Daniel Ozanne

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Name: Daniel Ozanne
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Card games, gambling, probability and statistics, mecha anime and video games, surreal fiction

Appearance: Daniel stands at five feet and nine inches, and is rather light for his height at 135 lbs, with a lean build. His complexion is olive-toned. He has an oval-shaped face with a pointed chin, a pointed nose, somewhat thin lips on a moderately wide mouth, and high cheekbones. His eyes are upturned and narrow in shape, and green in colour. Daniel does wear very light makeup on a regular basis, generally sticking to foundation and lip gloss. As for his hair, it is coloured a reddish brown, is fairly thin, and very wavy. It's currently cut just above the shoulders, and Daniel generally leaves it hanging in a rather scruffy, unkempt manner, though he occasionally pulls it into a loose ponytail.

Daniel dresses casually, and typically in muted or dark colours. Generally speaking, he wears simple t-shirts, jeans, and a jacket or sweater over them, with either sneakers or boots. In addition, he is almost always wearing prescription glasses. On the day of the abduction, Daniel was wearing a loose, black t-shirt, a muted red jacket over it, faded blue jeans, white ankle-socks, and black sneakers. He also wore narrow rectangular glasses with thin red frames.

Biography: Daniel was born to Elaine Ozanne on June 1st 2003 in Saint-Nicholas, Quebec. He was born during Elaine’s drawn-out divorce from her husband and Daniel’s father, Sebastian Ozanne. When the divorce proceedings were over, Elaine moved to Salem with her infant son, where they would live with her older cousin, Genevive. Elaine was struggling with her mental health after leaving an abusive marriage and resented parenthood, and so often relied on Genevive to help her take care of Daniel, and support the household. Throughout his childhood, Daniel had a more positive and healthy relationship with Genevive than his own mother, because she was the more available and attentive of his guardians. Genevive works in a convenience store, and has worked various other odd jobs throughout Daniel's life. For the first few years of them moving in, Elaine didn't work, but eventually resumed what she did before getting married, freelance graphic design. Sebastian is not a part of Daniel's life, and since his primary source of information about him was through Elaine, who would describe how abusive he was to her in detail, Daniel is thoroughly unwilling to seek his father out.

In elementary school, Daniel was a social, curious, and irreverent child. His teachers routinely complained about him talking back to them, or causing trouble in the classroom. This behavior and their complaints became less common in later years, and eventually stopped entirely.

During Daniel’s early childhood, Genevive and family friends would try to convince Elaine to get therapy. She resisted this suggestion due to her mistrust of psychiatry, but Genevive was concerned, and eventually coaxed Elaine to go through with it despite her mistrust. Elaine starting therapy was the start of a rift between her and Genevive. Elaine was still skeptical of its necessity and usefulness, while Genevive started to grow frustrated with her, seeing her as sabotaging her own health while she did all the work of caring for her and her son. Daniel was aware of the tensions, and would be anxious that Genevive would be pushed out of his life because of it, but mostly kept such worries to himself out of a fear of exacerbating the issue if he brought it up.

It was around this time, when Daniel was in the middle of 5th grade, that Genevive got back into playing video games in her free time to relieve stress. Daniel would often come home from school to find Genevive playing games on a Game Boy Advance, and he enjoyed watching her play. When he expressed interest in playing himself, Genevive would allow him to try for a while. For his 11th birthday later that year, she gifted him a Game Boy Advance and a couple of games of his own. At first he was disappointed that the tactical RPG with the mechs he saw Genevive playing, the game that he found most interesting, wasn’t included among them, but he soon became engrossed in the games he did have.

Due to moving house in the summer prior to 6th grade, none of Daniel’s friends from elementary school went to the same middle school as him. He was anxious to make new friends, and fell in with a group whose main bonding activity was playing various card games at lunch time, something Daniel found exciting and fun. He especially enjoyed more fast-paced card games that required him to think quickly, though he was mostly there for the social aspect. This friend group would stick together and grow close throughout middle school.

During middle school, Daniel started spending a significant amount of time online, mostly to talk to his friends after school. Early on, he got the idea of trying to find the mech game he saw Genevive playing on the internet - he didn’t know its name, but he wanted to see more of it than what Genevive allowed him to. Eventually, he discovered that it was a game in the Super Robot Wars series, though was disappointed to learn most of them weren’t available in America. However, it did spark his interest in the characters and series that appeared in Super Robot Wars, leading him to a wide variety of mecha anime, which he watched throughout middle school and high school, with several he is fond of to the present day.

Middle school was when Daniel started wondering about relationships, gender, and sexuality more, and realized he was attracted to boys as well as girls. When he learned the term bisexual from the internet, and that there were other people who felt that way, he gained the confidence to come out to his mother and Genevive. They had very little knowledge about LGBTQ+ issues, but both were accepting anyway. While Daniel appreciates their acceptance, he’s stopped trying to talk to them about it, as he grew tired of explaining parts of his identity and the community that felt elementary to him.

Daniel enrolled in John Endecott Memorial Academy for high school. In 9th grade, while in the library, Daniel stumbled across a copy of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. The cover alone intrigued him enough for him to check it out. The book had a great influence on him, and the manner of writing and imagery stuck with him for a long time. After a long period of being uncertain about his opinion of the book, he decided he liked it, which sparked a period of him seeking out or revisiting the strange and surreal in media, and appreciating it specifically for its unconventional nature.

By 10th grade, Daniel's friend group from middle school had mostly drifted apart. A couple transferred to different schools, but for the most part, many of Daniel's old friends prioritized new friends and interests, or academic work, over continued communication. It was during this time when one of Daniel's remaining old friends, though one he wasn't as close to as before, introduced him to a group he gambled on card games with. The first few times he was invited, Daniel said no, but that changed when he started working part time. He continues to gamble to this day. A favourite game of his is poker, as he feels it’s more skill based than other card games his group would gamble on. He has won more money playing poker than other card games, thanks to his ability to read people, but overall he has lost more money on gambling than he has earned - by often taking risky bets, as he finds them more exciting. As he only gambles what he's earned from working as a matter of principle, he doesn't gamble much at a time. He has never told his guardians about this hobby, and intends to keep it secret from them. Elaine often suspects he’s up to something shady, but the most she does is lightly question him about it.

Before 10th grade, Daniel had almost always gotten middling grades in all of his subjects. He only put in enough effort to pass, and little else, because he didn’t care much for academics and felt it would be largely inapplicable after school. However, in 10th grade, his English and Math grades suddenly improved quite a bit. He found himself having genuine interest in analyzing books and discussing their themes and ideas in English, and getting into the probabilities of card games sparked him to examine math in a new light. His English and Math grades continue to be his highest, though he’s put in some more effort into his other subjects lately as well. He’s unsure of what he wants to do after high school, and wants to take a break year before thinking about college.

During the early COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, Elaine and Genevive’s relationship became far more tense, and they argued often over their chores and responsibilities, and over their political opinions of the lockdown itself, since Elaine was convinced the risk was being blown out of proportion, while Genevive felt that the pandemic wasn't being taken seriously enough by most. Then, Genevive caught covid from work. For a number of weeks, the house was divided between Genevive and the others who lived with her to allow her to self-isolate, and Daniel rarely saw her. It was an intensely stressful period for everyone in the household, and the amount of work Elaine had to take on around the house and professionally to make up for Genevive being unable to work, along with seeing her suffer through the illness, caused Elaine to reflect on herself, and her life since moving in with her cousin. She started taking therapy more seriously, and made an effort to show her affection for her family more. Genevive still has a cough, so Daniel fears for her health in the future, especially since it was difficult to make ends meet when Genevive wasn't able to work - and he has mixed emotions about his mother’s change in attitude. While he was long aware that Elaine was suffering to some extent, and felt bad about it, he also resented her seeming lack of care about him, and her antagonism towards Genevive when she was trying to help. Though he’s glad that his mother is changing for the better, Daniel doesn’t feel willing to forgive her previous behaviour.

Daniel likes to meet new people, and finds it easy to strike up a conversation with whoever’s around, but also dislikes centering himself or attracting too much attention. He fades into the background of groups, but comes across as confident, lively, and well-spoken one-on-one. He considers many people friends and acquaintances, though he’s not necessarily popular or well-known. There isn’t much difference in how Daniel treats people he doesn’t know compared to how he treats his friends, since he’s cordial towards all of them, though more relaxed and willing to be open around his friends. As he’s easily bored, he seeks excitement in his life wherever he can get it, which he mostly finds via meeting new people, trying new things his friends suggest, and gambling.

Advantages: Daniel doesn’t attract much attention, but is generally liked, and could de-escalate or mediate if he needed to. He is attentive and analytical when it comes to people.
Disadvantages: Daniel is a habitual risk taker, and is generally bad at conceptualizing the consequences of taking risks, and at thinking in the long term.

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Hey there Blizz! Thank you for your patience in waiting on a critique for Daniel. He's off to a good start, and there's just a bit of clarification and expansion needed before he's ready to go.

Capitalize the first item in the Hobbies & Interests section, since it's the start of a list.

With Daniel's birthday, he'd be 18 at the start of the 2021 school year.

Did Elaine hold a job throughout Daniel's childhood? What about currently? What does Genevieve do for work, and what's the financial situation like?

If Daniel hasn't moved living locations between middle and high school, he would probably be attending the same high school as most of his previous classmates, as school districts typically funnel people who live in certain areas to the same schools. What was the reason that he didn't?

When, where, and how often does Daniel gamble on poker games? Openly betting money on games wouldn't be allowed at school, at the very least. About how much money has he made with his betting, and how much has he lost? Where is he getting this money? It doesn't seem like there would be a lot of spare income to go around in his family.

Trying LSD as your very first drug experience is sort of jumping into the deep end of the pool. If you want to keep that as the psychedelic that Daniel and his boyfriend tried, I would like some explanation of how a couple of 15-year-olds got their hands on it, since it's illegal in Massachusetts and less accessible than stuff like marijuana or alcohol for underage people. You could also potentially have this experience take place when they're a little older for plausibility, or have them do something like psychedelic mushrooms instead, which are generally safer, less intense, and easier to find.

At the beginning of the profile, Genevieve is referred to as Elaine's cousin, but the paragraph covering COVID calls her Elaine's sister. Either is fine, it just needs to be consistent throughout.

Has Daniel ever had any contact with his father? Since he's stated to have been abusive to Elaine, I'd imagine she doesn't want to reach out to him, but has Daniel ever been interested in connecting with him or vice versa?

I feel like the Advantages and Disadvantages could stand to be fleshed out just a bit more with specific examples, but as they currently are, they do cover everything essential.

That's what I've got on this pass, so post in here when you've made those edits, and I'll take another look at Daniel!

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

draft 2 sent in for review

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