History of Wren O'Neill (WIP)

[ragedagainst]

[Content Warning: Ren comes from a tabletop RPG called Werewolf the Apocalypse (World of Darkness). There are many problematic elements within the setting itself, including disrespectful and stereotypical representations of race, disability and sex/gender.

CWs include: apocalypses, colonialism, violence, child abuse, death, death of children, underage sex, eugenics, breeding, pregnancy, ableism, homophobia, cultural appropriation, spiritual warfare, cults, nationalism and warfare.]

Kin Life: (2002-2019) 0-17

• Born 22nd Feb 2002 to Finn and Emmy O'Neill. Named Wren. First child of their family. 

• Raised in the Fianna tribe of Werewolves (Garou). We raised with the belief and understanding that Garou are not only real but are the spiritual warriors protecting the world from a greater evil. She, as kinfolk, was raised to believe it was her role to support her Garou relatives (Father and Aunt) in whatever ways she could. Was raised with the hope that she would some day undergo the change and become Garou herself due to her 'purebreed' - having two relatives in recent history who were Garou.

• Wren was a deeply unacademic child and struggled in school up until puberty. At that point, she became angry, fought anyone who looked at her funny and did everything she could to get out of having to sit still.

• Eventually her family allowed her to leave mainstream education and be educated on the sept. This mostly consisted on her doing the bare minimum to not be sent back to 'real' school and spending her time focusing on physical training. Wren turned into an angry bully, using her fists to communicate. Her father channelled this into teaching her how to grappling, boxing and sending her to martial arts classes under the belief that it had a use if properly controlled.

• Around fifteen, she started to sneak out of the house late at night to meet up with other young Fianna kin. At first it was just to screw around with boys in the woods behind their houses. But before long she started to get brave enough to sneak out to screw around with girls as well. Wren had a lot of internalised fear of her family finding out that she liked girls (that wasn't the 'proper' way to do things after all). She did everything in her power to hide that she was going out to meet girls and everything in her power to publicise that she was going out to meet boys.

• There was one boy on the sept that she was quite smitten with (Ryan Heylock) who underwent the change at sixteen. They'd been friendly as children and interested with each other as they grew up. Wren took this to be a good sign that even if she didn't end up changing, there might be someone who would claim her as a mate when they got older. Unfortunately, Ryan and Wren were caught screwing around during Ryan's fostering (a time where young Fianna are supposed to abstain from Family, Booze and Fucking in order to focus on learning their duty to the Nation) and were abruptly separated - with mostly amusement from the part of Fianna elders. It was after all, only natural for young Fionns with their bloods up not to be able to keep their hands off each other. Ryan was sent to another sept for fostering and Wren was firmly told to leave him be during his training. Which only made it all the more awkward when she experienced the change a year later.

Cub: (2019-2020) 17-18

• Wren finally experienced her First Change at the ripe old age of seventeen. By this point it had been mostly assumed that she wouldn't be changing as it usually came with puberty. She had been left to babysit her two younger siblings Lark (12) and Robyn (7). Due to sneaking out the night before, she was nursing a hangover. Her younger brother, unhappy with her sending him to his room for banal reasons started to threaten that he would tell their father she'd been sneaking out in retaliation. 

• Wren snapped and suddenly underwent her first painful change. She slashed her brother across the chest and face. Thankfully he was able to escape, locking himself and their younger sister in a closet as Wren proceeded to smash the house up in a mindless act of rage and destruction. Luckily, they lived on the grounds of a sept and so some adult Garou were soon there to subdue her and calm her down. Lark was rushed to a local hospital and Wren was eventually snapped back into her homid (human) shape. 

• The relationship between Wren and her siblings was stilted and awkward after that. Lark was afraid that Wren might snap again, Robyn was too young to understand in great detail why Wren was suddenly being treated differently to before.

• Shortly after, she was sent away from her immediate family to be 'fostered' by her Aunt who would teach her the ways to be a valuable member of Garou society. She left home for the first time and went down to the sept her Aunt belonged to in Yorkshire.

• Wren took to the physical demands on her immediately but was slower to pick up on the spiritual and Litany aspects of her training. Aunt Lynne focused on trying to instill some common sense into her niece (with minimal success). This took the shape of:
  
  • Leaving her in a forest with only a small hunting knife and making her survive the night without changing form
  • Teaching her the histories of the Fianna people and the ways they had changed the world.
  • Explaining the connection between Garou and Spirits
  • Giving her a healthy fear that the Spirits were always watching her deeds
  • Training her in leathal combat, defence and weapons
  • Punishing her way in ways that had impact like forcing her to write lines from the litany or from the Fianna tribal history

• Passed her Rite of Initiation shortly after turning eighteen. Her tests were
  • Test of Humiliation - Wren was made to sit naked and have her entire body painted with woad while being taunted and teased to try to provoke a frenzy. This was her most challenging task and the one she came closest to failing. 
  • Test of Hunt - She and a group of other cliath were sent into the forest to hunt a young deer and capture it without killing it. 
  • Test of Blood - Wren recounted all Garou and Kinfolk in her heritage, giving homage to the noted deeds of those that had come before her. 

• Upon her 'entry' into Garou society, she changed her name by dropping the W and renaming herself Ren. 

Cliath: (2020 - 2021) 18-19

• Once she was confirmed as a Cliath, she was sent to a sept in Denver Colorado to join them and form her own pack with fellow young wolves. She makes pack with Johan (Get of Fenris - Homid - Ahroun), Ji-Hyun (Stargazer - Homid - Ragabash), Jabari (Child of Gaia - Lupus - Philodox), Night Hunter (Red Talon - Lupus - Ragabash), Colin (Fianna - Metis - Theurge) and Rowan (Glasswalker - Homid - Galliard).

• For their first year, they mostly lurch from one disaster to the next, under the guidance of their Guardian Spirit Chico the Coyote. They named themselves the Queer Eye pack - much to the confusion of their pack elders. Their notable deeds included:
  • Nearly getting Ren killed in an ambush in her first week with the sept, earning her the deed name 'Rages-Against-The-Odds'.
  • Nearly getting a prominent member of the sept killed during a rite where they were meant to be protecting her
  • One of the pack running away to be with the fairies and having to be recovered,while another pack member was put on trial for murdering a baby fairy tree. The pack defended them.
  • Getting shot at by a local politician who turned out to be Black Spiral Dancer kin
  • Uncovering an illegal wolf puppy farm
  • Being nuisances to their local philodox babysitter Jordana
  • Helping to recover a lost Caern and ending up with one member of the pack throwing Ren in a hole and shooting her, almost killing her
  • Going to experience the actual Salem Witch Trials so their tribeless pack member could join another tribe
  • Stealing cars from people they killed. (The last one sounds bad but they definitely deserved it).  

• During that time Ren took up the mantle of pack alpha. Or more, Ren took it and nobody opposed her. She soon realised that as the most 'traditional' Garou out of her companions, they needed her to step forward for them and be their common voice. This led to Ren growing up very quickly when she realised that being a gloryhound wouldn't serve the needs of her pack well. She started to dedicate herself to keeping them safe and helping them to achieving their goals. This led to a shift in her mentality - no longer was it important that she was the best Garou in the world. It was more important that the pack was the best pack in the world. She pushed them like a tiger mother to improve themselves. 

• A notable change for Ren during this period was her perception of Crinos-Born Werewolves (Metis). The Fianna tribe of werewolves are a lot harsher on werewolves born from the forbidden mating of two Garou. Ren was raised in these attitudes and never particularly needed to confront them until she had a metis packmate from the same tribe, Colin. At first she treated him as badly as she'd always treated metis. He was a second class of Garou, she was a purebred Fianna. They weren't the same. Until the first Beltane that they attended together. She saw first hand how Colin was treated in comparison to her and decided to make a conscious effort to counteract it, even getting a matching tattoo with him as a gesture of solidarity.

• And then her best friend died. Johan, who had been like a brother to her from the very start, died during a fight with a Black Spiral Dancer (BSD) Garou. This impacted Ren and the pack deeply. The pack change their name to 'Never Say Die' out of reverence to their lost packmate and grieve together. Ren vows to destroy any BSD that she comes into contact with. 

Fostern: (2021 - 2027) 19-25

• Ren passes her Fostern Challenge after approaching a fellow Fianna living in Denver. She is challenged to stay on the back of a Rodeo Bull for a set period of time without frenzying or being bucked off its back. She takes to this surprisingly well and is made Fostern. 

• Over the next few years the pack and Ren:
  • Help to 'decalcify' London City
  • Visit her family in the North East of England and are there for her brother Lark's first change. 
  • Destroy a BSD nest and make themselves an absolute nuisance for them at every turn. 
  • Return to visit the Fey through the Arcadian Gate and just about avoid causing a civil war between the Seelie and Unseelie - rescuing their packmate from the grasps of a dark faerie who had taken interest in him
  • See one of their packmates (Hunter) become a father to a litter of puppies and as a result become far more invested in protecting their local nature reserves
  • Make friends with a local 'ghosthunter' kinfolk and feature as part of an accidentally viral clip series on youtube called 'Jocks Vs Spooky Noises'. Where Ren in particular is featured screaming and running away from innocuous things (or trying to throw hands at gently wafting curtains). 
  • Make enemies with a local news station and over the course of serval years manage to put it out of business. 
  • Establish themselves as a pack who can do the 'unusual' tasks that crop up.

Adren: (2027-2033) 25-31

• Ren fails her first Adren Rank Challenge. She was set the task of preparing a group of cliath for their first proper combat - teaching them the pitfalls and dangers that lay ahead, preparing for what they needed to do in order to achieve their goal of destroying a Bane. Ren defaulted to the way that she had been taught; hard love and harsh treatment, pushing teenagers into a dangerous situation who weren't ready yet because she was determined to succeed. The pack of cliath failed their first combat mission spectacularly, falling apart under the pressure that Ren had placed upon then, leaving her to have to rush in and save them. They all managed to escape but not unscathed. She was heavily criticised putting her own want for Glory over the needs of the cliath. She hadn't learnt from the mistakes of her past and had transferred that onto the youth of tomorrow. 

• Ren spends the next few years soul searching. In that time, her father finally perishes in the line of his duty. This breaks her spirit for some time and Ren allows Ji-Hyun to take leadership of the pack while she isn't fit to do so. She comes close to falling into harano (super werewolf depression) but is barely kept out of it by her packmates. She eventually takes up role as pack alpha again, challenging Ji-Hyun to a contest. Ji-Hyun, knowing that Ren desires this a lot more than she does and wanting to avoid bloodshed, chooses a gamecraft challenge that she knows Ren can win; a simple footrace. 

• She takes a part-time job with Denver Fire Department, doing 'scared straight' programs with young arsonists, fire rescue and helping with search operations. This is assisted by a local kinfolk Orla who works for the department and can help cover for her when she needs to abruptly leave to deal with werewolf stuff. Ren genuinely enjoys this work as it gives her a taste of a life outside of being Garou where people aren't intimidated by her size and strength and it's viewed as an asset. 

• She starts to apprentice under the sept's Warder Dawn's Memory to train for taking up a position of responsibility as a Guardian. 

• Ren finally settles down and takes a mate (Lev - a local park ranger) at 27, eventually having her first child (Alba) at 29. Lev and Ren have a mostly open relationship - allowing them both to come and go as they please with a few notable exceptions for both of them. This was initially set up with Lev in mind to allow him freedom to see other people while he was on park ranger missions so he wouldn't have to go a whole season without sex, however, Ren has an on/off girlfriend Asher who is entirely outside of Garou society. They often break up due to Ren having to keep secrets from her (like being a werewolf) but Lev and Asher are aware of each other. 

• Ren challenges for Adren once again at 30, shortly after returning to her position as pack alpha of the Never Say Die pack. This time she is challenges the local Get of Fenris, Hanz who is known to dislike her following the death of his tribemate Johan. He challenges her to track down and land a finishing blow on a Thunderwrym. Ren dedicates the next six months preparing herself and the pack for this task, taking a fatal wound in the process that earns her a new battlescar (a scar from the tip of her cheek to her chin where the Thunderwyrm tried to eat her). She returns victorious with several Thunderwyrm teeth as trophies and resources. She is confirmed Adren from this point.