Sentinel Stratford [D10]

N A M E: Sentinel 'Sentry' Stratford
A G E: 36
G E N D E R: Male
D I S T R I C T: Ten
O C C U P A T I O N: Farmer

H I S T O R Y:

Sentinel was born on a small, failing farm that raised sheep. He was the third child to be born in that depressing place, but he was the first to live past the age of one. His older sister died when she was only a month old from an infection, and his older brother died just after he was born two months premature. Sentry knew of either in his younger days, he just knew that his mommy was an exceptionally sad woman who never let him out of her sight.

Growing up, Sentry missed out on a lot of things. His entire life was the farm and the few hours he had to spend in school on the days he actually went, which wasn’t often. It’s not that he wasn’t allowed to have his own life; it’s that if he ever did spend any amount of time away from the farm his mother would be hysterical by the time he came back. He hated seeing her like that, so he didn’t go places. He didn’t need to, anyway; he was content with the poor farm and its small flock of sheep, and the drafty house that was too small, and the girl next door.

Yes, there was a girl next door, and Sentry was sure that he loved her from the first moment they met. Maybe it wasn’t the mature type of love, the real love, but it’s certainly what his feelings for her became.

Hadena was his best and only friend. She was the reason that Sentry never craved anything more. If it weren’t for her, he’d have wanted to go out into the world and make a name for himself, but he didn’t need to do that when he had her. His mother loved Hadena too, loved her like a daughter. When Hadena came around, Sentry’s mother was more energetic and in a happier mood, which just made Sentry love Hadena more.

However, their friendship ended abruptly and badly. When Hadena’s brother died, Sentry tried his best to make Hadena happy again, but she just pushed him away. Sentry fought hard against the rift forming in their friendship, and in a desperate attempt to bridge the gap he kissed her. She replied with a fist in his face. He had loved her so much, that he had thought that she loved him too. He didn’t even think of the possibility that she didn’t. When he was rejected by her, he was shattered and their relationship was irreparable.

He waited around the farm for two more years, went through the last of his reapings, and then he left. He got his own apartment in the city and worked at a bar. He didn’t think of his fragile mother or his dilapidated farm or his broken heart. He tried to move on and have a life other than sheep and depression. For years, He tried to move past the bitterness and trust issues, but he never built any lasting relationships. He held people at an arms length, even with the farm and everything that happened so far away in terms of both distance and time.

He wrote to his mother over the years, but he could not bring himself to return home. Finally, when Sentinel was 28, his father visited him and begged him to come back. His mother was very sick. Sentry begrudgingly went, not wanting to face the past, and not truly believing his father about how sick his mother was because she never mentioned anything in her letters. But upon his return he found that his father was telling the truth: despite her seemingly cheery letters, his mother had wasted away to nothing in his absence. She had not wanted to burden him, and had felt guilty about his upbringing, so she hadn't told him anything. She hadn't even told his father to come get him.

Sentinel tried to nurse his mother back to health, but it was too late. She died a few months later. His father couldn't deal with his wife death, and blamed Sentinel for breaking her heart and abandoning them. He took off shortly after she passed, and left the farm in Sentinel's incapable hands.

He could have sold the farm and gone back to his old life. But there wasn't much of a life to return to anyway. So there he stayed in self-imposed exile.

P E R S O N A L I T Y:

Sentinel is a very lonely, cynical man. He has a bleak outlook on life: people live alone and they die alone, nothing matters, life sucks and then you die, etc. He doesn’t feel the need to form lasting relationships, because what is the point? Sooner or later everyone leaves and everything changes. He doesn’t wish, or want, or hope, because he knows in the end he is just going to be disappointed. Really, he is just protecting himself from worse feelings than loneliness.

Life has made him bitter. He generally hates the company of others, and prefers to be alone. He is sarcastic, and snide, and goes to great lengths to make anyone in his presence despise him. He rather enjoys watching as people slowly start resent him more and more. It’s like a game to him. How long will it take for so-and-so to slap him? How long will it be until what’s-his-face has had enough and storms out? He isn’t worried about ending up alone, because he knows he will regardless. Why not make a game of it?

He hasn’t always been such an asshat. Back in the day, he was a bright, optimistic child, even with his chronically depressed mother and poor status. He always tried his best to be a positive person, and he almost always succeeded. He wanted to be brave for his parents who he could see were struggling. But he wasn’t made to be perpetually happy, and he started to slip. He started losing his optimism. A child can only take so much until he pushed to his breaking point.

His breaking point came in the form of his best friend, the girl he loved for years. She inadvertently ripped out his heart, and shattered his dreams. That single event disillusioned him, and forced him to take on a more cynical view on the world. Unfortunately, around that same time, his mother’s depression took a turn for the worse and nothing he could say or do could bring her out of the dark pit she had crawled into, which made him hate the world all that much more.

A P P E A R A N C E:

Sentry is handsome in an unconventional way. He is not the stereotypical blonde-haired, blue-eyed heart throb that’d you see on the cover of Tiger beat. He has sort of an interesting look about him that at first you find awkward, but as you look closer you see that everything fits together to make quite the attractive face. Perhaps his nose is a bit too small and round, and his eyebrows slight too thick, but that just adds to his charm.

Sentry has an angular jaw, and a rounded chin that is forever darkened by a 5 o’clock shadow. His stare is rather intense thanks to his deep set, brown eyes, and is hair is perpetually disheveled; no amount of grooming can tame the dark brown locks. He stands at six feet, two inches and weighs a healthy a hundred and seventy pounds. He is on the muscular side, but only about the arms and legs. No six pack for him.