Raphael Monroe

Raphael Monroe is a character role-played by Grymmsnarl (not currently streamed).

Description
Raphael Versace Monroe is a white male with naturally brown hair, though it's usually dyed blonde, teal or a darker purple. He's usually found wearing some variation of crop top, which he claims are 'a privelege, not a right'. He puts a lot of effort into his appearance, and refuses to leave his apartment looking anything less than 'standard hot'. Appearances is of great importance to him and he changes up his outfit almost every day.

Personality & Background
Raphael believes at heart that he's a good person, but that doesn't come without his demons. He struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder, but doesn't disclose it freely due to past experiences with the stigma that comes along with it. Beneath a confident mask, he often struggles with his mental health and self-doubt. He values loyalty above all, and does whatever he can to repay the kindness, opportunity and time given to him by others.

Raf is known as a hype man to his friends, always doing his best to encourage them to pursue their dreams. He spends a lot of time trying to promote his artist friends to further their careers, as well as push his other friends' businesses. This attitude to life is what naturally leads him into PR & Marketing as a chosen field to work in.

Before Los Santos
Child stardom is a great thing - so long as you stay a child. Raphael's childhood consisted mostly of auditions, commercial gigs, and rigorous home-schooling. Raised by an overbearing stage mother and an absentee father, all he really knew how to do was work and didn't have a lot of friends.

Around the same time that Raphael stopped getting work as a teen, he came out to his parents and they were less than receptive. This caused him to leave his family home at 17 and spend some time on the streets of London. Soon enough, he fell in with the Lawton crime family and did some low-level drug running for them in exchange for a place to live.

Several years later, and the Lawtons were brought down by a large police operation, but somehow due to his low ranking in the organisation, Raf found himself holding onto a huge load of cocaine. Deciding the time was right, he sold off the coke and used the money to fund a quick escape to Los Santos, a city so filled with crime and chaos that he knew he could lay low.

The Commonwealth
In September 2021, Raphael and Chase Stone became increasingly frustrated by the lack of a sense of belonging within the city for them both. Acknowledging how hard it is for both civilians and criminals to get a foothold in anything when they first come to the city, they set out to start The Commonwealth - an organisation aimed at bringing some of these like-minded people together with a common goal (that being wealth). As for Raphael's role within the group, he acts as both the consigliere and somewhat legal front - keeping a legitimate business running to aid the group in getting rich without getting caught. When Raphael was attacked by the Smileys, The Commonwealth guarded him at all times while he was left unable to speak.

Avalon PR
Avalon PR was first conceived as Sea PR once Raphael chose to leave PUSSYCAT as he felt that the business was struggling to take off, and he had limited creative control to do anything about it. Named for the legendary island where Excalibur was forged.

Avalon's goal is to promote upcoming business to aid in their growth, as well as help talented individuals in the city find work so that they can showcase themselves. Raphael hopes to work with different business in the city to create jobs, events and opportunities for the civilians of Los Santos to improve their quality of life. He also hopes to eventually open a physical office location somewhere in Rockford Hills.

Wu Chang Records
Raphael began working for Wu-Chang Records as an Assistant under Oswald Tinkerman, showing an interest in helping the label with both talent management and marketing. He soon became the Booth Manager, running the market stall and overseeing mix tape sales, as well as doing promotion for events, ticket sales and new artist releases. He considers himself close friends with many of the artists, even after choosing to leave the company after Oswald's passing.

The Peg Inn
After meeting Meg Kyracruz at a graveyard rave soon after coming to the city, Raphael was aware that she had plans to eventually open the city's first British pub. He kept in contact with Meg to make sure he was one of her first hires once the market stall opened, and he spends a lot of his time hanging out with the team. The Peg Inn employs most of The Commonwealth, so it's one of the places he feels most at home in the entire city.

Downbad Records

After questioning his place at Wu-Chang Records once Oswald passed away, Raphael made a conscious decision to move on. He instead joined the Downbad Records team as their Street Management co-ordinator, as he felt that he'd have an easier time being awake at the same time as a lot of the talent and executives. Working more closely with Chase on his career was also something Raphael was keen to do.

Smileys
Raphael was first kidnapped and stabbed by a group led by Kenneth Jesperson aka Mr. Smiley, however Jocelyn Wayne was behind his attack that occured on September 1st, 2021. They drove him out to the reservoir and stabbed him in the back, collecting some of his blood for a ritual to bring back Jocelyn's brother, the deceased Joshua Wade (aka FUG). After his attack, Raphael began investigating the group with Posy Florian and they eventually linked it all back to the Smileys. He worked closely with LSPD's Mackenzie Hayes to provide her information wherever he could about the FUG attacks, eventually coming to a head when he approached Tobi Argent for information on both Jocelyn and Rick Locke.

Tobi then told the Smileys that Raphael was asking too many questions, and on October 2nd, 2021, Rick Locke kidnapped Raphael again with two other accomplices. They drove him out to a remote location, questioned him on what he knew and made him tweet out #CARCERWORLD before stabbing him and slashing his throat to keep him quiet. After almost a week unable to talk, Raphael eventually regained his voice and spoke with The Commonwealth about what had happened to him. As a result, Chase, Meg, Kane, and Jacque kidnapped Rick Locke and took him to the Torture Room at Grapeseed PD. They took a finger, unloaded an uzi into him and flayed part of his face to send a message to the Smileys, and then began dropping a video around the city showing a part of what happened. Around the same time, posters began appearing around town declaring Ursula Leichenberg a 'serial killer sympathiser', although Raphael knows little about where those actually came from. He keeps a list on him at all times of 'suspected Smileys', primarily for his own safety over hunting them down as some others intend to do.

In October 2021, after some back and forth between The Commonwealth and the Smileys (involving further attacks on both Tom Ato and May Flowers), The Commonweath as a whole began to grow tired of the conflict when it wasn't really their fight to begin with. They called for a truce with the Smileys, agreeing not to interfere in their plans so long as they were left well alone. For now, it seems to be upheld on both sides.

Chase Stone (Best Friend/Ex-Husband)
Chase and Raphael first met through Noelle Ablisa while she and Chase did a joint concert at Dean World one evening. They also knew each other in passing through Gwen Goldfish, but it wasn't until a little later that they began to hang out with one another alone. Forming somewhat of a partnership in their work lives as well as hanging out with one another every day, they eventually decided to get informally married. The reason for this wasn't always clear - but whether it was to try and 'scammaz' money out of people with an entry fee to their wedding, or to prevent being called to testify against one another, they're extremely clear on the fact their relationship wasn't romantic. In late October they decided instead that being best friends made things easier, so they dropped the husband label.

Kane Stokes (Adoptive Son)
Kane was the first person inducted into The Commonwealth, and after much joking around Raphael and Chase chose to call Kane their son. Raphael takes this role quite seriously, doing his best to protect Kane from both danger and jail time wherever he can. They often go fishing together, and once Raf was ready to sell his car he gave it to Kane for about half its value to ensure he had a car of some sort. Kane is somebody Raphael knows he can always call on when he needs help.

Jacque Jones (Adoptive... Something?)
Jacque joined the Commonwealth soon after Kane, and has been with them ever since. He and Raphael get along extremely well, and Raf normally lets Jacque ride his Double-T motorcycle whenever he's around. He jokes that Jacque is also part of the family, but Chase and Kane disagree - so Raphael has settled on Jacque being their ambiguously adopted 'something'. Jacque works at the Avalon PR booth, and is extremely enthusiastic about their signature product, Nut Milk.

Friends
The Commonwealth:

Meg Kyracruz / Noelle Ablisa / Dom Dasilva / Sam Kilroy / Boris Damtew / Tom Ato / Ethan Ross / Vanessa Dicks / Ricardo Perez

Wu-Chang Records:

Oswald Tinkerman / Noelle Ablisa / Valentine Dalla / Niko Rain / C Nasty / Mortimer Scottsfold / Orpheus Dawson

Other:

Gwen Goldfish / Elliott Doyle / Paris Argo / Zarina Vega / Ora Bailey / Ennex Siah / Mari Mckay / Posy Florian / Dean Gullberry / Dave Perry / Lenny Large

Trivia

 * Has a fear of penguins after being made to stare into the penguin mask of one of his attackers when the Smileys slashed his throat.
 * Is half Italian and half Romanian by ancestry, but speaks neither language.
 * Never had a driver's license back home, but was mistakenly given one when arriving in Los Santos without ever having lessons or a test.
 * While generally willing to work issues out with people, he does have a 'shit list' consisting of people who were unreasonably rude or aggressive.