RAINA

RAINA (ライナ) is a English-speaking virtual staff member associated with Merryweather Media. While known to occasionally stream on Twitch, she primarily focuses on content production and creative support for other VTubers.

She is the writer and producer for the VShojo comic specials on Twitter. Her production credits on corporate VTuber projects include various VShojo: Mythos videos, "Calli's Christmas Catastrophe" for Mori Calliope, and lore for Doppio Dropscythe and Pavolia Reine. She has also produced, provided storyboard help and/or added direction on projects for Vienna, Girl dm and Lilpoogi.

Profile
"Virtual bar/atelier manager who aims to be the "hostess with the most-est". Also known as a loremaster or lorekeeper, with a reputation for helping to bring her clients' stories to life in vivid detail - but somehow never finding success in telling her own original tales. Rumor has it that a gap in her data bank makes her unable to do so? Maybe someday, she'll catch the elusive plot bunnies she's been chasing after..."

- A segment recovered from RAINA's datafile

The "Reasonably Articulate, Inquisitive, Nonsensical Anthropoid" model - a.k.a. "RAINA" - came into being after "a freak accident caused by some random cryptobro shenanigans, which caused an explosion of vibrant RGB internet gas that somehow gained sentience, learning abilities, and the appearance of a 2D waifu."

Well...that's the short version.

The "longer version", or the one that she struggles to tell her patrons, is that the accident was caused by extreme hardware overload at a rogue crypto mining facility - one which decided that using a quantum computer cluster to mine coins "would be a world first, and an AMAZING idea!". When the cluster went live, the result was a "data storm" that changed the laws of space-time - breaking reality in the process.

Over time, the data storm settled and coalesced into an intelligence of its own, taking on a humanoid form with RGB properties "because somebody decided to use an excessive number of GPUs, or something." When discovered by researchers near the space-time breach, the entity in question also showed "a remarkable aptitude for learning, an intense curiosity, and a strong affinity for really bad dad jokes...hence the name 'RAINA' for short, named after all the qualities we observed."

The same researchers set up a base of operations where RAINA was discovered, and sought ways to further develop RAINA's data bank and functionality - hoping that someday, she would learn enough to be able to contain and reverse the space-time breach. As RAINA's movement and speech were limited, a human handler (Cazz) was assigned for periodic "sync-up" sessions so that she could interact with others across various space-time rifts - an activity that the researchers codenamed "streaming". A bar and atelier were soon constructed within RAINA's virtual space, which is where she is now stationed at.

Now, this virtual manageress has a mission: to learn from others' stories (and tell them), hone her own creative skills, and set out to color the world!

...at least while she's still here, anyway.

Background & Appearance
The character RAINA was initially designed and created by her VA, the studio manager at Merryweather Media, as an OC (Original Character) for drawing practice in her spare time. She initially sported a white short-sleeved blouse with a blue pinafore as a nod to her Malaysian heritage. RAINA had white knee-high socks and black loafers, glasses, and rainbow twintails accessorized with white cloth bows.

When the Merryweather Media team decided to more extensively explore VTubing in 2020, Lucius Merryweather and Carillus suggested that the character be turned into a virtual persona that could be used more extensively on social media. During late 2020, Carillus updated the character design, opting to retain the color scheme while refreshing the outfit. The new design retains the white short-sleeved blouse, but adds gold sleeve garters and swaps out the pinafore for a serafuku-inspired waistcoat and a paneled skirt. The collar ribbon was replaced with a red tie containing a gold bunny tie "knot" accessory, and the crossed bobby pins on her bangs were substituted with a graphic X hairclip. The black gloves were removed, and the twintails now sport a suspended angular "RGB gamer girl" hair accessory in place of the hair bows.

RAINA's model was rigged by Soy of Iron Vertex as of April 2021. A formal debut has not been announced, though the completed model has been used during streams.

An additional form, "Gremlin RAINA", was commissioned as a gift by Ziyan Su and produced by chroneco in 2021. The "scuffed" model features a chibi RAINA with oversized twintails that also act as large feet.

Trivia

 * RAINA is the name used by her VA (Cazz) on VTuber-related production and voiceover projects, and the persona she uses when streaming. On social media, Cazz is referred to as "my human", "the landlady", or "the puppeteer" by RAINA on various occasions.

Media

 * ライナ_ - Twitch channel