olive: is your muse prone to feeling envious of others? if yes, what is it that they typically feel envious over? [ for Jane >:3 ]

What in the world could this woman possibly have to be envious of anyone for? She is – generally speaking – on top of the world and manipulating her reality into something she feels is ideal. There is opposition of course, but she manages it well and is genuinely quite happy with much of what she has going on in her life – so that does beg the question of why she would envy anyone.

There is only one true gap in her life – and that is the one left behind by her brother’s absence in it. Cutler was the reason she never envied anyone – when she was once so melancholy and miserable, he was a source of light and joy. He loved her – and in so doing, was the one person she would do anything for. He fulfilled the role she most needed filled. Someone to love and care for, yes – but just as importantly, someone who loved her back.

Losing him destroyed her in so many ways. She vowed her way back to him – but things always got in the way. Which ultimately – leaves her envious of sisters whose brothers love them, of happy siblings. Including her own children, who love each other dearly, and love her dearly, spark that ugly sensation of coveting something she herself could not obtain.

It isn’t something she likes to think about. To be envious of ones own children is – hardly something to be proud of, after all.

🍴🍴🍴 Jane

{ Food Headcanons }

Jane is a woman of simple tastes when it comes to her food – perhaps especially among her companions in the French aristocracy. Their particular notions of ‘delicacy’ tend to leave her faintly nauseous at the mere idea of them and she is more often than not finding tricks to concealing how little of them she is truly eating – even going so far as to make a special compartment in her purse to stow them away so she can throw them out at her leisure later.
Perhaps the most decadent things in Jane’s life are savoury crepes ( dinner sorts ) or sweet ones ( desert types ) though she also at times indulges in fresh bagels lightly buttered with cheese, that she considers to be rather the height of luxury.
Jane has learned to make broths and soups for her brother, and has employed this skill for her children. When they are ill, only her own soups will do, much to the chagrin of the cooks.

🎐 for Charles, Darcy, Jane, Jack, and Hal

{ Unusual Questions }
🎐- Does your muse like to collect/hoard anything?

Despite being a pirate, Charles is actually not attached to material objects. These sorts of things can be taken and destroyed, and he has enough going on in his life to find the idea of getting torn up over things to be a waste of his resources and energy.

To this end then, it is safe to say that what Charles Vane collects is in fact people – individuals who he believes he can trust to uphold the ideals that matter to him, and prove themselves to be loyal to those ideas even if it means crossing lines that the civilized would balk before.

Mr. Darcy has benefited greatly from the natures of his ancestors who collected great works of art – from sculptures to portraits of the most grand design. His life has always been couched in luxury, which has in turn instilled upon him a rather marked lack of interest in collecting more. When he does go out of his way to gather items, it is usually gifts for his sister and those few who can count themselves among his friends.

Jane collects letters – from all over the world, from friends and benefactors, from allies and enemies. Most important to her are letters intercepted from her family back home – it has allowed her to thwart the Beckett sons again and again – but there is one among them she cannot bear, and one day she seeks to correct the lie it has told – the story of her own death, a blatant lie delivered to her brother Cutler, the only man in the Beckett line whom she adores.

Jack would like to collect fine things, but he has a terrible habit of losing them, or trading them, or exchanging them to save someone who won’t even say thank you. So while he certainly has the desire and the drive to be a hoarder, he simply does not possess the means to keep what he acquires, for one reason or another.

Whittled figures from the men. He has a small collection of pieces, and when a man dies in battle, storm, or illness, he carves their name on the piece to immortalize a memory of them. Those who cannot whittle, or have never gifted him a piece, he purchases a small figure to represent in the wake of their death – or in some cases, so they are represented among the crowd.

💓 for Jane!

{ Learn To Make A Heart Flutter }

Respecting Jane is one of the fastest ways to warm her to you. While in France her position is rather secure, when she is overseas she so often has to fight to establish her dominance and her rights amid men who look down upon her simply on account of her being a woman. She knows that if she were to send a man in her place, things would get done quicker – but she refuses to use a proxy simply to be heard.

To listen to her and confer with her as though she is an equal is to immediately assure that you will have Jane as an ally in your court. Provided of course that this respect and equal footing was obtained through your initiative, and not because her shadow terrorized you into submission.

This is a permanent starter call for Jane de Bac / Beckett of Pirates of the Caribbean explicitly. The older sister of Cutler Beckett presented to us in Price of Freedom, whose apparent death has been grossly exaggerated.

These calls give me a heads up on who is open to interacting with whom ( which is handy for those who have exclusives among my crew! ) and gives me an excuse to kick you starters whenever something crosses the mind, or blow up your inbox knowing who would be most wanted.

These calls also serve as a final tag dump – when this call is posted it indicates a character has been fully moved into the blog and is ready for action!

For other starter calls, check the tag HERE.

Coping Mechanisms

Jane’s default response to most problems is to get rid of them. When the greatest of her trials in life were dealing with rats and unwelcome attentions from men beneath her interest, this was a perfectly acceptable response to a troublesome situation. Beyond this, Jane would simply read or spend time with Cutler – bringing herself joy to overcome any sensations of melancholy or restlessness.

Since becoming the Lady de Bac, however, these habits of ruthlessly getting rid of pests and manipulating people out of her life have turned into powerful and dangerous weapons. Indeed even her decision to ignore a situation can in its own way be a manner of coping with it viciously – she knows well the weight of her voice in court and does not hesitate to make use of it as needed to curate her environment and the de Bac affairs.

Jane knows that when she withholds it or her company it places a dent in political relations that cast debilitating shadows upon those she spurns, forcing them to reconcile to her terms or find themselves in rather tight quarters as the vultures close in on their newly acquired point of weakness.

When she is overwhelmed, Jane still turns to reading – or to someone she trusts and adores. At first it was Sébastien, then it became Comte de Luc and of course, her bodyguard Diego de la Raina. Upon discovering her brother’s whereabouts it is doubtless she will turn to him, too, when she finds herself in need of someone other than herself to lean on.

Angels

There was once a time when Jane truly doubted in the idea that anything supernatural or religious held basis in reality. There was too much natural evil in the world around her to pin the blame on demons – so why, then, should what little good that happens to come around in the world be taken credit for by angels?

The greatest gift and joy in her life for many, many years was none other than her baby brother, Cutler. The idea that the one person who treated her as something more than an ornament in life, as someone who was just as real and valuable as anyone else, might be anything more or less than exactly what he was became like an anathema to her. People were not angels or demons, they were not blessed or cursed – they simply were.

Her thoughts on this changed, however, several years into her time as a widow. There were strange moments that could not truly be accounted for – such as the time Victorie told her of the man who would bring her glass horses, the description of whom was so strikingly similar to that of Sébastien that Jane had to wonder at it. Or the time Henri swore up and down that a man just like that was responsible for getting him out of a tree.

If these were the only instances she might have overlooked it, but there were other things. His scent drifting close whenever she was overwhelmed at court, or the certainty that he was there when she tucked their children in at night. It was never alarming, these strange notes of impossibility in the tangible weave of her world – and as true magic became known to her in various respects, she found that it might indeed be possible, to believe in things such as angels.

For surely, if demons like Davy Jones could exist – then surely, so could angels like Sébastien.