Niall Harris

[midnight_twelve]

Name: Niall Dylan Harris
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Reading and writing (especially poetry), football, whiskey and wine tasting, music (especially classical and jazz), parties and social events

Appearance: Niall stands at just over 6 feet and weighs about 175 lbs. with broad shoulders and above-average musculature especially in his chest and upper arms. He is African-American and has a dark complexion. He has a diamond face shape with a sharp jaw and strikingly handsome features. His eyes are dark brown, sharp and narrow. He has a broad nose and full lips. His black hair is cropped short on the back and sides and left slightly longer on top, so his ears stick out a bit, though they're of an average size. He regularly cleans and shaves his face so he rarely has either facial hair or acne. Niall's default expression is a slight frown and he has quite an intense stare. He rarely smiles, generally only when he's with close friends. He has good posture and tends to stand up straight with his hands in his pockets or arms folded over his chest. His voice is deep and usually quite quiet with a natural monotone.

Niall tends to dress smartly for school and socialising, usually sporting a button-up shirt and smart trousers. When the temperature allows it, such as in the evenings or the winter, he tends to wear sweaters like turtlenecks and cardigans and his favourite jacket, a navy blue overcoat. His clothes tend to have a muted, neutral colour scheme, favouring navy blues, tans, browns and greys. On the day of the abduction he was wearing brown leather shoes, smart suede trousers with a leather belt and a navy blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He had a silver watch on his left wrist.

Biography: Niall Dylan Harris was born to William and Sara Harris in Las Vegas, Nevada on the 15th of September 2006. William worked an office job in the city, heading the IT department of a local business and earning enough to afford the family a comfortable middle class lifestyle. Sara stayed at home to look after Niall whilst taking care of the house. William and Sara had a very happy marriage, and doted on Niall, their only child, throughout his childhood.

Niall learned to talk early, and his parents could tell he was bright for his age. From a young age, Niall was a voracious reader at a consistently higher reading level than most of his peers. Niall's parents were all too happy to foster this interest, providing him with as many books as he wanted and making the effort to read aloud with him, which helped him progress to longer and more challenging works.

As a child, Niall befriended a boy his age named Finn Cooper. The two were sat together in class in the hopes that Niall's quiet and studious nature might rub off on the more disobedient Finn, but the two became fast friends despite their differences. They spent a lot of time playing together at school and at Niall's house. Both kids were into sports and eventually joined the football team together.

Niall has enjoyed football ever since he started playing. William, a huge football fan himself, encouraged Niall's interest in the sport, attending Niall's games wherever possible and watching professional games with him, either on the television or occasionally treating his son to a trip to see a match live. Niall has supported the Denver Broncos since he was a child, even since their rivals the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas. He now plays as a tight end on Southwest Red Rock High School’s football team, which he excels at despite being slightly smaller than many that play in the position; his relatively higher speed and agility gives him an edge.

Niall's love of reading meant he took to English class, though he initially struggled with the creative writing side of the subject. He wasn't overly creative, and lacked the wild imagination that often leads young children to writing stories. He didn't find his love of writing until an assignment in English class required him to try his hand at writing poetry. He delighted in being able to explore and depict the world around him in more creative ways without having to invent fictitious characters and plots. In terms of subject matter, Niall often writes about romance, finding poetry a good way to process his own feelings, and in terms of style he writes in a very elegant, slightly old-fashioned manner in both verse and prose. He has a wide range of influences, from Shakespearean sonnets to 20th century works from scenes like the Harlem Renaissance and the Beat Generation, though he considers his biggest influence the Romantic movement. The focus on emotion and chivalric ideals of the genre appeal greatly to Niall. His favourite poets from this era include Lord Byron and Edgar Allan Poe, both of whose works he has studied extensively. Niall is a perfectionist, which makes him very reluctant to share his creative work with anyone since he's rarely happy with it. At the same time, he hates giving up on projects and starting over, so he has dozens of poems and a handful of short stories that are in a stage of completion but he isn't satisfied with yet, occasionally revisiting them.

When he started to go through puberty, Niall realised he was physically and romantically attracted to Finn. At first he didn't understand these feelings and tried to suppress them, but as other boys his age developed interests in girls that he never found, Niall started to examine his sexuality. Niall has never felt strong romantic attraction to anyone other than Finn, though he has found other men attractive, which he often feels ashamed of since it conflicts with his ideals of true love. Gay and demisexual are the labels he identifies with most. Niall is very reluctant to come out of the closet, mostly because he feels this would recontextualise his friendship with Finn and lead to at best a gentle rejection and at worst their falling out. There is also an element of internalised homophobia at play, since Niall often wishes he was straight and blames his homosexuality for the misery his unrequited love has caused him. Despite this, Niall is not consciously homophobic and is a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, albeit seldom vocally since he wants to avoid any speculation that he himself might be queer. Some rumours have circulated about Niall's sexuality given his lack of a romantic history and close friendship with Finn, but most of his classmates either don't suspect or care that he is gay. Publicly he insists he is just waiting to find the right woman, and has gently rejected a handful of female admirers.

As they grew up, Niall and Finn developed different hobbies and social circles. Finn began to hang out more and more with the delinquent kids, while Niall became part of the popular crowd, spending more time with his fellow footballers and the other athletes and popular kids that they interacted with. They remained best friends but their lack of mutual friends made it difficult to hang out together as often. Niall misses the days when they used to spend more time together, and often struggles with feelings of loneliness and isolation despite his relatively active social life. Niall’s feelings for Finn have lasted a lot longer than the usual teenage crush, and persevered in spite of Niall’s near-certainty that Finn is straight; he firmly believes that what he is feeling is true, albeit unrequited, love. He has romanticised this idea to himself, seeing it as a noble and selfless form of love. It has however caused him a lot of grief and anger over the years, with him often believing he will never feel true happiness, and that his sexuality has robbed him of a fulfilled life. He considers a lot of his best poetry to have stemmed from these emotions. Niall has never attended therapy or been diagnosed with any mental health conditions, however he has suffered from long periods of depression and has occasionally had outbursts of anger, though rarely in social situations; when he does snap in public, its normally in a high-stress environment like football games, where it doesn’t take people by surprise and is quickly forgotten.

One thing Niall liked to do whilst he read or wrote was have mellow music play quietly in the background. His dad had a record player and a number of jazz records on vinyl, which Niall found soothing and helpful in finding and keeping his focus. Despite an appreciation of good lyricism, Niall prefers music without lyrics since it doesn’t distract his own writing process. His favourite genres are jazz and classical, and he has a modest collection of vinyl records as well as a record player in his room. He listens to them whilst working on creative projects, schoolwork or just to calm down when he gets angry or depressed.

Niall enjoys a popular reputation among most of his classmates. He is almost always polite, but he can come across as cold and sometimes even condescending or judgemental to those outside of his friendship groups. He has a reputation for being aloof and slightly mysterious, but his respect from the school's sports teams and friendship with many of Red Rock's most popular athletes afford him a lot of popularity. He also likes to help people, both with their school work but also with their personal problems. Though not many people have opened up to him, those who do find him to be a good listener and wise advisor. He has tutored students for pocket money before, including both his own classmates and those in younger grades.

In high school, Niall's friends on the football team invited him to a party, during which time he drank alcohol for the first time. He didn’t care for the cheap vodka that he was offered first, but found the bottle of wine one of his teammates had brought along much more palatable. This was the start of two interests for Niall, and he would become a regular guest at his classmates’ parties throughout high school, and develop a fascination with wine. He liked the drink’s sophisticated reputation and was intrigued by the complexities of its flavours and production. At first he could only try alcoholic drinks at parties but eventually his parents allowed him to join them for a drink at dinner. Niall would request they buy various different wines so he could explore different grapes and wine regions, and he read up on wine culture online. Later, he would try whiskey, and similarly develop an interest in the different ways of distilling and aging that drink. Niall doesn’t like being drunk enough to lose control of his actions, but he does like being slightly inebriated since it provides a welcome break from his emotions and helps him open up a bit more. He normally only gets the chance to experience this at parties; his parents are slightly worried that he might develop a drinking habit, so they keep a close eye on the alcohol in the house.

Niall became interested in politics largely through reading, which brought him into contact with the usually progressive and often radical worldviews of many authors and poets. He considers himself to be an anarchist and a socialist. He has a particular interest in the civil rights and LGBTQ+ movements since they affect him personally, but passionately supports other progressive causes as well.

Niall does very well in school and is a straight-A student. Essay-based subjects come naturally to him, whereas he has to study more to maintain such high grades in the sciences. His teachers have a lot of respect for him given his studious nature and academic achievements. Niall wants to go to university but is hesitant to move away from Finn, which is limiting his plans for the future. He currently plans to take a year off after school and apply to a local university after that, despite being well able to get into a more prestigious university if he applied himself. He intends to study English Literature wherever he ends up and would like to remain in academia for a while, potentially making a career out of it whilst trying to get something published on the side. His ultimate life ambition is to be well known and respected as a poet and author, though he worries both about his own ability and advances like AI making it difficult to find work in the creative industry.

Advantages: Niall is a talented athlete with good speed, strength and stamina. He's highly intelligent, and unlikely to act impulsively given how reserved he is. He is popular, with many friends in the school's sporting teams, so he could likely find physically capable allies on the island.
Disadvantages: Due to his aloof and stoic nature, classmates who aren't already friends of his might struggle to trust Niall, and he might struggle to trust them, making alliances more difficult. He is prone to self-destructive behaviour, particularly where Finn Cooper is concerned, and might put the other boy's survival before his own.

[VoltTurtle]

Heya Eugene. I've got Niall, and while he's looking really good and has no major problems, he is DENIED pending a few small fixes.

School: Red Rock Academy

It's "Southwest Red Rock High School".

Niall has enjoyed football ever since.

Sentence fragment/awkward transition. Slight expansion:

"Niall has enjoyed football ever since he started playing."

anyone since it he's rarely happy

I don't think this "it" should be there.

tried to supress them

Suppress.


...and that's it! As I said, really good state already. Post back here when you have those fixed and he should be good to go!

[midnight_twelve]

Thanks volt, should be all up to scratch now!

[VoltTurtle]

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