Desiree "Ruby" San Delagato

About You - The Player
Name: Ryan
Age: 23
Contact: magic~ (anartificialend @ AIM; calculusletters @ twitter; yandoryn[at]gmail[dot]com)
Past Role Playing Experience: A lot.

The Character
Name: Desiree “Ruby” San Delagato
Age/Birthdate: 103, November 28th.
Species: Wanderer
Canon: God Was Wearing Black (extended universe)
*Pre-existing powers: She’s stronger than humans and can form a bond very similar to a guardian angel bond. She can also walk digitigrade if she wants, but I’m not sure that’s a power. She also has psychic training (as in can ward off psychic attacks, not use them.) She doesn’t have the same Falling requirements as BtR angels, though. It’s pretty felldamn hard for her to Fall (a human or demon has to cut off her wings, an angel from her universe literally can’t do it, although one would assume a BtR angel wouldn't have the inability). She cannot pull her wings in.
*Rift Change, if applicable: She is now an emotional vampire. She can eat food, but it doesn’t sustain her. Blood sustains her for a bit, but it doesn’t do as much for her as draining someone of feeling.
Livejournal: somuchmoretoknow
Played By: N/A
Icon: http://www.dreamwidth.org/userpic/2304505/1420675

Appearance: Ruby's skin is not quite dark, but darker than the average white person can tan. She's got a higher level of yellow in her complexion than most people, although it's not overpowering. Her face is put together like a puzzle, different elements of different races mashed into one. Her cheeks are full, but her cheekbones are high and slightly prominent. Her forehead is taller than average and her eyes are wide although not that large. Her chin is smooth; her face is pretty round. She has larger than average lips and a broad nose. Her hair is dark and thick, but softer than one would expect.

She's tall, six five, and not very curvy. She has an androgynous frame, even though her face is clearly feminine. Winged have few secondary sex characteristics and she's still a "teenager," which means her body isn't done developing. She's got a good amount of muscle on her from all of the training she went through with the militia, but she isn't as strong as she could be, partially due to her age, partially due to her Calling.

Her brown and red wings have only a two foot span, barely showing past her (slightly narrow for a Winged but wide for someone else) shoulders. She has two sets of shoulder blades to better support her wings and a very clear and thick collarbone and a slight keelbone. Most of this is vestigial, considering how little pressure her wings actually put on her body at this point. She also has a scar that goes from her right eyebrow to her left cheek that's faded a lot since childhood, but is still easily visible.

Personality: Unlike most of the people around her, Ruby is to the point. She calls out the elephants in the corner, lets people know what's on her mind, and refuses to let people be assholes to her. She gets a little wobbly when it comes to dealing with people she truly cares about, but mostly continues to stick her ground. It's not as much that she's scared of upsetting them and more accepting that they have more experience than her and are likely to be right. Even though she's aware of this, she often has a difficult time actually listening to what people have to say. She doesn't know how to pick her battles.

When it comes to things she's really aware she has no experience in (such as sex), she tends to take things slowly and see where that leads her. She's extremely cautious about the unknown -- unless someone pisses her off and then she's likely to jump in headfirst to spite them.

She's snarky and honest. She holds grudges way too long, especially when it comes to people who have hurt her and her family. She has a fear of militia-like groups, even though she was in one. She also has a fear of psychic invasion with regards to her thoughts and subconsciously tries to shield as much as possible, to the point of distracting herself from other things.

She tries not to solve problems with violence as she's used to being one of the weakest around her. (Basically, she was a well-trained guardian angel being led by an exceptionally trained First and a whole bunch of archangels who had better training than her.) She's not very good at solving problems verbally, either, as she has a habit of saying what's on her mind. So in general, she usually just makes problems worse.

When it comes to making friends, Ruby is cautious. When training with Kasey's militia, the fact that she associated with Wingless was pointed out as something very strange and slightly squicky. When adding that to the fact that she saw so many of her friends come and go because she ages so much slower than the rest of them, she has sort of realized that her attachment to Wingless is slightly inappropriate, but she still wants to hold onto the idea that they're worth her time. Because of that, she still wants to make friends that she knows will leave her quickly, but she doesn't want to get too close, worried that someone will judge her for it. People that she respects, such as Jiro, even though he's not there anymore.

When it comes to people who don't age as quickly, such as BtR angels, she still likely to be cautious. Most of the angels in her universe were incredibly militaristic and remind her of the strike on her family when she was young. She still has issues with Kasey because of that, even though she's not aware that it was Kasey who supervised the raid and killed her parents. Demons are likely right out. Even though she was part of the Resistance (barely, more by association), the Resistance was less racist, but still believed in angel superiority. Their major issue with the Fubars was that they stumbled upon information that the Fubars were planning on keeping the Rifts closed. So the Resistance focused on fighting them to attempt and reopen the Rifts. But that doesn't mean that they don't believe that the demon military has the right intentions either. As she is unlikely to know who is an angel/demon/"wingless", she is going to become even more cautious, not sure if she's setting herself up for trouble or heartbreak.

History: Ruby was born into the tail-end of a seemingly never-ending world war. In her early childhood, she lived in a major city. Information was leaked that there were Resistance members living in the city. As such, the entire town was annihilated and burned to the ground by General Kasey's specialized team, Strikeforce. A few children were left alive to keep the stories going. Ruby was one of those children, escaping with just a deep gash on her face.

Her aunt, who lived in a more rural area that was far enough off the jetroutes took her in. The woman ran an inn that was a meeting place for Resistance members, although Ruby didn't recognize that she had been doing Resistance work until she was about 70. It's not like her aunt really talked about it.

The town her aunt lived in was mostly wingless, which meant that Ruby grew up in a very strange culture in the eyes of most Winged. It's very rare for Winged to have personal relationships with wingless, and Ruby saw many of her friends die in her short lifetime. She considered this just part of life and wasn't too depressed by it, considering most of her "friends" abandoned her shortly after they became young adults.

As the war went on, fewer and fewer Resistance members came by, mostly because their numbers were becoming fewer and fewer due to the Fubar ability to track them down and eliminate them in such frightening ways that getting people to enlist was like pulling teeth.

Then, for lack of a better word, the apocalypse happened. It didn't affect outlying areas like the one she was as much as other areas, but a few rogue Boelmans tore up the area pretty badly. Several years were spent rebuilding with barely any ability to get food, considering the farmeries were mostly destroyed with everything else. Luckily, due to how far they were from major shipping lines, they had a few animals and the ability to make some of their own food, as well as a hydro-powered synth machine.

Life got a lot more boring after the world ended without the constant stream of media, but Ruby managed. She still complained a lot, being the teenager she was. They got a few travelers who were avoiding the main roads because of all the cutoffs, but considering money was basically useless at that point, it didn't matter that much.

One of the groups they got was a little more startling -- most of them seemed to be Fubar soldiers, which was strange on its own, but on top of that, three of them were very recognizable. General Kasey Fuchizaki-Barnam, a regular celebrity, his Mischa Master Sergeant Lily Fuchizaki, and Lily's husband, Contractor Makoto Fuchizaki-Barnam. Her aunt was obviously uncomfortable to have them, but considering the war was over, she didn't want to turn them away.

Except then something awkward happened. One of the party's lesser known members, Kasey's husband Jiro happened to be Ruby's first ward. Rather than actually telling anyone this, she packed some of her stuff and started stalking Kasey's party.

Naturally, this didn't go well. Kasey was having issues with his newly found psychic powers, but even without them, there was no way he wouldn't have noticed a completely untrained teenager stalking him.

There was an intervention. Kasey, Lily, and Jiro had a fight over what to do with her. She stubbornly refused to give out her real name, just telling them she was Ruby, a reference to her then dyed red hair. Eventually Kasey decided she could stay as long as she started training with them and didn't weigh down the party.

Ruby for her part hated Kasey with a passion because he epitomized everything she hated about the Fubars. They never really got along, especially considering the psychic training Kasey put her through so that MAYBE she would shut up in his head.

As is normal for Mischa and ward in Winged society, after a time Jiro and Ruby started up a relationship. Jiro mostly had to get over how much the age gap weirded him out. Ruby fell in love quickly, considering her age, but while Jiro cared about her, he never really loved her.

Ruby, considering her age, was pretty easy to knock up, so it wasn't that surprising to anyone when she actually became pregnant, something Kasey picked up on before everyone else. She was allowed to stay and train for a while, but once Kasey decided that her pregnancy would affect her training, she was forced to go with Jiro to basically the middle of nowhere so that they could spend the next twenty years or so waiting for, and taking care of her child.

Except instead of getting there, Ruby accidentally fell through a Rift.

Writing Sample: The first thing she noticed was a cold, empty space in her core. The next was severe pain, radiating throughout her entire body. She wanted to call out, let Jiro know what was going on, but her jaw locked before she could form the words. And as soon as she managed to open her mouth entirely, she realized what was wrong. Jiro was gone. Her ward was gone.

She was dying.

Ruby knew that Lily had survived 3 deaths, but the woman was rift-touched, no matter how normal she had seemed in their conversations. "It's only natural to love him," Lily had said. "That's what it means to be a Mischa -- you have too much love. And part of your heart breaks off and you give it to them. It's unwilling, but you do, and they're a part of you until the end." The end was coming, and Ruby didn't know how she would make it.

There was grass under her skin. She couldn't even parse what it was. She hadn't seen grass in decades, never mind felt it. Ruby stared up at the sun, wondering where it had come from. Her mind was skipping around, thinking of better days. Was this what they meant when they said your life flashed before your eyes in the end?

No, she couldn't let it end like this. Something bullshit was going on, and she was going to expose it for what it was. She pressed herself up, faltering once, but succeeding the second time. She pressed a hand above her eyes, ignoring the burn of her muscles locking up. Her wings stretched out and she tried to focus on what was going on. Everything was blurry, but if she squinted hard enough, she believed she could see. She just had to push herself.

She wouldn't let the Rifts do this to her. After everything she had been through, she would not die now.