Starbright

Richenda Carmen Gray is an exotically pretty girl with expressive eyes, who usually dresses in rather plain and well-worn, if colorful, clothes. She's usually seen in crowds, on buses, or in the poorer parts of town.

Background
Richenda was born and raised as part of the Wachowsky Brothers Circus, a rag-bag carnival and Big Top. Much of her early life was spent on the road, and in rural communities all over the Midwestern US. Her father, Al (nobody but the Wachowsky Brothers called him Aloysius twice) Grey, was a relatively new carny, a small-town mechanic who married into the show. Her mother, Angelica Gonzalez, was of Spanish Gypsy descent, and worked as a stage magician and fortune teller for the circus, growing up in the show in much the same way that Chenda herself did. While the family never had much money or much environmental stability, they did have each other, as well as the other circus folk they worked with. On the road, that's a lot of family. Learning to be a stage magician, acrobat, and clown was a relatively peaceful upbringing, though not without its troubles. Richenda was a bright girl, but she had no talent for sitting still, and the fact that she was rarely anyplace where it was necessary (like a school classroom) contributed to her poor academic marks. Outside of class, she could be found nearly anywhere when she wasn't practicing for the show, especially where she wasn't supposed to be. Unsafe places like supposedly-haunted houses drew her like honey draws flies. She was often alone on these adventures, as her family's roving tendencies didn't leave much time for making friends, but she got along fine. She often got into trouble as well, since the locals didn't much care for having their local sights snooped around in. And those circus folk are bad people, you know. All the same, it wasn't a boring way to grow up. There were always new places to see, usually around the time that the old ones began to get boring. Life might've continued this way for quite a while if Boris Wachowsky hadn't hired a new lighting and effects man. He was a little shady, and not in the honest way of most carnies, but the man knew his craft, and he brought a few experienced people on board to handle his equipment. He'd only been around for about a month when the disappearances began. And they weren't just hired help, but trusted people who'd been around for years. But there wasn't a single clue what had happened, just empty trailers and campers. At least, not until Richenda, coming back from a night out with friends that had run late, witnessed one of the abductions.

Fueled by the foolhardy bravery of the very young, Chenda trailed the kidnappers out of the fairgrounds and into the ruins of some old buildings on the edge of town. All she can remember after she peeked through the door of a basement she followed them to is a flash of light and a crushing pressure on her mind, then a horrible burning sensation... When she awakened, she was lying in the shell of a ruined building, rather damp and in considerable pain, with a paramedic working on her. Something had set the buildings on fire and collapsed a basement. She was the only person the firemen had found in the ruins. And that wasn't the only disaster of the night: some psycho had burned and bombed out the nearby Wachowsky Brothers Circus. In one moment of irresponsibility, Richenda Grey had gone from circus kid to orphan. And then there was the matter of the odd glow around her hands when she tried to remember what she saw in the basement! Brighton County, Arkansas wasn't prepared to deal with having a young freak on their hands, but simply turning her loose would cause image problems, since the news story had gained national attention. It also, two days later, gained them a visit from the FBI. Paranoia over the mutant menace had government agents investigating nearly any strange incident, especially when it involved young people, and what happened to the Wachowsky Brothers Circus had both qualifications. Trouble was, Chenda was a carny down to her bones, and in her mind it was dangerous to trust the government for any reason. That mistrust was only heightened when Agent Rolf Ericson refused to discuss what would happen to her. Suspicions around the hospital were that SHE had done the deed... and Chenda couldn't say yes or no to that. The only thing that pointed to someone else was a fact that Ericson let slip: The fairground and vehicles had been burned up, not just destroyed. Whoever did it, they used fire. Once she heard that, Chenda escaped from the hospital. She's been on the move ever since, trying to figure out just what happened to her and why she was spared the fate of her family and friends. And, while she's at it, trying to figure out just who was kidnapping her friends. So far she's only got a name she overheard from the FBI: Horrorshow. Who or what that might be she has no idea, but she intends to change that.

Personality
High-Spirited: Richenda is energetic. She has a hard time standing still, especially when (in her own mind) there's no good reason to. If there's a rail to balance on or rocks to hop between, she'll be balancing or hopping if nobody else already is. This has made it hard for her in classrooms, and anyplace else where sitting down is required, and she tends to be fidgety and restless when confined in any such place. At the same time, she's not foolish or prone to diving into things without a little forethought. There's a difference between spirit and stupidity. Outgoing: Richenda is born performer. This isn't because she's an inherent show-off, but because she genuinely likes other people. If she's making them laugh or ooh and aah, she's in her element. She also wonders what makes people tick, mostly out of curiosity but also because it pays to know one's audience. Bulletproof Confidence: Richenda is pretty, witty, and talented, and she certainly knows it! While a pratfall will dampen her spirits just like anybody else's, she's good at hiding this and springing back to her proverbial feet to try again. Growing up in a circus gave her plenty of opportunities to build up a sturdy self-possession that has only recently been marred by the loss of her family and friends in the circus. But the work of a lifetime doesn't break easily, and it's holding her together even now. Compassionate: Richenda would probably deny it, but underneath her long-standing emotional armor is a very soft heart. If she had one, she'd whip out a first aid kit to help an injured person that she didn't know from Adam or Eve. If she didn't, she'd likely hold their hand until someone came along who did have one. Upon seeing someone getting mugged, she would race to their rescue after a moment's pause, used to worry about the possibility of getting seriously hurt. Afterward, she'd consider herself an idiot... but the next time she saw it happening, she'd do it again. She has plenty of problems of her own, but somehow others' problems are always worse. She'd never admit it, but she cares, even when it hurts. Curious: Richenda has the cat's classic problem, and it's almost killed her once already. While this makes her a little more cautious, there are times she just can't leave a mystery alone. In the past, she was prone to wandering where her feet took her, rarely worrying about what she'd find when she got there. That was half the fun! If something's odd, most likely she'll check it out. If it's something about somebody, she'll ask, even if the question isn't something you'd normally ask someone. She just has to know! Thus far, she's stopped short of doing anything illegal to satisfy her curiosity. Determined: Richenda has lost a teenager's sense of invincibility, but she forges ahead anyway. Her life's been a long road with a lot of pitfalls, mostly from being an outsider trying to get along in a world that would just as soon dismiss her after a glance, or forget she and her friends and family existed the second the circus vans got down the road. That's okay; kick a dog long enough and it learns to bite. Behind her professional smile lurks the burning heart of a fighter. An opponent, an obstacle, a cross word? in the end they can all be overcome, and once she's past them they're easily left behind. Loyal: It can take a while to wear down Richenda's defenses, particularly her tendency to like someone without trusting them, but once she trusts someone they have a friend for life. She sent letters to the few friends she made in school for years after the circus moved away from those districts.

Stubborn: The bad side of Richenda's determination is that once she's decided to do something, very little will stop her from doing it, even if it's the wrong thing to do. Very few people can talk her out of this tendency, and right now, all of those people are dead. She also has a tendency to keep the same opinion once she's formed it, whether it's about a person, place, or thing. The only thing that can make her change her mind is very strong evidence to the contrary. Clannish: While it would seem to fly in the face of her outgoing nature, Richenda has a carny's inherent reserve when it comes to dealing with the outside world, even when she's right in the middle of it alone. She can easily fall into a Them-And-Us mindset that hurts her ability to trust others, no matter how much she might like them outwardly and inwardly. It's what put her on the road, trying to get away from the government, but it also made her investigate the kidnappings of her friends. It's not a form of loyalty that gets much respect from outsiders, but it IS loyalty. Absent-minded: While her mind has always been a little disorderd and cluttered due to her chaotic existence, Chenda has had a lot on her mind since she lost her family. Between that and the occasional bad memory that pulls her into another place entirely, she tends to forget things when she's not focused on them. While it's worse lately, this is a lifelong problem, and one of the few things that can short-circuit her otherwise-incredible memory. Everyone forgets things when they're in a hurry, but Chenda's the only person she's heard of who has dashed outside and jumped onto the school bus without her pants more than once. Her attention also occasionally wanders off-topic if she's not doing something interesting. The aftereffects can be interesting, too, if not much fun for Chenda. Secretly Sensitive: Chenda has some impressive emotional armor, but when something gets through it, it REALLY gets through it. A particularly nasty insult once had her questioning her family's way of life for several days. An uncomfortable truth about herself, her family, or her friends can send her into a funk, and it can take a lot to get her out.