( v e r s e ) kings & queens

[caipirinha]

KINGS & QUEENS. The roads leading into London are bare, these days. The tarmac is cracked and littered with weeds, and those brave enough to wander close enough never stay long, too unsettled by the eerie silence that surrounds the city, only broken by the low rumble of something that sounds like thunder even on the clearest days with the bluest skies. Even the M25 sees little activity; no one remembers the last time a traffic jam was seen on that motorway. People prefer to give the city as wide a berth as they can, because what they can’t see thus doesn’t exist. If they ignore it, sweep it under the carpet, then it won’t be a problem. The glorious former capital is little more than a distant memory, now an unfortunate stain that cannot be removed. It is said that once you step inside the city’s boundaries, you’ll never come back. That’s what they tell impressionable young teenagers when they tell their parents in a fit of rage that they’ll go to London, and they say it with such sadness and conviction that their child won’t ever utter the notion again. It’s an exaggeration, of course, but not a great one. In London you are either killed on sight or first drawn into the thrall of the kingdoms. One way or another, you’re bound to end up dead, it all just depends on how long you can stave it off. “Borough” is no longer an accepted or used term. In fact, you might even call it somewhat archaic, the irony being that the peculiar form of hierarchy and governance present in London itself is out-dated and antiquated. The city is now comprised of thirty two kingdoms, each ruled by its own miscreant royal, a king or queen, full of savagery and misspent youthful exuberance. The kings and queens rally their subjects, their knights, their scouts, on a daily tour of chaos, hunting and survival, forging allies where their whims take them, and enemies where anger prevails. There are no systems, no rules to follow unless your majesty decrees it, where heirs are chosen and not born. Children are rare on the streets of London – that is to say, the few that exist are kept tucked away, out of sight, until they can fend for themselves. Every king and every queen has their own goals. Some want to reclaim old territories, others want to revenge for certain deaths – others still just want a good fight. Each kingdom has its characteristics, known for its brutality, its cunning or maybe its fortification. Everyone wants to mark their name in the history of London’s royalty, to be revered or feared, shouted or whispered about. There is no peace in this city now, just the promise of adrenaline, blood and a short but thrilling life, if you have the guts to stick it out in a world where death is a sure-fire inevitability and happiness is derived from planting a messily made explosive in enemy territory. While the rest of the world slowly moves on, trudging along at a mundane pace, the kings and queens of London career the city into decay at an ungodly pace, rejecting the quiet and order of the rest of the world, substituting it with their anarchy and irreverence.

Comments

CHARACTER CREATION GUIDELINES

[caipirinha]

i'll try to keep this brief as i can because i often enjoy walls of text far too much:

* kings, queens, knights, scouts, regular subjects - you can create just about any type of character you like. kings and queens are self-explanatory roles, while knights are a select group of usual the toughest, smartest and most trusted individuals in a kingdom that will lead subjects on specific missions to either fuck around with that kingdom or look for supplies, etc, etc. scouts are fairly self-explanatory too; more stealth than brawn, they patrol kingdom borders to make sure no funky shit is going down. subjects are everyone else, those in the kingdom without specific roles.

* here is a handy map of london boroughs (with h&f being hammersmith and fulham, and k&c being kensington and chelsea), which are of course the kingdoms. the only kings and queens currently appointed/established in some way are king blake of westminister, queen tyranny of harrow, the currently unnamed king of tower hamlets and the also currently unnamed king of greenwich. otherwise, feel free to claim any other kingdom by dropping me a comment here. i haven't elaborated yet on which kingdoms are allies/explicit enemies BUT I SHALL DO. whoever picks up the king of tower hamlets, by the way, will be showered in my love because he and cat have a history etc etc.

* most characters will be aged between sixteen at the very youngest and early thirties at the very latest. there can of course be some exceptions depending on circumstances, etc, but drop me a comment here if you want to go for someone outside of these age-ranges etc, and provide a reasonable explanation for why they are out and about/still alive. character nationalities, also, can be as reasonably widespread as you like, because london will take in anyone from anywhere as long as they're worth their salt. london is something of a great myth around the world, because no one outside of it really knows exactly what's going on in there, and some probably sure would like to find out.

* the city of london, right there at the centre, is NOT a kingdom; it is the one safezone of the entire city and within its limits there is to be no fighting and no violence. to kill/gravely injure someone within the city of london would be an act that would surely result in exile from the entireity of london or else a death sentence for the offendor, and this is probably the one term on which all other kingdoms (seemingly) agree.

THAT'S IT FOR NOW FOLKSi'msosorry
please feel free to make note of claims/ask questions by replying to this comment!

[fizzy]

ZOOMS IN HERE

if you have tyranny then I SHALL HAVE TO WORK IN LARCENY SOMEHOW I THINK

also what about some kind of prince regent person who is sneakily taking control of a borough because the previous king/queen DIED HORRIBLY and the next in line is too young or something idk

[besiege]

YES DO WANT LARCENY little sisterrrr

well, the way that heirs and such like work is that the king and queen are appointed and then they literally just point at whoever they want to be their heir (or at least, they write it down and keep it hidden only to be revealed upon their death) and that's that. it's highly unlikely that a king or queen would ever choose someone who would potentially be unsuitable at the point of their death, because they expect to die fairly soon anyway :')

BUT that said it could be for another reason, like this person wants to lead some kind of royal coup over someone they deem unsuitable. heck, someone could try and do that in westminister with blake since he is the most UNWILLING PERSON, except once a king or queen has been chosen their is no option to abdicate, only an option to DIE it's all very vicious and all asdflmsdf... so yeah basically this is a long way of going about it BUT YES YOU CAN HAVE SOMEONE TRYING TO TAKE OVER though there aren't any princes or princess or the like really dghdfg

[rarebirds]

I'd like to lay my dirty little hands all over the king/queen positions of BARNET and KINGSTON please.

Also I asked on plurk but I don't think you saw it: can we bring AUs of other OCs into this verse? Obviously not my priority but I have some characters that I think it would be delicious to bring in.

[intended]

AND THEY ARE YOURS c:

adhgjdg no i don't think i did, but yes, absolutely! as someone with a very notable AU problem, i'll probably be doing so myself at some point, so go for it c:

[cupnoodles]

HI. Like I said in plurk! I'd like to offer someone (who would fall in the subject category?) to go around beating up those who his King/Queen tells him to, most likely people who have been marked suspicious for treason... Or something.

I'd love to give him to an existing King/Queen and establish that they had been friends before he/she gained the title, possibly even having known them for the majority of his life. They could even be family, if you're so inclined. He remains unquestionably and intensely loyal to him/her, etc. etc., friendship and rainbows.

[besiege]

oooh, he could fall into the knight category if you so wish? they're more likely to have specific jobs and such like, but if you'd rather keep him as a subject that's coo'. he sounds like he would be pretty good in tower hamlets, as that's the most violent group and the one most likely to have treason/unrest as a result fo how brutal it is, or would just be most inclined to go and beat someone up if there's even a whisper of treason :'| but the five most vicious kingdoms are probably tower hamlets, newham, hackney, barking & dagenham and southwark, if you would potentially like to stick him in there somewhere? c:

[cupnoodles]

WORKS WONDAHFULLY FOR ME. and i almost typed the keyword for a plurk emoticon so that's nice

uses it anyway



SO SHALL I JUST LEAVE A COMMENT IN BOLD ASKING WHOEVER TAKES THE TOWER HAMLETS KING TO INCORPORATE THIS CR

[besiege]

BEING FRANDS WITH THE KING OF TOWER HAMLETS MEANS THAT YOUR FELLOW WILL KNOW THIS LITTLE LADY AS WELL
she's a knight/spy currently located in camden/has a strange personal relationship with the king SO THEIR PATHS WILL HAVE CROSSED :]

[cupnoodles]

I GUESSED SO
hey pretty sneaky lady *wiggles brows

[besiege]

[cupnoodles]

in fact







can he have been the one who beat her up

[besiege]

... yes
definitely

[wring]

excellent
sorry about that Cat
HAVE FUN

[besiege]

he'd get so much grief from cat in the run up
YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT LOOK AUTHENTIC
DON'T HOLD BACK OKAY
SERIOUSLY
OKAY

[wring]

I DON'T TELL YOU HOW TO DO YOUR JOB, CAT
actually yes I probably do

[besiege]

lasdmasf can they have some stupid violent rivalry

[wring]

fuck yes i love stupid violent rivalries

[besiege]

EXCELLENT

[besiege]

also, in that case, can i write bass into cat's history as the first person she met properly in london, along with the now king, and thus the ones who vouched for cat to be allowed into tower hamlets :
( WE NEED TO FIND THIS KING js )

[cupnoodles]

YESSSS

[besiege]

can we all just rise up and violently murder plurk with sharp sticks

or get bass to do it

[cupnoodles]

yeah it is being pretty damn ridiculous today *strangles

[besiege]

it's been going on ALL DAY whargh
also bass gets some mentions
though it's not really a great elaboration on what we've talked about ashdfsd 8|

[wring]

yes good
this is awesome
she is awesome
you are awesome

[besiege]

o-oh daddy you are too kind I'M GLAD YOU LIKE IT
we should thread them sometime /CRAZY EYES
i'm growing fond of the idea of threading the preparation for and execution of beating cat to a pulp (because i'm a nice person)

[wring]

we are both nice and generous people
and i say yes to this :-!
*holds verse

[cupnoodles]

DUMPING PICTURE SUGGESTIONS HERE. WHAT FOR? NO IDEA.

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxpbtw0iYX1qk0ftso1_500.jpg
http://clodpates.tumblr.com/post/11298530095
http://clodpates.tumblr.com/post/19981687882
http://clodpates.tumblr.com/post/18459340092/deadsymmetry-sverykios-paintings
http://clodpates.tumblr.com/post/19065084162

[besiege]

drools all over you delightedly

[eppy]

gently breathes on this

[selling]

this is me reminding to leave notes about tower hamlet's king. I CAN LEAVE THIS NOTE IN WHATEVER ACCOUNT I WANT OKAY. i'm just horrifying rog with this and i'm too lazy to log out.

[seizing]

...and thus i play more of the game called account musical chairs.

DO TELL ME IF THIS LOOKS OKAY.

[besiege]

oh my goodness ally

HE IS PERFECT he is wonderful i am practically giggling with delight
(though i blame that in part on the alcohol i have so far consumed tonight)

[seizing]

excellent!

and i ask if it's possible to put my little fingers on greenwich's king and...offering up this as i d k a knight, probably.

(also alcohol is awesome, fuck haters.)

[disappearing]

YES IT IS that means you're stuck with me again (say hi to laurence)
and YES to lena headey please let's turn that "probably" into a "definitely"

[corium]

gadjgakdg sorry the first YES IT IS was re: taking greenwich's king THOUGH I'M SURE YOU GOT THAT i thought i might as well clarify

also because i keep forgetting to say
when you have moment, i'd like to tell you about cat feels of sorts
and by cat i do mean redhead cat not ... feline cats

[recognizes]

I GOT IT. i might metacast but i haven't...fully decided yet!

and i have a lot of moments, but i d k you may be sleeping by now and i figured you meant that cat and not...meow meow cats.

[recognizes]

also right this is still me. just not in his account.

[eltoo]

please to be excusing this completely unrelated character journal but do you reckon I could reserve la queen of CAMMMDENNN (for Larcy, who is the prettiest little queen) and king of Kensington & Chelsea (I may AU Zeus as the king with a big ass family full of in-fighting and questionable sexual practices because GEORGE MOTHERFUCKING CLOONEY why not).

ALSO I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SOMEONE TRY AND STEAL THE THRONE OFF BLAKE seeing as he doesn't want it dohohoho
what say you

[seizing]

...i'm not maria but whatever, i could kiss you for even thinking of auing zeus.

[bossman]

well how could I possibly turn down kisses /waggles eyebrows

[besiege]

I SAY HAVE ALL MY LOVE AND MULTIPLE KISSES FOR A COMMENT FULL OF AMAZING

because YES LARCENY and YES ZEUS and YES STEALING THRONES OFF OF BLAKE
come here let me fall at your feet joyously

RESERVES

[besiege]

[besiege]

the king/queen of barnet - koke
the king/queen of kingston - koke
the queen of camden - shaz
the king of kensington & chelsea - shaz
the king of greenwich - ally