[b]Name:[/b] Roman Cassidy
[b]Age:[/b] 23
[b]Sex:[/b] Male
[b]Appearance:[/b] Tall, black, bald with a goatee, scars and burns all over. Wears an eyepatch over his left eye.
[hider=So basically Nick Fury] [img=http://i.imgur.com/oRqn6Q0.jpg[/img] [/hider]
[b]History Type:[/b] Custom
[i]The Black Raider:[/i] Years of using the Viper's techniques to kill raiders in Europe have taught Roman how to silently and quickly move to and dispatch enemies from behind with his knife or bare hands. The unfriendly way he carries himself makes those who see him have negative first impressions.
(bonus to, sneaking, attacking enemies at close range; penalty to social interaction and introduction)
[hider=Biography]You may have heard of the black viper, an extremely dangerous snake found mainly in Eastern Europe, known for having sharp fangs and strong enough venom that a single bite almost instantly kills a human. If you frequented any bars in Europe, you'd have definitely heard at least one story of the Black Viper, the caravan protecting, raider hunting Bulgarian known for the raider corpses he dots his path in life with. The stories traveling merchants tell one another to feel safe, the fables raiders try to scare each other with in the dead of night, the tales mothers tell their children to frighten them into leading honest lives and staying out of trouble.

And he is real, this mythical man, but he's dead. Not that anyone will ever know that.

The stories of the Black Viper began in the 40s and never let up. First he a was caravan bodyguard for hire that would travel ahead and silently dispatch any dangers between the client and their destination. Then he was the guy that managed to slaughter an entire raiding camp, leaving a dead black viper in their leader's throat. After that came the story of the raiders who tried to ambush him and were all killed so quickly and quietly that the last one alive tried to attack him and only noticed that he was the only one left when it was too late. Of course, that's where things stop being impressive and start smelling like bullshit. He can turn into an actual viper, he can blend into his surroundings like a chamelion, he's made of shadows. Nonsense. But, like I said, he [i]was[/i] real, and he did kill a lot of raiders on his way to the ether.

One of the many raiders that crossed paths with the Black Viper was John Cassidy, a bad-ass with a mean streak and more intelligence than a raider rightfully should have. Cassidy only spared one life in his tenure as the leader of his raiding party, and that was his own boy, a son he had with an attractive woman he kept as a literal trophy wife. The woman tried in vain to teach her son the ways of kindness and goodness, but John saw to it that he be introduced to the worst kind of violence when he killed the boy' mother in front of him after a younger, more attractive woman had the bad fortune of being caught by the raiders. What she did give him was a name: Roman.

Roman grew up in the harsh world of raiding camps and decimated settlements, resenting those who fell to the might of his horrible father enough to become one of his father's men when he came of age. John joked that any kid should know not to be a raider unless they were willing to run into the Black Viper, and his son silently pulled a freshly-killed black viper out of his pocket to show his willingness to risk his life. The Black Viper stories didn't scare him; nothing made him feel anything outside the range of annoyance and rage.

And, the night after a successful attack on a settlement, it all changed. Roman woke up to gunshots, screams, panic. The group had been hit by something big, something powerful. Most of them were dead before the few survivors were even awake, their throats slit or single bullet holes in their heads; if you couldn't see the blood pooled around them you'd have thought they were sleeping. John Cassidy rounded the living up and went looking for the people responsible.

Or, well, person. The Viper was sloppy, alerted someone of his presence and had a bullet in the gut because of it. Now the predator was John's prey, and John had his son and five other raiders with him.

John Cassidy tracked him to a cave, following the blood trail to a dead end. That's when he noticed that only Roman was behind him. The Viper had silently dispatched all but two of the entire raiding party. Making their way back up to the surface, past their old allies' corpses, they found the extremely long barrel of a silenced shotgun in their faces. The Viper had been waiting for them.

Realizing that he was about to die, Roman suddenly attacked his father, choking him to death in front of the surprised Viper. If anyone was going to kill John, it would be Roman. By the time he realized that the Viper was still there, the man had fallen unconscious due to blood loss. Roman patched his wounds while he was out, and by the time the Viper had woken up Roman was gone and so was the Viper's shotgun. The kid returned a day later, informing the Black Viper that he didn't have to worry about the rest of the raiding party- he'd taken care of it.

Roman needed to learn how to rely on himself and the Black Viper was weak, so they began working together. Roman would do all the heavy lifting, the Viper telling what to do and sharing stories of his more successful days. The man was old, tired, not as quiet as he used to be. They both knew it, and it came as no surprise to Roman when the Black Viper offered to teach him now to move and kill without making a sound.

After some time, the Viper healed, begun telling Roman about how it all started. One day, working as the bodyguard of a merchant's caravan, Viper had to take a piss. Had the decency to do it off the road instead of whipping it out in front of his client, but when he came back the unprotected man was standing at the end of a gun held up by a single thug. While he was busy demanding everything of value the trader had, he didn't notice that he was being snuck up behind, and got a snapped neck for his trouble. The thankful merchant jokingly said his bodyguard was like a black viper and that was it. The Viper spent his early days learning how to sneak up on people, used it as a selling point to customers for his bodyguard service. Eventually people started talking like he cared about killing the raiders more than making money, like he was a hero. One day he heard that raiders were starting to travel more carefully in case of a Viper attack and knew he'd done some good in the world. That side of him took over, the man realizing that the myth of a monster-killing-monster scared people into being good, the idea that there was nothing to fear if you hadn't done anything wrong catching fire wherever people talked about the Black Viper. So that's what he did with his life, hurting bad people and leaving a legacy behind. The eye patch was simply part of the man's mystique, and was practically used to keep one eye looking at pitch black so he could remove the patch when going out to dark areas without having to slowly let his eye adjust to the dark. Eventually everything he did and was worked towards building himself a legacy worth remembering.

Roman didn't care for legacies, but the refreshing idea of the raiders being in the wrong and others being innocent started taking him over. It felt good to be good, and being the Viper's apprentice was welcoming opportunities for that feeling every day. People like his mother didn't deserve what they got, but people like his father did, and Roman hoped that one day he'd feel more like his mother than John Cassidy.

So a year goes by, and by that time Roman's gotten better at being the Viper than the Viper himself. So when he's out killing raiders, Viper finds himself a black viper slithering on the ground. Catches it, waits for his apprentice to come back. He thanks the kid for being such a good listener, makes him promise that he won't let people forget about the Viper and lets the snake bite him. So the boy dug a hole right there, killed the snake and set in the old man's dead hands, and buried the Viper... but not his eye patch or shotgun.

So for over a year, longer than he'd even known the Viper, he kept doing what the man did. One day, Roman overheard a discussion about the Viper. People were sharing stories about the Viper's recent activity, and none of them were true. Whatever he did, the myth of the Viper would overshadow him. The original Viper had succeeded in creating a raider's boogeyman, and what Roman had been doing in his name wasn't going to help or hinder it. He realized, then, that he had no legacy to carry for another and no legacy of his own, but still wished for the world to be a better place. Heard word of the Colonies across the Atlantic wanting soldiers, so he made his way there.

And that's the story of the Black Viper, one nobody will ever tell. But maybe, one day, someone will start telling stories of Roman Cassidy. Not stories of what he'll do to you later, not stories of what he's doing anymore, but stories of what he's done for you already.[/hider]
[u]Technical Information[/u]

[b]Career Path:[/b] Grunt
[b]Custom Weapon:[/b] Shotgun
[b][i]Modifications:[/i][/b]
--[i]Mod 1:[/i] Silencer
--[i]Mod 2:[/i] Hi-Tech Scope (Infrared)
[b]Advanced Training:[/b]
--[i]AT 1:[/i] GECKO
--[i]AT 2:[/i] CQC
[b]Inventory:[/b]
[i]--Combat Knife
--Standard Issue Council Pistol
--Shotgun with infared scope and silencer
--Civilian clothing
--Medium armour
--Vlad has Camoflauge
--Medkit
--Radio
--Frag Grenade (2)
--Flashbang (2)
--Dog-tags
--Standard Watch
--Flashlight
[/i]

[b]Signature:[/b] PCSutfin