Leander Van Vliet

[MurderWeasel]

Name: Leander Van Vliet
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Place of Residence: Mombasa, Mombasa County, Kenya
Language/s: English, French, Swahili
Hobbies and Interests: Computers and technology, school, military history, cricket

Appearance: Leander stands at 5'11" and weighs 170 lbs, with a lean, fit build. His limbs are slender, and he moves with a confident and casual air. He has a long face with an aquiline nose, and full lips that he nevertheless presses together until they almost disappear when he's upset. His eyes are wide and greyish-blue, and the whites below his irises are typically visible in everyday situations, a trait sometimes referred to as "sanpaku eyes." His hair is curly and blonde, and he wears it at a medium length, enough to cover the tops of his ears and his forehead but not to get in his eyes.

Leander has no piercings or tattoos, but he does have a number of minor scars on his arms, legs, and hands, the result of an active lifestyle, frequent spills when out running around, and the occasional schoolyard scrap. Perhaps the most notable is a line an inch long on the palm of his right hand, from when he tripped while holding a pencil and it got embedded under the skin. Leander is Caucasian, with a father from Belgium and a Norwegian-American mother, and his skin tone is accordingly naturally pale, though he spends enough time outside to sport a healthy tan most of the year.

In terms of fashion, Leander wears understated but well-made clothes, usually shorts, slacks, or cargo pants and paired with t-shirts or button-downs and leather shoes. On the day of the abduction, Leander had a class presentation for IB History, and had accordingly dressed up in a smart olive green three-piece suit paired with a maroon tie (all made from lightweight materials to accommodate warm weather), matching socks, and black leather shoes. He wore a simple yellow button-down shirt under his suit jacket and waistcoat.

Biography: Leander Van Vliet is the son of Gilles Van Vliet, a Belgian expatriate, and Melanie Madsen, an American citizen. As a young man, Gilles had a rough upbringing that led to frequent encounters with the law; shortly after his eighteenth birthday he ran away from home, drifting through France before falling in with a group of older security contractors—mercenaries in all but name. In this capacity, he worked for fifteen years in hotspots of conflict throughout Africa and especially the Middle East, in positions of varying degrees of legality. Where many of Gilles' comrades were careless with their money, however, he developed a fascination with investment and finances, and poured most of his funds into the stock market. Through a combination of heavy good fortune and a measure of personal savvy, he was able to take advantage of the dot.com bubble in the late 1990s, In the end, he retired very comfortably in his early 30s, choosing to settle in Mombasa, Kenya, as his primary residence. He chose this a city for its scenery, size, easy access to international travel, and also due to positive experiences in the city during his contractor days.

Gilles met Melanie, a Norwegian-American flight attendant almost a decade his junior, while she was exploring the city on leave. She was struck by his charm and wide experience, and a whirlwind romance led to repeat meetings and, four months later, a pregnancy. All was not to end well, however; Melanie's family did not approve of their daughter's relationship, and while she briefly moved in with Gilles, she found him difficult and temperamental as their relationship wound on. By the second birthday of their only child, Leander, the couple was barreling towards separation, and ultimately Melanie left the boy in the care of his father, due to the latter's vastly greater financial stability and also his expressed desire to raise the boy; at a later stage of his life, he viewed himself as more stable and mature. Leander had infrequent contact with his mother until about age eight, but eventually she faded entirely from his life. He bears her no particular ill will over this, however, viewing his privileged upbringing as ample compensation.

Gilles sought to give his son the stability and support that he never had as a child, and accordingly saw that Leander always received the best care, nice clothes, educational opportunities through private international schools, and a social circle composed of the children of other well-off individuals, many of them also expatriates. Largely retired, Gilles took a direct hand in Leander's upbringing, though he also employed a revolving cast of local hired help to handle day-to-day upkeep. It is from these assistants that Leander picked up the knowledge of Swahili that he has; he speaks the language better than his father, though is obviously still imperfect of his understanding.

This is symptomatic of another aspect of Leander's life: while he was afforded many opportunities, his father's wealth, immigrant status, and tendency to surround himself with other wealthy individuals and immigrants led to Leander having a somewhat insulated existence. It was completely normal for him to accompany his father on a weekend trip to Spain, or to a conference in Saudi Arabia, especially as in later years his father began to take jobs as a consultant to other private security forms, something he mostly picked up from a nostalgic yearning for adventure. This gave Leander a somewhat skewed view of his position relative to other people; he knows that he's privileged on an intellectual level, but does not have a particularly clear idea to what extent.

In school, Leander was always given the best support available, with tutors hired for any subject he struggled in. This coupled with a naturally academically-inclined mind saw him achieving high marks from lower primary school on, and to this day he scores near the top of his class. Academics mark a semi-objective way of comparing himself to others, and Leander's father has instilled in him a drive to succeed, which tends to manifest in besting others. His father has regaled him with many stories of his own successes and adventures, and Leander sees himself as enjoying a position won through his father's bravery, intelligence, and skill—all qualities he seeks to emulate.

Gilles was also key to several of Leander's other interests. As a child, Leander quickly became aware that his father had made his money through a combination of paramilitary work and technology, and he sought to explore and understand both of these prongs of his family history. For the former, Leander had picked up many stories of his father's. Gilles shares willingly, but is prone to both inappropriate detail and self-aggrandizing inaccuracies; he presents highlights and explores the long spells of boredom and inaction only as amusing interludes. With his aid and encouragement, Leander has explored both the basics of a number of forms of combat (including unarmed hand-to-hand, use of a knife, and basic firearms operation) and important historical theory (he's especially keen to bring up Sun Tzu's Art Of War or Machiavelli's Prince). Leander experiences primarily a sort of sanitized highlight reel; the closest he's come to true violent adversity is a handful of low-stakes schoolyard brawls, in which he has historically typically come out on top due to a mix of greater experience and assistance from friends. On one occasion, however, Leander found himself outnumbered by vengeful peers, and while he was able to avoid a serious beating by retreating to the school building and relying on teachers to deter pursuit, he was disturbed by the ease with which numbers being against him changed the dynamic and left him at risk of defeat.

Technologically, Leander enjoys video games (especially military-themed ones) and regularly performs upgrades and upkeep on his desktop computer. He knows his way around hardware and regularly replaces components, and is also versed in related software aspects that befuddle some of his peers; he's the sort to lend a hand with driver updates or installing new RAM. This does not extend to programming, though Leander is able to suss out how to operate most relatively modern technology given time, especially due to his general disregard for the consequences of failure; he's not afraid to risk damaging a tablet to coax it to do what he wants, as in his life such things can be replaced without too much grief. He especially enjoys the obvious, perceptible difference made by upgrades, as his actions lead directly to desired effects.

Presently, Leander attends the Marine International Academy, a cutting-edge international private secondary school. He consistently scores well, landing at the top of his class, and he naturally assumes a leadership role in group projects. He takes after his father in many ways, for better and worse; Leander's confidence can manifest as casual egotism, as he prioritizes his own desires over those of others, though this strength of personality lends him a certain charisma that's especially attractive to students who lack the same degree of privilege. Socially speaking, he's the ringleader of a clique of boys who share similar values and interests and look up to him due to his perceived intelligence, skill, and experience. Indeed, throughout his life Leander has almost invariably found himself in leadership roles with others following him; he does not take direction or correction well (which has been a source of frustration for several teachers and tutors in the past) and is used to having others help him out and amplify his power. When separated from his cadre, Leander tends to be more anxious in his interactions, usually trying to win others to his side; he firmly believes in the importance of numbers and support and will intentionally try to cultivate favor with others for short-term gain, even if he has no intention of maintaining the relationships.

This, of course, means there's a decent chunk of his class who absolutely cannot stand Leander. Those who don't share his interests, who also have strong personalities, or who are less casual about how they treat others tend to find him an obnoxious, overbearing blowhard. He has particularly bad luck in romantic arenas; Leander is heterosexual and has dated fairly widely but very casually, as most of his relationships blow up in short order over his uncompromising nature.

Leander enjoys the sport of cricket, one big point of divergence from his father, who makes an effort to understand it solely because it's important to his son. Leander enjoys the competition, and plays with the school team; while he is not the star player, he does well enough that failure rarely lands directly at his feet, and the team is on the whole quite good, regularly landing a winning record. He keeps in shape on his own time to better his game, and also due to his father's insistence on the importance of physical fitness.

Leander is very close to earning his diploma, and has nearly completed the prestigious International Baccalaureate program. He has applied to a range of universities in various countries, and is fairly set on ranging abroad, eyeing the United States and England specifically. He has yet to make his final decision, though he has already received a number of acceptance letters.

Advantages: Leander has some theoretical and practical understanding of various forms of combat and some aspects of tactics, which is more than many others can say. He's in pretty good shape, and is used to being forceful, giving him potential to browbeat others, at least in the short term.
Disadvantages: Leander relies on others and is likely to flounder without a cadre assisting him and backing him up. At the same time, all the things that tend to draw others to him are inapplicable in this situation, and his fundamentally difficult personality is very likely to turn others off following his lead, except perhaps in the short term. He is habitually reckless with resources and struggles to take the possible consequences of his own actions into account, which could lead to him getting deep in trouble indeed before he properly understands its severity.

[Cicadan]

Hey there MW. Good profile, there's just a little extra I'd like to see:

[+] critiques

Leander relies on others and is likely to flounder without a cadre assisting him and backing him up.

This is already justified by the bit about Leander often only winning scraps with his posse on hand, but I do think I want to see a bit more to justify this disadvantage being notarized as such. There's no part of the profile that details how Leander reacts specifically when he has no goons on his side, which I think would help clarify this disadvantage to the degree that the others already are. Go into the visceral or intellectual qualities of his response: is he more cowardly or indecisive without back up? Is he aware of this fact? Perhaps there could be a historical example of how his need for reinforcement from a group led to a defeat in academic or social life when he lacked that backup.

Feel free to ping me on Discord or PM if you have questions or are ready for me to take another look!

[MurderWeasel]

Edited!

[+] Changelog

Added this to the bit about fights:
"On one occasion, however, Leander found himself outnumbered by vengeful peers, and while he was able to avoid a serious beating by retreating to the school building and relying on teachers to deter pursuit, he was disturbed by the ease with which numbers being against him changed the dynamic and left him at risk of defeat."

Added this to the bit about Leander having a crew he rolls with:
"When separated from his cadre, Leander tends to be more anxious in his interactions, usually trying to win others to his side; he firmly believes in the importance of numbers and support and will intentionally try to cultivate favor with others for short-term gain, even if he has no intention of maintaining the relationships. "

[Cicadan]

Yep, that looks good to me. Accepted.