Alec wakes up with slightly more variation than Viola, usually either 5am or 6am depending on the activities of the night before. Alec runs with Belladonna, lifts weights, sometimes swims, and showers before he joins Viola for 7am breakfast. Over breakfast he and Viola discuss current events and what the day will bring, and then Alec attends to his correspondence - both encoded and otherwise - and holds a few morning meetings before his elevenses at 10.30am. Isabelle joins him at this time to have breakfast. After morning tea his schedule is much less predictable, but usually involves either meetings within Aldwycke or travelling to London for business. If Alec chooses to stay out past dinnertime at 8pm he'll have his dinner at a club or restaurant in the city, and then sometimes stay out overnight to indulge in any of his usual vices or simply to socialize. However, half the time he comes home in time for dinner and indulges with Isabelle instead. His bedtime can be anywhere from 11pm to the wee hours of the morning; he's always been able to function well on little sleep, and can wedge naps in if need be.

Viola wakes up early, usually 5am, and begins the day with exercise (calisthenics and light weight training) and a shower. At 7am she and Alec take their breakfast in the morning room. After breakfast she attends to the household, either meeting with the butler and housekeeper or doing the household accounting, and then takes her bird for a walk before lunch, when she begins her day-drinking. Over lunch she indulges in some hobby or another, whether it's crossword, blackout poetry, or simply listening to music. She keeps her afternoons open for social calls and events related to the Underwood family business, Alec's personal business, the many committees she's on, and her work as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. Teatime, usually around 4pm, is a social affair. After having 8pm dinner with Alec and Isabelle, she usually finds someone or another to fuck. Then she showers, attends to her plants and prayers, and goes to bed at 10pm.

Isabelle's day is less structured and routine than either of her parents'. She wakes up the latest, usually around 8am or 9am, and has breakfast with Alec while he has his elevenses at 10.30am. At some point before evening Isabelle will see up to four tutors a day for an hour each on a variety of subjects depending on the day: literature, French, German, mathematics, science, etiquette, art, and music. At 1pm she breaks for lunch, and again at 3.30pm for tea. The time before and after tutoring but before dinner is open to her, and occupied with any of her hobbies ranging from piano to swimming to painting to cooking, although she always spends at least two hours a day playing piano. At 8pm she joins her parents for dinner, and then has some relaxing time before her 9.30pm bath playing dolls, enjoying the garden, or watching television. If Alec doesn't pay her a visit, she goes to bed at 10pm; if he does, it can be 11pm or later.

Alec essentially has two types. The first and longest-standing is dark-haired, elegant freaks with something Wrong with them mentally - Viola, Lynn, and Phoebe are all examples, but this goes for men too, and as I expand Alec's social life it's a pattern you'll see recurring again and again.

The second is people who remind him of Isabelle. Since Isabelle was a young child, Alec's been pursuing people who remind him of her so that whatever urges he can't take out on her he can manage through them. This ranges from simply sex (when she was very young and he wasn't raping her yet) to murder, and you'll get to see a fic about that sometime. Blonde hair isn't a must, but it helps a good deal, as do large eyes and a sense of whimsy.

With the help of some friends who are better educated than I am, I came to understand a few things both in an in-universe sense and a meta sense about what it would be like putting Alec in Indonesia in the middle of the 20th century. I hadn't really comprehended before how much the country was fracturing at that time, and the degree to which that was spurred on by England. Over the course of a few conversations I realized that not only would Alec be unlikely to survive the civil wars happening in Indonesia then, but that as a writer I find it in poor taste to take all the atrocities that were happening then due in part to England and use it as a backdrop for the story of an English character. I hope that makes sense!

As for "why Leningrad", there are a few aesthetic parameters I wanted that the city fits at the time of Alec's stay there. It's got lots of waterways, it's highly populous, and it's not without its own struggles, although they're struggles I feel more comfortable incorporating Alec into. As far as a place for Alec's father to throw him away goes, the USSR also just seems to fit because it's hard to get out of and because Alec could have easily died there between his poverty and the harsh conditions. So as far as options went that were not Indonesia and did not pose similar problems to Indonesia as a choice for Alec's exile, it seemed like a good one! I still need to do more research but I feel more confident using it as a starting point.

I'm always flattered to hear people have dreamt about my OCs! Hannibal on a blind date with 16yo Isabelle.....once she gets over the terror of "cheating on" Alec, she'd be delighted. He's exactly her type (for obvious reasons) but Alec certainly wouldn't turn him down either.

I have indeed seen the NBC Hannibal and I loved it! I watched it with Null, actually. Of course, I'm no Hannibal expert, but I think he and Alec would sort of...circle each other warily? Each knowing what the other is, each having sniffed out another predator, but neither wanting to risk what they have by trying to take the other down. Of course, plot reasons could drive them into active confrontation, but I think both of them would otherwise consider it wise to keep a distance, because they're too similar to ever really be close.

Thank you very much for asking!

This is an excellent question, and I'm so glad you asked! My best friend and I have been doing research on this very subject.

The Walsingham family charter was written to permit female heirs in the event that the man holding the title has no sons, and historically the family estate has been inherited by a woman before - that's why Alec is Lord Walsingham even though his surname is Underwood, because a Walsingham heiress married an Underwood centuries ago. So when Alec dies, Isabelle gets preference over the many male cousins who would take her place if she wasn't there. She is technically the heir.

However, you're right - Isabelle is not remotely prepared to inherit, and that's by design. Alec has sabotaged her social life, her education, her reputation, her confidence....She's completely without the tools needed to fill his shoes, and Alec has made no efforts to give her legitimate siblings. Alec has made plans for his criminal empire to be inherited by a young American upstart, Ridley (created by my friend Ira), but both his treatment of Isabelle and his plans with Ridley come from the same place: a complete repulsion from and refusal to cope with his own mortality. Alec refuses to accept that he's a mortal man who will one day die, and that the world will continue on without him and that plans should be made for a future where he doesn't exist. He'd just as soon have everything burn down when he goes.

So while technically Alec has plans for both the estate and his criminal empire once he's gone, they're only plans in the flimsiest sense, and are in a way designed to cause destruction once he - the keystone - is removed.

The first time, Isabelle didn't realize she was pregnant until the day of the abortion. Alec recognized the signs before she did, and brought her to parish vicar and former surgeon - yes, there's a whole story there - Clemency Holt to have the pregnancy terminated. To say Isabelle felt conflicted would be an understatement. She had a breakdown over whether she was supposed to be a good Christian or a good daughter and told Clemency what Alec had been doing to her, but he chose Alec's side, and Isabelle ended up accepting the abortion. I'd give more detail, but I plan on making this a fic, and I don't want to spell out everything. In the end she was left severely traumatized and spiritually damaged, and it's an incredibly painful page of her life she tries to never look back on.

As for the second time, Isabelle was also unaware that she was pregnant until the day of the miscarriage. It was very early in her pregnancy, and while she'd been feeling strange for some time, she didn't put two and two together until she started bleeding. She climbed into the bathtub and waited it out. At first she thought of this as this one a rare act of mercy on God's part, sparing her either having to get an abortion or bringing Alec's child into the world, but soon she was consumed with guilt over that and went once more to Clemency for spiritual guidance over how she should feel after losing her baby. The conversation they then had introduced to Isabelle the idea that the isolation she's locked in with Alec is actually harmful and unnecessary, paving the way for her relationship with Maggie Beth later on.

If Isabelle had stayed, eventually Alec probably would have impregnated her intentionally, but years down the road when she's more physically capable of bearing children. It would be incredibly taxing, especially psychologically. Good thing she got out!

While m!Isabelle has a less sympathetic view towards victims of sexual violence than canon Isabelle does, he's actually no more personally abusive. He still has a desire to be a good person, even if what that means to him is different than what it means to canon Isabelle, and while he shares Isabelle's history of abusing staff, he feels just as much guilt and repulsion about it as she does. He's more like his mother in other ways, primarily to do with ambition.

m!Viola and f!Alec still have a tightly knit, "hand in unlovable hand" type marriage. In some ways they're happier, because m!Isabelle's birth was much less traumatic and was consented to by everyone involved and because m!Viola is unaware that his spouse is fucking their child. However, m!Viola does feel somewhat emasculated by f!Alec, and can be prone to displays of anger or dominance to try to compensate.

Good eye! They would be the Cranes, actually, since f!Alec would've taken m!Viola's surname before Bertrand's death. f!Alec would've capitalized on what remained of the family name to bolster her own power, and restored them in the process.

m!Viola and m!Isabelle are both happier than in canon. Funny what having the iron fist of patriarchy softened will do for you! For m!Viola it's mostly the lack of childbirth trauma, and for m!Isabelle it's the less psychologically crippling nature of his parents' abuse. As for f!Alec, she pretends to think that feminism is all a bit above her mental pay grade, but really she sees her fellow women the same way she sees men: as prey. Thank you for all these excellent questions!