#an Italian-born crime matriarch of her family

[akaraboonline]

20 Best Steamy Romance Films to Get You Hot and Mood

Why we love steamy romance movies

You don't even have to be in a relationship to enjoy steamy romance films. Sure, they can help you create a sexy atmosphere on a date. Even if you're single, watching a few sexy scenes has numerous advantages. These films can set the mood, help you release tension, or serve as a warm-up for your own steamy romance. So there you have it: a few reasons why we enjoy steamy romance films.

Our favorite steamy romance movies

Action films, horror films, and chick flicks are all enjoyable to watch. However, there are times when you need to spice up your movie night. Check out our list of the best steamy romance movies if you're looking for something steamy to watch alone or with your partner. 1. Nymphomaniac: Volume I and II (2013)

20 Best Steamy Romance Films to Get You Hot and Mood Lars Von Trier has to be included on this list of steamy romance films. The Nymphomaniac films tell the story of a sex addict and the trials and tribulations she faces throughout her life. Each film is over two hours long, but it's well worth it. The movies go into great detail about the character and what drives her to do what she does. Is there nudity present? Yes. Do you have any squirming moments? Yes. It has it all, including some spanking. 2. Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)

This French film follows a teenage girl as she explores her sexuality with a blue-haired art student. It's a passionate love story with an extra layer of passion because it's a French film! You won't be able to stop watching once you hit play. So, if you have any plans, you should cancel them because this film is over three hours long. The sexual and passionate scenes are intense. And there's a lot of naughtiness, so don't watch this with your parents. It will not be enjoyable for you or them. 3. I Am Love (2009)

20 Best Steamy Romance Films to Get You Hot and Mood How can sex and drama not go together? Some people think Tilda Swinton looks like an alien, but she plays a sex kitten in this film. Furthermore, the director is Luca Guadagnino, who also directed another of our favorites, Call Me By Your Name. Swinton portrays the Russian-born matriarch of a wealthy Italian family who is having an affair with their chef. Unfortunately, the affair threatens to devastate her life as she knows it... Dun dun duuuuuuuun. 4. Y Tu Mana Tambien (2001)

What happens when two young adolescent boys and a 28-year-old married woman go on a road trip together? You'll have to watch this steamy romance film to find out. This film contains everything you're probably thinking about. Best of all, it is also directed by Alfonso Cuaron. If you're unfamiliar with his work, he directed Children of Men and Gravity, so you know it'll be good. 5. Fatal Attraction (1987)

20 Best Steamy Romance Films to Get You Hot and Mood The plot is as follows: a man has an affair with a woman; the man wants the affair to end, but the woman does not. Then she loses her mind. This is a classic plot, but Fatal Attraction is the first film to try it. It's hot, passionate, and naughty. It's the ultimate steamy love story! Because it's the 1980s, they all have crazy hairdos. 6. Gloria (2013)

20 Best Steamy Romance Films to Get You Hot and Mood There aren't many steamy romance films centered on middle-aged people... It's always about young, attractive people. But you'll be pleasantly surprised in this case: it's about older hot people. This Chilean film tells the story of a divorced middle-aged woman who goes to singles' dance clubs in search of love. Will she find love? Without a doubt. Is it accompanied by its own drama? How could it be otherwise? 7. Basic Instinct (1992)

Sharon Stone was born as a result of this film. It was primarily *that* interrogation scene that turned her into the sex symbol she is today. Stone's character, a crime novelist, becomes a suspect in a rock star's death. Then she seduces the homicide detective into a passionate affair. Of course, this is a common situation that I'm sure we've all encountered. Anyway, just keep an eye on it. You can't go wrong by watching this film. 8. Dirty Dancing (1987)

Something about Patrick Swayze will always be appealing. We believe it is the arms. Anyway, this film turned Patrick into a sex symbol. Plus, have you seen his dancing skills? That is one elegant man. It's quite steamy. For example, the way he lifts her... Mmmm… Oh, yes, the film. A wealthy family goes on vacation to a resort in this steamy romance film. Baby, played by Jennifer Grey, develops feelings for Johnny, aka Patrick Swayze, the dance instructor. You've got the wheels turning now. 9. Cruel Intentions (1999)

Reese Witherspoon, oh, Reese Witherspoon. Reese, Innocent. This steamy romance film is about two super-rich step-siblings, Kathryn and Sebastian, who make a cruel bet that Sebastian can take naive Annette *Witherspoonvirginity. *'s As you might expect, the challenge was accepted! Ryan Phillippe plays her on-screen boyfriend. And since we all know they married in real life, you can imagine how intense the scenes between them are. 10. Young & Beautiful (2013)

This film is about a teenage girl who is experimenting with her sexuality by working as a prostitute in secret. It's intriguing to see what's hidden behind her innocent expression. Is she keeping it a secret from her friends and family? Yes. So you can imagine the buildup in this movie. It's intense and extremely steamy. Sure, there are subtitles — but don't start sighing just yet! Reading is wonderful, and believe us when we say that this film is well worth your time. 11. Boogie Nights (1997)

This steamy romance film was released when Marky Mark was just breaking into the spotlight. Mark Wahlberg plays a young man in his 70s who gets into the porn industry. The film contains a prosthetic penis, but you can pretend it's the real thing. That's exactly what we did—it allows you to sleep better at night. You're half right if you think Boogie Nights is all about glitz. However, it also shows the dark side of the porn industry. 12. Sleeping Beauty (2011)

We're not talking about the Disney film! A young college student becomes a niche sex worker for a high-end brothel where customers pay to touch her while she sleeps in this erotic thriller. Doesn't sound creepy, does it? It's an odd film, but it's a lot of fun to watch. Emily Browning does an excellent job, despite the fact that she is naked for the majority of the film. Which, to her credit, takes balls — figuratively speaking. 13. Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

How could this film not be included? This is the epitome of a steamy romance film, and there are several sequels to enjoy once you've finished. This is the adult version of a dark, brooding guy who falls for a simple yet unique lady, based on books that were originally Twilight fanfiction. Instead of vampires and werewolves, you get BDSM, stalkers, and revenge, which raises the PG-13 rating to R. 14. Call Me By Your Name (2017)

The beauty of the Italian countryside, the romance, the '80s fashion... Everything is stunning. The budding romance between a seventeen-year-old student and his older lover is beautifully depicted by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Timothee Chalamet's character discovers his true erotic self while falling in love with his father's research assistant over an unforgettable summer. However, you might not feel the same way about peaches after this one. 15. Out of Sight (1998)

Jack Foley, played by the dashing George Clooney, is the country's most successful bank robber. However, after escaping from prison, he meets Karen Sisco, played by Jennifer Lopez. She is everything he desires in a woman, but she is also a federal marshal. They must make a decision between their jobs, the law, and their romance. Isn't it a difficult decision? Especially if your girlfriend is Jennifer Lopez! 16. Unfaithful (2002)

Richard Gere and Diane Lane play a married couple in this erotic thriller. However, things are not as rosy as they appear. Soon after, Gere's character discovers that his wife has been lying about having an affair! He confronts her lover instead of fighting, counseling, or other methods. From there, the rage he feels is unlike anything he's ever felt before. If you've ever been wronged in love, this steamy romance film will hit close to home. 17. Titanic (1997)

This one is a classic among classics. It has everything you could want in a film, especially a hot and steamy romance. During their voyage on the Titanic, Jack and Rose fall in love across class lines and share an unforgettable romance. But, as we all know, there's an iceberg in the way of their happily ever after. 18. How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)

Stella is a stockbroker who has had a bad love life. When her friend, Whoopi Goldberg, whisks her away to Jamaica, she has a sexy fling with a younger man. However, by the end of her vacation, she realizes she may have gotten more than she bargained for. Can their relationship survive their age gap and geographical distance? 19. The Girl Next Door (2004)

Emile Hirsch's character, high school senior Matthew Kidman, is an overachiever to the point of boredom. Then his mundane life is turned upside down when he falls in love with his new neighbor. When he discovers she is a pornstar, his fantasies about her spiral out of control. But his feelings are intense. His sheltered life pales in comparison to the love and adventure he can find with the girl next door. At one point, they even make their own sex tape! 20. Blue Valentine (2010)

This understated romance stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. They play a couple who appear to live a simple life. However, as you watch, you can see their relationship deteriorate. What appeared to have so much potential has been ruined by day-to-day problems. Don't be fooled by the fact that this appears to be a regular relationship. For his performance, Gosling was nominated for a Golden Globe, while Michelle Williams narrowly missed out on the Oscar for Best Actress. As a result, expect some sizzling hot performances in this one.   Read the full article

[pulpcrush]

Alessandra Panaro (1939-2019) by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Italian postcard by Casa Edit. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F.), no. 3579. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Titanus Last Wednesday, 1 May 2019, Alessandra Panaro (1939), an Italian former film actress of the late 1950s and early 1960s, passed away. She is best known for Luchino Visconti's crime drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (1960). Alessandra Panaro was born in Rome, Italy in 1939. Panaro began her film career in 1954 with Il barcaiole di Amalfi/The boatman of Amalfi (Mino Roli, 1954) starring Mario Vitale. One of her next films was the Italian drama Gli innamorati/Wild Love (1955) directed by Mauro Bolognini. The film, starring Antonella Lualdi and Franco Interlenghi, was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. In a considerable number of romantic comedies, she played the young love interest. Examples are the big hit Poveri ma belli/Girl in a Bikini (1956) and the sequels Belle ma povere/ Poor Girl, Pretty Girl (1957) and Poveri milionari (1959). All were directed by Dino Risi and starred Marisa Allasio, Maurizio Arena, Renato Salvatori, Lorella De Luca, and Panaro. On TV she co-hosted with Lorella De Luca the show Il Musichiere/The musicians in 1957. In 1957 she also played the leading role in the comedy Lazzarella by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, a film based on a popular song written by Domenico Modugno and Riccardo Pazzaglia. She played Totò’s daughter in the satire Totò, Peppino e le fanatiche/Toto, Peppino and the Fanatics (Mario Mattoli, 1958) with Peppino De Filippo. And she played Nora, the girlfriend of Bruno (Mario Girotti - the future Terence Hill) in the film Cerasella (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1959) featuring Claudia Mori. Alessandra Panaro’s best-known film is the beautiful drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960). Set in Milan, it tells the story of an immigrant family from the South, led to the industrial North by the matriarch (Katina Paxinou). Presented in five distinct sections, the film weaves the story of Vincenzo (Spiros Fócas), Simone (Renato Salvatori), Rocco (Alain Delon), Ciro (Max Cartier) and Luca (Rocco Vidolazzi) as they struggle to adapt to life in the large and impersonal city of Milan. In typical fashion for a director known for helping build Italian neo-realism, the film ends with no substantive resolution, but with clouds of doom hanging over the family. Pannaro played Ciro’s fiancée Franca. Elbert Ventura at AllMovie: “Painted with bold strokes and marked by inflamed passions, Rocco and His Brothers holds you in rapt attention despite its sprawling story. Visconti punctuates the Parondis' struggles with two harrowing scenes of ritualized violence that profoundly change the family and underscore the operatic determinism of Visconti's vision. The movie's visceral intensity is matched only by the elegance and intelligence of the mise-en-scène, with its fine compositions, graceful camera moves, and evocative black-and-white cinematography. A work of overpowering power and stark beauty, Rocco and His Brothers stands as a vivid masterpiece from one of cinema's great artists.” During the golden age of the European genre film, Alessandra Panaro played roles in each popular genre. She often used the more American sounding pseudonym Topsy Collins. She co-starred in peplums – the Italian sword-and-sandal adventure films - like Le Baccanti/The Bacchantes (Giorgio Ferroni, 1960) with Pierre Brice, and Ulisse contro Ercole/Ulysses Against Hercules (Mario Caiano, 1962) starring Georges Marchal. She played the beautiful virgin Queen Medea, Gordon Scott's love interest, in Ercole contro Molock/Hercules Against Moloch (Giorgio Ferroni, 1963). In Germany, she appeared in the Karl May western Der Schatz der Azteken/The Treasure of the Aztecs (Robert Siodmak, 1965) with Lex Barker. One of her last films was the spaghetti western 30 Winchester per El Diablo/30 Winchesters for El Diablo (Gianfranco Baldanello, 1965) starring Carl Möhner. After finishing her film career she returned to the screen with her old colleague Lorella de Luca in La madama (Duccio Tessari, 1976) starring Christian De Sica. And 33 years later she made one more guest appearance in an episode of the Brazilian TV series A Grande Família/The Large Family (2009). Her final screen appearance was in the Italian film La notte è piccola per noi/The Night is Small for us (Gianfrancesco Lazotti, 2016) with Cristiana Capotondi and Philippe Leroy. Panaro was married twice, first to banker Jean-Pierre Sabet who died in 1983, and then to actor Giancarlo Sbragia, who died in 1994. Alessandra Pannaro passed away in Geneva, Switzerland. She was 79. Sources: Elbert Ventura (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Italian, German and English), and IMDb. https://flic.kr/p/2fGfaqw

[salylimon]

About Carolina:

hello! I figured I could use this space to tell you a little bit about Carolina. this may be long but I'm trying to build a solid background/get my thoughts together and also for you/your char/anyone interested in a plot so you can get to know her a bit more and see if she clicks with what you've got. 

ABOUT HER

Name: Carolina Natalia Correa

Nicknames: Caro, Carito, Chiquita

Age: 28 

Height: 5′2 

Birthday: March 8th, 1994 

Born: Bogota, Colombia 

Raised: Miami, FL 

Employment: Started as manager of Lagniappe, recently promoted to area manager for a private nightlife company. She currently oversees 3 bars in the Los Angeles area, but the company is expected to branch out to other cities in California. All TBA. Her boss, the owner, is a Greek/Italian man that you can meet and have a drink with at Lagniappe. She currently manages ASTRA, Lagniappe and Lost Boy (opening soon!)

Living situation: She is now the proud owner of a 2 bedroom apartment in Pasadena, CA. She is 17 minutes away from her office, located inside Lagniappe. 

Family: Her family consists of two sisters and a baby brother. By baby she means 17. the order from youngest to oldest is: her brother, baby sister #1, Carolina, older sister. Her mom, aunts and uncles who had lived in LA for years with a few cousins. Three nieces she likes to babysit (ages 4, 8 and 12) and the matriarch of the family is her grandma.

Likes: poetry, books tons and tons of books, plants, coffee, paranormal (although her mom hates that she does), painting, decorating, cooking, learning new things (bartending techniques, promo material and creations for their menu/bars), snow globes and teaspoon souvenirs, kinder egg surprise, salsa (the genre but she’s also pretty fond of the Mexican salsa y guacamole), true crime, music (I'll be adding more with time)

Dislikes: lizards, gore, clowns, winter, loud chewers, liars, lack of cleanliness, an attitude for no reason, going a long time without getting her nails done. (adding more with time)

BACKSTORY:

Carolina was born in Bogota, Colombia. She attended a private catholic nun school for the first few years of her life, which gave her a solid education. Her mother began to fly back and forth from Bogota to the US, attempting to start a life here. It finally happened when her 10th birthday came around, her parents decided to move to Miami, FL. After a few years of living there, her dad was suddenly very vocal about not liking the US and decided he would move back, leaving her mom and siblings on their own. Coming from a humble and hardworking background, her mom decided she would take the head of the household title and open up her house cleaning business, taking her and her oldest sister to help.

When she graduated high school, she was forced to work two jobs and go to college in order to afford all her classes until she decided it just wasn’t for her (her mom still bugs her to this day) and dropped out. She began to help her moms business until they decided to move to LA three years ago. Carolina didn’t want to leave because her ex-boyfriend in Miami, but they ended things a year and a half ago because she found out he was cheating on her. So, she moved to LA just last November. 

She’s poured her heart and soul into Lagniappe after her boss hired her without any proper interview or experience, first thing he said to her was “you look like a korítsi (girl) with a plan.” She always tries to make every bar under her supervision a safe and private space for everybody to enjoy. And she isn’t afraid to let the bad ones out if they fuck with the rest of her guests, even if she’s shorter than the average person. She is also accepting song requests for the house dj, a man she met at the bakery down the street from it. An angel. 

If you happen to be introduced to her family, I hope you are ready for Sundays at the Correas. She doesn’t like to brag, but she thinks it’s the best plan you’ll have during the weekend. Her niece says it’s better than Coachella. 

[truecrimesposts]

JOLLY JANE - Jane Toppan.

Jane Toppan, or as she would come to be known later in life, 'Jolly Jane', was a Massachusettes serial killer who was active during the late 1800s. To this day it is not known for certain exactly how many victims Jane claimed during her lifetime, but Jane would claim that is was at least 30 victims, with some more sensationalising reports claiming the number to be closer to 100.

Jane was actuary born as Honora Kelley, in Boston in 1854 (or 1857 according to some reports) to Irish immigrants Peter and Bridgette Kelley, though there is little to no information about the family, largely due to their immigrant status. She would come to be known by her family by the nickname of Nora, and she was the youngest of at least three girls, with a sister, Delia, who was two years older, and another older sister called Nellie. Other reports claim that she may have had more siblings than this, but I couldn't find any information about this. When Jane was a few years old, her mother grew sick with a brutal case of tuberculosis, leaving their father to raise the girls. Their father was a tailor, and an aggressive alcoholic who was believed by all those who new him to suffer from some kind of mental illness, which would leave to violent and angry outbursts. This trait would come to earn him a less than kindly nickname 'Kelley the Crack' meaning that he was 'cracked in the head'. It's widely accepted that Jane's early years were extremely miserable, and her and her sister Delia were taken away from the home at the ages of 6 and 8, and sent to the Boston Female Asylum in order to protect them from their increasingly abusive father. I tried to find out what happened to their older sister Nellie, but all I could find for sure was that she was not brought into the orphanage with her siblings because she was too old. It is rumoured that Nellie had actually taken after her father and struggled with mental illness herself until she was eventually committed to an asylum herself. It is also not known for sure what happened to their father, however there was an urban legend that claimed that he actually suffered a severe a severe psychotic break and tried to sew his own eyelids closed.

The Boston Female Asylum, despite the name, was not actually an asylum but an orphanage that had been founded back in 1799 by Hannah Stillman, wife of Revered Samuel Stillman, long before state care for children was invented, and this was actually the first charity set up by women in Boston. Back then it was simply down to the charity of the genourous to provide this kind of home for children, and those running this orphanage were generous enough to provide a home for around 100 girls at the time that Jane and Delia arrived. Jane found a home after around two years in the home, moving in with the Toppan family in 1962. According to reports, Delia was not so lucky and after leaving the orphanage it is rumoured that Delia turned to prostitution in order to survive.

When Jane was placed with the Toppan family, she was not formally adopted, and in fact, she never would be, though this family would be the ones to change her name to Jane, and refer to her as Jane Toppan. Despite being given their name, she would never truly be accepted by the matriarch of the family, due to Ann Toppan's hatred for the Irish. This was also why Jane's name was changed, and using Jane's dark hair and olive skin to her advantage, Ann spread rumours that Jane was Italian rather than admitting the girls Irish roots. However these beliefs didn't spread to her new sister Elizabeth, who was extremely fond of Jane, despite them not being treated equally within the home. Ann Toppan sent Jane to school, where she flourished academically, she was a very bright girl, but was hated by pretty much all of her schoolmates. Jane became known in school for lying about her family, being a snith, blaming other classmates for her own bad behavior and spreading vicious lies and rumours about anyone who would cross her, traits which would continue throughout her life.

Jane was given freedom from the home, along with $50 in cash on her 18th birthday, however she made the decision to stay in the home, working for them as a live in servant for over a decade. During the 70s Ann Toppan passed away and Elizabeth married Deacon Oramel Brigham. Jane was also reportedly engaged at some point during this time, however he left her for another woman, leaving Jane working for her Foster sister the way up to 1885. At this point, Jane decided that she wanted a new challenge and to stand on her own two feet, so she decided, instead of working one of the few menial jobs available to women, she applied to nursing school, and in 1887 she was accepted to Cambridge Hospital in Boston.

Jane used her time in school to reinvent herself, having learnt from her previous schooling how not to behave if you want to make friends. The change in Jane and how she treated people was so drastic at this time that she actually earnt herself the nickname of Jolly Jane. She was working 12 hour days, 7 days a week, getting only two weeks off a year, but she loved it. Her stoicism and bubbly personality earnt her many friends, however her manipulative traits hadn't disappeared. The nurse was still prone to spreading gossip and integrating herself with authority, but she was much alter now. Apparently on at least two occasions during her training Jane's rumours actually cost the nurses their place at the school. She also apparently started committing petty thefts, but nothing ever came of this.

The patients coming through the hospital loved Jane, they found her bright and chatty and genuinely just believed her to be a lovely and bright woman. However it would later be discovered that her relationship with her patients at this time were unusual at best, it became known that Jane had actually been falsifying the medical records of her favourite patients in order to ensure they stayed longer than originally needed. It is also believed that it was around this time that she began given these patients the wrong medication for the same reason, but nobody suspected her of this at the time. The patients that Jane did not care about however, where the elderly, her callous views of them, likely triggered by her uneasy relationship with her elderly foster mother, was that there was 'no use' in keeping them alive. No one at this time could have imagined that she was being serious, but it's hard not to wonder what would have happened if these comments had been taken seriously.

According to Jane, she killed over a dozen people during her time as a student nurse, reportedly using her patients as test subjects by giving her patients varying degrees in order to see the effect which it would have one them. This gradually worsened to the point where Jane would sit and watch her parents suffer, gaining sexual pleasure from this. She even described her feelings while watching her first murder victim die as 'ecstasy'. As is often the case for murderers that operate in hosptials, especially at this time, no one saw her victims death as suspicious, allowing her the freedom to escalate her crimes. As she gained more pharmacological knowledge, she changed her drugs of choice from opiates to a mixture of Atropine 9 and Morphine, since they were much harder to notice. The effects of the drugs counteracted each other in a way that would allow the poisons to go completely unnoticed. By this point she was using her patients as props to improve her own reputation, by nursing her victims back to health when nobody else could.

The reputation that she had built for herself during her training would actually be enough to allow the killer to get a job at Massachusettes General Hospital, and be immediately be put on fast track for promotion once she received her official license. It was once she began working at the hospital that issues would begin to arise for Jane. She quickly got a reputation for taking credit for other people's actions, something which went unnoticed at her previous job, and she also got caught out several times for tampering with medical records, but it was simply put down to incompetence and not malice. However even though the rest of her bad behaviour was being noticed finally, this did not extend to her crimes. Jane was still secretly torturing and killing her patients.

One of her patients survived an attack by Jane, and would reveal in the future, exactly what she remembered. Amelia Phinney recalled being wracked with brutal convulsions when Jane Toppan, her nurse, actually climbed into bed with her, stroking her hair and kissing her cheek and telling her that it would all be okay soon. Amelia recalled that the only reason that she got out of this situation alive was that Jane had been interrupted before giving her a fatal dose. Amelia didn't come forward until after Jane's arrest, since she woke up under the belief that it was nothing more than a dream, and didn't realise otherwise until after Jane's story was revealed.

Despite her difficult relationship with the nurses at her hospital, she managed to grow quite friendly with the doctors at the hospital, mostly due to the fact that she was very intelligent and was technically very good at her job when she was actually doing it. However after being suspected of stealing petty cash from coworkers and patients, and of stealing a nurses diamond ring, she was dismissed from her position in 1890, after she passed her exam, but before receiving her official license.

After working as a private nurse for a short period, Jane decided to return to the much more lenient Cambridge Hospital in an attempt to finally get her license, however Jane's arrogance would get in the way. After an attempt to poison a trainee nurse, Mattie Davis, who will pop up again later on in the story was detected, an investigation was carried out which discovered the large number of patients with similar symptoms that had died while under her care had died. This was once again put down to incompetence and not malice, and Jane was somehow not reported to the police, but was instead fired and blacklisted from hospital work.

With hospital work no longer an option for the serial killer, Jane went back into private nursing, a job which paid far better, but lacked a consistent wage. Working privately also allowed Jane to do pretty much whatever she wanted, since there was no one keeping an eye on her, and no one to report to. Over the next few years Jane would actually go on to become one of the most successful private nurses in Boston.

Israel and Lovey Dunham were an elderly couple whom Jane was boarding with in Wendell Street Cambridge in 1895. Israel was old, and was growing weaker and weaker by the day and Jane, who we know to have very callous opinions of the elderly, decided that the man was 'too old' that he was 'feeble and fussy', and after a short consideration, Jane killed the defenceless man, using her medical training to make it seem as though he had simply had a heart attack. Jane then led his widow Lovey mourn his death for two long years while still living in the home before deciding to also kill the elderly woman. One by one, Jane began killing her way through her elderly patients not seeing 'much point in keeping old people alive'. After killing one of her patients, the family contacted a doctor in town, claiming that they believed Jane to have stolen some clothes from their grandmother's home after her death, but the doctor defended Jane, claiming that she was 'One of the finest women and best nurses that he knew'.

For several years, Jane had been going on holidays to a rented cottage in Cape Cod, which was actually owned by Mattie Davis and her husband, and in August of 1899, Jane decided to extend the invite to her Foster sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth was apparently very excited to see her sister, she was still very fond of Jane, and couldn't wait to spend time with her, but what she didn't know was that Jane had nothing but hate in her heart for Elizabeth. Elizabeth had done nothing to cause this, but Ann Toppan parenting had twisted Jane's mind against Elizabeth, and it had left Jane wanting revenge.

Within days of her arrival in Cape Cod, Elizabeth's husband Oramel received a telegraph from Jane, claiming that Elizabeth had fallen seriously ill. When Oramel finally got to Cape Cod, Elizabeth was in a coma, after suffering a suspected apoplectic stroke, according to the doctor that was called. Tragically, Elizabeth would never recover and she passed away the morning after Oramel arrived.

Not long after her sisters funeral, which she attended despite being the person who killed the innocent woman, Jane decided that it was time to push forward with a scheme which she had been planning for quite some time. The Matron of St John's Theological School at Cambridge, Myra Connors, had been a friend of Jane's for several years now, or at least that was what Myra Connor believed. However, Jane was no friend to Myra, she simply had a plan. Jane wanted Myras job and the apartment, maidservant and regular paycheck that came with it and so, as she had so many times before, poisoned and killed the woman who thought she was her friend. Jane made this murder look like a case of peritonitis that took a tragic turn. At the funeral Jane managed to manipulate her way into the job, but she wouldn't manage to keep it for very long. Jane was not used to being in a position of management, and she had a very lenient attitude towards finances, which would lead to her being asked to resign after just one year.

Jane decided to get away for a while to help soothe her injured ego, so she returned to Mattie and Alden Davis' holiday cottage despite the fact that this was where she had murdered her own frosted sister not too long ago. The kindly couple always gave her a good rate and hadn't charged her for her stay after Elizabeth's death in 1899, and gave her an extension in 1900 since she didn't have enough money to pay it. However when she returned returned to the cottage and left without paying once again again, Mattie took it upon her self to pay the killer a visit in order to confront her in person.

When Mattie went to visit Jane, she was boarding with a new couple, Melvin and Eliza Beedle, she had already poisoned the couple once before, but only enough to make them belive thst they had food poisoning. On Matties arrival Jane poured the woman a glass of water which she laced with morphene, causing Mattie to 'take over poorly'. The Beedle let Mattie rest in one of the homes empty rooms, which allowed Jane to easily top up the dosage without being seen, sending her into a coma. Mattie was diabetic, and when the doctor arrived, Jane told him that Mattie had simply eaten a piece of cake on arrival and that is why she was so unwell. The doctor had no reason to not believe the well known and pretty well respected nurse, and he left Mattie in Jane's care, which would prove to be a tragic and fatal mistake. Jane toyed with Mattie for a week, varying her doses and bringing her in and out of her coma and allowing her moments of panic stricken lucidity, before growing bored and giving the poor woman a fatal dose.

After Matties death, her two daughters, Genevieve and Minnie decided to stay with their grandfather while they came to terms with their grief, and the sweet natured girls made the poor decision to incite Jane to stay with them a while, since they knew and trusted her. For a while, Jane kept herself amused by starting small fires around their their home, and pinning them on a stranger that she had invented, that she claimed to have seen 'skulking about' the property. However, this petty arson wouldn't be enough for her for long. Genevieve had been struggling with her mother's death, she seemed to have not been coping as well as the other members of her family and Jane used this to her advantage. Using her skull for spreading rumours, Jane told Minnie, Matties other daughter, that she had seen her sister sat staring at a tin of arsenic, and suggested that they keep an eye on her, just in case. Jane would go on to poison Genevieve with arsenic, leading her family to believe that she committed suicide.

The use of arsenic in this case was quite an unusual tactic for Jane, heavy metal poisons like arsenic were far too easy to detect for her to normally risk using it, however this time she had built up a story thst would allow her to get away with it. At this time suicides didn't tend to be investigated due to the stigma that surrounded them. Her official cause of death was written as heart disease, but this would not be enough for 'Jolly Jane'. Two weeks after Genevieves death, Jane poisoned her father, Alden, with her usual combination of poisons. His cause of death was officially recorded as grief, and still feeling far too comfortable due to the lack of information, Jane still wasn't done with the family. When Jane gave Minnie her first dose of morphene, it left Minnie unable to swallow, but, determined to finish what she had started she delivered the fatal dose via enema. The doctors were baffled and after struggling to associate her death with anything else, they listed her cause of death as 'exhaustion'.

This string of unexplained deaths within such a short period of time naturally garnered a lot of attention, with several newspapers writing papers about the unusual situation, but people somehow still didn't suspect that the family had been murdered. That is, people other than Minnie's father in law, Captain Paul Gibbs, and Doctor Ira Cushing, who had seen Alden the day before he died. The two men got together and decided that something had to be done about Jane and her suspicious behaviour, and they know who they wanted to contact.

Leonard Wood was the US military governed of Cuba at the time, and he had studied medicine and spent time as a surgeon in the military before joking the officer corps instead. He worked with Tessy Roosevelt to form the famous 'rough riders' that fought in the Spanish - American war, and while Teddy got all the glory for this, it had been at his family home on Cape Cod in 1901, he was payed a visit by family friend Captain Paul Gibbs, and he was asked to use his medical connections and his power to kick start an investigation.

While this investigation was taking place, Jane decided to pay a visit to Revered Oramel Brigham, her sisters widower, welcomed Jane into his home with open arms, but tragically things went off the rails during her short stay. Jane murdered Oramel sister and also proceeded to poison Oramel. Jane nursed Oramel back to health, apparently in an attempt to 'win his affection', however when she was rejected, she calibrated the perfect amount of morphine and took an overdose which, while not fatal, did land her in the hospital. The investigating officer didn't want to let Jane out of his sight so he feigned an illness to be admitted to the hospital alongside her.

Once she discharged she moved onto yet another one of her friends, this time decided to pay a visit to an old friend named Sarah Nichols, however a few weeks after her arrival, Jane was arrested by the police. Luckily for Sarah the police had exhumed the body of Minnie Gibbs and an autopsy finally found evidence of poison.

Jane was actually originally only arrested for Minnie's murder, but as newspapers delved into her background they quickly discovered that this murder was just the start, and they quickly began to push forth rumours about Jane, most of which were untrue.

While the newspapers were free to make whatever judgements they wanted about Jane, the court case would not go quite so smoothly for a few reasons. The first issue faced by the prosecution was the recent death of the Davis families Doctor, since it meant that Jane could make claims about their health without anyone to claim otherwise. And the second issue was that the prosecution were operating under the assumption that Jane had poisoned Minnie with arsenic, however that wasn't the case. The traces of arsenic found on Minnie's body was actually from the embalming fluid that had been used.

It was an interview with Captain Paul Gibbs that would give prosecutors and police the lead they needed. A reporter from the Boston Journal asked Captain Paul for his thoughts kn the arsenic found in the two woman's bodies, he was quick to reveal his surprise. He told the paper "I didn't think Jennie Toppan would use anything as easily detected as arsenic." He knew Jane quite well, and knew how well educated she was, and that she was a much more skilled pharmacologist than people wanted to admit. When asked what he believed that she would have used, and having knowledge on the topic himself, he actually suggested, if you'd believe it, a mixture of morphine and atropine, which as we know was what she had used for the vast majority of her crimes. He also revealed that Jane had owed the family money and that $500 had gone missing from Aldens pocket after his death.

Newspapers dove deep into the past of Jane Toppan, finding out all about her petty thefts and the mysterious deaths, especially thst of Myra Connors. However it was Jeanette Snow, Jane's biological cousin who would give investigators their next big break. Jeanette told them all they wanted to know about Jane's young childhood, especially about 'Kelley the Crack', Jane's father, and Nellie's admittance to an asylum also. Jeanette's information changed the public perception once again, with Jane Toppan no longer seen as an opportunistic poisoned, but as dangerously insane.

Jane's wealthy patients began writing letters in an attempt to help her and for a while it seemed like it might have helped, however this wouldn't last for long. Taking the advice of Captain Paul Gibbs, there was an inquest into Minnie's death where they discovered that she had not been poisoned with arsenic but with morphine and atropine. Investigators had been looking through Jane's finances to find evidence of her purchasing arsenic, and failing to find anything, however, now they were looking into morphine instead they found proof of purchase after purchase of morphine and they finally had the evidence that they needed to take the serial killer to court.

The date was set for Jane's trials, but it did not happen yet. Fred Bixby, Jane's attorney, and the DA agreed to appoint a panel of psychiatrists to examine Jennys mental state and see if she was fit to stand trial. In March of 1902 Dr Henry Stedman, Dr George Jelly and Dr Hosea Quinby began their examination.

While Jane was initially very distrusting of the three doctors, it didn't take long for her chatty personality and her arrogance to show, and she began to open up. The doctors picked up very rapidly on her addiction to lying, but they pushed through, and despite having previously pled guilty, Jane Toppan confessed. The doctors had no idea how twisted Jan was, they were shocked as she discussed, calmly and coldly, thst she had a habit of climbing into bed with her victims, and the sexual thrill that she gained from their death. They had never experienced anything like this before, especially not from a woman. The doctors unanimously declared the serial killer as 'morally insane' which was the term used for psychopathy at the time, and said that she was unfit to stand trial and that she would never recover from her illness.

This was the first time in American history that a serial killer was actually being prosecuted as a serial killer, but the trial was little more than a formality, and a worry free Jane chatted and laughed with her lawyer for the one day that the trial lasted. During the trial Dr Stedman was asked what reason Jane had given for poisoning Minnie Gibbs, to which he simply replied, 'To cause death'. Jane was sentenced to a lifetime in a mental institution the same day.

It wasn't until after the trial took place that it was revealed that Jane had actually confessed to her attorney 6 months earlier when he first began to defend her, and she confessed to more than the 11 murders tbT the police had been investigating. Jane told him that she had been killing for 14 years, and that she had killed at least 31 people. The press went completely wild and every newspaper was reporting all they could about Jolly Jane Toppan.

Jane was sent to Taunton State Hospital, and for the first few years she really enjoyed her stay, and got along really well with all of the doctors and nurses that worked there, but she began to spiral. Jane was diagnosed with Manic Depression and she began to think about using her old name again and becoming a nun. By 1904 she had grown more and more paranoid to the point where she refused to eat anything because, ironically, she believed it to all be poisoned, after 34 years of struggling with worsening mental health issues and paranoia, Jane Toppan died in Taunton in 1938.at 81 years old.

[dhbelzinone]

𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓯𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓼 (ᴬⁿᵈ ᴬˡˡ ᵀʰᵃᵗ ᴶᵃᶻᶻ)

𝓞𝓞𝓒 𝓘𝓷𝓽𝓻𝓸 𝓟𝓸𝓼𝓽

Hi hello I’ve never done anything like this before but it looks like there’s a blog specifically for ooc intros so here’s my best. ♡

Hi my name is Sal, I go by they/them/theirs, and I’m a med school reject turned gender studies honors student. I’m currently working on a thesis about sex worker rights so I’m balls deep I can be in the industry without the good money and devoting the rest of my undergrad career to fighting for their right to make theirs. I’m also an artist and run an indie if y'all wanna see more of my muse’s roots. Bel’s been my emotional support muse for a good while and has gone through more character development than I have my entire lifetime, so although she may seem like a big softie compared to the rest of the muse crowd here, here’s hoping she can hold her own!

Bel Zinone Abridged: Devil’s Highway Vers.

Her mama is an undocumented immigrant who fought tooth and nail for her piece of the American dream. Much of this was due to the help of a vigilante organization that helped her flee from Europe, but her reputation was volatile enough to charm them into seeking out her membership.

Thanks to their international influence, she was able to keep running with the Wallflowers across the continental U. S. She soon settled down with her husband, a high profile (albeit black market) doctor, and raised her two children beneath the protection of the empire they built all the way from the city underbelly up to the high class elite.

Bel and her older brother Beau were relatively spoiled children until he left for the army and the family secrets started to leak. Adolescence was already hard on her, with her elusive sexuality and growing dysphoria yanking her identity chains, but as soon as she discovered her parents’ reign over the criminal underground, Bel doubted the authenticity of her upbringing and fled to the southern inlands with the resolve to make it on her own.

Little did she know that she’d find herself right smack in the middle of a gang war of the very nature she tried to escape. However, this time was going to be different. She wasn’t going to be at their mercy.

They were going to be at hers, for she offered one of the few medical resources in the entire desert that didn’t come with the liability of a paper trail.

In the meantime, she floats between bunny ranches, strip clubs, and the odd burlesque show. When she’s not working, she can be found frequenting bars, on Instagram, streaming her cam, tinkering with her Widowmaker, or looking for a good meatball sub.

Whereas she would’ve used her earnings to run as far away as possible from her past, Bel ironically finds solace in the lucrative lifestyle, calling a cozy studio apartment home and splurging on the occasional odds and ends that make the closeted queer life she embodies just a bit more bearable.

Relationships for her? I’m not gonna lie: despite the past rancor she’s had for her parent’s occupations, she genuinely wants to help and support people, patching them up so they’re good to go back to whatever they were doing without judgement. Her view of the life’s changed and she’s come to understand the institutions (as well as will) that brings people to commit and run with crime. She’s yet to make peace with her family, but she’s come to terms with the blood she’s from and wants to make a difference in peoples’ lives. That being said: 

Give her your tired, your poor, your horny

A job @ Paradise, maybe? Maybe she could learn about the surrounding gang activity from other dancers / affiliates or Kimi when she applies?

Maybe she could’ve known Esmeray from medical school?

Seeing other muses in the medical field are inspiring some joint black market clinic potential~

Maybe she could’ve known Rodrigo from when he was doing his work, possibly from Backpage before it got shut down?

On this note, maybe Nikki too? (Hello~)

If there are any other queer muses around, maybe they can shine a community light on her? Potentially while she’s yanking a shank out of their shoulder?

If there are any single muses too, I’d love to develop a ride-or-die boo or friend for her.

Last but not least, if we still need prospects and other make characters I’d be game af to have Beau go AWOL and trade his fatigues for a potential patch (maybe through the Mexican border with Nikki, if she’s gonna hate Bel asdkjfnaks). ♡

𝓐𝓹𝓹𝓵𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION: Sal (24) they/them/theirs ; PST ACTIVITY: I'm in my last year of undergraduate study and will have class three days a week on average. I'll be online at least once a day and will be able to devote most of my week to nitty-gritty writing as well as plotting. PASSCODE: angel wings and/or crown MISCELLANEOUS: I've been running an indie oc rp blog for almost five years (same character @belzinone) and this will be my first group/skeleton/rl fc rp. I'm worried about being ignored/left behind/largely uninvolved in threads and plotting because that has largely been my experience in discord server rp groups, but y'all seem to have good administration going on so I'm not feeling so worried anymore. I look forward to the experience if you'll have me. :)

IN CHARACTER

NAME: Bel Zinone DATE OF BIRTH: (March/08/1991) (28) PLACE OF BIRTH: San Francisco, California GENDER/PRONOUNS: demifemme｜she/her/hers AFFILIATION: N/A RANKING: N/A OCCUPATION: freelance sex worker, hitwoman, & black market physician FACE CLAIM: Antonia Thomas

BIOGRAPHY

triggers: domestic violence, murder, abuse, misandry, severe burns, sex work Her mother was an undocumented immigrant, fleeing from her orphaned past and domestic abuse in the Italian slums. A headstrong, promiscuous, and violent woman, it wasn't long until she found sisterhood amongst a like-minded gang of vigilante women with international influence called the Wallflowers, well-versed in her infamy and coming to her aid while she was pregnant with her son and escaping prosecution for murdering her husband. Risa Zinone, codenamed La Eglantina, docked in New York city, giving birth to her son Beau Zinone and raising him with the rest of her sorella while continuing her bloodthirsty occupation of murdering abusive men and liberating survivors from their regimes of terror. However, one could only run with the Wallflowers for so long before beginning to challenge their belief system, however righteous it claimed to be. The murderer mother fell in love with the black market doctor who saved her life and once again fled across the country and retired so she could live a peaceful life with him, safe from the constraints and watchful eyes of the sisterhood, but not without heavy cost. She suffered major burns to her entire body by a fire and had to undergo near total facial reconstruction, a miracle performed by the love of her life. In exchange for her life, she'd no longer bear resemblance to her children. Thus Bel Zinone was born on the opposite side of the country as her brother, hilly San Franscisco. She was a wildly rambunctious child, calmed only by the sounds of her brother's guitar strings and a profound interest in her father's work. Little did she know, her living was earned via the illicit means of her parents and their continued association with the country's underbelly. Shambled by the loss of one of their most valuable members, the Wallflowers had undergone a civil war. A near complete overhaul of organizational structure and creed had taken place, leading to an abysmal divide between the matriarchal supremacy of days past and the new order. Enemies of the new regime all around the world were sought out, assassinated, and replaced with a stronger, more diverse membership. During that witch hunt, Risa was reinstated into the Wallflowers with her husband Dmitri and the power couple ruled the pacific branch. The Zinone's hid their criminal affiliations well. Dmitri, a renowned surgeon specializing in the central nervous system, Risa, an uptown socialite who moonlighted cabaret clubs as a jazz singer. Their children had a generous, almost spotless adolescence until Beau graduated high school and joined the military. He was an upstanding, self-righteous man, yet his fatigues all but killed the respect his little sister had for him. As the Zinone siblings grew up, their parents had to try all that much harder to hide their criminal affiliations, often leaving the two with ample bonding time and hiding various criminal survival skills (like how to fight and use firearms among other things) under the guise of "street smarts". Combined with her surfacing struggles with her sexuality and gender identity, Beau's abandonment was very hard on Bel. Her high school antics began to resemble those of her mother during her youth, starting fights, finishing others' fights, and getting dress coded nearly every day. If not for physical altercations, the young lady spent most of her time in the principal's office for getting into arguments with teachers and staff over technicalities in her STEM courses and exposing discrimination in curriculums and attitudes throughout. If not for her parents' powerful influence, she never would've dodged juvie, let alone made it to college. Fortunately, she found her calling and started settling down as soon as her father invited her to his workplace in the hospital. College was a breeze for her, even as a fierce insistence to be independent led to her paying her own tuition. She was no party animal or sorority sister, but the continuing troubles she had with her sexuality and gender identity pushed her towards casual sex work and the porn industry when work-study wasn't enough. Bel was steadily making her way through adult life, planning to devote the rest of it to medicine like her father. However, as she started having to use her special "survival skills" more and more, she slowly began to realize there was more to her parents than she thought. The Wallflowers were growing in influence, and La Eglantina's daughter was growing a bounty on her head as well. By the time she cornered her parents with the truth, she was already well into medical school and bore nods of her mother's pseudonym and her father's occupation on her back. The betrayal she felt when her brother left her resurfaced as she uncovered her parents lies, spurring her to cut her familial ties and live her own life exclusively by her own means. Bel rejected her father's footsteps in favor of sex work, something she pursued entirely of her own volition, and eventually found herself amongst the "bunny ranches" in Las Vegas, where her life in the crossfire between the Sinners and Jokers would begin. CHARACTER QUOTE: "Do no harm but take no shit." CHARACTER ANTHEM: Half God Half Devil｜In This Moment

EDIT: Risa Zinone fled from Europe as a result of Romani persecution.

P.S.: I reiterate that this is my first group/skeleton/rl fc rp. This is all pretty overwhelming so please have patience with me and for those of y’all who have a lot of experience with these things, please help me out <3

[parabellum-rpg-archive]

Congratulations, Hyde! You’ve been accepted to play Abel Costello. Please make your page and send it in within 24 hours.

Admin note: I seriously freaked out whenever I read this. THIS WRITING IS AMAZING. Everyone, please read this perfection. - Admin V

CHARACTER DESIRED:

Abel Costello

DESCRIBE THE CHARACTER IN YOUR OWN WORDS:

Abel Costello was not born out of love or necessity, his father Gio whose life was devoted to the organization did not seek marriage and children to avoid a power struggle, but a close call with the police in ‘83 made him cross paths with a blue-eyed martyr. The tryst resulted in childbirth but neither parties wanted a union– Abel’s mother was smart enough to stay away but there was no denying a Costello bloodline. So what do you do with a boy whose mother had given him away to a father who never wanted a child in the first place? You make him useful. You turn him into a soldier.

He was, technically, the oldest in the latest generation of Costellos, but it meant jack shit when his father’s only ambition was to help his uncle stay on top– a noble cause, if not an excuse to spill blood. And spill blood they did, Gio and Abel made quite the pair, and for the lack of a proper father-son relationship, he made up for it with ensuring that the boy would be indispensable to the mob. If Abel really thought hard about it, squint his eyes and tilt his head in utmost concentration, it was through stern discipline and rigorous training that Gio showed his affection for his son. In truth, the man probably saw him as nothing more than another cog in the machine, and had he not shown prowess, Abel felt that he’d be tossed aside for someone else. It wasn’t enough that he was born a Costello, he needed to prove that he was worthy of the family name.

Growing up, he was tasked by his father to look after Marcel’s children discreetly, make sure they remained safe and not get into too much trouble, which was something that was easier said than done when Abel was just a kid too. Mandatory education allowed him some semblance of a normal life if normal meant partying with Chicago’s young elite on a school night. While his cousins had no problem throwing their weight around in their own little kingdom that was highschool, Abel remained in the background; he watched in quiet amusement as Ezra charmed his way in and out of everything while his knuckles willingly bled for Leon. Mia had always been troublesome, but in her recklessness, he had the most fun and thankfully, the twins were too young to be causing any real mischief. They were just like him, without a mother, and no, Cassandra did not count– just ask Mia –but like everyone else, Abel would eventually sing a different tune about the Costello matriarch. She was what he envied the most from his cousins, not the money, the prestige or the freedom to fuck up; Abel wanted the way she doted and took care of the children, wanted someone to be there for him because, despite the blood on his hands and the cold, deadly stare in his eyes, Abel was, and is still a child.

That was over twenty years ago.

As his cousins lived their lives, Abel delved deeper into the gritty side of the business. He was a quick study, eventually surpassing Gio while showing that he could be more than just someone who pulls the trigger. He was just as skilled, as knowledgeable and just as deserving to be the next in line, but Abel’s respect for Marcel and his loyalty to his cousins kept him in line. That never stopped him from rising through the ranks, and those who once doubted Abel for his youth now questioned him for another reason– what’s in it for him? Did he want a stake in the crown? Then Gio was incarcerated. It was only natural that he take over his father’s place, offering counsel to his uncle when needed, not that Marcel ever needed it much, Abel mostly agreed with how things are handled. Mostly. But between war and diplomacy, it’s not rocket science to figure out what Abel would choose.

Did Abel want more? Maybe, maybe not. But a life of crime, violence, of protecting the Costello family and making sure that they remain on top was all he’s ever known. It’s what his father drilled in his head that it had become an inside joke to some older associates that Gio loved his brother’s kids more than his own. A bad joke, but still. Watch Abel faintly curl his lips upwards, he’s a good sport, sure. Just don’t push your luck. He loved and loathed his father and Abel spent his entire life trying to live up to Gio Costello’s name, but when the saying ‘You’re just like your father’ teeter between awe and ridicule, what’s a man to do? There was no denying he had his father’s viciousness, he was old school, earning him his own following in the organization, hell, even Marcel couldn’t help but be filled with nostalgia, but that was where their similarities end. While his father had no problem killing entire families down to a helpless babe, Abel saw no point; children were spared, knowing full well that they would come after him later. It’s what kept the wheels turning, wipe them all out, then what are you left with? You gotta have something to look forward to, something to keep you on your toes, just like the shit storm that would be the Sinclair- Costello union.

WRITING SAMPLE:

New York, August 2006

His legs barely kept him steady as he stood in front of the urinal, head of dark, golden hair resting against the cold tile; he was nodding off and struggling to unbutton his jeans that an older man two urinals to his right couldn’t help but scoff. This older man was well-dressed, Italian leather on his feet and beer belly wrapped nicely in a tailored suit; rings adorned his thick fingers and a gold watch rested snugly around his wrist– a stark contrast to the boy’s zipped-up jacket and jeans combo. A teasing remark was thrown the young man’s way– he called him a lightweight –and he responded with a hum before closing his eyes to rest.

Another man emerged from one of the stalls, door slamming open and pulling the well-dressed man’s attention away from the drunk. The third man was in a hurry, foregoing basic hygiene but pulling a couple of paper towels from the dispenser before leaving as if that would fix things. The man scoffed again as he finished taking a piss, muttering something about cleanliness as he tossed his silk tie over his shoulder before turning on the faucet. Head still lowered, the blonde lingering by the urinal produced a pair of leather gloves from his jacket and leisurely put them on; no longer looking inebriated, the young man who could barely stay on his feet earlier stood waiting for the door to the men’s room to shut close.

Abel Costello listened to the movements behind him as his target took a few steps to his left and the unmistakable squish from the soap dispenser cut through the silence; the man pressed on the pump once, twice, then thrice before proceeding to furiously scrub his hands as the tall blonde silently made his way over, gloved fingers reaching for the faucet to turn it on. The man gasped, caught off guard by their proximity and Abel pulled on his tie and threw him off balance. Soapy hands failed to grab to the ledge of the sink as he clawed at his neck, he was dragged to one of the stalls, grown man kicking and screaming but his cries were drowned out by the rush of water.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?! Don’t you know who–” Abel gave a swift kick to the man’s throat, cutting him off, and the expensive tie that slowly choked him was stuffed inside his mouth to shut him up. The red-colored sign with the words ‘occupied’ appeared as the door was locked.

The heel of Abel’s boot connected with the man’s chest, stomping him twice before reaching over to search for a gun and dismantle it. The man was heavy-set, and the blonde groaned while he lifted him by his coat, fingers curling around bottle-dyed, jet-black hair as Abel shoved his target’s face in the toilet. He pulled the lever for the flush, following a rhythm as bejeweled fingers flailed and fought back, reaching for Abel’s arm while the man’s legs kicked whatever he could kick. But the Costello assassin was relentless, and steady hands kept the man’s mouth and nose in shallow water, drowning him until the struggling ceased.

Finally, the man’s body went limp.

Abel raised his target’s head, black hair dripping wet as he pulled out the tie that was lodged down the man’s throat to tie it around the toilet. The door was unlocked, the faucets were turned off and Abel made his way to the exit. Outside the cinema, the man who had been in a hurry to leave the men’s room earlier was smoking a cigarette.

“Is it done?” he asked without looking.

“I took care of it,” Abel answered, his voice carrying a surprising softness as he stuffed the gloves back inside his jacket. The man nodded, dropped his cigarette on the ground and crushed it with his shoe before glancing at his watch. It was eight-thirty in the evening.

“I’ll tell Gio. You fly back tomorrow morning, kid, why don’t you see the rest of the sights while you’re here,” the man instructed and he stepped off the sidewalk to hail a cab. Abel watched him leave, watched the hustle and bustle around him for a bit before making his way back inside the cinema; the 1933 version of King Kong was still playing, and if he hurried, Abel just might catch the massive beast fall from the Empire State Building.

[softersinned-arc]

main verses.

MODERN A childhood spent in constant motion gives way to an adolescence consumed by a need for family and stability. As a teenager in London, far from her mother (who doesn’t particularly want her) in Stockholm and her grandfather (grieving the loss of his wife) in Venice, Astoria turns to her godparents in the hopes that she’ll find adults who’ll keep her. What she finds instead is adults willing to use a child as a shield. After years of abuse, Astoria takes matters into her own hands and kills them, calling on a friend to help her rebuild her life. She manages to piece together a future in the aftermath, leaning on her best friend as she does, and attends Trinity College. For a time everything seems normal: she attends university in Dublin, even meets her father, and marries her best friend, and when she returns to London it’s with a hard-earned optimism and enthusiasm for her life. As her husband’s publicist she knows best how to present the family to the world; as a member of a dangerous family she knows where the bodies are buried, in some cases literally, and her loyalty is unshakable. When her father-in-law dies and her husband becomes CEO in his wake, she only holds tighter to her determination never to be vulnerable again. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & blot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Baldwin de Clermont.

SOLITARY WITCH In the aftermath of a tragic “accident” that leaves her godparents and temporary guardians missing, Astoria moves in with her aunt in Boston, where she seems to lead a perfectly normal life, joining the cheerleading squad and soccer team, becoming prom queen, and working to be valedictorian. No one who knows her suspects that she isn’t what she seems, and she uses the respite to hone her skills, practicing quietly, determined to never be powerless again. Astoria is banished from her coven after her exploration of death magic is discovered, and she begins solitary practice, buying land in upstate New York where she can focus on her experiments, and opening a small occult shop, collecting and selling magical artifacts from across Europe, many of which she’s “liberated” from previous owners. Operating under numerous aliases, Astoria becomes well-known for her willingness to take dangerous jobs and her excellent results. Her primary drive remains unlocking true immortality; in the meantime, she works to learn how to heal her body from the damage done by aging. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open (default with Arthur Pruitt).

VAMPIRE Born in 1518 to an Italian noblewoman and her unnamed lover, Astoria Grim comes to represent everything her family has always valued: magic, power, and ambition. After the death of her grandmother, Astoria steps in as de facto matriarch for the family, helping her grandfather run the household until he encourages her to go to England and seek her own fortune. She is punished for revealing a treasonous faction reporting to the French king, held captive and tortured before she is made a vampire against her will. Over the centuries Astoria trains tirelessly to ensure that she can have her revenge, and that she can thrive despite all she’s lost. In the twenty-first century she appears to the world to be an antiques dealer and art collector, though in reality she is a cunning politician, a ruthless assassin, and a subtle spy, heavily entangled in the Congregation’s affairs. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open (default with Baldwin Montclair).

general aus.

CRIME After her godparents and guardians “go missing,” Astoria relocates to Boston, where she begins attending St. Colman’s Catholic Academy. A model student — homecoming queen, prom queen, cheer captain, valedictorian — she works herself tirelessly, determined not to allow her past to maintain any hold over her. Astoria moves on to a master’s degree in folklore at Berkley and a PhD in history at Harvard. After settling in Boston and resuming a relatively normal life, Astoria goes into the family business, selling antiques with a particular focus in books, manuscripts, and weapons of the late medieval and early modern period. Publicly, she is a shrewd and clever businesswoman with a wild streak, suspected perhaps of a heist or two but unable to be linked to any crime; privately, she is a spy-for-hire, often in the employ of New York senator Leo Avano, able to avoid detection and suspicion. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open.

POLITICIAN After completing a master’s degree in political science, Astoria moves to New York, where she begins working with a prominent senator, Leo Avano. Her quick thinking, silver tongue, and ruthless ambition catch his attention; she soon proves herself an invaluable member of his team for her willingness to tackle problems without a clear solution and her ability to spin anything in her favor. As Senator Avano prepares for a run for president, he purges most of his staff, only keeping on the people he trusts most — including Astoria as his campaign manager. Preferring to stay in the background, where she can have the greatest influence, Astoria is eventually made his chief of staff.

Shipping: Open (default with Ben Callahan).

REGENCY The undisputed favorite of her grandfather, a wealthy barrister and amateur philosopher, Astoria Grim is marked by the scandalous illegitimacy of her birth, and the unknown identity of her father. Despite a lack of formal education, she is trained in all useful subjects by her grandfather. Well aware that her illegitimacy will be a serious obstacle to a good marriage, she is largely unafraid of scandal, and becomes an actress. Traveling to England to take the stage there, she hopes to locate her father and meet his family. Compatible with Austen and Bridgerton, as well as other works set in this period.

Shipping: Open.

WRITER Astoria pursues an MFA in creative writing at Harvard shortly after finishing her undergraduate work. Working briefly as an assistant to a literary agent, Astoria soon shifted her focus to her own writing. Though Astoria dabbles in and blends several genres, including science fiction, historical fiction, and mystery, she is primarily known for her romances, especially her paranormal romances. She publishes exclusively under a pen name. Her paranormal romance series becomes especially popular, earning a vocal and thriving fan community, and she becomes a fixture at literary conventions internationally, and pursues a PhD in literature at Columbia University. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open.

crossovers.

DC As a teenager, Astoria calls on one of her grandfather’s clients — Roman Sionis, a young entrepreneur she imagines is a friend — when she finds herself in serious trouble after her godfather dies at her hands, but her godmother survives. Roman helps hide the body with the expectation that Astoria will owe him in the future, and after college, Astoria returns to Gotham to work at Janus Corp, where her “friendship” with Roman helps her rise quickly to his head of public relations. As Roman grooms her to become a partner in his criminal enterprise, Astoria develops a plan of her own, one which ends with Roman and her godmother both dead. Mixed comics and television canon; does not incorporate any Batman or Superman content from the DCEU. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open. 

DRAGON AGE The daughter of an Avvar woman and a minor nobleman, Astoria leaves her Hold as a teenager in the hopes of seeking peace and healing after a tragedy. After spending years with her father’s family in Amaranthine, she finds herself caught in the troubles in Redcliffe, where she becomes a companion to the Warden. Years later, she attends the Conclave as her father’s representative and survives the explosion, and she reluctantly becomes the Inquisitor. Verse information, statistics, and choices found here.

Shipping: Open (default with Ellis Cousland).

GRISHAVERSE A Fjerdan Tidemaker with an unexpected skill in manipulating the body as well, Astoria flees Djerholm at nineteen, when she’s betrayed to the drüskelle. She crosses the border to Ravka, leaving dead drüskelle in her wake. From here, Astoria can be placed in one of three verses: as a member of the Volkvolny’s crew, as a loyalist to the Darkling in the Second Army, or as a member of the Dregs in Ketterdam. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON After the tumultuous years spent in King’s Landing under the guardianship of her godparents, claiming to try to find her a good husband and instead using her for their own political gain, Astoria returns home to Greyshield. With her mother gone and her siblings married, she steps forward to help her father handle the house’s affairs—including his alliance with the Velaryons, and growing allegiance to Daemon Targaryen. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open (default with Daemon Targaryen).

MARVEL A mutant lucky enough not to get caught in the crossfire of a protest turned police riot, Astoria comes to recognize the potential power she can wield if she continues to escape notice. An internship in New York City with a senator and family friend makes the connections she needs, and she finds herself constantly walking the line between two worlds. In one, she is Astoria Grim, heiress and antiques dealer with a master’s degree and a passion for luxury. In another, she is a thief, a liar, a cheat, navigating the city’s criminal underground to funnel funds to the Mutant Underground and help smuggle objects—and people—where they need to be. Follows general crime verse & biography. Mixed film / television and comics canon. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open.

SHADOWHUNTERS One of Maryse Lightwood’s political proteges, Astoria is assigned to join Lydia Branwell in assessing—and, eventually, taking control of—the Brooklyn Institute. Despite orders, Astoria is determined to help the Lightwoods however she can, and remains in Brooklyn indefinitely, first to help defend the city against Valentine, and later as she grows attached to the members of the Institute.

Shipping: Open.

STAR TREK Youngest daughter of the Seventh House of Betazed, Astoria Grim joins Star Fleet in the hopes of becoming a diplomat. She quickly discovers a talent for espionage, however, thriving in cultures where lying is possible and skilled at even the most simple forms of manipulation. Emboldened by the presence of humans, Astoria instead becomes an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of Lieutenant quickly and often masquerading as entirely harmless — and, occasionally, entirely human. Based on TOS, TNG, and the reboots. Can be set in any timeline. Voyager, DS9, DIS, and Picard influence will be added as I continue watching.

Shipping: Open.

SUPERNATURAL As an amateur historian, and an ambitious and hardworking woman determined to rely on only herself, Astoria runs a small new age shop in upstate New York. As a psychic from a long family history of witchcraft and with a penchant for thievery, Astoria travels throughout the country, sometimes under the pseudonym Elizabeth Vane, obtaining and selling magical artifacts for a select clientele of hunters and collectors. While she will occasionally work with the local diocese on cases of suspected exorcism, or help clear out a haunting at a client’s request, Astoria prefers to leave the dirty work to the professionals. (It’s rumored that she has more magic than she lets on, that she can do more than access the future or manipulate perceptions, but if that’s true, she’s not telling.)

Shipping: Open.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES One of the many witches in Klaus Mikaelson’s employ, Astoria spends more than a century trying to uncover a way to break the curse that binds his hybridity, in exchange for very limited access to the Original Witch’s grimoire. Hoping to achieve immortality — through vampirism if not magic — she remains loyal to Klaus as he leaves Mystic Falls and settles in New Orleans, often traveling to do further research or get her hands on magical artifacts to help aid in her spellwork.

Shipping: Open.

THE WITCHER. Once a princess born into the ruling family of the small city-state of Grimhold, Astoria has been its court sorceress for more than a century now, returning to her home after a thorough education at Aretuza. Suspicious of any attempts to remove her from Grimhold, Astoria has remained largely apolitical, often refusing to return to Aretuza for anything. Currently under heavy construction as I continue reading the books. Primarily book-based, with some show influence as necessary.

Shipping: Open.

closed verses.

HAVEN Though her mother escapes Haven as an adult, Astoria ends up back in her mother’s hometown after a tragedy that leaves her terribly shaken. Adopted by Moa Zhao, she bonds quickly and at times antagonistically with her new sister, Freddie Dickinson, and finds a way to make trouble in the most boring (and terrifying) town in the world — just in time for her own Trouble to manifest. 

With:  dadukos, asynjja, conzierge. Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Tom Keen.

NIGHTBOUND A vacation in New Orleans becomes a fight for her life when Astoria is targeted by a blood wraith, saved only by the quick thinking of a vampire with an unknown patron who wants her protected. The only thing Astoria thinks she has to worry about is her survival. She ends up worried about something that comes to matter much, much more as she falls in love with Rosalie, her bodyguard.

With: denieddeath Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Rosalie Hale.

TVDU - THE ORIGINALS & LEGACIES Recruited by Klaus Mikaelson in the late nineteenth century, Astoria becomes a valued ally. However, Astoria’s loyalties become divided when she falls in love with Marcel Gerard, and she hides the truth of his survival for nearly a century. When she’s called back to New Orleans, she and Marcel are careful not to tip their hand. Years later, a girl comes to her door, calling herself Klaus’ daughter — and despite the curious gap in her memory, Astoria agrees to help her, and finds herself drawn back to the Mikaelsons again.

With: lovemaim, serendpitous. Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Marcel Gerard.

[gadgetgirl71]

Amazon First Reads October 2020

Wow October all ready!! Halloween seems as though it’s just a few days away then before we know it, it’ll be Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night. I digress as it’s all about Amazon First Reads for October and again Amazon are letting their Prime Members choose two books instead of just the one.

So now I need to decide which books I’m going to choose, I always get so excited when we get a chance to choose more than one free book. As you know I can’t resist free books.

This months choices are:

Memoir

The Boy Between by Amanda Prowse & Josiah Hartley, Pages: 286, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: Bestselling novelist Amanda Prowse knew how to resolve a fictional family crisis. But then her son came to her with a real one…

Josiah was nineteen with the world at his feet when things changed. Without warning, the new university student’s mental health deteriorated to the point that he planned his own death. His mother, bestselling author Amanda Prowse, found herself grappling for ways to help him, with no clear sense of where that could be found. This is the book they wish had been there for them during those dark times.

Josiah’s situation is not unusual: the statistics on student mental health are terrifying. And he was not the only one suffering; his family was also hijacked by his illness, watching him struggle and fearing the day he might succeed in taking his life.

In this book, Josiah and Amanda hope to give a voice to those who suffer, and to show them that help can be found. It is Josiah’s raw, at times bleak, sometimes humorous, but always honest account of what it is like to live with depression. It is Amanda’s heart-rending account of her pain at watching him suffer, speaking from the heart about a mother’s love for her child.

For anyone with depression and anyone who loves someone with depression, Amanda and Josiah have a clear message—you are not alone, and there is hope.

Suspense

Girls of Brackenhill by Kate Moretti, Pages: 330, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: Haunted by her sister’s disappearance, a troubled woman becomes consumed by past secrets in this gripping thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Year.

When Hannah Maloney’s aunt dies in a car accident, she returns to her family’s castle in the Catskills and the epicenter of a childhood trauma: her sister’s unsolved disappearance. It’s been seventeen years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.

When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.

Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.

Thriller

The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado, Pages: 332, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now…

FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.

His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.

Book Club Fiction

This Magnificent Dappled Sea by David Biro, Pages: 255, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: Two strangers—generations and oceans apart—have a chance to save each other in this moving and suspenseful novel about family secrets and the ineffable connections that lead us to one another.

In a small Northern Italian village, nine-year-old Luca Taviano catches a stubborn cold and is subsequently diagnosed with leukemia. His only hope for survival is a bone marrow transplant. After an exhaustive search, a match turns up three thousand miles away in the form of a most unlikely donor: Joseph Neiman, a rabbi in Brooklyn, New York, who is suffering from a debilitating crisis of faith. As Luca’s young nurse, Nina Vocelli, risks her career and races against time to help save the spirited redheaded boy, she uncovers terrible secrets from World War II—secrets that reveal how a Catholic child could have Jewish genes.

Can inheritance be transcended by accidents of love? That is the question at the heart of This Magnificent Dappled Sea, a novel that challenges the idea of identity and celebrates the ties that bind us together.,m.

Historical Fiction

The Last Correspondent by Soraya M Lane, Pages: 336, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: When journalist Ella Franks is unmasked as a woman writing under a male pseudonym, she loses her job. But having risked everything to write, she refuses to be silenced and leaps at the chance to become a correspondent in war-torn France.

Already entrenched in the thoroughly male arena of war reporting is feisty American photojournalist Danni Bradford. Together with her best friend and partner, Andy, she is determined to cover the events unfolding in Normandy. And to discover the whereabouts of Andy’s flighty sister, Vogue model Chloe, who has followed a lover into the French Resistance.

When trailblazing efforts turn to tragedy, Danni, Ella and Chloe are drawn together, and soon form a formidable team. Each woman is determined to follow her dreams “no matter what”, and to make her voice heard over the noise of war.

Europe is a perilous place, with danger at every turn. They’ll need to rely on each other if they are to get their stories back, and themselves out alive. Will the adventure and love they find be worth the journey of their lives?

Gothic Fiction

The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb, Pages: 288, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: From the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake comes an enthralling spellbinder of love, death, and a woman on the edge.

After a devastating loss, Brynn Wilder escapes to Wharton, a tourist town on Lake Superior, to reset. Checking into a quaint boardinghouse for the summer, she hopes to put her life into perspective. In her fellow lodgers, she finds a friendly company of strangers: the frail Alice, cared for by a married couple with a heartbreaking story of their own; LuAnn, the eccentric and lovable owner of the inn; and Dominic, an unsettlingly handsome man inked from head to toe in mesmerizing tattoos.

But in this inviting refuge, where a century of souls has passed, a mystery begins to swirl. Alice knows things about Brynn, about all of them, that she shouldn’t. Bad dreams and night whispers lure Brynn to a shuttered room at the end of the hall, a room still heavy with a recent death. And now she’s become irresistibly drawn to Dominic—even in the shadow of rumors that wherever he goes, suspicious death follows.

In this chilling season of love, transformation, and fear, something is calling for Brynn. To settle her past, she may have no choice but to answer.

Historical Fiction

Spellbreaker by Charlie N Holmberg, Pages: 300, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: A world of enchanted injustice needs a disenchanting woman in an all-new fantasy series by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician.

The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spell-breaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.

Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his master-ship when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spell-books their bodies leave behind.

For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?

Contemporary Fiction

Perfectly Impossible by Elizabeth Topp, Pages: 314, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: In this witty debut novel, Elizabeth Topp crafts a story that ventures behind the fanciful facade of Park Avenue and into the life of one lovable type A assistant.

Anna’s job is simple: prevent the unexpected from happening and do everything better than perfectly. An artist at heart, Anna works a day job as a private assistant for Bambi Von Bizmark, a megarich Upper East Side matriarch who’s about to be honored at the illustrious Opera Ball.

Caught between the staid world of great wealth and her unconventional life as an artist, Anna struggles with her true calling. If she’s supposed to be a painter, why is she so much more successful as a personal assistant? When her boyfriend lands a fancy new job, it throws their future as a couple into doubt and intensifies Anna’s identity crisis. All she has to do is ensure everything runs smoothly and hold herself together until the Opera Ball is over. How hard could that be?

Featuring a vibrant array of characters from the powerful to the proletarian, Perfectly Impossible offers a glimpse into a world you’ll never want to leave.

Children’s Picture Book

Some Days Written & Illustrated by Maria Wernicke, Translated by: Lawrence Schimel, Pages: 24, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: From an Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nominee comes a touching story of family, security, and loss.

A young girl tells her mother about a passageway in their yard. Down this passageway, it is not cold, there is no danger, and nothing bad can ever happen—and the person she longs for is with her again. The only problem is that, on some days, the passageway is not there. But maybe, together, mother and daughter can find a way to carry that feeling with them always.

First published in Argentina, this lovely picture book will tug on the heartstrings of anyone who knows what it means to miss a loved one.

#AmazonFirstReads, #Amazonkindle, #AmazonPrimeMembers, #BookClubFiction, #Books, #ChildrensPictureBook, #ContemporaryFiction, #GothicFiction, #HistoricalFiction, #Kindle, #KindleBooks, #Memoir, #Suspense, #Thriller

[lightlorn]

honestly i have go-to crime aus for a select few of my muses:

albel: a complete hardass who runs some allegedly illegal business operations for his employer, airyglyph. cold, cruel, and a loner, what little has been said about the manager of the ‘black brigade’ is hardly complimentary. a lot of locals think he should have been put away years ago, but the name nox still has some power within the city limits, and he has a ‘guardian angel’ in high places that keeps him from consequences for his actions. has a prosthetic that is a bitch to get hit by, and his moments of violence are heightened by his use of blades to punctuate his acts.

aria: has been on government radars for some time now. turkish-born, welsh-raised, and a rebel against the west practically since she arrived. has prior military experience that only served to sour her further to imperial power structures. has had involvement in past rebellions, and is under intense scrutiny for having been involved with the instigator of a certain attack on a cathedral in a place called kirkwall. seems to have settled of late, but is now turning a profit as the muscle for a certain crime boss known as the dread wolf.

eva: east coast born and bred into a matriarchal world of organized crime. her family are outliers in the game, but no less respected for their hold over their region of influence. eva, as the granddaughter of the latest leader, has a lot riding on her shoulders, but is largely untouched by the shadier side of her world. she’s an intellectual at heart, and has been traveling the world since her twenties, sometimes accompanied by a quite handsome italian. that said,  blood doesn’t wash out easily, and her name still has some weight in certain parts of the world. god forbid she have to show others how she learned to defend herself.

inessa: mob doctor, a sweet-faced angel who has always kept the teachings of christ close to her heart. turn the other cheek. let he who is without sin cast the first stone. love thy neighbor. when your neighbors are an assortment of criminals, you tend to fall into their pocket more often than jesus might have intended. still, she’s an orphan with no real steady income, so if the gentlemen might knock on her door and lay a bleeding companion on her dinner table, who is she to refuse them? she was born to fix things, and certain organizations pay very well for her skills and discretion.

zevran: a good old fashioned cosa nostra assassin. a man who fought his way to the top of his craft in spite of prejudices against his origins, a perfect weapon who knows how to obscure his sharp edges. smooth, charismatic, and undeniable seductive, he stays alive by the skin of his teeth and the goodwill of his patrons. recently, he’s been hired out to allies of his family, able to make a name for himself outside of sicily and network with likeminded individuals who he might be able to call upon later.

[relatedrealtychicagoblog]

via Related Chicago - Feed

From Illinois farm girl to Chicago Icon, Hull House Founder and world peace activist, Jane Addams, set out to make a difference in the world – and boy did she.

Jane Addams, 1915

“Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.” – Jane Addams

When Jane Addams died in 1935, she was considered “the greatest women in the world”, a “priestess to both prince and pauper,” and with good reason. She was literally the mother of all social work. She fought throughout her life for child labor laws, insurance against unemployment, old age and poverty. She was instrumental in the successful lobbying to establish a juvenile court system, better urban sanitation and factory laws, along with the establishment of playgrounds and kindergartens throughout Chicago and the country. She battled for the equal rights of women and was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement. She is considered the first American woman philosopher, a leader in establishing the study of sociology, and was a published author many times over. She was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and is considered a LGBT heroine. A warrior, who battled relentlessly for the cause of disarmament and for world peace, a cause for which she was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, becoming the first American woman recipient. And of course, she was most famously, co-founder of the Hull-House in Chicago.

Addams was born September 6, 1860, in the small farming town of Cedarville, Illinois. The eighth of nine children, her mother died in childbirth when she was two, and her father, John H. Addams, a banker who served for nearly twenty years in the Illinois Senate, was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. Born into wealth and privilege, she knew at a young age that she wanted to be useful and have a voice in the world. Inspired by the works of Charles Dickens and of Lincoln’s creed “the equality of men,” she focused on her studies. Among the first generation of educated American women when she graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, she felt an obligation to put her education to greater use. Unlike her classmates, she was more interested in visiting the poor than spending a year in Paris, or going on safari in Africa. And after visiting a settlement house in London with her friend Ellen Gates Starr, her life was set on course.

It was in the early years of industrialization and massive immigration when Addams and Starr founded The Hull House in 1889. They were the first two occupants. Between a saloon and an undertaker, they were situated in one of the most miserable neighborhoods of the city at the time. At its height, it was visited by 8,000 people each month, mostly immigrants, and eventually, it became a 13-building settlement. With all that she accomplished throughout her life here in Chicago and around the world, she never left Hull House, remaining its head resident until her death in 1935. Her friend, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader in the Women’s’ suffrage movement, said upon her death.

“I do not base her greatness on Hull House,” she explained, “important as that contribution is. Far more remarkable is the human trait of sticking to that project all her life. She made it a success. She stuck through when it was a success. That is a rare thing to do–to stick to a success.”

The Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago reopened this month, in honor of this iconic Chicagoan and American, on what would have been her 158th birthday this month (I know, of course she’s a Virgo.) Here are just five contributions that Jane Addams and Hull House made to Chicago and the world.

PLAYTIME

“America’s future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.” – Jane Addams

Addams fought passionately for the rights of children to be children. She felt very strongly that those that were deprived of a childhood, were “likely to become dull, sullen men and women working mindless jobs, or criminals for whom the adventure of crime became the only way to break out of the bleakness of their lives.” Sounds about right. She worked tirelessly to stop the use of children as industrial laborers, and instead fought for playgrounds in Chicago and was part of the movement that rethought the importance of childhood play opportunities. Hull House in Chicago had one of the first playgrounds in the city, and also held children’s clubs and classes of all sorts – including free kindergartens.

Jane Addams with the neighborhood children at Hull House Chicago

A MATRIARCHAL SOCIETY

“I do not believe that women are better than men. We have not wrecked railroads, nor corrupted legislature, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but then we must remember that we have not had the chance.” – Jane Addams

One of the many things that made the settlement house unique, was that it was considered an acceptable site for women’s activism at the time. And that was because – well it was literally and figuratively, a home. So, while it absolutely turned the traditional patriarchal norm that a woman’s place was in the home on its heels, the Hull-House provided a totally socially acceptable alternative to marriage. And, almost incredibly, enabled women to cultivate deep and often lifelong friendships as alternatives to traditional marriage, providing these women the chance to experience an expanded sense of family and self. Hull House had dozens of clubs that were organized to aid working women. A lunch room was opened, as was a nursery for the children- the start of day care. There was also a gymnasium, a natatorium, a penny savings bank, a lodging house, as well as a circulating library and an employment bureau. These programs which became models for hundreds of others throughout the world helped to liberate women from desperate subservience and provided a wide range of opportunities for women to gain experience in public life so then they could give back. And give back they did.

Women Residents at Hull House Chicago.

ARMS WIDE OPEN

“The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself.” – Jane Addams

Hull House was established primarily to help immigrants assimilate to American lifestyle. Hull House always held welcoming arms out, whether it be Poles, Jews, Russians, Italians, Greeks, Germans, Irish and the Bohemians. All were welcome. Hull House grew to be known as one of the largest and best-known of the nation’s settlements of immigrants, providing such an array of services so many that it does not seem nearly possible, but here’s a go at it. Hull House provided medical services such as midwifery, a night school for adults, clubs and educational classes for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a gym, dance classes, a girls’ club, a bathhouse, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group and a theater, a library, meeting rooms for any kind of discussion political or otherwise, an employment bureau, and a lunchroom. In addition to making available social services and cultural events for the largely immigrant population of the neighborhood, the music program at Hull House was also very influential. Originally established to aid immigrants in assimilating to American life, its music program went above and beyond this goal, helping immigrants to connect cultural roots and background while learning about American life.

Immigrants at Hull House

PEACE ON EARTH

“Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.” – Jane Addams

Addams was a pacifist that fought for world peace. She believed deeply that human beings were capable of solving disputes without violence and she took action. She protested the American entry into World War 1, and was part of a group of women activists who toured warring nations, hoping to bring about peace. Addams toured Europe in an effort to persuade the heads of the belligerent nations, but found that the spirit of war was too strong. Well, at least she tried.

Jane Addams and other women from Hull House as Peace Delegates,

Be sure to visit the Jane Addams Hull House Museum , which reopened September 2018! 800 S. Halsted Street, hullhousemuseum.org

[henryasaunders]

Off to Save the World – From Illinois farm girl to Chicago Icon, Jane Addams

From Illinois farm girl to Chicago Icon, Hull House Founder and world peace activist, Jane Addams, set out to make a difference in the world – and boy did she.

Jane Addams, 1915

“Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.” – Jane Addams

When Jane Addams died in 1935, she was considered “the greatest women in the world”, a “priestess to both prince and pauper,” and with good reason. She was literally the mother of all social work. She fought throughout her life for child labor laws, insurance against unemployment, old age and poverty. She was instrumental in the successful lobbying to establish a juvenile court system, better urban sanitation and factory laws, along with the establishment of playgrounds and kindergartens throughout Chicago and the country. She battled for the equal rights of women and was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement. She is considered the first American woman philosopher, a leader in establishing the study of sociology, and was a published author many times over. She was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and is considered a LGBT heroine. A warrior, who battled relentlessly for the cause of disarmament and for world peace, a cause for which she was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, becoming the first American woman recipient. And of course, she was most famously, co-founder of the Hull-House in Chicago.

Addams was born September 6, 1860, in the small farming town of Cedarville, Illinois. The eighth of nine children, her mother died in childbirth when she was two, and her father, John H. Addams, a banker who served for nearly twenty years in the Illinois Senate, was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. Born into wealth and privilege, she knew at a young age that she wanted to be useful and have a voice in the world. Inspired by the works of Charles Dickens and of Lincoln’s creed “the equality of men,” she focused on her studies. Among the first generation of educated American women when she graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, she felt an obligation to put her education to greater use. Unlike her classmates, she was more interested in visiting the poor than spending a year in Paris, or going on safari in Africa. And after visiting a settlement house in London with her friend Ellen Gates Starr, her life was set on course.

It was in the early years of industrialization and massive immigration when Addams and Starr founded The Hull House in 1889. They were the first two occupants. Between a saloon and an undertaker, they were situated in one of the most miserable neighborhoods of the city at the time. At its height, it was visited by 8,000 people each month, mostly immigrants, and eventually, it became a 13-building settlement. With all that she accomplished throughout her life here in Chicago and around the world, she never left Hull House, remaining its head resident until her death in 1935. Her friend, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader in the Women’s’ suffrage movement, said upon her death.

“I do not base her greatness on Hull House,” she explained, “important as that contribution is. Far more remarkable is the human trait of sticking to that project all her life. She made it a success. She stuck through when it was a success. That is a rare thing to do–to stick to a success.”

The Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago reopened this month, in honor of this iconic Chicagoan and American, on what would have been her 158th birthday this month (I know, of course she’s a Virgo.) Here are just five contributions that Jane Addams and Hull House made to Chicago and the world.

PLAYTIME

“America’s future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.” – Jane Addams

Addams fought passionately for the rights of children to be children. She felt very strongly that those that were deprived of a childhood, were “likely to become dull, sullen men and women working mindless jobs, or criminals for whom the adventure of crime became the only way to break out of the bleakness of their lives.” Sounds about right. She worked tirelessly to stop the use of children as industrial laborers, and instead fought for playgrounds in Chicago and was part of the movement that rethought the importance of childhood play opportunities. Hull House in Chicago had one of the first playgrounds in the city, and also held children’s clubs and classes of all sorts – including free kindergartens.

Jane Addams with the neighborhood children at Hull House Chicago

A MATRIARCHAL SOCIETY

“I do not believe that women are better than men. We have not wrecked railroads, nor corrupted legislature, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but then we must remember that we have not had the chance.” – Jane Addams

One of the many things that made the settlement house unique, was that it was considered an acceptable site for women’s activism at the time. And that was because – well it was literally and figuratively, a home. So, while it absolutely turned the traditional patriarchal norm that a woman’s place was in the home on its heels, the Hull-House provided a totally socially acceptable alternative to marriage. And, almost incredibly, enabled women to cultivate deep and often lifelong friendships as alternatives to traditional marriage, providing these women the chance to experience an expanded sense of family and self. Hull House had dozens of clubs that were organized to aid working women. A lunch room was opened, as was a nursery for the children- the start of day care. There was also a gymnasium, a natatorium, a penny savings bank, a lodging house, as well as a circulating library and an employment bureau. These programs which became models for hundreds of others throughout the world helped to liberate women from desperate subservience and provided a wide range of opportunities for women to gain experience in public life so then they could give back. And give back they did.

Women Residents at Hull House Chicago.

ARMS WIDE OPEN

“The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself.” – Jane Addams

Hull House was established primarily to help immigrants assimilate to American lifestyle. Hull House always held welcoming arms out, whether it be Poles, Jews, Russians, Italians, Greeks, Germans, Irish and the Bohemians. All were welcome. Hull House grew to be known as one of the largest and best-known of the nation’s settlements of immigrants, providing such an array of services so many that it does not seem nearly possible, but here’s a go at it. Hull House provided medical services such as midwifery, a night school for adults, clubs and educational classes for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a gym, dance classes, a girls’ club, a bathhouse, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group and a theater, a library, meeting rooms for any kind of discussion political or otherwise, an employment bureau, and a lunchroom. In addition to making available social services and cultural events for the largely immigrant population of the neighborhood, the music program at Hull House was also very influential. Originally established to aid immigrants in assimilating to American life, its music program went above and beyond this goal, helping immigrants to connect cultural roots and background while learning about American life.

Immigrants at Hull House

PEACE ON EARTH

“Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.” – Jane Addams

Addams was a pacifist that fought for world peace. She believed deeply that human beings were capable of solving disputes without violence and she took action. She protested the American entry into World War 1, and was part of a group of women activists who toured warring nations, hoping to bring about peace. Addams toured Europe in an effort to persuade the heads of the belligerent nations, but found that the spirit of war was too strong. Well, at least she tried.

Jane Addams and other women from Hull House as Peace Delegates,

Be sure to visit the Jane Addams Hull House Museum , which reopened September 2018! 800 S. Halsted Street, hullhousemuseum.org

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[houseofcrimerp-blog]

                          « THE CHAMELEON »                    ❝ I’m the BEST at what I do. And what I do isn’t very pretty ❞

LAST NAME, FIRST NAME: Nikolas, Beckett AGE: 28 HOUSE OF CHOICE/INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY/N/A: Famine OCCUPATION AND/OR LEVEL: Level II FACE CLAIM: Marie Avgeropoulos NATIONALITY: Italian ETHNICITY: Greek

CONNECTIONS

THE MATRIARCH;; Upon her arrival with the pirates in Romania, Beckett met Jezebel, under whom she apprenticed until deciding to join Famine.

THE HANGMAN;; Whilst working as a Level I in Famine, Beckett made a living under Syrus’ roof, working part-time as a stripper. Once promoted to Level II, she was forced to quit her job, but nonetheless remained close with the club owner.

THE AMNESIAC;; Beckett met Zoe back during her travels with the gypsies, when the girls were younger, albeit now, years later, Zoe has no recollection of their friendship, or their relations. Bex is determined to make her remember, however, and the future seems promising, especially with Zoe’s realization that Beckett seems somewhat familiar to her…

THE PARADOX;; Sloane and Beckett have a longstanding feud after she stole a motorcycle from one of Sloane’s House’s neighbourhoods. The two became rivals and, up until present, haven’t found a way to make amends nor to get along. But that doesn’t mean this feud will last forever…

A love interest { gender non-discriminatory }, preferably from another House;; Beckett oft wears her heart on her sleeve, she travelled with pirates only because she’d fallen in love with the captain’s son. She never stays rooted in one place, and working for Famine has been the biggest commitment she’s ever made. All she needs now is for someone to challenge that…

A roommate/ Close friend, who’s also a fellow thief;; Bex needs someone to keep her on her toes, someone who can match her thievery and who she wouldn’t succeed in stealing from, especially if the person was her roommate, because she would definitely try.

A mechanic/ Someone good with repairing vehicles;; Bex stole a motorcycle from one of War’s neighbourhoods upon her arrival to Romania to help her travel around, and she’s grown very fond of it up until present. After she stole the bike, she got into a non-fatal accident because she didn’t know how to ride it, and would’ve taken it to a mechanic to get fixed, or to someone she knew could repair it. She would’ve had this person swear to secrecy not to divulge the fact that they knew she bike was stolen, and would probably end up trusting them, etc. Bonus if the person also offers to heal her/take care of her after the accident. Double bonus if they have a feud with War or with people within War and that’s why they’d help her.

Someone in the Criminal Justice System;; Someone who either had a lead on her or the person who arrested her during her travels with the gypsies. She either would’ve escaped prison of her own accord or was freed with said person’s help, depending on how you want the connection to go. For the latter, we could say she befriended them or romantically exploited them into benefitting her and releasing her.

Estranged family member;; This could even be over marriage, not relation by blood. Someone in her family who Bex could turn to in times of need, since she’s always been attached to her parents, despite how horribly they treated her, and it would’ve helped her feel closer to home.

Anything else anyone can come up with <3

PERSONALITY:

          Beckett is a mess of enigmas. She’s closed off in that she never trusts any two people with the same two secrets, but at the same time, she wears her heart on her sleeve and claims to fall in love with a new person virtually every week. She feels everything so deeply, but also has no pity for her victims. She’ll steal only from the upper class, unless stealing from the poor benefits her { which rarely, it ever does }. She went from a snobby, rich kid to a hardened, rogue thief in a matter of months. For those she cares for, she cares especially deeply for, but for those she despises, she has no incentive to keep her loathing hidden. At the same time, she’s secretive, reckless in her emotions but careful in her tactics. She follows her intuition and it’s helped her with myriad heists, but she also always knows how to plan for the worst case scenario. She’s rigid in her opinions but adaptable to the settings, her morals are fluid but her view on the world is broad, as she incorporates all she’s learned from her many years of travel. She loves people but learns not to miss them, for in the end they only disappoint her. She understands that in this world, the only person who’s there every step of the way is your own self, and deep down she despises how attached she becomes to people who will probably leave her. She leaves first in fear of being left behind, breaks her own heart so no one else will have the power to. She’s loud and extraverted, yet recluse during missions. She knows how to make herself seen and heard, but also how to make herself disappear. For these reasons, she’s a chameleon. She’s adaptable, always trying new things but figuring out how to make herself seem like she’s been apart of them for so long. She can stand out but just as easily blend in. She’s been around the world, and associated with such varying cultures and yet discerned how to make herself seem like she belongs. The same applies for her heists, where she learned how to camouflage into her surroundings and make herself unknown to her targets or to the system.

MBTI AND/OR ENNEAGRAM: (optional part)

MBTI;; ENFP { The Discoverer }

ENNEAGRAM: #4 — The Romantic, Artist, Individualist

THREE WEAKNESSES:

i. Her emotions;; Beckett gets really attached to people, very easily. Which is something that could be used against her, and has been, more often than not. She’s more than just well aware of it, but there’s absolutely nothing she can do.

ii. Her alias;; On the streets of Italy, prior to committing identity theft, Bex was known as the Black Cat. She abandoned the alias when she began her travels with the gypsies, albeit she’d gone through a whole “acknowledge me as the best” phase when she was still a teenager, and as a result, left indications of the moniker back during most of her heists. Trace the moniker to Beckett, and one could connect her to several dozens of crimes.

iii. Her parents;; No matter how much anger she still harbours towards them for throwing her out, Beckett still clings to the memory of her parents. In truth, she was much younger, and doesn’t even know if she has any siblings. She hasn’t been in touch with her family since she was thrown onto the streets, and she wishes she could reconnect with them, every single day. Part of her resentment stems from the fact that she does, in fact, miss her home life, and all the perks that have come with it.

BIOGRAPHY: TW child abuse, rape, eating disorder, drugs, alcohol, death

          Born to a wealthy family of fashion designers in Milan, Beckett Nikolas had it all. Except parents who genuinely cared about her. Sure, in a way, she was spoiled. Spoiled rotten. She’d throw a hissy fit and suddenly she was adorned with jewels and money and toys and anything a little girl could want. Except affection. For her parents treated Beckett not as their child but as another child model they would hire to sport their youth line of brand-name clothing. She was prescribed weight loss medication, forced into specific diets and workout regimes, and banned from wearing non-designer clothing and from engaging in social relations with those who were deemed “under-privileged.” And if she refused, it was the belt, or the fist, or the wooden spoon, or anything that would pepper her skin with bruises and turn her flesh into a mosaic of black and blue and red and purple and green.

          Because of this detachment, because they never picked her up or gave her hugs or displayed any forms of emotional investment in their child, Beckett had begun to crave MORE. So she asked for more. And more. And more. Material items to compensate for the void she felt with regards to the relations in her life. Her friendships were fake, her parental relations were fake, it was all materialism to ignore emotions. So that’s what she began to crave. It was almost addictive, and once her parents decided their best “model” was beginning to ask for too much, Bex retaliated by stealing. Pickpocketing from her parents, taking a chequebook and writing cheques, pilfering their credit cards, stealing and pawning their material objects. It got to a point that they hired a personal “trainer” to deal with her “delinquency problem,” which really just meant suffering through harsher training regimes until she bordered on exhaustion and could no longer move. Then, they decided it wasn’t enough. She wasn’t the perfect, pristine child they wished for her to be, an obedient, little carbon copy of her mother. So they disowned her. Kicked her out. Stripped her of all her belongings. Sent her onto the streets to fend for herself. She was 14, and that was the last she’d ever see or hear of her family again.

          Needless to say, city life didn’t treat a delinquent, rich child with no street smarts very well at all. She was vulnerable, defenceless, with no concept of self-sustainability nor even positive relationships, forced to wander the alleyways aimlessly until she would find some way to LIVE. And she found it, supposedly, in a 22 year old man who claimed to love her and who she assumed to love back. But you don’t take advantage of the one you love, so Beckett all but crawled away from the man who stole her virginity and harmed her more than her parents ever had. She was exhausted, parched, famished, stripped of her innocence, and worst of all, alone. So she did the only thing she knew how to do best;; She began to steal. It was minute at first, little pickpocketing shenanigans here and there, just to get enough money to survive. But of course, old habits die hard, and soon, it had become too little. So she set her goals for greater heights, moving around Italy and commencing the theft of designer clothing, jewels, and ultimately, art. She earned a monumental amount of money through her teenage years under the alias Black Cat, selling her earnings in the black market and making a name for herself in the underground. For a couple of years she’d become entangled in the Italian Mafia, falling in love with one of the family’s children before waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of sirens. They were looking for her.

          So she fled, the mafia aided her in committing identity theft and she escaped the clutches of Italy in search of new adventure.

          And she found it, with the gypsies.

          She stumbled upon them after her flight landed in Greece, and Beckett, now 17 years of age, had grown quickly attached to one of the gypsy daughters, an exotic woman who danced with a grace unlike that which Beckett had ever seen before. So the woman took her in, and soon the gypsies had grown fond of her, treating her like an estranged family member they hadn’t seen in years. She was well fed and traveled around with them, they taught her valuable skills, most notably in terms of being self sufficient. It was with the gypsies that her addiction to hallucinogens had first flowered, and she became obsessed with the notion that drugs, and not materials, could temporarily fill her void and make her feel something.

          For a year or so she’d left the gypsies and joined a rock band, travelling around with a drummer whom she’d grown fond of, but a severe highway accident killed three of the band members, so Beckett stole whatever valuables she could from them, and returned to her gypsy family. But her luck didn’t last long, because the police force found her, and she was thrown immediately into prison. It was only a few months later, after she’d managed to seduce one of the guards and have them assist in her escape, that she was freed, and attempted to return to her gypsy family.

          Needless to say, they weren’t as welcoming the third time around. Especially not when they realized the huge monetary compensation associated with the warrant out for her arrest, their sudden epiphany that they had taken in a wanted criminal and a skilled thief both alarming and proving a threat to their own safety. This was even more so the case for the gypsy woman who’d grown romantically attached to the Nikolas and was angered by Beckett’s infidelity, so when the gypsies reached Bulgaria, they dumped her off and left her to fend for herself. Something Beckett was slowly becoming better and better at doing. So she began her thievery again, quickly growing comfortable with committing identity theft and snaking through the countries in the region, selling her wares on the black market and uprooting herself every time the police became suspicious.

          The last faction she’d encountered and would travel with was the hoard of pirates, a hearty group who welcomed her when Bex met the captain’s son at a bar in the Ukraine. The two fell madly in love and Beckett began travelling the seas with them, committing raids and substituting her drug addiction with alcoholism. The pirates, taking note of her addictive nature, knew Beckett would fair well as one of their own, ultimately growing attached to the pleasure received from committing theft and receiving large sums of money. It was as necessary to them as their own survival, and would become the same fate to Bex, herself. So the captain had his son ask for her hand in marriage, and she’d consented, until two nights before the wedding, when they were docked somewhere on the border of Romania and she realized she’d never made a single commitment in her life and fled.

          It was in Romania, at around age 24, that Beckett met Jezebel. She apprenticed under the woman until ultimately deciding to join Famine, herself. It was supposed to be a temporary solution, and she even worked as a stripper at Syrus’ club on the side to make even more money, but when she was promoted to the Second Level, Bex realized she was in too deep to simply leave. So she quit her job, solidifying her first ever commitment to the House, and living with an uneasy harmony that stirs constantly within her. The Nikolas’ desire for wandering eats her alive, an insatiable lust of an addiction stronger than any others which she has that she fears it might consume her in her entirety. But for now, she fights it, because she strives to honour the only commitment she’s ever made, albeit her constant self-doubt pushes her limits to actually abide by it.

[houseofcrimerp-blog]

                      « THE CONNIVING »              ❝ MORALS ARE RELATIVE ❞

LAST NAME, FIRST NAME: LEVINE, TOMAS “TOMMY” AGE: 29 HOUSE OF CHOICE: FAMINE LEVEL: 1 FACE CLAIM: Justin Baldoni NATIONALITY: ISRAELI ETHNICITY: ISRAELI/ITALIAN

CONNECTIONS

· THE ALLEGIANT; Calista is Tommy’s illegitimate younger sister who he cares deeply for. Most everything he does is for the betterment of his sister, despite whether she wants it or not.

· THE BACKSTABBER; Eris has become somewhat of a “friend” but only for the fact that Calista has become close with the second in command of Death, and Tommy wants to keep a close eye on her. It just so happens that Eris encourages this relationship in hopes that he never sees the manipulation at hand…

· THE MATRIARCH; In classic Tommy manner, he immediately made himself known in Famine solely because he hijacked first commander Jezebel’s car. When faced with the prospect of either joining them or being wiped off the face of the earth, he was actually more than enthusiastic at joining their house, surrounded by others like him.

PERSONALITY: At the heart, Tommy is a good guy. The world has just molded him to be a bit rough around the edges. If he trusts you, you’re set for life. If he doesn’t, it’s damn hard to fix that relationship, and you should always be aware that he has an eye on you, from anywhere. Inwardly, he has a lot of issues that he just retains and ignores. Outwardly, he is his title: Conniving. He would like to live the lavish and privileged lifestyle, but he can’t quite grasp that yet, and so he makes his way through many petty crimes. At some point, he would like to be able to climb the ranks of Famine, gain more power to secure his place in Bucharest better, but will patiently await his time.

THREE WEAKNESSES

·  CALISTA; There isn’t anything Tommy wouldn’t do for his sister.

·   VIOLENCE + PTSD; Tommy is naturally not a violent person, and would rather continue his thievery jobs under the radar to avoid confrontation of any sorts. Should something happen to his sister and his hand is forced, Tommy will carry great grief and guilt for it.

·   ALCOHOLISM; Tommy’s biological father was a functioning alcoholic, as was many of the men in his family lineage. Because of it, he worries that he is genetically predisposed to alcoholism and is always careful of how he drinks, even though he has had a couple dips in his time.

BIOGRAPHY

death, violence, child abuse tw

Outwardly, Tommy appears to be quite the calm and collected character: always dressed nicely and with a charming smile to match. It’s only when you’re walking away that you realize you’re missing your wallet… and your keys… and your wedding ring? How else do you think he has the wealth to afford his wardrobe, his apartment, his runaway lifestyle if he’s never held a notable job in his life?

Beneath all that charisma and money is a plethora of problems. The secrets, the guilt, the warrants. In reality, he’s just trying to get by, day by day, and figuring it will all come together down the road. He’s tired and he’s a mess and he just wants to stop running for once in his life. But he can’t. That was not the hand the world dealt him.

Born of a mixed race household, his family fled Europe to Israel ???. His childhood was normal, nice even, but for his parents, not so much. It seemed the “functioning” part of his father’s alcoholism was starting to fall apart, and with it, their marriage. When Tommy was barely ten years old, his mother miraculously gave birth to his cherished baby sister… despite the fact his mother hadn’t touched his father in years. The moment he saw his new sibling, he knew he would protect her from the realities of the world, including their own parents. As they grew older, Tommy’s father grew in resentment. Tommy was his only child, not this product of an affair. His father showed this in the way that his neglect grew to abuse, and that abuse transcended from verbal to physical. Tommy tried to stop it when he could, but when the Israeli army drafted him as soon as he was 18, there wasn’t always enough time to save Calista. The times he could return home were always spent the same way: rushing to his sister’s aid and comforting her however he could.

After his mandatory three years spent in the Israeli army, Tommy returned, but not alone. With him he now carried his PTSD over the atrocities he saw and committed. Yet, this only solidified in him the ideal that he would never willingly act on what he had done again. Or so he thought. Returning home only proved to be difficult in its own definition. His father was worse than before, a shell of a man that he onced loved dearly. Now, he could barely protect his sister, even his mother, from this broken man, let alone deal with his own condition. It all finally came to a head when Calista was 14. Living on his own but frequenting his old home, namely for his sister, he found his father in a state of drunken rage, threatening to murder Calista as she was “a plague on his life.” The violence was triggering enough for Tommy, but witnessing his father attempt on his sister pushed him over the edge. The resulting struggle ended with his father dead within his hands.

It became a family secret, having carefully crafted a lie for the police and government to buy so that no more harm would come to them. It was only a matter of time before the facade began to crack, and while Calista was serving her mandatory draft in the Israeli army, Tommy acquired intel that proved they would be arrested for their crimes. Stealing his sister and only her, they fled the country, finding themselves in Bucharest, Romania. It was the only place they knew they could remain hidden and free.