It’s basically our excuse to shower each other with Boardwalk-related love for a few days. Everyone who enters is assigned a person, then we spend the next six weeks or so making edits, gifsets, fics, you name it for that person. Traditionally, everything’s posted anonymously so we can try to guess who made what. It’s super fun and a great excuse to let those creative juices flow.
More info can be found here and here. If you’re still confused, asks are always welcome :)
The queue is empty, the drafts are bare, and with that another Speakeasy Gift Exchange comes to a close. I want to thank everyone for participating and stretching your creative muscles so beautifully. It was a gift exchange for the ages!
I’d also like to thank all of our volunteers for making this possible. None of this would have happened without all your hard work, and I can’t thank you enough for stepping up as always to make sure everyone felt loved.
Don’t forget to message me if you’ve been revealed/your gift giver has revealed themselves to you so I can add you to the reveals page and give everyone the credit they deserve!
I hope this gift exchange helped ease the pain of the show ending, and don’t forget that just because the show is over doesn’t mean we’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. As this event proved once again, we’ve got imagination enough to keep this fandom going for a long, long time to come.
Submissions are now officially closed. Again, I really appreciate everyone's brilliant work. Thank you guys for making another Speakeasy Gift Exchange such a rousing success!
Special thanks to goatsandgangsters, deanobanion, maecapone, gangstergish, platoapproved, worn-whorehouse-stairs, rattlesnake-disco, babushka-benny, mabelrose, danseurofelsa, vincethepizzaprince, and everyone else who helped/offered to help make this possible. As I've said many times and will continue to say as many times as I can, I seriously could not have done this alone.
Stay tuned for more gift exchanges in the future. Speakeasy forever!
Resolution (Bill Fallon/Esther Randolph Private Eye AU - Part 11)
For:littlelansky
[part 11 of 11--click here to read from the beginning]
The next couple of weeks felt surreal. Esther remembered speaking to the police, and consoling a battered and weeping Margaret. She remembered standing at Bill’s side at the hospital as nurses pored over his injuries. She remembered doing the same as Rose Van Alden identified her husband’s body, watching as the woman spat on the floor before him.
Days later, Rose led them and the police to the Mueller house. They found a stash of papers hidden in a writing desk; records of a separate bank account, drafts of confessions written by Lucy and Alma, and a blue ribbon that seemed out of place for either woman.
After all that had happened, they still understood little of what pushed this man to such horrific lengths. That was, until Rose turned over a moleskine journal that she found in her home. Bill read every sickening page, the entire journal an account of Nelson’s “lessons” in that apartment. There were mentions of a sinful cousin, a tyrannical father whom Nelson painted as a saint, and his chaste wife, Rose.
Whores, harlots, temptresses, Jezebels…
He offered the journal to Esther to read before handing it over to Halloran, but she refused.
"Don’t you want to know why?” he asked her.
"I’m a woman, Bill. I already know why."
—-
"Mr. Danziger sent me his last payment the other day," Esther said, glancing at Bill for a moment. She almost looked coy to him.
"And?” he asked, wondering where this was going.
"And, this was a partnership, as I recall,” she replied with a little smile. "There’s a portion set aside for you, for all your hard work."
For a moment, Bill was ready to refuse, a surge of pride making his ears burn. But Esther continued.
"And…we can make it a regular thing. If you’d like." She wasn’t smiling anymore. She looked a little nervous.
"As a consultant?"
"No, Bill."
Bill was taken aback. True, he and Esther had developed a good rhythm; she was talking more, he was drinking less, and it was nice to have someone to eat lunch with.Â
They made a good pair. Before he could answer, a soft knock came from the doorway, and they saw two familiar faces peering at them.
"Margaret!” Esther exclaimed.
"And Father Brennan, good to see you again,” said Bill with much less enthusiasm. But he was grateful to see that Margaret was smiling.Â
"Ms. Randolph, Mr. Fallon," she said, "after everything that happened, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve forgotten to thank you! I can’t even begin…"
"You don’t have to, Margaret," Esther told her gently.Â
"How have you been, Ms. Schroeder?” asked Bill.
Father Brennan cut in before she could answer. “Margaret has been doing very well! With enough time and prayer, God will heal all.” He ended with an assured smile.
Esther and Margaret exchanged an amused glance. Bill had to suppress a sigh. The man was a dolt, but he was harmless.
"And the children?” he asked instead.
She turned to him. “They’re doing well, too. They wanted me to give you this.” She pulled an envelope from her purse and pressed it into Esther’s hands. Just then, another voice called from the doorway.
"Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you had guests!"Â
Everyone turned to take in the new visitor. The woman’s eyes flitted quickly between each of their faces, finally settling on Margaret’s features.
Margaret returned the gaze.
For a quiet moment, the two women regarded each other with barely suppressed emotion. There were tears welling in their eyes as an understanding passed between them.
Margaret spoke first.
"Hello, Rose…"
—-
Bill and Esther opened the envelope from young Teddy and Emily.
A simple child’s drawing of a woman and a man that looked suspiciously like them was inside. In their confusion, the children must have thought the two of them were police, for they drew a giant sheriff’s star over the drawn figures, but they didn’t mind.Â
Bill gave Esther his answer, and after a few weeks, when it was finally official, they hung it between their desks.
The Widow Schroeder (Bill Fallon/Esther Randolph Private Eye AU - Part 10)
For:Â littlelansky
[part 10 of 11]
Rose gone. Detectives at their church asking for Mr. Mueller.Â
The church…
Rose must have spoken with the detective at the church that day! How else could she have arranged to flee from him so quickly? She had no friends to speak of, he had made sure of that. And Father Brennan would never believe Rose if she told him.Â
Father Brennan had faith in Nelson, he’d told him so. There are many in this church who would do well to learn by your example, Nelson. He was smiling proudly when he said it, more than his own father ever had.Â
They could learn from him, and so he set out to teach them. He chose a new name and made a new home, to keep Rose out of it. A small safe space where he could teach them as his father taught him.
It started with Lucy. She would come into the church at night to cry and beg for a sign. She fought at first, but she was rotten inside and she knew it. It pleased him to watch her learn of God through him. But the harlot couldn’t be beaten out of her, and one night in his weakness he let her take him into her bed.Â
Lucy had tainted him with her sin, and in turn, had tainted his Rose as well.Â
—-
Alma had been different. She said that she wanted to change, but Nelson saw how her eyes lingered on dark skinned men, how she hungered for them, how her smile seemed to tease and beckon them to her. A temptress, she was. She fought him, too, harder than Lucy had, and so he brought them together to ease her into it. It seemed to help for awhile, until he caught Alma and Lucy speaking in whispers when they thought he wasn’t watching. She was trying to convince Lucy to run away from him! He stormed at her then, told her to leave and promised that if she ever spoke of this place he would silence her once and for all.
He made good on that promise.
—-
Nelson knew that he had to leave. Rose would lead the police here! She could lead them to the boarding house where he had kept Lucy and Alma, where he had hoped to keep the Schroeder widow and so many more.
The Schroeder widow… That Irish whore who shamed her husband by letting another man in her bed! A Jezebel feigning righteousness under God’s roof! And she with two children, while Lucy left his Rose barren! All these dirty women who defiled their bodies and shamed their husbands and fathers would be allowed to roam free while he rotted in prison. It wasn’t right!
If the police were going to take him, let him finish what work he had begun.Â
The Schroeder woman. She had known him, too…
—-
"That was Lathrop", Esther said, hanging up the phone. "He took Rose to one of his safe houses, they made it!"
Bill and Esther didn’t get to revel in their victory for long; a call from Halloran renewed their fear. No sign of Nelson Van Alden at their home. Rose was safe, but there was still one woman out there who knew “Mr. Mueller”…
—-
Margaret thought that the house felt a little empty today. Nucky and Owen were out, and the maids had left to handle some shopping. It was just her and the children in this massive house. Â
She was about to head upstairs to check on Emily and Teddy when she noticed the front door was ajar.
"Teddy!” she said with a huff. She swore this boy would let in a robber someday! She shut the door, turned the lock, and was about to return to the stairs when she saw him.Â
Too tall to be Owen or Nucky, the figure lingered in the shadow of the kitchen door. Margaret felt her heart leap into her throat, and for a moment her flicked to the stairs looking for a way out. But he was coming towards her now, and she knew his face, knew what he’d done, what he would do to her, and she couldn’t lead him to her children…
—-
They’re feeling of foreboding worsened when they spotted an empty car parked half a mile away from the Thompson house. Bill drove them into the driveway and together they rushed to pound on the front door.Â
There was no answer. Bill raised his fist to try again when Esther heard it.Â
"Wait!” she warned. They listened closely. A crash as something hit the floor, glass shattering, a woman screaming from inside.Â
Esther gasped. “No!”
Bill threw his shoulder into the door and charged in, just in time to see Nelson Van Alden haul Mrs. Schroeder into another room, kicking and screaming. He tore after them. Esther hopped over an overturned cabinet, about to give chase when she heard a cry.
"Mommy!” a little boy yelled from the stairs.
Christ! Her kids are here! The kid stood petrified and trembling as she circled back round to the stairs to get him.Â
"Its okay, kiddo, I’m a friend of your mommy’s. What’s your name?"
His lip quivered. “Teddy.”
"Are you by yourself, Teddy?"
He shook his head. “My sister! She can’t walk!”
Teddy led her to a little girl sitting up in her bed, crying uncontrollably and clutching a doll to her chest.Â
"Okay, honey, we’re gonna get you and your brother out of here, okay?" The poor girl was beyond words. Esther scooped her up in her arms and headed to the door, barely glimpsing Teddy as the boy reached under his pillow and pulled out a small knife.Â
They ran downstairs, outside, and back into the car, with Margaret’s screams and the men’s yelling in their ears. But Esther had to go back!
"Kids, I have to help your mom. Stay here."
—-
Bill couldn’t believe how strong this man was! It took everything he had to wrench his hands from around his victim’s throat. Finally, Margaret collapsed to the floor, gasping desperately.
But Nelson was relentless!
He and Bill twisted and bounced along the walls, grunting and yelling in rage and pain.Â
They stumbled into a glass room filled with plants. Bill was losing it, he could feel it! Nelson seized advantage of his weakness and sank his fist into Bill’s stomach. He felt his breath rush out of him and his head spun, but he held on, pulling the monster down with him in a heap.
He couldn’t breath! Nelson was atop him, and for the first time, Bill could see his face.Â
This was the beast that killed those women, the last face they had seen alive. Snarling, his features twisted into a mask of fury, Nelson Van Alden was truly a man deranged.Â
Bill was being strangled. His vision blurred and he couldn’t raise his arms to fight.
This is it, he thought.
The sound of a shotgun being cocked. He felt Nelson go still.
With a shuddering breath, he looked up to find Margaret Schroeder back on her feet, aiming the barrel of her weapon in Nelson’s face.
—-
This man. This man who had slaughtered two women. This man who had invaded her home and condemned her to death. This man who wanted to kill her in front of her children. Who made them cry with terror.Â
Her house.
Her life.
Her children.
And with all of that on the line, you don’t hesitate.
—-
Esther was just past the wreckage in the foyer when she heard the shotgun blast.Â
"Oh god…"
She ran towards the sound, terrified of what she might find.Â
Her feet crunched on broken pottery. She froze in her tracks.
Margaret was standing over a body with a shotgun in her shaking hands. Bill was coughing and struggling to stand, blood splattered on his face.
And at their feet, Nelson Van Alden, ended at last.
Have you guessed who your gift-giver is? Was the anticipation just too great and you couldn’t help telling your recipient who was behind their awesome gifts? Let us know!
Reveals are completely voluntary—we won’t add you unless you want us to, so if you’d prefer to remain in anonymity, you are under no pressure to change that. But the guessing is half the fun, so please also feel free to let your recipient guess at random while you laugh from behind your computer screen.
Don’t forget to send an ask if/when all is revealed!
The queue is empty, the drafts are bare, and with that another Speakeasy Gift Exchange comes to a close. I want to thank everyone for participating and stretching your creative muscles so beautifully. It was a gift exchange for the ages!
I'd also like to thank all of our volunteers for making this possible. None of this would have happened without all your hard work, and I can't thank you enough for stepping up as always to make sure everyone felt loved.
Don't forget to message me if you've been revealed/your gift giver has revealed themselves to you so I can add you to the reveals page and give everyone the credit they deserve!
I hope this gift exchange helped ease the pain of the show ending, and don't forget that just because the show is over doesn't mean we'll be going anywhere anytime soon. As this event proved once again, we've got imagination enough to keep this fandom going for a long, long time to come.
ETA: Spoke too soon! There's a few more gifts in the queue to be posted throughout the day. If you have anymore gifts to submit, GET THEM IN ASAP!
A Man of Bad Faith (Esther/Bill Private Eye AU - Part 9)
For:littlelansky
[part 9 of ???]
TW:Â abuse
They finally had a name.
They instructed Rose to call them again in an hour, and in the time allotted they flew into action. Bill contacted Detective Halloran and gave him their suspect. But to his frustration, Halloran was insisting that this was a case of her word against his, and that her suspicion wasn’t enough to cop him. Question him, yes, but they needed something concrete. True, Rose had told them that it was another two weeks before Lucy was reported missing in the newspaper. Two weeks worth of time left a possibility that someone else could have killed her.Â
Which left them with a problem.
But her disappearance could trigger her husband’s own suspicion, and they stood to lose their prime suspect if he fled. Halloran couldn’t be counted on to get there quickly enough.Â
Lose their witness? Or their suspect?
They chose Rose.
—-
Nelson Van Alden believed himself to be a good man. Not perfect by any means, not wholly above the myriad of temptations that the world had to offer, but a good and righteous man all the same. He had always strived to be so, just as his father had taught him.Â
And his father had taught him much. Growing up on a lonely farm, a parent is a child’s lifeline to everything; the food on your table, good health, schooling, even your connection to God.Â
And through Father, Nelson knew God.
He knew of his wrath, learned it anew each and every time he felt the sting of Father’s leather strap for his wrongdoings.Â
He knew of his authority, for when whippings were not enough, Father would strip him of his clothes, his food, even the shelter of their home to let him feel what it was to be naked and helpless like an animal without him. You’ll learn what it is to be grateful, Nelson!
And he knew of his benevolence, felt it wash over him when Father gave all of it back, finally after hours in the cold begging for forgiveness. When you are devoted to me, I am devoted to you, my son.
Yes, Father had taught him much. But above all else, Father had had the sense to teach him of shame.Â
He is seven, and he has the nerve to defy his Father when he accuses him of lying about his chores. Father scoops up two handfuls of gravel and spreads it across the floor in front of the family bible. Kneel, Nelson! He does, the tiny pebbles digging into his knees, and is pointed to Ephesians 6:1. He must kneel and recite until Father believes that he has learned it. Later, he picks the bloodied gravel out of his skin.
He is twelve, and he awakes to a feeling of agony between his legs. Father is pinching and twisting his privates because it stood up on its own in his sleep.Â
He is sixteen. Relatives are visiting, and among them a cousin. She is eighteen and not yet married. Her presence in their house is uncomfortable for him. He feels excitement when she’s near. It is shameful, he thinks, a craving he should not have, and he twists his manhood at night to drown her out.Â
One night when he can’t sleep, he hears her sneak through the halls and out the kitchen door. She doesn’t see him follow her as she dashes towards the barn. He loosens a board on the side and peers in, shock rippling through him from what he sees. She is on her back, her nightgown pulled past her breasts, and the farm hand that worked for his Father has his face between her legs, tongue lapping like a thirsty dog.Â
He flees, horrified. The image of her writhing on the barn floor, moaning like a whore, haunts him that night. He remembers Father telling him the story of the Jezebel, how he laughed when Jezebel was hurled to her death. Dirty whore!, he’d called her. His cousin was dirty, too. And so was he, for his own body betrayed him that night. It was the first time that he whipped his back himself.
She sneaks out every night until the day they all leave. While cleaning their rooms, he finds her blue hair ribbon on the nightstand, forgotten. He should burn it. Burn the sheets, too, to purge her sin from his Father’s house! But her scent lingers…Â
—-
He still has the ribbon to this day, hidden in a drawer with the accounts he kept of the other apartment, along with the marks that he’d left on his back on that horrible night. He added more in the years that followed. His Rose never liked to look at them.
Rose…
She had barely spoken since they returned from the church that day. Nelson stayed away from her as much as possible for several days, keeping to the bedroom with his bible, trying to figure a way out.
She was awfully quiet now. Too quiet… No footsteps, no creaking boards, no clangs from the kitchen. Nelson hadn’t paid her much mind, so engrossed was he in his thoughts, but something felt odd.
"Rose?", he called out. No answer. He walked through the hallway, checking every room on the way to the stairs.Â
"Rose, my dear, where are you?", he tried again. She was not in the kitchen or the sitting room, but the laundry room looked like it had been ransacked. His clothes from Rose’s last wash were strewn on the floor. Only his clothes, not hers… He thought he heard the sound of a motor car outside. His stomach clenched as an idea came to him.
Rushing to the house’s front windows, he looked outside and spotted a car far along the road and driving fast.Â
"Rose, what have you done?", he breathed.
—-
Mr. Lathrop had arrived faster than Rose had thought possible. She had gathered whatever clothes she could scrounge from the washing baskets and stuffed them into her carpetbag by the time he parked a few houses down. He didn’t want Nelson to hear the motor before she could get out. Rose slipped out of the house as quietly as she could and ran to him, certain that Nelson was biting at her heels.Â
Into the car, down the road, up the hill, she was almost free. As terrified as she was, she wouldn’t let herself look through the rear view mirror.Â
Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back. But she was Nelson’s wife, not Lot’s.
And there was nothing behind her that she yearned for.
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