Marion

Open-minded: Marion is a bit different. They aren't a huge activist--mostly, they just want to be able to live their life without incident--but they're sympathetic to other people who society looks at askance.

Ocean-loving: Marion has a Master's degree in Oceanography, and they're happiest out on the open water. They like whales.

Scientist: Despite living in a hotbed of weird, Marion thinks the Veil can and should be studied scientifically, like any other strange phenomenon.

Veil-Hopper: Marion can't do much with the Veil, but they can enter it. At times.

Explorer: Marion enjoys going new places.

Marion's parents came to the United States from Taiwan shortly after Meiling became pregnant. Neither Meiling or Chewei were ever particularly sure why. It was a combination of factors, really. Fear of the new General Secretary across the strait (unfounded, as it turned out), thoughts of making it rich in America (similarly unfounded), strange dreams by both parents that they never spoke of, even to each other (not unfounded. not at all). In any event, they arrived in the States just in time for Marion to be born. Not that they named their child Marion. They named Marion "Tsai Rui," a good, honest name (though the Americans made them write it in the English style, Rui Tsai). Marion was a later addition, after they'd settled down in the town of Gray Harbor, and made some friends who tactfully suggested that Rui might be a bit much, even on the West Coast, even in the progressive late 1980s. So Rui was Rui at home and at Saturday School, and Marion everywhere else.

Marion doesn't remember a whole lot about their time growing up in Gray Harbor. They mostly lived a normal life in a slightly weird town. They played baseball. They were good at it, but not great. They went hiking out and about in the woods. Sometimes scary things happened. That's normal when you're a teenager in the woods. They got good grades (Teddy S. Addington High, Class of 2004). Top ten percent of their class, of course, as though Meiling would settle for anything less, but not anything special. A scholarship to UW in Seattle, where memories of Gray Harbor faded and were replaced by a new understanding of who, exactly, Marion was. Not a man, or a woman, but just a person. Gender had never really mattered much to Marion--but finding out that it was okay for it not to matter? That mattered. That mattered a lot. And with that realization came another understanding. A pencil, hurled across the room by an invisible force. Then a coffee mug. Then the minifridge. Later, they'd learn it was called "Glimmer." That they weren't mad. That they had been lucky, really, to be so far from a place where the Veil was thin--manifestation was usually much worse.

Seattle is a big city. Large enough to see others with it. Large enough for others to see Marion. Large for Marion to learn enough to survive.

Seattle is a big city. A bit too big. Time passed. Marion returned to Gray Harbor with a Master's in Oceanography (they'd always liked whales). Their family had left, of course, during the college years. Moved down south to San Francisco, where things were more normal. Marion understood why. Marion understood better than their parents did.

Marion's memories aren't returning, not exactly. But they're beginning to realize that the town isn't as normal as they thought it was when they left. It's more than slightly weird. But that suits them just fine. Marion, Rui, he, she, they, Gray Harbor born, Seattle educated--has always lived life in the in-between places. Gray Harbor is just one more of them.

Marion is of slightly below average height. They're fair-skinned, with silky black hair, and they wear large, thick-rimmed glasses that slightly magnify their dark brown eyes. They're thin, but athletically built, and when their arms or legs are exposed, it's easy to see the wiry muscles beneath their skin.