bakerstreet | History

History

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 | Expand All

[Tristan's canon takes place during the early 1900's.]

[Practically made for this meme, really.]

[Technically, he's from the 1700s, but he and reality haven't spoken in several lifetimes, at least.]

[Can play with era very easily!]

[ Victorian is my jam for her! ]

[Any time line. He is older than dirt.]

Edited 2024-01-30 21:39 (UTC)

[I already have bootlegger and WW2 era AUs for her, but any era where she can have a vehicle, even if that vehicle is a sailing ship, works.]

[OOC: So since your Furiosa is the best, and for once I can't think how to toss Ock at her...would she want a ride somewhere in the TARDIS? Like an adventure was had, the Doctor offers her a trip somewhere as a thank you? (You know, like how he collects half his friends.) And thus we could do any period you'd like to put her into, really!]

[Hellooooo! Always a pleasure! I must admit I am less familiar with this particular Doctor than Tom Baker and some of the NuWho Doctors, so this will be new to me, but I am here for it.

If he offered to take her somewhere she would definitely ask to see the Old World at its best, preferably with knowledge she could bring back to her people, so that leaves a little leeway as far as era. Their knowledge of Earth history seems a little shaky in the film. An alternate future might be good for her.]

[The TARDIS, in his later years, was something of a baroque masterpiece - which suited his pace just fine. Most of the great plans were done, and now he could just...travel. Call it a semi-retirement, at least for now. Quiet, sedate, peaceful.]

[Sort of.]

[Such as picking up a new passenger from a rather dark period in Earth's future history. In return for a favour owed - though he always had layers beyond the obvious, of course - he had offered a former Imperator a bit of a lift. A trip in the TARDIS, though he was fairly sure she must have thought him mad.]

[At least until stepping inside. Behind her, he finishes closing the doors, fairly sure where she'll ask to go, but the question itself must always be stated, almost as a tradition.]

Now, anywhere in time and space - where would you like to go, hmm?

[Given that a crisis in Gastown has long been her worst diplomatic nightmare, it only made sense to join forces with this stranger when he purported to need assistance within the city. Anyone would get lost there, the catacombs underneath the refineries are cramped and dark and full of poison. The alleys above them are equally cramped with debris, and only slightly less envenomed. The world would be cleaner if they could wipe the place off the face of it, but that wouldn't be fair to the people stuck there, and then they'd have to find a whole new source of fuel, so they're forced to try to enact incremental improvements instead. This time, Furiosa is convinced they left the place a little better, or at least not worse.

She could argue that she already benefitted from their adventure, in that sense, but she's too canny to turn down an opportunity to learn something. The Sisters are not at all sure about this peculiar man and his vehicle without wheels, but Furiosa is willing to go on a little faith after what she's seen.

Her face shows no particular awe at what she sees, just curiosity and a raised eyebrow of interest. It's pretty comfortable by her standards. Spacious compared to the cab of the Rig.]

No steering wheel? [Of course that would be the first thing to strike her as strange, given all the War Boy Drivers each had their own signature wheel. That's a tradition that's continued even after Immortan's fall.]

There are so many things my people need. Livestock, seeds, water purifiers, cleaner fuel...anywhere that can give me the knowledge of how to get those things. That's what I want.

(no subject)

darkened_doctor - 2024-02-10 02:00 (UTC) - Expand

[ Got your canon 1960s-70s right here, but totally open to exploring something further in her past or a canon AU! ]

[1470s Romania and onward! He's in France as of the Revolution, but from there, well, who knows?]

[ The likelihood of two people sharing the exact facial features is less than 1 in 1 trillion, yet some cases do happen across time. Even so, he had not expected to be standing in front of a mobile mirror, staring at his own reflection when we returned from having dinner downstairs after he tried to open his room's door.

Someone opened it from inside. An almost perfect doppelgänger. If Wodime were vastly paler, wearing black, and had golden eyes instead of blue. His alarm briefly rises that this may be a mage rival trying to assassinate and supplant him, but he does not detect a fellow mage in the corridor. No.

..............................

It is an amazing coincidence. ]

Ah. Pardon me. [ He clears his throat and tries to stop gawking. He is sure this is his room. He has left his luggage earlier on the bed. The suitcase is an enhanced mystic code that only Kirschtaria can unfasten. Nevertheless, he can't ask this man to vacate the room. The port town is full, and this was the most expensive inn with a good reputation among those who could afford it.

Most are nobles looking to leave the country in turmoil, and Kirschtaria looks exactly the part — Dressed finely in white, accented by a shoulder pad that is actually made of gold and a fur-lined cloak. He should be fleeing before the Revolution reaches its height for his own safety. Wodime's accent is clearly not French (although his French is as fluent as any local), and he is marching in the opposite direction of the aristocratic flood. ] There has been a misunderstanding.

[ He announces with a low voice, and, contrary to the haughtiness expected from his appearance alone, the young mage proposes something other than ruining the poor old innkeeper's reputation or sending one of them to sleep on the streets. ] Would you terribly mind sharing for tonight? I will leave in the morrow.

[Being rerouted due to governmental reasons (read: chaos) did not make for a happy dhampir. It was upsetting and worrisome enough for distance mirrors to deny access to France. It is worse traveling as men do. Every moment on the road is a moment wasted. He should be there already, should have been in Nantes two nights ago, and yet.

An inn is an indulgence. One Alucard would not permit himself if the prospect of sleeping in the streets as a wolf did not feel wholly dangerous tonight. There is something in the air beyond revolution, and it is confirmed when he walks into the inn and requests a room. You lost your key? Fine, there's a fee.

With no bags and nothing but the clothes on his back, Alucard doesn't argue. He simply goes to the room and falls into the bed. In a better frame of mind, he'd notice the suitcase. Determine that there's magic in the air that is of a very different sort than what he is used to and vacate.

Exhaustion wins until someone approaches the door. Alucard's senses are not so dull as to miss that and--

--he stares.

Pauses.

And at least understands why the inn keeper reacted as he did. There's no similarities in the choices of clothing, Alucard always having preferred black with gold detail and having forgone ornamentation for the most part, but he gets it. Look once without a keen eye and you'd make the same error.

His mouth opens and the first few words are very much in Romanian. Then French, the accent clear and some pronunciation a little out of date.]

There has been, yes.

[Sharing is not on Alucard's list of things to do at the moment. He pretends to entertain the notion by giving the room a better once over than he did previously.]

I can find another place to rest.

There is none. [ Kirschtaria informs his double with a frown, looking at him apologetically as the bearer of bad news. He wanted to stay in a more humble abode to access the hearsay of the revolution, but there was no room anymore. ] This was the last of the inns I checked. The others were full. Perhaps in the next town, there could be openings, but—

[ He gives him a sideglance. The hour is late, and the road is dangerous. Mages are supposed to be selfish and paranoid. He knows this is their way of life, to trample others to rise and complete their grand order. Nevertheless...despite the high expectations of his peers and elders, Kirschtaria Wodime makes a poor mage. He doesn't believe in either thing. ]

Please, I insist. I wouldn't sleep well tonight if I evicted someone. If you are troubled by my credentials as a host—

[ He lifts a wrapped package he carries with his left hand. The leftover bread from dinner. He planned to make it a midnight snack, but now he has a different idea. He recognized some of the words spoken earlier before the other man switched to French. They have this tradition: to share bread and salt. ]

I could procure salt if we observe formalities. [ He says in jest, although his expression doesn't give that away. His stern grace remains as a fixture. ] Besides, aren't you a little curious? We might share common branches of our family tree somewhere.

[ He would rule out any spare twin handed over to be adopted by a childless mage family because there are no registers of a sibling. That practice isn't uncommon. Only an heir is necessary for the crest. But mages will keep the transfer and contract as bidding documents. ]