I: Dust
When Seth sees Ryan, he thinks of dust: dusty-dry hair, dull gray eyelashes covering listless eyes, a faded complexion. A grubby coating of desolation seems to cover Ryan's frame.
Seth is tired and jittery with a feeling purposeless before meeting Ryan. Now Ryan's there, and he so obviously needs someone. Seth sees the craving in Ryan's forcedly unattached expression, and he wants to be that person. He wants to give Ryan what Ryan needs.
So when he renders a slight tilt to the corner of Ryan's dusky mouth and rosy blush to Ryan's dull skin, he feels slightly accomplished.
II: Castle in the Sky
When Marissa catches her first glimpse of Ryan Atwood, in all his scruffy, street-wise non-glory, she grins and wonders if he's another drug-induced hallucination. She blinks, but he's closer now, slouching and lighting a cigarette, looking like a golden opportunity.
Marissa monitors his movements out of the corner of her eye. His pink lips close around the shaky cigarette, and a shock of dirty blond hair falls across his forehead. She notes his hooded jacket and once-white, well-fitting tee, and wonders if his street attire is authentic or if he's a fellow imposter, playing the part of a street boy.
When Ryan raises his hooded blue eyes to meet her stare for the first time and subsequent lightning races down her spine, she makes her decision to believe in this illusion of toughness and unreal beauty.
Throwing away sanity and indulging in the fantasy-life of the delusional, she puts her heart in the hands of this out-of-place street wonder, Ryan Atwood.
III: Fish Out of Water
When Luke first notices Ryan, looking tired and sullen on the edge of the curb in paradise, he pictures a fish out of water.
Luke imagines Ryan as a shark from Chino, netted and dropped right here on the street in front of the Coopers' driveway.
If Ryan isn't careful to watch his step and keep his fins to himself, Luke muses, he'll be ripped to shreds by the O.C.'s very atmosphere within the week.