Rio Anne Castillo
I am cringe and free. Wall of text below, and a bonus silly as a prize if you make it to the end.
-Rio is pretty young to have completed her nursing degree, and that’s because she went straight from high school to college with maybe a week or so in between. Rather than feeling proud of that, Rio feels more like the time she was supposed to spend learning how to be a functional adult was taken over by a career she didn’t exactly choose for herself. She doesn’t hate nursing, but sometimes she wonders how life would have turned out had her future not been decided for her by the grandmother who raised Rio with high expectations and little tolerance for anything but success. Who up making fish rn. She was the type of grandma to forbid video games and television because it “rotted your brain” and “wasted time you could be spending at a job or studying for your next job”.
-Rio has a retired racing greyhound named Sock Puppet. He stays with Rio’s dad whenever Rio is traveling for work. She did not intend to name him Sock Puppet, it was supposed to be a nickname, she wanted to name him Shadow since he’s black with white spotting on his chest/neck but he refused to respond to anything but Sock Puppet so it stuck. Rio calls him “Sock” for short. He’s a shy, introverted dog who prefers the company of his people and gets nervous easily, but he’s incredibly sweet, quiet and gentle. He had separation anxiety on the more severe side at first but he’s gotten a lot better about it. He’s got some odd behaviors as a result of spending his entire prior life in a kennel and then a race track, such as swatting at toys with his paws like a cat because he doesn’t know how to play with them properly, Rio just finds it endearing.
-Rio has so far been on at least one full voyage while under the Pony Express’s employ. By the time the Pony Express goes under, Rio had already built rapport with the crew she was traveling with, and followed them to another company which also dealt in space travel, but in transporting people between space colonies and not cargo, serving as the on ship nurse. She likes her new job a lot better, it’s not perfect but she feels valued and like her work matters there at least. This company also likes to cut corners, but nowhere near as bad as the Pony Express. At least this company installed locks in the sleeping cabins.
-When the Tulpar is declared missing, and especially after the company declares bankruptcy, Rio joins demonstrations calling for the Pony Express to take accountability for their missing crew. She was held back by her fear of losing her employment at the time but when that fear was made real, she stopped caring because the worst had already happened. Realistically in the corporate hellscape that is the Mouthwashing universe, protestors stand no chance against a mega corporation like the Pony Express and with the company already basically defunct, theres little that can be done legally. However, the disappearance of the Tulpar has badly damaged the reputation of the Pony Express and cast doubt on any companies considering working with their prior benefactors and shareholders. Rio’s new captain isn’t exactly thrilled with Rio’s choice to protest publicly, because he’s aware of the risks involved with locking horns with an unethical business and concerns about retaliation, but he doesn’t really have it in him to stop her because he’s seen first hand just how much the Pony Express does not deserve to be shielded. He also isn’t as keen to voice his disapproval now that the company is bankrupt and less likely to be able to afford to hire private investigators and lawyers.
-Post Pony Express employment, Rio gains back a lot of the weight she lost due to stress and malnourishment and makes a lot of progress in improving her sleep schedule. Rio’s dad is very happy to see the dark circles under her eyes disappear, and Rio smiles more often. At her new job, Rio has a UV lamp in her private cabin on ship to simulate sunlight, which helps tremendously with a consistent sleep schedule and overall improved mood. She never wants to repeat that experience with constant sleeplessness and agitation like she did working for the Pony Express. Amazing the improvements that happen when a company doesn’t enforce a limit on how long you can sleep. A silly for your troubles.
