AGOSTI, CECILIO VITALE

Full name: Cecilio Vitale Agosti
Current age and birth date: 17, April 8, 1996
Sexual orientation: Homosexual (and in denial)
Occupation: Student
Member group: Newport High School (Senior)
Face claim: (Young) Leonardo Dicaprio
Distinguishing features:
Likes:

• Coffee (of all kinds)
  
• Verona
  
• Behind held (though it is a rare occurrence)
  
• Warm blankets
  
• Pasta
  
• Horses
  
• Vineyards
  
• Roses (specifically, red)

Dislikes:

• Knives
  
• Beds (especially unmade or messy ones)
  
• People that ask him to speak Italian (it's annoying)
  
• Pizza
  
• French fries
  
• Farms
  
• Beer
  
• Cars

Strengths:

• Good with kids
  
• Sketching
  
• History

Weaknesses:

• Baby animals
  
• Children (they can get him to do just about anything)
  
• Telling people he's all right when he isn't

Fears:

• The Italian Mafia
  
• Bats
  
• The dark

Habits:

• Smokes (cigarettes)
  
• Pulling his hair when he's upset

Secrets:

• He was kidnapped and raped at 14
  
• He shares blood with the Italian Mafia

Overall Personality: Before he was 14, Cecilio was a rather rambunctious boy. He loved to run and play with the kids on the military base he grew up on. After the events shortly after his 14th birthday (see history) he became more of an introvert; he still played with the children, though he was noticeably quieter and calmer (and more mature) than he had been. He didn't seek out other children to play with if they weren't already begging him to play games with them.

He had never been an out-of-control child; like all children, he had had his moments, but it was not an ongoing problem. Most of the fights he had with his mother were a result of both of them being equally stubborn; he never really got into "fights" with his father (if anything, it was a "listen to your mother!" scolding). After his mother's untimely death, Ceci didn't really speak with his father other than about what was necessary. Since he didn't grow up with his father constantly there, Ceci thought of his father more as a guardian than an actual parent.

He fears (secretly) that he is gay; he is too afraid of what would be said about him if he were to come out. He doesn't want people to think less of him for it.

He is grateful to his foster parents for everything they have done for them, but still doesn't quite feel like he's "at home" with them. Even though they are his aunt and uncle, he feels out of place in the United States. His accent only makes him feel more out of place.

He hates people sneaking up on him and when people trick him; it scares him more than he would care to admit. Ceci hates feeling weak and out of control. He hates himself for the reactions he can't help. He does his best to hide how much he hates himself and his increasing depression.

Since coming to the States he has also developed a rather quick temper, at least when adults are concerned. Children he has the utmost of patience for.

Mother: Johnna Agosti (Deceased)
Father: Warren Keller (MIA)
Siblings: No actual siblings or step-siblings.
Other: Aunt (Kari), Uncle (Scott). Foster siblings.
Pets: None
Overall History: Born in Verona, Italy, Cecilio grew up without really knowing his father. His mother was the daughter of a member of the Italian Mafia. She had met his father one night when Warren had been allowed to leave the military base for a weekend. They quickly fell in love. A bottle and a half of wine later, they fell into bed and stayed there until the sun rose. It wasn't until months later that Johnna discovered she was pregnant. Her father was not at all pleased that his daughter was pregnant and there was no man around. He was even more displeased when he discovered the father of his daughter's soon-to-be-born child was American.

Johnna obeyed her father's orders and did not search for her child's father. At least, not at first. When Cecilio (whom had been lovingly nicknamed "Ceci" by his mother) was 5, he met his father for the first time. He came away from the encounter feeling confused. He had never spoken to someone whose native language wasn't Italian, and the man's grasp of the language was far from perfect. His mother, however, had learned English and was able to speak more easily to the man. It wasn't long before the man was coming around more often. Eventually Ceci understood that this man was his father. He also quickly learned not to mention his father around his grandfather; the screaming match that ensued after he asked his mother when he would get to see his father was more than enough to stop all his questions.

When his mother moved to a small house away from Ceci's grandfather, it was easier for Warren to come visit. Between school and meeting his father, Ceci was a decent English speaker by the time he was 12. It was around this time that his grandfather discovered that his father--the "dirty American"--was still around, still seeing his "beautiful daughter." His grandfather disowned them.

No longer on good terms with the mafia, Johnna and Ceci went back to the American military base with Warren. They didn't leave the base for two years, Johnna fearing what would happen if they did.

Ceci's English greatly improved while he lived on the base. He taught the other children Italian in exchange for help with the parts of English he found difficult. While he wasn't particularly close with any of them, he felt like many of them were kind of like his siblings, since they spent so much time together. He preferred hanging out with children younger than himself; watching the toddlers learn to take their first steps was one of the greatest joys he ever found.

It wasn't long after arriving at the base that he grew restless; he wanted to travel. Other families on the base left when they had the time; despite having what felt like lots of time, Ceci and his mother never left. He took to asking his mother when they were going to leave, or told her how much he missed the streets of Verona. She was adamant, though, and they stayed put.

On Ceci's 14th birthday, however, the only thing he wanted was to go back to Verona. He missed his old friends, the food (American food was edible, but not fantastic), and the beautiful architecture. His mom finally agreed to take him to Verona for a few hours. They went the weekend after his birthday, though Ceci's father was not able to attend due to military duties.

While in the city, Ceci couldn't understand his mother's jumpiness and the wary way she looked both ways down a street before deciding where they would go. She spoke to him only in Italian, something she hadn't done since moving onto the base. Most of the time she sort of combined English and Italian.

He didn't understand why, when a car pulled up with an elderly man in the passenger seat, that his mother obeyed him and got into the back seat without question, pulling Ceci with her. There was someone else in the back seat; he put blindfolds on the two. That was the longest car ride of Ceci's life; when it finally stopped, they were yanked roughly from the car and told not to speak. Led left and right through a cold, drafty building, Ceci was terrified. He stuck close to his mother until the men leading them forced them apart.

They tied Ceci to a dirty four-poster bed and left him there to listen to his mother's screams as they tortured her. Ceci relentlessly begged them to let her go, to let them both go, but only received pain as an answer. The men yelled at his mother, telling her she was a whore and yelling things about dirty Americans. They insulted Ceci's blonde-haired-blue-eyed appearance, saying he didn't deserve the Italian blood that flowed in his veins.

They finally removed his blindfold to let him watch his mother be raped and killed, an image he often finds in his nightmares nowadays. The blindfold never went back on. Ceci himself was tortured after that, and he spent the time floating in and out of darkness. From the very moment they started moving him, he knew he was in trouble. They tied him up again, this time on his stomach. They raped him for days, and he felt that his death was inevitable. But when everything stopped and the voices ceased to speak, the cold surrounding him, Ceci dared to turn his head. Left completely alone, he spent the next few days barely conscious. He doesn't know how he got out. He vaguely remembers soldiers finding him, using a walkie to relay the message, "We found your son, Warren..." but not much more than that. He spent a week in the infirmary on the base. After that, he asked his father how long he had been gone. He learned he had been held captive for about two and a half weeks.

He spent the next year with his father on the base, seeing a therapist and trying to get back to his life as it had been before. He didn't tell the therapist much; there wasn't anyone on the base he trusted with the details of what had happened, even his own father. His father was too devastated by the loss of his mother to pry for details.

When Ceci was 15 his father was transferred to Iraq, but Ceci wasn't allowed to go with him. Six months after his father was transferred, a letter came for Ceci saying his father had been declared MIA.

An aunt and uncle Ceci didn't even know existed were foster parents and they offered to take care of him. He was, thus, sent to Newport Beach, California. He didn't continue therapy sessions when he moved to the States and he didn't tell either his aunt or his uncle (or any of his foster siblings) about what had happened in the last year in Italy.

Now 17, he is still plagued by nightmares and fear.