Rachel Shepard

She's fairly muscular and agile, having been training and practicing for years on end. She's more slender than one would expect as well, as well as flexible, which has helped her plenty in combat. Unfortunately, due to the fact that she's missing an eye, she has a blind spot on her left side; which has resulted in her having to rely on her other senses to deal with that impediment.

There are various scars all over Rachel's body, from the various fights that she has gotten into that have resulted in her getting stabbed or cut. Whenever there's a fresh cut on her body from recent bodies, she will have that part wrapped up in gauze.

Early Life

Rachel Shepard was born in the town of Moonblight, to her parents Adam Shepard & Shirley Marshall-Shepard on October 10th, 2000. Times were tough for them initially, as due to Adam Shepard's work within the Deepcore Foundation, he was not home often, which had required the help of his sister, Olivia Shepard, to raise her well-- a task which was made much harder with the eventual birth of Mia Shepard. Despite this, Adam would do his best to make sure that they would live a life without worry.

However, on July 16th, 2004; both Adam and Shirley would disappear. To this day, no one is sure what had happened to them. This left Rachel and Mia in the care of Olivia, who provided the best she could for them, despite not having much wealth. As Rachel grew up, she would spend her time playing with rocks, picking them up and flinging them at trees just to see how hard of a mark she could make in them. Other times, she would wander around the small neighborhood her family lived in, eventually befriending another child: Leon Hall.

When she was 13, she would get into a fight with a local student that went to her school, one Stephan Heel; near a construction site. This fight left her badly bruised with a broken nose and wrist. Stephan was worse off, meanwhile, owing to the fact that during the fight, Rachel had grabbed a brick and slammed it against his head to fend him off. Although this landed her in trouble, the authorities determined that Stephan had started the fight.

This did not sit well with his parent, Alexander Heel, whom was suffering from the effects of the then-unknown illness known as Black Heart Sickness, which had a habit of increasing aggression in those affected by it and reducing rational thinking in them, among other things. Three days after the fight, Alexander would attack Rachel with a knife. Rachel would try to fight back, but his size and aggression was too much for her. It was during this fight that Rachel was cut right across her left eye, destroying the cornea and rendering her blind in that eye for life.

The fight only ended when Alexander was apprehended by a local survivalist known as Jack Volkov. Although Alexander fought back, Jack was much more skilled than him, bringing him down with relative ease. After alerting the authorities, Jack brought Rachel to the hospital, where she would somewhat recover. Despite the grief of losing an eye, despite how much pain she was in, mentally, Rachel’s mind was racing. Something within her, despite the danger she was in, quite simply enjoyed the thrill of it all– the sensation of her fists trembling from smashing into someone, the ringing of her heartbeat in her ears. She loved it.

She would recover, but at that point, something had changed in her. Rachel would get into fights a lot more frequently, oftentimes getting in trouble. Sometimes, she would drag her friend Leon Hall into fights, with Leon eventually getting that same lust for fighting that she did. Eventually, Rachel would seek out Jack Volkov to thank him, and eventually, they both would become long-time friends, with Jack eventually teaching Rachel a lot of what she now knows for combat, and Rachel helping him out with his work, which ranged from metalworking to hunting. As for Alexander, he wound up in jail, where he would eventually expire from the side effects of Black Heart Sickness.

When she turned 18, her caretaker, Olivia Shepard, would suddenly pass away, leaving behind something that would leave Rachel wondering about her family for a long time. She left behind a journal that belonged to the esteemed Captain Richelle Rivers, a legendary pirate that is said to have slain a massive beast in the sea, whom is said to have left behind a treasure with wealth and power so great. She would hold onto this journal, hoping to one day find this treasure.

At the same time, her best friend, Leon Hall, would disappear for weeks at a time. Eventually, Leon would not only stop fighting entirely, but become so withdrawn that Rachel would not see them at all, except for those rare times they meet on the streets, or when she would visit. Anytime she would meet them, Leon would be deathly uncomfortable with physical contact, getting upset with even the mere chance of her getting too close to them. She would not understand why for years to come.

The Withering

In the years leading up to The Withering, Rachel would live a life that involved the same kind’ve routine: wake up, help her sister out with either her school work or whatever she was tinkering with at the time, eat, work a short shift at her local gym, exercise, and depending on the day either go to the bar and get drunk as hell; or go to an underground fighting ring that had formulated within one of the Deepcore Foundation’s abandoned mineshafts. She was promiscuous in her life, oftentimes bedding people she found attractive or fun to fight with, the gender of whom did not really matter to her all that much. Although this routine was a static life for her, she enjoyed every minute of it, even on days when she had to be hospitalized for blood loss.

Then, like what had happened to millions more, her life changed with the advent of The Withering.

On August 19th, 2028, The Withering began. The entire world was engulfed in burning light, destroying a majority of infrastructure and bringing about what very well was believed to be the apocalypse. Of the people affected, Rachel Shepard would survive, though not without many, many losses. Their home was destroyed, Leon Hall completely vanished from Moonblight, Jack Volkov lost a leg; and everything that they had their hands on in Moonblight; in spite of all the bad that comes with living in a town owned by the Deepcore Foundation; would disappear forever.

With Moonblight in ruins, Rachel Shepard and Mia were among the many that had to rebuild from the destruction. And so, they did. They helped with restoring the city along with everyone else that survived. Yet for Rachel Shepard…

She saw something few others would desire.

More and more people had become violent, whether it’s through losing their minds to one of the various new aliments that began to form, such as Transmorphification Syndrome; breakouts of Black Heart Sickness, or just people deciding becoming a monster was the best way to survive in this world. Many people would begin fighting, fighting for the scraps that were found outside Moonblight and any other city that held on tightly after the end. Strange beasts and creatures would pour in from the other realms, threatening the ecosystem and the lives of all who are not weary.

To Rachel Shepard, this nightmare would turn into her heaven.

To this day, Rachel Shepard roams Earth with Mia and Jack. Rachel works for NEVER BE GAME OVER, taking on various jobs, whether it’s hunting down someone who has a sizable bounty on their heads, or making a risky delivery across the realm. With her is the book that belonged to Richelle Rivers, a part of her holding onto the belief that whatever the treasure is, it could help save so many lives– and as such, she watches out for anything that can help her with her goal of finding this treasure. Perhaps, she hopes, she'll find her long-lost friend, Leon Hall, but she has doubts on that.

Regardless of if she finds any of those anytime soon, she knows one thing is certain.

This is a world that is perfect for someone like her.

Rachel works for NEVER BE GAME OVER, a bounty hunting and delivery organization that offers large payments to those whom can successfully fulfill whatever tasks are given to them. NEVER BE GAME OVER gives those who work for them extra supplies and resources to succeed in their goal, awarding members with either a hefty amount of V-Units or SCARAB Coin. Due to how proficient she is, she's an official Hunter for NBGO, which means that she'll be one of the first picks for jobs that have particular needs.

Although she would be one to decline as such, it's evident that the fight that cost her an eye has left her forever changed. She thrives and lives for combat and violence, and while she can be tactical and plan out whatever her attacks on someone or something would be, she'll also often strike in any way that would allow for her to inflict a lot of damage on her target. This is without mentioning the scarring left on her mentally due to the devastation brought about by The Withering, of which she has a near-fatalistic attitude where she'll happily thrive off of the darkness and chaos in her life, if it means that she'll get to fight another day.

Despite her love of ultra-violence and combat, there are still areas where she'll hold good in her heart. Her family and friends are heavily valued to her, and as such, she'll fight to protect them. At present, this mostly revolves around protecting her sister, Mia Shepard, and her mentor, Jack Volkov. Alongside that, she is rather mindful of children, often wanting to shield them from any danger. She has an extreme distaste for abusers as well, and will not hesitate to completely ruin them.

She also has a soft spot for rodents, such as Capybaras.

The only immediate family she has right now is her sister, Mia Shepard. She's heard before that she has two cousins, both of whom lived in different areas out and about in the sea. She's uncertain as to the location of one of them, but she knows at the very least the other one, Nyx Shepard, is at the independent city-state, Styx. Otherwise, she has no earthly clue of anyone else that is in her family, or if they're even alive.

Rachel has high confidence in herself and her abilities, mostly owing to the fact that she's been rather successful in surviving whatever has been thrown at her. She can be rather relaxed and nonchalant when it comes to most topics, taking things in stride; though if a topic becomes deathly serious she will drop all pretenses and treat it as it needs to be treated. Rachel has a fair bit of a temper, and will not hesitate to hurt someone if they piss her off enough.