RAYN WILDER

FULL NAME: Rayn ʻAukai Vivianne Wilder

NICKNAMES/ALIASES: Detective Wilder, Rainy, Vivi, Wilder, Gumshoe, the Wolf, the PI, Damned beast, the Wolf

SPECIES: Wolfwalker (Wolf-variant Beastwalker), Guardian

ETHNICITY: Japanese/Puerto Rican-Hawaiian/Irish

KNOWN LANGUAGES:  English, Spanish, Irish Gaelic, Japanese, German (limited), Italian (limited), Mandarin (limited), Cantonese (limited), Hawaiian Pidgin (limited), ASL, Lycan, Canid, Ursine, Standard Mythic

RELIGION: Unaligned

AGE: 48

GENDER: Transfem Nonbinary

PRONOUNS: She/her (they/them also accepted) 

ORIENTATION: Bisexual demiromantic

OCCUPATION: Waitress (formerly), Lead Detective of Crime Scene Investigation (formerly), Forensic Analyst (formerly), Private Investigator/Independent Detective (current), Vigilante (current), Gun for hire (current, circumstantial)

EYE COLOR(S): Blue

HAIR COLOR(S): Dark brown

HEIGHT: 6’3” (human form), 8'5.5" (Wolf form)

WEIGHT: 225 pounds

BODY BUILD: Broad-shouldered, lean-built, well-muscled, subtle curves, rugged and worn appearance overall

NOTABLE PHYSICAL TRAITS: Freckles across body, dark circles beneath eyes, beauty spots across face, double-scars across left eyebrow and cheek, piercing deep blue eyes, various scars across body, persistent curl of hair that hangs in her face, sharp canines

ALTERNATE FORMS:  "Tame" bipedal wolf form, "Feral" wolf form, Guardian Wolf “Spirit” Form

FACECLAIM: None

VOICECLAIM: Anika Noni Rose (Afia - Mufasa: The Lion King)

PHOBIAS: Claustrophobia (fear of being caged), Merinthophobia (fear of being bound without consent). Agoraphobia (fear of losing control)

MENTAL HEALTH: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, C-PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Hypervigilance, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder (without psychotic symptoms), Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (nausea/fear related to consuming meats), Chronic Insomnia, REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, Recurring Night Terrors

PHYSICAL HEALTH: Asthma, Idiopathic/Psychosomatic Intermittent Abdominal Pain, Chronic Migraines, Restless Leg Syndrome, Hypertension

ASSISTIVE DEVICES: None

ASSISTIVE SERVICES: None

MEDICATIONS: None (Self-medicating with alcohol usage)

PARENTS/GUARDIANS: Amita Wilder (mother, deceased), Ronan Wilder (father, deceased)

SIBLINGS: Lei Wilder (younger sister, deceased), Gloria Wilder (younger sister, deceased), Clifford Wilder (younger brother, deceased), Kieran River Wilder (older brother, status unknown)

PARTNERS: None

CHILDREN: None

OTHER FAMILY: Luwana ʻAukai Hale (paternal grandmother, deceased), Yuki Takahashi-Morello (maternal grandmother, deceased), Zaviero Morello (maternal grandfather, deceased)

FRIENDS: Idra “Sushi” Talretok, Wallace Barkley, Willhelm Wolford, Maru Valentine, Ezekiel Dynarius, Gobi Mahame, Tyto Furaha, Letaba Adebayo, Gustavo Minos, Ursula "Mercy" Kalumbai, Koga “Dart” Yoshida, Piper Bagley, Holly Quinn, Elana O’Gara, Robert Kerwick-MacTavish

ALLIES: The Takamura Sisters, Piper’s Privateers, The Winters Pack

RIVALS: Rocky Winters, Local law enforcement, the FBI

ENEMIES: Samael Sinaga (The Raptor Ripper), The Tidepool Rippers, Addison Harlow (The Banded Bandit/Banded Butcher/Striped Slasher), the Bloodwing Skyrates, Rocky Winters, Local law enforcement, Federal law enforcement, politicians

Content warning for mentions of war, stalking, arson, death, child neglect, child abuse, child death, grooming, kidnapping, human trafficking, sex trafficking, exploitation and sexploitation, rape, blackmail, abuse of power, systemic corruption, and harassment.

Rayn’s childhood was as normal as could be for any Beastwalker at the time. She was born a twin to her brother Kieran and spent her childhood growing up in a seaside town with a large and loving family. Her father was an immigrant from Ireland, kind and doting with a good sense of humor and a strong work ethic. A Wolfwalker himself, he led by example and worked hard to keep the ancient beliefs of their dwindling people alive and well. He would tell his children of the ancient legends of Irish folklore, helped them harness their abilities, and taught them to be self-reliant and sustainable in all ways possible. After the death of her paternal grandfather, her paternal grandmother left Hawaii to stay close to her only son and grandchildren, bringing with her the traditions of her home on the islands, including a love for hula dancing, sailing, surfing, and gardening. 

Rayn’s mother was a tough, proud, and spirited Taino woman born in Puerto Rico and raised in Queens, New York. A passion for the arts, she was a pillar of her community that let the local kids paint the walls and garage doors of her very popular food business, where she shared plenty of traditional meals, drinks, and desserts from the island where she’d originated from. When she wasn’t behind the counter, she was an outspoken advocate for the diaspora communities of her area and an admired artist who had more than her fair share of run-ins with local authorities. It was through one of these rallies that she initially met her husband, Rayn’s father. Rayn’s maternal grandfather was originally from Puerto Rico as well; a retired musician with a long and successful career, he helped Rayn’s mother relocate, start her business, and took over running it when she wasn’t around. Rayn’s maternal grandmother, on the other hand, was a much more reserved Japanese woman with a penchant for history and traditional Japanese wood and stone art. A devout scholar, her passions were in education and historical preservation.

After the birth of Rayn and Kieran, the family decided to step back from the hustle and bustle of city life and relocate to a quieter place by the beach. They didn’t move far, as Rayn’s mother wanted to keep her business, but the abundance of space meant that her paternal grandmother could start a proper garden, and the twins spent their days playing on the beach, learning how to swim, sail, surf, and fish. Their maternal grandmother kickstarted their education in preparation for school once they turned five. Having grown up in a mostly supportive, sheltered community setting, the twins would quickly come to realize the reality of their situation as they grew up. There existed very few others like them. The world was at war with Myths, with humans believing they were little more than animals or pests- beings that belonged only in story books, and so they were hellbent on keeping them there by any means. Suddenly, all of their maternal grandmother’s warnings made sense. Even still, this didn’t stop Rayn from connecting with some of the few others that shared the burden of existence like her, such as Idra Talretok and Kennedy Grizzoli- two Bearwalkers that were also trying to lead normal lives with a focus on simply growing up. However, the older they got, the harder it became for Rayn to keep her family’s secrets. Especially after her younger siblings were born when she turned nine. Welcome additions to the family though they were, Rayn confided in her brother that she could not help but feel an inexplicable sense of dread. Kieran tried to reassure her that their family would be fine, and the two made a vow to protect their younger siblings no matter what happened. They would not let Lei, Gloria, and Clifford know what they knew about the world.

And so it was that Rayn devoted herself to her studies and to her family. She was a hard-worker and an exemplary student with dreams of someday having a position that would guarantee her family their safety and security. Like Kieran, she was also a devoted older sibling and caretaker, ensuring that her aging grandparents were well cared for and her younger siblings always had someone to talk to and rely on. A perfect child to anyone on the outside looking in. But there remained one fault to Rayn: she could not control her abilities. And it was this fault that would lead to the unraveling of everything. Exhausted from a long day and little sleep, Rayn made the mistake of dozing off during her lunch period one day. Brief as it was, her wolf self began to take form when she suddenly darted awake with the dawning horror of realizing what she had done. She looked around, anxiously hoping that no one had seen anything. Thankfully, it seemed that no one had noticed. None that she could see anyway. Unfortunately though, someone had. A teacher, and a spy for the local hunters guild seeking to root out Myths in their community. And they had no intentions to be merciful simply because Rayn was a child.

Over the course of several weeks, things began to change. Rayn’s mother saw less business. Rayn paternal grandmother saw less attendance at the luau festivals she hosted for the community. Other children at their schools began avoiding her and her brother, some even sneering at them and taunting them with derogatory terms. The guilt and the paranoia began to creep in while her family tried to understand what was happening. Rayn, terrified and ashamed, hesitated to tell them and withdrew into herself. The mounting pressure grew more and more intense until one night, she awoke from a terrifying nightmare. The home she’d spent the best years of her life in suddenly felt suffocating, and she snuck out to sit on the beach by the water, hoping it would calm her down. Unbeknownst to her, her brother, Kieran, had heard her awaken and followed her out. They sat on the beach together for a long while, Kieran doing what he could to comfort his twin when finally, she confessed. Rayn blamed herself for what was happening and told Kieran that she was afraid to tell the truth knowing that their family had warned them so many times about making such a mistake. Kieran, though upset, told Rayn that she needed to tell their parents so they could fix this. Even if it meant moving, even if it meant leaving behind everything and everyone they’d known, they had to know. Rayn, after much hesitation and deliberation, finally agreed to go back with Kieran.

As the duo traversed back home across the sands and sea, they would return to smoke and fire.

While they were out on the beach, the Hunters Guild had arrived with fuel and flames, doused their home and its perimeter in gasoline, and set fire to the house while everyone was presumed to be sleeping inside. By the time they awoke from the heat and the smoke, it was too late to escape the rapidly-spreading flames. While Rayn stood frozen, paralyzed with fear, Kieran sprang into action. He broke in through the window to the younger children’s room and managed to pull them out before collapsing. He would yell at Rayn to move before she could be shot by hunters, and the two would gather their siblings and flee the scene, narrowly escaping being gunned down by the remaining guild members looking to finish the job. And so their happy life came to an end. At just ten years old, Rayn and Kieran were left to fend for themselves and their younger siblings in the wake of a tragedy caused by the hatred of humans. Rayn blamed herself for it all, and while Kieran tried to comfort her, some part of him resented his sister and agreed with her that this was her doing, though he didn’t verbalize it. Instead, he tried to refocus her attention on their current situation. They were houseless, they were hunted, and they had three siblings who needed taking care of. 

For a short time, the five of them drifted from place to place, working odd jobs, scavenging, and resorting to petty theft trying to scrape together enough funds and food to keep their siblings fed and clothed. Eventually, a tip would be called in about the five of them sleeping in a junkyard. They would be caught by authorities, investigated, and turned over to a local orphanage– the Merciful Saint’s Home for the Gifted. Unbeknownst to them, the orphanage was yet another asset of the hunters guild being used to identify the surviving children of families eradicated during their “smoke outs” for various illicit purposes. Though there was a small comfort in being surrounded by so many others like her, many of the other young Myths had little to no control over their abilities. Those that exposed themselves would end up disappearing in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. A year in, and it was only her, Kieran, and the triplets left. They survived solely by blending in with the human children and severely suppressing their abilities. 

Unfortunately, their younger siblings were significantly less trained in camouflage and still had a tendency to shift as a result of stress. One by one, they exposed themselves without realizing and were separated from their older siblings. Neither Rayn nor Kieran could fight the separation, as they risked exposing themselves in the process, and could only watch as their younger siblings were taken away while fearing the worst. They had heard whispers that the other children that disappeared were sold, or adopted, or sacrificed in rituals. The truth, however, was much more cruel where their family was concerned. Rayn would later learn after the orphanage's closure and demolition that the worst had indeed come to pass: their siblings would die alone in cramped cages, starved, dehydrated, sick, and neglected to the point of fatality. 

Beyond the separation from her younger siblings and the guilt, the orphanage was an incredibly turbulent time for Rayn. The owners posed as an unforgiving bunch of strictly religious humans that often viewed her and her fellow children as sinful and near irredeemable, regardless of whether they were suspected of being Mythical or not. Life during the day consisted of hard labor, abundance of prayer, and routine punishment via physical abuse. Rayn often found peace in the night when she’d sneak off with her brother while everyone was asleep to quietly watch old noir films and mystery shows that featured vigilantes dishing out justice to try and feel some sense of hope in her desperate situation. After their siblings were taken however, she would have to indulge in this small respite by herself. As time went on, hard labor evolved into the runners of her orphanage insisting that some of the children get jobs to help bring in some extra income. Eleven-year-old Rayn found work as a maid for a wealthy family, cleaning their home and tending to their two small children. Though she lost most of her income to the orphanage runners, she still managed to clutch onto some of it and started saving up her funds in a piggy bank she kept in a hole in the wall behind her bed. She also began sneaking off to the library after finishing her work early, choosing to spend her remaining hours of freedom reading, writing, educating herself, and browsing the web on their computers. Eventually, she began going into online chat rooms looking for company. 

It was through these online chatrooms that she would meet Samael Sinaga. She was wary of him at first, having very little trust to spare after all she’d been through, but with a bit of coaxing by Samael the two quickly developed a friendship spanning about a year talking over chat. Rayn poured her heart out to Samael, explaining her past, her situation, her hopes, her fears, and her desire for freedom. To her relief, Samael appeared sympathetic to her plight and offered her support and understanding. What started as an innocent friendship became a secret relationship, and a very unhealthy one at that. Soon enough, Samael began asking more personal and invasive questions, demanding her attention even when she expressed she could not give it for her own safety, and would begin manipulating her with guilt-tripping and gaslighting in order to control her behavior. Despite her increasing discomfort with Samael, Rayn abandoned all caution when he proposed the idea of breaking her and her brother out of the orphanage and helping them rebuild their life.  Rayn, though growing incredibly worried about the course of their relationship, was ultimately more desperate to escape and relayed their plan to her brother. Kieran was blunt and told her it was a horrible idea. He opposed it entirely, warning Rayn against trusting a stranger she’d met online, though he half-heartedly agreed that anything would be better than the orphanage. Reluctantly, he agreed to follow his sister with the hope that her strange friend would make good on his word to help them. 

The night of her twelfth birthday, Rayn and Kieran prepared to flee into the night. Right in the middle of their packing, they were caught by the headmaster. It was revealed that Samael was not, in fact, an eighteen year old boy looking to sweep his young love away from her life of endless horrors, but a thirty-six year old man and yet another member of the guild who had been keeping tabs on them while waiting for them to expose themselves. Rayn had fallen right into his trap. As a reward for his efforts and loyalty the twins were to be sold to him- just as so many other Myths had been. The two were caged, thrown into a truck, and transported by Samael across several states to be kept on his property with him. From here, the situation only worsened. 

Samael was a seasoned smuggler, trafficker, and butcher. He participated shamelessly in the trade of both living and dead Mythical beings. With his money and connections, he had even gone as far to raise his own personal “Farm” of exploited Myths used for every purpose, including drug muling, snuff films, organ and sex trafficking, and more. Like the others, the twins were caged and kept in a specially constructed barn on the property where Samael physically and emotionally abused them, especially Rayn. The two of them both became victims of Samael’s “business exploits.” He  forced them to engage in illegal underground fights, took explicit pictures of them without their consent, forced them to engage with strangers and other captives against their will and collected all the money they earned from it, and forced them to work on his land and reinforce their own prison.

While Rayn tried to stand up to Samael on several times and leave with her brother, Samael consistently broke her with physical violence and the threat that he would kill her brother if she disobeyed. This was not at all helped by the fact that Kieran had become so jaded from the abuse that he confessed to hating his sister and blamed the whole situation on her. Rayn was heartbroken and tried to comfort her brother and support him through the abuse they were enduring together, but Kieran had had enough and turned on her to try and preserve his own well-being.  Sensing the tension, Samael encouraged this by pitting them against one another and allowing Kieran to attack Rayn whenever possible to reinforce the idea that there was no escape. Despite this, Rayn still desperately clung to the hope that she could free them and fix this.

Eventually, Rayn overheard that Samael was planning to sell the both of them off to one of his more particularly sadistic clients;  a man known for torturing and killing his victims after he grew bored of them. Despite his resentment of her, Rayn still loved her sibling and found the thought of him being tortured and killed far more terrifying than being exposed as a Myth herself. And so she fled, leaving Kieran behind with the promise that she would come back with help. She ran for days, chased by her captors who had been alerted by her brother. At one point, she believed it was her brother leading the hunt. Against all odds, she managed to make her way into the nearest city and take refuge in the local police station where she was questioned intensively by local authorities. Rayn reported that she was a victim of abuse and that her brother was currently being held captive in a trafficking operation in which he was going to be killed. The police were skeptical, as Samael was known as a pillar of the local community and a generous donor to the efforts of law enforcement. They delayed in their response to her claims, and by the time a warrant had been obtained and a sweep of Samael’s property was conducted, neither he nor Kieran were anywhere to be found. Rayn was utterly devastated by the discovery and suffered a complete break, once again blaming herself for the death of her family. Having not helped at all, the police insisted that she would be charged if she made another false report like this again and she was promptly released from protective custody to fend for herself.

Now completely and utterly alone at just 16 years old, and with only the meager savings she’d been scraping together over the years to her name, Rayn spent her adolescent years living her life on the move before finally returning to her childhood hometown. She was terrified Samael would find her somehow and drag her back as revenge for attempting to expose part of his operation. The thought manifested itself into paranoia, anxiety, and constant hypervigilance. She developed a strong sense of perfectionism, valuing privacy and secrecy over all. She received her GED and took up a part-time job waiting tables when she ran into her old friends Idra and Kennedy. The two were happy to see her, and after catching up over coffee and hearing all about Rayn’s life between then and the last time they’d seen her, the two offered to shelter and support Rayn until she got back on her feet. Rayn was hesitant to impose, but they insisted, with Ken even suggesting she study to join the force with him. 

For the first time in a long time, Rayn felt steady again. She continued to work while sharing an apartment with her two best friends and attending a community college, seeking a degree in law enforcement. Her experiences had nurtured a strong sense of justice and desire for change, especially after the loss of her brother and the indifference shown by a corrupt police force. After graduating, she joined a police academy and spent her training days bulking up and transitioning after a long bout of struggling with her gender identity. She ended up joining the local police force and worked her way up from a humble desk jockey to the position of lead detective over the course of ten years, collecting experience in several other fields along the way. 

For the most part, Rayn was content with her career. She enjoyed helping people by locating evidence and helping find missing persons or solving cases. She was promoted to lead detective after a years-long investigation into the precinct that had refused to listen to her when she came forward about Samael, resulted in the exposure of multiple members of the precincts leadership, as well as both local and state politicians. The scandal and the well-documented investigation being spearheaded by “a rookie like her” showed that she had a promising career in detective work and she took those accolades in stride, earning the respect of her community and the ire of her colleagues. 

After the case though, she began noticing a continuing trend of connections between the crimes she was investigating and her fellow officers. She found herself running into red tape and resistance from her colleagues on certain cases- more so than she had before- and when evidence pointed to badges being directly involved she faced disciplinary action and threats from coworkers and higher-ups alike for simply trying to get answers. Threats and vandalism on her home and car became a frequent occurrence, but whenever she reported these incidents, her paperwork would mysteriously be lost or nothing would come out of the ensuing investigation. This only worsened once she completed her gender transition with her second surgery. 

Eventually, Rayn exposed a coverup operation being run by the sitting chief of policeof her own precinct. Upon revealing it to the media, she was immediately put on suspension and faced harsh backlash from her colleagues. Her job was pending termination, but this was held off due to intense community backlash and public pressure. At this point though, she was thoroughly over the constant corruption of her department. She grew tired of arbitrary red tape and “brotherhood” getting in the way of solving cases. She was tired of being put on leave and probation multiple times - only remaining employed because she was the best detective on the force. The true nail in the coffin, however, came when her partner Kennedy was murdered by a suspected serial killer they’d been investigating for months. Kennedy had been a major support and was very outspoken about Rayn’s efforts. His attack was targeted. Rayn was the one who found him and held him as he bled out, butchered by his attacker to such a severe degree that medical intervention would not have helped him. Her calls for backup were never answered. No ambulance or EMTs ever arrived. No investigation was ever opened. Instead, his death was ruled as an accident and Wilder was rebuffed when she pushed for something to be done.

Realizing just how deep the corruption and nepotism of the police truly ran, even in the absence of her previous chief, she turned in her badge and left the precinct. Ten years of dedication and service had hardened her and made her realize that true change came from independent and direct action rather than paltry attempts to change a system fundamentally rooted in oppression and corruption, and that sometimes, true justice did not align with commonly accepted definitions of law and order. A fellow forensic specialist she’d worked with, Wallace, followed her out and informed her that his father used to be a PI after leaving the force for similar reasons, and his business was preparing to close its doors. Rayn, interested in following the footsteps of her like-minded predecessor, agreed to meet the man. And so, Wally introduced Rayn to his father, Willhelm. After a few tentative interactions, Willhelm agreed to take Rayn under his wing and offered to let her take over the old agency with the hope that a younger and more spirited Myth could save the place. He would take on a fatherly role to Rayn, using his own money, skills, and connections to fix up the property and call in a few other specialists interested in taking a direct and independent approach to achieving justice for those most in need of it. With a dedicated team now established and backing her, Rayn went on to receive her license to become a private investigator. On her “graduation day” she celebrated with her team, during which l Willhelm told her “you’re not a good cop, but you are a good person. That’s what’ll make all the difference.” 

With everything in place, the Wilder Detective Agency opened its doors shortly thereafter. Thanks to Rayn’s reputation in the community and Willhelm’s connections and history with the townsfolk from his own time on the force, they found themselves with a steady stream of cases to dive into. As more and more people came to realize that the agency was more responsive and effective than the police they expanded their services to include more than just criminal investigations, but also runaways, domestic survivors, drug reform, and delinquent youth support. Yet as their operation grew, so as did retaliation efforts from  the local PD. Local officers frequently sought out warrants to raid the property, disrupting business, shutting down the site, and costing Rayn’s team thousands in damages in an attempt to drive a total shutdown of their operation. Several times, Rayn was arrested on empty charges simply to cause disruption to her work. The people of the city were adamantly in defense of the agency however, and they helped Rayn and her team stand their ground despite the smear campaign and dirty tactics the police insisted on running. While they eventually withdrew from their blatant attempts to have the agency shut down, the police as a whole maintain a negative attitude towards Rayn and her organization. Select members of the force still take a physical approach to their dislike of her, either through vandalism or vague threats, but Rayn just shrugs it off and keeps working.

At the height of the controversy, Rayn was approached with a deal from the famed Takamura Sisters, an underground network helping Mythics recover and regain control of their lives post-War through both legal and illegal means. The sisters admired Rayn’s agency and offered to open up their network of informants to Rayn, as well as financial backing, in exchange for priority investigative efforts when needed. Rayn agree readily, which further bolstered their reputation and their defenses against attacks by establishments. With this new support, Rayn began not only taking on cases the cops threw out, but exacting vigilante justice on those who the system let walk free. Criminals attempting to obscure their records we exposed. Politicians taking money from PACs and lobbying groups were unveiled. In some of the most heinous cases, she’d take matters directly into her own hands and “clean up” what the courts left behind.

For over ten years, Rayn has served the humans and Myths of her city with pride. She is considered a purveyor of justice and a pillar of integrity by those who don’t (and even some that do) know about the vigilante side of her work. Though time has seen her notoriety gradually die down and the rumor mill’s continued turning, those whom she has helped still regard her highly and point any in need to her agency. 

 Even with all this, Rayn still carries her own burdens. The wounds of her past still weigh heavily on her, as does knowing that her greatest act of justice of all- justice for herself- still has yet to be handled. After all, Samael is still out there. Kennedy’s murderer is still out there.. And the Hunters Guild still exists in whispers and traces. She still has much work ahead of her and this city never sleeps at night.

Luckily, neither does she.

Rayn presents herself as a stoic and professional investigator. Though not very personable in her demeanor, her honest and transparent means of questions, as well as well-placed compassion and understanding for the situations of her clients shines through when it needs to, putting many at ease within just a few minutes of conversation. She prides herself on the dedication she shows each and every one of her clients, handling topics with due respect and diligently ensuring the comfort of guests with both physically hospitable amenities and emotionally mindful encouragements. Throughout the process of assembling, investigating, and closing a case, she makes sure to include clients in every step, allowing them due time to process and digest materials before proceeding forward in the process. Detail-oriented, concise, and masterful at planning, nothing escapes this detective’s trained eye - or her nose. She’s excellent at gathering evidence, analyzing every possible prelude and outcome, and putting together a timeline for each scenario she’s presented with. She cuts no corners with her investigative process and will stop at nothing to get to the truth. Her honesty and integrity have earned her a reputation as a well-respected member of her community. 

Another aspect of that comes from the fact that Rayn is an individual who measures the responses of those around her carefully in order to provide support tailored to the specific needs of their unique situation. This includes giving back to her community.  Her determination to see projects through, as well as her loyalty and reliability in doing so, means that her judgment carries significant weight for both decisions big and small. Even if parties she’s interacting with don’t exactly clear the hurdle of her trust, she keeps her word and remains dependable to a fault in order to maintain her personal sense of integrity, as well as to continue to be a credible source of help for her community. Among her projects, she prides herself on the restoration of the Agency building, the restoration of local apartments and strip malls, and the creation of a new public park, several shelters, and on-site medical clinic connected to her agency. While some might say that Rayn’s involvement in the community reeks of someone self-serving and egoistic seeking praise, Rayn tries to stay out of the spotlight and insists on being regarded as “just another member of the community.” The idea of popularity does not appeal to her. Rather, she simply decides to put her mind to something and does it.

Though generally quite likable despite her dry, sarcastic humor and lack of warmth outside of delicate situations, off the clock, Rayn is much more introverted. She keeps little company and prefers to spend time by herself, to the point where those closest to her worry about her isolating herself without meaning too. She’s very independent and self-reliant, often choosing to occupy herself with work, DIY projects, or independent exercises routines. She insists on doing things on her own with both determination and stubbornness- two traits that sometimes get her in trouble when she gets too deep into a job. She never fails to pull herself out of it though, and her general sense of indifference towards most things- good or bad- as a result of being exposed to and enduring so much already can leave others with the impression that she is unaffected by the cases she handles. After almost five decades of existing just to see the worst the world has to offer though, Rayn is exhausted- even if she doesn’t show it. Getting through some of her worst cases requires her to quite literally shut down her emotional brain and just power through it, refusing to process the grotesque reality and gory details outside of a purely professional and analytical headspace. Amazingly, this compartmentalization does seem to help, and she prides herself on the fact that she is able to keep her work life and her personal life separated in her mind. Of course, she waves off this callousness towards criminality as her “strong sense of justice allowing her the strength to be unrelenting and unhindered- physically or mentally- in her pursuit to right as many wrongs as possible.”

Where this carefully crafted facade of apathy ends, however, is her vigilante work. While Rayn justifies her bounty hunting by claiming that she’s “cleaning up what the system failed to,” rationalizing that criminals who walk free in spite of the evidence thanks to a corrupt system still deserve punishment, and their victims and families justice; Rayn kills those she deems irredeemable because it offers her a sense of power and control over her life. Some part of her feels vindicated when people who do bad things are punished by her hand. The sensation of righteousness bordering superiority, yet never quite passing that threshold, brings with it a rush of adrenaline that stimulates her more primal instinct - just the same as a wolf would feel the rush of excitement that briefly supersedes its appetite while chasing its prey. There is a level of shame that comes with this- and a deep-rooted fear that she could lose control and become completely feral. She tries to view her momentary lack of restraint when killing as an outlet for these violent urges, but even then, nothing quells her fear of hurting those closest to her. And so, Rayn dons her apathy once more and uses it to keep people at arm’s length. She masks her fear for others carefully and simply says it’s because “everyone around her seems to die.” And while partly true, she leaves unspoken the fact that she believes that all of their deaths were her fault.

Her outward ability to maintain her composure in the worst situations, her honesty and experience tempered by compassion, her reputation as a dedicated pillar of her community, her honed skills as a notoriously effective detective, and her well-documented history of being disliked by police and politicians alike, all work to present Rayn as the perfect hero her city needs. However, as is so often the case, appearances can be deceiving and Rayn is no exception. 

At her core though, Rayn is a lone wolf trying hard to fit into the pack she created. Though regarded as such, she insists that she is no leader. She regards herself as damaged or broken, with her only worth being in her ability to serve others. Projects get done simply because she works to finish them. Cases are solved because people are counting on her for answers- she is often their last hope and she feels very strongly that she needs to prove that she is worth calling upon. Being regarded as dependable, reliable, and trustworthy feels validating to her. Being useful makes her feel better about herself, if only for a short while. She carries so much guilt that any small act or service she can provide to earn that praise feels like the forgiveness or penance that she so desperately wishes to feel for herself. But of course, this satisfaction is short-lived because Rayn denies the fact that she is the one keeping this burden on her shoulders. The only one blaming her for what happened is herself. She is continuing the cycle of abuse all on her own, keeping herself trapped in a prison of her own making. 

Even now, with the access and encouragement she has to resources that would help her, she is too stubborn and too accustomed to isolation and her own ineffective coping mechanisms to reach out. The image she has so carefully cultivated as a reliable, dependable hero of her community feels as though it would be tainted if she revealed what it took for her to present that way. Additionally, there’s a level of shame associated with the more intimate abuse she endured, both because she blames herself for what was done to her, and because she feels that she abandoned her brother in the process of trying to get help. Still lingering also is the paranoia of never knowing who is really listening. After the orphanage and Samael, Rayn is deeply distrustful of others, especially those in positions of power - no matter how minor. Teachers, police, therapists - any of them could somehow be connected to Samael and the Guild, and that non-zero chance of being found by him again just isn’t something she’s willing to risk. Not after all it took to get away from him.

Unwilling to confront her trauma head on, Rayn continues to repress and compartmentalize as much as she can. She self-medicates her more severe symptoms through unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking, and working as much as possible. The constant distractions give her mind no time to quiet down and thus, not time to wander, to linger, to remember. She uses action to bury the shame she feels from her experiences– to avoid feeling like a spectator of her own life, or the feeling that her body isn’t really hers; she can’t look herself in the mirror without feeling nauseated, she can’t let anyone touch her in case it goes too far too fast, she can’t be vulnerable because that could be used against her, she can’t trust anyone despite wanting to just in case they betray her and lead Samael right back to her. Rayn lives an existence of exhaustion and fear, haunted constantly by the harrowing thought that she’ll never feel safe or whole again. Adding to this sense of isolation, Rayn has very little experience in the way of interacting with other Wolfwalkers. Beastwalkers in general are somewhat rare, even in the context of Mythical populations, and she has never known another Wolfwalker besides herself and her father. Her kind are nearly extinct: their culture, their stories, their legacies dying with them - and that the danger that brought them to this point is still very much present. 

Rayn exists in a prison of her own making. Her trauma controls her and drives her to find ways to feel in control of herself without actually taking back the reins. She wishes more than anything that she could trust people again, that she could feel comfortable in her own body and in her own role in her agency. She craves to know the feeling of normalcy and routine without the shadow of fear looming over her. She pines for a sense of fulfillment and belonging that doesn't have to be forced or used to cover up something deeper. She wishes she could linger in the quiet of her mind, unburdened by her trauma and at peace with herself. And the tragedy of it all is that she could be if she just stopped taking responsibility for other people’s harm of her. But the more she tries to shoulder the weight of it all, the more problems keep piling on and threatening to crush her. She’s exhausted, and numb, and it’s all her own fault. 

And she just doesn’t know how much more of this she can take.

DISLIKES: Corruption, TV trial shows, crime dramas, vapes, overly bitter food, the smell of strong colognes, restraints or cages, wearing her muzzle and collar, overly obnoxious lawn ornaments, messiness in her home or office, fleas and ticks, mosquitoes, pine trees, people who don’t respect boundaries, Waffle House

Indie Verse

• Rayn works as a typical PI, doing paperwork by day and proper investigations and vigilante hits out of the office at night.

Beastars Verse

• Rayn serves the city as a Gray Wolf PI and a vigilante fighting back against the organized crime units vying for power in the city, targeting particularly inhumane sellers on the Black Market, and solving the city's most grisly crimes. 

Bioshock Verse

• Fascinated by the disappearance of Johnny Topside, Rayn's decided to take a crack at closing the case herself once and for all. In following his dive down into the depths, she discovers a sunken wonderworld with a dark underbelly. Never one to be deterred by danger, Rayn pushes on into the collapsing city of Rapture, determined to discover its secrets and save as many as she can in the process.

Bioshock Infinite Verse

• Having received a report of a missing man by the name of Booker DeWitt, Rayn sets out to find him, only to find herself lost in a floating city in the sky. The strange, cult-like behavior on its own isn't what puts her off. It's the founder, Father Comstock, and the whispers of his dark secrets that have Rayn digging her heels in to find out what's going on - and who she needs to take out.

Cyberpunk Verse

• Following her partner's death and the outpouring of vitriol at her attempts to get justice and put a cap on corruption in her NCPD, Rayn leaves the department to found the Wilder Detective Agency. With her remaining connections and her knowledge of how the city works, Rayn is dedicated to investigating the crimes that the city's police can't be bothered to deal with themselves. And if that means having to enact a bit of vigilante justice in merc fashion, she's not above that either. Whatever laws she has to break she will, if it means getting answers and getting shit done.

Dead By Daylight Verse

• Following up on a particularly grisly string of murder cases that no other department is willing to touch, Rayn finds her tenacity, determination, and sense of survival rewarded (or perhaps punished) by the Entity. Taken into the fog after following a grim-looking set of tracks into the woods, she finds herself a pawn in the Entity's game. But she's played the role of survivor before and she refuses to give up in a trial. She's determined to show everyone just what happens when you try to stick a wolf in a cage.

Fallout Verse

• Having narrowly survived the bombs by slipping into a vault under the guise of being human, Rayn awakens to find that the world around her has become a vastly different place. Luckily, not everyone or everything was lost in the blast. With her remaining friends and contacts, Rayn manages to find her agency building miraculously still standing. After fixing it up and getting things back in (relative) order, she heads back out to refamiliarize herself with the world and do what she does best: help people and solve problems.

Far Cry 3 Verse

• Begrudgingly contracted by the US government to work with some embedded agents, Rayn finds herself deployed onto the Rook Islands as an infiltrator. Her mission: gather intel, collect evidence, and if you ever get the chance to take out a target, do it. 

Far Cry 4 Verse

• Contracted by Ishwari Ghale on her deathbed to go out and find what has become of her friends and family back in Kyrat, Rayn finds her way into the war-torn nation where she becomes wrapped up in a series of investigations all tied back to her main goal: find Lakshmana, find Ajay Ghale, and decide what to do about Pagan Min and his generals. 

Far Cry 5 Verse

• Serving Hope County with all the matters that the sheriff's office can't be bothered with, Rayn inexplicably finds herself in the middle of a civil war incited by Eden's Gate against the civilians of its 3 regions. Devoted to trying to help, Rayn works as an interceptor, spy, and take-out service for VIPs to try and help give the citizens an edge against Joseph and his flock.

Far Cry 6 Verse

• Contacted by escaped Yarans who made it to Miami but haven't heard anything from their family back in Yara who was supposed to contact them, Rayn ends up on a smuggling boat out to the country only to find that the peachy paradise Anton has been selling to the rest of the world is far from the truth. Determined to bring her client's family home and dig a little deeper, Rayn plays both sides as a Libertad and a footsoldier of Castillo and ends up with just one goal in mind: tell the world what's going on in Yara.

Resident Evil Verse

• After multiple reports of violent, cannibalistic outbreaks and other strange phenomena come across her desk with no word from the police, Rayn takes it upon herself to start investigating these situations. Her deduction and sniffing around land her in an organization's crosshairs and get her roped into a series of plots revolving around her infiltrating and eliminating the cause. It's not what she signed up for, but Rayn supposes that if this solves the problem then she's all for it.

Stranger Things

• Originally a respected member of the Hawkins Police Department as an affiliated detective, Rayn left the force after Hopper refused to help her investigate the death of her partner and lifelong best friend, Kennedy. Her attempts to snuff out corruption and increase accountability led to her being targeted and ostracized by fellow officers. Disgusted, she ended up leaving and founded the Wilder Detective Agency, hellbent on enacting justice and investigating all the cases her old department couldn't be bothered with.

Superhero (Marvel/DC) Verse

• By day, Rayn is a mild-mannered privlsate investigator taking the botched cases that police throw out or are unwilling to investigate themselves. By night, she is the Raynstorm - a wolf-like humanoid that uses her power over the elements of storms (water, wind, lightning, and thunder) to enact vigilante justice on perpetrators and keep her city safe from ne'er-do-wels.

• As a Wolfwalker, Rayn appears human when she is awake. When her human form sleeps, she has a second form that awakens and walks the night appearing as a bipedal wolf humanoid.

• Rayn’s Wolfwalker abilities include being able to heal wounds, summon a pack of wolves to aid her, communing with nature and getting plants to move, summoning Rayn to put out fires, and converting humans into Beastwalkers through a magic bite. She has no access to any of these abilities however.

• Rayn’s Guardian abilities give her dominion over water, ice, rain, snow, and storms. She also has influence over the sea, granting her the ability to walk on water, ride waves, and walk on clouds. Additionally, she can form solid shapes from ice and water, such as claws, fists, or tools. She also has a powerful voice which can cause significant impact on others and her environment by sheer volume. 

  • • • Rayn has no knowledge of her Guardian status, and no access to her abilities for the same reason she has no access to her Wolfwalker abilities. 

      • As a Guardian, Rayn is immortal unless her Guardian Sigil, a physical structure or object representative of her life force and the source of her abilities, is destroyed. In her case, her sigil is a wooden and silver wolf-shaped piggy bank that each of her family members had a hand in making for when she was born. By some miracle, she managed to salvage it and hold onto it through everything. It now sits on a shelf in her office, serving as one of the few good memories she has to ground her. She doesn’t know it’s her sigil, but she’s strangely protective of it and does feel weirdly uncomfortable whenever someone other than herself touches it. 

• Rayn’s quadrupedal “feral” wolf form only emerges when she blacks out from pure rage.

• Being a Wolfwalker, Rayn’s senses are enhanced. 

  • • • Her olfactory sense is especially keen to the degree where she claims that she “never forgets a smell.” Her hearing is better able to tune into conversation and pick up on slight sounds. 

      • She is more sensitive to touch, able to hone in on vibrations felt in her fingers/paws and “hear” through surfaces. 

      • Her sense of sight is also enhanced in that she can see clearly in lowlight and extreme darkness. However, during the day time, she often experiences photosensitivity and tends to be near-sighted unless following movement. (She has glasses for this but she rarely uses them.)

      • For these reasons, Rayn mostly recognizes people by smell and by sound.

• Rayn can read people by their mannerisms, and by the way they carry themselves and act. She’s a seasoned investigator after all- behavioral analysis is half her job. She can’t judge people by appearance however, and she prefers not to; she often gets ages wrong.

• Stealth is one of Rayn’s strongest areas. Even with her large frame, she is able to pass by without making a sound. 

• Rayn sticks to carrying out her vigilante work at night when no one will recognize her. Few people know (or remember) that she is a Wolfwalker outside of her crew. 

• In accordance with the Carnivore Risk Assessment and Verification Edict (CRAVE), Rayn always wears a steel muzzle when in her wolf form, even though she has no prior history of biting, mauling, or devouring anyone. She knows what she is and what she looks like. She does this to make others more comfortable and to decrease the risk.

• Additionally, Rayn doesn’t eat meat. She avoids it for fear that getting used to the taste might cause her wolf-self to uncontrollably attack someone who doesn’t deserve it and eat them. (Specifically, she avoids all red meat, doesn’t like most poultry, and she’s never had fish because of her worries.)

  • • • A part of this mentality comes from her upbringing as well. Rayn’s father emphasized that abstaining from red meat was a critical part of maintaining control of herself. He often brought up stories of Beastwalkers and carnivorous Myths that started eating red meat from animals and lost control of their instincts, turning to devouring their own limbs or the flesh of others to satiate their cravings. To deter that instinct, they ate only poultry and fish instead. Rayn became so afraid of becoming a “monster” however, that she didn’t eat fish or poultry until she was well into adulthood. 

      • The true basis of this mentality comes from what she defines as her “Almost Event.”
        In the period between fleeing from Samael and returning to her hometown, Rayn had been at her lowest point; scavenging food from trash cans and sleeping in dumpsters to hide her wolf form and keep warm. together. Her hunger had her at a point near delirium, and she decided to try and sleep it off in her night form when the smell of blood got her attention. She was starving and it awoke a feral urge in her. Without thinking, she tracked the source down to an injured Bunnywalker just getting off of work at a nearby club and being hounded by a couple of human patrons. Rayn lashed out at the humans and sent them scurrying, and she came eerily close to mauling the Bunnywalker as well, until the woman hugged her in gratitude. The sudden contact snapped Rayn out of her hunger-fueled haze and she realized that said Bunnywalker was still in her human form. A moment of clarity passed over Rayn, intervening  before she could eat the woman and it shocked the sense back into her. It reminded her of what kind of monster she could become - just as her father had warned her. She would end up breaking down in the Bunnywalker’s arms in a rare moment of vulnerability due to her exhaustion. That woman would later go on to become a dear friend to Rayn, named Maru.

      • Because of her heritage, Rayn grew up on starches and grains for most of her meals already. For protein, she tends to lean towards rice or soy-based alternatives to meat. Other staples include taro or potatoes. The only exceptions she makes for meat are duck or pheasant. 

      • She once tried rabbit meat and felt so guilty for enjoying the taste that she cried hard enough to make herself vomit.

      • Rayn’s favorite fruits are pineapples, starfruits, dragonfruits, passion fruits, mangos, and strawberries. 

      • Rayn has a personal vendetta against Waffle House. Her first and only memory of dining there involved her at four years old, jet-lagged and tired after a long flight, getting off the plane at 3 AM, and being insatiably hungry because she couldn’t stomach the airplane food. Her family all got split up while looking for their bags, and after her mother got their suitcases, she decided to take Rayn and Kieran to get something to eat. Unfortunately, the city was crowded, loud, Rayn didn’t understand any of the language, and she was scared. She started crying because of the mixed emotions and fatigue. Unfortunately, the only restaurant that her mother could find that was open was a Waffle House. Rayn sat in the empty establishment to get food, and about a quarter of the way into her meal commented that “she could feel her tummy scrunching up” and told her mother she didn’t feel well. Her exhausted mother told her it was just nerves and to walk it off. Rayn got up, took two steps towards the bathroom, and proceeded to throw up the little breakfast she’d had. She now growls a little whenever she sees a Waffle House.

      • As much as Rayn loves to take the healthy route, she does occasionally like to indulge in some more flavorful indulgences. She loves occasional sweets like chocolates and mint or green tea ice cream. She loves salty snacks like chips or cheese puffs especially. She enjoys spicy foods on occasion, and she loves sour foods like pickled snacks or warhead candies.

      • Rayn’s favorite food of all is green tea or lavender mooncakes. She loves mooncakes in general.

      • When she’s not chewing gum or sucking on peppermints (or smoking), Rayn chews on tea leaves. It’s a habit she has, as she feels the need to constantly teeth on something or otherwise keep her mouth busy.

      • She tried raw-hides once. Never again.

• Like anyone, Rayn has her vices. Her poisons of choice are wine and cigarettes. Neither of these bad habits is done often or severely enough to be an active concern, but they do raise some eyebrows from time to time.

  • • •  Rayn mostly drinks as a form of self-medication for insomnia and traumatic disturbances.

      • Rayn picked up smoking shortly after Kennedy died.Rayn tends to smoke at least two to three cigarettes a day. For the mos partt, she does it when she’s thinking or trying to concentrate. On days where she’s stressed however, she can go through an entire pack with ease. 

      •  Rayn also has a habit of throwing herself into her work to cope with things that are triggering or upsetting to her. Working makes her feel like she’s in control, able to stop whatever’s happening or whatever’s bothering her. This can lead to her losing sleep or forgetting to eat, drink, or otherwise take care of herself. Her workaholic behavior is deeply worrying to Willhelm and Wally, but she insists that it’s a viable substitute for therapy.

      • As a result of her constant need for occupation, Rayn sleeps more at her desk than in her bed.

• Despite her poor choice of vice, Rayn is still quite healthy and physically active. She enjoys a variety of activities, most stemming from shared experiences with her family as a child. 

  • • •  When she’s not working, her main forms of exercise are cardio and weight-lifting. She’s not winning any marathons, but she’s fast enough to keep pace with a suspect on the run, and she proudly boasts the ability to bench twice her weight. 

      • Extensive self-defense training is something that Rayn keeps up with regularly. Whether its more formal techniques like Tae-Kwan Do, Judo, or Karate, or more focused sports like boxing and wrestling, she stays on top of all her forms to maintain a diverse range of maneuvers in combat. 

      • Yoga and tai chi were acquired tastes bestowed upon Rayn by her maternal grandmother. She doesn’t keep up with them as much as she’d like due to her innate sense of restlessness and urge to keep busy. The sports move just a little too slowly for her taste. 

      • Rayn’s paternal grandmother placed great priority on Rayn being familiar with water, both because of her heritage and because of her proximity to it while living so close to the beach. She instilled a love of swimming that persists in Rayn to this day. She also taught Rayn how to surf, sail, and fish. While she doesn’t do much sailing or fishing anymore, every once in a while, Rayn will dig out her old surfboard and take to the waves again.

      • Her paternal grandmother was also a master at hula and fire-dancing. While Rayn tended to shy away from the latter she enjoyed hula dancing a lot. This would serve as a gateway into Rayn loving music and dance as a whole. 

      • While all of Rayn’s family enjoyed various types of music, it was her mother who encouraged her to express herself through various forms of dance. It started with Rayn learning salsa and zumba with her maternal grandfather teaching her the basics and practicing with her. Her mother then helped her explore other branches of dance which Rayn would come to love, such as ballet, ballroom/partner dancing, jazz dancing, and swing. While she hardly dances at all anymore, Rayn still remains skilled in ballroom/partner dancing, jazz, swing, and salsa. 

      • Rayn’s mother also took Rayn along with her to practice gymnastics and acrobatics. While among some of her lesser used skills, she still likes to sharpen them up from time to time to keep her sense of flexibility intact. Plus, she enjoys seeing the momentary looks of shock and terror on her colleagues faces when she decides to freefall during an impromptu practice of aerial silks.

      • Rayn’s father was an outdoorsman to his core. From a young age, he instilled in Rayn a strong foundation of survivalist skills through hunting, hiking, camping, and foraging. He spent long nights with her roasting marshmallows over a campfire beneath a starlit sky, and long days teaching her how to track a trail while covering her own - both as a wolf and as a human. Rayn attributes a good portion of her survival up to this point to her father’s teachings. 

      • Despite her varied skillset, Rayn has largely given up most of her athletic pursuits except for running, weightlifting, and combat sports. But there are rare moments where, whenever she really needs to get away from everything, she heads down to the beach to swim or float on her surfboard while watching the clouds. Simply being by the sea seems to comfort her.

• Rayn has a deep love and appreciation for art. Her paternal grandmother and her own mother valued art and instilled an admiration for the beauty of art in all its forms from a young age. Rayn was especially keen on pottery and painting, and she dedicated a large part of her free time to watercolor canvas pieces and sketches of still subjects and people.

  • • • As a child she had a strange habit of drawing on the walls. She was very creative but simply couldn’t keep her imagination on paper, so all throughout her childhood home one could find whiteboards pinned to the walls at the height of a child. Her bedroom even had one wall that was converted into a chalkboard for her use.

      • Occasionally, Rayn will still do charcoal sketches or watercolor paintings. They’re very beautiful but they’re almost never finished. Rayn hasn’t actually sat down to create a finished piece in years. The last one she did was the dedication portrait of Kennedy that now hangs in her lobby above a small memorial shelf for him.

      • Rayn still has a deep love for music. Her apartment and office space always has some music playing to provide some sort of ambience. The selection is primarily composed of jazz, Hawaiian acoustic/ukelele, folk, Irish trad, latin, classical, and Japanese acoustic music.

      • While dancing is off the table for the most part, Rayn does enjoy singing. She’s not bad at it either. She can carry a tune very well and is quite flexible with her voice. She tends to sing along very softly to music without realizing it.

      • That being said, Rayn has had to soundproof her bathrooms in the past after getting complaints and comments about her singing when she showers. She has a very powerful voice. Perks of being a Wolfwalker.

      • Rayn is also secretly into pop and rap music. Her freestyle game goes surprisingly hard.

• Rayn likes having plants in her space. Most of them are hanging plants, floor plants, and succulents that require little maintenance but help keep her environment smelling clean and looking nice.

  • • • Behind the agency is a dedicated park space. Rayn spent years personally assembling the project. Her favorite part of it is the swing bench beneath a large cherry blossom tree overlooking the koi pond. 

• A little known interest of Rayn’s is all things sewing and embroidery. She enjoys tufting, stitching, and making stuffed animals to donate. Most of this talent goes into simply maintaining her work outfit. Though occasionally she does knit sweaters or make accessory pieces for people to enjoy. On very rare occasion, she will even make blankets for people.

  • • • The signature trench coats that Rayn wears for work were actually designed and made by her. It took her almost three months to finalize the concept and commit to actually making the damn thing but she holds a lot of pride in it.

• Rayn’s personal aesthetic is best described as vintage noir. Her sense of fashion and personal space is more rustic and reminiscent of old-timey black-and-white detective films. Her workplace is much more sleek and modern however.

  • • • Despite her age and taste in aesthetics, Rayn is remarkably adept with technology. She learns new things very quickly and picks up new tech to play with and learn about all the time. She prides herself on being adaptable, especially where trends and tech are concerned.

• Rayn is very meticulous about her grooming and she keeps all of her spaces very clean and tidy. Living in a house with four adults and four siblings always running in and out of the house, as well as her experience at the orphanage and under Samael, instilled a deep-rooted obsession with cleanliness. Dirt and grime in her personal spaces make her feel trapped.

  • • • Fleas and ticks were a problem in Rayn’s house while she was growing up. Her family had seasons where they’d suddenly become a prevalent issue to the point where they’d all have to sleep with flea collars on. There was one year where they all just had to shave their hair/fur off to try and get it under control. It worked. But Rayn wouldn’t come out all summer because she was embarrassed.

      • In related news, there was a brief period where Rayn had a bowl cut. Her grandparents tried to keep it a trend. She was very quick to reject that idea. She swears she’ll never wear it again either.

• The sound of rain and storms has always appealed to Rayn. Her whole family recognized hurricanes and tsunamis as dangers to be wary of due to their own experiences. But Rayn perceived lightning as beautiful, the sound of thunder as exhilarating, and the smell of the air before a storm hit as gloriously tantalizing. The sound of rain itself was soothing and the how of the wind rattling the walls and windows grounded her in a way. 

• Rayn didn’t have many friends growing up but the she was closest to were Kennedy Ryder and Idra Talretok. Ken was a Grizzly Bearwalker and Idra was a Polar Bearwalker. They met in school while running track and used to spend all of their summers together. They also introduced Rayn to wrestling and weightlifting too. The three of them were inseparable as children, until they fell out of touch following the incident with Rayn’s family.

  • • • Idra earned the nickname Sushi during one of their first meetups. Idra tried to impress them by throwing a piece of sushi up in the air to catch in her mouth but accidentally choked. Ken had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on her for a good two minutes. After the scariness of the situation had passed they had a good laugh about it and the nickname stuck.

      • During summers in the city, the three of them fancied themselves as urban explorers. They would break into old abandoned buildings to look for leftover goodies. Eventually, they transformed one of their more frequent lurks, an abandoned apartment building, into their own personal hideout. There were a couple times they fell through the old stairs or touched a crumbling wall too hard. Once, Rayn and Kennedy had to save Idra after she slipped and almost fell down the elevator shaft. 

      • Rayn developed feelings for Kennedy when they were young. She kept it close to her heart however, as she knew Idra had a crush on him too. Though it broke her heart, she insisted on being a supportive friend and helping Ken figure out the best way to confess his feelings to Idra.

      • Rayn didn’t see her or hear from her friends for years between the orphanage, Samael, and staying on the run. They never stopped looking for her though. Since her body was never found, they held out hope that she was still alive and in hiding. It was shortly after she returned to her hometown and by pure luck that they happened to stop in at the diner she was working at. They recognized each other immediately and Rayn swears she has never cried so hard as she did feeling them embrace her.

• Rayn was initially very skeptical about Kennedy’s recommendation to become a cop and join the force. It took her a while to feel comfortable sharing the details of what happened the last time she had gone to the police, and even then, she left out large parts of the story that preceded that incident. Ken somehow convinced her however, that not precincts were as corrupt. He vowed to stand by her and help her be the kind of change she wanted to see in the world. It was only because of his support and sense of integrity that Rayn chose to become a cop.

  • • • Rayn has no shortage of donut stories from her time on the force. They used to have a cooler in their patrol car where they kept donuts and every time they ran out, they’d put the sirens on and speed over to the nearest shop to pick up more. 

      • Another time, they showed up late to a hostage situation and managed to actually help negotiate the captor to release the captives and come out... with donuts.

      • One of the most vivid and important memories of Rayn’s life was the night when she opened up to Ken about what had happened with Samael, the orphanage, and Kieran over donuts while on break. She remembers explaining everything and breaking down in his arms with powdered sugar and jelly all over her face. She remembers how Ken held her tight and let her cry it out, promising that she was safe now and that he wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened.

      • Rayn and Ken used to attend public events in their cruiser and would let people hook up music to their radio to blast through the speakers.

      • Calling each other by last name was an inside joke between the two of them. Often, it was accompanied with a mockery of their superiors' voices.

      • Specializing in crime scene investigation, the two ended up making good friends with a forensic specialist in the lab named Wallace. 

      •  In the lobby of the agency, there is now a shelf with several candles, his badge, and a plaque hung beneath a portrait of Kennedy in his honor.

• Rayn has vivid memories of her father knowing wild magic. She recalls in detail how her father’s hands would glow as he placed them over wounds, and when he pulled his hand back they would be healed. She remembers running alongside her father and hearing him howl, and how there would suddenly be a pack of wolves surrounding them. She remembers how the wilds seemed to answer his call, trees and vines bending out of their way as they ran, and rain falling at the sound of his voice. 

  • • • Rayn says that she remembers learning some magic from him. However, he passed before she ever got proper grasp on it. She doesn’t know how to heal, or summon wolves, or commune with nature the way her father did. This fact frustrates her, as she believes that if she wasn’t so “broken” she might have been able to save Kennedy.

      • Between her inexperience with it, her trauma, and her negative perception of herself, Rayn has placed a type of self-imposed block on her magical abilities. She’s unaware of this fact, and she maintains that block by denying that there is anything wrong with her and that she herself is simply wrong. In order to regain her abilities, and unlock her powers as a Guardian, she will have to overcome her issues and free herself from her self-made prison.

• Working with children has become one of Rayn’s specialties. She’s very good with kids and kids seem to like her a lot. She offers them comfort via toys, draping her coat over them, and drawing with them while using casual conversation to connect with them. She treats gathering information from children as a delicate process requiring caution and compassion. Her goal is to earn their trust and show them that they’ll be safe talking to her. 

  • • • As a result of her own experiences, Rayn tends to be especially protective of children. She’s dedicated a lot of her time to receiving certifications in procedures involving children to make sure she handles everything with the proper care it deserves. Any time there are children involved in a case, either she or her case manager with a specialty in child welfare will undertake the task of talking to them in order to gather information. 

      • As far as the idea of having kids of her own goes, Rayn leans towards not having them. She doesn’t think she’d make a good mother on account of all her unaddressed trauma. Additionally, she finds the thought of rearing children painful given what happened when she served as a guardian to her three younger siblings.

• Rayn always has snacks, a first aid kit, a recorder, a camera, a notebook, pens, and water in her bag. She travels light but she brings all of the work and life essentials.

• Rayn tends to be more serious. At least at first. Intimacy has always been a very sore and sensitive subject for her. She tries to keep people at a far distance for her own sense of security. Letting someone get close to her is a monumental task for her on its own. For her to come to love and trust someone enough to let her guard down and be vulnerable with them in bed? That’s a HUGE deal for her! It’s a very important and special moment and she wants to treat it with the gravity it deserves. 

  • • • After a while with her partner, she might loosen up and be a bit more playful, but she likes to keep it mostly romantic and serious while she’s in the act of making love.

• Rayn generally doesn’t take good care of herself mentally but her physical appearance is always spot on. She keeps herself smooth and clean-shaven, and she takes her time tending to herself and making sure her skin is smooth and soft.

• Rayn enjoys having her hair caressed and played with in bed. Tugging, however, is not recommended. It is highly triggering to her. 

• The fastest way to turn Rayn on is to hold her waist, kiss her neck, and tell her you need her.

  • • • Caressing her neck, chest, hips, and thighs is an easy way to accentuate the point since they’re all sensitive erogenous zones that tie into her more primal instinct. She enjoys having these areas kissed, nipped, and marked. It riles her up easily.

      • Likewise, she enjoys kissing/marking her partner’s neck, hip, thighs, and chest. She also likes kissing their shoulders and upper back, as well as their jaw and the back of their hands. 

      • They can expect a lot of kisses on their genitals too. It’s her favorite way of getting a rise out of partners before offering offering oral sex.

      • She appreciates the directness of being desired, and she enjoys the teasing element of it. She enjoys being wanted by someone, genuinely and without selfish intent.

• Rayn rarely watches porn but occasionally she indulges in the sex scenes of movies. She follows along with the actions on screen and tends to take her time pleasuring herself with her fingers and with her toys. 

• Being restrained is a hard no for her. It brings up a lot of bad memories and can potentially send her into a panic attack if it’s sprung on her. It would take her years of being with someone for her to ever even consider letting them restrain her, and even then, she’d probably ask them to stick with pinning her down with their body as opposed to any true restraints. 

  • • • That being said, she does find the artistic side of bondage very appealing to look at and even arousing. Just not on her. 

      • If her partner wanted her to restrain them with cuffs though, she’ll gladly oblige them. 

• A few pleasured tears is fine with her but actual crying is a turn off. Rayn’s cried during sex before and she doesn’t want to remember that experience or feel anything like it ever again. Likewise, she does not want her partner to cry and will immediately stop if they do. She associates crying during sex with extreme discomfort and she avoids it at all cost.

• Rayn prefers to be the one in charge during intimacy, at least in the beginning. It’s a way of feeling comfortable and in control - something that previous experiences have made her feel she lacks. Being able to set the pace and stop at any time is important to her. 

  • • • She’s more a gentle dom in bed, one who is tantalizingly slow and tentative, mixing soft commands and teasing with praise and light dirty talk to coax their sub into compliance. 

      • The more comfortable and trusting she is with a partner, the more likely Rayn is to hand over the reins, and the more she is willing to experiment.

      • Rough sex is something that Rayn has to build up to with a partner. A bit of biting, scratching, and squeezing is fine- especially during heat when she’s desperate to feel more forceful contact. Choking is off the table however, as is hitting. Likewise, she’ll never choke or hit her partner either. 

      • Rayn won’t put up with any degradation and will not degrade her partner either. She doesn’t like it. 

      • Cameras stay out of the bedroom. She’s 100% uncomfortable with being recorded or photographed in the act. Nudes or spicy videos would have to be on a case by case basis with her partner. Suggestive texts and phone sex are fair game though.

• Rayn has an oral fixation. On the milder side, Rayn enjoys foodplay using whipped cream, chocolate, and honey as a segue into giving or receiving oral. On the heavier side, she enjoys facefucking and spending hours simply edging a partner with oral sex - or vice versa.

  • • • Her favorite flavor of lube is watermelon.

      • She’s especially keen on this if it’s paired with sensory deprivation.

• Rayn has a strong primal kink as well. The idea of hunting someone or being hunted, having to hide and cover up tracks, and trying to hold out from being caught for as long as possible creates a sense of anticipation and arousal that Rayn finds exhilarating. 

  • • • In a very similar vein, Rayn has a hardcore breeding kink. It’s not explored until she’s further into a relationship, but she enjoys the feeling of letting her partner finish inside her and stay inside her for a long while before pulling out. This is doubly true while she’s in heat, or if her partner has the ability to knot her- either naturally or with a toy.

      • She also has a bit of a thing for exhibitionism. She’s turned on by the idea of doing it in places where they could potentially be caught, such as changing rooms, the woods, in cars, or other semi-public spaces. 

• Edging/orgasm denial appeals to Rayn quite a bit. Not right off the bat, but over time she’d be into being denied and left squirming for a little bit at her partner’s mercy. Likewise, she’d have a bit of a thing for teasing her partner and then denying them the chance to finish, sometimes even with toys. 

  • • • A bit of begging is music to her ears, and she’s not above begging for release herself if the situation calls for it. 

• Rayn generally starts out very soft and breathy. She moans lowly and tends to rumble and growl in her partner’s ear. Over time, she will get louder. Especially if she’s being edged or denied. She might shout, but it takes a lot to get her to scream. Alternatively, she enjoys trying to make her partner get loud. She likes hearing them and getting to tease them about how well she’s pleasing them. Their noises are music to her ears. 

• Rayn would love to give her partner oral to wake them up. It would have to be discussed beforehand of course, but if she could wake her partner up by blowing them or eating them out, she’d be one happy camper. Likewise, she wouldn’t mind waking up to someone licking her out and fondling her chest and thighs. She’s not so much into somnophilia, though if her partner is into it and she’s in the mood (aka having a wet dream) she wouldn’t mind being fucked awake for some sleepy morning sex. And she’s glad to let her partner use her as a cockwarmer as they fall asleep. 

• Rayn mostly wears boxers. They’re more comfortable for her. When she runs out of boxers, then she’ll wear panties. She does own a couple pieces of lingerie. They’re gag gifts from ex-coworkers that really had some poor taste. 

• Rayn is big into shower sex. She’d enjoy having her partner pressed up against her while hot water runs over their bodies. Linking fingers and trembling as she receives oral from them, legs shaking as she tries not to slide down the wall. She’d enjoy wiping away the fog on the glass so she can watch from her bathroom mirror how her partner squishes her up against the glass shower door while they take her from behind. She’d also love being held up against the wall while they grind against her/eat her out/fuck her.

• Rayn loves calling her partner baby doll, baby, doll, baby boy/girl, beautiful, or handsome mostly. She tends to offer a lot of praise, calling partners her good girl/boy. 

  • • • Roleplaying would be its own thing. She’d prefer to be referred to as miss or ma’am. Maybe mistress depending on the mood. Weirdly, she’d also enjoy being called Alpha/Luna.

• Rayn is a very tender a doting partner with aftercare. If she’s not still playing cockwarmer to her partner, they can expect a nice wipe down with a warm towel if they don’t feel like showering, a nice massage with some snacks and tea, and a good long cuddle. She’ll hold them close and hum softly in their ear to soothe them and bring them into a pleasant slumber coming down from their high. 

All topics in this section are either canon events to Rayn's story, or planned canon arcs/plot points for Rayn's story that have not happened yet. All of these concepts based on my own lore and characters.

If you are interested in using these plot points in threads, I am absolutely down to create alternate timelines of events involving Rayn and your muse(s). 

Please be aware that anything UNDERLINED is information that Rayn does not and would not have, nor would any other character around her (barring very specific circumstances that require plotting). BOLDED text indicates events that haven't happened yet or information that has not been revealed.

• The exact reason why Rayn can’t use magic is because Beastwalker/Guardian magic draws its source of power from the soul of an individual, and that soul must feel free, unburdened, and at peace in order to channel its energy into magic. Rayn’s soul is burdened by a myriad of things but the main ones are these: blaming herself for her family’s deaths  because she didn’t tell them about the incident, blaming herself for failing to protect her three younger siblings at the orphanage, blaming herself for being victimized by Samael, blaming herself for leaving Kieran behind with Samael to “save herself,” blaming herself for not being able to control herself at her lowest point and almost mauling someone, and blaming herself for not being able to save Kennedy after everything he and Idra had done for her. 

• Rayn’s most haunting memory, and the turning point in her career, came while pursuing a suspected serial abductor-turned-serial killer. She and Ken had been on his trail for a long time and went out for dinner after a late night in the office to discuss more details. Both were feeling especially frustrated about the case because it seemed like none of the other cops or detectives (save for Wally) were committed to actually solving the murders. They had basically collected all the evidence and followed up on leads but kept running into red tape or lost documents along the way. Because their target liked to leave envelopes with letters and pictures at the police station or leave tips on the hotline, they wanted to look at those to try and piece things together. They split up to get ready for the evening, but Ken never showed. When she called Sushi, Sushi said he’d never arrived home. They immediately filed a missing person’s report but the search for Ken didn’t begin until a week later, and it was only prompted when his captor - the suspected killer they’d been tracking for months - sent the station an envelope with photos of Ken tied up and beaten. 

  • Despite Rayn doubling down on efforts to find him, the station refused to actively help or manage the search and seemed to be working against her. All the while, she was continuously being taunted with tips and photos from her abductor as he tortured a captive Ken. 

  • After nearly three months, she finally found a breakthrough in her case and tracked the man down to a warehouse at the city docks, but she was too late. 

  • She was alone when she found Ken dying. She tried to support him, drag him out, to stop the bleeding and stabilize him while calling for backup and medical personnel. But Ken was simply too big for her to move very far, even in his starved and weakened state. In his stupor, he told her he was planning to propose to Sushi and gave Rayn the ring to give to her for him. He also told her she was his best friend and he loved her. Her calls for backup were never answered. No one came, and Ken died in her arms.  

  • Rayn was devastated by the loss and swore to avenge Ken, no matter what it took. She took matters into her own hands and while she didn’t discover the perpetrator himself, she did find out there was a connection between the killer and the sitting head detective of her precinct. He had been purposefully destroying reports, evidence, and documentation pertaining to the case. He had also directly intercepted Rayn’s call for backup and stopped help from ever arriving to save Ken. Rayn bypassed an internal investigation and took the matter directly to the District Attorney’s office with irrefutable proof.

  • After breaking the news to Sushi about Ken’s death and giving her the ring, they both went to attend the trial and see the man face justice. They were shocked to find that the detective would not be charged or face sentencing by “reason of insanity.” In the wake of the backlash from so many, including Rayn and Sushi, the department instead fired the detective, handed him his pension, and promoted Rayn to head detective as a way to silence her. From there, Rayn grew incredibly bitter and jaded towards law enforcement, especially once she learned later on that he had gone free because he was an old friend of the chief’s and a prominent figure in a company funding the police department. When she tried to file a complaint, she was “disciplined” for “bad conduct” and told “that’s just how it works. You’re supposed to protect your brothers and sisters. Now keep your mouth shut and take your promotion.”

  • Rayn would later expose the sitting chief of police in a major scandal involving him taking bribes from corporations and politicians to target their political opposition. After he was ousted, Rocky Winters would take over as the chief of police. He wasn’t a much better option, always trying to use nepotism and “the kinship of Myths” to sway her into taking certain cases and leaving others. Rayn refused to be a pawn to him, and would tolerate ten years solving cases without his help or influence - including the ones that the department didn’t want her to. She’d make many enemies out of officers and higher-ups alike. Yet despite his disdain for her, Rocky refused to fire her because “she was the best investigator they had.”

  • As if to add insult to injury, it came to light that the same company that paid off the trial for her predecessor’s involvement in Ken’s death was also heavily involved in funding anti-Myth efforts during the war. She began looking into them and eventually uncovered a disturbing link between them and the Hunters Guild. Back then, the company went by a different name, and it not only supplied materials but also personnel for operations of the Great Smoke Out- typically contracted from the Hunters Guild. They had lists of territories they’d performed “extermination operations” and among those places, her home was within their range. She would also discover that previously, a class-action lawsuit against the company for the wrongful deaths of hundreds of thousands of Myths was filed. However, nothing ever came of it because the company partitioned a sector of itself to direct the lawsuits towards and proceeded to have that shell company file for bankruptcy- meaning none of the countless others who survived the attacks received justice or compensation for lost homes and lives. Rayn’s made it yet another one of her missions to track down the individuals responsible for the entire operation to serve some of her very own personal justice. This event however, is what truly broke any remaining faith she had in the judiciary side of the justice system.

• Rayn eventually left the police force on the tenth anniversary of Kennedy’s death. She stood at his grave long after Sushi had left with the parting words “in this world, there is no justice for people like us.” Rayn had an epiphany in that moment, recalling that in her ten years of service, she’d seen maybe two reports made by Mythics, and they were never followed up on. She realized that the police prioritized crimes against them and the powerful that funded them and left others to fend for themselves. She wondered just how many cases turned out like Kennedy’s. How many had tried to play fair like her and been bashed and mistreated by their so-called “brothers and sisters” for seeking equal justice. She decided if no one else would defend the rest of her city, then she would.

• The day after, Rayn turned in her badge. Wally followed her out and asked her what she would do now. For a while, Rayn couldn’t answer. She started smoking and drinking for a bit before Wally eventually came to the door of her apartment with a proposition: she reminded him of his father, Willhelm, who used to be a detective and quit for the same reasons she had. They’d tried to start a detective agency but years of no business and police vandalism had it one foot in the grave. They offered to sell her the agency building and help her fix it up to try again. And Rayn agreed.

• Rayn has a list of high priority investigations she’s dedicated herself to. 

  • • At the top of that list is the Banded Bandit/Banded Butcher/Striped Slasher. She’s convinced that this serial killer- the very same one that she and Ken spent months hunting down- is the some one responsible for his torture and murder. 

    • Unbeknownst to Rayn, the Banded Butcher is not Ken’s killer. He is a vigilante by the name of Addison Harlow, and the last Thylacine Beastwalker left as a result of the Mythic War driving all of his kind to extinction. His goal is to destroy everyone involved with the slaughter of his people, making him and Rayn’s goals one and the same. 

    • Canonically, Rayn confronts the Banded Butcher after predicting his next target. After an intense fight where Rayn very nearly loses control and almost mauls him, it’s revealed that the Bandit is a vigilante like Rayn. Rayn refuses to believe him at first, until he recalls one of her cases - the unsolved case of Alice Barkley, aka Wally’s mother - and describes in great detail the specifics of the case and how it went cold. He then reveals his old wedding band, engraved with his name and hers, and the date of their marriage. He explains that he is Wally’s father, that he was kidnapped while his wife was pregnant, and trafficked by the Hunters Guild during the war. The Guild was responsible for her murder- they did it to punish him for trying to escape. They never knew about Wally however. Shortly after they killed her, he was released in order to take the fall for the guild’s crime. He would have been the prime suspect after all. 

    • While he managed to avoid being found and arrested, he decided to keep his distance from his son for fear that the Guild would go after him too. Instead, he dedicated his life to becoming the monster they always intended for him to look like. He vowed to avenge his wife and protect his son by going after the Guild and all who associated with them. He figured that catching him would be near impossible anyway. After all, who would suspect the killer to be a beast that’s already dead? 

    • Addison also challenges Rayn by saying that they are more alike than they think-- they're hunting the same people, lost people to those murderers, and they're both the last of their kind. Rayn questions what he means, and Addison reveals that Rayn is not just any wolfwalker. She's the last Dire Wolf. The very last of an extinct species. Rayn refutes this, saying she is a timber wolf, but Addison insists and points out her size, her larger teeth, her tendency to roam with only a small, close pack as opposed to the naturally larger congregation of wolves. She is an endling, just like him. They are two sides of the same coin. 

    • Tentatively, the two of them end up forming an alliance. Rayn tells him to lay low and the two decide to exchange information in order to find the real killers of both Ken and Alice. 

  • As Addison and Rayn work together removing major players from the board and collect any evidence they can of their involvements with the guild, they begin to unravel a massive operation that has continued to persist long after the war itself has ended. And to their horror, all of their connections lead back to one man: Samael Sinaga. Her previous captor and abuser, and - as Addison recognizes his voice from recordings and videos- his captor and abuser as well. Kennedy’s killer and Alice’s killer. The grandson of the guild’s founder, the head of a bloody global operation spanning decades. 

    • They also come to learn that Samael is the serial killer known as The Raptor Ripper- a murderer whose crimes are so disjointed and brutal in wildly different with each scene that it was believed to be the work of multiple murderers. The only consistency between them all was the use of what looked to be large raptor claws from a beast presumed to be some type of large Avian Myth. 

    • During a later investigation of his residence, which takes some effortful coaxing from Addison to convince Rayn, they discover, however, that this is not the case. Instead, they learn that Samael has gotten away with his crimes by wearing the taxidermied flesh of a komodo Myth and mauling his victims using someone else’s claws. Rayn realizes that this was why she always felt a sense of discomfort whenever she breathed in at his crime scenes– the reason she swore she could smell him just for a moment, but always attributed it to the crime scenes triggering some previous trauma because it never lasted for more than a second. All this time he was masking himself with the flesh and the scent of someone else to cover up his crimes - and no doubt perpetuate the idea of the “dangerous, feral carnivore” to any potential witnesses.

    • Right as they’re ready to leave, they realize they’ve been lured into a trap. They’re caged together and both of them find themselves surrounded by armed guild members. Samael reveals himself, expresses his delight at seeing them again. He taunts them that nothing would please him more than to have them as his captives once more. Alas, he feels they are both well past their Best By date, and so feels it would be better to put them out of their misery. He dons his flesh suit and enters the cage. 

    • Rayn, terrified and enraged, tries to fight him. Once he grabs her by the throat however, she freezes and is thrown into a wall with such force that she is nearly knocked out by it. Dizzy and weak, she watches as he moves over to Addison and beats the other Myth down with ease. Stunned, bruised, bloody, and weak, Rayn can only watch as Samael looms over Addison and holds him down to strike the final blow. He taunts her once more, asking if this is what her “partner” looked like before he died. 

    • For a split second, Addison’s gaze meets hers and she swears she can see Kennedy in his place. That realization is enough to awaken something in her. The rage, the pain, and the desire to see a different outcome cracks the block on her abilities, and as she screams and blacks out from the burst of energy, her Guardian take shape alongside her Wolf form. She lunges at Samael and pins him down, glowing with pure power and energy, and snarls that he will never know before proceeding to tear his throat out and maul him so severely that several of the hunters flee the scene. The others try to shoot at her through the cage. She’s severely injured, but between her and Addison, they’re able to dispatch the few that remain. 

    • Once the fighting is over, Rayn’s energy dissipates, leaving her drained and weak from her injuries. She collapses and Addison rushes to hold her. The scene is a direct parallel to how she held Kennedy as he was dying. Addison calls for help from the agency, requesting backup and medical services, just as she had while Ken was bleeding out. And just like Ken in that moment, Rayn thanks Addison for everything and tells him not to worry - that she did what she set out to do. Addison tells her it’s not over and tries to keep Rayn conscious and alive. He holds her as she slips away, and he cries in a way he hasn’t cried since he watched Alice die.

  • Rayn stirs to the sound of waves crashing on a beach. When she sits up, she’s sore and stiff. The sand under her toes is warm and an endless ocean stretches out before her. She looks around and realizes she’s home. She feels like she should be confused or panicked, but she just feels… calm. So she sits in the sand for a long while, watching the waves. 

    • Eventually, someone comes to sit beside her. It’s Kennedy. They look at each other for a long while and say nothing. Then, he speaks first. He tells her that she looks good. She says the same, noting that he looks just as she remembered him being. Before Samael. Before the incident. He tells her that she did good. She kept her promise. So what now? Rayn tells him she doesn’t know. She supposes it’s over. Ken nods a little, and clarifies that it’s been over for a long time. For him anyway. For her, life is finally just beginning. She looks at him, puzzled. He looks back. “It’s not your fault.” he says. “It never was.”

    • That seems to give Rayn pause. Some part of her aches hearing him say that, like it doesn’t want to believe him. Another part, however, feels relieved. She doesn’t know what to say. Ken places a hand over hers and reiterates “It’s not your fault.”

    • Around her, several more people come to sit. Rayn looks at each of them, tears welling up in her eyes. Her mother, her father, her grandparents, her younger siblings. Each of them come to her with warm smiles, their hands coming to rest on her arms, her shoulders, her back. Each of them following Ken’s lead and telling her. “It’s not your fault.” As Rayn bursts into tears and starts crying, she can feel all of them embracing her, affirming that she did all that she could. That she was only a child. That no matter what happened or what happens next, they love her. 

    • When Rayn finally manages to calm down, she manages to softly ask what IS next. Ken takes her hand again and gestures to a surfboard rolling in on the waves. Rayn looks at him to confirm it’s for her. Ken nods and gestures for her to go. 

    • “Go. Someone still needs you.” 

    • Rayn hesitates, tearing up and insisting that she doesn’t want to leave - she can’t lose them again. 

    • Ken reassures her “you never lost us. We were always there with you, every step of the way. You held us in your heart the whole time.”

    •  Rayn whimpers that she doesn’t know if she can keep going. Ken laughs softly, wipes her tears, and tells her “you made it this far, even when you believed you never would.” 

    • Rayn smiles bittersweetly at that. Tentatively, she asks if she’ll ever see them again. Ken nods. “You’ll see us in the water. You’ll see us in the cherry blossom petals. You’ll see us in shades of paint on the wall and toys in store windows. You’ll see us in photo albums and crime scene shots, in tabloid articles and cheesy rom-coms films. You’ll see us everywhere. You’ll even see us in you. And when it’s time for you to come back, you’ll see us right here, waiting for you.” 

    • Rayn embraces each of them one last time, they sobs a little as they share another group hug. She realizes that pain is the ghost of love - true love, and her soul feels a weight lift off of it as she walks away and turns to look back at them one last time. 

    • She takes the surfboard in hand and wades out into the water. Once she’s deep enough, she lays back on it and shuts her eyes. She lets herself drift along the waves, letting the sound and scent of the water soothe her. For a moment, she feels at peace. With herself, with everything that’s happened, with her situation. Then it occurs to her what Ken said. Someone still needs you.

    • Rayn darts up from the board to see everyone on the shore in the distance. Mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, grandmother, Lei, Gloria, Clifford, Kennedy–

    • Just as realization strikes her, she falls off the board and into the water. She sinks beneath the waves, panic clawing at her chest as she desperately tries to right herself and swim up. No matter how she tries though, her limbs feel too heavy. She sinks deeper and deeper, watching her air bubbles float up to an ever dimming surface as she is swallowed by cold darkness.

• Rayn awakens with a gasp, darting up in her hospital bed. She claws at her throat, expecting water to spill from her lips. Instead, she tastes air - sweet air. Sweeter than ever and wonderfully crisp. As she blinks, her vision comes into focus through blinding light. She looks around to find her teammates surrounding her. Sushi, Maru, Willhelm, Wally, Ezekiel, Letaba, Ursula, Tyto, Gobi, Gus, Donnie, Holly, Piper, Robert - and even Addison. They ask if she’s alright, and Rayn just bursts out sobbing. They comfort her as best they can, Sushi offering to hug her and hold her. The weight of realizing that it’s finally - FINALLY - over, and that things did turn out different this time, is both overwhelmingly relieving and heartbreaking. 

  • It takes her a while to get herself under control and assure everyone she’s alright. They each express their joy to see her alive and… relatively well. Some brought gifts, others just wanted to be there when she woke up and keep her company. The mood lightens. They laugh, they joke. Over time they start to head out with the promise to visit her again. Idra and Addison stay with her, ask what happened. When Rayn starts to explain, they clarify - what happened that had her gasping awake. Tentatively, she explains what she saw. Sushi tears up and tells her “he’s right you know. It was never your fault.” Rayn tears up as she slowly nods, finally starting to accept that as truth. She expresses that maybe - just maybe - she needs to start going to therapy. Sushi laughs with her and tells her that yeah, maybe she should. She needs to put all of this behind her. 

  • Sushi heads out to go to use the restroom, leaving Rayn and Addison alone to talk for a while. Addison asks what she’s going to do now. Rayn expresses that Ken said someone still needs her. Addison chuckles and says he knows that feeling. Rayn studies him for a moment and asks if he’d ever consider joining the agency. Addison thinks about it for a moment… says he’s not sure. Still too much to sort out. But he wouldn’t mind keeping up with her. They’ve been through a lot together. Things only they would understand. It would be nice to not feel so alone. Rayn agrees.

  • Addison reiterates that she never answered his question. Rayn pauses and thinks long and hard on it for a moment, trying to recall what happened just before she woke up. Mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, grandmother, Lei, Gloria, Clifford, Kennedy– that’s when it hits her. She looks up with a very serious expression. 

  • “I have to find Kieran.”

• Rayn's brother Kieran is alive and still out there. And he's looking for his twin.