Cello Nicholas Ryan Rigor

Depends on which story he's in. He appears in The Underman, The Living Tell Lies, Boss and the Boys, The Eternal Foundation Series, WhitePaws, and Blaze, among others. But he's always been involved in the military, so his role in the story is mainly dependent upon the military's role.

Cello, General Rigor, Blackmouth
To explain that last one slightly, during the war, his arch rival and opposing general spread bad word about him, calling him "Blackmouth" after all the poison and lies he spoke.

Male

38 - 48 through out the various books he's in.

He's attracted to idiots and geniuses both, under different contexts and regardless of gender, making him an interesting mix of sapiosexual and morosexual. He himself is very smart, and enjoys having deep intellectual conversations with similarly intelligent people, and mostly has emotionally shallow relationships with them, built off friendly competition. He prefers to have deeper emotional relationships with people who are noticeably less academic, because he finds them to be more loving, loyal, and emotionally intelligent, despite their potential lack of common sense or ability to land a doctorates degree.
This is lucky for him, because he's one of the very few intelligent people I have as a character. But as for which he'd prefer to marry? He'd marry dumb or big brain if he felt something really click. That only happened once, and...he ruined it.

He never dresses down, either wearing fancy formal clothes, or in his military gear. Military gear as common day wear only comes later on after he establishes a position of high power in the army, but you'll never catch him in a tee-shirt and shorts, that's for sure. His favorite colors of clothing are green or black, with gold accents in the form of embroidery, medals, pins, etc. He has a slightly old-fashioned, over the top sense of style, but can pull it off.

I don't know nor do I care. Average for his height, maybe a little lighter.

5'6"

Soot Black, starting to grey by later books. He actually begins to grey in his mid thirties, due not just to stress, but just a genetic early greying. His mom was almost completely silver by the age forty.

Smoothed back and cut short. I won't say it's gelled, or has too much gel but.... come on, what else do you expect from a guy who values looking neat above his own health and safety.

None

Sky blue

Human

Very pale, difficult to tan. He usually just burns. His family's long time been in America, but once upon a time, they were Irish.

Thin and athletic. He's very physically fit, having been with the army since he was 18. He's largely viewed as very attractive, with a winning smile and bright eyes to compliment his graceful and confident way of carrying himself.

This scar above his eye where an opponent general punched him in the face once, the uncouth beast.
This scar only shows up later in life and therefore in his book appearances. His army was holding a peaceful meeting with the Rebels, and their general, who's hated him personally for years, (and is a...jagged personality), ended up throwing hands and breaking Cello's beautiful face. How dare. As much as it hurt, it hurt his feelings worse.

Gardening, reading, music, writing, playing strategy games. Really, outside the army, he's a very passive man. He prefers to pursue mental enrichment since he already gets enough physical enrichment. Though he's an extrovert at heart, and prefers to recharge alone in his own home.

He will be diagnosed with leukemia when he's 45.
Mentally, he's not diagnosed with APD, because he was never diagnosed with conduct disorder as a child, so we'll never know. There is a lot of speculation, but it's impossible to tell.

Cello is extraverted, if quiet and mild mannered. He's got a powerful presence and can get people to listen to him easily, as when he does talk, he speaks authoritatively and powerfully. He's confident and calm, constantly collected.
It's not just an eternal show, either, he's internally very sure of himself, and is constantly watching other people, being aware of their phrasing, body language, and his own phrasing and body language. Along that vein, he's really freaking manipulative. He'll do it "for their own good," and genuinely doesn't see himself as doing anything wrong. "What would you have me do, let them destroy themselves?" Some one has to guide them on their paths, and all that. He never stopped to consider that people are meant to make their own mistakes. He generally considers himself to be inherently better than other people, and only trusts himself to get any given job done correctly. He doesn't feel like there's any good or evil, there's only actions. He's constantly manipulating people towards some goal of his. He'll have a picture of how things should be, and just start making it happen. This has led to him mostly having devout followers who have no idea what he's doing, but there are a select few who have seen through his complex web of lies and manipulation, and hate him for it.
He rarely holds grudges, and is very forgiving of others, going out of his way to assure them he's not mad if they wrong him. He's smart and quick witted, most often having the perfect response to any situation. He's almost fearless, and really doesn't care what others think of him, which is one of the reasons he's found to be very likable by the general populace. He can be a very comforting voice of reason to listen to, making strong points and calm arguments in the face of crisis and panic. There's hardly an occasion where this man isn't pulling a vast web of strings behind the scenes. If he's mentioned even briefly in a book, he likely has a much larger part to play than you might ever realize. He orchestrates people and events at a 3D chess level, and it would be silly to ever think that something is not going the way he planned it no matter how much it may seem that way. In book cannon, there are only two such events, and both were things so vastly out of his control, he would have needed to be a future reader to plan for them, or find a way around them.
However, he's the mastermind behind many book's plots, from Dakota's story to tales of Boss and his cohort. Most of the driving plot happenings are caused by him, though even he doesn't always see the ripples his plans cause. For example, he had no idea that he was probably behind Dakota's parent's deaths until after the fact. He wasn't really all that sorry.
He joined the army at age 18, and his entire family's been involved with the army for generations, all the way back to WW1. He never even considered another career path, since this was all he was ever raised with. With his calm and commanding air, he rapidly rose through the ranks, handling each new responsibility with grace and ease. He's able to talk his way into and out of about any situation, which is another contributing factor to his rapid rise to power.

Speaking, motivating, getting people on his side, poetry, writing short-stories, time-management, organization, etc. He's good at listening to others, and is a common voice of solution for people's problems. He's an apt gardener, and has a LOT of plants in his home. He takes exceptional care of them. He's great at being sympathetic, and cares deeply for those close to him, or at least appears to. Depends on who you ask. He presents as compassionate and kind, and you'd be hard pressed to prove that he's not. He'd make a great actor, and had he not gone into the military, could have had a very successful career there. He's bilingual, speaking English and Spanish both very fluently.

He's got this idea that he's better than everyone else, and therefore more fit to undertake tasks than anyone else. He's reluctant to delegate, prefering to do as much as he can himself.

He's controlling, not good around animals, thinks he knows best, and therefore believes he should be in charge, as everything would be better if he were. Ergo, he's quite power hungry and egotistical. Important note: he's not narcissistic. Just full of himself. He's terrible at empathy, and genuinely doesn't understand how to comprehend another person's pain, a fact he's readily open about. Not sure this is really a flaw on his end, but I don't know where else to put it, so: He's never seen clearly by those around him. Everyone has a bias about him, be it that he's the worst human ever, or that he's the best. No one seems to view him without prejudice, which hints that he never shows who he truly is to anyone. He's always putting up some mask or another, whichever will serve him best at any given moment. He genuinely doesn't care what others think of him, and will do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
That being said, he's a sad, lonely person deep down. Since he's oblivious to the fact that he's anything but perfect, he can't understand why his closest friends inevitably leave him behind. He cares very deeply for those he's closest to, and once he decides to love someone, he throws his entire heart into them, but in doing so, he often pushes the away as they start to realize all they've ever seen of him is a mask.
Also, this man can't fold a paper airplane to save his life. He's given up trying because he doesn't want to embarass himself further.

Mostly achieving his goals, for hiself of for others. If he sees a way something could be made better, or a way to protect others from falling into a pit, he'll do it, whether or not the other people want him to.

He tends to look away from someone or something when he's thinking especially hard, talks very clearly, never slurs his speech. He's got a very fluid and languid method of movement, making him look relaxed and calm constantly. He uses bigger words, not to look smart, but because he is smart. He'll meet your gaze openly, and always has a friendly smile to offer. If you know him for longer than two days, he will wink at you or flirt with you. Not in a creepy way, in a more fun way. if he has a pen he's playing with it, clicking it open and closed, doodling, ect. he'll do the same with a pencil, and if he's uninterested in a line of conversation, he'll start fiddling with something or another.

Drink: Coffee, dark

His plants and books

His own words. Though being with the military, he's pretty good at most modern weaponry.

He doesn't really like animals, but there are a lot of bees and butterflies in his garde, so he likes them.

He's had a lot within the military, so I'll keep it simple with that. Just from the bottom up.

Tanner Daniel
Payton Hayes
(Both later in life)
Scott Draft
Ella Draft
Bridger Whitehart
LaCu
(Earlier in life)

He was raised Catholic Christian, and remains, but isn't the most devout, spending his time on other things, et passively attending church on Sundays.

Exes:
Reason Denaley. Childhood friends turned lovers turned enemies. Reason realized what an a-hole Cello really was, and was like nope, I'm out. He's also a creer military man, and is the general for the American Rebels, later in the story.

He's non-partisan, and VERY patriotic. It's hard to tell if he loves much of anything genuinely, but few would argue that he doesn't love his country. He's very frustrated by the fractured state of politics, firmly believing that both and all sides have valid points, and that polarizing will do nothing but cause more problems. Who knew he'd be quite so right.

Military

He enjoys many colors, and would refuse a favorite if told to choose. As long as they aren't garish, he likes them

(This is gonna be a little different then how most of my characters backgrounds are written, simply because of the extent of Cello's sway over the entire fifteen books plot lines. Less detail, more events, less focus on his personal feelings and thoughts, more on his actions and end goals.)
Cello was born in Canada, but his family was there with the military at the time. Two years later, they moved back to their home in Missouri, where he spent most of his life. He's the youngest of his family, with two older sisters named Rhythm and Cadence. His family was, clearly, very musically oriented, and he was taught many domestic skills from his birth to the age of 15. He was homeschooled, and learned sewing, gardening, music, and other such practical and intellectual skills. His family was a stern sort, with standards and expectations. He and his siblings were expected to demonstrate thorough understanding of their subjects, beyond any testing. Philosophy and psychology were two very important subjects introduced to him at a young age. He was reading Jane Austen by the time he was ten, and the majority of the books in the household were very high-level reading. Despite being firmly in the millennial generation, he had quite limited access to the internet, smart-phones, ect. This was frustrating for him as a teen trying to fit in with his friends, but later in life he would say he thought it was the best thing his parents could have done for him.
He met Reason when they were both twelve, at a cross-town church gathering, celebrating Christmas. The two hit it off immediately, despite Cello's friendly nature's contrast to Reason's clipped, brusque nature. This was six months before Reason ran away from his family, and started living on the streets in Cello's town. The two would often hang out together, and they joined the army together as well. They began dating when they were both twenty, and all was awesome until two years later as Cello began to reveal more and more how much he was manipulating the people around him to get what he wanted, a behaviour he modeled off both his father and mother, who had used the same tactics to rise through the military. Reason broke their relationship off, after realizing how Cello was manipulating him as well. He requested to be moved to another area of the army, and that was the last they saw of each other for quite a while.
Cello was devastated by the blow, as this was the first time anyone had even brought to his mind the idea that maybe tricking other people to get what you want isn't a good life strategy. He went through a period of anger where he did his best to get revenge on Reason by somehow ousting him from the army, but after that failed, due to Reason's strong reputation, he put the matter aside and focused in on his own goals.
It was here he met Scott, Ella, Bridger and LaCu, and the story-line of The Underman took place, where he helped them defeat the Underman. After that, he carried on with his military pursuits, rising rank by rank, eyes set on one of the top chain of command positions. He was assigned to the Blaze case, trying to track down and contain Roxanne Venne before she broke something, in the story-line of Blaze. Similarly, he was placed in charge of finding and containing the WhitePaws subject, during the WhitePaws story-line, as he had proven to be exceptionally good at these kinds of cases. He headed the fight against the government's slow collapse, and it was his idea to start kidnapping rich Americans and ransoming them to their families as a way to bring in much-needed funding to the heavily indebted America (Weapon Twenty-Four, Books 1-2). (the political climate I won't even BEGIN to get into here, bc complicated af) He was able to push this idea through because of the current levels of corruption within the government, and was able to siphon the money into the actual places it was needed, instead of letting get into the pockets of the rich.
He was finally promoted to general after the government's collapse (Weapon Twenty-Four Book 3), and was placed in charge of the American Army (AA) as they warred against the American Rebels, (AR), which was headed by Reason. The two meet again, and not on happy terms. Cello tried a few times to mend things between them, but got punched in the face for his troubles. They were forever rivals, Reason refusing even the slightest attempt at friendliness, and the two pitted their forces against each other for territory and resources.
Finally, six errant teenagers were drafted into the war, and they were like aw HELL naw. These pacifistic chronic idiots managed to single handedly break the American Army and halt the war during the Boss and the Boys story-line, and Cello threw in the towel, retiring from the military and becoming Uninvolved (The faction of Americans who refused to take sides with the AA or the AR).
He lived like this for a few months before he was approached by Tanner Daniel and Peyton Hayes, who offered him a place on the directorial board of the newly formed Eternal Foundation, here to fix America's problems for real. He agreed, and stepped up to fill that role during the Eternal Foundation timeline (Books 1-5) (this catches up to current timeline.)

Unknown yet.

Hard to say, as he's unconventionally homeschooled. He never went to college, but possesses the same level of knowledge in some areas.

Mother: Carol Rigor
Father: Declan Rigor
Sisters: Rhythm and Cadence Rigor
Brothers: One older brother who would have been named Cello had not he died during birth

None

Theme songs:
Battle Royale - Apashe x Panther
R U AFRAID - HVDES
Golden Empire - Apashe x Zitaa
I'm So Humble - The Lonely Island
You're Welcome - Moana <--I mean, really this one and I'm so humble say it all...
Wonderland - Caravan Palace. Actually, most of their stuff fis him in one way or another.
Landslide - Oh Wonder

Hogwarts House: Toss up between slytherin, for obvious reasons, and Ravenclaw, because this man intellegate.
Sorting hat would let him choose, and depending on the political climate in the Hogwarts-verse, he'd go wherever he saw the most opportunity.

Element he'd bend: He'd be a water bender: patient, quiet, but unstoppable. His modus operandi is 'pull the strings from behind the scenes.' People don't suspect him, like they wouldn't an innocent river, until suddenly, that river's the Grand Canyon, and they never noticed the erosion.

He loves to talk about the greater good, and urge other people to make good choices.

This man is allergic to white potatoes. If you ever wanna poison him, well, just sneak a french fry or two into his meal. He always feels really sick after eating them.

He legitimately cannot fathom why manipulating people is such a bad thing. He sees it as a way to keep others (lessers) safe from themselves and each other. He gets very upset when people claim he's doing something bad, and considers himself to be very altruistic. He's not trying to be a bad person at all, he just has very, VERY skewed ideas, and doesn't even know it, because his whole life he's been hailed as brilliant and flawless.

His mother and father were very stern and hard on him and his siblings, but never actually delivered severe consequences, just enough to make Cello and his sisters not just strive for, but entirely believe in their own perfection. Every mistake they ever made was mt with a "You can do better. Do better," and so they became skilled at not only hiding their flaws and failures, but constantly analyzing their own actions from a "what needs to be improved before I act" mindset. This made for perfect 'golden child' military situations, where they were favored not only because of their parentage, but also because they presented as 'perfect' at all times.

Cello's the baby of his family. His parents had him a decade after they'd had Rhythm and Cadence, who are twins. By the time he shows up in any of the stories, his sisters are retired, and his parents have both passed away.

Here's a glance at his senior year homeschool subjects:
- Biology - Microbiology
- Abnormal psychology
- Developmental psychology: A Closer Look
- Spanish Advanced
- Arabic 1
- Music theory - composition 10
- Business management - legal and ethical dilemmas
- World History (a d e t a i l e d course that started as soon as he was old enough to hold a pencil, and only just brought him to the modern day the year of his 'graduation.')
- Poetry
- War theory
- Politics
- American history
- Natural history - special discovery
- Climate change

Picture something like this for all his years at 'school.'

He never officially graduated. Even now, he takes it upon himself to continue to expand his knowledge.

He did NOT get into the "Ugly Blanket Fever" that gripped the nation in '23

His family's always had a very close relationship to classical music, especially compositions that follow the style of pieces like Claire de Lune.

While Reason straight up hates his guts, Cello still very much admires an cares for his ex. He'll probably never stop trying to get back in Reason's good books, and with each attempt, he will only push Reason further away.

He's got MANY levels to his manipulation, sometimes going out of his way to ensure a person hates him all for the reasons of manipulating them further.

I feel like I've said 'manipulating' a lot, but I can't think of any synonyms right now, so sorry.

As a teen, before the army, he had a rebellious stage, (like many teens do), where he became sick of being so different from his other friends, and ran away from home to live with Reason on the streets for about three days. Then he got cold and went home, Reason's mocking laughter ringing in his ears.

He feels like his life has a very set, linear path. He's always wanted to join the army, always had the goals of reaching the top. Life threw a wrench in his works though, after Boss and his unruly friends completely brought a halt to the war and all it's to-dos, single handedly. He felt a little lost for a time after that, since his best attempts to get the boys on his side were easily thwarted by their raw levels of idiocy. However, after Tanner approached him about the Eternal Foundation, he livened right back up.

He's a softie. Not a tough man. He'll do what he has to do, but he's a lot happier in comfy-town