Smokey Saber / 12 (DONE!)

There's not much to say, really, about the skinny kid who grew up in the Seam. After all, Seam kids all look alike, don't they? The same black hair and gray eyes, the skinny look of being on death's door, flesh stretched over bones and looking as though they've been taken from both ends and pulled and tugged until the muscle itself is so drawn out that there's nothing let but sinew and that rugged look of the miner. Like many Seam people, he is rough and unshaven, though his hair is thinning from lack of good nutrition. He is long and lean, tall even for eighteen, but too thin to indicate any real health.

Smokey does his best to take care of himself, but there is always a layer of coal dust under his nails and in his hair. No amount of the best soap in District 12 can get the coal out of him, and he always feels grungy, no matter what he's doing or where he's going. Every inch of him is constantly dirty, but in spite of the grime, he's an attractive young man with bright eyes that hold a hint of mischief and which can catch you up in them if he wants to get your attention. Smokey always has a ready smile and the corners of his lips turn up naturally so that he appears to constantly be smiling. His eyes hold his humor.

The most significant point to Smokey's personality is that he has a wonderful sense of humor. He's always smiling, and he always has a joke to share with his friends. For a Seam resident, he's incredibly laid back with a nary-may-care attitude. If you didn't know better, you'd think that nothing in the world could ever really bother or affect him. You'd never know that he harbored some dark secrets.

Laughter is the way that Smokey overcomes the painful memories of his mother's accident and his father's drunken tendencies. He likes being around people who laugh, and he likes making other people laugh. In a different place, in a different time, he might have been a comedian. But there is no place for comedians in District 12, and there are times that Smokey wishes the Capitol could hear his humor and tell him how much they appreciate it. Because he knows that they will.

Although he's had a rough time, losing his sister at a young age, Smokey's humor isn't really an act. He's a good person who had a strong spirit and a will to live and be loved. Smokey is a giver, the type of man who would give you the shirt off his back, and who likes to spread good cheer everywhere he can. Smokey is a generally good-natured guy who wants to be friends with everybody he meets.

Smokey has spent most of his life taking care of his family as the head of the household. Although both of his parents are still alive, his mother is incapacitated following an accident when she was twenty years old and his father is a drunk who is often inebriated. For this reason, Smokey has spent the majority of his eighteen years taking care of his younger sister, who is now fifteen years old and was born only two months before their mother's accident. He and Jocelyn are incredibly close and can rarely be seen separated from one another. He often refers to them as two peas in a pod, and most of their friends agree that the bond between the two siblings.

Being a father (figure) to his sister has put Smokey in the position of learning how to survive in a world that seems absolutely out to kill him. At every turn the family has faced starvation throughout his entire lifetime, and when the wolf isn't howling at the door, there are the peacekeepers (who, admittedly, aren't as bad as they are in some districts). The fight for survival has always been a constant battle for Smokey, and it's made him mentally and emotionally stronger than perhaps some of the residents of the upper districts. On the other hand, there is no question that they are physically stronger than he is.

Smokey knows that he only has one more year to worry about and then he can take care his sister and get her through the next three reapings so that hopefully she won't be killed in the Hunger Games. Even if it's his own life or hers, Smokey wants Jocelyn to remain behind with their family, though he worries about whether or not she'll be able to take care of them. His commitment is strong enough that he'd be willing to volunteer for her, though he's not sure that she can make it without him, and District 12 doesn't generally do well in the Games. The last thing that Smokey wants is to lose his family, regardless of how tough life has been in the Seam. He clings desperately to them, as dysfunctional as they are, because he feels that his family is his real hope of survival.

DONE! Feels a bit short after my last one, but it's done!