- █ █ B A S I C S
█ NAME ▬ Ricard Cross
█ AGE ▬ 49.
█ NICKNAME ▬ Card, Rick, Cross
█ GENDER ▬ Male
█ RACE ▬ Fire Nymph
█ ORIENTATION ▬ Bisexual
█ OCCUPATION ▬ Crownless Executive - He's the relayer of orders. Ricard tells you what to do, where to go, and makes sure you have the resources to do it. It's his job to make sure things get done, and to let the boss know when they don't.
█ PARTNER ▬ Single
█ SLAVE // MASTER ▬ Hasn't had a master in years, but keeps slaves on occasion
█ █ A P P E A R A N C E
█ HAIR ▬ Snowy white
█ EYES ▬ Blue
█ BUILD ▬ Sturdy for his age. A little thick about the middle, but it's all muscle [5"9]
█ TATTOOS ▬ An anchor on his right ankle with a rope twining around the leg itself, a personal reminder
█ SCARS ▬ An 'X' shaped gouge just below his left shoulder blade. It's very faded. His left leg is a prosthetic from the mid-thigh down, small nicks across his knuckles, and two large slashes across his face
█ BIRTHMARKS ▬ He has a mole on his right temple, mostly obscured by his hairline
█ █ P E R S O N A L I T Y
█ THEME SONGS
█ ▬ O1 Devil's Blood - De Staat
█ ▬ O2 No More Room - The Scarring Party
█ ▬ O3 Angels in Cages - Caravan of Thieves
█ ▬ O4 If I've Told you Once - Circus Contraption
█ ▬ O5 Wake Up! - Humanwine
█ LIKES
█ ▬ Old Western Films
█ ▬ Loyalists
█ ▬ Working out
█ DISLIKES
█ ▬ The rain, swimming, the ocean... water in general, really.
█ ▬ Crass jokes
█ ▬ Capitalism
█ PERSONALITY TRAITS
█ ▬ Calculating
█ ▬ Stern
█ ▬ Organized
█ █ H I S T O R Y
█ BACKGROUND
Ricard Cross was the only child of a reformed slave woman named Natasha. She was one of two slaves belonging to a businessman named Alexander Strouss. Both of Mr.Strousses slaves were young women whom he used for bookkeeping, housework, and general secretarial work. Strouss generally treated his slaves very well, although he was somewhat controlling when it came to their social lives. As a young child, Rick asked about his father, and Natasha deftly avoided his questions or gave vague answers like 'He's not here' or 'He's very busy.' But he learned the public secret at a fairly young age, when creeping through the halls one night and he overheard a conversation between his mother and Strouss, Natasha begging him to legitimize Ricard so that he might have a chance at life as a citizen. But Strouss, his father, insisted that it would be too damaging to his reputation. And so Rick lived his childhood with his mother and father, and remained a slave. As a child it was hardly a problem, though he often wondered why his mother sounded like she was crying during that conversation that night. But as he grew older, he came to feel the indignity of being a thing to be owned. Maybe it was the knowledge that the powerful Mr.Strouss was his father, and that he merely refused to admit having carried on such a relationship with his slaves. Perhaps that was why the slave boy felt he was entitled to more than his lowly birth, or maybe it was simply in his blood. Like his father, Rick craved power. When he was seven, the other slave woman in the house, Mattie, gave birth to another little boy. Even at that young age, Rick understood that the child was his brother. He and his brother were never mistreated. They were well-fed and well clothed, and although Mr.Strouss seldom paid them much mind, he always made sure they had whatever they needed, and even got them little gifts on their birhdays. But they were still only the children of slaves. Even though it was an open secret, with Mr.Strouss' associates and acquaintances seeming to quietly understand the truth of things, no one acknowledged who or what the boys were. As they grew older, Rick was never particularly close with his brother. For the most part his own mother tended to him, and of course the younger boy tended to follow after him in the way that lonely younger siblings did, but Rick felt no particular affection for him at that time. Strouss sent the boys to school, typical public education, but they lived in a nice neighborhood at least. But the disease in Ricks stomach only grew as he got older. By the time he was fourteen, he'd had enough. He had grown to disgust his parents, to resent the life which had already been set in stone before him. So he did what any teen in his position would do; he ran away.
Like most runaway slaves, when Rick found himself alone on the streets, he was desperate for any sort of camaraderie he could get. He soon enough found it in a group of young misfits rather like himself. At that time, the name 'Haven' wasn't a commonly known one on the streets, but there were many smaller roving bands like the one Rick found himself rolling with. They were a makeshift gang of about ten boys and girls as young as eleven and as old as twenty. They called themselves 'Lost Boys' and they were largely runaway slaves with himself, with a few runaway civilians as well. Rick quickly came to regard the Lost Boys as his family, and they were likely the reason Rick survived on the streets at all. Going from living under the care of a fairly successful businessman to scrounging by on his own was a startling transition, but pride precluded the young nymph from going back, under any circumstance. The Lost boys, on the other hand, were old pros, and taught him all of the safe places, where to take shelter, who to trust and who to avoid and where hotspots were. And, of course, there was the matter of taking out his chip. An older shapeshifter girl turned her fingers into small knives and carefully cut an 'x' over the spot and extracted it. At the time, it was the most painful thing Rick had experienced, and he had to fight not to set himself aflame as she did it. But he managed, the chip was disposed of, and just like that he was free. Well, almost. As far as the government was concerned, he just no longer existed. Being unregistered didn't leave him many options as far as employment went. Several of the older Lost Boys worked street corners to bring in what change they could for the younger ones, but Rick did his best to avoid that fate. So instead he worked minor crimes and petty thievery for a while, picking pockets while younger Losters distracted the unwary. He also helped run minor scams for small payouts from shady characters on occasion. This was how he met the first love of his life.
His name was Martin, and Rick met him when he was fifteen. Martin was a self-described 'up-scale con artist' and often paid Rick small sums to run minor errands for him. It started out small, with Martin offering to buy him the occasional meal, clothing, or even a drink now and then after they finished up a job. Martin was in his mid-forties, and was married with two kids older than Rick, but didn't make any secret of his interest in Ricard. Foolishly, this straightforward admittance made Rick feel safe, like he could trust the conman. Even when the other Lost Boys warned against it, Rick started meeting with Martin more and more frequently. Martin would rent out a hotel room for him for weeks at a time, coming in to 'visit' with him frequently. He bought him clothes, a cell phone, pampered him with attention and gifts and even as he shared his newfound wealth with his fellow lost boys they protested. They told him not to trust him, but for Rick it was too late. He was madly in love with the man. For about two years, Rick and Martin existed blissfully. They would lay together until the early hours of the morning, just talking about everything from trivial to existential. Rick knew he wasn't going to leave his wife, but he was perfectly content with the way things were. Admittedly, he visited the Lost Boys less and less, and kept his wealth more to himself, but only because they kept trying to drive a wedge between them. Clearly they were jealous. Shortly after Rick turned seventeen, however, he fell into an oddly deep sleep one night after rolling around with his boyfriend. When he woke up, his mind was fuzzy and his body felt like lead. He couldn't move. He couldn't feel his limbs, and there was a bag over his head. He could only make out muffled voices. Martins, and a strange womans, talking about sums and transport and... he was so confused. Weakly, he tried to call for Martin, to help him up, to take the bag off of his head. But when he squeaked out his name, he was simply told to be quiet. But after a few minutes, he felt himself being yanked up by the back of his collar. He slumped even when sitting upright, and he couldn't seem to control his limbs quite right, or even feel them really, he was so numb and heavy. The bag was yanked off of his head and there was Martin, glaring at the woman standing behind Rick and holding his head up by the hair. There was a brief argument between Martin and the woman, with the stranger insisting with a smug look that Martin explain exactly what was happening, which seemed to really irk Martin. But after a short bout, the conman conceded. He wouldn't even look rick in the eyes as he explained dully, casually, that he'd gotten bored of him. That he was selling him off to this shadowy mafia ring of underground slavers, like he'd planned to from the beginning. Continued not to look at him as Rick cried and wept and begged him to please, no, don't do this, anything but this. But Martin knew everything, because Rick had told him everything. Knew that he was a runaway slave, knew that there was no one who could come looking for him, knew that his chip was gone, knew that there was no one he could call for help, and knew that the mafia paid well for intact untraceable goods. And he continued not to look at him as he took a sealed envelope from the woman, counted what was inside, and turned and left him there. The woman 'tut-tutted' and lifted him up, carrying him off into the bowels of her shadowy hideout.
In the span of three days Rick learned a lot of valuable information. He learned that he wasn't the first kid Martin had charmed off of the streets and into illegal slavery. He learned that this mafia did business with him rather frequently, and were usually pleased with his work, but usually wasn't good enough. It seemed Martin thought he could con anyone if he put his mind to it and, well, the mafia tended to disagree, especially when that 'anyone' was them. Rick wasn't mistreated, aside from occasionally being handled a little roughly. But the woman, Eliza, saw to it that he was given comfortable quarters, hot meals, and clean clothes. Although he wasn't allowed to leave the compound, Rick was given free roam of the inside. See, it turned out that Rick had something the mafia wanted. He knew all about Martin. Just as Martin had used his secrets against him, Eliza was offering him a chance to turn the tables on him. Martin had never been guarded around Rick, he had everything he needed. Eliza had, wisely, allowed Rick a few days to think it over. At first, he was wholly against the idea. He was convinced that there was a mistake, a trick somewhere, but Eliza had played her cards right. He mulled it over and over again in his head, the disinterested look in Martins eyes when he told him flat out what he was doing, when he took advantage of every trust he'd offered him.
A month later, Rick did look Martin in the eyes, right before he kicked him off of the deck of Blackwater, chains and all, and into the bottom of the bay. He sat next to Eliza in the moonlight, sipping wine with her in their deckchairs while her attendants and slaves busied themselves about the small yacht. It was the beginning of a very profitable relationship for the both of them. All of the loyalty and devotion he'd shown to Martin was transferred to Eliza tenfold, with none of the moon-eyed affection or trust. She never made a slave of him the way she did with her products. Rick was hard-working, efficient, and under Elizas tutelage, extremely calculating. He became her protege, of sorts. A year later Rick was her right hand, carrying out any and all dirty work for her, minor errands, and really anything else she asked of him. She already knew his most vulnerable secrets, but he never divulged anything further to her either. But they had a good relationship. She was fairly high-ranking in the mafia, and through her Rick began forming connections across different branches of their organization. He garnered a reputation for being firm, straightforward, efficient, and impossible to read, on top of obeying Elizas instructions to the letter. Once he was firmly established and trusted, Rick went out searching for the Lost boys. A few of them had scattered to the winds, but a few of his close friends were still there. Rick took them in off of the streets and gave them jobs under him. Just like that he had his own crew of grunts, people he felt he could trust, and whom in turn felt that they could trust him. They showed their gratitude well, and worked hard for him.
For the next decade, Rick worked for the mafia slavers. He worked his way well into their ranks, bolstered by Elizas connections and his own, growing circle of loyalists. Occasionally he took a page directly from Elizas book, freeing would-be slaves into his services in exchange for information, simultaneously securing himself another loyal contact as well as gaining some valuable intel from the desperate. He got involved in a few entanglements with rivals, and during one such entanglement, he lost his leg when he changed into his flame self to try and escape, losing that piece of himself and never reuniting with it before changing back. But he got himself fitted with a prosthetic and moved on, preferring not to dwell on it. During that span of time he also had several flings, both with women and with men, but always he was distant, detached. Even his fleeting romances died before they ever came to full fruition. As much as Rick could manage to love people, he could never bring himself to trust them. All except his child, a single daughter resulting from one such fleeting romance. He took after his own father, distant and hardly present, but he always took care of her and her mother from a safe ways away, seeing to it they were taken care of and secure. Shortly after Elizas sudden death and Ricks subsequent promotion, the Fall came. A rat from the inside, apparently, sent their entire kingdom crashing down around them. As much as Rick tried to do damage control, he recognized that they were doomed. It was all far beyond him. He salvaged what of his merry men he could and jumped ship, falling back on an old contingency plan to rescue those he could and left the rest to fend for themselves. They watched their old world go up in flames from a safe distance.
The Lost Boys were on their own again.
Fortunately, Rick had made friends and connections over the years, even outside of the mafia. Things were tight, with their empire gone, but they had always managed before. They worked odd jobs for a short time, until the beginnings of what would become Crownless started to take shape from the ashes of their old kingdom. Eager to go back to his position of power, Rick made it a point to be as involved as possible in Crownless' founding. He and his Lost Boys brought in resources, toughened themselves in the makeshift rings on rooftops and in cellars, used what connections he had from the Lost Boys and Elizas old friends, and happily started picking up business from right where he left off.
█ ABILITIES
▬ FLAME BODY
As a fire nymph, Rick is capable of converting his entire body, or parts of it, into a purely flame form. This is generally more inconvenient than anything, as it incinerates whatever clothes he was wearing and tends to set everything he touches on fire. He occasionally turns his fingertips into small, precise flames for sodering, torturing, lighting cigarettes, or other miscellaneous activities, but generally avoids turning himself full flame if at all possible. Not to mention his prosthetic leg cannot change with him, so converting his form completely means abandoning his leg again.
▬ HEAT RESISTANCE
Being able to turn his entire body to flame has also given Ricard some natural advantages when it comes to enduring high temperatures. Rick generally cannot be burned by fire, and his body can withstand incredibly high temperatures without suffering any damage. He could sit in the middle of a bonfire and casually enjoy his coffee while everything burned away around him. Granted, he wouldn't like to, because his clothes would burn away. Ricks abilities in this regard, however, only apply to burns caused by heat and flame, and he is just as susceptible to chemical burns as anyone else.
▬ NATURAL FURNACE
When he hit his early thirties, Rick discovered that turning parts of himself into flame also applied to his internal organs as well. As such, Rick is capable of elevating his body temperature to astounding levels at will, to the point that he could burn someone with simple skin-to-skin contact. He can also set his stomach aflame to belch out large quantities of thick, choking black smoke. Unlike any smoke mages, of course, he cannot direct where it goes and it has no special properties, but he used it as an effective smokescreen for one or two escapes back in the day.
█ EXTRA
- Ricard has a 16-year-old daughter named Anabelle, by one of the original lost boys, Vanessa (the older shapeshifter girl who cut out his chip). He visits them whenever he can, but largely maintains his distance from them for their sake. He funnels them a great deal of money to make sure they are cared for though, and he texts and emails them somewhat regularly. He and Vanessa were never married, and continue to be good and longstanding friends.
- Anabelle is a shapeshifter, like her mother, who is very talented in stretching out her limbs fluidly, as if she were made of rubber. She is rather tall for her age, and self-conscious about it. In general, she is a very normal teenaged girl, very concerned with her appearance and grooming and dating. Although it seems that, like her father, she takes interest in both genders.
- Rick is a s**t swimmer. He has always had an aversion to water. After drowning Martin, Rick made it a point to learn how to swim, but never got much further than a doggy paddle.
- Rick is great at quitting smoking. So far he's done it eleven times.
- His latest protege is a runaway child slave named Delilah Pitch. She is only twelve, a black lioness metamorphose from a very well-bred slave lineage who, like Ricard, rejected what was expected of her. He treats her like something between a pet and a foster daughter, and in incredibly protective of her. She follows him everywhere he allows her to.
- He tends to sneeze soot.
- Ricks voice claim is Idris Elba
