David Anderson

[Skraal]

Name: David Isaac Anderson
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Cross-Country Running, Video Games, Video Games Club, Bicycle Riding, Anime Club, Films

Appearance: At 5'10" and 135 pounds, David is of an average build for his age. He's Caucasian, with short brown hair and a pale complexion, spotted with the occasional patch of acne. He has an ovular face, with a large nose and pale blue eyes. His ears stick out from his head slightly, which he was quite embarrassed about when he was younger.  He has a very unkempt appearance, with constantly messy hair, and several days' worth of stubble, due to his constant forgetting to shave. His hair reaches about halfway down his forehead and is cut extremely short in the back. He always has dark circles around his eyes due to severe insomnia.

He pays little attention to the clothes that he wears, usually wearing plain shirts and jeans. He wears long-sleeved shirts in all kinds of weather to hide the cuts and scars on his arms. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and a pair of faded jeans.

Biography: David Anderson was born on April 26, 1994, as the only child of Brian and Sophia Anderson, in Columbus, Ohio. His early childhood passed fairly uneventfully. His parents used to invite his older cousin Sam over to play with him, but, unbeknownst to them, Sam took pleasure in teasing and pulling pranks on David. David tried to ignore these, as he looked up to his older cousin and he liked the jokes that were not aimed at him. However, these play dates came to an end after a particularly traumatic incident when David was six years old and Sam went too far and locked David in a closet, throwing away the key. His parents were finally able to get him out with the help of a locksmith, but David had nightmares of that incident for many months afterward. David barely remembers the incident itself, but as a result of it he is still very uneasy inside cramped or dark places. He developed a habit of insisting to take the stairs in every building that he visits, due to the anxiety caused by being in an elevator. He also tends to avoid car rides, due to the small size of the interiors of most cars. He prefers to ride his bicycle wherever he needs to go, even though it usually takes him longer to get there. He doesn't hold much of a grudge towards Sam, but still prefers to avoid him at family gatherings. He has had an otherwise good relationship with the rest of his family, and although he has become a little distant from his parents recently, he still cares for them very much.

In school, he had quite a few friends and did very well in terms of grades. As he reached high school, he joined the school cross-country team and put in a decent performance. Never one for team sports, he enjoyed the freedom that cross-country running provided. He was very competitive, but he didn't want to deal with the stress of training with a team. Although his grades dropped a bit due to the increased volume of schoolwork in high school, he managed to deal with it, for the most part.

However, everything changed when his father, a sales manager at a small company received a promotion within his company, requiring him to oversee the new Seattle division of the company. This requires his whole family to move to Seattle.  They arrived in Seattle in David's junior year of high school. It was very hard for David to adjust to this massive change in his life. He had trouble making close friends at Aurora, and he rarely communicated with his friends from back home, with them being busy with their other friends and schoolwork. His grades began to fall dramatically due to inability to cope with this sudden influx of stress, which he has tried to hide from his parents. After their move, David's mother was unable to find a job, resulting in much financial stress for their family. This situation was very hard on his mother, who also had few friends in this new town. His parents began to argue about how the family's money was spent, as well as other issues. The general attitude of stress that permeated the household caused the members of the Anderson family to become irritable, with slight disagreements turning to full arguments. Although in the past David enjoyed a rather close relationship with his parents, their constant bickering has caused him to try to avoid them much of the time. Although he still has a positive opinion of them, he tries to not get involved with their personal issues, and hopes that they will not become involved with his.

David had a very hard time adjusting to life at his new school. Although he put in an attempt to make new friends, he didn't interact much with them outside school. He spoke with them a few times through email, but he rarely made plans with them to meet physically. Since his friends back home were often too busy to make plans with him, he rationalized that his friends at Aurora were also too busy to meet up on a regular basis.

In terms of classes, David's grades are slightly above average at best, and awful at worst. Although he does fairly well in English Literature, due to his extensive reading, he puts out a usually bad performance in most other classes. He procrastinates a lot on his assignments, and when he does do them, he rushes them and spends little time editing them. This usually creates a sub-par final product, keeping his grades at a C average at best. He has managed to hide this from his parents for the time being, but he is dreading the end of the year, when his report card will be sent home to his parents. He has few plans for the future, and has not put much though into college or a future career. He has a very pessimistic outlook on life, and he often inwardly questions whether he has any reason to live.

With nowhere else to turn, David turned to cutting himself as a means of coping with this stress. Although he knew that it was bad for him, he couldn't help but do it. The cutting brought a relief from the stress as well as from the occasional thoughts of suicide that would enter his mind from time to time. David has kept this hidden from his parents because he doesn't want to cause them any more trouble than that which they already have to deal with. He has considered getting help for it multiple times, changing his mind each time, due to his fear of his parents finding out about his habit. He has made several appointments with Aurora's guidance counselors, but cancelled each one before meeting with them.

He does have a few friends at Aurora, however, but he has mostly hidden his problems from them. While with them, he prefers to discuss their mutual hobbies, rather than about personal matters. At the request of his parents, he has joined the school cross-country team, as well as a few other school clubs. Thus has helped his mental state, allowing him to make a few friends Aurora. He generally gets along well with others, but he has few friends due to his depression-induced pessimism regarding relationships.

The majority of his interests revolve around fiction. He likes to immerse himself in fictional worlds, which he finds much more interesting than his everyday life. The escapism provided by these stories allows him to forget about his problems, at least for a little while. Ever since he was a little child, he had loved stories. Although he used to read a lot when he was younger, he often has trouble finding the time to do so in high school. He has found that it takes less time for him to watch a film than to read a book, so he prefers to watch films rather than read. He spends a lot of his time of video games, particularly RPGs. Although the story isn't always as deep as in a book or a film, he enjoys the limited capability that he has to affect the outcome of the story.  He was introduced to anime by a few friends at Aurora. Although he prefers Western media to anime, he enjoys the exotic feel given off due to the distance of the culture in which the shows were made from his own. He is a big fan of several series, notably Neon Genesis Evangelion and .hack//SIGN due to their psycholgical examination of human interaction, particularly the paradox of humans craving closeness with others, but distancing themselves from others at the same time in order to avoid rejection or betrayal.  In his free time, he prefers to isolate himself, in order to not be distracted from his hobbies. Although he wishes that he could have more friends at Aurora, his fear of rejection has kept him from being more proactive in making friends.

Advantages: David is relatively fit due to his experience in cross-country running and bicycle riding. He is fairly competitive, which could aid him on the island. Despite his other personal problems, David is not in any way antisocial, which could help him make allies on the island. He is also fairly intelligent and is quite good at problem solving, when not hindered by a major depressive episode.
Disadvantages: David is quite claustrophobic, which could cause problems in certain circumstances on the island. In addition to this, his tendencies toward self harm could only provide a hindrance to his survival, especially in the absence of proper medical supplies in order to treat possible infections. His thoughts of suicide could become an extreme danger to him on the island.