Simon "Ghost" Riley

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TW: Human experimentation, imprisonment, death, murder, institutional negligence, emotional neglect, near-death experience, graphic depictions of torture, burning alive, live burial, gore, desecration of a recently deceased person

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## Identity

### Aliases

Ghost (Root alias); Simon Riley (civilian alias)

## Physical

### Fashion

Ghost keeps his sense of style tactical and dark. While on the job, he will wear a black hooded cloak over a dark coordination of tactical gear, with a padded bulletproof vest and heavy combat boots. He keeps his hands covered at all times with a pair of skeletal-print leather gloves, and a mask on at all times to cover his face. His default mask has a 3D plate over a balaclava, but he may also wear a simple skull-print balaclava without the plate on his "off" days.

### Other

Greyscale tattoo sleeve on left arm covered in skulls, axes, rifles, scythes, and smoke; tattoo of tree roots on his left bicep (blended in with tattoo sleeve design to be inconspicuous); various scars littering all over his body, ranging in depth, shape, and size; massive burn scars across the right side of his body covering his arm, torso, back, hip, and thigh; puncture wounds on left side of his ribcage.

## Biographical

### Occupation

Specialized agent at Root (full-time) / mechanic at Ignition Auto (part-time)

## Personality

### Traits

Quiet, reserved, cold, blunt, pragmatic, methodical, sticks to his guns, enduring, analytical, nerves of steel, unaffected, brutal, ruthless, self-serving, disciplined, flat-affect

### Likes

Hot tea, Kentucky bourbon, dogs, nighttime, solitude, silence, order, leather, dry humor, working alone, dad jokes, tattoos, people-watching from afar, learning human behavior, reading, exercising, collecting knives, schedules

### Dislikes

Lack of structure, wasting time, vagueness, half-baked ideas, messy emotions, invasion of personal space, lack of privacy, incompetence, feeling betrayed, when people go back on their word, frivolous socializing, horror, tequila, holiday season

### Strengths

Strong-willed, dutiful, responsible, practical, jack-of-all-trades, resourceful, productive, consistent, reliable, skilled, persistent, cautious, tenacious, logical

### Weaknesses

Stubborn, insensitive, always by the book, judgmental, narrow-minded, rigid, vengeful, prone to grudges, over-possessive, resistant to change, indulgent, selfish, short-tempered, violent

### Astrology

Taurus (Western); Ox (Eastern)

> *"So you're tellin' me you see that big boy with the skullface and you're not gonna start sweatin'?"*
>
>
> *"I'm not gonna see him--"*
>
>
> *"You're right, you won't see him. It's too late if you see him. You're fuckin' dead already."*
>
>
>
> *-- Shadow Company about Ghost*
>
>

## Canon Status

### Trivia

* From Call of Duty.
* There is not a lot that Ghost remembers from his previous life. He does not recall his family or the abuse he endured as a child, nor does he remember the sequence of events that transpired during his time in the military. The scars on his body mirror the same ones he received in his past, yet he has no idea where they come from; he can only assume they were given to him by the SRI during his time in the labs. The only vague recollections he have are the faces of his former teammates, as they frequently haunt him during times of extended solitude. Yet even to this day, he cannot recall their names.
* Ghost has no dormant abilities or powers due to the fact that he was human in his past life.
* It is hoped that he'll come across a set of military dog tags confirming his real birth name and a photograph of Task Force 141.

### How is Ghost different than canon?

For starters, Ghost is no longer human. He has no recollection of ever being human, though he knows he must have been alive at one point in order to become what he is. Long gone are the decades of military training and service he fulfilled during his time in the British Special Air Service and in Task Force 141, too. Thanks to the SRI, their leading technology in underground experimentation, and their extensive Root Prep program, Ghost can be easily considered a born-and-bred super-soldier.

His mask and alias no longer shield his identity. They ARE his identity.

### Player Desired Canons

I would love to see other members of Task Force 141 reimagined into the OAverse, namely these three:

* John "Soap" MacTavish
* Kyle "Gaz" Garrick
* John Price

It would be cool if some (or all) of them were in Root together or part of the SRI in general, though I would also be interested to see if they would lead completely different lives outside of those subplots as well. I would be looking for something strictly platonic, like a "found family" or "brothers-in-arms" type dynamic.

## Subplot Status: Root

* Ghost does not have a birthname. He was given the Specimen ID #SRI-923-207.
* Ghost was reincarnated, born, and raised for the sole purpose of becoming an agent of Root. He knows no other life outside of this.
* He is an expert in clandestine tradecraft, focused on sabotage, ambushes, and infiltrations into denied areas and hazardous environments. He can go where most others can't, and he can finish the job silently and without detection.
* Root tattoo on his left bicep.
* Ghost has no desire to escape from Root.
* Current mission: monitoring activity in Downtown Cedargrove.

## Supernatural Status

* Ghost is a Wraith (formerly human).
* Turned into a Wraith in this life rather than born.
* Ghost resides in the Restricted district of Cedargrove out of necessity for his occupation. He does not feel strongly about it one way or the other.
* He is not known to be connected to any Legends.

### Abilities

**Wraith Physiology** - The condition of being a wraith, a malevolent spirit that drains the life energy of other creatures in order to sustain their existence. In most legends, wraiths appear as shadowy forms wrapped in robes or cloaks, or simply vague shadows, but this isn't always the case (especially in Ghost's case). A wraith is considered immortal, with the ability to never age and the capability to survive virtually any kind of harm, including dehydration and starvation.

**Spiritual Nonexistence** - As a wraith, Ghost possesses no spiritual tether to the world, essentially rendering him soulless. As such, this means he cannot be influenced by powers such as soul manipulation or necromancy, nor can he be forced to move on to the afterlife.

**Necroplasma** - The ability to create, shape, and manipulate necroplasma (otherwise known as ectoplasm), understood as a variable-state form of matter-energy coming from planes beyond the physical. Its form can range from raw seething energy, a misty vapor, a viscous gelatin, a bundle of fine threads, a living membrane or a fine, fabric-like tissue, that can also be solidified and used for material purposes. Because of his malevolent nature, this necroplasma manifests in a black color.

**Fear Inducement** - The ability to evoke and enhance feelings of fear and horror in others, causing the target's brain to release fear-inducing chemicals. The target's perception may be temporarily altered, causing them to see their environment as ominous and the user as dark and foreboding, or even as a monster.

**Insanity Inducement** - The ability to cause madness in a person or a group of people, regardless of their mental health or condition. The effects of this ability can manifest differently between victims, which can appear as the victims losing touch with reality, becoming delusional, losing control over themselves, paranoid, catatonic, or hostile.

**Spectral Form** - The ability to enter a form made for incursion, evasion and infiltration by becoming invisible and intangible.

**Life-Force Absorption** - The ability to absorb the life-force, energy, vitality and/or health of another being while removing it from the source and using it as a form of sustenance. Draining from another person through quick contact often has a temporary effect, such as dizziness or fatigue. However, extended draining may result in longer-term or permanent effects on the target, such as rapid aging, withering, or even death.

**Dream Walking** - The ability to enter the dreams of others, including daydreams (should they be strong enough). With this ability, he is also able to observe the course of a dream and communicate with a subject inside of their dream.

**Oneiric Slaying** - The ability to kill targets through their dreams, with any damage he inflicts in a dream crossing over into the real world.

**Possession** - The ability to temporarily inhabit and take over the body of other beings, whether sentient or not, by stealing their motor functions and senses. Because Ghost is a wraith without a flesh-and-blood body, he can use another person's body as his own. The success of this technique varies on the willpower of the affected and the strength of their soul's connection to their body.

**Bodily Reconstruction** - The ability to reform upon breaking down of the body, completely restoring his body to its former state and reconstructing every piece of his body that was out of place. Similar to a regenerative healing factor.

**Psionics** - Ghost possesses a multitude of baseline psychic abilities, such as levitation, telekinesis, telepathy, and extrasensory perception.

**Teleportation** - The power to instantaneously move from one location to another without physically occupying the space in between. Often used either for travel or for offense.

### Weakness

Because his necroplasma is born from malevolent energy, overusing it can slowly poison his mind and cloud his judgment. If unchecked, Ghost runs the risk of becoming more cold-blooded and violent under its influence. The only way this can be subdued is through the absorption of life-force.

Abilities such as fear inducement, insanity inducement, dream walking, and possession can be minimized or negated by those with powerful psychic shielding.

### Supernatural Form(s)

When utilizing his necroplasma, Ghost takes on an eerier appearance. The whites of his eyes turn black, while his pupils take on a bright red glow in low-light environments. In addition, his body begins to leak with thick wisps of black vapor, starting at his fingers and working up his hands.

### Weapons

A handheld scythe imbued with binding properties to help pin a target (especially a target that is more elusive or difficult to handle). Once the scythe comes in contact with a person's blood, it paralyzes them for up to one minute. Once that minute is up, the binding is released, but it can be reapplied once the scythe comes in contact with fresher blood after a 30-second cooldown.

A pair of skeletal-print leather gloves lined with necroplasmic suppressant material. He wears them at all times when not on a mission, as his necroplasma manifests within his hands first.

## Background

### History

Between the 1980s and the early 2010s, an SRI-controlled laboratory conducted extensive research on a controversial, classified project dubbed internally as "Initiative 23." The purpose of Initiative 23 was twofold: one, to test and see if the malevolent spirits known as wraiths could be created by artificial means in a controlled environment, and two, to see if these man-made wraiths could be repurposed and groomed into assassins and super-soldiers. Through the duration of this project, a number of hypotheses were tested on a variety of subjects based on different origins and folklore surrounding wraiths, each with varying levels of success. One such hypothesis Initiative 23 focused on was that a certain kind of wraith was created when a human soul is at the verge of death. As such, in order to simulate a natural environment and trigger this turning point, many test subjects were forced to endure numerous near-death experiences once they had reached optimal condition in life.

There was no official number of casualties recorded as a result of this project. Countless subjects did not survive the tests given to them during the first few years of the initiative's inception, either because their bodies were not equipped to handle such tests or the researchers at the helm pushed them too far outside of the brink. (Gross negligence was to blame.) Due to a high loss of test subjects collected for the project, researchers associated with Initiative 23 ultimately made the decision to artificially create batches of specimens through harvested human sperm and egg cells so that the surrounding population would not be impacted.

Thus, Specimen #SRI-923-207 was "born."

He was a clean slate, an untouched piece of clay to be molded and shaped by the SRI. No name, no personal connections, no sense of identity. This specimen was raised through the program just as many others were: in a sterile environment void of emotional enrichment and proper socialization. Much of the knowledge he was fed prior to turning was in preparation for his enrollment in Root, and as such, his formative years were not only consumed by physical and mental conditioning, but by honing skills such as hand-to-hand combat, weapon-handling, and stealth.

In addition, in order to prepare his soul for his inevitable turning, Specimen #SRI-923-207 was subjected to countless, life-threatening situations at random intervals much like many other specimens within the Initiative. Such scenarios were often primitive and cruel forms of torture, from pouring gasoline on his body and setting it alight to hanging him by his ribs from meat hooks. However, when his body showed resilience and his mind remained intact throughout these so-called preliminary tests, he was deemed ready for the final test.

On January 23, 2011, at 3:00am local time, Specimen #SRI-923-207 was locked inside a casket half-full of Lost Cove's toxic waters, then covered by soil in a simulated burial.

By 9:30am local time, the specimen re-emerged from the earth as a fully-formed wraith, digging himself out with the broken, bloody jawbone of his own corpse.

After nearly thirty years of research, experimentation, and casualties, Initiative 23 was promptly discontinued due to budget cuts within the SRI. Since then, Specimen #SRI-923-207 has been turned over to Root, where he has been given an alias, a mask, a tattoo, a fake identity, and a purpose. The specimen — now regarded as Ghost — is known as one of very few successes to come out of the Initiative... and one of the deadliest.

### Motivations and Goals

To protect the Secret from society at all costs, by any means necessary. This is his only motivation as of yet.

## Living Situation

### Home

    Ghost resides within the apartment-style group housing building dedicated to Root and SRI employees within the Restricted district of Cedargrove. He lives in a standalone, studio-style unit within the building — not because he *wishes* to live alone, necessarily, but because it is typically advised that he *should* live alone. The space is about as roomy as a shoebox, with one bathroom, one closet, a washer/dryer hookup, a kitchenette, and a combined living/dining/bedroom. Many of the appliances and amenities within the unit are outdated, and some of them barely work. The light above the kitchenette flickers no matter how many times the bulbs are changed, and the built-in microwave has a broken handle and cracked frame. A hot shower typically lasts about three minutes, if he's lucky.

Aside from the basic furniture provided upon move-in, there is no semblance of personality or color within the space. The only things somewhat distinctive to him are the additions of a bookshelf, a laptop, and an electric kettle used to make hot water for tea.

### Never Leaves Home Without

His gloves, a skull-print balaclava mask (even when it's not required, he keeps one in the storage compartment of his motorcycle in a pinch).

### Travel

By foot, motorcycle, or teleportation. His motorcycle is a 2022 BMW F 900 XR in Triple Black.

## Plotting

### Desired Ships/Plots

Always looking for antagonistic relationships, of course, such as adversaries, targets, and rivals. Platonic relationships are the bee's knees, too, though Ghost will be VERY slow to warm up as he does not socialize well. Potential romance could be a possibility, but is based on chemistry only (and pure luck 'cause uh... ur gon need it).

### Where to Encounter Ghost

Only characters who are in the SRI and Root will see Ghost for who he really is inside of the Restricted district. Otherwise, he poses as "Simon" at Ignition Auto within Downtown Cedargrove as a cover.

### No-Go's for RP

No past lovers or anything like that. He don't got a romantical bone in his body.