Aurelio Ruggiero

Basic Information

Full Name: Aurelio “Lio” Ruggiero

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Height: 6’3”

Weight: 218 lbs

Build: Slender, but statuesque figure

Skin Complexion: Honey-like Complexion

Eye Color: Smokey Silver Eyes

Hairstyle: Medium-Length, Fluffy Hair

Hair Color: Cola Brown Hair

Fashion Style: Cozy, Vintage-esque clothing style

DOB: September 22nd

Place of Birth: Porto Venere, Italy

Nationality: Italian

Sexual Orientation Straight

General Appearance

Appearance: Aurelio is a male of Italian descent, standing at a height of 6’3” with a slender, but statuesque build. His cola brown hair complemented the honey-like tanness of his complexion perfectly, alongside his smoke colored eyes. His clothing of choice reminded one of past times, reflecting his personality within his style. As he strolled by, a subtle rosemary smell would float through the air around him. 

Personality: The first thing that one would notice about Aurelio is his heavy Italian accent. Having grown up in a family that passionately embraced their heritage, he grew up speaking both English and Italian in unison with each other. Even now there are times where he may be speaking in one language and a word from the other slips into his sentence. Another very impressionable thing about him is his very gentlemanly nature. This is something that was drilled into him from a young age and he continues to practice the habits without a thought. He’s also a very warm-hearted individual. This is highlighted within his compassion and kindness, which allows him to create friendships quite easily, even with individuals he just met. The last (and most important) thing about him that one will immediately notice about him is his love of the culinary arts. Whether it be savory dishes or sweet baked goods, Aurelio has always had a deep passion for learning how to cook. This was passed down to him by his family, but it wasn’t necessarily forced upon him. One of the ways he shows his appreciation for a person is by cooking them a tasty meal. 

Character Voice:

Aurelio speaking English - 

Can Italians speak English? (in Naples) (3:10 - 3:40)

Aurelio speaking Italian - 

What Makes Someone Truly Italian - According to Italians | Easy Italian 170 (1:04 - 1:15)

Trinkets: Aurelio would almost always be wearing a watch, with his most worn one being a family heirloom. He’d also always have a red poker chip tucked into his pocket that he’d roll between his fingers from time to time. Tucked into his other pocket would be his wallet. Within the wallet was a bit of cash and a stray picture of an anonymous girl. 

Clothes:

Other

Hobbies: Clubbing, Working out, (Rubix) Cubing, Cooking, Gambling, Going out on walks (specifically at night)

Serious Problems/Flaws/Addictions: At times Aurelio can be too much of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to cooking. From this stems slight anger issues, which can be taken out on others even if they aren’t even a part of the situation. He has sporadic outbursts of anger that one wouldn’t assume to be an issue for him. However, these outbursts don’t normally last long and he will profusely apologize afterwards. 

Aurelio can also get a bit too competitive, specifically when it comes to gambling. While he isn’t too bad at it, he can get way in over his head; especially if he is challenged by another. This is why he will never gamble without someone else there. He makes sure to always go to places such as a casino with a friend who will keep him in check. 

To go along with these, Aurelio struggles with the loss of his father quite deeply. He generally does a good job of hiding this, but there are times where he will step out of a room if something in the room acts as a trigger for this grief. One of the largest triggers for this is his anxiety to live up to his father’s legacy. No one in his family expects this of him, but Aurelio expects it of himself. With one wrong move in his plan, he could spiral in an instant. 

Skills: Like previously mentioned, Aurelio’s culinary abilities are vast. Over the years his mental cookbook has expanded rapidly and he knows how to cook and bake a wide variety of dishes directly from memory. Another thing he is quite good at that one may not assume just by looking at him is solving rubix cubes. This newer puzzle is something he seemed to be naturally good at right from the time his family got him one for his birthday when he was younger. Even now he has multiple cubes that he leaves in different places such as in his car and in many rooms of his home. Aurelio is also quite the business brain, as he graduated business management school with relative ease. 

Family and Important People

Family:

Lucia Ruggiero | 49 | Mother | Alive

Sergio Ruggiero | Father | Deceased

Liliana Ruggiero | 18 | Sister | Alive

Rosario Ruggiero | 15 | Brother | Alive

Viviana Ruggiero | 15 | Sister | Alive

Celestina Ruggiero | 9 | Sister | Alive

Friends + More

Samantha Grant | 24 | Close Friend | Alive

Ixoria Belmont | 19 | Close Friend | Alive

Farah Hajji | 19 | Close Friend | Alive

Yuu Hashida | Close Friend | Alive

Rhea Valentine | 22 | Close Friend | Alive

Clara O’Regan | 22 | Close Friend | Alive

Ruru Enki | 20 | New Friend | Alive

Nyx Nuria | 20 | Girlfriend | Alive

Gunther Hugh | 22 | New Friend | Alive

Mia Kilikina | 27 | Close Friend | Alive

Javier Alejo | 25 | Close Friend | Alive

Akira Ryuga | Close Friend | Alive

Backstory

Aurelio was born into a loving family located in Porto Venere, Italy on September 22, 1962. Right from the beginning he was welcomed by the warmth of love from each family member, with the family itself being very tight-knit. For the first three years of his life, Aurelio lived in a small village within Porto Venere with the rest of his extended family. He was able to grow and meet a few childhood friends before getting told that they would be moving to the United States when he was four years old. Aurelio was quite nervous for the move because he was scared that he wouldn’t fit in once he got to America. However, this ended up being far from the case. 

After arriving in New York City, he learned that his family had already bought a few separate apartments in a borough called Queens. As he settled in and explored, he was overjoyed to slowly learn that Queens was home to a large population of Italian immigrants just like him. Whether they had just arrived not long before him or if they had been in the states for generations, Aurelio felt at ease knowing he had this little piece of home with him. 

The whole reason for the Ruggiero’s move to America was for the business venture of opening a high-scale Italian restaurant in New York City. A tourist that visited Porto Venere had dined at the Ruggiero’s small establishment and immediately fell in love with the cuisine that they offered. However, this tourist wasn’t just anyone insignificant. He was a large investor within many separate successful businesses. And lucky for them, he wanted their restaurant to be his next great success. So, after some heavy negotiations, he convinced the family to make the move and open up the restaurant of both parties’ dreams. 

The restaurant itself was extremely successful right out of the gate, due to the investor, Walter Bancroft, devoting a large sum of money to a variety of different advertisements. As Aurelio looked on as his family ran the restaurant, all he could do was watch in awe. This specifically applied to watching his father cook. His father made each dish with rhythm of sorts for lack of better words. Everything flowed so perfectly when he made any sort of dish, so it's no wonder why Aurelio was always mesmerized. As Aurelio grew older, his family began to teach him the ways of their art. He would start with simple things such as how to make pasta from scratch and create the perfect red sauce. Along with this, Aurelio also began to take a bigger role in the family business by setting tables and showing parties to their seats.

As he continued to grow up, Aurelio began to really embrace the beauties of growing up in New York City as a kid. He would hang out with kids from his own borough, but they would also go and explore the other boroughs. Something he immediately loved to do was go outside and take walks around the packed city at night. The starry sky paired with the bright lights of the bustling streets is what made it magical for him. However, he’d have to sneak out of his apartment to do this because his mom would try to prevent him from walking around the city in the late hours of night. He also loved to play pickup games of soccer with his friends. When he was younger, the competition around him seemed like it was fairly balanced. Although as he grew older, he couldn’t seem to keep up with how much better everyone got. Nowadays, he just keeps up with the Genoa CFC in order to keep his love of the game alive. 

Aurelio also grew fond of the little cube puzzle known as the Rubix Cube. As soon as he got his hands on one for his birthday, he began to try and solve the puzzle faster and faster, even competing against his friends who also had one. A small dream of his at a young age was to go to the World Championships of Speed Cubing someday, but that dream soon subsided when he got much more invested in the family business. 

In his high school years, he took a step up the ladder within the business. By this point his family made sure that he had mastered each of the dishes on the menu, which allowed him to become one of the head chefs in the kitchen when his schedule allowed for it. However, his schedule was normally quite packed. He was always hanging out with friends and going to small parties. He also began to get into gambling at this age, with many of the kids in his borough creating their own gatherings for things such as poker or craps games. This allowed him to get far too invested in the gambling scene to the point where his friends would need to physically pull him away from the table when they saw his eyes light up from a streak of good hands. 

When it came to his post-high school years, he decided to attend Purdue University in order to pursue a degree in Business Management. Throughout his time there, Aurelio kept up his normal lifestyle of a balance between focusing on studies and creating great social connections and friendships. Though the biggest change for him came during his junior year when he got an unexpected phone call from his mother.

“H-He’s gone, Aurelio. . .” was all Aurelio heard before he collapsed to his knees. He knew his father had been fighting some health issues for the past few years, but the doctors had believed that he was in the clear now. However, they weren’t completely accurate with this assumption and it led to a fast-growing cancer re-appearing in his father’s lungs. His family hadn’t updated him with this information though, as they figured it would be best for him to focus entirely on his studies. Instead of sitting there in grief, Aurelio threw himself into his studies even more, cutting himself off from many lines of communication including his close family and friends. He eventually graduated with high honors, finally embracing family life again. No one actually knows much about what happened in those years that he went silent besides him, but maybe someday someone will get him to open up about it. 

After he graduated, he did the only thing that seemed right; moving back to where his family was. Instead of Queens, they now lived in a small town called East Falls. When he first arrived in the town, he could immediately tell that this wouldn’t be anything like living back in the crowded city of New York, but he still planned to fully embrace it. So, he began preparing to revive the roots of what held his family together all these years; the family restaurant. This is where his journey in East Falls officially begins. . .