Michael Joyner

[HenchmenF*]

Name: Michael Joyner
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Mixed martial arts, wrestling, video games (RPGs and FPSs), History class, rap music.

Appearance: Standing at five feet, eleven inches and weighing in at one hundred and fifty three pounds (but weighing closer to one hundred and forty-five during wrestling season); Michael Joyner has a round face that's been described as a "baby-face". A small amount of acne is in two light clusters on his jaw line on opposite sides of his face. He has rather plump lips, which quickly recede into his face whenever he similes. His teeth are clean and white, as a result of good care of them throughout his life. Michael's dirty-blond hair alternates between a buzz-cut during wrestling season or a short cropped hairstyle during the rest of the year. No matter his haircut, Michael can often be seen running his hand through his hair as apart of his few "tics". Michael also wears prescription glasses, in order to offset his nearsightedness. On the right side of the glasses, the nose pad has been broken off and as a result Michael has a small red abrasion on the side of his nose. Many people have described him as looking "nerdy".

Clothing wise, Michael is often seen wearing rather casual clothing. He wears basketball shorts of a single solid color, despite not playing basketball at all. The most common t-shirts Michael wears are often of Quicksilver origin, followed by an MMA brand of shirts such as Spiltlip or Dethrone Royalty. Michael wears skate shoes, despite not being a skateboarder, and wears the same pair of shoes constantly; resulting in them being incredibly dirty and more than a few suggestions that he should get a new pair of shoes. When at school, his dark blue Asics backpack with a "USAwrestling" logo on its front pocket is never far from Michael.

Michael is also a rather muscular, as a result of his physically active lifestyle. Although he doesn't lift weights regularly, Michael has easily visible biceps and triceps that he likes to casually showoff with tight fitting t-shirts occasionally. Underneath his shirt, he possesses a six-pack set of abs, which he only shows off in rare situations (such as when he's goofing off with his friends or at the pool).

Biography: Born to Don Joyner, a cubicle worker and Rosie Joyner, a manager at Walgreens who quickly left her job in order to become a stay at home mom; Michael Joyner was born into a happy and supportive family that wished to see Michael succeed. Leaving the hospital in April, 1994, Michael Joyner was raised in a rather typical environment. His mother raised him while his father worked in order to provide for his family.

Growing up, Michael Joyner was labeled as the "annoying" or "weird" child due to his inability to stay still and his tendency to ramble on for lengths at a time without realizing that the other people in the room didn't want to hear what he had to say. In elementary school, Michael had few friends (and what friends he did have were often because of Michael's parents arranging "play-dates" between them) due to his behavior. Michael opted to ignore the comments about his behavior, continuing to act as he was without regard to the social consequences. Every time that someone would yell at him or insult him in an attempt to quiet Michael from one of his rambles, he would just act stranger or weirder. During the parent teachers conferences that were called in order to stop the interruptions in their classrooms, the teachers often remarked that it seemed like Michael was acting out for some strange urge for attention despite being showered in it at home.

This resulting social exclusion resulted in Michael finding entertainment in other venues. Unable to play with other kids his own age, Michael often played video games for hours by himself while other kids his own age played with each other. Delving deep into the world of role-playing games, or, saving the world as a hero in a first-person shooter; Michael spent long hours by himself at home and then spent the others at school attempting to gain attention by acting out in front of his classmates. His behavior would change, but, Michael playing video games would not and it is still an activity that he pursues to this day.

In middle school, Michael received the worse of the bullying as a result of his behavior from his peers. Completely excluded from most social groups, Michael only intensified his antics in a desperate grab for everybody's attention. The rest of his peers, having gone through his antics in elementary school, only ignored him and left Michael alone. The social exclusion had a rather profound effect on Michael, especially in high school. As the eight grade year ended the summer vacation before high school began, he found himself slowly receding into his own thoughts and not saying as much as he did (to the relief of his classmates). Michael, basically, changed his entire personality in order to suit the rest of his classmates. He had been excluded for most of his life, and he longed for some social contact. His former willpower to "resist" change had eroded over the years. However, despite losing his former talkative personality, he ended up gaining a hobby that stuck with him for his high school career: wrestling.

During the summer break between middle school and freshmen year in high school Jonathan Candella, a long-time family friend of the Joyner's and who become something like a mentor to Michael, convinced Don and Rosie Joyner that joining his youth wrestling program might do Michael some sort of good in regards to his social life (as Michael's parents were painfully aware of Michael's status as a social outcast due to gossip they had collected from other parents). Enrolling Michael in his summer wrestling program, despite Michael's protests, Michael quickly reversed his previous opinions about wrestling quickly. The three months before freshmen year were a near constant blur, as Michael trained in wrestling under the supervision of Jonathan Candella (who was a former collegiate wrestler). He found that he had a natural talent for the sport, despite his nearsightedness (or perhaps because of it), and found himself doing well in youth division tournaments that he attended.

Freshmen year resulted in a very different Michael from the one that had bothered his peers during their collective elementary and middle school years. Quiet to the point of almost being mute, along with being surprisingly athletic as a result of him joining the high school wrestling team at the urging of Jonathan Candella, Michael slowly found himself slowly being accepted into social circles that had been previously excluded to him. Despite his new-found reputation, most still remembered him as the "annoying" classmate and still found various social doors blocked despite his changed behavior. Michael, much like his youth wrestling team, preformed well in high school wrestling. Michael also found himself placed underneath the wings of some of the older wrestlers, who enjoyed playfully teasing Michael during wrestling season and after as displays of affection. The result of these public displays of friendships from seniors impressed some of the people inside of his class, who were busy being picked on by (often) the very same upperclassmen for being freshmen.

During freshmen year, Michael practically fell head over heels in love with history class. Michael enjoyed the long lectures about Genghis Khan or the Roman Empire while his classmates struggled to stay asleep. Although a little late to discover the class he actually liked, Michael also spent much of the time in middle and elementary school acting out in class rather than studying. Priding himself on being able to get a hundred percent on nearly any test without having to study, Michael often let his classmates copy from him during classwork which (although didn't earn him any real friends) did help his social standing slightly. Many people viewed someone willing to help them out during class as a "chill guy", as one person aptly put it. As for the rest of his classes, Michael doesn't put in the effort that he does for his history class and as a result doesn't have a good of a grade that he could have. His parents have often attempted to try to get him to apply himself in his school work like he does with wrestling, but, it has been unsuccessful as Michael prepares to step across the stage to graduate.

Michael was also introduced to rap during his freshmen wrestling season. Used as workout music as well as "pump-up" music before matches, Michael developed a liking to the music genre for reasons he can't really place. Although he more than happily is willing to listen to mainstream rappers like Waka Flocka Flame, Mac Miller or Machine Gun Kelly; Michael's primary love is with "chiller" rap artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Brother Ali or Kid Cudi. If one were to take his ipod and to scroll through it, they'd find nothing but rap artists mixed with a few artists from other genres.

Sophomore year of high school resulted in Michael finding the second of his two loves, mixed martial arts. Seeking a way to stay in shape when he wasn't wrestling, Michael began visiting a local and smaller MMA gym called "Complete Jiu-Jitsu" during the wrestling pre-season (the period of the school year before wrestling season begins). With a focus on grappling, especially Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Michael found himself easily learning the technique that was presented to him (once he learned key differences, such as he needed to avoid getting submitted and that a wrestling pin didn't matter in the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). Michael initially had a tough time, however, in learning Gi grappling. Having come from a wrestling background, he wasn't used to the extra weight a sweaty Gi could put on a person or his opponent having so many "handholds" on the Gi's cloth. Eventually, Michael managed to learn some of the intricacies of Gi-grappling (although he's far from a master in it). However, Michael dominates people in no-Gi grappling where he uses his wrestling background to a huge advantage.  


Michael's parents were concerned that he would injure himself in training in Mixed martial arts, and partly because they believed that Mixed martial arts was a "blood-sport",  they relented as they say Michael coming home night after night with a smile on his face as he rapidly explained what new technique he had learned. In his parent's minds, as long as Michael was happy with it, they were fine with it. Michael, not only training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, trained in kickboxing with the resident kickboxing instructor and often stayed after-class to wrestle with former collegiate wrestlers that trained at Complete Jiu-Jitsu as well.

As a result of his increased training regime, Michael Joyner found himself steam-rolling through his competition during wrestling season as many of his opponents had neglected off-season training or simply just didn't put the amount of work that Michael suddenly did. Gaining a varsity spot for the one hundred and forty five weight class, Michael nearly had a shot at the state championships before a last-second pin on an opponent that he had been beating with an eight point lead at the regional championship took the state championship away from him. Despite performing remarkably well for a second year wrestling, Michael took the loss especially hard. Training harder at Complete Jiu-Jitsu, along with attending more off-season wrestling tournaments, Michael seemed to push his body to limits as he began to injure himself. He would often limp back into his parent's car with broken toes, dislocated fingers and (in one case) a broken nose from sparring with a friend of his after class.

His parents were worried as Michael continued to injure himself in minor ways, which they felt that he may end up with a career-ending injury such as a broken knee or arm. Despite repeated cautions to "train smart" from his parents as he was being dropped off at both MMA and wrestling practice, and even louder verbal warnings from his coaches (both at Complete Jiu Jitsu and his high school wrestling coach who didn't want to see Michael injure himself) Michael continued to push himself. It wasn't until a conversation with Jonathan Candella, who helped him train in wrestling on the off-season, finally managed to get to Michael that he could end his sports career when Jonathan Candella gave him a story of when he broke his own shoulder during his senior year at college and resulted in him not going to the national championships.

Junior year was a turning point in Michael's life. Michael, who had slowly gained more and more self-confidence as the result of his wrestling and mixed martial arts training, began opening up socially to other peoples. Michael found that his reputation had changed from the "weird kid in elementary school" to a star athlete. As his confidence increased as the year progressed, Michael proceeded to open up more and more to everybody else in school. Other students found that he had changed for the better, having gone under some sort of social bloom since middle school. Michael himself didn't know how he managed to acquire the social grace he now had, figuring that some amount of the "coolness" held by his sparring partners or wrestling team members rubbed off on him. Michael's reputation in the school grew as he opened up more and more, until by the end of the year he was relatively well-liked. He was far from being the most popular person in school, but, his standing on the school's social ladder had increased dramatically.

The moment that really solidified his place on the school's social ladder upper half was when he was invited to a party by a group of popular kids. Although Michael didn't engage in any typical party behavior such as smoking weed or drinking, his mere presence caused many to permanently reconsider how they viewed him. Michael ended up giving his phone number to several people, and found himself invited to several other parties as the year progressed. The more parties he went too, the more popular Michael felt (and became).

Sports wise, Michael had another successful year for wrestling. Michael actually made it to states during his junior year, taking second place at regional (thereby allowing him to go the states) but ended up losing his match and thereby disqualifying from further competition. Michael also took some time before and after wrestling season to compete in various local grappling competitions with various other members of Complete Jiu Jitsu. Michael was able to use his wrestling and jiu jitsu skills effectively, dominating his opponents as he did during wrestling season. Michael took first and second place in most of the competitions, and his victories in the competitions led to him gaining his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at the end of junior year.

Michael spent the summer before senior year training more and more in mixed martial arts and wrestling, intent on fighting in an amateur mixed martial art fight at some point during his senior year and winning a state championship in wrestling. Michael also spent more and more times at parties, experimenting lightly with drinking and smoking pot. Although he doesn't particularly enjoy either activity too much, he simply just enjoys the new-found social attention he's gained. His parents have found some evidence of his party behavior (often in the form of pictures they've found on facebook and other social networking sites), but, they are more relieved then worried about his behavior. After spending much of his life alone, they are glad Michael's finally socially bloomed in at least one way. However, if they learn that he's been smoking pot or drinking they'll likely take any sort of training away as punishment.

During the summer, however, Michael also developed a reputation as a brawler due to a fight that happened at a party. Michael got into a misunderstanding with a fellow party goer, and things quickly got out of hand and a fight broke out. Michael used his training to quickly overwhelm his untrained opponent and the fight was stopped by bystanders at the party before it got even more out of hand. However, the rush of adrenaline and the attention that followed the fight was something that Michael couldn't resist. Michael was (in a word) hooked to the rush an actual fight brought him. His friends and others could notice the change in demeanor at parties and in general. He was more aggressive, and was certainly more than willing to agree to settle with violence (although that rarely panned out as the other opponent, more than often, backed down knowing Michael's reputation). However, by the end of the summer, Michael had gotten into one more fight with a classmate. Michael won the fight again, but, this time his parents caught word of the fight. Michael was threatened with having his mixed martial arts training taken away from him, but, the threat from his parents never reached its intended conclusion as Michael promised never to fight again and gave a false story about how he had to defend himself. In reality, Michael picked the fight on purpose after the classmate made a joke about Michael's former middle school and elementary school personality.

Luckily, none of the fights had ever gotten him in trouble with either the school or law enforcement. With senior year, Michael has an increasingly brash and aggressive behavior towards his classmates. Although far from a bully, it's obvious that Michael enjoys the attention from his classmates that his reputation carries and is willing to keep that reputation through violence if need be. Training just as hard as he's been, Michael intends to both win his first amateur mixed martial art fight and win a state championship in wrestling. Although he claims that his plans after high school would be to attend college on a wrestling scholarship (which he's been offered several), his real goal is attempt to become a professional fighter.



Advantages: Michael is athletic, strong, and in shape. He's a wrestler and a mixed martial artist, giving him a huge advantage over anybody who isn't trained as extensively or who doesn't know how to fight.
Disadvantages: Michael tends to push himself too hard, to the point of injury. The result might end up being his death or serious injury as he attempts to do physically exerting tasks while already exhausted on the island. Michael's current behavior may have provoked some people, angered by his cockiness and his attempts to fight them, and some might want to exact their revenge on him on the island.