Name: Doctor Rhea Mercer

Gender: Female, Straight

Age/DOB: ~30/1931*

Origin: Rookery Earth, Chicago Illinois

Family: Elders deceased, possible siblings number at least 3 but it is unclear whether any of their descendants made it this far; Multi-dimensional daughter* with Keenan Lane, Raven Lane, son Kendrick; daughter (spliced but born) Siren with Pan

Other: The Rookery version of this woman is the only one who decided that she should remain on with Keenan - even though she knows it's not 'her' version, there are ... complications. The 'daughter' she's helping to raise is actually not her child, she lost her own back in Rapture nearly 80 years before the current date

Height: 5'7

Weight: 135, slinky, small breasts and nice curves, not muscular

Hair: Dark brown-black, straightened but normally kinked/wooly, kept short and styled, though it's much longer than it looks

Eyes: medium to dark brown, seemingly judgemental or always watching, slightly suspicious, often 'tired'

Appearance: light-skinned 'mulatto' - in that era having a clearly dark skin tone would have doomed her to obscurity, and in context - a room full of old white men as she's draped over her Keenan's arm at an investment meeting - this was painfully obvious; she prefers elegant and well-fitting dresses, velvets, and attractive lab wear (in as much as that is a thing), is comfortable in heels, and loves hats; after the Combine come to that world it's a bit harder to find nice accessories. It's a good thing Keenan can find them elsewhere.

Image Credits: Azalea's Dolls / DollDivine

Genetic Abilities: It is unknown whether Rhea has latent powers, Melissa claims she's 'hard to read', but truth be told Mel's actually a bit intimidated by (this world's) 'Keenan's True Love'. After the first time, in their own original 'verse, Melissa got only as far as 'did you know she's 3 months pregnant' before things went to shit, so... In the long run, Rhea does not have any particular power or latency, but it's very likely that she, like some others (Gordon, Magnusson) may be a 'high level baseline' for Vortal abilities, enhancing what comes her way. That much is obvious, because in whoever's universe, Raven her daughter is truly amazing and it's not just Keenan's genes doing it.
Icarus Processing: no, but she's constantly thought about it from the time she was introduced to the idea. She does truly wonder: what would she be like, remade and reborn with ... maybe some of those Plasmid powers built in?
Skills or Profession: Science and genetic engineering are Rhea's primary educational skills. She is incredibly adept at using tools to manipulate human and non-human DNA, having created or at least helped design some of the machinery to do so. She aided in the creation of the earliest Plasmids, which later would be adapted to use in Armacham's programs. Exceptionally bright, and able to use research of any kind - library books, white papers, blueprints, scattered notes, computers... anything - to add to her growing collection of data. Her eye for detail and rigor in workmanship are well known. She has extensive knowledge of the Human Genome, and occasionally lapses into absolutely pure scientific jargon if anyone lets her. Unlike many at Rapture, her work was also predicated on actually testing and safely analyzing the results of those tests, rather than just going with whatever sounded good. (She met - and loathed - Cave Johnson... 'throw science at the wall and see what sticks? are you insane, man? you need better testing!')
On the other side of her life, however, is the fact that she's an incredibly talented singer and songwriter. Known as the Raven at the Peacock, a nightclub in Rapture, she could fill the theater on nights she performed her torch songs and jazz. While she isn't as adept at playing instruments or composing for specific ones, she knows how a tune is made, music theory to her is just like reading DNA: it's a code that can be constructed, deconstructed, analyzed, and remixed to greater or lesser success. That she has a lovely, husky and sensual voice is just icing on that cake.
Personality: Rhea is intense, focused, and a bit jumpy at times. This is part and parcel of her era as a child and teenager: a black woman wasn't welcome in old white mens' professions. But she perservered, and under the pretext of selling music recordings, she put herself through the first two years of college by force of personality alone. Rhea likes her down-time to be her own, and sharing it with anyone, Keenan or otherwise, was difficult. But in the confines of Rapture, it had to be shared because there just wasn't space enough to be 'alone'. She is the kind of scientist that will only forget to eat if she's on to something 'big', and otherwise tends to remind other inhabitants and assistants to eat and rest so they can get their best work done. This Rhea (as opposed to Repurposed's) is willing to embrace the changes that have come to her world. She did get a bit snippy at both Keenans, in their collective presence, about all of it. But with the grudging apology from one, and the much more enthusiastic encouragement from the other, she's simply moved on from the old gritty world, into a new, still gritty one. She is quite happy that 'her' Keenan did the work involved to get her home and lab working once more, down in Rapture. She hasn't seen him again, since then, but she knows he's watching.

Events or History: * Note that while she seems to be in her early 30s now, she is almost a century old thanks to one or another of the Keenan Lanes scattered around the multiverse keeping her from being destroyed with Rapture back in 1960. It also turns out that this universe's Keenan specifically agrees to fix that Rapture, almost entirely so she can continue to reside there - as was her wish originally (in any given universe). The Rookery's Keenan isn't so hot on going there, but would never stop Rhea from her dreams. Plus now... There are teleportation points, and can easily visit without the pesky need for descending through two miles of ocean depths to get there.

An incredibly bright young woman, Rhea was among the very first to be recruited fresh out of school, and halfway through her biological sciences degree. She sang in clubs and theaters while supporting her own dreams, fending off potential 'husbands' with grace and ease. She didn't want to merely be a singer, they didn't know her potential in the bio-sciences. Who expected it, anyway? A black woman, in this field? In that era? As a research assistant in high school, she impressed her professors, who went on to recommend her to Frank Fontaine, already neck deep in Rapture's foundation. (not literally. not then, anyway) She was allowed a space of her own? Permission to experiment? Subjects?! Well it was a dream come true for several years. She continued to sing, to the delight of those down in the undersea facility, and even put out a single record while there. (This recording survives, and she was rather surprised that either Keenan Lane keeps listening to it when the mood strikes him.) When 'her' Lane invested in Rapture, it was almost entirely because she was there when he arrived to talk business at the Peacock club. She knew she had 'that' effect on people, but she wasn't prepared for his unexpected attention. Not unwanted: he was genuinely interested in her not only as a person, but as a scientist and a singer. While she somewhat mistrusted the weird glint in his eye whenever he talked about how much he wanted to give to her, this Rhea didn't balk at the ideas of putting her up as a showcase. This Rhea might even have married hers. For whatever reason, though, he never asked - things were different, apparently, and when she's discussed it with the 'new' one, it seems that their roles reversed. Kallah Vahh's Rhea turned him down, while pregnant with their child - a child she knew about, didn't tell him about. She was afraid of the potential for losing her freedom. If he'd been anyone else, it might have been true. But this Rhea understands where that Keenan was coming from. Of course, it's far too late to 'get married', and there's no more investment bankers to shock into silence when walking into a big busy room clinging to her very white partner...
Rhea in this universe would have loved to do that with this 'Repurposed' Keenan...
Either way, shortly before the 'war' in this Rapture, Rhea lost the child that would have come from her own union, and before things got really nasty among the gangs and political shifting there, her Keenan stuck her away in Vortal storage. Because he was doing things a bit differently in that universe, it's highly unlikely that he would have let her out of that storage on his own. But coersed into it, several of his long-term projects were let loose once more. Rhea was less confused by all of this than anyone else might have expected. Keenan - either of them in this case - knew better than to think she didn't understand it all. Just what her reaction would be? They'd privately compared notes, and perhaps for once in his lifetime, the local Keenan Lane admitted that he was glad he got the better of this deal.
As a scientist, once more, Rhea can continue working down in her Rapture location - this time, cleared out completely of all the distractions and dead bodies... Reached by dragon, or by teleport, she works on ways to improve lives, and mix and match genes rather a lot like Melissa does in her own labs.

When AUs converge, she helps raise the daughter that Repurposed Lane's Rhea refused to - Raven got a lovely upbringing outside of time... And a little brother born of disparate dimension parents.

Dragon

Name: Spyrogyra (green algae that forms helixes) - is usually called Gyra, and not Spyro...
Gender: Female
Size/Shoulder/Length: Small (bulky), 7'5 shoulder / 40' l / 40' ws
Colors: Green-teal mainly, slightly darker and lighter mottling across entire body and limbs; mottled pale sea-green and violet wingsails and ridge fins; bright cyan, lilac, to pinkish bioluminescent markings across entire body and limbs; usually pink eyes
Features: Sea-Leaf-Hive Hybrid, four legs bearing sharp curved claws, 5 and 4 on fore/hind, with heel claw, and bearing webbing between the fingers; four wings, the upper 'leaf' styled with 4 visible fingers, an elbow strut, and prominent wrist thumb, lower are stiffer 'hive' style, with two fingers, strut, and stiffer thumb, all fingers bear curved black claws; body is heavy and broadly footed, tail is heavy and powerful; scaled hide, thick, obvious armor plating on sides, under tail, and smaller plates on neck and back, tiny scales on limbs and upper tail; spine ridge has webbing between frequent spars, along entire neck, back, tail, and under neck and chest; face has two chin bobs for lures, a central back-curved nose horn, and two backswept horns, external ears, and a hooked beak mouth.
Powers: Swimming and Flight, though four wings might seem great, they're nowhere near as powerful in the air as they are when Spyrogyra is under water. Her incredibly strong body, tail, and webbed feet serve as propulsion, while her wings do all the maneuvering work. She is fast enough in the water that Rhea doesn't dare ride her if she's pursuing anything. In the air, she can be easily ridden, but also kind of easily worn out - her body is quite heavy, and she's much more at home in the sea than the sky.
Verbal Speech, Gyra speaks in a deep, whale-song rumble, though she can sing with her bond friend if given the chance. She speaks English and Draconic, and has made attempts at understanding Vort but it eludes her without Vortal senses.
Bioluminescence, as pretty as those markings are above the water, under it or in the darkness they're amazing to behold. She can communicate both emotional and urgent messages with them, conveying in colors and flashing patterns across the entire length of her body. She can also use this to distract prey or enemies.
Water Breathing and Brine Breath, with her ability to swim comes the need to remain under water for extended periods, and though she does not have the Seawing's gills, it doesn't seem as though she needs them. She can stay under water nearly a full day without fuss, unless she's being very active, at which point she does need to surface or get some air. She can tolerate very cold water, or icy weather above ground, but still does sort of prefer warm water over chilly, which puts Rapture kind of on the 'do we really have to' scale. (Thanks to her Leaf and Hive heritage, obviously.) She can spew a heated mass of salty brine water from her mouth, drenching things in it, with enough power to knock back even large vehicles if they're not stable. She is quite good at aiming this, though her blast is short, only around 30 meters before it's inaccurate. Due to her non-Sea sides, that brine breath is also a bit caustic, she can reduce the amount of acid in it, but not completely, so it's always at least a little burny - to a lot burny, reducing anything it touches to a steamy goo at its most potent.
Parentage: Mother Sea-Leafwing Nerissa, father Sea-Hivewing, thus a double-dose of Sea gives her her basic form; her grandsire is Campanula, bonded to Simmons, who also helps work down at Rapture.
Origin: adopted from Moonshimmer981 at Deviantart
Other Info: Diligent and steady, Gyra is a great companion that Rhea truly enjoys being around. She is just curious enough to ask pointed questions and seek answers, but not so unwary that she digs too deep or asks the wrong question at a bad time. While eager, she's not overbearing, and enjoys watching the Humans work inside Rapture from her external observation areas.