Casl Warren District 4

Name: Casl Warren
Age: 18
Gender: Male
District/Area: District 4
Appearance:

From the look in his eye to the way he carries himself Casl is instantly recognized as one of the Careers of his district, and rightly so. Casl is, by all accounts, a large human being. Extra-large, even. He towers at six-foot five-inches, two hundred and forty-five pounds and is most comfortable in a wide-legged stance with his arms hanging slightly-tensed at his sides, fingers halfway curled and ready at a moments notice.

He has very dense, short brown hair. So short that it would be hard to pull and there is very little to run one's fingers through. Casl likes it this way because of the practicality, and he thinks it suits him as well. He has a strong, square jaw line with evidence of facial hair that has partially grown-in. It has been known to sport a friendly smile, though not often. Casl has a pointed nose with slightly flared nostrils directly in the center of his face sitting below his prominent brow. He has thinner eyebrows than the rest of his facial structure would hint at; they rest above brown eyes that are uncharacteristically gentle despite his hard complexion. They often betray the stern gaze he as adopted has his default facial expression. He has been taught time and time again that he cannot afford to show weakness to anyone, especially strangers.

His head sits atop a think neck. In fact, everything below his head is thick. Casl has wide shoulders, much wider than his hips, framing a broad chest and leading to his strong arms. Casl's torso tapers at his waist and connects to his muscled legs that hold his large frame well and balance his stature, rooting him firmly to the ground.

Casl does not have the typical appearance of many swimmers in his district. The typical tanned, toned and defined composition of district 4 is not how Casl appears. He is an impostor to his district, characterized by a slightly paler complexion and sheer bulk; his is not to say that his muscles are not prominent, they ripple through his body with every movement he makes. Casl has veins that run down his huge biceps and along his forearms which are almost equally as thick from gripping heavy objects like fishing nets, cages and weights. His hands are callous and scarred; many of the knuckles on his fingers are thick and knotted or slightly crooked from being broken while training as a Career.

His bulky body composition gives away the fact that he is very healthy; Casl has always been taken care of and well-fed throughout his life, something that breeds contempt in many of his peers who are not as fortunate. His tall and imposing stature, combined with a smug grin that he often has make him appear as if he both literally and figuratively looks down on people.

Everything about Casl's physical attributes from his huge a muscled body, to the evidence of physical stress and training on his person, to his stern masculine face and quasi-arrogant air about him indicate make him easily recognizable in a crowd. He is a Goliath of a young man who is easy to identify as a Career at a glance. Casl likes the attention, but is self-conscious about his appearance because he feels like he needs to appeal to everyone and meet the high standards of the Capital. He is often worried that he is too tall, too big, too pale, or that perhaps he stands out too much as a target instead of someone to fear; he wants everything about his physique to be an advantage should he find himself in the Capital.

Personality:

One's first impression of Casl is that he is a prototypical Career: loud, confident, and always sizing up people as though they are his competition. Everything is a competition in his eyes. From shaking hands to where he positions himself in a room everything Casl does is to establish dominance. He is clearly comfortable with the life he lives, and does not seem to be immediately worried about anything other than becoming bigger, faster, stronger and better than everyone else.. He was carefully instructed to not let any form of anxiety show in his daily interactions because that will be an advantage in the event that he becomes the tribute for District 4, so he almost always appears at ease. Casl is from one of the more comfortable families in District 4, and has been taught to be very polite and value manners. However, often times because of either his tone or posture he gives off the attitude that he is belittling people when he uses terms such as "sweetheart" in conversation.

Scratch below the surface however, and there actually are feelings and a full range of human beneath the well-groomed exterior. He can be a kind person when he chooses to be, and is good at making friends because he is very outgoing and sure of himself. However Casl feels entitled to pick and choose who he shows respect to, and makes no effort to mask it. He is not unconditionally kind or respectful to everyone and often can be rude; he gets away with it though and has never had to worry about the consequences of his actions.

People are drawn to him because of his size or his confidence; they recognize that he not someone to be on bad terms with and treat him appropriately. He has a good sense of humor and laughs a lot in the confidence of friends or with people he chooses to be friendly with, usually his peers at school and fellow Careers. This is a stark difference to the stern persona he adopts in unfamiliar surroundings or with people he is not sure he can trust.

Casl is never passively condescending on purpose; he is not clever enough. What he mistakes for being nice or polite, such as giving compliments, can come off as insincere or forced as if he is trying too hard. He doesn't read these social cues well because he simply never learned to; people either assume he does it on purpose or they are too intimidated to try and correct him. Casl is also somewhat oblivious to the hardships of others; he doesn't experience hardship himself and can be insensitive when talking about food, money, work, or the Games.

Casl has distinct relationships with different kinds of people, these can easily be grouped into boys or girls, other Careers, and his parents.

He gets along well with boys, though often because his peers would rather have him as a friend than a foe. Through his size and strength he could easily be a bully to any other boy in District 4, but he has a very high sense of fairness that he learned through competition and training that actually makes him stand up for anyone being intimidated physically. With his fellow Careers he is enthusiastically competitive, naturally, though it is all in good spirit. Casl tries to help his fellow male Careers and they treat him the same way; they know they will never face each other in the Games and though they never talk about it, they do not want to see each other die. This has fostered a rooted sense of camaraderie for his fellow Careers, and he is fiecely defensive of those he is close to. Casl extends this feeling to many people whom he spends lots of time around, not just Careers.

Casl has an interesting dynamic with girls around his own age. He is mostly good looking and by all means desirable as a Career from a somewhat wealthy family, but there are a couple things that make his relationships and friendships with girls less than they could be. Casl is easily manipulated by girls, especially those he thinks are attractive. Any pretty girl who can competently flirt for 5 minutes with Casl, bat her eyelashes, and tell him how strong he looks will have him wrapped around her finger immediately. This comes from his relationship with his mother, Casl is a bit of what would be called a "mama's boy." She is very domineering as a parent, and he listens to her every word because in return she spoils him. She is also Casl's biggest cheerleader and builds up his confidence, perhaps a little too much. From this, he is a complete pushover for any girls who are nice to him. Casl trusts girls too much too soon and is easily taken advantage of by any girl clever enough to see it. His status as a Career makes him attractive, but only in the short term; he has an ominous expiration date on his life in the form of the Games, especially now that he is 18. Logically, girls have begun to distance themselves from Casl romantically as he has grown older. No girl wants to emotionally invest too much of herself into Casl if she will have to watch him die a gruesome death in a few months if he volunteers as a tribute. His fellow female Careers began the earliest, though there is an unspoken rule that no Career will ever fight another in the Games unless they are the last two left. That knowledge is the only thing that lets Casl smile at them and be friendly on a day-to-day basis in training.

Casl's relationship with his father is the same that it is with many of his trainers and other family members in his life; Casl is courteous and respectful, and they are supportive of him as any family would be. Recently the trend of preparing for Casl's inevitable death has changed the nature of Casl's father to being more of a provider than a father figure. Even so, they do have a functioning relationship; he learned from his father to be detail-oriented, reliable, and to follow directions closely.

The grim reality of the Games has set in on Casl, and it eats at him more and more every day. Though always outwardly confident, inwardly he was shaken by his 18th birthday. It felt more like a doctor pronouncing a death than a celebration. Though not the most adept at picking up subtle social nuances, even Casl has noticed the changes in the way people treat him. Everything has become less personal and more business-like with everyone except his fellow male Careers. Casl appreciates them and feels a sense of loyalty to them now more than ever, but less of a sense of loyalty to his District. He often questions if they really have faith that he could win, or if they assume that he would die as well. This has both driven him to work harder than ever, as well as to come to terms with his own mortality for the first time. The crushing weight of the expectation of volunteering combined with his slowly eroding confidence that he can win have Casl more troubled than he has ever been in his life. Casl questions what he has worked for, how much time he has left to live, and even the unthinkable for an 18 year old Career: if he will even volunteer. He never considered dying in the Games, only winning. This is his deepest secret, and not a soul knows the questions that swarm about in his head. Much of his time alone used to be spent looking for ways to either indulge himself or build himself. Now, he spends some of it imagining what it is like to die. He has come to the conclusion that the part that scares him the most isn’t the pain, the blood, or the humiliation, but imagining the feeling of his last heartbeat.

Outwardly Casl is the ideal Career, if slightly naïve. Inwardly he finds himself suddenly lost in the face of his possible death, and losing the feeling of being invincible that makes him so confident.

History:

Casl was born an only child into a fairly well-to-do family in District Four; his parents inherited most of their money and live comfortably owning and operating a high class restaurant. His family is one of the older in the district, and isn’t particularly well-liked. Casl has heard stories that generations ago during the Uprising that his family actually gave information to the Capitol that helped their war effort. In return, his family was favored when the war was over. He isn’t sure if this is entirely true, and he doesn’t care much to look into it; he knows his family is wealthy enough to live a comfortable life, they always have been, and that some people don’t like it.

Like most of those who grow up in a relatively wealthy home, he never really questioned the Capitol, the Games, or his way of life. He was generally happy without anything to worry about. He had a great relationship with his parents, though growing up as an only child he became accustomed to being spoiled and to being the center of attention. Casl’s parents were ideal citizens in the Capitol’s eyes: loyal, ignorant, and complacent. They truly bought into the Capitol propaganda, and had Casl begin training for the Games as early as he could. When he was old enough to begin school, it was a bit of a reality check to him that the world didn’t revolve around him, but it took Casl a couple years to fully realize that. He was always surrounded by a group of friends, almost exclusively boys, and spent almost all of his time outside.

Casl quickly became competitive with his peers, but he soon learned that he not hope to claim superiority in schoolwork or tests. He quickly turned his attention to physical activities instead: running, swimming, digging holes, climbing trees, catching fish, wrestling, or diving. Anything. Anything Casl could do faster, farther, bigger, deeper, stronger, higher, or better than his peers. Casl liked winning. He liked it so much that as he got older he began to think about winning the Hunger Games; the operative word being “games”. Casl never quite understood the magnitude or permanence of death, he always thought of it as losing. Casl almost never lost, so why worry about it?

Age 13 is where more dynamic things began happening in Casl’s life. This was the age at which many of fellow Careers stopped training; going through their first reaping and watching their childhood friend killed was enough to shake the confidence of many. Not Casl, this is the time where he began to set himself apart from his peers. He became more devoted to training; he lingered on every encouraging word of his trainers, and wanted to redeem his district when it was his turn. Like most athletic boys who go through puberty his stomach was a bottomless pit. By age 16 he had grown to be enormous, and was routinely eating enough to feed a small family. He was training harder than ever, and had established himself as not particularly the fastest or smartest but easily one of the strongest and a ruthless competitor.

Through his years of school and training Casl made friends, and experimented with girls. He never became especially close to any one girl for a long time, he was taught not to have any distractions. If a girl became attached to Casl, and likewise Casl to her, he would be less inclined to leave home and risk his life. Nonetheless Casl has had his fair share of female encounters and the concept of rejection is completely foreign to him, he has never had a bad altercation or any reason to be bitter when it comes to females.

In the most recent years of his life, Casl has been focused on perfecting everything about himself that he can because his time is running out. It has only recently registered with him that he may not only be running out of time to prepare for the Games, but time to live at all. Many other Careers his age recognized this earlier, and have been taking every chance they can to indulge, have fun, and distract themselves from their future. Now at age 18 Casl is trying to push himself to new limits every day, and to enjoy himself in his free time.

Codeword: <img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/16h2ibt.png">
Comments/Other:

Any advice/criticism is welcome! I want this to be a good bio, and sorry if I blurred the lines between Personality/History at times.