- innovative • pacifist • sincere -

To their mild irritation, his coworkers find that both his optimism and nigh-constant-suggestions are as difficult to stamp out as an especially large cockroach. Associates consider him to be at least slightly annoying, but his complete sincerity and good nature make it difficult for anyone to fully hate him — they just don't like him. Being incessantly helpful, Bruno can be easily bested by sending him out on any small errand which he will happily complete with a surplus of energy, such as "get me coffee" or "Bruno, can you find me a... uh, 'MKLXIX Giga-Augmented Hex Bolt?' The bright purple one, with the polka dots? Take your time."

The trait that causes the most bad feelings between the engineer and others, though, is that he has a very hard time understanding that not everyone wants to be helped. This combined with his nonexistant tact has resulted in Bruno meeting everything from old women's scoldings to the angry fists of locals. Whether it appears as callousness or just a sheer lack of common sense make no difference to his mortified coworkers: when an Ala Mhigan veteran is asked if he wants a shiny new arm of Garlean make, the answer is always "ditch Bruno and run." Fast.

As harmless (to others, not him) as his bionic microaggressions seem, it's part of an unpleasant symptom of growing up a well-off Garlean. Though staying in Eorzea has lessened it, he is often guilty of a "benign" side of a colonialist mindset: a pushy sort-of insistence on "helping" others, and difficulity understanding why people would choose to live without that "help." That said, Bruno's intention to help others is completely genuine, even if he's a bit... dangerously overeager. And thinks that everyone should put their brain in a robot.

For all of his schooling, he doesn't have much particular talent with most magitek systems, and usually just sticks already-working things together into a janky amalgam when expected to fix something. Has a harsh Jessie-imposed budget on the amount of new things he can order monthly. To Bruno, everything can be divided into parts: either functional or nonfunctional, true or false. When a piece becomes "faulty" then, the goal is to return it to "functionality" in the most efficient way. Coming from a childhood where most things were thrown out at the slightest inconvenience, Bruno is wont to completely replace a part with a new one rather than tinkering and problem-solving.

Living things, too, are modular segments: hand, arm, leg; eye, brain, heart. Humans are pieces that very often go faulty; if a part can't be fixed, then it must be replaced.

Bruno was born with congenital, transfemoral amputation of both legs. His family — affluent nobles from the capital — showered him with both expensive gifts and cutting-edge (albeit often unnecessary) technology since birth, resulting in a youth who saw his own body as something mutable, modular. A new wheelchair one month, new prosthetics the next, a revolving cast of high-end physical therapists. Doted-on and extremely sheltered, seen as "too fragile" by his parents, Bruno was rarely allowed to be inconvenienced by anything — aside from the nagging feeling that came with a suspected lack of independence.

His family owed their wealth to the ceruleum industry — specifically, to a polymer byproduct of the cerulueum refinement process. (It's plastic. There's lore about plastic.) Naturally, this made the oligarchs a part and parcel influence in the industrial side of Garlemald: Bruno's father in particular sat on the board for the capital's own Magitek Academy (though mostly only a financial sense...) Bruno, therefore, was swiftly funneled into the academy by his parents with the hopes that he could secure a comfortable position as a researcher following graduation, far away from any danger or intensive labor.

While his skill in repair and weapons construction was decidedly lacking, Bruno displayed a natural talent for biomedical technology and an unconventional view on magitek theory. While most research was put towards the development of new weapons to counter spellcasting, Bruno was focused on another aspect of the Garlean dilemma: the inability to cast healing magicks. A natural fit for his squeamish pacifism, both Allagan medical technology and Eorzean healing spells were the topics of much of his independent research and coursework.

He graduated at 23, choosing then to enlist as a field medicus for the imperial army — not as a researcher, as his parents had intended. While he was still not quite fit for any active duty, he was stationed for maintenance and triage at Baelsar's Wall. The engineer operated in occupied Ala Mhigo until the time following the Black Wolf's death, wherein remnants of the XIVth Imperial Legion were absorbed into the XIIth — and Zenos yae Galvus became his commanding legatus.

There's more to write here about how he just walked out through the Wall and into the Black Shroud but something something it's just this

He was terrorized by small woodland creatures for a few days. Then he got arrested.

Jessie had to come get him.