Alcina Caterina Strozzi Viceroy

Alcina grew up in Chicago with her Italian-born father, Marco Strozzi. It was relatively rough living, as despite being decently well off, Alcina’s mother left when she was born. Alcina’s father was in the mafia, working as a Capo for the Viceroy family, and was stationed in Chicago to oversee and run some of the family’s business ventures there. Marco wasn’t the kindest of men, and often abused his daughter physically and verbally- blaming her for her mother’s absence. Alcina was a tough and smart kid, but she had quite the attitude and often got into trouble at school.

[1994]
When Alcina was 12, she witnessed her father’s assassination in their home in the dead of night. After having armed herself with a knife- hearing a scuffle and a muffled gunshot downstairs- she got the jump on her father’s killer, who wasn’t aware that Marco even had a daughter. Plunging the knife into the assailant’s side, he screamed in pain and dropped his gun, reeling around and kicking the young girl. Alcina lay, sprawled across the floor, the hitman pulled the knife out of his side and proceeded toward her. She scrambled to her feet and backed away, the hitman swung at the defenceless girl, slicing clean down the left side of her face. She screamed in pain as the large man pushed her to the ground, smiling sadistically. Slowly, he pulled the knife’s blade down from the bridge of her nose, cutting deep toward her right cheek. Alcina tried to push, punch and kick the man off of her to little effect, when suddenly her hand felt something in the dark- cold metal. It was the hitman’s gun. Seeing her opportunity, she clawed at it, barely getting a hold of it before turning it towards the large figure on top of her. She pulled the trigger, and the man slumped forward onto her, dropping the knife.

She was unable to push the corpse off of herself, so she was stuck in the dark for what seemed like hours, in pain- the taste of blood ever fresh in her mouth, the image of her father’s corpse laid across the floor. Finally, the police came- someone had called them in after hearing screaming and what sounded like gunshots. They found a young girl in a dark room, crying, covered in blood, a corpse laid on top of her. That night left Alcina scarred, not just physically, but something in her changed drastically. She’d witnessed death, even killed a man.

After a month or so of protective custody, Vincenzo Viceroy and Vittoria Malatesta arrived in Chicago and took Alcina in as their own. Vincenzo was (unofficially) Alcina’s godfather, after all. It all came as quite the shock to the young girl- who was used to living in a medium apartment in a crowded city- to be told she’d be living in a huge estate in Turin, Italy. She was introduced to her four new siblings- It was all quite a lot for her. She’d still not completely come out of her shell in the month after her father’s death, and had changed a lot as a person; now a cautious and reserved girl, unlike her previous, more outgoing and sure headed self.

The place was huge, and Alcina would be living with her new parents in one of the many guest houses, which- to be honest- just looked like mansions in and of themselves. Despite all of the grandeur, the thing Alcina struggled to deal with the most was how she was treated; not once was she hit, or shouted at, or even so much as blamed for anything for the first few months of her living there. Her new parents took care to approach her from where she could see them, never raise their hands around her, and accommodate her however they could. Alcina often wondered why this was all happening to her- it was all so alien. She often isolated herself in her room, or somewhere in the large garden grounds. She enjoyed being alone, that had been her normal for 12 years. Despite this, her new siblings would always find her and pull her out to play with them.

One thing that took years for Alcina to get used to was physical affection. She would often jump or flinch whenever Vinnie or Vittoria tried to give her a hug, or even lay a hand on her shoulder. As Alcina grew, she came to deeply admire her family, and harbored a sense of obligation to live up to their expectations, and repay them for the kindness they showed her. She admired how accomplished and altruistic her parents were; her mother a doctor, caring for those in need and saving lives- and her father a lawyer, who would go so far as to even personally inform the close relatives of those in the viceroy family he was defending in court, if he lost the case.

As Alcina got older, she experienced a few sudden growth spurts. Her shoulders widened, voice lowered and height shot up rapidly as she reached puberty. At first she was unsure of herself, the traditional gender roles her mother instilled in her clashing with her suddenly masculinized frame. It was during this time that her old self began to shine through somewhat- she got into fights at school, either defending her younger brother, Giogio, or punching some other bully in the face for making fun of her physical appearance. Alcina learned rather quickly that she was quite physically capable. Despite the burgeoning pride she began to feel in her athletic ability, doing well in sporting events at school, that initial shame still lingered somewhat. This shame continued up until a pivotal conversation with her father, specifically about his views on gender roles. He believed that it doesn’t matter what sex you’re born as, a man can do a woman’s job, and vice versa. This, much to her mother’s disdain, emboldened Alcina to embrace herself fully, and it was at that point she decided she wanted to work for the family business.

At the age of 16, Alcina received her family signet ring. Normally, blood family members would receive theirs during confirmation (at around 12-13 years of age), but Alcina missed that for obvious reasons. When she was adopted by the Viceroys, she had already inherented her father’s silver signet ring- the kind for non blood related members of the family- and worn that on the right ring finger, which was traditional. Upon receiving her gold signet ring, she decided to keep her biological father’s ring, wearing the new ring on her left ring finger as well.

After finishing high-school, Alcina attended university, earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering at age of 22. Despite being smart and good at what she was studying, she wasn’t entirely invested in her education, receiving the bare minimum marks required to pass (much to her mother’s chagrin). Even though Vittoria wanted Alcina to push for a better education for the sake of it, Alcina wanted to make her parents happy by doing well enough in school and getting a useful education that has application outside the family “business”, as informed by Vinnie’s instruction to not completely tie herself down to said business, if and once she intends to get involved with it.

Despite Vittoria’s protests and Vincenzo’s cautioning, Alcina would decide to pursue work within the family “business” following her graduation from university. She would approach her father about joining that side of the family and after triple checking that she was certain about the decision Vincenzo would relent, organising a meeting with his cousin Aldo to get her "initiated" into it.

Alcina had known Aldo prior to this as he and Vincenzo were as close as brothers, to the point that Alcina and her other siblings would refer to him as their uncle, however she had never seen him in a more formal setting before. Her usually smiling and easygoing ‘uncle’ was dead serious for once and, much in the same manner as Vincenzo, he would triple check Alcina’s certainty in regards to wanting to get involved in the ‘business’. Denying her at first to see if she’d push for it more, then making sure she understood the risks fully and only then, after she affirmed she understood everything and was still willing to go through with it, letting her officially start work for the family.

At first Alcina would be assigned to a local Capo by the name of Luca to mostly just stand there and look tough as they went to collect payments from the various businesses in Turin that the Viceroys ‘protected’. Luca himself had next to no respect for Alcina, being far more traditional than either Vincenzo or Aldo, he was far from happy about having to work with a woman, especially one that was so “unfeminine” as he would say… Though he’d keep those sorts of comments mostly to himself and his drinking buddies.

Despite the fact Aldo cared little for actually teaching Alcina how the business worked she would do her best to meet, and at times exceed, the duties that were placed on her now. During one of the many routine visits to a Viceroy protectee Alcina would discover that besides being a prick, Luca was also abusing his position in ways that were disallowed by the Viceroy Tenets, the code that all members had to adhere to, by abusing a woman whose husband had been placed under his jurisdiction. Despite her attempt at handling this peacefully by confronting Luca about his breach of Tenets, the man would refuse to listen to her and simply tell her to shut up and do as she’s told… This would cause Alcina to snap, beating the man into unconsciousness and taking him to a nearby Viceroy safehouse she had attended a meeting in once prior. There she would torture the man to death, the fact his actions had not only been against the Tenets but also mirrored Alcina’s own personal experiences meant that his end was a long, drawn-out and painful affair.

Alcina herself would come clean about her actions to the family, and while she would receive a light slap on the wrist for not reporting this matter prior to taking justice into her own hands she was mostly let off after the accusations against Luca were proven true via testimony from his victim and her husband. To the chagrin of several other lower ranking associates in the family, Alcina’s killing of Luca would be retroactively treated as her first hit for the family and she’d be declared a made-woman, now officially an Enforcer or ‘Soldier’ for the family.

Much like Alcina, GioGio would too pursue involvement in the mafia side of the family not long after his older sister had been made. The two would on occasion work together on assignments becoming somewhat of a dynamic duo. Unfortunately GioGio would end up getting into a situation that resulted in his arrest and, despite Vincenzo’s best attempts to get the chargers dropped, he would be sentenced. Even though Vincenzo couldn’t fully get his son acquitted he would manage to get the sentence lessened massively- though the fact her brother was now imprisoned in America, and she herself spent most of her time back in the Old Country, was unfortunate in Alcina’s eyes. Luckily GioGio’s imprisonment wouldn’t last too long, even though it might’ve felt like an eternity for some, and in 2007 it was time for him to be released. As such Vincenzo, Vittoria and Alcina would fly out to Kentucky, where GioGio had been incarcerated, to pick him up and bring him home.

Upon arriving at the airport to get their flight back to Italy, the family would find that all flights had been delayed indefinitely, confusion and panic was brewing in the airport- this was some seriously unlucky timing...