Ratthew Driver

"Did you know "racecar" backwards is "racecar"?"

- Ratt, with two t's

Personality
Ratthew Rattus Driver prides him first and foremost on being driven. Despite what his dumb jock exterior might suggest, Ratt is extremely patient, dealing with setbacks and irritating people without losing much of his composure or cool. His determination knows no bounds when it comes to things that he wants. He has a seemingly endless amount of motivation to engage in his interests and will keep with things that are tedious with little complaint if he knows they will be useful. Being very goal oriented, Ratt's way of working is methodical and focused, he believes in the importance of the process and going through thigns step-by-step in order to achieve an outcome.

Ratt is also a perfectionist, to the point where it becomes unhealthy. His tunnel vision is unforgiving and severe and he loses sight of himself and others when he wants to get something done. It irritates him to no end when his projects turn out less than perfect and exact.

With that said, Ratt is self-indulgent, and is prone to avoiding things he doesn't really care for and over-indulging in things he does. He won't do his homework if he doesn't find the subject useful, but he will read endlessly on the care of dragons. Often it allows him to go the extra mile in the studies he cares about but it also means he regularly finds himself unable to tear himself away from things.

He writes it off as passion, though, of which he has a lot. Ratt is an intense individual, and comes off as very exciteable. He's very eager to talk to others and is generally just very happy, open and sociable. Ratt takes a genuine interest in others and although he's rather self-absorbed at times he does his absolute very best to be compassionate and caring. Again, he's rather intense and passionate and maybe come across rather strong and occasionally obnoxious.

TBC

Appearance
The first thing that strikes you about Ratthew's appearance is that he always looks very friendly. His face is open, his mouth rests in a gentle smile. Ratthew is lean, and of slightly less than average height, standing at 169cm, with a relaxed and friendly sort of posture. Wide open, dark, round eyes with short, thick eyelashes that are the same medium brown colour as his hair, which he wears long, slightly past his shoulders and generally half up. There is warm light gray streaked throughout his hair and eyebrows without any discernable saturation in any particular area.

Ratthew's skin, a warm tan colour, is marked with various scars from his racing exploits and general idiocy. Most notably his knees and elbows are often scraped, his hands calloused despite his attempts to care for them, and he has a few facial scars to go with his freckles. Bruises are often seen on his arms and legs, as well as fading and newer scratches and scars.

Racing (Dragons)
Ratthew's career in racing began with dragons. He watched races religiously on tv as a young child, begging his parents to take him to as many as possible. Ratt was never one for studying, but he obsessed over dragon-riding manuals and facts. He and his trusty group of lizard friends, the children of the lizard footmen from Cinderella, collectively nurtured an interest in dragon racing, although Ratthew was the only one who was truly passionate about the practical aspect. Once he was old enough, he was immediately enrolled into dragon-riding classes.

In all honesty, he didn't have much of a talent for it initially, he was small and his ability to take visual clues was poor. It was a blow to his ego at first and it left him disheartened, but his parents were supportive, and so were his friends. Their interest had grown alongside his and they were determined to make Ratthew see it through.

And so he did. There was a lot of discipline building to be done and it was somewhat tedious. Ratt didn't find himself bonding with any particular dragons, but he began to really enjoy the activity and build his ability. Eventually, a real coach picked him up and began to train him and after having decided Ratthew was ready, entered him in some beginner's races.

Ratthew was younger than most of the other competitors, having started very very young, but did relatively well, placing quite high. As time went on, he entered more competitions, moved up the ranks and built a name for himself as a young dragon racer. And finally, he found a dragon that really made his heart go "uwu".

Racing (Cars)
A more recent interest of his. He took car racing up for the sake of destiny but very quickly got into the competitive spirit of it. It's something he does semi-professionally now (he's a bit young to become a true professional but he's on his way) and damn is it fun. His lizards are very excited about it, too, and are his pit crew.

Shapeshifting
He can shift between his rat form and his human form. There is no evidence to suggest that there is an in-between stage. Ratt was born in his humanoid form and was not able to shift until he was about 10.

Cinderella
A young girl's father remarries following his wife's death. The new wife is horrible and haughty, and so are her daughters. They constantly abuse the girl and make her do all of their work and chores, and mockingly nickname her "Cinderella". One day the prince of the land holds a ball and invites all of the ladies. Cinderella is forbidden to go by her stepmother and is greatly saddened by this. Her fairy godmother appears and tasks Cinderella in finding various animals for her and a very large pumpkin, which she turns into staff for Cinderella and a carriage respectively. Cinderella, now with new shiny clothes, heads off to the ball, after being warned by her fairy godmother that the spell will wear off after midnight. Cinderella stuns everyone at the ball with her gorgeous appearance, including the prince who dances with her all night. She is unaware when the clock strikes twelve and has to rush out. In her hurry, she leaves behind a single shoe. This shoe is used to track Cinderella down-- the prince having decided that he is deeply in love with her, searches the entire kingdom for the girl whose foot would fit the shoe. Neither of Cinderella's sister's feet fit, despite their very valiant attempts at forcing them in. Cinderella's feet fit perfectly and the prince marries her and they live happily ever after.

How does Ratthew fit into this?
One of the animals that Cinderella was asked to bring her godmother was a rat, who became the coachman for the pumpkin carriage. Said rat then moved on with his life, got married, his wife spat out a child and lo and behold there was a Ratthew. (I'll make this better later I promise)

The Lizards
Ratthew's pit crew! They function as a well-oiled machine, and he adores them and the love and care and support he receives from them.

Maus
His dragon, his darling dame, his very lovely lady. She's very fast and he's super proud of her. He considers her less of a pet and more of a partner and valuable teammate. He cares for Maus very, very deeply. Ratt spoils her quite a lot if he's being honest, but he does push her to do her best as well, and he thinks she does likewise for him.

Pumpkin
Despite the fact that Pumpkin is...a racecar...Ratthew likes to think of him as pet. A very well-bred, carefully taken care of, spoiled pet. He bought Pumpkin with his own winnings (and the help of his sponsors, thank you very much, Queentucky Fried Chicken) and is very protective over him.

Trivia

 * His birthday is World Rat Day!
 * If he's 17 in 2013, when EAH came out, that would make him born in 1996, which corresponds with the year of the rat
 * He's red colourblind, and can only really distinguish between blues and green (and even then, not terribly well), but he can see ultraviolet light
 * He can't see very well, and while his eyesight is not as bad he either wears contact lenses or glasses, as well as a prescription helmet visor