M10 - RAEBURN, VIRGIL

#1

Name: Virgil Raeburn
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Saint Editha Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Classic literature, sketching, mythology, writing, people watching

Appearance: Virgil is 5'8” and weighPos 120 pounds. He is underweight with a skinny, angular body. Virgil is Caucasian with pale skin. He has a heart-shaped face with a pointed nose and a small mouth. He has large, pale blue eyes, and he has thin eyebrows. Virgil's black hair falls down to his mid-neck; he neglects to adequately maintain it, so it has a greasy and unkempt appearance. Virgil rarely shaves, but his facial hair remains at a wispy stubble.

Virgil doesn't put much effort into how he dresses himself. His clothes are generally plain, ill-fitting, and poorly maintained. In school, he wears the standard uniform. He has, on occasion, gotten warnings for coming into school with parts of his uniform unclean or damaged. On the day of the abduction, Virgil's uniform was in good condition, if a bit wrinkled.

Virgil tends to slouch, making him appear smaller than he is. He moves quietly and speaks softly, so he generally blends into the background. His default facial expression looks dazed or vacant to most, but that assessment contrasts with how he seems to always be paying close attention to his surroundings, his eyes constantly darting between the people and points of interest around him.

Biography: Virgil was the only child born in London to Geoffrey and Isla Raeburn. Geoffrey was a professor of classical Studies at King's College London, while Isla was a former ballet dancer who had become a teacher at a prestigious ballet school for girls; the two met when they were set up by mutual acquaintances. The couple was close at first, but shortly after their son was born they began to drift apart. The two were frequently busy with their work and absorbed in their artistic passions, and as time went on they became increasingly focused on their own pursuits rather than spending time with their family. Young Virgil was mainly looked after by babysitters and family friends, and he never formed a close attachment with either of his parents.

Virgil was a withdrawn child, speaking little and putting no effort into making friends with other children. He didn't do particularly well, frequently getting in trouble for not listening during class and doodling in his notebooks. However, he excelled in English: from the start of primary school he was reading and writing at an above-average level. He also enjoyed drawing, though his art teachers found him difficult to handle; he wouldn't put any effort into art assignments that didn't interest him. He spent his free time alone, engaging in his interests. He quickly went through books, preferring fantasy and fairy tales, and he enjoyed drawing characters and creatures from his books. His parents encouraged these pursuits, happy that Virgil was taking an interests in the arts and that he didn't demand any attention from them.

Geoffrey and Isla's marriage finally fell apart when Virgil was ten. Geoffrey had been seeing another woman behind his wife's back. The two divorced, Isla gaining full custody of their son without much dispute. A few months later, Isla, claiming to be sick of London, found another teaching position in a city close to her hometown of Bellington. Virgil and his mother moved to Bellington, and Virgil adapted well to the whole situation, accepting the changes in his life and living mostly the same as he always had. Virgil found that he enjoyed the quiet of Bellington more than big city life, and he hardly missed his father, who had never been very present in his life.

On Virgil's eleventh birthday, he received a book about Greek mythology from his father. Virgil was fascinated by the grand and often bizarre stories of gods and heroes, and he began to look into the myths of many different cultures. In his teenage years, Virgil's literary interests shifted away from modern fantasy and more towards classic poems such as The Odyssey, Beowulf, and Metamorphoses. He considered these heroic epics to be more beautiful and meaningful than anything else he had read. Virgil eventually tried his hand at writing his own narrative poetry, but he found it difficult to write something that lived up to his own standards. Most of Virgil's poems remain unfinished, and he would never show them to anyone else. Even though Virgil comes to dislike everything he writes, he still tries from time to time to write something he considers good.

In his attempts to find inspiration for his writing and distract himself from his boredom at school, Virgil began to take more of an interest in the people around him. While he still rarely talked to anyone, he began to listen more to his classmates' conversations and watch their expressions and body language during class. When he was out in public, too, Virgil would watch strangers and try to imagine their life stories and motives based on what he could observe. Virgil's sketching hobby evolved with his interest in watching others. He would sketch people from memory, attempting to capture their essence in his drawings. Virgil would come to fill many sketchbooks with pictures of classmates, neighbors, and strangers. Virgil is less critical of his drawing than of his writing, because he considers drawing to be a practice purely for his own benefit rather than being a serious artistic pursuit. Virgil believes that he learns something valuable from watching and sketching others, and that what he learns may help him in his writing.

In school, Virgil only speaks when spoken to. He has no friends and has no interest in making any friends; his fascination with other people is restricted only to watching them from afar. Most of his peer barely notice him. Some of Virgil's more observant classmates, who every so often might catch him watching them or eavesdropping on their conversations, find him unsettling. Anyone who attempts to engage in conversation Virgil is met with short responses and apathy. Even people who have insulted him haven't been able to get much of a response.

The only person who Virgil has regular, lasting contact with is his mother. Their relationship is as distant as ever: Isla focuses most of her attention on her work. She considers Virgil to be a strange teenager, but she is fine with what he does as long as he doesn't make trouble for her. Virgil talks with his father every few weeks, their conversations mainly limited to discussing literature. Virgil holds no ill-will towards his parents and even considers their treatment of him to be understandable. In his eyes, they're both too focused on their lives' main pursuits to have room for anything else; he considers himself to be on a similar path.

Virgil has average grades. He's uninterested in most subjects and only puts in the minimum amount of effort to get through school without problems. He consistently performs well in English, and he intends to major in English in university. His long term goal is only to continue his attempts at writing into adulthood. He doesn't think that he's ever likely to make a living off of his writing or drawing, but he doesn't worry about his future. Virgil figures he'll be able to find some job out of college that will get him enough money to survive and give him enough free time to focus on his artistic pursuits.

Advantages: Virgil is observant, and he knows how to move without attracting attention. He is adaptable; being able to remain calm in uncertain and stressful situations.
Disadvantages: Virgil hasn't made any strong bonds with his classmates, and some of them find him unsettling. He has little experience interacting with others. He's also scrawny and nonathletic.

Designated Number: Male Student #10

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Designated Weapon: Portable stove
Conclusion: Sadly for Virgil here, his stove is the only gas he's going to be cooking with, and there's only so many places a guy can hide.