Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)
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		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Light =&gt; Light: Human Small Groups =&gt; Topic started by: Lord Mayerling on 10-07-2011, 01:03:27</h2>
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				Title: <strong>Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lord Mayerling</strong> on <strong>10-07-2011, 01:03:27</strong>
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				<em>Dear Colleague,<br><br>It is with great promise that I send you this correspondence. A great mission of scientific discovery and adventure awaits you! I have recently returned from a voyage to the mysterious and beautiful Amazonian jungle. It is one of the last places on Earth to be fully explored, and offers treasures beyond the imagination of man. I am now planning and leading a new expedition into this exciting unknown for the benefit of science and man! During my last expedition to the Amazon I was able to discover previously unknown tracts, undiscovered civilizations, and unknown species of flora and fauna. But, colleagues, this is only a figment of what awaits us! Imagine if you will a plateau above the jungle canopy beyond where any white man has ever penetrated. Upon this plateau live the creatures only recently discovered by scientists in fossilized river banks. But here they still live! I myself have witnessed one of the great creatures flying through the air as plainly as any bird, though much larger than any bird native to our skies. I was even successful in capturing several photographs of the flying creature! <br><br>The planned expedition seeks to prove the existence of living specimens of the reptile creatures known collectively as Dinosaurs. Imagine the feats of discovery and research that await us! A lifetime of fortune and fame not yet reached by science can be ours! To join me on this great adventure into discovery, please correspond at the posted number. <br><br>Lord Ian Allenby<br>London</em>
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				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Elina</strong> on <strong>10-07-2011, 07:55:10</strong>
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				<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="bbc_font"><em>My Dear Lord Allenby,<br><br>I do hope my missive finds you in good spirits and health, Sir.&nbsp; Your expedition seems like the kind of adventure I am currently seeking, and I shall be delighted to provide my expertise.&nbsp; Recently, a colleague unearthed a fossil thought to be the smallest dinosaur in existence, for which he was published in <span class="bbc_u">The British Science Journal.</span>&nbsp; I was in attendance during that discovery.&nbsp; I do believe, My Lord, that you will find my experience to be of great assistance on your expedition.<br><br>While I understand that your letter was intended for my late husband, please be assured that I studied at Royal Holloway College in London and am highly regarded as a scientist in my own right.&nbsp; George and I continued upon our education together and until his passing, were considered Britain's foremost and possibly only husband-and-wife authority on the little-known science of paleontology. <br><br>I will be able to embark on this journey at your convenience and am looking forward to the opportunity to work with you and the scientists of renown that will surely be joining you. <br><br>With best regards,<br>Margaret Middleton<br>Widow of the Late Dr. George Middleton</em></span>
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				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Dashenka</strong> on <strong>10-07-2011, 10:25:19</strong>
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				<em>Lord Allenby,<br><br>while writing this letter in the frosty winter of Petrograd, I can hardly imagine what it would be like in the Amazonian jungle. However with the current upheaval in the Russian Empire, I cannot wait to embark on your mission. As you recieve this letter, I have already left Petrograd and will be on my way towards London. I should arrive one or two days after this letter. There are rumours in the Empire of which I can not openly speak but it involves Empress Alexandra's youngest child, Alexei. While I will aid you with my knowledge on biology I will also embark on the mission to aid my Empress. My knowledge on jungle flora and fauna only consists of what I have read in books but I am confident my knowledge should be sufficient. <br><br>As you might know, I have led some missions into the wilds of far east Russia, the Ural mountains and the Kazakhstan steppes so also my knowledge on survival might add to yours. I am truly sorry for the late arrival of both this letter and myself but the world is a big place. <br><br>Looking forward to meeting you,<br><br>With high regards,<br><br>Princess Ivana Galitzine<br>Petrograd, Russia</em>
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				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lord Mayerling</strong> on <strong>10-07-2011, 20:12:54</strong>
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				He tossed the post to his desk. Two responses. He strode to the window, folding his arms across his chest as he looked down on the crowded London street. He was pensive, disappointed. Two responses, both women. One wasn’t even English. Two responses. A Russian Princess! He clenched his fist together hard. Arrangements had been made for the voyage to Rio de Janeiro, but women were too soft for the journey, too delicate. Still the pressure remained for the existence of the Lost World to be proven. His funds were meager, almost certainly too meager to make the journey suitable for women. Two bloody responses. Two bloody women. He thought about why he was doing this, for whom he was doing this, and returned to his desk with new resolve and wet his pen.<br><br><em>Dear Colleague,<br><br>It is with great esteem that I can convey that you have been chosen to join my expedition deep into the jungles of the Amazon. Great fortunes and discoveries surely await us there. In order to meet the demands of the journey, I recommend bringing along kit and provisions for three months not to exceed five hundred pounds. Your intricate or expensive scientific equipment should be insured for loss, which can be obtained easily and cheaply in England. Please present yourself to my office in Coenti’s Slip, Portsmouth, Hampshire on or about the twenty-third of this month. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you in joining this pioneering expedition that will bring more new knowledge to science than any single event yet in our history. You name will live on in posterity for generations to come, and the scientific community will be forever in your debt. <br><br>Lord Ian Allenby<br>London</em>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Elina</strong> on <strong>10-07-2011, 22:30:59</strong>
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				<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="bbc_font"><em>My Dear Lord Allenby,<br><br>May this missive find you in good spirits and health.&nbsp; I was delighted to receive your letter.&nbsp; Please be assured that I will arrive at your office in Coenti’s Slip, Portsmouth, Hampshire on or about the twenty-third of this month.&nbsp; I will have enough provisions and equipment for several months and not to exceed five hundred pounds.<br><br>With best regards,<br>Margaret Middleton<br>Widow of the Late Dr. George Middleton</em></span><br><br><div align="center">~ ~ ~</div><br>Maggie sealed the post with a sigh of frustration.&nbsp; Whatever had taken this Lord Allenby to take so long to respond to her?&nbsp; Now she had only a bit more than a couple of weeks to gather supplies and make her way to Hampshire.&nbsp; At least the trip was temporary, and the servants would be able to handle the upkeep of the house.&nbsp; She would not have to concern herself with boarding it up.<br><br>Upon receipt of his invitation a month ago, she had hired a private investigator to tell her information about the man who would be hosting the trip.&nbsp; She was no fool.&nbsp; Although some information had been unearthed about Ian Allenby himself, most of the information gotten was about members of his family.&nbsp; In the end, though, it did not matter.&nbsp; He did not seem to be deranged or otherwise dangerous, nor did he seem to be targeting her for her small fortune.&nbsp; It was a chance she would have to take.<br><br>Her next letter was to her mother-in-law:<br><br><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="bbc_font"><em>Dear Mother Middleton,<br><br>It is my hope that this missive finds you well.&nbsp; I have wonderful news.&nbsp; I have joined a mission to South America.&nbsp; Hopefully I will now be able to find out what George's fate was three years ago.&nbsp; I am still filled with sorrow at the loss of your son and my husband, and I wish for nothing more than to find answers as to his disappearance.&nbsp; I will be gone for several months.&nbsp; Please do not worry yourself with how I am faring.&nbsp; George always admired my resourcefulness and independence.&nbsp; I shall be fine.<br><br>With warmest regards,<br>Always,<br>Maggie </em></span><br><br><div align="center">~ ~ ~</div><br><div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/8/85/Margaret_Middleton01.jpg)</div>It was on the twenty-third of the month that Maggie found herself dressed in white traveling clothes and standing with a small valise in front of an office.&nbsp; <em>Go on, Maggie,</em> she urged herself.&nbsp; But the Queen's honest truth was that she was nervous.&nbsp; She was nervous about meeting Lord Allenby and the scientists she would be journeying with, and also about venturing into unknown, primitive lands.&nbsp; <br><br>But the thing that filled her very being with apprehension was something else entirely.&nbsp; <em>George.</em>&nbsp; What had been her husband's fate?&nbsp; Had he come to his end peacefully, or had his death been something horrific?&nbsp; Maggie had no doubt that her husband was with the Lord.&nbsp; When he had embarked on his journey three years ago, she had been afraid for his safety, but at the same time, she understood that his heart and soul had been filled with adventure.&nbsp; George had thirsted for the thrill of discovery every bit as much as young wife did.&nbsp; Maggie had only stayed behind because her own father had been on his death bed and she had been unable to leave him.<br><br>As the weeks became months with no word of her husband's fate, Maggie had become frightened.&nbsp; She had spent a considerable sum paying a team of investigators to go to South America to trace the steps of her husband.&nbsp; Fourteen months after she had seen George for the last time, the private detectives had returned and explained that he had disappeared into the Amazonian jungles and was to be presumed dead.&nbsp; And indeed, she had never heard from him again.&nbsp; It was how Maggie new that he was gone.&nbsp; Had he been alive, he would have come back to her.<br><br>In the two years since she had been widowed, she had devoted her life to continuing his work, attending scientific conferences and participating in digs at archaeological sites in Britain and on the Continent.&nbsp; Well, after a suitable period of mourning, of course.&nbsp; Now, at age twenty-six, M. Middleton had truly become a known scientist in the field of paleontology in her own right.&nbsp; The prospect of living gigantic lizards, <em>dinosaurs,</em> excited her, but she was quite aware that Lord Allenby's musings were fanciful at best and fantastical or deceptive at worst.&nbsp; Had it not been for the possibility to discovering George's fate, she would not have wasted her time or her funds on this trek.<br><br>And yet, here she was.&nbsp; She adjusted her white gloves and took a step forward, her spine held stiff.&nbsp; Turning the door handle, she stepped into the office.&nbsp; Her tone clipped but a smile on her face, she addressed a gentleman.&nbsp; "I'm here for Lord Allenby.&nbsp; My name is Maggie.&nbsp; Margaret Middleton.&nbsp; I do believe he is expecting me."
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				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Dashenka</strong> on <strong>11-07-2011, 00:12:54</strong>
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				Ivana had reached her first stop of Moscow. Here she would stay, pack her gear and leave by train to the West. As the latest letter arrived, Ivana was in Moscow and she got telegraphed to her. It was a pretty late call and she had booked her carriage on the train already so she had to stay somewhere for a few days. She hadn't actually paid any attention to her equipment but she thought some basic alchemy tools, books and some collection files shouldn't weigh too much. <br><br>Wanting to make an impression on her host, Ivana wore a large dress showing her nobility status very well. In the suitcases she had with her were some more comfortable clothes for the actual trip. The boat trip from France had been stormy and not being used to much water, Ivana needed to lay down for a bit to get to her senses. When she got up, she was late and rushed her stuff into the carriage and ordered her carriage to the adress given to her in the telegraph.<br><br>A little after midday the carriage stopped and Ivana gracefully stepped out, told her coachman to wait and knocked the door before entering the office.<br><br>"Ivana Galitzine, princess or Karelia, Lord Allenby is expecting me."
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				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lord Mayerling</strong> on <strong>11-07-2011, 23:57:15</strong>
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				<div class="floatright">(http://images.askmen.com/celebs/interview_300/332_michael-fassbender-interview_flash.jpg)</div>On the twenty-first of the month the worst yet of the news came. Despite his father’s connections in Parliament, the Royal Society had refused to grant any funding toward the Amazonian expedition. For a while Allenby mulled dropping Dr. Middleton’s name to the Society, but time was running short and, unknown to Allenby, it hadn’t funded Middleton’s venture, either. The Society didn’t fund wild-goose chases. It simply didn’t believe anything like what Allenby proposed could possibly exist, let alone offer any sort of scientific breakthroughs from Allenby.<br><br>Lord Allenby introduced himself as Ian to Dr. Margaret Middleton on the twenty-third. His office was a modest one, and obviously recently and temporarily rented. It was staffed by a single clerk who acted almost like a concierge to Allenby. What he did well was control access to Allenby himself. Allenby, for prudent reasons, was avoiding the press. As a result, the press’ hostility towards him itself generated much of the publicity Allenby was seeking. Publicity meant donations, and donations meant funding. Even more publicity was generated when the embarking of a Russian princess in La Havre made the French press. When the ferry steamed into Portsmouth on the twenty-fifth, the press was waiting for the exotic Princess Galitsin, the first of many instances where her name would be butchered and misprinted in English newspapers.<br><br>Allenby met each of Middleton and Galitzine individually: Middleton on the twenty-third, and Princess Galizine prior to a more public event on the twenty-sixth to which Middleton was a sponsored guest. Privately, he said much the same thing to both women. He made no mention of the declination of the Royal Society to fund the expedition. He did however have numerous maps of an apparently unmapped region of the Amazon jungle. The expedition would embark on the White Star Line’s <em>Majestic</em> on the thirtieth, bound for Lisbon, Casablanca, Cape Verde, and Rio de Janeiro. The voyage was scheduled to arrive in Rio de Janeiro nine days later. A river steamer chartered from Rio de Janeiro would take them up the Amazon and into the jungle. Allenby had just recently returned from a previous expedition into the jungle in which he befriended the native peoples, and learned of the plateau. The natives called it Tecumpultec: Cursed Cauldron. The entire travel time to the plateau was estimated optimistically at six weeks from date of departure from Portsmouth.<br><br>The press conference at Remington House on the twenty-sixth turned into a debacle of the first order. Allenby announced that a new scientific expedition that would definitively prove the existence of dinosaurs was to be undertaken. Since his return from the Amazon Allenby had offered evidence that what he was saying was true, but the press didn’t believe of word of it. He had managed to capture a single creature, flying and at extreme range, in several photographs. However the authenticity of the photographs was questioned, as they appeared to have been doctored during the developing process. This was explained away by the crude equipment that was available in the jungle. The fact that the original films were lost in the Amazon only made suspicions worse. The maps that he had presented had been drawn from his own memory, and were thus useless in any serious posterity work. The press had turned hostile, and now at yet another press conference the entire exposition of evidence was declared a fraud.<br><br>Allenby had used the announcement of a new scientific expedition as an attempt to change his tactics. It was a disaster. The presentation of two women of unproven scientific standing led by man with no scientific background at all was a complete farce at best, and scandalous at worst. The press latched on to the Princess’ Russianness, and simply presumed her morals loose, and her scientific methods looser. Dr. Middleton was more of a traveling companion than a real scientist, and was off on some euphemistic search for her husband and butterflies. They accused Allenby himself for organizing the entire expedition around impressing an eligible daughter of the Exchequer.<br><br>Privately Allenby noted, with bitterness, that the woman in question had not donated a single penny to the expedition. He downplayed her role in the entire idea, though he did admit some romantic interest in her. He also steadfastly maintained his proclamation that his photographs, while of admittedly poor quality, were in fact genuine, and that his maps were accurate as they related to time and distance. Finally, he appealed to the two scientists own attacked position. Here was an opportunity to prove that women could undertake great scientific expeditions and present their findings to the world. This was something that the world of science had not yet afforded the fairer sex. There was something very genuine in his pleas and his passion for the challenge they were about to face. He was convinced that living dinosaurs existed, and he was going to prove it to the world, or die trying.
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				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Elina</strong> on <strong>13-07-2011, 04:35:06</strong>
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				Maggie sat in her room at the hotel a few nights after arriving in Hampshire.&nbsp; This entire thing has been disastrous so far.&nbsp; The media treated her scientific endeavor as a thing to be ridiculed, and the attitude made her want to prove them all wrong.&nbsp; She was a worthy, notable scientist, and to be treated disrespectfully rankled her.&nbsp; <br><br>Standing, she made her way to the desk, opening the drawer and glancing at the report on Lord Ian Allenby.&nbsp; A third son.&nbsp; Court-martialed. She had already known that his claims hadn't been taken seriously before, but she had thought for certain that there would be several scientists who would have joined this expedition.&nbsp; To come here and find out that it was to be Allenby, herself, and some Russian princess was shocking.&nbsp; Sitting at the edge of the bed, she read the report again.&nbsp; And then again as she contemplated if she should just go back home to York.<br><br>But she couldn't.&nbsp; No matter how much ridicule she suffered, she had to discover the fate of poor George.&nbsp; And that meant going on the journey, as she had already agreed to do.&nbsp; She wondered which was Princess Galitzine would decide.&nbsp; So far, she knew little of the woman.&nbsp; Why was she here?&nbsp; What did she hope to gain with the travels into the Amazonian jungle?&nbsp; Allenby was either crazy as a loon or had something to prove, or possibly both.&nbsp; And Maggie herself was going to look for George.<br><br>They would embark onto the ship soon, she realized.&nbsp; She had been careful to only bring along exactly five hundred pounds of supplies, as instructed.&nbsp; Maggie assumed that Allenby would commission locals to carry their belongings through the rainforest and onto the plateau.&nbsp; Perhaps he would allow her to go over the five hundred pound limit.&nbsp; It wasn't as if he had to carry the burden himself, after all.&nbsp; She had recently read of a new type of microscope that used a modern technology called Köhler illumination.&nbsp; She would like to take that along.&nbsp; And a friend of George's named David Misell had recently patented and sold a new device.&nbsp; She had brought along two, but perhaps purchasing more would be wise.&nbsp; It was an electrical device that used cells to illuminate.&nbsp; An electric torch of sorts.
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				Title: <strong>Re: Dinosaurs of the Lost World (LM, Elina, Dashenka)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Dashenka</strong> on <strong>13-07-2011, 10:42:37</strong>
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				Ivana wasn't sure what to think about all the media attention. In fact she was having troubles adjusting to being publicly critized by some simple journalists. In Russia, her name alone was enough for most people back out of the way of the carriage, let alone speak to her. To be accused of something like this, was unheard of in Imperial Russia. Soon however she began to feel a pity for Allenby and what the press called his 'darling Margaret'. The spelling of her name was a nuisance but then again, a press this free and cheeky couldn't possibly hold any quality or depth. The people reading this kind of garbage wouldn't even notice the difference if one would spell it out for them. <br><br>Her nobility status might not have any value on this island, her influence in Russia was still enough to get what she wanted. One evening, only days before departure she invited both Allenby and Maggie to the hotel for dinner.<br><br>"Lord... Margaret."<br><br>She greeted her guests as she sat down and immediately came to business. <br><br>"After all this pig hunting by the press I thought it would be a good idea to sit down over a good dinner and get to know eachother a little better."<br><br>Ivana looked at her two guests again and a faint smile appeared on her face. <br><br>"I know we all have our own motives to embark on this errant. Personal motives no doubt," she hinted at Margaret. <br>"Although the press here is quite cheeky about my motives I have managed to find a funding for this mission."<br><br>The noble woman waved her hand at a servant clerk in the corner and took a paper off his hand.<br><br>"This is a declaration by the Gosoedarstvennyj Ermitazj, better known to you as the Hermitage Museum. They are willing to sponsor this adventure of ours for half of the total costs. Obviously they would require that all of our findings will be given to them. On my good word."<br><br>The last three words were accompanied by a cheeky smile and a wink.<br><br>"All it needs is two more autographs."<br><br>Ivana turned the paper over to Ian. <br><br>"Now I have no intention of forcing your true motives out of you two but I say we use this fine dinner to get to know eachother a little better and relax and have a great evening. After all, we will be stuck in a jungle together for an extended period of time."
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