STERLING, Ryan

[/color] and can pick up new skills quickly. Although this doesn't help him in-game, where skills and abilities are systematized, it makes him a versatile person within the game world. Having spent some time as a teacher, Ryan has a natural ability for leadership[/color]. Given that a large portion of the SAO playerbase is likely younger than he is, he sees it as a natural thing for him to assume a leader / mentor sort of role, reflected in his ambitions to eventually start his own guild and surround himself with allies. He also possesses strong senses of loyalty[/color] and duty, with a personality that is often quick to develop close friendships; Ryan will be quick and determined in looking out for those he cares about. He also has a talent for networking[/color] and making connections, bringing people together to collaborate on larger efforts, a product of his time in the professional world.

On the flipside of his character, Ryan's intellectual nature sometimes leads to a ruthless[/color] lack of empathy. Sometimes an effective strategy requires calculated sacrifice or deception, and Ryan will tell a few lies and lead a few people to their death if it means the greater good of getting out of SAO alive. And while he learns new skills quickly, he has a history of intellectual and academic successes that have made him somewhat overconfident[/color] in himself, sometimes leaping into a challenge before properly mastering the preparation, due to overestimating himself. A gifted leader, Ryan has, on more than one occasion, shown a tendency towards an insubordinate[/color] attitude, particularly when he finds himself under the leadership of someone he doesn't respect, or someone he feels is inferior to his own abilities. His loyalty is a boon, but sometimes his emotions can get the better of his analytical side, and he can show inappropriate favoritism[/color] toward those in his "inner circle," even though it sometimes runs counter to the best interests of his greater plan. And while he is a skilled networker and can build connections and alliances, that also brings out a manipulative[/color] side of Ryan, who will feed his share of half-truths and arrange events to try to get people to move just according to his whims, even if it might hurt them in the process.[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[classy=title]HISTORY[/classy]
►DESCRIBE YOUR CHILDHOOD:

Ryan was born in the United States, to a moderately well-off family living in Vermont. He was an energetic little boy who learned quickly and was always looking for something new to learn. He went in and out of activities, playing a year of youth soccer here, and a season of pop warner football there, spending a summer doing an arts camp program, and so on. While he was generally well-behaved, he did have a habit of wandering off or taking things he shouldn't have, usually in a case of youthful curiosity run amok. He was a daddy's boy by nature, sharing a much closer relationship with his father than with his mother. As his father was a university professor, this might account for his leaning toward academics as he grew older, trying to emulate his father's intelligence and learnedness.

►DESCRIBE YOUR TEENAGE YEARS:

As Ryan grew older, he began to focus on his intellectual gifts, a decision that paid off when he was able to pass the entrance exams to enter a well-regarded private boarding school for his high school years. He struggled in his first year to adjust to living away from home, but once he got his footing on campus, he quickly excelled in the classroom. His GPA never fell below 3.6, and he particularly impressed his professors with his affinity for language, scoring highly in English class and studying both German and Japanese for four semesters each. But while his academic excellence set him up for a successful future and a great college career, his social life also suffered somewhat as a result. Ryan was never an outcast at his school, but the rigorous studying required to keep up with his often ambitious course load meant that he missed out on his share of social opportunities, and had to leave his athletics behind in order to meet his academic commitments. This is a decision Ryan has never regretted, although he does sometimes feel as if he missed out on a part of his high school experience.

►DESCRIBE YOUR ADULT YEARS:

At the University level, Ryan received a full scholarship to study for an accelerated Masters in Education program. Alongside his studies in Education, he continued to pursue other languages, adding Russian and Korean to his curriculum as elective courses. As in high school, he performed well academically and graduated with honors. When the job market in the United States seemed lukewarm at best, Ryan decided to chase one of his more obscure career ambitions -- he opted to travel to Japan to teach English. After some initial applications and interviews, he was eventually hired to teach at a small but expensive private school on the outskirts of Tokyo, and by the age of 23, he was settled into a Tokyo apartment and working away at his first job. Moving to a new country was a bit of a strain socially, and he often turned to video games as a means of recreation to compensate for knowing very few people in his new country. It was that habit of gaming that led him to Sword Art Online, promising an unrivaled level of interaction and gameplay.

►SWORD ART ONLINE:

Kayaba Akihiko's message to the SAO community struck Ryan with a chill. He didn't believe it, at first, figuring it was some kind of launch-day stunt. But when the minutes turned into hours and days, he began to realize that Kayaba's threat was real; and that he wasn't in the best place for success. A lot of the players, he assumed, were teenagers; and while 24 wasn't exactly old, he wasn't in the prime of his gaming life as he might have been as a younger child. He knew that a lot of the player base would probably be ahead of him in terms of gaming ability, and he worried if he could keep up level-grinding and sharpening his fighting skills. He considered starting his own guild to surround himself with allies, a thought that still remains in the back of his mind. But he resolved to take things slowly; he didn't need to be up front with the lead group, and he would take his time making sure he was strong enough and cautious enough to survive.

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[tr][td][classy=oocinfo]harken from fire emblem as aurelius
by LEVON[/classy][/td][/tr]



[tr][td][classy=credits]profile layout made by amb tanz with heavy modification by bunny.[/classy][/td][/tr][/table][/center]

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