AGE: Thirty-two years old
BIRTHDAY: December 12th, 1988
GENDER / PRONOUNS: Bigender | He/They
OCCUPATION: Nurse at a retirement home
PLACE OF BIRTH: Milan, Italy
NEIGHBORHOOD: North Valley
HAS LIVED IN ASTORIA FOR: 5 months
There’s a story behind every person
Rico was born and lived most their life in a tiny apartment in Milan, Italy. His father had once worked in an oil factory but had been let go, and finding a new job proved difficult for him. His mother worked in a clothing factory, but they were releasing companies often went to other countries for cheaper labour.
Rico got the best marks in the class, he was a straight A student, a great soccer player and captain of the school team. But his accomplishments had no room in the apartment. He could be as great as he wished, his parents would have little attention for him. The worst thing was: he understood, he came up with apologies in his head, he allowed them to be terrible because he felt like they had reasons. He could still be happy at school and at practice, and at home he would just be a little less happy to not be an inconvenience to his parents.
When the drinking started, Enrico’s mother finally gave up on her marriage. But instead of taking him with her, she disappeared one night and had accepted that her only child would become the sole bearer of the house. His father wasn’t too happy about it, but that simply resulted in Enrico’s life becoming harder. There was yelling, hitting, there was violence to such a point that Enrico got familiar with his mom’s powders to hide the bruises. When his father got a job again, Enrico thought the bad times were over. But having a job didn’t change anything about his behaviour towards his child. There was nothing Enrico did to stop him, not even as he grew older. He went to college, got great grades, still loved soccer dearly, and might’ve gone pro if not for the terrible accident that happened when he was a few months away from turning twenty-one.
Severe brain damage. His father was basically returned to the state of a five year old. And while Enrico had never had much love for his parents, seeing his father babble in front of the tv and make drawings a literal five year old would make, he had to stay. He threw away any chance at a professional career in favour of taking care of his father.
He did so with a whole lot of love, receiving hugs and kisses and kind words in return, words he had always craved badly without knowing. Aside from taking care of his father, Enrico had a part-time job to help on top of the benefits they got for their father’s accident. It was enough to get by on, and for a while, Enrico was the happiest they had ever been.
When their father eventually grew worse and worse, and it was clear he wouldn’t get better, Enrico felt an overwhelming sadness for losing him that they had never felt before. On his deathbed, their father spoke words that Enrico had never known they needed: “Mi dispiace, figlio mio.” When Enrico asked him what he meant, he simply said that he must’ve done something wrong to them before the accident, because Enrico always looked so sad when they thought he wasn’t looking. He died surrounded by people who had come to love him again.
Enrico had started a job in a retirement home afterwards, their father now gone, they had not been able to get rid of the itch they felt to take care of other people, especially ones who needed extra care. It wasn’t an easy job, and the people he helped certainly weren’t his father, but Enrico kept doing it because it felt right.
One old man in particular got their attention. He was near death and spoke of eternal life, of never dying, of having amazing powers. He told Enrico tales of Vampires whenever they were helping him throughout the day. He had Enrico completely entrailed in his fascinating retellings of Vampires from old times, and of Astoria, where they lived in peace. When the old man died, Enrico set out to find their own way in. They presented an almost flawless worth ethic and cv, and were hired for the local retirement home in the capital of the country that felt to them as the greatest adventure ever.
FACECLAIM:Ian Quinlan
PLAYED BY: Nico
