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Name: Ryan Michaels

Age: 20

From: Pennsylvania


Clothing-wise, Ryan wears the cheapest clothes he can buy. He typically wears a plain t-shirt and jeans, and tennis shoes, never name brand clothes. Many of his clothes have small holes, tears, or stains, since he tries to get the most use out of them. He keeps his clothes washed though, and puts on clean clothes every day.



Personality: Ryan does his best to be a nice guy, trying to help people and do the right thing. Unfortunately, this has led to people walking all over him for most of his life. As a result, Ryan grew up to become a meek individual, never standing up for himself. He has almost no self esteem. He believes the insults he gets, and disregards praise. The only thing that gives him a backbone is his family. He is fiercely protective of his younger brother, and won't stand for anyone bad-mouthing him.

Background: Ryan grew up in Flint, Michigan, in a poor, heavily industrialized area. Growing up, Ryan and his family never had much, but they had each other. For several years, it was just Ryan and his parents. They never planned on other children, because they knew they could never afford it. Unfortunately, they had an unplanned pregnancy when Ryan was nine. Suddenly they were faced with even more of a financial hardship. Ryan, however, took a liking to his little brother. Being the older sibling, he felt it was his duty to watch out for him.

As Ryan neared his high school graduation, it became apparent that he wasn't going to make it to college. His family was having a hard time making ends meet, and he wasn't smart enough to get any scholarships. He decided the best thing he could do was help his brother go to college. Immediately after high school, Ryan quit his job at a fast food joint, and got a full time job at a Feral Labs facility on a packaging line.


Reason for coming to the Island: The company posted a special job opportunity in the factory where Ryan was working. High paying, free room and board, little to no experience necessary, it was the perfect job for Ryan. Unfortunately, it would require him to work away from home for an indefinite amount of time. Torn between staying with his family and and giving them a better life, he decided that it was worth it to send his brother to college. It turned out though that the special job opportunity was being a test subject for a serum.

On the Island Once on the island and learning the truth he would, (besides freaking out), worry that his family wouldn't receive any of the money he was supposed to be earning. To make sure they got the money, he would agreed to do whatever the labs asked him to do.

Things he would take to the Island:

A old ratty suit case
Several plain, white T-shirts, some with holes in them
A couple pairs of jeans and jean-shorts.
A blue trench hat (what my avatar has on)
Tennis shoes
Hiking boots
Several pictures of him and his family, and one framed picture of him and his brother.

Why an Armadillo?: Because they're awesome, that's why. And Dr. Moreau (or any of the doctors really) would find it ironic to turn him into something so defensive, given his shy nature

Current funds: 4k + 3 Oct. 06 letters + 2 Nov. 06 letters + 4 Dec. 06 letters + 2 Jan. 07 letters + random items ~ 175K

Donators: None so far.

Art

Thanks so much to everyone that's given me art.

Ryan 0%

Art be Eulie


Art by Sejii


Art by Nikorasu-kun


Ryan 25%

Art by Nikorasu-kun

Updated a bit. Please comment whether you like it or not

@Decaying Thorn: Thanks for the vote of confidence. What does your first comment mean though? Do you not usually approve?

I just read the description for the character Brian Grant. Does anyone think my character is too similar? Should I try and change mine?

I wrote mine without ever seeing that character, and now that I've read it, I've noticed a lot of similarities.

Anyone? Only one person has responded so far. I'm feeling lonely. sad

Hey Acinonyx_jubatus,

First off, remember you have no control over how the changes will effect your character other than the final form.

While the allergy idea is cute, the joints not healling correctly during the change runs counter to every other islander. The serums can regrow limbs if need be, your character's joint problems will be healed.

Also, there have been along of new islanders coming to island for medical conditions.

I like the character but he needs some more fleshing out on is personality.

Thanks.

Well, I thought about what cutefuz said today, and it occured to me that the other islanders had problems fixed because the serums were changed (Zach had his serum made specificaly made in part to fix him arm)

What if the serum Ryan recieved wasn't altered, would it still fix his deformities? Or could they fix the later shots so that it would fix him?

His eyes and his hair are a matching shade of brown. – What shade? Light? Dark? How come all the guys these days are skinny-but-not-sickly and really tall? His physical appearance could use more fleshing out-- I still can't see him. What does his face look like? The shape of his eyes? The texture and thickness and length of his hair?

Limp is overdone, and the scars need explanation, though I’m sure they were later on. Does he actually have a cauliflower ear, or is the mention just for effect? “Califlowering” isn’t technically a verb, so it’s hard to tell.

Almost all guys prefer functionality over aesthetics. Wait, you never mentioned scars on his legs, but now he has them? Those would go under physical description too. Wow, looks like he’s trying to rival Oz and Aislinn all in one shot.

Allright. Introverted and shy I understand. Low self-esteem I understand, though it’s becoming more and more cliché—it’d be more interesting to see him self-deprecating about more specific things. I know I personally couldn’t care less about my appearance, but I’m incredibly self-deprecating about my work. This includes what other people think about it, and myself being incredibly judgmental of it. Not that I’m suggesting you do that, because then you’d have to go the entire self-perfectionist route, but it’s an example.

If you want to stick with general self-consciousness, you might want to do some research into either nervous disorders or depression. I hate to suggest that, because it’s overdone, but the way that you’re describing him makes him seem that he would have something like that going on. ONLY use it if you intend to roleplay the condition properly, though. Don’t just slap a label on him.

If that’s not a route you want to go (and bravo for you if it’s not) then slap in some real, solid explanation as to why his self-consciousness and shyness hasn’t effected him that deeply. There must be –something- he thinks he’s good enough at to keep him somewhat positive. I understand that he’s tough, but –why-?

Also, I’d like to see a little more development. Exactly how does he come off as a jerk when he’s talking to people he doesn’t know? Is it just because he refers to them by last name (unlikely)? Or does he have a tendency to get nervous and say the wrong things? We have a lot of both introverts and extroverts on the island, so make yours interesting. Give reasons for him.

As far as his interest in animals…well, we already have several animal-experts on the island. Brian, Aislinn, Greer, for three. I’d suggest a specialty if nothing else. I know it’s difficult to come up with more original interests, but I’d like to see them. Video games, painting, and drums are all very cliché. Unless you get more specific. Really, the only artist I can think of that’s on the island is Marshall, and he’s a comic book guy. Painting might be an interesting avenue to pursue.

What happened in his life before he graduated? Who were his parents? How did they effect his life? Are they the reason he was introverted? Were they demanding, and that’s why he’s self-conscious? Were they strict and that’s why he’s introverted? Family life and childhood history often explains a lot of personality.
Have you done any research about being a zookeeper? At least for the first few years (which I’m assuming he’s still in, as he’s only twenty) he’d be scooping poop. Probably in the more harmless animal arenas, or with the animals not present in the arena. I’m not 100% on how long this would take as –I’ve- not done research into it, but you might want to if you’re focused on him having a zookeeper job, which really doesn’t make that much sense. There are other options for him if he likes animals, you know—pet stores, the humane society, etc.

…okay, so apparently he had this huge, life-changing accident…but we don’t know what it was. The accident thing is getting really cliché right now, and it seems unlikely. I don’t think that at 20 he’d really be around animals that would hurt him often, and if he was, he’d probably be supervised. Particularly as he was fresh out of high school when he started. If he was a college graduate and had studied animals in depth, he might be able to move up a bit more easily.

Which reminds me—how was his schooling? You didn’t really mention it much, and you leave me wondering whether he was smart or stupid, and why he didn’t go to college. It’s required, these days, to get a decent job, and nearly everyone at least tries unless they have a good reason not to (My brother didn’t, but he has tourettes and ADHD and both of those make school hell for him) .

I’m only doing this because, well, ARMADILLO. xD. Well, that’s not the only reason. I like to help questors, and you caught my eye with the Armadillo deal. I hope you take some of this into account and weave a more solid character with it. You’ve got an interesting beginning, but he needs a lot of fleshing out.