B26: SAMUELS, ARIA [DECEASED]

#1

DECEASED

Name: Aria Samuels
Gender: Male
Age: 18
School: P.J. Hobbs Senior High School
Hobbies and Interests: School Choir, Singing, Online Gaming, Daydreaming, Wandering around Town

Appearance: Aria is 5’8” tall and weighs 155lbs. He has lightly tanned skin and a circular face that contrasts his sharp nose. Unhealthy would be the first thing that springs to mind with the bags under his dark brown eyes and poor posture. Alongside that, his scraggly brown hair and light beard shadow do nothing to help shake of the image of someone who really should be taking better care of themselves.

His look is consistent, if nothing else, with a white t-shirt, unbuttoned black and white checked shirt and plain beige trousers. The wrinkles in his clothes are unmistakeable and his red trainers also show signs of wear and tear. He has slightly outgrown the clothes, a fact that he is all too aware of and would prefer not to be mentioned. The outfit that he wore for the trip was pretty much what was expected out of him at this point; same t-shirt and shirt combination with unkempt trousers and old red trainers.

Biography: Aria was born to Nicholas and Laksmi Samuels in Denton, New Jersey. Laksmi was a second-generation immigrant from Indonesia whose parents moved to Denton during its peak. She met Nicholas in high school and quickly became high school sweethearts, before eventually marrying and settling in together in Denton. Nicholas managed to settle into a well-paying job in the insurance industry and had no problems supporting the family when Aria was born.

When he first started elementary school, Aria didn’t have any problems socializing with other children. He was one of the more popular kids in school due to his family’s wealth and his parents’ connections with the parents of other wealthier children at school. While he was mostly kind to his friends, he was very rude to those who weren’t part of his clique and did have moments where his bluntness would hurt his friends’ feelings. Aria never seemed to notice it was a bad thing, however, and none of his friends stopped him either, often joining in and jeering.

Towards the end of elementary school, however, the economic recession happened and his father got laid off by his agency. His friends quickly found out about it and started to shun and bully Aria, making fun of his father’s failure and their economic situation. The other students shunned him as well, not being able to forgive him for all the mean things he said about them and felt that he deserved it. Aria was humiliated and became more reclusive. He tried to stay away from the other kids and through time, developed a grudge against them due to their treatment of him. He particularly grew to hate his former friends as he felt betrayed by them.

His home life wasn’t any easier. His father became increasingly stressed as time went on and at first, he had issues with finding new work due to his age. His mother also had to start taking part-time work at the supermarket to help support the family income. They both tried to keep strong for each other and Aria, but he noticed how they seemed to be more irritable when he got home from school and that the meals that they had were less extravagant as time went on. Not wanting to be another burden for his family, Aria lied to his parents about how his school life was and made excuses whenever they mentioned inviting his former friends around for a sleepover. Sometimes, Aria would lie about going out with his friends and would leave the house for a short period of time to maintain the illusion that things at school were ok.

It was during such times that Aria started to daydream and listen to music. With few other ways to pass the time, he would go to either the seaside or Tilles Park, depending on how he felt, with his Walkman and a few CDs. Finding a sheltered, secluded spot, throw on his headphones and just let himself get taken away by the music. Most of the albums were either boy bands such as Westlife or rock bands with the likes of Simple Plan and Linkin Park. He also used to enjoy writing, keeping a diary with him and writing down some of his more elaborate daydreams while jamming off to his favourite music. These moments were his escape from his rather tumultuous home and school life and he would often daydream about performing in rock concerts or having super powers that he could use to get revenge on his former friends.

His jaded outlook on his classmates continued into middle school and he still made a strong effort to distance himself from others, though his father had finally managed to find a job in marketing with an entry level salary. However, some of the kids tried being friendly to him after noticing how he spent most of his time alone and still got bullied by his former friends. After a particularly traumatic experience involving his old friends finding his diary and reading the contents in the cafeteria in front of all his classmates, Aria lashed out verbally to protect himself. The emotional stress from hiding his feelings from his parents also lead to his antagonistic behaviour against his classmates and eventually, they gave up trying to be friendly with him. The cafeteria incident also caused him to be discouraged from pursuing his interest in writing, throwing away his diary and throwing himself into hobbies that he felt safer in pursuing.

Aria worked hard to maintain the lie to his parents, but as time went on, it became harder and harder for him to keep it up. For one thing, his parents started to get more inquisitive about what he was doing outside the house and became increasingly insistent on bringing his friends home. They became suspicious of his actions and sometimes refused to let him leave the house if he didn’t give exact details on what was happening. Aria stopped going out because of this and turned to video games, with a heavy focus on League of Legends. He had to play late at night since his parents often had to use the computer when he got home. He felt it was worth it as it gave him another activity he could use to deal with his feelings, even if it had a negative impact on his grades.

It all came to a boil when his parents were called into the school after Aria caused one of the students to cry due to insulting her viciously and was warned that if he didn’t improve his behaviour, he was going to be suspended. Once they got home, all his pent-up feelings flew out as he confessed about all the lies he told them and how he didn’t want to inconvenience them with his problems so tried keeping them to himself. He expected his parents to scream at him for hours, but instead found that they felt guilty about the pressures that they unknowingly put on him. He did get grounded for a month, but they also encouraged him to communicate more openly with them and from then on, worked together to improve his attitude towards others.

Now in high school, Aria’s social skills have improved, though he is still anxious to be around others or let them too close. He generally tries to be friendly, in stark contrast to how he used to cuss people out for looking at him the wrong way. He still retains the cynicism that he developed during childhood, however, and can come off as insensitive due to his blunt comments. He does feel guilty about how he acted when he was younger and has tried to apologise to everyone he could outside of his old friendship group about his behaviour and tried explaining to them why he acted the way he did.

Aria still has issues being fully open with his feelings due to trying to avoid burdening others, often preferring to bury himself in music or video games. Music is his biggest outlet for him, having been with him since he first ostracised himself in elementary school. While he can hold a note, Aria understands that he is average at best. That doesn’t stop him singing as he finds it one of the easier ways to express his emotions and when things get tough, he retreats to his room and starts singing songs to help push himself through it. At his parents’ insistence, Aria has also reluctantly joined the school choir, though has found that he enjoys it much more than he anticipated, mostly because he has started to grow closer to the other choir members through performing with them. He’s also managed to achieve a Gold 3 ranking in League of Legends solo queue due to the amount of time he spends playing it. He does have issues with the family’s internet and processing power, which has impacted his ability to win games.

His relationship with his parents is complicated and strained. Their financial situation means that his parents are often absent from the house, taking overtime and leaving Aria at home alone. Because of this, Aria had to learn how to do things such as cook and clean the house by himself in an attempt to feel less of a burden on his family. Though he loves his parents, he feels distant from them and still finds it hard to approach them with any of his problems. His past history of deceit means that when his parents are around, they can be overbearing and stifling. When able, his parents express a keen interest in Aria's life, though he feels it's more because they want to make sure he's not lying to them and their questions felt to him more like interrogations than anything else. They have also expressed concern about how he presents himself, but haven't been able to pressure him more due to how busy they are with work. In the end, though his parents do want to help Aria and support him, their economic situation makes it difficult for them to feel as supportive as they want to be, which leads to their interactions with Aria being more intense and overbearing than what probably is good for Aria.

Before high school, Aria’s grades were poor with high D’s and low C’s across the board. His dread on facing the other children in school meant that he never had much incentive to do well and his late nights playing video games and emotional stress didn’t help matters. He spent his time in class daydreaming about being out of there and as such, never paid strong attention to what was happening in class. Once his parents became aware of the situation, they started to work with him to improve his grades. Aria still plays until the early hours of the morning by sneaking to the computer once his parents were asleep, but he has spent more time revising and paying attention in classes in respect to his parents’ wishes. He still can be caught daydreaming in classes he finds especially boring such as History or Maths, but he’s managed to improve his averages to high and low C’s. English, due to his previous interest in writing, has more recently become a subject that Aria has enjoyed. It is also the subject he does the best in, with him nearly being able to achieve a B and being one of the few subjects Aria looks attentive in.

In his daydreams, Aria wishes to be a famous singer that performs in gigantic concerts, but he recognizes that this is more a fantasy than anything that could be seen as a realistic career path. Owing to his family's economic situation, Aria wants to look at work that would allow him to earn a lot of money and hasn't really thought about careers that he would actually enjoy pursuing. He's taken out college as an option as he doesn't believe he's smart enough for a scholarship and doesn't want to put more financial burden on his family. He has had brief conversations with his family about his future, though he didn't agree with his parents saying that he should just pursue work that he enjoys as he felt it was unrealistic. His parents are worried about Aria's mindset towards life after high school, though still support him by looking at potential careers that he could take once he finishes high school and giving advice on how to be more appealing to the job market. At the moment, he's looking to gain experience in any job available, even considering working at McDonald's for the experience alone, and then pursuing the larger job market once he has said experience under his belt.

Advantages: Aria’s experiences in the past and independence can help him overcome the issues with isolation that often crop up during the game. The distance he tries to maintain with others could possibly help him dissociate with the emotions that come with playing the game. His protectiveness could save him from being betrayed by the other players.
Disadvantages: Aria’s physical form is very poor in comparison to rest of the students and would be easily overpowered in a pure fight. His paranoia and self-protective behaviour can cause him to act irrationally, cause misunderstandings and hurt allies needlessly. His recent attempts to change his behaviour could lead to him refusing to play the game, leaving him open for players of the game.

Original Profile: Aria Samuels (V5)

Designated Number: Male Student No. 26

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Designated Weapon: Trumpet
Conclusion: At least he has some experience blowing things.

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