Intimidating at the best of times, Heron's presence alone is enough to unnerve - or terrify, when it needs to. He is a quiet man who moves deliberately, allows his eyes to linger on people just as long as they have to, speaks with curt formality... And in a second changes into a man with no response to carnage. Heron's composure can be discarded in seconds which is also about as much time as someone has left if Heron decides their death benefits him (or the Lucchesi family) more than their life.

Heron is not so much deprived of ambition as much as he is gifted with unending loyalty. He will follow the few who have earned his respect to the ends of the earth and obey orders without question. A scrupulous man, Heron does not believe in a job half done: in his mind, things are either as they should be or they are going to be as they should be. Beyond the generally unsociable demeanour, Heron's pedantic nature when it comes to planning and then following said plans make him quite unpleasant to be around.

Though he exudes confidence, Heron is sill plagued by the same insecurity that plagued his childhood. A part of him feels compelled to work as hard as he does as a way to prove - to himself more than anyone - that he can be worth something to the family. Rejection is the sole thing capable of shattering that illusion of control. And when that illusion shatters, Heron knows no other coping mechanism than to tear through flesh and bone.

Family

Tragedy struck Heron before he could comprehend its gravity or the lasting effects it would have on his very existence. Orphaned before his first birthday, where that misfortune struck too struck fortune by allowing him to be born into the Lucchesi family, which would become the safety net that caught and raised him. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle, brought into a home where the visage of luxury and upstanding citizenry masked the power they held in Rowansalt's underworld. But to Heron none of that mattered. All that mattered was the warmth his new family gave him and the companionship of who would be by all accounts an older brother to him: Aurelio Lucchesi.

Heron's newfound family never hid the facts of his adoption but neither did they cause him to feel like an outsider - on the contrary, they raised him no differently than they did Aurelio. Any insecurity that bubbled within Heron wholly originated from within and that, perhaps more than the insecurity itself, contributed to his budding envy. Externally he was a child - and eventually an adolescent - like any other but internally he grappled with a constant sense of of not belonging, of being part of the family in name only. It manifested in a tendency to overexert himself in service of said family. Heron did everything asked of him and more, without complaint or reservation. And at the cusp of adulthood, when his cousin (though to Heron he was a brother before all else) inherited the reins of the Lucchesi's underground businesses, Heron was more than eager to become Aurelio's right hand man.

Blood

The Lucchesi thrived under Aurelio's leadership. And Aurelio's leadership thrived in no small part due to Heron's unwavering loyalty and commitment. He flawlessly executed any plans Aurelio had - and just as flawlessly executed any people who stood in their way, garnering a reputation for violence that, when coupled with Heron's generally unapproachable air, instilled terror in the Lucchesi's enemies. Heron had no ambitions beyond serving as Aurelio's right-hand man, nothing gave him as strong a sense of purpose and belonging as seeing the city's underworld bend to the Lucchesi.

Outside of managing their criminal empire Aurelio married and had a son, Percival, all the while Heron remained at his side, supporting him in work as well as family life. The bond they shared as brothers deepened with each gunfight, each night spent patching one another up after a deal gone sour, each luxury car bought with blood money. When not working they went on vacations to exotic locations (sometimes with Aurelio's wife and child, sometimes without), or merely ate out together, enjoying one another's company as they always had.

Heron had fulfilled his goal in life; little did he know that was the happiest he would ever be.

Cage

Aurelio's arrest was not wholly unpredictable; in that line of work most anyone with a name did a few years behind bars, and a few years was all they could give Aurelio for tax fraud. What was wholly unpredictable to Heron were Aurelio's instructions from the cell: let Percival take my place.. Heron had never once dared to question Aurelio let alone criticise him but that was when he came the closest to doing so, the closest to thinking himself wiser than his cousin, his brother, his best friend. The initial resistance was due to Percival's own demeanour. Perhaps the father-son bond had clouded Aurelio's judgement and made him think Percival more capable than he really was, but Heron had no such biases and he could see Percival for the rash, irresponsible, immature man he was.

When the initial wave of uncertainty regarding Aurelio's decision ebbed a new waved flowed in, one carrying a resentment towards a man who had, in Heron's mind, betrayed him. Decades of blood and sweat and sleepless nights fearing not for his own safety but for Aurelio's... All in naught because at the end of it all, Heron was not even a true brother and as such of course Aurelio would pick his own son to lead the family over him. It was but a tear to open a wound that had never wholly sealed, a cruel reminder that he carried the Lucchesi name but not the pedigree. Furthering his misery was the awareness that knowing all that he would still have chosen to live as he did, to dedicate his life to Aurelio and the Lucchesi. He never had anything else to live for.

Percival's approach is much different than Aurelio's and at times, Heron is almost tempted to pry control from him before any lasting damage can be done. Thus far the temptation has remained as such. Heron controls himself, advises Percival but otherwise lets him make choices the fall for which Heron is prepared to take. Though he would not dare admit it, at times he feels like nothing but a glorified chaperone, watching with bated breath as his nephew's recklessness risks destroying the Lucchesi empire.

Playlist

• one
• two

Trivia

• one
• two