bakerstreet | History in the making

The Historical AU Meme

The glory of Rome! The pageantry of medieval times! The etiquette of the Regency era! The glamour of the twenties, the free-wheeling of the seventies, and - of course - the final frontier of the future.

R U L E S:

1. Post your character! Name and series in the subject line.

2. Find someone to play with! Use the RNG for a time period and situation.

3. Make excellent choices!

O P T I O N S:

1) Greco-Roman - Togas! Tunics! Gladiatorial fights and getting stabbed right in the forum! (And that's really sensitive, you know.) Maybe you're in the recently-conquered Londinium, or maybe you've made your home in Pompeii and ... hey, do you hear that?

2) Medieval - Jousting! Pointy hats! Castles! Dormice inside of a rabbit inside of a chicken inside of a duck inside of a swan inside of a pig inside of a cow! Are you royalty, a peasant, or something in between?

3) Renaissance - It's a time of discovery and revelation! New scientific breakthroughs are being made every day, and incredible literature and poems are being written all the time. Perhaps you've made your home in Venice, and you're adding to the flow of progress - or fighting against it.

4) Victorian/Edwardian - Everything is repressed and a series of gestures with a fan can make or break a hopeful suitor's night. There are balls and salons and ridiculously thorough rules of etiquette. Are you solving mysteries with Sherlock Holmes or drinking absinthe in a bar by the Moulin Rouge?

5) 1920s - Flappers! Prohibition! Everyone's dancing the Charleston and watching these new silent movies. That is, unless they've escaped to Paris to drink a lot and write about the human condition. Do you party like the world's about to end or ponder what would happen if it did?

6) 1950s - Are you willing to leave it to Beaver? It's the time of adorable housedresses, three-martini lunches, and everyone owning a brand new refrigerator - on credit! Gee whiz, it sure is great, isn't it?

...wait, what was that about nuclear bombs?

7) 1970s - Disco! Margaret Thatcher! Drugs! The '70s are a time of social upheaval and change, not to mention leisure suits. Are you at the forefront of feminism or busting a move at the discotheque?

8) Present day - it's now! Everyone's got an iPhone and a Facebook and are constantly Twittering about their MySpace. People are more connected than ever, and the world is growing smaller and smaller every day.

9) The future! - The final frontier! Are we colonizing Mars or exploring the galaxy in a big, groovy spaceship? Have we made first contact yet? Has someone finally gotten around to inventing Holodecks? If you can dream it, maybe it's happened!

10) Got a different/better idea? Some time or place I didn't think of? This is for you!

S C E N E S:

1) Having a meal! With your family, your significant other, your best friend. Is it fit for a king or what you've managed to scrounge together from what's left?

2) A night's entertainment! Going to see a show at the Globe Theater, taking in a movie, or watching a troupe of performers put on a passion play - either way, it won't be a dull night.

3) Courting! Maybe you're in an arranged marriage, or necking in the backseat of your best guy's T-Bird at the drive-in movie theater.

4) School! Are you learning from Miss Emmeline at a one-room schoolhouse, taking notes on Latin from the tutor your father hired, or at a British boarding school?

5) It's a party! Maybe you're having a hell of a time at Studio 54 or giggling behind your fan at a ball with your best friend while you wait for the boys you like to ask you to dance.

6) Political intrigue! Is someone trying to stage a coup for your throne? Is your political rival trying to knock you out of the Senate?

7) Rivals! Maybe you're two lords fighting over the same eligible lady, or maybe he's picked on you since you were both kids growing up on the same block.

8) Family! You've got kids now, or maybe you are the kids. Perhaps you're out from dawn till dusk tilling the fields, or your biggest concern is making sure your daughters marry well.

9) Market day! Are you at the mall checking out the newest saddle shoes and cuffed denim? Are you making your way to the nearest town with sheep and cows to sell?

10) Got something better? Want to combine a couple of these? Go for it!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ m/m for anything shipping.

I'm particularly interested in future, 1920s and Greco-Roman. Courting, school, rivals with some political intrigue mixed in anything is great too. ]

[Muse is immortal and his original expiration date was back during the founding of Uruk, circa 5000 BCE. Mun love history, historical fiction, learning and alt-historical fiction to boot so there's really no time period Luka won't fit in and I won't write in! Not interested in playing out historical racism, homo/transphobia or misogyny, otherwise go the fuck off!]

[ info. heralds from the late 1920s and would love to play him from that era, but also interested in victorian/belle époque-era or the general wwii period. ota for shipping, slight gen pref. ]

[ 3, 4, or 5 for setting. Scene open for rolling! Or you can just cheat and pick, I don't think anyone actually cares. ]

[ a conscripted russian medic in ww1, harboring all at once bitterness and deep anger at the injustices around him and a remarkable capacity for gentleness and compassion toward his fellow soldiers, especially the wounded. yakov's a fervent bolshevik and the de facto leader of his unit; in his mid thirties, he's a little older than the men who look to him for guidance, less so as the russian army grows increasingly desperate for soldiers. ultimately, he finds himself at the center of a mutiny ending in mass desertion, becomes involved in the revolution, and is posted to guard—and then execute—the tsar, ending his role in the series with profound moral injury when the execution he planned to be as fast and quiet as possible—with the executed not knowing until their charges were read moments before being shot that they were going to die—is horrendously botched, forcing a man who spent years as a medic to pull his own pistol and kill at close range.

would love to play him during ww1 or the russian civil war, either with enemies or allies; i'm happy to handwave language barriers or 'they were on different fronts' barriers. also down for AUing him into other 20th century points in history, or meeting more 'modern' characters from the soviet union in a jamjar, handwavey sort of setting. ]