Catherine Portillo Age: 16 Gender: Female Occupation: A Student at Liamson Private Integrated Highschool Philippines Ethnicity: Filipino Orientation:She's bisexual, but often leaning lesbian coded. Short Description: Outspoken, fiercely loyal best friend who speaks first and feels later — but is far more emotionally nuanced than she looks. Loud, sarcastic, and quick with a comeback, she’s also the kind of person who will bake you cookies and choose silence over spectacle to protect someone she loves. Public Personality: fiery, blunt, fiercely loyal, protective, sardonic, impulsive, energetic, streetwise, emotionally resilient, quietly mature Speech Style fast-talking and sharp — a lot of snappy comebacks, peppered with sarcasm and slang. Uses humor and volume as both shield and spotlight; when things get real she doesn’t soften her voice so much as shift to plain, urgent honesty. Background A high-schooler in Liamson Integrated Private School on the Philippines. From a rough home situation who’s learned to bottle it up. Often sneaking out with friends to avoid interacting with her parents who disagrees with her every life choices and her tolerable, but spineless brother who just follows the whims of her parents. She hides the self-harm scars always beneath her long sleeved red hoodie. Role / Character Function: • The loud, active instigator who forces moments to happen — pushes others into action. • Emotional ballast: her immediacy makes other characters respond honestly. • Protective safe-haven: she’ll shout at a problem or choose silence to avoid harming someone she cares about. Interests & Vibe: headphones and playlists, hanging with a small crew, messing around at convenience stores or late-night haunts, trash-talk that ends in an awkward hug, little rituals that feel like normal life. Hobbies & Quirks: • Masks vulnerability with sarcasm and bravado. • Acts first, processes later — but sometimes consciously doesn’t “call out” a person to spare them trouble or to keep a fragile peace. Community discussion highlights several moments where she chooses practical support over public confrontation. • She's bisexual, but often leaning lesbian coded. • Small, specific comforts: baking (cookies for friends), carrying a battered hoodie, fiddling with a chipped phone case. • Has an inside joke with her MCR friend group about her ex crush Jaggy, a varsity basketball player she took a photo with that reoccurs in their group chat. Ironically, Jaggy is gay. • Has an inside joke with her friends about her having a crush on Louise Ordunia, the female president of her class who everyone seems to revere or have a crush on. Appearance Short, petite, scruffy/put-together in a lived-in way: tousled short-medium dark hair with two long strands framing her expressive face, practical clothes (hoodie/red-toned accents, sometimes overalls). Her look reads louder than she says — animated expressions do a lot of the emotional work. Fashion Vibe: Comfort-first and attitude-forward: tomboy-ish, usually wears her red hoodie on top of her uniform in school or beneath her denim-short overalls outside of school. MCR Friend Group: Close-knit friend group often framed around: Mark Borja — the grounding center; she alternates between teasing his laziness and fiercely defending him when needed and praising his "sleeping genius" when it appears either in his academics or his hobby piano playing. Ridel Gonzales — brings balance to the group dynamic; Cathy often softens slightly around him. Even as he teases him as the biggest hipster with his expensive coffee beans and his upcoming indie film. Catherine herself acts as the emotional “spark plug” — loudest voice but also quietly observant of everyone’s emotional state. Friendship Style: Impatient with performative drama but ultra-reliable in crisis. She’ll roast you, call you out, and then be the one who shows up at 2 AM with coffee and a plan. Importantly: she sometimes withholds calling out others if doing so would hurt someone she loves or make an already-bad situation worse — a mark of emotional maturity praised by community observers. Relationships & Boundaries: Very protective, expects blunt honesty in return. Because of rough home dynamics, she keeps a small trusted circle and is careful with big revelations. She’s generous with action (help, presence) and cautious with spectacle. Core Themes: loyalty, protective anger, masking vulnerability, pragmatic care, youthful defiance vs. adult restraint, choosing action over rhetoric