Declan Jones

[jimmydalad]

Name: Declan Jones
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Soccer, Fitness, Jogging, Baking, and Board Games

Appearance: Standing at 5’10” and weighing 170 pounds, Declan has a muscular frame with little fat. He is broad-shouldered and has a healthy, upright posture from his workout routines. Declan is Caucasian, but his skin is slightly tanned due to the amount of time he spends outside. His body is mostly unblemished apart from the remnants of skid marks on his knees from soccer and leftovers of calloused hands from working out. Declan has a long, oval-shaped face with a straight nose, light blue eyes, and heart-shaped lips. He likes growing his straight, dirty blond hair long and usually ties it up in a ponytail with simple, monocoloured hair ties depending on what he is wearing.

Declan’s favorite item of clothing are tank tops. While he sometimes has brushes with Ms. Golden due to thickness of their straps, he always wears them to school but carries around a t-shirt or polo top in his bag just in case the teachers have a big issue with it. He usually pairs this with gym shorts or khaki trousers depending on the weather and his favorite pair of worn-out trainers. If the weather is particularly cold, he will bring out a hoodie. Declan tends to shy away from accessories apart from a baseball cap that he wears when he is not at school.

When he was abducted, Declan was wearing a light-blue tank top with a zip-up grey hoodie, khaki trousers and his usual, worn down black trainers.

Biography: Declan was born on August 27th, 2003 in Salem, Massachusetts. His father, Harrison Jones, worked as a personal trainer while his mother, Tina Jones, ran Pilates classes in the local gym. Owing to their jobs and somewhat unreliable income, his parents decided to only have one child but resolved to give their child as much as parents would give five. From the moment of his birth, Declan was doted upon by his two parents and their flexible work schedules let them spend a large amount of time together as he was growing up.

Declan rarely spent time away with his parents during his early childhood. When one would be working, another would ensure their schedule would be free. His parents stressed to him the importance of family being there for each other and to give kindness out to the world whenever possible. Harrison and Tina would go through great efforts to give their best selves to Declan, hiding any conflicts they had with each other behind closed doors in fear that it would hurt him if he saw his parents angry at each other. As such, Declan was surrounded by happiness in his early years, oblivious to any problems his parents may be facing.

As soon as Declan could walk, his parents encouraged him towards physical activity and sports as hobbies. In particular, his father was a big fan of soccer and would take him to the park to kick the soccer ball around. Being an energetic kid, he took to these activities like a moth to a flame. Even as he grew older, Declan would often spend time with his family doing physical activities at the Salem Willows, in particular soccer and throwing frisbees. These excursions would end up being some of Declan’s favorite memories of his early childhood and while the excursions have been less frequent during his time at John Endecott Memorial Academy, especially during the lockdown, he still tries to get his parents to go out again from time to time.

School was the first time Declan would spend any significant amount of time away from both his parents. The first day was a struggle for him and he clung to his mother’s leg and cried as she tried to drop him off. His mother was able to eventually convince him to let her go but it took Declan longer to feel comfortable in the school environment. He kept to himself for the first few weeks, and it would take significant effort to get him to talk, let alone open up to others. He was scared about being alone and in an unfamiliar environment and would rush to his parents as soon as he saw one of them pick him up from school. It took the entire first term for Declan to slowly grow comfortable with spending time at school and finding things he could enjoy about it.

P.E. was easily Declan’s best subject. His active lifestyle and ability to transfer his knowledge of one sport to another lead him to be one of the best in his year. Soccer was easily his best sport, but he was generally good at any activity that was introduced to him after taking time to learn the rules. Declan was not as proficient in his other subjects. Math was a subject that Declan had little issues with, and science was harder for him, but he still achieved above-average grades. He was completely lost when it came to any foreign language and his lack of interest in books and exploring meanings in texts led his grades to drop below average. The lessons were not the reason he became comfortable with school, however.

The main reason he started to gain an appreciation for school was recess. Towards the end of the first term, Declan took part in the physical games that the other kids would play such as Tag. Through these games, he started to become more comfortable talking to his classmates and having fun with them. He started to shed his initial shyness and his friendly personality alongside his proficiency in active games caused him to become popular within his year group. Taking the lessons from his parents, he would always try to bring happiness to his friends and do his best to cheer them up. The main stumbling block Declan had and still struggles with is dealing with conflict. Anytime voices were raised in his vicinity, his brain would freeze and either he tried to calm the person down without addressing the issue or just run away and take himself out of the situation.

This issue only exacerbated when Declan came in contact with his grandparents. Neither side of the family were particularly happy or impressed with his parents’ choice of vocation. Even before Declan was born, both sides of the family put pressure to change jobs to have a more secure source of income. This pressure only intensified when Declan was brought into the world and for the most part, his parents were successful in keeping this drama away from Declan. During a Thanksgiving dinner after his first year at school, his grandparents on both sides of the family made comments saying that he would be able to go to a better school and do better in his studies if his parents did not stubbornly stick to their jobs and got careers that they considered responsible. Both of his parents lost their cool and raised their voices, insulted by their comments and finally having enough of their attitudes. The night developed into a screaming match that caused Declan to cry for the rest of the night. After that dinner, Harrison and Tina cut themselves off from their relatives and were extra protective of Declan for a few months, ensuring he was ok and promised that nothing like that would ever happen again.

From that moment on, conflict in the Jones household was always uncomfortable and avoided when possible. His grandparents became a taboo topic that was quickly dismissed if it was brought up. For Declan, he became scared of conflict and what it brought out in people. He developed habits like holding back any objections he had to avoid the potential pushback he would get for it and saying things he thinks the other person would hear rather than his true opinions. This affected his social life as he would just watch bullies and sometimes even join in if enough social pressure were put on him. He also came across to some people as fake and struggled to articulate his true feelings when put on the spot, especially when he worried that his opinions would be disproved by others. Declan struggled to tell just how authentic his parents’ feelings are towards his actions and is too afraid to bring up these issues to them. Seeing the conflict with his grandparents seemingly come out of nowhere, he developed a fear that he would do something wrong without realising and became paranoid that his parents were pretending things were ok as to keep to the promise. While his relationship is still strong and they express affection to each other frequently, Declan still has doubts about his standing with his parents and pushes himself to ensure that they would be happy.

As Declan moved into middle school, his mother would introduce her enjoyment of baking to him. His family tended towards healthier diets with only the occasional outing to Slice Slice Baby as a treat. One of the only treats that Declan would be allowed on a frequent basis would be his mother’s baked treats. Tina would encourage Declan to sit with her and watch baking shows together to get ideas for recipes. Soon, she had let him join her in the kitchen and have him help her with measuring ingredients and mixing them together. He cherished this time together with her and baking ended up working its way into something they did at least twice every month. His mother would let him take leftover treats to school, which endeared him to his friends even more. Declan would start baking on his own when he was in high school, and it became a therapeutic activity for him to deal with stress. Recently, he has been trying out gluten-free and vegan recipes to accommodate those with allergies, but generally prefers regular recipes.

Declan eventually made it to high school and transferred into John Endecott Memorial Academy. Though disappointed about the lack of attention athletics received in comparison to other fields, he was still excited to join the school’s soccer team. Even if they were not competitive, he played the sport more so for fun rather than being competitive. He quickly became one of the better players on the team, but never really pushed himself to get better. He does his best to match the energy of his teammates and works to be the glue that keeps the team together, organising hangouts outside of school and promoting camaraderie between the members.

Seeing the school clubs as a new opportunity to explore, Declan ended up joining the Board Games Club. His experience with games up to that point was Monopoly and Clue, which he generally had a good time with. The club opened up a whole new world to Declan and he quickly recognised how varied board games were and how they could bring people together. It was also a way for him to explore conflict in a non-threatening scenario and the comfort that it is all a game at the end of the day allowed him to let out his competitive side. His favourite board games include Settlers of Catan, Machi Koro and Pandemic. Declan has slowly been introducing board games to his parents, but they struggle with the rules more often than not and so he normally plays with other people in the Board Games Club.

When Declan was 14, his father introduced him to the gym he and his mother worked at. While they had a small home gym set up that they used together, it could not compare to the number of machines that the gym had. His father would spend weekends teaching Declan about all the equipment, how they worked, what muscles were being worked and how to use the machines safely. These sessions were how Declan and Harrison bonded when he was a teenager. His body began to reflect the weekly workouts he would do. Working out and staying fit became another way for him to vent his feelings, using them to push himself to lift more weights or go for longer on the treadmill. When he was 16, he was given a gym membership by his father for his birthday and the gym has become a regular haunt for him to this day.

Declan’s attractiveness and fit body led him to have a few relationships with girls from the Academy. While he is comfortably straight, he has struggles navigating relationships and opening up to his partners. Relationships with him generally follow the pattern of him keeping quiet about himself but going out of his way to please his partner, pushing away conflicts that arise and having a hard time demonstrating that he trusts his partner. The relationship either fizzles out from a lack of meaningful communication or frustration on the partner’s part causing a blow-up. He is currently single and not looking for a relationship.

The lockdown had a significant impact on the Jones household. Before the lockdown, Declan usually had the house to himself coming home from school with his parents being busy with their classes. Being confined to their home, Declan started having much less time to himself and more time in his room as his parents needed the living room to conduct remote lessons, which was their only source of income. As he was not used to spending this much time with his parents, Declan became stressed by having to share the space. He also lost one of his main stress sinks with gyms being closed. The early days of lockdown were rough for him and led to his bottled frustration at the lockdown and lack of freedom exploding out at one dinner. Mortified at first, he ran to his room and locked himself in his room. His parents eventually knocked on the door and apologised if they were making him uncomfortable. Surprised at their response, Declan broke down and let out all his feelings. This led to them having a heart to heart and discussing communication and conflict, something his parents still struggled with. While it did not solve the problems overnight, Declan started to grow more comfortable voicing his own opinions with his family, especially when he was feeling stressed or uncomfortable.

After that night, his father recommended Declan take up jogging as a new outlet for physical activity while lockdown was still in effect. While it was not to the same degree as working out in the gym, Declan enjoyed feeling the sweat on his body and music in his ears while exercising. He recognised it was something that he was sorely missing and quickly incorporated jogging into his daily schedule. Though he mostly works out at the gym now that they have reopened, Declan does occasionally jog when he still wants to exercise but does not want to travel to the gym to do so.

Later into the lockdown, his father asked if Declan wanted to help him out with his remote workout lessons as a demonstrator. Not having much else to do, Declan agreed and while nervous to begin with, the encouragement from his father and his clients helped him gain confidence in demonstrating the workouts and explaining what parts of the body they were affecting. These lessons ended up being highlights of the lockdown for him, as they helped him distract from the events happening in the world. He also enjoyed the act of teaching and helping others gain confidence in being fit, even when they struggled with the workouts. He has made these feelings clear to his father and once he graduates, Declan plans to apprentice under his father so that he can become a personal trainer.

Declan has a near non-existent relationship with his extended family. The lockdown pretty much forced his grandparents back into his life as they called for the first time since that Thanksgiving. Monthly family calls were made to ensure that everyone was ok, but each call was intensely uncomfortable for him. The core issue of the Thanksgiving argument was never resolved, which lead to an undercurrent of tension and judgment in every call that happened. When the issue of job security would come up, his parents would immediately threaten to end the call. Declan found it hard to come up with conversation topics and could feel the scrutiny of his grandparents from both sides. Each call felt like teeth being pulled and when the lockdown was lifted, Declan was relieved to find out the calls would end.

Overall, Declan has a mostly positive reputation at John Endecott Memorial Academy. He does his best to be kind to others and his propensity towards bringing baked goods has helped him gain a good number of friends. He does have his detractors from his inability to deal with conflict, his passive nature in the context of bullies and his people-pleasing nature coming across as fake. Declan does his best to be liked by everyone and is immensely uncomfortable when dealing with people who dislike him. Declan’s inability to open up to most people can cause others to feel distant from him, but he is slowly getting better at being honest about his feelings with his closest friends, the few that were able to weather his brown-nosing tendencies.

Advantages: Declan’s affable nature and popularity would endear him to his classmates and would allow him to more easily secure alliances or take people by surprise should he go on the offensive. His healthy lifestyle would give him a physical advantage over the others and would let him travel further distances without suffering from exhaustion.
Disadvantages: Declan’s conflict-averse nature would cause him significant mental harm due to the nature of the game and would reduce the options he would take to survive. His tendency to please people could come across as duplicitous, which would affect his interactions with others and their trust in him.

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Hey there jimmy! Declan is temporarily DENIED, but he looks quite good and mostly just needs some grammar fixes and a few other edits.

With a birthday in mid-October, Declan would be 17 at the start of pregame (though he would be 18 at the time of the abduction, if he is submitted during final apps).

What exactly causes Declan to doubt his parents' feelings about his actions? He doesn't seem to do anything objectionable, and they're said to still have a strong and loving relationship. Is it just his fears about hidden conflict boiling over?

Has the lack of contact between Declan's immediate family and the grandparents on both sides continued completely to this day? Has anyone ever tried to make amends, for Declan's sake or otherwise?

How were Declan's parents conducting their jobs in a manner that left him home alone more during quarantine? At this time, people teaching classes, including personal trainers, would have been doing more remote work from their homes rather than going out to in-person classes. Later it's stated that his dad was indeed instructing classes from home, so I'm confused as to what the first part of this paragraph means.

Spelling/grammar things:

This is really minor, but please add a comma between baking and board games in the hobbies list. Not only do we love and support the Oxford comma in this household, but since it is a list, the lack of comma makes it look like "baking and board games" is a singular hobby instead of two separate ones.

P.E was easily Declan’s best subject.

You either need a second period at the end of PE or can remove the first one entirely; either way is correct, it just has to be consistent. The names of other school subjects, such as "science", don't need to be capitalized unless it is the name of a language.

Anytime voices were raised in his vicinity, his brain would freeze and either tries to calm the person down without addressing the issue or just run away and take himself out of the situation.

Mixing tenses in this sentence, and you're missing a word; it would be "either he tried".

During a Thanksgiving dinner after his first year at school,

He also came across to some people as fake and struggles to articulate his true feelings when put on the spot, especially when he worries that his opinions would be disproved by others.

Mixing tenses again here.

His favourite board games include Settlers of Catan, Machi Koro and Pandemic.

When Declan was 14, his father introduced him to the gym he and his mother worked at.

His body began to reflect the weekly workouts he would do, and his body started to become increasingly muscular.

This is redundant; just one of these statements would be fine.

Declan’s attractiveness and fit body led him to having 1-2 relationships with girls from the Academy.

This is phrased weirdly. The range of numbers implies some uncertainty about the number of relationships, and the following paragraphs makes it sound like there are established patterns in Declan's dating life, which would be less the case if he's only been with one or two people.

That should be it, so post in here when you've made those edits, and I'll give Declan another go!

[jimmydalad]

I believe all the necessary edits have been made.

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