Cygnus Emberstatt // District 10

Cygnus has only recently grown into his looks, from boyish and gangly to... well, manly and gangly. He stands at 5'11" and refuses to admit his light weight. It is perhaps the single most embarrassing thing about himself. No matter how many hours he logs in the pig pens or in the barn, he can't seem to put on more weight, even though he grows stronger by the day. The ectomorph in him overpowers all other efforts. It's not exactly unbecoming; with his delicate, sharp bone structure, it would be odd to see him put on fat, or even more muscle. Still, it's not exactly ideal, especially when your brother is beefed up on steroids.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Cygnus attractive. He's got dark brown hair, eyes to match, and a skin tone that tends towards yellow. Nothing so unusual, right? His nose is straight and small, his chin sharp, his cheekbones swept upward. Perhaps it is that smile. After a particular brutal brawl with his brothers that left his nose bloody and his cheek broken, Cygnus has never fully regained the use of his lower left lip. The nerves are dead, never to be revived even if they had lived in Six or the Capitol. The truth of the matter is that these dead nerves give Cygnus more character than his long limbs or gelled hair. It forces him to speak out of the right side of his mouth with a slight, nearly becoming, lisp.

And if he smile catches your attention, be prepared. Once Cygnus starts talking, he maintains eye contact, that dark, intelligent gaze. He dresses himself as well as he can for living on a farm, but more, he holds himself well, using that height to his advantage. He is strong and cut, but you're not likely to see him without his shirt on. You'd have to work for such a privilege.

It is impossible to discuss Cygnus without discussing Mace, because they are brothers, truer than any of blood relation. Besides which, they make it so easy. While Mace can hold a total of five things in head at once, Cygnus can hold thousands. His intelligence is far reaching, unusual, and a burden. He thinks not only about the movement of the heavens, the most efficient feed cycle for the pigs, but also how one might execute social relations more effectively, how he might distribute a book (not just write it). In Ten, this intelligence has not lead him to glory, but rather to scuffles with his brothers. He has learned over the years to hide it as best he can around the home, and flaunt it only when he is sure it will lead to something. But those eyes, they are full of sharp edges, of the sort of intense scrutiny that comes with knowing you are better than your peers.

Cygnus is arrogant, no doubt, and this is despite years of being bullied, of being another cog in the wheel. It is not always an attractive quality; he can wax eloquent about subjects no one else cares about, and challenge core beliefs without blinking an eye. He's always interested in learning new things, of course, but resistant to changing his own way of thinking.

Which isn't to say that Cygnus is a bad guy. In fact of the Emberstatt quad, he is the most chivalrous, the most thoughtful. He's unlikely to approach a girl he's just seen or been introduced to. Of course he'll make polite conversation, but Cygnus likes to court with a plan, to find out about her first, to know if they might make a good match. Because Cygnus does nothing lightly, from his daily chores to dating. Life is a very serious and fleeting thing to him.

After a rather rough childhood, very little intimidates Cygnus. In some ways he is incredibly mature for his age, accepting the future. He thinks very little of the past, and sometimes has a hard time embracing the now. His mind is always thinking ahead, in days, months and years. He has plans, things to accomplish, not the least of which is to find a suitable partner and create a more stable life for himself.

Cygnus was born to the Coilers, a very young couple. His mother was just nineteen at the time of his birth, his father twenty-one. They lived in a very small ranch house on his mother's property, and managed a dozen chickens and the gardens. It was a quiet life, with his father in the fields all day, and his mother cleaning, cleaning, cleaning the house. While there wasn't a lot of variety day to day, nor was there a lot of hardship. Cygnus' grandfather brought him carved wooden toys which excited him, awoken his mind.

When he was mid-way through his third year, Cygnus' father died, kicked in the head by one of his father-in-law's horses. The downward spiral of that year is remembered only in flashes - the flooding rain that ruined their garden, the first time his mother hugged him nearly a month after his father's death, the illness that overcame their family, eventually carrying both his grandfather and mother away. Although now, Cygnus is quite convinced she died of a broken heart, that the pneumonia wasn't to blame.

In the winter after he turned four, Cygnus found himself alone and on the doorstep of the community home. He joined a quartet of boys all within a year of each other. Though Cygnus was the youngest, he was also the newest, and immediately felt the distance between them, even with his new last name - Emberstatt. While Mace was bold and brutal, Elon adorable with his wide smile, and Icarus with his singsong voice, Cygnus never stood a chance. The other boys seemed to be racing past toddlerhood, able to do more around the house, while Cygnus cried in the corner.

Unlike many of his siblings at the home, Cygnus could remember his parents. He held tightly to their memory, shying away from the others, playing with his blocks. With so much time along, Cygnus always finished his homework first as he grew older, and then thirsted for more. It was a blessing that he was ostracized, in the end, because it allowed the crevices of his mind to come alive. He couldn't always ignore his brothers, nor his duties at the home. As a teen he picked fights, became something of a punching bag for Mace. It was sometime around his fifteenth year that they truly came to understand one another. Mace, who found women impossible to understand even though he could approach them, and Cygnus who understood women from hours of study but couldn't speak, came to an understanding. They began to work together instead of against one another.

Which isn't to say their relationship is hunky dory. There are many days, still, that they would like nothing more than to meet the other in the arena. But, on the whole, they have found their bond, shared fists and blood, and become true brothers. Cygnus has higher aims than Mace in life, but how high is there to go in District Ten?

He intends to find out.

This upward trajectory, this forward thinking, has slowly fallen to the wayside. After the death of his beloved brother, Elon, Cygnus has been more critical than ever, more insightful and more insensitive.

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