Rain
Feb 16, 2020 3:31:26 GMT -5
Post by Rain on Feb 16, 2020 3:31:26 GMT -5
PLAYER INFO
Name/Alias: River
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Rain
Age: Mid Twenties
Gender: Femme
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Autobot
Original Occupation: Fashion designer / Animal rights activist
Occupation/Specialization: Ranger
Appearance: Full picture here
Rain stands tall and lean, top of her helm on the green line at 7.2 meters making her a little shorter than Ratchet, with an overall build similar to Arcee. Starting from the top down and most obvious, her face is entirely black dominated by a large singular optic, the obvious result of Empurata. Rain has a prominent set of recurve antler like finials sweeping back from the top of her helm held slightly aloft on short struts. These were crafted post empurata but before full-on war and are entirely cosmetic. Her cheek guards are framed by a pair of narrow pointed finials sweeping out and back.
Rain’s torso is broad across the chest but narrows to a dainty waist. The top half, chest plate and neck are armored while the lower half, midriff and hips have only very thin flexible armor. Her arms are long and lean. Large shoulder actuators are bare as is the top half of the upper arm. The rest of the arms have varying amounts or armor. Sitting off the arm proper supported by struts, Rain has an additional armor plate from knuckles to past the elbows. Between the extra armor plate and left arm is a folding bow, while the right arm carries an arrow carriage. Her hands, now replaced twice, are those of a fallen Decepticon drone taken during the war. They each have two flat chisel like fingers and a simple thumb. Their dull grey lustre marks them out as not original but simply functional.
Rain’s legs are digitigrade. She has large, mostly hollow thighs which act as storage. She stores pistols, datapads and datadiscs, and sundry small items. She has sharp edged shins and powerful calves. Her feet end in small hooves.
Rain’s optic and bio-lights are a fantastic bright blue. Her thinnest armor is a high gloss dark silver. Her armored sections of the chest, arms and legs alternate between pearlescent white and blue. She wears her candy red Autobot logo on the back of her neck.
Altmode: Velocity XL (a popular homebuilt canard pusher civilian aircraft).
Pertinent History: Rain was forged, coming online at a time when Cyberton was just beginning to centralise resources and shut down the galactic space bridges. Her personal world was still open in its possibilities, Rain took little more than one look at herself and then at others and chose to become a fashion designer. She worked her aft off in paint shops making a name for herself until her clientele was the upper echelons of society. Simple paintjobs and makeovers blossomed into every aspect of personal aesthetics. Under her creative direction, she built a name for herself, recognised among the elite across more than one city of Cybertron and became wealthy in her own right. It was during this initial period of her life that Rain also learnt the social graces of high society as well as poise and elegance while in motion. She lived it up, interspersing hard work with pleasure.
As the eons passed, so did Rain’s natural creative streak. As many artists often do, she looked for inspiration in every corner of Cybertron’s life. At some point she took cues from the natural fauna and flora that huddled away from society. Rain as she was oft to do with her strong sense of curiosity, dug deeper into the subject matter more than was necessary for simple inspiration. As Cybertron fell into stagnation of a caste society, she took notice that the natural life of Cybertron was in decline too. When an associate noted that Rain was taking an interest in animal life, she was invited along to a turbo-fox hunt. Open to new ideas, Rain accepted. She invested in some archery lessons in the weeks prior, this being her first time ever wielding a weapon.
It was not the fun day Rain had hoped for. After the first kill made by one of the group, Rain found herself feeling disgusted. She had never come face to face with the killing of an innocent spark before and the truth clashed with what was in her own spark. She initially tried to continue with the hunt but after she found she could not bring herself to, Rain made her excuses and left. There was no grand revelation, simply more of a dormant moral part of her spark coming to the fore. Rain noticed that she had come to care for this life separate from her own sentient species. The pursuit of animal wellbeing felt right and just in a way she had never felt partying or doing design work. Rain joined an activist group and began to use her influence and her wealth to help raise awareness for the plight of animals many of the high caste hunted for sport.
Some people with political power disapproved of the rising chaos and tension regarding their private sports and decided to send messages. As one of the leaders and financiers, Rain was targeted and picked off the streets during a protest. She was not the only one, a handful were caught while most managed to escape. Rain, along with others, was summarily charged with Inciting riots and she personally was sentenced to Empurata and stripped of her assets. This was deemed the greatest punishment for a vain fashion designer. While some were simply imprisoned, she was supposed to be used as a symbol of the Senate’s power, and as a deterrent to others.
Her highly visible punishment had thrown her from the top of the social hierarchy to the bottom. It was certainly effective, Rain’s vanity and pride taking a huge hit and with them much of her confidence. It was in large part spite and disgust of those who had wronged her that kept her going. She tried to use her disfigurement to become a martyr for the animal rights group but it turned away as many as it drew in. Rain largely donated her free time volunteering behind the scenes helping and saving abused animals, no longer at the forefront. For the many millennia before the Great War, Rain lived amongst the broken and poor alongside others of the lowest castes. Solid employment and energon was hard for her to come by. Her most gainful job was high visibility reflective paint marking for those in heavy labor roles.
It wasn't long after this that others were trying to raise awareness for their own plights, a movement in itself known as the Decepticons. With the senate's attention focusing on Decepticons, the animal rights group movement floundered further when all optics were looking at their own lives instead of those of animals. Then a full planet wide civil war broke out and very few at all cared about mere non-sentient creatures.
For the first few millennia, Rain was a neutral, still trying to protect the animals she cared about from the barbaric fallout of combat. While she disliked the Autobots mostly due to their masters, the senate, she hated the Decepticons for what seemed like pure wanton destruction.
She and what remained of the activist group spent most of their energy trying to save animals, even getting some off planet in a one way Ark-ship to a remote colony. During the cycles after the senate was eventually killed and when the surviving critters were scattered and too few in number, Rain came to side with the Autobots and joined them hunting Decepticons.
Through sheer effort, will, time, and desperate need to not only survive but help, Rain learnt some combat skills, as well as basic scouting. Archery allowed her to pick off targets from afar, a necessity with her light armor, and she learnt to use blasters for close in combat. She avoided melee at all costs. Luck held long enough for practise and skill to take over. Rain was not as much of a soldier as most of the other Autobots, she simply helped where she could, adding one more body to the ranks. It was during the early years as an Autobot soldier that her pincers were replaced with basic hands from a downed Decepticon drone. This did improve her dexterity to where it is now. It was mostly a case or practicality, capable hands were needed in a time when the story behind a singular optic was useless history. It was about the same time she came to possess her current pair of blasters, spoils from a victory on the battlefield.
During the slow cycles in the eons of war, Rain’s thoughts would often turn inward regarding her own mortality and what would become of the girl who once took fun wherever she could who had then come to care for animals all but extinct. Slowly over a million years and under her own initiative, Rain developed a spiritual bent to her thinking. She sought to reconcile her past with her future and find harmony within her spark, and find a balance to her unfillable desires. While during her time scrounging for supplies, she came across the odd old datadisc collection. Amongst some of them she found philosophical teachings and the tenets of circuit-su, these she has kept close. The spiritual path that Rain tries to walk draws upon what she has read, but mostly follows simply what she feels is right.
Rain missed the departure of the Ark and the Nemesis from Cybertron. She was on the far side of the planet at the time. Only with the help of Kamal has she made it eventually to Earth.
Personality: On the surface, Rain is a hard willed survivor who has faced hell, beaten it back, faced it again and still come through stronger than before. She is calm, confident in motion and focused. A long time has passed since she feared for her own wellbeing and now she cares deeply about the welfare of innocents. This means she is not prone to panic or reckless actions but is instead careful and considered. Her focus has a large spiritual direction and Rain finds solace and harmony in looking inward to the strength of her spark and convictions, and outward to the sparks of all that have gone before. She chooses to believe in the creation stories of Primus and the Thirteen, and she believes that all living things of Cybertron have a spark.
What drives Rain underneath all pretenses is simple desire. She tries to dismiss it but she holds an insatiable desire for vengeance against all who have wronged and harmed her, animals or any other innocent life. When she has to, she will draw upon her wrath and anger to make the hard choices, like taking the life of a decepticon soldier. Rain gains satisfaction from the perfect killing shot, disgusted at herself for enjoying perfection in the act of a clean kill. Empurata and eons of war have undeniably broken Rain, external help and her own iron will have put her back together but in the wake left a vindictive streak. It rarely surfaces but even her spark is not free of darkness.
Rain, does and always will, desires to enjoy life. She has undeniably partaken in most sins of the metal and does not regret her passionate past. Even the act of helping others, fuels her self worth and her pride as selfless acts can often have selfish reasons. Despite the turmoil of the later half of her life, Rain is still a party girl. Her spiritual side may have replaced the trend setter but not the warm passionate person who still wants the most life has to offer. The one thing though, that Rain desires most is to simply be a better person free from earthly desires. She ultimately wants to find serenity and evolve her spark past the pursuits of the metal, and to maybe one day even find enlightenment.
Therein comes some of Rain’s trichotomy. Looking for fun, looking out for the innocent, and looking for spiritual harmony are difficult to balance and Rain is still very far from achieving it. The fact she still harbors hate for those who seek violence and destruction generates additional instability. For most, she comes across as either boisterous and passionate, intense and focused, or serene, depending on her mood and attention. Even despite her empurata, Rain is still slightly vain even as she chuckles at her own failings. She wears her single optic with an iota of pride, knowing in her spark that she earned it doing what was right.
Rain is loyal to individual Autobots and the kind sparked but not entirely the whole faction. She is kind in turn, caring and generous. She is mostly polite and respectful but is not beyond being cheeky. Rain loves natural beauty, and all flora and fauna. Rain has come to appreciate beauty in the universe untouched by sentient hands.
Likes: Animals, nature, flying, relaxing, meditation, archery, dance music, challenges, dawn and dusk, energon goodies, precision.
Dislikes: Animal cruelty, wanton destruction, bragarts, death, Megatron, Decepticons, politicians.
Strengths/Weapons:
Archer: Rain carries on her left forearm a folding compound bow. Simple, straight forward, effective and easy to repair. On her right arm she carries a carriage of explosive arrows, up to eight. The arrows from her bow can penetrate medium armor before detonating the explosive. The explosive on its own can penetrate light armor. Against a non moving target of average cybertronian size and with time to focus, Rain has a maximum reliable range of 500 meters. She currently has six arrows of three meter length on her.
Hydraulic power: Rain has hydraulic telescoping upper arms and hydraulically reinforced shoulder actuators. This is what gives her greater draw length for her bow and greater draw weight. Under certain situations she can use this additional strength in physical tasks. The hydraulics are slow, Rain can be strong or move her shoulders fast, but not both.
Nimble: Rain relies on her decent agility and grace to keep her from harm. This makes up most of her effectiveness in melee by allowing her to stay out of melee range. She is a proficient dancer but no acrobat, and an exquisite flier. Some of this is pure talent, some was learnt while she was a social butterfly, and the rest as necessitated by pure survival.
Guns: Rain’s preferred firearms is a matched pair of revolver pistols. Each hold eight charges which recharge directly from Rain at around one round a minute per pistol. Somewhat effective against medium armor at close range. The pistols store in Rain’s thigh pockets where they can recharge slowly. Rain single wields each pistol using a two handed grip. She alternates the pistols to allow one or the other to recharge.
Weaknesses:
Arrows: Making arrows under battlefield conditions can be difficult. They require materials and tools. Rain does however possess the knowledge, skill and data-discs of various schematics. The schematics can be easily fed into a CNC mill and cover such things as ideal dimensions for the shaft, fletching, and arrow head based upon what materials are being used, as well as the chemical composition and creation of the explosive compound in the warhead. Rain isn't running around with mere pointy sticks scavenged from a battlefield.
Fire fights: Rain’s limited ammunition capacity hinders her in prolonged firefights. Rain can also be disarmed of all her weapons as none of them are truly built in. Additionally as Rain’s blaster draws from her own supply of energon, charging them drains her, and if she is already drained she can't readily recharge them at all.
Combat: In general Rain is a poor combatant compared to the skill of Team Prime. She just does what she can as best she can.
Light armor: Rain’s armor varies from medium on her forearms to barely there at her midriff and shoulders. She’s almost a glass cannon but without the punch. Rain’s shoulder and ankles are the most exposed and easily damaged.
Un-handy Dandy: Rain’s current hands are her third set, war time replacements for her post empurata pincers. As they are not specifically designed to perfectly match her wrist sockets, they possess some limitations. They lack both dexterity and grip strength. Due to the use of dissimilar materials between Rain original wrists and new hands, Rain suffers painful binding at the interface in extreme hot or cold conditions due to the mechanisms of thermal expansion occurring at different rates.
Special Skills:
Pre-war, Rain was an accomplished fashion designer, if it’s a cosmetic external mod, she’s on top of it. Paint jobs, finial extensions, holographic engraving - she does it all. For her work as a fashion designer, she can scan an individual and then display a holographic full size version of that individual but with the ability to alter paint and cosmetic details. The quality of the hologram will not fool anyone except the most poor sighted. The range Rain can project is only several meters.