Rain Bio - not updated
[character name]: Rain
[series]: Original Character
[e-mail]: Maisfeeka at gmail.com
For anyone interested in some of the street child myths I based part of Rain's background on, check out this article. http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/myths-over-miami-6393117
Any constructive criticism can go here.
Info on Rain...
She's 22.
Her birthday is February 22, 1984.
Rain's 'House':
*It didn't look anything like a traditional house. Since she disliked walls so much it was mostly a transparent roof attached to a cut out section of a hill over a cleared out area. Beneath the ground were coils that would provide the necessary heat to keep her warm in the cold months to come. The roof had a defroster and a giant wiper blade and shade setting as well so she could enjoy the stars at night and keep the sun off during the day.
For extremely windy or rainy days Tony had included one wall made of the same transparent material as the roof that she could move around along a track on the outside of the roof so that she could be sheltered if necessary. There was furniture that Logan had made for and a few special things Tony had included that he would show her later. Religious and mythological symbols were worked into all the designs as well, anything and everything that could be protective.* From here.
Abilities: Rain has some ability to see the outcome of events and a limited ability to hear people's thoughts. For example, she will often absently answer questions before they're asked, thinking the person spoke out loud. She can not go into someone's mind and pull out information and secrets, but she is often able to hear what they are thinking about or feeling in the moment, particularly if the thoughts or emotions are particularly strong or loud. She is also able to look at a situation and somehow 'know' how it can turn out. When she was living largely on the streets as a child she would know when a shopkeeper was about to turn their back or leave something unintended that she and the other children could take.
She has spent a great deal of her time learning about myths and beliefs from anyone who would sit with her long enough to tell her stories and carries journals of her notes about them around with her. Her reality testing isn't always the best, so she's not always entirely sure what is myth and what is reality. She relates very strongly to many of the Native American ideas - particularly those of the Lakota.
Somewhere along the way she learned how to do origami and will often create very intricate creatures and give them to people. They're often related to whatever animal she believes they are most like.
Flaws/weaknesses: Rain suffered severe emotional trauma when she was a very young child and never received any help or assistance in dealing with the horror she experienced. She is, quite frankly, not entirely sane and she knows it. Or rather she knows that there is something 'broken' about her mind and she doesn't know how to fix it. She has a very childlike innocence about her.
She's not always entirely certain whether some of the myths and stories she has read about are true or only legends and sometimes behaves as if it's possible that she might meet the Trickster, The Blue Lady, Grandmother Spider or any of the others she's learned about, right around the next corner. Sometimes she even talks about them as if they are friends she knows and talks with regularly. Other times she's quite aware of what is real and what is not.
Personality: In many ways, Rain's personality is rather childlike. She is kind, generous, and open. She is incredibly curious about everything. She is a generally content person and tries hard to make the best of what she has.
She can be shockingly blunt at times, a combination of being partially stuck back with the social skills of the four year old she was before she was damaged, the time she spent living on the streets, and dealing with a drunken and verbally abusive father. While she has good manners and is generally polite, she can at times behave with both the innocence and lack of social awareness that a very young child has. She often has no filter between what she thinks and what she says - unless she is scared or trying very hard.
She can be very introspective as it is important to her that she try and understand how her mind works - or doesn't work in many cases. And because she knows she's different, she's not easily bothered by what other people say about her. She is who she is and she accepts that. Being told she is crazy or a freak doesn't really phase her unless someone becomes cruel about it. That said, there are times when she can become very sad or pensive about how different and damaged she is. She can also become edgy and upset if kept somewhere she doesn't want to be.
She's very protective of people she sees as younger, littler, or weaker, than she is and won't tolerate others picking on them.
Physical description: [pictures are strongly encouraged & welcome] Rain is about 5'3 and rather slight of build. She has long black hair and dark eyes
Character: Rain
Abilities: Rain has some ability to see the outcome of events and a limited ability to hear people's thoughts. For example, she will often absently answer questions before they're asked, thinking the person spoke out loud. She can not go into someone's mind and pull out information and secrets, but she is often able to hear what they are thinking about or feeling in the moment, particularly if the thoughts or emotions are particularly strong or loud. She is also able to look at a situation and somehow 'know' how it can turn out. When she was living largely on the streets as a child she would know when a shopkeeper was about to turn their back or leave something unintended that she and the other children could take.
She has spent a great deal of her time learning about myths and beliefs from anyone who would sit with her long enough to tell her stories and carries journals of her notes about them around with her. Her reality testing isn't always the best, so she's not always entirely sure what is myth and what is reality. She relates very strongly to many of the Native American ideas - particularly those of the Lakota.
Somewhere along the way she learned how to do origami and will often create very intricate creatures and give them to people. They're often related to whatever animal she believes they are most like.
Flaws/weaknesses: Rain suffered severe emotional trauma when she was a very young child and never received any help or assistance in dealing with the horror she experienced. She is, quite frankly, not entirely sane and she knows it. Or rather she knows that there is something 'broken' about her mind and she doesn't know how to fix it. She carries different talismans around with her for safety, things that often have meaning only to her. She might insist on carrying two screwdrivers around with her - one regular and one Phillips head - feeling that this way she will be prepared to fix anything that comes up. Another time she might have a carbon monoxide detector with her wherever she goes to make sure that neither she nor anyone else would be harmed by any stray fumes. She knows that isn't normal and she knows they won't really keep her safe - probably - but she can't make herself let go of whatever the current one is. She can become extremely upset and potentially violent should someone attempt to take them away from her.
She's not always entirely certain whether some of the myths and stories she has read about are true or only legends and sometimes behaves as if it's possible that she might meet the Trickster, The Blue Lady, Grandmother Spider or any of the others she's learned about, right around the next corner. Sometimes she even talks about them as if they are friends she knows and talks with regularly. Other times she's quite aware of what is real and what is not.
Part 2: Personality, Background, Physical Description
Personality: In many ways, Rain's personality is rather childlike. She is kind, generous, and open. She is incredibly curious about everything. She is a generally content person and tries hard to make the best of what she has.
She can be shockingly blunt at times, a combination of being partially stuck back with the social skills of the four year old she was before she was damaged, the time she spent living on the streets, and dealing with a drunken and verbally abusive father. While she has good manners and is generally polite, she can at times behave with both the innocence and lack of social awareness that a very young child has. She often has no filter between what she thinks and what she says - unless she is scared or trying very hard.
She can be very introspective as it is important to her that she try and understand how her mind works - or doesn't work in many cases. And because she knows she's different, she's not easily bothered by what other people say about her. She is who she is and she accepts that. Being told she is crazy or a freak doesn't really phase her unless someone becomes cruel about it. That said, there are times when she can become very sad or pensive about how different and damaged she is. She can also become edgy and upset if kept somewhere she doesn't want to be.
She's very protective of people she sees as younger, littler, or weaker, than she is and won't tolerate others picking on them.
Background setting: [the setting your character came from before PC] She's been working in a small Mom and Pop type store in Canyon City, Oregon (population 669) for the past few years. Standard small town present-day America.
Physical description: [pictures are strongly encouraged & welcome] Rain is about 5'3 and rather slight of build. She has long black hair and dark eyes and looks actually a great deal like this.
erson RP
My name is Rain. Some people would tell you that that is not my real name, but those people would be wrong. My name is Rain. I know because I found it all by myself. Well, maybe not entirely by myself.
When my father let me go live with my grandmother for a while, on the rez - I say 'let' even though he was so glad to have me gone that he barely took the time to say goodbye before he left, spinning his wheels in the rutted dirt driveway in his hurry to be gone. When he let me stay there it didn't fix anything about me that was broken. The people there just didn't mind as much. The men shook their heads and the aunties clucked, but mostly they just let me be because that's the way they are.
There was an old man there, maybe 200 years old or something, which I know is too much, but that's what he seemed to me. I used to go sit with him at night. Even on the rez I didn't like to be inside at night, I wanted to be out with the stars and the moon and the darkness. He never tried to make me come inside the way everyone but my grandmother did. He'd just come outside and sit with me on these old stumps he had there. Sometimes, if it was chilly, he'd make a fire. Which was okay, because he did it, but fires, well, sometimes they can be bad and people really shouldn't just go about lighting them 'cause they're dangerous, so only the right people should do that, okay? But anyway, he'd tell me stories. Wonderful stories. About Raven and Bear and that trickster Coyote. About how all the animals and things had meaning and how they gave our lives meaning, too. And I listened and listened so hard and sometimes later I'd write things down so I wouldn't remember them wrong the way I remembered lots of other things wrong. But the thing I liked most was when he talked about how people got their names, about how people might have all sorts of different names in their life. And about the Vision Quest. About how you could go way up into the hills and cry for a vision and if you were good and your heart was pure the ancestors would come and give you a sign - a bear, maybe or something else and then you'd go back and the elders would tell you what it meant and give you a name. Your real name. For then, at least.
So after he told me about it I decided one time I was going to do it. I mean, nobody needed a new name, a true name, more than me, right? 'Cause no one could have known when they gave me that first name, the one I'm not going to tell anyone ever again, no one could have known what I'd see or be able to do or how I'd end up so broken, right? So I went way, way up in the hills and I found me a good place to stay, but something must have gone wrong, 'cause from the time I got there it just rained. Rain, rain, rain. Soft rain, hard rain, thunder and rain. Rain. No vision, no animal, no sign from the ancestors, no nothing. I was so tired and wet and lonely and hungry, like you can't imagine hungry unless you've been up in the hills for three days with only water, crying for a vision. And I cried, believe you me.
Finally I went back to my grandmother's and even before I got all the way there I knew my dad was there and he was angry and I knew he was going to take me away for good and never let me go back. And he did, shoving me in the back of his car with just the blanket and a sandwich my grandmother had time to hand me before he started the shoving. I didn't even get to hug her good, just a start, and then I was in the back seat of my dad's car all wet and cold and hungry and so sad. I didn't get a vision and he was taking me away and if I hadn't been so stupid as to forget to say I was going for a vision nobody would have called him.
Actually… I didn't forget. I just didn't want them to stop the poor broken head girl from going. But I never thought they'd care or worry enough to call him.
So I sat there in the car, crying tears like even more rain, silent, though, because I knew they'd make him mad and I already could hear that he was thinking all sorts of bad scary things to do to me. And all I could think was poor me and why didn't I get a sign. Wasn't I pure of heart enough? Or maybe the ancestors just didn't give signs to people broken in the head like me. Maybe they only gave them to people with good brains that worked right all the time. And more tears came like more rain and suddenly I knew.
Rain is all sorts of things to different people. Sometimes rain is warm and gentle and beautiful. It makes things grow and people love to be out in it. Sometimes rain is hard and cold and makes everyone miserable. Some people like rain and know that it has its purpose and some people don't care either way and some people just absolutely hate it no matter how it is. And sometimes even the people who really, really love rain don't understand it and sometimes they just want it to go away and not come back.
Which is exactly how people are about me. I was like rain. I was Rain. The ancestors hadn't ignored me after all. They'd come to me right the very moment I got there and told me who I was.
I've been Rain ever since. Sure, some days or weeks I have to be another name 'cause of something that happened, like when I was Laughing Raven that time a while back, but I always come back to Rain, 'cause that's my real true name that the ancestors gave me.
So that's the story of How Rain Got Her Name. If you wanted to know.
Re: Part 3: History
Rain's mother was raped and killed in front of her when she was four years old. She was saved only because the attacker hadn't seen her and because when she'd finally stepped out of the shadows, her mother had screamed to her to run - to go hide out in the woods and not let anyone find her. She'd done that, finding safety out in the dark of night, hiding even from the calling of familiar voices for almost two days before a neighbor had stumbled over her in the woods. Everyone had thought she had been killed or abducted by whoever had killed her mother. Her father, she knew, was a bit disappointed that she had not been.
She'd already begun to manifest her ability. Her father hated that she would sometimes answer questions before they were voiced, know about a surprise before it happened, or see things that were going to happen; and also hated her for what had happened to her mother - for not somehow being able to stop it. He hadn't wanted a child, hadn't wanted to share his wife with anyone else, especially not one so… different. He'd tolerated her when his wife was alive, but afterwards he'd barely been able to even look at her. He spent most of his time lost in a bottle, eventually losing his job and the house and bouncing them both from shelter to shelter in the Miami area.
Rain, though she wasn't called that yet, was mostly left to fend for herself, wandering the streets with the other homeless children, learning their myths - stories about how God had fled, about angels hiding in abandoned buildings as they planned battles against demons. Stories about La Llorona and Bloody Mary and about the Blue Lady who protected the homeless children. One of the older boys took her under his wing, protecting her, and discovering how her abilities could be used to help the children. With her along they knew when an area of a store would be unwatched, when the best times were to steal food or clothes or other things they needed, when bad adults were looking for them. She wasn't always liked, but at least she was respected for her usefulness.
Her father managed to pull himself together enough to buy a car, beginning their years of traveling throughout the country, mostly living out of the car as he went from place to place doing odd jobs, never staying in any one place very long. She always sought out the elders of whatever place they were in, wanting to hear their stories and myths, mixing them in with the ones she'd already learned. It was from them that she learned to read and write. And all the time she tried to find ways to deal with the fears she had from the horror she'd once witnessed.
She preferred to be outside at night, feeling most safe in the woods under the stars and the moon. She always carried talismans with her, things to protect her, even if they didn't make sense even to her. For months she carried two screwdrivers with her everywhere she went - a regular and a Phillips head - preferring to have them right in her hands. For a while after watching a news program about a family who died of carbon monoxide poisoning she began carrying a carbon monoxide detector with her everywhere she went. She knew these things didn't make sense, knew they were irrational, knew they made other people think she was crazy, but couldn't make herself stop. And she knew that there was indeed something wrong and broken about her.
When she was a young teen her father caught her fooling around with a boy willing to overlook the fact that she was crazy, and shipped her off to her mother's grandmother up on the Pine Hill Reservation in South Dakota. There she listened to all the stories the elders had to tell and eventually ran off on her own Vision Quest. When she returned her father was waiting and dragged her off again on his neverending road trip. At 16 she ran away, drifting from town to town herself, working odd jobs, until an older couple convinced her to make her home with them. She spent the next several years working in their small shop, finding an uneasy acceptance among the people of the small town, and trying to find a way to deal with her own brokenness.
And then one night, she fell asleep and dreamed of a very strange city. And when she awoke, she was there.
ETA: Pine Ridge - not Pine Hill.
Part 5: Third Person RP sample
She set it down on the table absently, barely even noticing she'd done it. It was there. That was all that mattered. "Hi. I'm Rain. Anything good here?" she asked simply, taking the menu the waitress offered and opening it up to skim through it.
The waitress glanced at the round white thing she'd set down. "Um, so what's with the smoke detector?"
"Carbon monoxide detector," she said quietly, not even looking up. "Are the tuna melts here are any good?"
"Excuse me?" the woman asked.
"Not a smoke detector," she said. "Wouldn't want you to misspeak." Her eyes moved off the menu, glancing briefly up at the waitress, before returning to her perusal. "So? Tuna melts?" She set the menu down and let her hands fiddle absently with the paper napkin that had been wrapped around her place setting. "I've always liked them."
She used one of the strips of paper napkin to make a small origami frog and smiled at it before looking back up at the waitress. "Frog?" she asked brightly, offering it to her.
The woman just stared at her.
"I'm sorry," Rain said, ducking her head a little. "I'm not always exactly sane. I just thought maybe you'd like it. It suits you."
"Okay, Wind or Lake or whatever your name is, let's just stick to ordering food and leave the little paper animals out of it, okay?"
She smiled up at her brightly. "It's Rain, actually. But I like Wind. Maybe I'll be Wind next."
[series]: Original Character
[e-mail]: Maisfeeka at gmail.com
For anyone interested in some of the street child myths I based part of Rain's background on, check out this article. http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/myths-over-miami-6393117
Any constructive criticism can go here.
Info on Rain...
She's 22.
Her birthday is February 22, 1984.
Rain's 'House':
*It didn't look anything like a traditional house. Since she disliked walls so much it was mostly a transparent roof attached to a cut out section of a hill over a cleared out area. Beneath the ground were coils that would provide the necessary heat to keep her warm in the cold months to come. The roof had a defroster and a giant wiper blade and shade setting as well so she could enjoy the stars at night and keep the sun off during the day.
For extremely windy or rainy days Tony had included one wall made of the same transparent material as the roof that she could move around along a track on the outside of the roof so that she could be sheltered if necessary. There was furniture that Logan had made for and a few special things Tony had included that he would show her later. Religious and mythological symbols were worked into all the designs as well, anything and everything that could be protective.* From here.
Abilities: Rain has some ability to see the outcome of events and a limited ability to hear people's thoughts. For example, she will often absently answer questions before they're asked, thinking the person spoke out loud. She can not go into someone's mind and pull out information and secrets, but she is often able to hear what they are thinking about or feeling in the moment, particularly if the thoughts or emotions are particularly strong or loud. She is also able to look at a situation and somehow 'know' how it can turn out. When she was living largely on the streets as a child she would know when a shopkeeper was about to turn their back or leave something unintended that she and the other children could take.
She has spent a great deal of her time learning about myths and beliefs from anyone who would sit with her long enough to tell her stories and carries journals of her notes about them around with her. Her reality testing isn't always the best, so she's not always entirely sure what is myth and what is reality. She relates very strongly to many of the Native American ideas - particularly those of the Lakota.
Somewhere along the way she learned how to do origami and will often create very intricate creatures and give them to people. They're often related to whatever animal she believes they are most like.
Flaws/weaknesses: Rain suffered severe emotional trauma when she was a very young child and never received any help or assistance in dealing with the horror she experienced. She is, quite frankly, not entirely sane and she knows it. Or rather she knows that there is something 'broken' about her mind and she doesn't know how to fix it. She has a very childlike innocence about her.
She's not always entirely certain whether some of the myths and stories she has read about are true or only legends and sometimes behaves as if it's possible that she might meet the Trickster, The Blue Lady, Grandmother Spider or any of the others she's learned about, right around the next corner. Sometimes she even talks about them as if they are friends she knows and talks with regularly. Other times she's quite aware of what is real and what is not.
Personality: In many ways, Rain's personality is rather childlike. She is kind, generous, and open. She is incredibly curious about everything. She is a generally content person and tries hard to make the best of what she has.
She can be shockingly blunt at times, a combination of being partially stuck back with the social skills of the four year old she was before she was damaged, the time she spent living on the streets, and dealing with a drunken and verbally abusive father. While she has good manners and is generally polite, she can at times behave with both the innocence and lack of social awareness that a very young child has. She often has no filter between what she thinks and what she says - unless she is scared or trying very hard.
She can be very introspective as it is important to her that she try and understand how her mind works - or doesn't work in many cases. And because she knows she's different, she's not easily bothered by what other people say about her. She is who she is and she accepts that. Being told she is crazy or a freak doesn't really phase her unless someone becomes cruel about it. That said, there are times when she can become very sad or pensive about how different and damaged she is. She can also become edgy and upset if kept somewhere she doesn't want to be.
She's very protective of people she sees as younger, littler, or weaker, than she is and won't tolerate others picking on them.
Physical description: [pictures are strongly encouraged & welcome] Rain is about 5'3 and rather slight of build. She has long black hair and dark eyes
Character: Rain
Abilities: Rain has some ability to see the outcome of events and a limited ability to hear people's thoughts. For example, she will often absently answer questions before they're asked, thinking the person spoke out loud. She can not go into someone's mind and pull out information and secrets, but she is often able to hear what they are thinking about or feeling in the moment, particularly if the thoughts or emotions are particularly strong or loud. She is also able to look at a situation and somehow 'know' how it can turn out. When she was living largely on the streets as a child she would know when a shopkeeper was about to turn their back or leave something unintended that she and the other children could take.
She has spent a great deal of her time learning about myths and beliefs from anyone who would sit with her long enough to tell her stories and carries journals of her notes about them around with her. Her reality testing isn't always the best, so she's not always entirely sure what is myth and what is reality. She relates very strongly to many of the Native American ideas - particularly those of the Lakota.
Somewhere along the way she learned how to do origami and will often create very intricate creatures and give them to people. They're often related to whatever animal she believes they are most like.
Flaws/weaknesses: Rain suffered severe emotional trauma when she was a very young child and never received any help or assistance in dealing with the horror she experienced. She is, quite frankly, not entirely sane and she knows it. Or rather she knows that there is something 'broken' about her mind and she doesn't know how to fix it. She carries different talismans around with her for safety, things that often have meaning only to her. She might insist on carrying two screwdrivers around with her - one regular and one Phillips head - feeling that this way she will be prepared to fix anything that comes up. Another time she might have a carbon monoxide detector with her wherever she goes to make sure that neither she nor anyone else would be harmed by any stray fumes. She knows that isn't normal and she knows they won't really keep her safe - probably - but she can't make herself let go of whatever the current one is. She can become extremely upset and potentially violent should someone attempt to take them away from her.
She's not always entirely certain whether some of the myths and stories she has read about are true or only legends and sometimes behaves as if it's possible that she might meet the Trickster, The Blue Lady, Grandmother Spider or any of the others she's learned about, right around the next corner. Sometimes she even talks about them as if they are friends she knows and talks with regularly. Other times she's quite aware of what is real and what is not.
Part 2: Personality, Background, Physical Description
Personality: In many ways, Rain's personality is rather childlike. She is kind, generous, and open. She is incredibly curious about everything. She is a generally content person and tries hard to make the best of what she has.
She can be shockingly blunt at times, a combination of being partially stuck back with the social skills of the four year old she was before she was damaged, the time she spent living on the streets, and dealing with a drunken and verbally abusive father. While she has good manners and is generally polite, she can at times behave with both the innocence and lack of social awareness that a very young child has. She often has no filter between what she thinks and what she says - unless she is scared or trying very hard.
She can be very introspective as it is important to her that she try and understand how her mind works - or doesn't work in many cases. And because she knows she's different, she's not easily bothered by what other people say about her. She is who she is and she accepts that. Being told she is crazy or a freak doesn't really phase her unless someone becomes cruel about it. That said, there are times when she can become very sad or pensive about how different and damaged she is. She can also become edgy and upset if kept somewhere she doesn't want to be.
She's very protective of people she sees as younger, littler, or weaker, than she is and won't tolerate others picking on them.
Background setting: [the setting your character came from before PC] She's been working in a small Mom and Pop type store in Canyon City, Oregon (population 669) for the past few years. Standard small town present-day America.
Physical description: [pictures are strongly encouraged & welcome] Rain is about 5'3 and rather slight of build. She has long black hair and dark eyes and looks actually a great deal like this.
erson RP
My name is Rain. Some people would tell you that that is not my real name, but those people would be wrong. My name is Rain. I know because I found it all by myself. Well, maybe not entirely by myself.
When my father let me go live with my grandmother for a while, on the rez - I say 'let' even though he was so glad to have me gone that he barely took the time to say goodbye before he left, spinning his wheels in the rutted dirt driveway in his hurry to be gone. When he let me stay there it didn't fix anything about me that was broken. The people there just didn't mind as much. The men shook their heads and the aunties clucked, but mostly they just let me be because that's the way they are.
There was an old man there, maybe 200 years old or something, which I know is too much, but that's what he seemed to me. I used to go sit with him at night. Even on the rez I didn't like to be inside at night, I wanted to be out with the stars and the moon and the darkness. He never tried to make me come inside the way everyone but my grandmother did. He'd just come outside and sit with me on these old stumps he had there. Sometimes, if it was chilly, he'd make a fire. Which was okay, because he did it, but fires, well, sometimes they can be bad and people really shouldn't just go about lighting them 'cause they're dangerous, so only the right people should do that, okay? But anyway, he'd tell me stories. Wonderful stories. About Raven and Bear and that trickster Coyote. About how all the animals and things had meaning and how they gave our lives meaning, too. And I listened and listened so hard and sometimes later I'd write things down so I wouldn't remember them wrong the way I remembered lots of other things wrong. But the thing I liked most was when he talked about how people got their names, about how people might have all sorts of different names in their life. And about the Vision Quest. About how you could go way up into the hills and cry for a vision and if you were good and your heart was pure the ancestors would come and give you a sign - a bear, maybe or something else and then you'd go back and the elders would tell you what it meant and give you a name. Your real name. For then, at least.
So after he told me about it I decided one time I was going to do it. I mean, nobody needed a new name, a true name, more than me, right? 'Cause no one could have known when they gave me that first name, the one I'm not going to tell anyone ever again, no one could have known what I'd see or be able to do or how I'd end up so broken, right? So I went way, way up in the hills and I found me a good place to stay, but something must have gone wrong, 'cause from the time I got there it just rained. Rain, rain, rain. Soft rain, hard rain, thunder and rain. Rain. No vision, no animal, no sign from the ancestors, no nothing. I was so tired and wet and lonely and hungry, like you can't imagine hungry unless you've been up in the hills for three days with only water, crying for a vision. And I cried, believe you me.
Finally I went back to my grandmother's and even before I got all the way there I knew my dad was there and he was angry and I knew he was going to take me away for good and never let me go back. And he did, shoving me in the back of his car with just the blanket and a sandwich my grandmother had time to hand me before he started the shoving. I didn't even get to hug her good, just a start, and then I was in the back seat of my dad's car all wet and cold and hungry and so sad. I didn't get a vision and he was taking me away and if I hadn't been so stupid as to forget to say I was going for a vision nobody would have called him.
Actually… I didn't forget. I just didn't want them to stop the poor broken head girl from going. But I never thought they'd care or worry enough to call him.
So I sat there in the car, crying tears like even more rain, silent, though, because I knew they'd make him mad and I already could hear that he was thinking all sorts of bad scary things to do to me. And all I could think was poor me and why didn't I get a sign. Wasn't I pure of heart enough? Or maybe the ancestors just didn't give signs to people broken in the head like me. Maybe they only gave them to people with good brains that worked right all the time. And more tears came like more rain and suddenly I knew.
Rain is all sorts of things to different people. Sometimes rain is warm and gentle and beautiful. It makes things grow and people love to be out in it. Sometimes rain is hard and cold and makes everyone miserable. Some people like rain and know that it has its purpose and some people don't care either way and some people just absolutely hate it no matter how it is. And sometimes even the people who really, really love rain don't understand it and sometimes they just want it to go away and not come back.
Which is exactly how people are about me. I was like rain. I was Rain. The ancestors hadn't ignored me after all. They'd come to me right the very moment I got there and told me who I was.
I've been Rain ever since. Sure, some days or weeks I have to be another name 'cause of something that happened, like when I was Laughing Raven that time a while back, but I always come back to Rain, 'cause that's my real true name that the ancestors gave me.
So that's the story of How Rain Got Her Name. If you wanted to know.
Re: Part 3: History
Rain's mother was raped and killed in front of her when she was four years old. She was saved only because the attacker hadn't seen her and because when she'd finally stepped out of the shadows, her mother had screamed to her to run - to go hide out in the woods and not let anyone find her. She'd done that, finding safety out in the dark of night, hiding even from the calling of familiar voices for almost two days before a neighbor had stumbled over her in the woods. Everyone had thought she had been killed or abducted by whoever had killed her mother. Her father, she knew, was a bit disappointed that she had not been.
She'd already begun to manifest her ability. Her father hated that she would sometimes answer questions before they were voiced, know about a surprise before it happened, or see things that were going to happen; and also hated her for what had happened to her mother - for not somehow being able to stop it. He hadn't wanted a child, hadn't wanted to share his wife with anyone else, especially not one so… different. He'd tolerated her when his wife was alive, but afterwards he'd barely been able to even look at her. He spent most of his time lost in a bottle, eventually losing his job and the house and bouncing them both from shelter to shelter in the Miami area.
Rain, though she wasn't called that yet, was mostly left to fend for herself, wandering the streets with the other homeless children, learning their myths - stories about how God had fled, about angels hiding in abandoned buildings as they planned battles against demons. Stories about La Llorona and Bloody Mary and about the Blue Lady who protected the homeless children. One of the older boys took her under his wing, protecting her, and discovering how her abilities could be used to help the children. With her along they knew when an area of a store would be unwatched, when the best times were to steal food or clothes or other things they needed, when bad adults were looking for them. She wasn't always liked, but at least she was respected for her usefulness.
Her father managed to pull himself together enough to buy a car, beginning their years of traveling throughout the country, mostly living out of the car as he went from place to place doing odd jobs, never staying in any one place very long. She always sought out the elders of whatever place they were in, wanting to hear their stories and myths, mixing them in with the ones she'd already learned. It was from them that she learned to read and write. And all the time she tried to find ways to deal with the fears she had from the horror she'd once witnessed.
She preferred to be outside at night, feeling most safe in the woods under the stars and the moon. She always carried talismans with her, things to protect her, even if they didn't make sense even to her. For months she carried two screwdrivers with her everywhere she went - a regular and a Phillips head - preferring to have them right in her hands. For a while after watching a news program about a family who died of carbon monoxide poisoning she began carrying a carbon monoxide detector with her everywhere she went. She knew these things didn't make sense, knew they were irrational, knew they made other people think she was crazy, but couldn't make herself stop. And she knew that there was indeed something wrong and broken about her.
When she was a young teen her father caught her fooling around with a boy willing to overlook the fact that she was crazy, and shipped her off to her mother's grandmother up on the Pine Hill Reservation in South Dakota. There she listened to all the stories the elders had to tell and eventually ran off on her own Vision Quest. When she returned her father was waiting and dragged her off again on his neverending road trip. At 16 she ran away, drifting from town to town herself, working odd jobs, until an older couple convinced her to make her home with them. She spent the next several years working in their small shop, finding an uneasy acceptance among the people of the small town, and trying to find a way to deal with her own brokenness.
And then one night, she fell asleep and dreamed of a very strange city. And when she awoke, she was there.
ETA: Pine Ridge - not Pine Hill.
Part 5: Third Person RP sample
She set it down on the table absently, barely even noticing she'd done it. It was there. That was all that mattered. "Hi. I'm Rain. Anything good here?" she asked simply, taking the menu the waitress offered and opening it up to skim through it.
The waitress glanced at the round white thing she'd set down. "Um, so what's with the smoke detector?"
"Carbon monoxide detector," she said quietly, not even looking up. "Are the tuna melts here are any good?"
"Excuse me?" the woman asked.
"Not a smoke detector," she said. "Wouldn't want you to misspeak." Her eyes moved off the menu, glancing briefly up at the waitress, before returning to her perusal. "So? Tuna melts?" She set the menu down and let her hands fiddle absently with the paper napkin that had been wrapped around her place setting. "I've always liked them."
She used one of the strips of paper napkin to make a small origami frog and smiled at it before looking back up at the waitress. "Frog?" she asked brightly, offering it to her.
The woman just stared at her.
"I'm sorry," Rain said, ducking her head a little. "I'm not always exactly sane. I just thought maybe you'd like it. It suits you."
"Okay, Wind or Lake or whatever your name is, let's just stick to ordering food and leave the little paper animals out of it, okay?"
She smiled up at her brightly. "It's Rain, actually. But I like Wind. Maybe I'll be Wind next."