*hilarity

REFRESHINGLY UP TO DATE AS OF 3/13/08!

THE CLAIRE AND JACK ENCYCLOPAEDIA, for quick reference.


I've had more than one inquiry into Claire and who she is and what is going on here, and since I only vaguely explained her in one of the first drawings I ever did of her, I figured I might as well explain where 99.99% of my original artwork comes from!

Before I say anything, however, I want to mention that there are a few names used for multiple characters. Namely, John, Jack, and Avery. In order to not be too confusing, let me lay out the Johns and Jacks, as a reference:

Jack Dickon: The first Jack, the only Jack whose birth name is actually Jack. He is Avery's boyfriend, not Claire's husband, and is twenty years old. And the Avery I'm talking about here is Claire's son.

John Driscoll: Claire's first husband, father of Avery, James and Bess.

Jack Camden: Claire's childhood boyfriend and second husband. This is the Jack you all know the most, although I've drawn the younger Jack, as well. His birth name is John Camden. He also goes by Johnny.

John Griffith: Jake's father, not biological. Died in 2004. Irrelevant, but I mention him and don't want people getting confused.

Avery Driscoll: Claire's oldest son and first child. He's gay, has two boyfriends (Jack Dickon and Jake Griffith), and is extremely eccentric.

Avery Murdoch: Claire's best friend. She met him in 1980 and he was murdered in 1987 because he was gay and because the men who offed him really wanted Claire. Avery Driscoll was named after this Avery.

Dirty Life

All of the original characters I draw come from the roleplaying game, Dirty Life, which was created in 2004. It was originally a very small (five characters) private roleplay, but it has since expanded into a larger game with hundreds of characters passing through over the past almost-three years. In 2005, we added fantasy, which has sort of become its own mythology in the universe, as we created our own ideas for 'stereotypical' fantasy creatures and magic. The idea is to blend the fantasy into reality so that, theoretically, it could be true. It doesn't contradict what we know/believe now. Think of what JKR does with Harry Potterverse magic, but on a less regulated scale.

The Characters

In its first incarnation, Dirty Life was simply a place for Avery Driscoll, Jake Griffith and Jack Dickon (I've drawn all three of them). They are boyfriends (yes, it's a threesome, not just a group of seperate couples), and originally the game revolved around them and two friends. Its title was a bit more apropos in the beginning, as about 80% of the posts were sexual in some nature. Since then, the two friends have moved on and we opened the game up for more characters and the 'dirty' side is less prominent (though by no means is discouraged).

What has this got to do with Claire? Well, Claire is Avery's forty-year-old mother (she was born 21 April, 1967). She has existed in a sentient form in the game as Claire since August or September 2004, when DL was getting started. Before then, she had another name and another personality and never really existed in any roleplays.

So now I'll explain specifics on each character, with quite a lot dedicated to Claire, as she shows up the most.

AVERY DRISCOLL: Avery is Claire's oldest son. He's a musical savant, gifted on anything he plays but spectacular at the violin. He's extremely eccentric, gay, and strong-willed. His greatest ambition is to become a circus performer and he has thus far learned how to do a great many odd talents. He is a professional musician in the philharmonic, but he generally plays only for himself.

Aside from music, he's just generally a sponge. Learning isn't his most favorite activity, but he picks things up very easily, usually out of boredom. He is incredibly smart but doesn't like to show it off. He speaks English and Afrikaans fluently, though his Italian is near-fluent due to the fact that one of his boyfriends, Jake, has an Italian father and is teaching himself to speak the language.

In general, Avery is incredibly random, very entertaining, and possibly one of the most overwhelming people you'll ever meet.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

JAKE GRIFFITH: He belongs to ~hereinspain and was created at the same time as Avery. He is half-French, half-Italian, but grew up primarily in England and thus identifies himself as such. He did not meet his biological father until he was eighteen, and did not even know his deceased father, John, wasn't his father until the affair between his mother and a young Italian footballer came to light.

His mother passed away in 1999, but she was brought back in 2005 and again in 2006 and became pregnant by Jake's biological father again, thus bringing her back to life.

I told you we have our own mythos. Just go with it.

Jake is a gifted pianist. He plays jazz and composes music and though he isn't quite a savant, his talent is undeniable. He, like Avery, went to Eton College.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

JACK DICKON: Jack, the first Jack (this is not the Jack Claire grew up with and married), was created by Juliette. Jack also attended Eton, is bisexual, the only one of the three who is, very self-serving and narcissistic, but incredibly giving and scarily obsessive when he wants to be. He's also incredibly sexual and was a bit of a slut. He was born and raised in Llandovery, Wales, and his father walked out on the family when he was young, leaving him with his alcoholic mother and baby (literally) sister, Annabelle.

A gifted fashion designer and quite fashion conscious, he created and sewed Claire's wedding dress, which you can see in my scraps.

He's a complete nancy boy with piercings all over and a penchant for doing his hair and wearing make up. Call him a scene kid or some strange leftover of the mod fashion era because that's what he looks like.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

CLAIRE CAMDEN: As stated, she is Avery's mother.

In February 2006, I created her as a proper character in the game that would be used for an AU (alternate universe) plotline that I am not going to get into here. Needless to say, the AU became canon and Claire became a very active character.

As she has not aged since she was a late teenager, I can describe how she looks and have it be relevant for both eras that I frequently draw. She has incredibly long, incredibly thick, blonde hair that waves and curls and is generally not easy to tame. She has very fair skin, freckes, pale blue eyes and stands about 5'10". She danced for two decades almost obsessively, so her body has maintained a very fit physique, with strong legs and a strong core. She has a very infamously pretty bum and breasts that fluctuate with pregnancy and post-pregnancy, but are generally a heavy C cup. I mean, if you want details. I could give you details that most people would not care about.

As an overview: She married John Driscoll in 1988 and gave birth two three children, Avery, James and Bess. She retired from RB in 1989 at a very young age of twenty two and moved back to Cape Town, South Africa, where her family is from.

They divorced in 2006 and remain very good friends.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

So where does Jack Camden fit in? First, let's talk about him, shall we?

JACK CAMDEN: Also created by Juliette. Jack was born John Wolfgang Camden in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1965. His mother never told him anything about his father (whose name is Thomas 'Tam' Oliver and is a sheep farmer with his wife, Maisie-or-something), often alluding to him being a scumbag, which is ultimately untrue. (Jack has never met his father, nor does he know who the man is, just so we're clear.)

His mother, Lindsay, was horribly abusive. A junkie drug addict, she abused heroin and cocaine and got her son into the same scene. She dated hundreds of men, and, ***WARNING FOR THOSE SENSITIVE TO ABUSE*** often let the men have their way with her young son. He "lost" his virginity at ten to one of these men and his mother did even worse with him. Jack's bum, as a result, is off-limits, even to Claire. He jumps when anyone touches it.

As a young teen, he became heavily involved in the punk scene in London, though he was in it mostly for the music. He had a mohawk of many colors at one point, steel-toed Docs, a leather jacket that still exists today, and a penchant for Bauhaus and the Dead Kennedys, as well as his own band, which was rather short-lived.

When Claire met him at the Ritz Restaurant (he splurged on a final date with his then-girlfriend, Melanie) in 1982, it wasn't love at first sight for her, but it was as good as for Jack. They began to date and were heavily involved and very much in love when they were involved in a car accident in 1984.

The driver was drunk and jailed, but released later. Jack found him one day and landed him in the ICU, which got Jack three years in prison and ended the relationship with Claire.

In July 2006, Jack sold his mechanic shop (he had been a mechanic as a teenager) in Ludlow, England, found out where Claire was, and found himself back in her life. They married on 3 December, 2006. On 13 July, 2007, Claire gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl called Charles and Adelaine Camden.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

ISABELLA FITZWILLIAM: Claire's paternal grandmother and the first angel in the family. She married Randolf Fitzwilliam in 1933. Born in Ireland and raised by two very strict and very old fashioned women, Isabella, who wasn't born with that name, ran away when she was almost ten and spent two years living on the streets before her wings manifested and she was kidnapped and sold into sideshows. She danced and became popular as a freak act, and was then sent to America at age fifteen. She danced on vaudeville, mainly in Chicago, becoming a major sensation. Randolf met her in Chicago in 1929 and the two kept correspondence steadily. She joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1930 and Randolf came to New York City for the New Year's Ball in 1930/31. Before asking her to marry him a year later, he went back and forth between London, where he lived, and New York City, where she lived. In 1932, she left the show after the creator's death. Engaged, she lived with Randolf in South Africa, where his family lived for a century and owned a grand estate. They married in 1933

In 1934, they had the first of three children, Claire's father, Charlie.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

RANDOLF FITZWILLIAM: Claire's paternal grandfather. A human and a Fitzwilliam (which practically made him immortal just by the name), he was raised in the lap of Edwardian luxury and had two younger siblings, Nigel and Anne.

As a teen, he attended Eton College, upholding a long tradition for male Fitzwilliams, and was quite the popular boy. Smart, witty, and impeccably wealthy, he had many friends and did many sports and courted many girls (somehow). He often went to jazz clubs with his friends and fell for the dancers there. He had a very serious relationship when he was about seventeen, that progressed for over a year, almost to the point of a proposal. Unfortunately (or fortunately for our story), she fell in love with someone else and left him.

Randolf had just joined the army, but his spirits were sore so left in order to either attend uni or travel. He chose traveling, and at nineteen, he and some friends went to America to chase down the real jazz girls of the age, and in Chicago he met Isabella. The rest you can read in her section.

He fought in WWII, not knowing his wife was pregnant with their third child at the time (a girl), and came away with a limp and damaged hearing. Both of those healed over time but came back to afflict him as he reached old age--something his wife would never do.

In 1982, pneumonia weakened him. In 1983, he died. Isabella crossed over after, unable to live without him.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

CECILY Ó MÓRÁIN: Claire's great grandmother. Isabella's mother. An old, traditional, Irish angel who lives with her aunt. Hates anything related to humans and tolerates anything non-angel (they don't refer to their species as 'angel', however). She is very smart, very powerful, and very stubborn. She was also devastated when Isabella ran away at the age of nine. She will never recover from it.

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

ALICE FITZWILLIAM: Claire's paternal aunt (her father's sister). Petite, stubborn, and full of her mother's bubbly personality. She met Robert Capio in 1961 and the two remained together until he crossed over in 2002, traumatizing her in the process. The couple has one son, Fabian, who was also affected by his father leaving them behind. There was more to Robert's reason to cross over than simply being old and tired (he is 280 years older than Alice).

MORE INFORMATION: [link]

SO, LIKE, HOW DO YOU READ ABOUT THEM: Luckily for anyone who doesn't want my skimmed versions, we have written out her relationship with Jack, via Claire's diary; and the years post-Jack, up until her marriage and pregnancy, are currently being written and illustrated by me.

We suggest you start with the diary. It's located here. There are instructions in the first entry on how to tackle reading it.

Once you finish that, or if you don't care about chronological order, you can move on to Act II, which takes place immediately following the diary's close. This novella can be found here, and is still in progress.

(They and their relationship is covered extensively on this site: CLAIRE&JACK)

I also keep a fiction journal here, which includes a lot of alternate universes, as well as canon fics. Some won't involve Claire or Jack, but most will be related to the family in some way, so are beneficial.

There are more links listed below.

FANTASY

Okay, you've seen the drawings and some of you probably get that Avery and his mother are angels. Actually, Claire's children are all angels and this runs in her father's family, back to her Irish grandmother who was sold into sideshows in the 1920s and ended up on vaudeville before marrying a very rich diamond company owner, Randolf Fitzwilliam (oh, yes, we cover everything in this game), and moving to South Africa with him. Anyway, angels in this sense is only a term adapted via folklore and pop culture and historical record. They are not messengers of God, but basic extensions of the earth. It's complex. They are immortal, and had Claire not been an angel, she would have died in the car crash. Had Avery not been an angel, he would have died young, as well.

LINKS

If you want more, have we got a plethora of links for you!

THE CLAIRE AND JACK ENCYCLOPAEDIA

Dirty Life, the actual RPG
Dirty History, a secondary RPG where we only write backstory. (You'll see a lot of Isabella and Randolf here, as well as Alice's backstory.)
The Website
DirtyWiki, DL's own Wiki page (this is where you should start if you want to learn more)
The Fitzwilliam Family
Avery's Journal (his third journal, mind you)
Jack's Journal* (his second journal)
Jake's Journal* (his second journal)
Claire's Journal
Johnny's Journal*
Adage (Claire's aforementioned girlhood diary)
Act II (Post-Adage, pre-Dirty Life, a semi-novel)
Junkdust (My NaNoWriMo novel for 2007 is an AU about Claire and Jack)
Fiction Journal (For AUs and other canon fics I write)
Futureverse (canon)
Alternate Universes
"News" (canon)
Fitzwilliam®
CLAIRE&JACK

I hope this helps, but if you have any questions, comment and ask!

*Played by other members of the game, and not created by me!