Nathaniel Brooks // D12

#35D699 :::: Nate's Speech (for RPing)
#22884F :::: Another's Speech
#00B454 :::: Bio/Writing
#007046 :::: Headings/Song Lyrics (for RPing)



NAME: Nathaniel Brooks.
NICKNAME: Nate.
GENDER: Male.
AGE: 18.
BIRTHDAY: March 24.
DISTRICT: 12.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Homosexual.





<When you look me in the eyes.>


Nate's eyes are deep-set. Barely visible eyelids and deep, dark circles that rim the bottom edges give the impression of a lack of sleep; but, it is a gene that goes way back into the family. He is deprived of long eyelashes. His eyes are a color of almond, with whites a few shades darker than a pure white. He's allergic to pollen, so when his allergies are 'activated'-so to speak- the eyes become watery and his whites are turned to a light red. His eyes seem to be a protective shield, hiding away all of his emotions. Usually, he makes his eyes appear cold and unfriendly, so as to hide any evidence that he is a very depressed person. That barrier is shattered when he is truly amused, though.

Nate's hair is a mess, to put it simply. It's a soft, shiny golden brown. Almost like a caramel, but not quite. His 'mane,' as he likes to call it, is a ratty, tangly mess. He likes to let it grow out to at least eye-length, but the snarls often prohibit him from doing that. Yes, he washes it and all, but it gets so matted and bedraggled that he has to shave it all off. And then he grows right back out again. Rinse and repeat. It's rather tedious, but you gotta love your hair.

Along with a large amount of freckles, his nose is covered with scars. He likes to wrestle with his little brothers, and they tend to use their nails as their weapons of choice. After the roughhousing is over, Nate rarely escapes without a scratch on his nose. When he frowns, or plasters a negative look onto his face, it scrunches up. The nostrils flare when he's aggravated. It's long and bony, and dips up a bit at the tip.

Nathaniel has high cheekbones. When he smiles, his dimples are hard to miss. During the colder months, they turn a deep red. His cheeks are bespeckled with freckles, and the occasional scar still lingers from playing with his brothers. They are puffy and expand his face, which looks kind of awkward with the proportion of the rest of it.

Nathaniel's hands are always rough. He grows his nails out, and then bites them off. He doesn't bite them off cleanly, though, so the different layers of cartilage are visible. He bites off his cuticles, too, so his fingers will bleed at points. His fingers are tinted with reds because the skin peels, due to the absence of cuticles. Being bipolar, he often takes out his anger by punching things, most often a wall. This causes his hands to also be covered in scars and bruises.

Nathaniel likes to wear comfortable clothes. A lot of guys tend to wear clothes that are too small for them, and to Nate they look pained and not in the least comfortable. He usually just puts on what he can find, but he prefers to wear a loose-fitting t-shirt and long jeans if they happen to be clean. You can find him running around barefoot during the summer, but looking glum in a pair of boots when it's colder.

Bespeckled, lanky arms are what Nathaniel has. They are rough like his hands, and his elbows are red from rugburn. His wrists protrude outward awkwardly, most likely from a childhood case of rickets. The veins in his hands are easily visible, and the blue against the pale white of his skin is shocking. His right arm has a scar wrapping around its entirety from getting his arm stuck tightly in a rope fence as a toddler. They are blanketed with a thin layer of sandy-blond hair.

Coming from the poorest district, it's no surprise Nathaniel's got a skinny stomach. He gets an okay amount of food, but his ribs are still easily visible.When he stretches, you can the bones of his pelvises and spine, too. Like his arms, it's flecked with freckles. From a long while ago, he has a long knife scar that runs from top right to bottom left of his chest.

Also like his arms, his legs have freckles. As a runner, his calf muscles are well toned. His legs have a fine layer of blond hair, also like his arms. His knees are scarred multiple times over from falling, and rugburned like the elbows.

The toes on Nate's feet are bony and long. They may remind one of a skeleton's foot, only with a covering of skin. His ankles resemble his wrists, somewhat disfigured and protruding. His little toe does that hated thing where it sticks out way farther to the side, making fitting into a pair of shoes a nightmare. The bottoms of the toes are rough and skinned from running barefoot when possible.


<You're the light that makes my darkness disappear.>


Nathaniel is courteous. He has two younger brothers, and often gives his dinner to them, to keep them from starving. He's strong enough to handle such circumstances, whilst they are not. He always holds open doors for strangers, picks up things that are dropped, and things like that. He is always wonderfully kind to elders, respecting their longevity and expanded knowledge of the world. The only exception to all of this is his relationship with his peers. There is no way possible that he can get along with his peers.

Nathaniel is very ambitious. When he sets his mind to something, he will do whatever it takes to make it happen. He tries not to get others involved in his tasks because he often hurts their feelings by leaving them out or speaking with a rude timbre, wanting to get the task done his way. Only when he is focused on something will he escape his usual aura of kindness.

Expanding off his ambition, Nate's also independent. A group is not a thing he wishes to be a part of. Not able to work well with others, he often gets into quarrels over nothing. This causes the group he is in to absorb his stress, which then escalates into yelling, and even the occasional fist-fight.

Loneliness haunts Nathaniel everywhere. Nate gives off a threatening vibe, so most people have some sense to keep away from him. The few brave souls who do utter a word to him usually get attacked with some harsh words. Nate hates this about himself; he knows this is the cause of his having no friends. People spread rumors about him, too, about his sexuality and his state of mind.

Stubborn is equal to Nathaniel. If you try to convince him of something otherwise, there is no way that you are going to succeed, for he automatically sets the way that works for him as the only way. It irks him when he sees someone accomplish a task with a different method than him. He cannot grasp the fact that there are multiple ways around every situation.

In a way, Nathaniel has a threatening aura. He does not send off a good vibe, radiating independence and loneliness. When people approach him, he shoos them off and/or spews sharp words. People cannot break through his shell; Nate just won't allow it.

Secretly, Nathaniel is insecure. He is not confident in himself or of the things he does, and always feels like the things he does are not worthy of a praise. Albeit Nathaniel is very ambitious, he feels the end products of his sporadic tendencies are not good. Trust is a hard thing for him to place in a person, and it takes a lot of effort from both Nate and the other party to establish a strong, healthy relationship.

Preferring to lead the way with his heart rather than his mind, Nate is an impulsive thinker. "Your heart is always your navigator in this racetrack we call life," he says. When in the heat of the moment, he always listens to what his heart tells him to do. Sometimes your mind is diluted with what may or may not be right, but your heart will always remain true to you.

Nate is majorly bipolar. And a worse thing with that is he changes moods very easily. Even something as small as a playful insult by one of his siblings will set him off for the rest of the day. His family and peers have -time and time again- told him to practice breathing techniques and such, but those never work for Nathaniel, let alone anybody. It's something he is still learning to cope with, day in and day out.


<Movin' on, I start to realize, I can reach my tomorrow.>


Let us start with Nathaniel's sister. Her name is Adrasteia. Adri was born when Nate was only four years of age. Adri has long golden hair that falls to her waist; she refuses to cut it. Her eyes are those of a Seam-dweller, ablaze with that lovely gray. At first, Nate despised Adri, as her birth was his transition from being an only child to an older brother. He avoided her whenever possible, refusing to assist Mom with the natal duties. But eventually Nate warmed up to her, seeing as she'd be in his life forever. They've been inseparable ever since. They treat each other like best friends, not siblings. It's rare to catch them in the heat of a fight.

Next is Elli (or Mom to Nate.) Adri took after her mother, with golden-bronze hair and bright gray eyes. After a final blowout with Nate's dad, the two split and she soon became pregnant with a man from a one-night stand. She never learned who the man was. She doesn't care to.

Where's dad now, you ask? Dad never got involved with Nate's life after Elli and he broke up, nor Adri's. After Adri was born, he left Elli for another woman, claiming he had always loved her more than Elli. He lives with her now, and has a kid with her. Nate does not know the name nor the gender of this child, and he really does not care.

The twins, Enoch and Michael, are two peas in a pod. Both are playful, both are loud. Never is only one loud. It's either both or neither. They both have long black hair, but their eyes are as deep a brown as Nate’s. Nate was eight when they were born.

Nate loves to run, run, run. At an early age, he learned to run from all the din that his parents caused in their home, with their yelling and furniture-breaking. Every time he ran farther and farther, and soon he learned techniques to keep himself going. He can go for miles and miles, and the time passes him by.

To go back to the subject of Nate's scar, the story is very quite gruesome. While of the age of ten, Nate was on one of his usual 'night runs,' trying to escape the din that frequented his home. He left Adri behind like usual, much as he hated to do so. As his thoughts took him to another world, his feet took him to a dark, secluded alley. Nobody was around, but Nate couldn't shake the feeling that somebody was around. Scared, Nate turns around and begins to jog back out of the entrance. And that's when he fell.
Feeling a sharp, intense pain on his right shoulder, he felt it spread down, down, down until it reached his left hip, in the shape of an arc. Nate, screaming all the while, is blinded with the flash of light in his eyes, announcing his soon-to-be death. Before he became completely drained though, he caught a quick glimpse of the handler of the knife. Then he's gone.

He wakes up in a small, dark room much later. He has no idea how he got there, or if he's dead, or anything. He knows absolutely nothing, except that he was attacked, and that he is under the force of the worst pain ever imaginable. He can't even take a breath without gasping in pain. He drifts in and out of sleep for an immeasurable amount of time. He doesn't remember eating or drinking anything, but apparently he did because there is no way possible an IV exists in District 12.

Finally, after some time, he wakes up and is greeted by the faces of his family, along with some extras he can't put a name to. After much explaining and talking to Nathaniel, he is informed that he was attacked in an alley. A homeless man found him alone and attacked him for anything worth keeping, eating, or selling. Not finding anything, he sliced him up like a cake. A passerby heard his screams, chased off the man, and brought him to a nearby house. His parents later went looking for him and found him near dead. Through a stroke of luck (and a lot of bandages), he managed to pull through. Left with the memory and a scar to show, he will never be able to fully forget his near-death experience.

At first, Nate used to be interested in the gals. He would attempt to flirt, touch, and talk. But he never really got the same attention back from them. He knew his threatening aura was a main reason why. But being insecure, he told himself the real reason was that they didn't like him back. He then began to question himself on the real reason behind a romantic relationship, and what it meant. Did you always have to hold each other's hands? Do you always have to bring them gifts? Is it okay to blow off your family and friends to spend time with your significant other?

Is it okay for a couple to be of the same sex?

Well, Nate had always been told no, it wasn't okay. So then he began to question himself on that. Why wasn't it okay? How was it different than the much more common man-woman relationship?

He began to question his sexuality.

He found himself looking at guys his age a lot more than girls. This scared him. What if he were to be found out? He would be even more so shunned from society. Should he tell everyone anyways?

Nate debated this latter question for quite some time. He knew inside himself that he had become homosexual. But why had it been so sudden? What would people say of him if he told?

And then one day, he decided he didn't care what people thought anymore. He was sick of all the abuse he had been submitted to.

He knew what his mom would tell everyone as soon as he told her, so he went to her. Nate wanted people in the know of his sexuality. He wanted to see how people took the news, how they treated him. How they treated his family. It was his new goal in life. A study, of sorts.

And people reacted differently. Some accepted it as a normal fact of life, and treated him the same. Some congratulated him on being so brave as to admit it. And some didn't like it one bit. Called him names and threatened him. But whatever reaction they gave, it didn't matter to him.

He was sick of the mind-games people had been playing with him. Done with his mental struggle to find that missing piece of his personality. Tired of the lie of a life he had been living.

Just done with it all.