Prospero de'Rossi
Name: Prospero de'RossiSexual Orientation: Straight
Physical information:
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Green
Distinguishing Marks: A couple of scars you wouldn’t notice without getting very close.
Description of General Appearance:
When he swaggers through the streets of Venice, Prospero is hard to miss. He cuts a dashing figure, with a tall, lean frame, with an impressive width across the shoulders, a deep chest, and clean, strong limbs. He moves with a languid, relaxed grace, always at ease and with an air about him as if belongs exactly where he is, no matter where that is, be it a nobles fine dining table or the gutters outside a brothel, or in the pews of a church.
His face is handsome, inherited from his mother, but many are the whispers that point at the sharp nose and suggest it comes from this father, or the broad, smiling mouth that bears a striking resemblance to this man’s. His features are all sharp, and severe, softened only by the large, kind eyes that are the green of springs first tender leaves. The shock of sleep tousled black hair that falls just past his shoulders, and the often stubble covered chin gives him a somewhat disheveled aspect, that some find charming, and others loathsome, but all who’s seen him make the effort will attest that the young man cleans up well and looks every bit the noble blood that rumours suggest he possess.
Most days, Prospero is comfortably dressed in a loose shirt, perhaps an embroidered vest or a doublet or coat, that he may or may not have bothered to lace up or toggle. Good boots seem to be a constant, and good gloves to, as well as the wide leather belt he wears, with its empty scabbard loops and ties hanging down on his thigh.
Society Information:
Family:
Catalina de’Rossi: His mother, who at 44 still retains her position as a much sought after, and famed courtesan and songstress.
Tessa de’Rossi: Sister, age 18, a pretty, clever young woman trying to make her mind up if she wishes to become a nun or follow in her mother’s footsteps.
Occupation: Prospero, living up to his name, finds his coins in strange abundance wherever he can get them.
Personality Details:
Personality:
Prospero will surprise those who look at the languid, lopsided smirk and lazy body language and assumes that there goes the callous knave. Certainly, he is a man who enjoys his freedom, and who lives for his own appetites and vices, and despite his better judgment finds that his demons are always shouted down by the better angels of his consciousness. It’s why his pockets always gape empty, for all his winnings from the gambling, ends up in pauper bowls and alms boxes once the wine is bought and the shirt is mended. It’s why he’s banned from numerous drinking houses and brothels because he’s broken a fair share of noses and fingers of those who didn’t know how to keep them to themselves.
He is good company to any who would have him. Always with an easy smile, and a boisterous laugh and the proper etiquette when it is called for, and while he will happily defend the honour of a lady when called for or push a fop in to the canal after sneering at some child, he very seldom rises to any slights or slanders against his own name.
All in all, he as an adventurous sort, easy going and with a thirst for life that nothing seems to quench or diminish, who at heart, despite himself, proves to a better man than he wants to be.
Background/History:
Ask Prospero, and he would say he has lived a charmed life. It was not spent in the lap of luxury, but neither were they poor. His mother’s select clientele and patrons took good care of the beautiful Catalina, but they were never allowed to rise above their station. So, while he could not have all he wished for, he never wanted for food or shelter, and he learned early that that alone was not afforded to everyone. He saw the downtrodden all around him, those who had to fight for every heel of bread, and he learned to cherish what fortunes he had. Growing up, half on the streets, he also and lived the plights of urchins everywhere. These were good lessons for the man he would become. Even if it planted ideals within him that he would grow annoyed with later.
With no father around, and a mother who spent considerable hours earning their keep either at the opera or entertaining the clients, the young Prospero spent much of his time around the types that made the seedier parts of Venice run smoothly. Street toughs and bone breakers, money lenders, gamblers, thieves, and whores all became his uncles and aunts, and took to the charming boy like he was blood. From them he learned how to navigate the city, how to cheat at games of chance without getting caught, what palms to grease to get by in the night and how to walk on rooftops, and slink through alleys. The boy was well on his way to becoming a thief, and a near do well, if not for his mother’s bodyguard, Robert, a half French, half Italian, who’s past might have been in piracy, or as a palace guard in Paris. The story changed daily. But he taught young Prospero to be a better man than those around him, to act with manners when needed, and most importantly perhaps, in the boy’s mind, he taught him how to swing a sword.
So it was, and the years passed, and the boy reached an age when suddenly his mother decided, seemingly out of nowhere, but with great joy in her expression, that her son would attend tutoring and proper lessons. So, he was sent off to the same fine institutions that raised the boys of proper nobles. He never learned how or why was accepted, not even now, even if he has certain suspicions. He never excelled, not at first, not when he was sent to the university and when pressed and cajoled into the seminary, he did it with raised hackles. It was not that he did not enjoy learning, it was interesting, debates were duels with words and wits, as much fun as any clash of swords, and history and philosophy was good to know, if for no other reason that it was fun. He just did not have it in him to perform to the liking of his teachers, not at any level, and he did not take well to the rigours and the tight-fisted control that the schooling required.
He was eventually thrown out of seminary, which was no great sorrow to himself, but something that his mother still laments and will beat him over the head with, whenever the mood takes her.
Since then, he makes himself a living, day to day, any way he knows how. This ranges far and wide, from acting as a tutor, to standing champion for duels, buying and selling whatever he can find that he believes someone else might give him a better price for, sometimes taking up his mother’s trade, even though the need for a male courtesan is rare, or otherwise finding ways to rub two coins together to make a third. He’s also known for gambling, for charming fine and noble’s girls out of blushes and pretty rings and necklaces, and otherwise making a bit of nuisance of himself to the upper classes, some who still seem to take some delight and fascination with the adventurer. Yet, for as many times as he’s been arrested, or berated, sometimes even jailed for short stretches, he seems to come out clean in the end, and ready to face his next day with a smirk.
Skills and Abilities:
Education:
-What you can learn on the streets
-Knows both his letters and his numbers
-A classic education
-A wasted stint at the university
-a year of seminary
Skills:
-Excellent with a sword
-A good thief and forger
-Naturally athletic
-Rumour and information gathering
-Gambling and cheating