As a kid, Luca had been obsessed with Harry Houdini. He would practice rope tricks, lock-picking, escapology techniques that would drive his parents crazy. Luca didn’t know it at the time, but it was almost like he was practicing for the legacy his father would leave him.
For all his father’s faults, Luca couldn’t fault him on raising him with love. In a time when toxic masculinity might have seen him toss Luca aside, Stefano Moretti didn’t have any qualms about raising another man’s child. He and Luca’s mother, HeeJun Lee, dated in high school. She was his true love, but high school relationships were tumultuous, and during an ‘off’ period in their on-and-off romance, she’d fallen pregnant. When he found out, rather than scream and yell with an Italian temper, he fell on one knee and asked her to marry him. The two were married right after high school graduation.
Those sweet stories were the ones Luca’s mother would always tell him at times when his father stayed out too late or drank a little too much. If they had recognized the signs of gambling addiction earlier, maybe they could have got him help before it was too late. Stefano had practically lived at the race tracks. He lived for the thrill of the bet, waiting for the day he made his big money. He even read those gambling books, not that they ever helped him much. Luca woke up at night too many times to knocks at the door, shouting and violence when the debt collectors came around. HeeJun would hide away with him in his room, cuddling him close and telling him everything would be okay. Luca was too young to know it at the time, but his dad had gotten in bed with the mob and you don’t default on a loan shark.
He was young when his father decided to pay back his debt by joining up with the mob. Luca’s dad had been the kind of guy you didn’t wanna get on the wrong side of, so you can imagine just how scary the guys he worked for were. He tried to pay back the debts but it wasn’t enough. When Stefano Moretti died in a shooting, it was Luca who inherited the debts his father had yet to pay back. He was barely seventeen, naive and inexperienced. Back then, he hadn’t known what chain of events would follow.
“You ever wanna be a soldier, kid?” his father’s ‘boss’ had asked at the funeral. Luca shrugged with a ‘nah, but maybe an army doctor’, because he’d always found putting people back together easier than breaking them. He didn’t know why that was so funny, but apparently, it was. ‘Stick with us’ the man had said. ‘We’ll treat you right.’ He stuck to his word, even got the family accountant to help Luca with his loan and financial aid applications for college. It was all part of the promise; you scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours. They had been grooming him to pay back his father’s debt with favors.
By the time he was old enough to realise what was happening, it was too late. Luca asked his mother to move back to Korea just in case she got caught up in this too, but he knew they’d find her if they needed to. There weren’t many places to hide when the really dangerous people came looking. He does what they need him to, stealing drugs and medical supplies from work and stitching the footsoldiers up in his kitchen so they don’t have to go to a hospital, disposing of evidence. But he wants out, and even if he thinks it’s never gonna happen, Luca won’t miss the chance if it comes up. His dad’s loyalty isn’t his. And he always was pretty good at breaking locks.
FULL NAME: Luca Lee Moretti
AKA(S): N/A
BIRTHDAY: August 10th
AGE: Late 20s-Early 30s
SPECIES: Human
ORIENTATION: Bisexual
GENDER: Cisgender Male (He/him/his)
OCCUPATION(S): Medical Resident, Mob Doctor
PRIMARY VERSE: Everyday, Crime
FACECLAIM: Wi Hajoon
EYE COLOR(S): Brown
HAIR COLOR(S): Black
HEIGHT: 6’0”
BODY BUILD: Toned, long, spry
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: N/A
HOMETOWN: Brooklyn, NY (Born)
FINANCIAL STATUS: Working Class
EDUCATION LEVEL: College Graduate
ETHNICITY: Korean
FEARS: Death, something happening to his mother, becoming his father, never breaking free
MENTAL: None
PHYSICAL: None
MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good
MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE: INTP: The Architect
HOGWARTS HOUSE: Gryffindor
POSITIVE TRAITS: Conscientious, focused, dependable, protective
NEGATIVE TRAITS: Stubborn, deceptive, untrusting, detached
ELEMENT: Earth
ANIMAL: Coyote
TROPES:
