Name: "Ruthless" Rio Durán y Machado
Alias: El Cucuy
Age: 24
Gender: Cis Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Appearance: Rio stands at a tall 6 foot 1 and has a very muscular physique that he takes time to hold onto. He's obviously someone who cares about his appearance, but makes a conscious effort not to have this be too obvious. He has shaggy curly, brown hair that sits on his head and usually has a very light beard more akin to scruff on his defined jaw from forgetting to shave every few days. His eyes are light brown and rest above a distinct Greek nose.
Style-wise Rio is someone who takes great pride in clothing. Most of his money even when he was a poor amateur prize fighter was spent on unique clothes directly influenced by the varied friends he had growing up. He's definitely adopted more to the streetwear and skater styles though, often wearing brands like Obey, BAPE, Carhartt, and Palace among others. He's a big supporter of jewellery also and it's unusual for him to be seen without at least a necklace or a few rings on. His ears are also pierced and he usually wears a hoop through at least one ear when dressing to impress, along with this he has a hoop nose ring through his left nostril that he almost never takes out.
Since moving to Liverpool and even Jump City when it's not a warm day, Rio has adopted to heavier clothes to fit the climate. His most regular outfit are a pair of straight leg jeans, white and black New Balance trainers, a five panel cap, and his most beloved
fleece.
Personality:Cocky is the word most people would use to describe Rio. He's seemingly always been overflowing with confidence even from a young age and is the first person to let you know this. Everything he does he does with assuredness even when he actually isn't. This hides deeper feelings of insecurity though, as he feels if he doesn't constantly put up a confident front then he's at greater risk of being hurt or worse, embarrassed. A prime example of this is his tendency to trash talk during fights, this is in part to get into his opponents heads and force them to make mistakes that will allow him to create openings to attack from, but also in large part to give himself the confidence to push through adversity. Keen listeners will notice a lot of the trash talk is reflecting on himself and how the opponent isn't good enough to beat him, rather than them not being good at all.
Don't be fooled though, this attitude only extends to his enemies and he finds anything passed banter to be off limits with friends. He's hugely protective of those he cares about, often putting himself in harms way to prevent them from being hurt. This spills over into a bad habit of picking fights in their place though, and oftentimes his "help" can be seen as detrimental. He's always someone who likes to lend a hand, and tries his best to get to know those around him, believing he can "see through people" and determine whether or not he's going to like them within a very small time frame of knowing them.
He is also naturally drawn to protecting anxious people due to his relationship with his younger brother. He feels a natural need to "big brother" them and take them under his wing to build their confidence. He almost seems even kinder to these kinds of people and at times even soft spoken for someone so gruff.
A natural flirt, Rio oftentimes walks a thin line with women between harmless flirty banter and actual flirting. He often uses pet names for them and obviously thinks a lot of himself due to the way he tries to swagger around when in their presence.
One thing Rio has always struggled with is his anger. He's much better at keeping it in check these days, but he still has a tendency to fly off the handle at times and if upset it can be hard to get through to him without him removing himself from the situation or saying something he'd regret later. The hardest part for him with this is the fact that it directly boosts his power the angrier he is. He definitely feels a need to "prove" himself more than anything. Like if he isn't performing at his best then he's a failure. This feeling of 'failure' is something that follows him and bothers him at night despite it only having to be himself he has to prove himself to.
His fighting style, especially when angered, reflects the feelings of anger he has inside towards himself more than anything. It's grown from a controlled, precise style into something mixing his extensive hand to hand training and street fighting prowess together into an unpredictable mess of a martial art. He mixes precise arm drags, kneebars, flicker jabs, and more with improvised tactics and the use of his environment.
Backstory: To start Rio's story you have to start way back in 1575, with Rio's ancestor. He was a poor man, living as a farmer on a rather unprofitable farm that just could never seem to grow anything even in the best conditions. He managed to scrape by with his family, but it was an unhappy existence and he was far from a good father and husband. After a particularly bad winter he caught tuberculosis, but his family remained healthy. He went to a folk healer, who told him that if he drunk the blood of his wife and children he would be healed and his farm would turn profitable. Of course, almost without hesitation, he killed his wife and children and did as he was instructed. This brought about the curse from that mysterious folk "healer", 'The Ebbing and Flowing Tide'. From that point on the man roamed the world as "El Cucuy", his rage encompassing him as he murdered his way around in secret, later passing this curse on after he died to a bastard son he'd fathered, continuing the cycle of hate for centuries, with each passing generation it growing stronger.
Rio's life growing up was relatively normal. He lived a middle class life with his parents, older sister, and younger brother. His father was a big boxing and martial arts fan, and had enrolled Rio in these sports from a young age, hoping that he'd grow up to be the next big boxing or MMA champion. His father pushed him into this life, some would say too aggressively, but Rio honestly didn't mind maybe as much as he should have. He was never academically inclined and enjoyed the attention he got from his father and in competitions. This however, did take a negative effect on his younger brother.
His younger brother, Jorge, was almost the exact opposite of Rio in many ways. Rather than being physically inclined, he had brittle bone disease from an early age and as a result found it hard to socialise with other kids. He became almost a recluse, spending most of his time indoors on the internet or reading. Their father never took much interest in Jorge after learning about his disease, and their mother was a doctor who barely had any time at home to properly see the neglect Jorge was facing. As a result it fell to Rio and his sister to take care of their younger brother, Rio in particular. He loved his brother more than anything, and felt a sense of duty to protect him and guide him through life as they grew up. He'd consistently make an effort to try and read his books with him or take him out to the cinema and other places. The amount of fights he got into growing up just to protect his brother must have been in the hundreds, he almost got kicked out of school for an especially bad one but thanks to his mother's standing in the community he was kept in.
Their life was a strange one, but Rio would be lying if he said he wasn't happy. He enjoyed life, was relatively popular in school, and didn't really want for anything in a monetary sense, not that he ever really asked for much. However one day something seemed to change within his father. It was like he left for work and came back a different person. He was rigid, didn't care to understand anything anyone else said, and had this look in his eye like there was nothing behind his eyes. Rio's training became even more intense from this point, and even after suffering injury from overtraining he was forced to keep training. His father's behaviour crossed over into emotional abuse, pointing out how much better the other competitors were than Rio constantly and reminding him of his inadequacies every day. It even got to the point where anything unrelated to training was mocked, frowned upon, or even destroyed. He came home from school one day to find a guitar he'd inherited from his grandfather snapped in two lying on his bed and his father's explanation for this being that he was "shit at it anyway and it wouldn't make him a champion." This behaviour continued for a few more months before Rio broke and ran away from home, only telling his brother that he was leaving and wishing him luck.
He lived on the streets of Catalonia for a while after this. He'd managed to scrape together enough money before leaving to buy himself another basic guitar and spent his time busking for money, waiting tables, and washing dishes to earn enough money to feed and house himself in a rundown hostel. Still, after leaving home his disposition shifted to being much sunnier, despite the hardships he was facing now. He'd naively made friends with a local gang who began looking out for him and teaching him how to live on the streets, seemingly for nothing.
All the time he lived this life he couldn't get one thought out of his head though, and that was how his little brother was doing. Every night he'd worry about Jorge, and have terrible nightmares about the abuse he endured being transferred to his little brother. After a while it grew to be too much, he had to make sure he was ok, he'd even got it into his head that he could steal him away and make enough money for them to live together. He hatched a plan and with the help of his new "friends" managed to break his way into his old house without being caught. He woke up his brother and stole him through the window, them both taking off into the night towards a pier at the edge of town where they sat and talked about the last few months.
His brother was at first excited and ecstatic to see him, but after upset and angry at him for abandoning them and leaving so abruptly. All Rio could do was apologise and try to explain, but after Jorge went into detail about the emotional and at times physical abuse his father had started to impose on the family all Rio could do was cry. His tears didn't even have time to dry before a familiar voice called out behind him though. It was his father.
His face had changed considerably since the last time he'd seen him, that empty look in his eye had only grown stronger and it was like his face had sunken, like his essence was being sucked out of him. Rio instinctively rose to his feet and put himself between their father and Jorge. His father explained that he wasn't here to take Jorge back, but to actually murder him and pin the blame on Rio. As he advanced the young Rio could only back up more and more, deaf to the calls of his younger brother. Before he knew it he'd reached the edge of the pier, his father had backed them up the whole way, and due to Rio's fear of his father he'd mistakenly backed his brother off the pier. In a fit of blind rage Rio launched himself at his father. He doesn't remember what happened next, but when it was over his father was dead and something within him had changed. The curse was transferred and he was now it's bearer.
Of course, he could only return to the gang. Who hid him and let him lie low for a few months while he evaded capture from the police. In exchange, when it was safe to leave they'd given him a job. He realised now he'd been being used by them from the start. He was to become a drug mule, and would be assassin against whoever they deemed necessary to kill. The rage boiled within Rio, but he somehow managed to keep his cool and told them no. This didn't go down well, he was now on the run from the police, and a gang in his home country. He only had one option, to leave completely.
He hid himself away on a tanker boat, not knowing where he would end up or when, just that it was his only hope for a peaceful life. He'd never even heard of where he docked, nor the effect the city would have on him.
As he felt the boat come to a stop all Rio could think of was the chill that shook through him. Where had he come to make his new life? Canada? Russia? Antarctica? Nowhere so exotic. The new place he called home was Liverpool, England.
Life on the streets was hard for Rio, especially with his functional, but less than ideal English, but he quickly got a job and joined an MMA gym, finding a sense of community in the Scousers around him, who took the time to teach him English, banter, and how to drink like one of them. He was affectionately referred to as "Chorizo" and grew to love his new friends and the city he'd now taken as part of his identity. He even speaks English with a strange mix of an accent between part Spanish and mostly Scouse as a result of spending so much time there.
But of course, good things never seem to last. Just as he was getting on his feet and making a career of himself prize fighting, the curse that lay dormant now for years began to rear it's ugly head. It began infecting his thoughts, making him push away his friends and start fights on the street for no reason. He became a drunk, going out to pubs every weekend with the sole purpose of picking a fight. The curse began to feed on his energy and infect him, and with the feeding his power increased. He would brutalise people in prize fights, and gained the moniker "Ruthless" for his fighting style.
Soon enough though this wasn't enough. He began donning a crudely put together hood and going out into the night to cause trouble. If he wasn't considered one now he was definitely on his way to becoming a "supervillain". It seemed the curse was all but winning again, the only hope would be that Rio would die before he could pass it on.
Rio's luck turned though in a very strange form. A chance encounter with John Constantine. Constantine caught Rio on one of his rampages, and through the use of his magic managed to contain and identify the curse within Rio. It had grown too powerful to get rid of, but he did correctly see it could be controlled. In an almost out of character move of charity from Constantine, he decided to take Rio under his wing for the next while. Potentially out of amusement from the Spanish man's strange Liverpudlian accent.
He taught Rio to control his anger, and explained more about the curse. At first it was hard to understand, but Constantine helped him turn his power to good. It wasn't long before he took on the alias "El Cucuy" and began prowling the streets of England with a better goal in mind, protecting the weak rather than preying on them.
When the Titan's called for new members, Constantine threw what little sway he had in the ring and petitioned for Rio's addition. He saw it as an opportunity for Rio to meet people who might understand him better, and Rio saw it as a third chance at life in a new country.
Landing in Jump City was a weird affair. Constantine couldn't come with him due to some business with a succubus in Edinburgh, but he gave Rio a bit of spending money and sent him a few days before he was due to arrive in America. Of course, Rio immediately blew all of this spending money at all of the restaurants around the city and in the pubs too. The most surprising part of America was how little people understood what he was saying in his accent, he actually found more people understood him speaking Spanish of all things!
A few days later and he met the rest of the team. It was a bit awkward at first as all first meetings are, but Rio's confidence helped him talk away to the rest of the group and get to know them a bit better. He found it a bit embarrassing at first displaying his power, being that he's in a way ashamed of it and along with this he felt considerably less in control or practiced with it than a lot of members of the group. They were all young and new though and after a few early missions in which he maybe tried a bit too hard to impress and take the lead, he finally found his place in the team and settled into the teamwork aspect of the whole thing. The advice from the older Titan's he gets is also invaluable, and even getting the chance to meet them was a little bit of a celebrity moment for him.
He actually enjoys being on the team much better than he ever did being a solo hero. He thinks his friends really help him keep his anger and control of his powers in check. He was never one to be a leader either and much prefers following the team plan and using his powers in conjunction with everyone else's. His control over his powers grows with every trial and tribulation the team faces, but he's got a long, long way to go before full control.
I don't know anyone who would complain about living at Titan Tower either. Rio's never lived in such luxury and he's often seen at the gym, making food in the kitchen, or playing video games in the living room. One of his favourite things to do is to be purposefully annoying and hog the living room TV late at night, demanding someone beat him at his favourite fighting games before they're allowed to use it.
He's still guarding himself a bit, but he can't help but feel a bit more at home with this gang of freaks. Everyone's so different in their own way, but that's what makes them so similar. He's also happy to say the jokes about his accent have died down a bit, but only a bit!
Powers/Abilities: "The Ebbing and Flowing Tide"
Rio is blessed, or perhaps cursed with a familial power that he cannot entirely control. Due to inheriting the power from his father, Rio has the power to manipulate a dark form of Chi within himself to enhance his abilities to superhuman capabilities and allow himself powers others are unable to. Essentially the more he feeds into his curse with anger and negative emotion the more powerful he gets, and outright evil actions feed it considerably more. He's managed to learn how to control this power somewhat, but has a long way to go until full control, if that even is possible.
At his current base level of controllable power he is able to enhance his physical abilities quite considerably, especially his strength, which could be considered his main boon at the moment. At his most controllable rage he is able to lift cars with ease and dent through metal, and of course the angrier he gets the higher this skill ceiling goes. His durability also increases tenfold, making hand to hand fights against other metahumans much more doable than a normal human. His speed also increases but to a much lesser degree.
The downside of all of this however is that he begins to lose control the more powerful he gets. If he were to outright give control to the curse he'd be completely different, almost being trapped in his own body while a nihilistic being bent on power through any means would take over. Furthermore, as he is still in the infancy of learning how to control this power he is prone to tiring from overuse which can severely weaken his overall power. The Tide also takes a toll on his health the angrier he gets. Going past the point that he currently feels comfortable with results in chest pain and headaches that last even after returning to normal, there have even been times where he's pushed himself so far to the point that he's been coughing up blood for a few days after returning to normal.
Changing his emotional state is also a way to limit his power, either through the use of a power or external means. His power solely relates to anger, so feelings of sadness or fear if they overwhelm the anger can weaken him. After the event with his brother at the pier, Rio has a dislike towards water and if fully submerged this can trigger feelings of fear within him.
Equipment/Weapons: None that he keeps consistently. If a mission calls for it he might request something but usually it's just his fists.
Skills: Previous to taking on the curse Rio had been training as a mixed martial artist and amateur boxer for most of his life. He is trained in traditional boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ, American wrestling, Sambo, and a few other bits and pieces he's picked up from consistent training. When he consistently trained, he was much more of a ground fighter, and enjoyed slamming his opponents on the mat before employing a ground and pound or submission. His style has evolved over the years picking up street fighting techniques and improvised fighting moves that he incorporates into his street level scraps. He keeps the fight on the feet a lot more these days for fear of sending his opponents head through concrete with his new power.
Outside of combat, Rio is actually a fairly good chef for an amateur and enjoys making food for those around him. He can also play the guitar, although not to the degree that he'd go joining a band.
Goals: His main goal is of course to either rid himself of his curse or gain control over it to a level that he does not fear harming others with it. A secondary goal of his, although he'd be unlikely to admit it, would be to properly find a place that he can call home and a group of people he can call "family". He yearns to fit in with a group of people he can care for and truly feel cared for by. He'd like to truly be able to call himself a "good person" and mean it in his heart also.
Allies/Enemies:John Constantine - His mentor and the man who turned him from a villain to a hero.
Sister and Mother - Both estranged from him and neither are aware if he's alive or dead
Northern Soul Fight Academy - His old friends in Liverpool at the MMA gym he loved to train at
Notes:At the start of the RP he'd still have kept any in depth knowledge of his past before moving to Liverpool to a minimum with the rest of the Titan's, especially anything about his family or life in Catalonia.
