Vincent Murdoch

[Wash*]

Name: Vincent Murdoch
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12th
School: Bayview
Hobbies and Interests: Film, Theatre, Debating

Appearance: At first glance Vincent appears unremarkable, another oh-so-special-and-individual adolescent, dark hair splayed in every direction in a spirited attempt at looking unkempt. His features are naturally pointed, his eyes generally dark and bagged from being over-tired. Puberty apparently has yet to manifest itself on his chin, which seems destined to be forever stubble-less. His eyebrow is pierced with a small silver stud, a hard-won accessory he is too proud to remove despite regretting immensely. He is naturally rather pale, having spent most of his summers in bed with the curtains shut until long into the afternoon. He wears designer labels and often throws large handfuls of cash into replicating the outfits you see on the mannequins in shop windows. Style without creativity, it is an act that sums him up fairly well.

Biography: Vincent Murdoch was born into an unassuming Californian family on February 2nd 1991, the first and only child to Lauren and Henry Murdoch and fruit of eleven years' attempted conception. Despite this, Vincent was never doted upon as a child; he neither received nor asked for much in the way of overt affection from his parents. The Murdoch household was undoubtedly one of love but not of any particular closeness. It is possible that Lauren and Henry were so inured to the notion of never having children that they weren't entirely sure what to do with one when it was bestowed upon them.

As he was growing up, Vincent appeared by all accounts well-rounded and ordinary. He progressed through junior school with a decent group of friends, ran around, shouted and played war games with appropriate levels of gusto. He was intelligent but not exceptionally so, reasonably fit but hardly athletic. He would often display an extraordinary level of apathy towards areas of study he arbitrarily considered to be a waste of time - he developed a huge affinity for English and the study of the written word while loathing mathematics and science with an undisguised passion.

As Vincent entered adolescence and Bayview his personality almost immediately began to alter. He had always been a child with a keen sense of humour but gradually he began to unleash his natural sardonic wit. Never short of a sarcastic put-down, Vincent became notorious for being exceptionally caustic towards those he disapproved of or felt were 'lower' than him in his perceived social hierarchy. He developed other reputations, most less than pleasant. Despite his claims, his sexual record is somewhat less than impressive (current count - 2: an unsatisfying fumble with a paralytically drunk 15-year-old girl in the bushes at a house party and a very recent encounter with a friend of his cousin's at the community college. As yet unbeknownst to Vincent, the latter episode resulted in him contracting gonhorrea). Recently Vincent has taken to carrying around a gaudy, expensive hip flask, generally filled with Jack Daniel's from his father's apparently bottomless liquor cabinet. He thinks it makes him look interesting.

It was at Bayview that Vincent developed an interest in performing arts. He spent a little while attempting to style himself as a theatrical aesthete, but the truth was that he just liked the attention. Not just any attention however, it was the blind appreciation of an anonymous audience that immediately drew him. Vincent's natural comic timing assured that he was generally received well on stage and the one-way nature of the whooping adulation appealed to him immensely. He began exploring other ways he could forcefully project his face into people's lives, eventually sidling into the debate team. He quickly gained a certain notoriety for his preference of rhetoric and crude jokes over an intellectual, cohesive argument. He also became involved with student filmmaking, generally just as a vaguely presentable face to put in front of a camera. This, of course, suited Vincent perfectly.

Vincent is generally seen by others in one of two ways - a likeable dickhead, or just a dickhead. He is willing to insult and demean friend and foe alike if he finds it amusing, generally the friends are simply the ones who tolerate it (either because they too get a laugh out of it or they enjoy the chance to hit back). He likes to convince himself that he is at heart a solitary animal, free from any dependence on interaction with others, despite the fact that if his friends ever unanimously decided to excise him from their lives, he would probably have some sort of attention-starved breakdown. He has never had a romantic entanglement of any sort that lasted longer than 2 weeks, as he will proudly inform anyone who cares to listen. He maintains his self-esteem by assuring himself that his callous exterior is nothing more than a defense mechanism, that inside he is a worthwhile person. He daydreams of heroism, nobility and adulation in an attempt to ignore the persistent doubt that perhaps he really is the shallow, vacuous, worthless misanthrope that everyone knows him as.

Advantages: Despite his sedentary lifestyle, Vincent's adolescent metabolism seems so far to be keeping him at least vaguely in shape. A natural sprinter, he can run like a jackrabbit over short distances. And, as he'll proudly tell anyone who cares to listen, there are no loves or crushes amongst the student body that could hold him back or cloud his judgement. That's pretty much it

Disadvantages: Vincent's most pressing disadvantage is one that will always precede him - his reputation. Everyone knows him as a mean-spirited, snarky backstabber and the idea of anyone trusting him with their life is laughable. Furthermore he is quite weak physically, having lifted nothing heavier than a pop-tart for a few years now. His lack of outdoors experience would also count against him - sleeping in the rough out on the island is guaranteed to be a new and unpleasant sensation. As one would expect from your average high school student, he has no armed combat prowess or experience.