Xavier Institute Application
- CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Rico
CODENAME: Rico De Luca
SERIES/SOURCE: Gunslinger Girl
AGE: 13
GENDER: female
OCCUPATION: student/cyborg assassin and spy for Italy
BACKGROUND: Rico was born in Italy with severe birth defects, her arms and legs so severely deformed she was confined to a hospital room, unable to so much as feed herself on her own, let alone walk around. Her parents argued over her condition and what to do about her until she was eleven, when they finally turned her over to the Social Welfare Agency.
The public view of the SWA is that of an organization that helps disabled children to work toward becoming productive members of society. Its actual purpose, however, is to create battle cyborgs out of young children turned over to them for various reasons. Each girl is given a new, powerful body and conditioned (brainwashed) into a combat doll. They are then assigned to a handler in a Fratello (which means "brothers") group to take missions.
Rico was assigned to Jean, a strict man on a mission of vengeance against the man who killed his family and fiance. He treated Rico like a tool, conditioning her more than any other cyborg despite the conditioning shortening the life of the cyborg and making them less and less human in their behavior. Still, because of the conditioning and her gratitude toward the SWA for giving her a working body, she loved Jean and her new life, and always sought to please him.
Rico is one of the few cyborgs who remember anything of their old lives--remembering her old life and how much she hated being trapped forever in a hospital room makes her enjoy her current life even more, and she always, when waking up, checks to make sure her body is working.
When the Xavier Institute became well-known, and all the controversy surrounding it, the Italian government was quick to want to send in spies, to make sure the US was not training up an army of mutants. And so they decided to send in three of their cyborg girls--their enhanced abilities easy to disguise as mutant powers--to check out the institute and give reports back.
PERSONALITY: Rico is a happy girl--she enjoys every bit of her life, as she has spent so much of it previously in a hospital bed. Many things are new to her, and even routine things she does with the joy of someone who wasn't able to do even simple things before. From doing laundry with the other girls to killing a target for Jean, she is willing to do everything and wants to try it all. She is shy, however, uncertain in social situations and often finds herself wondering how to properly respond to those who speak to her.
Rico is the most conditioned of any of the cyborg girls--this means when in a fight her personality changes quite a bit. She is serious and to the point, allowing nothing to get between her and her goal. She will take orders without hesitation and will kill without so much as blinking. She wants nothing more than to please Jean, so she follows his instructions to the letter, even if it involves killing someone she's fond of.
Aside from knowing just about everything there is to know about guns and fighting, she's a bit naive outside of that one subject. Her handler treats her as a weapon, so she does not get presents like some of the other girls, or get to go on many vacations. She doesn't mind this, and occasionally uses things Henrietta, her roommate, has received, but it means when she does get to see something new she devours it as best she can, taking in everything.
Rico is very loyal to those she gets it in her head to protect, especially her handler or anyone he tells her to defend. She can withstand bullets (except for the weakness of her eye sockets), move quickly, and her body can be repaired, so she can be a dangerous enemy. She also can play a bit of violin, although not as well as Henrietta.
Around strangers Rico may seem shy and mechanical, as she is one of the least human of the girls. She acts much like a weapon because that is how Jean treats her, and so she doesn't know how to deal with social situations where she's not following orders or killing someone. She's a sweet, innocent girl at heart, but it's hard to break through her shell of training and social awkwardness.
Rico's personality is perhaps the most paradoxical of the cyborgs: while unlike the others she remembers her past life, her handler, Jean, has put her through more conditioning than any other. Her happy-go-lucky attitude is the result of her past life: her previous experiences make her happy to just have a working body and make her willing to put up with just about anything. More than that, her lack
of experiences before mean she wants to see everything, and so many things are new to her her enthusiasm can be contagious. Her serious, straightforward mission nature is conditioned into her to the point it's just as much of her personality as anything else: the brainwashing in the cyborgs is so complete they talk of their brainwashing as if it's perfectly normal. Rico is aware she's been conditioned to love Jean and obey him, but this seems normal to her.
APPEARANCE: Rico looks like a normal girl--maybe a bit young looking for her age, but not considerably so. She has blond hair, kept fairly short, and blue eyes.
POWERS: As a cyborg, Rico has durability enough to withstand most attacks and bullets (but her eyes are her weak point) and super strength. She will be pretending to simply have super durability, though.