A34: XAVIER RIOS

#1

Name: Xavier Rios
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Hobbies and Interests: Climbing, 90s culture, collecting bandanas, urban exploration

Appearance: Xavier stands at exactly six feet tall, weighing roughly 175 lbs with a slender, athletic build. He has deeply tanned olive skin and shoulder-length dark brown hair usually held back with a bandana. His face is narrow, with thick eyebrows framing deep-set dark brown eyes above a short, broad nose. Xavier maintains a small mustache and shaves his cheeks and chin once weekly, often seen with a slight stubble in person. His Cyber Reality avatar matches his appearance almost identically, with the exception of his stubble being a permanent fixture in CR.

Xavier’s wardrobe is characterized by tough, baggy, functional clothes. He often buys from workwear and outdoor brands in an attempt to get the longest possible lifespan out of garments, typically buying one or two sizes up for comfort and mobility reasons. He also owns several vintage, thrifted, and hand-me-down items, justified by his personal belief that clothing was more durable in the past.

When it comes to Xavier's CR avatar, he goes to great lengths to ensure that there are as few differences between the avatar and himself as possible. He attempts to change the appearance of his avatar to match any changes in hair growth, health, and even clothing. When unable to change his avatar’s clothing, Xavier has been known to wear the same outfit in the real world for multiple school days in a row to avoid any mental distress. On the day of the attack, his avatar was wearing an orange and gray flannel shirt over an oversized gray tank-top with a cracked, faded, maroon logo reading "CALEXICO" in block letters. He was wearing navy blue cargo pants and a pair of black and white PF Flyers sneakers, notably the exact same outfit he was wearing in the real world that day. His hair was held back with a goldenrod yellow paisley bandana.

Background: Xavier Rios was born on April 30th, 2005 in El Centro, California. He is the third of five children born to Javier and Xochitl Rios, two high-school sweethearts and entrepreneurs from Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. His elder siblings, twin boys named Jaime and Hugo, were born in 1999. His younger siblings, girls named Angelica and Citlali, were born in 2010 and 2012, respectively.

Shortly before Xavier’s birth, his parents began a business distributing produce to local markets and restaurants in the Imperial Valley region of California. When Xavier was five years old, the family moved north to Gilroy, California to take over a garlic company overseen by an elder relative. At age twelve, after his parents’ separation, he moved with his mother and two younger siblings to Mountain View, California, a suburb just outside of San Jose.

Xavier has little nostalgia for his early childhood, which was mostly characterized by loneliness and torment from his older brothers. Parental supervision was limited due to the stress and minutiae of running a business, and the boys were normally under the care of an aging relative or simply left to fend for themselves at home. This most notably resulted in an event when Xavier was 4, where his brothers locked him in a trunk for over a half hour before an adult noticed and managed to help. After this event, which resulted in a crippling fear of enclosed spaces for Xavier, Xochitl made the decision to work fewer hours and spend more time at home.

Shortly after the move north to Gilroy, Angelica was born, and Xochitl began to spend most of her time at home. After becoming pregnant with Citlali, Xochitl began to stay at home full-time, withdrawing fully from the garlic business to take care of her young children. The next few years were some of Xavier's fondest, with his mother's constant presence giving him an otherwise unmatched feeling of security. These years were characterized by Xavier spending a majority of his time with his mother and younger sisters, and his older brothers spending most of their time around their father. When unable to be around his sisters or mother, Xavier spent much of his free time exploring the countryside or hanging around acquaintances from school. It was at this time that Xavier was introduced to the concept of climbing buildings, after climbing to the top of his elementary school cafeteria to impress a crush one summer. The physical activity, attention from his peers, and thrill of being somewhere forbidden all led to the activity becoming a regular hobby for him.

His relationship with his older brothers remained strained, with the twins regularly teasing and harassing Xavier whenever their mother was absent. Their father normally ignored the bullying when it happened around him, and would occasionally encourage it as an opportunity to toughen up his youngest son. Because of this, he was very protective of his younger sisters from an early age, feeling a personal responsibility to make up for his father and brothers’ failings. Xavier had few close friends, but was generally well-liked among his elementary school peers and had many friendly acquaintances.

A few years later, Xavier's parents separated. He moved with his mother and younger sisters to Mountain View, where Xochitl was able to find work managing a small produce market owned by a family friend. To Xavier’s relief, Jaime and Hugo stayed in Gilroy with their father.

Xavier's first experience with Cyber Reality came when he entered middle school, in Mountain View. The feeling of the CRD completely covering his face triggered Xavier’s claustrophobia and led to an anxiety attack. Xavier spoke with school counselors, but insisted that it was a one-off incident that wouldn't happen again. At this time, his mother was under a great deal of stress going through a divorce and changing careers. Xavier was afraid that having a son who couldn’t participate in school would only cause further stress for his mother, and chose to downplay his stress reactions at home. When using the CRD in school, he learned that he was able to ignore the claustrophobic and dissociative feelings he associated with CR by attempting to make the experience as close to reality as possible. To do this, he would attempt to match his avatar’s appearance almost identically, as well as avoiding eye contact with anything but his lessons. Xavier’s coping mechanisms worked well enough to give him passing grades, but his social life within school is nearly nonexistent. Outside of PE and other in-person classes, Xavier rarely interacts with his classmates during school hours, and outside of school he spends a majority of his free time alone, climbing and exploring abandoned structures.

Upon entering Sycamore High, Xavier was relieved to find that the school’s structure was a close approximation of a real life school, and even resembled his old elementary school to some degree. Despite this, he quickly built up a reputation as an eccentric loner who wouldn’t participate in any after-school clubs or activities. Those who knew him outside of school, or who shared PE classes with him, were aware that he was far more approachable outside of CR, but these classmates were typically the exception. His grades in most classes remain below average but acceptable, with the exception of PE, where he consistently excels.

His relationship with his sisters and mother remains incredibly close, but he remains estranged from his father and brothers by choice. Xavier has a strong sense of wanderlust, and wishes to spend time traveling the world after he finishes high-school.

Personality: In real life, Xavier has a quiet confidence and a calm disposition, appearing shy but approachable to strangers, and giving off a trustworthy aura to those that he does know. In CR, Xavier tends to be paranoid and anxious, often fidgeting and avoiding eye-contact with others. The more aware he is of the artificial nature of his environment, the more panicked he tends to become.

Reputation: Xavier is known for being far more outgoing in the physical realm, with a notorious distaste for any activities taking place within CR. Notably, his friends typically refrain from socializing with him within CR, saving the interactions for a time when he’d be less stressed to be carrying them out. Because of this, he’s seen as something of a loner by those who spend most of their time within CR.

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Designated Number: A34

Designated Weapon: WA-1 — Chiappa Triple Threat [.12 Gauge]
Designated Utility: UA-1 — Bulletproof Vest

Evaluation: "Oh, what a tragedy! You were so right to be afraid, A34; you're trapped, caught in this nightmare like a rat in a cage. The future is now; can you feel its hands wrap around your neck?" — [LINCOLN], Announcer