Rick Rounds

### Mentions

 16 .  29.  48 .  49 .  51 .  61 .  69 .  70 .  80 .  85 .  88 .  94 .  96 .  103 .  115 .  117 .  125 .  132 .

### Status

Alive

**Rick Rounds** is the ex-leader of Fort Freedom, and the current companion of G.C Crane and Tulips.

## Description

Rick is described as a gorgeous blond man, with perfect hair, a bulky body, ragged beard, crooked nose, rough hands and vicious scars on his face that run from one of his eyes to the remains of one of his ears. Rick's eyes were a cool blue, but the one on the side of his face with the scars has clouded over and the other has been gouged out. Rick's left hand was amputated and has since been replaced with a blackened viny tree branch, which while it can resemble a human limb it frequently does not. This appendage has replaced his blood and saliva with an unknown black substance. It can possess thorns and flowers, the latter of which change colours depending on his Rick's mood. The colours they have been are:

* White
* Orange
* Red
* Black with white dots in the centre

His tree appendage has also continued to spread to any location he has received a major injury. Rick speaks with a prominent Southern American accent.

## History

### Early History

Rick has/had a brother, as well as a mother who at some point died (presumably rather gruesomely) and who's rotting corpse (vacant or reanimated unknown) Rick saw again. His father is never mentioned. Rick was living with his mother on the night of Black Rains (because he was a child), and very nearly became one of the Sleepers (thinking it to be the voice of God calling him for the rapture) but was saved by his mother when she tucked him back into bed and told him to go to sleep. At current day he considers this missed opportunity.

When Rick was 16, he - along with a group of other boys including Buck Silver - killed Big Mikey (then referred to as Little Mikey) in a cruel prank taken too far. After physically abusing him and making fun of his relationship with his best friend Abe - referring to him as his 'Boyfriend' - as well as his parents neglecting to teach him how to read, they settled on the topic of his lack of ability to swim. This was when Rick gets the idea of throwing Mikey into a nearby lake. Unsurprising to all except these stupid fictional teenage boys, Mikey proceeds to drown.

At some point Rick became romantically involved with Buck, was attacked by Big Mikey - resulting in his facial scars, took on leadership at the now ironically named Fort Freedom, and started the militia-like group named "Freedom eagles" who kept what is described as a "*violent and chaotic domain*".

### Season 1

Rick starts as the spokesperson of Fort Freedom and leader of the Freedom Eagles. He is a closeted gay man and in a long-term secret relationship with his best friend Buck. Things change one night when he meets Polly, Yaretzi and Mort while out on patrol, after Polly approached him and the Freedom Eagles to attempt to have a diplomatic conversation and Rick attacked them. The trio run away but Rick captures Yaretzi and takes her back to Fort Freedom with him where they put her in a gladiator pit to fight the Frogsticker. Polly saves her but leaves his umbrella behind which Rick collects, the item beginning to foster suspicion in him that there was more to Polly then there seemed. Later that night Polly returns to Fort Freedom and collects his umbrella, revealing to Rick that he is a demon in the process and causing him to fear for his immortal soul before leaving.

In response to this Rick rallies the Freedom Eagles to hunt down the trio, running into Mrs. Wicker on his way out who accuses him of being friends with the devil. They manage to track them down again easily, Rick stabbing Polly in the shoulder before once again stealing his umbrella, but he is perused by Mort. When he attempts to use the umbrella against him it's protection mechanism kicks in and begins to burn Rick's hand, and when he holds it away from him to try and get distance from it, Mort cuts it off. Rick swears his revenge. Rick returns to Fort freedom later, where in the infirmary he is confronted by Buck, who explains to him that people were saying he was obsessed with tracking Polly and didn't want him leading him anymore and were exiling him, Mrs. Wicker replacing him as spokesperson. He also tells him that they were breaking up, which infuriates Rick but Buck stands firm and leaves him.

Sometime after this, Rick (still fantasising about hunting Polly) gets in fear of getting caught in an oncoming rainstorm discovers the overdue cabin, and being forced to swim across the surrounding lake he is attacked by a giant pike. He survives and makes it to the cabin, taking off the bandages around his residual limb to find early signs of black water infection.

### Season 2

Rick wakes up in the Overdue cabin to find Big Mikey outside. Mikey recognises him, and kicks him. Rick tells Mikey that he was sorry for what he' done, and Mikey forgives him. Mikey asks if there were any books in the Overdue cabin, telling Rick how he'd been practicing how to read and that he'd read to Rick until he felt better. Mikey is in the process of reading "*Of the Powers*" to Rick sometime later once Rick had returned to the cabin, and in the state of a fever dream Tiff appears before him. Tiff tells Rick that he'd been infected by a plague that would bend his body and kill him in the process. But if they could come to an agreement that might not happen. Rick mistakes Tiff for an angel, and Tiff tells him that he had a vested interest in seeing Polly die, that he would give him the tools he needed to do this. Rick agrees and accepts soul fife from Tiff before spending the next five days sleeping off his fever.

He leaves the Overdue cabin, one of the new abilities Tiff gave him being soul sight which he follows to The Resting Place Hotel. He meets Barb, who realises that Rick meant to hurt Polly and attempts to trick him in to gambling his soul away. Rick doesn't fall for this, and grabs Barb with his now fully formed arm of briar and threatens to break his neck. Barb mistakes him for another Industry runaway and tries to tell him that he could help him get out, but Rick - having no context for this - demands that Barb tell him where Polly is. Barb confesses that Polly was in New York, and Rick drags Barb out of the Resting place with him, stealing his car.

Rick abandons the car in a clearing, carving a warning should Barb's friend attempt to follow them. They travel on foot until they Find Polly Yaretzi and Mort at the carnival summoned in Episode 70 - Lines. Rick sends Barb to distract Mort, and attacks Yaretzi and Polly, grievously injuring Yaretzi, destroying Polly's new cane before forcing Polly to vorpal the two of them away. Polly delivers them to the ocean, and after swimming to shore Rick sets about beating Polly, stopping when the soul fire Tiff gave him suddenly causes him a great deal of pain and he collapses. Polly explains to him that the soul fire was going to kill him, and offers to take it out, but Rick accuses him of lying and smashes his hand off with a rock. Rick takes Polly to a chapel where he leaves him over night, collecting him again in the morning and dragging him away to an unknown destination. On the way they are jumped by Mort, who fights Rick until Yaretzi also joins them. Together they defeat Rick, who then takes up Polly's offer of removing the soul fire. Polly does, but immediately after Rick is possessed by Tiff, who uses his body to strike a bargain with Polly. After Tiff leaves again, Rick and Polly talk, Polly explaining to him exactly why he was a terrible person, refusing to kill him when Rick asks, and leaving to be with Mort and Yaretzi.

### Season 3

Rick, having crawled into a nearby graveyard in search of water, is attacked by a Sleeper while attempting to drown himself. He fights it off, but it blinds him in his good eye in the process. He is saved by G.C Crane, who he mistakes for the Grim Reaper before he passes out. Rick wakes up again sometime later in an overgrown chapel, which he momentarily believes to be hell. Crane is with him, and while he assumed that they are there to torture him, they insist that he drink - physically forcing him to when he is unable to interpret their ASL.

Several weeks after this, Crane had given Rick the job of cleaning up the graveyard, which he had completed with varying degrees of complaining. He is approached by three men, the leader of which identifying himself as Frank Bosco. Frank tells Rick that they were on territory that belonged to a place called *Liberty City*, and that they didn't want dead things like him and Crane on it. The trio attack Rick, and in fighting back Rick manages to kill one of Frank's unnamed goons - Crane killing the other. While fighting Frank he removes several of his fingers with an axe, and Frank swears revenge before leaving. After this fight Rick and Crane grow platonically closer. A few days later Frank comes back with several more men and set the surrounding forest on fire. Rick and Crane go out to confront them, Crane killing the men from Liberty City while Rick fights Frank again. Frank attacks Rick with an industrial nail gun, doing a great deal of damage to him. Rick notices that the nails were not plated in silver and tells Frank as much before Cranes comes to help him. Frank begs Rick for mercy, but Rick uses Frank's nail gun to kill him anyway, acknowledging that Polly was a better person then him. Rick tells Crane that he was sorry about his forest, suggesting that they might like the Hallowoods.

## Known Abilities

### current abilities

* Rick possesses an arm that is in appearance a tree branch. functionally it is articulate and behaves as a hand or similar limb. This tree arm can grow in size and be manipulated in general shape by Rick, this includes the ability to grow sharp twigs that can pierce flesh. Rick can easily disguise this arm in shape (but not colour or texture) to match his human arm.
* Rick's branch arm sprouts flowers which are colour coordinated to his mood and emotions. He does not seem to have any control over these
* Rick's branch arm has given him an instant heal factor, this extends to functioning as life support and making it so that he does not have to eat anymore.

### Past abilities

Tiff provided Rick with soul fire; this granted him the ability to:

* Summon objects
* Fly
* be invulnerable to attacks from soul fire
* See large concentrations of soul fire from any distance

## Relationships

### Buck Silver

Buck is Ricks childhood best friend and ex-lover. His real name is James but was dubbed 'Buck' by Rick when they were children due to his prominent Bucked teeth, which Buck says Rick had given him. Rick had always been violent towards Buck, and had no quandary with hitting him, even after their relationship became romantic. After their breakup and Rick's exile, Buck expressed deep regret in having aided in kicked him out, feeling he abandoned him. Buck is gradually learning that he didn't owe it to Rick to have to stand by him and take the blunt of his problems.

### Big Mikey

Big Mikey - once known as Little Mikey - was killed by Rick and his friends when they were still children. Since Mikey has been revived and mutated by the Black Rains shortly after his resurrection returning to Fort Freedom and attacking him, giving him the scars of his face. The two are now on good terms after they talked in Episode 53 - Rivers and Mikey read at Rick bed side (or, as close to 'bed side' as possible given Mikey's size) when Rick thought he was dying. Rick is currently planning on returning to The Hallowoods to visit Big Mikey.

### Mrs. Wicker

Mrs. Wicker is the current leader of Fort Freedom, after she orchestrated Rick's removal as spokesperson and exile. she is a notable devout Christian and widow, believing Rick to be an actively malicious man, partially because of her own homophobia, but also because she is aware of alot of the bad things he'd done over the course of his life, including his accidentally killing Big Mikey. Mrs Wicker taught Rick when he was younger, seemingly with a focus on the outdoors.

### Polly

Polly was Ricks greatest enemy and the person he saw him as the major contributor to the way his life has gone downhill. Polly's opinion of Rick is that he was a mistake, calling him cruel, insufferable and accuses him of being a masochist. Rick hunted Polly, smashed his hand off, under the pretence of revenge for his own impromptu amputation - and had kidnaped and tortured him for what is approximated to have been 24hrs. After Polly was rescued by Yaretzi and Mort the two had a conversation where Polly explained to Rick why he was a bad person, before telling him to leave him alone and leaving. Ricks now understands that Polly is a better person then him.

### Tiff

Tiff is Polly's ex-Boss, and now wants him dead. Tiff decided to recruit Rick to do this job for him, likely because Rick is the only character who possess a vendetta against Polly. Tiff took advantage of Rick in a time that he was at his lowest and saw that his pre-existing desires to kill Polly came to fruit through giving him soul fire, knowing that this would in time cause Rick a very painful death. Rick had mistaken Tiff for an angel based off his hatred for Polly and pledged his loyalty, but has since learned of Tiff's ulterior motives, and no longer believes in his cause. Rick was unaware of the technicalities of the contract he signed with Tiff, Tiff using this so that Rick consented to Tiff being able to possess him - it is unknown if this is still applicable.

### Barb

Between episodes 66 and 70 Rick was Barb's captor, Barb being aware that Rick was the person Tiff sent to kill Polly. Barb at first mistook Rick for an agent of the Industry, and offered to help him, but Rick had not context for this and kidnaped Barb as a form of insurance after Barb told him where Polly was. He later released him after Barb lured Mort away from Polly and Yaretzi, at which point Barb helped Mort in rescuing Polly and sacrificed himself to Yaretzi so that she could help fight Rick.

### Yaretzi

Yaretzi hates Rick for everything he'd ever done to Polly and Mort and would gladly see him dead.

### Mort

Mort hates Rick for everything he'd ever done to Polly and Yaretzi and would gladly see him dead.

### G.C. Crane and Tulips

G. C. Crane and Tulips are the only character who seem to get along with Rick with no major complications. The two have formed a strong bond in a short amount of time, Crane becoming a person who Rick can be honest to without fearing judgement or ostracization. Crane's opinion on Rick is more vague, as we have never seen him through their perspective, but they have saved his life on multiple occasions. The two have quickly fallen into a status quo of taking care of one another.

### Frank Bosco

Frank met Rick after Rick started staying with Crane on what Frank considered to be ground that was property of liberty city. He attempted to kill Rick, but instead lost several of his fingers and the lives of the two men he was with. He returned a week later with intent of revenge, setting fire to Crane's forest and attacking Rick with a nail gun, but with help from Crane Rick overpowers Frank. Frank begged Rick for his life, at which point Rick recounted to Frank what Polly had told him in Episode 89 - Terminations, before killing him.

### Mother

Rick has an un-named mother. At some point after the night of black rains she died (her death being implied to have been violent in nature), Rick having seen her corpse and forever had his memory of her re-written to feature her as a mutilated remains rather than a living woman. Not much is known of Rick's mother, though from what has been shown she seems to have had a loving relationship with her son, if one where she was dismissive of his concerns.

### Brother

Rick has an un-named brother who at current has no information on him other than that he was living with Rick and their mother on the night of black rains.

## Trivia

* Rick is noted as being partial to whisky.
* Ricks introduction in Episode 19 - Devils was an intentional Rick Roll by writer William A Wellman.
* Rick is left-handed

## Episode Appearances

### Main Episodes

* Episode 18 - Bones
* Episode 19 - Devils
* Episode 22 - Mountains
* Episode 23 - Sunsets
* Episode 30 - Stones
* Episode 44 - Rains
* Episode 48 - Revelations
* Episode 56 - Thorns
* Episode 62 - Provisions
* Episode 66 - Morals
* Episode 73 - Retributions
* Episode 76 - Lungs
* Episode 82 - Failures
* Episode 83 - Hopes
* Episode 86 - Royalties
* Episode 89 - Terminations
* Episode 96 - Horizons
* Episode 112 - Watchers
* Episode 119 - Winters
* Episode 126 - Recoveries
* Episode 140 - Sacrifices

### Bonus Stories

Rick does not appear in any season 1 bonus stories
* Bonus Story 66 - 'Hostage'
* 73 Bonus Story - 'Double Cross'
Rick does not appeared in any season 3 bonus stories

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 [8] Episode 89 - Terminations
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 [3] Episode 17 - Bogs
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 [1] Episode 19 - Devils
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 [4] Episode 39 - Promises
5. ↑ [5] Episode 62 - Provisions
6. ↑ [6] Episode 83 - Hopes
7. ↑ [7] Episode 66 - Morals
All references taken from the official Hello from the Hallowoods website