Astrid Aribarri District 9

Standing at 5’10”, Astrid is somewhat tall for her average racial height. And thanks to the incessant amount of work she does to help her family, Astrid has developed a strong physique, but not notably strong. She does, however, have a great amount of flexibility due to performing exercising techniques which her family has created to maintain their selves healthy and free from too much muscular pain, common in people due to the massive amount of work performed daily. And going more in depth, Astrid possesses certain peculiarities in her skin which have constantly gotten her into trouble. For instance, having a few small scars is normal in her district, but having infrequent large or thick scars is a different story. And the most peculiar of those is in her upper left arm, close to her shoulder. It is a scar that has the same width and length corresponding to the front portion of a dagger. So, it is for this reason that she covers her scar in a think black band to prevent anyone from seeing it. She never takes it off; and becomes antsy whenever someone questions it. And just like that scar, Astrid has a few more which are covered by her clothing. And all of those scars are less thick than the one in her arm.

She has green eyes, somewhat long lashes and thick eyebrows, common marks in her father’s side of the family which has influenced her behavior for most of her life. Her eyes are common looking, with one exception: they are very timid-like, an attribute she despises. And having a smooth olive heart shaped face does not help her in her intentions of eradicating her eye expression. Her smile is also something she doesn’t like. She thinks that it is annoying, but people tend to think the exact opposite. The people think that she has a rather brilliant smile. But due to her lack of believing that story, she doesn’t smile as often as others tend to do. This makes her face look more serious, serious like that of someone who might be eight years older than her. But the only the only thing preventing her to look older is the fact that her long, lush, wavy black hair inherited by her father’s side of the family, is neatly well kept in a ponytail; the ponytail originating at different lengths of her head. Although, not all of her hair can be put inside the ponytail as she has front hair reaching down to her eyes and usually covering her eyebrows whenever she doesn’t put it to the side.

Astrid is girl that tends to wear dark clothing, although, she does wear light colors, but with less frequency. Her color choices usually reflect what she is up to. If she wears clear clothing, she must be in a happy mood or doing something important. If she wears dark colors, it must mean she is not feeling in a positive mood or is up to something questionable. Her clothing consists of fitted t-shirts, dark colored jeans, black jackets, and matching boots. She is rarely seen with anything but that. However, when she does wear different clothing, it is usually a dress, something she has to protest about whenever her mother makes her wear one, particularly when the reaping begins. And as a sign of protest, she likes to wear her hair down – for the sake of making her mom understand that reaping should be viewed with no importance – as well as with her boots, black gloves, and a matching jacket.

Astrid is a complete puzzle; contrasting her exposed attitude twin Maysee. She is a nice person to everyone she knows as well as to strangers, whenever they ask for things (but this mainly because of courtesy). She cares a lot for the well-being of those who surround her and does anything possible to maintain them healthy, only she does have her limits and knows that there are things she can’t prevent from happening. But as long as there is no big obstacle, she tries hard to keep her family well as well as her friends. Aside from that, she is intelligent and can learn things conveniently, but she’s no genius. She does tend to have difficulty in doing certain things that are simple – because she lacks attention when things seem to be easy for her. However, her intelligence is sufficiently well, especially when it comes to using technology. This is in part because she develops some weapons along with her father. One thing that has aided to develop weaponry and do other things such as illegal training and later learning it has been her cunningness. She has gotten people to teach her how to fight; only not as well because she is too obvious sometimes and would presume her learning. So for the sake of no suspicion, she is being taught a few key things in fighting. And as with her father, she convinced him of letting her learn and help him in his job.

To the stranger, Astrid appears to be a hostile and insensitive person who cares very little about her situation as well as the District’s. She doesn’t trust people with ease – this in part because she can’t be certain of whether a person is a loyal to the Capitol or just one of many who disagree with their institution. She also doesn’t trust because she can’t have anyone know what she thinks or feels since this could affect her in a negative way. And another thing that gives to her seemingly hostility is her shyness. Giving the fact that she has been raised in a family with high moral and demand, she has always tried to keep her good image for both her own and the family’s sake. She likes to make her parents proud, and for this reason, she tends to hide attributes or feelings that could disappoint them. Astrid is also like that with other people. She likes to make everyone know that she is capable of things that fit their standards, but because of this, she knows that people can take advantage of that and make her do things that she doesn’t want to do or might go against her ideals. Astrid also has problems in terms of expressing herself as she also thinks that people might laugh at her; and she doesn’t like to make a fool out of herself.

However, Astrid is very fearless and persistent when she needs to. She is very temperamental and because of this, she might be in charge in order to keep things running smoothly or change anything that annoys her. Astrid might like to stand at the back of the line but giving her explosive personality, it is in that moment that she forgets her fears, and ends up taking charge. This is good, but also a negative thing. And it is for that reason that she usually rethinks anything before acting.

Since the day Astrid was born, she has lived a monotonous life. Going to school and helping around the house had become a routine for her, and due to her sense of wanting to do things, she slowly began to write a story for herself.

It all began at age of ten, when she first held a sword that a blacksmith had been working on. Out of instinct, she grabbed it and tried to wield it properly and move it around, only that it was too heavy for her to lift up. However, her parents saw her intentions with the sword and quickly took it away from her. It was evident from that point on that she had a love for these objects. How Astrid knew about a sword’s usage, no one but herself knows. But one thing stood certain: she had learned it from someone who practiced dangerous and questionable behavior.

And only two years after those events passed, Astrid became eligible for the Games. As she was now more mature and intelligent, she began to witness and become well associated with the horrors the Capitol’s entertainment was. She slowly started to hold a grudge against them. And to liberate all that odium for injustice, she would search everywhere for people that just like her, wanted to do something against Capitol dominance. She didn’t hate the Capitol; she just wanted to finish the “institution” as she calls it. And from there on, she has been preparing herself through both mental and physical training, to plot against the problem. But of course, she knows finishing the Games is something unrealistic; although, getting supporters to become more discontent, well that is another story.

It is this idea of hers that has gotten her family into an extensive turmoil. Her mother has always been a person who doesn’t even like to hear a discussion of the Capitol or what it does. Her father, well, he is someone who truly dislikes the Capitol and has profaned of wanting to eradicate them. And because Astrid is very similar to him, she has always idolized him for not giving in to anything by heart, so she has been indirectly impulsed by him to conspire against what she hates. As for Maysee, she is torn between staying like her mom or actually thinking like Astrid, so she decides to stay neutral for the most part. And it is all these different viewpoints which make Astrid someone who tends to be outside the house up until it become late just for the sake of keeping her family without dealing with her thoughts.

There was a time in which Astrid did fall into a sort of depressive state because of these viewpoints. She became silent for some time about the idea of getting rid of the Games, but her repression made her mind feel hopeless for the countless of people that had live the ordeal of losing a family member. And used to think of what would happen to her family if the Games picked Maysee or even herself. She wondered about how her mother would feel about it. And just by the thought, she couldn’t bear it. Even though she idolized her father in so many ways, she loved and still loves her mother so much that she can’t let that happen. Her father is someone strong and would eventually move on or begin fighting against the Capitol, but her mother would fade away in life. Although, it was the frequent thinking of this which slowly made her leave her strong thought of the Capitol aside, and dedicate more time to her family in order to live at most, just in case she was chosen one day.

Nowadays, Astrid thinks and plots against, but her family has become the first thing on her list. As she has slowly recuperated from that depression and the impression of a world she never view real, she is learning to live with it and not let it get the best of her. Yet, in her darkest of dreams she views a different world for everyone, mainly her family, and she plans to make it come real, even if takes a whole lifetime to get it there.