Rhythm (Melody)

Rhythm/Melody is a character that just kinda happened in my head while I was thinking about the details of the "angels" (no, they have nothing to do with religion). Saichi, Melody's "mother," has been around for a while, though he never had any blood relatives of import to the stories until I came up with Melody. Originally his kind weren't supposed to ever be able to have children...but then I changed it, and Melody happened as a result of that...

Rhythm is...rather wild. As Melody, she had a very liberal upbringing, by the childless couple who adopted her when Saichi brought her in to the hospital and left her there just hours after her birth. They were very open-minded people, which allowed Melody to blossom into a music loving young woman with a rather unique boyfriend (not to mention a band with a name that would probably have shocked the average parent of a teenager). She not afraid to be her own individual self, which included dying her naturally blonde hair bright blue, in defiance of everything the teachers at her junior high tried to tell her.

Melody was a name given to her by Saichi, pretty much the only thing that she ever had of her real "mother." Of course, she didn't even know about being adopted until she was sixteen, because her parents didn't want to make her think that she had been unloved when her mother abandoned her at the hospital just after birth. Melody Ann was the name that a frightened nineteen year old Saichi gave her just before leaving her at the hospital, Melody because a song was the first thing that came to mind when he thought about it, and Ann because it is a shortened form of his own former name, Anna. Rhythm, the name he took after his change, was because he was actually rather fond of the name Melody, but didn't think it would work for a guy...so he chose the most male sounding out of the three, Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm.

Rhythm is quite famous. Melody was the lead singer for a band by the name of The Great Androgynous Rapture, along with her boyfriend Drei, and his on again off again boyfriend, Karl, before she changed. After the change, Rhythm stayed together with the band (and Drei), and they eventually gained a fourth member and rose to fame. When Melody became Rhythm, she took over the position of band leader from Drei, at his request. Then, not too long after Rhythm's twenty-first birthday, Drei died of a condition that he had had since birth, but had never told any of the others about, making it a surprise to the others, and huge shock to Rhythm's stability, one that he luckily managed to overcome. And then, not too long after that, Karl, who was Drei's on again off again boyfriend (in addition to Rhythm), killed himself. Less than a half a year later, the fourth member of the group followed, finally succumbing to the cancer he had been fighting since he was a small child. In other words, Rhythm was left alone.

After that, Rhythm basically had three choices. One, he could stop singing, and give up music completely. Two, he could go solo, and he was popular enough that he would have no trouble. Or three, he could form a band with new members, and continue to just be a leader and lead singer. He chose the third option, since he couldn't conceive of a life where he didn't sing, and he didn't want to be alone, and he ended up chosing the new members of the band, which continued to be called The Great Androgynous Rapture, who were a close knit group of friends, all fans, and with a large amount of talent. Two of the new members were brothers, with a third one the boyfriend of one of the brothers. They were a group that would have ended up a band (most likely a famous one), whether Rhythm had taken them for his new band or not, and he actually ended up supplanting a third brother who would have been the lead singer, except that he was the youngest of them, and not quite old enough to join them at the time.

Oddly enough, there were no hard feelings between Rhythm and the young singer, named Kei. Rather, Kei admired, and almost hero-worshipped, Rhythm...and they later ended up lovers, after Kei's brother in law Ben (husband to Kai) practically shoved them together in an attempt to make Rhythm a little less lonely (as Ben is near empathic, but not quite, and the only person who noticed just how much the loss of Drei bothered Rhythm). And life was good after that...

Until Rhythm started fixating on a person he had met once before, the mysterious (and beautiful) angel who had inducted him into his new life after the change. That person (who actually is Saichi, his "mother") is someone who has stuck in Rhythm's memory since they met, and while he occasionally seems to forget, he is actually always lurking there in the back of Rhythm's mind, waiting for the chance to force the younger angel to go find him. And this happened a few years after the second Rapture was formed, causing poor Kei (who was only nineteen years old at the time) quite a bit of pain, as he was very much in love with Rhythm, and didn't like the thought that he wasn't even as important as some guy Rhythm had met once in his life and may never see again. So Kei ended up dumping Rhythm to keep his own emotions safe, something that never quite sat right with Rhythm after that.

Besides all of this, it's important to note that the most important things in life to Rhythm are equality, love, and music. He is extremely outspoken about people's rights to be treated equally, whoever and whatever they might be or choose. This is not just because of his own differences, that would have him quite outcast in many more traditional and/or conservative societies, but also just because that is the way he thinks people should be. As for love and music...he has a very hard time living without either one, and to lose both at the same time would probably drive him to the point of suicide. He hates being alone, though he will never show it. After Kei broke up with him, he chose not to take a new steady lover, but rather a stream of young men (and the occasional woman) who would love him just for a night or two, and not require anything of him. That, combined with the less sexual love that he gets from the Rapture, as well as the music, keeps him sure that he is doing what he wants with his life.

As for being an angel...this is common knowledge to the band, and to Kei, but otherwise mostly hidden from the public. He occasionally makes appearances on stage with his wings out, but they are always seen as just part of his costume, rather than an actual part of his body. Similarly, he hides his psychic gifts from most of the world, and makes excuses when he is forced to use one openly...claiming coincidence or something like that. He actually is a rather powerful telepath, and even stronger in empathy. His telekinesis is a bit lacking, though, and he tends to just ignore it rather than use it and be reminded of his limitations.

And that, for now, is Rhythm...