Rem Sanae

Personality:
   Rem lives in fear, constantly worrying about her future and what she will do with her life. She feels as though she always needs an authority figure to tell her what to do and where her place is due to the harmful and verbally abusive way her father raised her. She has trouble letting go of grudges and is very spiteful. All she wants is to be able to escape from everything and live a carefree life with no future to worry about. Rem is truly happy when she feels free, anyone who grants her freedom will earn her undying trust and love.

Story:
Childhood:
 Rem Sanae was born into a family of incredible wealth, mothered by Truci Sanae and fathered by one of the single wealthiest men in Caland, Ethan Sanae. Born into such wealth, Rem saw sights that other kids her age only could dream of, and had every opportunity in the world waiting for her. Due to the nature of the Sanae’s manufacturing business and lifestyle, Rem and her family never truly had a place to call home. The family dropped in from house to mansion, city to town, it was a life that excited the young Rem. This life would be all too short lived. When Rem was 6 years old, she and her father lost Truci to a car accident. The loss was sudden, jarring, it struck them both in different ways. Upon the loss of his other half, Ethan withdrew himself from the social world and his stoic but caring nature shriveled into a nature of spite and indifference. When Rem needed him the most Ethan was content to bury himself into his work, which in his mind, was the only half of his life he had left. 
  Following Truci’s death, Ethan had nobody to care for Rem as he worked. Unwilling to bring his daughter into his work life, the Sanaes finally found a home. A small gated community within a small town where some of Ethan’s manufacturing plants were located, the town of Willow Creek. Following their arrival to the town, Ethan would disappear for weeks to months at a time. Leaving his daughter with little direction in life, Rem developed a rebellious nature as a result of Ethan's absence and strict nature. When Ethan would come back from his ventures, he would see Rem and the state of her life and mercilessly cast judgement upon her. Any interest Rem had, any food she ate or clothes she wore, he had some objection in mind. Ethan developed standards for his daughter that she had to strictly adhere to. The future he envisioned for his daughter was one where she would marry a wealthy man and bear grandchildren. She would accept responsibility and face the real world. Rem saw her future in the opposite way. She longed for the freedom and excitement of her childhood. New places, no worries and unconditional acceptance. As Rem grew, she would spend her time fantasizing of her ideal life, away from her father and the chains that bound her. As Ethan enforced his vision upon her, she began to fear it, and developed a stigma towards the idea of childbirth and motherhood.
  Some months after moving into Willow Creek, Ethan made a habit of bringing Rem with him to the Sanae Atlas Manufacturing plant within town in the hopes of showing Rem the less fortunate children in his employ to make her appreciate the value of hard work. The manufacturing plant within Willow Creek was in close proximity to the Willow Creek Orphanage, an underfunded orphanage with unsanitary conditions. Seeing an opportunity for cheap labor, he reached out to the orphanage and struck a deal with the administrator. The children would work on the assembly line in exchange for donations to the orphanage. One child on the assembly line caught Rem's eye in particular, a boy who'd been looking at her when he thought she wasn't looking. His name was Cessa Somnium, an 8 year old boy who had spent his entire life in the orphanage, longing for a family of his own. The two began to talk and eventually started meeting during the few hours of freedom they had. Rem was fascinated by Cessa's life, one with no authorities to control her future, nobody judging him or holding him down. Rem envied Cessa's freedom, she wanted to get to know him better. When Ethan discovered that the two were meeting, Cessa was quickly barred from contributing to the factory, and Rem was kept on close watch by Ethan or those under Ethan's employ. As Rem grew she held on to her memories of Cessa, dreaming of living the way she believed he did. The rest of Rem's childhood was spent in various boarding schools, pushing her to become the woman that Ethan wanted her to be.

Teenage Years:
   As she reached her teens, Rem's anxiety and insecurities worsened significantly. The age of 18 was approaching, and with it the potential for arranged marriages and having to raise children. All of Rem's friends had similar upbringings to herself, yet every one of them seemed to have their futures figured out. Rem would always compare herself to them, believing herself to be inadequate. Her father's beratements didn't help, tensions rose significantly over the years. Rem hated her father at this point in life, Ethan projected a similar animosity towards her. Due to Ethan's wealth, every school Rem had been sent to was top of the line, and as such Rem was very knowledgeable in language and sciences, however the greatest gift these schools gave her, as well as the only gift she ever grew to appreciate, was a love of mechanics, putting things together and sculpting. She became extremely proficient in creating small contraptions and repairing things around her house. All around her room and eventually her house, welded sculptures lined shelves and tables. These gifts were not appreciated by Ethan, who discarded even the most thoughtful of creations by her daughter. He believed her focus should be on her communication skills and homemaking. With her father making her believe she had no future in the few hobbies she enjoyed, and with her own hatred of the future Ethan planned for her, Rem felt as though she was along for the ride with no agency whatsoever. She needed a way out, she was holding out for one.
  On a random day at the age of 16 Rem found herself near the center of town, pressured into going out by a friend of her father who had been visiting Willow Creek. It was only by chance that Cessa Somnium happened to be working a shift in a coffee shop Rem had passively walked into. Upon seeing him, memories flooded back to her as well as an insurmountable curiosity. She wondered what his life could be like years later, if he was still the same free man. She'd return to the coffee shop regularly after that and look at him when she thought he wasn't paying attention, wondering if he remembered her. The tension was eventually broken by Cessa, who had been thinking of her the same way she'd thought of him when they'd first been separated. The two caught up, now with the freedom and independence to do so that they'd craved as children. Cessa showed Rem his life after much pressure by Rem. Cessa was embarrassed and believed Rem would find it odd that he lived on his own in the woods, Cessa knew he appeared strange. He was surprised when Rem reacted with fascination and delight, Rem had always sought out a place to go where she couldn't be found by her father. The two fell for eachother very quickly, Rem found Cessa reliable and strong, yet compassionate and deeply thoughtful. Having come from opposite worlds, their strengths and weaknesses aligned to perfection. Rem was proficient in booksmarts and handiwork, knowing much about how higher society functions. Cessa had streetsmarts, strength, the capability to support Rem, and enough determination to last a thousand lifetimes. Once they had eachothers trust, Cessa felt as though he was ready to share with Rem the greatest gift she would ever receive. At the age of 17 years old, Rem received the ability to Dreamleap from Cessa. 

City of Light:
   Rem's dreams came true when Cessa gave her the ability to Dreamleap. Rem felt truly alive and free, the ability to enter a completely new plane of existence upon reaching R.E.M. sleep. This was the highlight of Rem's life, everything about her demeanor and attitude switched to ecstatic joy and wonder when she and Cessa were within the Contingentplane. Rem's reality took the form of a massive cityscape, neon lights coloured every surface and stunning views made themselves known on every horizon. The city, Los Remeia, was a place of excitement, thrill, adventure and romance. The embodiment of Rem's extraordinary childhood spent with her parents, Rem was constantly dragging Cessa from place to place, sight to sight. The two couldn't get enough of eachother. Rem's drastic change in attitude was jarring at first to Cessa, but it was a welcome change. Many threats made themselves known in Rem's reality. Some from the mind of Rem, others from the mind of Cessa, all of which provided the two with larger than life adventures taking them on. From the mind of Cessa Somnium, an oak tree monster that Cessa named Denver, named after the forest that his home was located in. Denver would plow through city streets, digging his roots into structures and occasionally causing them to crumble. Denver would never remain for long however, Cessa believed that Denver was somehow drawn to his reality and could not leave it for extended periods of time. The next was Scythe, a bipedal creature which used its claws to attack people in the city streets. Rem and Cessa would drive Scythe out of the city on numerous occasions. Scythe was responsible for many scars and scrapes along Cessa's body. Taking personal offense to this, Rem swore to leave a mark of her own on the beast. While the monsters Cessa's subconscious would create were more bestial in nature, the ones hailing from Rem's mind were much more akin to mob style movies, gangsters and gunslingers roamed the city. The top names among them were Gris, a creation of Rem's subconscious mind who was derived from a business associate of Ethan's of the same name, Bravada Gris. Gris was a tall bulky figure who got his way through intimidation and brute strength. Gris' long time rival was Captor, coming from Rem's mind as well. Captor was a much more odd figure, operating on more cartoonish logic. Antilogic was in every fiber of his being, he had two retractable arms which stemmed from his shoulder blades. When retracted, it was a mystery where they would end up. He had many weapons on him at all times, somehow concealed, he would seemingly pull them out of nowhere. Where Gris got his way through strength and intimidation, Captor got his through his unpredictable nature and notoriously short fuse. When the two realized they were evenly matched, they began an uneasy alliance instead. Gris was always accompanied by another creature from Cessa's mind, an undead deer monster who Gris named Wrath. Wrath was like a guard dog on steroids, fiercely defensive over Gris and able to take as much gunfire as you could fill her with. Her temper gave Cessa and Rem a hard time. Most notorious of all the threats in Remeia however, was Shadis Le'Villover. Shadis would reside on the outskirts of Remeia, feeding on crustaceans. When a stronger hunger overtook him, he made his way into the city, utilizing explosives to enter buildings, he would eat the nearest person in no less than three bites. Despite the dangers and horrors that Rem and Cessa fought, Rem always had an unnerving liveliness to her. To Cessa it appeared as though Rem felt she was truly immortal in this world. 
  As perfect as life was, there was one strain on their relationship that Rem always tried to ignore. The older they got, the harder ignoring it became. Having been alone his whole life without a family, Cessa's dream had always been to become a father. Early on in their relationship Cessa had expressed this to Rem. Rem, not wanting to disappoint him, agreed that they would have children. Knowing she would have to bring a child into the world was a massive strain on Rem. When Ethan found out about Cessa and Rem's relationship, it was too late to separate them. They were connected through an entire plane of existence that Ethan would never reach. Rem's relationship with Cessa was the nail in the coffin for Ethan when it came to any sort of hope or pride in his daughter. When the time came for marriage, Cessa age 20 and Rem age 18, Ethan and his money were nowhere to be found, only the traumatic memories he left behind.

Other Stories Featuring This Character:
Stories:
The Twisted Reality