Collin Shephard*

[Synaesthesia†]

Name: Collin Shephard
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Firearms and military tactics, mixed martial arts, fitness, academics, reading

Appearance: Collin is caucasian.  Standing at 5'7", he is shorter than most of his male peers.  Weighing a lean 155lb, he is somewhat well built for his height, but has a relatively petite frame which contributes to his unimposing figure.  Resistance training on both his upper body and lower body has left him with a well-rounded and toned physique. He has a pale complexion, and relatively short black hair, which he likes to keep from touching his ears or getting in the way of his eyes.  He is clean shaven.  Collin's facial features are relatively neotenous, contributing to his unassuming presence. He has a relatively rounded jaw line, small mouth and nose, large blue eyes, and long eyelashes which the few female friends he has often like to tease him about.

Disliking flashiness, Collin often wears a pair of dark blue jeans to school, with a light, plain coloured T-shirt, a close fitting dark brown military style jacket over top, and a pair of comfortable runners.  Variety in his wardrobe is mostly limited to colour, with assorted light T-shirts and different shades of blue for his jeans.  He dislikes the feeling of exposure, and so does not often wear shorts, save for when he works out or goes for runs during the summer.

Biography: Collin had led a relatively sheltered life during his early childhood; his mother frequently kept him at home when his father was away, and often couldn't find time to take him outside to play since she had to deal with housework as well as her job responsibilities.  Because of this, he often preferred staying at home reading children's encyclopedias and a selection of novels from his bookshelf, to going outside to play; this resulted in some degree of clumsiness in his younger days.  His only consistent social contact throughout his early childhood was his childhood friend and next-door neighbor, Lisa; if Collin needed to be babysat, he would often be put in the care of Lisa's parents.  On the occasions where his mother took him out to play, it would often be with Lisa or some of the other children in his neighbourhood.  With the exception of Lisa, Collin considers himself clumsy with girls, and often imagines that females have a negative view of him. This was only reinforced when he was rejected by a girl he had liked in elementary school. Collin later developed feelings for Lisa, but would continually deny it to himself, possibly for fear of similarly devastating results.

Collin's mother is a kind woman who works as a high school science teacher.  Her passion for academics strongly influenced Collin's attitude toward his studies.  Throughout his school career, he would regularly score A's, excelling particularly in mathematics and the sciences.  In stark contrast, his father was a soldier, and so from a young age, Collin also took an interest in military affairs.  He was most intrigued, in his elementary and junior high years, by firearms and infantry tactics.  When asked by his curious father why he was interested in tactics, Collin replied that he thought the truly interesting part of the military was not the weaponry, they were just the tools used to get the job done, but in the strategies and tactics that were implemented.  His father understood this to be a peculiar intellectual fascination, or even admiration, for the tactics that soldiers employed.  This understandably bothered his mother, but she wished to allow Collin and his father as much time to bond as they could, because of his father's profession and its implications.  Thus, whenever the chance came, his father would indulge Collin's curiosity in the technical details of weaponry, and infantry tactics.  Once Collin was old enough, his father would show him how to handle firearms.

Collin is a staunch atheist and detests nationalism and patriotism, seeing them as manifestations of political dogma.  His family was not religious, and thus Collin was raised in an environment with an absence of religious ideology.  As Collin grew older, he was confronted with the reality of religious presence in the American demographic, and intrigued by the idea of gods, he began learning about the conflict between religious proponents and atheists and secular humanists.  Over the course of time, he eventually concluded that religious claims were unlikely to be true, and now had a solid basis for what was once his default position of atheism.

Collin's interest in the military would later cause some cognitive dissonance, partly due to his meekness and his being politically and socially liberal.  He saw his father as a strong but gentle parent, so despite his political views, Collin could not bring himself to hate his father for being a soldier; after all, he was just a cog in the machine.  He justified it by concluding that the fault lay with others who were in positions of power.  Eventually, Collin confronted his father about his choice of profession.  His father answered that he felt that one need not be a blind patriot to love his or her country, and that the best way to serve one's nation was to be aware of its flaws and its mistakes, and try to change them.  Despite the mistakes that were made, and could happen in the future, his father felt that someone needed to protect their country, and he wanted to be there to make sure the job was done right.  Collin did not necessarily agree with his father's approach, but accepted that his father had positive intentions and a healthy commitment to his ideals, which he admired.

Despite being kind at heart, Collin was often bullied at school for his social ineptitude;  he was prone to poor timing and poor choice of words, and his naïve outspokenness in regard to his opinions became one of the causes of his sustained torment during elementary and junior high school.  Hence, his few friends were mostly the social outcasts he encountered; Collin would, throughout elementary and junior high school, gravitate towards kids who were likewise considered 'strange' or were picked on by bullies as well.  As a result of his strange, and small, social circle, Collin developed a warm and accepting attitude towards individuals who were different, or were otherwise regarded as a minority, either socially or ethnically.  To deal with his bullies, Collin initially consulted the teachers at his school, but Collin quickly learned that requesting intervention from school staff served only to delay his next encounter with his bullies, at which point they would return with a vengeance.   After having been beaten up more times than he could take, Collin pushed himself to become tougher and requested his father's assistance.  From then on, he would join his father during his morning runs and workouts, continuing on his own when his father was not around.  Despite his new-found physical fitness, not knowing how to defend himself, Collin continued to be picked on, though he was now able to outrun his bullies in many cases.  

By his freshman year at Aurora, Collin's torment at the hands of his former bullies finally ended, since the majority of the culprits had gone on to other high schools.  In order to prevent what had happened before, Collin led a quiet life at Aurora, becoming withdrawn and introverted.  He would be cautious about interacting with others outside of what was necessary.  Nevertheless, feeling that he needed a way to apply his strength - a contingency measure - Collin decided to learn to fight, and with encouragement from his father, joined a local MMA gym upon starting his sophomore year.  He would train three to four days each week, consistently, excluding training at home.  His training at the gym consisted of a mix of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for his groundwork, Wrestling for clinch-fighting and takedowns, and Muay Thai Kickboxing and Boxing for standup-fighting.  His gym mates often commented that Collin trained with dedication, had a solid defence, but was indecisive and lacked drive in his stand-up striking; they noted, however, that Collin seemed relatively comfortable and proficient with grappling, given his short period of training.  In sparring matches, Collin would often perform poorly in stand-up fighting.  Collin feels this was because of his inherent distaste for hurting others; punches and kicks that land inevitably cause harm or leave a mark, however temporary, but though submissions carry the potential for broken or dislocated limbs, and even death via asphyxiation, within the rules of the ring, such things were relatively unlikely to occur.  Collin never explained this for fear of being misunderstood.  He would never get the chance to try and remedy this through extensive conditioning, as six months after joining, Collin would suffer from partially torn anterior cruciate ligaments on both his knees during training.  He was informed by his doctor that barring surgery followed by extensive physiotherapy, even after natural recovery and a month of therapy, Collin would likely not be able to fully participate in competitive combat sports without risking injury; he would have to avoid snap kicks and sharp twisting motions.  Though Collin attempted to continue training in boxing alone, since it did not require striking with the legs, he was discouraged by his mediocre performance and stopped regularly attending shortly thereafter to avoid worrying his mother; his trainer would comment that Collin could have made a decent boxer, if only he could work his opponent's face like he worked the bag.  Collin still visits the gym from time to time, though, to work on his ground-work and participate in some occasional light sparring and rolling.

When Collin's father was killed in action while deployed to Afghanistan, by an IED, shortly before Collin's junior year in high school, it was emotionally devastating for Collin. He would from then on, deny any interest in military matters.  In his eyes, his father was an unnecessary casualty in an unjustified war; the military was what caused the suffering he and his mother would now have to live with.  His father's death would also significantly impact Collin's psychology.  He became even quieter and more introspective.  At home, Collin tried his best to take on more responsibilities to aid his suffering mother.  Busying himself with these menial but important chores, Collin managed to narrowly avoid having a complete emotional breakdown.  When asked by his mother, or by Lisa, he would insist that he was holding up fine.  He knew his mother was suffering more than he could ever imagine; he wanted neither his mother, nor Lisa, to have to worry about him.

Feeling he needed to fill the shoes of his father, who had died for his ideals, and motivated by his past as a victim of bullying, Collin decided to try and take a small but active role in preventing what he suffered in his youth from befalling others; Collin felt what little strength he had was meaningless if he squandered it to protect himself alone.  He understood the possible consequences, and was reluctant to expose himself to potential harm, but eventually, rumors surfaced among some freshmen about a quiet and nameless senior who would come to their assistance when they were being accosted.  Collin's presence was often enough to discourage the would-be culprits, who would rather not have to confront a senior.  Collin's mysterious demeanor had already appeared to bother some of the students, but he was wary of attracting the attention of those in his own year.   As far as he was aware, he had no 'real' enemies.  His recent actions, however, have begun to rouse the attention of his peers.  Interestingly, unbeknownst to Collin, his heroics have earned him the position of object of affection for some of the younger female students at school.

Advantages: Collin is intelligent and physically fit.  In addition, he knows how to handle firearms, has trained in mixed martial arts, and possesses some theoretical knowledge of infantry tactics.  This would appear to give him a clear edge over most of his peers.
Disadvantages: Collin is inherently meek and despite his physical fitness, lacks confidence in himself and his decisions.  Collin's theoretical military knowledge gives him an acute awareness of the pervasive dangers he faces on the island and the low probability of survival; this may cause him to have a counterproductively higher level of distress compared to his more militarily ignorant peers.  His distaste for needless violence may also prevent him from using his skills effectively.  His lack of popular friends, in addition to his small frame and non-threatening demeanor may make him an appealing target for aggressive individuals, especially those whom he may be beginning to attract attention from.  Having partially torn his ACLs in the past, Collin's knees may become unstable under high and sustained physical stress, and are unable to take forceful impacts near full extension without risk of significant pain or injury.