cerealia | application

[pr159]

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Rideaux Zek Rugievit
◎ Character's Canon: Tales of Xillia 2
◎ Character's Age: 29
◎ Canon Point: Before his last fight
◎ Background/History:

Rideaux was born into a very poor family. As a young child he suffered from debilitating illnesses and had no hope of leading any kind of normal life until undergoing a procedure where his faulty organs were replaced with an experimental technology at the age of six. This corrected his original physical ailments, but would have left him in constant pain; and all the medical bills he had already racked up prior to his surgery put his family in deep enough debt that the strain of it tore them apart and he ended up on his own.

Most of this information comes from the Perfect Guide, which is vague about exactly what he did in the years following that, but basically he was living on the street and presumably trying to work off the debt that was attached to his name however he could. Eventually, when he was twelve, the president of the Spirius Corporation found him and took him on at the company after learning he had a chromatus watch.

As uniquely talented and essential members of the Department of Dimensional Affairs at Spirius Corp, from the time they were teenagers, Rideaux and the president's son Julius were tasked with traveling to and destroying fractured dimensions, and they developed a complicated rivalry with each other. While there was genuine enjoyment of the competition and trying to one-up each other -- they made a game out of seeing who could destroy more dimensions -- it was also a survival of the fittest issue: someone with Kresnik blood would eventually have to be sacrificed in order for Bakur to carry out his plans, and that meant one of them. As a result, both were in a constant struggle to prove their superior worth so that the other would be the one to be sacrificed.

In addition to these missions, Rideaux took medical training and became highly skilled in Elympion medical technology, and started inventing his own techniques and medicines, often making use of things that could only be found in the fractured dimensions he visited. He also made surgical spyrix modifications to his own body to overcome its weaknesses and give him much greater physical abilities than an average person.

When the game starts, he's Vice Director of the DODA, and is the doctor who treats Ludger and his party after a terrorist attack. Following Bakur's instructions, Rideaux charges an exorbitant fee for his services to get Ludger stuck with a huge debt. Later on, after it's clear Julius has defected, Rideaux gets to take over his position as Director. Throughout the rest of the story, the party fights him several times, once optionally (when you can choose whether you want to follow his orders or side with Julius) and two more times after that. In the second fight, he's responsible for setting up the death of the Milla from a fractured dimension and the subsequent return of the original one, as her presence in the Dimensional Abyss was causing problems for the DODA. After his loss in his final battle, he's captured on Bakur's orders and killed so that he can serve as his soul bridge to enter the land of Canaan.


◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? No

◎ Personality:

The single biggest driving factor in shaping Rideaux's personality is his intense resentment, both of other people and of the circumstances of his life. He was born poor and with illnesses that were considered incurable by normal medical means. A radical procedure by Dr. Derrick Mathis ended up saving his life, but by that point years of crushing medical debt had built up and tore apart his family, eventually leaving him alone on the street struggling for survival for several years. (He notably never uses his last name in the game, and it's only even given in one of the several supplemental publications; he's apparently not too eager to associate himself with his family.) Eventually Bisley Bakur found him and recognized that he had the power of the chromatus, so he took him in and gave him a position in the Department of Dimensional Affairs at Spirius Corporation so that he could make use of that power. From the beginning, though, Rideaux would have known that he had been taken in solely so that his ability could be used, and that more likely than not he'd be forced to give up his life to serve as a soul bridge for Bakur when the time came.

It's not clear what he may have been like before all of this, but the life he's had has clearly not given him a sterling opinion of humanity, and he doesn't care much at all for other people. He doesn't appear to have any sense of honor or ethics, and on top of the obvious things like killing innocent people and destroying fractured dimensions, he also has no problem with charging people exorbitant fees for the medical care he provides for them -- saddling them with the same kind of medical debt that ruined his own family -- or doing physical harm to children.

As someone who spent much of his own youth struggling to make enough money to survive without anyone else's support, it might be expected that he would be more sympathetic to people in similar plights and would want to help make things easier for them than they were for him now that he has plenty of money and resources at his disposal. It's just the opposite though; rather, he thinks that if he had to live that kind of life, anyone else can damn well do the same. While the enormous debt he traps Ludger and his party in is by Bakur's orders and not necessarily entirely his own choice, the first moment of genuine anger he shows in the game is in response to eight year old Elle saying she's just a kid with no way to pay off a bill like that -- his expression goes from mild amusement to anger in a split second, and he grabs her roughly by the arm. Even a kid can make money if they work for it.

On the other hand, he can appreciate people who do work hard for themselves, and don't have things handed to them. As condescending as he generally is toward Ludger, Rideaux does tell him in one sidequest scene that he respects him for working hard to pay off a seemingly insurmountable debt and to destroy the fractured dimensions.

The flashy, glamorous image he's created for himself is highly important to him. People would have looked down on him for being poor and dirty and ragged before, but now his perfectly maintained appearance and his high-ranking position at Spirius get him lots of admirers -- including himself. While other characters have pictures of their cats or friends or normal stock images as their phone wallpapers, his is a picture of himself surrounded by stars and winking at the camera. Others have things they love that make them happy, but what he finds pleasure in is his own carefully constructed image. Notably, though, his past isn't entirely a secret; it seems to be common knowledge at least among the members of his squad that he originally came from a life of poverty. By letting the world know that, he manages to make himself look even more admirable by making everyone think he rose from nothing purely by his own talent and hard work.

Even if that isn't completely true, he has worked hard, and has proven himself to be highly intelligent and inventive, incorporating what he finds during his missions in fractured dimensions into developing new medical treatments and techniques in the prime dimension. This is likely more for the prestige of being a pioneer in medical technology and for the sake of treating his own problems than for some genuine desire to help improve the lives of others, but it doesn't make his genius in this area any less real.

Because his image and position are so important to who he is, he's sensitive to any defects in them (though not necessarily to the potential consequences of his reactions) -- he wears a pair of oversized designer sunglasses for a while to hide some bruises on his face after an altercation with Julius -- and to any perceived slight against him or challenge to his authority. On more than one occasion in the game, when someone who's acted in opposition to him is on the ground in front of him, he steps on them and digs in his heel while taunting or insulting them. When Ludger is given a position above him at Spirius -- beaten out by a Kresnik again -- Rideaux is visibly displeased by it, and his tone when speaking with Ludger becomes even more bitingly sarcastic than before. He can't stand being looked down on, fuming that Ludger looked at him with "the same contemptuous look as his bastard brother" when he left him beaten on the ground after their last fight.

He can often get carried away with these kinds of reactions, and can do things that are pretty out of line and probably a headache for Spirius to smooth over. While it was important to them that the fractured version of Milla be sacrificed so that the prime one could return, the company probably really didn't want that to be accomplished by having one of their top agents get involved in the terrorist hijacking of a ship, and they almost definitely didn't want that agent holding the world's political leaders hostage and being physically aggressive with them. He can also say some pretty lewd and skeevy things at times; he's perfectly aware that it's inappropriate, but he really doesn't care.

It might be a little counterintuitive, but part of why he feels so inclined to do his own thing and operate as a loose cannon is that he's still very much tied down by the circumstances of his life. In one minor sidequest in which you deliver an item he requested for use in making medicine, he explains that even though it's a natural poison, it can be used as a treatment as well, specifically for the side effects of aspyrixis. As it's later revealed that several of his faulty organs were replaced with aspyrixis as a child, it's heavily implied here that he's using this medicine himself to deal with the incapacitating pain of it. During this same conversation, his laughter quickly turns into a horrible coughing fit that leaves him doubled over and breathing heavily, eliciting concern from Ludger and Alvin. "Sometimes, to keep your place in life, you have to be willing to fight for it," he says in response, "And sometimes that means using any means necessary. Remember that." He also says later on that he's made his own improvements to his body since his initial procedure to give him extraordinary strength and acuity, even though he knows it can't handle the strain in the long run. In order to keep his position and his life (and likely to spite everyone else while doing it), he's ironically destroying his body and shortening the very life he's fighting for.

Rideaux clearly dislikes Bakur, and even as he works to stay in his good favor, there's no attachment or even a true sense of obligation. Once it's obvious to him that Ludger is his new favorite and that he's not going to have a chance at coming out on top himself, he starts spilling more information about Bakur's plans; and he's also willing to fight against being used as a part of those plans in the end. It's complicated, though, because as vain as Rideaux is about his appearance and his position at Spirius and in society, as much as he thinks he's every bit as good as Julius and Ludger and Bakur himself, he knows that Bakur is the only reason he has any of that, and he's indebted to him (or at least Bakur thinks he is) in a way the others aren't. If Bakur hadn't learned of his power and brought him into Spirius, Rideaux would still be some filthy wretch in a back alley, if he was still alive at all. It's not that he feels like he owes him anything, and he's sure as hell done a lot of hard work to stay where he is, but he's aware that he didn't get there entirely on his own -- contrary to the story he sells to the public -- and that much of what he has can easily be taken away again if he doesn't serve him adequately.

His relationship with Julius is only slightly touched on in the game, and is elaborated on a little more in the guidebooks, but it might be even more complicated than his relationship with Bakur. The two of them were almost the same age, had the same special ability, and took on the same missions. Knowing that one of them would end up being sacrificed to serve as Bakur's soul bridge, the rivalry between them would have been deep and vicious, with each one's literal survival depending on his proving himself more capable and useful than the other. Both of them surviving was never an option. This was probably particularly vexing to Rideaux because Julius was Bakur's son, and would have inherently had the upper hand -- if both of their performances were exactly equal, Rideaux would almost certainly have been the one to lose, and thus would have felt the need to work even harder.

At the same time, while they've always been rivals and to some extent adversaries by necessity, they also would have been closer to each other than they were to almost anyone else. They were the only ones in their position, and often would have only had each other for company as literally the only two people from their dimension while on a mission in a fractured one. Notably, Rideaux seems to know a lot more about Julius and Ludger's past than anyone else, including Bakur, indicating that either Julius confided in him at some point or that he figured it out through what he observed in fractured dimensions; and that even though Rideaux could have used that information to his advantage by divulging it to Bakur a long time ago, he didn't. The fact that they did share this kind of closeness at some point has to have played a part in making their current relationship as bitter as it is. Everything they say to each other on screen during the game is biting, and they both do physical violence to each other.

With all that said, while he's undoubtedly a bitter person with a short fuse, he's definitely not incapable of finding amusement in things, and can be pretty playful in the way he interacts with people. Of course, practically all of his interactions in-game are with people he has some kind of grudge against, so that playfulness mostly comes across as mean-spirited and smarmy, but he's popular with enough people in his world (an NPC makes a reference to Rideaux's fans, and one member of his squad that you can speak with goes on about how much he looks up to Rideaux and wants to be like him) that presumably he's not always unpleasant to be around. When he's not at Spirius, he's usually found relaxing at a somewhat shady bar with a glass of wine. The picture of himself that he uses as his GHS wallpaper is in a style reminiscent of what you'd get from a purikura booth, so he probably has fun with that kind of thing as well. With as much miserable bullshit as he has to worry about in his life, getting away from it sometimes -- both physically and mentally -- is something he has to value.

◎ Powers/Abilities:
His most notable ability is that he's a chromatus user (explained some here, though canon is kind of vague about exactly what it does). Using the chromatus pocketwatch he's had since birth, he's able to undergo a temporary physical transformation that gives him vastly amplified strength, defense, and speed, and the ability to use certain artes he can't use otherwise. There are four levels, with the first being a partial transformation and the fourth a complete one; in contrast to the other chromatus users seen in the game, Rideaux is only capable of reaching the second level.
Aside from granting the user physical power, the chromatus is also able to affect spacetime and allows users to enter and destroy fractured dimensions by getting rid of their divergence catalysts -- the people or things that caused the change that made that version of the universe branch off from the prime one. It has the side effect of gradually turning the user into a divergence catalyst themselves as they continue to use the power, though, and since he's taken on just about as many fractured dimensions as Julius has, he's almost certainly started that transformation himself.

Aside from that, while it's to a much lesser extent than when he's using his chromatus, he actually has increased physical abilities in his normal form too, as he's made modifications to his body with spyrix technology to give him greater strength, speed, and precision.

As for more mundane abilities:
- Skilled in the art of medicine and in inventing new treatments
- Apparently has a very sharp and adaptive mind, as he's managed to accomplish all this despite coming from a poor background with probably minimal education
- Has a fantastic sense of fashion and is very photogenic, thank you

◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory: Chromatus pocketwatch, several scalpels/knives, GHS (basically just a cell phone, which he obviously won't be able to use for calls here), specialized pain medication

CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Fire. His image color is red, and he tends to be flashy and volatile.
◎ Sense: Touch. As a medical agent he's skilled with his hands and human physiology, and his attacks consist of cuts from small knives/scalpels and a spiked whip, which are specifically based around inflicting physical pain.
◎ Seven Character Traits:
+ resilient, bold, inventive
- resentful, volatile, narcissistic
/ ambitious

Samples

◎ First-Person Sample:
[ when rideaux shows up on the screen -- holding the cerevice up in his hand and shooting the video as if he were taking a selfie -- he's looking as perfectly put together as ever. he's not, but nobody has to know that. ]

Well, since my previous work was so rudely interrupted by the end of the world, I'm looking for some new projects.

[ he sits back in his chair and adjusts his angle accordingly to ensure the image of himself that he's giving everyone is still a flattering one. ]

That jungle region I hear some of you were unlucky enough to get stuck in -- did anyone bring back any samples of its vegetation?

[ or would thinking ahead like that have been too much to ask? ]

Plants hold a great deal of potential for the development of new medicines, you see. Unfortunately the condition of my world... [ he pauses and gives a smile that's clearly pointed toward the rieze maxians present here. ] ...well, my part of it, anyway... didn't allow for a great deal of research in that particular area.

So, if anyone's got some flora to spare, I'd love to take it off your hands.

--

(Plus a meme thread but it's short because I got caught up in moving that week, whoops...)


◎ Third-Person Sample:
Throughout Rideaux's entire life -- from the time he was born with this defective body to the years he spent with the singular goal of destroying more fractured dimensions than Julius -- he's fought tooth and nail to keep his place in a world that seemingly wanted nothing to do with him. But in the end, if he's to believe what he's been told, he apparently managed to outlive that very world. Wasn't that just dripping with the most delightful irony?

(A less delightful one, of course, was that his existence here was said to be thanks to some hero named Julius. Perfect, really; just what he wanted to hear.)

He absently stirs his drink as he looks around the bar, the sound of the clinking ice cubes in his glass the only thing that gives him any sense of familiarity. Rideaux has never been a sentimental person by any stretch of the imagination, but if there was ever a place he had some kind of attachment to, it was that bar in Duval -- a place he'd been frequenting since long before he was of legal age to be there. This place seems a pathetic substitute as far as he's concerned, an opinion that only solidifies further when he takes a sip. Ugh... His lip curls in distaste for a brief second and he narrows his eyes at the glass in his hand. Awful. Maybe he could have been generous and forgiven the lack of a lime wedge if he'd chalked it up to cultural differences, but the ratio of gin to tonic is all wrong, and that he's not so willing to let slide. There's no such thing as "different tastes"; there's good taste and there's no taste, and this shows a complete lack of it that ought to disqualify anyone from working as a bartender.

He'd probably complain if he gave more of a shit right now.

Honestly, he thinks, exhaling as he leans back in his seat, this whole situation feels completely improbable. No one had been more familiar with other dimensions than his department, but they had never detected anything like this, something so far removed from their prime dimension that there was no way it could be considered a branch of their same universe. Even setting that aside, if something like that did exist, wasn't it odd that it hadn't played a role in any of the fractured dimensions they'd encountered -- that this supposed "alien invasion" had occurred exclusively in the prime dimension? Maybe Spirius hadn't been nearly so enlightened as it had thought it was.

At first he finds that thought frustrating, and it makes him feel a little defensive about the capabilities of his department, makes him want to rationalize why they were so unprepared for this turn of events while under his direction if he's to believe it at all. But then -- well, when it comes right down to it, Spirius is Bakur's company, and it's his face that would bear the egg for a screw-up like this. That's a thought Rideaux doesn't mind so much, and he almost has to smile at the idea of Bisley Karsci Bakur not getting what he wanted in the end, even if it meant the destruction of the world they had all been fighting to preserve for so many years.

But then, something that is familiar -- a deep, dull, throbbing pain emanating from more than one spot inside him -- starts to make itself known, and whatever slight amusement he might have felt a moment ago is gone. That's right; he can't be certain how long he's been here, or what was in his system at the time they "saved his code" or whatever they were calling it. Cursing under his breath, he grabs a packet of pills from the pocket inside his jacket and takes one, using his subpar drink to wash it down.

Maybe Rideaux has come out ahead of Bakur by being here, but all the damage from years of fighting to gain his favor has already been done. That irony leaves him with a bitter taste in his mouth to which even his drink can't quite compare.


◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? No