RICE
RPer: [
Rice]
Character name: Ricin Sickert. (Rice)
Character setting: A blend of modern day and fantasy, it is a twisted form of Earth in the not to distant future where magic and mythical creatures are just as real as technology.
Age: 31. (However he looks much older and has the body of a man well into his 40's if not into his early 50's)
Race: Mutated Human.
Appearance: He has a 'too thin' sort of body and looks breakable, and is, he's no fighter and would probably fall over and injured himself while trying to avoid conflict. His skin is chalky white and almost transparent, it is also lined with slight wrinkles and creases especially around the eyes and mouth giving him at least ten extra years on his age. His eyes are oval shaped and thin, heavily lidded and set an even distance apart. They are often lined with black bags caused by fatigue, sleepless nights spent working and just a natural dullness to the skin. His eyes are a soft baby blue with flecks of a darker blue lining the iris and flicking out to the sharp pin-point pupil. His hair has turned white rather than grey, it is kept short and is often swept back out of the way with a few strands flicking outwards and sometimes curling out of place. He looks like the classic middle aged man who time has not been kind too, it's just most people don't realise just how unkind. With his white skin, white hair, heavily shadowed face and lanky posture Rice is actually quite sinister looking and almost ghost like. He creeps around making little noise and has a nasty habit of making people jump out of their skin. His skeletal frame means he tires easily and needs to rest, he also has to eat a lot of food, more than most, in fact he probably spends a good 70% of his awake time eating something or other. Rice usually likes to nibble on chocolate or candy. Rice will wear, clothes wise, anything really, he's not exactly a snappy dresser or very fashion conscious he just wears what is comfortable for the occasion. If he is working it can go between a lab coat to a surgical gown, if he is not working then just trousers and a shirt are fine. The only important detail about his clothing nay his entire house is the lack of the colour orange, he absolutely detest and loathes the colour. If he sees it he treats the object or human like a loaded gun and will avoid looking at them.
History: Born with a genetic defect Rice came into the world taking the life of the woman who gave him his, something to this day that still haunts him. No one knows what caused it, maybe it was the constant exposures to chemicals his mother endured as a medical woman, or it could have possibly been the face she tested such things on her own body even during pregnancy. All that was certain was that somewhere in Rice's body his DNA has decided to stray from procedure and produce a complete abnormality. Rice's body is a living infectious organism. His blood is black and like acid once it reaches air becoming highly corrosive and similar of that to very potent hydrochloric acid, it burns skin easily and is very irritating, even to Rice. His skin is also toxic due to perspiration, any skin on skin contact with him will definitely leave it's mark. People have been known to become violently ill to even suffering an allergic reaction and dieing on the spot. It depends on many variables, mostly the physical fitness of the second party and the amount of time the contact is for. His 'disease' is also what caused his premature ageing and he believes, if his calculations are right he has another ten to fifteen years left to live, twenty at the most. A fact that keeps him awake most of the night. He lives by himself in an isolated part of the city where he works as a freelance scientist taking on a variety of jobs that usually pay handsomely giving his ability to figure out almost anything. Some of the jobs are considered a little immoral, biological weapons, but it pays the bills and society has done nothing to earn his love and affection.
Personality: Rice is a rather unfortunate man in every sense of the world. Lady luck has no been kind to him in body and mind. He may be a scientific genius and excel in the understand of the human body, it's just a shame his every attempt to help ends badly. He is a Doctor with no patients and instead is forced to simply create theories of how to heal diseases and work with corpses a opposed to living breathing beings. This has done little to bring him out of his thin cracked shell, he shies away from human interaction due to the experience of no one desiring to be around him, either through fear or contempt. He's a genuine sort of person, he means what he says and says what he means, he does what he thinks is right and will stick to his guns even if the rest of the world disagreed. He is eccentric and a bit loose around the edges, you're never quite sure what he is thinking, or what he has done, let alone dread to think what he's about to do. Rice takes is experiments and work very seriously and becomes enraged when people start interfering, for example moving stuff or even worse breaking stuff. He has been known to flip out at the accidental breakage of a test tube or even something being knocked over. He is not above become malicious and has a very nasty streak to him at times which is rather unexpected given 99% of the time he is pleasant and polite. Rice just doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference between an enemy and someone getting in his way.
Occupation: Scientist and researcher.
Abilities: His intelligence and the mutation I have mentioned above.
Let us begin!
Mr. L, a tall, skeletal man with thin black hair stood waiting in front of a high arched window. The evening's dull light was broken into patches by the trees outside, casting odd moving dots over Mr. L as he sighed and checked his pocket watch. He glanced at the open door of his office, hoping Rice would make his appearance.
The man in question was slowly but surely making his way towards Mr.L, his pace drowsy and subdued though of course not by choice. He would occasionally stop as if to gather his breath and then continue on his way. As he reached the door to the mans office he knocked hesitantly and waited to be invited in. He was dressed plainly, as always, covered completely in dull colours that made him appear more of a ghost than human. His narrow eyes were oddly wild, flitting from corner to corner as if expecting some sort of an enemy to suddenly emerge from the shadows and attack him. The attack never did come and though you'd think experience would let you loosen up a little Rice was not a man to be relaxed in the open, the mere thought of being away from his home filled him with anxiety that was plastered over his face like a mask.
"The door's open," Mr. L stated bluntly and tucked his watch into his pocket. "Come in, take a seat. Try to be quick about it." He briskly walked over to his desk and picked up a folder with RICIN written across its face.
Rice walked in, his pace suddenly faster due to the mans forceful desire to get whatever meeting he had planned under way. The frail man sat down in the chair, his body tense, hands placed on his lap in a manner of someone about to be scolded. His swallowed hard and avoided eye contact from the very scary Mr.L, Rice wasn't good with people as it was but his wore his absolute fear of Mr.L on his sleeves. He didn't speak, merely observed as the skeleton man took a hold of a file.
Mr. L plucked a fancy steel pen from a pencil holder on his desk. He flipped the folder open and gave the papers a quick one over. He paused once or twice, reading something important. He then looked up at Rice with a tight insincere smile. "And I thought my life sucked," he joked and then sat on the corner of his desk. "I see here that you're a scientist and that your projects are sometimes a bit... illegal?"
Rice's face, if it was possibly, went grimmer as Mr.L made the little joke, he looked ready to run at the window and hurl himself out. But of course he didn't. He looked at the file trying to see what it said, he'd never seen it before and was curious as to how this man had accumulated such information. Paranoia began to rage through his mind making an unsettling feeling in his gut, he took a harsh breath in before speaking so as to avoid blurting out none sense. "In a sense." Ambiguity was probably best, just in case it turned out Mr.L was some sort of by the book man who was ready to throw Rice in jail. Well, he could try anyway, a smirk graced Rice's mouth for a second though it looked more like a toothy grimace. His expression quickly went passive.
"That surprises me," Mr. L said, setting the file on his lap. "See, you seem like a decent guy. You've had a hard life but haven't been corrupted by it. Why would you willingly partake in illegal experiments? Doesn't it bother you that your work might be used to hurt people?"
Rice grinded his teeth, pushing his tongue against the inside of his lips as he began to think, obviously on edge. He stared at Mr.L for about a second and then down at his hands which were picking at the ends of his jacket, ripping some of the stitching out of the fabric. "I'm a scientist, things such a petty morality shouldn't have to restrain what I can and can not do." His voice was low but shaky as he tried to hide his discomfort. "It's not my fault if my work can be turned into something ugly, art is art and I can't be held accountable for every soul damaged during the process."
"Do you really have so little love for your fellow man?" Mr. L asked, crossing his arms. Rice's discomfort seemed the amuse the unpleasant fellow.
"Depends on what mood I'm in, some of them are helpful, others not so." Rice spoke out, one eye raised, his curiosity peaked, he tilted his head back as if glancing Mr.L over, trying to figure him out maybe. He sighed deeply and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It's sickeningly hard to find willing subjects nowadays, but those that abide I guess you could say I have a level of affection for, they are after all my work."
"So your measure of a man depends on how useful he is. Basically, you only care for lab rats, and only then, because they progress your science. Has anyone called you a mad scientist before?"
"It has been mentioned on occasion, though no one has called me it twice." His voice went extremely threatening and sounded alien coming out of the unassuming old man, however his face suddenly broke into a wide set grin and Rice laughed lowly. He took a deep breath in and coughed, composing himself. "Somehow I doubt you called me here to discuss my opinions on humanity's worth, which begs the question as to why I am here?" He went very serious, any anxiety he had upon entering the room gone and replaced with a sinister air.
Mr. L raised his brows in shock when Rice's personality shifted. He made some notes in the folder and then looked up again. "I want to understand you, Mr. Sickert. That's all I want and that's why you're here."
"Curious, curious, curious." He muttered to himself, for some reason repeating the word a few times. Rice couldn't help but feel extremely out of place in the other man's presence, like something was off or out of place. He began to look around, observing the office with a keen eye. He then turned back to Mr.L. "So, do you understand or do you have more questions to ask?" He leaned backwards and propped himself up straight.
"We're far from done, Mr. Sickert. In your file, it says you are one to stick to your guns. What do you believe in? What do you fight for?"
"That's an ambiguous question." Rice seemed resilient to answering it, though he indeed took time to think. "I believe in science, but of course you already knew that." He clenched and unclenched his fists. "I seek to understand humans and creatures through quantitative means, all this psychology and and study of thinking irks me." He let out a loud hiss as if to show just how much he detested the subjects. "One can hardly understand the inner workings of another's mind by analysing their behaviour, no, you have to dig deep in their yourself, preferably with something sharp." Rice had gone off on one of his infamous rants. "If I had to fight for anything, I guess it be to disprove such preposterous assumptions and theories, I want to know how everything works, I want to know everything."
"That sounds rather sociopathic," Mr. L commented, raising a brow.
"It does?" He said it as if the term was foreign and held a bemused expression on his face before discarding the comment. "Possibly the best mind frame to have considering the state the world is in, yes, possibly." He spoke to himself.
"That's a rather grim attitude, though it's not surprising coming from someone with your history," Mr. L looked through his file again, bunched up his lips and blinked in a bored yet annoyed fashion. He slapped the file shut. "I know I said I had many more questions to ask, but I feel I've gotten a rather complete picture of you. If you don't mind, I'd like to share my conclusions with you, and if you spy any gaps, I would love for you to fill them."
"Share away." Rice laced his fingers on his lap, paying close attention though his attitude suggested he didn't much care for what Mr.L had to say. Though inwardly he was in turmoil, getting extremely fustrated by the meeting.
"You've been separated from people all of your life due to your ailment, which has resulted in you not developing a sense of empathy. Being unable to relate to people on a psychological level, you see them as faceless animals who are predictable and largely useless and bothersome if they don't further the one thing you have found a connection to, science. As a result, you have grown into a selfish, proud, board line sociopathic being who cares for nothing but your own scientific agenda. It is in science you find purpose and despite your loneliness, you don't even crave human comfort. You are too far gone to care about such petty things. Am I right?"
Rice answered with silence, which was silence enough. He suddenly stood up off of his chair, a bit too quickly, and held his side in pain but none the less continued to walk to the door. "I believe we are done here, yes?" He paused, a headache now raging through his system making his words sound a little delirious.
"That depends, Rice. Am I right?" Mr. L leaned forwards, his elbows on his knees, a sinister smirk on his face.
Rice made an odd noise, he suddenly spun around and slammed his hands down on the desk, his face mere inches from Mr.L. His face was twisted into an almost distorted vision of anger, he shook all over and looked ready to wrap his needle like fingers around the guys neck and throttle him. "You don't like me do you?" It was an odd question given the circumstances, whether it was rhetorical or not no one would know. Rice just stared at man down until he slowly retracted his hands and stood up straight, composing himself from his sudden out burst. "I believe our meeting has come to an end." Rice once again spoke in the same low voice as if the past 30 seconds had never happened.
Mr. L pulled back slightly when Rice came close. He didn't believe Rice would hurt him, but considering Rice's illness, he might accidentally hurt him. "Pity..." Mr. L said. "Things were just getting interesting...
"
"Interesting how?" He failed to see how being asked numerous questions was entertaining, he felt like he was being interrogated by a police officer. "You are awfully strange." He lent on the chair, his pride stopping him from actually sitting down, he just needed to rest up against something.
"Interesting in that I have thought of the one perfect question for you, Mr. Sickert," Mr. L stated, grinning.
"Perfect." This caught his attention and for the first time he was very curious as to what the man had to say. He shifted his weight and stared directly at Mr.L, a sure sign he had his complete concentration.
"Do you wish you could love... even care? Do you wish you were human, or are you truly completely lost?"
The question caught him so off guard he couldn't stop his expression from dropping, he looked truly troubled and glanced down, as if for once giving the question contemplation. "What doesn't wish they were human?" He tried to give a questionable response so as to avoid digging deep into whatever emotion he had blocked off. "And..". He was beginning to slur his words and had trouble forming sentences. "Love is.." He stopped again, becoming very flustered. "Why would you ask me something like that?" He blurted out.
Mr. L out right laughed. "Hahah.. hah.. ok Mr. Sickert. That's all I needed to know. You may leave now."
As soon as the words left his mouth Rice ran out of the room, throwing the door open and leaving it swinging ajar before it finally snapped shut. He could just be seen running down the hall like a mad man feeling the scene of the crime.
For the Character Challange
Stumble!