The Enigma Notebooks
Notebook I: Victorian Gentlemen’s Clubs
Enigma - 02-12-2022, 01:36 AM
Notes from Fur-Covered Cogs
Probably most important though, would be the Secret Orders (Freemasons, Odd Fellows, etc), Social and Gentlemen Clubs. For some, the gentlemen clubs were a second home, a place in the city. It might be where Sukone's character stays when they're in the city. Maids to tend to the rooms, fine dining, gambling, smoking/reading rooms and the like. (Newspapers, approved works of fiction and treatises that re-enforce the social orders - and in a way, a guilty pleasure they could lord over the lower classes.)
If you've seen Downton Abbey, may be familiar with staff rooms and steep servant stairs to allow the staff to travel around the homes unseen as they do their errands.
https://role-player.net/forum/showth...=1#post3103356
Gentlemen's clubs were exclusively male sanctuaries
https://role-player.net/forum/showth...=1#post3103625
Unmarried staff (and even married staff, depending on circumstances) sleep in the servant quarters (attic rooms or a private section) in the club, so they're receiving room and board along with a salary. This makes them immediately available should one of the members staying overnight needs help, as well as allowing them to start early to prepare the club for the members' arrivals.
And by offering this little ragamuffin a job at the club, they're giving them free room and board, decent clothes to wear (even if it's just a uniform), job training and experience, and a way to pay back for the vase that the broke, by deducting a little from their wages each week. Really, they're helping Luna out with this.
The reason gentlemen's clubs were male only is the upper class men spent a lot of their life in boarding schools and the military, so they're more comfortable being among men. It's what they're used to. Being in a female household for the first time since they were children is like stepping onto the Mars surface, so the clubs were their escape. And all the staff is male, often former military like the Sergeant Major, recommended by a senior officer who's a club member.
Should the club board become aware that their sanctuary has been invaded by a woman, they're likely to fire her on the spot and demand full payment for the vase - and since she can't at present, it's off to debtors' prison for her - or worse.
Okay, going to suggest some NPC senior staff members for The Promethean Society.
Club Manager: Sergeant Major Tutor Bryn "Shut it" Williams (ret.) - head member of staff, a muscular florid man with ginger hair and a pointed handlebar mustache. He treats the club members with due difference and respect and can verbally peel strips off the hide of any member of staff who steps out of line. 20+ year Army veteran. Has the key to the club's wine cellars and pantry.
Deputy Manager: Bombardier Issac 'Solly' Solomons (ret.) - lean but muscular, dark hair, wears round glasses. He has some theater experience, efficient organizer and sharp. Father was a pawn broker. Only other person who has keys to the club's wine cellars and pantry.
Club Secretary Gunner Gilbert Beaumont (vet) - a slight yet wiry man with a pained sickly smile who acts as though the weight of the world rested on his eternally weary shoulders. Always complaining about the weather but can be depended upon in a pinch. Coordinates the club entertainments, meetings, and in charge of the library. Luna's boss.
Head Steward: First Sergeant Alfred Fitzsimons (ret.) - a lean wiry man, slightly balding, with a pencil mustache. Former street thief who was sentenced to serve in the Light Calvary. Wound up as an army scout with a reputation as a scrounger. He misses nothing but is very discrete, watches the stewards under him with an eagle eye. Anyone who thinks he's the one they want to meet in a dark alley may live long enough to regret that.
He is in charge of the stewards, who take care of the rooms and hallways, they also can step in as valets for the gentlemen guests.
Head Footman Gunner Nigel "Parky" Parkin (vet) (Sgt.Major falsely believes Parky to be his son, having had a brief affair with his mother in his younger years) - Muscular young man who serves at the Club Entrance behind the Front Desk. Handle the member's mail and deliveries, guards the entrance against intrusions.
Footmen receive the club members and their guests, deliver messages, and help serve at meals. (Possibly porters?)
Head cook Master Chief Irwin Laroche (ret) - small slight French cook, has a small green house next to the kitchen where he grows fresh herbs and is a dab hand at spicing (frowns if you season your food without tasting it), very good with knives and an expert climber. Rumored to have been a cat burglar in his younger days, expert jewelry appraiser. Manages somehow to get into the wine cellar and pantry despite not having a key for them.
Assistant cook Gunner Harold Horace Herbert Willy 'Lofty' Sugden (vet) - a small, rotund man sometimes described as a turnip or a mushroom but has an amazing tenor voice which even the Sergeant Major is in awe of.
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https://role-player.net/forum/group....921&do=discuss
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