Don Corneo
| Albert "Don" Corneo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Age | 38 |
| Species | Human, probably. |
| Sex | All Man, baby. |
| Height | 5'2" |
| Weight | 180lbs |
| Background | |
| Series | FF7 |
| Combat Styles | Patsies |
| Hometown | Midgar |
| Group | Allied with no one, not even himself. |
| Occupation/Job | Publicist |
| Force: | Wandering Force |
| Theme Song | Don of the Slums |
| Quote | |
| If you didn't have Corneo you'd have to invent 'em! | |
| Recent Events | |
| Sleazing around Manhattan, cuttin' deals with Turks. Always looking for new material for KINGS magazine. | |
History
Don Corneo was a mobster in Midgar who was sought out by the president of Shinra (either directly or through his subordinates, though the President /was/ rumored to visit the Honeybee Inn, an establishment both men frequented) to spy on the members of AVALANCHE since they were causing trouble for the company. It was a pretty sweet deal, just hang out in the sector 6 slums, which he basically owned, and send out his spies here and there to get info on where the Avalanche was operating. Of course then the world fell and a lot of his plans and his base of operations went to pot. He barely made it out alive, having suffered injuries in the process which forced him to use a wheelchair for a time until he received surgery.
He was forced to move away from the fallen Midgar, taking up residence and rebuilding his criminal organization from basically scratch. These were dark times for the former Don as he had to work his way up again, though the whole mafia gig just wasn't as easy as it was in such a cesspool like Midgar. He entered a depression during this period of sorts when he was still confined to the chair, trying to manage a gang. Not being able to get around for the time being, he was left with handling elements of organized crime such as human trafficking, drugs, and the like, but something was still missing... women.
Alone with various magazines, obscene and not, he began to try and hatch a plan to reinvent himself and get himself out of his rut, in which he conceived the idea of KINGS magazine. Working his way up from former mafia don to publicist took a while, but he eventually got there and remade his dastardly fortune, and even had the good fortune of enlisting a unit of former SOLDIER 3rd and 2nd Class that had left Shinra around the time of Genesis's r
Currently, he operates out of his mobile base, affectionately christened 'The Honey Bee', a giant Zeppelin which functions as his home, office, and the deployment center for his security forces and his meeting ground for any illicit dealings with subordinates in the criminal underground, whom he still has dealings with.
Personality
Corneo is at heart a lonely, if perverted little man. His father was likely a similar mafia figure, but Corneo was never a cut above the rest as a child, and his father was likely the one wielding a lot of the muscle in the organization, a sharp contrast to Corneo's short stature and relative un-intimidating physical prowess. Thus, he learned to play things as a mastermind, and just hire men if he needed something done physically, like people beaten up, protection money collected, or protection. He was always on the look out for the hottest ladies (to make him feel better, and sooth his budding Napoleon Complex) and to generally nurse his overblown sense of vanity and constant quest to own things... and people.
Added to this is his intense greed and desire for women, and you have an interesting explosive cocktail of compulsiveness, obsession, inability to recognize his own ill deeds and failures. He can't live up to what he was told to aspire to be like his dad, and so he covers this up, with the money, women, and simply hiring muscle instead of trying to improve himself as a man and as a person. He might be a type that is bankrupt morally, but isn't necessarily inherently evil, just heavily misguided and a slave to his own compulsion and lusts. Deep down inside however, he is likely really lonely, and is perhaps trying to find that certain someone even now.
He's reinvented himself nowadays with a bit of a higher aspiration in life, now he wants to be the top dog, sort of like president Shinra, and thus he's gotten himself in more legitimate (and still some illegitimate) affairs. Since he nearly lost his life, he tries to aspire to something more finally, though he's got a long road ahead to anything moral or decent, he sometimes funds actual decent organizations and efforts, such as the research for new and cleaner, more efficient fuel sources. He has an eye ahead for the future, and thinks ahead, a bit better than some people, due to his own inherent quick thinking and problem solving skills. He didn't become the don of beneath the plate just for no reason, after all. He's still a devious horndog with few limits, however.
Abilities
His combat portion mainly consists of his personal security force, which he is never without. Beyond that, there is his financial empire, which grows along with his mens magazine's reader base. He has considerable resources in the dept of money, manpower and holdings.
Of other note is his rings--the many rings he so vainly keeps on multiple fingers on each hand are home to his personal materia, one in particular is a pearlescent pink, it's effect beguiles ladies into bubbly, cheerful models and in generally do as he asks. Rather predictably, it only works on women. This won't work if the person is trying to attack him personally and is already angry/excited, the strength of it is just moderate and is not all-consuming. It isn't something that turns people into mindless zombies, just sort of has a hypnotic effect, with a few eccentricities like the bimbo-ey type added effect.
Notable Run-ins
- Deelel: Did I mention I'm also plug and play?
- Alise: Here's to you, kid.
- Chita: Follow the white rabbit.
Logs
| A Researcher's Jailbreak | March 30th, 2014 | Days after Rhiannon's capture, several forces converge on the prison facility holding her. Things go well. ...Or not. Depending on your perspective. |
| Chasing Rabbits | March 12th, 2014 | Searching for info on a stolen sword for the Turks, Corneo encounters a certain Viera in Alexandria. |
| Alise meets the Don | March 10th, 2014 | Alise heads over to Southern Manhattan to meet with the Don in his cool as heck dirigible to ask him to do some informant work for her. |
| Christmas Lingerie Caper | December 21st, 2013 | The Don goes looking for new material in Southern Manhattan, Zack gets hurt a lot. |
| Corneo's Coin Quest | November 30th, 2012 | The first of the keys required to unlock the gates of Serendipity are a set of ancient Casino Coins once won from that fabled place by a legendary gambler who was doomed to lose them all. Thanks in part to a suspicious calling card, Don Corneo has become aware that these coins have ended up in Casino Gold, the mysterious den rumored to herald disaster for the unwary, and/or people wearing hats. Hiring everyone he can to protect him, Corneo will venture there to win back his prize. But can a man so ruled by his vices tear himself away from the game before he loses everything to the darkness? |
| The Don's Request | November 26th, 2012 | It started like a normal evening in the bar, until Self-Narrating Gilgamesh, Easily Sidetracked Don Corneo, Only Knows About Cards Queen of Cards and Chocobo-tasticly Hyper Chocolina come in for mayhem, and requests for Adventurers... and Chocogirls. |
- Small note, I wasn't the Corneo here in the logs/cutscenes dated 2012, just from December 2013 till now, so um, I didn't do it, basically! But yeah, that wasn't me, and no idea what was going on there.
Cutscenes
| In Search of Serendipity | November 25th, 2012 | A business proposal between some /very/ unlikely allies. |
Gallery
