“Storm” Character Profiles: Rheom
Pronunciation: r-heɪ-oʊm
Race: Taush
Age: 44 (but they have marginally longer lifespans than humans)
Pronouns: They/Them
Height: 6′ 1′’
Body type: Thick literally everywhere, a solid wall of muscle, four beefy arms, square jaw, big nose, small pointed ears
Hair: Long and dust-brown, worn in a tight bun or free-flowing depending on the wind
Skin color: Dark grayish brown, rough
Other facts:
Scavenger/explorer/wanted criminal
Incapable of sitting still (literally and figuratively)
Fascinated — to the point of puppy-like eagerness — by everything that exists
Stone Cold Rebel (not really, but they do break a lot of rules “for the greater good”)
Always DTF and doesn’t mind saying so
Could make friends with a hyena given enough time to charm it
Secretly vain about their appearance
Not-so-secretly vain about a lot of things
Early Life:
Rheom’s life circumstances were intrinsically tied to the state of their people, the Taush. Taushar lost a huge portion of its population in reckless experiments and expeditions over the course of centuries, and because reproduction is intensely difficult for their species, it was hard to repopulate. By the time Rheom was born, children were so rare and so prized that they were treated like glass their entire childhood.
Rheom was born into a fairly small community, a village that made its home in one of the southern valleys, rather than the mountains like most of the Taush. These valley communities lived simpler lives than their metropolitan neighbors.
As the only child in the village, Rheom wasn’t allowed to wander, or go anywhere alone, and always had some adult’s watchful eye on them. Since all children are raised by the community in which they are born, and it's relatively inconsequential who conceives or births a child, no Taush child ever has “parents,” but they usually end up with about 100 parental figures. Such was the case with Rheom. They got so sick of supervision, they would try to sneak out at every opportunity, and always got caught.
But Rheom, insatiably curious, learned from their elders how to farm and take care of livestock, and learned to climb the nearby mountains (with a thousand safe-guards and spotters, of course), and learned how to repair and build almost every piece of equipment and technology in the village, from personal computers to wind turbines. It was a good life!
But they would listen to older folks tell stories of the good old days, when the Taush were permitted to explore, invent, and travel outside their own planet. Space travel was forbidden from all Taush except those selected for patrol. Rheom, sheltered their whole life, knew that they wanted to see all there was to see of the universe. So they decided at a very young age that they would become a patroller.
When they got older and wanted to move to a larger city to widen their opportunities, the village came together for a town hall meeting to decide if it would be allowed, and who would go with them. But at that point Rheom was a teenager, and their value was rapidly declining in society. So the village allowed Rheom to leave with just one chaperone: Ashan, an old harvester (someone who climbs the nearby mountains to harvest moss) who Rheom had always been close to.
Adulthood:
When they reach Shaure, the capital city of Taushar, Ashan keeps an eye on Rheom but never forbids them from doing anything, essentially taking off a leash that Rheom has worn their entire life. So Rheom explores the city and gets to know everyone they can. They eat everything, drink everything and fuck everyone. They’re really living their best life.
After a few years, when they’re finally old enough to join the patrol force, Ashan leaves them with some words of good luck and a teary goodbye, and Rheom is left on their own for the first time in their life. Granted, no one on Taushar is ever really alone, because even Shaure functions as a communal society. But this is the first time they’ve had such freedom. It goes a little bit to their head.
They’re charming and funny, attractive and well loved, and once they get used to getting away with everything it’s very easy to think that’s how it’s going to be forever. But the patrol force is very regulated. Travel outside of Taush space is expressly forbidden, and their entire job is just to skirt the borders and make sure no one’s trying to get in. Rheom realizes too late that even joining the force won’t satisfy their curiosity. Everything they’ll see has been seen before. After less than a year as a patroller, they’re already bored to tears, and that boredom festers.
Over the years as they grow and learn and work, a seed starts growing in their mind. They realize that Taush culture is stagnant, that their people have become so afraid of failure that they refuse to innovate or create, or even try to. Rheom takes this as a personal offense, because if they can see how amazing their people have the potential to be, why can’t the rest of Taushar?
Rheom’s boredom with their job, combined with this dissatisfaction with Taush society, inspires them to break out of Taush space. It starts with little rebellions, just barely crossing the border every once in a while as if dipping their toes in a cold stream. But eventually, they actively fly to planets outside Taush space to see what they can find. They think that if they can just encounter some useful new technology, some fascinating new biology, or some untouched new society to inspire change in their people, maybe the borders will fall, and the curiosity that once defined the Taush (and still defines Rheom) may return.
Their supervisors, of course, notice Rheom’s deviation from their assignment, and are not pleased. Taushar calls Rheom back, and Rheom — in a fit of recklessness that would make their ancestors proud — refuses, stealing their assigned ship and fucking off past Taush borders. Rheom becomes a renegade, a defector, and therefore a wanted criminal. But they’re sure that they can be forgiven if they just find something incredible past that frontier, and bring it home to their people.
What they find will eventually change everything. Not just for the Taush, but for humanity, the Dris and the entirety of the galaxy. And what they find, or rather, who they find, will offer them a partnership based on difference rather than commonality, an opportunity to learn about the universe through the eyes of someone else and find beauty and wonder in things they have taken for granted. (Spoiler: In addition to universe-changing discoveries, they find Rory, who’s sweet and introspective and scared, who maybe needs to see the universe differently, too, and who helps Rheom find satisfaction in a life that has never quite been enough.)
Tagging: @toboldlywrite, @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables, @writingrosesonneptune, and @unpickingthetangles! Let me know if you want on or off the “Storm” tag list!