River's Questionnaire

River lives in Bellingham, because that’s where they’ve always lived, and they don’t have a reason to live anywhere else. Also, it has decent coffee without a lot of the competition that Seattle would have, and they do rather enjoy their job as a barista. They live in a tiny shoebox of a studio, in between the cafe they work in and the bookstore they love. Their home is filled with plants, old books, and little trinkets and gifts from their regulars at the cafe. It’s also usually filled with sawdust, paint water cups, and metal bits from whatever she’s creating at the moment- even if it’s far too little to have a proper workspace set up.

They get most of their money from their work as a barista. While it pays less than minimum wage due to being a tipped job (a fact they are generally furious about), they do make a significant amount of money off of tips. River is one of the best—liked baristas at the cafe, due to both their gregarious personality and their fantastic latte art. They also occasionally make money from selling weed to the more discrete regulars. They spent their money mostly on art and crafting supplies, trying new mediums and styles often. They also spend a significant chunk of money on plants and tattoos.

River’s ultimate goal in life is to end wealth inequality. This began with the goal of unionizing the coffee shop that they work at; however, this proved to be surprisingly easy, considering that it’s a coffee shop in the Pacific Northwest. This goal achieved, they began looking into supporting others in their unionizing efforts, and changing laws. While attending strikes and union negotiations, they found themselves falling into riots and protests as well, and learning more about the nasty politics and history behind it all. They wouldn’t kill innocents for it, but they would kill politicians happily, and have been in a fight or two at a riot. They are more of a talker-their-way-out-of-it than a fighter, but have been in their fair share of scrapes, and have ended up in enough medic tents that it’s fair to say they’d come pretty close to death.

They lost their family, in an event on The River. The event itself is lost to them, as are most of their memories before that, and their memories of who specifically their family are. They’ve never spoken of this to anyone, and when they try to recall this, it brings pain and different memories each time, as well as fear. They only know for sure that they had a family; two parents, and a sibling, and happiness. The four of them were on The River. And then River woke up, alone, and lost, and in pain, and surrounded by the unknown, but not physically hurt. Now, everything about them is unknown, and they are filled with different memories whenever they try to recall anything. But they have made a happy life for themselves, here in Bellingham. And they have a yearbook and a driver’s license and a wallet with their name… so this must be where they grew up, right?

The clerk at the Trader Joes, who always knows when the avocados will be ripe but never knows when the mangos will be ripe. His name is Karl, and he orders a black cold brew at the coffee shop every time even though he wants to order an iced vanilla latte with oat milk. 
The manager at the coffee shop, who is the person that River is closest to. Her name is Laila, and she exclusively drinks iced americanos. She reminds River of someone, but River never knows who. She hooked River up with the studio they live in, and they like to chat about arts and crafts. Laila hates the cops and loves cats, and believes fiercely in universal housing. 
A regular named Mo, who is a professor at WWU and teaches Women’s History. She drinks 4 shot lavender mochas with almond milk. She has a tiny chihuahua that Laila is fiercely allergic to. 

River knows that they had a very happy childhood, filled with parent involvement, but not any more than that. They have 12 yearbooks, one for each year of elementary, one for each year of middle, and one for each year of high school. Therefore they have pictures for each year they attended school, showing them smiling throughout many clubs, from Writers Club, to Chess Club, to Lego Club. (Notably, they did not participate in any sports.) 

For all of their elementary yearbooks, there’s a page on the PTA Volunteers, with the parents being named “___’s Parent” and then a picture of both the child and the parent. For all 5 years of River’s elementary yearbooks, “River’s Mom” is on that page, with a picture of a smiling River- however on each of those pages, there’s a coffee stain over the picture of their mom, as though the yearbooks had been in a stack when someone had spilled over them. There are lots of coffee spills like this throughout the yearbooks, covering the names underneath the clubs they were in.

River knows from all this that they had a lovely childhood with lots of friends, and that they fit in well at school, but they can’t name any of their friends or find them now.

Yes. River fell in love with a regular at the coffee shop seven years ago, just after waking up on the bank of The River after losing their memory. Her name was Sara, and she drank iced rose lattes with coconut milk; she was studying Journalistic Writing at WWU. She flirted with River for several months before giving them her number, and inviting them to an Open Mic Poetry Night with her. Their first date went horribly, as Open Mic nights are a terrible choice for first dates, but River thought she was funny, and they went out several more times, with River falling harder and harder. Unfortunately, Sara wasn't nearly as into them as they were into her, and was using them to learn more about why everyone had a different backstory for River. She thought it would make for an interesting book plot, and additionally, was cheating on them. When River found out, they were heartbroken, and made Sara promise to never speak to anyone about it again. They never saw each other again.