Gabriel John Utterson

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Gabriel Utterson, the law student is a man of a rugged countenance that is never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.

Utterson is a rather boring man few have ever seen truthfully smile, he's spent his college career mostly in the company of his cousin, Richard Enfield, or his roomate, David Guest. Though this past year he has spent a lot of time writing to his dear childhood friend, Henry Jekyll, who has been off at an exceedingly private American college for some time. Uttersons' unemotional outward demeanor is unappealing to many, but his expressions -or lack thereof- can be a bit misleading. Utterson loves wordplay and jokes, is an enormous musical theatre fan, and enjoys the company of those society may deem 'strange' or 'depraved'. When they were younger Utterson would often be the one of Jekyll's friends to encourage him to step out of his comfort zone and enjoy his life when his parents weren't around, though -coming from a far less vigilant pressuring family- Utterson often struggled to understand what exactly his friend was so afraid of, especially with neither Jekyll nor Poole speaking a world of it. Utterson had a tendency to mistakenly set Jekyll off into a panic without knowing what straw broke it; it seemed sometimes even just being seen touching Jekyll would cause him to tense up.

Utterson had a relatively normal family life as a child, his parents were not to strict or pressuring, but not neglectfully laid back either. Everything about his home life was quite neutral, though his family's views did lean into the more conservative mindset of many in the early 2000s he wasn't greatly affected, he just learned some things were better kept as out of the house conversations. His parents were raised in Puetro Rico and moved to Britain a few years before he was born for work, so growing up Gabriel didn't have any extended family around and was often viewed as strange by other children so didn't really make any friends. He didn't mind all that much, he liked playing alone anyway, he would often sit on the pavement at recess just...thinking. He liked to watch the other kids play and try to guess their 'stories', matching two kids up by observing the matching muddy handprints on their shirts clearly showing they were wresteling around in the dirt during the flag football game, matching backpacks he saw scattered across the yard to their owners, he'd get frustrated when he couldn't place what a specific kids Deal was.

When Utterson was 10 years old his mother landed his aunt a job offer in the same company she was employed at and within a few months his aunt was living in Britain only a 12 minute walk away, and with her she brought Gabriel's cousin, Richard Enfield. Richard and Gabriel weren't very close in age at the time, Gabriel being 10 and his cousin being only 6 years old, but with their parents constantly visiting each other they ended up spending a large part of their childhoods together and became very close. But the first time Gabriel felt he'd made a friend, a real friend, was when he met Henry Jekyll. They were 12 years old in preparatory school, Utterson was still playing his people watching game when his eyes caught a certain brown-haired green-eyed boy. He wouldn't be intresting to look at to most people but Utterson noticed that something about him was off, forced, even. His uniform was perfectly pressed and cleaned with not a loose thread or stain from some exploding cafeteria juice box in sight, even his hair had a perfectly straight part right down the center of his head and was clearly styled with some professional grade hair products even kids who were paying thousands upon thousands of dollars to attend their upper-class private school shouldn't have access to on a regular day basis. All this still perfectly intact at 11am in a busy cafetria full of 12 year olds after recess had already ended, but even that wasn't all that intrigued Utterson...no, what was REALLY intresting about him was his face. He wasn't sitting near anyone, his table was completely empty, but his eyes darted around the room like some demon was standing behind him grabbing him by the neck and he was trying to silently call for help, his chin was held unnaturally high and he was smiling a clearly forced smile with perfectly white teeth and no joy in his eyes. Utterson stared at him for what felt like hours, studying every part of him, but he couldn't sniff out even one clue as to what was making this kid act like this, he'd never seen anything like it. And it frustrated him to no end. Eventually another kid, a shorter boy with white blonde hair and a significantly more casually outfitted uniform approched the perfect boy and sat down, sliding a tray of cafeteria food in front of him and what Utterson could only assume was the perfect boy's school ID. The white-haired boy spoke first, Utterson could tell he was laughing about something that happened in the cafe line. The perfect boy chuckled back, but he didn't throw himself into it as the other boy did. He held a soft hand to his lips and his shoulders bounced up and down almost mechanically, he looked as if every movement was a pose. The white-haired boy seemed to pick up on this and Utterson watched as he grabbed their two trays, stood up, and lead the perfect boy straight out the cafeteria doors.

It was the single strangest iteraction Utterson had seen in his years of people watching. He was so frustrated at the lack of clues and so desperately longing for answers that the perfect boy became his sole target of study, for two weeks each school day he'd watch that boy. Every day the cafeteria was the same, the perfect boy with that same untouched outfit and stretched expression handed his I.D. to the white-haired boy to get their meals, and shortly after they'd leave together. Utterson changed seats, he looked from every angle, he couldn't understand what untold threat was making this boy act this way. Utterson noticed the boy in his other classes, too, always acting as if he was pulling against his own body on each movement. He seemed more human the less people surrounded him, and always significantly moreso around the white-haired boy. Eventually Utterson managed to catch a perfect window, leaving his last class late after dismissal he saw both boys alone outside the science clasroom. He opened his own locker just a few feet away and stood, very slowly and methodically placing each and every paper in his folder as he strained his ears to listen in on the conversation. And...nothing. He learned the white-haired boys name was Stephen and that day his mom was picking them up. They just talked like two normal kids, they didn't speak of any ongoing threat or supernatural force or ANYTHING that would explain the perfect boys behavior. Not even a last name! Even a last name could help the investigation given half the student body were products of some celebrity or CEO given the pricing. It enraged Utterson.

The next day when Stephen and the perfect boy left with their lunches he decided enough was enough, he was going to outright interogate those two until he got ANSWERS. He bounded out the cafeteria doors and very quickly remembered that it'd been years since he'd ever even introduced himself to a kid his age. He shouted at the two to stop and when they turned the three of them just stood staring staring at each other, Henry stood rubbing the sleeves of his shirt between two fingertips in the quicket motion Utterson had seen yet from him. Stephen was the first to speak, introducing himself as Stephen Poole and the perfect boy as his little "basically-brother". There was more silence between them as Utterson processed that he'd completely lost his moment. Stephen spoke again, saying that he and the perfect boy had seen Utterson around the school -given that his locker was in front of the door they were picked up from- and that the perfect boy had noticed his hair multiple times and mentioned liking the way it poofed up in the front. To which the perfect boy stepped behind Stephen before being pushed back out in front of Utterson. Utterson studied him for what felt like the thousandth time as he saw the perfect boy's hand extend towards him, Utterson's eyes met his and...he had a real smile. It wasn't a good smile, it was lopsided and akward and his eyebrows furrowed in nervously, but he no longer looked afraid and his eyes no longer darted around and his movements looked like his own and it was real.

Henry Jekyll. The boy's name was Henry Jekyll, and Utterson didn't care why his smile wasn't real anymore, he just wanted to know how to make that real one stay.

[sorry to...The People for writing middle school meeting for the first time Henriel fanfic here I don't know what devil came over me but im keeeping it, sorrY! you get the incredibly long Utterson backstory!]

Currently, Gabriel is attending a private law school in London. He lives in a two bedroom flat with his roomate David Guest and spend most of his time alone in his room studying or just basking in his own thoughts, making conversation with guest, or with his cousin Enfeild on Sundays when he came to visit. For the first year of university Gabriel hardly heard or saw anything from his dear friend Henry Jekyll, he had seemed to cut himself off entirely from the world. Utterson worried a lot for his friend, but was able to convince himself that school was keeping his friend busy, and distracted himself by concentrating on his own work. Their relationship became more or less background noise, Jekyll never truly left Utterson's mind but dwelling on it couldn't help, there was nothing he could do about the situation. Sophomore year, Henry contacted Utterson once again through a letter and their relationship picked back up right where it left off, they wrote to each other every night; Utterson still has yet to see his friend after all these years, but Jekyll seems so much more open and alive while at university compared to when he left.

• Utterson is very good at acting voice and body language-wise, but he struggles with realistic expressions. He spent theatre club in highschool on tech crew, instead of the stage.
• He needs glasses! He used to wear them in highschool but freshman year of college he started wearing contacts. That same year he burned his waist-length hair off with a straightening iron, so he now wears it shoulder length and with it's natural curl.
• Utterson's nails are always painted to match his outfits. Because of a Specific line from the original book. I know what he is.
• He's fluent in Spanish as he grew up in a bilingual household and uses it often in conversation with Enfield, Guest, or Adam.
• He refuses to teach Jekyll even a word of spanish because he's been blantantly flirting with him for years and its too much fun to give up.

His british accent is a tiny bit lighter than Jekyll and Poole's since his family wasn't from britian