Atusaya Rae
Atusaya Rae | |
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Art to come | |
IC Information | |
Full Name: | Atusaya, Rae |
Gender/Sexuality: | Female/Lesbian |
Species: | Anthousa Human (former) |
Place of Origin: | London, ON, Canada |
Age/Birthdate: | 37 (December 22, 1984) |
Zodiac Sign: | Capricorn |
Height: | 5'6" |
Hair Colour: | Blonde |
Eye Colour: | Blue-violet |
Romantic Status: | Married (Ruriko), Involved (Fujiko, Jennifer, Sarai) |
Romantic Identification: | Polyamorous, not looking |
Religion: | Animism |
Residence: | Maison Soeur, Little Sister Island Sakato Vale, Underhill |
Occupation: | Initiate Priestess of Zansho |
Preferences | |
Likes: | Flowers, summer, cats, Zansho, exploration, sunny days, the wind, painting, writing, cooking, water, acceptance, lilies, swimsuits |
Dislikes: | Cold weather, children, clothing, exercise, art critics, feeling like she has to compete with others, her old views |
OOC Information | |
Source: | Original Character |
Atusaya Rae, more commonly known by the proper name Rae and formerly as Rachel Anderson, is a long-time Yuriban resident originally hailing from Canada. A painter by trade, she is reasonably open-minded and polite but somewhat snarky at times, though she tends to be very reclusive and prone to keeping to a small group of friends. As of 2021 she has taken on the permanent form of an anthousa - a flower dryad.
She served on the Town Council for a year and is the original owner of the Yuriba Art Gallery in the village, though as of 2016 she sold all of her holdings in the village proper and withdrew from public life. She's since quietly drifted back towards Yuriban religion as her affinity for the summer season has grown.
Contents |
Psychological data
General personality
Rae came to Yuriba fairly shy and grew into someone quiet but polite over time. Today she's opened up even more and generally comes across as a warm, casual sort who can be outgoing and flirty but otherwise keeps to herself much of the time. Typically she tries to appear warm but level-headed, preferring to sort through her thoughts a little before she speaks but more than happy to be spontaneous when she's around friends and lovers. Her general air of kind, cheerful warmth somewhat conceals that when stressed or pushed, she begins to wear her heart on her sleeves, and though she can hide it much of the time, she's become quite passionate. She has become more comfortable with crowds over time as she's shrugged past some of the remaining vestiges of her youthful shyness. She is typically sociable and tends to tease and flirt with those she likes, though her generally light-hearted discourse with others is marred by her stubbornness and by a broad streak of cynicism that bleeds frequently into her speech. Her sense of humour is somewhat British, heavily weighted towards irony, wit, and snark. More recently she has developed a streak of vanity.
She tends to be somewhat resistant to interpersonal drama and has been accused of being cold and detached when it comes to dealing with strong negative feelings, as she tends to clam up and become curt and abrupt. When dealing with people who approach her with arrogance or a bullying appearance she swings the other way and becomes extremely heated and prone to full-throated denunciations, and it's common to see her call out people who push her, often with profanity involved. She has developed a tendency to answer threats with either scorn or by trying to punch her assailant's lights out. She has a lot more courage than most might expect from someone who is basically a soft-hearted artistic type, and when pushed to the wall she has been known to respond by defending herself even against threats from people she knows could seriously hurt her. When she is hurt she tends to hold it close to her heart for a long time, and though she outwardly functions without excessive angst, she doesn't welcome reminders. Particularly sore for her is the trauma she experienced during the death of her ex-wife, Eimi Kozuka, which continues to haunt her long after it happened.
While not formerly spiritual, Rae underwent a slow spiritual awakening in the years following Eimi's death, overcoming an atheistic streak and a skepticism towards Yuriban animism borne of hurt feelings from the Doom Trio crisis. As of 2021, however, she has come to accept herself as part of the island and has become spiritually enmeshed with it, to the point that she's effectively become bound to the island in the form her anthousa blessing initially gave her. She's closely associated with Zansho and spends much of her time tending to both cats and summer flowers, and she's begun to find a place for herself within Underhill, a transition which has come with abandoning her human surname in favour of the use surname "Atusaya." She maintained her original name as her primary use name to avoid confusion in day-to-day conversation.
Appropriate for a creature of summer, Rae is extremely fond of cats; her constant companion is a lazy ragdoll cat by the name of Cleo, though she's since been joined by two more cats by the name of Tammy and Tilly. She enjoys water, beaches, and quiet, peaceful surroundings that are incidentally scenic and worthy of painting. Her social setting of choice involves a cup of tea or hot chocolate and a quiet chat, though she has been known to seek excitement and adventure every once in awhile. She tends to be unfond of surprises and is quite easily startled. While formerly possessed of an exhaustive selection of swimwear and fluffy sweaters, these days she goes about nude save for flowers in her hair.
Species note
While Rae was born human in Canada, as of 2021 she is no longer human. She briefly carried the blessing of an anthousa-human, but whatever process she went through in late 2021 caused her to spiritually and physically bond herself to Yuriba. As a consequence, her anthousa form is no longer a blessing, but her inherent and permanent state of existence - that is, she cannot be turned back into a human by any means, barring taking an unmodified human blessing via spring water. As a result of this transformation, she is no longer physically able to leave Yuriba and is essentially part of the island's spiritual totality.
This change appears to have brought with it a significantly extended lifespan and a substantially slowed physical aging process - Rae of the 2020s appears no older than her 20s despite pushing 40.
Romantic preferences
After seven years in a monogamous relationship, Rae saw her romantic values change significantly, beginning in late 2011 and shifting rapidly from there. Historically she had been monogamous but has now embraced polyamory wholeheartedly. For the most part she is a light-hearted lover who values an active and mentally challenging partner, though she's begun to open up to more casual relationships and is prone to occasionally having sex with friends and the occasional acquaintance just for the sake of having fun or knowing what it's like. At times she can be very frisky. When she does meet someone she finds especially interesting or cute, she'll go out of her way to get to know them and cultivate a relationship. She's not above having friendships almost solely based on sex. She's also developed a tendency to show off, partly for the sake of teasing other women, partly because she just plain enjoys it.
Beyond the physical, Rae is much more selective about whom she places her trust in emotionally. It tends to take her some time to fall in love, and she's somewhat wary of whom she falls for, often taking her time to use the word or reminding herself that she must temper her feelings and see if they last. She values honesty in relationships and will not commit to anyone she perceives as dishonest, unfaithful, or in it just for the chance to say they conquered a village notable.
She tends to be put off by women who come on too strong or assume her light teasing is more than what it is. She also tends not to jump into bed with girls she's just met, save on extremely rare occasions involving undeniable chemistry.
Since returning to the island, Rae has expressed little interest in pursuing new relationships and has resolved not to renew some old ones, feeling she overloaded herself with sex flings in the years after Eimi's death as a means of compensating for the loss of someone who genuinely cared about her. At some level she pines for a way to reconcile the feelings of acceptance she associates with having lovers with the feelings of security she got with monogamy, in general feeling that she needs to find "someone who will always be there for me." This has coincided with a general abatement of the more active elements of her sex drive, which she credits to "getting old."
Hobbies, skills, and employment
As of late 2021, Rae has taken on the role of an initiate priestess of Zansho, the Yuriban goddess of summer. In practice this hasn't involved a lot of work, though she spends time these days tending a votive circle dedicated to the goddess, along with such important tasks as tending to summer flowers, herding cats and otherwise learning more about what's expected of her.
Rae is an extremely talented painter. She is naturally gifted with the ability to form a picture in her mind and transfer it to canvas with startling accuracy and realism. Though she has occasionally done portraits for friends, she has recently ventured into more surrealist and postmodern forms of art and has considered selling several of her works. She is, furthermore, a skilled writer and owns several journals full of poetry and short stories. Rae is a good cook, particularly when it comes to casual Western-style food, though her repertoire has expanded since 2021 to include a selection of subcultural native Yuriban dishes.
Rae is former owner of the Yuriba Art Gallery and had most of her works on display there. She also formerly owned the exotic dance lounge called The Labrys and could occasionally be spotted dancing there. However, Rae abruptly closed her business in early 2016.
- There's also an app for that.
Relations
Pre-Yuriba
- Miyako Tanaka: Rae's relationship with Miyako has endured since the two met at St. Agnes Academy for Girls in Japan, a Catholic boarding school practically torn straight from Maria-sama Ga Miteru. She was a year behind Miyako and ultimately became her Petite Soeur. To this day she considers the other girl to be her older sister, often referring to her as "onee-sama." They move in different circles these days. Though Rae continues to put Miyako up on something of a pedestal and defers to her in some matters, trying to look out for her when she can, the rift between them has become vast over the years, much to Rae's frustration, and she's no longer sure if she can call Miyako her sister.
- Yui Tanegashima: She doesn't come up often in conversation, but Yui is Rae's petite soeur. During her time in Catholic school in Japan, Rae passed her rosary onto Yui after the younger girl made a show of not pursuing her while actually pursuing her. Despite Rae being an introverted gaijin and Yui being a cool, somewhat haughty ojou type, the two shared and still share an inverted relationship in which Rae tends to drive the bus and Yui tends to let down her guard and reveal deep, painful insecurities stemming from this or that family trauma. To this day the two remain close and maintain a soeur relationship much like that between Rae and Miyako, and Rae regularly writes letters and missives to Yui, who writes back between her work as a history teacher.
- Cailyn Kwan: A schoolmate of Rae's from Canada, Cailyn was one of Rae's two best friends growing up. The two were nigh-inseparable in their early years, and after Rae returned from Japan, the two roomed together in Toronto. They've remained fast friends since then, with Cailyn eventually following Rae to Yuriba, then coming back a second time to tend bar at Anderson's business, the Labrys club.
- Robin Tyler: Rae's other best friend from Canada, she's the third member of the Rachel-Robin-Cailyn trifecta and the only one not to make it to Yuriba, largely because she's bisexual with a male preference. Of the three she's probably the most stable and worldly, and she helped Rae through a few early confidence issues. The two remain in regular contact thanks to the marvels of pocketspace-mail.
Family and partners
- Ruriko: Rae began to get to know Ruriko sometime after she lost her li'l-fox blessing and re-emerged as an adult. She found a certain charm in the kitsune's teasing nature and occasional fit of charming awkwardness. There's a certain energetic side to their relationship, but Rae tends to treasure Ruriko's sporadic visits because she seldom knows what to expect and likes being able to talk to someone she sees as a little mysterious. Ruriko's greeting her enthusiastically when she returned seems to have solidified her feelings for the li'l fox, and she's opened her home to her gladly - and of course, married her and started a family with her. If Rae can be said to have a hierarchy of relationships, Ruriko sits at the centre of it; she's the person Rae sees as closer to her than anyone else.
- Amy and Sera: Rae's daughters with Ruriko.
- Jennifer Braddock: It may amaze you, but Rae has a bit of a thing for fit tan girls, and Jennifer fits the bill. This is one of those relationships that started out for Rae as an "ooh, shiny" thing, but she's grown fond of this woman since their first meeting and asked her in 2015 to join her circle of girlfriends. She likes that Jennifer is uncomplicated, straightforward and in some ways very different from the other women in her life.
- Fujiko Tanaka: She's no relation to Miyako. Rae grew to know the redheaded librarian over the course of 2010 and felt instant chemistry with her. Since then, the two have come to share a close relationship, particularly so after Rae embraced polyamory. For the first little while she considered their association to fall into an ambiguous space that's a little beyond friendship but not quite romance. This escalated into full-out love in subsequent years. Since Fujiko's pregnancy, however, she's resigned herself to the fact that there are parts of Fujiko's life beyond her ability to take part in. She kept her distance for a little while when she returned to the island, but her chemistry with the redhead ultimately remains strong, and she considers herself especially fond of Fujiko.
- Sarai: A friend who came into Rae's graces as a potential dancer at the Labrys, Rae reunited with her when she returned in 2016, then again in 2017, sparking up a flirty friendship. She finds that she and Sarai feed each other's interests rather potently, leaving them with no shortage of things to talk about. She's grown increasingly fond of the catgirl has time has gone by and considers her someone she's taken into her confidence, thinking of her now as something rather more than a friend. While she's happy to share what love she has with Sarai and will go as far as to admit her love for her, she finds herself painfully aware that there are things she'll never be able to do for the catgirl.
Others
- breisleach: Though Rae knew breis somewhat practically since her early years in Yuriba, the more distant relationship between them seemed to change in late 2013, when the two began going on little dates. Rae sought to piece together a closer relationship with the kitsune based on mutual teasing. The end result is that Rae has shifted away from being mystified by breis and now considers her someone she's fairly close with, often picking up casual dates with the kitsune. She considers breis, if not a girlfriend, then someone she holds a certain kind of affection for.
- Haley White: Rae's affection for this woman took off fairly quickly, with the two finding a rapid, sparky chemistry and establishing a somewhat sexually charged friendship. She considers Haley among the ranks of her "friends with benefits" and takes a certain joy in what time she does get to share with the blonde. It's not just a physical thing, though: Rae thinks of Haley as someone she can confide in, to an extent. All in all their relationship is one she values greatly. Their relationship jumped to another level not long after Rae returned to the island, and she thinks of Haley now as someone she can safely say she loves.
- Sera: This young woman reminds Rae a lot of herself ten years ago. Rae sees someone in Sera who shares a lot of her interests (and pathologies) while also being a fairly mild-mannered and pleasant person who she can talk to casually without feeling like she's under pressure to perform sexually in some way. She likes Sera enough that she considers her to be one of her closer new friends, to the point of considering her as a potential housemate or neighbour.
- Pamela Isley: While Rae and Pamela were not historically close, Rae found herself more willing to open up to the redhead following Pam's return to the island. Her own affinity for flowers and plants at the time led her to realize she had a new affinity for Ms. Ivy. While the two are off on a new footing at this point, Rae is beginning to realize she likes Pam quite a bit.
- Ciara O'Neill: Ciara snapped up Rae's affections quickly during the brief break she took from Eimi some years ago. The two started off on a very physical footing but have since become just friends, bonding on a mutual interest in art. At times Rae despairs of keeping Ciara's hands off her, but for the most part the two have become good friends with common likes and dislikes, and Rae looks at her with the fondness of a former romantic interest turned friend. She sees Ciara as someone she can talk to about her pastimes without feeling like she's talking to a brick wall.
- Necahual: Though Rae tends to be flirtatious with the buxom couatl, her relationship with Necahual has remained at the level of friendship, though coloured by a touch of physical attraction on the painter's part. Rae's interest in the contents of Neca's pants is a thing, but it's also not the only thing, and she likes the couatl simply because she's warm-hearted, nice to talk to and surprisingly down-to-earth for someone with rainbow feathers. Rae invited Neca to room with her in late 2017.
- Minara: Not that Rae actually knows this young woman's surname, but she wiggled her way into Rae's affections with surprising haste - but then, playful women with little shame tend to do that. Rae's relationship with this woman is a fairly playful one, and in some ways she despairs of keeping Minara's hands off her, but she likes the woman nevertheless, to the point of inducting her into her circle of closer friends and even inviting her to live on her island.
- Five: At first Rae wasn't sure what to think about this mysterious young kitsune. However, Five's coming of age seems to have sparked a new interest in the fox's part, and Rae's found no reason to push her away - in fact she's begun to find more to like about Five than she initially thought. She's re-evaluated her old first impressions of the younger woman and come to accept her as a friend and occasional partner in flirtation, and she holds a strong curiosity towards her, sensing some deeper-than-usual qualities to her and wondering what might come of her trying to explore them. Some days she still wants to shake the silly out of her, though.
- Leona McAllistre: After years of stepping lightly around this woman and looking down her nose at what went on in her bar, Rae began to see Leona differently in 2013. They crossed paths casually a few times but after becoming a regular at Naked Sunday, Rae found she had a lot more in common with the bar owner than she thought. Though not quite as aggressive as the other woman, Rae seems to have shed a lot of her earlier preconceptions about Leona and has become comfortable openly flirting and bantering with her. While their friendship is somewhat surface, Rae's found she genuinely likes the redhead.
- Gwendolyn: A relatively unlikely friendship, Rae and Gwendolyn bonded over a few mutual interests and a few mutual acquaintances. While Rae sees the younger woman less frequently than she'd like, she's come to think of "Slendergwen" as a fun person to hang around with, one who isn't shy about challenging her a little. It's not a bad feeling.
- Camille Alexandre: Rae hit it off with the tattoo parlour owner relatively quickly upon Camille's arrival to the island. The two rapidly put together the pieces of a sparky friendship, often teasing each other over their contrasting skin complexions and calling one another "chocolate" and "vanilla." Around Christmas 2013 things had gone far enough that when Camille asked to become Rae's girlfriend, Rae was more than happy to accept. The woman's subsequent disappearance, though, left her smarting a little.
- Nym: Rae is pretty sure she could keep this fairy happy simply by letting her spend half of each day sleeping in her cleavage.
- Kezzy: Ah, Keziah. Rae finds this young woman to be a ray of welcome sunshine and friendship in what is otherwise a fairly quiet period on the island, and has opened her home to her with little trepidation.
- Jaye: "Jayebae." Rae loves nothing more than to tease and flirt with the redhead, though at heart she insists she doesn't view Jaye simply as a conquest. She considers her a fun companion and someone she shares a surprising amount with in terms of the lives they lived before Yuriba.
- Talmara: A relatively new relationship, Rae began to chat with this girl not long after she returned to the island in 2016, discovering a commonality with her over their mutual interest in art.
- Lily: Rae affectionately refers to this young girl as "Silly Lily" or "Nyancat" and to herself as "the official co-owner of the cat" or "the chair of the Official Silly Lily Committee," while also making extensive reference to a "cute cat." Playing off Lily's tendency towards half-heartedly pouting and teasing, Rae has built something of a friendship with her, mostly grounded on her own amusement in teasing and prodding the catgirl, but also rolling in the element of Rae considering her fun to spend time with. She quite openly gets a kick out of playfully tormenting Lily and considers it a form of flirting.
- Molly Harlan: In some ways Molly reminds Rae of her friend Cailyn. She likes her because she manages to strike a weird balance between gung-ho enthusiasm, awkward nerdiness and a sensual side without it seeming overly strange. Molly's someone Rae feels she can just hang out and shoot the shit with, though the dancer's sporadic visits have kept their relationship from progressing much further.
- Silver: Another friend Rae made through her growing association with Leona's, Rae has found she doesn't mind flirting back and forth with the catgirl, counting her as fun company. She also considers her something of a student, having taught her to pole dance after Silver won a set of lessons at the 2014 silent auction. When Rae returned in 2016, she met news of Silver's departure with great sadness.
- Briona: Rae has dubbed this girl "Mini-Me" because of Briona's strong resemblance to the Rae of ten years ago. The physical similiarities - mostly short brown hair, freckles and face structure - drew Rae in simply out of novelty, but she's come to strike up a friendship with the younger girl. She doesn't quite find herself slipping into the sisterly role she may have with others but she feels like she has to set a decent example for her in some ways, even if it's the kind of decent example where they both end up naked in the bar and chatting glowingly about their mutual lack of shame. With Briona seemingly having vanished from the island, Rae finds herself more than a little sad in her absence.
- Amberlee Moonwind: The frisky elf made a few passes at Rae during a calendar shoot, and Rae eventually took her up on it. She sees Amber as a friend and someone she can chat and exchange playful jibes with now and then, but beyond that she's more or less given the elf the okay to let her more playful side out now and then. It's produced a sparky friendship of a type Rae doesn't have a lot of.
- Atara: Rae would describe her relationship with the tall dragoness as "just plain friends," though there's a certain latent attraction on Rae's part that surfaces sometimes. The two converse now and then, often at the Labrys, and Rae has found she enjoys her down-to-earth conversations with Atara. Her approach to the woman is based on a simple but profound respect for who Atara is and what she's all about, and while to date she hasn't tried to push it further than that, there's a genuine appreciation there on the painter's side.
- Donna Barrows: Though she doesn't cross Donna's path often, Rae founds she's hit it off well with this woman, finding something of a kindred spirit in her. She's found she enjoys going back and forth with her and considers her a new friend with a ton of promise.
- Aerin: This woman stumbled upon Rae while she was sunbathing, threw a few lines at her that fell flat, then redeemed herself and sparked something off. There's no denying Rae's attraction to the talkative fox - it's another one of those sparky friendships she's been accumulating more of these days - but she also finds herself conflicted by both the kitsune's effusiveness in seemingly taking a "fuckbuddies" relationship extremely seriously, and by the more esoteric problems Aerin wrestles with on the side.
- Teagan Richards: The relationship between Rae and Teagan is basically platonic and strikes a balance between friends who get along well and workmates who mesh well. Rae employs Teagan to do principal photography for the Yuriba Swimsuit Calendars and the new line of pinups and otherwise does all she can to patronize the woman's artistic talents. Outside of that the two tend to chat and laugh casually, particularly about hockey and food. Only once has their relationship crossed the line of professionalism, and the two don't really talk much about it - especially since Teagan's dating Rae's sister and it's even more awkward as a result.
- Phoebe Soulspark: Rae has taken on Camille's tendency to refer to this woman as "Peebs." Though only beginning to get to know her, Rae has found she likes the phoenix-woman at least on a surface level, and her relationship with Camille adds to her intention to understand her better.
- Rynelizha: Rae hit it off with this woman fairly quickly and found herself enticed enough by her that she had few qualms about lowering some of her barriers with her. She finds the drow woman endearing and couldn't be more pleased that she's apparently the object of her fancy, and it's produced another of those sparky friendships based on chemistry she's begun to cultivate more and more of.
- Mika Tetsuyama: A more recent friendship, Rae has taken a curious liking to the short, spunky girl. Though their paths don't cross often, Rae finds something refreshing about the kind of no-strings-attached, mostly-surface friendship she has with the girl, and she tends to lower some of her barriers around her simply because she gets the impression Mika won't judge her if she does.
- Kinuko: At first Rae was drawn to this shy, excited girl because Kinuko reminded her of herself when she first arrived in Yuriba. Despite taking on the shrine maiden as a petite soeur, though, the two spent about a year on the outs over a dispute over the Yuriba swimsuit calendar. The shrine maiden eventually returned to Rae's life, more grown up and with an aggressively amorous bent. While Rae was quite fond of Kinuko, she struggled to reconcile her feelings of sisterly affection with the girl's keen interest in the contents of her pants. The dilemma slipped off Rae's plate entirely when Kinuko departed the island in mid-2014.
- Ielle Ansimas: Rae's relationship with Ielle is somewhat dynamic and swings between extremes. On the one hand, she enjoys casual chats with the girl and even finds her halfway dateable and pleasant, with some potential to be fun. The rest of the time she's horribly frustrated with Ielle's insistence she can't choose anything for herself. Rae often finds herself flying into rants at Ielle as she tries to convince the woman it's okay to be herself and not someone else's thing, but more and more she's grown frustrated with the girl and has become wary of her.
- Lashaera: This woman is among those Rae began to run across when she started expanding her social sphere in 2012 and 2013. She finds something a little captivating about the woman's sultry mannerisms and curious style, though her bold advances tend to leave her slightly uncomfortable and trying to find a polite way to slow her down. She's definitely interested in Lashaera but isn't sure if the woman's attraction is genuine or simply because she's a "curvy little human girl."
- Maya Lancaster: For a time Rae and Maya referred to each other as "the Boobsy Twins" - a nod both to their physical gifts and their closeness. Rae considered Maya a close confidant during her marriage and for quite some time considered her her best friend. The two bonded over hockey, with Rae giving Maya the elbows over her fondness for the Pittsburgh Penguins, among other common interests, sharing an entirely non-sexual friendship with a bit of light flirtation but no actual serious intent. Their relationship fizzled around 2011 and 2012, when Maya ceased visiting Yuriba, much to Rae's consternation.
- Danielle Luena: The tall girl from Hawaii popped up on Rae's radar during an amateur night at the Labrys, where she turned heads by taking a shot at dancing. From there Rae made an effort to get to know her, discovering an instant chemistry. Rae came to think of her as a friend and erstwhile housemate, enjoying a brief period of closeness with her before the woman fell off the island's radar.
- Rylia Wayas: How Rae views Rylia has fluctuated wildly over the years. At first she found a certain chemistry with Ms. Wayas, and the two were briefly close before Rae became involved with Eimi. Through the early years of her marriage Rae maintained a strong affection for Rylia. However, they gradually fell out of contact. Though Rae considers Rylia an old friend, at this point the distance between them has led that friendship to effectively peter out entirely.
- Nagisa Vendaris: Rae shares an unusual relationship with the Sentry, characterized by a conflict between her desire to be cordial and her shame regarding certain incidents in their mutual past. She tends to avoid contact with the angelgirl and, for a long time, considerered her one of the few people she truly disliked. Accordingly she hasn't spoken to her for at least five years and doesn't plan to start anytime soon. Her antipathy towards Ms. Vendaris has waned over the years but she still keeps her distance, mostly out of respect. At this point, Rae has left her dislike for Nagisa behind and considers it water under the bridge.
- Nemesis: There are few people Rae actively dislikes, and Nemesis is one of them. To date Anderson's every encounter with this woman has been hostile or ended in either a fight or ejection from one of Rae's properties. She finds the woman inordinately cruel and a bully, and she believes Nemesis is actively out to make her life miserable in some form.
- Alyssn: Rae isn't sure what to make of the extremely aggressive demoness, who asserts that she wants to marry her. While part of her wants to be polite and befriend Alyssn, she's also troubled by her highly sexualized, forward approaches, finding herself torn between an impulse to be nice, an urge to tease the demoness and a feeling of discomfort at being objectified.
- Mikazuki: This is a particularly odd relationship because Rae has only met Mikazuki once but couldn't forget her if she tried, because she knows Mikazuki is one of the women who turned Eimi to the worship of Inishie, leading to her death. Shortly after the Doom Trio fiasco she made a point of forgiving Mikazuki for her actions and trying to extend an olive branch. In her heart, though, part of her still isn't fully over it.
- Shipon: Anderson's first squeeze in Yuriba. Today she expresses a great deal of shame at diving immediately into a sexual relationship, but otherwise views Shippy as a generally good-hearted person who keeps to herself a lot.
- Mai: Anderson's second squeeze in Yuriba. Unlike with Shipon, Rae is actually ashamed of Mai personally and continues to hold a grudge against her to this day, partly because she did not take kindly to the woman betraying her and partly because she holds herself in contempt for falling into Mai's arms in the first place.
- Lisa Moonbeam: At one point Rae considered Lisa her only real enemy. The girl earned Rae's ire by incessantly dogging her for a spot in the annual swimsuit calendar, before a misunderstanding involving one of Rae's friends immediately soured the painter. These days Rae wants to be a little more conciliatory, but Lisa isn't exactly her favourite person in the world. While she isn't overtly hostile to Lisa anymore after returning to Yuriba with no desire to pick a fight, she's fairly sure there's too much bad blood for any sort of relationship to work.
- Eimi Kozuka: The two met when Rae happened to be manning a kissing booth and Eimi happened by, spending a handful of lilies for a smooch. Dating gave way to an enduring relationship between the two. It started slowly, but in the aftermath of a brief break-up the two became nigh-inseparable. They were married in 2010. The marriage grew more strained, though, as Rae shed a lot of her residual shyness and slipped towards a more polyamorous mindset, and ultimately the two broke it off at the dawn of 2012. Thereafter, a bitter Eimi turned to Inishie, but ultimately sacrificed herself to save Yuriba after a tearful Rae pleaded with her to come back to her senses. Over the years she's come to view her marriage with mixed emotions, lamenting the difficult times but also finding herself missing Eimi's loyalty - and finding herself regretting spurning it. Even years after Eimi's death, Rae continues to hate herself for walking away from the woman the way she did, and she continues to blame herself for Eimi's death, to the point that she regularly experiences nightmares about it.
She also counts Abryn, Anna, Bernice, Claire, Ishatha Karambolos, Kaede, Kassy Talalupe, Madeline Lane, Madoka, Makoto, Merin, Neiko, Ran, Rho Grey, Riley, Rinne and Siduri among her friends. For a time she took on Meissa as a housemate. Her relationship with Shego is also known to be somewhat rocky.
Rae's Pets
Rae is a known cat person and, since 2017, lives with multiple cats and one guard dog. Rae tends to name her cats after historical female queens regnant.
- Cleo: Rae's oldest pet, having been with Rae since at least 2006. Cleo, named for not for the famous Cleopatra but for Cleopatra Selene I of Syria, is a large, incredibly fluffy blue-pointed ragdoll cat with the disposition of an indolent little queen. She spends all of her time in Rae's house, mostly dozing on the furniture or expectantly looking at her guests as though they should know full well that they absolutely must pet her, because she's the centre of the universe. As of 2024 Cleo is not only still alive but in apparent good health, seemingly intent on living forever - or at least for an extended period in line with Rae's own expanded lifespan.
- Tammy: Tammy, short for Tamar and named for a medieval Queen of Georgia, joined Rae's household in late 2017 at the age of two. She's a large, fluffy Maine coon with a patched mackerel tabby coat. While tending towards being vocal and chirpy, she's a well-behaved and dignified cat and tends to be more active than Cleo, prone to approaching Rae's guests curiously, pestering Cleo and Boomer, and sitting on the deck and watching the ocean while chattering at the birds. She's not a natural lap cat but she can fake it.
- Boomer: Rae's giant Rottweiler, who came to her through her brother. Boomer is an exceptionally well-trained dog for such a powerful breed, with a placid and loyal nature but well-honed guard-dog instincts. At home, Boomer tends to be a little aloof and prone to avoiding the cats and not being overly cuddly. But she also serves as Rae's guard dog and can sometimes be found roaming the beaches. She has a keen sense of who makes her mom uncomfortable and tends to be unfriendly to those Rae dislikes.
- Mei: A young rabbit cared for by Rae's daughters, picked up in 2020.
History
Canada and Japan
Born in the city of London, Ontario, Rachel Anne Anderson was born the daughter of George Curtis Anderson and Susan Maria Bijeux - she is by blood half Scottish, a quarter French-Canadian, and a quarter Swiss but considers herself a native Canadian. Early on her parents considered her slow to develop, but she proved them wrong. Though she didn't start walking or talking until late in her infancy, when she did she did both with great fluency for a baby. In 1987 her younger brother Alex was born, and it was hate at first sight, as these things go. Rae grew up constantly annoyed by her kid brother's behaviour, but the two really do love each other, going to great pains to hide it behind a lot of fighting. From a young age little Rae-Anne was fascinated with colours and drawing, often holing up with a colouring book and a box of crayons to scribble diligently away. As she grew she took art classes at a local community center and developed her abilities that much more.
Despite her incredible smarts and her skill at arts Rae was something of a social outcast, often teased by other girls because of her chronic stutter. She took to sitting under trees by herself and losing herself in books, developing a shyness that haunted her for much of her life. While she seldom approached people, she did stay out of trouble, making it through most of grade school without difficulty save an incident in seventh grade in which she flipped out, lashed out at her tormentors with her math textbook, and was promptly beaten up four on one. She chipped one of her front teeth in the incident; it has since been capped. Other than that her school life was uneventful until she was sent to high school... in Japan. Her father's job forced the family to move to the Orient, and Rae was enrolled in the St. Agnes Academy for girls. While she resented the place she did ace all of her classes. She takes particular pride in how expertly she lied her way through religion class despite being an avowed agnostic. Here she met Miyako Tanaka, who took her on as a petite soeur. She developed a crush on fellow student Eiko Kusanagi, who helped her to accept her budding homosexuality and shared her first sexual experience with her. She is somewhat ashamed of that relationship nowadays. Eventually Rae graduated from St. Agnes, and her family returned to Canada, this time to Toronto.
For a time Rae enrolled at the University of Toronto, her high grades at a prestigious foreign school practically guaranteeing her admittance. She entered the university as a student of visual arts and scored excellent grades in her first semester; however, her marks began to peter off towards exam period, falling slowly towards the Bs. This was mainly because Rae had grown disillusioned with school, knowing that artistic talent couldn't be taught. While she enrolled for a second semester, she ultimately dropped all her classes before the cutoff date and retreated into her basement to work independently. She shared a number of close friendships during this period and has on occasion spoken of them.
She soon grew tired of her family pressuring her to re-enroll in school, finally packing her suitcases, wishing everyone farewell, and leaving Toronto, eventually ending up in Yuriba by sheer happenstance. She claims to have whistled for a cab, and when it came near, the license plate said 'YURIBA' and it had kitsune tails in the mirror; in reality she arrived after departing a hotel in Ottawa and passing through a dimensional membrane without realizing it.
Yuriba
Rae arrived in Yuriba shortly before midnight on July 5, 2004. After floundering for awhile she met Shipon and promptly developed a crush on her. In true naive-idiot fashion she mistook her fleeting infatuation for true love and developed a relationship with the girl, spending most of her time in her tent. The two broke up sometime later. During this period Rae developed a crush on Nagisa Vendaris which lead to extended tension between the two. Following her breakup with Shipon Rae developed a relationship with Mai, again foolishly "falling in love" with someone she scarcely knew. Their relationship was dissolved tearfully after Mai returned from a two-month absence only to declare her love for another girl. With no trace of sympathy, Rae ended the relationship abruptly.
She remained single for around a year and a half afterwards, her attitude towards love and the island in general hardened by her experiences. She was determined not to repeat her foolish mistakes. During this time Rae's friendship with Nagisa ended following an attack on Rae's person by the angel and Nagisa's revelation of her role in the Church of Hentai. She and Rylia began to grow quite close, and she found herself in the company of such notables as Xellos, breisleach, and Merin more frequently.
Eventually she became extremely reclusive, moving in with her surrogate sister Miyako and her friend Shay. She maintained friendship with Shipon and stayed in contact with Rylia following the vampiress' departure. Eventually she expressed a desire to reimmerse herself into the social sphere of Yuriba, beginning by making up with Nagisa in the spirit of restarting their friendship on less amorous footing. Her spirit of goodwill lasted only a short time, however, as after a brief conversation with Nagisa she began to avoid the angel again. Most of her time was spent indoors, where her time with Miyako and a number of self-help books allowed her to mature and get past many of her social handicaps.
Soon she became romantically involved with Eimi Kozuka, finding that she shared much in common with the girl. She moved out of Miyako's house, accidentally wrecking her friend's living room while moving her belongings through. Her new residence started life as a simple one-bedroom affair attached to the Yuriba Art Gallery. Though she remained fairly reclusive she could often be seen following Eimi on hikes up the slopes of Inishie-san, though she was wise enough to never go alone, as Eimi's protection from the volcano appears to extend to Rae only when the two are together.
During October of 2006 she began to experience odd dreams, leading her to find the Yuanquannyanniichuan and bathe in its waters. Her stint in blessed form was very brief, however, as she rapidly relieved herself of the spring's magic and returned to being a regular human. Around this time she took on a cat named Cleo as her companion. Later she and Eimi parted ways, albeit amicably, remaining very intimate friends. Indeed, following Eimi's injury and cursing atop Inishie-san Rae held a vigil by her former lover's bedside and remained with her a great deal during her recovery. Around this time she accepted the star elemental Meissa as her housemate.
Through March and into April Rae befriended fellow artist Ciara, and for a time the two shared a fling. This came to an end when Rae renewed her relationship with Eimi, the two women having realized they still loved each other in light of their closeness following Eimi's injury. The two began living together, growing ever closer, until finally Rae presented Eimi with a commitment ring, and the two dedicated themselves to each other even more intimately.
In late 2007 she stepped down from her position on the Town Council, finding the duties overly stressful, though she occasionally appeared at the Rinkei Gakuen as a guest instructor. During the first half of 2008 she set to work designing a new business, enlisting the aid of a pair of oreads from Underhill in drafting a floor plan. Construction of the project began in December of 2008 under the direction of Rae herself and project forewoman Soled, whom she entrusted with the practical side of the construction.
Her first project of the new year, the 2009 Yuriba Swimsuit Calendar, went on sale at the Art Gallery on January 12. She both posed in and published the calendars. Four months later, the Sun Lily Suites opened to the west of the Tiger Lily Clearing on Tiger Lily Road. A second calendar was released in January 2010, shot by Teagan Richards, with a third planned in 2011.
As of October 6, 2009, Rae and Eimi formalized their relationship with an engagement. They were married by breisleach on January 23, 2010 in a small ceremony at the Crimson Rose and Sword. After a relatively long honeymoon the pair returned to the island, where Rae has immersed herself in running her businesses and trying to jump-start her idle muse. She spent most of 2010 stewing over new business plans and finalizing the 2011 swimsuit calendar, settling into the quiet bliss of marital life with her new spouse.
2011 proved eventful for her relatively early on, as she was subjected to a massive psionic attack while accompanying Eimi up Inishie-san on an academic hike. Though she suffered no long-term damage from the affair, she was shaken enough that she kept indoors for awhile. Nevertheless it was with some reluctance that she accepted a rather desperate measure Eimi proposed to help her protect herself. She's since been able to carry herself with a bit more self-assurance but has had to adjust to not being the relatively normal woman she used to be. Shortly thereafter she rolled up her sleeves and began to finalize a few long-held business plans, putting to use a plot of land behind the Art Gallery. The efforts bore fruit in the form of The Labrys, an exclusive bar and the first business on the newly-accessible Day Lily Lane.
As the summer wound down, Anderson and Kozuka took a few striking steps to freshen up their marriage, first inviting Blue into their circle as a friend with benefits, then resolving to give polyamory a try. Her autumn saw her deepen her associations with Fujiko Tanaka and the kitsune Ruriko, drawing both into her circle of closest confidantes.
She began 2012, though, by breaking off with her relationship with Eimi and slip back into single life for the first time in years. She began to grow closer to Fujiko and Blue, cultivating a deeper relationship with the former, though neither seemed to want to call it outright romance.
The Doom Trio
- Main article: Eruption of 2012
With Inishie-san seemingly set to erupt again in 2012, Anderson kept to her home and the Art Gallery for the most part, her quiet times with friends being routinely interrupted by quakes and tremors. As the situation worsened she began to clean her artwork out of the Gallery in the hopes of saving it if the volcano did erupt.
Ultimately, though, with the volcano set to detonate, a vengeful Eimi showed up at the gallery door, having lapsed to Inishie's side as her Sentry. As Eimi began setting off a volcano under the gallery, Rae tearfully tried to reason with her. After several minutes of weeping and pleading, she eventually hit a chord, and the injured Eimi allowed herself to die in front of Rae, curtailing the eruption and saving the island.
The incident left Rae emotionally broken, and she spent the next several days locked in her home crying, with Cleo standing guard over Eimi's body on behalf of breisleach. Though she received a Rose Quartz Commendation from Town Council for her efforts, she tearfully buried it at the bottom of a drawer and refuses to look at it.
Life after Eimi
Anderson closed out the Eimi chapter of her life when she stood by with breisleach at Eimi's funeral pyre, the vulcanologist having decided not to return as a Guardian and instead go on to be reincarnated. The decision left Rae deeply wounded, and she retreated for a time, closing off the more intimate parts of herself for about a month while she tried to adjust to the hole in her heart.
Slowly, she began to pull her way back into Yuriba's social life. She capped off her reappearance by hosting a large amateur night at the Labrys, where she met Danielle Luena, who'd eventually become her housemate. The months that followed saw her begin to build up that relationship while strengthening her ties to Fujiko.
Tension did erupt in her life around Hallowe'en of 2012, when she had a run-in with Nemesis, who stole her glasses and made a stink about giving them back. Rae promptly threw a punch at her but the fight was broken up. Shortly thereafter Nemesis came to Rae's door explaining herself, but the encounter did not go well and ended with Rae hitting her visitor in the stomach with a hockey stick and ordering her off her property.
In 2013, she began making tentative plans to publish a line of pin-ups starring local people, mainly as a means to compete with Kaleaithne and her trading card franchise. The Yuriba Pinup Series debuted that year. For the most part she spent her time holding court with Fujiko and friends, though the years also marked the beginning of her shift away from the last of her old clique mentality and into the social scene at Leona's Bar and Girl. Gradually becoming a regular at the bar's Naked Sunday events, she cultivated friendships with Leona and other bar notables and built on her friendship with breisleach, whom she'd known in passing for years but only recently found any kind of chemistry with.
Even as she got to know the fox better, she crossed paths with Camille Alexandre, who ended 2013 by asking Rae to be her girlfriend. She agreed.
Rae experienced a few personal upheavals in 2014. The foremost was the realization that she had grown significantly apart from Miyako, with the two now moving in completely different circles. The second came when Kinuko, who had spent more than a year disavowing Rae's existence, suddenly re-entered her life, older and more aggressively amorous and bent on getting into her so-called onee-sama's pants. Rae found herself swept along out of sheer surprise at the change in the formerly shy shrine maiden's attitude, but it didn't last before Kinuko inexplicably vanished from Yuriba again as spring turned to summer.
As 2014 chugged into 2015, Rae found herself more or less content with the status quo, falling into a routine of seeing Fujiko and Ruriko while easing off breisleach a little while the woman bore Abryn's child. The year also saw her try to extend warmer relations to Allya, one of Fujiko's other partners, though she found herself struggling a bit by year's end to actually figure out how the strange woman operated. Along the way she added Jennifer Braddock to her group of girlfriends and moved her into her guest room, formerly occupied by the departed Danielle.
Periods of absence
Rae left the island in April 2016, returning home to tend to her ailing mother. She spent six months with her family, helping her mother through a difficult recovery from a medical condition. The time also helped her cope with Fujiko's sudden announcement that she was pregnant with Allya's child, and helped her to reorient herself after years of grappling with the return of her depression. The quiet months gave her time to remember to try and love herself instead of basing her self-worth entirely on others' acceptance of her, and she came through her quiet time with a renewed sense of herself - and a growing willingness to spend time in solitude.
Eventually, though, she whistled for a cab, and when it came near, the license plate said "YURIBA" and it had breis in the mirror. She got out before it went anywhere but found herself back in Yuriba anyway.
Most of her businesses having been shuttered in her absence, she moved into her hideaway cabin on Little Sister Island, intent on largely keeping herself separate from village life and reintegrating herself into the island's paradigm slowly, focusing mostly on people who brought her joy and ignoring everyone else. Her cat Cleo remained her closest companion, along with a Rottweiler named Boomer, who came into her care courtesy of a family member.
Not too long after her wedding to Ruriko, Rae vanished from the island again for a period of months, evidently sucked into a pocket of Underhill consisting entirely of shadows and the presence of Tsuki. In this manifold of Underhill, Rae was almost completely consumed by her own doubts and fears as she was forced to confront the sum of all the anxieties and drivers of despair which had plagued her for the past three years. After what seemed like an eternity of languishing within absolute despair, she was finally able to repudiate Tsuki, emerging from the shadows and back into Yuriba proper in October of 2017, renewed and free of a great deal of emotional weight.
A refreshed Rae, ashamed of herself for ditching on Ruriko, set to work rebuilding her home on Little Sister Island, moving back in with only Cleo and a new cat, Tamar, for company - aside from Boomer, her guard dog. Boat trips to the island no longer sail from the main pier, and guests tend to run into the guard dog before they get very far, with the island heavily signposted against uninvited guests.
Integration
A long period of spiritual learning culminated in 2021, when Rae found herself given a unique blessing, that of an anthousa (a flower dryad). The change marked the acceleration of her long-time move towards the honouring of Zansho. While she had long considered herself a summer creature, the advance of time - and an increased ease with former inner turmoils long past - allowed her to finally acknowledge her own desire to be part of Yuriba on more than the level of a mere occupant. Through the spring and summer of 2021 she took to cultivating flowers atop the crest of her home on Little Sister Island, transforming the islet's crown into a votive summer garden.
As the winter of 2021 wound down, Rae's spiritual explorations led her to discover a pocket of Underhill ensconced in a perpetual summer, home to a votive circle of Zansho and a village of fellow anthousae. She spent an extended time there with the dryads, ultimately having her true name divined and choosing a use name - Atusaya - to reflect her acceptance. While at the votive circle, she underwent a subtle change that caused her anthousa form to become permanent, binding her spirit to Yuriba.
She went into 2022 dividing her time between Yuriba and Underhill, where she has taken on a role as tender of the votive circle and a junior priestess of Zansho, effectively being adopted into the dryad group residing around it.
Trivia
- Rae arrived in Yuriba on the same day as Nagisa Vendaris; their arrival times are separated by just over twelve hours in Nagisa's favour.
- To date, Rae's longest-standing relationship was with Eimi.
- Rae spent perhaps a year under the influence of the Hunyanniichuan before having the blessing removed. She prides herself on having found the notoriously elusive spring with a (substantial) minimum of hints from breisleach.
- Rae once owned as many as three businesses connected to the public grid. She was at one point one of a select group of people worth over 500,000L.
- Both of Rae's break-ups with Eimi coincided with Inishie-san erupting.
- Though Rae once published the swimsuit calendars, most of the photography was farmed out to Teagan Richards in the interest of fostering a community interest in art.