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Tweak says, "PALKIIIAAAAAAAA"

alex romano // tuxedo kamen (protectinq) wrote,
@ 2028-08-24 20:17:00

profile;

basics.

FULL NAME Alex Luca Romano.
REINCARNATION OF Prince Endymion / Mamoru Chiba / Tuxedo Kamen.
AGE & BIRTHDAY (Barely) Twenty / 17 August 1988.
ETHNICITY Italian (paternally) and Irish (maternally).
SCHOOL New York University.
GRADE Junior.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES Tennis. He doesn't have time for much else.
RESIDENCE He lives in an on-campus apartment during the school year, but his family (where he goes when he is not in school) is in Brooklyn.
OCCUPATION A job at Barnes & Noble & student tutor for various math and science courses at York Prep. He is set up for an internship (which will count as a credit for a class) with a nearby hospital, as well, so he will measure based on that whether or not he will keep the B&N job.

power within.

ALLIANCE Shitennou.
TITLE/RANK Leader, Prince, King.
UNIFORM Caped Black Tuxedo, Top Hat, White Mask.
WEAPON Rose, Cane.
ABILITY Various, Healing touch, Psychometry.

family.

Nicolas Romano, father;; As the owner of a small pizza business, it is not uncommon to find Alex's father buried in paperwork and looking quite worked to the bone. There has always been an air of tension about him, years of toil wear starting to leave its mark, and he's never had as much time for family as he would like. All the same, despite the stress of keeping the business from going under (and thus facing bankruptcy), Alex cannot help but admire his determination and willingness to shoulder that sort of responsibility, taking a risk and trusting that it is going to work out in the end. There is a subtle worry in Alex's mind that his father might have wanted him to take on the business when he was old enough, but Alex feels an irresistible pull to the medical profession, and he instead opts to take the lessons of perseverance and willingness to take leaps for ultimate gain and applies it instead to the path he has chosen for himself.

Alana Romano, mother;; Anyone who meets Alana Romano can easily tell what a sweet woman she is. She too wished to pursue a medical career as a nurse, but she had neither the means nor the interest in science as a whole to press through and get it. When she learned of Alex's plans to be a doctor, she was swift to encourage him and prod him along, despite any ideas he might have that he was burdening them with his ambitions. He looks past any mild cases of smothering and wishes very much he could save her from the cooped up life as a cook at the family pizza business. He knows she enjoys it well enough, but he cannot help but feel like there's that feeling of containment regarding her lively spirit – a feeling that was not difficult to make sense of once he was away from his home and seeing the entirety of what he had been missing.

appearance.

Tall and lean, Alex strikes a respectable and nonthreatening appearance. Standing at five foot eleven, he is several inches taller than his father, and above average for both his Italian and Irish roots -- a fact that feels out of place at family gatherings but perfectly at ease amongst his peers at school. His short, dark hair is cropped short, and his eyes are a deep blue. He has the gait of someone who is calmly confident in himself, down-to-earth enough to not appear intimidating, but eased and respectable enough to pain the picture of someone who knows where he is going and plans to get there when the time is right. There is no rushing, no dawdling necessary -- only a calm steadiness.

While he does not fuss excessively about the way he looks, Alex is, by nature, a very hygienic person and upholds a very clean-cut appearance. He avoids the baggy jean trend like the plague and prefers to remain on the cleaner, nicer side of that middle ground between urban and pretentiousness. No slicked hair nor a scruffy face is to be seen, and rather than waste his money on expensive name brand clothing, he wears what looks nice at a reasonable price. There are better things to spend money on than whatever the latest superficial fashion trend might be.

personality.

Strength is one of Alex's primary defining traits – not in the sense of physical power, but rather in his determination to be an unshakable pillar and support for the people he loves. The lack of financial blessings throughout his life leaves him with the feeling that he needs to be one step ahead when it comes to his dealings with academics and his future as a whole. He has always seen his parents do everything they can to provide an exceptional education for him, rather than leaving him to the mercy of New York's less prestigious areas, and he feels an empowering drive to pay back what he has been given. 'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,' and he cannot bear to leave himself indebted at the expense of another person – though he can bend the rule in their benefit if he is particularly fond or guilt-ridden. Each sacrifice is another reason for him to keep pushing, always pushing, to not let them suffer for their generosity.

This desire to protect and nurture manifests itself throughout all of his closest relationships, but such people are few and far between. While he does have a scoping desire to help people as a whole, it is a rare bird indeed that he can truly and genuinely trust, and it is those people that he would truly give his life for if the need ever arose. His friendliness extends to everyone around him, as he has a naturally easing aura about him (something that he feels will be helpful in his field, as it is difficult to feel comfortable with a cold and distant physician), but there is a hesitancy to forge close connections with just anyone he might see from day to day in the classroom. He likes the feeling of having something special and disconnected in a friendship, something separate from the masses of day to day people. Keeping them at an arm's length allows for friendliness and the ability to step in with a defense on their behalf if the need arose, but it keeps his own problems from ever having to touch them.

It is not all seriousness that defines him, however; there is a playfulness that surfaces, coloring his otherwise sobered demeanor with a distinct lightness. It is not uncommon for a teasing tone to enter his voice or writing if he comes across something particularly ridiculous, and there are simply times when people seem as if they are begging to be mocked or teased. The intent is not cruel, and there are genuinely times when he is unable to tell if the playful jabbing is being interpreted as seriousness rather than jest, but unfortunately, a keen insight to the emotional workings of other people is not a gift he was particularly blessed with. Certainly not limited to the occasions of ill-received mocking, it is not unheard of that an assumption is made regarding the feelings of another person – incorrect assumptions. This misinterpretation hinders him in his relationships when it does occur, but he acts only on what he truly believes is the right thing to do, and when his mind's view of the right thing and the other person's view of the right thing are not aligned and the same, the situation becomes far more difficult to address and solve. His lack of willingness to engage in the open communication necessary to understand that he does not already know exactly what they are thinking is the source of his problem, but it does not even cross his mind that he could be misinterpreting the situation.

A weakness that goes hand-in-hand with this stubborn, sometimes martyr-like determination to Do the Right Thing, is his intellectual arrogance. He certainly does not intend to be arrogant, and he would never recognize it in himself as being so, but he has not made it through years of solid and excelling success and admittance into a prestigious private university with perfect and all-encompassing modesty. It is not bragging or claims of superiority that bring out the arrogance in him, however, but instead his feelings that he has a grasp on what the right thing to do is and wishes to carry it out accordingly. He is not unable to listen to arguments and change his mind, but until he is convinced, he takes on a quietly disapproving air. This trait coupled with his occasional bout of playfulness can concoct a rather unfortunate sensitivity for those who do poorly or seem lazy by his standards (or by normal standards, for that matter) -- he has, in the past, had difficulty understanding how people can fail utterly at their classes for any reason but laziness on their own part, but as he is getting older, he tries to catch himself in the thoughts and keep them, for the most part, to himself. His former frustrations are replaced with an unending patience (only sometimes tinted with exasperation for those he is comfortable with), and he makes an effort to be understanding and kind, even when people are being ridiculous.

Despite faults, however, an old-fashioned chivalry and a genuine interest in the comfort and happiness of others shines through. Opening doors and offering seats on the bus are not uncommon practices, and he cannot stand the world's present tendency to exploit girls and make them feel worthless for not looking like a too-thin supermodel. Although he is not fully able to separate himself from the human urges and tendencies to find certain types of girls more attractive than others, it is truly the heart and personality of a girl that will make her truly stick. Everyone (even the lazy and/or exasperating sorts) is unique in his or her own way and should be appreciated and respected, and he hates there is so little attention paid to the mind or heart of a girl in the media when they opt to dress her inappropriately and tell her that it's the way she ought to present herself if she wishes to be accepted by the public. Between a stunning but cruel woman or an average-looking woman with a genuine light to her, he would take the second without the slightest hesitation.

Even with the stresses of keeping up with tennis and his murderous pre-med academic schedule, Alex remains consistently level-headed; refusing to let his stronger emotions completely take control of his actions, he tries to think things through thoroughly logically and figure out the most effective way to handle a situation. In addition, while he would not necessary be considered a shy person, he is not one to throw himself into the limelight to grab and direct attention to himself. He feels himself far more suited to behind-the-scenes action, or more supportive courses of action in the things he takes a stand for. 'Rallying the troops' is not his style, as could be observed in his feelings on the environment, for an example: while he does not parade about claiming that people gathering people for protests and declarations that everyone ought to be forced into a 'greener' way of life, he supports it fully and takes part in the occasional environment-centered activity, simply because he feels that the vast majority of people are apathetic or perhaps even ignorant about issues. He is not one to force information onto people, but he speaks when he feels it is essential.

Along with his over-achieving nature comes a deep need for order and neatness around him. Whether in himself, in the organization of his work, or the state of his apartment, Alex does not like for things to be out of their rightful place. He is capable of functioning, but it bothers himself and, depending on the extremity, can affect the level of stress added onto whatever he was working on in the first place. He does not hold other people's messiness against him, but he would rather take a moment to remedy the situation for them himself than try to study in a less than optimal and comfortable environment. The disarray is detrimental to his concentration, and if he cannot take care of the mess, he would rather relocate to the library or a bench outside in the clear open -- a far less oppressing environment, and he does enjoy being outside and just enjoying the fresh air and trees.

Despite the toiling and frustration and endless hours of endless reading that drives him to such obsessive study habits, Alex truly does enjoys academics and learning as a whole -- particularly the sciences in which he is most successful and luckily most interested. He pursues the a medical profession not for the money, but because it is a dream that allows him to explore his interests and help cure people at the same time. Physics is the subject that fascinates him the most, despite its lack of direct connection to his future profession, but the defined explanations and often mind-boggling ways of looking at their world is interesting, and he cannot help but settle with the occasional physics text, despite any mocking it might elicit. He enjoys puzzles and challenges, disliking when things come too easily, and when it comes to fiction, he prefer to delve into mystery novels -- good mystery novels. The ones where you actually can't guess exactly what is going to happen before it happens. A final and random quirk is his tendency to only drinks bottled or filtered water –- tap water inexplicably drives him crazy, and he doesn't know why, since really, it's just water. Water is water, and probably ultimately more healthy with minerals, but ever since he began drinking it instead of the tap, he simply opted to never go back. Filters and bottled water were not a luxury afforded to him growing up, and although he supposes the money spent on the water could go toward something more productive, he has recently purchased a water filter to save on buying the bottles constantly. Even for the sake of his new indulgence, he could not bear to be exceedingly wasteful.

history.

Born on a restless summer evening on August the 17th, 1988, Alex found himself suddenly in a world that was less kind than the realm of his mother's womb. He was a generally good baby, fussing and crying for his basic needs, but the desire to wail and flail was, quite fortunately for his parents, not an issue he inflicted upon those around him. His parents were only just settling down, not exactly planning for a child when it happened, but opting to embrace rather than resent their new and only baby boy. Alex was always slightly advanced for his age, developmentally speaking, and even without another sibling to play with and amuse him in his pre-school years, he was blessed with an older cousin, Gabriela, to watch him with her mother while his parents went to work at his father's pizza specialty shop not far from their Brooklyn home. She was eleven when he was born, significantly older and always thrilled with the idea of 'playing baby' with Alex during the summers and holiday breaks when she didn't have school. When the school year did interfere, her mother Francesca saw to it that he was suitably cared for.

When the time came to attend school, Alex's parents were faced with the question of starting him nearly a year early, or starting him nearly a year late. Because his birthday teetered on the edge of the school's cutoff date for ages, it was not such a straightforward decision; the way in which he had taken learning just in their household was an encouragement to them, however, and when the time came to force them into a decision, they opted to send him early -- or technically, on time, according to the falling of his birthday. There were times when youngness would show, as many young boys suffer a lack of consistent maturity (if it existed for them yet at all), but as a general rule of thumb, Alex aged in the school system, he learned stepped up as a mature and responsible member of his class. He was one of shyer, less outgoing of his peers, but he earned respect from the teachers (and unfortunately jealousy from his peers) from his superior grades and calming demeanor, never scoring below a high A and never losing his temper with others. His real trouble came with the occasional teasing, but he was never past forgiveness -- such things could be overlooked in a bright student, and while he did desire to have friends, he refused to lower his standards to appease the 'self-esteem' of his peers. If they wished to be hostile, he would hold his head high and persevere, just as his father would want -- and if that meant the occasional scathing retaliation, then so be it.

By the time he was entering junior high, his parents came to the realization that he truly was academically gifted. As the schoolwork became more challenging and his superior marks never faltered, they pulled together to transfer him to a higher end school that could provide him with a better education than their current school distinct could offer. Within the walls of his new school, he found a superior atmosphere to work in. Suddenly he was surrounded by peers who did not think he was just 'showing off' by making good grades, who he could connect with on an intellectual level if not a financial level. Although keeping to himself for the most part, he forged a small group of people he could truly consider friends (rather than just passing and friendly acquaintances) and he found himself truly content. Throughout the years he continued to excel in his classes, finding himself more and more enamoured by the sciences and the sport of tennis. The latter proved to be a suitable outlet for the stress of advanced classes, and he carried through junior and high school bettering himself however he could.

Life at home remained as stagnant as ever, their situation never degrading but never improving, either. The friends of Alex who wished to go to Brooklyn with him were more than happy to go to the pizza diner, and as soon as he was legally able to take on a job, he began working nights and weekends at a nearby McDonald's to add as much income as possible. Once he had a fair bit of working experience under his belt, he gathered the courage to apply at a Barnes & Noble near York Prep School where he was attending high school (thanks to a rather hefty amount of help, thanks to his impressive school record); securing a job there for the hours directly following his school day, Alex fell into a predictable and workable schedule, utilizing the buses to get to and from anywhere he needed to go. His friendships suffered the further decreased social time, and he never indulged in relationships. This, however, was less to do with time and opportunity than it was that he never came across a girl he felt the necessary connection with, the intrigue that pulled him in enough to want anything more than friendship or acquaintanceship. He had no time to tie himself to a relationship, so why waste her time and sell himself short with something that did not feel right?

With the passing years, he began to notice peculiar things. As skeptical as some might be of deja vu, it seemed to crop up with certain triggers -- a strange sensation when picking out roses for his mother, an occasional feeling of inexplicable sadness when he would look at his parents, like he desperately wanted to keep from losing them, even if there was no reason for him to fear it. It did not make sense, but supposing it was just the overwhelming nature of school as a whole, he learned to give them little thought.

As the end of his high school loomed on the horizon just a year away, Alex began filling out applications to the various universities -- neither of his parents had gone to college, nor anyone else in his family except for his cousin Gabriele, but he utilised the occasional lunch time at school to speak with the guidance counselors, hunt down as many scholarships as possible to see to it that his family would not suffer the financial burden of whatever schools let him in. Public and private alike, he applied to various schools that could give him the best education for a fair price, all the while trying not to get his hopes up too much for any one school. When he was accepted into New York University with a rather hefty scholarship, he was flooded with the relief of having an attainable plan; the outside scholarships he obtained with the help of the school counselors filled out the gaps of what NYU didn't take care of, and he felt a subdued thrill getting to share the accomplishment with his parents. It was in Manhattan, where his high school had been, so the ability to remain close to his family was a perk -- even if Brooklyn University would have been closer. The pre-med program at NYU was impressive enough that it felt it was simply the right place to be.

Adjusting to university life was not difficult for him -- for years he had felt somewhat self-sufficient, even if it was eerie at first to go to sleep without them near, but academically speaking he felt at least prepared. There was a sudden spike in the challenging nature of the work, but he took it in stride, drank it in as he accepted the challenge with an enthusiasm to do well and a love for at least some of the subjects. Because his former high school and his new university were in the same city, he was able to keep his job at Barnes & Noble, fitting it in with classes, and when he came to be a sophomore, he began offering his tutoring services to York Prep students struggling in their various math or science courses. Now as a junior, he has secured an internship with a nearby hospital, an opportunity to get real experience in his chosen field, and while he isn't sure if he'll be able to keep his job with the extra time an internship will take, he knows he can't pass up the opportunity.

out of character.

MUN Chels.
PLAYED-BY Milo Ventimiglia.
LAYOUT CREDIT sugarbones @ livejournal.
DISCLAIMER I am not Tuxedo Kamen, Alex Romano, or Milo Ventimiglia. I do not own Sailor Moon. This is an RP journal at

starmods.

tuxedo kamen.