Born to be an insufferable theater kid, forced to live a classic otome isekai villainess backstory with all of the psychological trauma and nowhere near enough of the hot romance to even make up for it 🫠(this is not even exaggerating btw....zzz knows what tropes it wants to crib and it is Shameless about it lmfao) A bastard child who spent his earliest years living in poverty with his mother. She considered his off-color eyes a loathsome reminder of her own failure to integrate into the social status and influence of his father's family--presumably because the heterochromia too blatantly revealed that Hugo wasn't a full-blooded heir--and so, after an abusive handful of years, she was all too happy to sell Hugo back to said father without question as soon as the man made the offer. From then on Hugo proceeded to spend the rest of his childhood under a gilded roof, with every comfort money could buy! ...While forced to play a perpetual squid game against his numerous other half-siblings, for the right to eventually take his father's place as the family head.
The general manners of high society were hammered in. But lying, cheating, and manipulation were also expected and encouraged traits. Murder was not at all off the table. You could and would be punished for, quite literally, failing to be a sufficiently cruel enough person...while offing a rival in a clever enough way was worthy of high praise. Hugo could apparently play the part well enough to repeatedly earn the approval of his vampire-lord-coded father, but he swiftly grew to hate this fact--and this game--with every single fiber of his being. His only recourse was one particular half-sister who wasn't much for the game either, and treated him with some actual kindness here and there. ...He would eventually be labeled as the cause of her death. Shortly after her passing, unable to stomach things any longer, Hugo ran away from that household with an ever-burning grudge against the entire system that created it.
Anyway, needless to say those formative years were uuh. Not. Great. Shit was fucked, and has dealt terrific damage to how Hugo engages with the people around him even in the present day. He still has a deeply ingrained habit of constantly analyzing weaknesses to exploit in others and ways others can exploit him, and it will probably never completely go away. He's also become exceedingly skilled at essentially "playing the villain so nobody else has to"; he's very good at going through the motions of a terrible person to draw blame to himself, often without ever actually trying to clear his name afterwards, to his own self-detriment. Constantly indirect and vague with his words even when he doesn't really need to be, he is chronically playing roles and donning masks; being openly honest takes active effort for him, and opening himself up to being vulnerable can be a daunting ask.
But it's not for a lack of trying. Not...for a lack of trying. Tearing himself free of his father's household did lead to him meeting far better role models and friends, new perspectives to grab and wrap around the sharp jagged pieces of his childhood traumas. Hugo has had many years to trial and error the vengeful and bitter inclinations of his demons at this point, with proud highs and truly wretched lows; they're never entirely going away, and are still quite apt to dictate worse habits when he doesn't check himself. But he has been trying...to live with them, instead of denying them. Making the best of the nasty talents he's honed to at least do something good for those less fortunate in the world. Mockingbird is the culmination of this, for better or for worse.
What's His Deal blurb
The general manners of high society were hammered in. But lying, cheating, and manipulation were also expected and encouraged traits. Murder was not at all off the table. You could and would be punished for, quite literally, failing to be a sufficiently cruel enough person...while offing a rival in a clever enough way was worthy of high praise. Hugo could apparently play the part well enough to repeatedly earn the approval of his vampire-lord-coded father, but he swiftly grew to hate this fact--and this game--with every single fiber of his being. His only recourse was one particular half-sister who wasn't much for the game either, and treated him with some actual kindness here and there. ...He would eventually be labeled as the cause of her death. Shortly after her passing, unable to stomach things any longer, Hugo ran away from that household with an ever-burning grudge against the entire system that created it.
Anyway, needless to say those formative years were uuh. Not. Great. Shit was fucked, and has dealt terrific damage to how Hugo engages with the people around him even in the present day. He still has a deeply ingrained habit of constantly analyzing weaknesses to exploit in others and ways others can exploit him, and it will probably never completely go away. He's also become exceedingly skilled at essentially "playing the villain so nobody else has to"; he's very good at going through the motions of a terrible person to draw blame to himself, often without ever actually trying to clear his name afterwards, to his own self-detriment. Constantly indirect and vague with his words even when he doesn't really need to be, he is chronically playing roles and donning masks; being openly honest takes active effort for him, and opening himself up to being vulnerable can be a daunting ask.
But it's not for a lack of trying. Not...for a lack of trying. Tearing himself free of his father's household did lead to him meeting far better role models and friends, new perspectives to grab and wrap around the sharp jagged pieces of his childhood traumas. Hugo has had many years to trial and error the vengeful and bitter inclinations of his demons at this point, with proud highs and truly wretched lows; they're never entirely going away, and are still quite apt to dictate worse habits when he doesn't check himself. But he has been trying...to live with them, instead of denying them. Making the best of the nasty talents he's honed to at least do something good for those less fortunate in the world. Mockingbird is the culmination of this, for better or for worse.