Derek Caldwell

[DerArknight]

Name: Derek Caldwell
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: Senior
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Beatboxing, Digital Art, Goth Rock, collecting vinyls

Appearance: Derek is 5'7'' and weighs 140 pounds. He uses hair gel to make his black roughly two inches long hair stand upwards. His skin is pale, his nose is thin, his jawline is round and his small oval eyes are dark blue. His eyebrows are thin and barely noticeable while his lips are short but full. Derek's posture tends to be very straight. He has a strikingly cold voice and often comes across as gruff.

Most of his clothes are either black or gray, with some white stuff now and then. He also sometimes wears T-shirts with pictures or logos of bands. Since his family isn't rich, many of his clothes are from cheap brands and worn out.

On the day of the abduction he wore dark, worn-out jeans, brown running shoes, a gray jersey and a black T-shirt with a big, yellow star.

Biography: Derek Caldwell was born on May 23rd, 2004 as the first child of Lucas and Frederika Caldwell in a hospital in Salem. Since he found his job as a journalist to be more important, Lucas was not present at the birth, very much to Frederika's chagrin. Even apart from that, the pair had married very fast after meeting in college against the concerns of their families and had a very strained relationship. They would often argue over the smallest things. Their decision to have a child had been partly fueled by the hope that having to share the new responsibilities of being parents might bring them closer again.

This didn't work out, as both had different views on who should do the majority of childcare. Frederika wanted them to spend time with Derek evenly, while Lucas had assumed Frederika would do all the work. Despite that, both felt obligated to stick with the other, partly for Derek's sake and partly because they felt that breaking up would be admitting defeat. After the many arguments they had had with the relatives who had seen the red flags before the marriage, they were too prideful to go back on their decision.

Lucas was often away at work and when the three were together, both of his parents tried to avoid fighting for his sake. However, over the years the two became more and more frustrated with this loveless relationship and less focused on what was best for Derek. As a result, moments of them arguing in front of Derek would slowly grow in number. Derek quickly learned to not intervene and stay out of their arguments.

Derek himself was a calm but curious child who enjoyed creative activities such as drawing and playing with Legos. The only passive activity he liked turned out to be listening to music. In school, he proved to be more in the background and not that interested in group activities.

Not long after he entered elementary school, Frederika revealed that she had accidentally become pregnant a second time. She never said it out loud, but it was obvious that the child was not from Lucas. Because most of her friends and family were vehemently pro-life and she was afraid of social backlash, Frederika refused an abortion despite both of them not wanting a second child. At the end of Derek's first year in school, his little brother Abel was born.

Similar as with Derek, Abel's birth had a short calming effect on the marriage of Lucas and Frederika. The two made a token effort to halt their fighting, not only in front of Abel but also in front of Derek. However, after a few years, they returned to the old routine of daily clashes. Having to feed a fourth person was a heavy toll on the family's finances, resulting in yet another reason of dispute.

When he entered middle school, his parents forced Derek to give most of his toys to Abel, arguing they lacked the money to buy new ones. With him in middle school, his parents decided he was old enough to use the family computer and neglected to supervise him. Looking around in the internet led Derek to find out about digitally created art, a topic that instantly caught his attention. It didn't take long until he made his first attempts using Microsoft Paint. He eventually started to upload them under a pseudonym online.

Another interest he picked up online was beatboxing, which he took a liking to after hearing some. Just as with digital art, he slowly started his own attempts at it and uploads his beatboxing. The quality of his works in both hobbies has improved a lot over the years, but is still far away from being professional due to being self-taught. Derek has now switched Paint with PhotoShop. His creations are mostly scenery pictures with dark or angsty atmospheres and only few living beings.

When collecting all his toys for Abel and cleaning up the basement, Derek found an old record player and some records with mostly Goth Rock vinyls from the 80s and 90s, mostly from bands like Bauhaus and The Cure. As it turned out, this was the old collection of Frederika's father. Out of curiosity, Derek tried out the still working player and actually found that the music was a lot to his taste. Over the time, he started listening to newer music of the genre as well. Towards the end of his time in middle school, he found a small record store on Essex Street and started to grow the collection.

By the time Derek entered high school, the relationship of his parents was worse than ever before. They began to attempt to include their children into said arguments, often by trying to make them take sides. Derek was appalled by this and eventually vocally demanded the two to leave Abel and him out of their quarrels. Both were shocked by this, since Derek had almost never raised his voice against his parents. This made them realize they had overstepped a line and resulted in them being more conscious of trying to not involve Abel in their fighting, but the fighting continued nonetheless.

In high school, Derek prefers to be in the background and has only a few friends who share his interests. His grades are above the class average, but only by a little bit. He excels in creative subjects and loathes math due to the strict rules.

Derek is still listening to Goth Rock and similar genres, mostly on vinyl. The dark vibes of the music resonate with him, and Derek even took on some aspects of goth culture like the dark clothing. Despite that, he doesn't consider himself a full goth. He sometimes attends concerts, but not often.

After overhearing an argument in which Frederika made a very obvious reference about it, Derek knows that Abel is only his half-brother. Despite this, his relationship to Abel is a very deep one. Abel is a curios child and enjoys the time with Derek. He looks up to his big brother and often confides in Derek first when something troubles him. Since Derek remembers how ugly his own childhood in this household was, he tries to be the best brother possible for Abel and often takes him out to visit the park, museums, the zoo or other places.

In order to afford such trips despite the low finances of the family, Derek has gotten a part-time job as a cashier for a clothing store in the Salem Mall on some days after school. It's not his favorite way to spend the afternoon, but since the money helps Abel have a brighter childhood and gives Derek more independency from his parents, he puts up with it.

Derek is often brooding and prefers to express himself in a calm manner, but can get irritated very quickly. The constant fighting of his parents has left him with a rather pessimistic world-view and he is often blunt, especially to strangers.

After finishing high school, he plans to attend university in the hopes of studying digital arts to make a job out of this hobby. He would love to get out of his parents' house as soon as possible, but he doesn't want to leave Abel alone with the two.

Advantages: Derek is used to take care of himself and unlikely to expect or seek any help from others. Also he has experience in staying out of trouble and taking a background-role, which could help him in avoiding danger.
Disadvantages: Derek has only a few friends, some of which won't even be at the island due to being in other grades. Most of his classmates see him as a loner and are likely to approach him with caution. His blunt behavior might result in avoidable conflict.

[Ruggahissy]

Hello! I'm your moderator Ruggahissy. I think this profile is a really good foundation. A lot of my asks are just for more information on things, so we'll see if we can beef this boy up so he's ready to go.

He uses hair gel to make his black hair stand upwards.

- How long is his hair?

- Can we get some additional facial features information like his lips and eyebrows, maybe eye shape/ size?

He also sometimes wears T-shirts with motives or logos of bands.

- Motives? Not sure what this means.

On the day of the abduction he wore dark, worn-out jeans, brown shoes, a gray overall and a black T-shirt with a big, yellow star.

- If this refers to overalls like those which are pants and also cover the torso, those are just called "overalls." So this would read "gray overalls." Also, between this sentence and the previous paragraph you have both spellings of the word gray/grey. Gray is more frequent in American English, whereas grey is more common in British English. I don't care which one you choose, but for consistency just choose one spelling.

- Also, what kind of shoes are his brown shoes? Running shoes? Boots? Dress shoes?

This hopes were quickly destroyed, as both had different views on who should do how much work in raising Derek.

- Is there a way to rephrase this so it reads a little smoother? Their relationship became worse as they disagreed on who should be doing the majority of the child care? Also, what is the nature of this disagreement? Did they both think the other person should do most of the work? Did Lucas think Frederika should do all the work and she thought it should be equal? Did she think Lucas should do all the work?

By the time Derek entered high school, the relationship of his parents was worse than never before.

- Should be "worse than ever before."

The constant bickering of his parents has festered his belief that it is a waste of time trying to get along with people that have different views,

- I think "festered" is not the right word choice here or else needs to be tweaked. Maybe reinforced his believe or just made him think that it was a waste of time?

One of him introduced him to the world of Goth Rock, a genre he learned to like a lot.

- One of them introduced him?

- Are there any bands in particular that he likes belonging to the goth rock genre? Does he just listen to the music? Does he purchase any music or go to concerts?

- Is there a reason his parents haven't divorced?

- Would you be able to give me some information about how he does in school? How are his grades/ what are his favorite and least favorite subjects?

- How close is he with his various family members now in high school? I imagine he's pretty upset with his parents, but what is his relationship with Abel like? Is he aware Abel is likely a half-brother?

- What kinds of digital art does he do now? Has he moved on to more advanced programs than Microsoft Paint? What kinds of art does he make?

- In advantages it says that he's not athletic, but still fit. I'm not sure how to gauge that since there's no information in the profile about him doing any physical activity. If he's just at an average level of fitness, it can probably be removed as an advantage since it's the average that most people would be.

[DerArknight]

- How long is his hair?

Now we know.

- Can we get some additional facial features information like his lips and eyebrows, maybe eye shape/ size?

Sure, we can.

- Motives? Not sure what this means.

To be honest, I assumed this word would mean the same in english as in german. Turns out it doesn't. So I replaced it with something simpler.

- If this refers to overalls like those which are pants and also cover the torso, those are just called "overalls." So this would read "gray overalls." Also, between this sentence and the previous paragraph you have both spellings of the word gray/grey. Gray is more frequent in American English, whereas grey is more common in British English. I don't care which one you choose, but for consistency just choose one spelling.

Nope, not this kind of overalls. I replaced it with "jersey".
Also one e became an a.

- Also, what kind of shoes are his brown shoes? Running shoes? Boots? Dress shoes?

Running shoes.

- Is there a way to rephrase this so it reads a little smoother? Their relationship became worse as they disagreed on who should be doing the majority of the child care? Also, what is the nature of this disagreement? Did they both think the other person should do most of the work? Did Lucas think Frederika should do all the work and she thought it should be equal? Did she think Lucas should do all the work?

I rephrased it and specified the problem.

- Should be "worse than ever before."

And now it is.

- I think "festered" is not the right word choice here or else needs to be tweaked. Maybe reinforced his believe or just made him think that it was a waste of time?

Actually, I decided to scrap that part of him completely because after doing all the other edits, I felt it no longer fit in with the rest of his character.

- One of them introduced him?

Yeah, thatr was a typo. But I decided to change the backstory of how he found out about Goth Rock to him finding the vinyl collection of his grandfather, so this sentence disappeared anyway.

- Are there any bands in particular that he likes belonging to the goth rock genre? Does he just listen to the music? Does he purchase any music or go to concerts?

I named some and also mentioned him going to concerts now and then.

- Is there a reason his parents haven't divorced?

There is now: They are too pridefull to admit that the marriage was a mistake.

- Would you be able to give me some information about how he does in school? How are his grades/ what are his favorite and least favorite subjects?

Added some lines about that.

- How close is he with his various family members now in high school? I imagine he's pretty upset with his parents, but what is his relationship with Abel like? Is he aware Abel is likely a half-brother?

Added something about that as well.

- What kinds of digital art does he do now? Has he moved on to more advanced programs than Microsoft Paint? What kinds of art does he make?

Added infos about these questions.

- In advantages it says that he's not athletic, but still fit. I'm not sure how to gauge that since there's no information in the profile about him doing any physical activity. If he's just at an average level of fitness, it can probably be removed as an advantage since it's the average that most people would be.

And away it goes!

So, that should be all the edits you asked for plus a few things I decided to rework on my own, like the thing with Goth Rock or that has a part-time job now.

Feel free to take a second look on Derek.

[Ruggahissy]

As a fan of The Cure you are

APPROVED