– Rachel was born in the spring of 1856. She was 18 years old when she married Vincent Phantomhive.
– Her favorite flowers are white and pink camellias. (In Japan the camellia symbolizes the coming of spring. In Victorian England, the camellia was received by young women during courtship to symbolize the beauty and “adorableness” of the recipient. So, Vincent pretty much sent these flowers to Rachel by the carriage-full until she gave in and decided to let him formally call on her. “Persistence,” Vincent would often say, “can be the difference between marriage and a lonely life of pathetic solitude.” —> To which Rachel would respond, “I wasn’t particularly charmed by your father but I had to do something before he drove the camellia flower into extinction.”)
– Due to her asthma and frail constitution, Rachel spent a lot of her time learning and practicing the arts. She was a gifted pianist, talented landscape painter, avid art historian, as well as model and muse to many luminaries—including the portraitist Sir John Everett Millais, who wrote, in a letter to his old friend Vincent Phantomhive, “By all creation!—never have I seen a fairer face than that of Miss [Rachel] Dalles…she is exquisite in form, delightful in conversation, and possesses, without the impudence of so many young ladies of beauty, the warm affability of one whose grace and culture is genuine, [and] without the excess pretension of societal expectation.”
– When Charles Dickens, in his old age, visited the Dalles family (his daughter, Mary, had been particularly close with the late Mrs. Dalles before she passed), took one look at a young Rachel and cried, “Have I fallen asleep, or is this a mere heavenly delight? There, standing before me—is that my Lucie Manette?”
– Yet despite these words of praise and adulation, Rachel wasn’t actually all that fond of the poetic or tranquil arts. In fact one of Rachel’s favorite things to do would be to make up raunchy, crude tales of adventure and excess with her sister, Ann. They would challenge each other: the story must be distasteful, awful, vulgar, and dumb but be disguised as a tale of epic romance and eloquence. As a result, Rachel became extremely skilled in the art of the double entendre. (Or, as Vincent would say, “My wife has a very particular gift of making me want to fall on bended knee and explore the delta of Venus until I have learned all its secrets and drunk my fill of honeyed wine.”)
– Rachel and Ann made up their own secret language when they were seven and used it to communicate with one another until Rachel’s death in the fire.
– Rachel was an amateur astronomer and Vincent, upon discovering this particular fact, commissioned a group of artisans from the University of Milan to build his young wife a telescope like none other.
– During late summer nights when the air was hot and sleep difficult to come by, Rachel would take the twins out to the garden and teach them how to stargaze. Using colored pencils (real!Ciel’s was red and our!Ciel’s was blue) they would write down their favorite constellations in a little leather-bound journal that had once belonged to Rachel’s mother. (Also why RC chose to model the Sphere Music Hall on various star types: he simply saw it as another way to taunt his younger brother. Yet OC, so deeply traumatized by the effects of the fire, blocked out these memories altogether.)
– Rachel was an avid coffee drinker and didn’t quite understand why everyone was so obsessed with boiling dead leaves.
– She and Vincent used to go sailing around the White Cliffs of Dover, with Rachel navigating. Early in their relationship, when Vincent didn’t know much about the delicate honey-blonde, Rachel offered to navigate the sailboat for him. When Vincent expressed doubt that she could do it, Rachel shoved his disbelieving ass into the water and sailed to shore by herself.
– Her beautiful appearance and sweet smile hid a strong heart and even stronger personality. Humorous, witty, clever, silly, and self-aware, Rachel was a uniquely warm exception to the porcelain-faced debutantes of Victorian society.
– Rachel never really understood why Ann was always so self-conscious. In Rachel’s eyes, her younger sister was a striking beauty with her snow-pale skin, blood red hair, full lips, and enviable bosom.
(“Come now Ann, I think this dress would suit you perfectly!”
“N-no! You’ve been reading far too much of that libertine’s novels! Just look at the neckline, Rachel—“
“You know what, you’re right? We need something to show off that magnificent chest of yours—honestly Ann, your breasts could save mankind.”)
– Rachel admired her formidable sister-in-law Frances Midford and always felt better knowing it was Frances who would be guarding her husband on his missions for the queen.
let me talk about early gintoki and otose headcanons
after otose took him in gintoki was sleeping a lot because he was just tired because of all what happened. one day gin falls asleep in a corner and otose doesn’t say anything and just brings a blanket and wraps it around him
gin’s hair in the war got pretty long and otose was the first one to cut his hair after he was done with the war
gintoki having vivid nightmares and sometimes even screaming in his sleep but otose staying by his side every night. when gin asks her if she was there beside his bed all night she denies it though
otose never asking gin too many questions about him and what happened in his past and instead just listening and being there when he needs her
one night after gin had drunk way too much he started to remember things from the war (also what happened with shouyou) and he just started to cry quietly without saying anything and otose just put her hand on his hand and told him that it’s okay
gin slowly opening up and getting better each day and eventually both of them starting to bicker like they do now
otose just being the mom gin never had and gin like the son she never had
They always called each other “Vinnie and Frannie”, though starting from a certain age, the use of these nicknames was slightly more mocking than affectionate. Vincent did go back to calling his sister “Frannie” while being older only as a sign of pure affection though.
They both learnt how to lie from very early on, Vincent because he was a very mischievous boy, Frances because she would cover for him whenever he wanted to do something silly.
One day, when he was 7, Vincent decided to run away for a reason no one bothered to remember after the event. He managed to talk Frances into coming along and stealing Claudia’s shoes so that she wouldn’t be able to go after them, however Tanaka found them before the end of the day and they were punished, mostly because they lost some of Claudia’s shoes on the way back home.
The older they got during childhood, the more competitive with each other they became and at some point they’d constantly end up physically fighting whenever they’d disagree: Vincent would pull his sister’s hair while Frances punched or slapped him and, most of the time, it would end with them mud wrestling and then in tears whenever Claudia witnessed the event.
Some time when he was 8, Vincent’s greatest hobby was to learn how to say “idiot” in as many languages as possible, in order to constantly call out his sister with no one supposedly being able to understand. Once she realized what he was doing though, Frances reiterated by throwing
Vincent’s personal chessboard
out of the window and hiding all the pieces across the house.
Vincent was so pissed afterwards that he planned to cut some of his sister’s hair as revenge, but the massacre was stopped right on time by Claudia and Cedric when Tanaka reported to them that Frances had asked him to force Vincent to commit seppuku if he were to touch one strand of her hair.
At some point Claudia got so tired of her children arguing all the time about literally everything that she decided to force them to kiss each other on the cheek whenever they had to mutually apologize after a fight. Horrified, they calmed down for a little while until they found out that they could use their dad as a proxy instead of directly kissing each other’s cheek and the constant fighting resumed.
it was around that time that Cedric told Claudia that he wouldn’t mind having another child. However, just as he brought up the topic, Vincent threw mud at Frances’ hair who shrieked very loudly and Claudia glared at her husband before answering “over my dead body”.
One day when she was 7 or 8, Frances decided to cut her hair alone (”to look older”) and the result was terrible. Though a maid managed to rectify the disaster by cutting it way shorter than she initially wanted, Vincent, seeing how sad and ashamed his sister was, promised her that he would humiliate anyone who’d dare call her “a boy wearing a dress”.
it’s around this time that Vincent got a growing interest in studying all the many hairstyles that existed and he and Frances would often spend time laughing at haircuts with ridiculously long bangs.
Cedric also bought his daughter shoes with very sharp little heels so that she could innocently hurt the feet of people who would dare mock her haircut.
Honestly, Claudia found all of this very cute, fancy and amusing.
One day, Vincent and Frances were playing ‘hide and seek’ with their parents, but something (Watchdog related) came up and Claudia and Cedric forgot that they were supposed to be looking for their children, which is why Vincent and Frances ended up falling asleep in their mom’s closet, surrounded by her dresses.
It took a few hours for Claudia to realize that she hadn’t seen her children in a while and she totally freaked out when she couldn’t find them anywhere because they were asleep in her closet.
In the end, it seems one of the children woke up and was hungry so they got out of the closet and didn’t understand why everyone seemed so relieved to see them.
Claudia forbade ‘hide and seek’ games from that point on, even more so when Frances wouldn’t shut up about how they had “won”.
The children once begged Tanaka to teach them Japanese and they started after Claudia gave her approval. However, the more they learnt, the more the siblings would often “discuss” in Japanese during meals with the sole purpose of pissing off their parents who didn’t understand the language.
Cedric and Claudia reiterated by speaking a language that the children didn’t understand. It went on like that until Vincent called his mom “baka” and he was severely punished because she at least understood this word. From that point onward, anyone who didn’t speak English during meals wouldn’t be allowed to eat.
I had fun so I hope you found them enjoyable. 😀 Have a nice day Anon!
Do you think Alexis is allowed to call Frances “Frannie” too, or it’s just a special right for Vincent because he’s her big brother?
Do you think anyone besides Vincent is allowed to call her “Frannie”?
I need to know for… important reasons. 😀
imagine if UT is really Cedric K. Ros, and thus her daddy, and at some point in the story they actually interact and he calls her ‘Frannie’ though? And she just loses her shit because they really don’t get along from her point of view but, like, UT doesn’t care and keeps on calling her ‘Frannie’ because she’s his baby girl and because it totally annoys her. Meanwhile Ciel, Liz and Ed just watch the scene and have no idea what’s going on and Seb pretends he doesn’t know any of these humans.
LMAO, #soon-to-be-canon! xDD Another possibility would be:
UT: *says compliments, tries to be helpful, tries to do anything nice*
Vincent: (^o^)
Frances:
Vincent:
/(^o^)/
UT, ugly crying and with dirty hair: “when will she stop being in her rebellious teenager phase ;_; …”
Hahah, thanks for sharing Anon! xD Have a nice day!
OMG, nah Anon, you’re definitely not the only one!
I do think that Vincent kind of acted as an overprotective older brother after what happened to Claudia, so he would have been like Ed is towards Lizzie, or even like real!Ciel was towards our!Ciel (it just runs in the family). xD
lmao but imagine Alexis calling Frances “Frannie” for the very first time (”because it’s so cute”) after they got engaged or married and Vincent reacting like…
xDDD
but then chaos ensues, because Frances has her sword with her and it’s longer than Vincent’s knife so she starts asking him “do you really want to go there” and Vincent becomes all sheepish, but Alexis then brightly promises that he would find another nickname and it was settled like that. xDD
– He likes it best when Lizzy leaves her hair down—he’s never been fond of the elaborate English hairstyles women force atop their heads. (Sometimes, when he and Lizzy share a carriage together, she’ll fall asleep on his shoulder and he’ll allow himself the indulgence of running his fingers through her unbound curls.)
– Whenever Ciel leaves on a particularly lengthy mission, he always instructs a member of his Evil Noblemen to keep watch over Lizzy. One time that task fell on Lau who showed up with Chinese firecrackers, a barrel of vinegar, baking soda, an Australian echidna, and a Brownie box camera. (What happened that day? No one knows. Lau refuses to share the pictures.)
– On Lizzy’s birthday, Soma gifted her with a golden chest lined with velvet and filled with precious Japanese sea pearls. Ciel—disgruntled and just the tiniest bit jealous that Soma’s gift outshone his own—sulked for most of the party, refusing to interact with the guests and brooding in the shadows. It wasn’t until Sebastian gave him a not-so-subtle lecture about propriety, courtesy, and decency that Ciel rejoined the party. Towards the end, Ciel gave Lizzy a kiss on the cheek and wished her happy birthday; to his surprise, Lizzy said it was the best one she’s had “because you were here to celebrate it with me.” (Cue Ciel blushing like crazy and Sebastian quietly guffawing in a corner because he can’t even—just look, omg, his OTP, like—#adorbs!)
– Ciel knows that once Lizzy turns fifteen she’ll be sent to finishing school in Switzerland for a year. And he’s not worried. Really he’s not. Psh. Why would he be?
…
“And we paid off the custodians, gardeners, and surrounding townspeople right? Make sure our guards are in place, I don’t want Elizabeth walking around by herself. It’s safer if there’s someone on call—she’s a young lady in a strange country.”
“And the country in question is Switzerland, young master.”
“It only takes a single bullet through the heart to kill someone. I don’t intend for that someone to be my fiancée.”
“I doubt you’ll find many assassins hiding around a finishing school for young ladies.”
“No I don’t suppose I will. We’ve already massacred half the town.”
SAME. I always imagined a very supportive—but snarky—relationship between the two. With Vincent as the lackadaisical but oh-so-cool older brother with the humorous, eloquent wit and Frances as the stern, sharp-tongued younger sister who’s one of the very, VERY few people to have Vincent’s trust and confidence.
And they wouldn’t be sickeningly saccharine like real!Ciel and our!Ciel in the chapter 131 flashback. Oh no.
They’d be sharp, combative, sarcastic, somewhat bitchy with a mocking edge but also fiercely, ferociously, and undeniably loyal to one another. I don’t think Frances would’ve agreed to the betrothal between real!Ciel and Lizzy if she didn’t trust and love her brother because let’s face, ain’t NO ONE gonna tell Frances Midford (née Phantomhive) what to do. Not even Vincent. Especially not Vincent lmao
Plus Vincent himself admits that the women of the Phantomhive line are very strong-willed and probably couldn’t be strong armed into agreeing to something they didn’t want. (Ten bucks says Vincent had to offer up the idea to Frances and wait for his baby sis to give the okay or else he’d find himself with a very bad case of head removed from shoulders LOL—kidding. In actuality Frances would’ve probably been ticked, stormed over to Phantomhive Manor going “what the actual fuck Vincent” and our daddy watchdog would give some glib, superficially charming answer before Frances got annoyed and Vincent would have to resort to honesty and be all “Lizzy is the only person in this world I trust with my son’s life” and Frances would be touched because Vincent and trust don’t exactly mix, but because she’s tough as nails, she’d just give him a nod and sigh “well, you’re not wrong” and voila. Game. Set. Match.)
I personally headcanon Vincent and Frances’s relationship as an incredibly adroit and savvy one—outsiders and observers would always need to be on their toes if they wanted to keep up with these quick-witted siblings.
(Psst, I also wrote a Frances & Vincent sibling fic titled It’s quiet uptown if you’re interested in reading it—the subject matter is rather grim but the Frances/Vincent dynamic is pretty much what I’ve written here XD)
@your-lovers-and-drifters said: HA! Heck, after everything these two’ve put Lizzy through, she DESERVES everything! And can you imagine cute Watchdog Lizzy cutting down her enemies with swords decorated with ribbons and daisies and them just going “???” (And the Evil Noblemen. Like no more of this heavy, mysterious shit – she’s gonna throw tea parties and if they don’t remember to wear pink on Wednesdays then bye bitch, executioner’s block is right around the peach tree corner.)
Right!? Lizzie deserves the entire estate. And she’d be an amazing watchdog- every mission would be completed perfectly, with a side dose of cute. She’d use people underestimating her to her advantage. Doing it with a sweet smile would be even better.
LOL The Evil Nobleman rebooted XD That’s right. No more pretending to be dark and mysterious- Lizzie throws tea parties and cuts down anyway who dares defy her dress code. You respect these tea parties or you die, bitch. It’s what Claudia would have wanted.
(due to these two posts [x][x]) that Vincent was actually hoping Lizzie would be his successor when it comes to the Watchdog duty, simply because he had his mother’s example in mind that “Earl Phantomhive” and “ the Queen’s watchdog” were two titles that didn’t have to refer to the same person, even if both titles are to always remain within the Phantomhive family.
My initial explanation is 100% based on Downton Abbey, but if Claudia’s dad indeed only had Claudia as his heir, then there was no way for her, as a woman, to inherit her father’s title and his land as “Earl Phantomhive”. However, if her father was the previous watchdog, since this special title is only known amongst the underworld or the Queen’s close entourage, then surely even a woman could do it, as long as she was chosen and trained by the previous Watchdog.
Then Claudia married her father’s heir to the “Earl Phantomhive” title (a nephew, a cousin), which would be the only explanation as to why her maiden and family name were both “Phantomhive” and why Vincent inherited the Earl Phantomhive title as the following generation (like Mary Crawley from Downton Abbey and her son, from marrying Matthew Crawley).
Ahem, back to Vincent, obviously this is a cracky theory and one that’s likely to never become canon but still, he could have very well decided that Lizzie would have made a good watchdog. Why? Because she was trained to be strong…
and was certainly clever enough. Not to say that the twins were unfit to do it, they were certainly clever enough (as we’ve seen with our!Ciel) but…
…if you had the choice between a clever boy who needs the equivalent of a private militia to stay alive as he acts as the Watchdog vs an equally clever girl who can manage to stay alive on her own (and who,
as a woman, would be less suspected in general), then Vincent could have easily made up his mind and I’m sure Rachel would have agreed:
It would have been exactly like with Claudia and, as her son, that’s even why Vincent would have considered the idea: real!Ciel inhering the “Earl Phantomhive”’s title from him but Lizzie, his sister’s daughter and his son’s fiancée, being the Watchdog. Two titles, two different persons supporting each other (making Lizzie some sort of Claudia’s successor/reincarnation xD).
ANYWAY, the reason I’m adding onto this discussion is because I AGREE that these make perfect sense:
And I just wouldn’t mind at all if Tanaka or UT were to reveal at some point during this petty conflict between brothers (or later in the story) that “btw, Lady Elizabeth was totally supposed to become the Watchdog after your father anyway, so why are you even showing off so badly against each other????” and the shock is so grand for real!Ciel (with him wanting a-not-scary-and-thus-not-strong-wife and all) that he falls dead all over again xDD.
Finally, the only reason that Lizzie didn’t turn out to be the Watchdog when our!Ciel came back and became the rightful Earl Phantomhive is because Frances, after her brother’s murder, just wasn’t ready to let Lizzie take on this dangerous duty, and it gave her a good excuse to ignore her brother’s wish when our!Ciel came back, wanting to become the Watchdog for his revenge. Lizzie (who never knew about possibly being the next Watchdog) stayed as his fiancée though, because there was no way to talk her out of it.
So yeah, crack theory is a crack theory, but I like this little twist a lot because it makes for a way bigger dynamic amongst the Phantomhive family, encompassing everything from Claudia’s generation to all her grandchildren and I like this type of things. So sorry for rambling, hope you guys didn’t mind! :3
HC that on the rescue ship, the days they’re in New York, and the entire ship voyage back to England, Lizzy doesn’t let our!Ciel out of her sight as much as possible. Even when he’s bathing, she insists on sitting right outside the bathroom door and talking to him through the wall. They sleep in the same cabin, but separate beds (if they were in the same small ship bed, Edward would probably implode…) Lizzy talks to him until she chats herself to sleep. When “Ciel” has nightmares, she climbs into his bed and holds him while he whispers her name over and over desperately until he falls back asleep.
The last evening on the boat, just a few hours from London, Lizzy is unusually quiet. Ciel tries to cheer her up with “cute” desserts and dancing, but this only seems to make her more subdued. That night, when Sebastian turns the cabin light out and leaves them alone for the night, Lizzy tells Ciel quietly, sadly, that she loves him.
Ciel’s eyes fill with tears. He wants to say it back, so much that it hurts, but when he finds his voice he can only manage:
“Lizzy…Lizzy, I…I hope that you have sweet dreams.”
He can hear the lump in her throat and the sadness in her heart as she accepts his words and says good night. But neither of them sleeps. Ciel spends an hour staring into the dark and despising himself. He can’t say it…it would be a lie, wouldn’t it? Because “Ciel” doesn’t love her, at least not the real “Ciel.” Lizzy belongs to the true Earl Phantomhive. He’s the one she thinks she loves. If she knew the truth, she would be so heartbroken…
But even so, to say it wouldn’t be totally untrue, would it? Ciel Phantomhive may not love her, but the Earl certainly does.
He climbs into her bed and she turns to him, her face shining with silent tears. “Lizzy I love you too,” he says, hugging her close. “I’m sorry.”
She giggles softly and presses her lips against his. Their kiss is gentle but passionate. But the earl can’t quite push away the nagging truth that if..when she discovers his crime, a simple apology will never be enough.
D’aww this is legit the cutest thing ever Anon. :3
Okay I totally used to imagine that Frances would just run after him with his comb everywhere in the manor but I got a different imagery after your ask:
What if she is the one who made this little braid?
She would always get pissed that he had insanely long bangs (bang phobia xD), no matter how much she used her comb on him, so one day that he was at the manor to consult with her mom about something, she just braided his hair in multiple little braids like this one (”enough of these ridiculously long hair and bangs, you are an adult and a very not inconspicuous Evil Noble because of them”).
However, because he looked absolutely ridiculous afterwards, he took them all down except for thisone, because Frances was so so pissed that she had taken a lot of time to do this
only for him to simply discard it
(I mean, at this point, bangs are so unsightly that he should have thanked her for helping the likes of him) that he felt like leaving a proof of what she was capable of doing. xD
Bonus:
Either Frances and Claudia taught him how to do this hair style, so that he wouldn’t look completely out of place the rare times he would have to attend parties with the aristocracy (for the sake of his job as an Evil Noble), since he just wouldn’t cut his damn hair.
Haha, I love Frances with her comb, can’t wait to see it meet UT in canon, just to see what kind of amazingly funny reaction it would create. xD
midnight-in-town 