It’s funny how many tabs and various pieces of media I collect when researching. And how starting with one question pushes me back one step, and then another.
For example, I know certain aspects of Vivienne and Cedrick’s lives, but I have been sitting down and finalizing dates and details in order to continue writing Julian Files (Cedrick and his friend Julian from 2005-2006), and to write Domino (Vivienne’s backstory from childhood to 1/27 anthology).
I know Vivienne worked for the CIA prior to the Agency. I’ve been determining the exact title she held, how long she worked there, and more.
- This means I’m looking at the requirements of working for the CIA, two important points of which are that you must be a US citizen and at least 18 years old.
- The question then is when did Vivienne gain US citizenship (and trying to make it realistic).
- This question gets into types of citizenship in the US: birthright or dual citizenship. No one in her family had American citizenship, so she has to do naturalization.
- Looking at the timeline for that is dependent in part on whether she is married to a US citizen.
- That leads to the question of whether that includes dual citizenship, and whether Cedrick was able to have that.
- This gets back to Cedrick’s situation: while he was born in Canada (as I have it now), his mother was American and so was all of her family.
- In researching whether he could have dual citizenship, it will fall in part on whether or not his mother could have dual citizenship in the US and Canada or, barring that, if she was able to remain an American citizen while living in Canada.
- Which then gets to the question of when she would have become a dual citizen, if ever, whether she was able to do so, and thus at what time in her life did she meet Braeden, and at what age did she move to Canada.
- Knowing that (as I have it now) Cedrick and his siblings were all born in Canada, that means that most likely the timeline has to be before 1976 or between around 1976 (when Amy and Braeden were married) and 1977 (when Riley was born).
- Cedrick (and Vivienne) weren’t born until 1980, and then Aiden was born 1983.
- Meanwhile, I know that Vivienne had Boyd in 1999 (at age 19)
Incidentally, Jesus. The Beaulieu family is cursed. Whenever I look at the genealogy I wrote, I remember how much both sides of Boyd’s family were fucked as far as not having long lifespans. A lot of his family died young, in accidents, or they lived to an old age but it was before Boyd was born. By the time Boyd is born, his living family members are very, very few– and the ones who know of him even fewer, and of those the ones who want anything to do with him are down to one: Cedrick. Just Cedrick.
I also realized how awful the end of the 1990s were for Cedrick:
- 1994: paternal grandparents Olivia and Bevan die in their home from carbon monoxide poisoning
- 1996:
- maternal grandfather William Daniels dies of a heart attack
- paternal great-uncle Damon Beaulieu dies of natural causes
- 1998: younger brother Aiden Jacob Beaulieu killed by a drunk driver in an accident. Age: 15. Driver gets off on almost nothing in court.
- 1999:
- maternal grandmother Evelyn dies of a stroke
- Cedrick’s only remaining family killed in the Lexington bombs (mother Amy, father Braeden, brother Riley)
And then Vivienne… her life will be fun to write, but I need more proper research materials. Once I answer all these questions about dual citizenship and CIA and the like, it’s going to be frustrating because I’ll need to focus more on the French aspect of her life, and I really wanted to have better source materials for that.
As it is, I’ll have some wikipedia articles but… I wish there was an equivalent of Born Rich or The One Percent for the wealthy French.
Because Vivienne was really fucking rich in France.
I don’t know if it’s ever been properly explained in the series–probably not, since she rarely talks about herself or her life. If someone wanted to call her princess, while they would be incorrect as far as her not being royalty, they would not be far off as far as considering the amount of wealth, privilege, but also responsibilities, pressure, and expectations she had as a child/young woman. At least, after her parents were killed. Her parents had protected her from that life but their deaths took that more simplistic, loving atmosphere away from her for good.
If anyone knows of good documentaries, or films, (in French with English subtitles is ideal, but I could get away with Spanish subtitles too) or books in English that talk about the wealthy or privileged in France I would LOVE it.
The Inner Workings of an Ais 