Jamie was walking down by the waterfront. No one seemed to pay him much attention. It was the poorer part of town and Jamie seemed to fit right in. His dad owned the bar Finneganâs which appealed to the kind of guy that worked the docks. Maybe Jamie should get a job fishing. He didnât know much about fishing, but he could fit in with these guys. But he did have his job at the movie theatre already. And taking care of the kids. Being the eldest of seven, some part of his brain was always thinking about the kids. He was trying to relax though and he on a bench on the docks smoking a cigarette and sketching in a notebook.
Jamie rarely went to the bar. It somehow made it a lot less fun that his dad owned the place and his little sister was the bartender. Not that she was so little. Eilidh was just a couple years younger than Jamie and obviously old enough to be bartending. In truth, she was probably more mature and grownup than Jamie. But today he was going to stop in and see his sister and have a drink. Just one. He wouldnât want to mix too much with the other stuff in his system. The stuff he hope Eilidh didnât know about. âCan I get a rum and coke?â Jamie asked his sister.
Elsie sometimes had a hard time with things that other people seemed to be able to put up with just fine. One of those things was films. Sometimes they were just too depressing. Sometimes one just struck her nerve and had her crying away her makeup in the bathroom. It hadnât been like this before Matthew died. She knew it wasnât the same as some of the other war widows who had been married for years, but she still missed Matthew and mourned for the future they could have had if he hadnât been taken away from her. âExcuse me, could you tell me if the movie is overly sad? I think I want to see it but...â She trailed off.Â
   despite bumping into the waitress, mareâs gaze remained anywhere but the blondeâs face - or so it seemed. in truth, she was searching. âsorry - i wasnât paying attention to where i was walking. thatâs entirely my fault.â briefly, the brunetteâs gaze flickered to the blondeâs, âhave you seen a kitten? it ran off this direction a few minutes ago, and i havenât been able to spot it ever since.â and she was worried for the poor, clearly scared thing. âitâs really tiny. grey? i think.â no doubt a stray, and one mare was now set to rescue.Â
   elsie was flustered, having just been bumped into but she smiled at the woman anyway. her eyes were everywhere, and when mare told her the kitten bit, elsie could tell the other woman was worried. âuh, no I havenât seen a kitten. iâve just been in the diner until now. if you want i can help you look.â now elsieâs eyes were all over the place looking for a little grey bit of fur, or any other colour of fur she could find. âiâm sure itâs got to be around here somewhere...â elsie truly hoped no on stepped on the poor little guy.
Ricky was trying to play pool, but he was failing miserably. He seemed to scratch everytime failing to hit anything but the cue ball. Perhaps that was because he had been at the bar for a while and he wasnât holding back on his drinking. In fact, he stumbled over to the bar now. He was looking for Rory. Rory was a good chap. He would keep Ricky watered so to speak. âHey, barkeep!â Ricky called over at his friend Rory. Was Rory his friend? Probably only in the most casual sense of the term. But he supplied Ricky with booze, and maybe that was enough to be considered friendship in this day and age.
âI can definitely help you with that. This might be the toughest one weâve worked on so far, but I really wanted to challenge you boys this time around. You three have picked up on the music so fast that I felt bad giving you easy stuff all the time,â she chuckled, situating herself at the piano. She reached into her bag, pulling out her own copy of the sheet music she had given to each of the men, before setting her own in front of the piano. She took a moment to pause, playing through the piano part of the bridge while she hummed through the melody. âIs it the singing part that youâre having problem with? Itâs a little tough, but what you need to make sure youâre doing, for the high notes, is keeping your body open, and supporting your sound through your breath. It sounds difficult, but itâs pretty straight forward.â
âOh, no. Donât feel bad about giving us the easy stuff. Weâre all slow. Especially Franklin. Even ask him.â It was definitely the toughest song they had worked on yet. âItâs the singing part,â Ricky said, frowning. He tried to listen to her advice. He stood up straight and tried not to tense his body up like came naturally to him. On the posture front, he was okay, but he took a shallow breath from his chest instead of his diaphragm. Ricky attempted to sing the bridge and had a bit more luck, but there was still one note that he couldnât quite hit. At least it sounded very flat to his ears. âMaybe we should go back to the easy songs. You know what song I liked? When the Saints Go Marching In.â
hello! it is Hoby (28, she/hers, CST). known for such muses as Elsie Carroll and Ricky Maynard. Please like this post for a closed starter from Jamie.
( tom holland, male, he/his, muse 44 ) i saw jamie finnegan at rogerâs diner drinking a milkshake. itâs good to see them, i heard theyâve been living in redwater for their entire life making a living as a movie theatre attendant. did you know their birthday just passed ? that makes them 23 years old and a pisces, which makes sense to me considering theyâre overly emotional and caring. i heard theyâre thinking about starting a family. i hope it works out.Â
Subplot:Â DOROTHY FINNEGAN and RORY FINNEGAN got married fresh out of high school, sweethearts that everyone in town knew were perfect for each other, and they were right. they got a house, had children, and had the perfect life. when pearl harbor happened, though, RORY knew what he had to do. his age and job led to him quickly rising through the ranks after enlistment and quickly became an officer. DOROTHY, with children on her hips and at her ankles, had JAMIE FINNEGAN, DOROTHY and RORYâs eldest child, watch over their younger siblings while DOROTHY went to the factories. DOROTHY worked the steel drives, was one of the first women collecting silks and campaigning for other women to donate their silk. DOROTHY, with her children JAMIE and EILIDH FINNEGAN, kept morale high and helped organize the welcoming parties for the soldiers who came home. RORY came back from war, wanting to be the husband and father he once was. DOROTHY saw her husbandâs struggle and itâs not just up to him to work through this alone. DOROTHY and RORY were in a partnership after all. DOROTHY is running a group for vets with resources to help them recover from the war and helping RORY is her top priority.Â
More Info About Jamie:
The oldest of seven siblings, Jamie has a self-destructive street and tends to care more about his familyâs well-being than his own.
Since he stayed behind from war to help take care of his siblings he feels like less of a man.
Heâs highly intelligent, aced school without trying, book learning comes easy to him. If only he could figure out how to apply this intelligence to his life.
Jamie was loved deeply by his parents, but he always somehow felt lesser than.
He works as a movie theatre attendant. He picked this job so he could eat more popcorn. He worries that his family might need him while heâs at work even though he doesnât work as many hours as some people.
Elsie was just finishing up at the diner. Her shift was only until five o'clock today which suited her just fine. She would miss a large portion of the dinner rush and she could go home and play with Hope, who wouldn't mind if she took her heels off and played barefoot or if she tied her hair back in a messy ponytail to keep it out of her face. That was one of the great things about kids. They usually weren't so judgy as adults. Elsie waved to the waitress who was taking over her shift. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said, trying to keep her upbeat appearance that she liked to wear as a mask when she was in public, especially at work. She was just about to leave when she bumped into someone."
Franklin knew those thoughts all too well. He tried to resist those particular thoughts, but he knew the seductive power that they had. âHere, here,â he toasted as soon as the drink landed in his hand. Damn, Rory was truly an exceptional bartender. âBut if you quit then weâre down a person in a band, and I donât know who would want to play with us.â It was lame encouragement, but he knew that endless positivity did nothing for people like them. They were suited for each otherâs friendship. âOh, the worst of it,â he chuckled, Franklin would soon be on his level and that would suit him just fine. âHow was the zone today? Anything fun to report?â
Ricky couldnât help but smile at Franklinâs lame reasons not to shuffle off this mortal coil. It was true, the band was one of the few things that occasionally gave him some kind of positive feeling. The only other thing was his niece Hope. Hope, Elsie had named her. Hope for a new family when the war came to an end. But it didnât work out that way. Her husband Matthew never came home from the war. Never met little baby Hope, who was now six years old. She was four by the time Ricky had met her. âAnything fun to report? Thereâs nothing ever fun to report. Iâm surprised you still use that word. I personally have eliminated it from my vocabulary. But I guess I wouldnât want to break up the band.â He shrugged slightly.
Catie, despite what people would have assumed, loved her nights with Hope. She loved babysitting the girl. Catie was surprisingly good with kids, and she always said âItâs the relief of being able to give them back at the end of the day.â Maybe that was true, but either way, she wasnât the worst option to leave your children with for a few hours.Â
Plus, she had a surprise for Elsie today. She packed up the things and hope and they went over to the diner and tracked down the mom. âHiii,â she greeted hauling a basket in one hand and holding Hopeâs in the other. âSo, how does a picnic in the park sound for lunch? I have the blanket and everything. Hope even helped with making lunch, itâll be fun, I promise."Â
âLunch in the park sounds great!â Elsie said, enthusiastically. Although she was honestly fairly exhausted she loved a good picnic. âYou helped make lunch?â she said turning to her six year old daughter. âThatâs fantastic!â
âThe diner has been packed today. How was Hope. Well-behaved, I trust?â Elsie asked her friend. Hope wasnât usually too much trouble. She supposed at some point Hope would become a teenager and have an interest in boys, but until then she had been blessed with a pretty good kid.
Peggy had always had a love for music, so when she was asked to take over the music therapy groups for veterans, it was a no-brainer. She was always looking forward to the sessions with the group she had been working with, feeling a sense of purpose in her work. Like what she was doing meant something to the veterans. She had been asked to help Ricky one-on-one and she was happy to do it, albeit somehow running behind schedule after an afternoon gig at the dance hall went a little too long. âSorry Iâm late, sugar,â she called, smile wide as she approached the male. âThe crowd was bigger than usual for an afternoon. Everyoneâs wantinâ to dance more.â A laugh escaped her lips as she made her way into the rehearsal space, finding the space to work. âWhat did you need help on?â
Peggy always seemed to be in a hurry and today was no exception. Ricky felt stupid for asking her to waste her time helping him. And Sugar? Had she just called him Sugar? Was that a good thing? She probably called all the veterans that. She probably didnât have any particular thoughts about Ricky at all. Why would she? Peggy was older than him and a sophisticated and classy lady. If anything, maybe she felt sorry for him. Ricky hated being pitied. He tried to think about why he had asked her here. It wasnât to check her out or guess what she thought of him. He was here for help with the bridge.Â
Iâm having trouble with the bridge of one of the songs weâre supposed to be playing. I thought maybe you could help me out?â Although, now he was wondering how she was magically supposed to expand his range. You canât teach someone to sing higher, can you?
it was a day just like any others, well the days without practice. have terrible nightmares, get up, feel like hell, get ready for the day, go to work, and end up in finneganâs for a night of drinking with ricky. the only regular deviance was who made it to the bar first, ricky or franklin, but in the grand scheme of things, it didnât matter. one of them made it first, and the other didnât, but theyâd always join each other. as he walked through the door, he saw ricky already at the bar, and he gave a little wave of greeting as he took his seat next to his friend. âhard day at the office?â he remarked with attempted humor.Â
âLife is an office,â Ricky said. He was too drunk he almost was buying into his own bullshit. Like he really had anything to deep to say. Sometimes it felt like his thought were deep, just because they were dark. There was a strange seduction of falling into that pit. âAnd I want to quit my day job,â he finished. Did the metaphor work? He wasnât really sure. But Franklin would get the gist. He always got the gist. He knew. He was there. That made him just as broken as Ricky, but who would be friends with Ricky but the jaded, the defeated, and the hopeless? âHard day at the bowling alley? Youâve seen the gutter view?â Either that was really funny, or Ricky had had more to drink than he had thought.
Ricky Maynard was a man who hated many things. He hated looking like he gave a damn and he was acting like a downright keener. He had asked Peggy to meet up with him to work through the bridge of a particularly hard song. But he feared failing, and if there was anywhere he could fail so publicly and humiliatingly it would be getting up in front of a crowd and singing. Maybe this song was just out of his range. Maybe he just wasnât a particularly good singer. Peggy would know. She might not tell him if he had no talent, but she would know. He was humming along a tune, hands in his pockets looking for Peggy. She would help. And it didnât hurt that she was nice to look at, too.
Under the cut you will find a little about both my characters Elsie and Ricky as well as a little bit of OOC information.
elsie carroll.
( taylor swift, female, she/hers, muse 23 ) i saw elsie carroll at the library reading. itâs good to see them, i heard theyâve been living in redwater for their entire life making a living as a waitress. did you know their birthday just passed ? that makes them 25 years old and a virgo, which makes sense to me considering theyâre shy and diligent. i heard theyâre thinking about designing wedding dresses. i hope it works out.Â
MUSE TWENTY TWO, ELSIE CARROLL, and CATIE WAGNER have been best friends since they were in diapers. the three of them were inseparable and were practically sisters. when the boys left town to go to war, the girls stayed and had their fun. factory workers by morning and moonlighting as other things. MUSE TWENTY TWO took to dancing while ELSIE CARROLL was a waitress to help make ends meet, and CATIE was an aspiring writer. at work, ELSIE CARROLL met MUSE TWENTY FIVE, a young waitress at the diner, and brought her into the fold. MUSE TWENTY FIVE fit right in and thus formed the girl gang of redwater.Â
When Elsie was young she looked up to Ricky because he could speak his mind, but lately she feels more together than he does, not that she considers herself together.
In November of 1939, Elsieâs boyfriend Matthew Carroll was drafted into the army. They quickly eloped before he could leave, trying to hide that Elsie was already pregnant.
In July of 1940, Elsie gave birth to a happy healthy baby, whom she named Hope.
In 1942, the letters stopped coming from Matthew. Eventually, someone came to her door to tell her he had died in battle.
Now grieving for her husband who would never meet their precious baby Hope Elsie is working as a waitress, leaning on her friends, and trying to take care of her daughter and brother all while holding herself together by threads.
ricky maynard.
( ben hardy, male, he/his, muse 30 ) i saw ricky maynard at the bar drinking and smoking. itâs good to see them, i heard theyâve been living in redwater for their entire life making a living as a construction worker. did you know their birthday just passed ? that makes them 26 years old and a scorpio, which makes sense to me considering theyâre stubborn and determined. i heard theyâre thinking about dying young i hope it works out.
when RICKY MAYNARD and FRANKLIN OWENS returned from the war, neither were quite the same as when theyâd left. their fellow veteran MUSE THIRTY TWO has invited them to group therapy led by PEGGY ADLER. music therapy is beneficial for them and when MUSE THIRTY FOUR, the owner of the dance hall, heard about the talent of the veterans, they invited for them to play at the hall. RICKY and MUSE THIRTY TWO were excited to chomp at the bit but FRANKLIN doesnât want to get up on stage. when PEGGY offered to help soothe their stage freight, MUSE THIRTY FOUR applauded their choice. quartets always looked better on stage.Â
additional notes:
Ricky was born October 24, 1920, a Scorpio.
As a kid he was a bit of a troublemaker and didnât really grow out of it until he was drafted into the army for the war at nineteen.
He cares about his sister Elsie, although he would never admit it. In fact, heâd never admit to caring about anything other than his niece Hope.
Since the war the PTSD has driven him to alcoholism and he has given up hope of every being happy. He sometimes thinks of suicide, but he doesnât want to leave his family even more broken.
hoby (28, cst, she/hers).
Hello! I go by Hoby and Iâm bigender but prefer she/her pronouns usually.
I havenât RPed on Tumblr in a long time so sorry if Iâm not familiar with all the conventions anymore. Iâm hoping to figure out my way around soon but if Iâm doing something not right just let me know.
If you could tag triggers relating to sexual assault, morphine, or heroin that would be extremely helpful to me!
I donât use small font. Because of my medications/health my vision is inconsistent so sometimes I struggle with the small aesthetic font.
If you want to plot with either of my characters or just come by to say hi, feel free to message me!
