Reina DeLioncourte

Reina DeLioncourte,

this is gospel for the fallen ones

Away from the drinking, drugs and underground fighting arenas, Reina is very much like any other vibrant young lady, with an easy, roguishly beautiful smile, a gentle (if not terribly patient) down-to-earth manner, and a fondness for alcohol, fast cars, and wild parties. Her demeanor is easily that of the girl next door; not exactly pure as driven snow, but a far cry from the sadistic, vindictive hellion she came to be known as in her recent days as a fighter.

Or perhaps not. All elements of normality flee from Reina's being once the bell is rung, or a fight is started. That which is left behind is nothing short of an ungodly creature whose ferocity is thoroughly unparalleled by anyone in the sport; man, woman, living or dead. Reina is as skilled as she is vicious, often flowing about her opponents like water and striking with the quickness and power of a pit viper but is capable of doing anything to keep the advantage. She will resort to the foulest tactics imaginable, from clawing for the throat, eyes, or groin (male or female) to biting with her teeth and ripping or grinding. She believes that fighting is better than sex, should be as fun as possible (for her), and should not end until her opponent is properly maimed, crippled, or, if need be...killed. Winning is never her goal, though if she gets that big ‘W’, fine. But Reina fights to let something out, and will go to great lengths to maintain the high she feels in the face of someone she considers worthy. The few in Reina’s life that know her well enough to have seen her outside of the arena compared to how she is while fighting in that ring don’t recognize her in the least, which is to be expected: her life has seen her go from semi-sweet, fiercely determined thief, to a violent, defiant, aggressive fighter and back again, flitting between the two in fits of drunken rage to depressed apathy.

A truly gorgeous young lady whose latent gothic appearance serves only to enhance her exotic beauty. Reina has a naturally soft face, one that looks like it’s never been in a fight despite that being wholly untrue. Her nose is slightly crooked from being broken one too many times, and the scar she has on her face goes from one upper cheek and across her face, across her nose and stops abruptly across the other cheek. The scar isn’t ugly or huge by any means but it is colored white, which makes the most prominent feature on Reina’s countenance.

Reina’s voice is whiskey-on-the-rocks, deeper than most women and throaty, making her odd way of speech kind of a challenge to listen to, though she does her best to at least sound clear enough for other people to understand. She often mashes words together as she converses, and she never explains any foreign word she might spit out, usually giving an off hand gesture, a shrug and a ‘Oh, uhhh…ya’know…’ before trailing off and continuing whatever she was doing before.

Her eyes are mismatched, her left a beguiling shade of brown and her right a light ocean blue. They often look hooded or half-closed, giving her a far-too-relaxed appearance that borders on high or drunk. She wears he hair that falls down to the middle of her back braided on the left side of her skull, though she does switch sides every now and again. The rest is fine and silken, though she has a tendency to dye it into mixed shades of red, violet, blue, and black. Her deceptively compact figure is shapely, toned, and lithe as a blade from years of martial arts tutelage under her father, slender but very powerful. She has a graceful walk when she’s not fighting, her strides long and steps soft. When she’s in a fight her manner changes as does her form of movement; those strides become harder, her head bowed slightly as she keeps mismatched eyes on whatever target she locks onto.

On her back is adorned with a holographic tattoo, a beautiful red and golden phoenix that shimmers and seems to move even when she’s standing still. Down her right shoulder and arm is the phrase she coined after the abandonment of her loved ones; “The world is against me. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.” in intricate, gothic lettering. Reina often wears lighter shades that contrast sharply with her smooth brown skin, a tactic she learned that got her more noticed when looking to court someone. The scars that cover her arms, legs and body are never covered purposely as Reina covets them dearly. She believes that each one tells its own unique story and while she knows the true stories behind them she often exaggerates when doing so.

When in the ring, or whatever happens to pass for an arena when she’s fighting, Reina fashions a unique black sports halter top, navy blue/violet side slit leggings, and black combat boots polished to a high, reflective shine. Her hands are swaddled in white tape up to the middle of her forearms, and a small platinum ring decorates her exposed navel.


Reina dresses for comfort, first and foremost. That means black or white muscle shirts, loose fitting jeans that give her room to move, a leather jacket she favors when out and about, and her usual combat boots she almost always wears. Reina has taken to taping her fists up to her elbows, as they feel comfortable to her, and without them there she feels off, as if she’s wholly unprepared for some unknown event. Her glasses are varied, though aviators appear to be her favorite.

Reina’s most distinctive feature would probably be her holographic tattoo, a phoenix. It sweeps from Reina’s shoulder and down her back. Its tail begins as the form reaches the lower curve of her spine. Several long and delicate feathers spread on each side to the outer curve of her hips. The tattoo glows bright over her dark skin, often showing over any lighter clothing she wears.

Parents
Mother: Lily DeLioncourte (Deceased)
Father: Rellan DeLioncourte (Alive, Whereabouts unknown.)


“It was...inevitable.”

Reina never questioned her life, or how she lived it. She simply did what her father told her to do and stayed by her mother's side as often as she could. In all her years, the only thing she ever really wanted to do was stay by her mother. Everything seemed so much better with her there. She was the most beautiful person in the world as far as Reina was concerned. Her voice was always gentle, as she never raised her voice even when her husband was being temperamental and gruff. Her laugh melted fears and lightened moods. For years they wandered in search for...something, her father never told her. They stayed places for long periods of time, though, the searching being put off as her father would work in a city and Reina would stay at home with her mother, not doing much of anything other than practicing her drills and katas her father put her through.

Life carried on this way, staying in one place for a while before moving on. The young girl once overheard her father telling her mother that their 'resources' were running thin and their 'options were running out', but she didn't quite understand, at the time, what that meant. All she knew was that, towards her fifteenth birthday, her mother fell asleep and, for days, didn't wake up.

After that, her father seemed to be more somber, and eventually the trio settled in their homeland of Suraja. Her mother had always spoke fondly of the place despite not seeing it since she was a girl, and her father had agreed, not putting up much of a fuss as he normally did when they talked of moving. This made Reina worry, but she didn't mind because her mother had told her of Suraja and how beautiful it was. Her father, with his vast martial arts training and weapon knowledge, applied for and joined the City Guard while still continuing the lessons with his daughter. He seemed more detached during their lessons, though, and soon they stopped altogether as her father spent more and more time with his ailing wife and completely ignoring his daughter’s existence.

While she wanted to spend time with her mother too, Reina knew she couldn't, not with her father there. She grew angry at him as time slowly crept on, and the girl couldn't figure out why. So, like all teenagers, she started to go out and live life on her own, to see what life in Elios (the city they settled in) had to offer when she wasn't stuck at home or being growled at by her father. At first she wasn't impressed, not really. Life seemed pretty boring most of the time, with the only action coming from bars and various gentleman's clubs (her favorite being a place called The Wonders, as this was probably the start of her attraction towards women as she saw them dance) when people were tossed out or fights occurred. She looked forward to seeing them, wishing she could joining in before. And then a thought struck her; why not? Her father didn't seem to care and her mother was sleeping most of the week now. A little trouble never hurt anyone, right?

The training she endured under her father's watchful eye was...well, a bit much for the people she actually hurt in her first brawl. While the woman knew she could fight she had never really gauged her own strength against anyone other than her father, who was the strongest person she'd ever known. She ran from the scene of her own crime and, oddly enough, felt elated as opposed to guilty that she had shown her strength and dominated. She didn't make this a habit, of course, but she liked the taste of what she had wrought and wanted more.

The next time she was out enjoying the nightlife, the brunette was approached by a man who had seen Reina fight and was interested in 'recruiting' her. Not really knowing what she was being recruited for but Reina was confident she could easily talk (or if need be, fight) her way out of just about any situation. The man turned out to be a recruiter for a guild called The Cat's Paw Thieves Guild. He introduced her to an older woman named Sasha Strong, a fiery woman with long, flowing red hair and barley a stitch of clothing on her dark brown skin. The very sight of the woman sent shivers down Reina's spine, and she knew immediately that she'd do anything Sasha asked.

The redhead tested her in every way, combat to sneaking, breaking and entering, lockpicking, purse cutting. Reina wasn't the best pupil due to her lazy nature, but she did well enough for Sasha to declare her a 'natural...that is, if she could only get off her lazy ass to commit to something'. Reina didn't mind the harsh words, as those were being flung at her every day she returned home to her father, who now seemed to live at his wife's side. Reina didn't care, as now her time was spent learning how to be a thief, as well as catching only moments with her mother, who was now sleeping and only had few precious minutes of conciseness, though Reina was never there to see them.

Her father, now long expelled from the City Guard due to his lack of attendance, was no longer the breadwinner of the family; that act solely fell on Reina' shoulder and she rose to the occasion magnificently. The jobs she went on with Sasha were numerous, the loot plentiful. Reina used this money to get her first tattoo and continued to add to the collection as the days turned into weeks which turned into months. She didn't mind bringing home food and such, and her cooking skills only improved the more she tried it, as her father barley even fed himself anymore.

It was at this time that the would-be thief began to shine on her own. While Reina 'wasn't too shabby' at fighting (according to Sasha), it seemed as if her real talents lay in a different area; strategy. More specifically, the planning that happened when a plan fell apart and everything seemed to be going to hell and back. In several jobs, when hope looked bleak, Reina managed to pull not only herself but her fellow guild members out of the flames through some seemingly half-baked scheme that not only ended them getting out of the fryer, but with a bigger profit as well. Sasha would have thought, after a few times this happened, that her own guild was trying to prank her; how could some of those plans have worked? They were ludicrous and seemingly insane. And yet, somehow, Reina and the team she was with always seemed to pull through, and the stories that came of them became something the guild repeated many times over in the presence of each other.

Sasha never looked a gift horse in the mouth, however. She saw that maybe, in Reina, she had something that many rarely saw because she didn't let her ego to get in the way. Sasha was a rational thinker, and knew that Reina had not only real talent in the field of strategy and planning, but the more important ability to keep cool and calm under pressure which was just as, if not more, important to the guild than any other quality. Too often had Sasha seen a group fall apart and turn on each other (thieves being such fickle creatures and all) just to save themselves or get more loot. Sasha explored this side to her friend as often as she could, barking out scenarios and situations just to see how the brunette would handle it. She often got questions that baffled her (“Ah dunno, sweets...would’ah have access ta’candles, ah flask a’whiskey, three spoons an’a fork?”) but in the end, after many explanations, finally left it alone. The type of intuition that Reina displayed was seemingly otherworldly, but it was her own and unlikely to be understood by other that weren't inside of her brain.

Then, it all changed. Reina came home one night to find her father actually standing, a man next to him. For the first time in years Reina was witnessing her father weep, and the very scene broke something within her. The cause, of course, was obvious. The look on her mother's face was peaceful, but then again it always was. Reina, not really knowing how to handle such a situation, could do nothing but stand as the conversation between her father and the other man continued.

“Your daughter...does she know?”

Her father shook her head. “That she caused this? No. This...” He put his palms to his face, shaking with grief. “It was inevitable.”

The words seared into her mind, Reina fled and never looked back.

Sasha was thrilled, however, when Reina told her that she would be staying with the guild permanently now, and was immediately promoted to Sasha's Right Hand, a position that had been curiously vacant for numerous years. And while Reina’s heart grieved for her mother and the truth behind her death, it was from that point onward that Reina perfected a mask she placed between herself and the rest of the world. Not even Sasha, who took on Reina as a lover, breached those walls, though it wasn't from a lack of trying. And while in the beginning it was very much a lopsided relationship, with Sasha being dominant and very much in charge, the fact that they were equals in her eyes made things a tad more...complicated. But not by much.

During this stretch of time Reina took the time to learn bits and pieces of other martial arts that others in the guild knew in an effort to distance herself from her father and his training. It was hard, though, and his training never truly went away. It made her irrationally angry that her body moved in the way he’d taught her, so she decided to simply dilute the training with other forms of martial arts. After a great while she developed her own way of fighting, leaning towards fast movements, distracting feints and lots of trash talking. Sasha loved to watch her lover train and participated in more sparring sessions than anyone else was willing to do. Because of her rapid and rhythmic movements Reina was given the epithet of ‘The Bebop Samurai’ from the other members of The Cat’s Paw, a nickname Reina loved.

It was also during this time that Reina met a tattoo artist that gave those he felt worthy special tattoos with holographic ink, something the rest of the world had yet to see. After a fight where Reina not only impressed him with her fighting ability but also because she’d just won him a ton of cash, the man known as Sketch approached Reina with the offer of a tattoo that would ‘mark her as special unto the gods’. Reina agreed, if only because she wanted a tattoo to make herself look tougher and cooler. The final product, a phoenix, looked like it was hovering just a millimeter below the surface of her skin. It sweeps from Reina’s shoulder and down her back. Its tail begins as the form reaches the lower curve of her spine. Several long and delicate feathers spread on each side to the outer curve of her hips. The tattoo glows bright over her dark skin, often showing over any lighter clothing she wears.

Sasha loved the fact that Reina was around more often than not, the more time she spent with the girl (that now a being a full time thing) she also saw that Reina lacked in many areas in everyday life. While she knew several languages, Reina wasn't really what one would call 'book smart'. In fact, she was absolutely horrid when it came to things like reading or writing. There was also the problem of her social interactions; Reina hung around much older people and was absolutely fearless about talking to anyone about anything. She barley had a filter for her mouth, and her speech was rough and, while pleasing to the ear, very 'cavalier' for lack of a better term. While she herself loved it, she knew that Reina could do much better, and maybe the Cat's Paw wasn't a place for someone with so much potential.

Without hesitation Sasha pulled up anchor for The Cat's Paw in Elios and left without a second glance. She had drugged Reina and left her sleeping for almost two days while The Cat's Paw left the country to parts unknown, leaving the brunette in quite the state when she woke up.

Though that's not to say Sasha didn't leave her without something to live on. The amount of money Reina had due to Sasha's 'generosity' was quite significant and the brunette thief knew she could simply steal what she needed if it came to that. Though material problems were really at the bottom of the list as far as problems went for Reina. Abandoned by her father and her lover and friends, Reina's mask became hardened and uncaring. She takes jobs as she sees fit, denying ones that seem too petty and taking any job that could be considered a 'suicide mission'. She loves on drink and is barely ever sober and, to her, is really the only way to live. In recent months she’s taken to fighting in unlawful underground arenas where she’s a main attraction, though it’s mostly due to her unbeaten streak that continues to draw people in, almost salivating to see what bloody manner the dark skinned woman will fall.

It was a job she was offered that Reina ended up in Ethea, Dagos specifically, though truth be told she’d been looking for an excuse to leave the place for a while, though she lacked the courage and motivation to do so. Someone wanted her to steal some data or some such deal and Reina took it even though it was below her usual charging rate. The job was simple enough and a few weeks later Reina had found her own place to live and was already putting her feelers out for any underground fighting rings that might be about. Every day something seemed to pull her back home, but the dark skinned woman staunchly ignored it, filling her days with booze, women and fighting.

- Hacking I: Basic level hacking. You can disable one cybernetic upgrade for an hour, as well as adjust one sense of the cyborg (make them colorblind, make their sense of touch feel off, lower their hearing, scramble taste or smell reception, etc. You cannot cut off a sense entirely.)
Range: 15 feet

- Unarmed Combat I: You know the basics and can hold your own in a street fight.
The type of martial art or fighting style is up to you. We trust you to be realistic for what you can accomplish and not accomplish at being a general level one in unarmed combat.

Reina is a skilled dancer of many different styles of the world, but breakdancing (though sometimes likened to capoeira) is her favorite. She loves how unpredictable it can get and, when combined with other martial arts, seemed to make and endless flow of erratic movements that were hard or often impossible to predict or scout. Reina’s thought on her style is 'If ye nevah do da’same ting twice, how’kin someone tell what be’comin’?' She still takes bits and pieces from all the martial arts she does know, but she's never mastered a single one of them. Instead she takes what she believes would benefit her own style and adds it to her ever growing list of moves (already at an impossible amount) that she can summon up at any time in battle. And while her mind can recall the moves necessary to pull off the amazing feats she does in battle, what Reina doesn't admit to anyone is that a large part of what she does is simply 'making it up as she goes', which adds more unpredictability to her fights.

While her style is still rough at best, Reina believes it to be a supreme form that, if used properly, cannot be beaten. Her entire life since the style's inception is based around it, from her very build (being lean and athletic provides her with the speed necessary to pull of faster moves to dazzle and confuse) to the very way she simply walks seems to breath how much time and effort Reina has dedicated to her art. As such Reina is constantly looking for fights and stronger opponents, often offering to take on more than one challenger to prove her fighting prowess. And while one would assume she does this to show off, Reina doesn't. She fights to prove to herself she's the strongest, just like her father.


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Street Fighter V, Laura Matsuda as Reina DeLioncourte