“If the times are dark enough, then what good we find should be kept in storage.”

Rebecca Krouthammer is a warm, kind hearted, very progressive, very liberal hippy woman born in the wrong time. A strong empath, she tries to see the inherent goodness in all things, regardless of how the world insists otherwise. In the time of the story, a wave of anti-Asian sentiments began to sweep across the western world and Rebecca took the side of standing with the Asian community. Rebecca was born blind, but during the first 10 years of her life without sight, the sounds of the world provided a mental playground for her to wander. And music was her closest friend in the dark. 

She grew up in Idaho, a hole in the wall part of the country where people live out of bad luck or because they are in hiding. She managed to avoid the (serious) drug crisis and bounced around from band to band, enjoying music, but never finding an actual break, resulting in working low-end jobs most of her life. Her social life was seldom steady. Among other female circles, she often found herself the odd girl out. The reasons for this were never made clear to her. Not talking enough? Must be stuck up. Being too friendly? A total tryhard. She only made a small number of what she could consider good friends, but even those were strained by the constant traveling and moving around by all parties in the desperate chase to make survival money. 

Her romantic relationships with men (and occasionally women) were never solid enough to become anything seriously legitimate. She never found that perfect balance of power in the relationship, often having the weight of the responsibility lean too heavily on one side or the other. An unapologetic feminist, she would try to never shy away from speaking her feelings. Though, due to the punishments that society would levy, she would occasionally hide her intelligence. Sometimes, it was just easier to do so in order to get by. In a hostile world, one could either pose as an additional threat, or try to come off as unthreatening as possible. Rebecca chose the latter. She is at her heart, an artist. Music was her outlet to let the real her shine through without punishment nor discouragement. 

Through a total happenstance, she got a job at a friend of a friend’s spacecraft mechanic shop, then applying her gathered knowledge of spacecraft, moved to and got a job as a test pilot on the satellite nation of Nova Zion. Not much tied her to Idaho, which was, to her, a place of regrets and no opportunity. Nova Zion was known as a safe place and it could provide a new beginning for her life. 

It would later be revealed that it was her musical talents that expedited her application process as Nova Zion was always looking for new prospective “Campaigners” (symphony fighter pilots). 

Throughout the course Symphony Fighters!, we will see Rebecca as she grows from someone more agreeable and passive to one that stands up more for herself. As she has to cooperate with the hard-edged North Korean nationalist, Kim Soo-Jung, we see her try to play a kind of “strong graciousness” that will help her grow as a character. As an empath, she will see a kind of quiet pain in Kim Soo-Jung that will call to her caring nature. Rebecca’s story will be difficult, but the difficult ones are often worth telling.