Rib Tickler
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Alas, poor child I barely knew ye | |
| Rib Tickler | |
| Player: @stormgeist | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Dominator |
| Threat Level: | 20 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Dink Winkler |
| Known Aliases: | Top Banana, Furious Funnyman |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 34 |
| Height: | 6'2'' |
| Weight: | 143 lb |
| Eye Color: | Yellow |
| Hair Color: | Dyed Blue |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Comedian |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | Presently: Sharkhead Isle |
| Marital Status: | Married |
| Known Relatives: | Marie Winkler (Wife) |
| Known Powers | |
| Mentalism, psychic persuasion | |
| Known Abilities | |
| ' | |
| Equipment | |
| ' | |
| ' | |
The Rib Tickler was one of my first villains. He was my first and to date only attempt at a Dominator. I created him originally on the Infinity server but after realizing his role-playing ability I moved him to Virtue. He only made it to 14 because of his incredibly low hit points. He was created in 2006 with the original idea that he could make people laugh to death. This idea has stayed with him in his further mis-adventures.
The Rib Tickler is played as a easy-going, joke cracking wise guy. Which is very much his real personality. Rib Ticklers character came to life when exploring his origins. His in-game bio appears comical but really deciphering it reveals the Rib Tickler is a psychopath. He is not particularly a ‘master criminal’. He doesn’t have intentions for world domination or well crafted plans. He appears to be reckless while in fact is very cunning. Simply put he is a murderer who enjoys the freedom of life and finds enjoyment in evading the law with his knack at predicting the human mind.
In finding a suitable arch enemy it wasn’t very difficult. A villain who makes a mockery of life’s antithesis is one who treasures every moment and cherishes all the good in the world. The Rib Tickler is not particularly threatened by Bulldog, he sees his foe as a mere obstacle. He would rather torture a good heart then let it go free.
The Rib Tickler was already taken as a name on the Virtue server. He can be found under the alias “Ribb Tickler”.
Contents |
Character Biography
Origin
The origins of the Rib Tickler a fairly clear, as he had made no attempt to hide his real identity from the public. Dink Winker grew up an only child to the magician father and a psychologist mother. He spent his time entertaining his friends with his very vivid imagination. His life led him to theatre where he excelled as an actor. He was recommended to a comedy program in Galaxy City where he studied stand up. After he completed his program he went in the “Biz” and it was during these first gigs that he met his wife Rebecca Andrews. As they say, everyone likes a funny man. They married soon afterward. Dink was well known around Paragon as a very intelligent and funny comic. He had seen the folly in his associates who had poked fun at the city’s heroes too often and found themselves without work.
Times got tough and grungy. Drink was drying up for material. His manger had talked to him about retirement. Dink was in fact very troubled by the fact he could not make people laugh. It was on this certain night when things changed, forever. Dink’s manager had said that if a single person left the bar that night Dink’s career in Paragon was over. There happened to be a rather fat patron that night who sat right up front. Dink was running his old material but nothing was working. Finally he began to pick on the audience. He was desperate and fell into a lapse of fat jokes at the expense of the fat lady in front. She at first laughed along, then grew uncomfortable and finally got up and began to walk out. By the time she was gone it was too late.
The manager had seen and Dink had spoiled his career. He dashed out to apologize but as he flung himself through the doors he watched as a speeding sausage truck struck the patron and flattened them. Dink sank to his knees and cried but suddenly his sobs turned to a giggle and then he was in hysterics. People came out to watch the comic break down of Dink Winkler. All who saw him saw a lunatic, a sadist and a jerk. His career was over. He couldn’t return to Rebecca. His life was over. And that was when Dink Winkler snapped. He retired to a quiet life of studying the human psyche and trying to understand what people found funny in a variety of cultures. He learned how the brain creates humor and spent years developing the equipment necessary to control people’s minds. Dink was also resourceful. He knew he could always be stripped of his powers so he prepared an irresistible routine that guaranteed a person would suffocate to death while laughing. He took his wife’s old ski suit. He painted on the colorful markings of a jester and donned a hood. Why Dink Winkler turned to crime, why? Perhaps he saw a need to make people laugh, at any means necessary. His mind was warped and that night, the he became the Rib Tickler
Criminal Career
Beginning in the mid 1990’s Rib Tickler set to work to assemble his laughing device. He started by robbing small science laboratories. His original method was to tell the guard a joke and then use bone to knock them unconscious. His original problem was that even if he was caught the police never looked too seriously at him. There was no hunt for the Tickler’s lair, no midnight stakeouts. The Rib Tickler was not particularly dangerous in the eyes of the law. Rebecca, Dink Winkler’s wife knew full well of her husband’s second life. She supported him and would come to bail him out if he was thrown in the drunk tank. It was an interesting relationship that the Rib Tickler had with his wife. He was the envy of other villains who all wished their partners would participate in their devious schemes. However the time had come to move on and make a name for himself.
The Funny Bones
After his main stint in the North where he lived Rib Tickler moved out from Marie and relocated to the East End of Paragon. It was here he put together a team of individuals who all shared his warped sense of pleasure. The Rib Tickler also changed his look. For the East End he presented a corporate look on his enterprise. He wore a trick suit and a swapped his hood for a simple mask. The East End proved ripe for the picking and it was also a prime place for his debut as a serious villain. The Rib Tickler, desperate for an audience committed his first murder. He attracted a crowd in the center of town when he threatened to drop a woman from a tall building. Since he had no assigned Hero there really was no one to stop him. By the time the police arrived the Funny Bones had opened fire.
At this stage in his career, carnage and mayhem equaled hilarity. He continued on a quest to hunt down unfeeling, but innocent people and kill them in humiliating ways. It was enough to make people chuckle and then feel terrible afterward. He was good at it and the Funny Bones carried his orders out to the letter. Around this time ace cop Sam Dellroy had been trying to convince his police commissioner that the Rib Tickler proved a serious threat to the public. Dellroy’s commissioner listened but didn’t heed his warnings. Sam Dellroy decided to dawn the mantle of a vigilante and fight the Rib Tickler on his own terms. Dellroy was a man with little sense of humor and in time he became the Tickler’s arch enemy: Bulldog. It was Bulldog who defeated the Funny Bones and also finally brought Rib Tickler to Justice.
Jail Time
The Rib Tickler, who was VERY guilty survived quite well in jail. His trial was a while from now and the inmates in the county jail were all enthralled by the Rib Tickler’s exploits. Dink Winkler was charged with First degree murder. He pled guilty. His wife’s testimony was that he was simply doing what he wanted to do all along. His efforts to make people laugh had been in vain.
The Rib Tickler was found guilty and when asked to speak in his defense to the court he said this: “Anyone with a slightly odd name is more prone to absurd behavior.” He pointed to his colleagues whom he remembered as having peculiar real names. He then asked if he could tell a joke. The judge, knowing that the Rib Tickler was going to his doom allowed him to. This was the moment that the Deadly Joke was used for the first time. The Rib Tickler walked away from the courthouse and on to freedom.
Reemergence
After his time in prison the Rib Tickler was never really the same villain. The days of playful antics were over. As a villain he seemed to have grown up. His first priority was revenge. He had never considered revenge as a viable means of villainy but now, suddenly he did. He terrorized the police force so much that one third of the police force from the Bulldog’s precinct required psychological help. Bulldog called the Rib Tickler’s transformation an ‘ultimate form’. He wasn’t out for laughs anymore. He was plain sadistic. There was no Dink Winkler left, just Rib Tickler. He donned a disguise and took up helping the psychologically tormented police officers himself. He was searching for the identity of Bulldog. And he found it.
He warped the mind of Francis Holden, the Bulldog’s young partner, and the only person to know his identity. Holden was brainwashed and made to murder Sam Dellroy’s (Bulldog)’s wife and children. It was a sign to Bulldog that the Rib Tickler was close and he could trust no one. Sam Dellroy was devastated and confronted the Rib Tickler in a final showdown. The Rib Tickler prevailed and disabled Sam/Bulldog by mangling his legs beyond repair. He told his arch enemy that he wanted Sam to live to see that he could do nothing to stop the Rib Tickler. He explained to Sam/Bulldog that he understood that no one found him funny anymore. His devotion to crime was over. He was out to punish humanity.
Sam left the police force and disappeared for a while. He left saying. “There’s nothing funny about this, it’s sick. He needs help.” With the Bulldog gone Rib Tickler was free to do as he pleased. Other Heroes stayed away after he killed an entire suburb with toxic gas. Several Heroes together only found that the Rib Tickler’s control over the human mind to be too persuasive and he turned them into villains.
Punishment
The Madness as it was called, in reality only lasted a few short months. The Rib Tickler left Paragon and went out into the world. He returned a year later to find that Bulldog had returned. Obsessed with the idea of turning Bulldog into a villain against his will the Rib Tickler sought him out. Bulldog however had trained in his time away. He had learned how to lock his mind to the Rib Ticklers persuasive reach. He walked again on new cybernetic legs and with the help of empath Iris Queen he defeated the Rib Tickler in a public spectacle. The Rib Tickler was reduced to a mumbling mess of incoherence. He was placed in the Ziggursky Maximum Security Prison. He was harmless. By now his name had reached the nightstand of Arachnos who seemed convinced that there was still a little life left in those dead bones.
Character
The Rib Tickler has been known as: The Furious Funnyman and Top Banana. As noted in his evolution the character of the Rib Tickler has undergone significant change. What has stayed true to the original concept is that the Rib Tickler is obsessed with making people laugh and getting a rise out of anyone. He is drawn especially to those who cannot laugh or are very serious in nature. He takes great pride in dismantling the well thought out plans of others including other villains. He is not afraid of getting his hands dirty and a sense of complete invulnerability is always present in his character.
The original pre-convicted Rib Tickler was in all matters, harmless. He still had some humanity in him. He played games with the law and it was rumored that because he was so bad at being a criminal the law went easy on him and kept him around to amuse them. After the Rib Tickler was taken into custody he seemed to change. He tried desperately to convince the court that he was completely insane. While the jury found him sane and guilty. Perhaps his efforts to remain sane left him at that moment. He had only dropped a woman out a window to get real attention. He had seen other Arches do it and he figured he could as well. What he failed to realize was that he was still a minor crook.
He broke himself out from his own trial and went berserk. Somewhere he had an idea of revenge. Revenge on Bulldog for getting in his way. While at the same time it was Bulldog who had helped reinvent the Rib Tickler. Yet Bulldog could not stop being a cop and let the Rib Tickler murder people. His interest or lack there of with Bulldog is very interesting. At times he enjoys what he sees as useless antics that won’t deter him from committing crimes. Other times the Rib Tickler is obsessed with Bulldog and wants nothing more than to eviscerate him. His masquerading as a psychiatrist was utterly morbid. He would torment police officers by harming their families, blackmailing them and psychologically stalking them. He would then help his patients relive their horrors in perfect detail. It is believed this was an effort to finally get rid of Bulldog as the Rib Tickler saw him as an annoyance.
The only explanation for the Rib Tickler’s behavior came when he defeated Bulldog for the first time. As he casually explained, “He was punishing humanity”. All around him he saw people taking advantage of life and freedom, people getting fat off the system. Somehow it all linked back to the obese patron being hit by a sausage truck. He could be that truck. He could cut out people from the world. Bulldog asked why and the Rib Tickler said, “Because I can, and I think it’s hilarious.” The Rib Tickler is not like the mainstream villains. He doesn’t talk about his grand plan, or fly into fits of rage. He is known for keeping his cool and allowing a Hero’s own pigheadedness to lead them into his trap. If something fails he tries something new. He knows when he’s beat but takes great pride in making a Hero laugh. Rib Tickler himself is oddly serious. Even his own henchmen swear that he never laughs. He apparently fakes his own laughter which leads to the suspicion he doesn’t really find his work amusing but might enjoy the intricacies of developing a dastardly plan. He is also a fabulous actor, often too convincing. He blends well into society. Hiding his unusual eyes with colored contacts and re-dying his hair. Police fear that because of his acting ability he could easily escape and never be found. Because of his immunity to other humor he is quite invulnerable to any ‘mirroring’ of his abilities.
Powers and abilities
The Rib Ticklers powers are twofold. First are his power over the mind and his acting ability, secondly are his actual inventions and gadgetry. He is a highly trained psychiatrist. He is skilled in the art of mentalism which is a different talent altogether. Mentalism he would have learned from his father which is a similar persuasive gimmick as used by fortune tellers and psychics. He is able to convince his audience of almost anything with mere suggestion. This is increased by the Rib Ticklers uncanny ability to impersonate others. He has been found to be immune to interrogation and polygraph tests. His understanding of the human mind allowed him to torture most officers in Bulldog’s precinct.
The Deadly Joke that the Rib Tickler has used on occasion will keep a person laughing so long they begin to run out of air. Eventually they will pass out. The real objective is to burst their diaphragm. The Rib Tickler is usually gagged after his first appearance in court to “shut that mouth of his” because he is such a good comedian he really CAN kill a person by making them laugh. This is an ability that takes time and while it might take a person nearly 30 minutes to succumb to cardiac arrest the Rib Tickler much prefers a faster method: weapons.
The Rib Tickler’s most notable weapons include the skulls that he wears on his “head hunter” belt. They are high tech miniaturized weapons. He attaches them at random to his belt before a caper. As a result he throws them at his opponents at random. Some exploding, some releasing a poisonous gas, some a flash bang, others might be simply filled with confetti. His original mind invader device was used to fry people’s minds. Since it was confiscated during his arrest he has not built another. The Rib Tickler now uses throwing knives as his main implements of evil. He carries them around his thigh and has several located in his gloves on a spring loaded release. On occasion he will use a gun but finds them less exciting then hand to hand combat.
His own combat ability is fairly limited. He generally relies on his henchmen to deal with his opponents has lately been seen using CQC in the Rogue Isles. It is possible that he has taken some training so as to be a better match for Bulldog. As a precaution he also carries an EMP device that he used once on Bulldog to disable the Hero’s legs.
The Rib Tickler does not possess and super human abilities. His method of travel is usually attributed to his 30 Coil spring boots that allow him to jump to extreme heights. The Rib Tickler is also noted for wearing protective arm guards on his bicep. They have a poison barb that he has used to kill people with and as he argues, “allows for a certain degree of personal space.”
Powers
Appearance
Miscellaneous Information
The Rib Tickler's wife Rebecca Winkler went on to become a villain herself: Miss Morose. Ironically they don't get along as villains together but remain a couple in their alter-egos. It is suggested that the Rib Tickler does not know the true identity of Miss Morose. While she on the other hand is quick to drop her husbands name to get instant respect.
Quotes
"I never understood prop comedy until I stabbed someone with a fork."
“I can't bring your daughter back to life, what do I look like a magician?!?!”
"The best joke is the one you never tell."
"I do think it's funny you know, but a good comic never laughs at his own jokes."
