B05: WHITTEN, DANIEL [DECEASED]

#1

DECEASED

Name: Daniel Whitten
Gender: Male
Age: 18
School: P.J. Hobbs Senior High School
Hobbies and Interests: Literature, Book Club, Metal, Soccer, Concert Band

Appearance: Daniel is rather tall and skinny, about 6’1’’ and 149 lbs boy of Caucasian descent. His skin is mostly blemish-free, with the exception of a small mole on his left cheek. His eyes are bright green. Daniel's face is somewhat round, and he has a small, flat nose. He keeps his straight, black hair at around ear length, usually not cutting it until his bangs start to blind him. He has a scar on the palm of his right hand from accidentally touching a hot stove as a child. He isn't very muscular, but his legs are long and fairly strong.

Daniel tends to favor dark clothing, generally wearing about three layers, with a t-shirt, long-sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt. As his t-shirts tend to be buried by other clothing, Daniel doesn't really care what they look like, and thus throws on anything that fits. He prefers long-sleeved shirts that are either solid or have a simple pattern. His sweatshirts are usually plain and colorful. He gets cold rather easily, so on top of all this. he also tends to wear a dark blue, somewhat puffy jacket. He exclusively wears jeans, finding shorts uncomfortable. He typically wears plain, practical tennis shoes.

On the day of the abduction Daniel was wearing a red Dr. Pepper T-shirt, a white long-sleeved shirt with horizontal back stripes, a sky-blue zippered sweatshirt, jeans, and black-and-white tennis shoes.

Biography: Daniel was born January 13th, 1999, in Denton, New Jersey; the second child of Jill and Allen Whitten. His mother, Jill, works as a lawyer, while his father, Allen, works from home as a fairly successful mystery author. His five-year-older sister Erica was born deaf, which lead to Daniel becoming fluent in sign language from an early age. Daniel's family is, while not rich, financially well-off, and he lives in a nicely furnished two-story house.

Throughout his childhood and up to the present day, Daniel and his parents have gotten along well. He often spends hours discussing various literature-related things with his father. He doesn't see his mother as often, due to her job, but she makes an effort to get together with the family as often as she can. Erica and Daniel get along well, and until she left for college she often helped Daniel with his schoolwork; though not without frequent, good-natured teasing. Daniel often acts as an interpreter for his sister when they're out together, a role taken by his parents when they are present.

Allen holds a firm belief in the importance of literature, and throughout Daniel’s youth he consistently made efforts to pass this love of the written word along to his son; reading him stories at night before he was able to read for himself, and providing him with an endless flood of books once he got older. Daniel found his father’s enthusiasm contagious, and before too long he was well ahead of his grade’s reading level. The Harry Potter series in particular was a favorite of his, with its young heroes and fantastical magic setting. This love of books persisted to the present day, and while Daniel will read anything that sounds interesting to him, he still holds a particular fondness for fantasy novels, especially the Discworld series.

As thrilled as his father was about Daniel’s interest in literature, his parents thought it’d be best for his health if he didn’t spend all day curled up on the couch with a book. Thus, Daniel reluctantly joined the soccer team in elementary school, but ended up enjoying the exercise and team spirit, sticking with it throughout his life at school. He prefers to play defense as it is vital but not very flashy; enabling him to contribute to the team while still allowing his teammates to shine.

His proficiency with sign language came in handy when a widower and his son moved into the house belonging to an elderly couple next door, when Daniel was about seven. The son was a deaf boy named Michael Mitchellson who was around Daniel's age. Michael was happy to find another boy who could understand him, along with being a fellow avid reader, and the two quickly became inseparable, with Daniel interpreting for Michael when necessary. Even in the present day, one is rarely seen without the other.

Allen is a large fan of metal, often playing music from bands such as Iron Maiden in the house while he works. Daniel was thus exposed to the genre from an early age, leading to metal becoming his favorite genre of music. Daniel's favorite sub-genres are Symphonic and Power Metal, especially the bands Nightwish and Blind Guardian. He finds the intricate, melodic guitar work and often fantasy-inspired lyrics incredibly appealing. Recently, he has been slowly exploring heavier Death Metal groups like Opeth and In Mourning. For a long time he found their style of harsh vocals off-putting, but after being urged by his father to give them an honest chance, Daniel quickly found much to admire in their instrumentation.

At the start of middle school Daniel joined the band, mostly out of respect for the more classical, symphonic elements of metal bands he liked, picking the flute specifically because of a Nightwish song that featured it prominently. He soon found that he loved the feeling of a large group of people working to continuously improve themselves and form a final, cohesive whole for the final performance. However, he often finds practicing tedious and thus tends to avoid it whenever possible, leading to his playing skills being average at best.

Sixth grade was also when Daniel met Jonathan Lancer, who would soon become another one of his best friends. The two boys often saw each other in the library and though Johnny’s disfigurement shocked Daniel at first, he soon grew accustomed to it, and he would often wave or greet him when they passed in the halls. Towards the end of the year, Johnny approached him for a full conversation for the first time, and the two found they had much in common. Daniel liked him, and soon realized that he had no other friends, and from then on made an effort to reach out to Johnny, often inviting him to hang out with him and Michael. The three quickly became close.

The start of his freshman year of high school, he started an informal "Book Club" with Michael and Johnny, at Michael prompting. In the beginning, it was just the three of them talking about books they had read and were reading, much like they normally did anyway. However, they soon ended up recruiting a few classmates, leading to a more organized, if still informal, club. There isn’t much of a clearly defined format, beyond the members deciding on a book to read together, and then talking about it while they read. While Daniel is technically co-leader he almost always follows the lead of Michael, who is the one that handles most of the organizational aspects.

One of the first new recruits to Daniel’s book club was Rachael Langdon, a girl in his English class who he noticed reading a book on the first day of classes. They soon started hanging out together even outside of the context of book club, forming a strong friendship; with Daniel supporting her in her many creative endeavors.

By their Junior year, Daniel realized that he had developed a strong crush on her, a revelation that made him very anxious and indecisive, not wanting to ruin their friendship. However, through the not-so-gentle prodding of Michael, Daniel worked up the courage to ask Rachael out to their Junior prom, which they both enjoyed. At the end of the evening, Daniel asked if Rachael would be his girlfriend. She accepted, after taking a few days to think.

Their relationship is loving, but very low-key in public; mostly due to Rachael’s wishes. Daniel doesn’t quite understand her hesitation, but respects it; keeping it quiet without outright hiding it. In private, the two spend most of their time together, usually hanging out at one of their houses. It does mean that Daniel and Michael spend nowhere near as much time together as they used to, a fact which Daniel often frets about but Michael takes in stride and with copious wingman finger-guns.

At school, Daniel tends to get decent grades, often acing the English and history classes, his favorite subjects - English due to his enjoyment of literature, history for its similarities to English. However, he tends to do less well in science, due to not having much of a head for numbers, and outright struggling with math classes, as they lack the conceptual elements of science that Daniel can grasp. He often recruits Michael and Rachael to help him understand his work, in the end resulting in Daniel achieving mostly C’s and B’s in those courses. Outside of book club, Daniel does not have a large network of friends, though his friendly demeanor makes him well-liked by the majority of his classmates.

Daniel plans on going to a local college and majoring in English, getting a job in the book industry afterwards; ideally as an editor for a major publisher. Rachael has expressed interest in following him to college, and though the concept of pursuing higher education together makes him very happy, he is hesitant about her making such a major life decision on his account; while still worrying about how they would handle anything long-distance. To help save money for college, he has been working as a cashier at Something Borrowed Used Books, where he heavily exercises his employee discount.

Daniel is a mostly easy-going person, tending to let others take the lead, and if forced to take initiative he will try to deflect the responsibility to someone else as soon as he can. This isn’t due to an unwillingness to put effort into things, as Daniel is perfectly happy working under someone else’s orders. However, if he is faced with the sole responsibility of making decisions the pressure tends to overwhelm Daniel; leading to him panicking and making mistakes.

During his childhood Daniel's parents emphasized courtesy and considering the feelings of others. Because of this, along with his general personality, Daniel is very empathetic, often considering the needs of others before his own, occasionally at the expense of his own well being. As a result Daniel is very heavily affected by even footage of real-life violence, even feeling heavily physically ill in extreme cases.

Daniel is naturally friendly, and even though social situations amongst strangers generally put him in a perpetual state of feeling awkward, he gets along with most people. He enjoys exercising his vocabulary, but often mumbles and flubs his words, often muddying whatever point he is trying to make; giving off the image of being well-meaning but somewhat ineffectual. This is less of an issue when he is interpreting for Michael or Erica, as he puts significant effort into concentrating enough to enunciate, so that their opinions are clearly and accurately conveyed to others.

Advantages: Daniel is quite athletic due to the soccer team, and is thus excellent at running, being able to both sprint quickly and run long distances without getting winded. He is a generally friendly and well-liked person, and would probably have a fairly easy time of making allies.
Disadvantages: Daniel has a strong aversion to hurting others, and would be strongly affected by viewing any major act of violence. He's not very good at taking initiative, and would probably be unsure of what to do if left alone.

Original Profile: Daniel Whitten (V5)

Designated Number: Male Student No. 05

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Designated Weapon: The Liberator 3D Printed Pistol
Conclusion: Didn't I just... Oh, never mind. I'd call this one the alpha Dan if it wasn't for that nasty little pacifist streak. Hopefully he can work that out and make some use of that gun. It'd be a shame to have all that money we spent on the 3D printer go to waste.

DECEASED