efforts.

Made increasingly desperate by bad news from home, Conor felt compelled to get a bit of extra money any way he could, soon resorting to petty theft from upper-class citizens. He proved to be quite good at it, able to spot easy marks, steal their purses, and flee before anyone could stop him. He sent most of the money he stole to his family, claiming he had received a raise for his good efforts. In reality, he had been fired from his job after being suspected of stealing from his supervisor (to be fair, he had).

Conor neared despair, until a chance encounter with Nevitt sisters presented him a way forward. By sheer luck, he happened upon the pair in the middle of one of their schemes, but decided to alert them to the presence of a nearby officer rather than turn them in. Truth be told, Cee had done so more of a sense of frustration toward the world than a particular interest in tagging along. But some time later, he found himself agreeing to assist the sisters on a more regular basis.

Now, mostly resigned to his new life as a criminal, Conor harbors hopes that he'll one day have the means to return to Ireland and join the wave of tenant farmers demanding better treatment. Until then, he plans to keep sending his family any money he can spare. He's not heard from them in some time, and fears both their death and their reaction to the realization that Cee has surrendered to his criminal inclinations.​

 

[spottednewt]

​

Name: Astrid O’Malley
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Sexuality: Homosexual, but opportunistic.
Appearance: With a pale, freckled, and wiry frame of 5’9” and 150Lbs, Astrid is your average scrappy kid from the yard. Her mother’s dark mop of unruly hair and her father’s vicious blue eyes make her physical appearance the perfect mix of the two. The darkness of her hair and stark, bright contrast of her eyes complement the dark bags that adorn her under-eyes and the harsh set of her jaw. When relaxed, her features have a calmer, mysterious bog nymph quality; but this first requires Astrid to be in a docile state - a temperament that she is wholly unfamiliar with.
While normal dress can cover any distinctive feature that could separate her from the average, young English woman, she has more than her fair share of odd scars from this and that, as well as a large, red-purple birthmark splotched on the right side of her abdomen.
Outfits/Normal Clothing: While she can often be found with whatever dark cloak will blend her in with the current fashion of the times, Astrid has an affinity for trousers and suspenders.
Personality Description: O’Malley is what one might put politely, “an acquired taste.” Of an ornery nature with crude jokes in spades, she has a problem with keeping her mouth shut in most company. Often impulsive and socially domineering, these characteristics are elevated by her bittersweet relationship with ale. These traits are most often seen in the community of those she cares for, as well as inside the walls of the local pub.
As master of altering her tone, she can pass for mirthful or even charming to the untrained eye. An insult doesn’t feel like an insult when delivered with a smirk and some flowery cadence. Manipulation and using her words as a form of art will get her far - if she can keep her head clear enough.
Peculiarities/Quirks:
~Astrid was raised in a devoutly Irish Catholic home by a father who brought her up in his own convoluted version of the Light. She stands by this interpretation and denies its perversion. Bless you, unless you cross me.
~Although she can’t do math to save her wretched existence, quick thinking and a way with words would pave her way to a comfortable life - if only she didn’t spend so much time in the pub or sharing her unpopular opinions.
~While she’s got a soft spot for a few people in her life, nothing compares to her love for the ruthless street cats that litter the underbelly of England.
Skills/Equipment: Although she's a talented pickpocket and petty thief - much as many in the underbelly of London - Astrid brings more connections to the table than anything else. With a bit of a silver tongue and a lucky tendency to be in the right place at the right time, Astrid has dirt on many known names within the city; and if she doesn't, she knows someone who does. These little bits of knowledge are almost never put into play, but have served her well in the realm of acquiring favors. With an aptitude for business that she inherited from her father, she makes most of her money dealing in sales pursuits as a middleman for strange or dangerous effects. Looking for an exotic drug? An ostrich liver to keep in a jar and name Gerald? Maybe a pirate's map? Astrid knows a guy.
Bio: Born of an Irish immigrant father and a well-to-do English mother, Astrid has always had the mild inconvenience of both worlds.
Cillian O’Malley found himself swept up in a whirlwind romance with one Cara Whittock within the first week of his business trip to London. He had made the journey to see how manufacturing had changed the construction industry with hopes of taking a few tricks of the trade home with him. He came with nothing more than a sack of clothing and a hope to create a monopoly on brick masonry in southern Ireland upon his return. Cillian was a businessman who burnt like wildfire and shone just as bright. The big city of London was like nothing he’d ever seen, and with a beautiful, young, high class woman as his tour guide, it wasn’t long before he’d extended his trip; and then again, and again. O’Malley was full of bright ideas and elbow grease - a bright future in construction ahead of him when he met his future wife. Nonetheless, it took more than a masonry business in the countryside of Ireland and a few bright ideas to win over her parents. In fact, Cillian never did win Mr. and Mrs. Whittock over, and much to their chagrin, the lovebirds married that spring regardless - just three months after having met.
Cillian was a man of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and unfortunately for Ms. Whittock, what goes up must come down. Cara was patient with him, she withstood all of his seasons, and held him up with special care as the world came crashing down around him. After losing the favor of the Whittocks and much deliberation, they settled in a small home outside of central London. Cillian knew Cara would never be happy in the secluded quiet of the rolling hills he called home, but hadn’t accounted for the fact that her home would never accept him. So, he accepted any job he could, staying near to the home Cara had known all her life, and she handled him like a bird with broken wings every time his fire went out and the darkness felt too heavy to roll out of bed. Between the money he could scrape together, and a little bit of family money that she still enjoyed, they lived a comfortable life.
Two years later, they gave birth to a child who would never know quite where she stood. Astrid grew up with all of her father’s fire, and none of her mother’s tact. Being the Whittock’s only grandchild earned her a place at some of the finest middle-upper class tea parties that London had to offer; because after all, were they meant to stay angry forever? Even if they taught her to enunciate like high English society? Being the only child of a proud Irish immigrant earned her a place at the lumber yard with her father, one of the only places offering work to an immigrant whose moods changed with the wind. With one foot in each world, she grew to hate both with each birthday, but both went sour without her input.
Famine in Ireland meant for more immigrants in London - making the tea parties that she happened to attend more tense, and the work at the lumber yard more scarce. Eventually, her mother stopped hearing from her grandparents, her father started drinking, and she decided that it was time to strike out on her own.
To this day, she does her best to put both of her upbringings to good use in whatever way she deems moral in the moment. O’Malley tries to visit her aging mother in the outer village, and cart her father home when she comes across him.

 

[Vudukudu]

I wanna horse in the volunteer force that's riding forth at dawn
Please save for me some gallantry that will echo when I'm gone
I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long

Name:
Benjamin Levin

Gender:
Male

Age:
32

Sexuality:
Heterosexual

Appearance:

Benjamin stands at a solid 5'11 with a mess of brown hair and sharp green eyes. His body is littered with scarring and minor disfigurations, though no major injuries.

Outfits/Normal Clothing:
While proud to still own his Union blues, Benjamin has transitioned smoothly into wearing little more than a pair of black trousers, cavalry boots, blue shirts, and a simple black coat as needed.

Personality Description:
Benjamin is strong-willed and utterly convinced of his own righteousness. Raised in an outspoken abolitionist family tied to efforts to abolish slavery across the Union before the Civil War, Ben has always been a fervent proponent, if not well-read student of, whatever the latest trend is in progressive social upheaval. He's not prone to forgiveness, but definitely is prone to acts of extraordinary violence and doesn't ever seem terribly concerned with how men or the Lord might view him. He ain't much for friends, but he is quite capable of decorum and politeness.

Peculiarities/Quirks:
Very notable accent, hints of German influence.
Frequently cracks knuckles.
General disdain for pork-based foods.
Fan of chess.

Skills/Equipment:
Benjamin didn't leave the States with much, but he did leave with everything he'd need to come back to the time-honored business of killing men and burning houses. His equipment includes a Colt M1847 Walker revolver, a captured Confederate cavalry saber, an "Arkansas Toothpick," and a privately purchased Volcanic M1855 repeating rifle as well as a steel breastplate. Benjamin's weapons are licensed under the British 1870 Gun License Act, costing him 20 of the 40 shillings he arrived with. He specializes in overt brutality of all kinds, sowing fear, and the element of surprise.

Bio:
The Levin family immigrated to the States from Prussia in the early 1800s, where they were once minor aristocrats. Following certain political machinations, it became prudent for them to leave the continent and they landed in New York with enough gold to establish themselves as local figures of note. His mother, inspired by the liberal legacy of the Founding Fathers, took quickly to salons and women's clubs where she digested a great deal of literature of the abolitionist persuasion. Her firstborn son, Benjamin, was named after Benjamin Lay, the "Quaker Comet," one of the earliest famous American proponents of the abolition of slavery.

Benjamin took after his namesake chiefly in becoming an outspoken critic of American slavery and racism, though he shared none of his predecessor's Quakerish concerns about things like pacifism or rigorous debate. Benjamin speaks in what he sometimes calls the universal language of broken bones and gravestones, and when the Civil War came the boy enlisted in 1863 well before the age of 18 in a volunteer cavalry force being funded and mustered by an Abolitionist Club. So began Benjamin's long history of slaughter.

Few men take to war quite like Benjamin did, and by the end of it he was commanding a mixed-race volunteer guerilla regiment of freed slaves cutting a gory swath across Georgia. When the war ended, Benjamin disagreed politely with orders to disband, and, in a letter to his mother, referred to the late President Lincoln as "the greatest hero and yellowest coward the Union ever done seen." Many of his men went home, or went to find new homes. Some, like Benjamin, didn't think the Civil War was really over as long as Confederate generals still drew breath.

Rather than risk aggravating the federal government by waging a guerilla war in peacetime, Benjamin and his collaborators moved south and settled in Atlanta. From there, they covertly aided freed slaves in escaping unfair contracts, assassinated a few Confederate politicians who were "too half-witted to stop peddling their filth," and made themselves enemy number one of the recently founded KKK. The gig finally came to an abrupt end when federal marshals working alongside local police caught the majority of his gang, charging them with treason and generally disrupting the ability of the nation to settle its differences. Benjamin escaped capture and got himself on a boat to England, the "home of abolition," where he's tried to get settled into a different sort of life. Fortunately, someone with his skills had lots of opportunities for work.
​

 

[guac]

Dr. Shelley Blackburn

Gender: Female
Age: 28
Sexuality: Asexual
Height: 5’2’’ (a short queen)
Weight: A lady never tells (but 120lbs)
Build: Slim
Skin color: Pale
Hair color: Light Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Distinct Features: Nothing of note, Shelley is pretty but in a sort of unremarkable way.
Outfits/Normal Clothing: She has a weakness for fancy dresses and keeping up with the latest fashions, even if they aren’t practical for her work.
Personality Description: Shelley always thinks she is the smartest person in the room, but she rarely really is. Her upbringing as the only daughter in a wealthy family gave her an inflated ego and a deficit of empathy. Shelley is easily bored, and finds herself constantly seeking new sources of adrenaline. Despite this, Shelley is ambitious and willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to succeed.
Peculiarities/Quirks: Shelley thinks she has a talent for flirting and manipulating men, but in reality she isn’t very good at it. She has a morbid fascination with human anatomy, which contributes to her desire to become a doctor.

Skills/Equipment:
While Shelley’s grades in medical school were not the best, she is a skilled surgeon, and knows her way around a scalpel. She is also versed in all of the typical affluent Victorian pastimes – particularly sewing and cross stitch. She has a small gun that she has never had to use, but a part of her wonders what firing it might feel like.

Bio:
Shelley Blackburn has spent her life beating back boredom. Ever since she was a child, it has caught and spread across her days like a numbing wildfire. As the only daughter of a wealthy family, Shelley should have never wanted for anything, yet she feels like want is all she has ever known.
Her mother, Catherine Blackburn, tried every tactic in the book to get little Shelley to sit still for her sewing lessons, but Shelley almost always wormed her way out of them eventually. She was more often found in her father Ambrose’s study, reading his books on human anatomy and talking his ear off about theories of disease.
As Shelley grew older, Ambrose leveraged his social capital to present to her with rich and handsome suitors, but she did not care for the prospect. One after another the young men would come to see the Blackburn’s beautiful and eligible daughter, only to be disappointed when they found a cold, disinterested Shelley who had no patience for their courtship.
By this time, Shelley had read about medical schools for women in America, and constantly begged her father to let her go abroad to study. Ambrose viewed himself as a traditional English patriarch, so he was not keen on the idea. However, after the fifth or sixth rejection from disgruntled suitors, Ambrose finally relented. He agreed to pay for her to attend a medical school in Boston, but only on the condition that she dedicate herself fully to her studies and have the grades to prove it.
Shelley arrived in Boston full of ambition and excitement, but it wasn’t long before the boredom crept back in. After the first semester, once the novelty of real classes with real doctors wore off, she found herself struggling to pay attention as closely as she used to. Soon, her disinterest began to reflect in her exam results, and Ambrose gave her an ultimatum: either come home immediately and focus on finding a marriage, or be cut off financially.
Shelley, ever stubborn, chose the latter. Newly fueled by spite, she was determined to graduate at the top of her class – and without her father’s support.
It wasn’t long before the money ran out. Shelley thought that if she stretched out her savings, she would be able to make it at least through the end of the year before she needed to find a job, but there was one thing she hadn’t accounted for: bodies.
To be competitive in medical school, there was nothing more valuable than practice – except, of course, cadavers. In Boston, medical students far outnumbered those who were willing to donate their bodies to science. The result was fierce competition and a thriving black market.
Shelley quickly realized that if she wanted to succeed, she had to be willing to compromise her ethics just a tad. That hadn’t been a problem, until she found herself choosing between paying for dissection or for dinner. Shelley had never known what it was like to be truly hungry, and she was not about to let herself find out. She had heard some talk of unmarked graves – Pauper’s Fields, as they were called in polite society. No one would miss the cadavers that might disappear from such a place, she told herself, and more importantly, no one would be stationed on guard to catch her digging.
She picked an overcast night for her first time. The air was cold and the work was messy, but as she snuck around the shadows and sunk her shovel into the dirt, Shelley felt a jolt in her chest like nothing she had ever felt before. When she successfully stashed her prize and made her way back to her boarding house, she lied to herself that this would be the first and last time she would commit such an act.
At first, her occasional nightly excursions were only to maintain her own supply of practice subjects. But as her purse grew smaller and smaller, Shelley couldn’t help but think of the prices she used to pay for cadavers just like these, and how money like that would allow her not only the comfort of not having to worry about her next meal, but maybe a few nice dresses to boot.
By the time Shelley graduated from medical school, her grades had slipped but her pockets were full. Her father, though still disappointed with her performance, had used his connections to have a job waiting for her when she arrived home in London. Shelley once again enjoyed the comfort of her family’s wealth, and happily settled into her new role making house-calls and performing exams.
The wildfire, however, had not been doused. Shelley could only stand to treat so many sore throats and broken fingers before boredom crept back into her days. Sitting in the back of a horse drawn carriage on her way to a house visit, she found herself wondering if London had as many Pauper’s Fields as Boston.
She no longer needed the money, and didn’t even try to delude herself this time around. Her moonlit digs were in service of one thing alone – the thrill. She only sold to dispose of the evidence, though the extra spending money didn’t hurt. Her escapades began as only a monthly indulgence, but soon Shelley couldn’t help herself. If her work was especially boring, she found herself sneaking out nearly every night for weeks at a time. She had her favorite dig site, but soon found others, each increasingly more daring to visit.
Still, sometimes Shelley still feels like it isn’t enough. Some nights, even when she is shoulder deep in the earth, with barely enough time to steal away before the patrol circles back around, she finds herself yawning. She wonders if she will ever feel that jolt in her chest like her very first time, or if she will spend a lifetime chasing it.​

 

[Vudukudu]

Name: Jasper Aitchison, the Amazing

Gender: Male

Age: 27

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Appearance:
5'8, green eyes


Personality Description:
The Amazing Aitchison is a well-spoken and charismatic master of attention-seeking influenced by literary romanticism. He is fanciful, impractical, and unachievably ambitious, with a gusto for life that may well be unrivaled. He is deeply attuned to the here and now and a believer that the imagination is key to a fulfilled life, which dovetails nicely with his choice of profession. Jasper also has several bones to pick with the world as a student of Wordsworth and Blake, and is considerably more prone to expressing them criminally rather than poetically thanks to his ambitions.

Peculiarities/Quirks:
1. Jasper is a collector of oddities and broken things.
2. Quite fond of flowers.

Skills/Equipment:
1. The Bag of Tricks: Jasper is rarely, if ever, without a trick up his sleeve, and usually has several. These range from sulfur-based smoke bombs, small incendiaries, a deck of subtly marked cards, a Topit pocket installed in every jacket, and a false thumb tip for vanishing tricks.
2. A truly distressing variety of knives, some weighted for throwing and other less so, with the talent to use them.
3. Magic tricks! One doesn't become the Amazing Aitchison without having a bevy of tricks mastered, including card tricks, illusions, levitation, false (and sometimes real) dismemberment, and more. Most of these things, as you might suspect, make one a rather talented student of sleight-of-hand and general bastardry.
4. Showmanship.
5. Loving his wife dearly.

Bio:
Jasper Aitchison is the third son of a merchant magnate, raised under strict tutelage that he defied at every turn until early adolescence. His father blamed the boy's rebelliousness on his mother's doting, and whenever he wasn't otherwise made busy the young Jasper read poetry, wandered amongst neighboring gardens, and tended to a small flowerbed on the family's property. Entirely too soft for his father's liking, he came to realize that it would be easier to be crushed and comply rather than do the things he loved. The next few years were miserable, but featured far fewer sermons about being a disappointment. Once he came of age, he departed for Oxford, where he pursued a degree in philosophy rather than the sciences.

Oxford proved freeing. At the time, there were barely any lectures, scarcely a curriculum in sight, and one could mostly earn a degree by reading on their own and bantering with the exam proctors about their last drinking bout, an experience that left Jasper supremely well-versed in poetry and literature as well as rather disappointed in the educational merits of the upper-crust. Scholarship, it seemed, was little more than an excuse to muck about for a few years with the other well-bred and maybe read a few books. Having recently fallen in love with the works of famous Romantic poets, and endlessly amused by the petty magic tricks bandied about at parties, Jasper filled the rest of his time with learning the mystical arts. Here, his suppressed panache found an outlet that became his profession.

The Amazing Aitchison soon found himself rather far from home, performing around London at night and working a dreary job at the British History Museum during the day. There, he met the woman, a poet and writer, who would consume his heart and mind. Her name was Catherine Abney, and to him she was so beautiful, so bright and kind, so different from the ordinary that he could scarcely understand how none but him were so joyous at her approach and so tormented by her departure, why others did not go mad at the sight of her or the sound of her golden laughter for months before he finally approached her. To her, he was kind, gentle, an innate romantic with a wit and joie de vivre that made the stuffiness and smog of London tolerable, a man who made grey skies seem alive with flame. Their courtship was swift, the happiest days of his life to that point, and in little more than a year they were wed on a warm summer day.

Three years later, with Catherine Aitchison's poetry gaining popularity, Jasper was finally able to leave his job at the museum and live the comfortable life of a husband, father of his infant daughter Violet, and, on the occasional night, a magician. The stability of it was a sort of torment, and with Catherine's support, he set out in search of greater thrills. It started with more shows, more dangerous stunts, and soon turned to criminality. Picking pockets came naturally, as did throwing knives, and picking locks took scarcely any practice to get a hold of. With Catherine's enthusiastic endorsement of his new-found thrill-seeking, the Amazing Aitchison entangled himself more and more in the criminal underworld, until finally meeting the Twins at the recommendation of a mutual associate.