Rustin/Background

Background
Rustin is the kind of guy that seems like a walking stereotype. Blonde haired, blue-eyed with a nice body, great smile and a fairly easy-going personality paints a picture of days at the beach, parties up in the hills and a fairly good life. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Growing up in Oceanside with two successful parents, a few siblings and a nice house should have been the formula for a perfect life.
College
Rustin didn't end up going to UC:P because of a number of reasons. He did manage to get into one of the smaller, community colleges in the county and was thankfully able to move away from his parents. He majored in business with a minor in psychology and enjoyed himself fairly well. While on campus he came across one of the many fliers that plaster the campus trying to attract students for cheap and easy money by filling our a survey or volunteering to be a research subject for some psychological experiment. Trying to live his own life on his own terms meant that he could really use the cash so he signed up. The research was focused around human perception and intuition and he didn't take it all that seriously at first. They would show him cards of symbols and he'd guess the right one or they would tell him that there was something hidden under one of a number of different soli shapes and he would have to draw which one he thought the thing was hidden under. He took the test, got the money and left without a second thought. A week later, he got a phone call that changed his life.
N.I.P.R.
The study was being done through a grant from the National Institute for Paranormal Research (NIPR). Most subjects score in the low thirties percentile meaning that people are only accurate with their perceptions or intuitions only about a third of the time. This could be attributed to a constant obsession with social media, a belief that their own realities are more dominant/important than others or just a lack of general awareness. Rustin scored 78% accurate. So the researchers clearly needed to retest him to see if his scores were some kind of random unattributed error or something else. He got the call, heard that they were offering more money for advanced testing and was good to go.
The Tank
Sensory deprivation is a process where the subject is suspended in a tank of water and closed off from any external stimulus. Light, sound even contact with other surfaces are limited as the subject is virtually cut off from conventional sensory input. The purpose of this test was to determine if Rustin could repeat the results from the previous test without any outside sources contaminating the results. The lead researcher, through a microphone and speaker was able to communicate with the subject in the tank who was asked a series of questions. At first Rustin was ok with the unusual experienced - even hyped a little at all of the attention.
The Black
When the door to the tank was shut and sealed he started to feel anxious. He could still breathe and according to the doctor talking to him he could terminate the experiment at any time. They didn't ask him about where objects were or what symbols were being held up. He was asked to tell them what he 'saw' in the blackness of the tank. He couldn't see anything and his anxiety started to climb. He felt trapped and wanted to get out. The doctor tried to calm him with his emotionless voice but Rustin wanted out. Technicians watching the tank reported hearing a vibration coming from within the chamber as items started to vibrate and eventually fling themselves around the room wildly. Before they could get to him to let him out, Rustin had quite literally blown the lid of the tank off and was climbing out of the water. He was leaving.
The Voice
Rustin was freaked out. When the technicians and doctors tried to calm him down and hear what had happened in the tank all he said was that he could hear 'something' and wanted out. He tried to push the lid open on the tank but it didn't move. He didn't want anything to do with NIPR and said that they could keep the money if they wanted but he was walking out even if he had to do it in the trunks they gave him to wear. Rustin had heard something when he was in the tank. It was the doctor's voice telling someone to "prepare the subject for transport".