Caine Rusten {District 6}

.:.:Caine Thomas Rusten:.:.

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Male
Twenty-one
District Six
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If one were to pass Caine on the street, their eyes would most likely just pass over the young man. His appearance isn't usually enough to catch a person's attention, as he is an unassuming, very normal-looking individual. Standing at an average five foot eleven and weighing in at one hundred and fifty five pounds, he would not particularly stand out in a crowd.

For a start, at first glance, he seems to have no physical flaws that are enough to draw a person's attention to him. However, roll up his sleeves a bit and many knife scars are glaringly obvious on his pale wrists. He keeps these well-covered, however, so as to not draw unwanted attention.

Another well-covered scar is a huge burn scar on his back. A large patch of reddish skin with some small black dots on his left shoulder blade is a constant reminder of a traumatic incident from his past. Almost no one sees Caine shirtless, though, so most people besides family and close friends have never even seen the flaw.

Onto less specific details, Caine's chocolate brown hair is messy and unkempt, with basically the only attention given to it occurring each morning when he combs it out of his murky brown eyes. Most of the time, he has stubble sprouting up around his lips, chin, and jaw, but he keeps on top of it so as not to let it erupt into a full-fledged beard.

Caine is a lean man, not underweight but nowhere near fat. He is, after all, a district man, although a fairly well-off one. A bit of muscle has developed on his biceps and torso, but it isn't enough for people to call him muscular. His legs, however, are quite strong, as he likes to run in the evenings when everyone has gone to bed. However, his tendency to run only at night and working much of the day indoors at a laboratory has left him quite pale, with only a light tan during the sunnier months of the year. All in all, his body type is quite regular besides being on the thinner side, contributing to his ability to blend in a crowd.

As for clothing, Caine's wardrobe is very casual aside from his lab clothing. When he isn't working, he usually wears jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers, but tends to stick to darker colors. Whenever he enters the lab, as mentioned before, his attire drastically changes. He swaps his casual daywear for khakis, polos, and simple black shoes, along with the standard-issue lab coat.

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Caine is a man of few words. He remains quiet most of the time, preferring silence over the unpleasant drone of human voices. He'd much rather content himself with his own thoughts of calculations and scientific methods, but sometimes hallucinations intrude on his quiet meditation.

Yes, Caine suffers from hallucinations. They happen all the time. Sometimes it will be a harmless, non-threatening vision, such as another person walking past on a street when in fact no one is there, or a tiny whisper in his head. Sometimes, they can turn vicious. A rabid beast might come charging at him out of the darkness, or an unseen being will scream at him to commit vile, horrible acts. The latter, more dangerous kind of hallucinations are far less common, however. Usually, he has to be in a fit of anger, crippled by sadness, or experiencing some other kind of strong, negative emotion. Even so, they can sometimes occur out of nowhere.

All of these hallucinations are due to Caine being afflicted with schizophrenia. Rather than seek professional assistance, however, Caine prefers to hide his hallucinations and condition from the outside world and instead opts to keep the truth about him hidden under lock and key.

Not only does Caine keep the secret of his unfortunate condition hidden, but also all of his emotions. When insulted or informed of bad news, Caine will usually keep a straight face and hide all of his hurt beneath a passive mask. However, bottling up his emotions like this can cause him to have outbursts on occasion. Nothing much, just a short bout of sobbing or shouting or laughing to release some of his feelings. He never does this in public, though. Always in private so as not to be labeled a freak.

Along with schizophrenia, Caine suffers from clinical depression. When he was younger, it was so severe that he had suicidal thoughts and cut himself regularly. But after people began to notice and he got the necessary medication, he became happier and stopped cutting himself. Now, as long as he takes his medicine, he can avoid the crippling sadness that used to plague him.

Above anything, Caine loves science. Every form of it is great for him. Everything from atmospheric studies to medical science to zoology is game for him. This love of science landed him an early job in a laboratory, and since then he's been not only a brainiac but also a workaholic. Seriously. If the facility wasn't bolted and barred every night, he would be in the lab around the clock. Such addiction to work has alienated him from many of his peers, but he doesn't mind. As long as he has science, he's happy.

Despite his quiet and studious mannerisms, Caine is generally nice to people. His only real friends are from his childhood, but he's loyal to them and is always there for them when they need him. He can be quite social with people he already knows well -- primarily, his aforementioned childhood friends -- and is usually willing to hang out with them as long as he isn't too busy being holed up in a laboratory.

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One winter evening twenty-one years ago, Melissa and Thomas Rusten had a child who they named Caine. He was a happy child, and part of one of the most well-to-do families in all of District Six. He became friends with the other children in the neighborhood -- namely, Vicky Barci, Nikko Vea, and Naz Vézzena -- and led a joyful, easy life.

No one had any idea that Caine was schizophrenic throughout his childhood, nor would anyone suspect it even if they knew him extraordinarily well. He got along well with his peers, displayed excellent performance in school, and seemingly lacked the telltale hallucinations. But they were always there, even though Caine himself had no idea he was hallucinating. It was just the occasional flicker of an image that he blamed on a trick of the light, or a whisper in his ear that he attributed to the wind. With schizophrenia so minor that even he himself had no idea that he was afflicted with it, Caine managed to thrive during his childhood years.

Although he appeared to be happy, Caine was actually hiding crippling depression throughout much of his childhood. As he got older and became a teenager, it reached the point where he wanted to kill himself. Instead, he contented himself with drawing blades across the smooth flesh of his wrists. To hide the scars, he always wore long sleeves, even in the hot months. One evening when he was thirteen, however, his mother walked into his bedroom to find him bleeding with fresh cuts on his wrists. A psychologist quickly uncovered the problem, and with the large sum of money his parents owned he received the proper medication and returned to a happy life.

Like any child in District Six, Caine received an education mainly based around science. Unlike many of his classmates, however, Caine displayed immense joy and enthusiasm in his scientific courses. All forms of the practice fascinated him, and he began to perform experiments at home along with his school training. His parents and teachers noticed and were very impressed, but it became immediately apparent that simply giving him classroom work and minimal hands-on practice was not enough for the inquisitive student. By age fifteen, Caine was working as an intern in one of the district laboratories.

Caine was thrilled with the new arrangement. It didn't bother him that he wasn't receiving money for his work. It was just amazing to him that he could experience the true joy of science firsthand. His superiors in the laboratory praised him for his excellence, and Caine didn't think life could get much better. But when he was eighteen, things went wrong.

He had stayed up late the night before, reading various works written by prestigious scientists. Exhausted, Caine had trudged through the front doors of the lab, signed in, and got to work. Being so tired, his hands had been more like flippers as he struggled to maintain a firm grip on the most delicate chemicals. Unaware as to what he was doing in his sleepy stupor, Caine accidentally set the bunsen burner's flame heat to a dangerously high temperature. He didn't realize what he had done until a nearby sheet of paper was mistakenly placed too close to the fire and was set ablaze. In his exhaustion, Caine's reflexes were dulled as the flame spread.

People began screaming, frantically running about like frenzied animals as they tried to escape. Finally aware of the situation as adrenaline wormed its way into his system, Caine hurriedly backed away but accidentally knocked over a beaker brimming with a flammable chemical. Each mistake he made as he struggled past the flames to the exit merely provided fuel to the fire.

Only as Caine was reaching the door did the pained screams reach his ears. He spun around and spotted a young man, only a little older than himself, trapped under a burning desk as he fought to escape. Caine hesitated, but the flames were just growing larger and more dangerous. Finally, he spun around and was about to exit the doomed building when something behind him exploded. A huge tongue of flame licked his back and he sprawled out on the cool stones of the street. The building collapsed as fellow scientists helped Caine to safety.

After that traumatic experience, things were never quite right for the young man. The final explosion that had injured him left an ugly, permanent burn scar on his back, and it was always sensitive to touch. He never forgave himself for the other man's death, although by the time he saw him it was already too late. But worst of all, the trauma had nearly driven him insane. And although he had managed to retain his grip on the world, Caine's schizophrenia took a turn for the worse. His hallucinations became more vivid, frequent, and terrifying by the day. Others noticed the change in Caine's formerly sociable and friendly demeanor, but they simply blamed it on the horror of the lab that fateful day. No one ever knew that he was the reason the place burned down.

Even though Caine wasn't nearly as social as he had been before, his friends Vicky, Nikko, and Naz were always there for him. Vicky and Nikko began dating, and Caine was happy for them. But then things went bad. Vicky decided that Nikko's odd behavior was too creepy for her tastes, so she broke up with him and fled to Caine, who was always there for her and became her new boyfriend. Nikko's normally playful and childish attitude was quickly replaced by a cold, vengeful beast whenever he laid eyes on Caine, vowing to get back at his friend for "stealing his girlfriend". Caine contemplated simply breaking up with Vicky to put the entire matter behind them, but she was his friend and he didn't want to hurt her. Besides, he was happy with her, and didn't particularly want to leave her. Therefore, his former friend Nikko Vea became his nemesis, although Caine would much rather just make peace and put the matter to bed.

Odair