▼ | P H Y S I C A L S T A T S : | ▸ HEIGHT : | 5’6”
▸ WEIGHT : | 135
▸ ETHNICITY : | Irish, French, Norwegian; e.g. Caucasian persuasion
▸ HAIR COLOR : | Natural redhead (ginger, orange, w/e)
▸ EYE COLOR : | Green
Reyna is athletic and it shows in her body. Her arms and legs are well toned, and she’s got the tracing of abs outlined on her torso. Even so, Reyna is a woman who doesn’t reject her femininity and occasionally indulges in self-pampering when it suits her and time allows her to. She isn’t very tall, standing at the modest height of 5’6”, leaving her looking up at most other athletes and gym-junkies and she weighs in at around 135 lbs., 28F – which is rather heavy for her size, but most of it is muscle that she has earned through her interests. She has a sturdy frame and has just a few curves around her waist and back. Underestimating her because of her size that isn’t so wise, since she packs a lot of strength in her figure. She practically exudes confidence and pride in her posture.
Button nose, thin eyebrows, smooth skin, freckles – the latter which are absolutely littered across her body, much to her chagrin, and there’s one in particular on her cheek which she refers to as “Big Bertha.” It’s not as noticeable as the spotlight effect would have her believe, since it’s not any different in coloration, it’s just larger than the rest of the freckles on her face. Her soft facial features are occasionally tarnished by a scowl, which is not her standard go-to disposition like her enthusiastic and full of life demeanor, but rather a reflection of her quick temper. When you do get to see her when she is excited, you witness the emboldening her green eyes and the stretching of her lips to form a toothy grin that shows well taken care of teeth. Her natural bright-red and curly hair is fashioned into a curly faux-hawk and is well groomed. There is little oil that naturally accumulates in her hair, so you’ll often see it lightweight and fluffy. She has scars over her knuckles from the various fights she has gotten herself in, on her fingertips from climbing on rock, bricks, and concrete, but overall, doesn’t have too many aside from a long one next to her left eyebrow.
She has a couple of accessories, which compose mostly of piercings. She has two piercings on her left outer brow, one tongue piercing, and piercings that nobody has any right knowing about. On her right shoulder blade is a simple tattoo of a compass, which she got without her father’s knowledge when she was younger, which is special for her. It has part to do with her love of adventure and part to do with, despite its simplicity. She also has an industrial bar in her right ear, and other accessories include three hemp necklaces which are hopelessly tangled together, and on each one, is a thin stainless-steel heart. On one, it says Merry, on another, it says Mia, and the third depicts a raised fist symbolizing empowerment. She also likes to wear a black plastic wire choker.
▼ | ATTIRE : |Her clothing is what one might call a mish-mash of style from both the girl’s side and the boy’s side of the clothing department. One of her favorite looks is wearing a loose and flowing white sundress that falls just barely below her knees, likely with a small, repeating print on it like Snoopy from Charlie Brown or the Misfits face logo, with a black and faux-leather jacket layered over the top of it. She completes the look with combat boot which climb just above her ankles or a pair of converse, and a wide-brimmed and floppy hat matching the dress she’s wearing. What you don’t get to see is the red tank-top underneath or the knee-length camouflaged cargo shorts underneath the dress, which is usually secured by a black fabric belt. Sometimes she changes up the style to seem more tomboyish or settle for a blouse and a pair of jeans. You'll never know with this girl.
But more on her jacket, it’s her iconic and signature article of clothing. Everyone knows about Reyna and her jacket, you simply don’t mess with it or ask her to take it off. It’s her thing, equated to her as much as Michael Jackson’s single glove or Freddie Mercury’s yellow jacket. It’s covered in patches, such as the raised fist on her necklace for female empowerment, a Misfits patch, a pink triangle, and a number of other patches that will be easier for me to bullshit on the spot in the middle of the RP.
She doesn't typically wear a lot of makeup, and it's not because she's intrinsically opposed to the idea. Beauty is one art form that she doesn't quite understand and doesn't really know how to make it work, plus it's an expensive hobby to maintain. The most she really bothers wearing is some eyeliner and the occasional nail polish.
▼ | PERSONALITY TRAITS : | ♦ Excitable ♦ Passionate ♦ Competitive ♦ Stubborn ♦ Impulsive ♦ Narrow-minded ♦ Confident ♦ Curious ♦ Short-tempered ♦
♦ Expressive ♦ Immature ♦ Protective ♦ Optimistic ♦ Flirty ♦ Liberal ♦ Critical ♦ Honest ♦ Genuine ♦ Feisty ♦ Courageous ♦
She expresses herself freely and unabashedly. While unrelentingly cheerful, excitable, and playful on the surface, she is like an unmoving brick wall in any sort of conflict. If you disagree with her to any extent, she’ll tell you you’re wrong and will hold her ground. She was born with a quick temper that takes some time and attrition to coax down and is rarely the type to say sorry first, and this temperament was disciplined a fair bit after she took up a martial art, so she has a little more restraint and has gotten better at hiding her emotions, but that doesn't mean there still isn't a fire raging behind those blast doors. She’s also quite prideful of herself and she takes challenges and contests very seriously to the extent that she might be an obnoxious winner or bummed out loser, as either result can have a grand impact on her esteem and she has a tendency to carry all of her failures with her. She does a fantastic job at hiding her insecurities, but when her armor comes completely off, you'd be surprised to find how much baggage she's carrying.
Much of her tough competitive side stems from growing up in the densely populated city of Portland, Maine. With violent crime being disproportionately higher there than anywhere else in Maine, it meant that being tough equaled respect. There was also the fact that her father was never around, allowing her to easily plow over her hard-working father. When appealed to her interests however, she reacts in what many would consider exaggerated excitement. For example, she is an explorer at heart. She loves discovery and – surprisingly enough for a city girl – enjoys nature, especially at sites of caves, cliff faces, rivers, streams, or a remote location untouched by mankind. There also exists a fascination for bugs, fossils, artifacts, ancient relics and architecture, and bones. When these interests are appealed to, she shows a complete change in character: her eyes light up, a toothy grin from ear to ear, and her stern voice is replaced with what turns out to really be a talkative, excitable girl. This child-like giddiness often offsets anyone who is not wholly familiar with her and has only met with her abrasive side, and likewise, her innate aggression to those who have only seen her while she was happy. She also has a curious fondness for poetry—not that she practices, but she appreciates the art.
There are unique distinctions in the form of her interactions with others which are dependent upon the other’s gender. Even as someone who identifies as bisexual, she approaches men with greater caution and is usually dismissive of their advances after being spurned or harassed too many times. Even if acknowledging that a man might be attractive, she is still quick to judge and treats them with caution. She doesn't judge those who are or would engage in a relationship with someone who was an animal-based metahuman, though she wouldn't think she'd do so herself. She doesn’t make very many promises to herself, as she’s aware of her own reckless and impulsive behavior and if often at the mercy of her own sense of curiosity and wanderlust. One such example is the decision to travel out of state to attend Academy 003 – new life of exploration and discovery and to experience things that no one else has before. If Reyna has learned anything, it's that there is only one question she should ask herself before deciding anything: "Will I regret this?"
She has her shortcomings, such as her stubbornness and often narrow-minded approach to about everything. She isn’t academically inclined, and she finds studying in most cases to be a total snooze-fest, which might enable others to judge her as unintelligent despite her sharpness in other areas such as environmentalism. Despite her shortcomings, however, Reyna is an exuberant and faithful companion once you can look past her attitude. She exudes great positive energy when she’s in a good mood, and is very confident and flirty in social interactions, even if just to a playful or platonic extent. Once she considers you family, there’s virtually nothing that she’ll let stand in her way to protect you. While her disposition may allow her to thrive best while acting as a lone wolf, she prefers the sense of community that working in a team provides – just as expected from someone who puts so much value into family. If you ever even suggest any kind of threat regarding her sibling at all, no amount of reason will get in her way from trying to ensure their safety by breaking your legs.
Okay, so there are a couple of things that she is obviously good at, so let's get one thing out of the way so I don't act like it is a big surprise later: Reyna's a pugilist. She has a thing for boxing and kickboxing, and if there’s an octagon and she’s allowed to punch people, she gets excited. This should not come as such a huge surprise; for an active and competitive girl like her, this comes naturally. Fighting is essentially the epitome of competition and whoever comes out on top is the true victor, standing over the defeated – the experience of such a defeat being inescapable – and proclaiming dominance. Western martial arts are obviously much more aggressive styles than defensive eastern martial arts, which suits Reyna perfectly. Over time, her style has come to more closely resemble MMA.
Now, more alarmingly, her other skills are a lot gentler. With her knowledge from reading survival books ever since she was a kid, and her fascination with nature and exploration, she could get lost in the woods for a month and come back alright; she knows her shit. Reyna is also an artist to some degree. She has talent in it is confident in herself, but she doesn't feel so confident that she'd consider herself a professional or would be ready to make a career out of it, wanting to hone her craft before she starts taking commissions. But her work is good, there's no doubt about it, and she wants to be good enough so that she can give tattoos to people and to be a reliable enough artist to do so. Though, admittedly, she is hesitant about using her own body as a practice canvas. Otherwise, she can draw, paint, and sketch, both traditionally and on a digital format.
While not terribly gifted in the music and whimsy department, she does have a terrific singing voice from the years of practicing in the shower or singing her sister to sleep – if only she could seriously partake in that activity in public and not shut down if put in the spotlight. This is the only area where she isn't confident and suffers from stage-fright, and she'll fake or pretend terrible singing otherwise as though it were a joke to avoid judgement of her actual ability. If it is only her, her sister, and her cousin, then she would feel comfortable enough to sing her heart out.
In order to purchase her used motorcycle, which is evidence on its own of her impulsive decision making and lack of foresight, she got a job back in Maine at a fireworks store. Long story short, she knows how to make a couple of different kinds of fireworks and knows some trivia about fireworks. She loved it, and between that and living in downtown Portland, she can easily tell if an explosion came from a firework or a firearm when she hears it. Reyna also had the bad habit of forgetting her keys, so she was forced into the position of learning how to pick her own front door's lock way late at night.
▼ | BACK STORY : | Reyna was born to an unmarried family in Maine, a product of an accident to be honest, but they agree to birth her in the end. It was a typical babyhood at first, but with the dynamics in the family being rather conflicted, the relationship couldn’t work, and her mother left the house when she was young. Despite the disagreement between her parents, they never tried to separate her from either of them or alienate her. They mutually encouraged respect for both parents. Though being a single parent was a little rough on her father, they managed to truck right through the hardships, even though the father was never certain on how to raise a girl the traditional way. So, he rose her as he would any child, or what would be typically considered befitting of a boy. Being raised this way, she was never told to shy away from what was considered to be boys' toys or clothes or whatnot, and through all that, still maintained her “femininity” as typical people would call it.
During that time, her mother found another man, married, and had another child four years after her own birth. Her new half-sister was named Merry, and her surname, Bennet, took after her father's. Naturally, having already visited her mother every weekend, Reyna got to meet Merry at a very young age and got to spend much of her time growing up with her. Her young life went this pattern for a very long time. Every night she got to spend with her sister, she'd spend it singing lullabies until Merry fell asleep. It was a typical pattern. The next biggest change in her life was the year Reyna turned 13 years old. Her father took her and, with permission, Merry on a trip to a local state park. Naturally, with Reyna’s prankster disposition, snuck off with Merry and began exploring the woods on her own. Reyna was a good older sister in that she didn’t pressure her into anything that was too dangerous, and she didn’t run ahead on her own – she would’ve been a decent chaperone if she, personally, wasn’t so reckless. She made a bet with her sister that she could climb on top of this thirty foot tall boulder, and to her credit, she could – and she did, and when arrived at the top, found that there was much less space for her to stand than she thought, and the slickness of the moss on top of it caused her to slip and fall into a crevice that cracked the top of the boulder.
Merry’s screaming and crying and pleas for help eventually got the attention of Reyna’s father who was looking for them, who in turn called for the park ranger to help them. After a few hours, they arrived and were able to safely climb the boulder and lower themselves down into the crevice. There, they found Reyna with a gash on her forehead and wedged between two large and different colored crystals. It was that moment that sort of spurred her aspirations to become a ranger like them. More importantly however, between the extent of time she was exposed to the crystals and the highly stressful situation she was in, her powers developed a year later. It was noticed when she was able to perform physical activities for a long period of time without wearing out, perform greater feats of strength and speed, but easily dehydrate. She decided to take up boxing to help cope with the energy she had and to better control herself and her power – though another large part of it was that Reyna thought it would be fun, which explains why she didn't choose any eastern martial arts which were less aggressive and would have made more sense. Eventually though, as she and her powers matured, it became obvious to the other practitioners in the gym. She was much stronger and nearly three times as fast as the others, and the disparity in their abilities were enough to warrant asking her to leave.
That same year, Reyna's father introduced her to her extended cousin – their closest related family member being their great grand-mother – an older African-American girl named Mia, after convincing them to come into town. Her father knowing that Mia came from a town that was highly populated with meta-humans thought it would be good for his daughter to make friends with her. A crucial difference was that Mia came from Mendel, Louisiana, which meant a much dirtier and even more crime-ridden city than Portland due to gang violence, which had an influence on Mia and her disposition despite her kind demeanor. The relationship was a little tense at first due to their conflicting personalities, but they managed to befriend each other in due time. Mia made it a point to visit Maine often, for about a week or two every two or so months, even as cold as it was compared to the southern heat. She fortunately had the money to do so since both of her parents owned their respective tourist traps. They eventually grew to be inseparable. When all three could get together, they sang and played music together, fought together (or with each other), ate, slept, adventure, the whole works.
So when Reyna would be inflicted upon a certain trauma and indignity by someone who she suspected was a close friend, and in her moment of great stress, flames licked out from her body and burned the boy who assailed her. Cops were called and cops arrived. So, too, then did an ambulance. Then they brought her in for questions. They payed little heed to her own side of the story, dismissing it as a cover story for regretting typical teenage shenanigans or covering for her assault of a young man. She was a meta-human, how could a non-meta ever exercise any power over her? Reyna realized then that this would likely be politicized, either locally or on a much grander scale. They didn't care about the truth. They just cared about framing the event as meta on non-meta violence. When her father arrived at the station with Mia in tow, she curled into herself into their arms and sobbed helplessly. She couldn't bring herself to talk to her father, but she felt that Mia was someone who she could turn to for consolation. Fear, guilt, and uncertainty -- Mia washed them away and promised that she would see to it that nothing like that would ever happen again. Reyna never knew what happened with the boy afterward, but she never saw him again. Asking Mia turned up no answers other than, "Don't worry about him."
As Reyna got older, the process of going through high-school tends to socialize you to the larger world. The administration tries to get you connected to outside forces before you’re graduated so that you have an idea of which direction you want to go. She was able to receive state assistance due to her lower-income family and she received credits for her participating in art and music clubs and school sports like track or soccer, which was before they caught onto her meta-human status and decided that it gave her an unfair advantage over the other runners and players respectively. In this regard, her high-school experience wasn’t the happiest since she often felt like the grown-ups were deliberately trying to stunt her potential, and her middling grades in the academic side of the school (aside from Earth science and history) weren’t so impressive. She also spent a lot of time taking care of Merry, who was going through a trying time on her own as she began to enter puberty.
Still, all things considered, she seemed to have made enough of an impression upon graduation that, after she walked the stage and accepted her diploma, she would later be directed to talk to some FAMA ambassadors sitting at a table in one corner of the lobby. They suggested to apply to Academy 003, and once the application was received, they’ll perform an investigation and possibly send her an invitation letter. The invitation was permanent if she kept her record clean from that point on – no felonies or misdemeanors or anything, because then they’d have to launch another investigation and she’d have to wait even longer – but it meant that she could keep the letter as long as she wanted until she decided she wanted to go.
Even for someone as impulsive as Reyna, it was a difficult decision for her. She spent a lot of time trying to better educate herself on metahuman politics as she matured and the gravity of her abilities and their significance weighed on her, even as mind-numbingly boring politics was to her, so she knew what FAMA was all about and what the offer to join Academy 003 entailed. It was essentially a juvie of sorts, not in how only bad kids went there, but it was a sort of rehabilitation or conditioning center of sorts. It taught people how to be “functioning members of society.” Some people saw it alluring for the esteem it would grant in some circles – it was certainly a certifiable school of great repute, but other circles would see it as brainwashing, and attendance carried a stigma. Likewise, her father just wanted Reyna to be safe. Happy, but also safe. They agreed to let her apply, but to their surprise, the letter actually came – and they let it sit for a year, to let Reyna decide if she was ready to take such a huge step. It meant leaving home for a long time, but Reyna was an explorer at heart, so that wasn’t the issue. The issue was the uncertainty of her future. For once, the question she always asked herself, “will I regret this?” had no answer. Not one that she could provide, at least. She was wrought with enough anxiety about the question and about her future that her power singed the bed covers on more than one occasion.
Her father answered for her, “you’ll only regret never even trying.” He decided that it was best for her to learn how to control her power for good, and he was getting tired of buying new sheets and blankets for her. What’s more, having Academy 003 on her transcript might look pretty good on applications to future colleges. Besides, it was probably best to have an environmentalist or a park ranger who didn’t accidentally burn forests down on a routine basis. With that, her family saw off a nineteen-year-old Reyna at the train station where she’d head to South Carolina. From there, a taxi, and eventually to the front gates of the Academy 003 itself.
▼ | POWER CLASSIFICATION : | Type Chromatic
▼ | POWER DESCRIPTION : | Rocket-Man Girl
Reyna has a peculiar combination of red and yellow Delta-Point energy that makes her: one, super strong; two, super-duper fast; and three, a little bit of fire for good measure. If she were to describe it, she'd say she's hot n' ready like Little Caesar's.
To pick back up what I’m breaking down, her speed is by far the crux of her power. She might be strong and wreathed in flame, but as far as comparing her powers to other, similar meta-humans, her speed is the most impressive. Her body’s endocrine system is at the ready, prepared to produce adrenaline at a moment’s notice, and filling to the brim with that sweet, sweet nectar. In fact, it’s slightly over-filled. A trickle of adrenaline slowly bleeds into her system and makes her ready to go. Though the type-yellow energy spread through her system, making everything tougher, stronger, and more reactive, it seemed to react better to areas of higher muscle density. This meant that her legs got most of the attention. She can spring from one place to another with powerful bounding leaps, or sprint with enough blistering speed to put Usain Bolt to shame and pounce atop of anybody unfortunate enough to proclaim themselves as her enemy before they even realize it. In this regard, it would be inaccurate to compare her to any record-holding human sprinter, but rather to a cheetah.
The energy affected her other abilities as well, not just her speed. Her arms and, hell, even the rest of her body get in on some of the fun as well. While her strength is not as comparable to her speed, she hides a lot of unassuming strength in her figure. Any person, regardless of fitness, can knock out or stagger someone with a good punch, but very few people can send you sliding back several feet after knocking you onto your ass. Her strength is such that it still exists within the realm of human achievement, but very few people short of a durability power are going to withstand a good slug coming from her direction. Combine that with the inertia she gets from her speed, and you’re down before you even realize what hit you. Because her system was souped-up from the Type-Yellow Delta-Point energy, she’s durable enough to withstand her own forces without seriously shattering herself.
The third component of her power comes from the traces of Type-Red energy. Compared to actual pyrokinetics, this aspect of her power is comparatively weak. It allows her to ignite the air around her and doing this is made relatively easier considering her super-system’s temperature it already hotter than average, and the friction that her high-speed movements has against the air gives it just enough of a push to make the actual effort of creating fire to be practically effortless. This means that, when she runs, if she so chose (and why wouldn’t she?) a streak of fire would probably be left where she was just a moment ago, and if she were to swing a punch, slow-motion capture would show a streak of flame from her fist and down to her elbow trailing behind her. For all intents and purposes, she is a literal trailblazer, and that adds just one more reason why you don’t want to be on her bad side. When all is said and done, you can see her standing post-carnage with plumes of steam rising from her body – from when the fire instantly evaporated her sweat.
▼ | LIMITS : | Like a cheetah, the problem for Reyna is stamina. She can go fast, and for a short while, she can keep up the pace until she tires – and that kind of speed will tire quickly. An overall stronger system with that juicy adrenaline allows her to recuperate quickly and allow her another brief burst of speed, but that time she can keep that would be even shorter. It is best used for short spurts and not for an endurance race. While her perception is just reactive enough to get a pretty good idea of what she’s doing, it’s not so great that she’ll be able to notice sudden and immediate changes in her environment while she’s moving quickly. She has no control over fire beyond what she can produce. She might also be strong enough to just barely lift a small car enough for someone to slide a jack underneath it, but not strong enough to flip it on its side and send it rolling.
▼ | WEAKNESSES : | Her power, for the most part, keeps Reyna from hurting herself too badly. Everything is kind of just “scaled up” so to speak, and while the force of a punch wouldn’t shatter her hand, it would hurt her as much as any fistfight would. A weird punch against a bony part of someone’s body might break her knuckle, even if that meant shattering the other person, but still. Perhaps more obviously is the fact of her endocrine system in overdrive. She’s much more prone to being dehydrated because of her power, so she must drink about as much water as a factory worker to keep herself going. This is one more reason why prolonged fights don’t work out so well in her favor. It’s also worth noting that inertial forces are incredibly strong and aren’t so easy to resist once you’ve built up enough kinetic energy. Once she’s in movement, it’s a little hard to stop herself.
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