♦ Intelligent ♦ Patient ♦ Caring ♦ Level-headed ♦ Quiet ♦ Religious ♦ Soft ♦
Vivek has a certain sense of "old wisdom" about him, making him appear to be older than he actually is when he speaks openly with his mind. He is patient in all things, able to keep his anger suppressed even under the most strenuous of times putting up a cool and collected front despite his inner struggles or current stresses.
He loves animals of all shapes and sizes, though has a certain fondness for birds, though he was never able to own one as a pet. The time he spent in his early years on his family's farm gifted him the knowledge and experience to be able to care for a wide variety of animals, which he enjoyed very much.
His time being picked on as a child and even hard-core tortured as an adult exposed Vivek to an onslaught of various unpleasantness. His near-perfect memory allows him to relive the moments, over and over again if he needs to in order to gain information as to how to execute the same rituals if need be. He absolutely distastes himself for having such a knowledge of torture, but has found himself in a situation or two where it was absolutely necessary. Though he is not beyond simply shutting himself away afterwards and sobbing his emotional pain away, praying repeatedly for forgiveness. He feels that his soul has been corrupted too much to have a fruitful afterlife, but that does not stop him from wanting to continuously do good unto others.
In his more quiet moments, when not hitting the books or writing thesis papers, Vivek can be caught with a pencil in hand and sketching graphite drawings in great detail on whatever piece of paper he can find. His drawings can be seen in various places in around the Welcome Center of Rapture. His favored style is
black and white realism and usually depicts either animals or people.
Vivek, despite his somewhat hardened physical appearance (mostly because of his skin color and racial stereotypes) has an exceptionally soft heart and a deep respect for human life. If ever faced with a decision to kill someone who has done wrong, no matter the extremities, Vivek will always seek an alternative solution, even if he knows that person will one day come back and harm someone else. His mind always takes them to the feelings of loved ones, unable to rob a father from a child, or a sister from a brother. He is a firm believer of second chances, and thirds, and fourths...
He is no leader type, preferring to stay along the sidelines and watch rather than engage in an important, ongoing conversation (unless it pertains to science or other fields he is proficient in, in which case he would quietly bring up a suggestion). He is quiet in speech and short with his words, much preferring the solace of his own mind to a room full of loud, talkative friends.
Vivek was born the first child into a small, farming family in Chennai, India. A few years later, his sister Rashmi was born and their little family was complete. The children were taught at a very young age how to work on their family's farm. Vivek was given the more manual labored tasks on the farm, which quickly put muscle onto the otherwise scrawny kid, helping to shape him into a healthy, muscular teenager. He was not like the other boys at his school, however, and despite his toned body, often time was bullied, harassed, and even sexually hazed. Vivek's reserved personality, hating the idea of confrontation and not quite sure how to stand up for himself, simply let it happen. But he remembered. He remembered everything.
Around the time of his sixteenth birthday, Vivek was pouring over his chemistry books, studying with fever as he aimed to be one of the best students in school for promises of a bright future that would take him away from the farm life. It was just a few years after that, that Vivek decided that he wanted to become a Chemistry Teacher at the University of Madras - quite the reputable college located in his very own home city. It kept him from having to stray too far from home and able to keep an eye on his mother who was taking the sudden death of his father very hard. He studied hard, got good grades, and progressively landed himself a Chemistry teaching position at the school.
During these years in his very comfortable life, his younger sister got married and had a child. Not soon after, Vivek became romantically involved with one of the librarians within the city he frequented and had a child of their own - a daughter who they amply named Gita and though they never married, there had always been plans to when things in his life would start to slow down.
There was the Insurgency in Northeast India, as well as the Naxalite-Maoist Insurgency, the Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani Wars. India saw war from all sides and Vivek felt that he could assist at least in some way. Not exactly physical, he wanted to help with his mind and ideas, and enlisted in the military to be of some use. As it turned out, there was a severe need of learned scientists stationed within the United States. Unable to ignore the call in something he knew he would be able to help in, Vivek said his temporary goodbyes to his family, girlfriend and daughter included, and traveled to America to put in his expertise for the matter at hand. He joined the team, and though he mostly spent his time by giving them his mind, he did spend a little of it going out on the field with them and being involved in a more physical sense from time to time.
It was a long three years, and Vivek missed his family terribly though he did all that he could to stay in touch and ensure that they were safe which helped to ease his mind. Finally, Vivek returned home despite his new friends pleading for him to stay, but Vivek wanted- no, needed to be home with his family and return to his job.
Life resumed and Vivek, once more a Chemistry Professor, extended what he learned and helped those out within his small town, working behind the scenes to ensure that everyone was safe and happy.
A couple of years later, Vivek was approached by his officer, asking him once more for his help. Not able to say no, Vivek once more left his home to aid those he had helped during the still on-going wars and once again offered up his mind and skills for the greater good. However, only a single year passed before Vivek received a letter from home and abruptly left without a word to anyone. He was in such a hurry that he left the left the letter behind, and those who read it would have understood that his girlfriend, the mother of his child, inexplicably left without a word, leaving his daughter to the streets who was later found by his mother.
When Vivek got home, he learned that while Gita was on her own for the week or so before his mother took her home, she picked up a deadly blood disease and was forced to watch as she slowly succumbed to death. No amount of research or experimenting he did could have saved her, but not once did he give up until the moment her last breath passed her lips.
His heart no longer in teaching, Vivek sold his home and packed up what little belongings that meant the most to him (namely things that reminded him of Gita). His plan was to return to America and give the rest of his life to India's military cause, however once arriving, his station was being moved to London, as the tides of war had shifted, and needed him there instead. He had no objections.
He wished he stayed in America.
The plane crashed, landing him in the cold, black ocean in the middle of the night. He had no idea how he even managed to survive, but he did. He spotted a lighthouse not too far from where the plane crashed, finding that there had only been one other survivor after the whole ordeal - a man by the name of Jack. They hardly had time to exchange names and check over their wounds before Vivek found himself following Jack's lead into the lighthouse which, upon immediate impressions, led Vivek to believe that the lighthouse was far from normal. And he was right.
It was ancient and looked abandoned, but running on some kind of emergency electrical source that lit up their way as they stepped further into it. Stairs led them down, down, down... there was an elevator. Figuring it would take them up, Jack pulled the lever, but it descended the pair 18 fathoms. An old-fashioned projector-style movie started playing as the elevator stopped, but the doors would not open until it played through. A man by the name of Andrew Ryan spoke, talking about building a city free from the restrictions that most of modern society followed. And what Vivek saw next he wouldn't believe until much later. The elevator broke free, going along a sort of railing system underwater where he could see not only squid and whales and other sea life, but an entire submerged city. It was impossible, and yet... it was.
The elevator railed into the station after the brief city tour. There were voices, alarmed that the elevator was coming up. A man was on the other side, shirking in fear from... something. Another... human wasn't the right word, but it killed the man right in front of them, still encased in the elevator. Trapped. The thing tried getting at them by means of ripping the elevator apart, but eventually gave up. Another voice was heard through the radio in the system, a man that called himself Atlas who resided in the city which he called Rapture. He somehow remotely unlocked the elevator door, and guided Jack and Vivek through the bowels of the city, doing what he could to warn and teach them about life in Rapture, and its dangers. They were attacked on multiple occasions by what Atlas called "Splicers." But they survived, though it wasn't from a lack of absolute terror and having to trust one another.
What really tipped Vivek over the edge was when Ryan picked up a syringe at a station that advertised Plasmids. As a scientist, Vivek knew nothing good could come from it, but was unable to convince Jack to leave it alone. Jack injected himself with the liquid, and Vivek watched in horror as Jack's entire DNA code was rewritten. Jack blacked out, toppling over the balcony to the ground floor where more splicers were coming, and Vivek was forced to hide. The splicers (and Vivek) heard a machine-like roar, and left Jack alone. A rather small child and huge scuba-diver looking man went to investigate Jack, but also left him be once the small girl realized he was still alive. Vivek ran to his aid as soon as they were gone, waking Jack up.
Jack used his new-found powers of electricity to power an electric door that would have otherwise been rendered as broken. Jack tried telling Vivek time and time again to pick a Plasmid, that it could be useful and that he was completely fine, but Vivek refused. He didn't like it - he didn't like any of this one bit. He wanted to turn around, to try and go back the way they came. But Jack convinced him to go with him a little further. The door opened, and part of the plane shrapnel broke through the glass tunnel that served as a hallway, separating them from the thousands of pounds of pressure of ocean. They made it through, wet, and sealed off the door, continuing to try to get to higher ground.
More splicers awaited them, though Jack had a pretty good handle on his unnatural ability, taking care of most of them with a quick electric shock. There was another elevator, and the two took it up. Up meant closer to the surface, so Vivek complied. But then Atlas came back on the radio, claiming that his family was being held in Rapture, and that he wanted them to find them for him because Andrew Ryan had him locked in a room. Something wasn't sitting right with Vivek, but Jack was all too eager to play the hero. Arguments started, especially when Atlas let them know what Plasmids had done to Rapture, and why it was the way it was. Plasmids destroyed everything - twisted the minds of men and made them all monsters. In Vivek's opinion, it was only a matter of time before the same happened to Jack. And Vivek didn't want to be around to see it.
Atlas told them more about the small girl and the scuba diver - little sisters and big daddy's... apparently they worked together. The girls (as there were more than just the one) harvested Adam from corpses, and the big daddies protected them from the Splicers. It was horrific, and yet incredibly fascinating. Atlas and Jack both had the idea that the little sisters were bad news, and should be harvested, but Vivek saw things differently. He saw those little sisters, and couldn't help but to think of his own, deceased daughter. Gita... his heart ached, distracting him long enough to simply keep quiet and follow Jack's lead.
They continued to fight for their lives, the Splicers just wouldn't stop coming for them. Vivek wasn't much of a fighter but when his own life was at stake, he learned very quickly.
Atlas told them to head to the medical center where they would be safe(er) and after following Jack just a little bit further, he had decided that he had gone far enough. But just as soon as he was ready to turn around, they got trapped in a small, square room where another old-time video played for them to view - another message from Andrew Ryan. Andrew was convinced that the two of them were spies looking to extort information about Rapture. The thing was, Vivek wasn't sure if it was just an old video playing, or Andrew Ryan himself. Everything seemed so old fashioned, at least twenty years in the past... But Vivek put his foot down.
He left Jack at the entrance to the medical center. He was going to go back. He wanted no part in what was forward. There had to be a way to get a signal out to the world with all the equipment and parts he saw... and maybe, just maybe, he could get that original elevator to work to take him back to the lighthouse...
