Leonel Salgado, Leo.

Male.

December 1st, 1989 (Twenty-Seven)

Guatemalan-American.

Mixed.

Occasionally Catholic.

Starving musician.

There's a sort of ruffled honesty to Leo's appearance that people just can't help but find endearing. The uncombable mop, the rumpled jackets, the creased shirts and the absent minded smile makes him see like he's too busy enjoying life to worry about the little things like ironing, packing or haircuts. And it's not like he dresses badly or doesn't take care of himself, Leo is a very clean person, it's just that clothes he wears seem to absorb some of his essence, creasing and rumpling in his very presence. It might be that he found a dog to play with before a funeral or helped the crew set things up before a performance, but no matter how solemn the occasion or formal the outfit, Leo always makes it look lived in.

Combine his propensity to have a feint smile on his face at all times with his quietly reassuring eyes and you have a face that just invites you to spill out all your troubles. When sitting down for a talk, Leo tends to lose his normal haziness to focus with almost surprising intensity. He listens like a well or a deep hole, swallowing up whatever you say and barely reacting until you're done. When he starts to speak, he seems more animated and concentrated than normal, like your problems and the solutions he's talking about are not just important but deeply interesting. And as he grins an easy grin and laughs his infectious laugh, you find yourself smiling too and before long you're laughing at his jokes as well. The troubles are still there but for now, you've got other things to think about.

But even with all this personality and all that hair, Leo still seems to take up no space at all. Could be his obliging nature or his experience of sleeping wherever he can, but you'd swear that Leo could be stowed in an overhead locker after travelling with him. He'll relax and even sleep in places no normal person would; standing up on the bus, in the back of truck surrounded by chickens, on a desk at the library, on a sofa half his size. Perhaps it's part of his natural scruffiness and certainly contributes to his ruffled appearance but if Leo has to squeeze into a space not meant for humans to fit into in order to give you his chair, space or even bed, he'll do it in a second.

The first thing you might notice about Leo is perhaps his most obvious skill; if it can hold a tune, Leo can play it. Long years of musical education were built upon a natural talent and genuine pleasure in music, all of which results in a man who can play like a virtuoso with a pair of spoons. With half an hour to fiddle, he can play anything but give him a guitar and, well... His country laments will leave not a dry eye in the house and his punk songs have nearly started riots. While not as skilled at singing as he is at playing, he's no slouch at it either.

The second thing is harder to notice but perhaps comes up even more often. When Leo listens, people talk and when he talks, they listen. There's something in how he pays attention and how he responds that makes people feel better, even if it's just for a little while. The secret is a simple thing but no less effective for it; Leo finds people and their problems interesting and believes them all to be important. And because he treats them as such, people start to feel that maybe they are interesting and important. Leo thinks you're a good, intelligent and sensitive person and so, for a little while, you start to act like you are.

Finally, Leo is something a dab hand at negotiations. His normally unassuming and obliging personality melts into a steely determination that won't shift an inch here without gaining two there. He doesn't stop smiling or laughing but refuses to be shifted, bullied or tricked. It comes from years of playing gigs at sketchy bars, staying on people's floors in exchange for some labour and catching rides whatever way he can. If you don't learn to get a good bargain and hold others to one, you don't last too long in that lifestyle.

Defusing situations and getting people to open up are Leo's bread and butter. If there's an instrument to hand, you'd be surprised how fast people calm down when there's a soothing tune on the air but if there's none, Leo can still smooth ruffled feathers with a calming tone and some bad jokes. It's hard to maintain a righteous indignation when you're also fighting back a grin.

- Spanish (Mother Tongue)
- English
- French (Conversational)

Leo is, at heart, a very simple person. He's obliging, almost to a fault; kind, never having raised his hand to anyone; restless, having spent a long time in one place and not liked it; and mischievous, loving a joke almost as much as a song. The man he has become has been most informed by the seven long years he worked in a kitchen to help support his family, a period that he doesn't look back on with regret or resentment but has nevertheless instilled in him a fervent desire to keep moving. While he's no less willing to give his time for others than he was before, the years of tuneless work have bred a sort of cynicism into him, even if he doesn't quite know it. Or, at least, doesn't want to admit it. Leo's wanderlust is fuelled by an almost subconscious belief that if you stay in one place too long, someone will ask you for something. And he never could say no to a friend in need.

It would be harder to pin down exactly why Leo is so generous with his time and resources, not having come from a wealthy family that could afford such largesse. In truth, Leo was affected greatly by that moment that every person remembers, the shift from child to adolescent. As a child whose English was less than perfect and who dressed in old or second hand clothes, Leo had often found himself the target of bullies and harsh comments. But as a teenager with perfect english, who had somehow made old clothes look cool and who could play a mean guitar, the tables were turned and he was the popular one. Rather than let it go to his head, this reversal made Leo see the value in giving while the going was good. If more people with fortune gave to those without, perhaps everything would be a little better, a little brighter.

The first and only son of Guatemalan immigrants, Leo grew up loving all things American. He watched Disney cartoons with his sisters, begged to be taken to McDonalds and learned the words to Star Spangled Banner before his English was more than passable, which quickly led to a fascination with American music of all types. Soon he went from adoring all things American to all things musical. His parents were glad to see him take such an interest and encouraged him, putting in extra shifts to pay for music lessons. Before long, Leo was the darling of his local school, playing piano in front of assemblies and being sponsored to go to the district's youth orchestra. And while success pleased his parents and gave him a warm glow in his chest, many of Leo's classmates were less pleased. Being smaller than most of the other kids, Leo couldn't outfight and couldn't outrun so he quickly got good at outtalking.

Highschool wasn't the same though, as while his musical talent still let him coast by other subjects while keeping the teachers favour, he was far more popular. Having learned the skill of making friends easily (and having picked up the the guitar, a far sexier instrument) Leo was more likely to be invited to parties than sneered at. Things at home were far less positive, however, as Salgado Senior was very sick. The family's health insurance was flimsy to non-existent and so they didn't find out until after his death that it was Pancreatic Cancer. Leo's mother, Romana, worked harder than ever to support her son and two daughters but there simply wasn't enough time. It was with a heavy heart then that Leo turned his thoughts away from college and started looking for a job.

He was handsome, articulate, charming, young and healthy, so finding a job wasn't difficult. And with two sisters still in school and a tired mother to care for, working hard wasn't that hard either. The most difficult thing was how much he had to neglect his music. He felt like his fingers would forget their tunes and he wouldn't be able to pick up a guitar ever again. But he promised himself he'd keep on working in the restaurant and living at home until both his sisters were old enough to support themselves. And so he worked in a restaurant kitchen from aged 18 to aged 25, when he finally hung up his apron and attended his youngest sister's graduation. The family had persuaded him to indulge himself musical lessons in the last few years and he'd been happy to find that he still had the touch.

After the ceremony and the sister being packed off to college, Leo kissed his mother on the cheek, picked up his guitar and hit the road. He didn't begrudge anyone the lost time, it's not like there's a better reason to wait than family, but now he needed to get out and grab some life before it was all gone. The road took him east, all the way to the coast and further. He wound up in Budapest after following a girl across half the world and Paris after following a guy for six months. It was an aimless wander rather than a journey, broken up often by parties and performances, but after such a long grind, it was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that he didn't stop moving for almost two years.

In the last few months though, Leo has made life in Paris affordable with a couple of jobs, one as a the pianist in a classy restaurant and the other teaching the daughter of the restaurant's owner to play guitar. It was one of his gigs Fumer, a ramshackle band he joined some months ago, that landed him both, the daughter demanding he be her teacher after seeing them play. Mostly, Leo considers himself lucky; after all, he's living the artistic Parisian lifestyle and loving every moment. However, he's starting to think of going home or at least moving on. He misses his sisters and his mother, constantly wondering whether it was right for him to leave her in such a hurry, and he's starting the feel the net of attachment and responsibility close in...

- The overall arc for Leo is working through the dislike of staying in one place and having dependants he has developed. With the appearance of the cluster in his life, he's no longer in any sense going to be a lone agent so I want to work through some stages of resentment towards that before accepting it and, eventually, accepting some degree of stability as well.

- As is perhaps obvious, the Dashwoods are not legitimate business people. Victor is in Paris as the representative of one of South England's larger drug dealing gangs, working with French partners to move product into the UK. I'm not 100% sure how it will happen but I'm intending for Josephine to stir some trouble between Oscar and Leo, inadvertently putting Leo's life in danger. As Leo is no action hero, it would be a good way to have other members of the cluster appear to help him.

- Jules is exactly the sort of dependant friend that Leo is now wary of and at some point he will make a bad decision, possibly linked to crime and/or drugs and therefore the Dashwoods. Being somewhat spineless, he'll basically make it Leo's problem and Leo, being the obliging guy he is, will have to deal with it. This one is a bit vague, may be folded into the previous one, we'll see.

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