R.C.

Description

There are those who have said ‘The South will rise again.’  R.C.’s smug expression – as well as his blood pressure – is a testament to that call.  An older Human man of average height who has seen his share of hamburgers and automatic weaponry, R.C. is a prime example of the Confederate American stereotype.  Of brown haired and beard (both streaked with gray), he has a face unblemished of laugh lines nor wrinkles, instead seasoned with the no-nonsense gaze of suspicion.  He’s by no means fat, but RC is definitely soft in the belly as one would expect of a long-haul veteran.

Underneath his favorite CAS trucker’s cap, RC keeps his head in a clean cut.  His hands are oft-covered in grease of a mechanical or agricultural variety and the worn shirt sleeves of his blue-collar shirt give proof to a life elbows deep in the dirtier parts of industrial maintenance, and definitely not an Approved Corporate Style.

Every inch of RC’s wardrobe speaks of Confederate pride.  The original CAS flag is emblazoned on his hat, the new flag is displayed proudly on his favorite soykaf mug, and the Dixie Red, White, and Blue van he drives tells everyone around him (especially his team) what to expect when in the social orbit of the South’s favorite son.

Background

The oldest of the team, RC was born Richard Childress Cupp to high school sweethearts Tara and Thomas in the quaint CAS burg of Bucksnort, Alabama.  Prior to the ubiquity of the Matrix, Tara worked as a policy typist for an insurance firm, and Thomas a service technician at the city bus depot. While both of his parents were fond of one another, the addition of Richard – Dick – to the relationship caused several cracks to appear in the thin veneer of romance that they both maintained.  Tom spent more and more time between the bar and the depot, and Tara less time at work and more time with RC, despite his growing interest in vehicles and closeness to his dad – assisted by a vintage set of matchbox cars (perhaps the only real gift RC’s father ever gave the boy). It would not be long – RC was around ten – before Tara and Tom split, and Officer Dwight LaFours entered the picture.

Life in Bucksnort was stable.  Richard worked maintenance at the same depot his father did, but Tom’s aloof nature regarding RC and his excuses as to his lot in life saw the lad growing closer to his stepfather Dwight and the outer sphere of Lone Star Security Services.  Past the veneer of authority, RC found the Lone Star officers to be not so different from him, and his weekends were filled with bitching about the Mayor’s kid, ‘testing’ of security drones, restricted weaponry, and cheap beer.

RC was in his thirties when life took a step for the worse.  His stepfather, a desk sergeant with the ‘Star, twenty-year veteran, and loving family man, was stabbed in a gang-led robbery of a gas station.  Despite his accolades, Lone Star was hesitant in prosecuting the criminals as the perp in question was the son of the major account holder: Trevor Blascoe, Bucksnort Mayor for Life.  Having grown close to Dwight in the intervening years (and furious as to his LS buddies’ lack of action), RC decided to take matters (and two rotodrones used to spray the buses) into his own hands.  

There is still talk around Bucksnort to this day about the vicious burns that the Blascoe boy and his gang friends received after a malfunctioning paint drone was found to be instead equipped with an illegally modified flamethrower.  Lone Star talks about it as well, and about the mysterious gentleman who could’ve done it – but since the Crash of ‘64, nobody knows who it could’ve been. Certainly it wasn’t ParaDynamics Maintenance Engineer Richard Childress Cupp and his momma Tara, who have lived in Seattle since then.