B035 - Brady, Lucas [DECEASED]

[MK Kilmarnock]

DECEASED

Name: Lucas Brady
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12th
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: World affairs, politics, student council, fishing, card games including Magic: The Gathering

Appearance: Lucas stands at 5'6" and weighs 108 lbs, giving him a skinny build. He is white. Lucas has dark blonde hair that he keeps cut short, but otherwise doesn't bother styling. He has an oval shaped face, with a rounded jawline and a wide mouth. His blue eyes are average in shape and size, and his nose is narrow. His features sit low on his face, giving him a large forehead. Although he keeps his face cleanly shaven, he has a perpetual five o'clock shadow above his lip that remains no matter how much he tries to get rid of it.

Typically, Lucas wears a sleeveless red hoodie, which unzips down the front, over a yellow or orange t-shirt with varying graphic designs. He doesn't tend to change this combination, as he feels the look is distinctive. On his bottom half he generally opts for a pair of blue jeans, or shorts of the same colour in hotter weather, and red trainers. His wardrobe has been more or less the same since he entered high school, only buying the next size up when neceesary, as he finds clothes shopping very boring. He considers his appearance acceptable as is with the effort he makes.

Biography: Lucas was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to parents Alan Brady, a plumber, and Tamara Brady née Jordan, a secretary. He is the oldest of two siblings, with a younger sister, Helen, who is four years his junior. The family moved to Chattanooga when Lucas was six years old, in order to be closer to Tamara's parents following a cancer scare. Lucas hadn't had much interaction with them before this, due to the distances involved, and because of his age he wasn't particularly aware of what the scare meant, but following the move he would become much closer to them. There were no follow-on scares since.

Growing up, Lucas has always been a gifted child. He never struggled with any class in elementary school and was well ahead of his peers in social studies. This was fuelled by his interest in the world around him, as he started reading newspapers by the time he was seven. Though he wasn't able to understand many of the articles, he was still reading well above his grade level. He was able to get along well enough with his classmates. He was a bit withdrawn, preferring to read over running around or playing games, but he was easy enough to coax into joining in. All the same, he enjoyed talking to adults about the things he'd read in the newspapers more.

In particular, he developed a strong relationship with his maternal grandfather, Gerald, who followed world affairs with equal enthusiasm. Gerald would take the time to explain the context of many events to the young Lucas, though he would still censor certain elements that were too mature for the child at times. During visits, Lucas loved watching the news with him and discussing what they saw.

Another activity he shared with his grandfather was fishing, which his father also enjoyed. It became a regular event for the three Brady men to head out for an afternoon to spend time in the sun, and whilst Lucas wasn't as into it when he was young, enjoying it more for the company it offered, over time he found it a great way to unwind from his own concerns and stresses.

He also inherited his interest in card games from his grandfather, who introduced him to Solitaire when he was eight. Lucas has since branched out into numerous other card games, and enjoys their strategic nature. His favourite is Texas hold 'em poker, which he plays at various websites, though he has yet to gamble any real money on it. He also got into Magic: the Gathering in middle school, and still keeps a deck in his bedroom that he's willing to break out when the opportunity arises, though he's never been particularly dedicated to it as he finds the ever shifting meta irritating and expensive to keep up with.

The rest of his relationship with his family was typical for a young boy: he enjoyed spending time with both his parents and tried to look out for his little sister when they weren't fighting. His maternal grandmother would dote on him and his sister, bringing him ice cream and her husband bourbon as they shared their TV time.

His family were semi-practicing Protestants, attending church at holidays and keeping a bible in one of their drawers. Lucas and Helen both attended Sunday school for a period, and though Lucas agrees with many of the teachings of the bible, he doesn't consider it a major part of his identity.

Entering adolescence and middle school, Lucas found it harder to relate to his peers. Not many people his age were interested in discussing world events, and he was similarly disinterested with the local trends and gossip. Although he had a handful of friends, he felt he was lacking in close friendships.

To cope, he retreated into his interests, spending hours reading internet articles and books he borrowed from the local library. It was around this time he became interested in politics, given the 2012 election going on around him. Coming from a right-wing family, his own ideology gravitated in that direction, and his tendency to read articles that supported those viewpoints only strengthened his leanings.

When Lucas tried to share his viewpoints with his classmates, he was met with mixed results. He had trouble dealing with students who disagreed with his opinions, getting caught up in more than a few arguments that became heated. Self-conscious about the image he was projecting, Lucas became hesitant to discuss his interests with his peers for fear of being ostracised.

Feeling isolated and worried that his trouble relating meant something was wrong with him, Lucas confided in his grandfather. In response, he taught Lucas the importance of staying committed to his viewpoints, and that people in the world would always disagree with each other, but at the same time it was important to be diplomatic if he wanted to get his point across.

Taking the lesson to heart, Lucas decided to try to relate to his peers better and avoid bringing up controversial topics, reading up on pop culture so he would have something to talk about instead. Even though he wasn't really interested in conversations half the time, the strategy was successful for the most part and Lucas was able to make new friendships, shallow though they might have been.

To fill his need to discuss world events with more people than just his grandfather, Lucas found connections in online chat groups and forums. This worked well enough, but he was troubled by the disconnect between the façade he was putting up in person and the online relationships that denied him any face to face interaction.

It was also during high school that Lucas would receive his asthma diagnosis. Though he had had wheezing spells before, they were always relatively minor and had been written off as due to pollen from the family's garden. However, on his way to school one day Lucas found it very difficult to breathe normally not five minutes from his house, feelling as if he had to gasp down lungs worth of air because he wasn't getting enough otherwise. Returning home and heading to the doctor, he was formally diagnosed. While his case is relatively minor, he still naturally takes precautions and carries an inhaler. Part of his enjoyment of his fishing hobby is getting out of the city and into the clean air around the lakes.

High school proved an exciting new opportunity for Lucas. In a more mature environment, he was certain he'd find like-minded individuals he could really connect with. This proved true in a sense, but he was also outnumbered by the liberal students at George Hunter High. He continued remembering what his grandfather had taught him, practicing speaking in a more diplomatic fashion so that he could engage in discussions without provoking ire, but his staunch commitment to his own ideals still led to the occasional argument. Despite his efforts to be avoid confrontation, he was still ultimately more interested in convincing others to his viewpoint than considering theirs'.

His academic performance stayed strong throughout his academic career, and it was during his sophomore year that he started to think about potential careers. Journalism was an initial thought, but after a brief stint with the school newspaper and looking into the role, decided that it wasn't for him as he found writing tedious and was more interested in debating than presenting. It was afterwards that he started to consider politics as a field.

To enable this, he started working with the student council, wanting to get experience to support a career, and has continued to do so to this day. He has worked alongside a number of roles during his student council career and has gotten involved in as many projects as he could juggle, both to build his skillset and also out of genuine enjoyment for seeing projects come together and working with other invested people. He ran for student council president in his senior year, but delivered a poor speech, partly due to being distracted by his grandfather suffering from pnuemonia at the time, and lost the race to Nathan Coleman.

In response to his loss, Lucas made a comment on social media that made him sound intolerant and petty towards the disabled student, which was quickly abused by some other students. As a result, Lucas' reputation at school was damaged and he swore off social media platforms afterwards. To many students, he is now seen as a sore loser. He still has a small group of friends, but Lucas has wound up feeling isolated once again.

Lucas' grandfather recovered from his pneumonia, but his stamina took a big hit. He has stopped accompanying Lucas and his dad on fishing trips, and when Lucas does talk to him, their conversations go on for much shorter windows than before. This is another source of anxiety for Lucas, who continues to worry about his mortality and losing one of the few people, even the only one, he feels actually understands him.

Lucas has also developed something of a complex: having spent most of his life more interested in adults than people his own age and ahead of them intellectually, he's come to the belief that he matured faster than his classmates and that they don't understand him. Rather than a source of arrogance, this is more often a point of frustration for him, as he does truly want to connect better with his peers. Never the less, he has been known to dismiss people as immature, at times to their face. Other students continuing to insult him over his social media mistake has strengthened this opinion of himself as more mature, as a defensive response.

These days Lucas still identifies as right wing, but his beliefs could be described as more moderate overall. He still uses the label partly out of habit, partly because he worries that describing himself as moderate would make him seem uncommited, and partly because he finds he tends to prompt more discussion when people feel their opinions are in opposition with his.

His beliefs include, among the following: free markets lead to strong economies, but some regulation is important in areas such as environmental control; it's good to support the needy, but too much welfare leads to lack of growth and people not pulling their weight; gays have rights but marriage as a religious institution should be between a man and a woman and you can't force religions to act otherwise, and that life is sacred and abortion should be avoided as much as possible, except for the possible exception of when both the mother and child's life is at risk.

A particular topic that Lucas feels very strongly about is the Survival of the Fittest abductions. He spent many nights researching these incidents, and although he was disgusted by them, he also felt obligated as a person in the victimised age group to be aware of them, and to take some kind of action. So far this has only extended to participation in online discussion on the topic and a letter to his senator in favour of Canon's additional military funding, but figuring out what he should be doing about it is a recurring topic of thought for him.

Subject-wise he continues to do strongly in social studies and is taking all his electives in this area, along with AP political science. He tends to do well in all of his classes, maintaining an A average thanks to his natural intelligence and diligence in studying. His performance in physical education was underwhelming, as he's never been athletically inclined and it was only exacerbated by his asthma, but as he only took it for the mandatory two years it made little difference to him.

His relationship with his family has stayed healthy and hasn't changed much since he was a child. Both of his parents are very proud of his academic achievements, and whilst his sister is more outgoing than Lucas was at her age, she still comes to him for help with homework. Lucas' relationship with his grandfather is still very strong, and their discussions have matured along with Lucas, to the point they can spend hours talking about a single event and its implications. He still gets along well with his grandmother too.

Lucas has decided to study political science at college and has applied to a number of institutes. His first choice is Georgetown, given its reputation in the field and relative proximity to home. He is currently awaiting a decision from them, though he worries that he lacks enough extra-curriculars to make the cut.

Advantages: Lucas is a very intelligent young man, and a lot of his knowledge revolves around human behaviour and group mentalities, which includes knowledge of how past Survival of the Fittest versions have unfolded. He is a practiced speaker, able to be diplomatic as the situation calls for it, but is also used to having limited social interaction and so will be capable of acting independently.
Disadvantages: Lucas is physically weak and has poor stamina, due to his lifelong lack of interest in exercise. He also suffers from asthma, which will further impact his endurance and his ability to remain quiet should a wheezing spell hit. He stubbornly sticks to his ideals and will speak his mind when pushed, which will hinder his ability to adapt his approach to different people on the island. He can also be dismissive of other people he considers juvenile, which could lead to him ignoring valid ideas or making enemies. He is viewed poorly by some students for his social media mistake, which could make him a target for derision or hostility. He is currently going through a stressful period in his life because of his social status and his grandfather's health, which puts him in a worse position to endure the stress of the island.

Designated Number: Male student No. 035

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Designated Weapon: Urumi

Conclusion: Hope you're as flexible as that sword, B035. If your... colorful... interactions on social media stand for anything, you'll need to be in order to wash off the target you've got painted on your back. - Tracen Danya

DECEASED