Alejandro Garcia de Teresa

[Pippi]

Name: Alejandro Garcia de Teresa Gonzáles
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Soccer, football, baseball, combat robotics, pool, collecting and sculpting with scrap metal, horror media

Appearance: Alejandro is a young Mexican-American man, with his heritage and his active lifestyle contributing to his dark olive skin tone. He stands at 5’8”, weighs 158lbs, and is very clearly someone who keeps himself in good fitness. His arms and legs are toned, the latter especially so, and he has a well-maintained flat stomach. Other notable features include his rather broad shoulders, and body hair which is already very prominent, particularly along his arms. He has a number of small nicks, cuts, and scars on his hands, and can frequently be seen with a bandage on at least one finger.

In terms of his facial features, Alejandro is rather nondescript. He has an oval face shape, with almond-shaped, dark brown eyes, a broad and flat nose, and a mouth that generally forms a warm smile. His ears are a little larger than most, but not so much to be particularly standout. He has rather thick and bushy eyebrows, and he grows facial hair very quickly. Alejandro hasn’t fully figured out his preferences towards his facial hair just yet, and so will either be seen fully clean shaven, or with a fairly neat moustache just above his upper lip. His hair is jet black, and kept short, reaching just below his ears at the back and about an inch above his eyebrows at the front. He washes his hair frequently, but does little to actually style it, doing little more than tousling it with his hands in the morning on most days.

Alejandro’s wardrobe is also relatively unexciting, and he rarely breaks out of his comfort zone. He has a preference towards collared shirts or polo shirts, but he does have a handful of t-shirts and replica jerseys from his favourite sports teams. He wears chinos or jeans most of the time, and cargo shorts in particularly hot weather. The most notable part of his outfit is the pair of fingerless leather gloves that he nearly always wears. These generally clash with most of his outfits, and are getting very worn and tattered, but he feels more comfortable wearing them, as they hide the majority of the cuts and scars on his hands.

Alejandro’s most commonly-worn outfit consists of a light blue Ralph Lauren Oxford shirt, which was a beloved hand-me-down from his uncle, along with a pair of tan chinos, a dark-brown leather belt, and black and white Adidas tennis shoes. His outfit is topped off by his usual leather gloves, and a small silver crucifix around his neck.

Biography: Alejandro is the middle child of Javier and Beatriz de Teresa, a pair of second-generation Mexican immigrants who own a small convenience store in Las Vegas. They have two other children; Gus, who is four years older than Alejandro, and Marina, who is two years younger. Javier’s mother, Marisol, also lives with the family. Gus currently works at the convenience store during the day, then part-time as a parking valet at a casino on the Las Vegas strip during the evenings. For his part, Alejandro helps out around the shop whenever he can, usually stacking shelves on the weekends.

Due to his parents’ jobs keeping them occupied for most of the day, Alejandro spent a large part of his early years in the care of his extended family instead. Predominantly, this would be with Marisol, but on occasions where she was too busy or otherwise unable to look after him, his uncle Alberto and aunt Jenifer would perform this role instead. Alejandro generally preferred the latter arrangement, as Marisol could be quite stern, while Alberto was a lot more easygoing and jovial.

From a young age, Alejandro found it easy to make friends and get along with those around him. He was easy to approach and generally willing to play along with whatever games his classmates had come up with. When it came to adults such as his parents or teachers, he was always polite and courteous. Most notably, he was always one of the first to try and motivate and encourage his friends when they were struggling at something, such as during gym class.

Alejandro attributes his supportive nature to his religious upbringing, or at least how it was displayed to him in his pre-teen years. The de Teresa family had always been devout Roman Catholic Christians, and Javier and Beatriz were eager for their children to share in their faith too. They all went to church together on Sundays, and said grace before every meal. While it was difficult for Alejandro to wrap his head around the more spiritual side of things, such as the existence of God, he loved the Bible stories his mother and grandmother told him. He found stories such as Moses parting the Red Sea exciting, and he took the themes of doing right by his fellow man to heart.

Alberto was much less religious by comparison, and so tried to connect to his nephew in other ways instead. A massive sports fanatic, he would play with Alejandro in his backyard while pretending they were both famous sports stars. These games ranged from simple games of catch, to Alberto playing goalkeeper and blocking penalty kicks. While Alejandro enjoyed all of these, their games of soccer were always his favourite, as it was the sport he was best at and felt as though he could demonstrate the most amount of skill playing.

While he was less keen on playing the other sports his uncle introduced him to, Alejandro did gain a much greater appreciation from watching them be played professionally. He particularly enjoyed watching football and baseball, as it allowed him to experience various skills and techniques that he knew he would never be able to pull off. Additionally, watching NFL and MLB games on TV proved to be an exhilarating experience for him, as the noise from the crowd added to the experience, while the commentators provided additional insight, allowing him to really immerse himself in the games. Despite being his favourite sport to actually play, Alejandro has no interest in actually watching soccer games, as he is annoyed by the frequent diving and play-acting in professional games. He supports the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL, and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the MLB, both of which are also Alberto's favourite teams

As he proceeded from middle school to high school, Alejandro continued to prove easy to befriend and hang out with. He joined the school soccer team, initially as a midfielder before gravitating more towards a centre-forward position as he developed his skills and figured out his favoured position. To this day he holds this role down for the school team, thanks to his natural talent and his dedication to doing the best he can for the team. He will often be the first to turn up to practice and the last to leave, and outside of school he will run through drills and practice taking penalties in his back yard. Additionally, he maintains a regular exercise schedule each morning and evening in order to remain in peak physical condition. Although he still had no desire to actually play either sport, he was a constant presence at the school’s football and baseball games, eager to cheer them on and support the teams. He would even, on occasion, sit in during their training sessions to offer encouragement and advice.

Outside of school, Alejandro started spending more and more time in downtown Las Vegas with his friends, predominantly on the weekends and after soccer practice. On one occasion, he had gone to a local bowling alley with a group of his soccer teammates. While waiting for a lane to become free, they spent their time on the arcade machines, air hockey, and, most notably, pool tables in the lobby. Alejandro was particularly drawn to the latter; he had always considered it a ‘cool’ activity to do, so he was excited to be able to finally play it for himself. He found it to be surprisingly tactical and thoughtful, and much harder to excel at than he had thought at first glance. These factors completely engrossed him, and by the end of the evening, he had enjoyed playing pool much more than he had the bowling they’d initially gone out for. To this day, when Alejandro gets the last word on where he and his friends are planning on hanging out at, he will prioritise any location that he knows has a pool table.

Due to Alejandro being on good terms with a good portion of the student body, he’s been introduced to a wide variety of hobbies and activities he might not have otherwise considered trying out. One of the most notable of these is the school’s horror club. Historically, Alejandro had no interest in any form of horror media, but he did have a number of friends in the club who were eager for him to try it out. He was rather reluctant, but wanted to see what made it so appealing, and he tagged along to one of their movie nights. Although the film itself was decidedly generic slasher fare, he found himself enjoying the adrenaline rush from the few moments of genuine tension the movie generated. He became a semi-frequent participant in these movie nights, eager to see higher-quality productions than his initial outing. He’s particularly fascinated by the usage of shared character archetypes, traits, and tropes utilised between completely different films, and some of his favourite movies are those that play with genre expectation, such as The Cabin in the Woods. He also has a preference for psychological and slower-paced horror, and will generally ignore anything that heavily relies on jumpscares.

About a year ago, Alejandro went to one of the BattleBots Destruct-A-Thon live shows, held on the Las Vegas strip, for his friend’s birthday. He went into this with absolutely no preconceptions as to what he’d experience, having never watched anything related to robot combat beforehand, but he came away from it having really enjoyed himself. The fights were a lot more akin to a sports match than he had anticipated, with a raucous crowd cheering the combatants on, and the action in the arena being exciting and dramatic. He also admired the camaraderie even between rival teams, willing to share tools and spare parts with each other to ensure a fair fight. He has since gone on to absorb much more of the culture and a greater understanding of the sport, watching past seasons of BattleBots and Robot Wars, along with the ongoing NHRL series.

As with many fledgling fans of robot combat, Alejandro had a burgeoning desire to see his own robotic creations battling it out in the arena. This was further exacerbated by the fact that Alberto owned a scrapyard, and Alejandro attempted to convince his uncle to let him look for spare bits and pieces to use for this endeavour. While Alberto adored his nephew, he was still reluctant to let him roam around a scrapyard by himself, and came to a compromise that he would bring Alejandro any potentially useful scrap metal while doing his job.

Although this did quash Alejandro’s robotics goals somewhat — along with further research to learn that most ant and beetleweight robots were made from plastics rather than metals — it did simultaneously give him a new fascination and interest. A lot of the scrap that Alberto brought him was curved and twisted in ways that Alejandro found fascinating, bent in ways that the original material clearly was not intended to do so, and creating intriguing shadows and silhouettes in the evenings. He started to collect the most distinctive pieces, storing them in a compartmentalised box and occasionally bringing them out to arrange and balance atop each other to create even more fascinating displays. The discovery that the school has a small metalworking club has allowed Alejandro to properly work with and display these sculptures, welding and reshaping the pieces to fit his abstract visions. While he follows all safety procedures to the letter 99% of the time, he occasionally gets excited and forgets himself when Alberto brings him a new piece of scrap, handling it without gloves and getting small nicks and cuts on his hands.

At school, Alejandro remains generally popular and well-liked. He enjoys attempting new things, and so has a lot of different friends in a lot of different circles and clubs, aided by his genial, personable attitude. He’s considered a good student as well, as he is constantly pushing for self-improvement and excellence in whatever he puts his hand to, and so receives As and Bs in all of his subjects. This desire for improvement also feeds into the way he treats his peers, as he wants everyone around him to succeed as well. He loves to motivate and encourage the people around him, and help them get better at what they’re doing; he has joined the student council in order to further push this desire. While this attitude is, for the most part, appreciated, as he is quick with praise and constructive advice, there are more than a few people who find this behaviour frustrating and unwanted. His constant pushing for improvement makes some people feel as though he can never be satisfied and has far too lofty goals, and he struggles to fully understand that some of his classmates don’t wish to be the very best at what they do, and just do things for fun.

Alejandro is also rather skeptical by nature, and struggles to trust or believe in anything that he doesn’t have concrete proof of. While this does mean that he is very difficult to trick or mislead, and he generally ignores any rumours or gossip that floats around at school, he will also generally dismiss any stories or anecdotes that he considers even slightly farfetched. This, along with his constant pushing for constant improvement, means a lot of his classmates consider him stubborn and difficult to reason with, even those he is friends with.

Recently, Alejandro has also been dealing with bouts of severe melancholy and introspection, something that mostly stems from how much his relationship with religion has soured over the last few years. Because of his skepticism, he has found it harder and harder to truly believe in the existence of God without any evidence to back it up. He has been demoralised greatly by news reports of how people in positions of power within the Christian church have treated minorities and vulnerable groups, as it goes against everything he was taught about treating all people with love and respect. He still wears a crucifix at all times, but he has started making more and more excuses to avoid going to church, including lying to his family and pretending he is ill. Despite this skepticism and lack of faith, he is still reluctant to call himself an atheist or to shed the mantle of religion entirely. He’s uncertain as to whether this is because he truly believes there’s a higher power out there who is independent of God, whether he wants to believe there’s something more to the creation of life and the universe than what science can explain, or whether he’s struggling with internal guilt at letting his family down by not believing in something that they do with such fervor. This has only heightened his introspection and self-examination, and he can occasionally be found during lunch at school deep in thought, unfocused on the world around him.

While Alejandro’s relationship with his classmates is mostly positive, his ties to his own family are a lot more strained. He has always felt a distance between himself and his parents, due to him primarily being raised by his extended family. While they do interact more nowadays, Alejandro still feels like he knows his uncle, aunt, and grandma more than his birth parents. This distance is not helped by his strained relationship with religion, and outside of that, there is very little in the way of hobbies and interests that he shares with either his mom and dad, or with Marina. While he does get on better with Gus, the fact his older brother works two jobs currently means the two only get to interact for very limited periods of time. He does still maintain an excellent relationship with Alberto and Jenifer, spending time with them whenever he is able, and also considers his relationship with Marisol positive, despite her declining health.

Post-graduation, Alejandro hopes to play soccer at the University of Nevada, as the sport remains his biggest love, and despite his good grades there are no real academic subjects that he has a great desire to pursue further. His parents, however, hope that he will remain at home for the foreseeable future and work at the convenience store with them. While he currently helps out after school and occasionally on the weekends, he is hoping that he will either be able to compromise and only work there for a year before moving onto higher education, or that he will be able to convince them that soccer is his true calling above anything else.

Advantages: Alejandro is generally well-liked at school; he has a friendly and courteous attitude, and loves to motivate and support the people around him to excel at whatever they’re doing. These traits means he has a number of existing friends and allies available, and is likely to find it fairly easy to gain more on the island. He is fit and healthy thanks to his time playing soccer, and is a particularly fast runner, which should allow him an easier time chasing or escaping from people. Alejandro’s skeptical nature means that he does not listen to or believe in rumours or hearsay, and also means that it is very difficult to fool him, as he finds it near impossible to believe in anything that he does not have visible, concrete evidence for.
Disadvantages: On the other hand, this skeptical nature could prove to be a double-edged sword, as it might lead him to disregard any information that doesn't fit into his perception of reality, regardless of whether it actually turns out to be correct. Alejandro has been going through some severe emotional conflict recently, regarding his family’s religious beliefs contrasting so heavily with his own skepticism. He will frequently slip into bouts of melancholy, or deep introspection as to what he truly believes, which can cause him to lose track of what is going on around him. His refusal to entertain any idea that he does not have visible proof of has caused some to label him as being stubborn. Despite the fact that he is genuinely trying to help his classmates not only succeed but excel, there are several people who find his standards far too high and as though he’s never satisfied with their improvement, leading to them being more frustrated with him than appreciative.

[Deamon]

Hey Pippi! Alejandro is looking very good right now, and only needs to have some small edits before he'll be good to go.

Does Alejandro have a weight?

and a mouth which generally forms a warm smile.

That generally.

Alejandro is the middle child of Javier and Beatriz,

Minor thing but can we add the surname in for the parents?

What branch of Christianity are the de Teresa's?

With Alejandro's soccer playing, how has been doing with that in the present day and does he practice outside of team practices?

I know Alejandro watches NFL and MLB so could we have his favourite teams for some additional detail? Especially as the appearance says he likes to wear replica jerseys for his favourite teams, but we aren't told what they are currently.

are those which play with genre expectation

That play.

He also has a preference for psychological and slower paced horror,

Hyphen in slower-paced.

somewhat - along with further research to learn that most ant and beetleweight robots were made from plastics rather than metals - it

The correct punctuation here is the em-dash rather than the hyphen. — or alt+0151 on your keyboard.

This desire for improvement also stems into the way he treats his peers,

I don't think stems is the correct word for this sentence.

An addition you could consider for a disadvantage, although up to you if you use it or not, but could Alejandro's skeptical nature be double-edged in that while it is difficult to fool him, could he potentially not believe true information because it doesn't fit with his perception of things?

And that is everything for you! Post back here once you've made the edits and then I'll be back to give Alejandro a second look over!

[Pippi]

Heya Dea! I'm preeeetty sure I've grabbed everything you asked for here, I'm definitely gonna yoink that disadvantage suggestion as well cause it's a great shout. Hopefully this should all be good to go!

[Deamon]

Almost got everything, you just missed out Alejandros weight, add that in quick and he's in!

[Pippi]

GWUH still cannot believe that was what I missed. Got that in now though!

[Deamon]

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