Gothic Romance Meme

[marlowe_tops]

Gothic Romance Meme

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…


The story goes like this: There is a house. It may be haunted. The house has a resident, or two, who has some secrets. They may be charming, or brooding, often both. Someone may have been murdered. A newcomer arrives, either as bride, governess, or journalist, and they begin to unravel all the secrets and lies lurking within the house of Usher.

Locations may be in any country, in any era, but there must be a gloomy and opulent old mansion, and some sort of dark and terrible secret to be uncovered (or just ghosts. ghosts are always an option.)

The Newcomer
1. The new bride or groom. Your new spouse is charming and attractive, but do you really know all their secrets?
2. Tutor or governess to the estate children. They seem like such innocent children.
3. Companion—perhaps as a chaperone, perhaps merely as company, but you’ve been hired to come to some remote old house to keep an unknown stranger company. Probably just reading to them, or listening to them chatter on whenever travel is required.
4. Hired hand. You’ve been hired up from the local village—or perhaps the city—as a footman or a maid. Just an ordinary job. Nice house, though.
5. Distant relation. Thanks to your circumstances, you’re reduced to accepting hospitality from some remote relations of yours. They may never turn up to family gatherings, and you’ve never heard much about them, but they’re probably just reclusive.
6. Journalist. You’ve heard some interesting rumours about this old mansion in the middle of nowhere.
7. The neighbour. You know that things are not quite right in that old house on the hill. Perhaps you feel it’s your duty to interfere. Perhaps you’re just curious. Perhaps you are childhood friends with the house’s resident.

The Resident
1. Past transgressions. Perhaps a mad wife in the attic? Someone buried in the cellar?
2. The unquiet dead. Look, you just live here. You’re not responsible for the ghosts. Even if they do all seem to be related to you.
3. The monster. You are the thing in the house to be feared. Actual monsters or monster AUs totally an option here! Vampires, werewolves, beasts and horrors all possible. Perhaps put an ordinary face on when you receive your new guest.
4. Wildcard. Choose your own deep dark secret: maybe your character naturally comes with one.

Comments

Susan Sto Helit | Discworld

[granddaughterofdeath]

[laughedingly]

[[I'm gonna be totally honest: I really want to hit this toplevel but I'm not sure I have any appropriate characters for it? so. uh. I guess in the absence of any decision-making abilities on my part this is just drive-by love for Susan! Sto Helit!! On a Gothic meme!!!]]

Laurent of Vere ; Captive Prince ; M/M

[prince_of_vere]

[Pref resident but can be either. Laurent has a house and probably has either a ghost or a monster that is haunting him, which he is trying to hide.]

Alcuin no Delaunay ( Kushiel's Dart ) M/M

[alcuin_delaunay]

[The newcomer. Either new groom, companion, or language tutor/translator (prefer not tutor to children).]

Moira MacTaggert | X-Men (Comics) | OTA

[scottish_moira]

[Governess or journalist if newcomer. Past transgressions if resident.]

Ashley Raventon | Lost Souls | M/M

[raventonbeauty]

[I have to toss Ashley into this. He's got a ruined mansion in Louisiana. He literally has the remains of his brother and his parents locked reverently away upstairs. Charming and intelligent though he's capable of being, in this scenario his sanity is deeply fractured.]

Abernathy Keith - OC

[broomandstringtheory]

[If resident, well, Abby doesn't actually live here, he's just crashing on the couch while he's in the area and attempting to keep anyone else from dying to the monster/ghost/etc. If newcomer, Abby totally thought the place was abandoned and his curiosity/the lure of a roof over his head for the night got the better of him.]

Sebastian Moran | Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms

[sebsandguns]

[Resident. Perhaps retired from the criminal life but haunted by his past. Or maybe he just likes being the creepy neighbor that all the villagers stay away from. I'm not saying there are various sniper nests around the grounds but. Well.]

Mavros Shahrizai | Kushiel's Legacy

[kissofthewhip]

[Most likely the Resident. The Shahrizai family just lends itself to having a lot of secrets. Feel free to PM for plotting. M/M and M/F]

[prince_of_vere]

The weather was terrible, which didn't help.

Laurent hadn't gotten nearly as much distance as he'd wanted, though he'd made it across the border in one piece. That had been hours ago, before the storm had turned all the roads to mud. Before his horse--already half-dead from being pushed so hard--had slipped, and been lost. Laurent still felt sick with guilt for that. His escape had cost the life of his horse, the hide of a stable boy, most likely the jobs of several of the men in his uncle's employ.

He pushed those thoughts aside. He couldn't go back. He couldn't have stayed.

The rain was relentless, and Laurent suspected that he was going to catch his death of fever if he couldn't find shelter, but there was nothing. Only trees, their leaves thin and pointed, ineffective against the rain.

But there was a light, at last. So faint that he thought he imagined it. Soaked through and shivering, Laurent followed the fairy glow until it turned into a vast house, with lights in several of the windows.

Shelter. Of what sort, he didn't know. He could no longer afford to be picky.

Climbing the stone steps of the grand mansion, he lifted the heavy metal knocker and rapped at the door.

For a single instant, he glanced back. Into the rain. Toward the border. Where his uncle and all his uncle's men were searching for him.

And then he knocked again, placing all his hopes in this remote manor in the rain.

Lizzie Borden | The Borden Dispatches

[whatshehaddone]

[Lizzie is from a verse where she's basically a monster hunter. Could be the newcomer or the resident. PM for plotting. M/F and F/F].

Enjolras | Les Miserables

[goldprince]

[Prefer the journalist, or the neighbor. Could be open to others. M/M]

Captain Jack Harkness | Doctor Who/Torchwood | OTA

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

[Either the journalist investigator here to completely mess this place up, or the unquiet dead/monster. Jack stuck living forever surrounded by the ghosts of those who weren't so lucky. Open to other ideas, too, PM if needed. Prefer gen/investigation/adventure to romance.]

Wildcard

[flowershrine]

It all started with a envelope, emblazoned with a red rose crest. There is single sheet of surprisingly plain paper, with a simple plea written in small hurried letters: 'Please, save her!' and the address for the single oldest property still technically within city limits: The Pavo Estate. The message is folded around a cashier's check worth three times his rent.

In the shining light of day, the Pavo Estate looks as though it was glorious at one point; the white stone of the main building show the obvious signs of corruption by the pollutants of the city below and nature's slow creep towards reclamation. Fortunately, the ivy climbing the wall gives the building it's own charm and the groundskeepers seem to be doing a good job keeping the property from looking dilapidated.

All things check out - except one. The Lady of the House is nowhere to be found, which is at least consistent with the information Jack could glean about the property, but the place is strangely ...occupied. Everything on this place said that the new owner, basically holed herself in after the untimely death of her elder brother and his new wife.

The staff is perfectly charming, though the guard at the gatehouse looks a little surly in his suit considering the temperature. One of the maids, a young lady with dark, short hair and wild glint in her eyes leads him to the bench at the edge of the gardens.

"I will collect Miss. Himemiya for you," she says with a curtsy and is away faster than he can ask any more questions.

There is a laugh, distant but very clear and it highlights how odd it is for such a nice property to be empty besides the staff. There should be more voices, easily a dozen on such a large property - but the laugh, a girl's laugh, is alone as it echoes off the stone of the house.

Hawkeye Pierce | M*A*S*H | OTA

[getmeoutofthedraft]

[[Prefer to be the newcomer - tutor, distant relation, or neighbour.]]

Susan Delgado | Dark Tower | OTA

[girl_at_the_window]

[[Could play most of these roles, tbh. Available in original or old!AU flavour]]

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins | Tolkien | OTA

[itfellinmyumbrella]

[[don't mind me and my largely-untested muse i just thought this would be hilarious]]

[[Newcomer roles that spring to mind: 2, 5, or 7. Could play any of the resident roles]]

Faramir | LotR | OTA

[nearamir]

[[Open to any roles that suit]]

the aragorns, they're blurring together

[elfstoned]

[No one would call Aaron the town doctor. That distinction belongs to another man, a portly and jolly sort, to whom all the ills of the world bring no lasting trouble. Yet Aaron is a doctor, and when a member of the townsfolk suffers a malady that seems incurable, a few brave souls will venture up to the old Elessar house in the dead of night and knock furtively on the door. When he is asked, Aaron always comes, and a not insignificant number owe him their lives.

Apart from these times, Aaron is almost never seen in the town, though he has been glimpsed in the woods on occasion--although never during the day. He is the last of a very old family, the townspeople say, and unless he marries, the Elessar name will die with him.

So what the heck is Faramir even doing here?]

Harry Hart | Kingsman: The Secret Service

[makethman]

[more likely the resident]

[laughedingly]

[[How would you feel about a grumpy Scouser coming to work for you?]]

Naminé | Kingdom Hearts | f/m

[lethechained]

[Either is fine! Although she does canonically live in an otherwise abandoned mansion at one point.]

Lavi | D.Gray-Man (rule!63)

[redhotbooks]

Davy Jones ♆ OC ♆ OTA

[dweomer]

( Monster/"Unquiet Dead" of sorts. )

Anthy Himemiya | Revolutionary Girl Utena | OTA

[flowershrine]

[ If Newcomer, the she could do well as a New Bride, Distant Relation or the Neighbor.

As the resident, we can roll with/tweak The Rose Bride mythos for wildcard, and the other three prompts work just as well.]

Celestia Ludenberg | Danganronpa

[loliar]

[Celeste finally gets her fucking castle?]

Armand | The Vampire Chronicles | OTA

[destenebres]

[The monster, obviously. Could be his house the newcomer has been lured to for whatever reason (the only one I'd say flat-out doesn't work is an incoming Bride), or they could discover him lurking on their new spouse/employer's property.]

The Dragonborn | Skyrim | OTA

[drehnifusbahi]

[Newcomer, any flavor. Alternately, I have an idea for him as a ghostly resident a la Lammas Night.]