Player: Stoncius

Link: http://belligerent.deviantart.com

Character Name: Rashad al-Hassan

Age: 23

Sex: Man

Species: Golden jackal/Palestinian viper

Height/Weight: 6'4"/195

Social Status: UniClass

Physical Description: As an artificially created hybrid, Rashad is an aesthetically pleasing mix of traits from his two base species. Primarily, he resembles a jackal, but with serpentine accents. Broad, sand-colored scales stretch across his chest and stomach, from just below the collar bone to his lower abdomen, and he has a scaley, snakelike tail. His coloring seems to be, on first glance, similar to most golden jackals, but on closer inspection, the patterns in his desert-colored fur seem to be a bit more pronounced and regular, subtly influenced by his Palestinian viper DNA. His golden eyes have slitted pupils, resulting in a rather unnerving stare, and instead of fixed canine teeth, he has a set of long, hollow fangs, which are usually folded back along the roof of the mouth. These fangs can be rotated forward or back, and although Rashad doesn't possess functional venom glands, the teeth are very sharp and make for a painful bite. However, they break easily. Finally, he has a forked tongue.

Rashad is built long and lean and very nearly borders on "rawboned." Broadish shoulders sit atop a somewhat narrower chest and ribcage, tapering down into a very slim waist and narrow, prominent hips. His frame possesses a good amount of very wiry, corded muscle, rather visible under his short fur. He is extremely toned, and not particularly bulky. With his lanky frame, he almost looks awkward...but he carries himself with a lazy sort of grace that seems to offset that in person; in photographs, he always looks like he's slouching.

Pleasantly handsome, his canine facial features are decidedly masculine, with a slightly larger than average, noble and manly snout. His hair (or headfur), which is very slightly darker than the surrounding fur, is combed up in a sort of spikey hairdo...sometimes gel is required. When not in his WhiteGear, he is usually wearing casual, comfortable clothing. He almost always wears long sleeved shirts, since his ancestors came from the desert and did not give him much of a tolerance for the perpetually cold weather. He hates being cold and will complain loudly about it. Dressing in layers helps, but he still likes to complain.

Background: Rashad began life as a pure-blooded golden jackal and spent the earliest part of his life in an Arabi colony somewhere outside Einheit. His father was a soldier who ultimately made the decision to desert the colony's army, taking his wife and young son and fleeing with a small group of other defectors to Einheit right before the rest of the colony was wiped out.

Rashad's father got a new job as a janitor to try to provide for his family, but it paid very little and was hardly the prestigious job that being a soldier had been. And it was difficult to get used to the idea that as a purebred, he was no longer on the top of the societal food chain. He took to drinking and drug use to soothe the wounds inflicted to his manly pride.

Eventually, his wife had to resort to prostitution to make money on the side to care for her son, as all their money was going toward booze and drugs (she could have gotten a different job, but she had few skills and as an attractive young woman, the money came easy). However, she only told him that she was now "working a part time job," knowing that he'd be furious if she found out the details. Things were going well until she realized that she was pregnant...oops. Morals kept her from having the baby aborted...maybe it would be her husband's. It was this thought, and the inability to take the life of her own child, that led her to carry the baby to term. Her husband was somewhat excited at the idea of another child. His excitement turned to rage when the baby was born...a jackal with the tail of a reptile. Obviously not his.

Rashad's father was so angry he beat not only the baby to death, but his wife, too. There was no tolerance for infidelity.

Rashad, who was ten at the time and witness to the whole thing, was understandably freaked out by this. Over the next few years, Rashad's father became increasingly violent and abusive toward his son (who reminded him of the pain his wife had caused him), and Rashad spent less and less time at home. He fell in with a group of street kids, and by the time he was thirteen, he was effectively emancipated from his father and had a new "family." Living with the little gang for about a year, life was hard and meals were scarce.

As time wore on, the gang's activities became less and less innocent. One day, the gang came across a rich-looking hybrid couple who had been out for a walk and somehow managed to take a few wrong turns and end up in the ghetto. They were mugged and in the process of being beaten to death by the gang's leader, but Rashad, unnerved by their cries for mercy and unwilling to stand idly by while innocent people were murdered, attacked his friend, attempting to put an end to it. This was possibly a bad idea, and the gang turned on Rashad, whose only choice was to run. (The hybrid couple was re-caught and beaten all the way to death, of course. But it's the thought that counts!).

On his own for a few weeks, on the run from his former gang, and weary with hunger and cold, he ducked into a lecture hall to get warm one day, just in time to witness a seminar on the virtues of unification. He signed up immediately for artificial hybridization, requesting snake DNA in honor of the brother he had never gotten to know. Doctors probing into his mind took note of a particularly developed sense of justice and morals, and marked him for possible Ministry recruitment.

After a few weeks with a foster family to make sure he would fit seamlessly into Unity, he was enrolled in a ministry-run boarding school, which he excelled in and has since graduated with honors. He is now a member of the Low Ministry with a reputation for swift judgment and relentless pursuit.

Closure for Rashad happened a few years ago when he felt compelled to head to the Midcity slums and seek out first his father and then his old gang. All were swiftly executed for their crimes against Unity, the statute of limitations for which never run out.


Personality: Rashad is a pretty typical young male. He enjoys hanging out with friends, meeting pretty girls, and doing a variety of activities, like drinking, dancing, and fun sports. Refreshingly normal, perhaps, despite a less than ideal upbringing. He likes to think of himself as a ladies' man...ignoring the fact that he's never actually been able to keep a girlfriend more than a few months. He is 100% dedicated to upholding the ideals of Unity, and maybe this makes him a little more distant and driven than civilian girls are likely to tolerate...after all, when your boyfriend misses your one week anniversary to go on cleansing missions to the Nightlands, is he going to remember your two week anniversary? No. (It doesn't help that Rashad is almost infallibly attracted to silly, bubbly, high maintenance girls with lots of boobs but little depth).

Mostly friendly, he doesn't suffer fools gladly; once he's decided you're an idiot, it's really difficult to get off that list and gain his respect again. Purebreds rarely earn his respect and certainly don't have it from the get-go; he considers those who willingly shun Unity to support racism and the murder of innocents (if they are not themselves racists and murderers), and those are things he will not abide by. There is no such thing as giving purebreds "the benefit of the doubt" with him, and he can rarely see things in any terms other than black and white. On duty as a Low Minister, he is serious and no nonsense, dutifully serving by enforcing every single letter of the law. No exceptions.

When off duty, Rashad is heavily into the metal scene. It's difficult for him to admit that there are other kinds of music, let alone that some of those genres might actually be good. Arabi is his first language and he still retains a bit of an accent when speaking Anglic.

Weapons/Equipment: -WhiteGear

-Assault Rifle

-Taser

-Gauss Pistol

-Tesla Saif - curved, one-handed sword with a charged blade. Used for slashing, or stabbing into people and then shocking the bejeezus out of them. Not for use on pets.

Misc: Rashad is a very good runner and has incredible endurance. He has participated in the last six semi-annual Nightlands Marathons and has placed in the top ten every time. He has placed third in the last two races.

He also does not own an off-duty use vehicle, either bumming rides off of people or walking wherever he goes. He can drive, he just prefers not to.