Archibald Hastingston

**Archibald Hastingston** was born just two years after Benjamin and Barbara making him the second son, third child, to Viscount Beaumont Hastingston and Mirela Hastingston.

**Hastingston** name has been known for generations, the business with a “not so positive nature” under that name being what the family is most known for - Evergreen Funerals. Loyalty and strong family bond is what they are most proud of. Just like any other family, rumors follow the Hastingston’s regarding their gambling habits and casino business, but they have always been generous and warm hearted people, always ready to help. As children they were all brought up understanding the cycle of life and attending one too many funerals but their parents, as well as “nannies”, always made sure the kids were surrounded with positive things and had a normal childhood, never lacking love. They were all so very fortunate to be able to have a good education and have access to various of books.

Considering Benjamin was the oldest and he’d be the one inheriting everything, Archie grew up not facing the same pressures, but that also caused him to be uncertain as to where his place in the family was. It’s only natural for Archie to fade out of the spotlight as the family grew, but that’s not something that ever bothered him, he enjoyed the liberties that came with that. While his family still needs him and he is still very interested in their business, he can always disappear and focus on himself. On training and figuring out how to start something of his own - how to start making and distributing his own scotch. He has a close relationship with his younger siblings, especially with Margaret , as the two bond over their desire for something other than getting married, but unlike her, Archie has the understanding that he fits into what is considered the norm for a Hastingston.

Throughout his childhood and teen years, Archie was the one to help his younger siblings with their education whenever they needed help. He used to read to them, especially to Margaret, reckoning that might in some way help with her future. That’s something he still does when he finds her wandering off to go on her solo picnics, when he’d be the one to follow her not being able to bare her going alone somewhere not protected, and she’d get bored of him just standing nearby. While he is so caring with her, he can be rather harsh with Jude - in one of those loving older brother ways. Jude can not say he never got a beating or two from Archie when they were younger. If you ask Archie - Jude just needed to learn how to protect himself, how to fight and how not to let himself be naive at times. It was all for his own good. And maybe the reason for being so focused on Jude and Margo came from the fact that Barbara liked to boss Archie around when he was not older than 10 years, but that’s not to say they are in bad relations at the moment. While Benjamin was, even as a child, so proud of himself for being next in the line to get the title and flaunting that, Barbara was too busy learning how to be a proper lady, leaving Archie to devote some time to little Jude and Margo. Don’t even try to ask him how many times he’d heard Barbara say “Jude/Margo needs you. Go do this or that”, he lost the count. Once he reached 16, Archie was introduced to his father’s second business, something that all of his siblings experienced at that age. He was old enough to be let into the world of his father’s room in the gentlemen’s club - the world of gambling and pocker, giving Archie more space to work on his card tricks, something he started learning when he was a child, now making sense as to why he was finding cards all around his house.

## Misc

### Skills

Cards
Poker (tricks and illusions - sleight of hand)
Fighting (boxing)
Getting information

### Hobbies

Boxing
 poker
Bird watching
Fencing
Reading

### Likes

Gambling, poker, gossip, reading, scotch, birds, Gentleman’s club

### Dislikes

Cats, people crying, bubbly personality, non-apology apologies, people who say "no offense", hot weather, walks, tea

Depending on how and where you meet Archibald, first impressions of him are mixed, and not always…favourable. In social settings he can be pleasant to converse with, disregarding his maybe cold exterior and gaze, however he is cunning and knows how to turn the tables to get what he wants. Most his time Archie spends in the Gentleman’s club with his brothers and father, hoping to get more information about people living close by or hearing the newest gossip. Just like his father, he can be rather manipulative, resulting in him getting needed information out of everyone he talks to. There’s a desire to build his own business and, of course, help out with the family business after all so knowing everything can’t be a bad thing. Reserved and stoic but caring - those are three fitting words do describe him. Very little emotionally effects him, which makes it quite difficult to provoke or elicit a strong reaction out of him. Being tremendously patient only adding to the fact. Archie possesses a natural charm and calmness to him. His presence, at times, can be unsettling in the way his gaze is focused on those he converses with. While he does not struggle in conversing with others or holding a conversation, he remains a rather introverted individual. If there is no business that needs to be done, if he’s not training or following his younger siblings around, Archie likes to keep to himself. With a man like himself, focused on business and maintaining the family reputation with a stoic expression, one might find it funny that Archie sometimes finds himself bird watching and knowing almost every fact about them. That hobby became when Archie started following his younger sister Margaret to her solo picnics, being a caring brother fearing something might happen to her. While she claims she does not need him following her, Archies’s stubbornness can’t let that happen even resulting in him making her box with him in secret (knowing that’s not very ladylike) just to make sure she one day knows how to protect herself if she get’s into trouble and no one is around to help. That knowledge he hold of birds is thanks to many books he’d read. Archie, with his siblings, was very fortunate to be able to have a good education and have access to various of books. Reading is one of his many hobbies, making him well spoken and imaginative, if the business of his family was different he might’ve decided to follow the path of writing his own books or maybe becoming an actor, learning and taking everything in quickly going in his favor. One of the earlies memories he has is one of his rather odd nannies secretly teaching him tricks with cards, finding them all around the house they lived in considering they had and still have a gambling room in the gentleman’s club. She was his favorite person when he was a child, awakening the love for magic tricks in him - how did she make that disappear? How did she know which card I picked? That was something that kept him at night and he wouldn’t give up on it until he figures it out. Maybe that’s why Archie is now the master of illusion and tricks, and why he founds himself spending more time in the gentleman’s club than at the funeral home. But don’t be fooled by his exteriror - there’s good in Archie’s heart. If there is one thing he cares most about that’s his family. They were all raised to value and be there for each other, even if one of them was in the wrong you have to stick with and protect your family - family is all you have after all. If they can’t do it then you must clean up the mess they might’ve made, if they urgently need you you must drop everything you’re doing and go to them. That’s not only how Archie and his siblings were raised, but generations and generations of Hastingstons. To keep the good image of your family and the family business you must be gentle with everyone seeking service from you, gentle with families who are mourning their deceased - which was never the hard part for Archie, it all came natural to him being able to put himself in that position and feel the pain they are feeling. Loyalty does run in his blood and not only when it comes to his family. He is very loyal to his closest friends and usually gravitates to the company of other men. While that’s mainly because of business, people might assume that he's uninterested in women or marriage, which is not far from the truth. He does not seek marriage at the time, his priorities lie elsewhere, but you can’t say that he is not fully interested in women. His focusing is not on them, or  maybe he just hasn’t met someone who really caught his attention.

## Relationships

### Friendship

#### Atlas Delaney

See Atlas and Archie

Delaney’s and Hastingston’s have been friends for a long time. Seeing someone with a gorgeous love story made Milera and Beau befriend the pair and get their kids to spend time with each other. That’s how the bromance between Atlas and Archie was born. They have a few things in common - they both like to box, they get in trouble a lot, Archie is always trying to help Atlas figure out his shit, Atlas is even trying to teach Archie to sword fight. Often Archie makes and is trying to teach Margo to “box” ,to be able to protect herself if danger ever comes her way, so the three of them spend time together, but outside of that training time Archie wouldn’t like Margo being around Atlas. He is just a very protective brother and it’s not that he doesn’t trust Atlas, he just knows what Margo is like and what she wants/doesn’t want.

#### Adeline Delaney

See Adeline and Archie

Delaney’s and Hastingston’s have been friends for a long time. Seeing someone with a gorgeous love story made Milera and Beau befriend the pair and get their kids to spend time with each other. That’s how Archie met Adeline and since he was getting close to Atlas, he started getting closer to Adeline too. They embarked on secret little adventures without Atlas’s knowledge. They would explore abandoned, mysterious buildings in town, might’ve been scary for Ad but Archie was a brave little boy there to protect her. Now they are still friends and he suppressed his old feelings, he doesn’t want to marry right now and has better things to focus on.

#### Albina Northwick

Mirela Hastingston and Gertrude Nothwick have been good friends for a while now. Mirela would invite her and her kids over all the time, trying to help a lot when her husband died. That’s how Margo and Albina spent a lot of times together and why they are now really close - how Archie came to know Albina too. He never really spent that much time with her, it’s not often that he is interested in Margo’s friend but from time to time he felt like Albina was trying to get his attention. He didn’t know she had a crush on him, she didn’t know but it was confirmed after one of their shared family dinners when he gave in to her flirting and kissed her, only to realize he was not interested in her and still had feelings for someone else, someone he couldn’t have. Things have been a little awkward between them but he doesn’t want to let that ruin a nice little friendship, or her friendship with Margo.

#### Harrison Davis

Harrison and Archie’s relationship goes way back to their childhood days when they were neighbors and grew up together. Their families had always been in close proximity, sharing similar social circles. As children, they shared many mischievous adventures and formed a bond that has stood the test of time. They often competed with each other, trying to outdo one another in various activities, be it archery, horse racing (Harrison was always better, this being one of Archie’s weaknesses), or playing darts. Their friendly rivalry was a constant source of amusement for their families, that shared sense of adventure led to an unbreakable bond, and their families often joked about the "Davis-Hastingston alliance." As they grew older some priorities and responsibilities did change but being both nobles with high titles they obviously had to keep some kind of positive relations in order to have help in the ton, so they did… They are still fighting partners and train with each other, they also see eye to eye on most things due to them being extremely overprotective over their younger sisters. Things only started getting heated when Archie's older brother started courting Harrison's sister.

## Songs

* Me, myself & I (5SOS)
* Jackie and Wilson (Hozier)
* Almost (Hozier)
* Disaster (Conan Gray)
* Misery (Michigander)