#felipe castro

[madcat-world]

Cursed Paintings (3 of 7) - Felipe Castro

[thecollectibles]

GHOST by Felipe Castro

[throatoftheworld]

Felipe Castro

[tellusd20]

Tears from the past by Felipe Castro

[nirvanah]

Felipe Castro

[lagaleriapopurri]

Coralia -- Felipe Castro

[archiveddvrpg]

In fair Verona, our tale begins with FELIPE CASTRO, who is TWENTY-EIGHT years old. He is often called FLORIZEL and is NEUTRAL. He uses HE/HIM pronouns.

TW: SUBSTANCE ABUSE/ADDICTION

It was hard not to love him, and he was all the worse for it. His bambinaia fretted over his fate often, wondering what would become of a boy who won utter devotion with the smallest of gestures. Born for adoration, created to woo the world into submission, Felipe had no reason to consider the dark clouds ahead and focused most of his attention on flowers, instead. What right did he have to worry? By whose authority did he dare weep? His absent parents paid for every need met and every want fulfilled, and that was all he needed; he had the rest of Rome to love him. And love him, Rome did. In a city so irreverent and overcrowded, Felipe flourished. The city WORSHIPPED him; the entire sun was his to devour. It could overwhelm anyone, even a boy as resilient as Felipe. He craved admiration from the masses and the loyalty of all who loved him – especially his bambinaia. Even when he was well past the age of needing supervision, Felipe demanded that his bambinaia stay by his side. Your love means the most to me, he promised, I only need your loyalty. FOREVER.

For as long as she could, his bambinaia stayed. But she was of no use to a boy becoming a man, and when the time came, she laid a hand over his head, closed her eyes and prayed: Dio, may he love the world, for the world has loved him first. Felipe, with his eyes wide open and turning black with rage, waited until she met his gaze to CURSE her darkly, in a voice his bambinaia had never heard before. He could trace all his greatest sins back to this one night. Desperate for an escape from a city that wanted too much of his attention, Felipe traveled to Verona for a weekend alone. He had never been truly alone before; while his heart had once trembled with fear at the thought, it now yearned for such a SILENCE – a silence he found at the bottom of a bottle, the end of a line of powder, the comedown of a particularly ruthless high. One weekend turned to a week; a week became a month; a month became years.

To this day, Felipe cannot understand how he made the decision to forsake his education, forsake his parents, forsake everything about the life he’d led and embrace the streets of a stranger, darker city. The gods would have laughed at the thought. A boy as spoiled, as pampered, as BELOVED as Felipe, surviving among thorns and bramble? It was more than laughable, it defied fate and destiny itself. And yet, he survived. With his growing reliance on mind-altering substances and habit of saying yes to every opportunity, it was no surprise that Felipe fell into the crossfire of the war that defined Verona. For a long while, Felipe straddled the line between traitor and sneaky bastard well. He mishandled third-party deliveries and sold information for the right price – the HIGHEST price. His pockets were lined with gold, but it wasn’t long until both sides began to grow weary of his name. So he chose a new one, named himself Gabriele after his bambinaia’s favorite angel and ran to Rome.

He was still coming down from his last bit of ambrosia when he met Paola. Their love story was a great one, the kind he had been chasing his entire life. He loved her BLINDLY, as the world had blindly loved him. Yet still, Verona sang his name. When he received a call from an unknown number, Felipe understood that he would only ever belong in the city that held onto old grudges like promises from its BLOODTHIRSTY gods. He promised Paola it would only be one last assignment before he put it all behind him. He would never forget the trust in her eyes as she said goodbye. Bring me a souvenir, she had said. Knowing he did not intend to return, he had kissed her and promised, I’ll bring you the entire city. Was it his fault that the delivery was a trap, intended to PUNISH him for his crimes? Was he to blame for going into hiding to save his life? And tell me, he begged the gods, am I to be miserable forever because Paola came back for me? He received his answer in complete, wretched and holy silence. The boy who desired to hold the sun, to bask in its glow and be admired by all who dared to behold his loveliness – BANISHED. Such was his punishment. It was not until Mona plucked his phantom heart from the ground, held it in her hands and — against her better judgement, with heartfelt pleas on the lips of her most beloved, Omi — vowed to protect him. Your blood will be my blood, she decreed, and those who come for you shall suffer under my own blade.

PAOLA DAMASCO: Regret. Guilt and gratitude taste the same on his tongue at the sight of her. Once bound to the shadows, Felipe learned to move with the darkness instead of drowning in it. From the sidelines, he has watched Paola wrestle with Verona’s demons and, to his horror, join them. With Mona’s blessing, he ran to save her; in return, she cursed his true name and taunted him with the scars of his false one on her skin. Isn’t this everything he’s ever wanted: someone to follow him like he is a prophet and they are his disciple, someone to love him like he stands at the center of their universe? This is what they should have warned you about: someone who loves you enough to become a monster, and hate you for the terror they’ve become.

YAMAMOTO OMI: Safe haven. She is beautiful and she is worshipped for it, but that means nothing to Felipe; he has enough of that and more to feed him for a lifetime and still, his belly aches for something more substantial. Something of worth and value, something Felipe cannot name but knows Omi has. He’s known it since he first laid eyes on her in The Dark Lady. I won’t be your customer, he told her that night, but I want to know everything about you. Their story should have ended like this: Omi speaking quietly and fully-clothed, Felipe listening with his eyes closed, trying to understand the strength that radiates from her. Instead, their story continues with a gunshot; with Felipe dragging himself to the Dark Lady where she lived, where her gentle touch heals his wounds. I won’t be your savior, Omi says as he’s recovering, but I’ll be your friend. And I’ll keep your secret. But save him she did, and he owes his freedom entirely to her. You, he reminds her as often as he can, are the first friend I’ve ever had.

HAZEL ACCARDI: Loose end. He met them by chance, stumbled upon them like a lost man stumbles upon God when he is starved for hope. Felipe remembers thinking they were an angel, all of that hair surrounding their face like a halo. He remembers the two of them sharing the stories, full of accidents and tragedies, that brought them to Verona. Most of all, he remembers learning about their secret talent. When the Montagues and Capulets alike learned his scent and cast a bidding war for his head, Felipe went to Hazel to forge documents for his new identity. They are the only person in Verona who truly knows both Felipe and Gabriele, and it both terrifies and excites him. They can destroy him, yes — but they can also set him free.

ODIN BELLO: Hunter. Felipe has no enemies and no targets; but there are many who have claimed him as theirs, and Odin is the most impassioned of them all. How was Felipe supposed to know that a sizable chunk of the information he sold and the missions he disrupted targeted the same person, time and time again? How can he be helped if the Capulet captain who paid the price of Felipe’s sins never forgave, and never forgot? There are many who want to see his head on a stick, and he knows all of their names; but Odin is the one he fears the most.

Felipe is portrayed by KENTA SAKURAI and was written by MINNIE. He is currently OPEN.

[madcat-world]

Stuff4 (4 of 7) - Felipe Castro