Rhea Birk
Rhea Birk
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
Rhea has a handful of scars across her face.
Apparel & Accessories
Rhea only wears black. Black dress, black cloak. V goth chic, but in a classy adult way, not a cringe IG teenage thing.
Specialized Equipment
Component pouch on belt with a strap that holds her spell-book.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Mistakes and guilt are all that lay in Rhea's past, so she tries her best to avoid it. She spent several years living as "Wren", after developing a split personality modeled after the sister she feels she inadvertently killed.
Gender Identity
Female
Sexuality
A very valuable tool in her arsenal.
Education
"The world is my teacher, life is my lessons, and the unsuspecting public my fellow students" Also this asshole named Lian for a while.
Employment
Ask Jhin, he's the boss.
Accomplishments & Achievements
This is a surprisingly complicated answer.
Failures & Embarrassments
Also very complicated. Working on it.
Mental Trauma
IT'S COMPLICATED! Get the fucking hint.
Intellectual Characteristics
Rhea is quick-witted and clever.
Morality & Philosophy
Questionable.
Taboos
Devoting your life to taboo magic doesn't leave you with many others.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Rhea wants to to bring Wren back. To trick death. She knows now that death is a variant. It can be controlled to variable outcomes.. If she could just figure out the right way to manipulate it, maybe she could fix everything..She just needs more time.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Rhea's good at reading the room, exuding a confidence, and using her emotional intelligence to exploit somebody else's.
She's not good at thinking things through.
Likes & Dislikes
Rhea likes magic. She likes being good at magic. She likes that look on people's faces when she uses it without them knowing it. She likes winning. She likes succeeding, makes her feel powerful.
She likes being the best at things. She'll settle for 'naturally talented' but ideally she's the best. She dislikes getting caught, feeling in trouble, makes her feel like a kid. She also dislikes pedophiles
She likes being the best at things. She'll settle for 'naturally talented' but ideally she's the best. She dislikes getting caught, feeling in trouble, makes her feel like a kid. She also dislikes pedophiles
Virtues & Personality perks
She has a natural aptitude for magic and works hard to make sure she's the best at it that she can be. If you're bad at something why would it even be worth doing? Still, natural skill is nothing if it's not refined and honed. It's her ambition, diligence and persistence that makes Rhea a good wizard.
Vices & Personality flaws
Not the most mentally stable girl in Northal. M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶
Personality Quirks
The only thing she seems to be consistent throughout her personalities is that she has a tendency to put her foot in her mouth.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Wren Birk, a deceased sister
Family Ties
One dead sister, two dead parents, one dearly departed split personality.
Mannerisms
Rhea is poised, though in a rough edged- un-ladylike way
Hobbies & Pets
q.q (thanks)
Speech
Fast, and un-careful
Wealth & Financial state
Compared to where she started, not fucking bad.
Being nice didn't work. This is the rest.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Crazy
Honorary & Occupational Titles
She's technically a representative of the Institute of Hydroarchanic Technology .. or something. She doesn't really remember exactly, or care. But she is one, for the record.
Age
29
Birthplace
A coffin below Riverville
Children
Current Residence
Northal Castle
Gender
Female
Eyes
Brown
Hair
Brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
Height
5"9
Weight
130
Temple of the Universe, Discovering
Turns out Wren’s little hydroarcanic hobby isn’t as lame as I thought. It e̶x̶p̶a̶n̶d̶e̶d̶-̶e̶x̶p̶l̶o̶d̶e̶d̶-̶shifted- the other day into an inter-dimensional planer portal. (Suck on that Lian, it took you decades to find a dead god? I found a link to the heavens and hells in my own godammed house- and it only took two days of me being me. ) Luckily the gob guy- Thornelius, knew how to stop it from spewing other worldly creatures into my office.
Was it stupid to jump in immediately? Sure. But who, with a brain like mine couldn’t resist jumping into an inter-dimensional portal? Also the other guys did it first and their bones didn’t come flying back at me back through the well or anything.
On the other side were floating islands of fire that a poet could much more accurately and beautifully describe. If I had to try I guess, a collective of land masses floating in the air but their undersides were made of fire instead of earth. And if you looked down there was just opposite fire, then earth, then sky. Then sky then earth then fire. I’m not going crazy again, I swear. Everybody else saw it too.
The path took us directly to a building later pointed out to be a “Temple of the Universe.” To enter you have to defeat an angel in one-on-one combat. I like knowledge and all, but I’ve discovered recently I like living more. A lot more. Thornelius & Frichtimen tried, which was entertaining for a while at least. Until she directed us to a well that would take us even deeper into...wherever we are.
It’s just, one can’t exactly just jump into a different portal, see a temple, be denied entry and then go back home…can one? So we jumped again, after I assured Sha it was safe.
My brain doesn’t work in ways that can describe the fantastical strange place we went. It certainly didn’t look real, but it .. felt real? I guess you could say. There was a devil and an angel. The gob sold his soul! Eleonora and I told him it was a terrible deal but he took it anyway. It took us a while to kill that devil when he inevitably turned on him like WE TOLD HIM IT WOULD. But in the end Thornelius has a nice little coin with his soul on it now which honestly, is a pretty useful commodity to be able to place in the palm of your hand (or others, if the price is high enough).
Eleonora convinced us go back so we could go tell h̶e̶r̶ ̶D̶a̶d̶d̶y̶ Jhin what we found. I was kind of hoping she’d be down for a jaunt through some chaos planes with me, but I guess she’s not ready to explore that side of herself yet. Disappointing. And so, at Ele’s behest, back to Jhin.
Yes Jhin. Jhin, who was EXCEEDINGLY CREEPY when we told him about the temple. Jhin, who KNOWINGLY sent us to our likely deaths with his “friend”. Well he probably knew. .. Maybe he knew. Wait, did he know? Well nonetheless, he really wants what’s in that temple and he can’t get it himself. And the look that was on his face when we told him about it, unadulterated lust. Pure ambition. I know that look.
I’m not stupid enough to believe that Jhin is a good guy. That he wants the all the citizens of valley under his rule so he can let them romp and picnic about (that’s what normal people do right?) without excreting his control over them. But it’s the lesser of all evils really, I mean, it’s a natural fact at anybody who has the desire to rule other others that they’re psychotic. Best just to make friends and stand beside them while they rise right?
I just need to make sure I’m not used again. I’ll work for Jhin, I’ll give him the whole fucking valley if he wants it, as long as he doesn’t interrupt my gq̶u̶e̶s̶t̶-̶d̶e̶s̶i̶r̶e̶-̶ ̶ goal. I should probably apologize for running after his boat and calling him an asshole. I guess if there's one person left smarter and more death-resistant than me I should keep them as an ally.
____
Speaking of used I went to the market the other day with the girls. Tied up a string Wren left loose.
Rhea.
Jhin's House, First
After returning to the house and licking our wounds (and by “licking our wounds” I mean burning my original body and pretending it was my sister that really died 15 years ago) before sorting this out with Jhin (and by “sorting this out” I mean asking why he sent us to our certain deaths). It was awkward stoniness as its finest; A Hal specialty.
My original body. .. I was born in a coffin now, not in Northal. I still feel like Rhea Birk, but not the Rhea Birk that grew up in Begolia. Technically I grew up in a wooden box in the span of 120 days. Does that mean I’m finally absolved? That nothing the Rhea did before matters since that crazy bitch is dead? I guess at this level there’s no one here to tell me the rules. Does this mean I get to make them myself?
Let’s say ‘yes’.
The next morning we headed up to –c̶h̶a̶s̶t̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶b̶u̶k̶e̶ question Jhin’s motives in sending us into a situation that resulted in most of us dying..including me. He’s a smart guy. A smart immortal guy! He had to have known what we were walking into right? I mean I knew Lian was an asshole all along, but Jhin used the word ‘friend’. Who makes friends with a piece of shit like that?
Anyway whatever ire we wanted to throw off our shoulders and onto his was shunted right back at us even before we got to the throne room. - along with a goblin and a .. goat guy, a diplomat from Trinum, just like Celrin. Let’s hope goat necks are stronger than elves.
Not exactly being able to ask in front of other people if he knew we were walking into the literal corpse of a dead god along with my ex-mentor who was planning to use me as bait so he could become a demigod we let the topic slide. And then we agreed to house the animal people in the waiting room., because that’s how conversations go with Machiavellian narcissists go.
So now that’s a thing. At the very least with the implications of non-humans in her house Eleonora let me sleep upstairs with her. The gob knows about the generator stuff, which is nice, since I have no interest and it needs maintaining.
____
There is a shadow girl in my room. Well, she was in the kitchen and she was hungry and yes at the opposite end of my better judgement she is now full and safe in my room. By writing it down I should be reminding myself that just because she’s a small girl and all alone doesn’t mean she isn’t capable of some heinous shit and that I shouldn’t be on my guard. S̶h̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶W̶r̶e̶n̶.̶ ̶
Rhea.
Life, Again.
Let’s get one thing straight. This isn’t a journal. I don’t need a catalogue of my sentimental musings so I can use it as an excuse to justify my bad decisions (and leave a paper trial to them.) Wren’s journal, while adorable, is a sentimental work of fiction that she used to enable herself. A rose colored narrative from a girl that died 15 years ago.
To get one thing straight I would still die for that girl. I just wasn't given that as an option. But at least I can go through her journals to try and ̶e̶x̶a̶m̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶ ̶r̶e̶c̶a̶l̶l̶ organize my memories.
This book is a statement of facts, written in my own hand.
A fail-safe that I can trust, from the only one I can trust. Just in case my mind again decides to .. wander .. again.
It felt just like waking up from a deep sleep, just like Lian said it would. I knew who I was immediately, just like every morning. But her memories were there, right along with mine even though I could feel them happening at the same time as my own. Like they’d been there all along.
While trying to describe it the only way I can think of it is Jhin said describing his shadow "it’s like looking at a reflection from really far away."
I know what her thoughts were, and how she felt, but they feel distorted somehow. Like they happened to someone else, only I'm the one remembering it. So it's me, only not. To be honest I always knew I was good but who knew I was capable of long-conning even myself!?
At the very least I had my head on straight enough to know to tell her friends I was her. I didn’t know if I should go with Lian into the Lexicon though. I knew that's why I was there, and what I was there to do- but the demon’s notes that Wren read (I read?) kept swirling around. My head that was too full of memories trying to stitch themselves into a new framework of reality... If I was Wren I would justify going in there by saying my brain was busy. But I'm not Wren, anymore anyway.
I was hoping whatever power that was in there it would be able to bring Wren back, and right before we entered it I found out that the girl I thought she was, was just me. The schemes, the bugs, the stars, smoke in a bookstore, they were all just me.
Of course in retrospect I can say I shouldn’t have agreed to go with him, especially not after I realized he knew about Wren for the entire time he was working with me. What can I say? Maybe a little of her childlike admiration for that sociopath bled into me for a moment after she left. She lived for that man, even when she tried not to, and he didn’t give two shits about her. It's disgusting. Disgusting to think that in a way that was me. Every day, for years, he knew Wren was right there, waiting for her turn. Asshole.
I was glad to see he didn’t make it out alive. I wish I could have watched. At least something good came out of the whole thing.
I really didn't mean for the rest of them to die. But causing death seems to be my unfortunate ̶d̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶y̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶e̶t̶u̶s̶ reality.
Kane, Grizztock and Mylier. It is interesting, the way this is playing out in my head. I feel in myself that she felt strongly for them. I know that her time with Kane meant a lot to her, that he made her laugh. I'm thankful to him for that. But I can’t take their deaths on my shoulders, I already have too many, I’m not her. I don’t do that.
I do feel badly for Eleonora though. Being the only one who survives, that’s harder than being one of the dead. And I know, I’ve been both.
Normally I’d question her sincerity more. She knows the value of gold, and Wren ̶i̶s̶ was, such an easy mark. But watching her drag that coffin all over Riverville, it made the friendship she had with Wren ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶l̶i̶d̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶b̶l̶u̶r̶r̶y̶ more real. I decided leaving her alone is the best way to ingratiate her to me, and to thank her.
The Drowned Widow took us back to Northal. The crew taking the news of their captain with stoic soberness.
Back at Wren’s house I fished out her hidden money and threw it at Eleonora. I don’t know if I was thanking her or trying to make her feel bad, but the indignation on her face made me feel better. It was the same look she used to give Wren.
Rhea.
