rebecca "rikki" barnes (
unheimlich) wrote2012-10-19 06:16 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Entry tags:
holly heights app
OOC INFORMATION
Player: Mend
Age: 21
Personal Journal:
missmend
Contact Info: smashkolnikov @ aim & plurk
Other Characters: N/A
IC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Rebecca ‘Rikki’ Barnes
Age: 16
Canon: Marvel Comics
Canon Point: Post Captain America #614
Species: Human
Gender: Female, cisgendered
Orientation: Canonically interested in men considering her high school crushes on boys, interpreted as being on the bi-curious side because her interactions with Aya and Natasha (i.e., using Aya as a confidant, being crushed when she thinks Natasha hates her) strike me as someone whose interest in women contain some kind of romantic weight.
History: 1 :: 2
Appearance: 1 :: 2
Personality:
Rikki is a survivor. Catastrophe after catastrophe, she stands, cleans herself off, and starts the next day hoping for a better one.
In her daily life and activities, this trait is the one that stands out the strongest; each and every day is a struggle for her – to find food, to avoid negative attention, to do good in the world, and not to think about everything she lost in the shift from one world to another. This is a girl who lives essentially a non-identity, who lost absolutely everything she knew and understood, and yet still manages to go about the world with a smile, wanting to help. Even when her biological brother had her strapped to a nuclear missile, ready to kill her in the ethnic cleansing of America, she kept her head clear enough to know that she needed to beat the shit out of him to save thousands more. It was that kind of attitude that caught Captain America’s attention, after all.
In the identity of Bucky, sidekick to the living legend, beating up bad guys and doing top secret missions for S.H.I.E.L.D., Rikki takes enormous pride in herself. Being Bucky and carrying out the mission that Cap instilled in her has grounded her, allowed her to find a path forward, and essentially to keep her own sanity. She has a strong code of ethics, which puts her out on the streets at night fighting purse-snatchers and the occasional shadowy para-military organization; despite having only three clean shirts to her name, Rikki would rather burn a box of clothes than keep them, knowing that the clothes belonged to murder victims. She will not, in any way, profit off of something if she sees it as a crime.
Despite her ethics, her endurance and her bravery, Rikki is only sixteen. Her feelings are hurt when she overhears girls mocking how apparent her poverty is. It strikes her hard when she thinks the Black Widow hates her to the point where she has to consciously tell herself to stop thinking about that possibility. She desperately wants to be acknowledged and accepted, and even cared for, by her heroes – a trait in conflict with her strive for independence and own identity. Loss hurts her hard, especially when she thinks she could have done something about it if she weren’t so young and powerless, and her youth prevents her from doing things like making money and providing herself with some stability.
There’s a lot of pain she keeps inside, bottled up and behind clenched teeth. There are times when she breaks down and just cries, but very, very rarely – the most significant being when Steve Rogers, her idol, mentor, and father-figure, tells her that he remembers her and will help her. She hopes desperately for the day that the parallel version of her dead brother would be someone to confide in and be herself with.
Rikki is stubborn as a mule, overestimating herself and what she can take in a fight, and sticks to her instincts. When the school election smells fishy, she digs until she finds the bones and the carcass, no matter what the world around her says. There is a burning flame of determination and self discipline within her, that gets her up at 5 in the morning to clean kitchens for her breakfast, work out, and break into buildings for a shower before school even starts – and to continue to go to school in the first place. She’s learned that going against those instincts puts her in bad places (like a serial killer’s basement), and to listen to them before compassion and pity. Which isn’t to say she lacks those traits – they come in spades for a superheroine, after all – but they’ve been tempered.
In the end, Rikki is a girl whose lived and gone through way too much for just sixteen, and soldiers on. She longs for the golden days of fighting side-by-side with Captain America in her reality, of having her brother and family and life in her world, but who won’t let that longing consume and destroy her. So grit your teeth, get by on what you can any way you can, and help as many as you can with what you have.
Abilites: A normal human by the stands of the Marvel universe, Rikki was first trained extensively in dance, enough to get a scholarship to Julliard for it. On top of that was S.H.I.E.L.D. special operative’s physical conditioning – an example being Muay Thai and other martial arts – and survival techniques. She knows how to hack encrypted computer systems and break into government buildings without triggering alarms, and how to get herself out of handcuffs (by breaking her own thumbs).
Other: She will be arriving in Holly Heights in normal civilian clothes, ergo without the technology of the Nomad suit.
SAMPLES
First Person:
[Sticking her face on this communication network isn’t even a rookie mistake, it’s a lobotomized sloth kind of mistake, and even though she’s exhausted and her nerves feel shot, she’s still got enough sense to keep this purely by text.]
I’m…hoping to speak with someone knowledgeable about this place. Really knowledgeable – who knows the ins and outs, can find people and information.
Leave your name on the network. Do not respond to this private number, it won’t work. [Even better that her face isn’t on; someone would be able to call her bluff too easily.] I’ll find you.
[Her hands are shaking when she holds the phone but Rikki keeps her voice steady, tempered, cool. And after she’s done, she presses the little phone to her chest and takes a long deep inhale, using this private moment to let all the stress and worry rock her back and forth.]
Alright – you can do this Rikki, just…pull yourself together. You did it once, and you can do it again…
Third Person:
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
There shouldn’t have been a second time that Rikki Barnes woke up in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces and people with the same names as her friends and family but weren’t them at all. Well, okay, there shouldn’t have been a first time, but that’s the kind of curveball that gets thrown at you when you pal around with Captain America and the Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D makes sure you can deal with crazy shit like that. But they also train you so that you know what to do to get out of a mess like that, and Rikki’s just as trapped as she always has been.
Even though she’s got a house in this new world, people that say they’re her parents, a closet of warm clothes and a fridge full of food, none of it comforts her. She’d be happier waking up back in her literal hole in the wall than in the bed in this weird suburban freak show. At least then she’d have her things back. Rikki’s got her hands balled into fists wherever she goes the first couple of days, jumping and snapping at every comment and ring of this new phone.
At night, she feels better. She slaps a hap dash mask on her face and a coat from goodwill on and gets out, mapping Holly Heights with her mind as she climbs buildings and finds where all the hidden backways go. She climbs to the top of the highest point in town and crouches there, staring out to the far gates and the streets below, heart pounding, waiting.
Because if the Black Widow was stuck here, she’d find out everything she could, everything no matter how small or insignificant, and use it against her captors. Because if Steve was brought here, he’d be throwing punches at purse snatchers and bank robbers, because no matter how scared he was deep down he’d want to help people – just like Rikki does now. Steve Rogers doesn’t stop being Captain America just because someone takes away his shield, and Rikki’s not going to let some omnipotent landlord keep her from being Bucky.
OTHER
Housing Request?: No
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yes
Player: Mend
Age: 21
Personal Journal:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Contact Info: smashkolnikov @ aim & plurk
Other Characters: N/A
IC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Rebecca ‘Rikki’ Barnes
Age: 16
Canon: Marvel Comics
Canon Point: Post Captain America #614
Species: Human
Gender: Female, cisgendered
Orientation: Canonically interested in men considering her high school crushes on boys, interpreted as being on the bi-curious side because her interactions with Aya and Natasha (i.e., using Aya as a confidant, being crushed when she thinks Natasha hates her) strike me as someone whose interest in women contain some kind of romantic weight.
History: 1 :: 2
Appearance: 1 :: 2
Personality:
Rikki is a survivor. Catastrophe after catastrophe, she stands, cleans herself off, and starts the next day hoping for a better one.
In her daily life and activities, this trait is the one that stands out the strongest; each and every day is a struggle for her – to find food, to avoid negative attention, to do good in the world, and not to think about everything she lost in the shift from one world to another. This is a girl who lives essentially a non-identity, who lost absolutely everything she knew and understood, and yet still manages to go about the world with a smile, wanting to help. Even when her biological brother had her strapped to a nuclear missile, ready to kill her in the ethnic cleansing of America, she kept her head clear enough to know that she needed to beat the shit out of him to save thousands more. It was that kind of attitude that caught Captain America’s attention, after all.
In the identity of Bucky, sidekick to the living legend, beating up bad guys and doing top secret missions for S.H.I.E.L.D., Rikki takes enormous pride in herself. Being Bucky and carrying out the mission that Cap instilled in her has grounded her, allowed her to find a path forward, and essentially to keep her own sanity. She has a strong code of ethics, which puts her out on the streets at night fighting purse-snatchers and the occasional shadowy para-military organization; despite having only three clean shirts to her name, Rikki would rather burn a box of clothes than keep them, knowing that the clothes belonged to murder victims. She will not, in any way, profit off of something if she sees it as a crime.
Despite her ethics, her endurance and her bravery, Rikki is only sixteen. Her feelings are hurt when she overhears girls mocking how apparent her poverty is. It strikes her hard when she thinks the Black Widow hates her to the point where she has to consciously tell herself to stop thinking about that possibility. She desperately wants to be acknowledged and accepted, and even cared for, by her heroes – a trait in conflict with her strive for independence and own identity. Loss hurts her hard, especially when she thinks she could have done something about it if she weren’t so young and powerless, and her youth prevents her from doing things like making money and providing herself with some stability.
There’s a lot of pain she keeps inside, bottled up and behind clenched teeth. There are times when she breaks down and just cries, but very, very rarely – the most significant being when Steve Rogers, her idol, mentor, and father-figure, tells her that he remembers her and will help her. She hopes desperately for the day that the parallel version of her dead brother would be someone to confide in and be herself with.
Rikki is stubborn as a mule, overestimating herself and what she can take in a fight, and sticks to her instincts. When the school election smells fishy, she digs until she finds the bones and the carcass, no matter what the world around her says. There is a burning flame of determination and self discipline within her, that gets her up at 5 in the morning to clean kitchens for her breakfast, work out, and break into buildings for a shower before school even starts – and to continue to go to school in the first place. She’s learned that going against those instincts puts her in bad places (like a serial killer’s basement), and to listen to them before compassion and pity. Which isn’t to say she lacks those traits – they come in spades for a superheroine, after all – but they’ve been tempered.
In the end, Rikki is a girl whose lived and gone through way too much for just sixteen, and soldiers on. She longs for the golden days of fighting side-by-side with Captain America in her reality, of having her brother and family and life in her world, but who won’t let that longing consume and destroy her. So grit your teeth, get by on what you can any way you can, and help as many as you can with what you have.
Abilites: A normal human by the stands of the Marvel universe, Rikki was first trained extensively in dance, enough to get a scholarship to Julliard for it. On top of that was S.H.I.E.L.D. special operative’s physical conditioning – an example being Muay Thai and other martial arts – and survival techniques. She knows how to hack encrypted computer systems and break into government buildings without triggering alarms, and how to get herself out of handcuffs (by breaking her own thumbs).
Other: She will be arriving in Holly Heights in normal civilian clothes, ergo without the technology of the Nomad suit.
SAMPLES
First Person:
[Sticking her face on this communication network isn’t even a rookie mistake, it’s a lobotomized sloth kind of mistake, and even though she’s exhausted and her nerves feel shot, she’s still got enough sense to keep this purely by text.]
I’m…hoping to speak with someone knowledgeable about this place. Really knowledgeable – who knows the ins and outs, can find people and information.
Leave your name on the network. Do not respond to this private number, it won’t work. [Even better that her face isn’t on; someone would be able to call her bluff too easily.] I’ll find you.
[Her hands are shaking when she holds the phone but Rikki keeps her voice steady, tempered, cool. And after she’s done, she presses the little phone to her chest and takes a long deep inhale, using this private moment to let all the stress and worry rock her back and forth.]
Alright – you can do this Rikki, just…pull yourself together. You did it once, and you can do it again…
Third Person:
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
There shouldn’t have been a second time that Rikki Barnes woke up in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces and people with the same names as her friends and family but weren’t them at all. Well, okay, there shouldn’t have been a first time, but that’s the kind of curveball that gets thrown at you when you pal around with Captain America and the Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D makes sure you can deal with crazy shit like that. But they also train you so that you know what to do to get out of a mess like that, and Rikki’s just as trapped as she always has been.
Even though she’s got a house in this new world, people that say they’re her parents, a closet of warm clothes and a fridge full of food, none of it comforts her. She’d be happier waking up back in her literal hole in the wall than in the bed in this weird suburban freak show. At least then she’d have her things back. Rikki’s got her hands balled into fists wherever she goes the first couple of days, jumping and snapping at every comment and ring of this new phone.
At night, she feels better. She slaps a hap dash mask on her face and a coat from goodwill on and gets out, mapping Holly Heights with her mind as she climbs buildings and finds where all the hidden backways go. She climbs to the top of the highest point in town and crouches there, staring out to the far gates and the streets below, heart pounding, waiting.
Because if the Black Widow was stuck here, she’d find out everything she could, everything no matter how small or insignificant, and use it against her captors. Because if Steve was brought here, he’d be throwing punches at purse snatchers and bank robbers, because no matter how scared he was deep down he’d want to help people – just like Rikki does now. Steve Rogers doesn’t stop being Captain America just because someone takes away his shield, and Rikki’s not going to let some omnipotent landlord keep her from being Bucky.
OTHER
Housing Request?: No
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yes