Bruno Agnelli

BRUNO

the basics

full name • Bruno Agnelli

nicknames • Jackass

age • Ten and a half

primary standing • Beast of burden

secondary standing •Could potentially be trained to fulfil a second role, but under heavy supervision

faction • Cursed Thorns (captive)

species • Equus asinus (common donkey); formerly a human boy

gender • Male (he/him)

sexuality • Romance is icky!

the appearance

origin • Pinocchio

height and weight • 2’5”/50 lbs

overall appearance • A small donkey, identified by his brown and white markings. Most notably, the white circles around his eyes, on the tips of his ears, and adorning his underbelly. His mane is a similar dark brown-black color to the majority of the other transformed boys. Unlike them, he still wears his human clothes – a blue sort of hunting coat, corduroy pants, and two loose-fitting shoes on his hind hooves. These are some of the last ties he has to his identity as a human.

the personality

likes • Kickball,  guessing games,  roughhousing, playing pool, alcohol, eating, sleeping in late, breaking objects

dislikes • The Black Keep, anyone with any inkling of magical ability (they can read minds),  thunder, taking orders, gooey displays of affection

strengths • Sharp wit/intellect, charm, creative problem solver

weaknesses • Defiance, laziness, naivete

dreams • To escape the Thorns. To become a human again. To not forget what it's like to be a human.

fears • The Coachman, and permanently losing his memory

overall personality • Defiant, gluttonous, and a touch fearful.

Before his transformation, Bruno was nothing more than a bad kid. He was highly impressionable, always looking up to his brother's older friends for inspiration. He lied to make himself look cool. He was headstrong, reckless and not afraid to back down from a challenge. He delighted in showing others how he had control over a situation. But he was also a softie at heart. Surprisingly intelligent for his age as well; he favored logic puzzles and things that tested his problem-solving abilities, though many adults remarked that he was never applying himself. And he was gullible. Very, very gullible, and easy to say yes to people he considered to be cool.

But ever since arriving at Pleasure Island, he had given himself over to vice almost completely. As consequence, he’s starting to forget about his life before falling prey to the curse of donkeydom, though he can still talk like a human. For the most part, being a delinquent is now core to his identity.

At the end of the day, he's still a kid inside – he loves sweets, and playing games, and feeling smug for staying up past his bedtime. He definitely thinks romance is gross. And if you challenge him to a puzzle or give him a riddle, it'll stimulate him. But these traits are slipping. 

He struggles with morality, wanting to at least try and prove himself useful and noble. But his weak will leads to the tendency to indulge in the behaviors that got him turned into a donkey in the first place. He isn’t afraid to curse or say something spiteful, but he’s somehow got it in his head that the Coachman and other higher-ups are able to read his mind and is afraid they will expose the fact that he is thinking bad thoughts about them. In turn, he struggles to keep his thoughts under control whenever in the presence of someone that looks powerful, occasionally driving himself to the point of paranoia.

His work ethic is not great. It always takes a few tries for him to completely follow instructions set out for him. Sloth and gluttony play into his unwillingness to work. He has definitely stolen food from the Keep and beyond when he isn’t supposed to. He’s a touch of an alcoholic, hitting the drink whenever he can and occasionally coming back drunk to the Keep if he’s been left unsupervised. He’s been shown to have genuine remorse about how his actions affect others, but little awareness of their full impact. And his sense of impulse control is abysmal.

He has grown protective over Tate through the duration of their capture but finds it hard to make genuine connections with those he is not inherently familiar with. Trusting others comes much harder nowadays.

the history

father • Nico Agnelli

mother • Lidia Agnelli

siblings • Vincenzo Agnelli (older brother)

important people • Tate (bestest friend), The Coachman (to be avoided at all costs)

overall history • Much like his companion, Bruno too was born in an Italian village, though on the opposite side of Tate's. He lived with his mother, his father, and his big brother -- Bruno's role model, through and through. Whatever Vinny did, Bruno wanted to do it too. Vinny's favorite game or ice cream flavor or book was also Bruno's favorite. And when Vinny started making a group of friends, Bruno saw them in a different light -- they were his idols.

One could say Vincenzo's new friends came from the wrong side of the tracks. Strange hobbies were afoot whenever they hung out -- sneaking cigars from their parents, vandalizing property, coming home drunk every now and again and having to be extra quiet. Compared to the others, Vinny was seen as the goody two-shoes; the one that was always plagued with second thoughts before joining in on what his friends wanted to do. 

Bruno, on the other hand, was the tag-a-long kid. Unlike many families, both Nico and Lidia were working parents. Often times, Vinny would have to look after Bruno after school as a result. Because of this, Bruno was often brought along on excursions with his friends, albeit under strict rules. Embarrassing him was a big no-no, as was snitching on what the group liked to do. But the more Bruno watched them, the more he wanted to get in on their shenanigans. 

It was when Bruno had a taste of the action for himself (stealing food from a street vendor)  that he realized just how much fun it was to be bad. School suddenly felt much more boring -- doing arithmetic or solving word puzzles couldn't hold a candle to the thrill of petty crime and revelry. He would sneak wine in his canteen and sip on it during the school day. He tried snuff, and smoked cigarettes. He broke glass windows and started picking fights for fun, always victorious. Being bad made him feel more powerful -- more wanted in some cases -- and he quickly went from being a quiet nobody to someone who had rumors spread about him among the schoolyard.

He had taken the mask from the cool kids and put it on himself.  And Vincenzo didn't like this one bit.

It was when Bruno told Vinny that he was going to drop out of school that Vinny decided enough was enough. The older boy had long since moved on from his group of friends, understanding the error of their ways. But it seemed Bruno would never learn. In the heat of a vehement exchange of words, Bruno told Vinny that he didn't love him and ran out the door. Vinny tried to follow him, but it was no use. Honest John and Gideon were practically waiting around the corner, quick as a whip to offer the little boy a vacation to Pleasure Island -- the unruly boy's paradise. A whole island filled with food, fun, games, and no school to speak of. Bruno said 'yes' before they could even finish their pitch.

He boarded a coach with other boys from villages near his, feeling eager and independent and, most importantly, free. Free to do whatever he wanted without being chastised or stopped. And the best part was that he was surrounded by a bunch of kids who wanted to do the exact same things! This led to him meeting Tate, who he quickly got on with. Tate was a little younger than him, and a little more sensitive, but a good sport. And he really looked up to Bruno -- a new feeling for him, if not familiar.

But no fun lasts forever. Despite getting to eat til he was sick, drink all he wanted, and wrestle with the best of them, Bruno was undeniably a bad boy

While Tate decided to take a nap, Bruno took to the Rough House. When he started laughing in the face of a kid he had beat in a fist fight, he noticed his voice growing more husky. The chuckle from his mouth turned into a bray. Pointed fingers morphed into sharp black hooves, and then brown legs under his coat. Before he rightly knew what was happening, Bruno had transformed into a donkey.

This wasn't fun anymore. He watched in fear as others around him also began to change, taking on an equine form as well. Unlike the group he had found, however, he quickly noticed a startling difference: they couldn't talk.

But Bruno could.

And he began to use his voice to shout for mommy and for  daddy. For Vinny. 

But it was no use. The sinister assistants to the Coachman came and brought the jackasses to the man himself. Identifying Bruno as an exception, he kept the boy aside with a few others that he saw as valuable. This included Tate, now a donkey himself, but with a striking blonde mane. There was talk of selling him off to the circus, to put his "talent" to use in performance. But when the world shifted and war was afoot, a more definitive idea was put into place.

Bruno was sacked along with Tate, brought straight to the war. They were both made beasts of burden; taskrabbits set to pull carts, deliver goods, and other such feats of physical labor no child should be put through. Somewhere in the back of Bruno's mind, he hoped that if he was well behaved enough, he would be able to learn how to do something to help the war in a much more productive way.

On the other hand, his memories of life before his donkey days are really starting to slip...

the role player

alias • Inky

age • 22

pronouns • she/her

other characters • Georgette, Honey Lemon, Beshte, Scamp, Bambi, Naveen, Imelda, Pepita, Mzuka, O’Malley