Without women and girls like the ones above, the 20’s would never have roared.
It was Black musicians who put the “Jazz” in “The Jazz Age” so it’s no wonder there were many fabulous flappers of color (even though history doesn’t show us this). The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural explosion of Black Excellencefrommusic,literature,art,pop culture,fashion,politics,religion,social views,and so much more. One of the things that epitomizes the 1920’s is The Charleston Dance, made popular by none other than Josephine Baker.
Character design prompt: Dinner party in 1920s Paris and someone’s going to get killed
A little project I might do some more work on later! I spent the week studying French animation and character design and made a short story about a mafia coup attempt! Keep reading for the full story!
Story
Before marrying Byron Chatelain, Alarie was also known as the daughter of the infamous Conein crime families, direct rivals of Byron, a mafia boss. Alarie also had a boyfriend who worked for Byron, but for obvious reasons they kept their ‘Romeo/Juliet’ relationship a secret.
Unfortunately for them, Byron caught them together and was about to kill her boyfriend for betraying him to the Coneins. Luckily, Alarie played her cards right and proposed that she and Byron get married as it would unite two very powerful crime families, as long asByrondoesn’t kill her boyfriend.
Within a month of their marriage, when the Coneins dropped their guard, Byron gets her ex-boyfriend andher father killed. Though he never admits to it, Alarie knows he did it and vows to kill him.
Their married life isn’t fantastic; Byron is very disrespectful to Alarie and treats her as a trophy wife, but he does give her the freedom to go out as she pleases.
One night, she meets Henri Damas, a WW1 war veteran and now a member of an Apache street gang because he couldn’t get good work after the war. Alarie starts an affair with Henri and together they begin to plot to kill Byron. Alarie tells Henri that if he kills Byron at an upcoming party, then she’ll make him the new mafia boss.
Henri has delusions of grandeur and is easily tempted by the idea of power and glory, so he can’t see that Alarie is using him to do her dirty work; in fact, after the job is done, Alarie wants to become the new mafia boss and will probably get Henri killed.
And so when the party comes round, Henri decides to invite his best friend Thomas D’Albret. The two of them met during the war and both joined the same gang on their return to Paris. Thomas hates parties and all things to do with socialising, but he knows Henri has a tendency to get himself into messy situations and so decides to come along just in case things go sideways and he needs to bail Henri out.
Her exact age is unknown, and that’s just one of Mrs Peacock’s secrets. Peacock rocketed from small-town girl to well-connected socialite. Little is known of her three husbands, other than they all died suddenly. Sir Hugh met his end just before, becoming her fourth. Peacock has called in many favours to get this invitation to Black’s party. What’s on her mind: marriage or murder…?
