InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Be different--get an IJ!"

Angelo Russo
My entire life can be summed up in four words:
I hustled. I conquered.

---

STATISTICS

NAME Angelo Russo.
AGE 31.
SEXUALITY Bisexual.
DOB 23 September.
CREATURE TYPE Dark Wizard.
FACTION None.

HEIGHT 6'1".
BUILD Athletic.
HAIR Black.
EYES Brown.

THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE
Always dressed to impress, typically in a handmade Italian Suit, looking at people with an intimidating intensity

ABILITIES & SKILLS

WHAT'S YOUR PRICE?

Angelo firmly believes that everyone has a price, and loves nothing more then to figure out what it might be to help bend a person to his will. Sometimes it’s money, sometimes its security. Whatever it is, he generally figures out things sooner or later.

SILVER TONGUED SNAKE

While Angelo doesn't make a habit out of talking a great deal, when he does he can be extremely eloquent and persuasive. He finds it a vital skill to have when conducting business with a variety of people.

PROBLEM SOLVER

Having worked a variety of different roles within the ‘business’ over the years, the one thing that has helped his ability to climb the ranks as quickly as he has, is his ability to solve problems. He takes great delight out of imagining unique solutions that others might have missed.

COOKING

Having grown up around his mother’s ankles in the kitchen, Angelo is an exceptional cook. While he doesn’t like to always let others know, he does occasionally like to surprise others with his abiltiies.

MAGICAL STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

POTIONS

Not just any potions though, Angelo has pushed himself hard to get very good at the type of potions that people pay top $ for. If you need any sort of potion from a truth potion to potions to help someone get high, he’s your man.

MORTALITY

As extra cocky as his newfound powers might have made him, he still needs to remember that he is a mortal. A shot to the head or a knife in the back, and that is the end of his illustrious career.

PERSONALITY
Having grown up in relative poverty, with his Mama single handedly keeping him and his four siblings clothed, washed and fed, Angelo can easily be described in one word, DETERMINED. Since the moment that he was old enough to work, he has grafted hard for his family, trying to put bread on the table for his Mama and to make his Papi (god rest his soul), proud of him. The way that he see’s it now, he is the man of the family, so it is his job to make sure that nobody ever goes hungry again and his Mama gets the retirement that she so certainly deserves. Every minute of every day is spent devising alternative revenue streams, new little ventures his little ‘enterprise’ could go into in order to help keep the family in the lifestyle they deserve.

Unfortunately, for him though, this has meant that his moral compass has become a little skewed over the years. Sure, he knows that drugs are not right, but is it really his fault that some of his customers cannot handle themselves? Also, who is he to refuse someone a short-term loan, if the bank wont give them money? As long as they aren’t late on payments or have something to trade to pay off their debts, then nobody has any problems. The way he see’s it, it is them forcing his hand if they are late, and one of his boys must ‘gently remind’ them what they owe. Surely, it is better that he is the one doing this for them, any not some greedy fat cat banker? Right?

In terms of how he is around other people, Angelo is first and foremost loyal to the Russo family. He believes himself to be responsible for his Mama and other siblings wellbeing and takes it extremely seriously. It is why he makes a point out of trying to distance them as far from his ‘business’ dealings as much as possible. He knows what he is doing is questionably legal and the last thing he wants is for them to get in trouble. In terms of relationships, Angelo has a habit about getting obsessed with people quickly. He is not afraid to pursue a pretty face he sees on the streets until he can get them into bed. The real trick after that is getting under his skin enough for him to want you back more then a handful of times. To date, there have only been 2 girls that have managed to achieve this, and to this day he refuses to hear their names mentioned around him as it is too painful.

He does of course have a small network of trusted acquaintances and friends, which is hard to get into and painfully easy to get thrown out of. If you do make it into that circle of friends though, Angelo is an extremely generous and warm guy. He thinks nothing of showering his closest with expensive gifts (cars, jewelry and one time a house). The way he see’s it, he is rewarding the loyalty of those who have proven themselves worthy.

APPEARANCE

© TESSISAMESS

HISTORY
Pre-Awakening

Angelo Nicholas Russo was born the eldest child of Ilaria and Nicholas (known to his friends as Nico). The eldest son of Italian Immigrants from Asti in Piedmont, Angelo was raised to be extremely proud of his roots. Angelo was so immersed in the culture of his people and the area that he could barely speak English until not long before he started school. While school did help to expand his horizons a little, he still tended to gravitate back to those he had grown up in the same area as. To him it was safe and what he knew, it was comforting to him to be able to speak his native tongue with friends on lunch without having to stumble around, trying to think of the English word for things. Of course, as the years went on, he branched out more, and made friends across many different communities, but the Italians were whom he felt most comfortable with.

It was in High School though, that things rapidly changed in Angelo’s life. His father having not been a well man for several years, collapsed and died of a heart attack in front of his mother. Called to the Principles office with his siblings, he was instructed to take them straight home. While Angelo might have only been 16 at the time, that day as he comforted his Mama and tried to calm down his siblings, was the day that he became an adult. Passing out hard in his bed, when he rose in the morning, he woke a very different person, a person who was determined to look after his family by any means.

Not having many legal options available to make the amount of cash that he required to help keep the family afloat at his age, he instead turned to less legal means. While his father might have been a clean and principled man, one of his father’s oldest friends Marco could not quite claim the same. Approaching Marco for work, it was not long before he found himself running drugs across Chicago for the gang. If anything, Marco was far too good at the job and it was not long before Marco continued to give him more and more responsibilities for the gang.

While his fathers dying wish had been for Angelo to get a degree and pursue a real education that would lead to real opportunities, he did not do this. The way that he saw it, he made good money doing what he was doing and if anything, any job that he got when he got his piece of paper would be a paycut compared to what he was on. Walking into Marco’s office the day that he graduated High School, he asked to be initiated fully into the business. While it was not easy, Angelo steadily ascended the ranks of Marco’s ‘business’ until in his late 20’s when he found himself put in charge of a number of ‘haulage’ businesses the gang used as a front.

Post Awakening

When Angelo first woke up on New Years day with a headache and fuzzy memories of the night before, he put off a lot of the initial signs as being he was still drunk. When he woke up on the 2nd January though and he found himself able to sense the history of an object by touching it (Clairvoyance), he knew something was wrong. Rushing straight to his Mama’s house to try and figure out what was going on, he found his siblings there all with similar tales of unusual powers. It was then that his Mama began to explain stories passed down from their Nonna (grandmother) of relatives who could make objects move, brew potions and had the ability to see what was happening in remote places.

Borrowing some family books from his Mama, his quest into Wizardry very quickly became an obsession for him. Devouring every book he could find on the topic, it wasn’t long before Angelo began to regularly scour every Antique shop and bookshop he could find, with any books he could find on the subject. Starting to fill his own book full of notes, spells and recipes, he began to extensively chronicle everything that he thought would be useful or had an element of profitability to it.

Deciding to combine his newfound abilities with his existing business, he began to start a black-market trade in potions and charmed items. While he was not capable of producing everything himself, he very quickly found others that could do the work for him, in exchange for favours and things they required. While his drug business might have been highly profitable, his new business gave him a sense of power that he craved.

FAMILY TREE

MOTHER Ilaria Russo.
FATHER Nicholas Russo.

BROTHER Luca
BROTHER Matteo
SISTER Bianca
SISTER Serafina

SPOUSE None.

ROADMAP

BIRTHPLACE Little Italy
CURRENTLY IN Little Italy
OCCUPATION Drug dealer Extortionist Entrepreneur.

TIMELINE

1989

Born

2005

Father Died

2007

Joined the 'business' officially

2020

Powers Emerged

◇Tori ◇31 ◇GMT ◇PB: Michele Morrone ◇CODE BY TESSISAMESS