Post by Nina Rivers on Apr 18, 2020 4:33:45 GMT -5
Nina Rivers
" Little girl inside the sea, slowly led up from the deep"
 | Age 19 Gender Female Faction Haven Academy Tier Sophomore Face Claim Kibami / Galko-chan OOC Name Jay |
Character Traits
Date of Birth: Jan. 1, 7 AV
Species: Faunus (Great White Shark; Teeth and Sense of Smell)
Romantic Orientation: Pansexual
Aura Color: Blue (Electric)
Height: 175 cm / 5'9"
Weight: 62 kg / 136 lb
Color Naming Rule: Nina is almost named after La Niña, one of Christopher Columbus's expedition's ships. Which is related to water, which is blue. Also Rivers is related to water, which is blue.
Species: Faunus (Great White Shark; Teeth and Sense of Smell)
Romantic Orientation: Pansexual
Aura Color: Blue (Electric)
Height: 175 cm / 5'9"
Weight: 62 kg / 136 lb
Color Naming Rule: Nina is almost named after La Niña, one of Christopher Columbus's expedition's ships. Which is related to water, which is blue. Also Rivers is related to water, which is blue.
Combat & Inventory
Waterworks
Rank of Semblance: D
Semblance Type: Manipulator (Water/Creation)
Primary Category: Hazard (+2)
Secondary Category: Combatants (+1)
One Sentence Summary of Semblance: Nina has the Manipulation semblance of Waterworks which allows the wielder to create and manipulate a sphere of water around herself.
Description of Semblance: With Waterworks, Nina is able to generate a sphere of water around herself, up to 15 m in diameter (length of a semi-truck), which she can then use to attack, by lashing out with “whips” of water. She can move while generating the water, and aside from her manipulation of it, it has the same properties as ordinary water. Powerful enough to slice through soft or thin metals.
Drawbacks of Semblance: Nina is not able to use existing water with her semblance, only water that she creates. This water is always at the ambient air temperature where she creates it, and she has no control over that. This means that she cannot create water with her semblance effectively in freezing temperatures, or in extreme heat, without Fire or Ice Dust (respectively) to counter the weather. In addition, she is vulnerable to electric attacks while submerged in her water, and she obviously cannot remain completely submerged, any longer than she can hold her breath underwater. Her semblance also requires a larger than average amount of Aura to use, with the sphere's creation burning around 15%, while regular use, after the sphere is made, burns less, but still more than the average Manipulator.
Widowmaker
Rank of Weapon(s): D
Category: Combatants (+2)
Description of Weapon(s): A two-sided, gold-colored trident with barbed prongs, roughly seven feet in length.
Non-Combat Abilities
Name of Noncombat Ability: Advanced Grimmology
Rank of Noncombat Ability: C
Category: Combatants (+4)
Description of Noncombat Ability: Nina has long held a passion for studying the intricate workings of the Grimm. When it comes to the common, garden-variety, Grimm types? (Up to her Grimmology rank) Her knowledge is encyclopedic, from their general behavior, to locations they are commonly found, to the general skill levels they possess. And as an added bonus, she has a completely unhealthy lack of fear related to them, for better or for worse. And, over the past year, she's been busy ditching Haven to go figure things out on her own, in the field. This has been a terrifying experience, but a promising one.
Name of Non-Combat Ability: Intermediate Wilderness Survival
Rank of Non-Combat Ability: E
Category: Hazard (+1)
Description of Non-Combat Ability: You spend as much time in the wilderness as Nina, you're bound to get pretty handy with a campfire and a compass. She's not anywhere near RWBY-equivalent Steve Irwin yet, but she can pack for a week-long camping trip like a pro.
Name of Non-Combat Ability: Basic Fishing
Rank of Non-Combat Ability: F
Category: Social (+0)
Description of Non-Combat Ability: All that time with the Seraphine family made a hardy fisher out of Nina. She can snag sardines, snappers, sailfins, swordfish, spotted shovelnoses and shortnosed sturgeons, with the best of'em. Or at least, she's better at it than your average Sally Sue with a rod and reel.
Name of Non-Combat Ability: Gacha Luck
Rank of Non-Combat Ability: E
Category: Social (+1)
Description of Non-Combat Ability: The Gods are merciful to Nina. The Gods of Remnant: Grand Order, at least- while many have tried and failed, she has stuck it out in RGO, and even when she came to Mistral for Vytal and had to make a new account on the MIS server, she got one solid 4 star Servant (Bianca Hunter), and her new favorite 2 star, some dude named Qiu'li. What a legend. Along the way, since then, she's grailed the best Berserker, but also some dope new Shielder named Braun? Cool guy.
Combat Abilities
Name of Combat Ability: Born and Bred (Swimming)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Obstacle (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: It would be a shame for a shark faunus like Nina not to be a capable swimmer- growing up on the shore of Menagerie taught her, and a passion for it kept her skills sharp. Especially in conjunction with her Semblance, which allows Nina to swim in the waters that she creates, this is definitely a skill that sets her apart from most. In water, Nina can swim at up to 44 km/h (as fast as Usain Bolt can run).
Name of Combat Ability: Sharkskin (Durability)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Hazard (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: Growing up between Menagerie and Vacuo has toughened Nina's Aura significantly; she can take a good bit of beating before she goes down, with a toughness like stone.
Name of Combat Ability: Whirlpool (Sem. Enhancement)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Combatants (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: Using the waters created by her semblance, Nina’s recently-developed signature skill allows her to turn the water surrounding her body into a whirling vortex that is incredibly difficult to escape. Effectively, this attack functions like a grapple with equivalent-rank Strength, requiring an opposing Strength skill to break free.
Name of Combat Ability: Vicious and Relentless (Strength)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Combatants (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: Nina, as a shark faunus, has a set of powerful, razor-sharp, teeth and jaws, allowing her to lift an insane 140-150 kg with her mouth alone, and giving her a fearsome bite.
Name of Combat Ability: Olfactory Accuracy (Martial Arts)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Social (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: While Nina is perhaps a bit too nearsighted to really see things very well, she makes up for it with a sharp sense of smell, granting her a very unique means of tracking and targeting her opponents, and the melee accuracy of local tournament fighter.
Rank of Semblance: D
Semblance Type: Manipulator (Water/Creation)
Primary Category: Hazard (+2)
Secondary Category: Combatants (+1)
One Sentence Summary of Semblance: Nina has the Manipulation semblance of Waterworks which allows the wielder to create and manipulate a sphere of water around herself.
Description of Semblance: With Waterworks, Nina is able to generate a sphere of water around herself, up to 15 m in diameter (length of a semi-truck), which she can then use to attack, by lashing out with “whips” of water. She can move while generating the water, and aside from her manipulation of it, it has the same properties as ordinary water. Powerful enough to slice through soft or thin metals.
Drawbacks of Semblance: Nina is not able to use existing water with her semblance, only water that she creates. This water is always at the ambient air temperature where she creates it, and she has no control over that. This means that she cannot create water with her semblance effectively in freezing temperatures, or in extreme heat, without Fire or Ice Dust (respectively) to counter the weather. In addition, she is vulnerable to electric attacks while submerged in her water, and she obviously cannot remain completely submerged, any longer than she can hold her breath underwater. Her semblance also requires a larger than average amount of Aura to use, with the sphere's creation burning around 15%, while regular use, after the sphere is made, burns less, but still more than the average Manipulator.
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Widowmaker
Rank of Weapon(s): D
Category: Combatants (+2)
Description of Weapon(s): A two-sided, gold-colored trident with barbed prongs, roughly seven feet in length.
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Non-Combat Abilities
Name of Noncombat Ability: Advanced Grimmology
Rank of Noncombat Ability: C
Category: Combatants (+4)
Description of Noncombat Ability: Nina has long held a passion for studying the intricate workings of the Grimm. When it comes to the common, garden-variety, Grimm types? (Up to her Grimmology rank) Her knowledge is encyclopedic, from their general behavior, to locations they are commonly found, to the general skill levels they possess. And as an added bonus, she has a completely unhealthy lack of fear related to them, for better or for worse. And, over the past year, she's been busy ditching Haven to go figure things out on her own, in the field. This has been a terrifying experience, but a promising one.
Name of Non-Combat Ability: Intermediate Wilderness Survival
Rank of Non-Combat Ability: E
Category: Hazard (+1)
Description of Non-Combat Ability: You spend as much time in the wilderness as Nina, you're bound to get pretty handy with a campfire and a compass. She's not anywhere near RWBY-equivalent Steve Irwin yet, but she can pack for a week-long camping trip like a pro.
Name of Non-Combat Ability: Basic Fishing
Rank of Non-Combat Ability: F
Category: Social (+0)
Description of Non-Combat Ability: All that time with the Seraphine family made a hardy fisher out of Nina. She can snag sardines, snappers, sailfins, swordfish, spotted shovelnoses and shortnosed sturgeons, with the best of'em. Or at least, she's better at it than your average Sally Sue with a rod and reel.
Name of Non-Combat Ability: Gacha Luck
Rank of Non-Combat Ability: E
Category: Social (+1)
Description of Non-Combat Ability: The Gods are merciful to Nina. The Gods of Remnant: Grand Order, at least- while many have tried and failed, she has stuck it out in RGO, and even when she came to Mistral for Vytal and had to make a new account on the MIS server, she got one solid 4 star Servant (Bianca Hunter), and her new favorite 2 star, some dude named Qiu'li. What a legend. Along the way, since then, she's grailed the best Berserker, but also some dope new Shielder named Braun? Cool guy.
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Combat Abilities
Name of Combat Ability: Born and Bred (Swimming)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Obstacle (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: It would be a shame for a shark faunus like Nina not to be a capable swimmer- growing up on the shore of Menagerie taught her, and a passion for it kept her skills sharp. Especially in conjunction with her Semblance, which allows Nina to swim in the waters that she creates, this is definitely a skill that sets her apart from most. In water, Nina can swim at up to 44 km/h (as fast as Usain Bolt can run).
Name of Combat Ability: Sharkskin (Durability)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Hazard (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: Growing up between Menagerie and Vacuo has toughened Nina's Aura significantly; she can take a good bit of beating before she goes down, with a toughness like stone.
Name of Combat Ability: Whirlpool (Sem. Enhancement)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Combatants (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: Using the waters created by her semblance, Nina’s recently-developed signature skill allows her to turn the water surrounding her body into a whirling vortex that is incredibly difficult to escape. Effectively, this attack functions like a grapple with equivalent-rank Strength, requiring an opposing Strength skill to break free.
Name of Combat Ability: Vicious and Relentless (Strength)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Combatants (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: Nina, as a shark faunus, has a set of powerful, razor-sharp, teeth and jaws, allowing her to lift an insane 140-150 kg with her mouth alone, and giving her a fearsome bite.
Name of Combat Ability: Olfactory Accuracy (Martial Arts)
Rank of Combat Ability: E
Category: Social (+1)
Description of Combat Ability: While Nina is perhaps a bit too nearsighted to really see things very well, she makes up for it with a sharp sense of smell, granting her a very unique means of tracking and targeting her opponents, and the melee accuracy of local tournament fighter.
Character Information
Vitals
Primary Drive: While she may generally come off as a bit of a slacker, Nina absolutely has some ambitions in her life. Notably, she is at Haven Academy in pursuit of one thing, and one thing only; she plans on using her Huntsman License to become a field Grimmologist, like her parents were, but better, because she'll have the proper combat training to actually defend herself in the field, allowing her to go after riskier, and more ambitious, targets. And a large part of her reason for doing that, is her quest to find the white whale-like Grimm that her father was pursuing before he died; one of her only real remaining memories of her parents. Finding that one would be the discovery of a lifetime, considering the sheer size of it, and being able to document it would be a massive achievement. If she couldn't kill it, she could at the very least keep track of its movements, and by doing that, help make sea travel a lot easier. Another of her long-term ambitions is to discover a method for preserving the bodies of dead Grimm, for study, as she believes that would be beneficial to the collective knowledge of Grimm anatomy, and importantly, how they function, and where they come from. But on a much deeper level, Nina's primary drive is one of curiosity, and scientific advancement. Most things she does, aside from her hobbies, relate back to those deeper impulses.
Fears: Nina's biggest fear in life is a hard one to pin down, but would very likely be a fear of betrayal. It's not something new for her; frankly, a lot of really common fears aren't, but betrayal in particular is something she isn't as able to easily shrug off as other things. It's happened many times before, and it always stings, every time. Repeated betrayals, while expected, hurt even more, and she fears on a different level entirely that one day, she might not be able to take any more; one more fake friend or backstabber might very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Another bigger fear of hers is claustrophobia- she doesn't do well with small spaces or restraints, especially if she's alone. The quickest way to get her to freak out is to leave her in a locked room. This stems largely from some of the more stressful times in her life, especially the time she spent on the ship to Menagerie with all the other kidnapped Faunus.
Also not really a fear, but she absolutely does not fuck with mayonnaise. And avoids stores that sell a bunch of perfume or candles; the smells make her nauseous.
Style of Self-Expression: Nina is pretty laid back, and about as comfortable with people, as she is on her own. Has a definite preference for Faunus, as far as making friends goes, but she wouldn't be likely to verbalize it. Surprisingly easygoing, to the extent that she can come off a little lazy or unmotivated, just sort of floating in one place. While she was a lot more verbose as a kid, she's grown into someone who makes a better listener than a conversation starter, although when it comes to one of her passions, she's happy to ramble on about them, endlessly. On the surface, she's chill and friendly, if a little weird, with a dark sense of humor, and few reservations about speaking her mind. And she's much the same underneath as well- she isn't the type to keep a bunch of secrets bottled up, if she has something to say, she says it, generally, with maybe a few exceptions, one of which being her opinions on her interactions with humans over her life; she's working on moving past some of those negative experiences, but it's something that takes time.
Most Important Thing: For Nina, she is generally pretty hard to offend, and harder to actually seriously upset. But one thing she can't tolerate is a bully. If she sees that someone is being kicked around by someone else, she can't help but to butt in and put a stop to it, no matter who is doing the bullying, even if she has to stop what she's doing to intervene.
In addition, she values freedom a great deal, which ties in with her fear of tight enclosed spaces a little bit; if she feels like her freedom to live and move and act freely is being threatened, there's a good chance that she will just straight up run, before considering any of the consequences or repercussions for doing so. To her, giving up even a small amount of her freedom is a violation that is too much to handle.
Primary Drive: While she may generally come off as a bit of a slacker, Nina absolutely has some ambitions in her life. Notably, she is at Haven Academy in pursuit of one thing, and one thing only; she plans on using her Huntsman License to become a field Grimmologist, like her parents were, but better, because she'll have the proper combat training to actually defend herself in the field, allowing her to go after riskier, and more ambitious, targets. And a large part of her reason for doing that, is her quest to find the white whale-like Grimm that her father was pursuing before he died; one of her only real remaining memories of her parents. Finding that one would be the discovery of a lifetime, considering the sheer size of it, and being able to document it would be a massive achievement. If she couldn't kill it, she could at the very least keep track of its movements, and by doing that, help make sea travel a lot easier. Another of her long-term ambitions is to discover a method for preserving the bodies of dead Grimm, for study, as she believes that would be beneficial to the collective knowledge of Grimm anatomy, and importantly, how they function, and where they come from. But on a much deeper level, Nina's primary drive is one of curiosity, and scientific advancement. Most things she does, aside from her hobbies, relate back to those deeper impulses.
Fears: Nina's biggest fear in life is a hard one to pin down, but would very likely be a fear of betrayal. It's not something new for her; frankly, a lot of really common fears aren't, but betrayal in particular is something she isn't as able to easily shrug off as other things. It's happened many times before, and it always stings, every time. Repeated betrayals, while expected, hurt even more, and she fears on a different level entirely that one day, she might not be able to take any more; one more fake friend or backstabber might very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Another bigger fear of hers is claustrophobia- she doesn't do well with small spaces or restraints, especially if she's alone. The quickest way to get her to freak out is to leave her in a locked room. This stems largely from some of the more stressful times in her life, especially the time she spent on the ship to Menagerie with all the other kidnapped Faunus.
Also not really a fear, but she absolutely does not fuck with mayonnaise. And avoids stores that sell a bunch of perfume or candles; the smells make her nauseous.
Style of Self-Expression: Nina is pretty laid back, and about as comfortable with people, as she is on her own. Has a definite preference for Faunus, as far as making friends goes, but she wouldn't be likely to verbalize it. Surprisingly easygoing, to the extent that she can come off a little lazy or unmotivated, just sort of floating in one place. While she was a lot more verbose as a kid, she's grown into someone who makes a better listener than a conversation starter, although when it comes to one of her passions, she's happy to ramble on about them, endlessly. On the surface, she's chill and friendly, if a little weird, with a dark sense of humor, and few reservations about speaking her mind. And she's much the same underneath as well- she isn't the type to keep a bunch of secrets bottled up, if she has something to say, she says it, generally, with maybe a few exceptions, one of which being her opinions on her interactions with humans over her life; she's working on moving past some of those negative experiences, but it's something that takes time.
Most Important Thing: For Nina, she is generally pretty hard to offend, and harder to actually seriously upset. But one thing she can't tolerate is a bully. If she sees that someone is being kicked around by someone else, she can't help but to butt in and put a stop to it, no matter who is doing the bullying, even if she has to stop what she's doing to intervene.
In addition, she values freedom a great deal, which ties in with her fear of tight enclosed spaces a little bit; if she feels like her freedom to live and move and act freely is being threatened, there's a good chance that she will just straight up run, before considering any of the consequences or repercussions for doing so. To her, giving up even a small amount of her freedom is a violation that is too much to handle.
History Freeform
A few years before the start of the Great War, Nina's parents were born, and it was in that stressful, trying, period of war time that they grew into the adults they were when she was born, seven years after the end of that conflict. Her father, Bruce, was a crocodile faunus, and her mother, Ariel, was a stingray faunus, so it came as a surprise to nobody that their only child would be born as an aquatic faunus as well- in her case, a great white shark faunus.
Bruce and Ariel were both scientists, and while they lived (reluctantly) in Menagerie, following the war, they traveled the nearby islands and what parts of Anima they were allowed to set foot in, with the ever-present resentment towards their kind. They were by no means the first of their profession, but they were the only ones Nina had ever met, from the time she was born, who spent their every waking hour wrapped up in the dark, horrible, mysteries of the Grimm- why did they hunt people? Why were they drawn to negativity? Where did they come from, what were they made of, how did they reproduce, how could they survive without ever being observed to eat?
For that purpose, they were relatively skilled fighters, though nowhere near the level of Huntsmen. And Nina was just starting to learn from them, to follow in their footsteps, at the young age of five years old, when the first of several tragedies befell her. On what should have been a fairly routine expedition to the coast of Anima, following the trail of her father's current obsession- a whale-like Grimm, absolutely massive, and coated almost entirely in the hard white bones that cover most Grimm. Reports of seeing it were few and far between, and there was a chance that the whale-like beast was only the stuff of rumors, but he'd heard of a tip out in one of the Mistrallian villages, so they were to set sail for Mistral at once.
Unfortunately, they didn't quite make it very far.
Upon reaching the coast, a band of anti-faunus extremists raided the ship, and in the ensuing bloodshed, her parents were killed, along with most of the expedition crew. However, by some stroke of luck, Nina and a single sailor survived, and under his wing, she was brought back to Menagerie, and from there, she was sent on a ship to her parents' homeland- Vacuo.
There, the young Nina would bear a letter, explaining the circumstances, travelling to her mother's home village- one of several nomadic settlements near the, at-that-time, long-standing village of Bulaani. She made the perilous journey, with the aid of a family friend, until she reached her Aunt's house.
Around this time, she took to exploring her new surroundings- she was still very young, and while she was old enough to understand that her parents were gone, she wasn't quite sure why, or how. The traumatic memories of the attack on their ship didn't stick well in her mind, and she adapted quickly to the new environment. Her Aunt was caring and kind, and encouraged the girl's exploration and curious mind. Around this time, she met her childhood best friend for the first time, on a trip into Bulaani where her Aunt traded at a market stall. Granado Clover- a solid two years older than her, and therefore someone she was intent on following around on his childhood adventures.
Under her Aunt's wing, she learned to thrive in the desert environment of Vacuo. As their settlement traveled by the coast often enough, she took comfort and solace in cliffdiving in the ocean, which she only got better and better at over time.
But these years, too, were not meant to last. Much like her parents, her Aunt too fell victim to a far worse enemy than the creatures of Grimm; humanity. Vacuo was a dangerous place, not only because of the Grimm, the desert, and the hostile nature of survival, but also because of numerous bandit caravans and bands of raiders. Among these, there were groups considered especially frightening- slavers, travelling in small bands. They snatched up any hapless villagers that were out alone, and it so happened that one day, Nina's Aunt matched that description. One day, when Nina was about eight, her sole caregiver disappeared, and never came back.
And so she was left alone once more. Not for long, however- her time spent playing with her friend in Bulaani led to one of the women living there taking an interest in her well-being. And so, Nina was taken in once again, not by family, but by a warm, friendly, young woman named Anaranjada "Ana" Atale, the younger sister of the locally well-known Team COAL's Tanga Atale. There, Nina spent another two years of her life, spending much of her time with Granado and his brothers (never the sister, though- she was too young, and really annoying). Ana took care of her and taught her much about the world, and the basic things any child should know, growing up in Vacuo- how to survive in the wilderness, what plants were safe to forage, how to keep watch for Grimm and bandits, and the like.
Then in 17 AV, the Faunus Wars took full bloom, largely localized in the other Kingdoms, and in the capital of Vacuo, but not as much in the villages. However, as Ana's sister moved to fight on the Faunus side of the conflict, with the rest of Team COAL, it was a hard choice for Ana to make. In the end, she chose to go off and fight in the war, leaving Nina in the care of a friend of hers, expecting that the fighting would be over soon enough that she could return for her.
Unfortunately, she hadn't chosen her friends well at all- Clay Stone was a hard man, and one with a distaste for Faunus. Not outwardly aggressive enough to join the war effort against them, but he believed firmly that the Faunus were a superior race than humans, which couldn't be allowed to coexist in the main kingdoms, if humans were to remain equal to them. Moving them all to Menagerie was only fair.
He was therefore never physically violent towards Nina, but his insults and open hostility to what he viewed as a burden placed on him (having not known that she was a Faunus until she was already on his doorstep) left a sour taste in her mouth. Then, in 19 AV, he was making plans to have her sent to Menagerie, along with a handful of other Faunus that had been rounded up by human supremacists in Vacuo City, when she overheard him, and made the decision to run.
She ended up making it back to Bulaani, on the back of a trader's cart, where she stayed, living in the attic of Granado's dad's workshop. She spent much of that year with him, and while they were already close, they grew closer, though at the same time, the cocky boy was making his plans to leave his family and his village, to go off to Mistral on his own. Nina tried talking him into staying, and then tried talking him into taking her with him, but neither option suited him, and eventually, after a year of talking, and nothing happening, and one night where she finally felt like he might stay, he disappeared without a word. She left immediately, to go looking for him, but destiny had other plans in store.
She was scooped up not far from the small village by the very same Faunus-catchers that Clay had attempted to send her off with before, and from there, she was bound on a ship back for Menagerie- she had little choice in the matter, as it was made clear that her choices were to comply, or die fighting back.
But as luck would have it, the ship bound for Menagerie made it close to the island, when it was overturned by some great force from beneath. Nina never saw what it was that flipped the vessel, freeing her from her captors, but she firmly believes that it had to have been the great, monstrous, white whale Grimm that her parents had died chasing. Regardless, she washed up ashore on an island in Menagerie, where she was found by Set Seraphine and his family.
And just like that, she had found herself a new home, once again.
She told the Seraphines her story, and they took pity on the poor girl. Set gave her a warm bed and a hot meal, and soon enough, Nina, at the age of thirteen, was put to work with the other Seraphine children on the fishing boats. Just as she'd gravitated towards Granado as a child, as the oldest kid she knew, she became fast friends with Slate, who was sixteen or seventeen at the time. She was someone Nina aspired to be like, so she followed her around on all of her wild adventures for the year or two that they lived together, before the war ended, and the White Fang formed in Menagerie, prompting Slate to leave on her own adventures.
Nina wanted to go with her, but at the time, she was still much too young, and she was hesitant to leave her new family, after seeing what it was like to be part of such a large one. Years of being mostly alone, but for one guardian and a few friends, primed the Seraphines to be something that stuck with her forever- their kindness and love was something she never even knew she needed until she finally had it. And so she stayed with them for a few more years after Slate's departure, helping with the fishing, learning from Set, and Selene, and all of her adoptive siblings, and studying at the White Fang's new school, until one day, going for a dive, she came across a familiar artifact; a trident, but like no other- long and double-sided, she recognized it immediately as the one her father had carried on those long-forgotten expeditions, in her youngest years.
It was decided then and there, that she would have to go out into the world and continue his life's work. And to do that, she would need many skills that she didn't have yet.
And so, after a long, heartfelt, conversation with Set and Selene, they finally conceded and allowed her to return to Vacuo to attend Shade Academy. Set himself sailed her out, on the long, arduous journey to Vacuo, and when she arrived, she once again felt truly alone, as his ship departed. But this was an important point in her life, and there was no going back.
She trained hard for a whole year, living on her own on the coast, honing her skills by tracking and hunting the smaller, weaker, Grimm she could find, and subsisting on fish that she caught on her own there. Finally, when she felt that she was ready, she made the long trek by foot with a caravan to the capital city, where she applied at Shade. After seeing her survival skills and her burgeoning combat skills in action, she was admitted as a rare applicant with no combat school training.
Shade was a very special kind of hell.
Dog-eat-dog, and filled with hyper-competitive classmates who weren't above fucking over their peers to get ahead. She wasn't cut out for that sort of environment, and she learned that about herself very quickly, especially when she was grouped into a team with Tanner Brown, Amarelo Clover, and Nilla Strauss. Tanner was an unbearable asshole who only cared about being the strongest, Nilla was violent, aggressive, and enjoyed nothing more than picking a fight, and Amarelo was as obnoxious as she remembered him being, from their few interactions in Bulaani. Her team was terrible, and the only solace she had at Shade was the knowledge that Tanga Atale was her professor, and by extension, Ana knew once and for all that Nina was okay, after years of wondering where she'd gone.
But she got her chance to leave a year into her education at Shade- she'd heard from her professors and her worldlier classmates of Haven's difficulties with The Fall, and their need for new students. So the first chance she got, she signed her team up for the Vytal Festival- something that, for once, the four of them were in agreement on. Her plan was to travel to Mistral for the Festival, and once there, submit a transfer request to Haven.
And after her Vytal fights, she was informed that the transfer had been approved, to her excitement. Surely Haven had to be better than Shade. All she had to do was pass the new entrance tests, which was easy enough for her- she aced entrance exams, by a wide margin, using her knowledge of Grimm and the wilderness to easily pass the forest survival test, her skills with her weapon and her semblance to demolish the competition in the combat test, and passing the psychological test was easy enough- while she'd been through a good deal of trauma over the course of her life, she'd coped with it all remarkably well, and while her unhealthy interest in the Grimm was unusual and a possible cause for concern down the line, it wasn't entirely a red flag. So her transfer request was accepted, and she was allowed to begin at Haven Academy a short two-three weeks or so after the Vytal Festival, during which time she explored her new home- the city of Mistral.
-------------------------
Father: Bruce Rivers - Dead
Mother: Ariel Rivers - Dead
Debatably-Dad: Set Seraphine
Mostly-Mom: Selene Seraphine
Sorta-Sister: Slate Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Shea Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Sterling Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Smoke Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Soda Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Strait Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Shore Seraphine
A few years before the start of the Great War, Nina's parents were born, and it was in that stressful, trying, period of war time that they grew into the adults they were when she was born, seven years after the end of that conflict. Her father, Bruce, was a crocodile faunus, and her mother, Ariel, was a stingray faunus, so it came as a surprise to nobody that their only child would be born as an aquatic faunus as well- in her case, a great white shark faunus.
Bruce and Ariel were both scientists, and while they lived (reluctantly) in Menagerie, following the war, they traveled the nearby islands and what parts of Anima they were allowed to set foot in, with the ever-present resentment towards their kind. They were by no means the first of their profession, but they were the only ones Nina had ever met, from the time she was born, who spent their every waking hour wrapped up in the dark, horrible, mysteries of the Grimm- why did they hunt people? Why were they drawn to negativity? Where did they come from, what were they made of, how did they reproduce, how could they survive without ever being observed to eat?
For that purpose, they were relatively skilled fighters, though nowhere near the level of Huntsmen. And Nina was just starting to learn from them, to follow in their footsteps, at the young age of five years old, when the first of several tragedies befell her. On what should have been a fairly routine expedition to the coast of Anima, following the trail of her father's current obsession- a whale-like Grimm, absolutely massive, and coated almost entirely in the hard white bones that cover most Grimm. Reports of seeing it were few and far between, and there was a chance that the whale-like beast was only the stuff of rumors, but he'd heard of a tip out in one of the Mistrallian villages, so they were to set sail for Mistral at once.
Unfortunately, they didn't quite make it very far.
Upon reaching the coast, a band of anti-faunus extremists raided the ship, and in the ensuing bloodshed, her parents were killed, along with most of the expedition crew. However, by some stroke of luck, Nina and a single sailor survived, and under his wing, she was brought back to Menagerie, and from there, she was sent on a ship to her parents' homeland- Vacuo.
There, the young Nina would bear a letter, explaining the circumstances, travelling to her mother's home village- one of several nomadic settlements near the, at-that-time, long-standing village of Bulaani. She made the perilous journey, with the aid of a family friend, until she reached her Aunt's house.
Around this time, she took to exploring her new surroundings- she was still very young, and while she was old enough to understand that her parents were gone, she wasn't quite sure why, or how. The traumatic memories of the attack on their ship didn't stick well in her mind, and she adapted quickly to the new environment. Her Aunt was caring and kind, and encouraged the girl's exploration and curious mind. Around this time, she met her childhood best friend for the first time, on a trip into Bulaani where her Aunt traded at a market stall. Granado Clover- a solid two years older than her, and therefore someone she was intent on following around on his childhood adventures.
Under her Aunt's wing, she learned to thrive in the desert environment of Vacuo. As their settlement traveled by the coast often enough, she took comfort and solace in cliffdiving in the ocean, which she only got better and better at over time.
But these years, too, were not meant to last. Much like her parents, her Aunt too fell victim to a far worse enemy than the creatures of Grimm; humanity. Vacuo was a dangerous place, not only because of the Grimm, the desert, and the hostile nature of survival, but also because of numerous bandit caravans and bands of raiders. Among these, there were groups considered especially frightening- slavers, travelling in small bands. They snatched up any hapless villagers that were out alone, and it so happened that one day, Nina's Aunt matched that description. One day, when Nina was about eight, her sole caregiver disappeared, and never came back.
And so she was left alone once more. Not for long, however- her time spent playing with her friend in Bulaani led to one of the women living there taking an interest in her well-being. And so, Nina was taken in once again, not by family, but by a warm, friendly, young woman named Anaranjada "Ana" Atale, the younger sister of the locally well-known Team COAL's Tanga Atale. There, Nina spent another two years of her life, spending much of her time with Granado and his brothers (never the sister, though- she was too young, and really annoying). Ana took care of her and taught her much about the world, and the basic things any child should know, growing up in Vacuo- how to survive in the wilderness, what plants were safe to forage, how to keep watch for Grimm and bandits, and the like.
Then in 17 AV, the Faunus Wars took full bloom, largely localized in the other Kingdoms, and in the capital of Vacuo, but not as much in the villages. However, as Ana's sister moved to fight on the Faunus side of the conflict, with the rest of Team COAL, it was a hard choice for Ana to make. In the end, she chose to go off and fight in the war, leaving Nina in the care of a friend of hers, expecting that the fighting would be over soon enough that she could return for her.
Unfortunately, she hadn't chosen her friends well at all- Clay Stone was a hard man, and one with a distaste for Faunus. Not outwardly aggressive enough to join the war effort against them, but he believed firmly that the Faunus were a superior race than humans, which couldn't be allowed to coexist in the main kingdoms, if humans were to remain equal to them. Moving them all to Menagerie was only fair.
He was therefore never physically violent towards Nina, but his insults and open hostility to what he viewed as a burden placed on him (having not known that she was a Faunus until she was already on his doorstep) left a sour taste in her mouth. Then, in 19 AV, he was making plans to have her sent to Menagerie, along with a handful of other Faunus that had been rounded up by human supremacists in Vacuo City, when she overheard him, and made the decision to run.
She ended up making it back to Bulaani, on the back of a trader's cart, where she stayed, living in the attic of Granado's dad's workshop. She spent much of that year with him, and while they were already close, they grew closer, though at the same time, the cocky boy was making his plans to leave his family and his village, to go off to Mistral on his own. Nina tried talking him into staying, and then tried talking him into taking her with him, but neither option suited him, and eventually, after a year of talking, and nothing happening, and one night where she finally felt like he might stay, he disappeared without a word. She left immediately, to go looking for him, but destiny had other plans in store.
She was scooped up not far from the small village by the very same Faunus-catchers that Clay had attempted to send her off with before, and from there, she was bound on a ship back for Menagerie- she had little choice in the matter, as it was made clear that her choices were to comply, or die fighting back.
But as luck would have it, the ship bound for Menagerie made it close to the island, when it was overturned by some great force from beneath. Nina never saw what it was that flipped the vessel, freeing her from her captors, but she firmly believes that it had to have been the great, monstrous, white whale Grimm that her parents had died chasing. Regardless, she washed up ashore on an island in Menagerie, where she was found by Set Seraphine and his family.
And just like that, she had found herself a new home, once again.
She told the Seraphines her story, and they took pity on the poor girl. Set gave her a warm bed and a hot meal, and soon enough, Nina, at the age of thirteen, was put to work with the other Seraphine children on the fishing boats. Just as she'd gravitated towards Granado as a child, as the oldest kid she knew, she became fast friends with Slate, who was sixteen or seventeen at the time. She was someone Nina aspired to be like, so she followed her around on all of her wild adventures for the year or two that they lived together, before the war ended, and the White Fang formed in Menagerie, prompting Slate to leave on her own adventures.
Nina wanted to go with her, but at the time, she was still much too young, and she was hesitant to leave her new family, after seeing what it was like to be part of such a large one. Years of being mostly alone, but for one guardian and a few friends, primed the Seraphines to be something that stuck with her forever- their kindness and love was something she never even knew she needed until she finally had it. And so she stayed with them for a few more years after Slate's departure, helping with the fishing, learning from Set, and Selene, and all of her adoptive siblings, and studying at the White Fang's new school, until one day, going for a dive, she came across a familiar artifact; a trident, but like no other- long and double-sided, she recognized it immediately as the one her father had carried on those long-forgotten expeditions, in her youngest years.
It was decided then and there, that she would have to go out into the world and continue his life's work. And to do that, she would need many skills that she didn't have yet.
And so, after a long, heartfelt, conversation with Set and Selene, they finally conceded and allowed her to return to Vacuo to attend Shade Academy. Set himself sailed her out, on the long, arduous journey to Vacuo, and when she arrived, she once again felt truly alone, as his ship departed. But this was an important point in her life, and there was no going back.
She trained hard for a whole year, living on her own on the coast, honing her skills by tracking and hunting the smaller, weaker, Grimm she could find, and subsisting on fish that she caught on her own there. Finally, when she felt that she was ready, she made the long trek by foot with a caravan to the capital city, where she applied at Shade. After seeing her survival skills and her burgeoning combat skills in action, she was admitted as a rare applicant with no combat school training.
Shade was a very special kind of hell.
Dog-eat-dog, and filled with hyper-competitive classmates who weren't above fucking over their peers to get ahead. She wasn't cut out for that sort of environment, and she learned that about herself very quickly, especially when she was grouped into a team with Tanner Brown, Amarelo Clover, and Nilla Strauss. Tanner was an unbearable asshole who only cared about being the strongest, Nilla was violent, aggressive, and enjoyed nothing more than picking a fight, and Amarelo was as obnoxious as she remembered him being, from their few interactions in Bulaani. Her team was terrible, and the only solace she had at Shade was the knowledge that Tanga Atale was her professor, and by extension, Ana knew once and for all that Nina was okay, after years of wondering where she'd gone.
But she got her chance to leave a year into her education at Shade- she'd heard from her professors and her worldlier classmates of Haven's difficulties with The Fall, and their need for new students. So the first chance she got, she signed her team up for the Vytal Festival- something that, for once, the four of them were in agreement on. Her plan was to travel to Mistral for the Festival, and once there, submit a transfer request to Haven.
And after her Vytal fights, she was informed that the transfer had been approved, to her excitement. Surely Haven had to be better than Shade. All she had to do was pass the new entrance tests, which was easy enough for her- she aced entrance exams, by a wide margin, using her knowledge of Grimm and the wilderness to easily pass the forest survival test, her skills with her weapon and her semblance to demolish the competition in the combat test, and passing the psychological test was easy enough- while she'd been through a good deal of trauma over the course of her life, she'd coped with it all remarkably well, and while her unhealthy interest in the Grimm was unusual and a possible cause for concern down the line, it wasn't entirely a red flag. So her transfer request was accepted, and she was allowed to begin at Haven Academy a short two-three weeks or so after the Vytal Festival, during which time she explored her new home- the city of Mistral.
-------------------------
Father: Bruce Rivers - Dead
Mother: Ariel Rivers - Dead
Debatably-Dad: Set Seraphine
Mostly-Mom: Selene Seraphine
Sorta-Sister: Slate Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Shea Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Sterling Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Smoke Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Soda Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Strait Seraphine
Barely-Brother: Shore Seraphine
