Mambo/Marcello

Part of the Lampshades (A gang)

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Backstory
Marcello was born and raised in Sicily, Italy. He was a very social kid and would often hang out with the neighbors while his parents were away on trips. The neighbors took care of him more so than his parents did and adjusted quickly when his parents ended up passing during a boating incident. He didn't mind being raised by the neighbor instead, but as the years went by he wanted something more out of life and wished to travel around. He used the money from his parent's life insurance and savings to come and live in the U.S. Obtaining a student visa helped him attend a private highschool there and eventually he worked on getting his citizenship. His goal was to become a fashion designer and attend a college for a degree and then an internship, but things didn't work out as well as he thought and he ended up not going to college and instead became an underground boxer for quick money.

As one of his side hobbies he participated in B-Boy battles. It was something he enjoyed doing and he could make some extra cash off of winning battles. He also made friends through that hobby and met other people through dance culture and his other hobbies. Hien was one of those people who wanted to make a B-Boy group with Marcello. The problem was the area they lived in had a lot of local gangs around and they didn't want to cause any harm to themselves or their group; so they ended up making a clubbing focused gang with other B-Boyers. Other clubbing gangs existed because of the dance culture there so it wasn't that big of a deal to them, plus having an aura of a gang made it so other gangs didn't mess with them for not being part of one. Together they made the Lampshades gang (courtesy of Hien's spontaneous naming sense) and created nicknames for themselves. Hien went by Shade since he was the leader while Marcello went for Mambo, a name of one of the EDM songs he likes.

Marcello, now called Mambo, recruited people to the gang through B-Boying. He also invited some of his friends who did B-Boy as well into the gang. Egg Shoe, a Sheep Ball the Size of a Planet [Sheep], and Broccoli were the first to join. They became a pretty good B-Boy group thanks to Mambo's coordination and managing. Not a lot of other gangs were violent towards Lampshades since they became known for being pretty chill. As the #2, Mambo had a pretty friendly personality on top of being a boxer as well it was hard for other people to want to fight him. The times he did get into fights outside of boxing matches were rare.

Mambo met Yopu through B-Boy practices at the alley him and the gang always hung around. Yopu would pass by there a lot on his way to his jobs and would stop for awhile to watch them dance from a distance. Mambo noticed Yopu showed up a lot and would try to interact with him by telling him he could come watch closer if he wanted since they were pretty chill about that, but each time Yopu would remain silent and continue on his way whenever he got called out. However Mambo was a very persistent person and he would try to make friends with Yopu no matter what. He needed more people in their group after all, plus Yopu looked interested in B-Boying. Since Mambo knew what his face looked like and the fact they lived in the same area, it was easy to spot him again. Every time he saw Yopu in the gym, the grocery store, or in the park he'd call out to him. He didn't know his name so he'd just call him Bello (reference to the catcall phrase ciao bella but in a kinder context). Yopu would pretend he wasn't there and continue whatever he was doing in silence. Mambo didn't care and would make small talk anyway even if there was no responses. After a certain event, Yopu started to pay attention to what Mambo was saying, or at least showed some indication he was listening by writing/texting. Mambo realized Yopu didn't talk. At all. And decided to teach him sign language so he could communicate without writing. At first it was just basic phrases like "Food, Bathroom, Outside[Hang Out], Drink, etc." Mambo's friends joked with him that it was like he took in a stray cat, but he didn't mind. Eventually Yopu started to hang around him and his group more often and he ended up joining the Lampshades gang. At this point Yopu wrote to Mambo what his name was after finding out what Bello meant. Mambo taught him how to dance and continued to teach him better sign language. After some time they ended up rooming together to cut down on costs and Yopu's condition improved. On Christmas Yopu spoke and his first words to Mambo was "thank you." He started to talk more after that and they became best friends and then later on dated.

When Shade ended up in a psychological ward on his own choice, things were left up to Mambo. Even though he was technically the leader now, Mambo wanted the others to decide what the fate of the gang would be. They decided in unison to disband the gang and find something better to do with their lives. When the gang disbanded, everyone went their separate ways. In the meantime, since the gang was no more, Marcello supported Yopu in trying out for MSF. He wanted Yopu to get somewhere at least and didn't want to worry about him when he was in the army. Once Yopu had officially joined MSF, Mambo had already applied to the army and went for active duty. They both weren't sure if they could maintain a long distance relationship and mutually broke up. However, Yopu was emotionally dependent on Mambo and he was still worried about what Yopu would do if he ended up getting into a bad accident during his military service. He expressed his worries to Yopu and told him he'll cut off communication with him so he wouldn't know if he was alive or not. Yopu agreed that was honestly for the best and Marcello went into active duty for 6 years before enlisting into the reserves and meeting Yopu again in his 30s.

Extra facts

• Marcello's favorite hobby is sewing. He spends time to sew things for the gang since many of them can't afford stuff themselves including helping out the poor. He still dreams to one day be a fashion designer, but knows that won't happen. 
• He enjoys sweets but rarely shares them with anyone.
• His favorite types of sweets are lollipops. 
• He hates being alone and felt a lot better when Yopu became his roommate.
• Smokes but is trying to quit. He uses sweets to help with the nicotine addiction.
• When he comes back from military service, he continues to sew things to donate to the poor and works as security. Since he's good at designing because of his old goal, he helps with MSF merchandise as well thanks to Yopu.
• Yopu dies around his early 50s and his request to Marcello is to help take care of his friends. 
• Marcello was a heavy influence and inspiration to Yopu.
• Yopu's nickname to Marcello is a smaller portion of his name cell (pronounced Chell)
• Marcello is pretty good at drawing, his sketchbook has a lot of drawings of Yopu as his base model even before and after they were dating
• When Marcello dated Yopu, because of their straight-passing background and Marcello wasn't out, they were afraid of holding hands or showing affection in public so they would listen to music together with earphones as a way to "hold hands."
• Drives a motorcycle
• Mambo and Yopu have a habit of sending music to eachother to listen to when they can't express how they feel with words, Yopu is bad in communication so this form of expression helped a lot along with sign language.

Relationships
Yopu - Best friend and EX. Has a habit of joking with Yopu a lot and sees him as a special person even if Yopu doesn't see it himself. He didn't develop romantic feelings for Yopu until Yopu revealed he liked him more than friends.  They dated for a short time before Mambo enlisted in the army.

Lampshades Gang - Marcello is considered 2nd in command of the gang. He takes the gang seriously and won't stand for bullshit. The gang was named by Shade, after he was asked what the name would be and saw a lamp, he thought he'd have time to name the gang later not on the spot. Mambo and him decided to stick to it. A lot of the gang members have fake names too (usually with a silly theme to match with the gang name), except for some like Myra and Yopu.

Appearance
Tends to wear loose and comfortable sweaters. His beanie is handmade and he sometimes wears different kinds he makes. He is often seen with gauze on his face. These are actually not injuries, but actually from shaving. He's really bad at it. Scars are seen across his his neck/body from fights. Has an uncolored tattoo on right arm of peonies and a snake. He usually covers the tattoo up with long sleeves.