Sharad Narang

[almostinhuman]

Name: Sharad Narang
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Surfing, swimming, skateboarding (especially longboarding), camping, weed, vandalism and other petty crime

Appearance: Sharad is short for a boy his age at 5'2", with a lithely muscled build and dark brown skin. His face is considered handsome but a bit severe-looking, and has a long prominent nose and near-black eyes. His black hair is wavy and ends just above the small of his back, and is usually worn in a loose bun or ponytail, though sometimes it's worn loose altogether. He has snakebite piercings in his lower lip. Both ears are pierced with multiple small hoops and with a stud in the right lobe and two in the left, all black. He shaves infrequently, sometimes to the point a thin mustache and beard is allowed to form.

Sharad dresses in a "punk" style of clothing much of the time, with bulky canvas or leather jackets, worn jeans and torn or cropped shirts. He mixes this with accessories more common to the beach, like bracelets made of shells or wooden beads, or rings made of cheaper metals and set with bright, common stones. An accessory he nearly always wears as of late is a sharktooth necklace hanging on a simple black cord, a gift from a friend before he came to Vegas. He hates wearing shoes and often goes barefoot, favoring comfortable sandals or slip-ons when shoes are required. He wears little makeup but occasionally paints his nails different colors.

On the day of the kidnapping, Sharad was wearing a dark brown leather jacket zipped shut over a red crop tank top and heavily worn blue jeans, as well as black Nike-brand slide sandals. Around his neck was his sharktooth necklace, and around his left wrist and right ankle were matching cowrie shell bracelets, while around his right wrist were three wooden bead bracelets. His nails on his hands and feet were painted dark blue, his right middle finger bore a stainless steel band with a green-blue "stone" of sea glass, and his left second toe had a thin silver-plated ring with no stone at all. His hair was pulled into a very loose and low ponytail by a simple brown hair tie.

Biography: Sharad was born October 17th, 2006, the only son of Anish Narang and Adrianna Marie Narang (née Serafin). The family lived in Oceano, California, an unincorporated beach town in San Luis Obispo County. Adrianna was born in the town and had family living there, while Anish moved there in 2003 for work. The couple both worked for a local hotel, Adrianna as a receptionist and Anish as a waiter in the attached restaurant. They met and started dating not long after Anish began working there, got married in 2005, and Sharad was born roughly a year later.

Their marriage was stable and loving, but also relatively short-lived. In 2008, when Sharad was 2 years old, the couple was in a car accident driving home from work, their vehicle getting struck on the driver's side door. The couple was severely injured, Anish especially so, and were rushed to the hospital. Adrianna would eventually stabilize, though her condition remained serious. Anish, however, would die hours post-accident, having never regained consciousness. In the wake of the accident, Adrianna's parents, Robert and Eva Serafin, would take Sharad in. Adrianna's condition would eventually improve to the point she could leave the hospital, but she was left with debilitating chronic pain in her legs and back that made it impossible for her to return to work. As a result, she and her son would come to live under her parent's guardianship indefinitely.

As Anish died when Sharad was very young, the boy's primary memories growing up were of living with his grandparents. The couple loved their daughter, but had strongly disapproved of her relationship with and marriage to Anish, and that disapproval was reflected in their treatment of their grandson once he and Adrianna came to live with them. Both were strict with him, punishing him harshly for minor infractions, while rarely offering warmth or guidance when Sharad needed it. Eva, a freelance graphic designer who worked from home, did still at least provide basic care for Sharad, ensuring he was fed, clothed and healthy, though she remained curt and frosty with him much of the time. Robert, an employee at a general contracting company who serviced businesses in the county, was often not around at all, did little to aid his wife in raising their grandson, and was particularly harsh with the boy. He would frequently berate Sharad for any reason he could reach for, and would escalate to threats of violence or disownment if Sharad spoke back at all. As a result of this treatment, Sharad grew to resent both of them, with a particular hatred for his grandfather. He'd become increasingly surly and rebellious as he got older, which only worsened the relationship between him and his grandparents.

Adrianna's physical health never recovered from the accident, and would in fact steadily worsen over the following years. Moreover, her grief at Anish's death never seemed to lessen, leaving her in a severe depression. As she could scarcely even walk most days, she couldn't work and rarely went outside at all, at most occasionally sitting on the family's back porch when she could manage the short trip there from her bed. She was prescribed different pain medications over time, often at increasingly high dosages and occasionally without regard for what drugs she was already on; this not only contributed to her declining health, but also put strain on the family finances. Eva tended to her needs frequently, often at the expense of her own work, exacerbating these financial issues.

Sharad's relationship with his mother was rather complex due to all this. Sharad usually tried to help out with her care, even when he was too young to do much for her besides fetching her water or food. On better days, his mother showered her son in what affection and love she could, perhaps being a bit clingier than would be considered healthy. On worse days, where her pain or depression were particularly severe or she was especially addled by medication, she was barely emotionally available at all, at times to the point of seeming unaware of what was around her. As her condition got worse over time, these kinds of days became more and more frequent. Sharad continued doing his best to help out, but was increasingly hurt as her condition caused her to grow more distant from him, and started growing more distant in turn.

With so little support at home, Sharad would seek friendship in other kids around town. The local beach and state park were particularly where he spent most of his time, swimming in the ocean, hiking in the wetlands, or playing on the beach with kids his age. Around the age of 11, Sharad started picking up surfing and particularly took to it, spending a great deal of his free time honing his skills whenever possible. He also picked up on skateboarding around the same time, seeing it as a way to enjoy the feeling of surfing when conditions weren't right for it; he particularly enjoyed cruising with a longboard, often using it to get around town. He maintained plenty of casual friendships with other kids over these activities, both locals and tourists, though made close friendships with only a few.

Around the start of Sharad's freshman year of high school, Adrianna's health started taking a particularly bad turn. The cost of her care increased immensely, placing a great strain on the family finances, and the greater degree of care she now required forced Eva to stop taking clients and tend to her daughter full time. During winter of the same year, Robert's employer was bought out by a considerably larger construction company that serviced multiple states, and Robert was offered a position in Las Vegas. The average pay per contract was better than what he'd usually been making before, and Vegas, as a larger city, had better healthcare options available, so Robert was quick to agree to the new position in the hopes it would be good for Adrianna. Sharad was incensed at the news, resenting being dragged away from all his friends and from the beach, but the decision had already been made and he was ultimately forced to accept it. He went on one final camping trip with a few of his friends a few days before the move, receiving a few gifts from them in return, including a simple sharktooth necklace that he'd end up wearing nearly all the time afterwards.

Things at home would only grow increasingly tense after the move, and Robert in particular became increasingly short with Sharad, reacting negatively to his mere presence and even escalating from threats of violence to actually hitting him at times. Eva did not intervene or speak in Sharad's defense at all, and tended to his needs less often. His mother was usually asleep or borderline-catatonic, and even in rare lucid moments could do little to stop Robert's abuse of Sharad but meekly beg him to stop. Sharad's resentment of his grandparents would solidify into loathing at this point, and even his relationship with his mother would sour due to her inability to help. He would grow only more downcast, bitter and acerbic as a result of all this.

Outside the home, Las Vegas would prove a difficult environment for Sharad. His new home made surfing, his favorite way to pass time, impossible to indulge in, and he hated the dry, hot environment of the desert compared to the less extreme coastal weather he'd grown up with. Having to start over socially while his personality only grew more surly would leave Sharad being fairly heavily disliked by much of the student body of his new high school, which would only embitter him further and make him more caustic and unpleasant to be around. He'd end up with a social circle consisting mostly of fringe punks and burnouts, kids who themselves were socially isolated or outcast. Hanging with this crowd would lead to Sharad engaging in various forms of mild delinquency, from smoking weed to graffiti to petty vandalism. It was an excellent release from the stress and hurt of his familial abuse, though in turn news of the kind of crowd he was hanging with only worsened Robert's ire towards him. Robert's disapproval would ultimately only reinforce Sharad's determination to hang on to his new friends, regardless of what kind of trouble they might get him into.

Sharad's academic performance suffered greatly during his teenage years. While he'd never been an exceptional student, his grades took a particularly harsh downswing after the move to Vegas, with failing or barely-passing grades almost across the board from semester to semester. Sharad's lack of support at home, occasional truancy and general disinterest in school meant this trend would never really reverse or improve, nor would he engage in clubs or sports or any sort of other extracurriculars.

Over the years, the situation at home would only worsen; Adrianna's health wouldn't meaningfully improve, Robert would take his frustrations out more and more on Sharad, and Eva effectively ceased to even regard his presence in their home at all. As a result, Sharad would start staying out of the house more and more; he'd hang out with friends wherever they could for as long as possible, sometimes well into the next morning. If things were particularly rough, Sharad would sometimes ask to stay with someone else for a bit, even if it meant sleeping on the floor. Neither Eva nor Robert bothered to restrict Sharad from leaving the house or seemed to care when he disappeared for long periods, and Adrianna was usually too out of it to notice he'd even been gone.

Sharad is uncertain of what he wants to do with himself after high school. He's not certain he's even capable of graduating with how poor his grades are, and knows college is basically out of the question. His only real goal is to return to the coast, whether to Oceano or elsewhere, but how to do so he's still not sure of.

Advantages: Sharad's skateboarding and surfing lends him at least some athleticism that could aid in his survival. His poor reputation and intimidating mien could also serve to ward off others from trying to attack him.
Disadvantages: Sharad's acerbic attitude makes dangerous conflict likely and de-escalation of that conflict difficult. He is fairly widely disliked and has few friends to rely on.

[VoltTurtle]

Heya inhuman! You're hardly new so I doubt you need the whole spiel. I've got Sharad, he's temporarily DENIED, comments below!

Hobbies and Interests: surfing, swimming

Capitalize surfing.

longboarding, camping, weed

I don't think you need to list longboarding specifically here, since that is just a type of surfing. Already covered!

red crop tanktop

Tank top is two words.

matching cowrie shell bracelet

Bracelets.

During the summer before Sharad's senior year, Robert's employer would be bought by a considerably larger construction company that serviced multiple states, and Robert would be offered a position in Las Vegas. (...) Sharad was incensed at the news, but ultimately felt he had little choice but to go with them.

Alright so this is the only big problem with this profile: transfer students have to start at the school (Red Rock) during their freshman year and attend all the way to the present. This has been the case since V5, so it's a pretty old rule at this point.

In light of that, this is going to need to happen during Sharad's freshman year instead of senior year. It can happen midway through freshman year - that's alright - but it can't happen after that.

This will likely cause a cascading effect through the rest of the profile prior to this point as well. Make sure to adjust the ages/times that events in his life happen so that they aren't crammed too close together. I trust that you'll be able to get something satisfactory without my explicit guidance.

with the hope was that the added

With the hope that.

conflict likely and deescalation

De-escalation.

That he's relatively new and unknown means he has few friends, and most students who do know him don't like him and are unlikely to offer him any help.

This is unlikely to apply as a disadvantage with the above timeline change. I think it would be easy enough to adjust this to be more about his attitude - he doesn't have many friends because he's miserable in Vegas and therefore not pleasant to be around. He'd presumably still have some more friends than if he moved in senior year, but you can make it clear his reputation is awful with everyone who isn't his friend instead.


...and that's it! Post back here when you've got all that fixed and I'll give him another look!

[almostinhuman]

Edits made! Hopefully didn't mess up the timeline too bad lmao