Philip Romano
Feb 28, 2016 20:17:52 GMT -5
Post by Philip Romano on Feb 28, 2016 20:17:52 GMT -5
The Basics
Name: Philip Graham Romano
Nicknames: Lip
Age: 21
Orientation: Heterosexual
Desired Rank/Job: College Student
Powers: Hypnotic Suggestion
Lip has the ability to place another person into a type of hypnotic trance, which leaves them vulnerable to manipulation and suggestion. It works on varying degrees, but mostly depends on his own will, as well as the will of the opposite person. If they’re weaker minded and meek, than he has no problem bending their opinions and decisions to a certain degree, but if they’re strong-willed, the process becomes much more difficult.
Lip’s ability works through several apparatuses. Eye contact is his hook; it’s not entirely necessary, but it’s what draws people to him. Typically, if he makes eye contact with someone while using his ability, they tend to unknowingly gravitate towards him. It’s subtle and has no effect on their will. Most won’t even notice the sensation and will chalk it up to Lip’s charisma and winning smile. His voice is his real sinker though. It leaves people hanging on his every word. Physical contact does help, although it really only nudges things in his advantage just slightly.
He’s developed full control over his abilities and is able to maintain someone’s trance for a full two hours so long as he remains in the same room as them. Once they leave his sight then the trance will weaken exponentially depending on how far they go. His ability is strongest when only focusing on one to three people, but he has been able to maintain a subtle grasp on up to five, so long as he has their full attention. The strength of his ability will dilute with the number of people he’s trying to maintain. It also fades quicker if the person is more strong-minded and stubborn.
He is not able to fully control one’s actions and decisions to the point of death or going against their morals or ethics. Lip’s ability leaves him incredibly persuasive, but the person must be at least somewhat willing to do what he is suggesting to begin with. His ability works best when a person is on the fence or unsure of something, and Lip would be able to nudge them in a specific direction. Also, people with other mental abilities, or those who have particularly strong mental shields, are very hard, and sometimes almost impossible, for Lip to maintain a strong grasp on.
Side effects manifest in nosebleeds and fatigue from overuse, as well as sore/scratchy throats and blurred vision. Occasionally, he’ll experience a numbness and tingling sensation in his fingers and palms, but it’s not common.
Play By: Dave Franco
The Details
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Any Piercings? None
Any Tattoos? None
Any Scars? A few here and there from random scrapes and falls.
General Appearance: Lip has always been more or less known for his baby face. Even at 21 years old he can still melt his grandmother’s heart with just a smile. His jawline is fairly defined, but it’s his dimples that give him a young and adorable look. His darker features hale from his father’s Italian heritage, as well as his mother’s Russian roots. HIs eyebrows are dark and bold, though he has no inclination to “man-scape” them in the slightest. His skin is olive-toned, naturally, but it will darken in the summer; he rarely burns. He’s usually smiling or laughing, but he’s grin leans more on the air of arrogance.
He stands around six feet tall, although he’d probably be almost an inch taller if he actually stood up straight, and weighs around 200 pounds. He was an athlete in high school and still tries to maintain the same physique he had while on the swim team. He goes to the gym and the pool regularly - at least four to five times a week - and is trying to take up running as well. He’s always had a muscular body type, aside from his pre-pubescent years when he looked slightly reminiscent of a broomstick.
Lip’s hair is dark, and he likes to keep it short. He let it grow out when he was in high school, as requested from his girlfriend at the time, but it was constantly getting in his eyes and stuck out in all different directions. After several months he started to look like a homeless hippy, so he promptly had it cut to his normal, tapered style. His face is always clean shaven, and his sister often remarks that that’s what helps give him a baby face.
Lip has never been known to have a unique sense of style, just sort of following whatever trend was going on at the moment. He wears a lot of jeans, and maybe khakis if he’s looking to dress himself up a bit. Button downs and t-shirts are a big staple in his wardrobe, as well as sneakers and sometimes boots. Really he’ll wear whatever everyone else is wearing so long as he looks halfway decent. He never looks unkempt, but his style is pretty basic, and has only gotten even more so since he’s gone to college. He likes whatever’s on the mannequin at the mall, and is really just too lazy to develop his own “style”.
Personality: People have been telling Lip how sweet and adorable he looks since he was a kid, and maybe that’s why he tries so hard not to be. He’s always been a bit of a brat and a little on the selfish side; he likes to get what he wants when he wants it. When he was younger his parents and other family members always doted on him and his father spoiled him rotten.
Growing up, he did mature quite a bit and eventually realized that daddy couldn’t buy him everything. But because of his meta-human ability, he usually managed to find some way to get what he wanted. At this point, he’s developed a very stereotypical college boy attitude. He likes to party, drink, and have regardless of what he should be doing.
As a typical party boy, he’s quite loud, sometimes obnoxious and can be pretty wild. He’s outgoing and has always been popular among his peers in school. He was always on sports teams in high school, so he tended to stick with that crowd and didn’t mingle too much with students outside of it. He used to be a bit of a bully and picked on several younger and weaker students in high school. His social circle has expanded since college and he’s not so much of a bully anymore, though he can be depending on the situation.
He’s incredibly arrogant and is constantly wearing a cocky grin. He carries himself with an aura of superiority, like he’s better than everyone else, which is what a lot of people tend to not like about him. He’s known for being quite the ladies man, and has been called a “serial womanizer”, though he can be romanic if he thinks a certain someone is special.
Despite his bratty nature, he’s also incredibly charismatic and has excellent leadership qualities. He’s incredibly motivated and knows exactly how to get what he wants. If you do make it into his close circle of friends, you’d find he actually is just as adorable as looks. He’s incredibly affectionate and doesn’t really abide by people’s personal bubbles, stepping right past them most of the time without even knowing. He’s got a pretty good sense of humor and is almost always laughing.
Your Vices
Likes:
-Eating
-Sports
-Working out
-Sex
-Girls
-Parties
-Dogs
-Music
-Movies/TV
-Autumn
-Socializing
-Being the center of attention
-Pizza
-Winning
-Public speaking
-Sleeping
Dislikes:
-Losing
-Not getting what he wants
-Asparagus
-Coconuts
-Sad/sappy movies
-History
-Books that are boring
-Waking up early
-Winter
Strengths:
-Confident
-Outgoing
-Honest
-Loyal
-Great leadership qualities
Weaknesses:
-Arrogant
-Stubborn
-Womanizer
-Selfish/bratty
-Obnoxious
-Super competitive
Fears:
-Snakes
-Hospitals
-Getting old
-Small spaces
Secret: He feels like his mother abandoned him when she left to marry another man.
Family Ties
Father: Daniel Romano | 49 | Owns a vineyard in Napa, CA | Meta-human
Robert Eichner | Step-father | 56 | Lawyer
Mother: Elizabeth Eichner | 45 | Unemployed
Kathryn Romano | 48 | Step-mother | 48 | Oncologist
Siblings: Alexandria Romano | Sister | 17 | Meta-human
Ben Eichner | Half-brother | 12
Bianca Eichner | Half-sister | 7
Any Other Important People: Ava | Siberian Husky | 8 | Lives in Napa with Lip’s father
History
Lip was born to Lizzie and Danny Romano on October 14th in Napa, California. Born Philip, his unusual nickname didn’t stick until a few years later. His parents called him Flip for the first few years since Philip always sounded so formal and both of them hated the nickname Phil. Eventually, they just dropped the F and Lip stuck.
His father’s vineyard has been in the Romano family for generations, so Lip was basically raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. They had enough money in the family business, but Lip’s mother also worked part-time as a secretary in a law office. When Lip was four, his baby sister Alex was born and she had him wrapped around her little finger ever since. Both Lip and Alex were spoiled growing up; their father basically bought them anything they’d ever ask for.
Growing up, Lip took a huge interest in sports. He played soccer when he was younger, but after taking swim lessons, he gravitated more towards the pool. He joined the local club swim team when he was eight, picking up all the strokes quickly. His parents sent him to a private middle school outside of Napa specifically because of their swimming program. He ran track during the off season and played a few different club sports just for fun as well. He’s always been extremely competitive, and used to throw a fit when he had bad races when he was younger. Eventually, after a few stern discussions with his coaches, he reigned his tantrums in and would just sulk silently on his own.
Lip tried to get Alex into swimming and sports as well. She joined the swim team a few years after Lip and enjoyed it, but didn't have her brother’s natural talent. She was more the bookish type, getting straight A’s in all her school subjects. Lip’s grades were always average; he wasn’t incredibly smart, but not dumb either. He usually pulled a straight B average without trying. Alex was constantly telling him that he’d do better in school if he actually applied himself.
When Lip was nine and Alex was five, their perfect little world turned upside down. It came out that Lip’s mother had been having an affair with her boss for the last three years, and that she was leaving to go start a family with him. His father was absolutely devastated, all of them completed blindsided. Lip had always been closer with his father, and he was still too young to fully understand exactly what was going on at the time. His mother moved out a few days after breaking the news to them, intent on moving in with her boss, Robert, who had also left his wife and family. They were due to have their own child in the upcoming months. Lip’s mother and Robert were married before the ink was even dry on the divorce papers, and his half brother was born a couple of months later.
His father took custody of both Lip and Alex, since Lizzie didn’t even try to fight for custody. And in the years after their divorce, after they they had a better understanding of what had happened, both Lip and Alex sided with their father. They see their mother and step-father every now and then, as well as their two younger half-siblings, mostly on holidays. They prefer to keep their distance though, especially after their father remarried.
Lip’s father remarried three years after the divorce, when Lip was twelve. Kate was probably the best step-mother Lip and his sister could have asked for. They weren’t fans of the woman at first, but they fell in love with her quickly. She didn’t spoil Lip and Alex as much as their father, and she did think that he indulged them too much when she first came into the picture, but she definitely loved them like they were her own children.
The summer before Lip’s sophomore year of high school, when he was fourteen, he was at his local pool with some other members of his team. They were off-season, but were all part of the summer league team at their community pool. Lip and some of his other friends were early for the first practice of the summer, fooling around and watching the divers. The diving coach had stepped into the locker rooms to take a phone call from one of the parents, leaving the diving captain in charge.
Since it was the first day of practice, there were a few new member who were preparing for the upcoming season. One particularly new diver was incredibly inexperienced. A scrawny and underdeveloped thirteen year old, Lip and his friends snickered behind his back when he admitted he didn’t even know how to dive, and that his father had signed him up in an effort to pick up a sport and make some friends.
“As a newbie, you’ve got to take dive off the high board.” Lip half-joked, with a jeering grin. His other teammates guffawed loudly, since only the seniors and the more talented juniors practiced on the high dive. And even then, they never competed on it during the high school season. Which was why everyone was stunned when the little shrimp actually began climbing up the ladder.
Some of Lip’s friends cheered him on, not believing he was actually going to jump off the high dive on the first day. Others quietly voiced their concerns, but didn’t put a stop to it, also not believing he would go through with it, or even if he did they didn’t think anything bad would happen. Lip egged him on the loudest though.
“Do it!” He called up, noticing the boy back up on shaking legs, looking like he was about to climb back down the ladder. “Come on, jump!”
So he did. He bounced on the board, once twice, and then a third time before flailing into the air. He landed in the water hard on his stomach and face. The impact knocked the wind out of him, causing him to inhale several mouthfuls of water. One of the seniors had to jump in several seconds after, pulling him out of the water and coaching him through coughing up everything he’d breathed in.
The coach stormed back into the pool, hearing the commotion from the locker room and demanded an explanation. All fingers pointed to Lip, who was wide-eyed and stuttering that it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t think the kid was stupid enough to jump off the high dive like that. And even if he was, Lip didn’t think that he would actually start to drown as soon as he hit the water. And it wasn’t like Lip made him do anything. The boy barely even put up a fight.
His throat was on fire though, and his nose had started to bleed. Something was going on. A recruiter from Hammel Institute showed up at his house the next day, and explained Lip’s newfound ability to the Romano family. He explained that even though Lip had just been joking around, in a way, he had made the boy jump off the high dive.
Lip’s father was a meta-human, so the concept of them was not unfamiliar. He had attended Hammel when he was a teenager, and had expected both of his children to develop meta-human abilities, though he couldn’t be sure if they definitely would. Lip was on a plane to Vermont within two weeks, his father and sister accompanying him to help him get settled.
Lip’s first year at Hammel was difficult. He wasn’t used to not having Daddy to run to if there was a problem and he missed his little sister and his friends from home. However, Lip eventually made new friends and Pilot Ridge started to grow on him. His father told him that he’d eventually enjoy his time at Hammel, and even though Lip didn’t believe him at first, he was right. He thrived off of his newfound freedom of living away from home, experimenting with sex and alcohol during his junior and senior year, as well as seeing just how many rules he could break before he got caught.
Over the years, he learned how to control his abilities and even matured from a bratty teenager, into a less bratty young adult. He’d planned on going back to Napa after graduation and going to college somewhere in Northern California, but changed his mind when his sister developed her own abilities. Instead, he decided to stay in Pilot Ridge to look after Alex and attend the state school not so far away.
In college, Lip’s wild ways just got even wilder. At Hammel, everything had to be sneaky and every rule he broke he risked getting caught. He used to live off the thrill of breaking rules, but he found it even more thrilling to actually be able to do what he wanted without fear of consequences. Now, in the end of his senior year of college, it’s just starting to sink in that his college experience is almost over and he’s going to have to join the real world and be an actual adult.
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