ENRICO RODRIGUEZ

Enrico Hugo Rodriguez

GENERAL INFO

NAME: Enrico Hugo Rodriguez
OTHER ALIASES: Rico, Kraken
AGE: 21
BIRTH PLACE: Havana, Cuba
CURRENT LOCATION: X Mansion
GROUP AFFILIATION(S): X-Men
FACE CLAIM: Christian Navarro

POWERS & ABILITIES

Enrico has what appears to be a rather simple mutation in theory: The lower half of his body is cephalopod in nature. Sounds simple right? It’s just like a merman but instead of half fish he is more similar to Ursula the sea witch from the Little Mermaid. Not exactly, in fact if you were to examine the young mans biology you would find it is a hot mess of cephalopod traits across multiple species of squid, octopus, and cuttlefish. In simple language Enrico due to his mutation can breath underwater and on land, camouflage with his surrounding, generate ink, and regenerate limbs. I will tackle those four key aspects of his mutation in the following sections.

Underwater Breathing: Enrico can breathe on land due to his lungs that are nearly indistinguishable from any normal persons, however due to gills located internally allow Enrico to breath underwater in part due to the two syphons (cephalopod syphons) located on his left and right hip. It is also important to note that Enrico’s gills and lower half (the part of his body that is tentacles and squid like) are provided blood that is blue. Enrico’s lower half blood system complete with its own additional heart located in his pelvis that beats separately from the other heart he has in his chest like normal people, his blood is made of copper based hemocyanin, which turns his blood blue. This copper base is more efficient at transporting oxygen than hemoglobin when water temperature is very low and not much oxygen is around. But this system also causes Enrico’s lower half to be extremely sensitive to changes in acidity in water.

Camouflage: Enrico’s lower half has the distinction of already being octopus and squid like in nature, as such his tentacles and beginning at the hips does his skin to feel like that of a cephalopod. As such when he isn’t actively changing its color it is that of a East Pacific Red Octopus: a naturally rich red color. However, due to manipulation chromosphere that are connected to Enrico’s nervous system, his lower half and tentacles can change color instantaneously. Along with changing color, Enrico can also change the texture much like his cephalopod brethren through using papillae on his lower half to make ridges and bumps to better imitate his surroundings.

Generate Ink: Thanks to a ink sac inside Enrico’s half, the young man can produce ink once it is mixed with mucous and ejected from his hip siphons. Unfortunately the ink sac takes time to build up ink after usage. For instance Enrico can only eject ink for a maximum of 5 minutes but after that amount he has to “refuel” so to speak for an hour before he is able to produce any more ink.

Regenerate Limbs: Technically like his cephalopod brethren Enrico could regenerate his tentacles if they were damaged or ripped off. However depending on the damage done the man would most likely pass out from the pain leaving his body subseptible to more injury. Also speaking of limbs Enrico’s two longer arm clubs (arm in cephalopod anatomy term) have suction cups along the length until you get to the tentacle clubs where it is a mixture of hooks and suction cups like this link tolweb.org/accessory/Cephalopod_Hooks?acc_id=1983. The circumference of each sucker on his tentacles and arm clubs are lined with sharp, finely serrated rings of chitin that are sheath able/retractable. Fortunately the hooks are sheath able into the tentacle club to avoid Enrico from impaling himself. It is also thanks due to his lower half being cephalopod in nature that in the same manner that squids, octopus and the like can propel themselves through the water through jetting out water from their siphons the same is true for Enrico which allows him to be fast in the water.

BRIEF HISTORY

Enrico Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba as the fourth child to a wealthy family. Unfortunately for Enrico he was born with his very obvious deformed looking mutation of a lower half being cephalopod in nature. While his mother and maternal and paternal grandmother hid this fact to any outside eyes looking in on their family by keeping Enrico wheelchair bound in their home throughout his childhood. Enrico at times felt trapped by the confines of their home, unable to go to school he was tutored by family the best they could along with hiring a tutor, unable to play outside and discouraged from using his tentacles to move beyond from getting out of bed to the wheelchair. Enrico used books to escape his prison and found a love for losing himself in a good book from his family’s personal library from time to time.

Eventually due to the changing situation in Cuba with the governments ever increasing hold on civilians lives, Enrico’s family at least in their explanation got Enrico shipped to America at age 15 unaccompanied through the secret Operation Peter Pan program under the guise that they wanted their children to not be indoctrinated or taken away due to the communistic governments systems.. however in reality Enrico’s father and mother albeit guilty on her part saw it as a way to rid themselves of the “Enrico problem”. Which is why Enrico would never expect to see his siblings again because they were not sent on planes like he, it was a lie.

However, Enrico believed this lie. It is what kept him from losing his mind in the foster home he was placed in by the Catholic Church as part of the secret Operation Peter Pan program. Enrico had a very hard time adjusting to America culture, especially without his family or creature comforts of his home. Enrico found himself struggling to learn English and couldn’t read the books that he could rarely find in the foster home. Eventually Enrico was aged out of the foster home and pushed into the real world unprepared for it.

Enrico found himself homeless, unable to speak English, and struggling to survive when he met Satyr. Enrico is not ashamed to admit that his friend Satyr saved his life for a variety of reasons. The horned man took pity on Enrico after the met when they both tried to scavenge the same garbage can outside a pizza place in Miami, eventually the two ended up forging a brotherly bond as Satyr taught Enrico more skills in surviving without a home albeit it their was the language barrier between them so it was not always an uphill manner when it came to communication.

The two became like brothers in a way during their time on the road, something Enrico enjoyed very much as he still held hope that his siblings would one day find him. It wasn’t until the pair was found staying at a homeless shelter in New Jersey that they accepted living at safe haven provided by Xavier. Enrico still finds the English lessons tiresome although having Satire around at least at the school has motivated Enrico to put more effort into learning the language of the land and.. it has been going… slowly better. Frankly Enrico is just happy to have a steady warm place to sleep at night at easy access for his wheelchair

ROLEPLAY SAMPLE

Dark brown eyes stared at the blue of the pool. The blue of the chlorine and water was calming in a way to the man who struggled to make sense of the daily conversation attempts Americans tried to make with him in English. But wasn’t Enrico American? He considered the thought while gazing at the water. Certainly his parents wanted him to have a better life in this country and to do so meant becoming American.. didn’t it? And if he became “American” Enrico wondered if he would be losing the only thing he had of home was memories and the values instilled by his upbringing.

It did not take long for the dark green button up shirt to be removed by Enrico. He tossed it to the left of his chair and then carefully removed the blanket wrapped neatly around his “legs”. The blanket was nice and warm, good for cold nights outside but terrible for the water. Besides Enrico thought he would look more ridiculous trying to swim with it, not that he would after all.

Once the Cuban folded the blanket and gently reached down to let it fall to the tiles to the right of his chair. The sound of suckers squishing and sucking to the tiles, Enrico’s at the moment red colored tentacles reached down to touch the smooth tile surrounding the pool. Slowly the young man dragged himself out of the wheelchair and only for the briefest moment was on the tiles before again like a mind of their own. Enrico made his tentacles move outstretched toward the hedge of the pool, sucker on and leisurely pull the brown skin lad toward the edge until he slipped in under the water.

The cool water embraced him in a hug that comforted Rodigruez. Only the sound of the water around him as he sunk below the water until he lower half rested against the bottom of the pool, his red tentacles and two longer tentacles were outstretched around the lad anchoring him to the bottom as he breathed the water. From above it either looked exactly like it was, a mutant with squid like features taking a swim.. or a butterfly that in a moment of peace has blossomed to show its red petals. Enrico knew that he could not stay like this for long as the chlorine in the water would make him sick after a while, however a moment of peace like this even for half an hour wouldn’t hurt.. right?

THE WRITER

NAME: Drew
TIME ZONE: Eastern Standard Time
AGE: 22
PRONOUNS: He Him