bakerstreet | GRIEVED I, WHEN, AS THE HOPE-HOUR STROKED ITS SUM, YOU DID NOT COME

GRIEVED I, WHEN, AS THE HOPE-HOUR STROKED ITS SUM, YOU DID NOT COME

VICTORIAN ERA AU MEME

Have you ever just felt like you were born in the wrong time? No? Good, because the past actually sucks. Anyway, it's still interesting to shove your characters into those time frames, so right now it's time for Victorian Era Shenanigans. You know you're intrigued.

SOCIAL STANDING

• UPPER CLASS This is divided into three sections: royal class, which at the time was royal family and spiritual leaders. The middle upper class was for officers, baronets, and lower level lords. The lower upper class included your general rich asshole: wealthy families and large scale businesspeople that built their fortunes.
• MIDDLE CLASS Middle class is in two subsections, higher and lower. The only differentiation here was between salaries and social standings. Higher middle class was more likely to be able to secure any kind of upward mobility. Lower middle class people usually worked under higher middle class. A mid-level merchant as opposed to the person working for them.
• WORKING CLASS Working class were the hard laborers and tradespeople - the skilled class and the unskilled class. Think an undertaker as opposed to a gravedigger.
• UNDER CLASS The lowest of the low in society's eyes, we have the poor: people who were destitute and relied on the charity of others, orphans; and prostitutes, who were under much debate at the time as far as decency went. Also, they were being murdered by Jack the Ripper, so you know, ymmv.

GENRES

• ROMANCE Did you know that Anne Brontë wrote what is considered the first sustained feminist novel in a Western society? Well, now you do. In this, take your main characters, watch them suffer for 300 pages, and eventually they'll realize they're meant for each other. It's all a bit gothic though, isn't it? Dreary, brooding. Sometimes awful things happen. But we've got love (sometimes) and marriage (more often) in the end.
• HORROR Did you know that a vampire is haunting this small town? Werewolves the next town over? Ghosts in every manor? Did you hear about that scientist that went mad? What kind of place is this? Maybe that masqued ball isn't a good idea.
• SCIENCE FICTION You've got a time machine, or you live in a steampunk dystopia set in Victorian times. Perhaps you have a flying machine that's quite advanced or you've traveled to the bottom of the sea or the center of the earth.
• MYSTERY Do you want to be the greatest detective that ever lived? Or perhaps their sidekick. You're not as bumbling as people 200 years from now may try to say you are. Solve thefts, catch Jack the Ripper (good riddance), do whatever! Just put your brains to the test.
• SLICE OF LIFE The simple things. Perhaps you're a lord throwing an expensive party. Perhaps you're showing off your charity by inviting the lower classes. Perhaps you're a merchant on a trade ship to another place. It's your daily life and you're living it. Just be yourself.
• FANTASY Perhaps you want something lighter. You want to travel down the rabbit hole or through the looking glass or be a princess or live in a fairy tale meeting mystical creatures.

As always, these are just suggestions and you can pick your scenario from your genre. Also, not all examples are Victorian era but we do what we want in these parts because the meme cops aren't going to get us (even though we're not them). Make up anything you want, as long as you're having fun! Make sure to post a short backstory in your top level comment so people know how to work with your AU!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[from a (lower) middle class family but BY GUM HE IS WORKING UP THE RANKS OF THE NAVY]

[ AND HE IS DOING A FINE JOB.

How about transporting a young upper-class lady somewhere? ]

[he's doing a fine job at the actual navy part; the 'making friends in connected places' NOT SO MUCH

that could work!]

[word to the upper class; word to steampunk]

[ I would be so here for steampunk. ]

[/grabby hands at flying machines hit me with adventuring nonsense]

[your general rich asshole hello]

[ consider: stop being an asshole and maybe i will like u more

also consider: the stigma against women as scientists/doctors/etc in this era ]

[but he already did something todaaaay

consider me harmed please let's??]

[ that is not an excuse hams partition ... it works less well without a middle name

OKAY how shall we do this i mean obviously lily is a fuckin rad-ass scientist-doctor and people are rude as hell to her but what else are we doin with it ]

[james amrit potter or bust amirite

a stirring round of 'what's this? WHAT'S THIS?' in lily's lab?
some 'hey i want to fund your research i'm not just flirting well okay i'm flirting but dang let's get some money in your hands?'
fix james he fell off a horse and has to confront efficient lady doctoring?
'i have come to get your science opinion on this mystery/gothic horror in which i am engaged?'

also consider: any of that + lesbians (but particularly that last one + lesbians)]

Edited (i remembered my jane potter account) 2016-11-20 14:57 (UTC)

[ good now he can be hams applejuice podcast

OH NO I WAS SO INTO ALL OF THESE BUT THEN YOU BROUGHT LESBIANS INTO IT

I WANT SPOOKY LESBIANS

ok we're doing that last one w/spooky lesbians then. ]

[aside: i would listen to that podcast

perf; spooky lesbians it is. if you need me to write the starter, hit me some ideas of spooky things (werewolves lol) and be prepared to wait until this outline i didn't do yesterday is finished]

[ me too. ALSO DO UR OUTLINE I GOT THIS ]

Lily Evans does not hold stock by the supernatural. She is rooted in science, in innovations and flashes of insight that drag her out of bed early mornings when the sun has yet to properly rise. She lives and breathes her laboratory, compounds, notes, all of it like breathing. She has the most interest in medicine—the creation and improvement of medical treatments to better the length and quality of life and make using the new technology easier and safer. Of particular use to her studies is the idea of vaccinations. The idea that infecting someone with Cowpox could protect them from Smallpox fascinates her. If it is possible for that, surely it must be possible for other illnesses and diseases as well. It is, of course, difficult to test safely. That much still needs work.

This is not to say that the medical field is Lily's only wheelhouse. She is a chemist also, but what she is most known for is her strides in disproving various superstitions and outdated beliefs. She has worked very hard on spreading the knowledge of germ theory; that illness is caused by germs and microbes and not curses or ghosts or whatever people are believing these days. She knows however that without proper knowledge of each disease, it's difficult to prove.

Of more importance than teaching others is the fact that lately in the small town she lives in, children are growing ill. There is no known explanation for it; they simply begin to have difficulty breathing, grow feverish and weak, develop small sores body-wide, and continue to decline from there. There's no rhyme or reason for the transmission of it—there is a disease that would fit the bill but the other hallmarks of it aren't present and none of the children ill have come into any sort of contact with each other. There have been no deaths as yet, but there are at least three children barely hanging on.

There are plenty of ideas being flung around through the town. A witch settling into a cottage on the outskirts and cursing the children. The dark manor atop the hill whose occupants are never seen must be a cult family using them as sacrifice. Malevolent spirits taking hold of them from within. Vampires feeding on them. The list goes on and on. Lily does not believe any of it but she is at her wit's end trying to figure out what the real cause is. She has been working day and night on samples and research trying to find what is making the children sick before they lose any of them.

She's not sure it's a battle she can win in time, to say the least.

Jane Potter holds great stock by the supernatural. Even in the swiftly tilting, rapidly modernizing, ever knowledge-oriented world they lived in, she clung tight to the truths which had begun to be called 'old' and 'outmoded' and 'superstitious.' It isn't that she doesn't see the fascination of the scientific, the good that modernization has done, the veracity in the claims that are properly and thoroughly debunked.

And, to her credit, that's why she's come here of all places.

There's as much a system to the world of unknowns, in her mind, as there is to the sort of world that boils and bubbles and scribbles through a laboratory. There's as much a need to keep careful check, to systematizes signals, to strike out what can't be true and find what must be true. It helps to know what doctors think. It helps to know if there's simply been an outbreak of known disease from a discernible cause.

It's helpful to know when all of that's fallen to pieces and a person needs to start carrying salt in their pocket.

She's come here with a certain air of preparation about her. She's dressed as respectably as ever (conservatively, even, in deference to the strictures of the world she'll be peeking into), and the armfuls of notebooks she's dragging along are all impeccably neat (at least, from the outside). She's got a name that precedes her (there's the title, of course, but there's also the voluminous treatises she's penned on various aspects of the supernatural, the reputation for having banished a demon or two in her still-young years).

She's absolutely not going to be turned away until someone's let her in to see Lily Evans.

Lily has read the treatises of Jane Potter. She finds them interesting even though she holds no believable stock by them: they're far more knowledgeable and put-together to her than hastily-scribbled tales and accounts breathed out in whispers. She tries not to talk down to people even when explaining where science trumps old beliefs because she knows that is the swiftest way to make people refuse to listen to you. In any case she can respect the fervor required to tackle a subject at such length and with such deep wells of knowledge. If she were someone else, she supposes she would believe every word penned.

Lily Evans is in fact not someone else.

At first there is an attempt to turn away the visitor at the door without even informing Mme. Scientist of her arrival; when that doesn't work Lily's aide comes to tell her of the unannounced woman at the door and their failed attempts to rebuff her, Lily clicks her tongue in annoyance. "Don't be rude," she says, checking a nearby mirror to make sure her hair is still up (respectable) before making her way to the door herself. She looks put-together but tired when she opens it, and her smile is tight from exhaustion but not rudeness. "Miss Potter," she starts, businesslike.

"I apologize for the misstep made just now. Please do come in." She steps aside to allow the other woman entrance into her home. "Everyone here is quite tense as late, I'm afraid." She does so hope that the notebooks don't mean what she thinks they do but supposes she can't be so lucky all of the time.

(Her hair is, in fact, held in its bun with a pencil.)

Edited (i accidentally a word.) 2016-11-21 01:09 (UTC)

There's something entirely charming about the situation, in a way. There's something sweet about the protection of these hallowed grounds of science (annoying as anything, but sweet in a small way); about the much put-upon scientist with her hair apparently just shoved back into rights and her earnest exhaustion.

And all that, as much as Manners, is with flashing a cheerfully social smile about as she sweeps properly into the space. "Entirely understandable, I'm sure, what with Saturn in transit these days."

There's barely a heartbeat before she's flashing another smile, this time mostly directed at the notebook on the top of the stack. She's already begun shifting through the first few pages with the very practiced air of someone who doesn't usually need to open her own doors.

"Kidding, obviously, Dr. Evans."

As if the planets controlled their lives here on Earth. No, there were much bigger things to worry about here in their dear little corner of the world than what Saturn was getting up to.

"I've heard you're the person to speak to if I want to understand germs." Her eyes flit up again, blinking over the top of her glasses. "It's 'germs,' isn't it?"

Don't worry, Dr. Evans. The questions about zombification are not far behind.

The first thing Lily does is raise her eyebrows. Saturn in transit. Really. It has to be a joke, and then it is, which is certainly better than the alternative and draws a slightly more open smile from her at least. Slightly. She's still tired and worried and above all things skeptical. But her visitor is so... She doesn't know how to quantify it. Not being able to neatly categorize often annoys her, but she finds this just knocks her slightly off-balance.

All the same the query makes her nod; she'd known the notebooks would come into play but she'd foolishly continued to hope despite evidence to the contrary. Perhaps she is capable of irrational belief after all. The thought turns her smile more wry, but just for a moment. "Of course. It is 'germs,' and I would be more than happy to tell you anything you'd like to know. Unfortunately, left to my own devices I tend to ramble so if there were any specifics you'd like, we could start there."

She seems thoughtful a moment because she is, trying to settle her thoughts. She's still quite stressed, after all—finally she tips her head aside just slightly, expression warmer. "We can move to the sitting room, but perhaps you wouldn't mind allowing me to speak to you in my work space? I think best there, after all."

'Slightly off-balance,' for better or worse, is how Jane tends to make people feel. Her own responding smile is a bright and clearly easy as ever, one page of her notes neatly folded down so both arms can resume hefting the stack she's brought in them.

Really, it's probably a good thing she's got her arms distracted this way, terrifying though the notebooks may be. She has a nearly irrepressible habit of linking arms otherwise, and it's probably best that this conversation not get entirely off-kilter entirely too fast.

"I'd be delighted, I'm sure. Would it be a terrible bother for me to spread this out a bit in there?"

[ How about something with these two? ]

( info & preferences here, thinking maybe educated bluestocking - see info here - who is having to rub elbows with a more privileged upper class (governess, much?). can you tell i've thought about this au before, tho. )

[ did someone say draco malfoy ]

( me me me me me me !!

do you have a preference for genre? or prompt?? )

[ upper class as fuck, tbh. in her early forties and still single, despite her family's attempts to make her marry some appropriate (read: rich and well-connected) gentleman. does all of those things well-bred ladies are not supposed to do. may or may not be an amateur detective in her spare time. all prompts are welcome, though mystery is right up her alley. ]

Edited 2016-11-20 02:34 (UTC)

[~mysterious nobleman from abroad. rumored to be royalty. may or may not have an aversion to sunlight. mostly keeps to himself, but utterly charming at parties. has a spectacular private library. (ask before shipping.)]

[From a very wealthy, noble family that has a secret curse. Obviously in the horror genre.]

( lbr not much different than normal lmao )

[Once a popular clergyman from the upper middle class, nowadays a servant of the "so low people won't even talk about it directly" level. Be it saving a soul or murder, he'll do anything you demand of him ...except talk about the circumstances of his fall.

Alternative: he's a vampire. no, he doesn't want to talk about it and he's also not the one going around murdering people so please keep that wooden stake away from him.]

[ Canonically she's as upper class as you can get (royalty) but I am willing to go with anything. ]

[ a lady scientist, natch. ]

[ some rich prick from a rich prick family. as far as genres, probably not science fiction or fantasy, but anything else is fair game. ]

[ extremely wealthy upper-class woman who keeps losing husbands very mysteriously and very tragically and remarrying because she can't possibly take care of herself. f/f for any real romance, but m/f is perfectly acceptable if you want her to pretend and/or murder. ]

[A formerly wealthy Confederate war hero with severe PTSD and a penchant for self medicating.

So, nothing changes because he's from the Victorian era anyway]

[ Perhaps a thread when they first meet? ]

[Definitely. You want to start or shall I?]

[ Do you mind starting this time? ]

Goodnight hates getting this close to home. Now, Texas ain't quite close per se, but East Texas is a sight closer to Baton Rouge than Santa Fe. And besides, if his sister actually ended up marrying that sumbitch from Houston he might be risking an uncomfortable run-in with his past. But money is money is money, and the railroad is paying top dollar for this Billy Rocks fellow. His purse has been dangerously low as of late, and if he wants to keep himself well dressed and liqored up, he'll have to bite the bullet and do his job fast as he can manage.

He tracks Rocks down to a saloon outside of Dallas fairly easily, because this far east the pickings for men of his origin tend to be pretty slim. Turns out, the picture on the wanted poster looks almost nothing like the man, but it doesn't matter now. He's got him cornered.

Goodnigt doesn't approach Rocks at first. Instead, he picks a table as far from the bar as possible and kicks up bis boots, aiming to observe his target before taking him in. He seems to be having an animated disagreement with the man behind the bar. He can't quite hear what is it over all the noise, but it seems that someone's been gravely insulted.

Hell, this might get real interesting.

Edited 2016-11-23 03:20 (UTC)

[[ooc: give me tropes, Wilde things, carnations soaked in arsenic, gothic horror, and actually legal drugs, merry christmas.]]

[ what could we possibly do with this, honestly... it is truly a mystery ]

[Higher middle class - still a dancer, probably against her parents' wishes]

[Upper class, envoy of some gentleman of even high standing who seems to have been in foreign parts for quite a while now, as he's never been seen.]

[Could be of any class, though if we're going the horror/fantasy route, she'd still be a wercat.]

[ upper middle class, looks rather fetching in hats. comes from a long line of officers and royal guards. ]

[Middle Upper Class Lady who is the friend and confident to the daughter of a Higher Upper Class Diplomat/Ambassador's daughter.

or

Middle Upper Class Lady married to a Naval General.]

Edited 2016-11-20 15:28 (UTC)

[Titled lady, as per usual. M/F for shipping.]

[Some merchant's son, probably, one of two, although his arrogance befits someone even more higher class. Game for all the genres.]

Three basic options.

1: Classic Dr. Who canon. He's in Victorian London because that's where the TARDIS stopped.

2: Dr. Who Canon with the Plastic Last Centurion. He's running some sort of clinic in Victorian London with a whole lot of weird issues. He doesn't look like any sort of physician, and doesn't behave like one. But he saves a lot more of his patients than official Victorian doctors do.

3: Actually born in Victorian London and a healer - no formal qualifications (he apprenticed to a vet) but still treats humans. Lower middle class effectively.

And any Clara Oswalds from The Snowmen would be loved.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

GRIEVED I, WHEN, AS THE HOPE-HOUR STROKED ITS SUM, YOU DID NOT COME

Horatio Hornblower | Hornblower Saga

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Sir Gawain } Arthuriana

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james potter | hp

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in which lily evans is scully and jane potter is mulder probably

have i told you lately that i love you

i love you too :*

i just noticed 'mme. scientist' get out

it's too late you said you love me no takebacks

/huff

Caspian X | Chronicles of Narnia

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hermione granger | harry potter

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stella gibson | the fall

vlad tepes | dracula

Peter Hale | Teen Wolf | ota

LEONARD SNART ( CAPTAIN COLD ) | DCTV | OTA

byomkesh bakshi | DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY!

Kuro "Sleepy Ash" | Servamp | ota

Ghanima Atreides | Children of Dune (Film) | OTA

lily (evans) potter. harry potter.

draco malfoy. harry potter.

siobhan zabini. harry potter.

Goodnight Robicheaux | The Magnificent Seven | OTA

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Sherlock Holmes || Sherlock BBC || m/m

persephone. greek mythology.

Grace Ford | OC

Ragnar | old World of Darkness OC | ota

Kitty | Shadowrun OC | ota

lux crownguard | league of legends | ota.

Lady Winter/Winter Celchu | Star Wars | f/m

Mary Crawley | Downton Abbey

Kei Tsukishima - Haikyuu!!

Rory Williams | Dr Who