G015 - Sargent, Juliette [DECEASED]

[MK Kilmarnock]

DECEASED

Name: Juliette Sargent
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies & Interests: Student council, politics, academics, reading, classical music

Appearance: Juliette Sargent is a girl of about average height and weight, standing 5'4" and weighing 130 lbs. She is Caucasian and has a somewhat pale complexion, often highlighted with understated makeup. Her build is fairly normal; she's not horribly unfit, but is also no athlete. Juliette's face is round, and her dark brown eyes are wide. Her nose is a little bit long, and has a slight bump in the middle, which Juliette hates. Her lips are thin. She plucks her eyebrows carefully, keeping them narrow and shaped, and takes meticulous care of her straight, auburn hair; she most often wears it in a high ponytail reaching the base of her neck. Her ears are pierced once apiece in the lobes, and she tends to wear thin gold hoop earrings or simple studs. She keeps her nails slightly long and painted, typically in pale colors.

Juliette dresses conservatively without edging too far into uncommon formality; she prefers skirts over pants and favors long-sleeved blouses. She has a wide range of footwear, from flats to tennis shoes to heels to sandals, and also accessorizes with jewelry and handbags. On the day of the abduction, Juliette was wearing a simple white long-sleeved blouse, a grey pencil skirt reaching just below her knees, a fairly plain silver necklace, silver stud earrings, and black shoes with a slight heel to them. She paired this with a grey and black pleather handbag.

Biography: Juliette was born on November 29, 1999. Her parents, Darrel and Amelia Sargent, were comfortably in Chattanooga's middle class, with Darrel working an office job and Amelia serving as a secretary, though she resigned from this position after Amelia's birth and spent the next five years as a stay-at-home mom. Both sets of grandparents also lived in Chattanooga at this period, and frequently visited to lend a hand.

Juliette was a happy and well-adjusted child, bright and social and energetic, and entered kindergarten with much success. She made friends easily and breezed through her assignments, winning praise from her parents and teachers. She'd frequently spend time at friends' houses, and though she was a member of the popular group, she was never unkind to those outside her circle; her parents had instilled in her a strong sense of right and wrong, and emphasized the importance of self control.

Things changed in the middle of Juliette's third grade year. Darrel learned, through innocent conversations with the neighbors, that Amelia had been having a man over while alone, and further investigation resulted in the revelation of an involved affair that had at this point lasted over a year. Amelia claimed that she'd felt lost with Juliette in school so much, and had turned to infidelity to fill the void. While this did not convince Darrel to stay with her, it did make its way to Juliette, who internalized herself as the cause of her parents' split. As the divorce progressed, Juliette became withdrawn, temperamental, and prone to meanness at school, her grades plummeting all the while.

This sudden change in Juliette drew the attention of school staff, and a number of conferences were called. When the dust had settled, nine months after the discovery of Amelia's cheating, the couple was no longer speaking to each other unless mandated. Amelia maintained primary custody of Juliette, with Darrel entitled to her on weekends; Darrel, however, moved out of state to pursue a promotion within six months, and would visit Juliette once or twice a year thereafter, though he has always kept in good contact with her through phone calls multiple times a week. Juliette was in therapy, learning to seek healthier outlets for her emotions and receiving reassurance that she was not to blame for the dissolution of her parents' marriage.

While Juliette eventually came to accept that she had not been at fault, this was not the positive experience that might have been expected. Juliette came to understand that she'd held little power to affect the outcome of the relationship at any stage, and this lack of agency terrified her—better, she thought, to have made a mistake she could fix than to have been swept along helplessly by forces entirely outside her control. With the help of her therapist, Juliette came to understand how important choice and agency were to her, and used this knowledge to help turn things around at school. Not doing her work was a choice, and her declining grades were the consequence of that choice. Lashing out at others was also a choice.

By the time Juliette entered middle school, she had pulled herself together to some extent. Her grades were back up, she was back in the good graces of most of her friends, and her home life had stabilized. Amelia was wracked with guilt over Juliette's troubles and her own infidelity, and she took special care to pay attention to Juliette's emotional needs; she similarly ensured that Juliette always had access to her father and paternal grandparents. At the same time, she did not hold any positive feelings towards Darrel, who she viewed as having been excessively punishing and whose distance and nearly-obsessive focus on work she blamed as one of the primary reasons for her affair. Amelia's relationship with Juliette was positive for the most part, but Juliette always held a little resentment for her mother, who she now blamed for tearing their family apart.

Juliette became a voracious reader during middle school, a trait she maintains to this day. This was partially to help with her academics (Juliette learns best by reading, and is scrupulous with her textbooks even when she pays attention and takes notes throughout a lesson) and partially out of enjoyment for the escape offered by fiction, an escape which she can approach on her own terms and can abandon at any point if it makes her uncomfortable. Juliette prefers literary fiction, as she has an easier time relating to it than more fantastical stories.

During middle school, Juliette's mother dated a number of men, something that was somewhat hard on Juliette due to the absence of her father. Juliette reacted to her mother's boyfriends with some measure of belligerence, but finally a man named Charles Marin breached her defenses and befriended her, marrying Amelia shortly before Juliette's eighth grade graduation. Charles had two children of his own from a previous marriage, a son a year older than Juliette named Greg and a daughter three years younger than Juliette named Kylie. While Greg and Kylie spent most of their time with their mother, they crossed paths with Juliette enough for her to get to know them fairly well; while she and Greg were more or less indifferent towards each other, she became something of a mentor figure to Kylie, helping her stepsister with school projects and providing advice about life issues and social situations.

This remarriage improved the financial situation of Juliette's family dramatically, as Charles was well-paid engineer and Amelia had otherwise been subsisting on her own moderate salary, child support from Darrel, and occasional assistance from her parents. This opened up new opportunities for Juliette, who began to take much better care of her appearance. Charles was a huge fan of classical music, and while Juliette had enjoyed it in her brushes with it in the past, she threw herself at it as an opportunity to bond with her stepfather. This worked out well; Amelia had little interest in it, so sometimes Charles would take Juliette with him to symphonies. Juliette enjoys the combination of passion and formality represented by classical music, as well as the spirit of cooperation required to perform pieces.

Upon starting at George Hunter High School, Juliette stumbled into Student Council, at first from curiosity, but soon because she found it to be a fascinating look into aspects of the school invisible to many students. While the power of the council is somewhat limited, it still dictates things like dance themes and school policies, and Juliette found herself passionate about these subjects. Juliette's passion, however, is more for being involved in the discussions and the decision-making process; she's very open to compromise and deal-making, so long as she has a say in the final decision.

This interest in Student Council has brought with it a fascination in politics on a larger scale, and Juliette has become highly interested in the political situation of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the United States as a whole. Indeed, she has found some measure of purpose and long-term goal in this, hoping to one day win office. To this end, she decided to run for Senior Class President, and actively campaigned until the elections (though was careful not to be too aggressive; she knows that a successful politician needs to be visible to their constituency without alienating them). While Juliette ultimately lost the election, she was pleased with her showing, coming in second behind a student with Down Syndrome whose victory she viewed as the result of a sympathy vote rather than any comment on her platform or performance.

Juliette is an academic high-achiever; on the rare occasion her grade in a class drops below an A, even in the short term, she frets terribly. She's best at classes that let her express herself in words, with English her overall favorite, though she does not struggle too much even with math and science classes, so long as she's given sufficient time to pour over her textbooks. Juliette especially hates gym class, and stalled on her mandatory gym credits until senior year; she feels like she's bad at it and finds participation undignified but puts forth some effort anyways for the sake of her GPA.

One night in the summer of Juliette's junior year, Charles came home from work drunk and admitted to a one-time fling with a coworker. Amelia flew into a rage and threw him out of the house, and the pair has been separated since, though not divorced; there have been periodic moments of warming and seeming reconciliation, but these have not been lasting. This state of affairs is incredibly hard on Juliette, bringing back a lot of the trauma she considered herself past from her parents' divorce. With her greater age and maturity, Juliette has managed to keep hold of herself and avoid any relapses into negative behavior: her grades are great, her social life is strong, and she's found general success in her hobbies. At the same time, her stress has been mounting and she's had a number of private breakdowns. Juliette has not yet returned to therapy, but has been considering broaching the subject. She's stymied in this in part by a personal sense of pride (she views herself as more mature and beyond the need for assistance) and in part due to a complicated situation with those who would need to pay for such an undertaking.

Juliette's relationships with her mother and stepfather have been rocky since Charles' admission. Juliette swings between hating Charles and feeling deeply betrayed by him and desperately wanting him back in her life on a more permanent basis. She still sees him fairly often, even when Amelia isn't speaking to him, but there's an awkwardness and distance between them now that only dissipates in any notable way when they're listening to music. Juliette is mostly on her mother's side in the whole situation, but thinks her mother is being unreasonable about everything—after all, Amelia conducted a far more extensive affair, so why should one drunken mistake destroy the happiness they'd finally rebuilt? Juliette also hates that her mother will temporarily seem to be restoring normalcy with Charles only to then decide things are moving too fast or that she's not over the infidelity after all; this unstable nature takes a toll on Juliette and makes her feel helpless, something she counteracts by maintaining relations with Charles independent of his situation with her mother. Juliette has little to do with Greg, but still acts as a mentor to Kylie, who started at George Hunter this year. Juliette has gone way out of her way to minimize the disruption of her relationship with her stepsister, who she views as the one stable element of her family situation and who she wants to shield as much as she can from the fallout.

Probably the most unambiguously positive parental relationship Juliette has is with Darrel. While he now lives in New York City, he still calls Juliette regularly and is always willing to hear her out and support her. Juliette is planning to stay with him for the second half of the summer following her graduation. She applied to a number of universities both in Tennessee and in New York, mulling the possibility of living closer to her father, and ultimately was accepted at and confirmed intent to attend New York University, a prestigious private university based in New York City, with a declared major in politics. While she will have to take out some loans to finance her education, her family have agreed to assist as best they are able, and Juliette has won several small scholarships. Ultimately, she hopes to kick off a professional career by working directly with the government, either at a more local level or, ideally, by serving as a congressional staffer in Washington, DC.

Around school, Juliette is well-liked and enjoys a good reputation. She's smart and talkative, but also makes an active effort to be helpful to others and to cheer up those in need, as she views these actions as important to the type of person she likes to present herself as and as good habits to cultivate for her future ambitions. She can get pretty competitive if directly challenged in any capacity where both sides can't win, but aside from this is pretty relaxed. Her friends are scattered throughout social groups, though she naturally skews a little more towards the popular/mainstream crowd. Juliette has a particular affection for other members of the Student Council, even those she sometimes clashes with, viewing them as the other students committed enough to delve behind the veil.

Juliette has dated a number of boys with varying degrees of seriousness, though has some fairly major anxieties and hang-ups regarding relationships due to her parents' situation. She also realized during middle school that she's bisexual, but has not shared this with anyone or explored it in any material way. While Juliette's own parental figures are all largely apolitical and she suspects they would be accepting, she's concerned about the reactions of others in her community and is also concerned about the potential implications for her ambitions. As such, while she's not totally happy about it, she's more or less content to present herself as straight. She also keeps her troubled family situation largely under wraps, seeking always to portray herself in the best possible light.

Advantages: Juliette is popular among her class and able to navigate social situations with ease, leaving her ample opportunity to forge alliances and resolve conflicts through diplomacy or deception rather than brute force. While by no means perfect with her coping strategies, she is well aware of her own processes and has given them more thought than the average student, providing her solid potential to work herself out of bad mental states or head off breakdowns before they get out of control.
Disadvantages: Personal agency is a huge bugbear for Juliette and an attack on hers of the sort represented by SOTF will be even more traumatizing to her than normal due to her baggage. She's been laboring under a lot of stress even aside from the game due to her home life and her exacting standards for herself, and has had several breakdowns in recent memory; there's a very real chance that something will push her over the edge into despondency or shake her to the point that she acts without proper consideration for her safety or best interests.

Designated Number: Female student No. 015

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Designated Weapon: Straight razor + can of shaving cream

Conclusion: You feel the need to be in charge and can't stand decisions being made for you. You value your freedom, G015. I understand that. Believe me when I say there may be nobody who understands you as well as I do. You want your freedom? Take it. The only thing between it and yourself is your own inhibitions and a pile of warm bodies. - Tracen Danya

DECEASED