Rhys Ayari-Caillat

[the finch]

Name: Rhys Matthias Ayari-Caillat
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Hiking, survival skills, circuitry/electrical systems, cross country and track and field

Appearance: Rhys stands at 5’11” and weighs 137 pounds, bordering underweight. He is of Tunisian and French descent, manifested as olive skin that tans easily during the summer. He has a lean body type, with muscle definition in his arms and somewhat in his abs that is not very obvious due to his skinny frame that barely bulks up. His legs are currently more prominently muscular but decrease in musculature slightly in the lower legs, and he expects the muscles to slowly atrophy due to his inheritance of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. Both of his feet have unnaturally high arches and he has developed foot drop in his right foot, meaning it is very difficult for him to lift the front part of that foot.

He has a square jaw and downturned, often weary brown eyes. He shaves sporadically, alternating between scruffy facial hair and clean-shaven with no real pattern. He has a Roman nose and full lips. He only does the bare minimum for face and skin care, and is prone to occasional acne that typically concentrates around the forehead that he covers with his hair when needed. His hair is dark brown, long on the top, and a fade in the sides and back that has since grown out. His voice is medium in pitch and somewhat raspy. He speaks with a subdued Northwestern New England English accent that has since blended with the local dialect in Las Vegas.

Rhys uses forearm crutches for balance and to keep weight off his feet and legs when he's in pain. He wears ankle-foot orthoses as well, so he is meticulous about what shoes he wears because they need to fit the brace while also remaining secure. His wardrobe is largely focused on practicality rather than fashion, particularly in terms of what would be most appropriate to wear outside, though he prefers to keep his sleeves long, regardless of the material, for as long as he can before it gets notably hot.

On the day of the abduction, Rhys wore a 3/4 sleeve shirt with navy blue sleeves and collar and beige baggy cargo pants. The shirt depicted a black Chevy on cinder blocks under large navy blue letters reading “boygenius” and smaller letters reading “Mama told me that it don't run on wishes.” He wore a beige baseball cap with a dark green brim and a picture of Snoopy backpacking. He brought his standard grey forearm crutches and wore AFOs on both feet, under dark brown hiking boots. He also had slight stubble on his chin and upper lip.

Biography: Rhys was born on January 13, 2007 in exurban northeastern Vermont to Lana Ayari and Boyd Caillat. Lana worked as a high school counselor while Boyd worked as a park ranger at the nearby Crystal Lake State Park. Residing in a part of the state with a relatively low cost of living, there was no trouble providing a comfortable life for their only child.

Soon enough, the comfort would be disturbed as Lana was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer when Rhys was two years old. She died two years later. Boyd did not take the loss well, taking to drinking when his child was away at preschool. While he never got drunk in front of Rhys, his mood came across as irritable and closed-off to the young child. Soon enough, he began going to counseling that both helped him deal with the grief and return to full sobriety, for the sake of the son he had to raise.

As a child, Rhys was fairly quiet. He wasn't shy or unfriendly, and could actually hold a good conversation if he had something to say, but he spent a lot more time daydreaming or just thinking. He was raised Catholic, following the religion of his father. He would attend church often with his father and soon became devout to the religion, since it was all he’d ever known. Living in a forested area with a park ranger as a father, he was brought along on beginner hiking trails, which successfully sparked a passion. He enjoyed the activity for its tranquility, as well as the natural beauty he could see.

Starting at age eight, Rhys became hooked on survival reality television shows. He was fascinated by the way people could turn the natural environment into usable tools and shelter. Whenever he went camping with his father, he imitated these shows in ways such as attempting to built shelter out of sticks, and Boyd happily played along. Eventually, Rhys came to learn that these shows were for the most part staged, but the interest continued. He tried learning whatever he could about wilderness survival by checking out many children's nonfiction books on the topic, eventually understanding the basics. He found the field both fun and challenging due to the creativity and practicality involved.

Near the end of Rhys’ fourth grade year, Boyd received a call from his brother that his father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Desiring to stay with his father before his condition deteriorated too much and evidently bad at navigating grief, Boyd decided to move to Las Vegas, where his father was living with Neil, Boyd’s brother. They stayed at that same apartment for a few weeks before Boyd decided that it wasn't healthy for the 10-year-old Rhys to stay in the same small house as his sick grandfather. Boyd took two jobs to support himself, working at a warehouse during the day and as a bartender during the night. Since the cost of living in Las Vegas was significantly higher than that of small-town Vermont, he needed both the extra job and a bit of financial aid from Neil to provide comfortably for himself and his child. The two ended up moving into an apartment at Skyline Heights and Rhys spent a lot of time with babysitters for a couple of years until he was old enough definitively to stay home alone.

Rhys began to harbor an interest in how the mechanics of many appliances and devices he owned worked, simply due to a growing curiosity as he became older. Knowing that he couldn't actually take apart anything in his apartment, running the risk of breaking something that they didn't have the finances to replace, he asked for a model circuit kit for his twelfth birthday. Whenever he had the chance, he assembled kits, deriving pleasure from the ability to work with his hands and truly understand how circuits functioned on a larger scale.

The COVID-19 pandemic went into full effect when Rhys was thirteen years old. Rhys didn't mind too much in the beginning, as he was able to focus on toying with his circuits and, once he was able to, go on hikes. However, things got grave quickly when Rhys’ grandfather contracted the virus, dying within two weeks. Boyd, who had been visiting his father daily for years before the pandemic hit, had a hard time adjusting to the grief again. He relapsed, drinking often. While in lockdown, there was no way to hide this from his son, and he self-justified by claiming Rhys was old enough at that point to witness it. Spending significant money on alcohol, Boyd turned to gambling to attempt to win money, further depleting their funds. With his jobs on hold due to the pandemic, he could barely sustain himself and his son, relying mostly on reluctant financial help from Neil. Once many facilities reopened, Boyd returned to his jobs, although it was still an uphill climb.

At age fourteen, Rhys was finally entrusted to go hiking fully alone, especially since Boyd was too busy juggling two jobs and an alcohol rehabilitation program. The hiking scene was significantly different in Las Vegas from Vermont, but he eventually learned to accept it and enjoy hiking for the activity it was in general. He also used this freedom to explore more of his wilderness survival interest. While far from an avid reader, he picked up more thorough survival guides, narrative nonfiction about actual stories of wilderness survival, and even some nonfiction environmental science books. What he thought was more practical, however, was an after-school class he took on first aid, where he also became CPR certified.

At the same time, Rhys was doing more research on how electrical systems and circuits worked, and felt a lot more confident in his abilities. Finding the circuit kits he started out with somewhat childish, he began to find actual applications for the skills he learned. He started by disassembling and reassembling small appliances, such as electric egg cookers. Eventually, through reading, tutorials, and practice, he was confident enough to help others with appliance repairs, which he began to charge people for in order to help his father financially. He has since taken interest in building devices from scratch as well as HVAC systems.

By the time freshman year came around, Rhys decided to join a sport at the suggestion of multiple people telling him he needed to partake in extracurriculars. He chose cross-country, likening it somewhat to hiking, except fast. While he thought the experience would be only mediocre since he was only doing it due to the expectations of other people, he found himself enjoying it greatly. He loved the people on the team as well as simply the feeling of running. While he'd worked out sparingly before, he began training more extensively through cardio and some basic level weightlifting in anticipation of the Spring track season, which he'd already decided he was going to join due to a perceived overlap between the two. Rhys made the track team as well, enjoying it for the same reasons. His events were mainly shot put and sprints.

Rhys was doing well over the course of the next year in spite of the fact that he only interacted sparingly with his father due to the business of both of their schedules. He grew to be a very independent person, and though he understood that Boyd cared for him, he felt a disconnect between the two. At age fifteen, halfway through his second semester of sophomore year, Rhys was beginning to feel substantially jaded. He began losing interest in his hobbies, while they were paradoxically the only things keeping him going. While he was never a perfect student, his grades began to slip significantly. Soon enough, one of his teachers noticed this seemingly uncharacteristic behavior and notified Boyd. Eventually, after a couple of visits to psychologists, Rhys was diagnosed officially with Major Depressive Disorder. By summer break, he was on a steady supply of antidepressants that helped to alleviate the symptoms, though he felt fluctuating levels of bad depending on the day.

While the depression was a setback, Rhys still continued with his sports. This, however, took a major turn near the beginning of the track and field season of his junior He'd felt occasional weakness, pain, and numbness in his legs for a bit, but the major alarm that something might've been wrong was the sudden development of foot drop in his left foot. He was referred to a neurologist, where he was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. His maternal grandfather had the disease when he was alive, although Boyd typically didn't speak about his wife at all, which included family history, even though it would have been beneficial to know. Still early in progression, Rhys maintained the ability to actually use his legs, but he was given mobility aids to make movement easier nonetheless because it was still not easy to use them constantly. Feeling irrationally guilty for the costs of the neurologist, the crutches, and the ensuing physical therapy, Rhys took on a job as a restaurant host to earn money for the household.

Rhys doesn't mourn his mother extensively, never having known her very well. While he believes life would be easier with an actual mother figure, and wishes he could have a living one to an extent, he doesn't spend a lot of time dwelling on the past, especially since Boyd never liked to speak about her. Rhys’ opinions on his religion are a bit strained. While he still describes himself as a devout Catholic, he is wary of a lot of the discrimination he's seen in the church and also feels extremely guilty for tapering out of church visits ever since the depression began.

Currently, Rhys is learning to best accommodate his disability. He's in physical therapy, learning how to walk on crutches efficiently and doing exercises to help maintain the muscle that he can. He is no longer on the cross country or track team, although he remains good friends with many team members. In terms of hiking, he hopes to take on harder trails soon, but is currently sticking to easy, accessible ones while he is still learning to navigate this way of living. With his friends, Rhys is a generally pleasant person, able to hold conversations of substance. He still manages to be a bit reserved. In terms of grades, he still hasn't recovered much from the grade slips from the onset of his depression, maintaining mostly Bs and a couple Cs in classes other than physics and math, which he excels in.

He plans to attend the College of Southern Nevada to study electronics. He is unsure of whether, after two years, he is going to transfer to a university to get a Bachelor's degree in electric engineering or if he will simply stop his education there and work as an HVAC repairman.

Advantages: Rhys has experience with outdoor environments and is also highly resourceful when it comes to survival, so he will have an easier time managing the environment of the game.
Disadvantages: His disability weakens his legs and even makes it painful to walk at times, so he will be at a disadvantage, especially if he somehow loses his mobility aids. He also may not have the drive to fight for his life as a result of his depression, giving up quickly on the island.