Tito del Sol

[teamsleep*]

Name: Toriano "Tito" del Sol
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: Twelfth Grade/Senior
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Journalism, hanging out, soccer, flirtation

Appearance: Tito's appearance is most notable in that he is fairly short for a male in his late teens.  Standing 5'4 in boots and barely making Bantamweight at 134 pounds, Tito del Sol inherits much of his Filipino-American family's looks, possessing olive skin, basic straight black hair and dark brown eyes. He also has a slight scar on his right cheek from a childhood incident- just enough to be visible if one were to look closely, but healed to the point it's too light to really see at any sort of a distance.

Despite his short height, Tito has considerably long arms for someone of his size. Moreover, it seems that in exchange for height, the fates granted him a second boost of testosterone- namely, in his sideburns. Fast growing and long, del Sol has trimmed and groomed them to in a way resemble the Italian sailor Corto Maltese.

Tito prefers "functional style" clothing, wearing comfortable cotton shirts when weather permits. More in line with Seattle weather, Tito can be seen around town wearing an unbuttoned cardigan over a v-neck shirt of some kind, with his pants being khaki "chinos".

Biography: Born to a third-generation Filipino family on a rainy August 7th in Stockton, California. Toriano del Sol was for the majority of his life raised by his father, Angelito "Lito" del Sol, and his mother, Kezia del Sol (née Bautista) in a fairly uneventful childhood, with the exception of Tito gaining a small scar from a run-in with an ornery neighborhood cat. Tito, as he was called, immediately took after his father's profession, sailing. By all accounts, Angelito was a kindhearted man, befriending people from all walks of life (for about 3 years of Tito's childhood, his home was shared by a Russian immigrant who his dad had encountered on his travels) and sympathetic to the underdog, if a bit rogueish and mischievous. Because of his job, Lito was not often home, but when he did he doted on young Toriano immensely, who absorbed all of Angelito's habits. By age five, Tito knew how to tie a mast knot and blow air kisses to preschool girls.

When Tito turned seven years old, Angelito was embarking on a trip delivering cargo to Spain. He kissed his son on the forehead, ruffled his hair and told him "Make sure it's like I was never gone, alright?"

These were the last words Angelito spoke to his child.  Less than a week after his voyage began, Tito's father was killed in an incident where his ship collided with a freighter.

Tito himself was crushed, moreover when details of Angelito's double life became apparent. Tito's dad was a sort of a racketeer, illegally smuggling goods into countries. The only person  who took this news worse was his mother. Kezia del Sol was grief-stricken, betrayed, despondent and a shadow of the always-smiling woman who married Angelito years prior. Convinced that Tito would surely stray down the same path as his father, Kezia moved her son to Seattle, home of her incredibly strict parents.

Tito's grandparents, Ariel Bautista and Karen Stevenson are both members of the Greatest Generation and believe that a good whipping can solve any behavioral problem. Horrified upon learning of Angelito's crimes, the elders became hell-bent on forcing out any semblance of influence that Lito may have had on his son. Most notably, when picking up their child from elementary school, grandfather Ariel saw Tito performing his much-practiced air kissing routine, the elder Bautista cuffed Tito over the ear and exclaimed "Maliit na Satanas! Little Devil!"

It was a spur-of-the-moment outburst, but the "nickname" stuck through lower and middle school. Tito was increasingly disillusioned with his spartan grandparents- why couldn't they see that his father was a good man? His relationship with his grandparents- and mother- has become strained.

In part to not wanting to let his father's legacy die and in part to spite his grandparents, Tito went through his childhood and high school as a born gentleman and a bit of a flirt despite his small stature. He took up working with the school paper, believing that while people perceived his dad negatively, he could at least give positive images of someone or something, along with the extracurricular time meaning he could stay away from home. In the summer of his junior year he spent time in New Jersey working with an animal shelter for wolf-dog hybrids, partly because like his dad the animals had gotten a bad rep, and partly to get the hell away from his grandparents. Despite his small size he took up soccer- a struggle in itself, Tito being frequently pushed around by much stronger opponents. Nonetheless, a profound determination (no doubt fueled by his slight Napoleonic complex) meant that at midfielder/attacking midfielder he still made game opposition for anyone in the school league.

In school, Tito is a decent student that is considered to be agreeable with any portion of the student body as long as they don't touch on two subjects: His father or his height. When it became readily apparent he wasn't getting any taller, Tito became a little defensive about his small size- finding a date for the prom who wasn't taller than him was an exercise in frustration.

The now young teenager believed that perceptions simply did nothing positive for a person. After all, his parents and people around him were ignoring the fact that his dad was a saint! He never drank, never cursed, never fought. That was worth emulating. He was a good man. Determined to eradicate prejudices and predetermined bias from social life, he wrote several letters published as editorials in area newspapers. Tito believed that people need to look last a face or a title or the past, that everyone deserves a second chance.

Advantages: Tito is a born gentleman, rarely engaging in disputes and priding himself on being calm and agreeable with nearly all sects of the class and being a bit of a flirt despite his short statue.  Belying his small stature, Tito has excellent cardio in thanks to soccer, having longer endurance than others might. A charismatic young man with good oration skills, del Sol has rarely gotten himself into confrontations owing to his ability to talk his away out of them.
Disadvantages: Due to his upbringing, Tito has some resentment to any concepts he considers old or archaic, even if they may have solid reasoning behind them. Barely 5'4" wearing boots, Tito has a slight Napoleanic complex; he utterly despises being embarrassed, shown up, or otherwise implied to be inferior. His insistence on chivalry, however, means he prefers to keep this irritation bubbling up inside him. Owing from the circumstances of his father's death, del Sol is, in his words, "notably unsettled" when it comes to large bodies of water, suffering from acute hydrophobia. Finally, as one of the shortest and smallest in the school, Tito is overpowered in a struggle by more or less anyone in the student body.