Riley Evans

Basic Information;
Full Name: Riley Evans
Nicknames: Ray-Ray. Red.
Age: Seventeen.
Birth Date: August 18th.
Gender: Female.
Race: White.
Species: Human. (Sorcerer (Red Magic) / Blood Mage)
Sexuality: Straight probably.
Religion: As if.
Place of Birth: Not sure.
Place of Residence: NYC.
Occupation: Barista at the local coffee house at weekends. High School student otherwise.

Appearance;
Hair: Dyed dark flame red, usually a tousled thick mess, shorter strands framing her face and a hint of a fringe that is usually pushed to the side unless she feels like having a full on fringe day, the rest long to her chest.
Eyes: Difficult to describe - always silver and almost reflective looking. In truth they are such a blend of light greens and blues that the hazel swirl tends to change depending on what color clothes she is wearing.
Build: Thin and toned, perhaps considered a dancers body - but in reality it's simply good genes, a teenage metabolism and an active lifestyle. 5'6.
Clothing&Style: Her style is usually comfy clothes apparently in that 'grunge' look - although she is fashionable, that's just what the current 'trend' is. Ripped skinny fitted jeans, a cute tank top or of some kind, perhaps something more retro or quirky to mess with the look - such as a boy scouts shirt tied under her chest, or a head scarf.

Riley skates the line between presentable normal teenage and rebellious wild child. She very much has her own style, twinning retro clothes with grunge teen chic, under that haystack of dyed red hair. A tiny stud is always at her nose (the color changing with her outfits), and if she's wearing a crop top you might catch a flash of a patterned bra strap, or perhaps her belly button piercing too. Colored nail polish (or sometimes a variety of different colors) is usually seen at her nails, the odd ring or two at her fingers, and bangles, a leather cuff, sweat bands or just wrapped shoe-laces at her wrists. Her make up is usually only seen around her eyes - to highlight her unusual silver hues, where she usually just sticks to mascara and eyeliner. She'll mess with her hair a lot, be it just shoving it up, putting it in pigtails, or doing retro pin-curls. Typical, slightly quirky teenage girl.

Personality;
Likes:

• Having a good time with her friends.
  
• Cutting class (until the panic at her grades sets in).
  
• Movies - she loves stories / flights of fancy.
  
• Messing with her look.
  
• Alco-pops / wine-coolers. They're sweet, you can drink them down like candy. Not that she has many ever - she's underage, but at the odd party...
  
• Being wanted / Feeling safe.
  
• Kicking her brother's ass on the x-box.
  
• Her fake ID.
  
• Getting her way - both due to being a 'kid' and a girl. And she's not above using the 'adopted' card.
  
• Soda.
  
• Dancing.

Dislikes:

• Coffee.
  
• Her abilities.
  
• Backstabbers / liars.
  
• Being told 'No' / what to do.
  
• Horror / scary movies - avoids them due to her nightmares.
  
• Losing control.
  
• Feeling alone - her adoptive parents love her but sometimes that's not enough.
  
• Being different.
  
• Thinking too much. Self-assessment.
  
• Feeling guilty.
  
• Being cold.
  
• Being intimidated.
  

Strengths:

Abilities:
Riley isn't sure what the hell is going on with her. All she knows is sometimes she looses control - usually when she's upset or angry, and 'stuff' happens. In truth, she's a latent Blood Mage / Sorcerer (Red magic) - a nice little gift her real parents left her. Unbeknownst to her, her 'powers' (which at this stage are simply a pure weird annoyance) are drawn from her own health / life force or those of others around her - and need this drain in order to activate. Red magic (when trained, which Riley is not) usually focuses heavily on attack, and suffers in defense. When in a duel with another mage, a red mage will typically hit hard and fast with the intention of the onslaught being constant in an attempt to make up for their lack of a very good defense, shielding or healing abilities. Below is what her latent talent has manifested itself as so far:

• Fire:
  Things spontaneously catching alight with a strange unnatural looking flame, her skin in her hands suddenly seeming to catch on fire, but without any pain to her. It usually disappears as soon as she notices it, or sometimes requires her to shake it out before desperately going back to pretending it didn't happen.
  
• Telekinesis:
  Or at least that's what it seems like - things have been known to fly across the room, doors have slammed when shes angry and nowhere near them. All it does is freak her out.
  
• Electrical:
  She's noticed she occasionally seems to get electric shocks from things, and, in a strange way, GIVE the shocks too. She's also had a bad track record with short circuiting / blowing fuses on everything from hairdryers to TVs. It's annoying.
  
  Personality strengths:
  
• Underneath the bitchiness / confrontational attitude, she isn't a naturally malicious person.
  
• Will help others when she can (as long as it doesn't track back to her).
  
• Usually fearless with actions (even if this masks a fear within.)
  
• Actually tries really hard when she does apply herself - but tries not to show it.
  
• Will stand up to anyone. (Although not usually with a lot of sense).
  
• Street-smart and independent. Being adopted seemed to foster this dynamic.

Weaknesses:

Abilities:
When and how her abilities strike is fairly unpredictable to her.

• Lack of control: Not knowing what she is, or even about the existence of magic, her abilities only really manifest when she loses control of herself, usually due to a state of fear, panic or high emotion (anger / upset). She unintentionally lets loose and so do her abilities, what happens then is anyones guess - sometimes nothing, sometimes a lot.
  
• Drained: With her magic being based from her own life force or those of others around her, when her magic 'attacks' happen, she is often left feeling ill or weak afterwards. If she doesn't, then the chances are someone else who was close to her does.
  
• Nightmares / Night-terrors: The night brings with it dark dreams, twisted demonic creatures, blood and gore, pain and screaming. She usually goes to sleep plugged into her iPod in the effort to ward these horrors away.
  
  Personality weaknesses:
  
• Bad school grades.
  
• Aggressive personality / needlessly confrontational / fake arrogance.
  
• Untrusting.
  
• Nightmares.
  
• Scared. Of herself, of her future, of being betrayed.

Habits:

• Mouthing off to the wrong people, a defense mechanism.
  
• Intentionally doing things that will get her into trouble, although is unsure why. Attention seeking perhaps?

Quirks:

• Tends to plug herself into her iPod and crank it up when she wants to be alone, or is feeling vulnerable. Sometimes just when she's on her own.
  
• Doesn't overly like letting anyone see any real emotion (aside from the lighter reactions) - sometimes hides her features when something is genuine.
  
• Has self-worth issues from being adopted, and not really feeling 'part' of her adoptive family. Secretly doesn't believe she's worth anything, smart or deserves anything. Hides it all behind cockiness and a a completely confident self-assured facade.

Dreams:

• To find out why her real parents got rid of her.
  
• Getting rid of her weird 'abilities'.
  
• To feel like she belongs.
  
• To go to college - bad grades are going to make that unlikely right now though.
  

Fears:

• Whatever the hell she IS. It scares the crap out of her.
  
• Making attachments - they're just more people to lose or betray her later.
  
• Losing control of herself and hurting someone unintentionally.
  
• Going mad.
  
• Her nightmares / night-terrors.
  
• People finding out about her weird 'abilities'.
  
• Being a failure at life. Her grades are certainly turning her out that way.
  
• Her adoptive parents not loving her anymore.
  
• Being alone.
  
• Being forgotten.
  

Riley is a typical teen with a few of her own insecurities thrown in. Generally she projects an air of cocky mouthy self-confidence, from the manner she carries herself in to the casual style of her dress. She can be arrogant, hostile, rebellious, or sweet, funny, playful and compassionate but that's not exactly unexpected for a normal teenager trying to find herself, ontop of the issues she has with being adopted, poor self-worth and - oh yeah - those weird annoying things that keep happening to her. She knows shes some kind of freak, and hides it under as much self-assured arrogance as she can. Even so, she still has a tendency to act up for attention in her more insecure moments.
Riley is one of those girls that has to be surrounded by friends (both guys and gals), but never really lets anyone get too close. She needs them around her to feel popular and secure, but somehow it doesn't really help; she's still just as scared underneath. Learning early on that people (of her own age at least) seemed impressed by a girl with an attitude and finding it keeps people at arm's length, she will back-chat to anyone. She's certainly the type to still be mouthing off when she's actually truly terrified underneath.

History;
Parents' Marriage Status: Married.
Mother: Joyce Evans (Adoptive Mother).
Father: Tim Evans (Adoptive Father).
Brother: Max Evans (Adoptive Brother).

As far as Riley's past goes, there's not much to tell. No dark trauma or darkness that she remembers, in fact nothing to distinguish her from the other kids at high-school other than her adoption. She is simply a typical teenage girl, or so she thinks.

She was adopted by Joyce and Tim Evans, a housewife and an accountant respectively, just an average middle class family from the suburbs when she was six, quite late in adoption terms. She doesn't really have any memories of before that age or of her real parents, the odd flash or feeling, nothing more.
Since then, Riley had been blessed with a pretty decent upbringing. Her new parents and adoptive brother had done everything they could to make her transition easier. They had treated their new daughter with patient understanding, calmness, security and love. She was sent to good schools, taken to any extra-curricular clubs that she wanted, given all she could need but not spoiled, taught the differences between right and wrong, and yet still despite all their efforts Riley felt increasingly like an outsider. Her family did nothing to exclude her, in fact quite the opposite, but somehow she always felt on the fringes of their idyllic little world and a feeling of unease within the pleasant surroundings. Whether she herself has put the pressure on to be everything they want her to be, or if it truly comes from them she doesn't know - but she somehow feels she will never be what they want, the strange 'occurrences' that keep occurring around her only seem to add to this. She loves her them dearly though. They're the only family she's got.

Right now Riley's life is pretty standard. She's a senior in high-school, although it's looking like she's going to have to retake the year, she works at a coffee house as a waitress / barista on her Saturdays and sometimes during the week. Its a pretty ordinary life. As long as she doesn't let herself get emotional, then 'ordinary' flies out the window....