Felipe

**Felipe** is a side character in The Smoke Room. He is miner under CSCG and a frequent patron of The Stag who often appears alongside his coworkers Dimitri and Paul.

## Appearance

Felipe is a jackrabbit with dark gray fur across most of his body, as well as tan fur on his muzzle and chest and white fur on his chin, hands, and around his eyes. He is small in stature, especially compared to his fellow miners. He has black eyes. As a rabbit, Felipe has extremely prominent ears and buck teeth.

Felipe wears a green button-up shirt and a pair of tan work pants held up by suspenders. When working in the mine, Felipe wears a black paisley handkerchief over his mouth and nose.

He is described as having a somewhat thick Sonoran accent.

## Personality

In contrast to his coworkers, Felipe is more serious and seems to favor quietly observing over speaking up, but demonstrates a wary alertness. He tends to be realist and occasionally displays an understated sense of humor, especially in his sardonic banter with Paul. Felipe cares little for the authority of the mine's managers, and based on his involvement with the union he is committed to improving his own lot along with that of his friends and fellow miners.

Felipe seems to be superstitious; he mentions at once point that he tries not to associate with spirits, and dislikes when such matters are joked about.

## Story

### Before The Smoke Room

At some point prior to The Smoke Room, Felipe came to Echo from Sonora. He was hired on as a miner for CSCG and placed under the command of foreman Beckett Moore. Felipe eventually became acquainted with and befriended his coworkers Paul and Dimitri before joining the miner's union alongside them.

### Nik's Route

Felipe first appears at The Stag alongside the other members of the miner's union. He listens to Dimitri's story about Ben's excessive risk-taking, before noticing and alerting the others that Nik and Yao have arrived and are waiting to introduce them to Sam. Along with Dimitri and Paul, Felipe welcomes Sam warmly into the union.

Felipe next appears on Sam's first day as an employee of the mine, as part of the 'yellow team.' He works alongside Sam, Paul, and Dimitri to lay spikes and expand the mine shaft, while bantering with Paul. At one point Paul attempts to get a rise out of Sam with exaggerated tales of Dimitri's fearsomeness, and Felipe asks Sam to excuse his friend's behavior.

The next day, Felipe once again works alongside his friends and Sam, and pockets a piece of silver that has come loose from a vein during the expansion process. Sam asks what he is doing and Felipe slyly replies that he is going to 'double-check' the silver at home. After a suspiciously faulty stick of dynamite causes a small cave-in and Dimitri's foot is crushed, Felipe rushes to push the debris off of him, then uses his own handkerchief as a bandage before helping to escort Dimitri to town for medical aid.

Sam and Nik next find Felipe picketing with Paul at the miners' strike that results from Dimitri's injury. Nik shows them photos he found in James Hendricks' house that appear to be candid images discreetly taken of miners, including Nik, Yao, and Jack, and Felipe looks frightened by this odd revelation. Sam leaves for a private discussion with Beckett, then insists upon speaking to Dimitri when he returns, and so Felipe and Paul lead him to the clinic where Dimitri is recovering. Paul is hostile and suspicious about Sam's meeting with their boss, but Felipe's reaction is more measured.

Sam recounts that Beckett accused him of tampering with the dynamite that injured Dimitri, but Felipe and the other mines remain convinced that Ben was the culprit, and either acted alone or at the behest of some authority in the mine higher than Beckett. To try and explain away the apparent unlikeliness of Ben sabotaging the very first piece of dynamite that was used, Felipe muses that there are many ways to bias someone into picking a specific stick from a bag of several.

Dimitri, determined to downplay his wound, then insists on treating everyone to drinks at The Stag and Felipe expresses concern for him. He quips that Dimitri's eagerness to get up and walking might cost him his foot, and offers to sculpt a peg for him to walk on. Felipe later spectates the strength contest between Nik and Sam in the workout room behind The Stag, where his skepticism about Sam's chances is proven correct.

When Murdoch is brought into the bar disheveled and delirious, Felipe and the other miners help him recover and listen as he tries to recall the last thing he encountered in the mines before seemingly losing his memory. Once it becomes clear that Murdoch likely had a supernatural encounter, Paul brings up 'spooks' and Felipe warns him not to joke about such matters. He and the other miners then take turns sharing their own brushes with the inexplicable. Unlike Dimitri and Paul, Felipe shares that he has never *seen* anything strange, but hears different voices counting up to 10 that sound more afraid than anyone he has ever heard.

Felipe later joins in on the hoedown in The Stag during Murdoch's musical performance, and dances briefly with Sam.

### William's Route

Felipe may appear on Will's route depending on the order in which Will chooses to conduct his investigation. Should Will go to The Stag at night, he can talk to Felipe alongside Dimitri and Paul. Compared to his friends Felipe stays quiet for most of the conversation, though he chips in to complain about the mine's management situation.

## Relationships

### Paul

Paul and Felipe appear to be close friends, and the two often tease each other heavily in a manner that borders on flirting. Dimitri refers to this as "giving each other shit."

### Dimitri

Dimitri is another friend of Felipe's whom he trusts and relies upon greatly. Felipe is the first to come to Dimitri's aid after he is injured during the events of Nik's route.

## Trivia

* If Sam chooses to name Felipe as one of his companions in the mine, Porter refers to the jackrabbit as a "charmer."
* Felipe is "some degree of bisexual," although this has not yet been made explicit in the story.
* Felipe likes roller-skating.

## References

1. ↑ GeorgeSquares' CuriousCat
2. ↑ GeorgeSquares' CuriousCat