Celia Van Doren

*'Have you ever been in the eye of a storm before? It truly is beautiful, isn't it?' - **Celia Van Doren** - Act V: The Badlands of Acheron*

**Celia Van Doren** is Steelstrum's representative for the IX, and one of the protagonists of the story. She worked at the House of Mechanic's and The House of Engineers. She was found by Aurora Locke and was one of the three who came up with the plan to revolt against the capital. She used her Lightning ability and her intellect to help aid the IX during the revolution. She is dubbed 'The Genius' in the stories of the IX.

## Biography

As a child, Celia grew up in the heart of Steelstrum with both of her parents. Her parents had no siblings and she is an only child, she's left alone to carry the family pressure. She never felt pressured by her mother, Blythe Van Doren. She was exactly like how Celia is today, bright and eccentric. Celia takes a lot of inspiration from her mother, she was her hero. Blythe’s maiden name was Irvine, a high class family with a long bloodline of Buyers. Blythe broke that line and became a fantastic mechanic, one of the best of her time. She met Celia’s father Abel when she helped bring one of his inventions to life. The rest is history. Blythe taught Celia tips and tricks when it came to mechanical work, Celia never forgot them. Unfortunately, when Celia was 11 years old, her mother passed. From there on, her father was stricter. His words became harsher, his attitude was bitter. Whispers around Mechanics way say that he is rude to Celia because she looks almost identical to Blythe. But all Celia could do was sit there and do her absolute best for her father, even though she started to crumble due to the pressure. She soon found herself becoming like him, cold and heartless.

When Celia was 16, a delivery boy stopped by her workshop to drop off much needed parts. He couldn't help but notice Celia's work and begged her to teach him how to become a better mechanic. As much as she wanted to refuse, she couldn't bring herself to. This is how she became acquainted with Ezra Langdon. The more she helped him, the closer they became, until they were practically inseparable. He's the one to thank for bringing back Celia's old personality, the one like her mothers. He excepted her for all of her quirks, he even loved her for it. And she couldn't help but love him back.

Celia and Ezra planned on meeting one day, but he never showed. She refused to believe that he stood her up so she marched round to his house and found it was completely empty. Celia later found out that her father had Ezra and his family removed from Steelstrum, that was the kind of power her family had over the Nation. Abel claimed he did this because Celia wasn't focused enough on her work, that she was falling behind. After finding out, she packed her things and moved into her worship, leaving her father alone. She hasn't spoken to him since.

After learning about Ezra's abrupt departure, she found herself wondering Steelstrum alone and hurt. She stopped at Steelstrum's power source, where she and Ezra spent their time together the most. In a state of pain and betrayal, something that lied dormant all of her years had awoken. She fell to the floor as lightning left her body. She had managed to conjure a storm and more lighting fell from the sky. The electricity produced from the storm and herself was enough for fry the entirety of Steelstrum's power source, it was also enough to damage herself. After she calmed down and the storm settled, she fled the scene, dragging her injured body back to her workshop. She remained bed bound for a while and the lightning wounds on her back healed.

After she healed, she carried on with her work as normal. Nobody knew it was she who had damaged the power source, and she intended to keep it that way. She refused to tell anyone about her ability. Celia also continued to track down Ezra, she never had any luck in doing so.

## The IX's Revolution

*'Until she found a new purpose, a new light. That light took form in a group of eight misfits and a plan to change the world.'*

Celia was one of the original three who hatched the plan to overthrow The Capital. The plan was made in her very own workshop. Her purpose for helping with the revolt was that she was sick of the system Steelstrum was forced to follow. For many years, the capital has stolen idea’s and technology from Steelstrum and taken the credit. Steelstrum is forced to stick to steam as an energy source which holds back their progress. Celia grew sick of inventions getting stolen and never seeing the benefits. They only use it for themselves. She also became frustrated with the treatment of magic users. She knows that it's not her fault she was born with her ability, especially an unstable one. Instead of being able to seek help, she is forced to hide it away. Otherwise, she’ll have to face the consequences. Celia knows she is not the only one of her kind in Steelstrum and she’s fed up with hiding. So, she followed the IX to every nation, picking up new members to join their cause.

## Personality and Traits

*'There was Celia, with her deep red hair and the most incredible green eyes, incredibly energetic. If anything, pushing a bit too energetic at times but in a way that was just so incredibly endearing.' - Harvey Paleswift, Act I: The Plan*

Celia is an extremely energetic, loud, and outgoing. She blurs the line between genius and madness, she even takes that as a compliment. She finds comfort in creating new designs and mechanics in her free time. Her energy is sometimes seen as overwhelming to most, which bothers her as she can't help but care about what others think. Celia is morally driven and would never betray her friends or beliefs for material gain. Though her personality makes people think otherwise, she is strong witted plan maker.

## Physical Description

She has the Van Doren’s signature pale skin and intoxicating green eyes. Though, she gets the deep red hair from her mother’s Irvine blood. Whether she’s wearing a dress or not, she’ll always wear a corset and boots with every outfit. She always wears goggles either around her neck or on her head. After suffering with an electrical injury in the past, it left lighting scars all over her back and shoulders. She also has slight electrical burns on the pads of her fingers, which she plays off as a mechanical injury.

## Power and Abilities

Celia has the ability to create electricity with her bare hands. She doesn’t use it often seeing as Steelstrum doesn’t use any sort of electricity. Using electricity in any way is against the laws of Steelstrum, that's why they only use steam. She sometimes uses it to cheat her inventions into working, but no one needs to know that. Having abilities like hers aren’t acceptable in Steelstrum as it's strictly run by the capital, so she keeps her ability to herself.

Even if her ability wasn't illegal, it was unstable. It had hurt her in the past when it was over used, she's not sure if she could prevent that from happening again. Using it in small amounts was no issue, but large amounts could injure her again, or even kill her. No amount of training could prevent it, she was just born with an unstable ability.

Celia is intellectually gifted, concepts that others may struggle to understand come easy to her. She has access to both The House of Mechanics, and The House of Engineers. This is an achievement that very few manage to obtain, but Celia did at 18. She also has access to different units in the houses. The most recent unit she gained access to was the Machinist area on Mechanics Way.

## Relationships

### Harvey Paleswift

“Oh I can’t wait to meet her! If she’s anything like you, I'm sure she’s wonderful. She must be quite the woman to raise a good man like you.” - Celia to Harvey Paleswift, Act III: Huran Place

Harvey was the first person that Celia properly opened up to out of the IX.

### Dante Cahira

*'There's a common misconception that I hate Celia Van Doren. But that's not true. I love that girl, with all my heart.' - Dante Cahira to Quinn Silvera*

Celia and Dante bicker like brother and sister. When Dante throws sly comments her way, she rewards him with a nice smack around the back of the head. A lot of people see their relationship and assume they hate each other, the truth is, they're inseparable. They love each other the way siblings would, they take care of each other like family. Celia knows Dante better than she knows her machines. She was the first to figure out that Dante was head over heels for Harvey, not that it was hard to notice. The two trust each other and take comfort in each other's presence. They even vowed that they'd never leave the other behind.

### Quinn Silvera

When Celia first met Quinn, she was in complete admiration of the blue haired merc. Quinn's technology was on a level that even Celia herself struggled to comprehend. Quinn was more than happy to teach Celia about Exodexian tech, so the two began to bond over their knowledge. The two became close, they even had nicknames for each other. Celia called Quinn 'Quinni' and Quinn called Celia 'Red'. Near the end of their travels and the start of their revolt, some would say that Quinn was the person that helped Celia develop a backbone. *'You've got anger, Red. I can see it behind that happy-go-lucky exterior. How about we teach you how to channel that anger into a little thing I like to call combat?'* Quinn stuck to her word and helped Celia. For that, Celia felt forever indebted to her dear Quinni.

### Ren Furngust

***Ren:** "Remind me when I'm sober to ask where you got that corset, I want one"*

***Celia:** “I have others, I'd be happy to let you borrow one."- Conversation between Ren Furngust and Celia Van Doren.*

### Ezra Langdon

*"You're right, I don't understand. All I know is that you work too hard and get little acknowledgement. You've been made to feel ashamed of yourself and your work but Celia, what you do is amazing. You should be proud of all of the things you create because they're yours, that goes for both simple and complex inventions. What happened to that optimism you said your mother gave you? Bring that back Celia, for her.” - Ezra Langdon to Celia Van Doren, A Cog in The Machine*

## Trivia

* Celia personality type is ENFP - Campaigner.
* If Celia was in the Harry Potter universe, she'd be a Ravenclaw.
* Celia would major in Electrical Engineering if she went to a modern university.
* Celia's astrological sign is Gemini
* Celia is confirmed as a pansexual character.
* Celia's favourite music genre's are Ragtime and Classical.