Ase Barber - D6

When you're a climber, you tend to figure out how to stitch your own clothes back together after a rough outing. He was an average height, which made the tall jumps tough and the small leaps easy. Even the pros can tear their pants. Ase would reach the tops of his new college building each time the bell rang for lunch. He liked a good chat across tray food scraps, but the view of the town square from above made him feel like a camera in the Reaping. Besides, his mother's sandwiches were always better than the wastage poured out of the canteen. Sometimes people would join him up there, even his little brother if it happened to be a weekend. There sat a small radio and a few bandages from class, just in case anybody happened to tear their skin rather than their shirts.

Ase had his father's eyes. Deep blue, the kind that only up close would you see the darker cerulean mix. When the pair of them would sit at the same screen, it was clear maybe Ase had a slight green tinge more than his dad. His younger brother collected more of his mother's side; he had a less stern face than Ase, who had a prominent pair of brows yet a buttoned long nose. Through all the rough edges sat the face of a pup, though. He was childish in appearance, and sometimes in nature, but altogether - when it came down to it - something about his face meant that people might trust him more. His mousey brown hair was a light tone in a neat style. Well-kept yet untamed. The kind that people envy in the wind, as it seems to flow into a reasonable place each time.

Newly starting college in a different part of the District meant that his old friends were distant and his new ones weren't close enough yet. While they all sat among their countless books and practical exams, Ase would be talking with the tutors and trying his best for extra credit. Medical school is the ultimate aim, and with their recommendation comes a hefty entry waver. He can schmooze and play the socialite for a second or two if it means he can gain entry and help his family, and his brother, live a more comfortable life. His mother and father both work in the local university, the one he aims to join. Not as tutors or even mature students, but as janitors. Somebody's got to clean up the mess in the library, or flush all the toilets after all the kids, and those people include Ase's family cohort. It's a respectable role - the pay is dismal but it's known widely these are essential workers post-outbreak. At least there's that. To Ase, though, it's the fear that he would end up in that kind of job. It involves all of the things he hates. Stagnation, monotony, and not even an ounce of excitement.

In his free time, Ase loves to play cards and gamble. He feels he had a tremendous poker face. Whether it's true or not is certainly not reflected in his wallet, but nonetheless, he finds it's in the fun and not the earnings. That's his perspective on many things, though. For as long as fun is had, surely the means afterwards are worth it. But, of course, noone must get hurt. That's his ultimate phobia; hurting another person makes him physically sore himself. The pain in his chest and the stressful strain upon his arms seems to triple if he feels he's done harm, somehow. Does it lie to him sometimes? It certainly does. He cures it by helping others. It's why he joined the medical route when offered, and even volunteers at the local hospital as a porter and helps man the ambulances.

The tall buildings of the District were always a sweet comfort for Ase, who'd scale them at comfortable heights. Not getting caught was fairly simple, once he'd learned from the other kids where the cameras were. The barbed wire was tricky - but take enough scrapes and you learn to fix yourself. Growing up, this is exactly what set him on the path towards medicine. He was in charge of wrapping up his friends' wounds tigthtly, and keeping them away from infection once he'd learned up about that. Now sixteen, the still-young Ase reaches higher and higher places each month that passes. He wonders if one day he could ascend so high that maybe the Reaping Day sirens wouldn't be heard and he couldn't be found. Then, he remembers, surely the Capitol would bring in his brother instead just to punish his reckless self. The dictomy of wishing to help those around him yet doing it in the name of the Capitol repulses him. He wishes tehre was a hospital without the symbol of Panem. Somewhere people felt genuinely safe. It'll never happen, though. Only in his dreams.

When he'd think back on his first memories, he can remembering running and hiding from both his parents. They'd take him out to the park, which has since been renovated into a clinic of some kind, where they'd chase him around for hours just to tire him out so he could sleep that night. It must have been one of those instances, a breeze for Ase but a nightmare for his family. The child who can't sleep, and who is willing to bounce off the walls for the sake of boredom and frustration. But, they managed. They put in place their methods, and he carried them through to his daily life now. Through his youth, Ase made friends with the outcasts of his classes. Not necessarily the troublemakers, but the ones that couldn't help but lose attention in class. While he kept his, he loved to go on their adventures, where their uniques minds would take them. For loss of a better phrase, school bored him.

As Ase got older, he started to grow into his slender frame. Unlike most that love to broadcast such a figure in school, he didn't spend all that much intent to acquire it. It turns out, day in day out of climbing would amplify his strength all in one go. It wasn't until he started to learn more about the purpose of health, realising that it would be the answer that saves him from a million health-related outcomes, and above all else help him avoid becoming on the rough end of medical care like his father. His poor dad has severe diabetes, and not the kind easily managed even in District Six. Not because of access to medication or the supply as is the usual issue elsewhere in Panem, but cost. The family simple can't, or couldn't, afford it. That's where Ase's money now goes.

With the Games, though, Ase has always feared going in. The usual drab story of not wanting to leave his family and brother, but actually, the very thought of betraying his body and mind to survive, hurting others, makes him entirely refuse the idea of going in. It's the last thing he wants. Each year is an anxious calamity waiting to erupt. So far, so good. But, maybe not forever. And the thought of that makes him sick. The idea that he would be stitching up his District partner in a death arena, and not his clothes, is horrendous.