🦂 — Welcome to Oceanside, California, Eric Moralez! They are said to resemble Peter Gadiot, but they are a 33 year old Hitman in the Scorpions, bound by blood to the Scordatos. They identify as a heterosexual male, and others have described them as adaptable & dauntless, but also detached & abrasive. — 🦂
In small towns where everyone talks, reputation can be everything. Long before Eric came into the world his parents had cemented their status as far from angels, earning scorn from their community. His father drank too much, his mother had constantly been in trouble with police through her teen years and into her early twenties. Many of those in the small southern California town who knew the Moralez family had already formed their opinions about Eric before he took his first breath. Trouble. That’s all they expected him to be.
By the time Eric turned one his mother had cleaned up her act, turning her life around. The woman wanted to give her son the kind of life she never had. His father hadn’t been so driven. His behavior continued to dash the efforts his wife put into repairing their reputation. By the time Eric was old enough to take note of the way many people treated him and his parents, very little had changed. The most righteous adults would drag their children away on the playground or birthday invitations would suspiciously not end up in his cubby when they went out to the rest of the class. Those that ignored the loudest voices did make attempts to include the boy but already he’d started to build up walls out of frustration and hurt.
The main escape Eric had was camping trips with his father. They were the longest span of time Eric’s father stayed sober. Even in the dead of winter when the nights were unbearably cold for the boy used to warm temperatures, they would go. Eric rarely complained and even started to look forward to them. They brought out a different side to his father, one Eric didn’t mind being around. Without warning the trips increased in frequency, taking him away almost every weekend. Eventually, the true reasoning behind the sudden change was revealed to Eric. His mother was sick. She’d made the decision to hide it in hopes that the treatments would work and her son wouldn’t have to find out until everything was better. But, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. It was fast, aggressive, and in a blink of an eye, she was gone. The brightest light in Eric’s life had gone dark. His behavior only got worse after the loss of his mother. Disruptions in class, detentions, fights, all the behaviors that people had expected from him the day that he was born became part of his normal routine. The bad reputation he’d been expected to have became a reality.
Leaving his hometown far behind him became Eric’s ultimate goal. Without his mother his father’s drinking got worse, bleeding into all aspects of their lives including their still frequent trips into the wilderness. The days his father was sober became fewer and farther between, forcing Eric to have to take care of the man. Any positive memories he once had about his home became tainted as Eric’s disdain for the place grew. A career fair he’d been forced to go to in high school piqued his interest in the military. For Eric, joining the military seemed to be the easiest way to escape. With his grades barely good enough to get him into a decent school and tuition destined to be a problem, college wasn’t sure-fire in his mind. As soon as possible he enlisted, leaving not long after his high school graduation and never looking back.
Becoming a marine was a dramatic shift in Eric’s life. Every aspect of his day more structured than what he’d experienced before. Eric had never expected joining the military to be a walk in the park, but the level of difficulty wasn’t something he’d fully considered either. The training alone was grueling and pushed him to extremes. However, it also brought a sense of belonging stronger than anything he’d felt before. That was what drove him to stay in spite of the challenges. Enlisting was never about patriotism or wanting to protect his country for Eric, it was about escaping. His loyalty was to the members of his platoon, the people he considered to be family. When he found his specialty and became a scout sniper it wasn’t what he’d consider a surprise. Long before he’d joined the military he’d spent countless hours sitting in one place looking down a scope, waiting and watching while hunting. Though being his squad’s sniper brought an immense responsibility. It was his duty to look out for his team, his family, to spot any incoming threats and remove them before anyone was hurt or worse. Throughout his years of service, Eric’s skill was enough to gain him recognition. On several occasions he was sent on special assignments, even crossing over to work with different units and branches, although he was always happiest working with his own squad.
What was planned to be a life-long career in the military, or at least one he didn’t expect to leave anytime soon, ended abruptly during Eric’s tenth year. The assignment was supposed to be simple, straightforward, something they’d done a thousand times before. Without warning, everything fell apart. Their squad was surrounded in an ambush. Eric managed to make it to cover and start picking off the enemy combatants but there were too many. With most of his squad down, he exposed his location to draw fire away from one of his brothers in arms. It worked, but suddenly he was the new target. Before he could make it to another location he was hit with a bullet. It brought him down in an explosion of pain. The next thing Eric knew he was waking up in a hospital. Reinforcements had arrived and saved him. But they hadn’t been fast enough. Almost the entire unit had been killed.
The following months were a blur. Eric was given a purple heart and honorably discharged. Go home he was told, heal both mentally and physically. Returning to civilian life was jarring. Eric felt more out of place than ever before. He was back in a world where he didn’t fit, in a country that only seemed to care about him during active duty and forget about him once it was over. Though rushing back to the military with most of those he’d held dear were gone. Bounty hunting was a temporary career choice he stumbled upon. Something he felt relatively comfortable doing and was good at. It brought him across the country, kept him moving, and from collapsing in on himself and becoming like his father. His new path was found when a case brought him to Oceanside. There Eric reconnected with the soldier from his squad he’d saved, one of the few other survivors. He was the one to introduce Eric to the mafia world. Making the jump to become a hitman was surprisingly easy for Eric. In a way, he’d already been paid to take lives. Now he was simply doing it for a different cause. Being in the Scorpions gave him back the kinship he’d lost.
■ IMPORTANT CONNECTIONS ■
» TBA — Military buddy & introduction to the Scorpions. They served together for years in the marines. They were brothers in arms. Eric saved their life when their unit was ambushed and attacked. They were the ones that introduced Eric to the Scorpions four years ago, brought him in, and helped him build the connections to become a trusted hitman.
» TBA — Childhood friend. Eric didn’t have many friends growing up. At a young age, he started pushing away others especially after losing his mother. This is one of the few people who stayed by his side. When Eric left they were hurt, but he stayed in contact with them through his years in the military, falling out of contact after Eric lost most of his unit. Now they’re in Oceanside.
» TBA — Unlikely friends. Eric can be a difficult person to get along with. Sarcasm is his go-to language in most conversations and him taking it too far isn’t uncommon. On paper, these two shouldn’t get along. They’re polar opposites. Despite it all the two have become friends even if it’s not the most traditional of friendships.
» Andres Moralez — Eric’s father. He hasn’t talked to the man since leaving home at eighteen. His father always had problems with alcoholism. After losing his wife those problems became infinitely worse. Eric avoided the house increasingly towards the end of high school. There’s not one part of Eric that wants to know how his father is doing now. He also avoids becoming anything like the man.
Eric Moralez is a TAKEN character, who is portrayed by Peter Gadiot, and is played by Jules.
