Perante Losoa

[CardboardAirplane]

Name: Perante Losoa
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Acting in theater, traditional art & sketching, lacrosse, jazz music, photography

Appearance: Perante stands at 5’5'' and has a thinner build at 126 pounds, any fat being stored in his stomach and hips. His shoulders are rounded and his arms are shorter but his legs are longer and more toned due to his involvement in lacrosse. His skin is paler with his English background, but not overtly so with him going outside a lot. His face is rounder and his complexion is mostly kept clear though there are some blemishes on his face.

His hair is more of a darker brown and is pretty messy and on the longer side, his hair on the front is swept to the left, however. Outside of this, he has very little hair on the rest of his body, aside from having stubble under his chin. Around his hair, there seems to be a noticeable rim and it rounds out at the top due to him wearing a hat a lot of the time. His eyes are rounder and a lighter blue color.

Perante’s sense of style is a little weird, mixing formality with things that look more comfortable. Also having good posture and standing up straight, rarely sitting or standing relaxed, also keeping a smile up a lot of the time even if it seems inappropriate. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing a tan polo shirt with a vest that’s a darker shade than his shirt, while wearing gray sweatpants and almond flat tops with rainbow socks. Also donning a red beanie with a chibi Siberian Husky patch on it.

His voice is higher than average and ends his sentences with a rise in pitch as if he were constantly asking a question. His manner of speech seems to be a lot more informal, adding a lot of emphasis to words as well.

Biography: Perante was born on November 22 to Chesley Losoa and Angèle Haydée, both of whom moved to Salem, Massachusetts beforehand with their respective families at different points in each of their lives. His mother also kept her maiden name upon marrying. Both parents married as a result of a shotgun wedding, and his parents wanted to keep the child but have made a lot of mistakes as parents. Namely, due to a lack of maturity themselves and having been unprepared for the full responsibility of caring for a kid, his parents ended up neglecting him and he wasn't given as much attention as a child.

As he went into elementary school the effects of this were obvious, he seemed purposefully shut out from the other kids and spent most of his time drawing instead, almost having actively avoided people. He had trouble doing well in school, having problems paying attention and retaining information. He was also seen skipping class without explanation. Eventually his teachers started to take notice at seven years old that something was off. They’d go on to ask about the poor hygiene and food he has stolen every so often. At first he refused to say anything was wrong, insisting things were fine; he didn’t want to cause more trouble than what was worth and therefore nothing had changed for a year.

When he was coaxed into saying what was wrong, the staff learned more about the relationship between him and his parents; there didn’t seem to be much love between them. CPS intervened and an investigation had begun, eventually it had been decided he needed to be removed and he was moved to a licensed foster home. His new family consisted of both parents and a daughter, the couple being Colin Riley, a mechanic, and Patsy Riley, an interior designer, and the daughter Aspyn Riley, who was around seven at the time.

While he felt more comfortable being here instead of with his old family, any damage was done, and he had found it pretty hard to connect with them. Additionally, he’s grown an aversion to human contact, finding it weird and slightly uncomfortable. Despite any efforts from both parties, it was really hard for Perante to see them as an actual family, something which he felt somewhat insecure and guilty about. He has considered multiple times calling his birth parents even if they weren’t there for him; the idea was out of pity, he never knew why he felt bad but he did.

When Perante entered middle school, insecurities had begun to form and he developed an inferiority complex. He felt like he was worthless and hated how he acted. As a defense mechanism, he started to act a lot more outgoing and purposefully tried to seem more confident, sometimes to the point of arrogance. This obsession with giving off an image that everything was fine would only grow with him, it was only a matter of time before he tried to hide any semblance of sadness or anxiety as well. This mask he put on was pretty convincing, assuring people that this was who he was. The only way to tell that something was up was how overly defensive he got when someone questioned anything he was doing, though people usually attributed this to him being pretty egotistical.

While this managed to help out with his social life, having more people that considered him friends, he still had those connection issues, feeling pretty far from most of his peers. A lot of them were people he felt were only friends with him because of this facade he put up, motivating him to continue this and continuing to hide the more reserved part of him. A lot of the people that considered him a friend were people he didn’t like all too much but only pretended to like so as not to disappoint or anger anyone. In actuality, there were only about 4-5 people he legitimately enjoyed the company of, most of which were quieter and shared similar interests to him.

His grades continued to suffer as well, they rarely improved above a C for a long period of time and he just felt tired while he was at home. He was falling asleep in class frequently as well. As for one upside during this time frame, he improved his art skills during middle school and developed an interest in music, and started playing the saxophone when he joined a band class. His parents noticed most of the negative aspects and feeling concerned, referred him to a therapist.

While there, he wound up getting diagnosed with anxiety and started taking Lexapro. It’s worth noting that at one point Perante skipped taking his medication whenever he could, having felt like it messed with that image of normality he set up in his head. Most of the time though, any attempts he would make wouldn’t work, his parents started to take extra precaution he took his medication and watched him as he did so. For a while, he’d put it in his mouth only to spit it out later but eventually, he conceded and started to ingest these pills.

High school started to become pretty different for him academically. In most of the required classes, he still ended up with subpar grades, albeit he was getting more B’s than usual and D’s were non-existent, there started to become exceptions and areas he would excel at. Math ended up being something he managed to be great at, and when it came to electives, he took a lot of art-related classes, taking theater for the fine arts credits and finding out that he enjoyed that a lot. On the other hand, as he went into high school his coping mechanism started to grow in an unhealthy way, he was convinced that this mask he was putting on was the only thing people liked about him and that if he dropped this, people would hate him for acting fake, or would just find him boring.

At a certain point in his sophomore year, his friends had asked him to join a couple of clubs and after-school activities along with them, the reason being that at this current moment in time, he wasn’t participating in anything. Perante wasn’t able to say no to anyone and joined these clubs so as to not disappoint anyone. He cycled through a lot of these clubs and after school activities, joining only to lose interest in a lot of them within a matter of a week, having only kept with a couple he found interesting. He participated in lacrosse and continued his interest in theater and photography, which was new at the time, having said that he wanted to capture the beauty in life.

The lockdowns from the quarantine ended up doing some good for Perante, at home he never really had to feign confidence all the time anymore and he felt more comfortable, finding it cathartic. While he was pretty disappointed with not being able to talk to the people he genuinely liked, he still tried to make do with video chats and interactions on social media. During this time, he also decided to start some work at improving his skills on the saxophone purely out of boredom, however he refused to play loudly so as not to bother anyone, which had impeded any progress past a certain amount but his skills improved a lot during that time frame.

Over time a lot of the one sided friendships started to wither, whether it was just because their interests weren’t compatible or they hadn’t talked in a while, he still had a lot of people he only pretended to like but he still kept the people he legitimately like around, he wasn’t too bothered by that, but it had made him feel insecure in a way how some people would just forget about him after a certain amount of time.

Perante was always a bit of a flirt, and while he never really pursued any relationships further, he still had crushed on people of both genders, having mostly judged people based on looks but he’d prioritize people he found sweet and confident. At one point there was a boy he found he had an infatuation over and would purposefully end up meeting all the time, claiming it was a coincidence, and trying to talk to them. The relationship stayed unrequited though, and as of now he still has a crush on them, but he had eased up on any attempts.

When it came to his parents, they didn’t mind his performance all too much, while they were encouraging him to do better than C’s and occasional B’s, they just wanted him to be happy. And while he still had issues connecting with them, he had grown to appreciate them, finding his relationship with them more based on respect than actually being a family, however.

His relations towards his friends and his sister could be described as him being overprotective of them, sometimes to the other party's annoyance, he’d go on and jokingly claim that he felt the others were too stupid to not get themselves into trouble, really though he just hated the idea of conflict and felt slightly paranoid, not wanting anything bad to happen to people he cared about. This would annoy a couple of people due to him seeming a bit overbearing, but he didn’t want to seem too controlling so he could be persuaded otherwise to relax on this front if objected enough.

Art continues to take up a lot of his time, being one of his more favorable hobbies. Most of the time he tried to go for realism and he drew a lot of sceneries and locations. Photography was similar and he’d prefer taking pictures of landscapes instead of objects or other subjects, though it’s not something he’d be against doing. A lot of the time he just lets most of these works go unnoticed but occasionally he shared what he had done at school and bragged a bit.

With his involvement in lacrosse, Perante wasn’t known as one of the better players. His performance is around average compared to everyone else and he has faded into the background, but he’s been steadily getting better over time due to him having practiced and trained. After practicing however, his performance still hasn’t been too substancial. Despite his performance, he’s able to have fun in the sport and it continues to be one of the few things he enjoys.

The saxophone was his instrument of choice when he played music for any fine arts classes. Playing it was a skill that came naturally to him but being disinterested in practicing too much impeded his progress. Over time he realized he’s had more enjoyment being in the audience instead of actually playing. Nevertheless, he wasn’t planning on dropping this instrument anytime soon.

With theater and acting he’s had his own share of fun. Most of the time he took up more minor roles with only a few major ones, something he’s content with. Given his more melodramatic personality he found it pretty easy to act and has the potential to shine. Occasionally he has had problems given his tendency to improvise but it’s never gotten out of hand.

Currently, Perante works at a local 7/11, putting in the hours though refusing to climb the ladder, his progress staying mostly stagnant. His current plans for when school ends would be to take a year off to gather some extra income and then go to college to become an interior designer just like his mom. He’s still putting up a front, however, and his insecurities are only becoming worse.

Advantages: Physically, Perante is faster and more agile than average, additionally having more stamina and endurance. He likes to stay on people's good sides and can diffuse situations before they escalate. In a shorter period, his emotions are something he’ll have easy control over and he’d be able to stay calm under pressure.
Disadvantages: The most notable disadvantage would be the discomfort with human contact. Perante has problems being able to properly handle negative emotions and will actively block them out. Despite any friendliness from his side, Perante will find it hard to make any alliances.

[CardboardAirplane]

Was going to put this in the old thread but oops, abandoned and retired character thread, my mistake. It's being moved here now.


Firstly, we have questions coming in the form of Perante’s parents…(Upon talking about the use of the word immigrated).
Yeah this parts on me I will say, I imagine at the time I read them as synonyms but now, I definitely see the confusion. That part should be fixed now. In reality, it’s more they’re here from out of state but I wrote “immigrated” because I guess at the time it felt like a good enough synonym or whatever

Now let us get onto the abuse story...
I’ll handle this differently I’ll say. I feel like the situations here are more fluid in a way backstory wise so I’ll change some things. Upon reflection, I’ll say that neglect feels like a better explanation for this. You say that it’s not a demand but no I do agree with this, like you mentioned, it’s more realistic on the side of the parents anyway.

An issue in this part of the biography that sort of extends throughout is the paragraphs…
Right, I gotta get used to the fact that writing here would be different from other formats I’m used to lol. Changed, hopefully for the better.
Truthfully, there’s obviously still a chance I’m not getting this bit correctly even now cuz I’ll admit out of everything, paragraphs and organizing them are probably where I struggle with the most, if that’s the case and things aren’t better, let me know (Though I feel like ya would anyway lol, it’s a critique after all) With the last paragraph in the bio though, I’m assuming that can stay present tense, considering that is talking about now and his current situation instead of backstory. If that’s not how it’s supposed to go, let me know.

The rule of thumb organizationally is usually that if it merits a mention in hobbies and interests--it merits a paragraph in the biography…
Added a paragraph on it, actually a couple on the hobbies/interests I missed.

I think both the advantages and disadvantages could use with a bit of succinctness and cleaning up in language
Yup yup, I tried removing some of the unnecessary bits and rewording a couple of stuff. If it’s not up to snuff hit me up on that.

And that’s it for round one! If you have any questions or wish for any expansion or explanation feel free to hit me up via board PM or Discord! Good luck with the edits and I look forward to seeing the next iteration of Perante (who I call Perry in my mind).
And once again, sorry for the sense of time, I’ll try not to have this happen. Also I love the nickname

[backslash]

Hi there, CardboardAirplane. When posting a new or re-submitted profile, please do not make any posts in the thread other than the profile itself. It can lead the staff to miss that this is an unclaimed profile if we see that there are multiple posts in the thread already. If you have questions or comments about the profile, you can share them with your critiquing staff member directly when appropriate.

[Buko]

Hey CardboardAirplane! I appreciate this version of Perante much more and I think you've grounded them well. This is a pretty three dimensional and fully thought out first character and your effort in working with my critique is of note! This being your first go around--I see no reason to keep you out of pre-game further. Things that I may look out for and you may see a need to expand in final applications is the nature of the neglect in a bit more of a concrete way...but as it stands I think your mentioning of stolen food and lack of hygiene serves well enough!

Good job and APPROVED!

Welcome to SOTF!