Survival Of The Fittest

Name: Connor Collins
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Punk ideology, Sewing, ARGs, Anti-SOTF

Appearance: Connor is 5’5”, and weighs 141 lbs, with decent posture. He has brown hair that is styled in a mushroom cut, and he has two neon cyan hair extensions that he puts around his face. He has dark green almond-shaped eyes, pale skin, a long nose, medium sized eyebrows and a round face.

His wardrobe is a clash of two personalities. He has baggy monotone colored sweaters and polo shirts, but he also has more vibrant shirts that he had collected himself. He prefers to wear the things he had gotten himself, but rarely would wear things his parents got for him, depending on how he felt that day. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing a gray sweater over a faded teal shirt with a band logo on it, shorts that stop just above his knees, white knee-high socks, and checkerboard patterned slip-ons.

Biography: Connor was born September 26th, 2003 to James and Sarah Collins. James works as an accountant and Sarah works as an intern. They had married a year before, having met in 2001 on a blind date. He is the oldest of three, with a 16 year old brother named Daniel and a 14 year old sister named Amelia.

Connor has always been a quiet kid, preferring to do his own thing rather than talk to the others in his elementary school. While occasionally someone would force him out of his comfort zone and actually become friends with him, it was fairly rare. This behavior didn’t particularly alarm his parents, as he was still a very polite child to them and family members when he had to be.

In order to fill his spare time, his mother decided to teach Connor how to play the french horn, as it was a hobby of hers. He quickly took to the instrument, though he was never quite good at it. Still, it was a nice thing to do and meant he could spend time with his mother.

In 2012, his cousin Willa Kurt and her parents moved into town, mostly because of the Seattle abduction. The two of them hadn’t talked much up until that point, only really seeing each other during the holidays, but became more friendly towards each other due to the proximity.

Connor found out about the punk aesthetic and ideology in a rabbit hole he fell into online one day in 2016. He was fascinated by it, and heavily agreed with the general ideology, admiring the DIY and thrifting aesthetic of it.

As he grew older, Connor had found himself less interested in french horn. When he would try to quit playing though, his mom would just tell him he’s going through a block with the instrument, and make him continue. It eventually reached a point where, in middle school, he ended up attempting to break the instrument. He attempted to hit it against the wall, but was held back by his mother, who finally gave in to letting him quit. The event had messed up his and his mother’s relationship extremely badly, something Connor had not entirely fixed.

When he first entered John Endecott Memorial, Connor found himself experimenting more, breaking out more from simply what his parents wanted him to, taking JEM's sewing and film courses. While he found some aspects interesting enough, he never ended up pursuing any sort of hobby with film. With sewing however, he found it to be immensely useful, and continued to work with it, collecting material with his own money or from old clothes.

Something Connor had always been curious about is the prevalence of SOTF, and though he does somewhat believe in the rumors about searching it up, it didn’t stop him from joining the anti-SOTF club at the high school during his experimentation phase. He hides it under the guise of being the writing club when talking with his parents, as he thought they wouldn’t agree with him being there.

In 2017, Connor learned about the concept of ARGs, and wanted to make one. He wanted to do it alone at first, but when he talked to Daniel about it, Daniel let him know it was too ambitious. He offered his help, which Connor accepted. With the help of Willa, the three of them formed TripleThreat, an ARG that they wanted to release every October. TripleThreat had noticeably political plotlines, and fully referenced SOTF in the 2018 edition of TripleThreat, though it was somewhat covered with more fantastical elements. The ARG never had a huge following, which disappointed Connor, though never really caused the three to stop working on it.

Connor introduced Riley to TripleThreat in 2019. He didn’t realize that Willa was worried about her being pushed away until she began yelling with him over a comment he had made. Connor didn’t want to argue and attempted to get her to calm down, but he eventually began fighting back. The fight resulted in Willa leaving TripleThreat, and forcing Connor, Riley, and Daniel to work on it without her that year.

When the virus hit, Connor was able to somewhat keep up with schoolwork. His cousin and uncle had to stay over with him and his family, as his aunt was a nurse and it was easier. While Willa refused to talk to him at first, they eventually were able to make up to each other. She decided to rejoin TripleThreat for a last time, something that Connor was fine with.

In the present, Connor is unsure of what he wants to do, to the disappointment of his parents. As the oldest, Connor was the one his parents pushed the most responsibility on and was the one pushed to do the most. While they stressed it was for his good, Connor feels that they were just pushing things onto him because he was there. He never said anything to them about it though, because he was scared they would get mad at him. His mother's rather strong personality only aids this fear.

Conner gets along well with his brother Daniel, as both of them have several shared interests, along with working together on TripleThreat. He has a less favorable relationship with his sister, Amelia, who disagrees with him and finds him weird.

Advantages: While his SOTF knowledge is limited, what he does know can be extremely useful for his survival. His more non-confrontational nature means he’s less likely to get into fights, and most likely won’t have many enemies on the island.
Disadvantages: Despite that, Connor has a lot of trouble standing up for himself, making him easily manipulatable and a relatively easy target to more aggressive people. He’s also fairly quiet, something that could cause him to not be able to make many allies on the island.

Hello RiceKrisp, I'll be critiquing Connor today! He's off to a good start, but is DENIED pending a bit of editing and expansion. I'll run through the needed changes below.

What's Connor's ethnicity? How long are the hair extensions he wears?

James works as an accountant and Sarah works as an intern.

"Intern" is not a job by itself; generally, someone who is an intern will be shadowing a professional in their field with the end goal of obtaining a permanent, paid position in said field. For example, a medical student would intern at a hospital under the direction of a doctor or nurse in order to gain experience, and later they would progress to being a full employee utilizing that experience. Similar things go for people in corporate settings.

What sort of activities did Connor engage in during his childhood? The only thing mentioned is his mother encouraging him to play the French horn, which isn't listed in his hobbies. Did he like to read, play games, play outdoors by himself, etc.? Did he establish any interests at the time that would carry on to later years?

Horns are expensive instruments, so I can see why Connor's mom would be upset that he tried to break the one he had, but this is an odd thing to sour their whole relationship. A sudden outburst of destructive behavior from an otherwise polite and quiet child is something that should at least motivate the parents to sit down and talk to him to make sure everything is okay and probably seek further help if it turns out there is an underlying issue. Did his mom attempt to do anything like this? If not, why not?

What does Connor like about sewing, and what in particular does he do with that hobby? It's an activity with pretty broad applications, so does he like to embroider or alter clothing, make decorations and knick-knacks, or something else?

The "anti-SOTF club" isn't an officially sanctioned school club. Looking at the other profiles of approved characters with that as a hobby, it's something that they do on their own time outside of school. Furthermore, I'm confused as to what is driving Connor's interest in "anti-SOTF" activism, as that's not really explained. What rumors does he believe in about it? Why does he feel his parents would object to it, and what does he actually do in relation to this "club"? The reference to him joining that group during an experimental phase makes it sound like it was just a temporary thing.

What interested Connor about ARGs? What exactly did the ARG that Connor made with Daniel and Willa consist of? Generally those involve puzzles and a mystery for others to solve, leading to a resolution or sometimes a prize. You do acknowledge that something of that scope would be pretty ambitious for a teen to pull off, but since Willa is Connor's age and Daniel is a couple years younger, what exactly did they bring to the table that made this possible? Was this an online ARG, involving videos and such, or an in-person, physical thing? What was the plot?

Connor introduced Riley to TripleThreat in 2019. He didn’t realize that Willa was worried about her being pushed away until she began yelling with him over a comment he had made. Connor didn’t want to argue and attempted to get her to calm down, but he eventually began fighting back. The fight resulted in Willa leaving TripleThreat, and forcing Connor, Riley, and Daniel to work on it without her that year.

Who is Riley? This paragraph feels like it's building off of prior information, but that information isn't in the profile.

"Punk ideology" is listed as an interest of Connor's but is only given a passing mention. In what ways does he embrace this and express himself through it? Overall, I feel that there's an unexplained gap between Connor's childhood and him becoming more rebellious in his teen years. I recommend expanding on the sorts of things that his parents pushed him to do, clarifying if it's grades, extracurriculars, or other responsibilities. I'd also like clarification on what sorts of things his sister disagrees with him on and why she finds him weird.

Given his lack of direction, does Connor plan to continue living with his parents after high school? Is he at least thinking about going to school or getting a job, even if that's not necessarily what he wants to do long-term? How does he do in school, and what is his social circle like these days? Is there any subject that particularly interests him, or any he especially dislikes?

I don't see any of Connor's advantages or disadvantages aside from having a quiet nature detailed in the biography. What sort of knowledge about SOTF does he have that would help him in a survival context? When does he struggle to stand up for himself, and when has he been subject to manipulation before? As it's currently described, I don't think his demeanor would be especially disadvantageous on the island either, unless he's cripplingly shy and unable to interact with people, which doesn't seem to be the case.

Spelling/grammar things:

In order to fill his spare time, his mother decided to teach Connor how to play the French horn, as it was a hobby of hers.

As he grew older, Connor had found himself less interested in French horn.

When he first entered John Endecott Memorial, Connor found himself experimenting more, breaking out more from simply what his parents wanted him to,

I think you're missing a word in the second part here. I'd add "doing" or "participating in" after "simply".

Post in here when you've expanded on those points, and I'll give Connor another look! Feel free to message me if you have any questions.