Post by The Doctor plus one on Mar 9, 2008 14:01:25 GMT -5
Player Information
Players Name: Akahige, Takekaze (if you want my real name, you have to bug me in person!)
Age: 32
E-mail Address: takekaze(dot)50(at)gmail(dot)com
Instant Messengers: YIM takekaze50; AIM Takekaze
Character Information:
Name: Charles William Franklin
Rank: MD
Occupation: Doctor
Nick Names/Aliases: -
Age: 61, born May 20th, 1819
Appearance: 6'3'', blue eyes, one could easily call him the prototype of a yankee. He used to have brown hair, but that was a long time ago. Since he's not as young anymore, his hair has already greyed.
Actor: Jimmy Stewart
Belongings/Equipment: The standard set of medical tools of those days, including a stethoscope and a microscope, plus different pincers, scalpels, scissors and forceps. A watch, given to him by professor Heinrich von Hanneken, university of Berlin. Silver spectacles, after all, he's not that young anymore. Several medical books.
Any distinguishing features: -
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts
Family:
Father: Charles Robert Franklin, M.D. (deceased)
Mother: Eleanor Agnes (deceased)
Brothers: Robert Alexander (Colonel, US Army, killed in action at Gettysburg, July 2nd, 1863); Lawrence Frederick, M.D.; George Washington (current mayor of Boston).
Sisters: Agnes Mildred (married Edward James Anderson, an officer of the Confederacy, in 1867)
Nieces/nephews: 2 nieces, 3 nephews
Brief Personal History: Charles was born in Boston, the site of many important events that eventually lead to the birth of the United States of America. He was the oldest of five children and his path was already chosen by his father. Charles would, of course, study medicine and then take over his father's position. There was one problem. The boy didn't really want to follow such a predestined path. However, once he was old enough, he obeyed his father and left Boston. He went to Washington D.C., where he enrolled at the George Washington University to study medicine. The capitol and the distance to the strict father gave Charles a certain amount of freedom, which he had never experienced before. So it happened that he thoroughly explored the entertainment facilities of the capitol. But, despite those activities, he still managed to graduate as third of his class in 1844.
It held him in the States for a year, then Charles broke out of it. He jumped on a random ship and sailed to England. There he decided to stick to this life for a while. Charles spent two years on various ships sailing the Atlantic. After that he moved to continental Europe, just arriving in time for the revolution of 1848 in Paris. Soon the fire of change spread throughout Europe and students and workers alike rose up against their monarchs in several countries. But all of those revolutions were crushed by the militaries of the different monarchies. All except the one in France, where the French got rid of their king, again (only to see the rise of yet another Napoleon in 1851).
While in Paris Charles worked with a young Louis Pasteur and met François-Vincent Raspail, who was one of the founders of the cell theory in biology (he coined the phrase omnis cellula e cellula ("every cell is derived from a [preexisting] cell"), was an early proponent of the use of the microscope in the study of plants and was also an early advocate of the use of antisepsis and better sanitation and diet.)
But France couldn't hold Charles long enough, so, after those two years, he set out again and stranded in Berlin, Germany. For three years he worked and also studied there, eventually becoming somewhat fluent with the German language, just like it had happened in France with French. In Berlin he met Rudolf Virchow. After three years in Berlin Charles moved on to Austria and spent two years in the capitol Vienna, where he met Ignaz Semmelweiss.
Eventually Europe became boring and so Charles moved on once again. This time he jumped on a random ship and found himself in India in 1856. His three year stay in India proved to be very interesting and Charles soon became interested in learning more about those countries in the east. Once his time in India was over -pretty much after butting heads with an English colonel- he left again and met up with China in Hong Kong. Even there the British arrogance started to annoy him after a while and after four years Charles had it with them and left China.
So it came that doctor Charles William Franklin arrived in Yokohama, Japan. Yokohama in those days was a small village which harbored the foreign embassies and traders and the year 1863 brought the first signs of the coming storm for Japan. It was the year when the “sonno joi” movement, which was aiming to restore the imperial reign and the removal of all those foreigners, murdered an English trader. It was also the year when the British navy shelled the city of Kagoshima on Kyushu. It seemed that Charles had a certain talent to arrive just at the right time for troubles.
To him it was soon clear that the Europeans -the British mainly, but the French, Russians and Prussians weren't really any better, just like the Americans- didn't give a damn about the people in this country, which wasn't really anything new. Colonialism had its massive downsides, but somehow it didn't seem that the foreigners had it as easy as in other countries. The Japanese government was restrictive, a dictatorship. But even there the European governments weren't any better, at least not from Charles' experience. They also had their kings and emperors who did whatever they wanted. The people mattered little.
It was quite ironic. Charles hadn't chosen this path if his father hadn't forced it on him, yet -despite the fact that Charles really despised his father for this- he still enjoyed his profession.
So this was Japan in the year 1863.
For two years Charles remained in Yokohama, but soon the narrow environment became annoying. During those two years he worked mainly for the American settlement, both traders and the embassy, but also for the dignitaries of other countries. Eventually and with the help of the Dutch interpreter of the French embassy -the only way to communicate in those days was through the Dutch, who had had the trade monopoly with Japan for almost 200 years-, Charles managed to move out of Yokohama. Surely, he had visited Edo, as Tokyo was called back then, a couple of times before, but now he was actually moving to live there.
But of course, such a move not only displeased the government or the other foreigners -what crazy person would move right into the heart of those people with the sharp swords-, but also those who opposed the foreign presence weren't too happy with it.
His worst opponent, though, proved to be O-Hina. O-Hina was a woman in her early forties, late thirties. Widowed, her husband was killed in a fire at least ten years ago, she was now running a small inn, mainly known for its alcohol and the fact that drunk samurai and ronin ended up fighting each other at least once per week. O-Hina didn't really care about the fighting, since the culprits had to pay for all the damage they caused -she had very good connections to the local law enforcement officials, thus she was in the position of forcing samurai into paying. The real problem for her was this nosey foreigner who decided to take lodging at her inn.
It got worse then the foreigner decided to follow his profession around her place. It seemed that he was a doctor and the Japanese had a certain dislike for anything connected to death and disease. That was rooted deeply in Shinto, which forbade any contact with death and disease. Of course she and Charles butted heads, which came to it's climax a few weeks after he had decided to work as a doctor for the people there.
It was still 1865 when a little girl appeared. People on the neighborhood had long since heard that a foreign doctor was now working there, and there were some who simply came to see this tall foreigner and his tools. The girl came for a different reason, which was, in fact, no reason at all. She was simply the driftwood of a large city such as Edo. O-Suzu's parents and siblings had been killed by a fire, she had spent a year at her uncle's place, but had eventually fled from the man and his ways. Almost nine years old she had tried to survive on the streets, but had almost failed. When she appeared at O-Hina's place she looked horrible, dirty, starving not to mention the smell radiating from her. O-Hina was appalled by the sight of this thing, but her attempts of shooing her away didn't work, especially not when Charles intervened. Again they butted heads. It was the worst quarrel they ever had, and it resulted in two things: Firstly, the girl was allowed to stay, and secondly it was the first hint towards a beginning relation between O-Hina and Charles (however, that still took them almost a year).
Over the next few years the relation between O-Hina and Charles deepened, while the little girl slowly grew up and became part of the household. Charles' gut feeling proved to be right when she first showed interest for his profession. The thing that had intrigued him most had been her eyes, curious and intelligent.
During those years Charles and the two women in his life watched how Japan fell into civil war and how the imperial restoration succeeded. After the civil war from 1868 to 1869 and the opening of the country to western ideas, Charles was one of the first doctors to teach the basic principles of hygiene to aspiring Japanese colleagues. But even though he was actively helping with reforming the medical training in Japan, he never accepted offerings for a real teaching position on one of the newly founded universities.
Then, in 1875, O-Hina passed away. She had been suffering from cancer for at least 3 years and Charles hadn't been able to help her. He was forced to watch her die. Her death made him consider his options. Maybe it was time to leave Japan. But it took until the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Seeing that a handful of samurai rebelled simply because they were unhappy -one of their leaders even joined because the emperor refused to go to war with Korea- really did it for him. But not only for Charles. O-Suzu, now 21, had her own problems at hand -not to mention that her opinion about the rebelling samurai was not the best, after all O-Suzu was a peasant. As someone born in a city she would have been married by that age already, but who was willing to marry her anyway? Her interests were not typical for women in those days. She had been enthralled by the western arts of medicine and she knew that Japan would not give her a chance to really work in this profession. Of course, daughters of wealthy people would, possibly, soon be able to engage in such studies in the new universities, but for O-Suzu that was way out of reach. And if Sensei was leaving Japan, what could she possibly do here? That was when the girl decided to go with him as her future in Japan was less than pomising.
After a quarrel, that reminded Charles very much of the fights he used to have with O-Hina, he left Japan with O-Suzu in 1879, but, instead of heading directly to the United States, they took the long way across Asia and around Africa into Europe and then for New York. After visiting Boston for the first time in several decades -and clashing with his brother George- it was clear that the east coast was not his home. Thus Charles set out for the west. Go west young man, go west.
Personality/Quirks: Talks to himself occasionally. While he's usually rather soft-spoken and extremely polite he can blow up at someone for various reasons, usually when something goes completely against his own ethics. Would he have been in the States prior to the civil war, it is likely that he would have supported the abolitionists. However, he would not have supported the war against the southern states. It is likely that he would have volunteered for a field hospital.
Other important notes: When finishing university, Charles swore an oath, which he considers binding above all. He will not violate it. Never.
Charles is usually soft-spoken, has an extremely polite and even shy manner, with a very recognizable drawl in his voice.
He has a very low tolerance for alcohol and ends up rambling and raving when drunk.
Audition Piece:
Go west young man, go west. What was the west anyway, other than a copy of the east coast? Or better said, a more corrupt copy. But maybe not even that. The east coast was corrupt, the only difference was, that there wasn't as much murder and death as in the west. And now he was heading for this west. It was quite odd to be back in America again, especially after all those years. Boston had been a disappointment, if not a complete disaster. His brother George was now mayor, that was nice, Lawrence had taken over their father's work and Robert... Robert with his damn patriotism had to get himself killed in this crazy Civil War. Americans killing Americans, dying by the thousands in their own corn fields and peach orchards, along familiar roads and by waters with old American names. Frontlines of a thousand miles, hundreds of thousands of soldiers dead, and for what? Just because one president couldn't control his lust for power? Charles had seen the effects such men had on their countries in Europe and in Japan, but that it would happen in America... Impossible, or so he had thought 30 years ago. Yes, slavery was evil, and Charles would have agreed wholeheartedly with the cause of the Abolitionists. But going to war over it? No, that was a price too high to pay in his opinion. There had to be more than just that.
Luckily, though, he had missed this great catastrophe that had plagued his homeland for four years.
A soft thud pulled him back into reality. The train was rocking along. Sooner or later it would reach its final station, there they would have to switch into a stage coach. Uncomfortable things those were, he remembered them from Germany. Charles William Franklin, medical doctor, turned his head to the side. Next to him was a small figure, its head leaning against the frame of the window which showed nothing but darkness outside. The figure was sleeping soundly, even though this was only her fifth time on a train. Her parents had named her O-Suzu, the suzu, so he had been told, was an extremely hardy kind of bamboo growing on Hokkaido and, despite the young woman's small frame and the fact that she was tiny -when compared to European or American women-, she was just as strong, just as hardy as that bamboo.
After observing her for a second or two he shook his head and focused his attention back to the rest of the car. Why was she here? Why was he here? Back in America, heading for a future that was less than clear, into a place somewhere in the western territories, a place full of indians, bandits, soldiers, ranchers, gamblers, gunslingers, and other adventurers. Certainly, it was crazy, but what else was there to do? Staying in Boston was out of question, the tensions between his brothers and himself were just too severe.
Oh well. Charles crossed his arms and leaned his head back against the chair. Sonno joi had once almost killed him in Japan, and a certain colonel of the British Army would possibly shoot him on sight, so... how could it get any worse? It couldn't.
Players Name: Akahige, Takekaze (if you want my real name, you have to bug me in person!)
Age: 32
E-mail Address: takekaze(dot)50(at)gmail(dot)com
Instant Messengers: YIM takekaze50; AIM Takekaze
Character Information:
Name: Charles William Franklin
Rank: MD
Occupation: Doctor
Nick Names/Aliases: -
Age: 61, born May 20th, 1819
Appearance: 6'3'', blue eyes, one could easily call him the prototype of a yankee. He used to have brown hair, but that was a long time ago. Since he's not as young anymore, his hair has already greyed.
Actor: Jimmy Stewart
Belongings/Equipment: The standard set of medical tools of those days, including a stethoscope and a microscope, plus different pincers, scalpels, scissors and forceps. A watch, given to him by professor Heinrich von Hanneken, university of Berlin. Silver spectacles, after all, he's not that young anymore. Several medical books.
Any distinguishing features: -
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts
Family:
Father: Charles Robert Franklin, M.D. (deceased)
Mother: Eleanor Agnes (deceased)
Brothers: Robert Alexander (Colonel, US Army, killed in action at Gettysburg, July 2nd, 1863); Lawrence Frederick, M.D.; George Washington (current mayor of Boston).
Sisters: Agnes Mildred (married Edward James Anderson, an officer of the Confederacy, in 1867)
Nieces/nephews: 2 nieces, 3 nephews
Brief Personal History: Charles was born in Boston, the site of many important events that eventually lead to the birth of the United States of America. He was the oldest of five children and his path was already chosen by his father. Charles would, of course, study medicine and then take over his father's position. There was one problem. The boy didn't really want to follow such a predestined path. However, once he was old enough, he obeyed his father and left Boston. He went to Washington D.C., where he enrolled at the George Washington University to study medicine. The capitol and the distance to the strict father gave Charles a certain amount of freedom, which he had never experienced before. So it happened that he thoroughly explored the entertainment facilities of the capitol. But, despite those activities, he still managed to graduate as third of his class in 1844.
It held him in the States for a year, then Charles broke out of it. He jumped on a random ship and sailed to England. There he decided to stick to this life for a while. Charles spent two years on various ships sailing the Atlantic. After that he moved to continental Europe, just arriving in time for the revolution of 1848 in Paris. Soon the fire of change spread throughout Europe and students and workers alike rose up against their monarchs in several countries. But all of those revolutions were crushed by the militaries of the different monarchies. All except the one in France, where the French got rid of their king, again (only to see the rise of yet another Napoleon in 1851).
While in Paris Charles worked with a young Louis Pasteur and met François-Vincent Raspail, who was one of the founders of the cell theory in biology (he coined the phrase omnis cellula e cellula ("every cell is derived from a [preexisting] cell"), was an early proponent of the use of the microscope in the study of plants and was also an early advocate of the use of antisepsis and better sanitation and diet.)
But France couldn't hold Charles long enough, so, after those two years, he set out again and stranded in Berlin, Germany. For three years he worked and also studied there, eventually becoming somewhat fluent with the German language, just like it had happened in France with French. In Berlin he met Rudolf Virchow. After three years in Berlin Charles moved on to Austria and spent two years in the capitol Vienna, where he met Ignaz Semmelweiss.
Eventually Europe became boring and so Charles moved on once again. This time he jumped on a random ship and found himself in India in 1856. His three year stay in India proved to be very interesting and Charles soon became interested in learning more about those countries in the east. Once his time in India was over -pretty much after butting heads with an English colonel- he left again and met up with China in Hong Kong. Even there the British arrogance started to annoy him after a while and after four years Charles had it with them and left China.
So it came that doctor Charles William Franklin arrived in Yokohama, Japan. Yokohama in those days was a small village which harbored the foreign embassies and traders and the year 1863 brought the first signs of the coming storm for Japan. It was the year when the “sonno joi” movement, which was aiming to restore the imperial reign and the removal of all those foreigners, murdered an English trader. It was also the year when the British navy shelled the city of Kagoshima on Kyushu. It seemed that Charles had a certain talent to arrive just at the right time for troubles.
To him it was soon clear that the Europeans -the British mainly, but the French, Russians and Prussians weren't really any better, just like the Americans- didn't give a damn about the people in this country, which wasn't really anything new. Colonialism had its massive downsides, but somehow it didn't seem that the foreigners had it as easy as in other countries. The Japanese government was restrictive, a dictatorship. But even there the European governments weren't any better, at least not from Charles' experience. They also had their kings and emperors who did whatever they wanted. The people mattered little.
It was quite ironic. Charles hadn't chosen this path if his father hadn't forced it on him, yet -despite the fact that Charles really despised his father for this- he still enjoyed his profession.
So this was Japan in the year 1863.
For two years Charles remained in Yokohama, but soon the narrow environment became annoying. During those two years he worked mainly for the American settlement, both traders and the embassy, but also for the dignitaries of other countries. Eventually and with the help of the Dutch interpreter of the French embassy -the only way to communicate in those days was through the Dutch, who had had the trade monopoly with Japan for almost 200 years-, Charles managed to move out of Yokohama. Surely, he had visited Edo, as Tokyo was called back then, a couple of times before, but now he was actually moving to live there.
But of course, such a move not only displeased the government or the other foreigners -what crazy person would move right into the heart of those people with the sharp swords-, but also those who opposed the foreign presence weren't too happy with it.
His worst opponent, though, proved to be O-Hina. O-Hina was a woman in her early forties, late thirties. Widowed, her husband was killed in a fire at least ten years ago, she was now running a small inn, mainly known for its alcohol and the fact that drunk samurai and ronin ended up fighting each other at least once per week. O-Hina didn't really care about the fighting, since the culprits had to pay for all the damage they caused -she had very good connections to the local law enforcement officials, thus she was in the position of forcing samurai into paying. The real problem for her was this nosey foreigner who decided to take lodging at her inn.
It got worse then the foreigner decided to follow his profession around her place. It seemed that he was a doctor and the Japanese had a certain dislike for anything connected to death and disease. That was rooted deeply in Shinto, which forbade any contact with death and disease. Of course she and Charles butted heads, which came to it's climax a few weeks after he had decided to work as a doctor for the people there.
It was still 1865 when a little girl appeared. People on the neighborhood had long since heard that a foreign doctor was now working there, and there were some who simply came to see this tall foreigner and his tools. The girl came for a different reason, which was, in fact, no reason at all. She was simply the driftwood of a large city such as Edo. O-Suzu's parents and siblings had been killed by a fire, she had spent a year at her uncle's place, but had eventually fled from the man and his ways. Almost nine years old she had tried to survive on the streets, but had almost failed. When she appeared at O-Hina's place she looked horrible, dirty, starving not to mention the smell radiating from her. O-Hina was appalled by the sight of this thing, but her attempts of shooing her away didn't work, especially not when Charles intervened. Again they butted heads. It was the worst quarrel they ever had, and it resulted in two things: Firstly, the girl was allowed to stay, and secondly it was the first hint towards a beginning relation between O-Hina and Charles (however, that still took them almost a year).
Over the next few years the relation between O-Hina and Charles deepened, while the little girl slowly grew up and became part of the household. Charles' gut feeling proved to be right when she first showed interest for his profession. The thing that had intrigued him most had been her eyes, curious and intelligent.
During those years Charles and the two women in his life watched how Japan fell into civil war and how the imperial restoration succeeded. After the civil war from 1868 to 1869 and the opening of the country to western ideas, Charles was one of the first doctors to teach the basic principles of hygiene to aspiring Japanese colleagues. But even though he was actively helping with reforming the medical training in Japan, he never accepted offerings for a real teaching position on one of the newly founded universities.
Then, in 1875, O-Hina passed away. She had been suffering from cancer for at least 3 years and Charles hadn't been able to help her. He was forced to watch her die. Her death made him consider his options. Maybe it was time to leave Japan. But it took until the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Seeing that a handful of samurai rebelled simply because they were unhappy -one of their leaders even joined because the emperor refused to go to war with Korea- really did it for him. But not only for Charles. O-Suzu, now 21, had her own problems at hand -not to mention that her opinion about the rebelling samurai was not the best, after all O-Suzu was a peasant. As someone born in a city she would have been married by that age already, but who was willing to marry her anyway? Her interests were not typical for women in those days. She had been enthralled by the western arts of medicine and she knew that Japan would not give her a chance to really work in this profession. Of course, daughters of wealthy people would, possibly, soon be able to engage in such studies in the new universities, but for O-Suzu that was way out of reach. And if Sensei was leaving Japan, what could she possibly do here? That was when the girl decided to go with him as her future in Japan was less than pomising.
After a quarrel, that reminded Charles very much of the fights he used to have with O-Hina, he left Japan with O-Suzu in 1879, but, instead of heading directly to the United States, they took the long way across Asia and around Africa into Europe and then for New York. After visiting Boston for the first time in several decades -and clashing with his brother George- it was clear that the east coast was not his home. Thus Charles set out for the west. Go west young man, go west.
Personality/Quirks: Talks to himself occasionally. While he's usually rather soft-spoken and extremely polite he can blow up at someone for various reasons, usually when something goes completely against his own ethics. Would he have been in the States prior to the civil war, it is likely that he would have supported the abolitionists. However, he would not have supported the war against the southern states. It is likely that he would have volunteered for a field hospital.
Other important notes: When finishing university, Charles swore an oath, which he considers binding above all. He will not violate it. Never.
Charles is usually soft-spoken, has an extremely polite and even shy manner, with a very recognizable drawl in his voice.
He has a very low tolerance for alcohol and ends up rambling and raving when drunk.
Audition Piece:
Go west young man, go west. What was the west anyway, other than a copy of the east coast? Or better said, a more corrupt copy. But maybe not even that. The east coast was corrupt, the only difference was, that there wasn't as much murder and death as in the west. And now he was heading for this west. It was quite odd to be back in America again, especially after all those years. Boston had been a disappointment, if not a complete disaster. His brother George was now mayor, that was nice, Lawrence had taken over their father's work and Robert... Robert with his damn patriotism had to get himself killed in this crazy Civil War. Americans killing Americans, dying by the thousands in their own corn fields and peach orchards, along familiar roads and by waters with old American names. Frontlines of a thousand miles, hundreds of thousands of soldiers dead, and for what? Just because one president couldn't control his lust for power? Charles had seen the effects such men had on their countries in Europe and in Japan, but that it would happen in America... Impossible, or so he had thought 30 years ago. Yes, slavery was evil, and Charles would have agreed wholeheartedly with the cause of the Abolitionists. But going to war over it? No, that was a price too high to pay in his opinion. There had to be more than just that.
Luckily, though, he had missed this great catastrophe that had plagued his homeland for four years.
A soft thud pulled him back into reality. The train was rocking along. Sooner or later it would reach its final station, there they would have to switch into a stage coach. Uncomfortable things those were, he remembered them from Germany. Charles William Franklin, medical doctor, turned his head to the side. Next to him was a small figure, its head leaning against the frame of the window which showed nothing but darkness outside. The figure was sleeping soundly, even though this was only her fifth time on a train. Her parents had named her O-Suzu, the suzu, so he had been told, was an extremely hardy kind of bamboo growing on Hokkaido and, despite the young woman's small frame and the fact that she was tiny -when compared to European or American women-, she was just as strong, just as hardy as that bamboo.
After observing her for a second or two he shook his head and focused his attention back to the rest of the car. Why was she here? Why was he here? Back in America, heading for a future that was less than clear, into a place somewhere in the western territories, a place full of indians, bandits, soldiers, ranchers, gamblers, gunslingers, and other adventurers. Certainly, it was crazy, but what else was there to do? Staying in Boston was out of question, the tensions between his brothers and himself were just too severe.
Oh well. Charles crossed his arms and leaned his head back against the chair. Sonno joi had once almost killed him in Japan, and a certain colonel of the British Army would possibly shoot him on sight, so... how could it get any worse? It couldn't.