Damien Carter-Madison

From Survival Of The Fittest

Revision as of 16:03, 26 October 2006

Name: Damien Carter-Madison
Gender: Male
Age: 13½
Grade: Freshman
School: P.J. Gilroy Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Due to the high levels of bullying in school, Damien does not take part in any extracurricular activities. At home, Damien enjoys drawing in his "little book of horrors" or otherwise brushing up on the latest (controversial) literature. He also enjoys video games, and always manages to circumvent a housewide prohibition on anything above the ESRB "Everyone" rating. He also uses similar methods to access the TV late at night to watch his favorite TV show: Survival of the Fittest.

Appearance: Despite being in the throes of an adolescent growth spurt making him nearly as tall as his classmates, Damien Carter-Madison is still quite gangly in appearance, making his uniform appear one size too big. He has gel-tamed jet black hair, which when let free would actually constitute a violation of school appearance regulations. This contrasts with his fair, eerily pale skin, and brown eyes. When he arrives at school his uniform is clean, pressed and free of unnecessary creases. His face is recognizably androgynous, and almost completely free of acne. Despite his outward appearance, he does not wear makeup as other kids with similar dispositions and related fashion senses do, and he and his mother often have to prove this embarrassingly to some wary school officials.

Across his body are the fading remains of several bruises and other relatively minor yet painful (more psychological) injuries, as a result of the bullying in his school. Most of these injuries are completely concealed by his full-body uniform, though sometimes a black eye or a little facial inflammation tends to linger visibly on his face for days as a reminder to his peers as to who they're messing with.

Biography: Damien was born on the West Coast. His father passed away shortly after his birth. Not long after that he was found to have a particularly gifted mind, with an IQ just surpassing 150. The report - which also included a childhood psychological evaluation - also found hints of potential mental illnesses, though those were rather glossed over and summarily covered up by his mother. He entered Kindergarten at preschool age (hence his age handicap) and academically blazed his way through elementary and junior high, before he moved to New Jersey to attend Gilroy Academy. He is particularly adept at math and the sciences and is, quite unintentionally, the darling of his teachers. He also has a closet interest in the graphic arts.

Logic therefore dictates that he is not a particularly happy little boy, and it shows.

From his first day in elementary School, Damien's academic abilities often shone bright enough to blind and earn the irritation and jealousy of his peers. What would start as nasty words would eventually develop into physical action. Any of his attempts to retaliate would often result in further repercussion. In reaction to this, his mother had him moved out of the West Coast to Jersey's Gilroy Academy, where she hoped the more laid-back and higher-achieving student community would treat his kind with more respect. Apparently, she was wrong.

Being picked on by guys and chicks (read, both of the spoiled rich-kids' club in Gilroy's instance, and Marvin Hendrick's clique in particular) alike has become a nigh-daily occurance for him. He often slinks and zips around classmates between class, lunch break and club, getting caught by a particular mean clique more often than not and dragged away to where the faculty won't notice. His fear and lack of proper fight training (regardless of his body type) quickly negates his efforts to resist. By the time he leaves he looks visibly shaken, at the least. His uniform manages to conceal most of his bruises, and the ones on his face fade almost completely overnight.

The other obstacle in his life is his mother, Nicole Carter-Madison. Ever since her husband was killed - exactly how or why she doesn't say, though she categorically denies having a hand in it - she has made it her mission to make sure Damien never comes to harm at home or in school, at least on her watch (obviously, she never escorts him around classes). She is a card-carrying member of Gilroy's PTA and a known activist against bullying in all types of educational institutions. As described above, it's rather easy for Nicole to figure out if and when her son has been picked on. Yet her - and sometimes the faculty's - attempts to 'save' Damien from bullies have frequently led to even more violent reprisals against him, performed behind her back. That Damien has not yet suffered broken bones can be attributed to the fact that this would constitute a breach of school rules so severe that the aggressors' "connections" would actually fail in such a scenario.

This also leads most of the rest Damien's peers to keep their distance from him for fear of repercussions of their own; the rest have ended up befriending him for comparably short periods of time before learning this, resulting in a great deal of mistrust as well. By contrast, Nicole leaves him well enough alone because she believes her son won't try anything stupid/insane.

Naturally, going through this much would make Damien quite paranoid and wary of people around him. He keeps a scrapbook/drawing book full of morbid imagery - in the innocuous guise of a girl's diary - and other scary little sometimes-non-lethal mementos hidden in his clothes drawers, of the things he envisions he'd do to his oppressors, among other things. Even the members of the school's animé club say he actually resembles Wrath (from FullMetal Alchemist), before and after he's picked on.

But the way things look, Nicole is right in a sense. Damien even unconsciously tries to keep up a "sweet little boy" image for his mother when she's looking. Damien has therefore grown scared enough that he won't even try to harm himself out of despair. To be sure, this had been going on since before he moved to Gilroy, but the transfer only heaped upon his frustration that he might never get to exact revenge on everyone who picked on him.

Advantages: He has been hearing some voices in his head as of late. Psychotic, paranoid voices. But that's something he can shake off or shout off...for now. Speaking of his acute paranoia, he will trust next to nobody, and this works to his advantage as it can as a shield against most "sweet-talking" or other verbal deception expected from the craftier contestants. He should also be adroit at sneaking around undetected in places that would provide a lot more cover than a school hallway, and it's not likely that he'd be assigned a backpack or other bag larger than the one he carries around school, so that would help. Damien is also a rather big fan of the original SOTF, so that might also help him work with (though not necessarily adjust to) his new environment.

Disadvantages: Plenty. Damien's not of physically superior stock and would easily succumb to repeated strong blows. His intelligence in the fields of the maths and sciences will probably never come into play when you're trying to dodge bullets and blows from meleé weapons. His paranoia is very likely to alienate those who would genuinely try to befriend him during the course of the game. Although he is normally used to keeping his outward, let alone inward fear in check in most situations where he is threatened by others, the trauma of being isolated in such a fashion could take its toll (and possibly, turn into an advantage).

Number: B06

Student information originally written by LaZardo, added to roster on 25 October 2006. Additional information also written by LaZardo.

==

Designated Weapon: Pot Lid
Conclusions: Wonderful! B06 has been dreaming of enacting divine retribution against his tormentors for as long as he can remember. Low and behold, Damien Carter-Madison will finally get that chance! I'd be pegging this one for a motivator if he hadn't received the infamous pot lid as a weapon. Who knows, though, perhaps little Damien will surprise us and get creative with that weapon.