InsaneJournal

Standing at 5'4" with a fairly average, if a little curvy, build, Rina doesn't exactly stand out of the crowd - and she doesn't try to. Her hair is dirty blonde and very straight unless she, for some reason, makes the effort to curl it. But usually she just wears it loose or piled on top of her head. Everything about her screams 'simplistic' and she'd never dream of spending more than fifty dollars on any piece of clothing. High heels do not go on her feet and make-up doesn't go on her face, and no she doesn't think she needs help bringing out her blue-enough eyes.. Needless accessories she'd rather not deal with. Just because something looks nice doesn't mean that she needs to have it. The exception to this is jewelry that she gets as a gift - so long as no one tells her how much it cost. Because if they did she'd have to refuse and ask them to take it back. Excess isn't something that she believes in and that goes back to her time in Germany. The one thing that she always wears is her wedding ring. Please don't ask how she still has that because... she really doesn't know. Rina has multiple scars gained during her first time on Earth. The most noticeable of these is a small, ragged scar at the base of her skull.

When Rina's wings are furled she has long, silvery scars from her shoulder blades down to her mid-back. When her wings come out they are easily large enough to enfold her body; the feathers varying shades of pale blue edged in faint silver or gold. She loves her wings and they are one of the few things about her that she takes pride in, knowing that they're beautiful. Though she is much more reluctant to show or use them since her return to Earth, still concerned for her own safety and that of those around her.

Rina is a Patron Angel - specifically the Angel of the Mentally Unbalanced and Wrongly Accused, a calling that has left her fifty shades of unbalanced herself. As a Patron Angel, Rina is bond to her wards through thick and thin and could never just leave them.

Strengths: Know wards on sight, invocation, boost when called, superhuman senses, detecting of demonic presence, holy magic
Weaknesses: Inability to leave wards, angelic law, unholy magic.

Empath: Empaths feel the emotions of those around them. They know what people are feeling, and it makes them good friends, and sympathetic characters - usually. Sometimes it just makes them emotional sponges. It's very hard to lie to an empath. With enough training, empaths can learn to influence and change the mood of someone (or someones) in their area.

Clairaudient: Clairaudients hear things that are undetectable to normal ears - for example, a clairaudient can hear impressions of past people and events by being in a particular location. Depending on strength, one can hear just individual words or parts of words, snippets of conversation, or entire events. There is no way to turn it off - mastery of one's talent means that all but the strongest emotional traces can be blocked out with skill that eventually becomes unconscious and automatic, but for most others blocking takes conscious effort or some sort of distraction.

Niklas was a guardian angel of the Goldman family in the German city of Hadamar, having been on Earth for roughly fifty years when he stumbled across Lynde, a patron angel of the poor. While they may not have seen eye-to-eye at first, with the Goldman's being one of the most prosperous families in the region who very rarely helped those less fortunate than them, eventually Niklas managed to win Lynde over and the two were married. Several years down the road, just into the 1900s, they gave birth to their first child - who Niklas insisted on naming Neil after the first Goldman that he had watched over. They were a happy little family, even if Lynde still bore slight resentment for the family that her husband watched over, and when Neil was seven years old (in 1909) Lynde gave birth to her second child; Rina. When Rina was about three-years-old people in the village began to notice that Niklas and Lynde were not aging. Yes, their children were, but that was easy to brush aside when you had obvious witchcraft on your hands. The people that they had helped had either moved on - or in the case of the Goldman's - not been aware that they were even being helped so it was far too easy for them to turn their backs on the family. Really there were a few torches involved in the middle of the night, but the family of angels fled to local church and back to Celestia.

Rina and Neil were delighted with their new home, thrilled that they didn't have to hide their wings and could play with other children like them. Rina didn't like that Niklas was constantly coming and going, unable to just leave the family he had been watching over for several generations, once clinging to his leg when he was about to leave on one such trip with the plead that he stay and play with her and Neil. She was perhaps five at the time and when Niklas asked why she wanted him to stay so bad she declared it was because his going away 'made mom feel sad'. When they asked Neil if he thought that he said that he didn't because Lynde never appeared sad or said that she was in any way upset. Niklas put off leaving to test a few things out and sure enough, Rina was an empath who developed at a young age. She delighted with this new development and took what was possibly too much pleasure in telling other people what they were feeling. This included her father every time that he went to check on his family, something which was becoming more and more frequent as Rina and Neil got older, and her mother every time that he was gone. Perhaps it was this more than anything else that drove the two apart and finally, when Rina was ten and Neil was seventeen Niklas and Lynde decided that it would be better for everyone if they went their separate ways. Niklas took Neil (who was old enough to make his own choice in the matter) back to Earth with him while Rina stayed with Lynde. The young angel was troubled by this change, but she knew that it really was for the betterment of all involved because her mother was much happier than she had been before. Just that was enough to convince her and she took easily to the new life, though she did miss her father and brother.

Rina was far from lacking family though. Several of her mother's siblings had returned to Celestia as well and Rina was surrounded by her cousins. She was always the closest with her second cousins Elin, two years younger, and Svein, three years older. Elin and Rina bonded over their mutual little differences - she was a telepath - and could constantly be found in one or the other's house or somewhere nearby practicing on each other. Rina would think as many things as she could to help Elin learn how to pick or block things out while the other girl went through a wide range of emotions for Rina's benefit. Often they brought Svein into these games as well, but he was more focused on learning how to wield a variety of weapons. Just in case he ever needed them. This was the sort of lesson that Rina always dragged her feet on the way to, never caring that much for the idea of hurting someone even if it was in her own defense. Lynde and her grandmother, an angel of justice, spent nearly a year when Rina was twelve convincing her that she needed to learn. Even if she never needed to use the skills having them was invaluable. Reluctantly, Rina gave in and allowed herself to be taught how to defend herself, much preferring blunt objects to anything sharp. Though she took far better to learning how to use the holy magic that came naturally to all of them. Having the ability to heal other angels and even the angelic blooded thrilled her. Even if she was unsure whether or not she wanted to ever go back to Earth, having fallen completely in love with living in Celestia. Could anyone blame her? Life was as close to perfect there as she could imagine. True, her mother occasionally yearned to return to earth and the people she had cared for, but if she could manage to stay then Rina saw no reason why she could not. Even if she really did want to see her brother and father again.

When Rina was around eighteen she started to notice something that upset her a great deal. Svein wasn't spending as much time with her and Elin as he always had when they were younger. It was hard for her to believe but after she noticed and tried to get his attention it became obvious that he was actively avoiding her. Hurt by this, she finally cornered him when the whole family was having dinner and demanded an answer to why he wouldn't do anything with her anymore when they'd been all-but inseparable for the majority of their lives. He never had to answer - she knew the reason the moment that he looked at her. Svein never said a word as she stammered out that of course she loved him... just not like that, that wasn't right, she was sorry. A hug and a kiss and she went back to the family, telling no one what had happened. Elin knew, of course, and she stayed with Rina that night. And through the next few days because when the next morning came it was revealed that Svein had gone to earth without saying good-bye to anyone. Rina moped around for awhile, feeling guilty, until Elin managed to talk her out of it. It wasn't her fault, it was Svein's, she had done the right thing and there was no reason to feel bad about it. With all of the talking and her cousin's concentrated efforts on feeling deliberately happy just so that it effected her it really wasn't that hard to return to normal. Although she did stand her ground on refusing to learn anything more with fighting. Her lessons had always involved Svein before and it was just too much.

The departure of her cousin was not the last stir in the family. World War I had come and gone by now and several of Rina's family had returned to earth at various points to try and ease the effects or pain of those that mattered to them. Lynde had never left, but now that Rina was grown and more than capable of looking after herself, she decided that the time had finally come for her to return. That and enough time had surely passed for her face to be forgotten. Rina was curious about the world that she had spent a few years of her childhood in, the one that mattered so much to her father, so she decided that she was going to go along. No one was surprised when Elin opted to tag along as well and so the three women went back to Lynde's old town, Hadamar, partially because she knew it and partially because she wanted to see her son at least as much as Rina wanted to see her father and brother.

Arriving in Germany was a little disillusioning for Rina. Her mother was devestated by the state of the city, finding that there were far more people there who fell under her patronage than there had ever been before. She set to work practically immediately while Rina and Elin were left to integrate themselves into the culture. Rina's way of doing this was by searching for her brother and father. When she did find Neil he almost didn't recognize her, but when he did he was delighted to see her and they spent at least three days shut up in his house catching up on everything that they had missed. Rina was unsurprised to learn that he was a Guardian Angel like their father and had taken a local family with several children, the Breur's, under his care. More than that, he had married a townswoman, Joan Dobrin, and they had two children with a third on the way. Originally Rina had intended to just visit for awhile before returning to Celestia and the life she had there, but seeing how happy her brother was (and yes, she fell in love with her little nephews, Franz and Jakub) caused her to decide that she was going to remain on Earth at least for a time.

Bit by bit Rina started to integrate herself into the culture of Hadamar, following her mother's lead by claiming to have moved from Berlin with her. With Lynde only appearing to be in her early thirties though, they - along with Elin - claimed to be sisters. Not a month after her arrival, Rina found herself drawn to the state health and care facility. They were in need of help and she volunteered, needing something to do but also wanting to fulfill the need she felt and did not quite understand. After working there for a few weeks, Rina finally understood the innate draw that she had felt. She had always known that she was meant to be a patron angel but now she knew what she was supposed to be patron of - the mentally unbalanced and wrongly accused. Eventually she moved on from helping with paperwork to actually helping with the patients as a nurse, thriving in her new post. Yes it was difficult because her empathy allowed her to feel everything that they felt, but she thought it was worth it because she was able to help them and nothing compared to that feeling. Rina was caught up with her work and her family outside of it, paying little attention to the stirrings that were starting up in Germany as the Nazi party came to power. The first time she heard about him was from fellow nurse, Greta, who was certain that he would be the best thing to ever happen for Germany. Many people that Rina spoke to felt the same way, quite like the rest of the country, and at the time she saw no reason to disagree with them. She just continued with her work and her family, occasionally enjoying the company of a nice German boy around her age, Varick Nimitz, a member of the local police force. Unlike her, Varick was very interested in the Nazi party, pleased to see that there were people who wanted to make Germany as it should be instead of allowing it to suffer under the terms dictated after World War I. Rina was a slight concerned about his enthusiasm, but figured that anything that made the country as a whole better could not be all that bad, right? So she just agreed and kept on with her work, never agreeing or disagreeing with anything that people like Varick or Greta said. She had her people to tend to and take care of. And there was always someone, usually multiple someones, in need of her just in that one facility. That and she noticed a disturbing trend slowly developing among the doctors, an attitude that certain people didn't deserve as much help. 'They're not going to be any better, why should we bother?' being that attitude. Usually it was directed more towards people that even she couldn't get through to so she kept trying with those that she could, little arguments breaking out here and there. But nothing she could not handle.

In late 1932, Rina began to have suspicions that she shared with her family about what was actually happening with the Nazi party. The more popular they became the happier the majority of people seemed, true, but she was noticing the things that they supported. It did not seem right, her family agreed, but the German people seemed to approve overall and it was their choice. Rina was distracted from these concerns by several occurrences - the most important being that Varick proposed. Rina was concerned over his having joined the Nazi party, though her brother was far more worried about this, but it was only politics and he was never anything but pleasant with her... and okay, she loved him, so she said yes and in April of 1933 when she was twenty-three they were married. The first few months were the happiest that she had had since leaving Celestia. Then the Nazi's took control and things started to change so much that she couldn't ignore it any longer because it hit too close to home. A law was passed that demanded sterilization of certain types of people - including multiple types who fell directly under her protection and Rina didn't know what to do. She was horrified when the HHC came to Hadamar and multiple people she had known for years, including a sweet middle-aged man who had been hearing voices since he was thirteen, were forcibly sterilized. Rina lost control of her empathy and felt everything, including the pleasure felt by the people responsible who believed that they were doing something for the betterment of their country, that day. Varick ended up needing to come take her home and she refused to return while 'those people' were there - she was practically in hysterics. Varick couldn't understand why she wasn't willing to cooperate and help them. They were the facilitators of the new regime, the one that was going to see Germany take its rightful place on top of the world and she needed to help them as much as was possible. To say that Rina was horrified by this view was an understatement, but she quieted and when Varick went to sleep she snuck to the house her mother and Elin shared to tell them what had happened. They shared her discomfort but could think of nothing they could do except help in their own ways.As things went downhill - in the eyes of the angels of Hadamar - Rina began to feel herself unravel, the control that she had gained over her empathy worn away by the slowly building fear and terror in those she was around. The stress built day by day, with every little thing that happened, and on the day when her brother showed up in tears because the father of the family he watched over had been fired for no reason other than 'he's Jewish', Rina knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that nothing would be right again. A few months later she went to visit his family only to find that her seven-year-old nephew, Jakub, had been beat up at school for being Jewish. The 'little' things started to add up and by the time her twenty-third birthday rolled around, Rina was starting to hear voices. She told no one, worried that now she was losing her mind and would end up as a patient at the place she had spent her years on earth working. Instead she hid it as best as she could, secluding herself when the voices grew too loud to ignore so that no one would see her losing control. To try and help with her problems Rina turned to marijuana to 'take the edge off'. It helped, at least at first, and she was able to stop worrying quite so much about the direction the country was headed. Varick was pleased by her apparent agreement while her family was concerned with the change in behavior. Rina did her best to ignore their concerns, spending as much time at her job as she could. She was one of the few in the area who disagreed with what was happening and whenever she could, most typically with patients who had at least a little angelic blood somewhere in their family line, trying desperately to heal away the damage that made them 'unacceptable' in the eyes of the new government. When she succeeded there was nothing better in the world than her feeling of relief combined with theirs when they were able to go home. When she failed... every failure caused a little crack to form. Cracks that were noticed only by Elin because she couldn't let Varick know, not with how he raved about Hitler. Not when he became a member of the Gestapo as most members of the police force who were not ultimately undesirable did.

In 1936, Rina bid farewell to her father and the Goldman's, who had decided to flee in the face of the ever building anti-Sematism. No one ever heard from them again. Rina, Lynde and Elin pleaded with Neil to take his family and leave the country before things went too far, but he couldn't leave so long as the Breur's remained. They turned their attentions on his wife and the children, but she wouldn't leave her husband's side anymore than any of them would leave their people. Rina was overwhelmed with the feelings that pulsated through everyone she knew, crying herself to sleep every night after Varick had gone to his peaceful slumber. That distressed her perhaps more than anything else. The man that she had fallen herself in love with and married didn't understand her distress and agreed with everything that happened. He even began to block her attempts to see her brother and his family, pointing out how bad it would look for them if it was known that she supported Jews who continued to live in the country when they were supposed to be gone. Caught up with all of this, Rina could hardly bring herself to care about whether or not the country was moving towards war. Not once 1939 came around. Early in the year she found herself pregnant, which delighted Varick. She was left with mixed feelings though of course there was no option but carrying the baby to term. But in September, when she was only seven months along, Action T4 passed. Yes, war broke out, but the true monsters now had permission to kill those she had been born to protect and help. When the panel at Hadamar passed approval on a nine-year-old boy with a severe learning disability who had been living there since he was three, Rina tried to stop them. During the disruption she was struck over the head, knocked unconscious and arrested for obstructing the process of the law. She remained in jail for hardly a day before Varick managed to get her out, claiming that it was stress from the baby. She hardly heard the lecture he gave her on the way home, demanding to know what had happened to the boy. Without missing a beat or even feeling a thing, Varick told her that he had, of course, been taken care of. Overwhelmed with a feeling of failure and despair that this was what would happen to them all, Rina went into stress-induced labor. The child was a stillborn and, despite everything that was happening, Rina sank into a depression and refused to leave the house. That lasted for perhaps a month before Varick dragged her out of bed and shouted at her. Sulking like this and refusing to do her job not only made her look bad, it made him look bad and that was unacceptable. He took her to the hospital the next day himself and Rina had no choice but to carry on, especially when he gave not-quite-threats regarding the continuing safety of her nephews. But instead of helping, she worked closely with the doctor who was willing to lie about the state of the patients, scrambling for any way to save as many of them as she could. Rina was so exhausted, so worn by her efforts that she began sleeping at the hospital. Anything was better than returning home to the husband who saw nothing wrong with what was happening to their country.

1940 was, for Rina, the worst year. It began when the Jews remaining in Hadamar, including her brother's family, were shipped to a ghetto. Elin and Lynde, who couldn't prove proper German heritage due to being from another plane, were forced to flee back to Celestia. They tried to take Rina but despite everything that was happening she couldn't leave. Being married to Varrick was enough proof for her so she was allowed to continue her work. Which took a drastic turn when the hospital was turned into one of the killing centres. Rina redoubled her efforts, working with someone on the outside to smuggle people out of Hadamar before they could be exterminated. This stopped, though, when one night as she was helping a woman (who was sentenced despite there not being a thing wrong with her) through the forest. A gun fired and the woman dropped. Rina tried to help but she was gone and when she turned she saw Varick standing there. He declared that this was what happened to the unworthy and that there would be police stationed on this path to stop any more escapes. Rina found another path. When she was not doing that she was one of the nurses set to work filling out death certificates for the people who came. She was always there when the buses arrived, searching desperately for the people who shouldn't be there, knowing on sight when they were wrongly accused. Each one of these was spared, but they were a small number and her efforts did not go unnoticed. Rina survived through several months before she lost all but a shred of her grasp on her sanity. But how could she leave when her people were being put through this? She would be abandoning innocents who were supposed to be under her care. Rina lost track of time and began to go through the motions. By the time the T4 program was officially shut down in August of 1941 she was a shell of who'd she been. She had received a letter from her brother, delivered to the hospital by her husband, telling her that his children had died in the ghetto, Joan had been killed when she went mad with grief and jumped a police officer and he was going to take his life after he sent the letter. Unable to comprehend what had happened, Rina went to the church that had been her original gateway into the world that she had once thought she loved. On the way she passed by Varick, who called out for her, and she stopped. One of the things that she remembered clear as day was him killing the people that she helped, killing her innocents, the people she had sworn to protect. She remembered the face of that woman she had watched him kill and, without stopping to think about where she was, Rina embraced him. She told him that she was sorry, but this was what happened, drew his handgun and shot him in the middle of the street. One. She could not take care of everyone responsible but she could stop one person from helping.

She was arrested, charged with murder of a police officer, and sent to jail to await sentencing. But with everything else that was happening she was a small fish and, after perhaps a week, she was shipped to a concentration camp, Ravensbrück. Even though she had only committed one actual crime she did have a record thanks to her additional arrest in 1939 and they labeled her as a convict with the green triangle. But even there there were people for Rina to try and look after. And she tried. Or at least, she thinks that she did. Rina doesn't remember much from her time in the camp, or from the time shortly after its liberation. Just bits and pieces that come in her nightmares and scars that she can't recall the cause of. But after the liberation of Ravensbrück by Soviet forces, Rina was taken to a hospital like most of the survivors and nursed back to health. Well, they meant to, but as soon as she was capable of walking on her own she found the nearest church and took herself back to Celestia. She didn't even need them to help her in the first place, she was capable of helping herself if she just tried. But once she was home she accepted help from her family. And that was it. Quite basically, Rina spent the next forty-three years just recovering from what had happened. To her. What she had seen happen to the others. Even Elin was unable to really help her, and she could see into her mind. Perhaps the worst part was that, even though she had returned to Celestia, Rina was still hearing the voices that had begun on earth. Only once, perhaps twenty years after her return, she actually recognized the voices that she was hearing. One of them was her own, a conversation that she had had with Elin and Svein when they were much younger. She wasn't hearing random voices that had a place only inside her head, she was hearing things that had actually happened. This made her wonder if maybe all of those people that she had known back in Hadamar who had heard voices had actually just been hearing past conversations. If maybe it was that that had driven them mad.

By the time 1990 rolled around, Rina was ready to go back to earth and the people that she was meant to take care of. So she returned to Hadamar. It had changed, yes, but she still knew her way around and her feet naturally took her to all of the places that she had frequented her last time there. The house that she had shared with her mother and Elin, the one where Neil and his family had lived, the small home that she and Varick had shared... and then the hospital. Only that had changed. A new building had been built, a Clinic for Forensic Psychiatry, and there was a memorial. Rina spent days at that memorial, through the rain and everything, just sitting and staring and remembering. When someone finally noticed and asked if she was alright, she realized that returning to Germany was a mistake. Hearing that accent while surrounded by reminders of what had happened was too much. It was as though that man, who had only wanted to make sure she was alright, had triggered something and all of the work that she had done to return herself to a state that could handle humanity again crumbled. Rina returned to Celestia to finish her recovery, this time trying to actually talk about what had happened. While she had been gone her mother had also returned to Earth to pick back up where she had left off before WWII so Rina had their old home to herself. Well, her and Elin. When the gates closed neither of them really noticed, though Rina hoped that someday they would open again so she could try going back to maybe another country. What they did notice was that Lynde didn't come home. They never learned what became of her but, eight years after the gates sealed, they assumed the worst.


AFTER THE GATES OPENED:
Rina felt it. And with that came an equal feeling of knowing that now, she had to go back. She needed to find out what had happened to her mother and there were people on Earth who needed her help. The years since her last visit in 1990 had left her with a building sense of guilt that she had run away instead of doing what she had promised to do; help those who she viewed as needing it the most. Elin tried to stop her, reminding her of what had happened last time, but Rina felt like she had no real choice in the matter. So she bid her cousin and other family members farewell and came to Earth. Only this time she tried the other side of the world, ending up in Michigan.

In Scarlet Oak, to be exact, and it was there that she met her cousin - Darklis Tinka. She had never known Darklis before and if it wasn't for the fact that Darklis was a vampire then she'd have never had the chance to meet her. Darklis was nice enough to take Rina in so she didn't end up sleeping under a bridge. Well, Rina and her little bundle of fur familiar, Trouble.


STORYLINES:
Darklis Tinka, 182, Vampire
Rina didn't know that she had any family left who weren't angels, until she arrived in Scarlet Oak and Darklis passed by. In an instant she knew that not only was that one of her relatives, but one of her wards. Rina couldn't just let that go and Darklis was the first person who found out what Rina was on her return. She was even nice enough to let Rina stay in her home. Rina has only known Darklis since the Gates opened, but she loves her cousin as much as she does Elin or Svein. Part of that has to do with how much Darklis won't let her just retreat back into herself and her corner. Darklis pushes at her and won't let her just stop eating or sleeping - hell, she shot her with a tranquilizer when she wouldn't sleep for almost a week. Darklis may be a vampire, but that doesn't bother Rina. So she drinks blood and lives forever, they've got that second part in common!
"But I am not laughing
'cause when it gets tense I know what might happen
World is cold, the bold men take action
Have to react or get blown into fractions
10-years-old there's something to see, another kid my age drug under a Jeep."



The Wards: Jadyn, Cheila, Caelia & Daisy
As a patron, Rina has multiple people whom she's dedicated to helping, and it feels like every time she wanders out in Scarlet Oak by herself she finds another one, like it's a center for those people who are off or were hurt... Jadyn is a straight-forward case that Rina felt while passing her shop and she's doing her best to help her, because in the back of her mind she knows this isn't a problem one fixes. Cheila was met at a coffee shop and she... completely breaks Rina's heart because her damage was caused by other people and she's far too sweet for it. Caelia is one of Rina's rarer wrongly accused AND unbalanced because of it, and not quite as obviously in need of her as the others. Daisy was found, literally, broken and dying on the bridge after the explosions and Rina saved her life. Then she realized she was one of hers, one of her needier ones at that, but she doesn't mind anymore than she minds anything else, she just wishes Daisy was more... proactive in helping herself. Rina would come to any of their calls and do absolutely anything to help them, and she means it when she says she'll never leave.
"I'm willing to break myself to shake
This hell from everything I touch
I'm willing to bleed for days, more reds and grays
So you don't hurt so much."



MOTHER: Lynde (unknown)
FATHER: Niklas (deceased)
BROTHER: Neil (deceased)
NEPHEWS: Franz and Jakub (both deceased)
NIECE: Annaliese (deceased)
COUSINS: Svein, Elin and Darklis Tinka
FAMILIAR: Trouble

FRIENDS: Jadyn Cole, Cheila Elias, Daisy Monroe and Naoki Kusanagi-Kennedy
FOES: Demons

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