Rachel Anselm

[Augustine]

Rachel Anselm

Generalities

Name: Rachel Anselm
AKA: The Immortal Daredevil
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Race: Half-devil
Faction: Strigoi
Squad: N/A
Role: Scout
Battle Theme: link (optional)

Rank: D
Red Orbs: 0/1000 (800 on Ambystoma, 200 on Shift: Dual Swords)
Blue Orbs: 0/400 (400 from Ambystoma, 200 spent on Shift: Polearms, 200 spent on shift: Double Spear)

Character Description

Physical Appearance(s): Rachel’s a bit of an odd figure to put it lightly, she looks mostly human at least, although her devil’s blood shows more strongly than in more fortunate souls. She stands at just past six feet or just a dozen or so centimeters short of 2 meters, with a slender, lean build that speaks of running and a cardio intensive lifestyle. Her skin is a normal human color, and while her hair has a two-toned theme going on, dark blue on the outside, light blue, almost glowing cerulean inside, it just comes across as an eccentric hairstyle, with one eye being a lovely emerald green, and the other usually covered by a medical eyepatch.

Then there’s the oddities, her naturally sharp teeth, the other eye being black where it should be white, and an obvious glowing red. There’s the fact that her gums and tongue are a blue in color, oh and of course, the long lizard-like tail protruding from her backside. All of these are things she can compensate for though. The blue mouth can be minimized and hidden or passed off as another bizarre eccentricity, her sharp teeth as an aesthetic choice, actual normal humans have done it after all!

Her eye can be kept covered, and her tail? Well the only option there is to wear particularly baggy clothes that enable her to hide it. In a pinch she can cut it off and let it grow back like a proper lizard though, but she’s not fond of doing that.

Due to this it’s perhaps not surprising that she favors big coats, big pants, big skirts and the like, and her normal work outfit fits this to a T. It’s also more than bizarre enough for people to assume her other physical oddities are part of her eccentric look, what with her giant yellow and beige coat labeled with nonsense warning signs and instructions.

In areas where she can actually dress without fear of normal folk staring at her lizard tail though…she still sometimes dresses really damn weird. Although usually her go to are somewhat tight long-sleeved shirts and pants, as well as a variety of baseball caps and different styles of headphones.

Personality: Rachel can be described extremely simply as ‘unbearably cheerful.’ She’s rarely seen not smiling and will go to absurd lengths to put a positive spin on things, and if she can’t do that, she’ll find a way to turn it into a joke.

Getting more in depth she’s a very driven person, no one ever got anything done feeling sorry for themselves and so she sees no point in dwelling on things that frustrate or anger her. No she sees a point in finding something to do about it, even if it would be extremely inconvenient. Are they out of that new drink she wanted? Go to a different store, and then a different one, and then another, and if they still don’t have it, fuck it get ice cream instead and just order it online! There’s always something you can do, even if it means abandoning one thing and doing something else instead.

This has extended to her choice of careers and is combined with an exceptionally reckless attitude sees her doing her damnedest to succeed even in absurdly dangerous scenarios. She doesn’t really know when to quit. Life is about risk and if you’re not living on the edge are you really living at all? Nothing excites her more than a job that has a whiff of danger or something unusual to it and she’ll gladly throw herself into the thick of anything for a cheap thrill.

Just about the only time she’ll ever show a modicum of caution is if she’s working with others. She’s smart enough to understand that not everyone enjoys scaling a sheer cliff with no equipment, and will make at least some efforts to accommodate them and make sure they’re safe. She does however, not particularly enjoy it and greatly prefers working alone whenever possible.

Backstory

Rachel knows very, very little about her early life, and where exactly her demonic blood came from. She has very sparse, fragmented memories of an impossible, strange city, and monstrous creatures, but she could make nothing of them for most of her life. Her mother was a fine woman who did her best to raise her with no father in the picture, but refused to tell much about her daughter’s lineage.

Primarily home schooled, Rachel was still given a robust education, the home schooling done to avoid the natural issues of tail and eye and teeth, and fortunately Rachel was an extremely hearty and healthy girl who never really needed to see a doctor. The few check ups her mother arranged to make sure she was growing properly, were very carefully chosen and bribed to keep certain details a secret.

She was friends with kids in the neighborhood at least, as long as she kept the tail hidden it was no problem, but well…it really should be neighborhoods, as any incidents swiftly saw them moving away. Rachel never really knew where her mom got the money she used to pay for all of this either. All she knew, roundabout when she was ten, was being told that her father was a devil, and he’d made sure they’d both be able to live comfortably, but Rachel would never be told more than that, much to her frustration.

The constant moving, her lack of knowledge about her lineage, and her sheer durability led her to being an extremely reckless and willful child and even worse as a teenager, frequently leaving home for days at a time. Things that left her mother helpless given getting any police involved could potentially put her daughter into all kinds of trouble as they’d surely notice her inhuman traits, even if they didn’t know what they meant. Rachel got a taste for doing this sort of thing, particularly reckless and dangerous stunts, leaping across rooftops, climbing trees, hiking through the wilderness. As she got older though she did soften and started to do more to make sure her mother knew where and what she was doing, but still refused to stop doing it.

Sometimes Rachel wonders if her mother would have told her anything new when Rachel turned 18, but she never did get to find out. When she was 17 her mother died, a terminal illness, even with their money, there was nothing that could have been done. They’d always lived humbly, a good house but nothing huge, and well, naturally she inherited what was left of their wealth, a pretty hefty sum of money. So, what was a girl to do but follow her dreams?

Rachel Anselm became a professional daredevil.

She knew how durable she was, what she could survive, she could pull off absolutely insane stunts, and get back up even if they went horribly wrong! After just a year of persistent effort and work she had a pretty decent online following, and expanded her activities from absurd ramp jumps on a variety of vehicles, to hiking out into the wilderness to find and confront all manner of animals, to even exploring extremely dangerous neighborhoods of different countries. She had the money to do it, and she wanted to…so she did.

It started an intense career. She was never hugely famous, but there were a lot of people who knew about the Immortal Daredevil, with millions of online followers watching her every move as she did things like scale the grand canyon with no equipment (and subsequently get banned from the park). When the rifts opened in 2023 she wasn’t actually near any of them, but she knew about them. Aside from her own personal community as an internet celebrity, she was also anonymously involved in a lot of online occult shit, learning more about devils. She knew more than anyone that that shit was real after all. Still she had no idea what to make of it, or what she could even do about it and so carried on.

Then, a year or so after the rifts opened, she got approached by Strigoi with an offer. She’d been on the Velvet Underground for awhile, helping provide info and reading up on things themselves, typical internet denizen behavior, and well…to those with the knowledge it wasn’t hard to figure out she wasn’t entirely human. So she got an offer. The Velvet Underground had a need for specialized agents, people willing to go anywhere and everywhere in the pursuit of knowledge they didn’t yet have, to verify information they weren’t sure of, or to provide additional details and context on what they did know, and globetrotting half-devil Rachel Anselm was the perfect candidate.

She said yes in a heartbeat, barely even needed to think about it, and the gang members speaking to her had to slow her down so they could arrange all the details. Still it wasn’t long before she was officially part of Strigoi, getting herself an actual permanent house in Bucharest out of convenience. She’s not officially part of any gang, but rather does work for any gang or client of the Velvet Underground that puts in a request, bouncing around different territories and frequently leaving to places far outside of Strigoi’s usual reach. Still the bigger gangs like Sirens0ng and Niciunnume_ can always count on her to prioritize their requests over others….usually. Rachels’ been known on occasion to select jobs purely based on “this seems like a lot of fun.”

Traits

Healing Factor
Your body innately and unconsciously uses magic to restore any damage done to it. This is an instinctive reaction that tries to keep the abstract shape of your body (i.e. your soul) intact as much as possible.
While you can feel pain just like any other human, your wounds simply heal much quicker than them. Even better, your regenerative factor is so amped up that you can easily regrow lost limbs and survive being stabbed in the chest.
Remember that your stamina isn't unlimited, and that there's things one would wish not to survive from.

Inhuman Agility
Both from her lifestyle as a daredevil and her demonic heritage Rachel is an extremely limber and mobile person. Some of the spaces she’s squeezed through cavediving have given her viewers nightmares, and some attest that even on repeat viewings they’re terrified she’s going to miss that reckless leap down a cliff to speed up the descent. While not particularly fast over all, her flexibility and comfort in movement can make her difficult to pin down, running up walls, sliding under enemies, and just generally flipping and rolling about in ways that most would struggle to keep up with.

Equipment

Name: Ambystoma
Description: Ambystoma is in technicality two weapons in one. A pair of blades designed to be linked together and wielded as one or separately. The two are identical in design, a black sophisticated titanium frame, with a single edge on one side, the sharpened edge being a neon green in color, mostly straight running up to a sharp curve at the tip. The blades are roughly two and a half feet long, and the handles can extend to turn them into impromptu pole arms. While the grip is extended the two can then be linked together to form a double ended glaive of sorts, making it a fairly versatile weapon. The neon green does nothing but look cool.
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
Combo Weapon (Aspect Like)
Ambystoma is designed to combine, recombine and decombine into a variety of different shapes and forms. To whit, two short swords, two polearms, or a double ended spear, giving the user flexibility in battle and how to approach and combat an opponent.

Name: P90 submachine gun
Description: An ordinary if versatile submachine gun, the P90 is an excellent firearm, compact, portable and easy to handle and use. It doesn’t have much stopping power against demons, but it’s a useful ranged option to fall back on if Rachel finds it necessary.
Upgrade points: 0
Upgrades: None

Name:Climbing Hook
Description: A grappling hook by any other name, it’s a sturdy cable attached to a three pronged hook, not the most useful in combat although it can come in handy in a pinch, it’s largely a tool for traversing any difficult terrain Rachel comes across on the job.
Upgrade points: 0
Upgrades: None

Name:A really, really big backpack
Description: A very large backpack full of a lot of survival gear, such as food, water, first aid kits, lights, a tent, and other useful tools. Not exactly much use in combat, but invaluable on long trips with no habitation in sight! Probably best to drop it if she's caught in a fight while wearing it though, thing's kind of heavy.
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades: None

Name: Hazard Risk
Description: That big poofy jacket Rachel wears is more than a way to hide her tail. It’s actually pretty tough, a form of body armor. It’s difficult to stab and resistant to small arms fire. Not the biggest or most fancy armor out there, but it’s enough to keep her safe from light blows.
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades: None

Combat Foci

Name: No Risk, No Reward
Description: Fitting for someone with her upbringing and previous career, the way Rachel fights can be described as extremely dangerous and reckless. She doesn’t exactly aim to trade hits, but she’ll cut things as close as she can get away with, the nearest of misses, dodges and deflections in the name of hitting her opponent hard, fast, and as often as possible. Sometimes this does mean taking a hit to give a hit but it’s usually about trying to stay as close up in an enemy’s face as possible and hammering on them until they fold like a cheap suit.
Rank: D
Aspects: 0

Techniques

Name: Shift: Dual Blades
Description: Taking Ambystoma, she breaks it down from its current form into dual swords, short grip for best maneuverability and speed.
Focus: Ambystoma
Aspects: Combo Weapon

Name:Shift: Polearm
Description: Rachel shifts Ambystoma, changing it from its current form into one of two polearms, longer grip for better reach, leverage, and more force behind her attacks.
Focus: Ambystoma
Aspects: Combo Weapon

Name: Shift: Double Spear
Description: The third form of Ambystoma, with the grips extended, the blades are attached to each other, creating a double ended spear, with one blade facing one way and the other opposite. Double Spear lets her keep up a very balanced offense and defense, and more easily attack multiple enemies at once.
Focus:Ambystoma

Aspects: Combo Weapon

SPOILER: Click to show

{Artist Credits}Header image twitter.com/wagachop?lang=en
Description image twitter.com/bababannouyaku

[Augustine]

Divinity Statue: link

Orbs Gained

(link) Character Approval [Gained 1000 ]

Orbs Spending

(Trait Rank D) Healing Factor [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Trait Rank D) Inhuman Agility [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Crafted Arm 2 UP) Ambystoma [Spent 800 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 400 ]

(Crafted Arm 0 UP) P90 submachine gun [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Crafted Arm 0 UP) Climbing Hook [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Crafted Arm 0 UP) A really, really big backpack [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Crafted Arm 0 UP) Hazard Risk [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Combat Focus Rank D) No Risk, No Reward [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Technique 1 Aspects 0 Foci) Shift: Dual Blades [Spent 200 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Technique 1 Aspects 0 Foci) Shift: Polearm [Spent 0 , Spent 200 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Technique 1 Aspects 0 Foci) Shift: Double Spear [Spent 0 , Spent 200 ] [Gained 0 ]