S093 - Henderson, Crystal

#1

Name: Crystal Henderson
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Roleplaying Games, YouTube, Tarot And Fortunetelling

Appearance: At 5'4" and 135 lbs, Crystal has a stocky, slightly pudgy build. She has a round face with a broad nose, oval-shaped eyes under bushy eyebrows, upturned lips, and small ears. She wears her light brown hair in a pixie cut. Her eyes are dark brown.

Crystal dresses in a casual style. She favors brighter colors and typically wears several layers, usually including t-shirts and sweaters, and she almost always wears pants rather than skirts. On the day of the abduction, Crystal was wearing black jeans, a black long-sleeved shirt with a red t-shirt over it, and a fuchsia zip-up hoodie left open, as well as pink sneakers and white socks.

Crystal is Caucasian, with a pale complexion. Her ears are pierced once apiece in the lobes, and she has no tattoos or notable scars. She often moves nervously and tends to hunch down. She's prone to mild acne.

Biography: Crystal was born on Halloween, 2003, to Timothy and Jacqueline Henderson, in a home birth in Salem, Massachusetts. Timothy worked as a graphic designer, while Jacqueline did a number of odd-jobs and crafts, including candle making and acting as a midwife while also serving as the primary caretaker for Crystal and eventually her brother, Rowan, three years her junior. Between the two of them, they had enough income to usually be comfortable, though the inconsistent nature of both of their vocations led to occasional stress or dry spells.

Crystal was a bright child and loved learning. She was especially taken by stories, and her mother favored fairytales, often based on her own hodgepodge of vaguely new age beliefs. Jacqueline liked to make the stories interactive, taking Crystal's suggestions onboard, or even casting her as the main character of them. This close relationship wasn't negatively affected by Rowan's birth, and Crystal adored and doted on her baby brother. This close home life, however, did make the adjustment to school a little difficult for Crystal. She became anxious when separated from her mother and had a hard time finding common ground with her classmates. Crystal was not exposed to most of the more common elements of pop culture and found her peers generally uninterested in her childhood stories. While she slowly learned to cope with her classmates and the environment, she never became popular and was frequently the subject of teasing.

By the time Crystal reached middle school, she had at least made a handful of friends. While the precise areas of interest varied, Crystal discovered that some others in her class liked fantasy stories with dragons and wizards, which were close enough to her favorite topics. She got along well with other students who sat a little outside the more mainstream or popular crowds and found herself enjoying socializing much more in these contexts. Crystal was bright and able to perform well in class when she put her mind to it, however, her dedication and especially organization were lacking. Several times in parent-teacher conferences, it came up that Crystal frequently failed to turn in her homework and in a number of these cases, she had even partially or fully completed it and either misplaced it or left it at home. Crystal had a tendency to freeze up out of stress, or to get frustrated when she couldn't find her work and just give up, and performed well below her potential due to this.

This led to Timothy spending some time teaching Crystal to better organize herself, and by the time she entered high school, she had learned to keep a detailed log of her assignments and projects in her planner. This led to greater success for her academically, though on the infrequent occasions that she failed to record something in her planner or missed an assignment anyways, she became significantly more upset than she used to, feeling like her process had failed her.

One of Crystal's primary social activities is roleplaying games. She participates in two weekly in-person campaigns with pieces of her friend group, plus an additional one online with internet friends spread across the country. Crystal first came to the hobby when invited to play by one of her friends who liked fantasy novels back in middle school. She felt herself immediately at home, recognizing the participatory nature from her mother's stories and enjoying the way she could portray fantastical characters. Crystal almost always plays elegant characters, often with connections to either fortunetelling or fairies; her friends gently tease her and claim that she effectively plays the same character in every game. In-game, Crystal is more comfortable and confident, and she takes more of a leadership role than she does in other interactions with her friends.

Crystal also spends a significant amount of time watching videos on YouTube and follows a number of YouTube content creators. She first came to the platform in late elementary school, when she took advantage of her parents' loosening restrictions on electronics usage to look up various pieces of pop culture that her classmates were into but she didn't know. Over time, she found a number of things to her liking, and especially came to enjoy analysis videos, comedy edits, and so forth. One of her favorite series was Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, which she picked up on from a friend in late elementary school and still quotes from time to time, despite having never actually watched the original Yu-Gi-Oh series. Crystal experiences most popular pieces of media more through reactions and reviews than through directly watching them, but is often able to fake her way through conversations based on her secondhand knowledge.

YouTube has also allowed Crystal to dig deeper into another of her favorite interests: fortunetelling, and especially divination through tarot. Crystal learned about this art from her mother, who used to tell her fortune through a makeshift system of her own invention using a standard deck of playing cards. Over time, Crystal did much more of her own research, learning about proper tarot usage, and now she has two decks of her own (both unconventional, one the Golden Dawn deck and one themed after the roleplaying game Mage: The Ascension) and frequently gives readings to her friends, as well as using them for her own guidance. While Crystal tries to believe in a supernatural basis for her divination, she mostly views it as a thought exercise and a way to find different perspectives on situations. She does, however, find some comfort in the idea that fate is predetermined, and rarely displays much initiative without external prompting. In addition to tarot, Crystal has basic knowledge of palm-reading and rune-casting and is aware of a number of signs and portents that she likes trying to find and interpret in her daily life.

In school, Crystal does well in most of her classes. She has the easiest time with English class, but also has a fondness and knack for history. In these classes, she speaks up frequently and enthusiastically. She does pretty well with math and science so long as she keeps up, but on those occasions when she misses some formula or piece of theory, that gap tends to cascade into fundamental trouble understanding the lesson. On those occasions where Crystal's process is disrupted, or when she faces unexpected setbacks, she still tends to catastrophize or to be see her indecision snowball into bad decisions like skipping work that frustrates her. Fortunately, now that her parents are more aware of her process, they're better able to identify it and intervene to find her extra tutoring or help to get her back on track. Gym is Crystal's least favorite subject, as she dislikes physical discomfort and gets nervous about competition. She prefers easier and more relaxed forms of activity, and sometimes takes walks on her own outside of school, but is still less fit than many of her peers.

Crystal gets along well with her teachers, and has a small but close-knit group of friends, mostly slightly socially awkward students with interest in fantasy or roleplaying games. Crystal can be shy and quiet, and is prone to misspeaking when put on the spot, which sometimes leads to her being teased. Privately, Crystal hates being made fun of, but she tries to laugh it off in the moment. On the rare occasions when unexpected interpersonal conflict manifests in her life, she has similar difficulties adjusting as she does with her schoolwork and will frequently try to wait it out in hopes that everything will blow over. With her close friends, this has a fairly solid rate of success, and her tendency to avoid escalation means that she rarely makes enemies even if she drifts apart from somebody. Crystal considers herself heterosexual, but has never dated, though she often conducts reading regarding her own romantic prospects. Crystal did ask out the game master of one of her roleplaying campaigns at the start of senior year, but he politely declined, explaining he didn't feel that way about her.

Crystal has a good relationship with her family. Her mother is her closest confident, and the two share a number of interests; Crystal does readings for her mom as well as herself. Her father is supportive in a more pragmatic way, helping with schoolwork and driving her places as she has not yet learned herself, though Crystal finds him harder to pour her soul out to. Rowan and Crystal have a positive but distant relationship, due to a lack of shared interests; Rowan is a huge fan of sports, and while he accompanied Crystal to a few of her roleplaying sessions back when she started high school, he had no real interest in them and quickly stopped attending. Still, Crystal sometimes helps him with his own schoolwork, and he's always welcome to eat lunch with her now that they attend the same school, though he rarely takes her up on that.

Crystal has begun applying to community colleges. She's not sure what she wants to study, and that uncertainty makes her very apprehensive about spending large amounts of money or moving away from home, so she currently plans to complete her first two years at a local school focusing on core classes while she figures out a major and a four-year school to try to transfer to. She's also been considering starting her own YouTube channel, or else trying to monetize her divination in some fashion, but has been struggling to figure out how to launch either of these ventures and has made no real progress.

Advantages: Crystal is good at laying out a detailed plan and following through on it. She has a small, but close-knit group of friends who she trusts and no real enemies to speak of.
Disadvantages: When Crystal finds herself out of her depth or with her plans falling apart, she often panics, freezes, or behaves erratically. If Crystal feels powerless, she'll frequently give up on trying to improve her situation, and struggles to capitalize on opportunities, preferring safety, comfort, and reliability. She is also less fit than many of her classmates.

Designated Number: Student No. 093

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Designated Weapon: Kel-Tec RFB (7.62mm semi-auto bullpup)

Conclusion: Did you see this coming fortune teller? We've given you the means to change your fate, what will lame-ass, pudgy and overlooked Crystal Henderson do with it? - Jim Greynolds