[CHAR] Tales from the ARK: Axiom

[Descartes]

Name: Raymond Macintosh
Nickname: Ray
Age: 22
Appeared Age: 22
Race: Human
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 170 lbs
Eye Color: Dark Brown
Hair Color: Black
Physical Disabilities: None, relatively speaking.
Physical Identifiers: Full body tattoos, hair always slicked back.
Other Indentifiers: Always puts his hands in his mouth.
Appearance:
Tall, slender, and covered in tattoos; Raymond is easily distinguishable from his peers. Though he is fairly tall, Raymond considers himself to be short; because of this, Raymond makes a conscious effort to keep his back straight in order to try and put an extra inch or so on himself. Skinny, Raymond isn't too concerned about his own weight, though he isn't by any means very muscular either.

Raymond always has his hair styled to the back. He reasons that it is easy to do, keeps his hair nice and neat, and keeps his hair away from getting caught in any moving machinery. Though Raymond doesn't like having black hair, he chooses to accentuate it and tries to make it look good, and thus wears darker colors; never, does Raymond wear a lot of white.

Generally speaking, Raymond's style is flashy. Though he doesn't realize it, he employs the use of heavy contrast with dark colors outlined with brighter colors. While wearing outerwear, Raymond typically rolls his sleeves up to his elbows, revealing his vast collection of tattoos. He wears a wrist band on each arm- identifiers which he uses to enter buildings. Though slightly dated, Raymond wears a mechanical watch on his left wrist. His watch is not powered by any crystal technology- it is simply a mechanical watch.

Reveal Information

Residence: Inner Axiom District 5
Profession: Mechanic
Aligned Faction: Greater Axiom Worker's Union

Backstory

Raymond was born and raised in the slums by two parents who made less than enough to even support themselves. In childhood, Raymond was given just enough food to grow up into a healthy boy. His nutrition wasn't lacking, if only because his parents sacrificed their own well being for their son's. Even so, Raymond's parents fought frequently. They attempted to keep their arguments away from their only child.

School was a fairly simple and trivial thing for Raymond. Elementary school passed by smoothly as he made just enough friends to get by and kept his grades just high enough to make it through. Raymond was more or less left alone at that time, his teachers oftentimes even forgetting his presence. Highschool, however, was a different level of strange.

When Raymond was 14, his mother died through a combination of stress and malnutrition. His father, using the assets gained from her death to put Raymond in a nice boarding school in hopes that the school could take better care of his child than a single father could. At that age, Raymond promised his late mother that he would never cry again.

In highschool, Raymond tried to be a gray man. He went through the motions, but tried to keep under the radar of the teachers as he so successfully did in elementary school. This was actually fairly easy, until a class required full participation from all the students- fight class. With the other students possessing abilities which seemed second nature to them and Raymond only being an average human from a poor family, he was barely able to stand a chance. The students mocked him, and the teachers never had enough hope to even say they "gave up", for they never invested anything in Raymond.

Raymond's favorite subject was a class called "Fantastic Beats and Races". Raymond never truly understood the subject matter, but passed anyways due to the simplicity of the tests- it was Raymond's nap class as well as his mandatory elective. Raymond eventually learned to be more crafty in his fighting style, compensating lack of talent with sheer gall. None could say he was successful, but the teachers were certainly impressed. His peers only hated him more.

Raymond skipped out on his own graduation, selling his graduation tickets to anybody willing to pay without beating Raymond to a pulp for them. On that day, Raymond had a long phone call with his father, who was then hospitalized.

Raymond's father died the next day, in the hospital.

The next four years of Raymond's life were spent simply establishing himself within Axiom society as an adult. His grades were too poor and he had too little money to afford higher education. Raymond instead, took to a profession of maintaining machinery. He studied the way crystals worked to a basic, elementary level of understanding- just enough to repair any vehicles that entered his shop. Raymond became a wizard with a wrench, though not a real wizard; he was just really good.

It was a meager living, but enough to sustain himself. Raymond ate well, and lived comfortably doing a job he didn't completely hate. Every now and again, Raymond would scavenge broken parts from machinery that would go to him, and attempt to repair it or jury-rig it onto something else for the simple sake of experimentation.

Gear

Weapons:

• Black Betty: A beautifully simple piece of crystal technology built by Raymond using spare parts and a working knowledge on crystal magic. In its dormant state, the Black Betty appears as a leather, two-handed hilt; with a circular pommel; and a wide cross-guard which curved at a 45 degree angle into where the blade would be, a golden collar about two inches wide, extended half a centimeter from the cross-guard. There is a ring on either side of the cross guard, the right ring being the pull for a rip-cord which actually activates the sword.
  
  When the rip cord is pulled half a foot long, the blade activates. The blade itself extends three feet away from the hilt, off the collar making the full size of the blade, a little less than three and a half feet long. The blade has properties of a high carbon steel, and is capable of maintaining itself in a solid form as long as the crystal remains in place. It is not high energy by any means, and Raymond (as well as anybody else) may touch the flat of the blade without much harm done. The edge is, however, still incredibly sharp and may cut through flesh quite effortlessly.
  
  The crystal lies within the pommel, which itself is attached to the hilt with a threaded construction, meaning it can be unscrewed to be repaired or replaced. In the unscrewing process, the rip-cord unwinds away from the crystal. While Raymond will often remove the pommel for inspection and repairs, doing so requires a special concoction Raymond uses to maintain the crystal in a stable state. Otherwise, when seperated from the rip-cord for more than two minutes, the crystal explodes with a blast radius of 7 meters.

Armor:

Hider

Also known as Macintosh Plus, Raymond's armored form consists of stabbing his motorcycle with Black Betty, then pulling the rip cord three feet away from the hilt. This causes the crystal within the blade to interact with the crystal within the motorcycle, thus causing it to apparently attack Raymond. As the metal conforms to Raymond's body, it becomes armor which takes a very specific shape that is as much motorcycle as it is man. This form allows Raymond to take on insane amounts of force without budging, as well as move at a rate of up to 80 mph, on foot.
Messenger Bag:

• Wrench
• Motor oil
• Cheeseburger

Other:

• Moody Blues: Raymond's motorcycle. It doesn't fold up or anything. It's just a motorcycle. In order to activate, Raymond must insert the collar of his blade into the key slot and pull the rip cord out two feet, thus starting the vehicle. Once the vehicle has started up, however, Raymond may remove the hilt. The motorcycle may move only at speeds up to 60 mph.

Heroic Information

Acolyte Phenomena/Soldier Rank/Etc.: None
Unique Abilities/Magical Aptitude/Powers/Spells/Etc: None
Strengths: Good mechanic
Weaknesses: People tend to hate him (and I do intend to roleplay this character so that everybody hates him, even if that means everybody hates me in the process)
Traits/Hobby Skills/Other: Spends some his free time tinkering, and the rest of his free time either gambling, drinking, or smoking.