Survival Of The Fittest

Name: Gabriel Phineas Killingsworth
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Pastel Goth Fashion, Activism, Baking, Atheism, Chemistry

Appearance: Gabriel stands at 5’ 7” and weighs around 155 pounds, his frame thin but with some musculature just barely visible. He is Caucasian, and has naturally pale skin tone, which often leads to him getting sunburnt if he’s not careful. Because of how his eyelids fold differently, his round blue eyes appear to have two different shapes, the right the normal rounded shape all around, and the left having a flat top. He has straight eyebrows, a hooked nose, a rectangular head, and thin lips. His short light brown hair is neatly brushed down, and has recently been heavily dyed, with the left side of his hair being dyed white and a center stripe dyed light pink, with the right side being left alone to replicate neapolitan ice cream, with each color having equal space.

When it comes to clothing, has found a niche he enjoys and intends to never stray from with pastel goth fashion. From black lipstick and pink eyeshadow, to light multicolor sweaters and white knee socks with pink frills, to even black skirts with patterns of lavenders and daisies and powder blue dresses with lace sleeves and accessorized with a parasol on his days away from school. If it’s something that will make his father upset, the more likely he’ll wear it.

On the day of the abduction, Gabriel was forced to tone down his style to be allowed on the trip, and so wore a lavender sweater with a white dots and a black bat pattern, and over it a light pink trench coat. Paired with them are black jeans with a sizable amount of Care Bear patches dotting the fabric and white combat boots. He chose to accessorize, first with a lavender face mask with a pattern of a small black cartoon cat face, then a single contact lens on his right eye made to make his eye appear a light teal color, and finally a few pins, including light pink strait jacket pin, a skeleton unicorn with a light rainbow mane pin, a powder blue and pastel pink pin of Freddy Krueger’s glove, and a light lavender candy heart pin with the words ‘Not Okay’ on it, with two pins on each side of his trench coat; the candy heart and strait jacket on the right, and the glove and unicorn on the left.

Biography: Birth name Gabriel St John, he was born on May 18, 2004, to Abel and Evelyn St John née Killingsworth, in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother and father-a psychologist and a construction manager respectively-had met at their local church, quickly fell for each other, and were married within a year. The two would go on to have two children, the older one being Gabriel and the younger one being Lillith, being seven years his junior.

Life was simple for Gabriel in the beginning, watching shows that actively proclaimed their Christian beliefs and regularly going to church to learn more about the bible and God. He showed himself to be an enthusiastic follower as well as a quick learner. He made sure to do everything his parents asked of him, even if they did not make him entirely happy, such as hiding his love for colors Abel found feminine like pink or lavender With his parents being extremely caring and his grades being quite good, Gabriel as well as his parents believed his future would go well.

The year 2011 brought changes to the status quo, however. Shortly after finding out Evelyn was pregnant, it was announced by the family’s main radio show host, a man named Harold Camping, that the world would be ending on March 21st of that year, specifically with the Rapture coming. While Evelyn had her doubts about the situation-especially considering it went against scripture-Abel convinced her to believe and to support Camping’s company Family Radio with large donations and spreading the word using paid time off. Gabriel joined them, not yet fully understanding but wanting to be supportive of his parents had to say.

March 21st came, and while the family prepared to enter Heaven holding each other, they quickly realized that the prediction wasn’t accurate. After later attempts were made by Camping to backtrack and save face-even making a second prediction for later that year-Evelyn had lost her patience. She entered an intense argument with Abel over their finances and his willingness to listen to Camping, made worse by his hesitation to brush off the later prediction for the Rapture. The final strike was the discovery that Abel had emptied out the college fund they had started for Gabriel, permanently earning Evelyn’s hatred. They filed for divorce by the beginning of April. To avoid forcing their six year old to be the subject of a custody hearing, it was decided that each parent would have shared physical custody of Gabriel, staying with Evelyn on weekdays and Abel on weekends, alternating custody on the holidays.

Gabriel meanwhile became greatly confused over things. Before religion and God had always made his parents happy, but it only earned him pitying looks and words of comfort from his mother. He did not yet know what a college fund was, or many of the other things had overheard his parents yelling about while eavesdropping, but they had made his parents angrier than he had ever heard or seen them be before. God and the Bible were what made his mother upset the most, making Gabriel question why something he had been so eager to and was encouraged to learn from had caused so much pain in his family. He promised himself that he would get more details so he could understand things properly in the future.

It took time, but Gabriel eventually got answers when he was 11 years old. That not only had his father believed they were all going to die, but had actively chosen to sabotage his future had the Rapture not happened. Gabriel was both highly disturbed and extremely upset, having expected better from Abel and sparking an argument between the two the next time they saw each other. Said argument ended with Gabriel disowning his father and refusing to stay with him anymore. The end result was Evelyn and Abel going to court to officially settle custody, where it was decided Abel would only have visitation rights while Evelyn would take care of both Gabriel and the then 5 year old Lillith.

By this point, Evelyn had not only taken back her maiden name, but had moved to Salem for cheaper housing than Boston. Gabriel had no problems with this, as he wanted as little to do with his father as possible. He not only took his mother’s last name, but had destroyed the bible his father had gifted him, soaking it in a toilet until every page was flushed. Evelyn finally realized the mental damage that had been done to Gabriel and had him see a therapist for his emotional issues. In addition, she chose to raise Gabriel more freely from now on, choosing to put his happiness and his plans for the future above religion or any of her other opinions.

Changes came quickly after that, the most immediate being Gabriel’s wardrobe. For his 12th birthday, he was allowed to abandon all the plain button-ups and khakis Abel had wanted him to wear and started wearing pastels and various lighter colors. While this did earn him some teasing and insults at school, Gabriel didn’t let this bother him, enjoying finally being able to express himself the way always wanted.

At 13, Gabriel began learning how to bake from Evelyn, as she was quite good at it herself, but had never been allowed to try it previously-another thing Abel found feminine-and Evelyn wanted to wait until he was a teenager to let him try anything in the kitchen. While not the best in frosting and decorating cakes and the like, Gabriel showed himself to be just as quick a learner in baking as he was in learning about Christianity, making delicious foods every time he worked with an oven. He learned the basics of how to cook during this time as well, but never became as interested in it as he did with baking.

It was also at age 13 that Gabriel chose what religion he would follow, that being none. The belief in a god hurt his future and severely maimed his relationship with his father, and while a lack of belief wouldn’t fix anything, he felt too betrayed by the concept of religion to continue with it. While the previous decisions had upset his father, this seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Abel, as he stopped contact at this point, with his last verbal message to Gabriel being a brief promise to pray for him. The resulting rant he gave to his therapist was long enough to take up half his next session.

High school brought with it more things for Gabriel to explore and become interested in. His science grades, already quite good, skyrocketed when he took chemistry, easily finding the similarities between it and baking. He found the class exciting and has taken a chemistry class ever since freshman year.

Sophomore had him discover a new form for his fashion interest; the pastel goth style. He admired the intricacies of the clothing, and wanted to try it out for himself. While John Endecott Memorial Academy wouldn’t allow anything too provocative, he was still able to practice it more lightly while there, and go all out during weekends and vacations. He became so enamored with the style that he even chose to join the school’s Fashion club.

The final interest that Gabriel gained occurred from sophomore to junior year-specifically during the quarantine. During these times, Christian groups seemed to become more and more despicable to Gabriel, as some tried to gather in person, acting as though the virus was nothing to worry about, claiming a form of special treatment to get more funding, or believing that they could heal with faith in God alone. While baking helped somewhat, what truly became his outlet for stress relief was activism. With incidents such as Brionna Taylor’s unnecessary death, and the captured on camera horror of George Floyd’s death, Gabriel couldn’t help but feel horrified at the actions of police against people of color, and chose to attend a number of protests against police brutality and for Black Lives Matter. While this has earned him some pain, most notably suffering from tear gas by the police, he has not let this deter him and has continued protesting whenever possible.

Gabriel’s grades have always been good, usually getting B’s at the lowest. His chemistry grade in particular is his best, even completing as much extra credit as possible to earn himself an A+. The only class he has much trouble in is Spanish, having pushed it off until senior year because he has some difficulty with foreign languages.

Gabriel’s sense of style has made him somewhat of an outcast among his classmates, but he doesn’t let this bother him. He’s mostly made friends with similar loners and outcasts, though he lacks any real strong connections among them. His attitude is regularly sarcastic and snarky, though those that know him understand that he means well, usually trying to lighten a mood or raise concerns about something or other. He often uses it as a coping mechanism for stressful situations as well, as his therapist recommended keeping his anger to a minimum, and Gabriel believed sarcasm was a fine alternative. He avoids this attitude near teachers so he can stay out of trouble. He tends to avoid bringing up his atheism to people unless they explicitly talk about religion to him, as he feels it’s an unnecessary detail to bring up otherwise. His baking skills are similar, as he’ll occasionally bring a baked good to school, but either not mention he made it himself, or imply Evelyn made it.

Gabriel’s familial relationships are split. While his therapy sessions have helped him understand that Abel was tricked into believing the world would end, his actions during and after that belief convinced Gabriel that his father was always awful, and has no intentions of ever trying to repair the relationship. He acknowledges that Evelyn has made mistakes, meanwhile, but has tried to fix and make up for them, setting aside money for Gabriel to go to college and even helping him get a job at the local grocery store to help him raise money as well. He has a good relationship with the woman, the two occasionally snarking each other as a form of affection. Gabriel’s relationship with his now 10 year old sister Lillith is similarly sarcastic yet well meaning, every once in a while getting in a genuine fight, but always making up before too long.

Gabriel plans to attend culinary school after graduating, with hopes of either setting up his own bakery, or becoming a baker at another established bakery. He also plans to continue his work with attending protests, and has every intention to continue wearing his pastel goth clothing.

Advantages: Gabriel lacks any strong relationships with his classmates, and will likely have few issues when pitted against them. While not incredibly athletic, he is physically capable to the point of handling himself in a fight. He’s intelligent, which can definitely serve him well, and his cooking knowledge may come in handy if ingredients can be found for a proper meal.
Disadvantages: Gabriel’s lack of strong relationships hurts as much as it helps, as he will likely have difficulty finding allies. While he can sometimes close his mouth to avoid trouble, more often than not he’s not one to stand down against unequal treatment, and may get himself in unnecessary trouble when in the environment of SOTF. His preferred fashion may prove dangerous as well, as the various light colors will stand out in any environment, hindering his ability to hide.

Hi there AnimeNerd! Thanks for your patience in waiting on a critique for Gabriel. He's off to a good start but is DENIED pending some fine-tuning, so let's get right on into it.

At 5'7" and 155 pounds Gabriel is actually just on the cusp of being considered overweight, so he probably would not have a thin frame. He'd be more muscled or have a bit more body fat at that weight; just drop 10 pounds or so if he's supposed to be thin for his height.

If Gabriel was made to dress down a bit for the school trip, what sort of outfits does he normally wear that would be more outrageous? Does he tend to run afoul of the school dress code? It's later stated that he tries not to, so I'm not sure why he'd have been made to change just for the trip.

Was there any particular reason for the delay in Gabriel finding out the details of how the Rapture incident led to his parents' divorce? I can imagine that one or both parents would try to soften that explanation for a little kid since Gabriel was only six when they split, but right now there's no reason given at all for the gap of several years between the divorce and anyone actually telling Gabriel why.

The custody situation also needs some clarification or tweaking. Evelyn and Abel split up because of irreconcilable differences concerning how they wanted to raise their children and lead their own lives, which is common. It makes sense that they could come to a shared custody agreement because they didn't want to subject Gabriel to the stress of custody hearings. If that was what they mutually agreed upon and were happy with for five years afterwards, though, it's strange to me that Evelyn would suddenly decide that she wants sole custody based on Gabriel having a single fight with his father. Massachusetts custody law defaults to shared custody between parents unless there is proof of misconduct or a danger to the child's physical, mental, or emotional wellbeing on the part of one parent. Abel's decision regarding Gabriel's college fund was demonstrably irresponsible, but given that that's years in the past at this point and that there is no mention of hostility or poor conditions in the intervening time, I don't see a court ruling to give Evelyn sole physical custody and reducing Abel's rights to just visitation with his children based only on Gabriel getting mad at his dad. Even if Gabriel declares he doesn't want to live with Abel, that sort of thing is common enough in split-custody situations that without the aforementioned proof, it would probably be a big waste of time and money for Evelyn to try to sue for full custody of the kids.

Making changes to this part is probably going to affect the rest of the profile since it hinges on Gabriel's mom getting sole custody of him after this. As it stands, I won't pick too hard about those details until the custody issue gets the needed adjustments. It's still perfectly feasible for Gabriel to have a strained relationship with his dad after finding out about the Rapture thing and continue on with his rebelliousness if the shared custody situation remains as it was.

I do also have questions about Gabriel's anger towards his dad, because it does seem that he has other deep-seated anger issues that don't stem from his family situation. His feelings of anger and betrayal after finding out about how Abel drained his college fund and such are understandable; centering his entire personality and most of his hobbies and interests around that anger for years afterwards is less so, especially if he's receiving counseling for these feelings. I get the sense that Abel is supposed to be the bad guy here, but aside from being financially irresponsible and a bit tactless, he does seem like he tries to be a good parent. If there's a bad relationship post-divorce between him and Evelyn, then with the information we currently have, it seems like it's coming from Evelyn's side. Abel choosing to cut down on contact with Gabriel based on Gabriel claiming to be atheist could happen, but does he cut off his ex-wife and daughter too? He'd still be paying child support for them.

Building off of that: did Gabriel have any hobbies or interests before the age of 12 or so? His family was wrapped up in church activity during his early childhood, but he had to have some things he did for fun. How was his early school experience? It's stated that he was fine moving from Boston to Salem because he wanted to distance himself from his dad, but what about his friends and old school?

His existing hobbies need more development as well. What does he like about chemistry aside from finding it similar to baking? US public schools have a standardized curriculum that generally has students taking one year of each of the "hard" sciences, so one year of chemistry, one of physics, one of biology, etc. Most schools, JEM included, would not offer enough chemistry classes at different levels for a student to fill all four years with them like a college would.

How does Gabriel engage with atheism? Currently it seems more like his own set of personal beliefs than an actual hobby, since he's stated to keep it mostly to himself. Does Evelyn still engage with church activity? Her religion is mentioned, which makes it sound like she still identifies as Christian. How does that affect Gabriel's relationship with her?

If Gabriel only got involved in activism during the 2020 quarantine, I don't see how he can be attending large protests in person. Massachusetts and the Boston area especially cracked down on quarantine violations more than some other states, so it's less likely that people were gathering en mass there during the past year or so. I don't see his mom being okay with him attending protests that could pose a danger to him, either. I can tell you from personal experience: tear gas is not something you just walk off if you aren't wearing a gas mask, and I can't imagine it's something that Evelyn would be very willing to brush off either if Gabriel was on the receiving end of that, not to mention all of the other things that can go wrong when you get in a confrontation with police.

Pastel goth and other subculture fashion is a bit more mainstream than it used to be. It's fine if Gabriel chooses mostly to associate with other kids who share his interest and if others judge him for how he presents himself, but it's unlikely to make him a real social pariah just for that.

The family paragraph is likely to be affected by the changes and clarifications that need to be made to the custody situation and Gabriel's relationship with his dad, but I do want to ask about extended family. Church is usually a family affair, so are there any relatives on either side who are involved in Gabriel and Lillith's lives?

Gabriel's advantages and disadvantages need work. He may be healthy, but there's no indication in the biography that he would know his way around a physical fight. He doesn't have any athletic or otherwise physical hobbies, nor does he have experience with fights real or simulated. I'm also not sold on the cooking advantage; given that he's mostly focused on baking rather than cooking in general, the ingredients and tools he'd need to make something edible are not things he's likely to find laying around in usable condition. His intelligence and how it can work for him is also not really detailed in the bio aside from him getting good grades. What kind of intelligence or knowledge does he specifically have that will help him in the context of the island?

His disadvantage about not keeping his mouth shut and staring fights directly contradicts what we're told about how he conducts himself around his peers. If there have been any notable incidents stemming from him mouthing off, that should be specified since it's stated clearly that he tries to manage his anger and hold back on potentially inflammatory topics. The outfit he's wearing during the abduction is also not a disadvantage, because there's nothing stopping him from changing clothes or dirtying himself to make the colors less noticeable, etc. Disadvantages need to be something inherent enough to the character that they can't be easily overcome like that. If he's so devoted to his aesthetic that he's willing to die for it, that's a disadvantage, but the clothes themselves are not.

Spelling and grammar things:

His short light brown hair is neatly brushed down, and has recently been heavily dyed, with the left side of his hair being dyed white and a center stripe dyed light pink, with the right side being left alone to replicate Neapolitan ice cream, with each color having equal space.

This sentence runs on and can be broken up into two or three smaller ones. Alternatively, reword so that there's not so many instances of "with" in this one sentence.

He chose to accessorize, first with a lavender face mask with a pattern of a small black cartoon cat face, then a single contact lens on his right eye made to make his eye appear a light teal color, and finally a few pins, including a light pink strait jacket pin, a skeleton unicorn with a light rainbow mane pin, a powder blue and pastel pink pin of Freddy Krueger’s glove, and a light lavender candy heart pin with the words ‘Not Okay’ on it, with two pins on each side of his trench coat; the candy heart and strait jacket on the right, and the glove and unicorn on the left.

Break this up too. This one sentence is two-thirds of the paragraph it's in.

His mother and father-a psychologist and a construction manager respectively-had met at their local church,

You'll want to put some spaces between the words and dashes here, or just replace the dashes with commas. The same goes for other instances of using dashes throughout the profile. Small dashes with no spaces are meant for hyphenated words rather than informational asides.

The two would go on to have two children, the older one being Gabriel and the younger one being Lillith, being seven years his junior.

You can cut the second "being" in this sentence.

Life was simple for Gabriel in the beginning, watching shows that actively proclaimed their Christian beliefs and regularly going to church to learn more about the Bible and God.

He made sure to do everything his parents asked of him, even if they did not make him entirely happy, such as hiding his love for colors Abel found feminine like pink or lavender

You're missing a period at the end of this sentence.

To avoid forcing their six-year-old to be the subject of a custody hearing,

He not only took his mother’s last name, but had destroyed the Bible his father had gifted him, soaking it in a toilet until every page was flushed.

That should be it, so make those changes, and post in here when you're done!