Theodore is very proud of his Kayosic heritage.
Summary
I’m Hispanic in real life and I find that Hispanic/Latin/Carribean culture has this warmth and affection to it that is different from other cultures. But I also wanted to combine that warmth with the “hardened” culture of something like the Russians. I’ve watched videos of this girl who just shows what life is like in Russia and how people are, their winters are brutal, and she says a lot of people say “Russians don’t smile.” But it’s not because they’re unfriendly, it’s because unlike the West, they don’t smile for the sake of smiling. They don’t consider not smiling rude. If anything, they prefer sincerity and so they’re not just constantly on the street or at work smiling because they feel like people will think they’re “mean” if they’re not smiling. That’s just a weird American/Western thing?
As for the bracelets, Theodore wears a set.
Summary
I don’t go into specifics as to all of them he’s wearing, but one of them is from his father and it’s meant to kind of protect/give him strength because Theodore is a cage fighter. So it’s kind of like, when a father passes down a sword to his son, like here is this thing so you can continue to be strong and protect yourself. And there’s a part in my story where a girl he dates briefly (during when Rose is also dating someone else) goes sour, and the girl steals the bracelet. He thinks he’s lost it. Rose realizes this girl, who happens to be her “friend” has this bracelet and when she understands the spiritual/familial significance of it, her mob heiress persona kicks in, and she demands for the girl to hand over the bracelet. Later in the story when he and Rose inevitably 
finally get together, he gifts Rose a set that’s meant to be shared between the two of them. So he has two, she has two, and he frames it as a “protection ward/bad energy ward” when she starts getting creepy bouquets and signals from her ex, but there’s more to it. She doesn’t get the true meaning of the bracelets until towards the ending of the story. I won’t spoil it, but it’s important.
Theodore is close to his family, including Jax. His father and the men in general can be very stern, but not in a hateful way, more in a “tough love” way. So he has a deep respect for his father and trusts his decisions. Here are summaries about Theodore’s parents:
Summary
Theodore is considered the “shield’“ of the family whereas Jax is the “knife.” Jax didn’t grow up with Theodore at first, Jax was born in their native country, but once Theodore started “getting into trouble” during the teen years, they thought bringing over his cousin and kind of an “older brother” would help. And it was an opportunity to have Jax grow up somewhere more peaceful and less harsh than their native country. Not to mention, the family heir needed someone to watch his back. So Jax and Theodore might’ve been annoyed at first as kids, but they eventually grow up basically like brothers. They’d risk their lives for one another.
As for the arranged marriage, because Theodore trusts his parents. I imagine he was like, uhh, okay, no promises that I’ll marry her but I’ll at least give it a chance. 
Whereas Rose on the other hand, has a completely different kind of relationship with her family, her father especially, so being told that her father has chosen someone for her does not go well. She finds Theodore’s sunny personality suspicious or a mask whereas Theodore gets the impression that she’s too intense, too serious, maybe even a bit conceited. They both get the wrong impressions at first.
I admit I haven’t built up on Rose’s heritage as much.
Summary
I know skin-color wise, she’s more olive toned/brown than Theodore is. So is the rest of her family, and I’m entertaining that in this fictional world, there is no concept of white, black, brown people. Just “people blessed by the sun” and “people blessed by the moon.” The darker/warmer your skin tone, you’re sun people versus the paler you are, moon. And if you’re somewhere in between, you can be blessed by both. I have this head canon that’ll never make it into story, of Theodore flirting with Rose and basically telling her that their children would be beautiful, blessed by both the sun and the moon. That’s as far as my thoughts went with Rose’s culture. 
Rose’s mother passed away from illness when she was still small. Her mother was basically the last “affectionate” presence she had with the exception of Isaac, a chamberlain her mother hired that also serves as her protection. So a lot of the child rearing fell to him once Rose lost her mom, but due to his position, he can’t express his affection for her like her family would’ve. But Rose basically considers him more her father than her actual father.
At the same time, with her real father, there’s this weird respect/mistrust between them. She interprets her father’s actions and decisions as cold and controlling, but her father is just sh*t at communicating, and due to being the current family boss, obviously needs to maintain a hard presence. So his intentions with the arranged marriage, (she finds out later) has a lot more thought put into it than she thinks. And it turns out, her father was not only supporting her future goals as mob heiress, a path that would steer the family differently than he steered it, but Theodore was the perfect match to fill the voids that were missing in her life. In his own way, with the only way he knew how, he was trying to protect his daughter from the life he knew she couldn’t avoid by setting her up with the “right” person. Theodore (and Jax) show her what true friendship is, without “conditions” or “favors”, warmth, trust, affection. It’s not that Rose doesn’t have friends, but her friends are regular students at her college, so she can’t really divulge too much family business or drama. And those friends know what she is, but obviously there’s a wall both sides can’t scale.
With Theodore and Jax, that’s not a concern. They’re both mob heirs. They both understand the pressures that come with it. They still might not be able to share everything (unless married) but having someone close that “knows the life” is a big help.
Rose is an only child. She has an older cousin who she’s also close to, but due to him being treated as the “back-up heir” and the rivalry her uncle seems determined to instill between them, Rose and her cousin Johan also have limits in their affection. Family politics and all that, but Johan would be the brother Rose never truly had.
Okay, your turn again!
I’m curious about the inspiration from horror movies. I’m not a big horror fan, but I’ve seen enough I think to wonder what concepts inspired you specifically? I grew up Christian before I moved in a more Agnostic direction when I got older, and I was amazed when I discovered all those beautiful statues and drawings of angels and cherubs, when you take the descriptions of angels from the bible literally, angels look freakin’ terrifying! Or are you toying with the idea of Angels = good and Demons = bad to both sides not really being that simple, and black and white?
One thing I’ve noticed is that religions and stories stem from events that happen that people at the time could not understand or explain. Or in times of despair. A lot of Deities come from nature, and there always seems to be a God/Goddess whatever, for “death” or after death. So even though there are different interpretations of what happens in the afterlife, whether we have one God or many, they all seem to have certain concepts in common. I sometimes wonder if we really do have the same God or set of Gods, but they were just interpreted differently across the world/generations. Humans want to make sense of things, but I don’t think we’re meant to “know the truth” even if we’re close. Even with science, there are things on our current world that can’t be explained. There is definitely a supernatural layer at play even if you’re not religious. I’ve heard enough stories from history and watching stuff on YouTube that you’re like, there’s no way this was a coincidence, or there is no scientific or logical explanation for XYZ.
Ever seen this anime Noragami? That presented another idea. That not all Gods and Goddesses exist before humans, it’s the humans that give birth/bring to life these Gods/Goddesses. So basically if people worship a tree over time, the more faith and followers it has, eventually the tree does become a deity. And Gods/Goddesses also “die” when the faith in them dies.
I’ve also heard the Xenogears game has a lot of philosophy about religion. Never played it personally but my SO says it’s what basically made him an Atheist as a kid. The game blew his mind and made him question everything he knew growing up Catholic.
Okay, I ranted. Is there a reason why having one overall God is important to your story? Is a God something that necessarily governs all life or just certain aspects of it, like how there might be a God of a mountain or a death God?
I’d also recommend reading “On the way to meet mom” webtoon. It also has some concepts of what a God is that I found interesting.
although I don’t know when I’ll finish it 
but I will say that complex spells involving shadow magic can be used to not only hide entire areas from people, but also force secrecy on those who know how to access that hidden area.
basically he wouldn’t go straight to the kill, but he’d purposefully attack as many body parts as he could to let more blood flow out of his target. And then he’d kill the target. And then if there’s still a lot of blood left in the corpse, he’d hack at the corpse to let some more out 
or the Netherlands 
There’s not a lot of why.
).
and the culture! 
Do you use any of these facts in your story?
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do he and his gang end up burying the bodies, or are they forced to leave them at the crime scene because of the situation? How close and how long had he known those gang members?
