Introduction
Nikolaas van Lynden
"But I have lived, and have not lived in vain." - Lord Byron
Appearance
Notable Features
Dark chestnut hair, bright blue eyes, and a slightly olive complexion with a number of moles/beauty marks on his face and neck. He smells perpetually of cigarettes and his fingertips are never completely clean of ink.Personal Style
Nikolaas' aspect can most accurately be described as "Byronic," and that is by his design. His dark mop of hair is often artfully messy, his blue eyes fierce. His skin has a more olive tone than might be expected from the Dutch aristocracy, and if he's compared to Heathcliff in that regard, he won't complain. Nik's stature is only a smidge over average, which is just as well, as he carries himself with such an innate intensity that any taller and he would loom. Beneath his well-tended attire, he is slender but fit, and more boyish than he would like. Nikolaas is not inclined much to smiling, but when he does, he tends to look much younger than his age.If the cigarette smoke wreathing his head projects an aura of mystery, that is intentional, too.
Nikolaas van Lynden
Circumstances
Currently
Presently, Nikolaas is spitting his time between the London house and country house belonging to his uncle-in-law, the Viscount Rochdale. This is all under duress, as dictated by his father after the intra-familial scandal of having discovered his son being plowed by another man. What Count van Lynden hopes to gain from Nik's exile is anyone's guess, although ostensibly Rochdale has a reputation for his strictness. (In reality, not so much.) For the most part Nik is spending time in books, attempting to write poetry (and failing), and spending grudging time with his cousin, Rast, so that he is not so lonely all the time.Health & Capabilities
Nikolaas is addicted to opiates, in particular laudanum, which you may still purchase from any chemist. Now that he is mostly past the worst throes of his grief, he would like to pare back his usage of the drug if only so to properly feel something again that might inspire his pen. This is of course not going very well.Apart from that, he survives principally on coffee and cigarettes, so despite being a young man, his health could be much better. He enjoys the outdoors, but couldn't be considered "active," as such.
Socioeconomics
Nikolaas has grown up in a wealthy family. The only reason he attended university was because his father insisted. He is now in England under threat of disinheritance, but still receives a monthly allowance that is nothing to sneeze at. He buys what he wants when he wants it, and while part of him romanticizes the idea of being poor, he knows himself far too well to ever allow himself to be.Skills & Talents
Fluency on pianoFluent in Dutch, English, French and Latin
Expertise in theology and philosophy
Writer of exceptionally maudlin poetry
Background
History
As the youngest child and second-born son, Nikolaas van Lynden entered the world without a great deal of fanfare, but controversy began nipping at his heels before he could even walk. The olive tint to his complexion was faint, but undeniable in a child born to two pale Dutch aristocrats. The kinder gossips cited a supposed Spanish great-great-something in the depths of his mother's ancestry. Most implied a connection to a notorious Italian painter who had come to the Netherlands to learn from the Dutch masters.Whether the open question of his birth affected the manner in which Nik's father regarded him was impossible to determine: His emotional distance was universal to all of his children. However, with a nine-year gap between Nik and his next-oldest sibling, from his mother he enjoyed a near-constant permissiveness for the entirety of his life. She encouraged his creativity as often as she babied his emotional storms. It was, perhaps, only his father's sternness which kept him remotely in check, and which made clear that he was expected to make more of himself than being a wealthy layabout.
In 1879, Nikolaas left the bosom of his home for the first time to study theology at Leiden University — Not his most favored topic, but the least troublesome of three options he could avail himself of, despite ongoing upheaval in the Dutch Reformed Church. To his surprise, he not only enjoyed the freedom of being away from home, but the philosophical debate central to his chosen course of study. In academia he thrived, and his marks were good enough that his father gifted him sole charge of Hemmen House, one of the family's chateaus, for having so dutifully applied himself to something beyond laying about penning maudlin poetry. (It is also possible that this familial triumph carried additional weight, given that in 1880, the Van Lyndens and all the rest of the Dutch nobility had their associated privileges abolished, making their titles and coats of arms effectively honorary in the wake of constitutional reform.)
By his fourth year of university, Nik had decided to continue his studies toward a doctorate, an idea supported by his family. That same year, he met fellow student Maxime Faron, the son of an ambitious French merchant. Their attraction was instant and their romance intense. For the next three years they worshipped each other as much as they fought. Nik, emboldened by his life's continued success or perhaps simply complacent, even brought Maxime home multiple times for holidays, as his "French friend." The two spent a good deal of time at Hemmen House when not demanded at school, and it never occurred to Nik to be more prudent about any of it than he already was.
The summer of 1886, Nik's father returned early from a business trip to Nijmegen, and stopped at Hemmen a full two days before he was expected. There he caught Nikolaas and Maxime en flagrante. In his ensuing rage, he beat Maxime bloody and expelled him from the house, and forced Nik back home to Langbroek. Nikolaas, in keeping with his own beliefs and inner nature, went not quietly but rather began a campaign of arguing with his father. Despite his wife's protests, his father responded with severe strictures: Nik was forbidden from returning to university, could not leave the family home unaccompanied, and had all of his personal mail monitored for anything indecent. If a letter from Maxime ever arrived, Nik never could have known, as it would have gone directly into the nearest fire.
Nik's resulting depression distressed his mother so intensely that she began to offer him some of her laudanum — Ostensibly to help him sleep. Being already an addict herself, she was ill equipped to recognize the same symptoms within her son, and soon enough Nikolaas was imbibing sufficient quantities to keep himself numb all hours of the day.
Grown tired of his son languishing at home and feeling incapable of breaking through Nik's continued stubbornness, Count van Lynden arranged for his youngest to stay with his sister and her husband in England. Erastus Radclyffe had a reputation for being strict with his own son, only one year younger than Nikolaas, and was glad to open his home to the burdensome young man.
