Andrei Mattias Ehrenström [District 7]

Male // 22 // Carpenter
FC: Sean Faris

Just looking at his parents, it's easy to see where Andrei gets his distinctive looks from. Though his siblings look more like their mother, Andrei is the spitting image of his father; tall, burly, brown hair and dark eyes. Though, at 6'5" and weighing in at 225 pounds, Andrei is noticeably bigger than his old man. Still, he does have the same jaw, the same nose, and the same high cheekbones as Konstantin, and the resemblance is something of a point of pride for Andrei.

With his profession as a carpenter, Andrei sports a number of scars from his time in the family business; most of them come from his younger days misusing some of the tools of the trade. A few have come from getting into fights, not that he'll just open up and tell anyone about those; with how protective he is of his siblings, Andrei has been in enough brawls that he's forgotten about the origin of some of his scars.

It might be redundant to note that Andrei's most noticeable trait is his size; this on top of the fact that Andrei performs hard manual labor for a living, it has made him broad, muscular and monstrously strong. Though his sisters are getting a bit old for it, they can often be seen riding their oldest brother's shoulders; with that exception, Andrei rarely displays his strength outside of work, and even when coming to his siblings' defense has been known to pull his punches to avoid dealing any more damage than necessary.

Andrei's personality tends to vary according to who he's interacting with. At a glance, he seems stern and intimidating; Andrei is not particularly trustful of those he doesn't know well, and on principle doesn't have much to say to strangers unless he can't avoid interaction. His silence is often mistaken for being anti-social or angry, and tends to drive people away. But to those that have gotten him to warm up to them, Andrei has a gentle disposition; to his friends and family, Andrei is soft-spoken and polite, and is open with his affection for his loved ones. He takes after his father in another way as well; Andrei was raised to be a gentleman, and is especially polite to women; around women his own age, though, he tends to become uncharacteristically shy.

His reserved nature shouldn't be mistaken for weakness, however. Being the oldest of 4 siblings has instilled in Andrei a powerful sense of responsibility to take care of and protect his brother and sisters, a duty that he takes very seriously. His siblings could easily describe him as attentive and warmhearted, bending over backwards and taking on extra work to make their lives a little bit easier; on the flip side, however, he is ferociously protective of his siblings and has earned a reputation as a brawler for the number of times he's come to their aid.

Perhaps the trait that comes as the biggest to surprise to outsiders is that in spite of his quiet demeanor and first-to-fight reputation, is that Andrei possesses a kind heart. Though he's not fond of strangers, he has a hard time saying 'no' to someone that needs help; it has, though, made something of a workaholic out of him doing favors and taking jobs outside of his profession as a carpenter, and has only added to the impression of his being anti-social.

Though he has relatively little use for many of the subjects taught in school, Andrei is by no means stupid. Having been apprenticed to his father at 14, he's had nearly a decade of experience at his craft and is good at what he does; side projects have broadened his skill set, the proof of which can be found all over town from the houses he's helped construct to the rough-looking toys made for his siblings over the span of many years. As such, he's very handy with his tools of the trade, an axe and knife, and has been teaching his siblings everything he knows about using them in combat and survival.

It probably goes without saying that with Andrei's devotion to his family, his worst fear is that his brother or one of his sisters will be Reaped for the Hunger Games. It took getting past a great deal of reluctance to acknowledge the possibility, but Andrei has since been putting as much time aside as possible to teach them how to protect themselves if they were unfortunate enough to be chosen as tribute.

For the most part, Andrei would say his upbringing was normal, though his parents might beg to differ by the fact that he was their first child. According to him, he doesn't much remember anything before he was about 5 years old, and anything between then now can mostly be condensed to stories about him getting into fights with schoolkids and watching his father work the shop.

But, it is just a little more complicated than that. When Andrei was 6 years old, his first sibling would join the family; a little brother named Leif. Initially, he wasn't charmed or thrilled by this crying, drooling pink thing his parents had brought home, especially not when Leif was old enough to be out of a crib and shared a room with him. But, as Leif got older and began toddling after his big brother, Andrei did eventually warm up to the role... though he did more than his share of tormenting Leif as siblings do.

Meanwhile, Andrei would frequently spend time with his father watching him work in the carpentry shop. Konstantin's family had been making furniture for several generations, though he wouldn't start learning himself until he was about 14.

By that time, the Ehrenstrom family had gotten even bigger; the twins Aniike and Freja were 3 years old when Andrei began learning carpentry. Three years earlier, it was labelled a miracle that Deanna was pregnant; even more so when the miracle baby was born in the form of twins. Andrei was well used to having a little brother looking up to him, so the girls were spared (most) of the big-brother torment... not to say 5-year-old Leif was as nice. Though his mother had enough free time to care for the twins, Andrei did take a more active role in taking care of his baby sisters. Meanwhile, he was quickly picking up the family trade, honing his skills by making wooden toys for his brother and sisters.

While Andrei was fortunate enough to have avoided being chosen in the reaping, his brother Leif is not yet in the clear and his sisters have just reached the age of eligibility. Besides helping run the business, Andrei now spends much of his free time teaching Leif what fighting and survival skills he's picked up over the years... just for good measure, as he'd say. Unfortunately, as his sisters have now come of Reaping age, Andrei is having a hard time juggling being both their protector, and teaching them how to protect themselves.

SIBLINGS
- Leif (brother- 16)
- Aniike & Freja (twin sisters- 12)
PARENTS
- Konstantin (father- 51)
- Deanna (mother- 46)