Lapdogs

That’s one sturdy couch!

Giorgio Gabor has a thing for collecting strays. For all his vicious tendencies, he likes to think himself a bit of a philanthropist, selecting promising individuals to mold into pawns in his empire-uh, beloved and well-trained members of his team.

Virgil presently enjoys a comfortably lofty status within Gio’s inner circle, he’s more or less become Giorgio’s right-hand-man. Their first meeting was entirely accidental, but something about the wayward young man  (and all that potential strength and hyena cunning) appealed to Gio. It was fairly easy for the mob boss to lure Virgil close with fatherly praise and attention, taking care to quietly encourage a few resentments that had been stewing within Virgil for years, all those deeply suppressed sparks of rage and pain. Gio knew that Virgil just needed a little guidance and room to flex that predator brain, and flex Virgil did. Virgil, taken from his mother at a young age and placed in foster care to rot, has been starved for a parental figure nearly all his life. Once he had it, there wasn’t much he wasn’t willing to do to keep it-and whatever moral objection he had could be easily soothed by a few warm words from Gio.

Present day Virgil is a drug dealer, and more importantly, he’s a drug manufacturer. Predators have been ingesting herbivore blood for eons for a cheap thrill, as it “wakes up” latent carnivore instincts and can sharpen the senses. It was Virgil’s idea to go a few steps further, removing the moisture from herbivore blood so he could infuse it with a delectable blend of herbs, spice, and extremely addictive amphetamines (or tropane alkaloids, if he’s feeling fancy). His first ventures into drug production are quite crude, but with Gio’s support he’s able to streamline his work into something truly special. “Code Red”, as Virgil calls it, induces a mild euphoric high in small doses, but in larger doses it will turn even the most mild-mannered carnivore into a bloodthirsty monster. This has great application within underground dogfighting rings, of which Gio runs several. As this is all EXTREMELY illegal (dogfighting is a felony in FB, and blood is a controlled substance that only sanguinovourous animals have legal clearance to purchase and consume), Gio lends his protection to Virgil’s operation, supplying smuggled materials from blood banks, lab equipment, and the occasional gift when Virgil has been a particularly good lapdog.

Dear Madeline is another one of Gio’s “rescues”, a former dogfighter within Gio‘s ranks he deemed too exceptional to spend her time scarring up that pretty face. He offered her a way out (dog fighters are usually poor and desperate), preying on a young woman with few options with a smile on his face. Over the years Madeline has truly come into her own, shining bright as a supermodel winning public adoration with her Gio-approved tales of the horrors of dogfighting. Madeline is quite comfortable with her new life, and is willing to do whatever necessary to keep it. She manages her meetings and poses for magazines and does whatever possible to numb herself from the lingering trauma of dogfighting, as well as to the uncomfortable reality of being a favorite piece of arm candy for a dog old enough to be her father. She feels an odd kinship with Virgil, and the two like to have long boozy talks together sometimes that stretch late into the night. This bond is compromised by the fact that Madeline often buys from Virgil- she claims to use tiny doses of Code Red to suppress her appetite and keep herself runway-slender, but Virgil knows she takes it to fuel rage-filled attacks on her punching bag that span hours and hours.

The family that preys together, stays together~