I've been pondering my character
I've realized that there is so much variety of costuming in steampunk, one needs a character in order to know which direction to go in. I did it somewhat backward, in that I visualized a costume in my mind and then figured out what that costume was telling me. Originally I'd figured I'd be going for the boofy Victorian look with extensive skirts and corsets and that sort of thing... nope. The image in my head is persistently that of an aviatrix, which is decidedly less fun-looking and therefore it kind of annoys me, but one's character is one's character. If my subconscious wants an aviatrix, then an aviatrix it shall have.
Once I gave my subconscious free rein, more details started arriving over the next few days. My character, Augusta Irene Carter, was born to modest means but wasn't interested in the typical married-with-a-brood life. When she was twenty years old and happened to meet an airship captain who was looking for companionship, she offered herself. She spontaneously chose the name Clara when she introduced herself to him, and "Clara Augusta" became her name from then on.
She saw joining the ship's crew simply as a way to escape the drudgery of the future that was expected of her, but after some time on the steam-powered airship she began to love it: the excitement of traveling to new places, the intellectual and physical challenges of working on the ship, learning about the business from being at her fellow's elbow during professional occasions (he's a trader who buys, sells, and trades supplies from one place to another).
However, she doesn't love him and he doesn't love her. Their relationship is solely one of mutual benefit (he gets someone to sleep with, she gets to be on the airship). After three years of her being on the ship he's getting impatient with her never-ending questions and her desire to accompany him on what he sees as "men's work" - the meetings with clients and that kind of thing. He regards her as a toy but she's no longer content to be a toy; she's learned how to maintain and pilot the airship almost as well as he can, and she wants to be treated as an equal. She knows that if she were a man and had the same level of proficiency she would have been made second-in-command, but due to her sex (and youth, to a far lesser extent) the captain continues to regard her as a dispensable piece of frippery.
She knows she won't make any progress where she is. The obvious solution is, of course, to get her own airship, but the problem is that she doesn't have the funds to do so. They're expensive beasts that require a lot of money to create and maintain, and there's also the start-up costs of buying merchandise, and she just doesn't have it.
So now she bides her time while she figures out where to go from here. Does she leave and try to pitch herself as a freelance pilot? Does she accept a post as a menial crew-person on another (less sexist) ship's crew with the hopes of working her way up? Does she throw her lot in with one of the ubiquitous pirate airships? (This is problematic; having lived on a trading ship for the past few years, she hates pirates with a burning passion. Yet being a pirate is the quickest way to amass wealth and, if a female's competent, the crews of many pirate ships have no problems accepting her as an equal. Do the ends justify the means?)
It will be interesting to see how her story progresses. :)
Once I gave my subconscious free rein, more details started arriving over the next few days. My character, Augusta Irene Carter, was born to modest means but wasn't interested in the typical married-with-a-brood life. When she was twenty years old and happened to meet an airship captain who was looking for companionship, she offered herself. She spontaneously chose the name Clara when she introduced herself to him, and "Clara Augusta" became her name from then on.
She saw joining the ship's crew simply as a way to escape the drudgery of the future that was expected of her, but after some time on the steam-powered airship she began to love it: the excitement of traveling to new places, the intellectual and physical challenges of working on the ship, learning about the business from being at her fellow's elbow during professional occasions (he's a trader who buys, sells, and trades supplies from one place to another).
However, she doesn't love him and he doesn't love her. Their relationship is solely one of mutual benefit (he gets someone to sleep with, she gets to be on the airship). After three years of her being on the ship he's getting impatient with her never-ending questions and her desire to accompany him on what he sees as "men's work" - the meetings with clients and that kind of thing. He regards her as a toy but she's no longer content to be a toy; she's learned how to maintain and pilot the airship almost as well as he can, and she wants to be treated as an equal. She knows that if she were a man and had the same level of proficiency she would have been made second-in-command, but due to her sex (and youth, to a far lesser extent) the captain continues to regard her as a dispensable piece of frippery.
She knows she won't make any progress where she is. The obvious solution is, of course, to get her own airship, but the problem is that she doesn't have the funds to do so. They're expensive beasts that require a lot of money to create and maintain, and there's also the start-up costs of buying merchandise, and she just doesn't have it.
So now she bides her time while she figures out where to go from here. Does she leave and try to pitch herself as a freelance pilot? Does she accept a post as a menial crew-person on another (less sexist) ship's crew with the hopes of working her way up? Does she throw her lot in with one of the ubiquitous pirate airships? (This is problematic; having lived on a trading ship for the past few years, she hates pirates with a burning passion. Yet being a pirate is the quickest way to amass wealth and, if a female's competent, the crews of many pirate ships have no problems accepting her as an equal. Do the ends justify the means?)
It will be interesting to see how her story progresses. :)