Ray Sullivan

[EllisWilson]

Name: Raymond ‘Ray’ Eric Sullivan
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Hobbies/Interests: Blacksmithing, hip-hop music, juggalo culture

Appearance: Eric Sullivan is a white male standing at 6’0 and weighing 120 lbs. He has a very thin, lanky build with sloping shoulders. His ears are noticeably large and his nose is long and thin. He has an oval head shape and his eyes are pale blue. His teeth, due to less than stellar dental hygiene, are a dull shade of yellow.

The most immediately striking feature of Eric, however, is his complete hairlessness, caused by Alopecia Universalis, a condition he was born with. As such, his scalp, eyebrows, and every other part of his body is completely lacking in any hair whatsoever. The skin of his head, neck, and arms is also heavily tanned due to his time spent outdoors.

Eric’s fashion choices in real life and in Cyber Reality trend towards baggy, loose fitting clothes coloured in whites, blacks, and greens. These clothes are frequently combined with wide brimmed hats and adorned with Juggalo paraphernalia, which translates into CR. His avatar also differs from him in real life in that it has a pair of dark red eyebrows, and Ray’s teeth are noticeably whiter.

The clothes on his avatar during the incident were a white tank top that hung just past his waist. The tank top has an image of a pink balloon covered in green slime, a pair of devil horns, and a single eye in the centre. The word ‘Mutant’ is printed underneath the balloon string in a font resembling cracked stone. He also wore a pair of baggy black shorts that hung just above his knees and had an emblem of a man running while holding a cleaver on the right buttock, and a pair of black and white Brooks sneakers. On his head, he wore a wide brimmed sun hat with a green camo pattern and a drawstring that hung to the space just past his collarbone.

Background: Raymond Eric Sullivan was born to Clark Sullivan and Deena Sullivan, a blacksmith and marketing manager respectively, on January 14th in San Jose, California. An only child as well as the first child of either parent, Eric was lavished with attention as a baby and toddler until the age of 5, when Clark signed up to compete on the reality show Forged in Fire. Eric, unused to his father being gone for such long periods as his smithing occurred at home, was confused and frightened by this, a matter not helped when Deena, unable to take time off of work to watch him, hired a babysitter while trying to reassure Eric that he wasn’t being abandoned and that his parents did still love him, to limited success.

Deena left specific instructions to the babysitter to have Eric watch Forged in Fire, and the sight of his father, sweating excessively and hammering away at a variety of weapons, was something that struck a chord with the confused little boy. When Clark came home to use his home forge as part of the show, Ray was exuberant, even after he was informed that his dad would have to leave again after they finished filming. He got an inside view of how the show operated, which he neither remembered or cared about because he was enraptured by his fathers smithing. By the time the show went back to just being on his TV and well after Clark took the victory, Eric had resolved to ask his father to teach him his ways, and Clark promised he would when he was 14. Initial tantrum aside, Ray was fine with that.

When Ray was all set to begin his school life, he and his parents expressed a great deal of concern over how his new classmates may respond to his alopecia universalis, which proved to be largely unfounded as his none of the other kids expressed much of a response to his condition outside of brief fascination, which went away as the other students became more used to his unusual appearance. Outside of this, his social life flourished due to his outgoing attitude and he gained a good number of friends and acquaintances in his first year of schooling. His academics, while not outstanding, were good enough that neither his teachers or his parents saw any cause for concern.

Ray’s home life from the first grade to the eighth grade would undergo a gradual change, as both of his parents were dealing with increasingly demanding schedules, which resulted in Eric being left with babysitters more and more often. Unused to not being the centre of attention at home, Ray began lashing out around the same time he began fifth grade. This manifested largely in him making messes for his babysitter to clean up and throwing temper tantrums, which only got worse when the first babysitter quit and was replaced with another one, named Emily, who would discipline Ray exclusively by shouting at him. This caused a number of shouting matches which angered neighbours, Ray’s parents, and Ray himself, who became more aggressive toward Emily as time went on, in large part because his parents, due to their increased workload, had much less time and energy to properly handle the issue or consider if Emily is really their best option as a sitter, leading to his complaints about Emily being deemed as something he would ‘just get over.’ His school life was also notably affected by his sullen aggression, as he became more asocial and less willing to do his school work properly, resulting in his grades slipping.

This dramatic shift in behaviour resulted in the schools principal informing Clark and Deena that Ray may have to be taken to see a child psychiatrist if his behaviour does not improve, which lead to the two finally demanding time off of work so that they could come to an understanding with their son. The Sullivans had a serious discussion with their son, who was once again very direct about his issues with Emily and about how his parents increased absence was affecting him. His parents, in turn, explained that their jobs needed so much of their attention because the money they made allowed them to support Ray. They came to an agreement that Emily would no longer act as a sitter, but that Ray would keep a cellphone on him at all times so that he could easily call for help if he got in trouble, as well as keep in contact with his parents more. Emily was just fine with this arrangement and quickly moved on with her life.

Rays disposition improved immensely afterward. He returned to his previous behaviour almost seamlessly, with his grades improving immediately and his social life actively improving thanks to having a cell phone to keep in contact with his peers. This was a boon to his parents, as it provided them with a way to keep Ray occupied and under watch. It would quickly become routine for Ray to be off at a friends house on weekends from the age of ten to thirteen.

Ray would spend that time counting down the days until he turned fourteen, as he was greatly looking forward to Clark teaching him how to be a blacksmith. It was also around this time that Ray got into the juggalo subculture of hip-hop music, which he discovered while staying over at the house of a friend, whose brother was an avid enjoyer and was happy to include them. His friend's brother also introduced Ray to Cyber Reality, which finally piqued his interest in the concept.

When Ray broached the topic to his parents of getting a CRD, they agreed to it, partially because Deena was helping to market the device and concept to the public at that time, so having her own son use one would help out with that. However, both his parents wanted to be cautious, so, when Ray entered Cyber Reality, it was for his first day as a student at Sycamore High School.

The experience was less than pleasant, as Ray didn’t fully understand how the system worked, which resulted in him accidentally logging out several times during the day, getting stuck with his HUD open for twenty minutes, and generally being unsettled by the realism of the server. He didn’t voice his dislike of CR to his parents because he didn’t want to upset them, as they were very excited about the experience. That didn’t stop the issue from becoming apparent to them quickly, as the school got in contact with them about it on the second day, when he displayed a similar level of discomfort with the technology. The school and his parents would continually offer advice and instructions to help him become better assimilated. This assistance, while allowing him to avoid making the same mistakes as before, did little to improve Rays overall opinion of Cyber Reality as a concept, as he still felt uncomfortable with how seamlessly and accurately the device replicated the real world, as well as the sometimes uncanny changes his classmates make to their avatars. However, when his parents asked him if he wanted to call it quits, he refused to do so with the assertion that, since his parents spent money on it, he may as well continue using it until he gets used to it, even if he still prefers real life.

In actuality, Ray chose to continue with CR more out of stubborn pride and his desire to stay in his parents good graces, as he felt quitting so soon might damage their relationship in some way.

This resulted in him remaining with Sycamore up to the present day, where his attitude toward CR has remained largely the same, though his use of it has improved enough that he no longer has to worry about interrupting his school day. His grades have remained entirely average, and his free time is spent outside of CR focusing on learning blacksmithing and hanging out with his friends in the real world. He hopes to quickly graduate and leave the world of CR behind in order to help his dad in the forge.

Personality: Ray is a loud, boisterous person who revels in being the centre of attention, so long as it’s positive. He enjoys talking at length about his interests with others, to the point of sometimes not catching on to their disinterest unless he is outright told. This is true both in and out of Cyber Realty, but he is notable more touchy when he’s inside of his CRD, to the point of being snappish, though this has rarely escalated into full blown arguments, This is most notable regarding his alopecia, as he is less likely to brush off jokes made about it within CRD than he is in real life. This behaviour stems from his general discomfort with being in CR.

While he is less overtly friendly in Cyber Reality, Ray still demonstrates a great desire to interact with others and will offer a helping hand if someone requires it. However, his ability to be useful to others is hamstrung somewhat by his self-centred behaviour, which can prove irksome, if not outright obnoxious.

Ray also occasionally has some strange leaps in logic brought about by his desire for attention, with many of his actions being filtered through the lense of whatever would put all eyes on him. This extends to hanging out with his friends as well. For example, when one of his friends would tell a story, Ray may follow up or interrupt them by making up a similar sounding story that he thinks will sound more impressive. If he is called out on this behaviour, he’ll try to brush it off by claiming it was a joke, or some similar argument.

Ray is, at his core, extremely childish and self-centred. He operates on very simple logic that puts people in a hierarchy where he is on top, and his friends are just below that. Much of his behaviour is designed with the idea of projecting the idea of him being a good person into the minds of others, with his decision to continue using CR in spite of his issues with it being a perfect example of it. This mentality also results in him trying to guilt trip others without fully realizing he’s doing it.

Reputation: Ray has a generally positive reputation with his classmates and teachers thanks to his stated desire to be helpful. They are, however, wary of his attention seeking, which some find grating. Likewise, his personality shift between CR and real life is cause for concern, though he routinely insists that there is no real issue when pressed. Regardless, his teachers frequently pull him aside to try and get a read on how he’s feeling, as well as to offer assistance if it’s felt that he requires it.

[Cicadan]

Hello there! There shall be critique.

[+] .

You're missing the Gender section. Make sure that your first four sections fit the following format, there should not be spaces between:

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Hobbies and Interests:

caused by Alopecia Universalis a condition he was born with

Need a comma after Alopecia Universalis. And Alopecia Universalis should not be bolded as it currently is.

and a draw string that hung to the space just past his collarbone

'drawstring' is a single word.

reassure Eric that he wasn’t being abandoned and that his parents did still love him, to limited success

Missing punctuation at the end of this sentence.

Deena left specific instructions to the babysitter to have him watch Forged in Fire, which she did
Subjects here are a bit confused, I would replace 'him' with Eric and remove the 'which she did' clause.

back to just being on his tv and well after Clark took the victory

TV would be capitalized.

The intermediary between that point and his end goal was filled with a number of events, most revolving around his arrival at school, something he was nervous about. That said, aside from a classmate running away in tears on first sight of him, it went rather well compared to what he and, privately, his parents thought would happen. His school experience was largely unremarkable from there aside from an inordinate amount of attention being paid to him by his classmates.

This clause, 'The intermediary between that point and his end goal was filled with a number of events', seems a bit unnecessary, I'd truncate the first sentence to just specifically talk about his entering the education system as the introduction for the paragraph. I'd specifically like Alopecia Universalis to be brought up as the reason there was concern about how his peers would react to him, and I'd like a little more detail here. How was his performance academically, how did he do socially, did he make a lot of friends beyond the attention or was he just gawked at and left alone, stuff like that.

When specifically did the incident with Emily happen? And did his parents not get more concerned and take any sort of actions as Eric had more frequent outbursts prior to him punching Emily, especially given that neighbors would be complaining, likely to the parents? Since Eric was very willing to discuss his anxieties with his parents why did he not do so with them directly? I got the impression they were close enough that Eric from a young age would feel like he could tell them those sorts of things. I'd like all that logically accounted for.

His school life was also affected by this period of sullen aggression, though he didn’t behave nearly as badly.

This information should be moved into the section directly discussing the period of his life where he was struggling with aggression from the perceived neglect. Also this leads to the question of why teachers wouldn't be getting involved if he was also having outbursts in class.

His friend's brother also introduced Ray to Cyber Reality in more depth, which finally piqued his interest in the concept.

In what ways, specifically?

I'm a bit skeptical of Ray's dislike of CR as its set up. It's valid to dislike CR on its own merits, of course, but I would assume that the school would support students who were clearly having connectivity and usage issues, and perhaps get parents involved. If he's resistant to learning I'd still like to see it specified in the profile that there's an effort to support him and he just refuses to learn due to his dislike of the realism involved. Also, briefly, how does he do in Sycamore High academically, in consideration of his difficulties with CR?

His personality section generally seems to imply he gets in fights easily, even throwing punches like he did with Emily? That would be very serious and cause for school intervention if true, I'd like this to be clarified and expounded on as needed.

criticism and/or disdain

and/or is a bit colloquial to use in a profile, just use one word or the other.

That's it.

[EllisWilson]

Edits done. I think I got everything you listed.

[Cicadan]

Approved.