O18: LATIMER, ALEXANDER "LEX"

#1

Name: Alexander "Lex" Latimer
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Place of Residence: Coldhurst, Oldham, England, United Kingdom
Language/s: English
Hobbies and Interests: Politics, history, drawing, television, foreign movies

Appearance: Lex stands at an average 5'10, or 177 cm, and has pale, somewhat sallow white skin that burns easily in sunlight. He is weedy and thin, with a bony appearance and angular features. He is slightly underweight for someone of a small frame such as his, at 138 pounds, or around 9.9 stone, if rounding up. He has little in the way of visible muscle due to his disinterest in athletic activities as a whole.

His face is triangle-shaped, with sharp and defined features. His cheeks are fairly thin, and he has a hooked nose. His lips are dry and somewhat thin. While he takes good care of his teeth, they have a subtle yellowish tint, causing him to feel discomfort about smiling. He has harsh, inexpressive eyes, of a gemstone green color, with slight dark spots under them. His eyebrows are thin and dark. In the past, Lex suffered from severe acne leading to him having light scarring on his face, mostly consisting of subtle pockmarks. His acne has since improved as a result of prescribed treatments by his dermatologist. His hair is tweed brown and wavy, of a medium length, and while he rigorously keeps it clean, he has given up on keeping it neat, as it always manages to become unkempt and scraggly soon after.

His voice is fairly ordinary, though slightly higher than average, and it often has a notable harshness. He speaks somewhat quickly, especially when he is frustrated.

Lex doesn't have much interest in fashion and wears fairly unremarkable clothing, consisting of mono-color shirts and coats. He rarely wears clothing of famous brands, opting instead for cheaper, more generic options. On the day of his abduction, he was wearing a hoodless quarter-zip windbreaker, a mono-color blue t-shirt, a pair of plain gray track pants, and worn-out black sneakers.

Biography: Alexander Latimer was born in the Coldhurst neighborhood of Oldham, England as the only child of Joseph Latimer, a lower-class factory worker, and Alice Latimer (née Graham), a school secretary. While their jobs were both low-paying on their own, they provided enough combined income to sustain themselves and their child. However, the family was always teetering on the edge of poverty.

Alexander himself had a relatively decent childhood, despite lacking many of the comforts that some of his more well-off peers enjoyed and having a distinct awkwardness about him that inhibited his social skills, and found many friends due to mutual interests in things such as television and foreign movies, which he prides himself on the knowledge of. He began watching foreign movies and television, though only from English-speaking countries, due to a desire more about the world outside of where he lived. Early on, he gained his long-time nickname, Lex, to distinguish him from other students who had happened to share his name. He adjusted well to the school system, doubtlessly helped by an intelligent and inquisitive nature. While he never truly excelled at his education due to an unwillingness to push himself, he maintained good grades for many years going into secondary school. His highest grade was always History, with Lex developing a particular fascination with due to a combination of watching historical films and a teacher who actively fostered his interest in the subject.

When he entered secondary school, he attempted to teach himself how to draw, though he hated how his art looked. He was deeply dissatisfied by what he perceived as a lack of talent on his part, and throughout his life, he would lose interest in and rediscover the hobby many times. While he occasionally made inroads into advancing his abilities, he had trouble committing to practicing his work, instead often becoming frustrated and abandoning further attempts at improving himself. He began to adopt a defeatist mindset, sometimes giving up before managing to put his pencil to paper.

However, the city they lived in, Oldham, was falling into economic despair. The industries that kept the city alive had been declining for decades, with the last mills having closed in the early 90s. Wages were stagnant, and more people were finding themselves unemployed than ever before. Joseph witnessed his colleagues and friends be laid off from their jobs and became alarmed when the man next to him in the line was also let go. While Joseph couldn't bear to place that stress on the young Lex, the family slowly began to cut costs to prepare for what they saw as inevitable.

Shortly after Lex turned 13, the factory his father worked at closed for good, and many others had either done so already or followed suit shortly after. The small number of funds they had succeeded in saving to that point only lasted a short period of time. While Alice's work helped pay some of the costs, Joseph struggled to find employment due to him being an unskilled laborer with poor education. As such, the family found themselves in increasingly dire straits. While his parents had sought to protect Lex from the difficulties of the situation, he had become aware nonetheless, quickly becoming deeply stressed and concerned about the family finances as the Latimers fell into deep poverty.

His school life quickly deteriorated, and his friendships began to fall apart as a result of this. Instead of relying upon his support network of peers and teachers, Lex lashed out at the world around him, becoming angry and reserved, isolating himself from those who he cared about. His fear of ruining the relationships he shared with others led him to act more abrasively to help him ignore this distress, and this often led to the very situations he feared coming to pass. He spiraled into an ever-increasing cycle of bitterness, frustration, and deep loneliness. He became argumentative and disruptive, causing him to clash often with his teachers, and his grades plummeted from above-average to barely passing. He began to choose to sabotage his own work, deciding to purposefully fail difficult assignments rather than deal with the stress of maintaining his academic achievements. Lex's social life continued to decline as he entered the sixth form.

As a result of his family's circumstances and wider developments worldwide, Lex's interest in foreign movies turned towards a wider enthrallment with American culture. This outlook slowly began to drift into his political views as well. He had become frustrated and disheartened by the economy in his home country and saw America as a place of opportunity and success, where any man could become a millionaire. Not long after, the Brexit Referendum was announced, and Lex, for the first time, became truly interested in the world of British politics. He began to support the idea of a no-deal exit from the European Union and believed that the factory jobs could come back if Britain stopped relying on the outside world. However, deep down, he remained slightly uncommitted to it. Part of his motivations to support it had simply been just another way to lash out, and there have been many times in which his enthusiasm for the movement has wavered, though he remains tentatively loyal to the cause. While Oldham itself had voted in favor of leaving, many of his peers favored remaining, and because of this, Lex rarely talks about politics while at school. However, he does occasionally talk about politics with his family, and his father agrees on the matter of Brexit. However, his mother is less interested and does not have a strong opinion on the matter. Lex doesn't seek out those with similar opinions to him, seeing it as pointless to do so when most of his peers already disagree with him.

Lex, upon turning 16, began looking for a part-time job. In doing so, he hoped that he would both be able to gain money for himself and alleviate some of his parent's financial burdens. He applied for a minimum-wage weekend retail job at a local Aldi supermarket due to it having a particularly short commute compared to other nearby stores and was soon hired. However, he quickly found that he hated the job. While he continues to work at the supermarket, he loathes it and plans to look for a new job. He expects to do so after completing Year Thirteen, which he attends at Clarkwell Secondary School. Clarkwell Secondary is a state-funded public secondary school with an attached Sixth Form.

As a result of his tendency to burn bridges, a poor temperament, and overall lacking conversation skills, Lex has been left unable to secure and maintain meaningful relationships with those around him. He has had little success romantically, a fact which he attributed partially to his looks, becoming deeply self-conscious of his appearance and considering himself to be unattractive, a view that has further worsened his emotional state. Throughout Year Twelve, more of his few remaining friendships disintegrated rapidly due to his self-destructive tendencies and increasing solitude.

His relationship with his parents has become noticeably distant as of late. Before the factory closed, his parents worked less strenuous hours, which allowed them to spend more time with him. Joseph and Lex would often watch movies, sometimes mocking ones they found bad, and Alice would help Lex with his homework and cook dinner for the family. While Joseph was able to find another job, it was low-paying, leading to him working long hours, often late into the night, leaving little room for interaction between him and Lex. Alice took longer hours due to Joseph losing his factory job and often goes to bed shortly after getting home. Lex tends to spend his time at home by himself, often cooking a small dinner for his parents to eat when they get home. As a result of his lack of meaningful personal relationships, Lex often feels lonely.

Lex has become increasingly despondent over time as a result of these factors. As of his final year of schooling, he remains unsure about his place in the world and what he should do going forward. While he would like to go to university, he worries that he will not succeed if he gains admittance to one.

Advantages: Lex is intelligent, and he may be able to make up for his lack of physical strength with a strong mind. He has experience with cooking and may be able to use that to help him avoid starvation. He is stubborn and may put up significant resistance in the event he is attacked.
Disadvantages: Lex has poor social skills, making the cultivation of alliances far more difficult. To make matters worse, his self-destructive tendencies and poor disposition could undo what lucky alliances he may manage to forge. His lack of interest in physical activities has left him out of shape, and he is physically frail. His fragile emotional state and defeatist mindset may result in him giving up on the possibility of survival entirely, making him an easy picking for a potential killer.

Designated Number: O18

---

Designated Weapon: Pistol Auto 9mm 1A

Conclusion: College-bound incel. Okay, I have to be a bit more fair than that. He’s got a metric fuckton of issues and isn’t coping with any of them well, so I doubt he has the mental strength to man up and get it done. The underdog can bite back and take over the trash heap but I don’t think this guy has what it takes. You have to have a certain mentality to overcome your inner demons and I don’t think this guy has it. - Freebird