Romeo and Julietta
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| He knows the camera is there | |
| Romeo Salvatore | |
| Player: @Talen Lee | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Stalker |
| Threat Level: | Warzone Clearance |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Romeo Salvatore |
| Known Aliases: | Confidential |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 31 |
| Height: | Variable, through the use of stance techniques and platform socks. |
| Weight: | Confidential |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Confidential |
| Occupation: | Confidential |
| Place of Birth: | Confidential |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | Married to Salvatore |
| Known Relatives: | Confidential |
| Known Powers | |
| None of his own | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Martial arts training, deep spy cover techniques, Calibre counterterrorism training | |
| Equipment | |
| Confidential | |
| No additional information available. | |
Hate is a word that is not.
Love, I am told, is more precious than gold.
Love, I have read, is hot.
But hate is the verb that to me is superb,
And Love but a drug on the mart.
Any kiddie in school can love like a fool,
But Hating, my boy, is an Art.
Character
His
- Romeo is inefficient, slow, and demonstrates a reckless bravado. The only way to get him to follow process is to give him no alternative.
- - Salvatore
Genial, goodnatured and almost a little dashing, Romeo Salvatore - Tory to his friends - is the kind of guy you play golf with. He's funny, but not too funny, nice, but not too nice, and he helps out in his neighbourhood, but not so much that you'd get suspicious. In those rare situations where it comes up, he always seems to have the technique to soothe a troubled situation, and somehow always winds up walking away from deals or bargains with the better end of it, even though the other thinks otherwise. When asked what his job was, the response was always a specialist in stock negotiation. The twenty-four hour nature of the stock market meant that at any time, he could be called out for hours at a time - which would explain why he always wanted his personal life to be as hassle-free as possible, and really enjoyed his free time.
Ours
Romeo and were individually selected as part of a deep-cover strike operation in the well-to-do suburban areas of Massachussets. Both were aware of the other's purposes - a series of assassinations of dangerous targets germaine to their organisations. With their individual slush funds for operations outlaid, the pair decided to compliment their covers by feigning a marriage - a relationship that could keep potential entanglements at bay and streamline their process.
They maintained this cover for six years, during which time one or the other or both would head out on assasination tasks. The two were very meticulous and deliberate planners - even considering s standards - and while Romeo's plans would routinely incorporate unreliable elements and improvisation that hated, they were completely functionally effective. As a Calibre operative, Romeoe spent the majority of his time quashing cells of council dissidents and 5th Column loyalists, while engaged in the removal of information gatherers who were smuggling dangerous goods out of the Etoile. With Vanguard advice, they also hunted out Rikti spies and a number of dangerous common threats such as the lost.
Then, after six years of feigning a married existence, the pair received conflicting orders, orders that lead to the Subradiant Incident. During this incident - whose details are disclosed elsewhere - Romeo and were put in direct contest for a goal. Worse, Romeo won, by successfully stealing away the Rikti energy parasite rather than simply killing its host. In the dust of the failed mission, Romeo and both split, heading back to ground before returning to their mutual 'home.' With the mission parameters changed, however, they did not return to a quiet debrief and breaking up their mutual assets, no.
Arriving at the home simultaneously, their conflicting orders and 's adjusted parameters led to a bloody firefight in the suburbs, a fight that destroyed multiple houses, left lives in ruin, and desolated a community - yet left none dead[1]. The pair then fled - leaving behind dead Lost assassins, analysed Rikti remains in the home, and a lot of police records. There was, after the investigation, enough information to have the pair declared persona non grata in the United States - or worse - dug out of the remains of their home, and the two, branded by the press as sex-crazed suburban serial killers - went to ground. For Romeo, he had to find a place where his information wouldn't be compromised by a police investigation that would make information a matter of public record. Fortunately, due to his being married to , he had an option, a country where he could claim a green card. For , it was just time to go home.
Home, to the Rogue Isles.
Powers
His
Romeo's former role in Calibre was that of a Black Raven - support for a more visible operative. In Romeo's case, that operative was Saxon Valiant, famously large, loud and prone to causing a mess. Romeo therefore dedicated himself to being pinpoint precise in his work - a scalpel to compliment Saxon's brute force hammer. Trained in covert operations, Romeo complimented this with excellent boxing and martial arts development, focusing on knockout hits and quickly dispatching opponents to minimize attention from guards.
Expanding on this natural surfeit of combat ability - the 'bag of tricks' that so disdained - was an assistance he gained during the final operation he had in Massachussets. The mission was to extract a Rikti experiment - a secret attempt to replicate the Kheldian life form to a Rikti energy signature. was ordered to dispatch the creature, while Calibre sought for Romeo to extract it, an operation he did with the assistance of Martel, his commander. Bonding to the Rikti parasite, he fled to the Rogue Isles - being pursued by members of the Rikti and his supposed wife. The parasite, however, while somewhat childish and goodnatured, works well to fight alongside Romeo and help him doing the little work that Calibre can ask of him from his remote location.
Metatext
RP Notes
His
In other people's RP, Romeo offers a reliable information service. Operating as he is in the Rogue Isles, he can find Mu sorcerors, Arachnos insiders, family traders, Crey business magnates and generally all the kind of well-informed scum that you seek out in a bigger plot. Something of a bounty hunter, he tries to operate for pay - and he does have a reputation amongst the very covert as being quite good.
Chances are you haven't heard of Romeo as an information dealer, and if you have, that's a way to represent your character being exceptionally well-informed. If your character is interested in such stories, they might recognise his name as affiliated with the serial killer urban myth floating around up in Massachussets.
As much as he would like to be more ruthless and efficient, more mercenary, Romeo can't bring himself to it. Operating as a lone information thief and hit-man in the Rogue Isles, he comes across much like the cast of Cowboy Bebop - constantly broke but always putting forward a good front, operating on a shoestring because he can't get paid. In Romeo's case, the lack of payment comes from his own softheartedness - he has a bad habit of making deals in trade that benefit the other when he finds their story compelling.
For his own RP, Romeo is interested in contacts within Vanguard, because they can have his illegal status in America revoked. He's also interested in kheldians, since he has the endearing energy parasite Sparky living in his bioelectric signature. Trying to understand Sparky while not tipping to his existence leads Romeo to trying to learn more intuitively what the Kheldian process means to other hosts.
His
Romeo really owes a lot to Brad Pitt. The basic premise of his character was borrowed from Mr & Mrs Smith as noted above. His melee fighting style, with its heavy punches and its propensity for knockout style hits, was borrowed from Mickey from Snatch. He has a black version of Tyler Durden's hair from Fight Club. His conman operation and easygoing skill as a criminal derives from Rusty from Ocean's Eleven and Thirteen[2]. As an individual he very clearly shares a lot in common with a man who at least last I checked, is considered a modern sex icon.
Romeo's underlying theme is that of the Contrasts. Right now he has to deal with his wife - at a distance - because her being a Rogue Isles Citizen lets him operate there. A Green Card, of sorts. On the other hand, if he were to bring this detail to her attention by being noticeable, chances are she'd cut it out from under him just to hurt him. Therefore, he can't get a divorce and tie off that last element of his deep-cover assignment, but he just as much can't risk trying to make something of it either. His job in the Rogue Isles is a high-paying high-risk situation which should in theory keep him rolling in money, but he lives poorly and avoids expenditure because he keeps letting people have things for free.
Trivia
- buys joke books. She only reads the punchlines.
- Romeo's police uniform is actually a real uniform, with a real badge
- 's singing voice is terrible
