RICK KOSTROV

All alone in the world, Rick tried to right his wrongs and joined the New Rosea police department, hoping he would find a way to help the public and other people in unfortunate situations like his own once was. He found out soon enough, however, that the state of New Rosea was largely corrupt, and began focusing his efforts on a fight against his superiors, as well as bettering the safety of the public in a chaotic Grimport borough. There, he would also meet Loretta, with whom he struck a deep friendship. Coming from a family of people who had essentially made Grimport what it was, Loretta introduced Rick to his new life, providing him companionship and comfort he had never seen before. Having realized Loretta was accepting of his entire identity, they both entered a queerplatonic relationship. Eventually deciding on having a child, Maggie, for a brief moment in time, Rick felt like he had escaped the terrors of his troubled past.

​

A tragic event would wreck Rick's young family and force him right back into the paranoid mindset he grew up in. Facing a betrayal from the side of the headquarters who let the tragedy go unpunished as a way to stifle Rick's constant rebellion and ruin his good public image, Rick would find himself dealing with his grief by becoming increasingly vengeful. The inability to deal with the loss made him turn to his old habits, and from a prolific, beloved deputy, he turned into a man dedicated to overthrowing the very department he was working for. He was slowly but surely becoming a notorious local vigilante, one largely untouchable after he won his defamation case against his superiors and developed deep connections in the crime life of the outskirts of Grimport, known as Dolour. His decision to stray away from his path and use law as a tool to clean up the system wouldn't go unnoticed, and it would soon become what led many ghosts from his past right back into his life.

​

As he slowly sunk deeper and deeper into depression, Rick stumbled upon an injured amnesiac, a man he would only know by his initials, FJ, for a very long time. Deciding to offer him his help at uncovering his identity, Rick would find himself growing closer and closer to the man, finding comfort and companionship in him when the betrayal he had faced forced him to push everyone else away, and FJ seemed to feel the same way about him. The two would start a business together, one involving Rick's passion for writing, yet as his family expanded and his private life seemed to thrive, his crime life was starting to become a problem he had a terrible issue hiding.

​

Rick seemed to be a perfectly fine man from his family's perspective, at least for a while. Always finding a way to make troubles seem less painful to others, he was an odd beast, goofy and sarcastic, often in good spirits. He was funny and gentle, yet that wasn't the image any outsider had of him. No amount of safety and love seemed to cure Rick's paranoid behavior. After suffering several injuries that left him disabled and in need of a walking aid, he began to sink deeper into addictions, struggling to keep his crime life a secret from his family, who were none the wiser. His vision of reality began to distort as the stress slowly destroyed him, and while he desperately sought comfort in danger and obsessive need for control, he was beginning to feel estranged from his own mind and body. The reality as he knew it, for the most part, didn't exist, or so he believed. He was self-aware enough to understand he was struggling, but his troubling life made him incapable of stepping away. Growing more and more hungry for control he lacked within his own mind, he began feeling comfort in imminent danger and fear others had of him, believing that was the only way to keep his family, and himself, safe from threats only he was aware of. He would soon realize, however, that there was more to his paranoia than any of his outlandish beliefs could have prepared him for.

​

His secret life couldn't stay hidden forever, and Rick's choices would put all of his relationships, and his own life, on the line, forcing him to make impossible, life-altering decisions and face the world with a completely corrupted vision of reality.

​

APPEARANCE:

Rick was a seven-foot tall (213 cm) man of a bulky body structure, usually recognized by the burn across his right eye he had ever since early childhood. Often perceived as much older than he was, Rick's extensive alcohol abuse, chronic insomnia and declining health contributed to his dark, sunken eyes and seemingly withered face. His eyes were sapphire blue, while his shoulder-length coal-black hair began graying in his early thirties, mostly due to stress. His hands were rarely seen without black gloves he mainly wore to hide the fighting scars on his knuckles left from his time in The Underground. He never took off his wedding ring, but wore it on his middle finger, and ever since his early forties, he regularly wore a tie-clip symbolizing his bond with FJ. Rick walked incredibly quietly, moving with precision and grace, but was rarely seen without his cane. He was shot during the early 1970s, which left him disabled, before the road accident scarred the large portion of the left side of his face. Unable to step on his right leg without assistance ever since, Rick walked with a significant limp, struggling with chronic pain, and would eventually undergo an amputation that left him as a below-the-knee amputee. His mannerisms were, nonetheless, very theatrical in nature, often sassy and exaggerated, and he made up for his lack of mobility in many creative ways.

​