Jay "Ava" Rivers

Ava's world is similar to Earth in a lot of ways. Humanity is an ever expanding civilization, a lot of the flora and fauna are the same, and so on. There are a lot of differences, though, too. There are 28 continents of varying size, for one, which I will detail on a different post. Also, spirits hold a big sway over the world. They keep things in balance, make sure the world keep turning, the seasons change, time flows as it should, ect ect. It's their duty to see that things run smoothly in the world, and they're supposed to travel between the mortal world and the spirit world regularly to keep things that way.

They don't do this any more, though. As humanity expanded and their influence over the natural world increased, they grew to forget the spirits, which led to the spirits growing tired of their duties. Cleaning up humanities messes was tiring, and as the humans no longer looked to the spirits for guidance and aid, the spirits decided to just let them be.

Now, long before the spirits decided to do this, death had created a railroad to help ease his workload. Humanity had grown by that time, and the volume of souls he had to cart between worlds was starting to slow him down. Spirits got away and caused trouble before he could round them up, and really, it was just a big mess from start to finish. The railroad helped with that. He could move more souls faster, which meant slip ups and hauntings happened less frequently.

The other spirits used this railway to their advantage, and set their powers into it so that balance would remain so long as the train that carried souls kept moving. It all worked out for a while. They had a number of souls and contracted humans--usually those with some sort of unique skill-set or another--keep the railroad running, and left to stay in the spirit world 99% of the time ( With a few exceptions. Death and a few other spirits still kept up their duties, but for the most part, the mortal world remained spirit-less. ). All was good.

And then humanity went and almost screwed it all up. They didn't mean to, but as their technology slowly became more advanced, they stumbled upon the wonders of railroads, and started building one of their own, which had some rather unfortunate consequences. When overlapped with the spirit world, the human made rails could be used to send trains through into the spirit world. This was not good for the world's balance, and even though death--and the other spirits--sent the railway workers to dismantle and try to keep the humans from building too close, things were slowly headed towards disaster, thanks to Cairn, a businessman with his eyes set on the spirit world.
 

Ava was born as Jay Rivers. She and her family were low class farmers that struggled to keep their town and themselves fed in a small town on Rana, a continent that, aside from the coast, was mostly desert and mountains. Their life was hard, but fulfilling, and Jay was happy. She grew up, married, and had three children. Her eldest son, Ky, wanted to travel the world, and at 13 he ran away and died at sea. She later lost her other two children, Erin ( her five year old daughter) and Ian ( her ten year old son) in a raid on her village. Her husband became a drunk who spent all his time in a neighboring town, leaving Jay alone with her grief. She grew so resentful, she left her farm, her husband, and her life, and went to seek vengeance on those who took her children from her.

She trained and traveled for a few years, and when she found the group responsible for her losses, she killed them. Painfully and without mercy. She was fatally wounded in the fight, though, and died. Which would normally be the end, but luckily, The spirit of death was looking for someone to act as conductor as he went about business as usual, and given most humans during her time were either greedy, violent, or complacent, he was impressed by her drive. Yeah, she'd killed a bunch of people, but she hadn't done it for greed or power, so Death offered her a deal; If she ran the railroad and let him off to do what he needed, he would see that she got her children back.

She agreed, but Death didn't follow through on his end of the bargain, using her children as incentive to keep her working, telling her that 'one day' her family would be reunited. She knows he will likely never follow through, but she works anyway, because it's her only real hope for the future she longs for. She'd been working for 300 years when the problems with Cairn and the mortal railway started, and has since been working double time to keep her railroad running smoothly. (Yes, she does consider it her railroad, even though it's technically still death's. )

 

Ava is a hard worker. She does what needs doing, and doesn't back down from hard work. She's grown up working hard, after all, so it's nothing that's unfamiliar to her and nothing that she shies away from. She's disciplined and good at keeping others in line, also, though her methods often come across as harsh or unfeeling. Which is understandable. She's been alive a long, long time, and she's hardened a lot over the centuries.

She used to be kind, caring and motherly, and while those traits are definitely still there, they're glossed over by the fact she's been through a lot. She lost her family--a scar that's never really healed--and went on a vengeance driven kill-spree. She's changed a lot, and has done what she can to leave her past behind her and take up the mantle of the railway's protector.Which is why she's taken up the name 'Ava' as a kind of new start for her. Her past isn't so easy to get away from, of course, but it helps when she can detach herself from it, even if just a little.

She's very no-nonsense, and isn't one to take anything from anyone. She's strong-willed and tough, and runs things on the train with an iron fist. She has everyone's best intentions at heart, and does care a lot about the people she oversees, but she doesn't let sentiment get in the way of business, which usually means unless she's ordering people around, she probably isn't in the mood to talk to them. She's kind of distant in that regard, not wanting to grow too close to anyone.

Even though she doesn't always mean to, she usually comes across as very condescending as well. She peppers her speech with very affectionate words ( Honey, Darling, Sweetie. ) which, when coupled with her tone, make it seem like she's looking down on whoever she's talking to. She garners a lot of respect, because she gets things done, but she tends to grate on most people after a while.