MCCAULEY, Riggins Joseph

[riggins joseph mccauley]

RIGGINS JOSEPH MCCAULEY

FULL NAME: Riggins Joseph McCauley.
NICKNAMES: RJ
AGE: 25
GENDER: Male
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Student.
GRADE: Senior.
MAJOR: Architecture.
JOB OCCUPATION: Starbucks Barista.

HAIR: Brown, and on the longer side of short. He likes it that way because it can be styled into something or left to do as it pleases if he’s running late or not arsed one day. Usually, whatever he does, it looks a mess come 4pm.
EYES: Green.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: If any are left they’re from being a clumsy kid.
TATTOOS: None – he’s afraid of the pain and commitment to something so permanent on his skin.
PIERCINGS: None.
PLAY-BY: Hugh Skinner!

LIKES: vintage stores, flea markets, games on his phone, odd socks, sharp pencils, milk, filtered water, chewing ice, cleaning when he needs to think, spending time with his mum, flapjacks, music from the fifties and sixties, Germany, museums and art galleries, oatmeal, Christmas, winter décor, chocolate spread when he’s stressed, the library.
DISLIKES: Blood and gore, leaving voicemails, coffee, wearing jewellery, exams, horror movies with lots of gore, cats, being one mark/answer/prize away from perfect, big gaudy jewellery, his mum being sad, hand lotion, having a lot of loose change in his pocket, leaving things until the last minute (but he does it all the time), scratched discs/vinyls/anything.
FEARS: Losing his mum, Parkinson’s disease, complete silence.
SECRETS: He kind of ended up making out with Sophia, his mother’s primary nurse. It was one late night when they were chatting and just hanging around. She kissed him, and things were just about to get out of hand when his mum pressed the button for attention. Nothing happened after that, but he still thinks about why it happened and what it could have turned into.
PERSONALITY: Riggins is a caring man, the type to emphasise with all of those around him as best as he can. He’s a loyal friend, perhaps naively so sometimes. He’s smart and loves to educate himself further, but he lacks a sense of knowledge about people. He’s optimistic and sees the good in everyone, even if it’s false or isn’t really much to praise. Riggins is genuine when he thinks that everyone can be a better person. He has been called goofy and dorky over the years, and honestly, he is very much okay with that. He likes being memorable even if it’s for bad karaoke or juggling the apples in the school cafeteria. Riggins can be the victim to his own anxiety at times, especially when it comes to confrontation or speaking in public. He’s a peaceful kind of guy, and while he often feels like he might just collapse on the spot when he has to speak up for something or someone, he can do it rather eloquently (which doesn’t always prove fruitful). When it comes to love, Riggins has a habit of falling for the women he shouldn’t really go for. He’s had the crush on the school teacher, almost fell into bed with his mother’s nurse, and fancied the pants off their old next door neighbour who was recently married. Maybe it’s the thrill of twisting the rules he often follows so well, or maybe they just understand him better than other girls. Still, his flirtation isn’t the strongest, but he’s sweet and thoughtful and the type of guy who could make a woman’s romantic dream come true. He would just have to find one that’s available first and who won’t potentially ruin his life.

MOTHER: Phoebe Amelia McCauley, 46.
FATHER: Levi Nathan Wilkes, 50.
SIBLINGS: None.
OTHERS: None.
PETS: He has an Iguana named Iggy!
HOMETOWN: London, England.
HISTORY: Phoebe fell in love as an exchange student in London. His name was Levi Wilkes and he worked in the bar all the college kids frequented. He was a fickle man, flitting from one girl to the next when the mood took him. Phoebe was on his list of “conquests” and while she thought it could turn into a real relationship, he was only looking for someone to scratch his itch when he fancied it. When he moved on to the next girl (Phoebe’s supposed good friend!) he left the young American woman broken hearted. It was a few weeks into that heavy grief that Phoebe discovered she was pregnant. Telling Levi didn’t help any. He told her to get rid of it – something she couldn’t do because she was already capable of loving the child within her. He told her that he wouldn’t support “it” or care for her. In fact, he said some pretty nasty things. He called her names, said no one would love her if she had the child, and insulted her very existence. Surprisingly, it was like water off a duck’s back. Her resolve was strong and she knew that she could be a good mother, that this had happened to her for a reason.

So, she went at it alone. No one held her hand in the hospital, and no one helped her name her baby boy when he was curled in her arms. Riggins Joseph McCauley took the name of her late father and then grandfather. Phoebe had lost her parents during her first year of college. Her mother to a brain tumour and then her father to a heart attack. She liked to think that they had been so in love that her father couldn’t live without her mother, so his heart just gave out. It made her grief easier to handle, not to mention was the first major stepping stone in getting back to school.
Phoebe had dreamed of being a social worker since she was a pre-teen. She managed to finish up school and then decided to stay in London. She thought that if Levi ever matured and wanted to be part of his son’s life then this would be the best thing. Riggins didn’t do anything wrong, and maybe one day he would be able to know his father. Phoebe hoped for that, although at the same time she didn’t hold her breath on it. Levi was a name she heard a lot of from old friends, along with stories of how he was getting older while the girls were now only in their first and second years of university.

Riggins grew up asking about his father a lot. Phoebe never lied to him, but she also shielded him from certain truths. Riggins never knew that Levi suggested abortion, and he also didn’t hear about the explicit details of Levi’s future shenanigans. Instead, Phoebe focused on telling her son that he looked so much like his daddy (which he did), and that humans were flawed creatures who sometimes needed many years to see their true selves. Levi, however, appeared to be another lifetime away from figuring himself out. He never made contact, even after Phoebe sent a photo and letter to the bar she knew he was still working at just after Riggins’ fifth birthday.

He was a studious kid. He struggled to get along with his classmates at times, and was typically one of the last picked for teams, but Riggins didn’t mind all of that. He considered school to be a wonderful thing, and Phoebe kept him busy outside of school with trips to museums, and weekends rearranging their tiny London home so it was a fresher place to be. Riggins loved spending time with his mum, and that wasn’t something that faded with age. Other children became frustrated, even embarrassed, by their family, but Riggins saw no problem in going to the movies with his mum, or skipping out on a popular event to spend time with her making flapjacks and listening to older music.

As happy as they were, Phoebe eventually grew homesick. She was a New York girl and the city was practically calling her home. Riggins was fourteen at the time and while he felt a little sad to leave everything he knew behind, the idea of New York thrilled him. They moved in the summer so he could finish up one year of school and transfer comfortably into the next once they were stateside. The only difference in terms of school was that now he was the strange kid with an accent, instead of just being the strange kid.

Time went on and things were good. They had a nice apartment, and Phoebe was working with the children she had always wanted to. However, she took ill when Riggins was sixteen, and just days after his seventeenth birthday Phoebe was diagnosed with MS. It wasn’t always bad, but there were days when Riggins could barely recognise his mother.

He deferred his place in college, and chose to work and help his mum. There were medical costs now, and days when he needed to do a lot more around the home. Riggins didn’t mind it though. He would look after his mum fulltime if he had to. It never came to that though. An old friend of hers who had married into wealth gave them a chunk of money to help get a nurse in and pay for physiotherapy. She didn’t want any of it back, but offered enough to cost a basic treatment plan that they had never been able to go for before. It would pay through Riggins college days, and hopefully then he would be able to find a job that would cover those costs.

He stayed out of college for a few years, working to save up some cash in case they ever needed some emergency money. When he turned twenty-one his mum pretty much insisted that he follow his dream before he was rotting away in their apartment and behind the Starbucks counter. Riggins agreed, but opted for NYU so he could live at home and still look after Phoebe when she needed him to. They also got a nurse to come around about that time. Sophia was able to help Phoebe with her physio at home and take her out if she wanted to do the shopping or get her hair done. Phoebe was able to do a lot for herself still, but she suffered from very bad flare ups that began to become less frequent after the regular physio and the introduction of a walking cane. Sophia became a good friend to her, regular company besides her son.

Riggins almost wound up in bed with Sophia one late evening after they were going over the schedule for a week when he would be away on a college trip. They were getting hot and heavy in the kitchen when the buzzer his mother had interrupted them. They never spoke of it again, but a great tension hung between them after that.

He’s a senior now, and Phoebe is doing immensely better with the right care and treatment plan. He knows it will eventually get worse, but she’s still young and there is a great deal of time for her to enjoy. He’s got his fingers crossed that he can find himself a good spot with an architect firm as soon as he graduates. It would be his dream, and also a life changing opportunity.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: Under the bright moon.
SAMPLE:

lies.

[kim]