I will start with this post, talking about the characters I have created. There is major distinction between the characters of my childhood and the ones from my adult life. For now I will only describe the latter, as they are far more deep and interesting.

The first character to be introduced is Marco Junior who, together with Giovanni (more on him later), is the most developed of my characters. Marco Junior (a.k.a. MJ) bubbled up in my mind in the late summer 2005, while my wife (then girlfriend) and I were attending college. It became an habit to scream each other "mi-mi-mi" with a very shallow voice. At first it was the tweet of a bird, or the siren horn of an emergency vehicle, but soon the "mi-mi-mi" sound became the first screamings of Marco Junior. What a good time!

When he was born, MJ was 5 years old. Few weeks later, he turned 6. From now on, at every birthday (which can happen several time in one solar year), he turns 6. I don't know why I decided this way. But it seems natural to me that heroes, as much unlikely as they can be, should not be subject to the burden of age. Also, it keeps things much simpler.

Then MJ is a kid, but not just a normal kid. As my wife described in her blog post "The Boy Named Marco Junior"

There was a boy names Marco Junior who at 6 years old wasn't like any other boy you would meet. For one he had a beard, secondly, and advanced colleget knowledge and thirdly the passion of Casanova.

The paragraph may contain some misspells, but it is fundamentally true. MJ wears a beard, probably as the result of some genetic mutation, and he knows a lot. His career as a student was troublesome. He got imprisoned several times, for bullying kids (and adult as well), stealing cars (yep, he can drive as well), and other crimes I don't want to think about. But he eventually managed to get a degree. He designed the diploma himself using The Gimp, a free graphic design program, and printed it using a color printer in my college labs. That was the summit of his honorable life as student.

Despite all appearances, MJ is a good fella. I know him for a quite a while and I can tell you. He's good heart, and he's absolutely loyal. He may have tried to take some shortcuts in live, but he eventually understood that one has to work and be honest in order to achieve things in live. He has now found his dharma, which is to help his best friend Giovanni (more on him later) in his quest to conquer the world.

I will talk more about Marco Junior and his adventures later. In the next post, I will introduce Giovanni.