IF IT'S TRUE

basic statistics :

full name : efemena dormer.

nicknames or aliases : effie.

age : twenty - seven.

date of birth : may 12th 1859.

occupation : businesswoman.

parents : mr. dormer (d. 1886) + mrs. dormer (d. 1874).

siblings : two older brothers, one younger sister.

marital status : unmarried.

sexuality : greysexual.

the secret :

on the outside, effie is perfectly poised, distant from all that may tarnish her family's name - - and perhaps eager to escape its shadow - - but, truly, she is nothing if not ambitious to make the dormers rise further and she can only see that happening by her hand. while she is not looking to dethrone or rob her brothers' of their role within the family, she wants one of her own, and has been working with the books and most documents of the family's business for a few years now.

thoughts on high society :

she was raised within it, even if at times the dormers have been treated as outsiders and words were whispered about them. effie does not exactly care for it, but she is ever eager to keep carving a role for herself and her family, careless of whom she may have to please or hurt to keep her family on the inside.

headcanons :

tw: terminal illness.

by the time efemena was born, the dormer riches were already done. as a child, she'd hear the embellished story told by her mother as she sat upon the matriarch's lap — father had made some money, inherited through a distant uncle and made it grow with proper investments.  a success story, much like the one of astors and whoever came with the mayflower and prospered. 

the truth was not far from it, but efemena would never truly understand why their story was less palatable than any of these families' who did not have noses turned their way. if anything, she thought the dormer's story was much more interesting — truer in the sense that they had grown their wealth and they kept it, and she did not turn her head away from the hypocrisy that was that it was not only them that grew rich with their investments.

of course, her interest in the family business was not entirely encouraged. instead, it was mother and father's insistence that she would pull herself from it as much as she could — she would attend the best finishing schools, remove any tarnish of accent picked up from father's, dress better than any of her colleagues and only pick the best company. it was not something she minded, you see. she enjoyed looking good and acclimating herself with the right people.

but she also enjoyed sneaking into father's office and looking over old books with names and sums, write them down for herself; when father was away, she would not rest until one of her brothers took her to the cassinos, hidden in the cover of the night, so she may become familiar with the family business. still, it would take her years to be acknowledged by the patriarch; it would take her many tears (false and true), begging, tantrums and, finally, mr. dormer's ailing wealth for her to receive a seat at the table (which, by then, had been her father's sickbed). 

basic statistics :

full name : xiang huang ( 翔 黄).

alternatively : alberta huang.

nicknames or aliases : they are best known as birdie; they often use the alias robin stanford for their work.

age : twenty - seven.

date of birth : february 10th 1860.

occupation : socialite, heiress, artist.

parents : changyin 'chuck' huang (51), railroad tycoon and executive of the central pacific railroad + bernadette 'bernie' astor (48), daughter of the patriarch of the new york astor family.

siblings : charles (17), john (15), amaranthe (12), iris (10), indigo (10).

other familial relationships : montgomery astor ( maternal cousin ).

marital status : unmarried.

sexuality : bisexual.

the secret :

sacramento means a cage they have no interest in being contained in. they have delayed taking on the mantle of the family business for years, and all they want to is to run away from it - - the perfect escape comes in the form of the astor power in the city, and her own heavy wallet. since last season, they have began to rent a studio in which they receive guests to have their likeliness painted; due to the secrecy of it all, they have worn an alias when showing off their work, but it has not yet risen to the kind of sucess they'd need to convince themselves and their parents that this could be a way of life. this season must change this.

thoughts on high society :

birdie takes nothing too serious, and high society is nothing different. they only see what benefits them - - as an astor cousin, child one of the richest men in america, they have a leeway to their arrogance and indulgence and they use it as they see fit. they adore the socialization aspect of it all, and often search for subjects for their work amongst the people of the ton.

headcanons :

when chuck huang first went to new york, in the 50s, he may have went into the season expecting to land himself a wife, but he certainly didn’t expect to meet and fall for an astor. only the very fresh second generation of an immigrant family made rich by the gold rush, it was unlikely he would be the best fit for an astor daughter, yet bernie would always tell their story as a love story. for why else would she leave new york and go all the way to california? it was a new world, in all senses of the world. she had to acclimate to her husband’s state, culture, life.

thankfully, the affection they had for one another grew into respect and a partnership that would only grow chuck’s prospects though it was for his own self that he gained the one that would make him famous all around america: the central pacific railroad along with three friends, chuck became known to carry the project to build the first transcontinental railroad in northern america, a railroad that would cover from east to west. it was chuck who would hammer in the golden spike along the way; once it was driven in, and quickly removed, it would be returned to the huang home in sacramento, not the first and definitely not the last of their gilded objects around the lavish home.

birdie was born way before their father would come in renown. their home was already lavish and great, however, becoming of the huang name — and so was the child. named xiang, an auspicious name chosen by her grandfather, she was meant to soar high as the heir to such a great fortune. right away, bernie, her mother, refused to ever call the child xiang — she called her birdie, instead. isn’t it all the same? possible insensitivity would be washed away as the name became her own, even before her chinese name, or the english name attached to her school papers. that’s what she was: just birdie. they’ve always liked it better this way.

with so much wealth and influence on the tip of their fingers, birdie grew spoiled and indulged to ridiculous standards. all she wanted, she got; she had the opportunity to try horse riding, learn arithmetics, pick whatever language her heart desired, dance and paint and sing and all of that. to their mother’s dismay, most of the things they did, they did in the most basic of fashions but, at the very least, they did it enthusiastically which, theri father said, was a good thing. one needs to keep their spirits high in this world, even in front of failure, chuck would tell them. and so they did.

the one thing birdie liked above all was art. from finger painting, to sketching, to designing the most intricate paintings with oil, that was their calling in life. yet, the eldest by at least a decade, it was obvious that the huang family name would weight on their shoulders. instead of artistic pursuits, they were encouraged to take on practical ones, learn of engineering and architecture and railroads and all things they did not care about — railroads for them only mattered because it lead them to trains, and trains lead them to trips and trips lead them to wherever they wanted, far from their parents.

from the time they were old enough, they would go to spend the seasons in new york. their debut went splendid — at least four offers of marriage they laughed about; thankfully, their father was picky enough to allow her yet this one another fortune. whenever they’re in the city, they stay with their cousins, the astor, and never fail to enjoy what society has to offer. new york is better in every way to california, that they are certain of, and, as their university studies come to its end even as they try to drag it out, birdie thinks that they may just have to find a way to root them here instead of there, somehow.

connections :

astor acquaintaces, people they have met in former seasons

people who travel around!

muses - people who have sat for her or who have comissioned in the past or will be painted now!!

perhaps someone who wishes to take advantage of them or dislikes their carefree manner?