Ryan Caloin

[Grim Wolf]

Name: Ryan Caloin
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High
Hobbies and Interests: Writing, Reading, Video Games, Debating, Zombie Defense League

Appearance: Until last year, Ryan Caloin was overweight and acne-ridden with greasy long brown hair.  Over the summer, however, Ryan has spent his time working and exercising.  He is now more trim, with broad shoulders and developed arms and legs.  While still acne-ridden, he has acquired a bit of a tan to his normally pale skin and his face looks somewhat more handsome now that he's trimmed some of the fat.  His hair is cut above his eyes and just below his ears.  His eyes are green with golden around the pupils beneath bushy eyebrows, and his nose is somewhat crooked.  He favors button-down shirts and old, faded jeans. He stands in at six feet, two inches, and weighs in at 165 lbs.

Biography: Ryan was born to parents Michael Caloin and Haley Patton, now divorced, in Miami.  Their rocky marriage was born from a late-night elopement  one year previously after a month of equally-rocky dating, and after three more years of fighting the two eventually gave up.  After a fierce custody battle, Ryan  and his younger sister, Margaret, ended up living with their mother.  It was while living in Miami that Ryan developed the crippling fear of death that was to haunt him for the rest of his life.  There was no traumatic incident which caused it--late on night six year-old Ryan Caloin was thinking about Heaven and went to his mother's room to ask how anyone knew there was an afterlife if no one had ever come back.  His mother told him they didn't, and Ryan was left with a cold fear that has stuck with him well into the present.  He only discusses this fear with those he is extremely close to, and otherwise keeps it to himself.

Due to Haley's hard work and care (as well as her kids' intelligence) she was able to get both of her kids into a prestigious private school.  Ryan, who was sort of a weird kid to begin with, had to deal with further abuse from students who were all wealthier than he was.  As a result of having so few friends, Ryan, a somewhat precocious child who had started learning to read at the age of 4, began to read much more heavily, until he could read two or three grades above his reading level.  His isolation was further compounded when his father married Aurora Fortins (now Aurora Caloin) and acquired two stepbrotherrs, Franklin and Tom Fortins.  The boys introduced him to video games, and Ryan began to use video games as well as books to compensate for his lack of friends.

After various personal and financial troubles, Haley eventually decided to move to Seattle, where her parents, Elwood and Kathryn Patton, could help support her and the family.  Ryan continued to regularly see his dad, stepmom, and stepbrothers, growing closer to all of them, as well as to his grandparents.  Although still a weird and somewhat awkward kid, the wider pool of peers provided by Seattle public school enabled him to find friends more easily, and Ryan left his shell, though he remained an isolated nerd.

Ryan's obsession with writing evolved naturally out of his love of books and his isolation.  Without friends, he often spent time thinking of stories or inventing imaginary plots to take part in, heavily influenced by the various shows, video games, and books he loved.  As time went on his ideas became progressively more original, and he wrote more and more.  He tends to write science-fiction, horror-fiction, or well-grounded (a la George R.R. Martin) fantasy.  As of now, he is sitting on two novels, only one of which he has been comfortable submitting for publication.  The other in in a period of heavy revising.

His interest in Debate actually (and hilariously) spawned from a viewing of Winning London, which he gradually pursued through Junior High and High School before becoming one of his school's top LD debaters.  An older student, Alec Stanley, served as something of Ryan's mentor, first teaching him how to debate properly and then appointing him de facto successor to the presidency of the Zombie Defense League, which Alec founded.  Ryan assumed the presidency upon returning to school.  The ZDL is a small club devoted mainly to the nerdiest echelon of the school--mass Left For Dead parties, other video games, and games of Zombie Tag, played with massive numbers of "zombies" fended off with nerf weaponry. Largely modified with gloves and rolled-up socks (and the occasional snuck-in nerf gun when they think they can get away with it), the game is still fairly popular.  He is presently trying to get a Zombie Defense League lock-in going, with limited success.

Although not exactly a social butterfly, Ryan is able to quickly get to know people, especially people in crisis, by being open to talking about them and listening to them.  He retains a small circle of extremely close friends and has been on occasion been known to hang out with more random people to get to know them and their problems.  He thinks his own life is rather uninteresting and so is always willing (and often eager) to hear about the secrets and problems of others.  He does not share very much about himself as a result.

Ryan's nerdy nature and preference for indoor activities left him overweight and somewhat unattractive, until he fell hopelessly in love with a girl and was rejected.  After moping over her for something like six months, Ryan isolated himself from his friends and spent the summer largely on his own--reading, writing, running, doing push-ups and sit-ups.  He has gained a measure of self-confidence and managed to let himself take more risks, be it in asking girls out, getting his work done, or experiencing new things.  He has decided to engage life more fully, and to not let fear--fear of pain, fear of rejection, and fear of change--control him as strongly as before.


Advantages: Ryan is an excellent listener and speaker, and so will likely be better equipped to resolve situations diplomatically than other students.  His new physical fitness will serve him well, and some time in the Boy Scouts has left him with a bit of knowledge about the outdoors.
Disadvantages: In spite of his new-found desire to engage life fully, Ryan still fears pain and loss, and his endemic phobia of death will likely cripple him island-side.