Jem Krystian Morgan [District 1]

Born to the mayor of the luxury District has given Jem access to almost any beauty product he so desired, excluding some of the more extreme forms of body modification—not that he would want anything that ridiculous anyway. The products have had their benefits though. The face creams have left his pale skin flawless and smooth, and he loves to play around with the hair bleach. He has short, dirty blonde hair naturally, but keeps it a permanent shade of platinum with product.

His strong brow and large, bright green eyes leave him looking often curious and distant. The beautiful shade of his eyes is so light and dazzling, like his sisters, that many people claim Gentry had them bleached and dyed upon their births to match her own. His pouty lips are often curled with a sneaky grin that tells everyone he knows something they don’t. Whether he actually does is unimportant, but he’ll hold it over your head regardless.

While he is allowed to bleach his hair, Gentry has maintained a tight hold over the rest of Jem’s physicality. His ears were pierced not by choice, but by her command when he was about three years old. “You’ll sparkle like your name, and you’ll like it! There is no ’not’ option,” she had told him as he cried when the needle was brought to his attention. It was one of Jem’s earliest memories and the words really stuck with him.

His mother’s favorite saying however is “pride is painful” which he is constantly reminded of as she frequently has he and his sister groomed to perfection. His eyebrows are shaped to perfection, his hair knows no strand out of place and any form of body hair is non-existent, including those on arms and legs. There is very little of his appearance outside the realm of his mother’s control, but standing at a solid 5’10, following his father’s taller footsteps, Gentry is perfectly pleased with his height. He is of a slender build, yet he is well toned from his forced training sessions. Jem Morgan is a pristine model of a District 1 male, and liking it is unimportant; “not” is still not an option.

It’s a pity that District 1 doesn’t host awards ceremonies for acting performances like those of the Capitol, because there is no one who can play the role of perfect son on camera like Jem. That’s not necessarily by choice though. As almost all other aspects in his life, Gentry has strictly ruled that “not” is no option. “Get used to it,” she once told him and his sister at young ages, “Life is no different than the Hunger Games. It’s do or die… by the way, you start training tomorrow.” Jem was eight.

So “do” he did. He put on a show for all the cameras, and let his mother primp and preen him like a little prized pageant child. Being the levelheaded boy that he is, he knew from a young age to choose his battles wisely and bide his time. He knew his mother’s games, and just like in the Hunger Games, he knew to achieve victory, he simply had to play better. He is a smooth schemer and doesn’t leave anything to the odds. His analytical methods of thinking weave webs of plans and lies faster than the bullet trains of the Capitol.

Despite his resentment towards his mother for her vice grip over his life, he at least admits she plays the Games well and can’t deny that he is like her in many ways. Though he inherited her natural affinity for charm and social grace, he was blessed to have not been given her vanity. “Pride is painful,” Gentry would so often say. Jem simply smiled and nodded in return, knowing the truth of that statement. Her vanity would be her downfall. In fact, there is nothing Jem hates more than having his looks complimented. His mother kept him so fake and pampered, how could anyone know what he really looked like?

Jem may lack his mother’s pride, however, the ultimate sin has numerous forms, and many of its other faces have embedded themselves into Jem. He knows he is smart, cunning and a master of manipulation, so he is quick to dismiss those he deems to be beneath him. That doesn’t stop him from playing mind games with them however. Throughout his life, Jem has found that nothing makes him happier than playing any sort of game and winning. Perhaps being forced to train for the Hunger Games wasn’t so bad? If everything in life was do or die like his mother said, then why not play the ultimate game of it?

There is no one in Panem that Jem cares more for than his younger sister Glitz. The two are just less than a year a part and do almost everything together. That’s not to say they don’t have individual lives or separate friends, but at the end of the day, they are each other’s best friend and most loyal ally in the Games that are every day life in District 1. They are very much each other’s opposite, however, only they have been together through all of Gentry’s tyrannical home life. It wasn’t as if they were unloved children, they just had parents who showed it in forceful and strange ways. Then again there is probably a lot to be said of strangeness in a household where the children are raised to enter a fight to the death before the age of eighteen.

In his usage of free time, Jem is much more secretive than his younger sister. He has followed his mother’s footsteps in the games of politics, and lacking the respect for his body his mother has, Jem has not been afraid to use his as a tool to further himself. He has been the personal plaything of a number of well to do men and woman of the Capitol upon their visits to the District. With an array of valuable contacts and an arsenal of valuable insider information, Jem has naïve dreams of escaping the oppression of even the wealthiest District and moving to a life of luxury and security in the Capitol.

Of course, sleeping with far older men and woman since the age of thirteen is not without its scars and trauma, most of which Jem has yet to come to terms with or even realize. One thing it has certainly left Jem with is a distaste for love and romance of any kind. The easiness with which these foolish politicians can be swayed by lust and beauty disgusts him and he has come to believe there is no such thing as love in the romantic sense. There is only lust and a desire for power.

With his hatred for affection also comes an aversion to being touched. While he is quick to lend out his body for sexual exploits, he retreats from any affectionate forms of his skin touching anyone else’s as if it’s the plague. Not believing in love, he finds the gestures to be fake and personally invading. The one exception to this rule finds itself in the embrace of his sister Glitz. Though she knows little to nothing of his exploits, she’s always there to hold him in his moments of weakness and let him break down on her shoulder.

FC: Elliott Joseph Rentz