Nash Tatum | District 3 | FIN

Pressure. A physical force exerted on an object once in contact. Pressure. Attempting to persuade someone to do something in which they do now wish to do. Nash Tatum is in contact with pressure, pressure forcing him down to the earth, trapping him in shackles. He tries to take control, to find the key and escape but there is no hope. There is an easy route out for him but this can’t be his end. But when a battle has been fought for years, it is easy to consider raising the white flag although for now, Nash still has a little incline of fight left inside of him.

Pressured into the looking the part. When one’s father is a celebrated physicist, one needs to dress as though they appreciate the income that dives through the door. Forced to wear garments that do not fit his style, Nash tries his best to be experimental with his clothing, without the eye of his father noticing. Cutting trousers to knee length, persuading his father that they were bought that way. Rolling up his sleeves past his elbows, just so he has some sense of control in the way he looks. Looking to his siblings, they are both forced to wear similar items, he’d rather not be a part of a matched set.

Slowly sinking into his skull, his dark eyes reflect the pain that swarms inside of him. Wrinkles forming below them, wrinkles that should only arrive in at least twenty years time. Reflecting his eyes, his dark hair sits combed on his cranium, a loose strand flops down from his forehead, a signature look that makes him stand out from the rest.

A scar sprints across the inside of his lower arm, a reminder for him to never try the easy way out of his pressure confined jail. Never does he roll the sleeve up of his right arm or questions would be asked that he would be unable to answer. Although he conjured up an excuse that he accidentally burned it on an oven tray. His father never lets him go anywhere near an oven anymore. Another shackle to pull him down…

Obedient. Nash has his dad cracking the whip behind him every day and if he isn’t obedient, he’ll be getting full force of his father’s power. Although it is all a façade, one can’t forever be obedient or he’ll go off the rails. Nash has already put one toe off the rails and that ended terribly for him so he would rather not re-enact the moment. Whenever he is out of view of his father’s eye, all the rules that bind him in his household are shattered with one great swing of a hammer. No studying physics and engineering, practicing wiring various electronics. He does what he loves. It’s the only way he can get control in his life.

A loose cannon to his siblings and friends while to his father he is the perfect prodigy. Secretly going in different directions than what his father has directed to him yet still maintaining the favourite child masquerade. ”Yes Sir. I will Sir.” when really inside, curse words fill his mind while in the presence of his father.

Although flagged as a loose cannon, the only damage he is likely to do is to himself. Never has he ever thought to harm anyone, even the person that is holding back his life. Taking his younger brother under his wing (the second oldest of his siblings), Nash helps guide him as his father is also digging at him to be another special prodigy. Having a meek brother, he tries to mould him into an outgoing person. Helping his brother gives him control over something; it helps make up for the lack of control in his own life. He doesn’t know if his brother wants to break free from the future that his father has set for them both but either way, he’ll try his hardest to break himself and his brother from the shackles.

Façade after façade, deep inside he is drowning, in the middle he is an outgoing smiley young man and on the outside he is an obedient son. Cracking jokes, conjuring up wonderfully fun ideas to entertain him and others, Nash is one dynamic character but the middle him is where he wants to be. He has control there, his life isn’t in ruins and there are no rules to halt his process. Everything he does out of the view of his father is where he wants his future to be but it’s not so simple to break from the shackles. If it was, he would have been free from them a long time ago.

Finding himself alone with his mind is where Nash is most at risk. That's where he over thinks things, occasionally he finds himself puffing on a cigarette, killing off his brain cells as his father says. Hanging out of the window so his father can't smell the smoke, his mind reminds Nash of ways of how he could break free and most of the time, they aren't intelligent ideas.

Born first to two successful workers of District Three, Nash was followed by his brother and then his younger sister. Having a steady income coming through the house, Nash had a steady childhood. Listening to his father, as a child he aspired to be a physicist like his father but everything changed when the hormones attacked. Once he could properly think for himself, new dreams and aspirations found their way into his head and he does his best to hide the fact from his father. His brother and sister know, his mother is suspicious of it while his father is blind to it. It’s just that Nash, is really good at acting.

When he was thirteen, he acquainted himself with a boy a couple of years older than him who supposedly was a part of a hidden acting group in District Three. Re-enacting novels and historical Panem events in an old not so marvelous secret theatre, with a stage likely to collapse at any moment. Imagining himself on the dusty run down, terribly lit stage, Nash was quick on finding his way into the group. Fortunately for him, rehearsals and productions were during the night so it is easy for him to slip out of the house and take up the roles. This is what he wants his future to be, not in manufacturing like his father wishes. it's where he is free.Once on stage his life is forgotten while he acts as a different character.

Due to the late night escapes, sleep deprivation is one of Nash’s enemies and it is slowly showing in his appearance. Trying his best to not yawn while in the presence of his father, he is in wonder how he is able to keep himself awake while enduring one of his lectures. Being a part of the theatre productions helps Nash take control of his life and if his father ever found out, that control would be tarnished. One time he used to collect novels in his bedroom but his father burnt every book, taking down the shelves in his room. ”You read the books, that I tell you to read.” That’s when he nearly went off the rails. He nearly took the easy route to get rid of the shackles. That’s how he got the scar on his right arm. He thought taking away his life at the time would give him the control that he yearns for but his brother found him. His brother saved him.

Pressure is suffocating Nash and even though he has an incline of control, it’s all secret and every time he climbs out of his window at night, he risks losing everything. Nash yearns for a stable life, a life that he can choose for himself. Life in Panem is hard, there are already rules that the Capitol governs, he doesn’t need the extra pressure from his own father. That’s why in recent years he took to smoking, alcohol abuse on occasion that the theatre group offer to him. Rolling into bed with a sore head. Damaging his own self, just so he can protect his secret life.