Phillipa Ryans was born at the start of the Second American Civil War to Nicole Nichols and Ben Ryans. The first three years of her life were spent safe from the war in Good Hope Lake, British Columbia. She was cared for by Hollis Fitzroy, a member of the Ferrymen who had sheltered Nicole after she fled the United States when she discovered she was pregnant, and what the government intended to do with SLC-Expressives like herself. Pippa's conception wasn't intentional, but her parents have never regretted it. Although Nicole and Ben never married, they very consciously and harmoniously co-parented their daughter.
Even beyond her parents' relationship, her family is a large and complex one. Pippa's father has a son — Brad — from his first marriage (that he had erased from his memory and this Brad isn't even from our timeline), and two daughters — Lucille and Delia — from his second marriage (the one he and everyone else remembers). In addition to that, Ben and Nicole have an adult daughter together — Ingrid — from an alternative future timeline. Then, she has twin half-siblings from her mother's marriage to Zachery Miller — Avery and Harvey. They were born while Nicole is being held captive by mad scientists. See? Complex.
But buckle up, it just gets weirder.
While Pippa was still just a bundle of cells assembling themselves into a fetus, Nicole attempted to save the life of a man whose electrokinetic ability allowed him to turn into living lightning. When his body was dying, Nicole absorbed his electric form with the hopes they could find some way to restore him later. For a time, he was a passenger, present in Nicole's mind. Gradually, he began to fade away and was assumed to have simply grown weak and passed on. Only the latter part of that was true, as he was passed on to the life growing inside Nicole's womb. Initially, Nicole had meant to call her daughter Annie, but she instead decided to name her in honor of the man who helped her rescue her sister. Thus the girl who would have been Ryanne instead was given the name Phillipa, for Howard Phillips. Howard now resides as a presence within Pippa, one she's been too young to know how to reconcile. So far, he's mostly manifested to her in the form of dreams and nightmares, memories of his life.
In 2020, only a week after her eighth birthday, Pippa's father was killed thwarting a terrorist attack. Her last memory of him is locking her and her mother in a root cellar as he left them. Nicole has explained that it was because he was scared and trying to protect them from bad people, it's still a difficult thing she's been trying to process. She knows there is a message waiting for her when she's old enough, and while she isn't sure when that is, she has trusted her mother and older sisters to tell her.
Less than a year later, Zachery woke Pippa in the middle of the night and told her to pack the things she would need to spend time elsewhere. So she collected the go-bag from her closet and stuffed in a few things she didn't want to be without and left with her step-father. They'd discussed her mother's illness, following an accident, and how that might mean she would have to stay somewhere else for a while. Zachery took her to the home of her mother's younger sister Colette and her partner Tasha, where she remains while Nicole recovers. Although she still sees her mother from time to time, and she's had it explained to her that she's sick and just needs time to recover, it's been over half a year and Pippa can't help but feel like her mother's left her as well.
In truth, her mother and step-father were abducted in July of 2020 and replaced with exact copies of themselves, with all their memories. Nicole, however, had been in the second trimester of her pregnancy with Pippa's twin siblings and the returned version of her suddenly was not. It was a trauma that the whole family had to deal with, and Pippa had been watching her mother slip further into despair for months. The Miller copies were slowly degrading, with Nicole losing memories, entire aspects of herself, skills she once had. Zachery difficulty with his own short-term memory. All Pippa was told was that they were sick, but assured they would get better eventually. For months, she's been reconciling the notion that her mother may well be dying.
In spite of it all, she still has amazing support from her extended family, and does her best to stay positive. Phillipa Allyn Ryans is nothing if not strong enough to withstand what the world will throw at her.
Even if she shouldn't have to be.
