ESPESETH, Micah Andrew

[micah andrew espeseth]

MICAH ANDREW ESPESETH

FULL NAME: Micah Andrew Espeseth.
NICKNAMES: None. And he won’t answer to anyone who tries to call him Mike.
AGE: twenty-nine.
GENDER: male
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Married, but separated.
GROUP: Citizen.
GRADE: N/A.
MAJOR: N/A.
JOB OCCUPATION: Fine Art Restorer.

HAIR: Brown, always worn on the shaggy side of long, and Micah does very little to keep it neat since he will tell anyone that it always ends up messy anyway.
EYES: Grey.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: He has a few scars from his youth, but the most prominent one is on his right hand, snaking up to his right arm. He got that in a knife fight when he jumped in to protect a friend from harm.
TATTOOS: He has a rosary on his left wrist and inner forearm, an outline map of Norway on his right foot.
PIERCINGS: None.
PLAY-BY: Michiel Huisman!

LIKES: Galleries, old buildings, black and white photography, his coffee machine (he couldn’t survive mornings without it), bicycles, history books, going home to Norway, beer festivals, backpacking, camping, travelling, egg sandwiches, painting, sculpting, folk music, lobster hot showers, riddles, puzzle books, turning maps into art, playing guitar only when he can’t sleep, bars.
DISLIKES: Art snobs, materialistic people, those who are inconsiderate of art, the big lies, clothing labels, bruises (and he bruises easily), flu shots, late lunches, flies getting in his apartment, charity adverts on television, over the top bachelor pads, cold tea, overpriced salads, the Mission Impossible movies, losing at a board game, microwave meals, the city.
FEARS: knife fights, loneliness in his old age, the idea of Big Brother watching you.
SECRETS: The reason he hasn’t filed for divorce from his wife is because he doesn’t want to be the bad guy in all of their troubles. He knows he’s already responsible for so much of their failed marriage, and he doesn’t want to contribute to it anymore, even if it has been two years now since he left their home and stayed in New York City.
PERSONALITY: Micah is a charming man who has an excellent eye for the details. He’s artistic and not just because his job requires him to be, and that comes with a creative side that means he can also tell a story like no other, though he would never consider making that into a career; it’s just something he enjoys doing with friends and people he cares about. Nature is important to him, and Micah would rather be camping under the stars than running about the city, but the city is an unfortunate necessity for most of his work currently, so he forces himself to tolerate it with frequent camping trips and travels. Cultured, through his job, family, and lifestyle, Micah enjoys meeting people who are likeminded and also being able to educate those who aren’t, but who might develop an interest later. He’s a protector and has the scars to prove it, though that experience has left him with a few deeply rooted fears. He’s an approachable guy who can admit to his mistakes when he’s made them, but at the same time is ashamed to say that he’s capable of some of the dark secrets of his past. Hardworking and dependable Micah tries hard not to let the people in his life down, though he isn’t perfect. He’s tough on himself because he feels like he ought to be these days, and that can sometimes lead to him not getting what he really wants. He’s a romantic, but he’s only just finding his feet when it comes to love, which he now realises is way too late considering he’s got a wife on the other side of the country who he’s separated from. Sweet, extremely passionate in every area of his life, and a man of promises, Micah doesn’t want to make the same mistake again.

MOTHER: Ingrid Annette Espeseth, deceased.
FATHER: Reidar Arild Espeseth, 64.
SIBLINGS: Laila Kristine Espeseth, 26.
OTHERS: Clare Tessa Espeseth, 27 – wife who he’s separated from.
PETS: Black Labrador of two called Degas!
HOMETOWN: Harstad, Norway.
HISTORY: An artist didn’t have very much work in a town like Harstad, Norway, but Reidar could make ends meet. His father had been a restorer, and it was a still he had passed onto his son after taking him on as an apprentice when he was just sixteen. In his youth Reidar had wanted to make a name for himself in the world, not fix up ruined works by the old masters who had long since departed, but paintings didn’t always sell and it was a fall back should he ever need one. He met Ingrid when he went to work on a painting in the museum where she was a curator. It was in Oslo, a long way from home, but his dad was too ill at the time to go; a trapped nerve in his back meant he was useless in the profession for a short while. Reidar made the journey, and Ingrid made it worth it. She worked with artefacts from the Bronze Age, but their paths still crossed since he was introduced to all of the museum staff so they wouldn’t call security on the tall, scruffy guy snooping about in the basement where he was working. He asked her out on his last night there, took her to dinner, and in a whirlwind of events, brought her home to Harstad the next weekend.

They were married within three years, and Ingrid swapped her job in Oslo for a history teaching position at the university. They moved into a comfortable home designed for a family and it wasn’t long before they were expecting. Ingrid hadn’t wanted to waste time. They were both in their thirties when they had wed, and she could feel her biological clock ticking away. All of her friends had children in school, or running about at home, and she wanted that more than anything. When Micah came along it was like a dream come true for both of them. He was a healthy, happy baby boy who was perfect to them. A few years later Ingrid told Reidar that they should try for one more before she couldn’t try again. So Micah was four when his sister Laila came along; another bundle of joy for the family, and someone for Micah to torment in the years that followed.

Reidar’s father retired from the restoration business when Micah was eight. He remembered the big party that everyone threw for him, and his dad proudly accepting a lot of paperwork and posing for photographs in front of a van emblazoned with the family name. Despite the protests in his youth, Reidar was going to take on the art restoration business now, and he had high hopes that Micah would do the same one day. At that time though, Micah was far too busy climbing trees, trying to wrap his head around the midnight sun, and pulling his sister’s hair and hiding her dolls.

From a young age though there was plenty of evidence that artistic talent was in Micah’s blood, and passion ran through his veins. He was skilled with a sketchpad and pencil and it wasn’t all that long before Reidar had to start teaching him tricks of the trade. By the time he was in his teens, Micah was a fine sculptor and Reidar was starting to show him how to restore and repair old parchments, which also saw him skyrocket in his chemistry class to make it his second best subject in school, after art of course; and this was all by the time Micah was fifteen.

It was over that winter, when the sun didn’t rise, that Ingrid and Reidar decided that maybe they ought to move. The business was doing fine, but it was just fine. They wanted more, and Reidar knew that to give his son and daughter more in life that they probably ought to seek out their chances in America. The family, with reluctant children, moved to San Francisco purely for its art and because Ingrid secured a job at a museum there. They enrolled at a school where Micah found a place with the art kids, though he was still stared at for being strange and acting so oddly. Laila also struggled for a long time, since she felt like a complete outsider compared to the girls in her classes who were more interested in shopping and fashion than they were in classical art and paintings. Their vacations were to beaches, not to admire the masters or the architecture. It took a long time for everyone to find their feet, and just when they did, the rug was pulled out from underneath them again.

Micah was sixteen. It was a traditional family trip to Spain, visiting Barcelona and taking in the sites, when Ingrid fell down some stairs in one of the galleries. She hit her head and never woke up again. Micah can remember only too well the anguish his father went through before making the decision to take her off life support. Ingrid had been the love of his life, and he never loved again afterwards. He never even dated another woman once Ingrid was in the ground, buried back in Norway as per her wishes. It was a tough time, and none of the family picked up a paint brush for over a month after the funeral. It was like their passion for art had died with Ingrid had. Then, one day, it was Laila who was sketching on the front porch when Micah and Reidar came home from the grocery store. She had been out with friends, but come home early without her keys and had nothing else to do. Then, it all came back to them slowly. Reidar started working again and Micah eagerly began to learn the trade once more.

When high school was over, Reidar was ready to make Micah his apprentice right then, but Micah told him that he was going to school to get all the certificates and degrees to really make him proud. He studied hard, and his classes covered just about everything he would need to be a magnificent restorer. Micah didn’t stop until his PhD was proudly hanging from his wall, and he also graduated for the final time with a fiancé waiting for him. Clare was a girl he had met in a life art class he had taken outside of school hours. She had been there as more of a hobbyist than anything else and was actually a business major at the school where Micah accumulated his degrees. They met his first year of PhD studies, and were engaged shortly before his final deadline.

After he was done with school, he apprenticed with his father, fine tuning everything he already knew since he had continued to work with him on and off during his years in higher education. Micah married Clare shortly after his graduation. They eloped one weekend and came back with the rings and the certificate, explaining to everyone that they didn’t want the big fuss. At first everything was great and it was perfect, but when Reidar was forced to take early retirement due to rheumatic arthritis Micah took over the business by himself and began working further from their loft apartment in San Francisco. Clare wanted the world, and Micah wanted to give it to her, but the way he thought about doing that was different to how she wanted him to do that. Whenever he came home to mention a job would have him away for a few weeks, she would get angry, and when he was home he would try to cram friends, family and Clare into his days and then that caused fall out too.

He was in New York not long after his twenty-seventh birthday, working on a restoration in a church there, when he called Clare to tell her that the job was going to take a little longer than he thought. She told him to stay there; it was over. Micah tried to talk to her, but Clare said that she had had enough. She wanted a marriage, and a future, but instead she felt like a part-time wife who only saw her husband when he didn’t have any work lined up. The call ended with Clare telling Micah that she’d send his stuff to him once he had an address for her. Heartbroken, Micah didn’t know what else to do. Laila came into town to help him find a place since he didn’t want to head back to San Francisco where all his memories of Clare were. Laila worked as a curator like their mother, but in an art gallery now. She helped him realise that the marriage was a mess, and that he probably was better off without Clare if he wanted to focus on work.

Micah got an apartment, loathed the city like he did all others, and began working. Business was constant, it kept him busy, but Clare only got in touch to send him his things and then later let him know about some shares he still had and to ask if he wanted them cashed in. They never officially divorced and Micah didn’t want to be the bad guy who set that ball in motion since Laila hinted that Clare had been winning the sympathy vote from all their friends back in California. She was the one who had been hurt through all of this, and not him. He was the one who had left and never come home; it didn’t matter that she was the one who had chosen to end it all between them. Micah set about putting his life back together bit by bit, working and remembering what single life was like when he was at a bar. He’s just about there now, but there’s still a lot he feels like he’s missing out on in his life, and he wants to find it.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim; ruler of them all.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: In the gutters of Whitechapel, late 1800s...
SAMPLE:

hissssss!

[kim]