Murder, Mystery, & Jazz // Seeking a male detective for a 1920s historical RP

[Caeli]

First: If sex = your main objective, proceed with caution. I have a craving for a rather substantial story at the moment.

Second: I openly admit to being picky about my partners, even moreso when I have roleplays enough to keep me entertained and busy between RL obligations. See my ONs-&-OFFs for more details about my roleplaying preferences, and feel free to browse through my active roleplays for examples of my writing style and post length.

Third: I am wary of accepting requests from new members - in my past experience, many of them end up disappearing from Elliquiy and leave me without a word, partner, or a story. It's frustrating.

Lastly: This is not first come first serve. If I don't find a partner that I really think fits my vision and expectations for the story, I'd prefer to have no roleplay.

If I haven't scared you off yet, please read on.



Brief Summary: This story is a historical roleplay set in the United States during the Roaring Twenties. The story revolves around a detective, a budding jazz pianist, and the sensational, headlines-making murder that makes their fates cross.

Prologue

Glenham City, New York.
October, 1921.

Glamorous. Prosperous. Golden.

Jazz.

Glenham City is the sparkling, near-metropolis suburb close to New York City, well known for its surplus of accessible speakeasies and lively night clubs. It is the place where most small-town folks go in the hopes of striking it rich. The sparkling glamor of big-city life lures those from the countryside into its streets, where alcohol flows under the radar of the bribed police forces despite Prohibition laws, and gaiety, music, and dance are commonplace every night on Main Street.

This dazzling facade, however, does not mean that crime has desisted. Most big cities suffer still from crime, with shootings, robberies, and reported assaults commonplace in the poorest parts of the big cities. Most of the time, these stories are kept out of the papers; after all, there are few who care for the plight of the poor, working class men and women.

But when a wealthy businessman is shot and killed - for all appearances, murdered - on the popular Fairway Street, just two blocks from the main downtown area, the newspapers cannot keep their hands off the sensationalist story. However, despite interviewing the shop owners and possible witnesses in the neighborhood, no suspect turns up - the case is closed, for lack of evidence.

The fiancée of the murdered man, understandably furious with the police force's lack of initiative and inability to solve the murder case, turns instead to private detective Emerson Reid, whose success rate speaks for him.

And so he, too, scours the neighborhood - asking questions about the man, looking for witnesses among the various coffee shops, tea houses, diners, and small restaurants. Among those small establishments is Crossroads, a popular coffee shop owned by Jeremy Hayes... and among those potential witnesses that he plans to question, is Celia Madison.

She's a mousy, rather unremarkable waitress who works full-time at Crossroads. As she lives on the second floor just above the coffee shop, she was questioned quite thoroughly by the police force's detectives, who thought it likely that she heard, if not saw, what happened. But while Celia is hiding something, it has absolutely nothing to do with the sensational murder of Chance Turner... and everything to do with her secret night life as a jazz pianist.



Notes

It's pretty self-explanatory from the description. The basic idea is that the detective sees Celia first in Alasdair's (the jazz club), as the classy and elegant jazz pianist, but doesn't make the connection that she is also Celia, the mousy and shy waitress from Crossroads (the café). He's chasing the musician because he's attracted to her; he's chasing the waitress because he thinks she knows something about the murder of Chance Turner, which happened almost right outside her bedroom window.

This roleplay is actually in the works, but it seems to have fallen into a hiatus, and this is one story that I would like to see played out. The original is here; you can read it to get a feel for the story, or you can skip it and PM me with your own ideas.

As my ONs-&-OFFs note, I do prefer dominant partners. If you're interested... Please PM me!



Other

If this story doesn't appeal... some other story ideas from me include Anonyme, a modern fantasy that takes place in France, amidst cult murders and angels on earth.
If you're into romantic, humorous, and historical, Flight of Fancy is also lacking in a writing partner.
If you prefer fantasy, there's also Singers of Cerifa, which is a bit of a romantic whimsy that's almost fairytale-like.
I would also love to try a steampunk or cyberpunk setting, if you don't mind that I've never done either before.

For all of the above, my previous conditions - story and depth, and the details of my ONs-&-OFFs - still apply.