Application for LifeAftr

[deranged_practicality]

Player Information
Name: Stareyes
Age: Over 18
Contact:Plurk: beccastareyes
Current characters: N/a

Character Information
Name: Isabella Camherst
Series: Memoirs of Lady Trent
Appearance: Isabella is a normal human. Canonically, we have a single picture of her. As a PB, I'm using Jessica Chastain.
Age: 30
Canon Point: Between books 3 and 4
Canon History: Isabella's world can pretty much be described as '19th century Earth, but with dragons'. Dragons are a natural class of chordates, just like mammals, birds, reptiles and so on, and things like being able to breathe fire are due to, for example, producing flammable gases.

Isabella was born as the youngest child and only girl of an upper-class but untitled family of Scirland (analogous to England). She showed an interest and aptitude for science at an early age, and quickly honed in on the study of dragons. Her father offered a few indulgences (not noticing when Isabella borrowed books form he family library), but when Isabella disguised herself as a boy to go on a hunt for a wolf drake, and was attacked, he made her promise to settle down. Isabella turned her mind to more ladylike pursuits (art, an interest in horses, preparing to come out in society and find a suitable husband) and her father offered the minor concession of finding a list of eligible men of their class who would have a useful library. For her part, Isabella would later call this part of her life the 'Gray Years'.

Isabella met her first husband, Jacob Camherst, at a trip to the royal menagerie with her brother, Andrew as chaperone. At the sight of the three dragons the menagerie managed to keep alive, Isabella forgot all her mother's instructions on being demure and started a heated conversation with the naturalist giving the tour and Jacob. At the time, the fact Jacob had been on her father's list wasn't in her mind: she did note that she liked him and wanted to be his friend. Never the less, meeting Isabella managed to convince Jacob that this was the sort of woman he wanted to marry, and that finding someone who would break social conditioning to show those traits to a stranger was unlikely. The two started a formal courtship and were married, and soon Isabella found herself pregnant. Unfortunately she miscarried, and fell into depression. Jacob encouraged Isabella to pick up her study of dragons again, and she launched into it with gusto, providing an intense study on sparklings, a tiny species native to the area.

Isabella having something to do and focus on helped ease her grief, and let her be sociable again, even if finding people interested in her hobbies was a challenge. She did make the acquaintance of Natalie Oscott, another young woman of a scholarly bent, and her grandfather, Lord Hillford who was a noted scholar on dragons and had little problem speaking of them to anyone interested. He was putting together a research trip to the mountains of Vystrana to study the rock wyrms that lived there. Isabella pushed to have Jacob included. When Jacob confronted her about her interest, she confessed she would also like to go along. They fought about it, then managed to talk through it like grown adults about both Isabella's feelings about being trapped in the role of 'upper-class wife' and Jacob's concerns about both her safety and his own reputation. He realized that he cared far more about Isabella than what others would say, so offered to support her petition to Lord Hilford, who supported her.

The expedition did not start well. Their local contact in the area was missing, and for unknown reasons, the rock-wyrms had taken to attacking people, and were far harder to find than they should be (lairs were found abandoned). While waiting for Lord Hilford from a visit of the local boyar, Isabella and Jacob noticed that the rock wyrm lairs were located in a rough circle. Visiting that location discovered a sort of 'elephant graveyard' for dragons: and, moreover, the conditions that preserved draconic skeletons (which normally decayed after death). On a subsequent invitation from the boyar, Isabella discovered that the chemist who was another guest was studying how to artificially preserve dragon bone and that both the death of their local contact and the behavior of the dragons (who had figured out that gunshots meant death and attacked people with guns) were related. Figuring that the group was unlikely to escape alive, Isabella managed to steal the chemist's notebook and the group escaped, but not without Jacob being critically wounded. The boyar's pursuit lead to him being killed by an agitated dragon hearing the gunshots, but Jacob died before the group could get to a doctor.

Isabella returned to Scirland, figuring that this was her one great adventure, and mourning her husband. She quickly discovered she had been in the early stages of pregnancy in Vystrana, and had a baby boy, named Jake after his father. She used what finances she had to fund a chemist to create artificial dragon bone, reasoning that what one man found, others could also find, and that preserved dragon bone was too useful (as a light yet strong material) to not lead to the decimation of large dragons in the world. However, a break-in at the chemist's lead to the theft of the notes on the preservation process.

Meanwhile, Isabella had been invited by Lord Hilford to go on another expedition to the neighboring continent of Ergia. (As it was a tropical locale, Lord Hilford was sending others, including Tom Wilker). The third person in that expedition was Natalie Oscott, who snuck onboard after being refused by her parents. This immersed Isabella in colonial politics in the country of Bayembe, which had allied with Scirland against its enemies, but was under more and more pressure form its nominal 'ally' for unfavorable deals. After studying the savannah snakes, Isabella and company were given permission to travel to the swamps of Mouleen to study swamp wyrms. However the oba of Bayembe wished for Isabella to return with swamp wyrms for his own defense.

Isabella, Tom, and Natalie lived with the Moulish for some time. Isabella discovered that matters to do with the swamp wyrms were considered sacred, and that only the initiated could learn what she wanted to know. Tom was ineligible, as no one that had killed a person or animal could be initiated (at the time, Isabella believed sparklings to be insects, so could answer honestly). The test involved getting to a rock outcrop at the edge of the swamp, halfway up a waterfall cliff. Isabella elected to build a glider from plans Natalie had drawn up, which as NOT the traditional way to do it, but let her realize a lot about the complex life cycle of swamp wyrms and, on her route down, caused her to become lost and discover the swamps were being invaded by the neighboring country of Ikwunde, looking for a way past the natural barrier to invade Bayembe. Isabella had to use her knowledge of natural hazards to lure them into danger while keeping herself out of it, and correctly assumed the party that found her was not the only party. Isabella informed the Moulish who agreed to hinder the invaders by hatching this year's swamp wyrms early. They then escorted the remaining prisoners out of the swamp and Isabella nearly got accused of treason as she negotiated that the Bayembe and Scirlings stop building a dam which would dry up the swamp, disrupting the Moulish way of life and the swamp wyrms' life cycle. On the other hand, she was able to gift the oba his dragon eggs for defense of the rivers and he was willing to agree to the Moulish terms. Needless to say, Isabella was told by her homeland that she needed to go home, now, and please do not go back to this region.

All of this gave Isabella enough theories that she wanted to charter a large expedition around the world. By the time Isabella got the expedition off the ground, her son, Jake, was old enough to accompany his mother. On the trip, Isabella learned not to publish too hastily (as she offered a theory on sea-serpent development that proved to be wrong), and that Yelang had bought the secret to preserving dragon bone and was hunting native dragons. A storm in the region of the Broken Sea stranded the ship for some time, and the Keongan locals seemed quite intent on keeping the scholars and the ship's crew on the island until they could leave. Isabella managed to get permission to try riding a sea-serpent, a practice normally done by the young men of the island to gain reputation. Accompanied by Suhail, an archeologist who had paid their expedition to haul his diving bell around to look for undersea ruins, she made the attempt, and ended up on a neighboring island that was forbidden to land on. Isabella and Suhail discovered another set of Draconean ruins, including preserved dragon eggs that showed that the ancient mysterious civilization could breed dragons (well, or so Isabella inferred at the time). They also discovered Yelang had been using this as a staging ground to fight the islanders and that they had built a lighter-than-air craft (a caeliger) out of dragon bone. So Isabella and Suhail stole it and landed on the next island on the Archipelago, to discover that Princess Miriam of Scirland had been undergoing secret meetings with the locals to cause the Yelangese trouble, and currently they were being held as hostages to get back the local king, hence why Isabella's party was kept under watch. Isabella, Suhail and one of the Princess's men re-stole the caeliger to bring warning to the Scirling fleet, and then, as they went to rescue the princess, got caught up in a battle between the locals and the Yelangese, partially due to Isabella finding another sea-serpent and getting it to use its jet of water as an anti-airship gun.

While the details of the mission were classified, Isabella was given a knighthood for her service to the crown on her return, and she was able to produce more stellar research. Never the less, she was left with the puzzle of the fossil egg she found, which matched no known draconic species (let alone the ones that lived in the area).

Personality: Isabella has lead an exciting life, and some of that can be attributed to her solution to problems: to come up with a plan, then go full-tilt for it, regardless of the obstacles. Sometimes (often) this can give her a reputation of sheer insanity -- sneaking off to join a wolf-drake hunt when she didn't know how to even fire a gun, diving off a cliff with an untested glider, riding sea-serpents. However, Isabella is capable of adapting to local conditions. She noted that in the jungles of Mouleen, she had to perform all the normal camp chores in the mixed group of locals and foreigners she lived with, because the locals were willing to tolerate foreigners who had to be taught everything, but not people unwilling to keep everyone fed and sheltered.

Growing up as a woman in a patriarchal society meant she also had to learn some degree of tact and navigating systems that kept her out of things. In Bayembe for instance, the locals insisted menstruating women be secluded, and Isabella was unhappy but agreed. Incidentally, this is what caused the oba of Bayembe to take a chance on Isabella, as she showed more respect for local custom than most foreigners, and she could be spoken to by his female relatives in relative privacy. Isabella notes that while popular press portrays her as some kind of cultural chameleon or champion of the Noble Savages, really, she accepts local custom because it lets her get on with what she's there for with more help from the locals and fewer arguments. It might be illogical and a stupid superstition, but Isabella has learned that while she thinks it is stupid, the locals usually think it is vital and they are good allies to have in a strange ecosystem. Even at home, where 'goes haring off to foreign parts despite being not jut a woman, but a mother' has made her a rather disreputable person (though being knighted helped push her back to the edge of 'eccentric'), she still reserves her trousers for field work alone.

Isabella has an intense curiosity. While dragons are her passion, she is interested enough in other subjects to want to hear about them. She maintained what was known as the Flying University, a social circle of mostly-women who were excluded from traditional membership in academic societies, and was the usual host of the gatherings (especially as she maintained the library she inherited from her husband, added to it, and was quite willing to loan books out). She also will ask a lot of questions, and is difficult to discourage from such. She has learned some caution in which conclusions can be published and which are for debating back and forth with Tom Wilker.

While Isabella does get angry, and she's certainly a passionate person, she can moderate her temper to keep from getting sarcastic to people who could retaliate (usually). She has learned the power of connections over her years of fieldwork: in her time in Vystrana, she had difficulty relating to the locals, but even by the time she travelled to Bayembe and Mouleen, she had learned to better get along with others. It may be that the difference between being the junior member of an expedition to equal partners in the field, to the one who had to do the planning forced her to develop some political skills. She also has a level of stubbornness that was required for a woman to break into a male-dominated field, and the ambition to finally be recognized. Her lifetime goal is to be asked to join the Philosophers' Colloquium (equivalent to the Royal Society in the UK), or at least to proceed a work so obviously deserving of membership that there is no doubt the Fellows are snubbing her out of sexism.
Abilities: Isabella is a normal human from a non-magical world. She has no special powers. She is a naturalist, so has a great knowledge of biology, though she is before genetics became firmly established (she is familiar with evolutionary biology). Field work meant that Isabella knows a thing or two about digging a latrine, pitching a tent, starting a fire, and so on. She is not trained in combat, or even much in hunting anything larger than her hand, but may or may not be able to recognize edible plants. Isabella can swim and ride reasonably well, and has a number of 'ladylike' gifts, so could probably mend clothing. She also is a fair artist, with an attention to detail she has developed.

Inventory: Isabella is coming from her home office, so will arrive in the clothing she is wearing and not much else.

Sample

Thread Sample: http://aftr-ooc.dreamwidth.org/2260.html?thread=630996#cmt630996

Q & A:
What’s more important: the way others see you, or the way you see yourself? One of the things I learned as a young woman was that I couldn't be happy being the the woman society or my parents expected to be. While I was unmarried and, thus, under my parents' roof, I navigated that as best I could. However, being the person I wish to be... it is as if color had returned to the world. There are certainly sorrows I would not have experienced had I desired to be thought of as a paragon of ladylike behavior and good breeding, but there were a more than equal amounts of joy. While I certainly am aware of my reputation, and how it interacts with my life, I can no longer stomach too many compromises from being my true self.

What kind of impression do you think you give to others?
Oh, I believe I can tell you stories about that. At least, in Scirland; I've found foreign lands are more likely to excuse my behavior in between 'strange, and exasperating, but mostly harmless' and 'my goodness, that woman will get herself killed'. Specifically traveling across the globe to seek out large predators, such as dragons, does tend to make an impact on locals. But in the land of my birth, I am considered throughly scandalous. Both for some of the things I do, and for things I have most certainly not done. Because, goodness me, it seems as if I should as much be in the same room as an adult man, or mention one in passing, gossip is willing to assume that we are passionately in love. Though, as I have been knighted, I seem to have shifted into the eccentric end of scandalous, rather than the social pariah. Which, actually, is a mixed blessing: I am aware that my work needs funding, but I'd rather host a salon of scholars than attend a party.

How do you think you measure up compared to your peers?
Well, that is the problem. There are a great many scholars in Scirland, but few of them are female. And there are a great many women in Scirland who are quite intelligent, but few who have had the opportunities that I have. When I was searching for a governess for my son, I met a great deal of women that, if they had the training of their brothers, would easily be their equals. And a few women who are certainly my peers. Some of whom are people I aspire to be like. It took me quite some time to adjust to calling Miriam Farnsworth by her given name: she is a luminary in ornithology. If I could do half of what she did in my own field...

Is it better to have loved and lost, or never to have loved at all?
Ah, this one is personal. Losing someone you love is incredibly painful. When I lost Jacob, so many people sought to blame my insistence on improper behavior, and a small part of them feared they were right. Without my insistence, we never would have gone to Vystrana. And, yet, Jacob was, perhaps, the first person who I felt I could be fully myself around. He taught me that it was even possible to carve out a space in a world that sees women as only wives and mothers, even, at first, it was only in a shed in the back garden where I did my studies. And... knowing the depths of my grief, I still am warmed by the heights of my love.

In addition, without him, I would not have my son. I am not naturally maternal, but I suspect that, just as I could not fit the expected role of a good Scirlish woman, so had to create my own, I could create my own way of being a mother. And, I suspect by allowing Jake on my last voyage, he may have found his own passion.

What would you change about the world, if you were able?
I would like us to crack the synthetic dragonbone problem, or a number of species will be wiped out. Or... well, could it be anything? My word, that... I'm certain that I would have to think on that far more. I don't think one person should be asked to make that sort of decision.

What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?

How are we defining hard? For sheer frustration, I would have to say planning an around-the-world scientific expedition. Planning and funding, I should say, as it meant balancing how we could make money versus the costs of resupplying the Basilisk.

Do you think things like politics and history are important to know about? Why or why not?

I think if one is not aware of them, one will end up in troubling situations. All I want to do is study and protect dragons. But, that leads to such things as discovering militarily-important secrets. Or disrupting trade treaties by providing inconvenient facts. Or discovering the key to a dead language quite by accident; I can only imagine what that will bring.

The point of the discussion is this: politics will find you whether you wish to get involved or not. Knowing enough to resolving the matter quickly and satisfactory is key. Well, mostly satisfactory. I have been told repeatedly that, while not officially banned from visiting the country of Bayembe, the government would rather I steer my attentions elsewhere.