Name: Tom Ripley
Nicknames: Officer Ripley, Ripley, or Tommy (by his
many ardent admirers mother)
Age: 25
Birthday: August 22nd
Sign: Leo
Blood Type: O+
Occupation: Destiny City Police Officer (it's his second year)
Fav. Food: Doughnuts, though they make his fingers sticky. Hey, he liked them before he was a cop, a*****e.
Hated Food: Shellfish- he is allergic to it. Which sucks, because he liked crab legs.
Hobbies: The Boob-Tube- Tom loves television, simply put. His job doesn't allow for much of a personal life, so when he does have some time to himself, he makes sure he enjoys it. He is fairly certain he has watched every cop and action movie known to man and enjoys working his way through television series that have been put to DVDs. To name a few: The Shield, Oz, Prison Break, Cops, The Unit. It doesn't have to have a good plot -actually, the simpler, the better- or particularly make sense, just lots of action and maybe a few explosions and he is a happy man. He also frequents the movie theatres for the lastest suspense, detective, cop, or action flick. Chances are, people have not watched as many movies as Tom, or nearly as frequently. No one understands your obscure references, Tom, and it probably wasn’t pertinent anyway. Cut it out.
Baseball- The Destiny City Police Department has a co-ed baseball league that plays among its various departments and against the Fire Department. Tom plays short-stop and back-up pitcher on the field and is notorious for bunting when at bat.
Out on the Town- Most of the time, sitting around at home watching tv is reserved for nights where he can't sleep or he's too exhausted to leave the couch. He really does like to get outside as a civilian from time to time, to be seen as a man rather than an officer and do the simple s**t he can never really do on the job. People look at you differently when you have the uniform on, for better or for worse. Unless Tom happens to be perusing the newspaper and sees some event going on in Destiny City, it's usually down to the bar with his buddies where he can meet a pool table and a cold glass of beer. After patrolling all day or staking out all night, yeah, being normal and enjoying your city at face value
is a hobby.
Documenting Adventures- Tom's short-term goal in life is to get an on-duty taping of he and his partner, Greg Matthews, on Cops. If he's allowed, he'll gladly take his video camera along with him on patrol. Sadly, most of his attempts have not even made it to youtube or never made it onto tape (if he had to, you know, actually help out poor Matthews). Everything else he tends to keep them documented in a journal.
Gemstone: Peridot
Virtues: Optimistic- Tom has always had a rather upbeat personality and outlook on his life ever since he joined the force. True, some days he rolls out of bed feeling like
s**t and has the few days where he’s completely off his game, but he has surmised the best way to cope with his job and his life (the two are becoming near indistinguishable) is to stay positive. To him, there’s no benefit in being a grump at work, and no enjoyment in life if you gripe over the little things like the glass being half empty. So maybe nothing really happened that day on patrol- at least they’re still in one piece and have the luxury to be bored. At least it’s not raining. Then it starts to rain; well, at least they’re the stink showered off of them. Come home smelling musty; at least it’s not the smell of wet cat. Cat comes by to give some loving; well, he’s been meaning to wash some of his clothes anyway. Tom is determined if nothing else, and everyone needs an encourager. Lately it’s been hard staying positive with all the carnage about with no real leads or end in sight, but it’s not like they can give up, right? It’s the times that are darkest when the police force have to stay resilient, not just the times that are easy.
Outgoing- Maybe he isn’t what you’d really call a smooth-talker, but it’s saying something about character when you’re the type of person who can and will talk to just about anyone. The only people he would have a hard time speaking to would be those felons convicted of a homicide or sexual crimes, but being on the beat, he doesn’t have to deal with them outside of, perhaps, catching them. And there’s no real talking then. Everyone else, it’s easy to put on a light and easy demeanor- he could talk forever if he had to. Outgoing also applies to Tom’s work ethic. Though he may like to try and make things fun for himself and his reluctant partner, Tom really does give his job the 110%. He can get a little excited, but he’s devoted to his job and the people of Destiny City. Also, if there’s a problem where someone needs to step up and take the lead, he has no problem being loud and domineering. Yes, it could conflict with his wish to always be the nice guy, but he does know there’s a time for reason and a time for doing what is necessary in the interest of making things right again. There isn’t much he’d hesitate to do in the name of justice, mostly because he’s young and fit and feels maybe a little immortal. Right? Right.
Mr. Nice Guy- Officer Ripley was a kid once. Not too long ago, actually. He remembers what it’s like to be young and wild and free, but he also knows now that youth is no excuse for lack of responsibility. Tom is relatively liberal in the way he goes about his job and tends to only serve out citations when the situation deems it absolutely necessary or he’s trying to meet his quota. He likes people and likes them liking him too. This tends to make him treat everyone like they’re already his friend and as such, they are worthy of his courtesy, his advice, and his protection until he is convinced otherwise. He will serve you your traffic ticket with a smile and pretend there will be no hard feelings. When it’s time for interrogation, he is the cop that brings you coffee and tries to say he’s been where you have. Tom is also quite altruistic, tending to put the needs of others before his own and helping out where he can even if there is no promise of a viable reward. The reward of gratitude is literally enough for him to go home with his head held high. Occasionally, this trait has a habit of turning on him, because he is weak to things like tears or (god forbid) begging for leniency. Of course, whether he gives in or not is more of a case-by-case basis.
McGuyver is My Middle Name- Thomas Edison said “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent presperation.” Tom Ripley thinks out of the box for solutions to problems he and mankind must face every day. Unfortunately, his good intentions often pave the way for a lot of misery on his part. Once, he decided he did not like getting his fingers sticky when he ate doughnuts and decided to buy himself a pair of gloves especially for their consumption. Well, he didn’t wash the gloves and the very next day, he had to battle an army of ants with a bottle of Febreze (which just pissed them off), a spatula, and a mixing bowl. He was itching for a week. There was also the time he decided that tomato shampoo was a good idea (hey, it got the stink out of a skunk attack, right?) and finally had to leave the squad car to go scrub off in the station. The perpetual excuse is always “It sounded like a good idea at the time”. Why is this a virtue? Because every once in a blue moon, Tom does come up with the solution that will make everything so much easier, or gets the job down suitably. He keeps a secret list of his successes and failures.
Flaws: Hey, Look What I Can Do!- Are you looking? Hey! I can’t hold this pose forever! Tom’s greatest sin is probably pride, something fueled by deep-seated insecurity. Not only does he crave attention from his peers and friends, but he’s willing to do quite a lot to make sure he gets it. There’s his normal method- being chatty, touchy, trying to make jokes, and then there’s his desperate methods, which generally involves some sort of stunt that is more likely to get him yelled at than any adoration. Depending on how well he has to behave, he may make over-exagerated gestures and sounds, shuffle papers, whatever it takes to get what he’s looking for. It also depends if he wants attention from one person or a group. Whatever it is, though, he wants a fix and, one way or another, he’s going to get it. He will switch his tactics, seek another audience, or (worse case scenario) distract himself. Sometimes just being in someone’s company or being a part of the group is enough to sate him, but he’s going to make it known somehow that yes, he is here! Tom doesn’t like being by himself and it tends to show by how many casual friends he keeps. This flaw seems less prominent because his job involves him associating with people frequently and for all the times in between, he has his partner. He isn’t accutely aware of this trait, either, or how severe it can be, but he’s subconsciously arranged himself into a sort of routine that satiates his craving for recognition. Lock him in a room by himself and he’ll go nuts soon enough.
Overzealous- It’s easy to say that Tom tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. He’s expressive for a cop (which is why he wears sunglasses frequently on the job) and has a hard time not telling you what he thinks, when he thinks it. There’s a certain level insincerity and control he feels he must keep as a police officer in order to keep things pleasant for himself and others, but beyond that, he’s a very passionate man and it makes him an open book as well as an open target emotionally. He very rarely goes into anything half-assed and a**-backwards. If he can’t go through the front gate, he doesn’t mind going around the back, but he’s bringing his full ability with him to get whatever it is done. Sometimes, though, Tom just lays it on way too thickly or bites off more than he can chew. No matter how often he tries to keep things simple, he can often get carried away with his actions, particularly if he feels he is being encouraged. Once he gets really into a topic (like a debate or maybe a tv marathon is on) the line of where he needs to stop gets blurred for him and disappears. Sometimes he needs someone to reel him back home or else he runs the chance of making a fool of himself or getting into something he really shouldn’t.
Under Pressure- We all have people in our lives that we seek to please. Tom just has a hard time being disliked by anyone in general, especially the people he has to work with or associate with often. He wants to be That Cool Guy and so, more often than not, he is willing to be pushed into things he wouldn’t normally do. This, of course, could be positive. For example, he got invited onto the baseball team for his department because people insisted he would be a great player for this or that, and they really needed one, etc. And he loves that. But the peer pressure he feels can also lead him to making decisions that could go against his ethics, such as turning his head the other way when he sees someone popular in the department skirting on their work. If it’s someone close to him, he’s more prone to give in to whatever their code is rather than trying to uphold his own. He can take a lot of s**t from the regular civillians, but of course, he’s not made of iron.
Physical Description: Hair:
This style in
this color. Strawberry blonde that gets a little overlong at times.
Eyes: A pale jade green.
Face: Pretty soft features, for a man. He's got an angular jaw, but no prominent cheekbones and a boring nose. He looks young, basically, sitting on the brink between cute and handsome.
Body: 5'6, he's short and frustrated with it. He's more of an ectomorph in muscle, built to run and climb and hop fences. Doesn't weigh more than about 145lbs. He's caucasian with a light tan. If he has any freckles, they're very few and subtle.
Fashion: His cop uniform. Outside of that, some classic rock band t-shirt and jeans will do, below-knee shorts in the summer. He's not beyond the occasional fashion craze, though.
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