Rachel’s life is beyond a far cry from what anybody would call a good one, yet, it is a tale that is unfortunately common in the streets of Gotham. She never got to know her mother, having lost her at an early age to the most common ailment in Gotham; a bullet. Instead, the young Roth was forced to live out on her own, one among the many homeless living within Gotham’s alleyways. It was cold, and life was hard, yet the child found a way. She had to. These first few years alone on the streets of Gotham spent dodging crime, stealing food, and drifting between shelters somehow seemed blissful compared to what was yet to come.

On her seventh birthday, Rachel's entire life suddenly flipped itself upon its head. Seemingly out of nowhere, she was woken by a sudden voice from seemingly behind her. Promising change in her little life, that she could present Rachel with something more than what she had thus far. As the voice spoke, the noise in young Rachel's head slowly grew and grew. A cacophony of others' thoughts, their emotions, all flowing in from every angle. She could suddenly feel the entire city, and the hellscape that so many lived within its concrete walls. As she cried and begged for silence to return amidst her mounting confusion and fear, the voice spoke once more. Clearer this time, and sounding almost exactly like her own. The noise in Rachel's head seemed to quiet as it spoke, promising to make everything quieter. Slowly, Rachel stood and asked the voice a simple question as she turned toward the source. A fateful question, whose answer forever changed her path.



As it replied, Rachel was horrified to see a figure, not unlike herself standing just before her. Its skin was a deathly gray, and it bore six glowing red eyes upon its face. A confident, casual grin sat on her features as she saw Rachel's reaction. "Good. Let's begin." The voice said before the figure seemingly disappeared and Rachel's world fell into Darkness. When she awoke, it was already nighttime. All around her were the mangled bodies of several others who'd been staying in her alleyway. Her hands had splotches of the same crimson leaking from their bodies, and even worse, her skin had turned the same shade as that terrifying girl from before. Rachel staggered back, eyes wide at both the carnage she'd obviously caused and her new appearance. Terrified as she picked up a piece of shattered glass to check her reflection... and worried about how many eyes she'd find staring back. Yet, it seemed, she was slightly luckier on that end. She still had two eyes, but they'd shifted to a haunting yellow. On her forehead, a ruby-colored gemstone now sat as if it'd always been there. Whatever that thing had done to her... it was the worst birthday she'd ever had.

In the years since that fateful, Rachel has learned to live with that other being. Slowly coming to accept that it was, in fact, a part of her. It had not been lying when it said they were the same... yet she refused to let it seize control again. She'd learned to shove away most of her emotions, afraid they'd provide another gateway for that thing to seize control. Yet she was not always perfect, and sometimes Red did manage to take over... and there was always a victim. Through these terrible events, however, Rachel had dreams. She learned bits of her heritage, pieces of what she truly was. A prophecy, to summon a demon to her world. A demon, her father. She also learned from these dreams of small amounts of magic she could manipulate. She learned, slowly, to tone down the thoughts and emotions of others. To recognize patterns to tell who was who. She learned of a way to project her soul from her body in the form of black energy outlined in red. It could allow her to see over a longer distance, explore areas before entering, and could even absorb attacks before spitting them back out. She knew there was more, that she was barely scratching the surface... but she was scared. Scared of what that might open up, of who it might invite to come out.

Yet there were still some bright spots amidst the darkness. There was a doctor at one of the shelters she visited often, she knew him as Doc, who had always been kind. He'd treated her when she was injured from Red's rampages, and never once did he comment on her strange appearance. He'd always been kind and offered advice that seemed to be just right for whatever troubles she had in her life... despite the fact she never told him of said troubles. He even went through the trouble of sneaking the girl chocolate bars whenever she would visit, a kindness done without any need for spoken words. While she couldn't call Doc a friend, per se, it was comforting to know that there was somebody out there who seemed to care about her. To have something reliable to keep her mind from falling too deep into despair.

Her troubles only got worse as she became a young teenager. At the age of 14, she found herself being hunted. A group calling itself the Cult of Trigon had started to show itself within the city and was coming directly for Rachel. The Raven, they called her. The time had come to summon the demon-father she'd seen in her dreams, and unfortunately for Rachel... there wasn't a whole lot she could do to resist a cult bent on claiming her as their own. Yet, it seemed, the girl would get lucky yet again. The Boy Wonder, Robin, came to her aid seemingly out of nowhere and handily defeated the cultists trying to get her. Curious as it was, Rachel considered herself lucky that it was just Robin who'd saved her. She, like many others who lived on Gotham's streets, lived every day in fear of Robin's mentor, the Bat. She was so scared of that man, that Rachel forced Robin to swear not to tell his mentor about her, or the abilities she had shown during their brief fight with the cultists.

Over the next year, Robin continued to visit Rachel to check on her every night as he helped her move into an abandoned Subway station, while slowly turning it into a safe house. With basic living quarters, and all the essentials that one could need to get by. With each visit, Rachel found herself more and more overjoyed to see the familiar face of Robin, now known to her as Jason Todd, coming to visit. Until her emotions boiled over, and in an unusually bold move, she kissed the Boy Wonder just as he was leaving for the night. The next few weeks were as near to bliss as she'd ever experienced, with the start of a relationship blooming between the two. Until Red showed her hand once more. The other threatened Jason's life, swearing to seize control and put an end to the Boy Wonder, a threat that Rachel knew she was risking by embracing her emotions towards Jason. So, she did the only reasonable thing to save his life.

She broke up with Jason. She drove him away, explaining that they couldn't be together or his life was at risk. That she was the risk to his life. Despite all the hurt, Rachel knew it to be best, knew that she was saving him this way.

Until the Joker ended his life anyways a mere two weeks later.

Since then, Rachel has lived alone in her safe house. Meditating, and learning to further suppress her emotions. Events like the war with Atlantis, or the disbanding of the Justice League all seemed far away from her little Safe House. Her prison of choice. Throughout the years she's learned to manipulate and move objects with her mind, something learned during her meditations as she has slowly dared to reach further into that well of power that once scared her so much. Despite her preferred isolation, she does occasionally venture out. No matter the time of year, always with a large red hoodie to hide her features and hopefully keep her from finding trouble. Though too often trouble has found her anyways, and made her fight back in the only way she knows how.

It's a lonely life, but it's better than becoming the Monster she keeps locked within.

As the above wall of text probably indicates, this Raven is a bit different from the origins of the typical hero.

She is a Raven who has never ventured to Azarath, and who hasn't had a mentor to really learn how to handle her emotions or powers. Nor a teacher to tell her fully who she is, and what she can do. Her gateway to that life was taken when her mother was Gotham'd while she was young. Since then, she's lived a life dictated by fear. Not just of the city around her, nor herself, but also of the heroes who keep the world safe. Of how they would react to a girl whose purpose for existing is to bring about the end of everything they hold dear. I borrowed some ideas in the form of the Emoticlones, with Red Raven being much stronger and more influential this time around (and taking the name of Pride from that plot line where Raven's siblings are the seven sins). This also is why the color Red is more present with this variation, as a lot of her power is learned from suppressing the evil within herself and drawing knowledge from what it can do.

The main story I want to tell with her is about her overcoming that fear and eventually taking her place as a hero in her own right. I want to show her struggling with her abilities, growing in strength as she does, and facing down new threats. Learning from other members of the cast in the RP, and using that to beat down her own (literal) demon within.

As far as plots; I did want to actually have Rachel struggle with her father twice over the course of her tenure here. In her initial plot line, I imagined a resurgent Cult of Trigon coming after her and culminating in a brief encounter with her father. Then Rachel would have time to struggle with her own nature, that a part of her is Forever Evil, and perhaps even see her finally making it to Azarath. Then at some point, I'd like her to face down her father again for the big final showdown.

Aside from those plots, I did want her open to join in any other plotlines that others would be happy to have me tag along during! I can also toss out some of my plots if they're too much, or change things up to work with the rp/other rpers!