{ character history }

[senzaphonic]

BRIEF SUMMARY
(see the complete bio, HERE.)• Ana Cassandra Constance is Mikelo's mother. She's from a strict but very loving Italian-Catholic family in New Jersey. She conceived at age 19, only a month before she was to leave for a two-year study in Japan, as a part of the field she was pursuing. Although her pregnancy worried her family, they supported her determination and academic dreams, and sent her off on good terms. The father left upon learning Ana was pregnant, however it didn't upset her so much, as the relationship was beginning to fall apart, anyhow. Ana is supported by a good friend who also is going abroad in the same group.

• Although he is otherwise a healthy and normal baby, Michelino Constance is born with faulty vocal folds, and the muscles involved with speech. He will live out his life with the inability to speak.

• Unable to care for him, Ana left Mikelo's care to the hospital. They eventually register him into an orphanage. The only tokens that Mikelo has of his mother are his birth certificate, and his name, both of which are Mikelo's most treasured possessions. To know her name is something precious.

• Life in the orphanage isn't the greatest. Not only is Mikelo foreign, but he can't speak. No efforts are made in attempts to get him to speak. He's ridiculed by many, yet also welcomed by other children. Here, Mikelo often learned to make his own entertainment by use of his blossoming imagination.

• A kind, American volunteer at the orphanage takes to doting on him, and is the one who begins calling Michelino by "Mikelo." Others catch on, as well, primarily because it's a bit easier for them to pronounce.

• At age 6, through a program worked out with the orphanage, he enters one of the schools nearby. His peers there aren't much better, either, but he seemed to get by. He takes great interest in reading, and often spends every free moment he has, tucked away under the stairwells with a book. One the principal realizes that Mikelo is, indeed, does not have a learning disability (but merely cannot speak), he is placed in the normal classes, and in the process, begins to enjoy learning.

• Age 9, the school becomes more of a sanctuary. He doesn't have to deal with how life is becoming at the orphanage, when the new vice director begins taking a particularly unfortunate liking towards him. Mikelo stops counting after the eighth time the vice director enters his room after the lights go out.

• Age 11, he's adopted. It turns out to be for show. The rather affluent couple wants to up their reputation within their community. As Mikelo is not even a quarter Japanese, already a pre-teen, and mute, he is deemed just right for the role. The couple will be seen as "heroic" and "deeply sympathetic and kind," while simultaneously laughing at, condescending, and verbally and psychologically abusing Mikelo. Although they feel they can get away with it, as Mikelo can't speak (and they take him as dumb) to tell on them, they shower him with expensive gifts.

• Luckily, the couple spends long hours away from the house, working. Although Mikelo is told to stay on the premises of the house, unless supervised by either/both "parents," he finds entertainment in its many rooms. School is the only place he can attend alone.

• He comes across a box of old instructional DVDs (of his "mother's") when he's 12. Dance, yoga, and aerobics make up the majority. At first Mikelo checks them out out of curiosity, but soon begins to enjoy them. Discovering just how nimble he is, Mikelo is quick to learn, and dancing soon becomes a stress reliever, as well as a source of happiness.

• Age 13, Mikelo is finally fed up with where he is at. He wants more: to learn more, to see more of the world, to guide his own life. The couple hardly ever pays to him, anyway, save for their mocking. Even when he begins to spend hours after school at an old, seemingly abandoned dance studio, they don't suspect anything, assuming Mikelo is up in his bedroom.

• After finding one of the couple's old safes in a storage room, with its failing lock and thin layer of dust, Mikelo steals over half of its contents, both cash and other items. Judging by its condition, the couple likely will not notice. They have an abundance of money, already.

• Not long after, and nearing 14 years old, Mikelo packs a bag and runs.

• The first month on his own is tough. The first year, worse. Mikelo will spend a lot of time in the run-down dance studio he found a while back. It proves beneficial, at the least, due to the few other dancers he meets there. He greatly enjoys the amateur dance troupe that they form, and the meager bits of money they manage to bring in. Other times, Mikelo finds shelter outdoors, or hides within the library after-hours, reading until he falls asleep.

• Months and months pass. The money he originally stole dwindles, although he remains mindful of his spending. With the fear of completely running out, however, Mikelo does a variety of things to bring in what he can. Usually it's pick-pocketing, although other times he'll do private dances, and even sell himself. While the latter is primarily a last resort, it isn't something he regrets. He isn't about to kill or harm, but he considers most anything as doable, so long as he's able to bring in money.


FULL BIOGRAPHYIt would seem that Michelino "Mikelo" Constance never was a friend of Lady Luck. He came into the world in silence, quite literally so. The anomaly, as the delivery team would soon come to realize as they quickly cleaned and examined the newborn, was the first that they'd ever seen. Baby Mikelo was crying heavy tears, his body weighing in at a nice 7.5lbs, his skin flushed and warm; however, even as his mouth lay open as he bawled, Mikelo wasn't making a sound. After a few additional tests, all that could be said about Mikelo was that there was a defect to the muscles involved with speech, and he would never be able to utter a word.

The silence of his birth came also from Mikelo's mother, Ana Cassandra Constance, who never would come to know her son. Not even Ana's family had known about the pregnancy, nor would they ever learn of Mikelo's existence.

Ana had been in a relationship at the time, or so she claimed, when Mikelo was conceived, however the past few months hadn't been going so well. The man Ana was seeing was far from what her strict, Italian-Catholic family approved of. They saw him as a manipulator, a danger; someone who not only would lead Ana down the wrong path, but take her away from the people that they knew she loved. At the beginnings of the relationship, Ana simply took her family's distaste for the man into her own hands, telling him to meet her somewhere other than her house, although the suggestion soon led to her sneaking out at odd hours of the night. But as the months slipped by, things changed.

Even Ana was noticing how the man she was dating had become increasingly more aggressive. The fear that had been overcoming Ana was enough that when the man left, upon hearing she was pregnant, it brought more of a sense of relief, opposed to heartbreak.

It was both fortunate yet not that Ana had conceived only a month before she was to leave for a two year study overseas. The event was a part of Ana that her family was extremely proud of, regardless of how terribly they would miss her. She was both a gifted and highly determined student. As much as they wanted to keep her within their reach in their home in upper New Jersey, they also believed that the experience was one that Ana shouldn't miss out on.

The next nine months were everything but simple. Given that abortion was completely out of the question for Ana, not only was she living for two, but getting adjusted to life in Japan, and the heavy load of schoolwork was often overbearing. If it hadn't been for Mina - a close friend and confidant of Ana's, also from Jersey, who not only began the same schooling program half a year earlier, but additionally had a couple of close family members living in the same area in Japan - there's no saying how she would have gotten by.

Ana left the hospital a day or so after giving birth, leaving it up to her doctor and nurses to get baby Michelino into an orphanage. She knew from the very start that she would need to give him up. The only token of his existence that Ana allowed herself to keep, aside from her memories and a single photo, was the tiny band around his wrist. Michelino Constance was left only with a name, his birth certificate, and the unknowing future ahead of him. As of yet, the two haven't crossed paths.
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Even from a very early age, Mikelo knew that there was something about him that set him apart from the rest of the children - and even the adults - at the orphanage. There were the obvious signs: big, round hazel eyes; dirty strawberry-blonde colored hair with a slight, though noticeable kink. The shape of his nose, and the way his pale skin was closer to the soft glow of the morning sun, compared to a more yellow undertone. Yes, Mikelo was different, but at least one of the nicer volunteers, a young American, at the orphanage had explained to him that he was "just as good of a boy as all the other children." That it didn't matter what he looked like.

The same volunteer also happened to be the person who began calling him Mikelo. She had noticed that the staff often mispronounced "Michelino," usually opting to refer to the boy as Mimi, or Mi-chan. While "Mikelo" wasn't the best improvement, she felt it would at least allow Mikelo to keep a good part of his full name. It was an important part of who he was, and either way, he liked it.

Almost surprisingly, Mikelo wasn't judged too harshly by the other orphans due to his looks. Most of them, at least. It was Mikelo's inability to speak that stirred up both curiosity and amusement for the kids. While a few treated him just as normal as they would to another, he often was the target of teasing and pointing, their whispers purposefully loud enough for Mikelo to hear.

The ridicule began to rapidly increase once Mikelo was around 6 years old - the age where the children of the orphanage are enrolled into an education program in juncture with a nearby school. Here, his physical differences stuck out even more, and the students weren't always as kind as some in the orphanage were. More so, however, although the head representative of the orphanage knew Mikelo to be a fairly smart child, he was placed into a special needs program due to his prominent inability.

Lucky for Mikelo, the school's officials finally came to realize this, and he was placed within a normal curriculum by the time he was in his second year. It was the only form of admission, so it seemed, that they had been wrong.

When it came to academics and learning, Mikelo grew to enjoy school. Reading about far away places and times long since past; solving puzzles; eyes wide and shining at the beauty and mystery of the world. It was thrilling to see where a new book would take him. In order to get away from those who teased and played around with him, Mikelo began to seek out various hiding spots where he could tuck himself away for several hours at a time, simply to read, nap, or doodle in the little notebook he always carried around. Given his small build and flexibility, some of the locations weren't as easily accessible to the other children, were they to find him, likewise for the teachers and faculty.

Mikelo was 9 when he began to find solace within the walls of the school.

Life at the orphanage had only worsened. The few children who treated him kindly had been adopted; the nice American girl could no longer volunteer due to hectic school and work hours. The other kids had become increasingly cruel, often locking him in the bathrooms and basement area; they stole his food, and took his clothing when he was bathing. Knowing that he couldn't tattle only drove them further. The fact that Mikelo could still write out the accusations didn't seem to matter, especially when the staff often didn't pay heed to the complaints and requests.

That same train of thought also seemed to run through the mind of the orphanage's Vice Director. He'd stopped by Mikelo's room maybe eight times or so over the past six months. Mikelo had turned 10 years old when he finally stopped trying to count how many times the Vice Director would close the door behind him in the late hours of the night. "Mimi-chan~" he'd always call in a sing-song whisper. It was a thrill to not have to worry about Mikelo screaming for help when he held the boy against his own bed; a rush to know that, even if Mikelo did attempt to complain, he would never make quite enough noise to get the attention of the other kids in the room, all of them sleeping too sound to notice the muffled noises that came from the rustling sheets and the Vice Director, himself.

Mikelo was already 11 years old when he was finally adopted. At first, the occasion was joyous. One of new beginnings; one that could possibly prove to Mikelo that maybe, just maybe, he would get the chance to experience some semblance of a normal child's life. He knew well enough that he should feel lucky to even be considered to be adopted, well aware that most families wanted a baby. Not some preteen who, for one, wasn't even a quarter Japanese, but also couldn't even utter a single word, regardless of effort or desire. So, as grateful as Mikelo felt, he couldn't help the suspicion that burned at the back of his thoughts. Even with the toys, endless piles of books, and even the brand new netbook he was given, he couldn't dull the bitter amusement when he saw through the false smiles on his "parents'" faces whenever they introduced him to their friends and colleagues. Luckily for them, Mikelo knew how to play along.

It would seem that Mikelo was adopted as an act of charity. If he were to judge the married couple by where they took Mikelo, who they introduced him to, and the frivolity their money went towards (at least, the things Mikelo was aware of), the two were well known within their community. Well known, and to Mikelo's disgust, quite well respected and adored.

The atmosphere always shifted when it was just the three of them at home. The couple kept up their impeccable image on the outside, but on the inside, their masks slipped. They seemed to always speak to condescend. There was always a snicker at the backs of their throats and an amused gleam in their eyes when they went to communicate with Mikelo when he didn't have his white-board or notebook with him, since they seemed to feel that his body language and pantomiming was far more entertaining than reading the reply he would scribble out. It was an insult to them to be outsmarted by a mute kid.

Mikelo frequently found it difficult to decide whether or not he was pleased when his "parents" left him to his own devices. Aside from being allowed to attend school, Mikelo was forced to remain within the house, unless accompanied by at least one of them. To a degree, he didn't mind this as much as he could have. The house was more than enough for three people; there were areas to explore, and quite often, things to stumble upon. With a library practically built into one of the office rooms (which appeared more like a storage room), boredom didn't come too quickly.

Then again, even when he did feel the droll of having nothing to do, Mikelo particularly enjoyed the fact that the couple frequently worked long hours.

Not long after Mikelo turned 12 did he come across a box of old instructional DVDs. Exercise, so it seemed; aerobics, pilates, yoga; even several that involved dance, and there was no doubt that they belonged to his "mother." Although he believed himself to be rather nimble and flexible, partially due to all of the hiding and playing around he would do at the orphanage, Mikelo had never given much thought to putting the natural abilities to use. He didn't get to expend much energy beyond going to gym class, anyway, and that typically consisted of other sports and games.

Once again, quick to learn, Mikelo had most of the routines memorized within the span of two months, save for those on the aerobic DVDs; although he followed them for a short while, he soon grew bored with the repetition. They didn't allow for as much freedom as dancing proved to. The DVDs of musical theatre movies and performances that he found had a similar effect on Mikelo, getting him to dance along with the characters as he watched.

Although the DVDs provided a good deal of entertainment and activity for Mikelo, it didn't take long before he grew eager to learn more. Even the Internet was limited with what it had to offer.

Even after almost three years, the married couple who adopted Mikelo still didn't pay much attention to what the boy did, aside from showering him with gifts as a way to both keep him distracted and busy while remaining indoors, and as a sort-of payment for his pleasant acting when out with them in public. However, they still hadn't paid much thought to the fact that, although he couldn't verbally communicate, Mikelo was not a dumb or foolish child. So when he spent several extra after-school hours milling about around campus, the couple hardly noticed at all. Or that on weekends, when they thought Mikelo was keeping busy in his room for hours on end, he was actually at a small, run down dance studio near his school. He paid the rather minimal entrance fee by using the lunch money he had saved up.

So, when Mikelo packed a bag and ran, his absence hardly dented the couple's life at all. They did little to go find him. It was his loss, after all, wasn't that right? He would be nothing without them, they believed.

Mikelo didn't bring much with him, aside from his ID, netbook, library card, head-phones, and a few articles of clothing. Additionally, however, he made away with nearly half of a cash savings that the couple had stored within the house. Mikelo had come across it one day while they were at work. The metal brick of a safe appeared even older than Mikelo, though its condition proved that it likely wasn't as neglected as he had been, except for a moderate layer of dust. Regardless, the only thing protecting the money inside was a padlock, opposed to a fancy device that took quite a lot of skill to break into. With a bit of work, Mikelo was able to pick the lock.

Judging from the contents within the safe, the couple didn't feed it very often. Still, if Mikelo did his math right, the amount he had taken would be enough to let him get by for a year or so; two, possibly, if he did just enough to survive.

The first month was more than enough to prove to Mikelo that living independently wasn't going to be easy; even at the orphanage, he was provided with a place to sleep, bathe, and even the food he would need for a day. The people he was around also knew of his inability; regardless of how he was treated by them, at least they knew. Out on the streets, the common stranger, or even shop-keep, didn't always allow Mikelo the time to write down what he wanted to say or order. Truthfully, however, the attitude wasn't entirely unfamiliar. Mikelo was already accustomed to being watchful when it came to interacting with others, and it's what shaped him.

It took about two weeks of getting to know the city area better before Mikelo returned to the rundown dance studio. He'd come to love the place even more than he enjoyed school. He'd come to see the cracks in the mirrors as signs of character, that the missing tiles in the bathroom were bits of artistic flare and told the stories of other dancers who used to call the studio a home; that, although some of the overhead lights were missing their protective covers, it was perfectly okay, because it made the dancers below them shine even brighter. The studio's outward appearance had nothing to do with what it felt like.

Now that he didn't have to worry about a curfew, Mikelo often spent entire days, and even nights at the studio. He didn't go unnoticed, either. A few other regulars began to watch, sometimes dancing alongside Mikelo- who, at times, was too into the music and the movements to even realize that others were around. It wasn't long before a relationship began to form between Mikelo and the other teenagers. They were different from the kids at school; completely opposite from many at the orphanage. While trusting them was an especially large hurdle (of which he never fully would cross), the way Mikelo grew to appreciate them didn't feel as risky as it might have with a group of classmates. A couple were even like him, to a degree, due to family situations, and the fact that they happened to be runaways as well.

Mikelo eventually joined the others in what could be considered a street performing troupe. They were one of three small groups of gymnasts and dancers from neighboring dance studios who performed a variety of talents to the public, which didn't just involve dancing, but often acrobatics and small skits as well. Just like Mikelo's studio, the other two were on the lower end of the spectrum, though not quite as rundown, so when it came to performances, the troupe often asked for donations and sponsors, when able.

Being in front of a crowd only energized Mikelo. It was difficult to get used to the time that it consumed, at first. Quite a few of the performers were also students, so practices were held in the early morning, and again after classes. The performances usually were held in an abandoned warehouse that the troupe cleaned and made fit for an audience; costumes and other accessories were the conglomeration of the performers' own clothing, in addition to second-hand stores, and those who were to able to sew. At times, volunteers and other members of the (other two) studios even offered a hand. The entire process was exhilarating, albeit tiring, when taking into account that several of the performers also held jobs, and/or were students. But it was satisfying, and even brought in a bit of pocket money, on those nights that resulted in a healthy sized crowd.

Mikelo would continue to dance and perform with the troupe; he'd plan to for as long as possible. At one point, he still, albeit with lower grades than he might have shown potential for, managed to graduate from high school. While trusting others still proved difficult, at least the small group he spent time with accepted and appreciated his talents, personality, and flaws alike. He eventually managed to find a tiny place that provided warmth and a roof over his head, although he continued to exercise more nomadic habits from time to time. It was good for when he needed to be alone, but weaving through the streets had also become like a second home, even despite the dangers.