Name: Riley Takeda Occupation: Public Defender Age:Â 31 (December 2) Sexuality: Queer Pronouns: She/They Species: Werewolf Clan/Pack/Coven:Â No Pack Hometown: San Diego, California Relationship Status: Single Personality Traits: Resourceful, Argumentative, Compassionate, Perceptive, Blunt, Obsessive, Hedonistic, Stubborn, Fair
Biography (tw: child abuse, body horror, gaslighting; does it count as cannibalism if it's a werewolf?, suicidal ideation, parental death)
The first time she sees her father's wolf is when she is six years old. She hadn't been watching where she was going and accidentally knocked a picture frame over, shattering the glass. Cold eyes flashed amber, and her tiny arm snapped like a toothpick under his grip. The break has healed by the time her mother takes her to the medical center on base, telling the nurses she was complaining of a 'sore arm'. X-rays are taken, doctors and nurses examine her, and none of them can find anything wrong with her.
'She fell while she was playing. You know how kids are. I just wanted to make sure my baby girl was okay, you know? She's everything to me.'
Badges and patches adorn the front of her mother's uniform, similar to the ones on her fathers, and no one questions the odd occurrence. Kids are hardy little creatures, they bounce back quick. Riley learns quickly to do everything she can to stay out of the way, but the temper of a born werewolf with combat PTSD is a dangerous combination. Her mother continues to look away, the extent of her care amounting to taking them to the hospital once the visible marks had faded. It seems to reassure her that it's fine as long as there is no lasting physical damage. By twelve, Riley had a reputation for having psychosomatic symptoms, and in the end, she knew they were never going to help her anyways.
The first moon nearly kills her. Her father forces her to share the same small bunker with him to monitor her progress. One by one, her bones shatter and agony flickers through every nerve ending. She fights it, terrified of becoming exactly like the monster that her father was, who wouldn't be able to control the violent, bloodthirsty urges. He is a wolf within the first 90 minutes, while she writhes in pain for the next three hours. He snarls at her, and she knows he is telling her to hurry up, can still read the hatred in his eyes even in lupine form. Her throat is hoarse from screaming by the time the transformation finishes.
The details of that night are a blur, but she will never forget waking up a pool of sticky, drying blood, and her father smiling at her for the first time that she could remember. With a glint in his eye like he was proud of her. He showed her what her wolf left behind, the remains of two campers, ripped to shreds by their jaws. Her belly was full and she could taste blood at the back of her throat, flesh stuck between her teeth and Riley wretched. The proud smile disappears. When he starts beating her, she thinks he might actually kill her this time. Distantly, she hopes for it, but her mother once more intervenes. Riley isn't sure which one she hates more. Her father for hurting her in the first place, or her mother, for thinking that she is saving her.
Riley runs away as soon as her wounds have healed enough. A haphazard plan born out of desperation. There's no one she can turn to, nowhere she knows to go, so she picks a direction and sticks with it. She blends in as best she can, taking a bus as far east as Arizona with the money she had saved up. When the attendant asks where they're going and whether they have an adult with them, they calmly meet his eye and lie through their teeth, explaining that their grandparents are meeting them at the other end. The man is charmed by their politeness, doesn't see anything outright wrong with the situation and tells them to enjoy their trip. He even slips them an extra packet of crackers when he walks back down the aisle to check on things.
The first place they go after getting off the bus is the nearest library. It's four in the afternoon, and Riley doesn't look out of place as they walk among the aisles. They find books on local flora and fauna, with basic survival guides and tips on how to forage for food. They find an open computer and begin to take notes, carefully copying down information on anything they could get their hands on. They don't notice the librarian watching curiously as they scurry back and forth through the aisles.
When the library closes, she stops Riley as she is putting all of the books back in their rightful spot, and offers her a place to stay for the night. The young wolf hesitates, but it's getting dark and while she is still adamant about getting away from her parents, she also doesn't remember the last time she'd spent the night away from them. Were they looking for her? Would they be furious? Either way, the offer of an actual bed and a warm meal is too tempting to turn down and Riley agrees.
She ends up staying with the librarian for ten days, and leaves before the next full moon. It's the nicest ten days Riley remembers in her fourteen years. The woman seems to understand the jumpiness and wariness, not offended when Riley flinches away or bothered when she asks questions about anything and everything that she'd read about. Sometimes Riley wonders what might have happened if she had stayed and told the librarian the truth about the wolf. If she would have taken it in stride like everything else and helped, or if Riley had done the right thing to spare her the knowledge of monsters.
Riley realizes after a month that her parents aren't looking for her. There aren't any news bulletins or amber alerts warning the public to keep an eye out for her. She wonders if they think so little of her that they assume she would come back on her own, or do they simply not care to look at all? Rather than dwelling on that unanswerable question, she slowly makes her way across the country. The werewolf works where she can, and public libraries become her refuge. She reads about any topic that strikes her interest, absorbing all sorts of knowledge not just about survival in the wilderness, but also about the human systems that failed her. And every month, she forces wolfsbane down her throat and chains herself to the sturdiest tree she can find to keep the wolf from getting loose.
Riley makes it to New York City by the time she's 18. She enrolls in the city college under her real name and waits a few weeks for her parents to find her, but no one comes knocking. After a few months, she has settled into a routine of working shitty retail jobs while attending night classes. Her attendance is good and her work product solid enough to excuse the occasional absence on full moon nights. It becomes an actual life that Riley begins to feel like is hers. She gets her degree and goes on to law school, falls in love for the first time, and quickly learns why first loves are hard to maintain when you are hiding a second life.
'Your father is dying. You have let this go on long enough.'
Honestly, she doesn't recall the details of that night either, just remembers frustration and yelling, slamming of doors and tears. Then silence. Riley flies back to San Diego in the morning.
The man she finds is a shell of the one who occupied her nightmares, and that alone was worth coming back. To be in the room and watch as he took his final breath, knowing he could never torment her again. The grief takes her mother a few months later. She would probably say something corny and cliche about wolves mating for life. Riley buries them both with their military honors and only cradles her right arm during the funerals before flying back to New York.
Work consumes her and Riley lets it. She sees what the most depraved people in the world are willing to do, human and supernatural alike. She fights to keep innocent people from being locked up in a system that treats them like monsters, when she knows that there are much worse things out there. Recently, she has made her way to Port Leiry for a change of pace and an attempt to rectify past mistakes. When she isn't fighting the state over the inequalities that are in the human world as a public defender, Riley tries her best to offer pro bono services to people in the supernatural world who need a supernatural lawyer for whatever reason.
Plot Ideas
Legal-Adjacent - In legal trouble of the criminal variety? Think the state is discriminating against you? As a PD, Riley provides a first line of defense for people against the human legal system. These can be human or supernatural creatures who are having issues with the law, whether they know about supernatural creatures or not. Riley is a bleeding heart who cares too much for her own good. She also has a natural animosity towards police and prosecutors, particularly those who blindly uphold a corrupt system.
Pack / Fellow Wolves - Riley is a born wolf who has never been part of a traditional pack. Until she ended up in New York with her re-entry into society, the only experience she'd had with another werewolf was her father, which was not a pleasant relationship to say the least. She has an instinctive fear response to other wolves, and has no desire to join a pack.
People at New Moonlight - Riley volunteers at New Moonlight when she is able to, though her work schedule makes it difficult to do so with any regularity. But she's become a regular and friendly face to those who frequent the shelter and other volunteers.
Connections
The Ex (Aria Boughton) - Riley and Aria dated for several years back in New York, and she is a large reason why Riley relocated to the west coast after learning that Aria had moved to a supernatural hotspot. However, they had been too late to warn her before she was turned.
The Dad Figure (Matteo Lazkano) - Rileyâs daddy issues generally manifest as a chip on her shoulder and a deep suspicion towards men. However, after crossing paths with Matteo several times in the courthouse, she learned to regard him with respect for giving a damn about some of these kids (maybe herself included).
