WTNewWorldOrder:Player Characters:Rabbit's History
Rabbit spent his childhood in London's Docklands. His mother's family was on the low end of working class, solidly Labour by not radical, determined to survive without charity (definitions carefully negotiated when necessary), determined to be "decent" without playing middle class respectability politics. Rabbit's father is from a similar background financially, but without the vague Calvanist streak and much more willing to ignore the law when convenient. Once married Rabbit's father stopped the petty crime and worked long hours to provide for his wife and son. Which worked for nearly a decade before he lost his job and returned took up breaking and entering as a primary career. From the year Rabbit was six his father was effectively gone from the family, bouncing between incarceration and friends' couches. His mother's work was barely enough to handle basic needs and required long hours away from her child. Still, the team of mother and son managed to make do until she took sick. When Rabbit was twelve his mother was hospitalized for one last treatment and never returned.
Bright but unmotivated, highly creative, extremely observant, and angry with the world twelve year old Rabbit was a problem. Making things worse (despite the very best intentions of all involved), the kid was sent to live with his mother's sister and her husband in Chelsea. His aunt married up. Her husband is an Eton and Cambridge educated barrister, not titled nor rich in the manner of some of his schoolmates, but with a long, proud (and expensive) pedigree and completely unequipped to deal with a young teen conditioned to see him as The Enemy. Rabbit's aunt, while staunchly (and properly) Church of England at this point in her life, maintains that lovely Puritan tendency to respectability at all costs (America got most of them, but enough stayed to be annoying), exacerbated by her desire to Pass in her husband's world. Her love for her sister, and indeed for her nephew, is well hidden behind chilly propriety in the best of times. And a suddenly playing parent to a pissed off, grieving kid is by definition *not* "the best of times."
Rabbit didn't run away in the sense of actually leaving home and attempting to support himself, but his first reaction to feeling isolated, angry, hurt, etc. is to run and hide. He is convinced that there is more to the story of his family and the loss of his parents than he has been told (though in actuality most of what is missing is ugly details his family is "protecting" him from knowing) and this drive to find hidden truths, combined with a desire to find new and innovative hiding places to escape into, combine naturally with his art (properly trained by excellent painting tutors, because he is talented and his aunt and uncle and determined to nurture what makes him happy, though not using that training is both a matter of pride and inclination, making for *frustrated* painting tutors), so much of his work is expression of discovery of secrets and places he finds exploring (and climbing over) the city.
The London Olympics, surprisingly, was not his most ambitious nor illegal bit of exploration. Despite actually having family tickets to some of the more popular events, Rabbit still ducked out of classes every chance he had and snuck into the events, both in the audience and backstage. This is why he is on hand during the terrorist attacks, despite absolutely not belonging there.
After graduating (with passing but poor grades, given his tendency to not be there even on those occasions he is physically at the school) Rabbit promptly declares his independence and vanishes into Brixton and the barely/not quite legal world of the underground art scene. In the year since Rabbit is a regular, if quiet, presence at the parties and art shows and is beginning to gain a moderate reputation as a genuine Talent to watch, but as there are many gifted young artists struggling in every major city, many even more talented/disciplined/trained/all of the above, this is light years away from actually making a living as an artist. He gets by grifting and selling works on street corners, shoplifting at the market, and occasionally making delving into minor breaking and entering (for purposes of theft) and acting as a lookout or courier for the local dealer. The rest of the time he is either exploring the unknown sides of the city (as well as tops and bottoms) and painting. He has been caught trespassing and breaking and entering several times, but so far has been able to get out of trouble with the excuse of "urban exploration," which is more true than not. Also his uncle occasionally pulling strings behind the scenes, but Rabbit is unaware of that fact and instead is frustrated that the only time he called his family to pick him up from the police he was read a long lecture and sent off without familial intervention in the process.
His friend and ally Nudge is a mixed influence, as he encourages Rabbit's more altruistic impulses and pushes him to put others first. However Nudge also encourages vigilante justice. Rabbit doesn't like to fight, but like his namesake he will absolutely fight in a corner, but only after ruling out every possible avenue of escape.
And so for the moment he is drifting, not yet sure how to guide his own course yet certain he doesn't want any of the ones set for him. In five years time he could be wealthy and famous, the next Banksy, he could be getting by as a minor artist and living a decent life, taking commercial jobs and doing his own work on the side, he could have abandoned his art and be one more minor thief and dealer, he could be in jail, or he could be dead. All are about equally likely. Unless the impromptu job he has taken with Torchwood shoves him on to a new path entirely.
Rabbit has impossibly good luck, which helps keep him out of the trouble he tends to create for himself. He does not, however, believe he is powered.
