loving you is a blood sport

Victoria McQueen | thirty-eight | Trick Rider The Empress whoever can string my husband's old bow and shoot through twelve axes cleanly will be the new king, sit down at the throne and rule with me as his queen let the arrow fly, once you know that your aim is true 'cause i'd rather die than grow old without the best of you

[ernestcarterfv]

OOC | Ernest & Victoria

hiya, old friend! ernest is still just so delighted frankly that their lil group got to stay together!! i do think ernest feels a lil guilty from time to time abt his role in getting them kicked out tho he is ~v glad that victoria seems to be living a vastly better life now!! but i do think he lived w this fear for awhile yknow that they'd all be separated and that it was his fault, and the fault of his jealousy re helena (bc i def think that informed ~his part in the brawl no lie hahahaha)

anyway!! ernest is def a big fan of victoria, and while obv he works w everyone etc i ~do feel like maybe there's a particular ~ease w which he works w the others in this lil foursome, and maybe how they all work together? bc they've known eo so long and so well? so i defff think any strongman/trick riding performances are going super smoothly hahaha

[victoriamcqueenfv]

Augh, poor Ernest feeling guilty about protecting Helena! I think Victoria tries her best to like... remind him that if he didn't step in when he had it was not impossible that Helena could have been very badly hurt or even killed, so it was in fact a great service he did. And if they were all to remain at an establishment that was willing to sacrifice them, well... there are worse things than moving on.

Plus Victoria like: "Aren't we family? Didn't we promise each other years ago that it was all for one and one for all? The musketeers who stick together no matter what!" And she'd smack him teasingly upside the head for feeling bad about everyone refusing to send him away alone.

Also absolutely these four work together in a much tighter fashion than they would with anyone else! Having spent so much time together, learning about each other's thinking patterns and how they move, etc probably means they can communicate SO MUCH with just a single look, which can really help sell a performance! I'm sure Victoria and Ernest at least have a little routine they do together, but probably even Helena joins in and like sings or something!

I'm also trying to place Ernest's thoughts about Victoria's engagement to Leander when she used to be so sweet on Nicholas. I think it was a pretty obvious crush, but she was always too anxious and insecure to act on it. I think she still held the torch for Nick even after they joined the circus - but then Leander showed up and was so overtly interested in her that Victoria kinda was swept up in it all! I know Helena has been very vocal about not liking or trusting Leander, but I wondered what Ernest's feelings were!

[helenaphillipsfv]

ooc | Helena & Victoria

Okay, so Helena does have lots of love for her Silver Cross Tavern friends, and Victoria is no exception!!! <3

Helena kinda wishes some days that they were all still back there, but I do think it helps that she does notice that everyone else seems to be happier here?? Helena can obviously be pretty selfish, but when it comes to her friends -- especially those core ones -- it's easier for her not to be! She's also pretty protective of them, especially the girls, and I do NOT think she likes or trusts Leander and has definitely made her opinions of him known tbh!

[victoriamcqueenfv]

Ahhhh! Yes, the Silver Cross Crew is eeeeeverything to me, ngl! I just think it's so lovely that this little family managed to band together when some of them were clearly gonna be thrust out! They were all like: absolutely not, if you're kicking them out, I'm going too!!!

I think Victoria deeply understands why Helena wishes things had been different and they hadn't left Silver Cross. She def sees Helena as like ~A Lady~ and so knows it must be hard for her to instead have been transplanted to basically living it pretty rough on the road! Victoria loves it herself - it reminds her of where she grew up and loves the space to be out and about riding - but I think she sometimes also misses some of the luxuries of Silver Cross and sympathizes with Helena there.

I also think that Victoria found The Affair Situation to be a huge internal conflict! She deeply loves Helena and thinks the world of her, but also isn't someone who agrees with the sort of sneaking around that happened? But I think in the end she decided it was better to stand by her friend and try to like... guide her towards making better choices as best she can. Hahaha.

Absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE how protective Helena is of Victoria too. Like, I don't think Victoria is without ability to like fend for/defend herself, but she's def... very sweet and optimistic but also anxious and insecure in a way that can very easily be manipulated so I think it's great that Helena is there to be like: "LEAVE MY BESTIE ALONE!!!"

I'm also interested in the fact that Helena is so vehemently against Leander! I wonder if Helena was one of the few people Victoria told about her feelings for Nicholas, and if that's coloring her opinion at all? Esp since there are some overlapping traits between Nicholas and Leander, and Victoria was always too nervous to confess to Nicholas so she feels like that opportunity had long passed her by. But I can still see her being like: "you don't understand, he's a very kind man, he's just had a hard life. We all have, you understand that. It means he doesn't want to see me get hurt just like you. He just... shows it differently!!!"

[theodosiamoorefv]

OOC | Theodosia & Victoria

hihihi!!!!! sooooo excited for these two!!!! and love them being besties too given their complementary tarot cards! <3333 they'll need eo to lean on before the end, i feel!

so im still kinda working on thea's bg etc buT i def feel like these two have probs known e/o for at least a couple years atp, since thea's been here since pr much the beginning, from the sounds of it, and victoria doesn't sound as if she's particularly new (unless im misremembering things?) but anyway!! i feel like this bond is STRONG and thea, anyway, def feels that victoria is one of those ppl who just ~gets her, which i don't think happens super often for thea, frankly, and it is so nice to be seen!!!! or, at least, in the overworld that's how she feels! i don't think she feels v connected to ~anyone in the underworld, given the blocked intuition element and such but here we are!

anyway, i def envision these two organizing lil strolls and things and, going on their cards, probs conferring on well-intentioned advice to help out around the circus and its denizens or smth hahaha but either way i def think victoria is someone that thea just feels she can ~talk to be open with and i think that's super freeing for her honestly! <3

[victoriamcqueenfv]

Eee, yes!!!! Now that I've clarified some stuff, Vic and Thea have known each other for approx. 7 years by this point! So I am CERTAIN they have all but begun to finish each others sentences for sure, hahaha. I love this idea that they go on little walks together, and I bet that Vic lets Thea ride with her on Rosalind (and/or whatever other horses may be around the circus, I'm sure there's at least one more!) and they have their little confabs about what's going on around them and what they should or shouldn't do about any of it!!! (Lydia may be the one "in charge" but these two ladies certainly know how to move mountains if they have to! Lol) Ugh, Thea feeling free to talk to her is so nice for Victoria! She appreciates being thought of, and I also think it probably means she's talked to Thea extensively about both Nicholas and Leander, which has become more and more of A Problem as time has gone on. What do you think Thea's opinion is of Vic's engagement to Leander from the past year? Especially knowing what happened with Lydia, Quentin, and Helena, and seeing potentially something similar coming to pass with Nicholas (who seems to be trapped in his emotions between Lydia and Victoria), but with Leander perhaps a bit more apt to violence.

[festumveritatis]

Victoria McQueen - Trick Rider - thirty-eight - Carey Mulligan [Far From the Madding Crowd] Taken by Lauren -The Empress (Upright: Harmony, Connection to Nature, Artistry, Beauty | Reversed: Negligence, overbearing, insecure, lack of confidence, nosiness) Relationships:  Leander Ward (fiance), Theodosia Moore, Ernest Carter, Helena Phillips (friends) Nicholas Gray (friend, former interest) *Victoria is a newer addition to the circus, having joined up after being caught up in the tempestuous natures of her dear friends from the Silver Cross Tavern starting a brawl they couldn’t finish. *While she had worked upstairs with Helena, Victoria had much more enjoyed spending time with Nicholas in the stables. She’d always loved horses ever since she was a young girl in Ireland. But when a flash flood had destroyed her family’s farm, well… There was work to be had in London she had always heard. Too bad most of it had been on her back, not astride a horse. *Festum Veritatis had appeared in the next town over a few days later and when Nicholas was approached by Francis Hill, Victoria had stood right beside him and stated that she was the best horsewoman Francis could find in the whole of England. To Victoria’s surprise, he offered her a place in their band without a blink of an eye. *Sometimes Victoria wonders if it was just to get her to leave him be, but she had been having such an effect on most people, so it came as little surprise.*Since then, she has made quite a name for herself as a trick rider along with her horse, Rosalind, becoming one of the more popular performances in the Overworld. *Leander Ward was not the first, but perhaps the most insistent of the circus performers to welcome her into the fold. Under the guise of concern for her safety, he would harp upon her to practice over and over, correcting her as he went. *It became such an annoyance that one evening, Victoria simply kissed the man to get him to shut the hell up. *One thing led to another and soon enough, Leander had asked her to marry him. She agreed, but made him promise to wait a full year before they married, to be sure he still meant it. *After all, there is a worry lodged deep in her heart - how could anyone be so certain about another person in so short a time? Was he settling for her, knowing what she was? Did she even know him herself? *Sometimes she saw flashes in Leader’s eyes, especially when she was around Nicholas –a common enough occurrence as he handled Rosalind when she was not performing–that frightened her in the same way some of the men at the Silver Cross frightened her. Something dark and terrible lurked there, and Victoria found herself unsure if she liked it.

[mrsducky]

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (2015) dir. Thomas Vinterberg