Oliver Rowe - Wanderer

Oliver's hair falls to his forehead in dark greasy waves, a few uneven strands covering his eyes and prompting him to flip them out of his view with a quick twitch of his head. All efforts to make the filmy mop more presentable have been long forgotten, and it's questionable whether his itchy scalp has seen shampoo or a comb in a year. Atop his head, the inspiration for his nickname sits lazily, a worn leather top hat, which combined with Oliver's hair emanates a dead stench that puts sewer rats to shame. Those bold enough to remove his tattered crown would see that all his hair is smoothed down underneath -almost the way sand in a bucket stays in the same shape when you turn the pail upside down and lift it. It's rare to see him without a hat; some say he just sleeps in it.

His eyes are dark brown like his hair, and they tell lies almost as much as Oliver himself. Depending on what it is he wants at the time, they can show any range of emotions from elation to pity to anger to sadness. Or, if it's necessary, they can reveal absolutely nothing at all. Hatter's eyebrows are almost constantly raised in a questioning expression that tends to make people extremely uncomfortable, and it almost seems like he can search through your thoughts just by looking at you. But then again, maybe he can.

Oliver's thin lips curl upward in a slight smile, sometimes even stretching into a larger one to expose his yellowed, crooked teeth. Despite his flaws, no one ever says he doesn't smile. Whether it's a slight smirk or a full-on grin, Hatter is almost always smiling. But because of his nasty teeth, some people wish he wouldn't. The thin, scratchy beard stretching from ear to ear is perhaps the only thing he keeps shaven and clean, but the reason for that is unknown.

A chestnut-colored jacket rests on Oliver's shoulders, and like his hat, it's something he usually doesn't leave home without. He has toned muscles, but he's not bulky-looking; smaller people are harder to find in a crowd. But that doesn't matter much considering he's six foot three, so he towers over most people anyway.

Hatter has never been patient. He likes to have things done when he wants them done, and if other people can't do it fast enough then he'll do it himself. This is one of the reasons he doesn't usually trust people to do things for him; sometimes he just feels like he's the only person he knows who's competent in anything.

People usually regret making him angry, because he always seems to get back at you in the end somehow, no matter how small the misdeed was. He's short-tempered too and it doesn't take much to tick him off or push him over the edge. Oliver's generally a cheerful person, but get on his nerves and you'll be sorry.

Hatter has no problem with manipulating people to get what he wants. He's extremely clever and he can usually get people to bend to his will and believe anything he says. Because his mind is able to think and process things much faster than most other peoples', Hatter can come up with lies quickly and get out of almost any bad situation that he might be in.

Hatter never really learned about what a family was because he ran away from home when he was very young. This causes him to be very cold-hearted sometimes because he wasn't shown much love as he was growing up. Because he mostly raised himself, he's hardened beyond his years; he had been forced to grow up too fast because he never really got to be a kid.

His strong belief in karma goes along with his belief in revenge. In his opinion, every act should be repayed somehow, whether it's good or bad. If you do him a favor, he'll do one for you. If you get on his bad side, well, he'll do to you whatever you did to him in order to get there. Scratch his back, and he'll scratch yours. He hardly ever thinks about karma aginst himself, though- for instance, if he stole a woman's purse, he wouldn't think about anything bad happening to him in return.

He never stays in one place for too long (hence -wanderer) and therefore he can't hold down a job. When the little money recieved from odd jobs isn't enough, he picks pockets so he can feed himself. Because he's been doing it so long, he can now reach into someone's pocket, pull out a few bucks, and put the wallet back in the same spot without being noticed. He never takes a big chunk of money or anything too conspicuous- well, unless the person is filthy stinking rich; then it couldn't hurt to take a little extra.

Since he moves around so much, he tries not to get attached to people because he always ends up having to leave them behind. Perhaps that's why he can be so mean to people; he doesn't want to be loved out of fear that he might begin to love someone back. Hatter purposely detatches himself emotionally from people, which also makes it easier to manipulate them.

Despite how unkind he sounds, Hatter does have a few soft spots. Especially for orphans, horses, and poor kids that live in big families. Under his greasy, crusty outer shell and deep inside somewhere there's a soft heart, a speck that still remains of the little orphan boy from his youth.

Oliver James Rowe was born in District 10, into a family that already had three kids. His father was a blacksmith, his mother raised horses, and his 14-year-old brother tended to the stables at some rich farmer's ranch. He didn't know why his mother went and had three more kids after him by the time he was six; maybe she was in some kind of baby-birthing contest, or maybe she just thought seven was a nice number. But Oliver always hated being the middle child -it was like his parents didn't even know he existed; they liked his older and younger siblings better.

He became attatched to his brother, Dominic, more than any of his other siblings, probably because the two were only a year apart. Dominic always looked out for his brother and he taught him how to do a lot of things, like how to ride horses and how to light a fire with two sticks. The two became inseparable, and looking back, Hatter knew that the hardest thing to leave behind had been Dominic.

When Oliver was nine, his father's shop caught on fire, killing his dad and one of his workers. Oliver's oldest brother, Dorian, was 23 at that time and he'd made a decent enough salary that the family would have been able to get by without starving, but he lost his job when his boss's leather shop went out of business. The only money they had came from Mom's horse breeding business, and that wasn't much. Dominic and Oliver took up an occupation themselves, though, as pickpockets. Since they were small, no one seemed to notice them. They'd go to farmer's markets, fairs, auctions; anywhere with a big crowd, and they'd come home with a good bit of money. Their mother never asked where it came from; maybe she knew, or maybe she didn't want to know. Still, feeding a family of eight required more money than what they were coming up with.

Oliver decided to leave home when he was ten. He figured if anyone was going to run away, he would be the best candidate; after all, he was the middle child and no one would miss him. It would be one less mouth for his mother to feed and one less kid to worry about at the Reaping each year. So one night, he packed a few things in a backpack and left, but not before he had taken something to remember his father by- one nice brown leather jacket with a matching hat. He figured he needed a jacket anyway in case it got cold, and this would be something he could grow into.

He fled to District 8 where a nice old widow gave him a room. She owned a yarn store, and he helped her keep her shop running in return for a good meal and a place to sleep every night. When he turned thirteen, he decided it was time to leave, so he packed up his stuff, snuck out, and built a shack deep in the woods where he taught himself how to hunt with a spear.

Since then, Hatter has been living wherever he can find food or shelter, never daring to go to any District numbered higher than 7 out of fear that he'd get caught. Oliver has been thinking about returning home for a while; he looks so different now that he doubts anyone would recognize him.

He feels that since he has no responsibilities to anything, he can do whatever he wants to whatever and whomever he wants. He manipulates and messes with people to get money and other things.