A12: KENTON ZINN

#1

Name: Kenton "Spookr8ma" Zinn
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Hobbies and Interests: Video Gaming, CR Laser Tag, The Supernatural, Horror Media, Experimental Music.

Appearance: Kenton's Avatar stands at about 5'7 feet tall and weighs around 170 lbs. In Meatspace, Kenton's actual height is 5'5 and his weight is 140 lbs. In real life, Kenton has short bushy black hair that he keeps short, a pair of almond-shaped brown eyes, and wears a pair of reading glasses for his sight. He has a straight nose and a wide mouth with pale pink lips. He has a white skin tone and a skinny body. Kenton tends to wear hoodies and jeans whenever he's outside in public, though he is reduced to grey pajamas when he is at home on CR.

Kenton's Avatar is an inversion of his real self. Kenton's build contains visible lean muscle at his chest, arms, and legs for usage in competitive laser tag and other e-sports. Despite his lean muscles, his physical stats are reduced to his real-life physical capabilities within the school servers, making his muscles part of his avatar's aesthetic. His skin tone is white, and paler than his real-life counterpart, where his hair is a grey color, with the left side of his head being shaved partially, his other side in a short, spiky style. Kenton's eye color has changed to fluorescent green, along with his teeth appearing as sharp teeth. His fingernails are also longer to be like sharp claws. Kenton's voice was also modified to sound more deeper than his Meatspace self, since the latter has a higher-pitched voice in contrast with his Avatar's. Any resemblance to Kenton's real-life self can be seen in his similar facial features.

Kenton's Avatar clothing consists of a black cloak with a green LED circuit board-themed inner lining with a hood that goes over his head. He wears a tight black vest and black pants, where he has a green tie that matches his eye color, along with a shirt and sneakers that has a black and green pattern of skulls. To show his allegiance to the Omega Squad, Kenton wears a red sash wrapped around his left wrist with a glowing red Omega symbol.

His backpack is neon green and black striped with a symbol of a cartoon ghost on the front, which has a glow-in-the-dark green outline.

Background: Kenton Zinn was born in Fremont, California to Wade and Molly Zinn. Both parents were involved in white-collar jobs at separate companies with Wade Zinn working as a sales manager at a car dealership, while Molly Zinn worked as an accountant. When CR was introduced, while Kenton was still in kindergarten, their white-collar jobs were upgraded to include CR technology. Wade Zinn would sell customized cars, due to his company's move to CR, along with Molly being given a virtual office for her accounting job.

Kenton would be hands-on with video games that were exclusively in the Meatspace, given to him during Christmas. His first collection of video games was made by Nintendo, like the Super Mario games, along with Mario Kart. It would be around the time of elementary school when Kenton was given his first dosage of CR when he was 9 years old. Kenton lacked the athletic abilities that many of his other classmates would have within the Meatspace, but when it came to Cyberspace, Kenton would see advantages that he never considered. He could be able to possess physical strength that can easily be achieved within CR, along with being open to a community that shares information to make him develop a sense of virtual "street smarts".

Around the time of 4th and 5th grade, Kenton would find himself getting a hold of an old copy of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, sparking his interest in horror. While it started from horror literature, Kenton would begin watching horror movies and even playing horror games, either using CR or by using his computer, including other resources in the Meatspace. Since Kenton lived within San Jose, due to his parent's jobs, one of the hotspots that he would go to, usually during spring or summer break, was the Winchester Mystery House. The Winchester Mystery House was a reportedly haunted house that that Kenton knew about after watching the movie Winchester, which he found to be terrible. Despite this, he would learn that the attraction was within his area, and he managed to convince his parents to visit. Becoming involved with the Winchester House, Kenton would believe that the mansion was haunted, despite its eccentricity and disputed legends.

Kenton would end up back at the Mystery House during one cold night, due to a field trip to the mansion wrapping up in the 5th grade. Just before Kenton left with the rest of his class, he saw something in one of the windows of the building. A white distorted figure, which could be brushed off as a staff member, filled Kenton's superstition in the belief of the supernatural.

Kenton's horror interests would inspire his aesthetic in dressing in darker clothing, which, while not overly gothic, reflected the gloomy side that gave him a sense of standing out. Kenton also borrowed some of his CR Avatar's clothing style from cybergoth culture, even though he didn't see himself as a part of the culture. Later in his middle school days, he managed to find two bands that he liked, which were Death Grips and 100 gecs. Despite being niche, Kenton found himself enjoying the experimental aspects of the bands, delving more into other bands.

Kenton began to become a fan of first-person shooters within the Meatspace when he was 11 years old, finding more action in the gameplay he was given. While he preferred playing FPSs, the restrictions on CR would reject games deemed "ego-shooters" that could have been more immersive with the usage of virtual reality in Kenton's beliefs. That didn't stop him from still playing "kid-friendly" ego-shooters that were made to not provoke violence. His interests went towards laser tag that could be played on CR. Kenton began to play on laser tag servers when he was 12, but he would gain more experience and skill over the years to be an avid gamer in the sport.

Around his freshmen year, Kenton was beginning to struggle with a problem that had already been plaguing him, starting at the age of 13. He found some confliction in his identity, finding himself unable to see himself in the way that he was within Meatspace. He found it uncomfortable in appearing feminine to his classmates and he began to attempt to hang out with other boys. His only way to cope was with the technology of CR, changing himself easily to what he desired. He began to get frustrated at not conforming to how he viewed himself in CR, becoming depressed. Back in Meatspace, Kenton ended up revealing his thoughts to his parents when he was 15. He had identified himself as a trans male, which he made clear.

With his image being changed to socially transition, both in Cyberspace and the real world, he was trying to build more bridges. Kenton set his Avatar to be male when he first enrolled in Sycamore High School. The public knowledge of his trans identity ended up in the school's hands during his enrollment. Kenton would believe that his Meatspace life was far from the escapism of his CR counterpart, which caused some rooted insecurity that he would be looked down on for his lack of athletic and social skills, which he fully had back in Cyberspace.

His parents had put him on HRT treatment, starting in the late spring of his junior year, so that he could begin to transition. He had undergone the cessation of menses early at 2 months, where he would gain body hair within 6 months. He has yet to undergo surgery, since he is still under HRT. He is expected to go through top surgery a few months after he is supposed to graduate from school. To help with his dysphoria, he would use CR to be what he felt like and what he wanted to be in real life.

During his high school days, he fell in line with a group of kids that were popular within CR, known as the "Omega Squad". Kenton had crossed paths several times with some members in some of Kenton's laser tag games, but when he was recruited by them, Kenton felt that he had a chance to gain some popularity. Something that he believed he lacked in the Meatspace. When he learned that they were starting an e-sports team, Kenton made sure that he presented himself as valuable to his fellow clique members by showing off his skills in the usual laser tag games that he frequented, along with convincing some of them of his range of CR knowledge.

Kenton's sexuality is something that he focused on less, in favor of his gender identity. However, he saw himself as straight, though he knew that he needed to build up transparency, which he believed was lacking in CR. Despite this, he was willing to start a romantic relationship, however he doesn't know what his partner would resemble within the Meatspace. He is still looking for a relationship to start, despite his concerns.

Personality: In real life, Kenton Zinn is a socially awkward geek who wants to present himself in a different life in Cyberspace. He feels insecure about his true values on being desirable and important, so he wishes to be in a position where he can be admired and respected. Even though he is friends with the Omega Squad, he is divided on how he sees his clique members. While he isn't domineering completely over others, he does react snobby and egotistic towards several students who think negatively of him.

Reputation: Due to Kenton's heightened charisma from experience with CRs, Kenton has managed to fit in with the Omega Squad and other "cyberjocks" in his school. Kenton can come across as egotistic from him seeing himself as a "lieutenant" towards the Omega Squad, though he does have some friends outside of the clique, which whom he hangs out with. Ironically, Kenton considers some of his squad members to be "selling out", especially the leader of the Omega Squad, which Kenton was showing a polarized view directly at.

Kenton does have some favoritism towards him from other students and CR gamers since he's responsible for having a CR hangout location that he owns with admin controls that he styled as a horror-themed retro arcade, available for students and his fellow Omega Squad. Only a few close students know his trans identity, seeing it as more of a private matter, rather than just his parents and the school administration.

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Designated Number: A12

Designated Weapon: W-3 — Chainsaw
Designated Utility: U-22 — Portal Gun

Evaluation: "Well, I'd like to pose a question: does this living sociological cliché have what it takes to go for the long haul? Let's find out exactly how long that precarious hierarchy of his stays stable—otherwise, there's nothing to write home about here." — [TYLER], Game Monitor