Ami Richards

2015

**Ami Richards** (born March 13th, 1997) is one of the main supporting characters in *Blank Earth* and a minor recurring character in *The Rain of April* and *The Melancholy of Separation*.

## Biography

### Early Life

From an early age, Ami displayed several unusual behaviors and struggled with making friends, her parents were dismissive of these issues and chalked it up to a fault of character. However, her older brother, Zachary, took notice of Ami and treated her with the care and love she lacked from her parents, including defending her from the harassment she would often receive from other children at school.

When Ami was six years old, her father abandoned both children and their mother after he had discovered that she had been cheating. Shortly thereafter, Ami's mother would take to heavy drinking and further neglect of her children, leaving Zach to care for Ami fulltime as she was incapable of feeding, bathing or clothing herself in a socially proper manner.

Not long thereafter, the stranger that their mother had eloped with would enter her and Zachary's life indefinitely. Unfortunately, he would prove to be even less of the much-needed parental-figure and more of a manipulative abuser who continued to feed their mothers habits (in one instance, leaving her to nearly die of alcohol poisoning). As issues arose with Zach picking fights with those who mocked or degraded his sister at school, it became commonplace for Zach to receive severe punishment from his mother's boyfriend in retaliation, these loud violent conflicts frightened and traumatized the young Ami to the point that she became mute for over a year. Yet, her brother would still continue to defend his sister at school, knowing full well the consequences.

By the time she was ten, her mother's boyfriend would take his degenerative behavior to the next level when he begin harassing the pubescent Ami, frequently groping, grinding and eventually touching her and coercing her into performing oral sex. This act pushed the now-teenaged Zachary over-the-edge and he would end up brutally beating the man to near-death with a crowbar with the intention of killing him. Afterwards, fearing the worst, Zachary fled with his younger sister.

Wanting to avoid being returned to their mother or placed in foster care where they could be separated, the pair snuck across the Canadian border into Washington state, where the duo would spend the following years homeless in the city of Seattle, Washington. Zachary, underage and with no identification and in fear of deportation, worked several under-the-table jobs at the local market in an attempt to support them and fortunately, had enough to afford a small room which was leased to them by one of the market vendors. At this time, Ami was unable to fully grasp the dire situation that they were in, and made the best of it, befriending the homeless vagabonds that hopped off trains.

### The Rain of April

In May of 2011, Ami met Jacob Delsin and Alex Peterson, a teen couple who had also made the decision to run away from their less-than-desirable home lives and had hopped on a freight train from Aberdeen to Seattle in search of a new start with the help of Dawn Anderson, the elder sister of the couple's close friend whom resided somewhere in the city.

Ami helped the couple adjust to their surroundings on the streets until they could find the person they were looking for and introduced them to Zachary, whom they quickly befriended. With Zach's help, Jacob was able to get his first undocumented job in Seattle doing manual labor at the docks, which would help to provide for the couple financially into the immediate future.

Not too long after meeting Jacob and Alex, Zachary was finally able to afford to move Ami and himself into a low-end bachelor apartment.

### The Melancholy of Separation

By late June 2013, Zachary had been on-and-off with his girlfriend; Kim Min-Ji for nearly a year, which left Ami jealous and vying for her brother's attention. At the same time, Jacob and Alex had a significant falling-out due to a substantial decline in Jacob's mental health following their departure from Aberdeen and his subsequent fall into alcoholism.

Soon thereafter, Alex left town to hop trains down the west coast and recollect herself, while Jacob took up an offer to stay at Zachary and Ami's apartment temporarily to clear his head. In exchange, Ami went to stay with Dawn for the three-week duration, during which time, the two got along splendidly as Dawn's open-minded motherly persona complimented Ami's oddball wide-eyed vigor.

By the end of the summer, the decision was made that Ami would instead move-in with Dawn, Alex, and newcomer Ryley Summers, while Jacob took up full-time residence at Zachary's apartment. This arrangement worked to the best of everyone's interests, as Dawn was far more capable of providing for, educating, feeding and otherwise spending time with Ami and accommodating her needs; while Jacob and Zach would become romantically involved by mid-September.

### New Normal

Living with Dawn proved just as rewarding for Ami as it did challenging, as Dawn continued to push Ami out of her comfort zone and offer her more autonomy and independence, Ami equally learned how to better care for and dress herself as well as grasp an abstract understanding of the world around her. Ami also began learning key communication skills to help her connect with people to a degree she simply couldn't under her previous circumstances. Dawn furthermore placed Ami in charge of several chores around the house which gave Ami a sense of importance and responsibility.

Yet, perhaps the best thing to come of this new environment was Ami's exposure to art in various forms, she took immediately to abstract painting after Dawn had treated Ami to a friend's personal art gallery show and began writing poetry and playing guitar as a way of working towards building stronger emotional communication. After several months living together, Ami made explicit her desire to experiment and understand her sexuality with the ever-promiscuous Dawn as her teacher. At this point, Zachary still made sparse and infrequent visits, which Ami valued as a chance to show her older brother that she could take care of herself and no longer needed to be his burden.

In April, Zachary suddenly disappeared, and although she was unable to quite understand what was occurring, Ami felt an overwhelming sense of grief and deep self-loathing that would slowly continue to manifest over the following year. Dawn, understanding the severity of the situation, confided Ami that her brother hadn't abandoned her and he would return. At this time, Dawn helped Ami keep her mind clear and pre-occupied by having her volunteer at Talbot Cooperatives, a grocery store co-op where Dawn had been working for the past several years.

Over the following months, Jacob, attempting to rehabilitate from his heavy opiate use, would make infrequent visits to see Ami: often presenting her with gifts, spending long periods of time with her, and allowing her to show off her artwork and poetry. Ami didn't understand this sudden shift in Jacob's behavior, but nonetheless, his unnecessary displays of kindness and awkward mannerisms led her to develop a significant crush on Jacob, which she struggled to understand or properly express. Instead, she took a polaroid photograph of him, which she would closely cherish.

## Personality

A bit of an oddball and the youngest in the household, Ami is a very-ditsy and often childlike girl who struggles with everyday life and interpersonal relationships as a result of an undiagnosed developmental disorder and mild prosopagnosia (incapable of recognizing or distinguishing most faces). Ami also has issues understanding personal boundaries, common social cues and expressing her more complex emotions, verbally or physically, which in extreme situations can lead her to throw tantrums in frustration. She often tends to wander off into thought which plays into her naturally clumsy and uncoordinated behavior. Nevertheless, she is incredibly optimistic, friendly, and fantastically creative, usually occupying her time making crafts, painting, writing poetry, and taking photographs to better express and project her thoughts and emotions outwards.

## Appearances

* Nihilist Apathy
	+ *The Rain of April*
	+ *The Melancholy of Separation*
* Blank Earth
* Of Cigarettes & Copulation (mentioned)

## Relationships

Family
* Unnamed Father
* Unnamed Mother
* Zachary Richards † - Half-brother

Romances
* Dawn Anderson † - Partner
* Jacob Delsin † - Crush

Friends
* Ryley Summers - Friend
* Alex Peterson - Friend
* Jay Sanders - Roommate
* Emily Kaufman - Roommate
* Liam Kendall - Acquaintance
* Kim Min-Ji- Acquaintance

## Trivia

* The character of Ami is very loosely based on Rin Tezuka from the visual novel *Katawa Shoujo*, both have the same birthday (March 13th) and are socially-inept characters who have a love for art, but lack the ability to recognize and understand emotions in both themselves and others.