Michael Allen Grey

Intro

• Basic Info

  • Name: Michael Allen Grey
  • Gender: Male
  • Played by: InkAndBone
  • Nicknames: Mikey, Mickey, Mic
  • Race: White
  • Age: 24
  • Body Type: Thin
  • Height: 6' 0"
  • Hair: Brown, short
  • Eyes: Hazel
  • Handedness: Right
  • Relationship Status: Single

• Gallery

  Faceclaim: Danny Schwarz

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• Description

  Michael stands at 5'11" with brown hair and hazel eyes. He wears glasses most of the time, only opting for contacts when he has to. Michael is a lanky fellow, thin and not particularly muscled.
  
  Michael is quite open and friendly. Most people would expect otherwise, given that he doesn't feel comfortable talking, but there are plenty of other ways to communicate; even if his companion doesn't know ASL, they can always text or write back and forth, for example.
  
  Michael is very open minded, viewing the world with an easy acceptance. As long as you're not hurting anyone, he thinks, then you should feel free to do and be whatever you want. Such an attitude allows him to be pretty laid back most of the time, but gives him no patience for prejudiced or judgmental people.

• Backstory

  Growing up, Michael was never the stereotype of autism. He was friendly, got decent but imperfect grades, and enjoyed the occasional social event. The one thing that makes his autism obvious is that Michael is mute. Though physically capable of taking, he very rarely does, and only when extremely comfortable with someone. He is considered nonverbally autistic, and is quite comfortable in that fact. He's highly intelligent, friendly, and has little trouble getting on through his life without talking.
  
  Beside that, Michael is a pretty regular guy. Born in a smaller city in upstate New York, he was the second of four siblings and the only boy. His parents were something of a cliche; his mother was a housewife, and his father, a military man turned mechanic. His childhood was never much to speak of, but it wasn't bad, not really. His father got a little sour when he drank, his mother was a little too closed minded Christian to be very happy about him coming out as bi, the pair thankfully separated when Michael was 12, and none of them were exactly autism-advocates, but that was the worst of it. He loved his family despite their failings.
  
  But that didn't mean he didn't want to get away. He loved them, sure, but it's possible to love someone without liking them, and that was exactly where most of his family fell in his mind. So he ended up moving to a small apartment during college and, when he graduated, he decided to take it even further.
  
  Michael, having just graduated with a degree in Linguistics, decided there was only one good option for him. To move, and to move far. Somewhere overseas was his ultimate goal but, for now, he figured Oregon would work. Good food, plenty of nature right around the cities, and best of all, a job waiting for him in a tiny publishing firm. It was all he needed, and so it was without regret that he packed up what he owned and moved over 2,500 miles away.
  
  Michael's life now is pretty calm. He is renting a townhouse near the market district of Eugene, and works full time, mostly from home with the exception of the occasional meeting. He has a silver maine coon named Bard, and a pitbull mix named Tesla.

• Autism

  There are many "kinds" of autism and ways that it shows. It is not a form of mental retardation or mental disability, and most autistic people can generally function perfectly well on their own in society.
  
  Michael's autism shows in a couple different ways:
  
  For one, he's mute. Not physically, but by preference. He finds communication through language to be extremely uncomfortable, and only talks in one-on-one situations with people he is comfortable with. Otherwise, he converses through sign language, or by writing. He carries with him a small notebook and a couple of pens at all times. He is also extremely expressive, and tends to make what he's thinking clear via facial expression and gestures alone.
  
  He has low sensitivity to smells and high sensitivity to textures. Repetitive sounds, such as someone tapping their pencil or something beeping, make it hard for him to concentrate.
  
  He stims a lot. Stimming is short for self-stimulatory behavior, and includes things like rocking his shoulders or twitching his fingers. He also fidgets with things a lot; he tends to carry something in his pocket to toy with, such as a little bauble with moving parts or a bracelet of magnetic beads, though he doesn't wear jewelry.
  
  Like most autistics, Michael tends to get stuck on things that interest him, and has obsessive tendencies about some things. His big obsessions are comics/superheros, cop dramas and art. He collects interesting mugs, vintage tin posters, and cityscapes.
  
  Michael's job doesn't require him to talk to people, and he generally works from home except for when he comes in for meetings. Most of his work is correcting grammar in submitted works and, when he talks to people, it's generally via email. A lot of people who he works with have no idea that he's mute.