Chris MacLeod*

[Ridler†]

Name: Chris MacLeod
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Videogames; Movies; Card games

Appearance: Chris is a pretty tall guy, at 6'2''. He's also a bit overweight (but in no case fat), weighing exactly 220 lbs. His dark brown hair grows quickly (though it never gets very long, just big) and is very hard to control or shape in any way, so he usually just combs it down and leaves it be. On the other hand, his beard just refuses to grow despite the fact that he really wants it to. That's why, even though he hasn't shaved for months, all he has is a light stubble. General opinion is that it does not suit him at all, but for some reason he really insists on keeping it. That's partly because of his silly childhood dream to have a "manly beard" and partly because of pure stubbornness. His eyes are a dark shade of blue. Other than that, his face has absolutely no extraordinary features (he has one of those generic faces everyone sees everywhere), which by extension doesn't make him very memorable amongst strangers.

He's by no means muscular - he's spent most of his life sitting on the couch playing videogames, and it shows. While not exactly fat, Chris is a bit rounded on the belly (though he usually keeps it well hidden under his clothes). Speaking of clothes, his favorite configurations depend on the season, but during the summer he's most often seen wearing a t-shirt, short jeans and leather sandals. In his pocket he always carries his phone, his wallet and a console of his choice (usually PSP).

Biography: Chris has had a very boring life. His ancestry is convoluted - in fact, it's so complicated that even he's not exactly sure about it. All he knows is that there's some Greek blood in him... from somewhere. It also doesn't help that he's part British and part American (the nationalities of his parents). His name suggest he's probably part Scottish, too.

When he was just a baby, his biological father died from lung cancer, so for the first 5-6 years of his life he was raised by his mother and grandfather in London, England. He was way too young to even remember what his biological dad even looked like, so his death didn't really affect him. When he was 3 the boy got an unexpected gift - an NES, alongside a couple of games (his mother saw it as just another toy for little kids, that's why she thought it'd be an appropriate gift). This system changed his life - it entertained him and inspired him for the years to come. Of course, you can't expect a 3 year old to be very good at games, but slowly he managed to get better bit by bit, and since playing Nintendo games isn't exactly rocket science he managed to get somewhat good at them by the time he turned 7. Coincidentally, that's when his mother remarried and left for the US. Again - he was little and didn't exactly mind.

Chris was enrolled in an American grade school where he met a few kids that would later in life become some of his best friends, due to strange and wonderful coincidences. They were mostly people like him - neither the generic jocks nor the stereotypical nerds, "odd" kids who didn't really belong with a bigger group. When they were little, they rarely paid any attention to each other. It was only when they entered high school that they started to see the similarities between each other. Without going into too much detail, when he was 16, Chris suddenly found himself (for one reason or another) surrounded by 4-5 very good friends - an interesting turn of events for him considering this was the first time he really had someone so close to him he could call a "friend". Even though he knew most of those people for years before, they were nothing but casual acquaintances.

Despite the fact that his grades were very good, his attitude towards certain subjects and teachers caused him many problems. Even as a kid, Chris wouldn't let others step on him, so to speak. A lot of teachers just gave up on him and called him useless due to his big mouth. In reality, he wasn't a bad child, he just hated it with a passion when other people looked down on him. This attitude of his stayed with him for all his life, for better or worse.

When he was 10, his mother gave birth to Chris' sister. The boy was overjoyed. He loved his father and sister very much. To him, split between the teachers who disliked him and the children who avoided him because of that, his family was the most important thing in his life. It was around that time when he expressed interest to train in marksmanship (undoubtedly influenced by movies and videogames) and swimming (since even as a kid he believed this should be an ability everyone possesses). His parents didn't mind him practicing either - quite the opposite, they encouraged his interest in sports. He got kind of good at marksmanship (he could hit the target with a rifle, at least - still, he was just a kid, and those guns are heavy) and VERY good at swimming. He quit marksmanship practice about a year after he started, but continued to practice swimming until his early teens.

It's important to note that there was nothing really special about this training of his. Both his swimming and marksmanship practices were done in special courses with an instructor and a group. Despite the fact that he was inspired to learn how to use a gun by shoot'em up movies, his parents didn't really consider marksmanship as anything other than a sport. Unlike some other American families, they had enough trust in their kid to believe he won't shoot anyone's eye out. Not to mention - there was a qualified instructor there who knew his job well. There really was no reason for any worries about that.

Of course, that's when a radical change in his body happened. As Chris entered puberty, his habbits of playing videogames all afternoon and his diet of junk food said their word and he gained a significant amount of weight. He became extremely self-conscious about his body (even though he refused to admit it) and quit swimming practice shortly afterwards.

When Chris started going to high school it was like his life was completely different altogether. For the first time he started to really deepen his interest in games and expand his collection and knowledge of them. Not only that - his interests gradually expanded into other areas, like card games (which became his guilty pleasure) and movies. By pure chance, he ended up in the same class as some of his friends from grade school and he got even closer to them. Even though he had never exactly felt lonely, for the first time in his life, Chris felt like he had true friends. They were people who not only hanged out with him - they understood him, helped him when he needed them (and vice versa), gave him advice, etc. Most naturally - he was overjoyed and often wondered how he even lived without true friends all this time. And even though the teachers were still getting mad at him for talking back, he found another simple solution to this problem - he just stopped caring. His grades plummeted to the ground, but he still didn't care. All he wanted in his life was to be with his friends and play videogames. When he was 16, he got a bit hooked on anime (which is a natural progression from being a gamer, really) and became fascinated with swordfights. He wanted to train in kendo to master the sword himself, but training proved too tiring for him (he hadn't trained anything in a physical fashion in years, after all) and he quit shortly afterwards. Shortly before his 18th birthday, another idea went into his mind - he'd enjoyed videogames all his life, so why wouldn't he be able to make some, too? He now had a goal in his mind - to become a game designer after graduation.

Advantages: Chris has very good logic and problem solving skills developed because of his naturally high intelligence and many years of borderline obsessive gaming. His swimming skills is excellent and swimming (while undesirable for him) is no problem at all, as is saving someone from drowning. He also has very basic marksmanship skill with a rifle (though he's played enough videogames to know how to hold a gun properly as well) and basic kendo skills he developed through training.
Disadvantages: Chris' biggest disadvantage is his extremely poor physical condition - all physical activities other than swimming are a chore for him. His "I won't tolerate you if you don't tolerate me" personality is also a very big drawback for him that has (and will) get him into trouble often.