Bridgerton OC’s RP [1x1] [Discord] [Period Drama/Romance]
I just rewatched all of Bridgerton and season 3 had me wanting more gay, but HEAR ME OUT! For once, I want lgbt period drama without sole focus on forbidden romance, lavender marriages, societal outcasting, and tragedy tropes. Is that so much to ask? I think not! I crafted a very specific AU. What better way to quench this than roleplay?
I want the yearning, the need to behave honorably and respectably to protect one’s family, selecting season diamonds, and all the courting. It will just look a little different, that’s all!
I prefer your character be a cis man and a member of the ton, but that’s where my preferences end. I’m excited to learn more about your OC!
Much of the back story and my character is explored in the starter, but please make suggestions for the plot! I want this to be OUR story, so let’s be collaborative.
I prefer 3rd person and 1 to multi-paragraph responses. I only RP with those 18+. Once we connect, let’s move to Discord!
Side note: I am an educator so please have grace with my response time. I am also new to this platform! So please have grace with me.
Starter:
Benedict Bridgerton visited his sister Francesca in Scotland, assuming to find her still mourning her husband. However, he found that she, much like him, has affection for the same gender. The thought of returning to London seemed all too daunting with the freedom and safety to speak openly about who they were in the highlands, but bolstered by seeing more of the world, Eloise is determined to change the world, especially for her siblings’ sakes. With the help of Lady Whistledown, now Penelope Bridgerton, Eloise compiled a list of several people of affluence, even those in the queen’s inner circle like Brimsley, who share rather queer tastes.
With evidence in hand, Eloise Bridgerton made her case to Queen Charlotte: If the crown were to value love matches over possible infidelity and scandal, the marriage market ought to go beyond just gentlemen courting ladies. Based on Eloise’s calculations, the majority of the Queen’s population had queer tastes and in order to act upon them with the current norms, would have to go beyond their marriages.
It took two or three courting seasons for the new norms to truly settle in place what with the confusion of who takes whose title and how heirs would be produced. There were also a handful of families who still put the pressures of the older norms on their children “for the sake of tradition.” However, high society eventually fell into the motions. Though still uncommon, it was no longer damning for two women to dance in a ballroom and eventually marry. There would be whispers at most or they threaten Queen Charlotte’s ire.
What the ton could not stop whispering about was the odd case of Lord Arden Marlow. It was not his looks: black hair, gray eyes, olive skin, and freckles and moles scattering his face and hands. Nor was it his eccentricities: wild rumors of shenanigans in academies, wild curls grown down to his shoulders, insisting upon wearing earrings, and having a penchant for showing up with either dust on his shoulders or dirt on his shoes and britches.
It was his first season out and he was the first man of his own making looking to marry since Queen Charlotte decreed the marriage market be altered. This is to say: Lord Marlow was once a young Lady Marlow. He went to study in Bath to avoid returning to Mayfair and live as his true self. After the death of his father, his mother’s urging, and the queen’s decree, he relented and returned to find a partner, albeit lukewarm to the prospect and to the ton, he returned as a completely different person.
Not so surprisingly, the Bridgerton House was hosting the first ball of the season and every eligible young person was in attendance, including Arden. Despite many eyes on him, his eyes were elsewhere. After several introductions were stumbled with the wrong pronouns, he sequestered himself in a corner of the room, staring up at a painting of what looked to be a tropical land. What an escape that would be. He idly fixed the ribbon that was keeping his wild curls “tame” as his mother said. The green in the ribbon matched his emerald earrings: wearing the queen’s favorite gem in hopes to earn her favor. That was yet another one of his mother’s ideas, her hopes being she would attend the ball to select a diamond because it could be anyone now.
He twirled his dance card in his hand as he walked to eye the next painting. Several names were on it, but he paid them no heed. They may have put their names down, but they didn’t mean he had to dance with them. Would that be rude? Absolutely, but he was either indifferent or oblivious to the unspoken social rules. He was playing with the idea of going outside to the sculpture garden soon, but had a feeling his mother would have his head if he got a speck of dirt on his suit or, heaven forbid, his white shirt.