F14: APPLETIN, SYCANUS [DECEASED]

#1

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Name: Sycanus Applettin
Gender: Female
Age: 17
School: Alderbrook High School
Hobbies and Interests: Origami, casual gaming, and interacting with her stuffed bear.

Appearance: Sycanus stands at a scant 5'1", weighing in at 112 lbs. Her head is topped with slightly wavy brown hair, which reaches her midsection. Near the ends, slight green dye streaks could be seen. Body-wise, she has below average musclemass, with a small breastsize. It is mostly due to her lack of exercise. Another side effect of her lack of outside interaction is pale skin. On the whole, her face is rather smooth. Her cheekbones are rather shallow, while her nose bridge is slightly concave. Her eyes are a dark blue, and they are of average size.

Concerning her clothing options, she usually isn't one to wear anything shorter than her ankles. In fact, most of her pants are blue jeans, with the leg cuffs being frayed usually. However, shortsleeved shirts are commonplace in her wardrobe. These shirts were either regular t-shirts, or buttondown shirts. She has one or two jackets, but those are saved for cold days.

Biography: Sycanus's life started out normal. Like her family, she was born in British Columbia. Her dad, named Malcom worked full-time as a waiter, while her mother, named Tiffany, preferred freelance journalism. When naming their child, the parents thought about it for a good hour. Finally, Mrs. Applettin decided on naming her Sycanus, recalling the name from a nature article she helped with. The only thing noteworthy about her early life was how she slowly became an introvert as time progressed.

Around the time she was in first grade, she was given a stuffed teddy bear on her birthday. When she carried it to school, only a few didn't mind the fact that she carried a bear around. Some others decided to pick on her about that fact. Though it was mostly girls that did it, Sycanus went ahead and tried to keep away from everyone, teddy bear in hands. She still kept a few friends, which consisted of some people who felt sorry for her.

Middle school went by moderately okay. Initially, Sycanus seemed to be normal. She took up origami after a friend recommended it to her. It took a few weeks for her to learn to enjoy it. Around her 11th birthday, her parents gave her a Game Boy Advance with some games. To her, it was nice, even though she played it every now and then. But aside from the origami and gaming, Sycanus still kept her teddy bear, now named Tobeyn, a bit too close. It would have escalated to an even higher level, one that would have called for drastic measures, had it not been for the parents' intervening.

High school started out decently. She was talking to what few friends she had, still played her GBA sometimes, and still kept doing origami in her spare times. At this point, she was a bit isolated in the field of socializing, moreso in dating. It got to a point where, after some failed attempts at going out with some of the guys, she just gave up on it entirely. With enough time, she would have found a boyfriend. Turns out, the day she gave up on dating classmates was the day she started assuming that everyone didn't want to date a girl like her.

After school was rather boring for Sycanus. Besides her hobbies and the homework, she sometimes took walks with Tobeyn. Other times, Sycanus drew drawings of her and the bear. To her, it was cute. To her parents, it raised a bit of a red flag, for these drawings tended to humanize Tobeyn.

As far as friends were concerned, she started with very few friends. Middle school lowered the number, while high school managed to keep it at the same amount. These friends weren't known to be socialites, yet they were fine with each other. Dating, at least to Sycanus, was impossible with most of her male classmates. This was mainly due to reactions from them in the past. With her teachers, it was a different story. They knew a little bit about her and her bear from students and the parents. Initially, they were a tad disturbed, but soon, they got over it. One of them even got around to talking to her about the bear, and Sycanus always tried to dodge the subject to the best of her ability.

For the most part, Sycanus managed to hold down good grades and mostly perfect attendance. She had some sick days, and that was about it. Her grades floated around the A-B area for the most part. The grades slightly dropped in the middle of 9th grade, but they were picked back up before she completed it.

Going into her relations with Tobeyn, it went from small childhood toy to the only one that would ever love her. When it was first introduced into Sycanus's life, it seemed to not be of an issue. The only main issue is the fact that Sycanus wasn't hanging out with the others, but rather pretending her bear could talk. Again, it didn't seem to be an issue, since it was something children did at this age. However, it immediately shot to a major issue once they saw her still talking to it when she was about to leave the fifth grade. It only got worse when the kids started making fun of her for it. Her parents, after getting some calls from various teachers about how Sycanus and her bear was being mocked, tried to convince her to leave it at home. She didn't want to on account of how she felt an emotional attachment to it. For the most part, Sycanus typically kept her interactions with Tobeyn in privacy. Sure, a student may have seen her in the bathroom or somewhere, but for the most part, it was quiet. The times she was caught only caused her to lose hope in making more friends.

By 7th grade, she started having full-on conversations with the bear at home instead of with her friends. To her parents, this development made them realize that maybe their daughter couldn't trust her friends at all. It was around this time that they ultimately decided on getting her some counseling before the year was done, specifically around age 12. Sycanus detested it a bit, not wanting to get rid of Tobeyn. Long story short, the counseling only lasted for three sessions over three weeks. It wasn't entirely fruitless, for the counselor diagnosed her with Avoidant Personality Disorder. For the most part, she certainly was exhibiting some of the symptoms, such as her hypersensitivity to rejection and her somewhat large mistrust of her classmates. The doctor then explained to the parents that Sycanus's attachment to Tobeyn appears to be a byproduct of this, though the doctor didn't want to confirm it immediately. In all fairness, it is indeed a byproduct of her weak social life.

About a year later, Mr. and Mrs. Applettin tried counseling again, but with a different doctor. Again, same diagnosis and seemingly little change in Sycanus's ways. However, after about four months, this doctor managed to suggest some treatments for her, such as cognitive therapy with a therapist and the exposure treatment. The treatments started a week later, and while the latter failed miserably from being too sudden for Sycanus, the former actually helped. Through this, the therapist gained some insight on the relationship while Sycanus learned how to trust humans again. For once, both Malcolm and Tiffany assumed that their daughter would be normal. Of course, they decided to give Tobeyn a thorough clean-up without Sycanus's consent. She found out, then went on a frantic search for it. A few minutes later, Tiffany heard her door slam shut. She went to check up on her daughter, who was heard crying and screaming out Tobeyn's name. After explaining what happened, the door unlocked and opened. Sycanus was standing up, teary eyed still. To this day, they made sure to warn her beforehand.

Currently, Sycanus only keeps Tobeyn close for comfort, occasionally talking to it while at home. She no longer considers him a human, but rather a toy that, to her, means quite a bit emotionally. As far as feelings go, Sycanus appears to be slightly happily satisfied with the way her life is as of now. Though she's talking to some students more, her will to find a mate is still nonexistent.

Advantages: Because of her low socialization with the students, Sycanus could slip by others unnoticed.
Disadvantages: Low socialization could lead to lack of allies. Other students mocking her over Tobeyn would definitely lead to a lack of allies. Plus, if she loses Tobeyn somehow, she'll become much less responsive.

Designated Number: Female Student #14

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Designated Weapon: 1873 Cattleman Revolver
Conclusion: Kiddo, ain't no bear gonna help ya'll where you're going. I'd trust in the gun, not the toy.

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