| abstract
| - Rena is currently the acting leader of the Sarcina, stepping into the role when the Sarcinx found it neccessary to leave the city on a matter of personal urgency. She is the defacto owner of The Twilight Zone and Co-owns The Basement in Leviathon with her husband, Forge. Tall and lithe, with long, dark hair, she is neither unattractive nor striking. Most would call her cute at best and she's often described as having a girl next door look. Her eyes, naturally pale silver and very feline, are usually disguised with contacts. In her feral state she has ivory skin and ebony markings. This is a state she controls with an iron will and few have or will ever see her this way. Her Neko DNA provides her with an enhanced jumping ability, although she is not an excellent jumper and when she first came to Midian, could often be seen slamming into walls and falling out of the cities catwalks. Having been without her tail for sometime now, she's learned to compensate, although she still has a tendency to take a tumble now and then. She has hyper sensitive hearing that allows her to hear much better than average, but also makes her sensitive to loud noises or just too much noise in general. Since losing the outer part of her Neko ears, she has trouble telling what direction sound is coming from. She sees better in the darkness than most humans but her light eyes are overly sensitive to bright or intense lights. She has average upper body strength but better than average lower body strength. Having taken dance as for years, she is also very agile and flexible. She has better than average skill with a hand, having learned to shoot at a young age. She has also learned a bit about street brawling and how to use a knife, but is far from an expert at either. Her strongest skills are her talent for diplomacy and her ability to develop relationships. She usually only carries a glock and a small dagger, but through contacts with the Haulers and Blackstar has access to other weapons when she needs them. She is a complex creature, both introverted and outgoing, flirtatious and reserved...she can be the girl next door or your worst nightmare, depending on her mood. She is very much the cat that crawls into your lap to be petted and bites you when she's had enough. Rarely openly affectionate, she can appear standoffish and uptight. Equal parts assertive and skittish, she finds it exciting to both hunt and be hunted. An artist, she enjoys all kinds of music, art, and literature (she'll read anything that comes into her possession). She also loves dancing, and singing, although she is generally too reserved to do either in front of a crowd. In fact, she doesn't care for crowds, but prefers dealing with people one on one. When in a large crowd, she'll often get quiet and stand off to the side or just remove herself from the situation. She can't stand loud noises and she has a seemingly unreasonable fear of water, oddly terrified she'll drown one day. She was raised in an affluent home by humans who didn't know how to deal with her 'differences'. They strongly discouraged her from exploring her true nature and taught her to act as human as possible. Because of this she harbors a deep sense of shame and an intense hatred of her Neko traits. She never felt like she was truly a part of the family that raised her and has always felt isolated and alone, she fears she always will. Has difficulty trusting and often feels like an outsider. She tends to stand off to the side, listening and watching. Rarely speaks first. When she is nervous or shy she ducks her head, hiding her face behind her hair. Quiet and reserved, but alert and observant, she sees and hears more than she lets on. Her struggle to completely control and suppress her feral side leads to bouts of melancholy or restlessness. When she's feeling particularly restless she is unable to sleep and engages in dangerous or inappropriate behavior in an effort to relieve the inner tension. She is attracted to men with dark natures, especially those she sees as arrogant, dangerous and unavailable. The best way to keep her away from someone is to tell her how nice he is...warn her to stay away and she develops and instant fascination, often quietly hunting the ones she finds most interesting. However, if one turns his attention on her she flees. Born in Chicago and raised by a single mother, she has vague memories of that secure time in her life. She remembers her mother, a snow white neko, but has only a vague memory of her father, a human her mother was having a long term, secret affair with. She only knew him as her mother's 'special' friend. When the two died in a suspicious car accident, she was taken in and raised by an affluent family. Although they told people they had adopted her, papers were never officially filed. she was given all the material things she could want, but none of the love and affection she needed. Any sign of what her guardians considered non-human behavior was met with instant and harsh punishment. Verbal and emotional abuse escalated as she got older and eventually turned into physical abuse. She learned to be quiet and invisible in order to avoid punishment, utterly suppressing her cat like qualities. She developed an intense self hatred, believing herself to be unworthy of real love. She was raised with two 'brothers' who adored her and tried to protect her, but they spent most of their time away at school. When they were home on breaks she followed them around relentlessly, doing anything she could to gain their attention and approval, even learning how to hunt and how to handle guns. She never developed a taste for killing things but she did develop a talent for shooting, becoming a more than adequate marksman with small arms. Both brothers joined the military after high school and both were killed in combat. The loss of the only people in the world she truly cared for devastated her. She left home and ended up falling prey to a string of abusive men who preyed on and developed her masochistic and sadistic tendencies. Eventually, she met a man who was kind and who treated her like his princess. After a long pursuit, he convinced her he loved her and asked her to marry him. She thought she'd found happiness and security, but after confiding the details of her past, she saw a change in him. The man she thought loved her gradually become more and more depraved and abusive, using her to live out his darkest fantasies. She eventually fled to Midian to escape him, living in fear of him finding and reclaiming her. When she first arrived in Midian, Rena was shy and terrified. She kept to the shadows, watching and listening, often running away if she was approached. Eventually, she managed to get a job, the details of which she still refuses to discuss. The most she's revealed is that the man she worked for dealt in acquisitions. Her job allowed her to obtain an apartment and begin to feel more secure. She began exploring the city and talking to various residents, but her eyes were always pulled to the catwalks and the mysterious nekos that haunted them. She began to sneak around in the catwalks, exploring, even though she was chased off by gun wielding Cat Walkers more than once. On one such adventure she ran into a Catwalker Soldier, JohnR. She held her ground and spoke to him and he ended up taking her to meet the Matron. It was a thrilling and terrifying experience and when it was over, she was a Kitten Walker. She spent the next few weeks getting to know her fellow kittens and hanging out in the den (when they weren't off getting into trouble). She developed great friendships and enjoyed her time with them, but something wasn't right. More and more she found her attention drawn from the catwalks to the streets below. She also met and fell in love with a human male. It was intensely painful and private. Suffice to say, it didn't end well. In pain over losing her mate and feeling confused and like she didn't fit in, she began to avoid the den, choosing instead to roam the streets of the city. She met a girl named Shay who told her about the group she belonged to, the Sarcina. She was instantly fascinated and set out to discover more about them. Eventually she met their leader and after speaking with her, knew instantly that she belonged with them in a way she'd never belonged with the Catwalkers, as much as she loved them. Oceania offered her a spot and she took it, leaving the Catwalkers reluctantly and with great regret. She rose through the ranks of the Sarcina, becoming one of the senior members of the group although still more of a diplomat than a fighter. During this time, she met a soft spoken man who called her his Angel and treated her like she was the most special thing in his life. He accepted her for who she was, even tolerating her occasional self destructive behavior without judgment or anger. Still, she was reluctant to give him her heart, or to accept his, afraid that she'd be hurt again, or worse, that she'd hurt him. "Things happen that change you forever. So many things have happened, I'm not the same...." After spending four days, held captive and tortured mentally and physically by Charles Noble, nothing felt the same to her anymore. People she trusted felt like threats and she felt abandoned by the people she expected to protect her. She became increasingly angry and and violent until finally, she shot Damian after he approached her in a dark alley. As she looked down at him, lying in a pool of his own blood, anger and pain overwhelmed her and something in her snapped. She went looking for the ones she wrongly blamed for not rescuing her, the men sworn to protect the Sarcina. She found Chi first and brutally shot him and his sister, Pera, then moved on to Markko before she was finally stopped by her sisters. Damian took his revenge and her ears. She could have let anything else go and it would have been the end, but to take the one thing that visibly made her a Neko enraged her. She plotted his demise on her own, but then he was targeted by the Sarcina for what he'd done to her, labeled a darkened soul to be hunted. She didn't want to hurt him, she wanted to break him, so she made arrangements to take the one thing she knew he loved, his pet, and turn her into something he'd barely be able to look at, a Neko. Something went wrong during the procedure, and Vasha left the lab a mouse girl. She felt some regret at using the girl, but it was totally overshadowed by the satisfaction she'd felt when she heard him beg. The sound, to her ears, like the most beautiful aria. Somewhere in all that pain and anger, she also managed to find someone to love. Someone she wasn't afraid of hurting. Someone she couldn't help giving her heart to. They were married and she, naively, thought she'd found her happy ending. Contrary to what everyone predicted, she and Nerio actually made it to the altar and managed to maintain a relatively happy and stable relationship for quite some time. It was the first time in her life she'd ever felt protected, secure and loved. Despite doubts and outside influences, and for better or worse, they managed to hang onto each other. During that time, her self-destructive tendencies ebbed. She actually slept because there was always someone next to her and the restless night time wanderings ceased. She also came to realize, that while she loved Pera and Chi like a sister and a brother, their brand of chaos was not for her. She wanted the order and stability she believed her new family gave her. When the opportunity to step into the second position within the Sarcina came up, she hesitated, at first declining. But then when she was asked again, she stepped down from KAOS and took the position with the Sarcina. Not long after, her world literally exploded. She lost everything. The love of her life was gone, presumed dead by all. The children were taken within days. The people she'd called family scattered to the four winds. At first she rattled around the home they'd all shared, alone, depressed, unable to eat or sleep...until her mind created a vision. Her love returned to her. Whole, alive and promising never to leave her. She, in turn, protected him from everything and everyone. After a time though...with the help of good friends, she came to realize he was really gone and she'd been living with a ghost. She moved out of the house and into a small flat in Midian. She began to branch out, making new friends in the parish and reacquainting herself with old friends. She was trying to be a better person, but the sleepless nights, the restlessness and the need to hurt and be hurt returned with a sick vengeance. She resumed her relationship with the Nightbreed Sheriff. His willingness to be with her and yet allow her the freedom to continue the perverted dance she was doing with the city's predators made him the perfect partner in her sickness. Her willingness to accept him for what he was and protect his secrets made her his perfect fallen angel. Damian's return and Oceania's subsequent disappearance thrust her into the role of leader. A role she didn't feel she was ready for, nor entirely capable of...but it was sink or swim. She began recruiting and stepped up to try and lead the best she could. Her desire to 'become a better person' fell to the need to do what she had to do to protect and lead the Sarcina. Her ultimate goal, to get Oceania back, and in the mean time, to keep the group together and make them strong enough to survive a city that could take down even the toughest. Attempting to attain that goal lead her to hurt people along the way, most notable among them the priest she'd come to think of as a trusted friend. She tried, occasionally in vain, to balance leading the Sarcina and her self destructive nature. She learned to fight dirtier and to be more ruthless and manipulative. She learned to use her feminine charms to get what she really wanted...which was rarely the man she was using them on. She often used the men in her life to do her dirty work, rewarding (or bribing) them with her time and affection. The acts these men have committed for her have yet to be traced back to her. Oceania eventually returned to take over the Sarcina and, feeling at loose ends again, Rena took to roaming the city once more, spending time in the church as well as in the seedier parts of the city. It was during this time that she got to know Guin and Forge better. Guin became like a sister to her, while Forge became something more...what started out as sadistic games turned into a deep and mature love. They married in a secret cerimony and managed to hide it for months until finally one night Forge began telling anyone who would listen. About this same time, Oceania disappeared again, this time on a personal quest, leaving Rena in charge. She's vowed that things will be different this time. The first time she came into the role, she got lost in the manipulations and power struggles. This time, her focus is the women of the Sarcina. She wants to see the group fulfill it's potential and become a driving force in the city. Every person I've ever RPed with in Midian has added something to Rena's character. I feel as if she's a collaborative creation, a result of all she's done, witnessed and been forced to endure. None of that would be possible without the people who grace me with their time and their words. I feel truly grateful to part of a community of such creative and passionate people.
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