Gerrard Menderson | District 3

Like his parents, Gerrard has dark brown hair, and tanned skin from his outside work around the District. His hair reaches the length that's slightly below the beginning of his neck, which is the longest that Gerrard ever allows it. His eyes are a normal, chocolate brown color that he had inherited from his father.

Gerrard's height and body shape is average and well built. At one glance, his appearance could resemble to that of a healthy, hard working boy. In other words, his first impressions are pretty decent. But in reality, Gerrard has a very troubling issue that doesn't reflect what he looks like at all. The saying "looks can be decieving" certainly applies to him.

Gerrard might resemble his parents closely on the outside, but really he is nothing like them. While Calvin and Beatrice Menderson are both enthusiastic workers of the factories, Gerrard is more of the silent, dark type who is, in a way, alexithymic, a personality type -- or otherwise classified as a neurological disorder -- with a deficiency in understanding or describing emotions. Unlike most people with alexithymia though, Gerrard has a very vivid imagination. However, like most victims, he also has very logical and descriptive dreams, which he often can remember easily. Gerrard is also obsessed with one topic.

Fire. He had developed an immediate fondness for this particular element at an early age, after an accident at a factory, and believes that it's more built on saving that destroying. His parents often joke around and describe him as a pyromaniac, to which he pays no attention to. Gerrard's ignorance is probably another characteristic deprived from alexithymia.

Without taking notice of his alexithymic behavior and pyromaniac ways, Gerrard can be a very sensitive -- but practical -- person. His humor is very dry and sarcastic, but he has a knack of understanding other people's emotions, if not himself. This is yet another rare trait among those who are alexithymic. Both his parents know this, but to a certain extent.

Calvin and Beatrice Menderson are researchers for different types of new technology in the District. Their main purpose is to come up with new ways to supply the Capitol, whether it's for simple, beneficial purposes, or for the annual Hunger Games. Although they aren't the most famous or successful of similar people, they still have a fairly pleasant life and occupation. They have their own small factory to run, in which their son is currently occupied.

Ten years ago, the said factory had a break-in of a small group of runaways; the runaways' objective had been to steal as many developing technology as possible. At that time, Gerrard, at the age of five, had been tailing his parents while they were at work. It was he who had accidentally started a fire with a broken down machine while his parents went to investigate. The fire -- even though it was pretty small -- had later spread and caused the runaways to leave. Although his parents were not happy about the destruction of more than a few equipment, Gerrard had a feeling that the fire had saved the day. But this was one of his alexithymic mistakes, that would later cause his obsession of fire to grow.

Gerrard is an only child. Occasionally his mother would tell him stories about how he once had an older sister, but the absence of the girl in the household made his mother's stories seem like a lie. And besides, Beatrice Menderson never told what happened to her daughter anyway. At times like these with what Gerrard would call "irrelevant family business" -- even though he wasn't particularly sure if it was irrelevant at all -- he would get out of the house and spend his time at the larger, uninhabitated lands of District 3. Sometimes he would carry a torch with him, depending on whether or not it was nighttime. But usually he sat on top of an empty hill, letting his imagination run wild.