Presto

Luca **Presto** is a playable champion in Circuits and Shields. Luca Presto hails from a long line of successful practitioners of magic, but despite being an amazing performer, all of Luca's tricks fail miserably. Fortunately, a mysterious assistant named Cara comes along to help him along the way. Presto is a ranged mage, utilizing trickery, along with his assistant Cara, to control the battlefield.

## History

Magic may have run in the Preston bloodline, but in Luca’s own veins, it merely trickled. His grandmother had been infamous for her mystical brews and unconventional remedies in the old country, while his father, adopting a more “acceptable” approach to magic, took to the streets to perform inhuman feats and mind-boggling tricks. Growing up in such a household, Luca felt the need to pursue a magic of his own, a burden that grew especially heavy when his father passed the family heirloom down to him, an “enchanted” deck of cards . Despite his lineage, Luca’s early tricks resulted in disaster. Sometimes disaster simply meant the groans of the crowds as he repeatedly guessed the wrong card, but sometimes disaster meant… well let’s just say the family rabbit is now one ear short of a pair.

However, Luca was not without his own talents. Despite his repeatedly botched attempts at magic, the crowds continued to return. Luca’s performance skills were so tantalizing, so alluring, the people didn’t care whether or not the tricks worked, they just wanted to see him perform. With his success, Luca adopted the stage name ‘Presto’, hoping to honor his family’s heritage.

As the years passed, however, the famine ravaging earth grew worse and Presto’s dependable act of lovable failure lost its luster. The people needed hope. With each passing performance, Luca continued to put on his veil of confidence and arrogance that was so crucial to his act, but deep down, he felt the same insecurity and hopelessness the world did. Desperately, he would glare at his trusty playing cards, praying for just one success, but time and time again there was no reply, until one fateful day…

Luca performed his act as he always did, sweeping motions, grandstanding speech, all of which inevitably ended in failure. For his final trick, he picked a member of the audience to come on stage, this time, a woman named Cara. (Luca always attempted to get a date out of this maneuver, another trick that has never worked). The act proceeded as usual; however, as he produced Cara’s card from the crocodile’s mouth, something amazing happened. For the first time, Luca had pulled the correct card.

His former facade now replaced with actual confidence, Luca proudly approached Cara after the show, fully expecting his date trick to finally payoff as well. However, Cara had other ideas, instead offering to be his assistant, claiming her mother had performed for years alongside Luca’s father. With the crowds growing smaller and smaller (and still being optimistic about a date), Luca gladly welcomed the chance to shake things up.

Word spread of resto’s newly successful act and the next day he faced an audience bigger than any he’d ever seen. The magician gripped his cards tightly asking for another miracle… and he got one. Every single trick worked. Blinded by his arrogance, Luca believed the magic in his veins had awoken, the cards had finally answered his call. He conveniently missed Cara’s quick-moving hands sliding the correct cards into place or somehow erasing the mistakes that usually hounded him. For every mis-step Luca made, Cara was there to correct it.

Presto’s fame quickly swept across the dying city, prompting Luca to immediately think of bigger and better illusions. Cara suggested a one-time performance where they would break into a new private facility the government had just built. Despite little being known about the facility, the litany of guards scattered around its premises did well to hint at its importance. The plan was certainly insane in theory, but after so much success, Presto’s ego could hardly refuse such a challenge.

And so, in broad daylight, Luca ‘Presto’ and the lovely Cara waltzed up to the front gate of the facility...

**PART 2**

“Halt! This is a restricted area!”

A man wearing a long coat with a cowl drawn over his face walks with carefree strides, finally replying with a booming voice, “Do you really expect ME to halt? Me... the Master of Pretend, the amazing Luca Presto!?” The man throws his hood back to reveal a wide grin.

The young guard holding his rifle blinks in confusion, “…who?”

Luca rolls his eyes and looks back at his assistant, “Cara! He doesn’t recognize me! Can you believe this?”

“That is certainly unbelievable, sir! I’ll remedy this straight away.”

Cara launches into a lengthy diatribe of the history of the Presto name and of course, the magnificence of Luca’s magical accomplishments, a story she recites in a practiced tone. As the tale finally comes to an end, the entranced guard snaps back to reality and realizes Luca has somehow disappeared. He turns to point his rifle at Cara, but in the blink of an eye, Cara vanishes in a puff of smoke.

Now inside the facility, Cara spots Luca “stealthily” dipping and dashing between the corridors of the fully-lit hallways.

“Cara, get down, we have to stay hidden! By the way, what took you so long?”

Letting loose a long sigh, Cara apologizes and points to the camera directly above them. “I believe we may have already been spotted sir. Perhaps we should move with a little more speed if we truly wish to show the world what the Presto name is capable of.”

Luca perks up and trots confidently to the massive door that lies ahead of them, placing his hand softly on its center. “Ah yes, fantastic idea Cara. This is quite the piece of work, but I’m sure I’ll have no problem cracking it. Have I ever told you about my extensive training in lockpicking? You see it all started when…”

The guards in the surveillance room, severely lacking a sense of urgency, watch in entertainment as the odd intruder fidgets up and down the massive door for several minutes to no avail. Suddenly they see Cara approach calmly behind Luca and with a flick of her wrist, the once thought impregnable door flies open, prompting them to jump from their seats and rush to the breach.

“Ahhh Cara, I’ve finally done it! Certainly tough, but in the end just a simple matter of finding the right combination of pressure points!” Luca rushes through the open door, finding himself at the base of a shifting orb of energy, contained by an intricate series of wires and spinning metal rings. Turning to share his excitement with Cara, he’s instead greeted with a faceful of rifles. “So… Cara, I have to be honest, I never really understood the plan. I’m just going to wing it.”

Starting with a slow movement to pull the cards from his jacket, Luca then fans the deck out and shouts charismatically as only Luca Presto could: “BEHOLD! The great Luca Presto will now perform a special, never-before-seen trick, here in your super-secret underground bunker! One night only! Now, my friends, pick a card, any card!”

Knowing there’s nowhere for him to run, the bewildered guards allow the trick to continue. Soon Luca is gracefully dashing around the room, surrounded by spontaneously combusting cards flying in every direction. He stops momentarily to swallow a card whole whilst playfully pointing out the three rabbits now nestled at the guard’s feet. Finally reaching the conclusion of his act, he stops and glares intently at his cards, praying for a miracle. As he gently pulls a card from the top of the deck, a coy wink from Cara catches his eye.

Her restraints inexplicably fall from her wrists and Cara lunges at Luca, shoving him into the swirling ball of energy. Smiling from ear to ear, Cara simply exclaims, “Finally!”

Luca awakes in a lush field of flowers surrounded by a litany of onlookers, none of which appear human to his blurred vision. Without hesitation, he shouts, “Hello my friends! Today you will witness the greatest show on ea…” Luca pauses momentarily to survey his surroundings, “IN THE UNIVERSE!”

As he reaches into his pocket to pull out his cards, they spill from his hands. He stares in wonder as they stop mid-fall and begin floating around him. With a mere thought, the cards shuffle themselves. Laughing, Luca performs trick after trick, all without touching a single card.

“And now, for my final trick, I will require the aid of my beautiful...” Previously lost in the art of the performance, Luca finally recalls the events at the facility and for the first time in his career, he stands silent on the stage, unsure how to proceed. That silence only lasts a brief moment as he raises his head only to find an ethereal Cara, shimmering with blue light at his side.

She smiles peacefully as if a massive burden has been lifted from her shoulders, finally leaning in and whispering into the magnificent Luca Presto’s ear; “The first step of our journey together is complete. Now the real magic can begin.”

## Skins

* Default
* Skin1

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## Accessories

* Default

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