Carlos joined Vampster as a junior software engineer, having returned in Fall of 2004 from three years of volunteer work in Africa working with a doctor in Médecins Sans Frontiéres (Doctors Without Borders). He's attractive with curly black hair, a straight nose, slim figure, and medium height.
His parents were born in Cuba, and then moved to Florida where Carlos was born. His parents then divorced when he was young. His mother is Pilar Ortiz, a domineering lady who holds fast to the traditions of Cuba, and keeps parrots like some people keep cats -- lots, all over, bright feathers and squawking. He grew up with her in Miami. He was an only child, but grew up with a passel of cousins. She came from a rich family which lost a lot of money coming over from Castro's regime. She had enough to live in her apartment without working, but was not wealthy. She volunteers a fair amount.
His father, Paolo, currently makes a living as a musician, doing updated Cuban music. He's a flaky emotional artist, and had substance abuse problems when he was young (though probably over that by now). Didn't really know what to do with a kid. (He's vaguely based on Carlos Santana.)
Carlos went for college to California, at UC Berkeley, partly to get as far away from her as possible... He loves her and all, but he has to spend a lot of time on the phone nodding and assuring her that he's going to get a girlfriend soon. While there, he double majored in Biology and Computer Science -- which means about 4 hours of sleep a night.
After graduating in spring 2000, he volunteered at the Berkeley Free Clinic for a time while getting his EMT certification. While volunteering, he met up with a doctor named Hans Stevin. Several months later in early 2001, Dr. Stevin started volunteer work with Doctors Without Borders, heading off to East Africa. Carlos decided to go with him. Once there, finding himself useful he stayed. About a year there in 2002, Dr. Stevin revealed to Carlos that he was a Watcher on the side. He started Carlos learning about the occult and about Watcher lore. In early 2003, though, something went wrong with the Watcher's organization -- and Hans became concerned and started to fight evil on his own. Over the following year, Carlos maybe has gaps in his memory or maybe has actually missed several months. He remembers that Hans sent him away, putting him on a plane in spring 2004.
He has some friends from college at UC Berkeley still around in the area. He hadn't had a girlfriend since coming back to the Bay Area, since he had been spending a lot of time looking for a job. Also, he's shy around women. He dated Uma Gupta for a time, but then in Spring of 2005 she was killed, came back briefly, and finally destroyed herself to save the world. He's still shaken by that. He has also awkwardly flirted with Chip, though he hasn't in the past been bi.
<<BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER ©2002 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer trademark is used without express permission from Fox.>>
J. Hanju Kim <hanju.j.kim-at-gmail-dot-com> Last modified: Tue Feb 28 00:04:28 2006