Full Story Summary: Hark! A Role Reversal AU has appeared! In the legendary musical, we see America's founding fathers engage in legendary battles, triumphs and losses to form a nation. So how does a haughty, privileged, no-nonsense, sharp tongued, remarkable scholar of an immigrant woman sent to America in secrecy and squalor grow up to be a game changer with political power?
Enter Elizabeth Schuyler, the mind at work the nation is looking for who has a million things she was once helpless or resigned to not do who is now going to write herself into the nation she moved to in hopes for a new lives. Though she may be practical and intelligent, there is nothing entirely fair about love and war, and she will face plenty of obstacles along the way with remarkable people, both good and bad. Regardless, there is one thing she is certain of: When the time comes, she will not throw away her shot.
The ocean was choppy due to the storm that rained down on and off the day she and her sisters arrived.
Her blue Brunswick dress swung around her legs along with the wind, her gaze set on the busy colony bustling before her. She kept her left hand securely attached to her older sister and her right holding onto her younger sister, her face lighting up the more she saw taking place between all of the colonists. There were men and women alike conversing and trading in the streets, and they seemed as quaint, intelligent and proper as she'd imagined for years. She grinned at her siblings, jumping off of the dock with all the skillset expected from someone who grew up having to be tough to survive.
"Betsey, wait!" She heard Angelica call, but she kept running into the crowd; she'd spotted someone she'd heard much about in Princeton, and she was not about to let her go.
"Pardon me!" She called out above the lull of the crowd, finally catching up to the walking figure. "Are you Theodosia Prevost, ma'am?"
The woman in question turned around, her gaze skeptical underneath her lengthy hat. "That I am. What does it mean to you?"
"Oh, well sure, ma'am!" The younger woman chirped, her smile unshakable as she caught her breath and sidestepped to avoid clogging the walkway. "My name is Elizabeth Schuyler, and I'm at your service, ma'am. I have been looking for you-!"
"I'm getting nervous," Theodosia commented, but her smile seemed good natured.
Deciding she ought to settle, Eliza smoothed down her travel dress and gave her an excited smile. "I heard your name at Princeton, ma'am. I was seeking an accelerated course of study when I got quite out of sorts with a friend of yours, and perhaps my sister punched him but it's a blur, ma'am, as he quite problematic. You see, this gentleman handled the financials and found it improper to designate funds to a woman who'd far exceeded the expectations and requirements to achieve such aide, and I come to you now to humbly ask for advice on how next to continue with that university far out of the question."
"Your sister punched the bursar?" Theodosia repeated, looking impressed if not a little amused. "He is quite a difficult case when it comes to progression of the times, I'm afraid. May I buy you a drink?"
"I would very much appreciate it," the smaller replied sincerely. "I have been travelling all day and would be thrilled to share a brew with you."
"There you are!" Angelica's voice declared more clearly now, and Eliza saw her sister marching through the crowd like a woman on a mission with their youngest Irish triplet in tow. "I told you to wait!"
"I simply had to speak with Miss Prevost, Angie!" The middle Schuyler sister responded with a beaming smile. "Miss Prevost, may I formally introduce you to Angelica and Margarita Schuyler respectively. Sisters, this is Theodosia Prevost, the early graduate from Princeton I told you about."
"Sisters, I presume?" The New York native mused, curtseying along with the two new women. "The pleasure is mine. Elizabeth and I were about to share a brew, if you two would care to join us."
"You are too kind, ma'am, but I'm afraid we must be on our way," Angelica declined easily, her arm wrapping around their Peggy now. "I'm afraid the boat ride over was none too kind to Margarita, but we must talk later at earliest convenience."
"Of course," Theodosia agreed with a sympathetic smile. "May you feel better soon, Miss Margarita."
Peggy gave her a weak polite smile. "I will do my best. However, please refer to me as 'Peggy'; my sisters know I do not care much for my birth name."
"If that offer is still good, Miss Prevost, shall we?" Eliza interjected before her older sister could whisk them both away with her.
Angelica's look was unimpressed, but the nineteen year old was successfully able to walk away with her idol leading her. They walked into a homely tavern filled with men and a few women who looked respectfully toward the pair before returning to their previous engagements, a notion that made her feel more like more of a foreigner than she were. It was certainly not unusual for immigrants to come from London before, but given the growing tension between her homeland and the colonies, it was nothing short of a miracle that the three sisters were able to board and sail toward a new life promising freedom and opportunity equal among sexes.
"You seem practical," her new friend mused as they took their seats and ordered the brew of their likings. "Nevertheless, let me offer you some free advice: Reveal less, smile more. They need not know what you're against or what you're for."
"You cannot be serious." She found herself at a loss for words; sure, times were changing quickly, but a woman would get nowhere if she pretended to be compliant and agreeable.
"If you want to get ahead, you will hold your tongue and what you find until it benefits the most people to reveal it," the older woman explained with a mysterious smile. "Women who run their mouths wind up dead, you know."
As if on cue, the doors to the tavern swung open and in stormed in a trio of women, all of which looked overheated, parched, and ready to drink the joint out of business. The woman at the head shrugged off her jacket to expose her bare arms, a gesture that sent many gentlemen blushing and looking the other direction at the plopped herself right beside Theodosia.
"The usual!" She called to the bartender in an accent Eliza had never heard before. "Come, my friends, let us drink until we forgot our problems awaiting us tomorrow! The day is long, but the night need not be!"
"They do say that the consumption of alcohol can lead to shorter life span," the second young woman commented, her stature considerably smaller despite her face not being the most youthful looking. "I only want the best for you, Madame Adrienne."
"Do not worry for me, Lucy," Adrienne replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Try the alcohol, it will do well to cheer you in these trying times."
"If you don't like it, you just haven't had the right kind!" The third woman, the one who was clearly not yet of age and very spitfire-and-energy, announced. "The same for me, gentleman behind the bar!"
"Wait, wait, I know you," Adrienne suddenly announced, looking to Eliza's new companion with excitement and curiosity. "You are the prodigy of Princeton College! Do indulge in the secrets to life, we will drink all night in rejoice!"
"Madame, you are simply looking for excuse to continue your disorientating habits," Theodosia replied curtly. "For the life of me, I cannot understand by you look after such a loose cannon, Lucy. And Sybil, what would your father say if he witnessed you here in such a manor?"
When all three women exchanged looks and booed at Theodosia in a partially playful, mostly dismissive of the criticism manor, Eliza knew immediately she wanted in on their group. She watched with fascination as Adrienne launched into a spiel about how she would bring freedom to America while her husband worked on the same in France, smiling as Lucy chimed in about her dreams to assist those possibly condemned to an otherwise lonely death or recovery, and how Sybil raved that she'd be the first woman to fill the shoes her very successful father. Her first friend was clearly less impressed, listening with a resigned expression before cutting in before Sybil appeared to be finished.
"You never know what type of crowd you will encounter in a public place like this," she said with a quick onceover of the other crowd members. "You must be more carefully taught. If you talk, you're bound to get shot."
Eliza stood up so suddenly her boots made audible noise on the floor, her hands gripping her dress as the anxiety of introducing herself to such remarkable women faded into temporary confidence. "I intend to get a scholarship to King's College, it is not polite to brag but I'm set to amaze and astonish. I have so many ideas but not accreditation, and yet boldly going forward, I will help shape our new nation. We must be loud to be heard, Miss Provost, if we are to take an honest stand and begin to topple both the patriarchy and the oppressive government that prevents everyone from being truly free. All the action in the inevitable war is exciting, but between all the bleeding and fighting I have been becoming well-read and even better written. We must handle our moral compass in spite of all the blood we shall spill, and formulate a plan to found a land of the free that can hold up post battle. Madame Adrienne here is an immigrant like me, and we intend to make this state, this nation a place where people can live and thrive regardless of where they hail. Miss Sybil is defying all expectations like myself, filling the shoes of a man that may not fit us, but we will make our own through our own accomplishments. Miss Lucy may be kind and not so eager to do the violent demands, and yet she embodies exactly what I have dreamed this land could become, should we be free of King George's mad tyranny."
Her lengthy speech seemed to have caught the attention of the attendees of the establishment as a whole, and for a moment, she feared she should have taken her original companion's advice for fear she'd be struck down during her first twenty four hours in America. Instead, the trio of women got to their feet almost as one unit, surrounding her and throwing their arms around her like they were welcoming a long lost relative to their club.
"I'm terribly sorry, but am I talking too loud?" She managed over their physical displays of approval and her own anxiety. "I tend to get overexcited and shoot off at the mouth; I have never had a group of friends before outside of my sisters, and I promise that I will you all proud."
Adrienne grinned and tugged lightly on the braid falling down her back. "You are perfect, petit fleure."
"Show those Loyalist non-believers what we stand for! You have to teach me how to talk like that!" Sybil chimed in with a grin. "Hell, we ought to get you in front of a crowd!"
"You speak so eloquently and so honestly, I know you will make all the difference you promise!" Lucy agreed with a grin that made the young Schuyler feel like she was coming home for the first time. "What is your name, ma'am?"
Giving a grin she was unashamed to conceal any further, she dropped her grip on her dress confidently and stood up straight, so much so that no onlooker could mistake exactly who they'd be dealing with. "Elizabeth Schuyler. My name is Elizabeth Schuyler."