dousing: (Default)
memery. ([personal profile] dousing) wrote in [community profile] bakerstreet2019-04-19 03:20 am
Entry tags:

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN ETC


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!

goneforawalk: (i lay in my arms dying)

alucard. hellsing.

[personal profile] goneforawalk 2019-04-19 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ time for dracula shenanigans, babey. or right after he came into uh, hellsing's 'employ.' ]
bigbadwolfe: (Default)

heinkel wolfe. hellsing.

[personal profile] bigbadwolfe 2019-04-19 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ the foreign, vaguely gender-ambiguous priest of the local parish. definitely does Not have a thing for one of the nuns. ]
sapphicvamp: (009)

carmilla karnstein | carmilla | ota

[personal profile] sapphicvamp 2019-04-19 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ where my elle's at?? or i'm down with au's or something pre-blood coffin-ing - preference for ladies if you want her to be wink winking your way ]
lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2019-04-23 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
OOC: Afraid I don't have an Elle Sheridan. Would an AU Laura work? I'm actually trying to work out how Laura would fit the Victorian era.
sapphicvamp: (Default)

[personal profile] sapphicvamp 2019-04-24 06:46 am (UTC)(link)
ooc; omg always! <3 or if you want something else, i can toss carm on like... idk, the hurt/comfort? or something? i'm super easy going!
lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2019-04-24 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
OOC: I'm currently thinking about Laura as an overprotected ardent proto-Suffragette sent to the big city to live with a relative for her season as a debutante. And I'm pretty sure Carmilla enjoys naive debutantes in general?
sapphicvamp: (Default)

[personal profile] sapphicvamp 2019-04-29 06:07 pm (UTC)(link)
ooc; She *does* have a type. I love it- and I'm SO sorry for the delay in answering! it's been a long Week, lmfao, and this got buried under my game tags.

<3 would you be down with starting? and I promise not to take a million years to answer next time? lmfao
lauronica_mars: (Caught in my own trap)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2019-04-30 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
Possibly this wasn't the best idea Laura reflected, chained to the railings at the end of Ten Downing Street with a sash reading "Votes for Women" literally sewn into her dress. She'd got there before dawn precisely so no one could stop her, chained herself up as thoroughly as she could, and then tossed the key down the drain. Let's see them try to drag her away from her protest now!

Of course it was just before dawn (which is how she'd got there in secret), and it was cold, and there wasn't anyone up and around yet (not even the press who had been specifically warned). Well, almost no one, vampires being creatures of the night and it was Laura's misfortune (or possibly fortune) that the first person to find her was a vampire.

OOC: I'm afraid I've moved the Women's Social And Political Union back in time about ten years from the 1900s to the 1890s. And what's a little bondage between friends-to-be?
chivalrouswench: (Default)

Brienne of Tarth / ASOIAF / GOT

[personal profile] chivalrouswench 2019-04-19 12:13 pm (UTC)(link)
justdandy: (Default)

Biffy | Parasol Protectorate | OTA

[personal profile] justdandy 2019-04-19 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[Who doesn't want a gay victorian werewolf with a hat shop?]
cokeandcaviar: (pic#12408285)

eleanor henstridge | the royals

[personal profile] cokeandcaviar 2019-04-19 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ she's a troublemaking princess, so why not be a victorian troublemaking princess? ]
elderfrye: (Default)

Evie Frye | Assassin's Creed Syndicate | OTA

[personal profile] elderfrye 2019-04-19 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
thequitecontrary: (grey suit)

Mary Crawley | Downton Abbey

[personal profile] thequitecontrary 2019-04-19 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Typical upper class lady. ]
ofwovenstone: (🌼 poised)

Cassandra de Rolo | Critical Role

[personal profile] ofwovenstone 2019-04-22 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
[Cassandra is the youngest, and last remaining daughter of either a royal class family or a very upper middle upper class family. Said family died, leaving Cassandra and her brother Percival as their sole heirs. M/F for anything shippy, but OTA on that front when it comes to castmates.]