Name: Nolan Rosen Antleran
Age: 18
Gender: Male
District: Seven
Token: A tough leather pair of gloves that have "Champ" stitched in to the back of both. They were his grandfather's.
Appearance:
Personality:
Nolan has always been a very genuine person, much like his father and Grandfather before him. There's a running joke in their community that whittling away at the wood all day whittles away at any façade a man may try to hide.
His warm smile often disarms everyone's natural aversion to him due to his larger size. Humble, though not shy, he sometimes holds difficulty in seeing his own potential. His size has also halted people from noticing his mind and the way he analyzes people and events.
Skills:
Durable- From his hours in the woods, chopping away and felling trees, Rosen has built a notable endurance. He doesn't tire as quickly as others and can keep a steady pace in physical tasks for extended periods of time.
Agile- His time chasing small game through the woods has made Rosen deceptively agile. Though he can't run on branches or anything of the sort, he can move with assurance through thick brush and pad his footsteps somewhat.
Strength – Years of physical and strenuous work have made Rosen a tough individual. His upper body has been honed from years of carrying lumber and axes. Specifically he carries most of his strength around his shoulders and forearms.
Axe/Hatchet wielder – It's pretty much a given, for his district. But Rosen is proficient with various forms of axes and hatchets.
Weaknesses:
Lumber accident – A few years back, while not paying attention, Rosen almost lost his life in a lumber accident. Instead, he broke his leg and was left with large scar running the length of it. Though it healed, to this day it still gives him trouble and doesn't handle jump shock too well (if he were to jump from a platform to the ground). The mended area, due to the miniscule area of space in-between the two mended pieces of bones, is susceptible to weather and pressure changes that he can feel that often are enough to wake him up at night.
Vision – Rosen doesn't have the best vision and hasn't since he was a child. During the day, he is able to compensate and it doesn't present much of a challenge, but during the nights, his vision is strained at best most of the time. The rod and cone receptors in his eyes don't receive information well like normal individuals and he is forced to rely on sound more.
Defender – Though normally this would be a good attribute, in the Games, it isn't. Rosen is a defender through and through. With his larger body and stout frame, he intimidates others before they have a chance to hear him speak (which are usually some of the kindest words they'll hear for the rest of the day). He goes out of his way to help out other individuals in a rather altruistic fashion.
Background History:
Rosen grew up in a moderately sized household. Food was always on the table, no matter how sparse it was and love was abundant throughout the home. From a young age, honesty and integrity were forced on to him as much as the act of chopping wood. Always with an excess of energy, Rosen quickly began to take after his father, chopping wood on the weekends and hunting small game with his father through the woods when they could.
Through the years, his father and grandfather taught him how to use an axe and hatchet. Along with other things, they taught him how to be sufficient and versatile with carving knives (in a non-lethal fashion) and groomed him to be a man of self-sufficiency. His ever-racing mind found solace in the monotony of many of the tasks that his district was tasked with.
One of his most vivid memories involving his father and mother centers around the day he felled his first tree. He had woken up early, before the rays of the sun could fully kiss the land and set to work preparing to take on his tree. The night prior to that had been filled with restless sleep from his mind. Approaching the tree could have been likened to David approaching Goliath, for all that he saw it as. For some reason, as he approached it, he began to cry, but hefted his axe anyway and set to work. It was midday before his parents found him and his mother rushed to help him. At this point, his hands were bleeding and he was grunting in agony with every swing, but his father stopped her telling her that if he didn't do this on his own, he'd never learn the reward of "getting it by your own hands".
Hours later, in the midst of a dying sun, the familiar creaking and crash could be heard as his tree finally fell. With a cry of exhaustion, he fell to his knees. He felt an arm around his shoulder and expected to feel the slim yet muscled arm of his mother. Instead, he looked up to see his father, tears tracing the lines of his face as he embraced his son. He hadn't seen fit to encourage his son during the process, but now that the tree was down, he could truly express his gratitude.
Years later, Rosen walked out of a tattoo parlor, a fresh message forever painted on the skin of his chest. "Get It By Your Hands".
Another memory centers around the one and only time he was caught with fresh game in his hand by a Peacekeeper. At the ripe age of 9, he knew that the punishment would be swift and precise, but he still hadn't been fully prepared for the sting of the whip as it razed across his skin. It seemed like an eternity before the lashes stopped and there seemed to be a scuffle behind him. He turned to see his father, grandfather and uncle all wrestling with two Peacekeepers while the third tried to assault them all with a whip. Later, he'd asked why his father jumped in and without missing a beat his Uncle spoke up. "Family means putting yourself on the line because the love you hold for another is too strong. Family is pain just as love is. Family doesn't back down and neither should you."
Nolan Antleran/18/Male/Seven/Stein