This should be your first stop here at 'If I Had A Heart'. Within are a few threads containing important information regarding the site, like the plot and rules. You can also find the 'Meet the Staff' thread here, just so you can get to know us! Make sure to at least look over the plot and the rules before joining, because they're pretty essential. Pay special attention to the rules, too, because they will be enforced.

Once you've joined the site, this board is one you should check regularly! If the staff has an announcement to make, usually about something site-wide and something everyone should be aware of, it'll be posted here! And this is where the staff will be putting up nominations and voting for spotlight awards once monthly so that those characters and members that are exemplary get recognition!

This is the board in which anyone - members and guests alike - can come and let the staff know of any suggestions they have for the board's improvement or ask a question for one of the staff to answer. Simply make a thread and post it, and someone should get to you quickly. But do try to be kind about your suggestions; this board is not here for anyone to bash the site. Constructive criticism only, please!

The process of character creation starts here! Within are threads for the canon list and the application template. Make sure to read everything fully before you start making your character! And once you've been accepted, you'll have to come back here to put yourself on the who's who page. If you have any questions regarding character creation, feel free to PM one of the admins! We're friendly, promise.

When your application has been accepted and your character has been sorted into his/her usergroup, your application will be moved here for storage! And then you can be counted amongst the lucky ones. Make sure to glance at all the characters being made! Also, do not post unaccepted applications here. If you do, we'll probably delete it and ask you to post in the appropriate board.

There's only one real way for roleplaying to get started - through plotting! This board is where you should post your character ad, explaining in as many or few words as you'd like who your character is, and letting everyone know what sort of stuff you need! Or, if you don't know, just write some general stuff and ask what other peoples' ideas are. Plotting is important! Do it with everyone you possibly can!

Every once in a while, a character just needs to get some things off his chest. Sometimes, that can only be done in journal form. Do you want to write from your character's perspective? Do so here. Just create a single thread for your character and reply to it as the journal entries come to you. It's a fun way to explore the inner workings of your character and can really help you get a grasp on him.

Have a love letter to send to your sweetheart? Perhaps a business matter to discuss, but not in person? This board is for those letters. Simply start a new thread for a correspondence, write out your letter, and have the one it's meant for post a reply. It could be anything from a short little note to a letter pages and pages long, but make sure your replies are an appropriate length!

The first thing new clients see of the Teahouse, the grand foyer, is just that - grand. The floor is marble, the carpeting is sumptuous, and a shining chandelier hangs overhead. In a few corners, there are chairs, couches, and bookshelves for those that are interested, but most take the paths to both curved, blue-carpeted staircases that lead to a second floor landing, of sorts, and then to the entertainers' bedrooms.

White cabinets, striped green walls, and a black and white checkered floor grace the Teahouse's kitchen, and all in the best taste. It is, of course, equipped with all the latest in kitchen appliances. During the day, the place is usually buzzing with activity, the servants preparing things and taking them to where they need to go. At night, though, it tends to be used as a place for the entertainers to socialize.

One of the less formal rooms in the Teahouse, this first floor sitting room is used by those that live in the house more than anything else. Within are expensive but well-used couches, a fireplace, and it tends to be scattered with the whores' personal things more often than not. There are windows open to the back gardens and it's a pleasant place in which to take a deserved break, or even to take a quick nap.

The drawing room is a formal, well-furnished room that can be used to entertain clients while they, for an example, wait for their entertainer to arrive. Sometimes it's used in lieu of Xanthe's office for the proprietor to have privacy with one of the clients, if the office seems too rigid a place or if the business is swift. It contains a number of cushioned couches and chairs, coffee tables, and several paintings.

Although the proprietor of the Teahouse tends to dislike too much noise, there is a music room that can make much of its own. It contains a few instruments: a baby grand piano, many a variety of string instruments, and even a harp. It's there mostly for show, but every once in a while, an imaginative client has the fantasy of properly wooing his whore with music, and for that this room is perfectly suited.

The formal dining room is rarely used but well kept. A long, cherrywood table takes up most of the room and is never without a silky tablecloth and place settings in the finest china. Though most prefer to eat at the small booth in the kitchen, the dining room is used when there's a number of dinner guests, especially when they're guests to impress. Otherwise, the dining room tends to be forgotten.

Located on the ground floor of the Teahouse, the study is a small room made even smaller by the bookshelves lining every last inch of the walls. Also in the room are a few chairs, a loveseat, and a desk at which anyone can do whatever business needs attending to. Normally, the study is used simply as a place to get away and stimulate the brain, as within there is no lack of material with which to do so.

Located on the second floor, this office is where anyone is most likely to find the whorehouse's proprietor, Xanthe Atros. It's the room from which all business is conducted, among other things. There is one large desk in the room with two chairs in front of it and a large window behind it. It is also said that Xanthe polishes his desk with Linneus's tears. A constant in this room, too, is the bodyguard, Argent.

The bedrooms are the most used rooms in the Teahouse and where the clients spent all of their money. Each is personalized by the whore that lives in it. Some are clean, some are dirty, some are dark, deep holes from which few ever return. They're well-spaced so that certain noises don't carry to other appointments. Especially the noises that come from Mercutio's room. Those tend to be terrifying.

The Teahouse is a very large building with very many rooms, and the corridors between these rooms are long and numbered. Each is no less elaborate than the rooms themselves, floors always covered in the best hardwood or carpet and windows always draped with rich fabrics. There are places to hide in these corridors, though, so beware of who may be lurking around a corner and listening in.

The highest-earning whores get their own bathrooms adjoined to their rooms, and they tend to mirror the condition of that whore's bedroom. There are other bathrooms, though, throughout the Teahouse, and they're always well-decorated and stocked with many varieties and scents of soaps and shampoos. Clients sometimes shower before they go home, to eliminate evidence.

There is a well-hidden place in the Teahouse where the servants live. All they do there is sleep, though; otherwise they're busy cleaning, cooking, tending to the gardens or to the carriages the clients arrive in. Although the servants tend to be nameless, faceless, and thankless, their job at the Teahouse is the most important: keeping the place shining and clean for the clients every single day.

The single thing that needs the most tending to at the Teahouse is the laundry. Not only do all of the whores go through several outfits a day, but the sheets need to be washed after every appointment and replaced with clean ones before the next client arrives. Needless to say, there are some very hardworking people that are washing and drying and scraping at questionable stains all day.

The grounds of the Teahouse are immaculately kept and quite beautiful. Hidden behind the house, they half many paths and many little hiding places for those who want a quick tryst amongst the flowers - flowers varied and colorful and perfumed. There are ornate tables and chairs and benches scattered throughout, if needed, and always a servant on hand to bring out a tray of tea or a picnic lunch.

Set atop a hill and overlooking much of Ivore is the royal palace. It has endless turrets and buildings, sprawling grounds and near-constant activity. It's easily the richest place in all of Ivore, and rightly so; the royal family lives there! Although the prince is absent from the palace quite often, it's been said. Few of the lower class see the inside of the palace, but those of the higher tell of its beauty.

Close to the palace is the D'Ivore gardens, a park open to the public. There are many pathways through it, winding and foot-worn, past many well-tended plots of brightly colored flowers. There is a veritable army of people hired to tend to these flowers, as well as to the trees and bushes and other plant-life. Sit on one of the many benches for a rest or maybe go for a swim in the man made lake within.

Ivore is a big place. Those of the higher class have carriages to take them around town, but the rest of the people have to go on their feet. The streets is where all this travel happens - but that's not the only thing that can go on. There are dark alleyways, there are hidden corners in which anything can happen. Or if you want to take an innocent stroll, the streets are a good way of accomplishing that, too.

Is there a place in Ivore that wasn't covered in the other boards? You can roleplay in that place here. Perhaps there's a corner cafe your character likes, or perhaps somewhere he likes to shop? Anything you can imagine - within reason, of course - you can make happen in this board. High class, middle class, low class - remember that there's a serious divide between all of these! And don't go too crazy.

There are three distinct districts in Ivore, each holding a different class, labeled simply the upper, middle, and lower. The rich live nearest the palace, and the poorer farther away. Residences vary from vast mansions to modest houses to run-down shacks. This board is where anything within those residences can be played, no matter the location within Ivore and no matter what the class.

There's another whorehouse in the upperclass district of Ivore, run by Blake Addison. His collection of courtesan ranges from the foreign to the truly exotic. The business is just starting up, however. It will need clients with good reputations and bad intentions, as well as a growing number of courtesans to suit everyone's tastes. Here is where the Oceanids will go to lounge and work, as well as the clients who wish to hire them for their expertise.

This board is basically for anything and everything out-of-character. There's a board for games, one for posting absences, one for playing out your crackiest fantasies, one even for coding help. Whatever you have to share with the rest of us that isn't in-character or doesn't have to do with Teahouse should be posted here! Use it often: it helps us get to know one another.

Threads both dead and inactive will be moved here, to the archives, just to keep the board clean. They'll be locked when they're moved, as well, and won't be able to be edited or added to. There are three sections: one for in-character threads, one for out-of-character threads, and one for applications. Feel free to take a look inside, maybe peruse some of the older threads! They can definitely be entertaining.