maxis_taste dare #31: Curious Swap
During her career as a scientist and a professor, Faith Goodie regularly began her speeches with the following: "We often place so much value on our truth, that what we see and observe here physically is the singular truth. But there are likely to be other universes that look a lot like this one. In some of those universes there are individuals who look a lot like us, think a lot like us. And some of them are probably sitting in a conference just like this one thinking, 'my goodness, did I leave the stove on?'". In such a place the Curious brothers were born into the Curio family as sisters*, all three with a thirst for knowledge of the universe...
The Curio sisters live in the largest city in the River Valley Basin. Greenview began as just another stop along the river's winding journey toward the sea. However, it was situated in the perfect locale to attract weary travelers and soon Greenview grew from a scenic small town into a cosmopolitan port city. The Curio sisters, Volhard, Rosalind and Lovelace, moved to Greenview while attending the local University. As the oldest, Volhard strives to be her best. During her childhood she took dance and piano classes in addition to her advanced studies in physics and math. By the end of her college years, burned out by the pressures she'd placed on herself, she looked for work as an illustrator specializing in science illustration. She supplements her income teaching biology at a nearby high school. At home she manages the house and the lab for her sisters who think of her as a bit of a tyrant but they do admit that her ironfisted approach allows them time to focus on their own pursuits. Rosalind Curio is passionate about robotics and space but her work is far ahead of her colleagues. After many exasperating years wasted trying to get proper funding at work she began exploring her radical ideas from home. She and her sisters pooled together their resources, borrowed and begged until they were able to buy an old house to renovate. Now that the house is finally complete Rosalind is able to continue her life's work and dabble in her favorite hobby--stargazing. Of the sisters, Lovelace is the most successful, financially. She runs a cosmetics company from their kitchen using materials from the garden to make small batches of very pricey lotions, creams and elixirs. The selling point for the product is that the chemistry used is more like alchemy, able to bestow transformation that is more than skin deep. She thinks of herself as a lifestyle guru and philosopher but her sisters think she's either crazy or a fraud. Her hobbies include skateboarding and music.
And finally, for comparison:
*Gender swapping the Curious brothers' names bothered me a lot for awhile. After some debating I decided to give them the names of female scientists, for Lazlo and Vidcund I stuck with the same first letter but for Pascal I wanted to swap him to Rosalind (for Rosalind Franklin) because DNA is awesome and Watson & Crick get so much more recognition. The house they are living in is a makeover of one of the binned houses (I'll find the name and edit this later).
Lazlo-Lovelace Curio Ada Lovelace
Pascal-Rosalind Curio Rosalind Franklin(I hadn't noticed until I was writing this up that Florence Delarosa totally looks like Rosalind)
Vidcund-Volhard Curious Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard