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Rachel Parisher's life began like something out of an historical romance novel. Her mother, Irene Baker, took a position as a physician at Yokota Air Base, in Japan, in the 1970s. After two uneventful years, the chief of medical staff retired, and was replaced by a much younger man, named Harrison Parisher. At first, though there was mutual attraction, Harry and Irene were hesitant to persue a romantic relationship, as she was one of his subordinates, and the relationship could have been considered unseemly. After a secretive, year-long courtship, Irene decided to step down from her position and begin working in the private sector. Another year passed, to allow the transition to sink in, and Irene and Harry were married.

Their only daughter, Rachel Lorraine, was born on May 3rd, 1980. Rachel grew up on the Yokota base, and attended school there, with the rest of the air force children, and some offspring of American ex-pats living in the Yokota area. In 1994, just months before Rachel was due to begin high school, her parents finalized their decision to move back to America. Rachel was heartbroken. Although she had grown up in an American military community, she saw herself as very Japanese, in a way, and Yokota was more than a hometown - it was all she was familiar with.

The Parishers' move from Japan, to Irene's hometown in Dunkirk, New York, was speckled with its fair share of teenage angst, and adapting to life in a normal American high school was No Fun At All for Rachel. The kids were more unruly and less friendly, the academics were less challenging, and the general atmosphere was negative, in Rachel's opinion. She muddled through, volunteering some of her time as a tutor for students taking the Japanese language course, and though she joined the art club and the orchestra (on clarinet), and had her fair share of boyfriends, Rachel never quite fit in.

She fared better in college. In fall of 1998, Rachel enrolled in NYU's Art History & Classics program. She was well-liked by her peers, and filled her elective slots with classes to hone her drawing skills, and in what little spare time she had, she worked a part time job as an office assistant for Troma Studios. After a year on the job, she acquired a partner in gofer-dom: Sofian McBride, a fellow artist and recent art school dropout from Philadelphia. The two were close friends, until Sofian dropped off Rachel's radar for a time, in spring of 2001.

2001, however, was a busy year for Rachel. She was moved from her "bitch work" office position, to assistant property master for the production company, which, as she terms it, meant "playing Where's Waldo in a big stock room all day." In spring of 2002, she graduated from NYU, with one of the highest GPAs in the art history program, and continued working in the Troma props department for almost four years. Following a series of brainstorming sessions with a university friend, 2007 saw the birth of Rachel's plans for her own clothing company: Knave of Hearts, specializing in corsetry, and clothing inspired by Japan's gothic Lolita fashions. The line is currently in production, and will open in late 2008, with its base of operations in Los Angeles.

Not long after his initial disappearance, Sofian McBride resurfaced in Rachel's life, with a job offer, in lieu of a real explanation, and Rachel became his long-distance personal assistant. She keeps his scedule for him, makes his more important phone calls, and is the first pair of eyes (with the exception of his boyfriend) to see his monthly comic scripts. Having performed this function since 2004, Rachel can no longer count how many tiny continuity errors she's caught, and moments of misogyny she's attempted to keep from the shelves.

Rachel is in the process of moving house from New York, to Los Angeles, in order to be nearer her Knave of Hearts business partners, and Sofian, as well.