intro

[yourcupoftea]

Hey, everybody! I'm Dee. I'm completely new to the game and DW role-playing in general, so I hope you'll be patient with me while I get the shape of things. I'm really excited to dig in here, though, and to start writing with all of you. HoC's concept is fantastic.

I'll be bringing in Meera, a Four of Spades. You can read more about her here, but I'll give you a quick rundown. Her mother was something of a wunderkind in her day. People expected a lot from her. But, around the time that she met Meera's father, her interest in the game started to dwindle. Her competitive spirit was passed down to Meera. Meera is incredibly motivated and determined to one day be the Ace of Spades. Keywords: one day. For now, she's perfectly happy to run errands for her betters in the castle. You never know what you might overhear changing the linens, after all.

What else, what else. She's extremely chatty and is less socially graceful than most other Spades. She's still very courteous, but if she sees someone, no matter their rank or suit, chances are she'll try to talk the ears off them.

Meera was born in the Deck to a Spade mother and (though Meera herself doesn't know it) a Club father, so she's bound to know a lot of people. I love all kinds of CR, so just toss anything at me. And apologies in advance to the Spades. She is going to pester the socks off all of you.

Comments

[sharperseason]

Hey, Dee! Nice to meetcha :D I'm Ty, and I've got three kids here.

This one, Tobi, is a 16-year-old Deckborn 2♠, and about as prickly as they get on the outside. Her mother April is a 9♠ working in communications with Plans for her daughter that said daughter doesn't quite agree with, so I imagine their mothers would likely run in a lot of the same social circles. Tobi would much rather run off Outside and join a circus than challenge, but hey. She's also all about learning, so could probably be interested in trading trivia, despite the age difference. All the people she spends time with are older, anyway!

Eden (likemarilynsaid) is a very social, very vivacious 7♦ who works as a freelance fashion designer. She's a Diamond through and through, but a lot of her friends are Spades and she talks to everyone, so I've no doubt her path and Meera's have at the very least crossed. She's been here five years. :]

Mano'ela (wavekissedheart) is the Jack of Hearts, and a large, glorious Hawai'ian teddy bear. He's fairly protective of his suit, and was a pre-k/kindergarten teacher for the past eight years until two months ago when he got promoted. He doesn't get around to the Spades much, but he's got a smile for everyone.

Looking forward to playing with you! <3

[yourcupoftea]

Nice to meet you, too!

Meera would definitely be down with swapping trivia. She'd probably force herself into a big sister/mentor position and encourage Tobi to try harder in the Deck.

Just by virtue of occupation, Meera wouldn't like Eden. She wouldn't exactly dislike her, but there would be a lot of speeches on the superficial nature of fashion, etc., and I can't imagine Eden would enjoy listening to all that. Still, it'd be fun to play through.

Mano'ela seems so lovely! Maybe they could run into each other in town? I'd love to play with him, but yeah, their Suits might get in the way of them interacting.

Ditto!

[dreamsofwords]

Hello! I'm Muzy, and it's great to have you (Also, we just moved last month from LJ, so we're all learning the DW thing together). I play a gazillion characters in this game, some of whom Meera would likely know better than others.

This one is Alasdair DeWitt, and he's a Six of Hearts. If Meera went to the Town school, she likely had him for literature until she was 18. He doesn't tend to be friends with many Spades, though he has nothing against them. Friendship just hasn't happened.

Zoe (headfollowheart) is a year older than Meera and will be challenging up to Six of Spades, um, tomorrow, with a counterchallenge next week. A little over a year ago she switched from Hearts to Spades, and she's the head accountant in the Castle. She's kind of a fashion plate, but she also is a huge bookworm and spends a lot of time in the library. They might know each other that way? She's also marrying one of the Tens, Victor, in a little over a month.

Jordan (falsepretences) is a Seven of Spades who just switched from the Hearts last month (yes...I have a theme.) He's the scion of two old Spade families, the Bernards and the Novaks, who might know Meera's family. He runs the Spade archives and the information management department, and I think Meera should pester the shit out of him in particular. XD He's used to people giving him a wide berth, since he and his family was disliked in the Hearts.

Briony (civilizedpoison) is a Nine of Clubs. She's the Deck pharmacist, and ran from the Spades when she was fourteen, after her mother (a schizophrenic Queen of Spades named Medea) was killed in a challenge and their was a regime change. There are still members of her family in the Spades, though, and she goes everywhere, so maybe they know each other? If her mother was ambitious, she might have tried to get into Medea's inner circle before the regime change.

Elisha (cipherspeak) is King of Clubs. He's an Israeli-American with considerable military experience that he doesn't advertise, and also a visual artist (which he advertises a bit more). He became King a little over six months ago and has been playing musical Faces with his Jacks and Queens ever since. His best friend is a Ten of Spades, and he's dating Jordan's younger brother, so he's been in and out of Spade Castle a lot in the last seven years he's been in the Deck.

Avery (uncutclarity) is the current Ace of Diamonds. She just recently broke up with an Eight of Spades and runs the Diamonds' PR department, something that has her in and out of all the Castles with some frequency. She's a gregarious, flirtatious bohemian and basically defies every Diamond stereotype she can. She has a prickly relationship with the Queen of Diamonds, but is good friends with the Queen of Spades.

Ben (intotherough) is a Five of Diamonds who's been in the Deck for about three years now. He's Scottish and retains the accent to varying degrees - it gets heavier if he's trolling you. He was the Diamonds' handyman for much of that time, though he got shanghaied into a desk job for a few months before he threw in the towel and ran off to over a pub in Town. His pub is situated near the Spade section of Town, and Meera should absolutely come in. :) He's also in Spades a fair bit, since he's best friends with Victor (the same Ten Zoe is marrying and Elisha is friends with. Yes, the CR is kind of a tangled knot. XD)

Peter (wherethewild) is a year older than Meera too, and a recently arrived Two of Diamonds. He's also an MI-5 agent sent to investigate the mysterious death of a British Interpol agent with another Interpol agent and a CIA agent, but he's been playing harmless IT guy in the meantime. In and out of all the Castles trying to gather information, and he recently broke into the Spade server room.

I'm happy for any and all CR /o/

[yourcupoftea]

I am a fan of having a gajillion characters.

She did go to the town school and she'll be deeply offended if Mr. DeWitt doesn't remember his star pupil. Meera was one of those students who tried harder to get chummy with their teachers than their peers. She still probably runs after him when she sees him in town to try to ask his opinion on some book or another.

Meera would be a little threatened by Zoe. She's so pretty and smart and successful, etc., etc. I can definitely see them being casual friends with maybe a weird undercurrent of tension?

Pester Jordan, you got it! She would anyway, just because he's from such powerful families and has access to important records. I expect she's barged into the archives several times already with a pot of tea and some biscuits and basically forced him to chat with her.

I can see that. Meera's mother would have tried to distance herself from Medea after her fall, so Meera would be taught not to talk to Briony. Which, really, would just make her all the more curious about her. So Meera might snoop around the pharmacy and awkwardly try to engage Briony.

Idk about any set CR, but Meera would definitely look at Avery with stars in her eyes. So beautiful, so happy, so free~ There might be a schoolgirl crush a-brewing.

Yes, she will definitely come visit Ben. I imagine she goes in quite a lot, since it's basically a bartender's job to listen to people gab. Ben and Meera could be good friends, or maybe he's just doing his job humoring her and she values him a lot more than he values her? Your call!

Ooh, just from reading through his profile, I can see Meera and Peter hating each other. They're both arrogant know-it-alls, but their personalities go in completely different directions. I'd love to have them clash at some point.

Just tossing out ideas! Woo, this got really long.

[falsepretences]

Excellent. He will remember her very well and probably be used to her popping into his classroom to ask if he needs any help grading papers and that kind of thing. She probably sucked up to him by reading all of his favorite authors, which tend to be in the Fitzgerald/Hemingway/Lost Generation vein. XD

I can see being threatened. Zoe is one of those girls who seems like she gets everything she wants dropped in her lap (though she does work for it) so I can see there being some intimidation. She's usually quite friendly and nice, though, so unless Meera was a complete bitch to her, she wouldn't try to intimidate.

Oh God. He probably is getting used to it, but at first just stared at her like "Why are you here again I just had tea half an hour ago." He likely gets irritated with her in time, but if she makes herself useful...less so. XD

Both the Briony and Avery CR seems good to me. Briony is pretty used to a lot of old Spades giving her a wide berth or coming around curiously. And if Meera wanted to spout off medical facts at her, she'd be so amused. She also can't stand Julien, so she'd probably be absolutely cool with Meera's ambitions (actually, Zoe can't stand Julien either, and Jordan is ambivalent, mostly.)

Ben will sit there and patiently listen to her babble. Maybe use it as an excuse to talk to someone about all the things he learned in uni, too, since most people in the Deck don't really care much about, say, his thesis on the Battle of Bannockburn. XD

Oh, they will. There will be so much snark, I can see it now. She should catch him the next time he wanders into Spade Castle or in Town sometime. XD

We both wrote novels, but it's cool~

was logged into a different account than I thought I was /o\

[fiddlerjohnny]

Hiiiii Dee. :)

I'm Ana and Muzy's right, we're all kind of figuring out DW together, LOL. Anyway, welcome to the game! Meera looks like a lot of fun.

On my plate I've got:

Elani McCartney (the_songbird), the 21 year old semi-recently named Jack of Clubs. Her family is another Old Deck Family though I think they're mostly Clubs themselves, maybe a few Hearts. She's sort of a Disney princess type though she hasn't done a lot of singing and dancing lately and the only animal that follows her around is her year-and-something Viszla dog her last boyfriend gave her for Christmas (he was one of the previous Jacks of Clubs too but disappeared last year in an attack on the Clubs outpost on the border of the Deck and presumed dead). Uh, anyway. She tends to have a lot of friends and acquaintances around the Deck and since they're of similar ages, Meera and she could be friends. Heck, she's friends with Victor (long story).

I also have Julien (theacethatmatters), the current Ace of Spades who I guess is coming up on 36 sometime later this year. He was born off-Deck and spent all of his formative years in a rather spartan Ukrainian orphanage which taught him all about working hard and various ways to kill people and little about actual human traits like love and empathy. Someone there told him about the Deck and, after he left the orphanage at 17, he traveled around for a bit until he managed to find it, determined to become the Ace of Spades. Since this is getting pretty tl;dr...used to be the right hand man of the previous Queen of Spades, Athena (he got all infatuated with her when he watched her kill Medea in her Challenge for Queen), kind of had a breakdown when Athena left the Deck, and mostly his mantra lately is about 'service to the Suit'. Will likely side-eye Meera for wanting to be Ace if he's made aware of it but possibly if he thinks she shows any sort of aptitude, might actually attempt to groom her a little for it since of course he can't be Ace forever (but figures he'll die before leaving it of his own free will).

Next is Johnny, this guy here, Four of Hearts. He came to the Deck uh, almost 12ish years ago now and for most of that up until last fall didn't remember where he came from, though he spent quite a bit of time traveling around the world in between visiting the Deck and being friends with one of the previous Kings of Hearts (Ceiro, who stepped down last year due to being poisoned by Hadyn and Jordan's mother). Flirts a lot but isn't the type for long-term romantic relationships. Plays his fiddle like nobody else (because yeah, he kind of was based on the Johnny from The Devil Went Down to Georgia hence him not being able to remember the devil part because this isn't that sort of game, really). An old ex from his days in Georgia showed up last year and that kind of began to jar his memory about to where he remembers most things now. Actually went back to visit a few months ago but didn't actually approach his family (daddy's in jail, momma's living with her parents). He won't be talking about that, much. He's about 28 now but that wouldn't stop him from flirting at Meera should the opportunity arise.

Finally, there's Diane (a_sudden_change) who is the CIA agent Muzy mentions above. Generally, she seems like an open book and just a girl who wants to have fun. She's also a 2 of Spades because she figured being in the servants corps gave her ample opportunity to be one of the nearly-unseen in the Castle and reason to be just about anywhere in it, as need be. Upon witnessing Jordan's Challenge over to Spades and how he killed his opponent in it and most people were pretty "eh, it happens" about the whole thing, she kind of thinks they should just leave and maybe let somebody's military take the whole place over for their own good. Or something. She's kind of angry about the whole system. Don't know if she and Meera have or would have met as she's a pretty recent addition to the Deck but they certainly can. :)

no worries!

[yourcupoftea]

Thanks! And whew, I'm glad I'm not the only one adjusting.

Meera would definitely want to be friends with Elani. Generally, she's both attracted to and threatened by cards that outrank her in her own suit, but with face cards from another suit, Meera is a total fangirl. Not really related, but aaaa a viszla! They are the sweetest dogs ever.

Ooh, boy, side-eye all you want. Her idea of service to the Deck is massively different from his, but I'm guessing she doesn't know much about what Julien's duties are actually comprised of. Off the top of my head, she thinks he's shady, but knows that she has to figure out what makes him so indispensable to the King and Queen. So... she might go all Nancy Drew on him. Try to tail him/spy on him, then fail miserably? Please don't kill her. :x

Excellent! I'd love to have Diane meet Meera. She'd probably give out information way too freely, not that she has much to give out in the first place.

Re: no worries!

[fiddlerjohnny]

\o/ Yay friends!

Hahahah. He is shady, Meera. But he's also devoted. So it balances? Maybe? A tiny bit? :) And he won't kill her unless you ask nicely ;) but he'll likely growl at her a lot. He could hurt her somehow, depending on what she catches him at/how annoying she is (but again, wouldn't do that unless you wanted to), but if she manages to be apologetic/respectful (unlike some Spades he could mention /grumpgrump) he'd probably just do the growling and let her off with a warning.

That's okay. Diane would probably be a little "hey, cognitive dissonance" to meet a Spade that doesn't fit into the worldview she's developed of them.

[cutslikeaspade]

Hi, Dee! At the risk of sounding like everyone else so far, welcome to the game! Glad to have you with us!

I'm Emma and I have four kids in play:

Juliette (jokeswithknives) who is one of the Jokers, or those oddballs who sort of run around doing their own thing and don't have any allegiance to any of the Suits. Her history's a little...rough, thus she's a little "off" and has an affinity for apples, sharp pointy things (ie: knives) and is absolutely head over heels in love with her horse, Dutch. She drifts from Castle to Castle, stealing apples and whatever leftovers she can filch from the kitchens, but all in good fun, really.

Theo (holdsmyheart) is the recently appointed King of Hearts. He was a Ten of Hearts previously, born on the Deck, but educated Outside in medicine, only to return after losing his family and became the Suit's medical practitioner. He's an EMT as well as King now, and is basically everyone's big brother ever. Although the Kingship is bringing out the "daddy" aspect of his personality, I'm noticing.

Claudia (makeminerubies) is a Nine of Diamonds and--a bitch, really. She's the only daughter (and family heiress) of Martine Chareut, matron of a very old, very prestigious Diamond family. Also educated off Deck, she was nevertheless born and raised to be "queen", more or less, so she doesn't have anything even resembling a warm and fuzzy personality. A workaholic, she's the Assistant Director of HR in Diamond Castle, and half-sister to Pierre Chareut (hommesadique), who's a Ten of Clubs.

The only Spade I have in play is Ethan, with this account name. He's a current Seven of Spades and the Suit's weaponsmaster and combat instructor. He's also the former Spade King's (David) adopted son, as well as foster brother to Amy Sinclair (bitchwithabite). If Meera really wants Julien's job, she's going to have to fight Ethan for it, because he's had his eye on that office ever since forever. David started grooming him for it way back when, but On-Deck events led to the estrangement of their relationship (and Ethan's mental breakdown, more or less), resulting in him leaving the Deck for about a year, only to return and take over the armory. He still has the reputation of the "Black Sheep of the Spade Suit", which is rough, considering all the Spades are insane anyway. Ethan, Jordan, Amy, Declan Chives and a few others were all raised together, the last generation of Shea and Medea's (the old bad Spade monarchs) reign. Ethan and Jordan are good (sometimes best) friends and both were trained under Jordan's mother Lauraline to be weapons of the Suit, basically. (Ethan took it a step further and made a very good living Outside killing people before he came back home.) So it's highly probably that Meera's heard tales of that bunch's exploits from their wild younger days, ect.

/stops rambling now

Anyway, don't hesitate to ask if you have questions, that's what we're here for! Looking forward to playing with ya!

[yourcupoftea]

Hiya! Thanks so much.

This could go disastrously, but Meera would definitely try to get to the bottom of Juliette. Why apples? For that matter, why knives? There's got to be an interesting story there.

Theo and Claudia both seem like lovely characters. I don't see any preexisting CR between them and Meera, but maybe they can bump into each other sometime.

She will fight you tooth and nail, Vampire Diaries. Meera is completely in over her head when it comes to all this killing business (read: she has no idea murder is something that Spades do in the name of the Suit), so it could be fun to play with her trying to face off against Ethan.

I'm gonna hold you to that. I tend to have a lot of questions. Looking forward to playing with you, too!

[maskofhearts]

Hola Dee! Welcome, welcome. :)

I'm EJ, and we are all learning DW together, so no worries there. Pretty much any question you could have, one of us has probably asked as well- so don't be afraid to ask anyone. :D

As far as who I play, I have five kidlets here.

First is Hadyn Novak, (this one). He is a Nine of Hearts, though he was born a Spade. He's only a year (year and 1/2? He turns 22 in July), older than Meera, so there is a chance that they knew each other as children. While he carries the name Novak, he isn't related to the Novaks by blood. This was something he and his half-sister (Zoe) discovered rather unexpectedly last August. His brother, Jordan, and he were trained from a young age in the various ways to hurt people thanks to their mother. He is currently dating the King of Clubs, Elisha, and has just recently decided on something in his life but thus far has only discussed it with his brother. :)

Next, Victor Fox, [morallydefunct], is a Ten of Spades and head of Security. He is engaged to Zoe, and has a bit of a reputation for being a touch scary. Generally he is polite unless he has a reason to not be (with the ladies, those reasons are actually fewer and far between), buuuut he is akin to the boogeyman for most Spade children (at least that is how it has been played thus far with younger Spades). He is a quite one, not prone to talking much but he'll listen to most anything for a little while. Hates parties, more so if he has to go to them. And in general does the suits dirty work (such as putting former kings into medical comas and shipping them off...for the betterment of the suit.)

Clive Kelly, [wouldbetrump], is King of Spades. He is part of the Bernard family tree and the Kelly family tree (the Kelly's have been Spades for a while, but they also have roots in the Clubs/Hearts/Diamonds- not nearly as straight laced). He is a bit of an atypical Spade, not particularly keen on senseless violence just to prove how much better than someone you are. He is known for his non-violent challenges as he rose through the ranks, and for his charm. He, however, forgets how to be prince charming when it comes to flirting. His words, they fail him. Luckily, he doesn't have to do the flirting that much anymore.

Leona Matthews, [mightbedrunk], is a Six of Clubs. She's a bit of a lush. She's the head of accounting for the Clubs, and typically does a very good job there. She has a bit of a love/hate relationship with Hadyn (most hate), and is close with Elisha. She's also good friends with several other people around the deck, and is willing to take on more. :) Especially if they look shoe shopping.

Jack Donovan Maynard, [jack_of_trades],a two of Clubs. He is part of the external investigative group with Peter and Diane. He is the interpol agent, American by birth, and a country boy at heart. He works in the stables at Club castle under Monty, and has keen eye for most everything. He has his own brand of charm, and smooth talking which has caused a few issues as he's managed to be somewhat friends with a few people around the Deck- which he should be. He can't afford to like these people after all.

And that is it! Looking forward to seeing you in the game.

[yourcupoftea]

Hey!

I'd love if they were childhood friends. Maybe she doesn't tolerate Hadyn's games and he can tell her to just shut up and at the end of the day they're comfortable with each other?

Meera would be very polite to Victor, but would probably avoid him if she could. Some of those boogeyman stories wormed their way into her brain. Still, if they were ever in a situation where they had to engage one on one, she'd pluck up the courage to grill him about his life story and maybe get over her fear of him.

Clive, you will only ever see Meera out of the corner of your eye. She is trying to butter up the higher ranking Spades, but the King and Queen are hurdles she is not yet prepared to tackle.

Totally up for bumping into Leona and Jack in town!

[maskofhearts]

Sure, I'm down with them being childhood friends :) His life is full of being surrounded by girls. ;D And he would certainly be comfortable with her.

AS for grilling Victor, XD she's welcome to try. Victor holds the longest list of secrets, it feels like sometimes. XD He isn't much for story telling, but can surprise people at times by telling them unexpected things.

And Clive would be disappointed XD He likes to think he isn't scary, at all.

And sure! Run ins are cool for Leona and Jack.

[cariad_tywyll]

Welcome Dee. I'm netty - I'm fairly new here too. I've been rping forever but just found DW and the Deck. I <3 it.

I have Wraidd cariad_tywyll, she is a 9 of Hearts with ambitions to climb higher. In fact, she is starting to prepare to challenge for the 10 spot. Generally speaking, she has a thing against Spades but she is nice to pretty much everyone's face and she thinks that Deck Born cards are superior to those who are not Deck Born. Interaction could be interesting. Right now, she thinks that a bunch of low numbered spades should go into the mysterious buildings and inspect the insides... for the good of the Deck of course O.O

I'm on aim almost all the time @ jouez moi and in the blast chat.

[yourcupoftea]

Hey Netty!

omg, please let's set something up where Wraidd tries to get Meera to check out one of the mysterious buildings. I think these two could be really fun together.

[cariad_tywyll]

I'd love to - just don't actually go for it or I think she'll go poof!

My aim is jouez moi

[thecutdiamond]

Hello, Dee! Glad to welcome someone new into the fold! I'm Drea and I've got three kiddos:

This one here is Rachel Caustello, 10♦. She used to be the Queen, but then the Arcana plot happened and she had to step down and leave the Deck due to severe injuries in a fight. She came back last December and nowadays is usually seen around the Diamonds castle on crutches and Getting Things Done. She probably knows of Rachel/knows her by sight because of her former Queenship, but they probably don't know one another terribly well.

I've also got Rowan Maclean, Q♥ (gotyourheart). Until a couple days ago she was just a 9, and she's also Head of Security for the Hearts. She used to have a fling with the current King of Spades, so maybe when that was going on Meera might have seen her in the Spades castle more, but other than that I can't think of anything either.

And, finally, if Meera likes coffee or just wants to get away to Town every so often, I've got Teresa Robledo, 4♣ (hey_sexy_latte). She's the same age as Meera and a Deckbaby as well, so they probably interacted at school or something like that. She's since moved out of the Clubs Castle and into Town, where she works at her aunt's coffee shop, Cafe Cocodrillo.

Aaand, I think that's it! Welcome again :D

[yourcupoftea]

Hello!

Meera will be very deferential to Rowan and Rachel, too, but yeah I don't see them having interacted much in the past.

Meera comes into the cafe regularly. Probably acts like she and Teresa were great friends in school whether they actually were or not.

Thanks so much.

[thecutdiamond]

I am totally cool with Teresa and Meera being fairly good friends, if you like. o/ Meera can go be frustrated at her for not wanting to climb any farther than Four and Teresa can just tsk at her and give her coffee and free pastries when she's stressed out. :P

[heartvestment]

/skids in late with flowers. Hey I'm Violet and welcome to the ~fabulous~ game. I have six kids here (you don't even notice them piling up on you, man D:) and here they are:

Adrien Fitzgerald (denythyfather) is a Six of Diamonds, but the most likely of my characters to actually know Meena. He was a Spade until he was 18, part of the infamous Fitzgeralds - they're one of those Spade families, with the intrigue and the ambition, etc. At 18, his parents kicked him out/he ran away to the Diamonds and he's been there ever since. He still has childhood friends in the Spades, though, so that's entirely possible? He's now 26: sociable, flamboyant, a flirt, ~and~ has an adopted daughter named Sitara. So if Meera speaks Hindi. She gets to talk with the cutest seven-year-old in the game. \o/

Blythe Merrick (somuchheart) is the Ace of Hearts. She entered the Deck at the age of 19 and worked her way up quickly through the ranks. Like, super quickly. At the age of 22, she was a Ten. Now, at 23, she's Ace. Sweet, caring, efficient, exactly as you'd expect a Heart to be. She's also a perfectionist and a bit of a worrier. Before she came to the Deck, she was on her way to being an Olympic gymnast. Now that she's in the Deck, she's also excellent with knives. But... right now, smiles are her favorite. XD She's also super short (5'2"), which leads people to underestimate her often.

Piper (eucre) is a Joker. A little crazy, a little ridiculous, super cute and not so coherent. She's been on the Deck for coming up on 21 years. Her actual name is Felicia Chives and she's the younger sister of the Spade butler. Though. Personality and memory disorders aren't really helping her get used to that. Basically she likes popping up in people's lives and being silly. :D

Riley James (standlikestone), Four of Hearts, used to be the most partiful party girl ever. She is a sports education teacher for kiddies at Deck school (though she's quitting after this semester). She turned 20 years old this week and is trying to change from the drinking, sexing girl she was to a proper James Woman in anticipation of becoming Head of the Family next year. Still. She is fun and ridiculous and loves to meet people and is just a tad flirty. Just a little.

Melinda Pan (rarelight) is the cutest Four of Diamonds, and Head Butler. She tries her best to be an emotionless linefacing master of efficiency, but really... she's a cutie and likes kids and wanted to be a kindergarten teacher and somehow ended up on the household staff instead. Her whole family is involved in service to the Suit, so she's looked upon pretty favorably by the rest of her family. Just... she's not absolutely happy.

And finally (/pant pant), we have Evangeline Darcey Mae Huntly (this journal), Eight of Hearts, also known as Edie. Or Edie Mae. She's a learning resources specialist / college and academic counselor in the Deck schools and she loves music. She can sing and play a variety of instruments, which is how she got up to Eight in the first place. She's 28, but acts more like she's 18. She's all about ~reclaiming her youth~. Meera probably knows that two years ago, she had a breakup with her boyfriend of three years, Alasdair Dewitt (Muzy's character!). They were the Deck's favorite couple basically and everyone wanted them to get married. And. She broke up with him. So. XD

That's all!! Please do not be intimidated okay I sort of just vomited over this intro but I am so pleased to meet you and am super looking forward to playing with Meena in the future! ♠♠♠♠

[yourcupoftea]

Heya!

Yes, I'd love for Meera and Adrien to be childhood friends. She does speak some limited Hindi, so she'll joke with Sitara about her totally lame dad.

Meera will probably fangirl Blythe hard, seeing as she's an Ace. They can also bond over being shortasses.

Riley sounds fantastic. Meera could do with more flirty, fun people in her life. She's a major stick in the mud, so maybe she could help Riley rein in her wild side.

aaa, looking forward to playing with you, too! Feel free to throw any characters at Meera. I'm pretty crap at talking through CR ahead of time. I'm much much more comfortable thinking on my feet.

[somuchheart]

That will work yay!!! \o/ (and shh I might be apping a Six of Spades who is Indian and fab so >.> Maybe maybe we'll see~)

WHAT FANGIRL WHAT Blythe will just blush quietly and bond over being really short and underestimated ugh.

YES this would be appreciated~ Mommy and Granny James will approve. B|

sdkfjsdl I'm really excited too! And lol me too as evidenced by my vomitting of unnecessary information JUST. We will play and figure it out~

[sirforawhile]

Welcome to the game! I'm Yin, playing Säde (ishineon), Queen of Diamonds; Leigh (allthesamemask), her ward and a Two of Diamonds; Annie (oneirophiliac), Five of Spades; and this guy here, Iggy, Five of Hearts. (Also another Spade if my app gets in, but we'll leave that for later.)

Out of my lot, she'd at least know Säde by reputation and Annie simply by being in the same suit. Annie is the suit exterminator and keeps a gazillion snakes (okay only about forty or so really). She briefly left the Deck when she was younger but returned about seven years ago. If Meera doesn't notice her from that she might also notice that Annie is the butler's girlfriend/maybefiancéewe'renotdoneplayingoutthenot!proposalyet.

[yourcupoftea]

Thanks so much!

Meera will love Annie for her snakes. If she ever needs a snakesitter, ring Meera up.

[messire_messer]

Brilliant. Annie will shanghai Meera into helping once in a while and let her vent about the Chives. She knows they can be difficult.

AND here is my new other Spade! Raphael is an ~artist~. Or more clearly, he's a performance artist who does sculpture, painting and whatever interests him. It doesn't pay much, so he works on farms and in stables too. He's a former Chives. He would have quit the family when Meera was seven, so it's possible she wouldn't immediately associate him with the Chives.

[old_dog]

Welcome to the Deck Dee =) Just read your app and Meera looks cool. She'd most likely be interacting with this man, Michael Brennan, Jack of Spades. His app is really TL;DR but basically he's a rather atypical Spade. Really approachable, amicable personality, prefers being on a first-name basis but will take whatever he can get, and really disorganised. Anyway you'll get a feel for him when we interact. Oh and also he is not-so-secretly (one person knows for now) the current Ace of Spades' biological father.

I also have a Two of Spades, Iollan Chives dum_spiro_servio who basically lives in the Spades' Castle kitchens and prepares all the meals and stuff. He on the other hand is not so nice. He's also the butler's perpetually linefacing father.

My other two characters might be more peripherally connected. Caleb Caustello heartbreakclub is an Eight of Clubs, and he's never left the Deck so he's been there for 65 years. We could potentially work with something about knowing Meera's father if you'd like to go down that path, but he probably wouldn't be connected to Meera herself.

And finally I have Nicholas Lancaster dysphoria_abounds who is a psychologist holding the rank of Six of Diamonds. He's a dangerous character to get too close to because he's a psychopath but if you ever need a shrink, he's currently your only go-to option unless you prefer to interact with an NPC. Otherwise there probably isn't much to do with him and Meera.

[yourcupoftea]

Thank you!

Yeah, we can hash stuff out once we write together. Michael sounds fantastic, though. He's very much the type of person Meera would get on with.

Yeah, Iollan probably hates Meera. She steals extra food from the kitchens all the time. He's probably tried to whack her with a wooden spoon more than a few times.

[old_dog]

Sounds great. Food stealing is definitely one way to stay off Iollan's good books XD

[piqued]

Well hello! I'm Qi, and as you can see by my lateness, I'm secretly on hiatus while I travel for work, but soon will be home for hijinks and adventures. It's so nice to meet you! Welcome to our arms!

My zillion characters, in order of likelihood to know the lovely Meera, are as thus:

Declán Chives (this loser right here), Five of Spades and Head Butler of the Spade Castle. Since she's lower than a Five and seems to do some Staff work, he's possibly her boss or at least someone who will be snapping at her all the damn time for being too full of cheer and socialization when she should be invisible. I swear he's a more pleasant fellow now than he used to be, just. Not to people he considers below himself and who aren't Spade-y enough.

Evan McCartney (bluntforces), Four of Clubs and also made of talking and lacking social graces. He's about five years older than she is, but that makes her a good age to have been among the kids he was always looking after/leading into misadventure/playing and hanging out with because of his sister Elani. I'm sure they get on like nobody's business, although he's currently at school in Canada and not on Deck much. She can probably expect lots of calls/texts/hugs when he's home.

Cynric (hamelinic), Joker and general approver of non-Spade-y Spades. He loves running his mouth and generally being ridiculous, so whenever she's not in the castle, he probably pops up to be a bad influence against her getting all sharp and serious as Spades are wont to do.

Rita James (butneverbreak), Nine of Hearts and probably someone who knows Meera's mother more than she knows Meera, because they're the same rank across two suits (which often means interfacing) and have daughters about the same age. I don't have super coherent thoughts on that.

And then there's Eileen (lowtohigh), the Ace of Clubs, and Cadogan (diemwnt), the Jack of Diamonds, both of whom I am struggling to think why they would know her. Eileen might just by the sheer amount of time she spends in the Spade Castle. Cadogan I will think more on.

Anyway. Welcome!

#edited because whar is html :| also because the two comments above me about Declán's father and notatallfianceshhhush needed a thumbs up of fabulousness.

[yourcupoftea]

Nice to meet you, too!

Oh my god, I love it. Declán will be the bane of Meera's existence. She'll break her back trying to get his approval, but she'll curse him at length when he's not listening.

Yes! Evan will be her favorite penpal.

I can see Cynric and Meera getting on like a housefire. Anybody who speaks their mind is a-ok in Meera's book.

Toss anybody you like at me. We'll make it work. Thanks for the welcome!

[isadisease]

Hi Dee and welcome to the game!

I have Archie Valerian here, a Nine of Spades, and Lasse Rasmussen (expluribus), Eight of Clubs.

Archie runs a medical research facility located Outside and his family is (in)famous for producing high-quality poisons since the 16th century. Archie himself is more approachable than his father and brothers used to be. His wife had two kids who are close in age to Meera so she could have been friends with them before he shipped them off-Deck if you like.

Lasse owns and cooks at The Ivy. I'm not sure if there's backstory here but I'm always open for random encounters. ^_^

--Ling