Bolts Spark / District 3 / Finished

Bolts has bright red hair, light blue eyes, and the freckles that complete the picture; he is fairly pale under the layers of grease he tends to be covered with. While the carrot-colored curls have earned him some teasing and the occasional bully growing up, he has moved past worrying about being a ginger a long time ago. He is lanky, still skinny from his latest growth spurt, and did not exactly have time or occasion to put on a lot of muscle. He is, however, fairly nimble, and has good hand-eye coordination. His hands are almost always dirty (except for special occasions and family dinners), his nails are usually broken, and he tends to sport cuts and scrapes resulting from work. 

Bolts is usually seen dressed in comfortable, cheap clothes, covered in oil and grease. He does not like to look his age, considering himself an adult for all intents and purposes, so he makes an effort to appear older than he is. He usually puts on layers to have some bulk, and wears the stains of his work as a mechanic as a sign of a person with a job. He likes to wear a hoodie and jeans, sneakers, and T-shirts, mostly in blue and grey colors. On special occasions he sometimes puts on button-down shirts, ties, and other items of clothing he inherited from his father, since he is almost the same height now (although they usually hang a little loose on him). He has an easy smile, kind of a messy look, and different kinds of nuts, bolts, and trinkets stuffed into all of his pockets.

Bolts is the quintessential Protective Older Brother. He is very good with children of all ages, and has been put through rigorous training in the finer points of sharing a living space with girls. He is hard to confuse, annoy, or throw off with any "girly" issue, and he takes drama in stride. He does not speak much, but observes a lot, and is there to offer help whenever a family member or a friend needs it. He loves being a brother, and even when the responsibilities weight on him, his family makes it all worthwhile.

This, however, does not mean that Bolts has no other interests. Girls, for one (he is a teenage boy, after all). Also, tinkering. He works as a mechanic, and he is very much interested in picking things apart, and putting them back together. He likes to pick up odds and ends, both in the physical, and in the metaphorical sense. He is slowly training himself to become a jack-of-all-trades, as much as it is possible among the limited resources of a district.

He hides it well, but he does have a decent dose of anxiety. It mostly stems from feeling like he has to care for his younger siblings, as well as his general fear of the Reaping. Bolts is a guy with a sharp and observant mind and good imagination, but that same creativity makes him prone to overthinking and over-analyzing things to the point where they make him worry and loose sleep. He has learned to hide most of it, but he definitely carries more weight on his shoulders than a guy his age should. When his anxiety flares he tends to either hide, or seek comfort in the warmth of his family. 

Bolts grew up watching over four younger sisters (Joule, Cordelia, Cal, and Industia) in addition to two adopted siblings, Florence and Joseph. It was (is) a lively family and a brood of siblings that often grated on his nerves, but one that he loves fiercely none the less. From an early age, he felt responsible for his siblings, both in the sense of looking after them, and making sure that they got into their fair share of (mostly harmless) trouble. He was often seen herding the little ones around, rescuing them from places they climbed up to, or simply tinkering with toys and knickknacks to keep them entertained. He had a special connection with his mother through caring for the siblings - Bolts always believed himself to be her support and her help around the house. Now that he is older, he likes to be the one to have conversations with her, adult to adult, and make sure she is not overwhelmed by raising all her children alone. 

Bolts was eleven years old when his father died. The loss took a toll on the whole family; in addition to his own grief, the boy had to watch his mother and siblings mourn, and try to find their way in a world without Dad. It was a dark time, and one that he does not like to remember to this day; with so much to do, and so many adjustments to make, he buried his grief instead of fully feeling it. Bolts reached reaping age the next year, and the dread crept in: He imagined himself being Reaped and leaving his family to fend for themselves. He was more afraid of that than he was of the arena. The minutes of waiting for his name to be called are bad enough that he only narrowly avoids getting a panic attack each time. 

The nightmare continues year after year. Now some of his siblings are reaping age too, and that does not make it any better. Bolts worries for each and every one of them, sometimes even more fiercely than his mother. He took on as many responsibilities as he could to support his family; in addition to keeping track of his siblings, he also started working at 16 as an apprentice mechanic. Whenever he has free time, he tries to learn things that could potentially be useful in the arena - he runs, he climbs, he tinkers, he reads about weapons. If he ever does get Reaped, he has vowed to himself that he'd get a victor's life, for himself and his family.