Name: Rachel Agnes Collison
Age : 16
Height : 5' 4"
Weight : 87 lbs
Eyes : brown
Hair : Black. She keeps it neatly braided or in a bun, most of the time. When braided, it hangs about halfway down her back.
Build: Rachel is extremely skinny. Dangerously so.
Occupation: High school student (junior)
Character Appearance (Human): The first thing people generally notice about Rachel is how skinny she is. In fact, she is dangerously underweight, appearing almost emaciated, and has been diagnosed with
Anorexia nervosa. She usually wears baggy and/or layered clothing to hide her perceived fatness. It is usually long-sleeved as well, as she has a harder time keeping herself warm. Rachel has almost no breasts or curves to speak of, despite her age, because of her eating disorder.
((Image of a person with
anorexia nervosa, if you think images like this might disturb you in some manner, please don't click on the link ))
She has long, black hair, which she keeps neatly braided or in a bun, most of the time. When she has her hair in the braid, it falls about halfway down her back. Her eyes are a semi-dark brown and have a slightly "haunted" look about them, partially due to her lack of body fat. She has a somewhat shy smile and her face has a slightly pinched look to it. Rachel also tends to wear a lot of makeup.
A Tsimshian woman. A vauge idea of what Rachel's (healthy) facial features might look like,
Character Background: Rachel was born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Both her parents were decended from the Northwest Costal Native Peoples, her mother born in Prince Rupert, her father, the United States (Washington.) Because her parents' people (the
Tsimshian) are a matrilinial people, she was born into her mother's clan, the Gisbutwada (Killerwhale). She was the last of three children and the only girl born to the couple.
The family lived in Prince Rupert with Rachel's maternal grandmother. Her father worked as a tour guide, driving people around the city and surrounding areas in buses, while also giving them history and trivia about the area. Her mother worked as a receptionist for one of the dentists in town. Between her parents and her grandmother, Rachel grew up learning the history and stories of her ancestors. She loved having her grandmother tell her the old stories as she was tucked into bed at night as a little girl and grew to know them well.
Although her parents didn't make a great deal of money between them, they tried to make sure that their children were active and got them all involved in a aport of some kind. Her eldest brother played little league baseball and then football as he got into highschool. Her other brother ended up playing soccer. Rachel chose gymnastics. While she was never the best, the program in Prince Rupert was fairly laid back, and so she still had fun with it, specializing in the floor routine and beam.
When Rachel was 14, her grandmother passed away, and life suddenly became very different for Rachel. After a few months, despite Rachel's protests, the family decided to move to Washington to live closer to her father's relatives, as they had no more living family in Canada. They moved to Seattle, where Rachel chose to continue with her gymnastics after the move, hoping to help keep her mind off of her grandmother.
She found gymnastics to be much more competitive here, however. The new coach pushed her girls hard and wasn't above kicking someone out if she thought they weren't up to snuff. Between knowing, from before, that she wasn't the one of the best gymnasts, and the occasional negative comments from her coach, Rachel felt pressured to better herself somehow. To her slightly OCD influenced mind, this translated into eating less, and practicing more, so that she could be as skinny and good as the top gymnasts in the group. She also hoped that her coach would see how much time and effort she was putting in and take that into account when she made cuts.
Rachel soon became obsessed with her self-perfection efforts. She spent almost all her time outside of school and schoolwork in the gym, not trying to develop new friendships, and ignoring the ones she had. With both her parents working and both her brothers away at college, no one noticed or tried to change her new, dangerous behaviors. She was skipping meals and practicing harder and harder, constantly telling herself that she still wasn't skinny enough or working as hard as she could. It wasn't until she fainted at school one day that anyone noticed or tried to do anything about her behavior, almost a year after it had started.
Rachel was checked into the hospital, almost 30 lbs underweight, and began treatment and therapy for her eating disorder. She seemed to make good progress under the direction of her doctors, and was released after a month, belieivng that she would continue to recover with the support of her parents, and continued therapy. Her parents, concerned, began to watch her eating and exercize habits like a hawk. They made sure she took a lunch to school every day and restricted how much time she could spend at the gym, despite her worries that she would get kicked off of the team.
Secretly, Rachel beleived that she didn't have as serious a problem as she was told. She complied with her parents' wishes and even went to her therapy sessions in an effort to get them off her back. After they grew comfortable again, however, Rachel began to fall back into her old habits. She started dumping her lunches in the trash, without eating them, and sneaking off to the gym, telling her parents that she was at a friend's house or the like.
Character Personality: Rachel is a rather strong willed person, and can be a bit OCD about things, such as her appearance, and more recently, food and exercize. This has helped contribute to her anorexia. If anyone talks to her about it, saying she's skinny, when she thinks she's fat, and argues wih her about it, it doesn't take much for her to snap at them.
Her temper can be rather short, in general, and she tends to get very emotional when she fights with people, including but not limited to crying or screaming. She takes critisizms very personally, even if they're not meant that way. Rachel's not very sociable, though she used to be a few years back. If her anorexia is cured, it's more likely that she'd be more friendly once again.
Rachel is a sucker for good stories. Her favorite ones are the ones told aloud by an individual, something she developed from hearing her grandmother tell her stories of her people when she was younger. Usually she just likes listening, but with enough prompting, can be convinced to tell stories as well. She likes reading legends and myths of other cultures as well, but to her, spoken storytelling is so much better. Sometimes, though, she tries writing her own, and will even occasionally draw crude totems to go along with the story.
How does your Character get to/why was your character chosen for the Island? One night, about 8 months after being released from her first hospital visit, Rachel's parents caught her sneaking off to the gym, and grounded her. Noticing she was looking waifish again, they took her to the doctor the very next day, where they were told that she had indeed replased back to where she had been, if not worse. Seeking a solution and fearing for Rachel's life, her parents asked the doctor's advice about any possible intervention.
The doctor had heard through the grapevine that Feral Labs was developing a drug to help suppress the OCD-like feelings of needing to be perfect that many anorectics like Rachel experience, which working alongside a specific therapy plan, hoped to increase the effectiveness of intervention efforts. They were looking for people on which to test the drug and therapy and would need to be brought to the facilities for treatment and observation for several months. All expenses paid, of course. His asking around allowed him to inform Rachel's parents that there was a study starting in a little less than a week, and that there was one spot still available. Rachel's parents of course leapt at the opportunity, looking for anything to help her, and prepared to send her to the Feral Labs facility.
Since Rachel is a minor, her parents would have to sign all kinds of releases to allow her to participate in the medical study. This would include a release of her body, should she die, to the scientists for study. Although her parents might not feel comfortable with that particular form, they would sign it anyways, wanting to make sure she got the help she needed.
As the drug was experiemental and "Anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness" it would be easy for Moreau to write her off as having died of a heart attack or having commited suicide (both common causes of death in anoretics). As her parents signed the forms, they have no reason to need to claim her body and come looking for it, since it's been "donated to science." Thus Moreau should be able to keep her there with no trouble at all.
Why this animal/plant for your character? : I think Moreau (or possibly Dr. Duvert) would be interested in studying the psychological effects of turning an anorectic like Rachel into a creature no where near as skinny like they tried to be. Whether the idea of being a "beach whale" (in reference to body mass) would increase the symptoms of their condition, or actually made them healthier. I think it would also interest them to see how someone with so little body fat and a depleated immune system would handle the changes themselves.
The orca would be specifically chosen because of it's significance to Rachel. Although orca's are not truely whales (rather, they are dolphins), the Tsimshian people (and other northwest coastal people) more commonly refer to them as Killer Whales. They are especially significant to Rachel, however, because it is the crest of her clan. Like the Tsimshian, Killer Whales are also matrilinial. The choice of the killer whale would would also disturb her, as Killer Whales, according to the Tsimshian, are supposed to symbolize harmony, and her experience with Moreau will be far from harmonious.
