Joshua Rowan - District Nine

Name: Joshua Thaddeus Rowan
Age: Seventeen
Gender: Male
District/Area: District 9
Appearance:

If you judge someone's attractiveness based on how physically fit they are, Joshua won't pass the test: though he's considerably tall at 6'3", he lacks real bulk of any kind - no bulging muscles and almost no fat. He isn't a scarecrow but doesn’t possess the girth that would make him formidable. He has fairly large hands and writes in a sloppy, childish style that is only decipherable half the time. Though most of his previously owned clothing has been patched and repatched at least half a dozen times, the man tries to present himself as tidily as possible - not an easy-to-accomplish task. Josh is quite pale, considering that he doesn’t often spend large amounts of time in the sun; the faint freckles scattered across his face suggest that he would burn instead of tan.

When it comes to his face, Joshua is all angles, from his vaguely triangular face to his thin lips and high, prominent cheekbones. He has fair blonde hair with light blonde undertones; though he tries to keep it short, it’s cut unevenly, with some strands poking to the nape of his neck while most don't make it past his ears. His eyes are a shade that's somewhere between pine tree bark and asphalt. He’s often seen wearing a pair of previously-owned glasses - the boy is farsighted - but, considering that they weren’t made for him, their effectiveness is questionable. He's quite self-conscious about the fact that his ears stick out prominently, and if someone mentions it he's reduced to furious blushing and awkward, stuttering excuses.

Personality:

If you were going to boil Joshua’s personality down to its basis components, three things would stand out: he’s opinionated, observational, and quiet. His silence doesn’t stem from any particular shyness - if required, he can speak with appropriate eloquence - but rather from his interest in hearing what others have to say… at least, if they have something interesting and intelligent to say. When he’s trapped in a conversation with someone he deems an idiot, he either becomes very talkative or just zones out. He’s quite judgmental of people and, once he’s formed an opinion of someone or -thing, is very difficult to sway. Oddly enough, he doesn’t have much of a view on the Capitol and District 9’s mistreatment at their hands; dwelling on the topic for too long just makes him feel weary, and what’s the point anyway when that’s just how things are? He’s also known for holding grudges for much longer than he should; if you wrong him, don’t expect any forgiveness for a few years.

On top of these root personality traits, however, is a caustic layer of moodiness. Joshua almost always looks irritated over one thing or another; while he doesn’t needlessly voice his complaints, he’s both high strung and a perfectionist - not a good combination. If you annoy him, expect a sharp comment in return; if you somehow endanger his careful system of organization, there will be repercussions. He often obsesses over minor problems, building them into massive catastrophes. When he is faced with something major, it becomes this black hole in his mind: he eats less, sleeps less, hardly thinks of anything of it, and occasionally becomes anxious enough to the point of vomiting. Despite this, he dislikes accepting help from others and will often hide anything he’s fretting over. Women - especially beautiful women - also make him nervous, but instead of being reduced to a jumpy mess he often lashes out with barbed criticisms. He absolutely despises animals of all kind (except, of course, those that wind up on his plate) and isn’t too fond of dirty jobs: killing and gutting things or cleaning up blood are all part of his personal hell.

Josh, unlike his easygoing and considerably generous brother, is thrifty and almost miserly. He’s never donated or spent a cent in his life unless he’s considered how much he’ll get in return, and he hoards what little money he has for the future. He often hides their paltry cash from Roman, though the other Rowan man always seems to sniff it out. Despite all of this saving, he doesn’t have any distinct plans for the future; sure, he wants to move out of his brother’s home and become independent, but he has very little interest in ever developing a romantic relationship with someone. He’s one of those people who views romantic love as nothing more than hormones, but he’ll grudgingly admit that family bonds are probably genuine.

History:

Josh was born in autumn to a family of three; it only remained a quartet for a few months before his father left and they were a trio once more. He grew up under his big brother’s thumb; while he wasn’t exactly tormented, Roman knew exactly how to upset him, and his mother could never find any evidence of wrongdoing. As a result, he garnered a (only slightly unfair) reputation as a whiner, something that didn’t earn him too much affection.

Josh was never introduced to his father; he rarely saw him except for gatherings in the Town Square and only spoke to him once or twice in the first ten years of his life. He excelled at schoolwork but lacked social skills and isolated himself from others - even at home, his only allies were his aunt and his mother. And even then, he always had the impression that Roman was the favorite; it was as if his mother remembered the time before Josh as idyllic, but Joshua knew that their stomachs were just as empty then as they were now. Even if things had gone downhill since then, it wasn’t his fault.

When he was ten, his mother persuaded a local apothecary to take Joshua as his apprentice. While he’d been initially excited by this change in events, the eagerness hadn’t lasted long. He‘d been expecting something he‘d excel at - brain over brawn, mind over might, all of that - but it was more taking stock of things and cleaning up messes than anything challenging and interesting. His mentor was a grizzled old man who was never in a good mood and could rarely even hear - it was like someone had shoved wasps into the chemist’s ears and they never stopped stinging him.

Thankfully, though, his life has been blessedly eventless - no massive tragedies, no crippling injuries, and no Reaping for the Hunger Games. Joshua had been ill with nerves the morning of his first Reaping and, in an attempt to comfort and maybe bridge the gap, his brother gave him a useless pocket watch. While it didn’t help any in soothing him, Josh did appreciate the gift afterwards - to a point. No, it did not make up for twelve years of carefully calculated teasing and annoyances. It certainly didn’t make them best buddies ever - at the most, they were civil to each other.

Recently, things have been going downhill. His mother had been older than usual when giving birth to Joshua, and by the time he was sixteen senility was starting to set in. Soon Roman and Josh were the adults of the family, with Roman providing and the younger just keeping the house running on a daily basis - easier said than done, considering that his elder brother was subconsciously sabotaging every careful decision. Eventually it got to the point where Josh was hiding money in an attempt to protect it from Roman - and what did the idiot do? He found a stash that would have kept them fed for a winter and bought dogs with it. Needless to say, Josh didn’t care much for the two smelly beasts named Moxie and Magnus, even if his brother swore that they would pay for themselves as hunting companions.

Unfortunately, that winter was a rough one. Though the hounds were, to a certain point, useful in putting food on the table (not that Joshua would admit it), Moxie became pregnant and homebound - that was one extra mouth that wasn’t earning its keep. The prey, of course, had mostly either died or gone into hiding. One of the only causes that winter for celebration was when Roman brought home a bear - illegally, of course, but what would the gluttonous Capitol do with a scrawny, flea-bitten creature like that? The joy didn’t last long - not only was it a truly skinny creature, woken from hibernation by its own starvation, Roman had had to unite with four friends to bring it down. After the catch had been divided up into fifths and then cut up even farther to accommodate the four hungry mouths (six, including the dogs)… it didn’t seem like much at all. By the time Moxie had her puppies, Josh couldn’t help but see the vulnerable, squirming little bundles as a few more mouthfuls of meat.

Roman was forced to agree with his brother on that point, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. So Josh - the boy who can barely scrub sheets bloodied by a patient clean without wincing - was the one to kill and gut week-old puppies. Even someone who despises animals as much as he does couldn’t do that without hating themselves.

They scraped through winter, but other misfortunes soon wreaked havoc, the most prominent of these being his mother: the dementia that had slowly, steadily demonstrating itself in forgetfulness, moodiness, and stretches of almost catatonic behavior culminated into a narrowly-avoided accident involving fire. Joshua took that as a sign that they could no longer care for her and sent her to live with their aunt next door.

Since then, he and Roman have been scraping together enough to survive, though Josh is less worried about starving and more concerned with not strangling his moronic excuse for a sibling.

Codeword: muttations
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