"Call me Rin! Nice to meet you!"
Rin-Naera
Age:
"I'm older than I look, you know."
12 (physically and mentally about sixteen)
Race:
"We're kinda like the butterflies from your human culture."
Minagora
Appearance:
"Heh, well, let's hope you like how I look!"
Being a Minagora, Rin's most prominent feature are her wings. A dark cyan-color, with intricate circular patterns along the trails of rigid veins, leading down into a fleshy stem, they are no less than beautiful and vibrant in good lightning, and surprisingly good at stealth when it's at night. In fact, the only easy indicator of seeing her would be the bright lavender eyes she has, almost constantly shining. She's dainty and frail, even for her race; possibly due to the malnutrition of that one year she spent in slavery, or maybe she always was small, and it was just the way she was. Her antennae reach an almost elegant curve, ending with a slight bulb at the top, another feature considered conventionally attractive in Minagora society. With a wing-span of about seven metres, and a small, flexible, and slender torso, Rin gives off the appearance of someone who's striking and sharp.
Rin's of average strength for her species, of course, but with more sensitive hair follicles on her extremities that can somewhat sense things moving towards her before they come, she's considered one of the more agile members of the Second Horseman, making for a good scout, and usually out of the thick of battle. She likes to wear, oddly enough, a variation of human dress that is modified to accommodate for her wings, and usually in muted, faded colors. They're light, easy to move in, and they make her feel good; and it's not as if she's unprotected either; she has a rather strong shield generator, of course, just in case. There are scars, though, a few marks here and there from when the slavers tortured her to make her obey- those lightly pigmented scar marks would likely never go away, and occasionally ache every once in a while.
Personality:
"Let's get along well for the future!"
Rin is, almost infuriatingly, an idealist. Despite the things she's suffered, she likes to try and think of solutions for everyone's benefit, almost spurning the capitalist side of her heritage completely; having no interest in money in the least. She's naive, and thinks the best in people, making her easy to manipulate, but also easy to like. Rin is sociable and kind, of course, and is usually the first in the Second Horseman who'd come up and say hi to you, as well as the most likely to take the middle in an argument. She can be considered the heart of the team; the emotional center. And she knows very well that she's the glue that helps the team stay together; particularly her good friend and older-sister surrogate, Jag, from going off and killing the other team members. Because of this, she was almost conditioned into being at the very least, slightly manipulative, although she does it for the common good, rather than her own benefit; which is her justification for using people's emotions to try and change their way of thought.
However, in the face of authority, she reveals her rebellious, almost vindictive streak; distrusting established powers, such as cops or even other governments; she tends to believe the worst of them, conversely to what she thinks of most random people she meets. Rin would prefer to lie to her team and lead them away from any established authority, rather than deal with them for a possible benefit.In a situation were communication with them is required, Rin tends to be overly analytical of their words, and over paranoid of the things they say or do, and tends to be much quieter than she chatterbox she usually is. So she goes out of her way, at times, simply to say that she broke the law, or disobeyed a command; things like that. It makes her feel good; maybe even some baseline form of revenge for what she and Varen had suffered.
Being with Jag, however, gives her the kind of intimacy that she feels she lost when she lost Varen; filling in the hole of loneliness inside of her, and making her almost emotionally dependant on Jag. Seeing the Noxchi act protective of her when people look at her or her wings, as well as often making sure to protect her in a fire fight, it makes Rin feel as if Jag really does care a lot more than she may be willing to admit- so Rin is always the first to openly support the Noxchi, and in missions where the team has to split up, she is almost always paired with her. She's aware of the great mental anguish Jag suffers, and hopes that by helping alleviate that even a little bit, that it helps repay her debt for Jag sparing her life, and rescuing her from a terrible life of slavery. Her relationship with Jag is somewhere between adoration and admiration, probably a liberal dosage of both.
History:
"It's not really as sad as it seems..."
Born in the Radial Quadrant Sector, Rin-Naera was the youngest out of her clutch of Minagora larvae, and while she was one of the few survivors, (as most larvae tend to die off early on due to an incompatibility with the implants), she was still seen as precious and delicate by her family, consisting of a mother, two older brothers, and one older sister. She was especially close with the Tatari housed with her- Nema-Varen, and whenever Varen finished with her tasks, the two would spend their days together in the early years. They were almost ridiculously close, and it made Rin's older siblings, to be honest, jealous that their little sister's effections were spent mostly on the slave, instead of her actual family. While she would cuddle with them and play with them- what little sister didn't?- her days and attention were, majority of the time, looking to play with the Tatari. Although it was considered strange, almost deviant, it was left alone the way it was, and Varen was forced into another task- but this one wasnt so bad at all... just to babysit Rin whenever needed.
Eventually the starship Halsithurn many Minagora lived on would become overpopulated; too many Minagora being born at once, and with the general medical improvements, more and more Minagora larvae survived the augmentation period, meaning that there was less food available. It wasnât too hard of a solution to fix; the few richer families happily footed the bill for the not so rich and they lived an almost idyllic life, until Rin, the inquisitive girl she was, started asking questions about why Varen had to be a slave. And no one could really offer a concrete reason for the system. "Because it's their nature?" "They can't take care of themselves?" "We're only helping them survive?" "To help us with things we can't do?" "Because they're fluffy and cute?" She had received myriad of possibly explanations, but none that was satisfying enough to sate her curiosity. And it got the little girl thinking- what if Nema wasn't a slave? What if she were to be free just like the Minagora? How would that go; and why wasn't it happening already?
At seven, the typical age for puberty to start, it was also when the Minagora start forming their own personalities and opinions on the world, and along with a few others her age, Rin questioned why the Tatari were excluded from the general collectivist ideation that Minagora based themselves upon. The general answer received was that they were less important than the butterfly-like Minagora, and oftentimes the richer families would intentionally forget to buy food that the Tatari could eat, or even sabotage the breeding den in the ship, out of spite. It was pretty horrific, but within the Naera household, the father told everyone else to just keep their heads down. This would benefit the Minagora on the ship, anyways- the Tatari were obviously a secondary condition. As Rin saw more and more of how cruel her people could be, she slowly started wondering why any of the so-called 'peace seeking' Minagora really thought treating anyone in such a way was okay; that it was acceptable behavior. And with these doubts, Rin realized that she couldn't trust in the authorities to do anything right to try and fix the situation. She knew that if there were to be change, it'd have to start from below. Unfortunately, she also knew that her race was too collectivist and pacifist to really have a big and drastic change. It was sobering, but it was realistic; thoughts of revolution left her mind, but the distrust of authority was there for life.
It'd eventually be discovered that Rin's older siblings were the ones who goaded the richer ones who start their abuse o the Tatari, claiming that being too kind to them endangered familial units of Minagora and their bonds of blood. That was when Rin decided she had enough, when Varenâs potential mate was one of the victims, becoming infertile due to chemical attack on his gonads, leading to Rin making a plan for Varen to escape the Halsithurn, along with her, at age nine. Using another sabotage as cover, Rin managed to sneak Varen to the escape bay, being one of the faster Minagora aboard, and together they took the pod to freedom; and to reach that mystical idyllic Tatari society, where it was said that all the escaped Tatari went to. They searched a few rumored planets, but none really seemed to know where all the escaped Tatari went, did they? It was hard though- and they didn't exactly have much money, so food was scarce for a while in their fruitless search. Still, they were happy... and it was worth it, leaving everyone behind. Because they escaped- and Varen was free from her bonds. Eventually they'd receive a transmission with a rumor- a rumor of where the free Tatari slaves were hiding, and with new resolve, Rin and Varen decided to go off in search of it.
Midflight, the escape pod was attacked by some Noxchi slavers, and try as they might, Varen and Rin were helpless to the war beasts, with them capturing them both. Forced into labor, they toiled like this for about a year, only coping because they had each otherâs company. It was terrible, and Rin basically had to rely on Varen to help her out all the time because she was too small and too weak to do all the physical labor herself- and she was also tiny and adorable, making the other slaves get lustful ideas about her, forcing Varen to play the role of her protector at the same time. She had apologized and tried to tell Varen that it was okay, that she didn't have to- because Rin knew Varen was slowly reaching her limits. Varen didn't stop, though, and kept her vigilant protection of Rin. This lasted until Rin was slated to be sold to a Minagora Fetishist, and was forcibly separated from Varen, most likely never seeing the Tatari ever again. This time they were intercepted again- except by Jag, who Rin managed to have spare her life with copious amounts of begging. And from then on, Rin and Jag the Noxchi traveled together, until joining a merc team, the oddly named Second Horseman. Rin was essentially attaching herself to the Noxchi, trying to make friends with her as well as trying to make a new life, and hopefully one day see Varen again.
General skills/specialties:
"I hope you find my skills useful to you"
Being somewhat of a tactician, and moreso, a scout, Rin is usually the first one to see the enemy or objective, and is the one that report back to the team her findings, and often conducts the plan on how to move in. Because of her beliefs, her plans are usually defensive and meticulous; prioritizing the safety of the team members over the actual goal- a fact that might irk some of the more fatalistic members of the Second Horseman. In combat, she's no slouch either, being able to dodge some attacks due to her natural reflexes, as well as having better senses than most other races, allowing her to make a mid-long range support fighter, usually applying covering fire to help her team move forward, or suppressing fire to pin down an enemy. She has good accuracy and precision, but she still is pretty fragile.
Off the field, Rin's the one in charge of the income, managing the cash and distributing funds. Since being Minagora, she's naturally good at this, although never as good as some of the more capitalist ones. She's also good at being the moral support for when her teammates need it; making her somewhat of a therapist in some ways, easing the minds of the team and trying to keep them cohesive and cooperative.
She likes to think that she's a good cook, but only the bravest of souls even dare to try to taste the almost blatantly toxic things she creates out of what was once perfectly good food. She doesn't have the heart to accept that she's terrible at cooking.
Typical weapon loadout:
"I prefer to not kill anyone, but..."
K-116 Light Flitter Rifle, a light version of the Flitter Rifle, which includes a scope and an automatic trigger. It's used for long range covering fire, primarily, but with it's laser charge, it's also good at stripping away enemy armour. While it loses stopping power, it has more versatility than the regular model, as well as has almost nonexistant recharge time and recoil, making it an easy rifle to use, that's effective for more supporting roles. Being light, Rin can't really equip much else into battle.
She has an assortment of small short range stun grenades and smoke bombs, as well, to fill out her supporting arsenal.