OOC Information:
Preferred Form of Address on A&A:Rose
Preferred Contact Information: Catsclaw27@yahoo.com
Other Characters on A&A:
How You Found A&A: I am an Admin on an Affiliate Board

---

IC Information
Name: Hestia Jane Logan

Avatar: Rose Byrne

Occupation:Lady’s Companion

Age: 20

Gender: female

Appearance: Hestia is a petite young woman who stands about five-foot three inches tall. She had deep brown hair and large deep brown eyes that often reveal more than she wishes they would. Hestia has an average figure of women her age. She is neither painfully thin nor overly plump. She is thankful not to be too tall or too flat-chested though she tends to lose weight quickly when she is nervous which depletes her look and leaves her nearly curveless. She has pale skin that she protects from the sun by means of avoidance and she has slim delicate fingers that work with rapid exactness in her work as a seamstress. They are an attractive feature even if they tend to have small stick marks from her sharp sewing needles.

Hestia has recently acquired a fine and extensive wardrobe of her late mistress. This has given her many fine and stylish garments that she has altered to fit her body and taste in clothes. She very much has the appearance of a refined young woman and learned in her occupation to do many of the elaborate hairstyles of the day. When she has the time, she pins her hair up in these elaborate styles but more often than not, she has only time to simply pin it back in a plain fashion.

Personality: Hestia is friendly but reserved in her manners. She is eager to help when asked and more comfortable to have someone in charge. It is what she knows and how her life as been constructed. But she is also shrewd, knowing that her future is all an elaborately played out strategic game. She must marry well if she hopes to eventually end her life of servitude on any level. The trouble is, she is bothered by the limits of this game and can become withdrawn and sullen. She rarely mentions the loss of her family as that seems like dreary and awful talk that should not be brought into general conversation. She has, over time, become a bit reclusive, having lived so long as a Lady’s Companion and choosing to remain on the estate grounds to the exclusion of all else. Her new assignment makes her edgy and fearful but she hides it behind the helpful and dutiful demeanor.

History: Hestia was the youngest of three daughters. Her father, Alan James Logan, was a physician and her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Norcott, a high-standing member of society from a family of equally good standing in all possible directions. Sarah was adored in many social circles and always expected to marry well. She did. She married Dr. Logan but he did not love her. He held her in high regard but he did not love her.

It is unclear to Hestia that her father could love anyone, but she loved him. She loved his laugh even if it were rare. She loved his books that littered his study. She loved the way that people looked at him at parties, with such respect, and she loved the sound of his voice when he told them how they might address a particular ailment. He looked at ease in social settings. It was at home that he withdrew. He had many secrets in his life that she would never know, but whatever they were, they kept him at a distance from people, including his wife and children.

What became apparent was that there seemed to be no living relatives on her father’s side by the time Hestia was old enough to be aware of such things. Her mother’s relatives spent only limited time with the family and usually Hestia heard talk of the outstanding debt and women clucking their tongues over tea. On occasion, she heard her mother’s voice crack as if she were to cry but then she quickly regained her composure and continued to serve her relatives, the brief silence filled with the soft clink of china.

Her father retreated even more when ever those relatives descended on their estate and Hestia somehow felt the need to be near him even if he were not aware. It was her way of evening the sides just a bit, to give him one more soldier standing at his side.
Hestia would sneak about and find him in his library. She would sit just outside the door with her legs pulled up so that she fit neatly under a small draped table her mother had placed there. She could seem him and there she would sit watch. He always seemed to be pouring over books, scribbling in legers. An ornate crystal bottle sat on one side of his desk filled with an amber liquid. Hestia knew that by the time she was ready to retire to her room, the bottle would be close to empty. She watched until the lamplight weakened and his face pressed closer to the papers spreading before him. His pipe packed, lit, smoked, and repacked again, filled the house with the familiar faint scent of sweet cherry. He would not come out and Hestia would finally retire to her room where everyone believed she had been asleep for hours and where she always felt safe.

It was that scent of sweet tobacco that ripped her from the life she knew. When her eyes opened it the smoke had become black and choking and when she stumbled from her bed, she could not find her way. She cried out for her sisters but heard nothing but flames licking the walls just outside her door. Her room had been just above the garden where a large tree branch often scratched against the window. When she quieted she heard two more things; her heart beating and that branch scratching. She followed the latter sound through the choking, blinding black smoke filling her room. She shoved the windows open and took hold of that branch.

Hestia was the only survivor of that fire. She was eight. Her mother’s wealthy family did not step forward to claim the child but someone did. Her father’s youngest sister, Erin and her husband, William, filed papers to claim her. These were strangers were a hidden part of her father's past. They were a middle class family, her uncle a Lighterman. Hestia went to begin a new life in far off city . Her aunt trained young Hestia to be a seamstress as well preparing her to take on the duties of running a household. At thirteen, due to connections her uncle had made in his work, she became a Lady’s Companion to a middle-aged and ailing mistress of a fine estate. She spent her days in dutiful work and in excelling in her skills of keeping her mistress looking impeccable inspite of her ill health. But her mistress finally passed away and soon after, the master of the estate recommended Hestia to work for a new woman in Lindebo. Hestia was fearful and yet curious about this new assignment. It would be the first time she had traveled away from her aunt and uncle but she was ready, they assured her. She had inherited some of the her late mistress's discards and was able to tailor the fine clothes to her fit her station. She knew the importance of clothing and what it communicated and she stayed only just within her assigned role. Her wardrobe pushed at the edges of what would be acceptable, her dresses hinting at a status that was not yet hers. Hestia was now nineteen and her only hope of changing her course in life would be to marry well. But would she marry as her mother did? Would it be proper but loveless? Could she even attract the attention of the proper men? She knew she had been born well but that meant nothing now. Her status had diminished the day of that fire and the day her aunt and uncle brought her down to a lower level life.



Strengths: Hestia is hard worked and is very resourceful. She had to rebuild her life after losing her family to a house fire which was blamed on her father’s smoking pipe and she did that without question. Her Aunt Erin conveyed to her what was salvaged from the house. This included five of her father's books that somehow survived the blaze. One was an anatomy book, two were on medical procedures and medicines used in common ailments, one on herbology and one a book of poetry. Hestia has read those books over and over, stumbling through the difficult language at first but after years of re-reading them, they are part of her. The pages are worn though she still believes they hold the scent of sweet cherry tobacco. If she had the nerve, she could talk about all she knew. She could apply the information and advise people as her father did. But this is not a world that allows such things, Hestia is wise enough to know that this would be like wrapping a stone around her waist and jumping into a lake socially.

Weaknesses: Hestia is fearful and hesitant about making changes. She likes to stay with what is safe and sure. She will not apply all of who she is or could be in her life because it is too risky.

Picture:

Hallo and welcome! Glad you decided to join! :) As an admin of your own board, I'm sure you know the review process for apps... straight into it, aye?

Lady’s maids will not be seen like this. It’s rising above their station, and no one respectable will hire such a maid. Maids are meant to be neither seen nor heard, only to dutifully perform their tasks. You’d have a wardrobe filled with nearly identical dresses, in the style of whatever livery your mistress used. If he or she had none, then they would be standard plain maid’s dresses.

Also, you’d never inherit a wardrobe from a mistress. It would go to her children, and if she had no children, then her relatives, and if she had no relatives, then it would be sold if her husband didn’t want to keep it for sentimental value.

This kind of contradicts this:

So, if he did have relatives, she should know of them before the fire.

You are absolutely correct that a girl would be reasonably a maid by the time she was thirteen, but being a lady’s maid was a particular job. She would have been training to be a lady’s maid, not a seamstress.

This one can’t go through. She wouldn’t inherit clothes in this manner.

And your strengths. Are you saying she has the knowledge and skills to be a doctor?

Oh, and I forgot to say up there, it's fine if you don't have an avatar, but if you later want one, you'll need to tell us who it is. :)

Thanks. I actually researched this role before posting it up. What I learned is that a Lady's maid was in the upper ten of the household servants. She was not an ordinary maid and was often resented by the staff because of her closeness to the lady of the house.


From: http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites...e/morrison.html

This is where I learned that a Lady's Maid could inherit a wardrobe. It is in a piece by peice manner, but in the end, the entire wardrobe would convey.

On the history, I was hoping to get across that Hestia's father had many secrets, including that his family was of a lower than acceptable station. He was incredibly smart and was able do to luck and being connected to the right people, to rise above and pusue an education as a physician via an uncle who sponsored him. I should have gone more into that, and I apologize. I wanted to some of it. His wife's family learned of the others after she was married and had the children. The mothers family had no interest in the girl after the fire.

And about the question of her being a doctor? She does not possess the practical experience to be a doctor but she retains a huge body of knowledge. So many brilliant women were entirely smothered out in this period and many others. She read the books to be close to her father and showed the same natural intelligence he had. Now she possesses knowledge that could be applied if she were ever given the opportunity.

Okay, well let me know. I know this is a very particular roleplay so if it doesn't work out, no worries.

Yeah, we are particular, but we try and work things out too! And we’re fun! We also cut more slack once people are accepted too, it’s not ALL this picky. :P Well, I am, but Kris beats me up if I let it out.

Your reference is for the Edwardian period, which ended seventy to eighty years before the time of A&A (we’re letting things in within a decade of the right time period). This may be the source of some of the differences it has with mine.

You are correct that a lady’s maid is an upper servant in the house, situated above the rest of the female servants except the housekeeper. But she is still a servant and has a hard job. She is expected to wear functional clothing to assist her in this; she can’t wear the sorts of clothing that a Lady (in this case meaning the wife of a peer, baronet, or knight, since you capitalized it as a title in your history) would wear in this capacity. A Lady’s maid is still a member of the Working Class, although if her mistress is sufficiently highly placed this may elevate her to the lower Middle Class. She cannot be wearing the dresses of a Lady if she is not a Lady; it’d be considered pretentious, and she’d be seen as attempting to out-do her new mistress as well.

I’ve not been able to find your source for the quote about receiving the wardrobe of a lady. It is possible, if you got it from the net, that the site read a book and erroneously termed a companion as maid. A Lady’s companion might be expected to receive her wardrobe, but not her maid. A Lady’s companion is a different occupation than maid; a companion is not a paid servant (well, actually she is, but she’s not considered to be such and her salary is called an “allowance”) and is at least a member of the middle class. A Companion is sort of like a paid friend, and does no work that a Lady wouldn’t do.

I don’t know that you’d have time to learn to be a doctor with the amount of time that you’d have to spend in your maidly duties. Also your education would have cut off at the time of the fire because as a maid your education would not be sponsored.

I’ll stand by my original opinion and say that the wardrobe will need to be changed, and the doctor-thing, if you are a lady’s maid.

However, virtually nothing in your history, strengths, or character at all will need to be changed if you want to be a lady’s companion. All you’d need to do then would be to change it so that she went to live with her family who were middle-class instead of servants, and replace maid everywhere with companion.

Which would be preferable?

Hey! I like particular roleplays! ;) Yours ain't so lax in that regard either, hehehe.

And I like this character.

I was about to agree with Liz about her inheriting the clothes until I saw your post and realized I should probably read up on the position.

I never realized they had such status. Well, good for them.

Hmm... About the father and his stupid relatives:

How about you just put some "It turned out that her father did indeed have living relatives"-ish sentence right after the fire, so people don't go all O_o when they read it? You did write "there seemed to be no living relatives," but those are small words and easy to miss.

And welcome to the board! Nice to have you.

Edit: Stupid posting at the same time. Ah, it seems we have a staff dispute. *goes to find Liz on msn*

Edit again: Ukay! I'm fine with the doctor-thing, so I'm not gonna say anything about that. I agree with Liz that the best solution might be to make her a companion but I won't deny you the inheritance. - Although if you do that, maybe you could put in something about her being friends (inappropriate but possible) with her mistress... or something. Hmmm. Oh, yes; but I still don't think she could be wearing them at work. That would just be weird.

That's my two cents for now.

Thanks for all your input. I do appreciate it. I am a little lost now. I thought I had done my homework. I can change it to the Lady's Companion thing, I think I am just lost on how to play it out. I guess I will need to research that role.

I am happy with anything that would make it possible for her to have read her father's books and acquired knowledge that she could not use in her current position. I actually was reluctant to play on this board because women have such low status and it seems depressing and frustrating.

I am not saying she is a doctor. I did try to explain that. What I want to represent is a brilliant young woman with potential who will not get to use it simply because of her gender. The books were hers, her only connection to her father and she embraced them the way she did him. I hope that makes sense. I want her to have absorbed that knowledge as sort of an honor to him, a way to memorialize him, but later I want her to come into contact with the power of that knowledge---I don't know if I am making any sense anymore...hahaha.

Okay, I will change the Lady's Companion thing...and then just tell me what to do next. :blink:

Well, then I would appruve you and you'd be all set to go, provided Kris did too. :)

I have refs if you want them, and... actually I'm getting the doctorthing much better now. I had a mistaken impresion of what you wanted (Kris was closer. v_v Hat's off to you, Kris). That knowledge could be used under a male non-de-plume if you wanted her to publish in the Gazette... (yes, I'm trying to get people to write period articles, shameless recruiter for the paper that I am).

EDIT: Also you could get involved, as a companion with some free time on your hand and being of the correct social status, in a women's lib group (or start your own), and try and get men to pay attention to your intellect. I can think of two characters on the board that would hop on the bandwagon immediately. :)

Cool!

I know, the gender-thing IS frustrating, and that's part of why I find it fascinating and exciting to write and read about Victorian times. Depressing, yes, maybe (sometimes I miss the modern times where my characters could just... "bring it"), but at the same time I find that I acquire a better understanding of our history as well as our current society and I'm happy we've come as far as we have after all.

All my characters are female. I've made a point of it in this game, simply because of this. Females could in fact be (and HAVE in fact been) powerful figures despite discrimination. I wanted to find out about how they did it.

Oh, bleh, I could go on forever about this. Anyway: Just post when you've finished editing, and I'm sure you will be approved very soon.

EDIT: Liz, you're thinking of the magicians? I can think of two more: Eir and Charlotte.

Naw I was thinking of activist-people. Lysander would, me bets, and Alastair would. Pritchards wouldn't because they're too busy pretending to be men and hoping they won't be caught and sent to jail for impersonation. :) But Eir and Charlotte would, too yeah. Hehe, and Charles, if he cared enough. He'd mostly just print her stuff though.

Okay, I think I made the right changes but my head is a little fuzzy so let me know....and I expect I will likely stumble about a bit. I am a little out of my comfort zone with a historical roleplay but thought I would give it a try!

Thanks for all your help.

No stumbles yet. :)

:mjinga:

Just waiting for Kris now.

Duuude. This looks very good. :thumbsup:

:banana: Approved!