Diego Ortega
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Profile
Diego Ortega
"It doesn't get better," I said. "The pain. The wounds scab over and you don't always feel like a knife is slashing through you. But when you least expect it, the pain flashes to remind you you'll never be the same."
He seems cold and uninterested, and while the second one may be true most of the time the first one is just a side effect of years of leaving alone with no one but weird pets. He cares a lot when someone gets hurt, first thought in mind being to keep them safe. Keep them feeling safe. He's compassionate, solid, loyal like a dog and patient, yet hesitant and secretive.
He realised too late on what was happening, and at that point there was nothing he could do. He was a more quiet guy, never starting a conversation or adding to it if he didn't have anything to say. But he quickly learned that that won't work when the human kind started to fade, and to survive you need to stay together. Yet how was he going to find himself a pack if he already felt alien even before the 7 Hour War?
Later on in his older years he became more gentle with others, not only other people but vortigaunts alike, maybe even sticking with the second ones more as their calm and not questioning character feels reasuring and familiar. Yet because human contacts aren't the same as they used to it's hard for him to catch up with it, even more as he leaves alone, far from City 17 yet near enough to see and feel it's heavy presence.
Profile
- The smell of wet/burned wood
- Lonely walks
- Cheap energy bars
- Hot days
- Creaking floors
- Whatever the fuck the Combine has going on
Trivia
- He tends to play with his dog tags whenever deep in toughts
- They used to belong to a close friend of his back in his teenage years, yet he didn't make it because of sickness. He wears them ever since, getting bitter sweet comfort out of it.
- His missing leg was due a birth defect, but because he used to wonder around in the mountains and woods he would get it scratched up badly, leaving a few scars behind.
- His right eye is badly damaged due to a headcrab attack, and because of the lack of proper medical help it healed up inproperly, leaking sometimes with ooze and old blood. He's surprised it didn't get infected.
- A squidbull accompanies him through those 20 years. Diego found him on the borders of Black Mesa, somehow wondering away from the facility without steping into a landmine or getting shot by the soldiers. He found the creature interesting and endearing in a puppy way, so he tamted it and trained. He's been by his side ever since
- He named it Spitter. Duh.
Design Notes
- He never covers up his prosthetic leg.
- The hair on behind his head is too short to pull into a ponytail, while the top and front are much longer.
- Multiple scars cover his body. There's a lot more on his legs and arms, torso surprisingly in good shape.
- The dog tags ALWAYS stay on, only taking them to sleep or shower.
Background
He doesn't remember much from his childhood as it was uneventful, only the death of his closest and probably only friend being painfuly vivid.
While in college he took a gig at Black Mesa. It was helping out with security, making sure nothing got in or out through the railing surrounding the buildings and sending a signal to the security if he'd notice something. After a year and a half of nothing happening on the job, finally something accoured. Altough he quickly wished that it didn't as a gigantic alien flying across the sky and getting chased by military jets was just a heads up of what's about to happen.
He managed to survive the 7 Hour War with some of the survivors from Black Mesa, even getting lucky enough to work along side Magnuss and Eli Vance. Yet the group he worked with felt alien to him, unfamiliar as they, ironicly, felt familiar with each other in a way he only felt with his friend, which scared him beyond words. He quickly left them, only keeping in touch to report on what's happening outside of City 17 and helping them with plotting against Breens plans. He'd picked on the side a hobby. He was curious which new creatures roaring around Europe he could tame and which ones. He'd been lucky with a Squidbull a long time ago. A few Headcrabs roam around his shack back in the mountains like old cats, neutralised and safe to be around. His greatest achievment so far were four Hunters which he found wounded over time. He'd managed to take advantage of the Combines technology controling them, and made them listen to him instead.
He'd heard about a Gordon Freeman, the only free man. It sounded like total bullshit to him, especially when he heard rumors that he'd been gone for 20 years and reapeared. But because of a certain man in a weirdly neat and untouched blue suit randomly appearing around the waisted roads he'd became interested in him, and so he became determined to find out not only about what really happened to Gordon Freeman, yet also the man in the suit.
It's been a while when he felt so certain about something, he'll hold onto that even if it kills him.
