Realistic or Modern Smoke and Shroud [1920's English Gangs]

[Misty Gray]

Lucas simply nodded in response to Mortimer's gratitude. He only did favours for those he respected or those who rewarded him, and he would make sure to follow through on this one out of respect. He'd spoken with Scarlett quite a few times and bumped into her a number of occasions on an evening out. It was all purely platonic as she was his friend's sister.

When Frances responded to him about them taking care of her, he flashed her a respectful smile. He liked that they had a mutual understanding of each other. She chose to do business and be friendly with the Murphies, whilst he had no tolerance for the brothers. He wouldn't dream of telling her to cut ties with them like she wouldn't try to tell him to respect them. If they crossed her enough for her to want his help, he would certainly consider it. She was also close to the Lee sisters whilst he'd killed their father, but even if she knew that, he trusted it would remain between the Lees and him alone.

Lucas watched on as Mortimer flirted with Frances; ever the charming gentleman. He couldn't fault the man at all, especially as they were equally notorious womanisers. Whilst they differed in their methods, they tended to be looking to achieve the same end goals, even where women were concerned.

Melanin-Gxdess idalie​

 

[idalie]

MORTIMER C. FLYNN
[Club Lape]

"Breaking my heart? The only women who've managed that owned it." Mortimer inclined his head, looking up, through the singular loose curl of his hair. "Depends on how ambitious you are, Miss LaVexen. I believe it took three ghosts for Scrooge before he cracked a smile." He placed his pipe down momentarily, knocking back the rest of his bourbon to clear his palate of nicotine and bitter aftertastes of tobacco. Inhaling momentarily, Flynn shifted in his chair, fixing his cufflinks and tie before rejoining the conversation with Frances and Lucas. Relived Scarlett hadn't been sighted in any backstreet bar. Alas, his worries were pushed away. It wasn't worth panicking over a sibling at thirty-five years old. She was old enough to hold her own surely? Lape was a chance to leave it all behind. And he'd try and make the most of it.

"My, my. Who would dare incite the wrath of you, Francesca? Don't they know they're already playing with fire?" Mort remarked playfully, tapping out the old tobacco of his pipe into the ashtray. Wth a swipe of his handkerchief over the varnished wood of it, he tucked it back into the depths of his pocket. Checking his battered pocket watch, Flynn snapped it shut with a metal latch, and reclined. "On the other hand, how has business been?" He arched his brow, studying LaVexen's fair features. "Seems like it gets busier by the day. And I can only imagine the sort of men you put up with. Unlike I, with my gifted looks and wonderful conversation." He gracefully waved his hand over his own expression. "Should've been an actor, I'm telling you both. Put that on record." His good nature was almost infectious, keeping up a staple mood of comedy as his mind was turned from the attention of work to play.

Nonetheless, he waved down one of the club girls for a drink. Granted another glass of bourbon, with that wonderful colour of dark amber. Thin as water, warm as flame. Trickling down through his chest, as it set alight everything it touched. Just like they used to, back in the war before a bombing campaign.

Misty Gray Melanin-Gxdess

SCARLETT A. FLYNN
[Pub]

Scarlett was all but lost in her girlish daydreams, till the thick Polish accent caused her to quite suddenly look up from the smoky room of the bar. Lips up-turning into a polite smile, daringly red against ivory skin. "Met before? Perhaps. I'm bad with faces." She held out her slim hand for the introduction. Voice nothing alike the Birmingham dialect, yet well-spoken and soft, with a fierce intensity that hid behind cinnamon irises. "Scarlett Flynn. You might know my brother, Mortimer." Yet her observational gaze soon bore a glimmer of recognition. "I believe we might've been acquainted, but I don't keep close track of my brother's colleagues."

Soon enough, she landed her eyes on the violin case, and the bottle of schnapps. Laughter lighting her features up, as she shook her head slightly and sipped at the remnants of her whisky. "You are certainly an odd character, Mister. I don't think I've met anyone who carries around a bottle of alcohol in disguise of a string instrument. Is it a special occasion?" Scar questioned, tapping the end of her cigarette on an ashtray. The end of which, had been stained by lipstick. That odd, feminine touch which would be missed by many, and cherished by the few who found the lone remnants after waking to the cold sheets of an abandoned bed.

Her legs crossed elegantly, heels tucked beneath the barstool as she offered the stranger her full and undivided attention. After all, it got boring when the Murphy brothers had all but stopped beating poor men to a pulp. She had little else to do, but think over the future - an aspect that daunted her. Growing older, with nothing to her name, and no one to hold her. Oh how Mortimer nattered on about finding her a husband when the hopeless man couldn't even keep a relationship together for longer than a year. Not even starting on the ones which lasted a week before he got bored, and starting fooling around with other women. Perhaps they'd end up old together and unhappy - amusing, and still she couldn't bear the thought of being around her sibling for the rest of her days. Scarlett wouldn't even touch him with a mile long pole when it came to matters of affection. They had their dynamic, and that family care was reserved for her overreactions and his episodes.

merQUEUEtio​

 

[merQUEUEtio]

Liev Irving Frydenberg
LOCATION:
Pub

Liev took the woman's hand gingerly and kissed it, as this was a common way Poles greeted women. He noticed the way she spoke was in fact very different from the way most spoke. He also took into account how independent she seemed, by God, she reminded him so much of Liesel. The same cinnamon eyes that with just a shift of expression could turn from pure joy to sorrow. Thinking about his wife made the picture in his coat pocket grow cold, whenever he was even sitting next to another woman she was all he could think about. Liesel and Liev had been married for only four years when her body was found in an engine factory on Murphy territory. After the event, Liev couldn't bring himself to stop drowning his sorrows with the nearest liquor. Liesel had been the kind of girl that comes around once every thousand years. In a matter of seconds, Liev had drifted away once more to the darkness of his mind. He would've begun sobbing if it hadn't been for her introduction,'Scarlett Flynn.' The name sang within the few clouds of smoke that surrounded the pair. He quickly realised that she probably was not supposed to be here but Liev could not have cared less.
Liev engaged himself once more, now becoming more curious about this, Scarlett Flynn.
"Liev Irving Frydenberg." He introduced himself calmly.
"A pleasure to reacquaint with the sister of Pan Mortimer Flynn."
Whilst uncorking the bottle of schnapps, Liev returned his attention to Scarlett after her comment.
"It is the fifth day of Chanukah, and I am without a menorah to light or family to celebrate with."
He reached into his right coat pocket and pulled out at cigarette case alongside a boy of matches. Liev removed the cigarette from its metal encasing and placed it between his lips. He then proceeded to light the small roll of tobacco with a match, then extinguished it between two of his fingers.
"That takes care of the menorah."
He told her and reached once more for the bottle of schnapps. Liev grasped the green glass bottle and read the description that had been decorated in swirls of drastic cursive. Unfortunately, he couldn't read what it said, Russian was never a language he wanted to learn but he did wish he at least knew the flavour.
"Schnapps is Schnapps." He reminded himself.
Then in one swift motion, he took two glasses from behind the bar and proceeded to pour equal amounts of the drink into both glasses. Liev then raised his glass in a welcome to cheers,
"And with... new family to celebrate with, Tak?"
He asked, inviting her to drink with him.
​

idalie

​

 

[Rui]

April
[Club Lape]
The red head entered the club, posture and expression all displaying her nerves vividly, although it was unlikely anyone was really staring at her face. Sure, she was gorgeous; short pincurls framing a heart shaped face with olive green eyes, eyelids set with a smokey shadow, rouge on high cheekbones and painted red lips; it was her attire and the figure beneath it that could stop any man in his tracks. A deep red dress, loose except for a tied in waist, accentuating her lithe curves. Black stockings trimmed with lace, a garterbelt beneath her clothes buckling them in against her pasty thigh. Satin black heels, three inch, borrowed from a friend, complimenting the ensemble. In all, she felt over-the-top sexy, and by the looks she was receiving, that's how she was coming off.
With that noted, her eyes darted frantically about for her party of friends. She located them, two brunettes, in the corner, talking up some young fella in a pinstripe suit. He didn't catch her eye though, rather a man, unfortunately talking to another woman, seated a few tables away. She sighed to herself, praying she had the charisma to pull off the look she'd dressed herself to be, and sat down between the two women, quickly ordering a scotch.
idalie​

 

[Romani]

Benjamin grunted in response to their younger brother. "Didn't do it for you", he said gruffly, rubbing sore knuckles with rough palms. As the conversation turned to what had been discussed in the room Tom clapped his hand to Robert's shoulder. "It's one of those things we don't discuss out here", he replied, leading the young man to the door,"Into the room you go, Rob"

Ben has followed, closing and locking the door behind them before dropping to a seat on the couch. "Bloody hell, Rob, you know Charlie's a cheat, why play him?", he asked with a grunt, pouring a glass of bourbon and tossing it back, ignoring to burn,"At this rate, I'll be bloody arthritic before I have any kids."

"You done, Benji?", Thomas asked. The man nodded, pouring a second drink.

"Right, back to business",he continued, turning back to Robert, "You're aware of the robbery last week?" Tommy didn't wait for an answer. "Well, the boys who were sent must've been drunk, or extremely unlucky, because instead of grabbing the right crate from the BSB imports grabbed one of Lucas Richards crates from exports." He paused to take a drag from his cigarette.

"Inside were four motorbikes, what we meant to steal, just not from Lucas fucking Richards",he went on, with a sigh,"We stripped the bikes, to sell em for parts but we found cocaine inside. About twenty kilograms total."

Thomas let the revelation sink in, silent save for Benji's heavy finger tapping, a habit he picked up after the war. Tommy noticed long ago that it was identical to the obtrusive and repetitive tempo of machine gun fire. Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud. He didn't so much tap as he did hammer the tabletop with his fingernail. Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud. Pause. Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
​

NanLia Melanin-Gxdess Rui idalie merQUEUEtio

 

[Misty Gray]

As Benjamin grunted about not beating up Charlie for him, Rob rolled his eyes. In the process, Frances' presence didn't escape his attention and he was going to make a point of alerting his brothers of her presence. She looked pissed off and his brothers appeared to have things on their minds too, so he decided against saying anything. He did like her club as the barmaids and dancers were very easy on the eye. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Tom touched his shoulder and lead him into the private room.

Rob slumped down on the couch and listened as Benjamin questioned him. "I played him because he asked me to. Plus, I wanted to swipe his wallet to get payback for him being such a cheating scumbag," Rob answered, a wide grin on his face as he pulled the cash out of his pocket and waved it around. He'd also wanted to goad Charlie into a fight, but that other customer had ruined the moment by snatching the billiard ball out of his hand before he could throw it.

Rob sat back and listened as Thomas explained about the stolen bike and the drugs. He couldn't help but grin to himself as he heard the full story, Benjamin's tapping only making him want to laugh. "That's a lot of cocaine. I'll gladly take some of that off of your hands," he joked. Mostly a joke. "Seriously, though. You've stolen motorbikes containing twenty kilograms of cocaine... from Lucas Richards? You mad bastards!" he said, shaking his head as he let out a short laugh. "So, what are you planning on doing with it all?" he asked, his face now serious and his mind focused on the business at hand. "Also, does that arsehole Lucas know we [Murphys] stole it?"
​

Romani

 

[NanLia]

​

Jaelle was delighted to hear that Emila was willing to join her for a night on the town, it wasn't often that she stirred up the energy to do so, nor was willing to fight with Kaven for a night away from him, but she knew she could swing it. That, and more often than not Emila was busy in her own respects, having one or more suitors lined up to treat her to an evening out. She made a side long glance towards her husband after her sisters comment about asking the boss. She knew it had been meant to coax a fight or a laugh out of the man but he continued on reading his paper like nothing was amiss; either he chose to ignore it, or her certainly was not paying attention.

Soon enough the waiter returned with their started course, soup. Kaven folded his paper and set it aside, nodding to the waiter as dismissal. He returned his attention back to Emilia before starting in on his meal. "Just be certain no funny business tonight." He didn't need to tell his wife to keep her sense's. "No dipping, and if you see Richards or his men and keep your head about you, you are to leave. Do you hear me?" There were few things Kaven would let slid; Emilia not wanting to be married, choosing to play her cons and pickpockets, but starting a war with Lucas -no matter what they all knew as the truth, was not among them.
Misty Gray

 

[merQUEUEtio]

AUGUSTUS BRIGHAM MURPHY
LOCATION: PUB

"You're not fuckin' shit Murphy."
Was the last thing August heard before the scattered tapping of boots strolled away with their owners. He wanted so badly to shout back at the boys who had left him, lying on the hard pavement. He wanted to stand up and follow them but the only thing they left him was a black eye and a bruised rib. He couldn't exactly track them down with just that. The cold breeze of winter wind nipped at his ears as attempted to sit up. After a few painful and rather pitiful tries, he finally managed to get to his feet.
Thankfully, everything was still intact.
"This is the thanks I get." He thought to himself before his feet began to trudge forward. Only 30 minutes ago while walking to the Garrison, August stumbled into a rather strange group of boys. All of them were about his age maybe a few years older but none had reached 20 yet. There they stood, four of them all of different heights and sizes, and all throwing stones at a cobbler shop. August didn't have any reason but suddenly felt compelled to yell out and try to stop them. He always did things like this first, he would try to be a good person, then he would get his face pounded by whoever was around.

The youngest brother moved his aching legs in the direction of the pub but stopped himself. He would be dead if his brothers saw him like this, they always got on him for fighting, saying he was too naive. Not only that but he was sure that Benji and Rob would both get on his case for not beating the other four up. August reached his left hand over to his bad eye and winced at the touch. It must've looked pretty bad if it hurt that much, so that meant no playing it off like he'd ran into a lamp post or something(Which had happened before). With a frustrated sigh, he walked the remaining cobbled streets to the doors of the Garrison pub.

With a tentative expression, and a feeling that he was about to be carried out in a casket. Augustus Brigham Murphy opened the pub door and tried his best to slink into a corner without being bothered or seen.

@open for interaction​

 

[Melanin-Gxdess]

Frances gave a challenging smile to Mortimer when he dared her try to it. Never one to back down from a challenge, she nodded her head. "Oh, you just watch me Flynn. I can be very persuasive." With a wink she downed the rest of her drink and before her glass even hit the table, another glass was in front of her. She thanked the girl before turning back to her companions. A laugh managed to escape from her lips when Flynn asked who would dare bother her. She just shrugged and leaned back in her seat. "You'd be surprised. While most are intimidated, others aren't because ya know. I'm a woman." She rolled her eyes at the end of her sentence, it always bothering her how misogynist men could be. "Business is better than ever, now that you mention it. The expansion helped a lot and now that it's grown ever so popular, girls are always in here wanting to work for me. And you know where there's beautiful women-" She said looking at both of them "-there's also an eager man behind her willing to pay to see her in nothing but feathers." She joked then sighed, her mind drifting off to her small issue with the Murphy brothers and her shipment. Her eyes drifted off to the side before she forced herself to remember where she was and who she was with. "But enough flirting with me, Mortimer. You'll get caught up in my trap and I just might not ever release you. How have the two of you been lately? I actually feel this is the first I've seen you in days." ​

idalie Misty Gray

 

[Misty Gray]

Emilia smiled as the waiter brought the starter out to them and pleasantly thanked him for the soup. She too started on her meal. Kaven began instructing them, or mostly Emilia, on how to conduct themselves on the night out. It might look like she wasn't paying attention, as she was only looking to the soup in front of her, but she was listening to every word Kaven had said. She carefully rested the spoon in the bowl so she could look to the man and respond. "Of course, I hear you, Kaven. I will be on my best behaviour," she genuinely assured him. "No arguments from me on the Richards subject. I don't want to be anywhere near that man. Not unless he's already dead and I'm just there to make sure!" She hated the man for killing her father, but she knew not to get in his way. If Nicolai couldn't get the better of Lucas, then she knew she didn't stand a chance.

"I just want to have fun and spend some time with my lovely big sister," Emilia warmly told Kaven. She knew she was prone to impulsive reactions and sarcastic responses if she felt threatened, but she didn't want Kaven to think she meant anything personal. She wouldn't even consider apologising for her earlier remarks, but she'd try to be nice to him for the rest of their meal instead. "This is great soup," she commented as she continued to eat.

NanLia

Lucas had only been half listening to some of the conversation between Mortimer and Frances. As he smoked his cigar, he was looking in the direction of the pair, but his mind was focused elsewhere. He'd not had the chance to look into who had stolen the motorbikes that he'd intended to be shipped out. The contents hidden in the vehicles had a pretty high value and someone owed him big time. Lucas hated being crossed even more than losing things of such value.

Snapping out of his thoughts when Frances asked both men how they'd been, he made eye-contact with the lady and flashed a genuine smile. "I've been good, Frances. I had a great Christmas with the family. If I'm being honest, divorcing that woman was the best thing that's happened in a long time. Never get married, Frances," he remarked, despite only minutes earlier discussing with Mortimer the importance of Scarlett finding a husband. He figured it was different for men. It was much easier for an older man to find a younger woman in these times and he knew that.

Melanin-Gxdess idalie​

 

[Rui]

April
[Club Lape]
April wasn't really a drinker; More of a lightweight than she'd like to admit, and not a particularly party savvy woman who enjoyed nights of dancing and drink, followed by mornings of terrible headaches and regret.
Her friends, on the other hand, enjoyed just that.
The two brunettes, Lola and Maria (Italian beauties, leaving April feeling like the ugly duckling among them) were each well into their cups and were loudly giggling, each with a boy on their arms. April could only sigh, look down into her glass, and wonder how exactly, and why, she dragged herself here. What did she expect? A one night stand with some handsome fella, a wedding ring and a picket fence some place nice? Nah, she'd expected the girls to get drunk, and her end up walking them home and then having to walk herself home in the dead of night, to her low end apartment on the third floor.
Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice that she was suddenly very alone, the two girls leaving her for a bed warmer.
{Open}​

 

[merQUEUEtio]

~RIP~