#anyway nadja's doll reminded me of henry-the-ghost

[deeisace]

I can’t prove it, cs tumblr’s a piece of shit, but I had this idea years ago

Mostly based on that one of my 1860s aunts had a job as a “latch press” as a teenager - which is not some sort of burglar, as it sounded to me, but someone who makes latches, with a metal press machine thingy, in a factory/workshop

Anyway, what if, she made the latches/locks, and then went of a night to steal stuff from the fucks whose locks she made?

Then come a bunch of other characters, also (obvs, I’m an idiot) loosely based on distant family members of mine

I think I gave the latch press the name of another aunt, who IRL was Isabella or Arabella at turns, cs I couldn’t remember the name of the IRL latch press - I think she might’ve been an Elizabeth or Marie or Annie or another name as common in my family

Anyway, this fictional latch press lived with this very large group of,, well, thieving orphaned children, really, ala Oliver Twist, with a some adults by also - these based on yet another aunt, Eleanor Moore, who’s husband was legally married to the woman next door, and both women had I’m sure over a dozen children total by this same man over 15 year or so, I shouldn’t like to prescribe words to the past, but y’know - anyway I think at the time I described them as a cross between Oliver Twist and the Weasleys

Anyway

Also, Isabella/Arabella had a little brother, who was after a cousin of mine Henry Bird, again c. 1860s - he only shows up on a single passenger list, going to Canada in the mid-1870s as an 8 yo - which is odd, cs he should have been on the English census previous, and he doesn’t show on the next Canadian census with Thirza and her family either. Anyway, in the story, Henry is 

A bit like Nadja and haunted-doll Nadja, he is at once a zombie and also a ghost - two different versions of himself - neither one alive, but one still as he died and one who has - not grown, at all, except maybe mouldy, but experienced in life, more, or something

He - they - he died age 14, when Isabella/Arabella was 10, and she is now I think 16

I’m not sure where I was going with the whole zombie/ghost thing, exactly - something like, one person, on two different routes can turn out differently as a result? or something? idk

There was also someone based on my musical c. 1820s grandfather, who in the story was a sort of Barnardo-y Sunday-school figure to Arabella/Isabella, trying to convince her to take a good place somewhere at a house, and she arguing that she could keep on fine as she was, thanks, you don’t need to preach

In any case, it came about she couldn’t keep on - in fact, she almost got caught (by someone based on the very awful Horatio Fox), and one of the Moore kids, a lookout, was found in her place, and so she had to then go about to get him out, without getting caught, or further incriminating either of them

I didn’t ever hammer out the true details or actually write any of it, but I spose it’s something of an idea to have