![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Steampunk Personna
Aug. 20th, 2009 11:56 amWell, enough of you asked, that I thought I would write it up.
The Lady Katherine (Katje) Bouland of Lancater (Botanical Alchemist)
My father grew up on a small estate outside of Lancaster. The youngest son of a family with little money but a great deal of prestige and history, he took a post with the British Imperial Tea Company in India. He was able to marry for love, a woman younger than him, and they moved there shortly after my birth.
Living in north-west India, my father oversaw a chain of plantations. He flourished in the country, but sadly his wife did not. Two stillbirths took their toll on my mother, and she died not long after the birth of my brother, my only living sibling.
Raised mostly by our Amah, my brother and I had the run of the plantation. From a young age we explored, and listened to the stories of the plantation workers. My brother looked to the skies, and not long after finishing his school he enlisted in Her Majesty's Royal Airship Service. He quickly made Captain, a fact that thrilled my father to no end.
I, however, looked to the jungles. Long had there been stories of a concoction that the natives claimed would prolong life and bestow good health on those who discovered the secret of its making. The plants one needed to make this were rare and reputedly deep in amongst the trees and vines. I would venture as far as I could, taking careful notes and making cuttings of any plants I came to find. I knew one day I would discover this secret.
Sadly, disease struck the Empire, hitting at it's heart in England. My grandfather and uncle died, leaving my father their title. He became a Lord, and overnight our fortunes changed. Suddenly we received invitations to parties in Bombay and throughout Her Majesty's Indian lands. I had never had much time for society, and railed against being dragged to such events. It seemed that the men there only wished to have me be pretty, a jewel to add to their collection. My father, knowing how he aged and wishing me to be protected and cared for, wanted me to marry. I disliked this notion, knowing I could truly care for myself. I seemed to have little say in it. Moreso, this being flaunted about like a pretty package took time from my work and studies.
Things changed again when my brother bought scandal to the family. He arrived at one such function in his Captains uniform with an Indian woman on his arm. Not only that, he had taken her to be his wife! My father was incensed, casting him out of the family. It hurt him desperately, and his health declined so rapidly after that. Many arguments came of this. My brother had been no angel in his youth, carousing and gambling as boys are wont to do, or so I had been told. But for all that we had lived among the Indian people so long, my father could never see them as equals, or worthy of our family name, and now title. In the end, we spoke no more of it, and I continued to see my brother and his wife discreetly, giving them help when I could.
Even more intent on my marriage, as I would gain his title now, I acquiesced to marry a friend of his. He was much younger than my father, though many years my senior, and I had known him for many years. Unlike the puffed-up peacocks I met through society, he treated me as an intellectual equal. Our marriage was more one of convenience -- he an inventor, wished someone to be his companion, and would leave me to my own studies.
We decided, shortly after my father's death two years later, to travel to newer lands. My brother's disobedience had eaten at him and he had never been the same, for all that he was promoted again and again in the Airship Service. Impending war with the Kaiser meant able men were rewarded, scandal in their lives or not.
My husband wished to leave that behind us, and to meet with some intellectuals interested in his field of research - mastering time itself! Myself, I had heard similar legends of a botanical philosopher's stone, if you will, which existed amongst the natives of Her Majesty's lands in Australia. Because of this we booked tickets on one of the first long distance air-ships between India and Australia. Oh, how exciting to start a new life and new research. I admit to being thrilled.
/Finis
The Lady Katherine (Katje) Bouland of Lancater (Botanical Alchemist)
My father grew up on a small estate outside of Lancaster. The youngest son of a family with little money but a great deal of prestige and history, he took a post with the British Imperial Tea Company in India. He was able to marry for love, a woman younger than him, and they moved there shortly after my birth.
Living in north-west India, my father oversaw a chain of plantations. He flourished in the country, but sadly his wife did not. Two stillbirths took their toll on my mother, and she died not long after the birth of my brother, my only living sibling.
Raised mostly by our Amah, my brother and I had the run of the plantation. From a young age we explored, and listened to the stories of the plantation workers. My brother looked to the skies, and not long after finishing his school he enlisted in Her Majesty's Royal Airship Service. He quickly made Captain, a fact that thrilled my father to no end.
I, however, looked to the jungles. Long had there been stories of a concoction that the natives claimed would prolong life and bestow good health on those who discovered the secret of its making. The plants one needed to make this were rare and reputedly deep in amongst the trees and vines. I would venture as far as I could, taking careful notes and making cuttings of any plants I came to find. I knew one day I would discover this secret.
Sadly, disease struck the Empire, hitting at it's heart in England. My grandfather and uncle died, leaving my father their title. He became a Lord, and overnight our fortunes changed. Suddenly we received invitations to parties in Bombay and throughout Her Majesty's Indian lands. I had never had much time for society, and railed against being dragged to such events. It seemed that the men there only wished to have me be pretty, a jewel to add to their collection. My father, knowing how he aged and wishing me to be protected and cared for, wanted me to marry. I disliked this notion, knowing I could truly care for myself. I seemed to have little say in it. Moreso, this being flaunted about like a pretty package took time from my work and studies.
Things changed again when my brother bought scandal to the family. He arrived at one such function in his Captains uniform with an Indian woman on his arm. Not only that, he had taken her to be his wife! My father was incensed, casting him out of the family. It hurt him desperately, and his health declined so rapidly after that. Many arguments came of this. My brother had been no angel in his youth, carousing and gambling as boys are wont to do, or so I had been told. But for all that we had lived among the Indian people so long, my father could never see them as equals, or worthy of our family name, and now title. In the end, we spoke no more of it, and I continued to see my brother and his wife discreetly, giving them help when I could.
Even more intent on my marriage, as I would gain his title now, I acquiesced to marry a friend of his. He was much younger than my father, though many years my senior, and I had known him for many years. Unlike the puffed-up peacocks I met through society, he treated me as an intellectual equal. Our marriage was more one of convenience -- he an inventor, wished someone to be his companion, and would leave me to my own studies.
We decided, shortly after my father's death two years later, to travel to newer lands. My brother's disobedience had eaten at him and he had never been the same, for all that he was promoted again and again in the Airship Service. Impending war with the Kaiser meant able men were rewarded, scandal in their lives or not.
My husband wished to leave that behind us, and to meet with some intellectuals interested in his field of research - mastering time itself! Myself, I had heard similar legends of a botanical philosopher's stone, if you will, which existed amongst the natives of Her Majesty's lands in Australia. Because of this we booked tickets on one of the first long distance air-ships between India and Australia. Oh, how exciting to start a new life and new research. I admit to being thrilled.
/Finis
