Emilian Luca Zarate

From Brass Goggles

Name: Emilian Luca Zarate
Age: 25
Nationality: Spanish
Physical appearance: Emilian is the brawn of the family, though he also happens to be the brains. Heavily muscled and dark looking by nature, he is an intimidating figure. For good reason in many cases, as those muscles aren’t just for show. At heart though, he’s a bit of a softie, and given time to look him over, one would likely notice that kindness in his warm chocolate brown eyes. Think something along the lines of a great deadly puppy. His dark brown hair, the same shade as his brother’s, falls about his shoulders when loose, but is usually kept back in a tight ponytail or half-bun. Unlike his younger sibling, his features are a bit smoother, less sharp but still chiseled, and he shares the characteristic nose bump— as well as a crook in the bridge that he gained in an early fight he entered to earn the boys money to survive on. That was before he learned to guard his face. The jagged line along his jaw line though, that was gained long after he learned to defend himself, but he doesn’t often talk about how he got his most visible scar.

His usual ensemble is similar to his brothers, only a bit more decent. He’s less of a ladies’ man, more of a gentleman, and dresses as such. Still, his current profession doesn’t much call for posh getups, and so he tends to wear bottoms with a heavy belt and thick boots, shirts with no sleeves, gun holsters about his shoulders, his goggles, and a black armband in remembrance of his family. Em’s the only one of the pair to do so, as Nico refuses to grieve them. Em is wise enough not to push it; he knows that in the younger boy’s heart Nicolae just can’t bear to think of the twin half he lost.

Profession: Mercenary, fighter, amateur scholar, mechanic

Biography: Emilian had fifteen long, love-filled years with his family before they were stolen away from him. His older brother Marcos, was his best friend, and the eldest of the family, while his sister Justice was his biggest inspiration. Marcos taught him to fight, to box and play with wooden swords. But Justice, she taught him to read, write, and love learning. They were the center of his world until that moonless night. Nico was too shell-shocked to remember, but Papa had told Em, the oldest boy still living in the family caravan, to keep a level head and get his brother away, and so he had.

He’d kept a level head, while he heard Mama cry out in horror— the screams morphing into shrieks of pain as he watched their home go up in flames, presumably incinerating his mother and two toddling young siblings in the process, if judged by the wailing voices within. He’d kept a level head, as his father had charged one of the raiding men with his cutlass, and been shot in the belly, and left to bleed out. He’d kept a level head, as they passed their brother’s family caravan, and Em covered Nico’s eyes to keep from seeing the gory site of their nephews, sister-in-law, and beloved brother gutted with the flames fast approaching their corpses. He’d kept a level head, as they passed his newly-wed sister’s caravan, where the wedding flowers were burning, lacing the air above their brother-in-law’s body with a sickly sweet aroma. He’d kept a level head when they came across Justice’s body a few meters away, shot in the back of the head while she ran in the direction of Nadya’s caravan. He’d kept a level head all the way to the next safe town— where he fell down to the side of the road and lost every last bit of the contents of his stomach.

To this day he wears his black armband to remember the horrors of that night, and force himself to move forward. And move forward they did, first to the streets of Madrid, where he learned to pick pockets to feed them, and then to America after stowing away on a ship. He worked for three years in New York doing odd jobs and compensating the rest of their living by having Nico bet on him in street fights. It continued that way until he turned eighteen and found them passage west.

All the while, Em found refuge in libraries. They were a second home to him. When he was lost in books he did not have to face the horrors of his memories of his past, or the painful reality of his present. In books, he had hope for the future. The libraries became fewer once they reached Texas, but he still managed to find booksellers, and over time, gained a collection of his favorite titles.

In Texas, he and Nico— who had become his charge and closest confidant over the years; the younger boy looked up to him like no other— worked for several years under a kindly, aging man named Juan Miguel Hernandez. Hernandez was forever suggesting that Nico go work for the nearby air base, but Em always politely refused. He knew his talent was nowhere near the level of his younger brother’s. There would be no reason for the base to take Em on as well, and he was not ready for the fourteen-year-old to leave him just yet. Until that self-same impish fourteen-year-old went and worked out a deal without him.

They were put under the care of one Commodore Dreyfuss, and staunch, firm man, but an incredible mentor for Nico. He aided Em as well, and he learned a great deal from the man, but their connection was not nearly as strong. It became quite clear over the years though, that Nicolae and Emilian Zarate were a package deal. Where one went, the other was sure to be found. Even when Em fell in love with the extensive base library, Nico— who was far from an avid reader— could be found lying at his brother’s feet scanning a technical manual, or terrorizing the poor librarian with his endless pranks. The pair of brothers lived on the base for six years, before the ailing Commodore requested for them to accompany him to London on a ‘trip for the air force.’ It was there that Nico suddenly paused in the middle of the road, nearly being run over were it not for Em’s quite thinking, as he pulled the idiot from the center of the bloody street. Yes, it was there though, that the younger boy had paused, and whispered a single word that directed their lives towards unlikely adventure, “Nadya.”

Plotlines:

• Traveling with Nicolae Ion Zarate and their universe's Jaisen Dreyfuss to London, where he will reunite with his presumed-dead sister Nadya Catrina Zarate