Nina Payne

// She dismisses and denies her affiliation with the Shining Hand, and pretends they never existed. That her time with them never existed.

She believes the ritual was just some sort of bad dream. A nightmare she’d rather forget.

But in reality, the nightmare has only just begun for Nina

“…I…need some rest. Tomorrow is a new day.”

she storms off to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, anger and frustration still in her face.

She pauses. She looks at her own reflection for a bit longer…

…she…she’s seeing things. She thought she saw something move in her eye.

“I got drenched in oil today. All because someone didn’t know what I meant when I said ‘wait for my signal before turning the valve’.

CHRIST. I want to punch his lights out.”

“…idiots.”

she throws herself on the couch, burying her face into the mattress

“I swear I work with idiots.”

// While in school, Nina would regularly get into fights. However, these physical altercations were usually with bullies. She’d usually get most of the blame for escalating things.

“God I swear, if we get another call that can be fixed by just turning a machine off, I’m gonna strangle someone.”

// Nina is a very stubborn woman. She doesn’t like being told what to do and prefers to do things her own way.

And when things go wrong, she tends to blame everyone else

“……I don’t want in your cult either.”

“…I don’t think I’d do a cult. Not…again.”

she’s made very poor past decisions

// Nina has had several romantic partners, but none have lasted very long. She doesn’t like to talk about her past dating life, and would rather move on and pretend they never existed

// While she hasn’t preformed in a while, she and a couple of friends formed a band together, with Nina on guitar and vocals.

They split up due to personal reasons

// Nina drives an old pickup truck that she personally fixed up and repaired. Despite its age, she claims it still functions perfectly.

// Character Trivia, Headcanons, and Facts

// When Nina regained consciousness, she found herself back in her apartment, with little memory of what happened. When she tried to return to the Shining Hand group, she found they had all vanished without a trace.

// Nina fell asleep and woke up tied to a ritualistic altar, surrounded by the Shining Hand “family”. The Bright Leader then cut her open and as she bled out, a strange alien looking canister was opened and a glowing golden liquid was poured directly into her wound

// One day, when she mentioned her birth parents and mentioned the Kawatche legend of a saviour from the sky, Shining Hand seemed particularly interested.

Nina was eventually introduced to the Bright Leader of Shining Hand, who invited Nina into his private quarters for a meal.

// Shining Hand promised Nina love and protection. She felt their love and opened up about her dismissive and abusive family, the times she was bullied in school, her difficult past romantic relationships, and her struggles with her current relationship. She began spending most of her time with them

// Several years later, when Nina is an adult and living on her own, she and her girlfriend were both introduced to a group called Shining Hand, a group of supportive individuals who took in “lost souls” and made a family. Nina joined the group, not knowing what she was in for.

// Due to being a minor at the time, Nina was sent to a youth detention centre and was never visited by her parents. After she was released, she picked up her things, moved in with a friend, and never looked back.

Her parents never went looking for her

// On her way returning to Brightburn, she was pulled over by the cops and arrested, as the truck she was driving was reported stolen. They found drugs in the vehicle. Her father reported the truck stolen, and to save his own skin, denied the drugs were his.

// Using the information she gathered, she began to ask an elderly Kawatche woman about Kyla Willowbrook. He was told she fell in love with a boy when she was very young and this young man moved to Metropolis.

She doesn’t know what happened to Kyla, but she heard that she passed away at some point

// Holdsclaw called the prophecy ridiculous and mentioned how the older Willowbrook daughter, Kyla, fell for a “white boy”.

Nina explained who she was, and that she believed that she may be Kyla’s daughter. Holdsclaw, in anger, told her to leave.

// She “borrowed” her father’s truck and drove to Smallville, and began to ask questions to the Kawatche people who lived there. She located Professor Holdsclaw, who told her that the Willowbrooks were a Kawatche family who believed in an ancient prophecy of a saviour coming from the stars.

// Nina grew up resenting her adopted family and never felt like she belonged. She began to do research into her genealogy and investigated her own parenthood and discovered she was part Kawatche and her mother came from Smallville. However, all she had was the name “Willowbrook”.

// Nina’s stepmother, Caitlyn, seemed to care more for Nina than her husband, but still seemed distant. She would stay silent and turn away any time Royce yelled at Nina. She never stood up for her.

// She lived in Brightburn, Kansas. She’d get a job working with her stepfather, Royce Payne. Royce would often voice frustration that he couldn’t have children of his own & how he wished they didn’t adopt Nina, wishing they had a boy instead. Royce never truly saw Nina as his real daughter.

// Nina grew up never knowing her parents. She was raised with the Payne family, who didn’t make it a secret that she was adopted. They told her real mother abandoned her at the front steps of a church when she was a baby.

While they knew her birth name was Nindaanis, they knew little else