Roger Macey -- District Three

The first thing one tends to notice about Roger is the dimpled grin which is quick to flash across his face. His light, brownish-reddish hair, which he clearly cuts himself-- with a cheap pair of scissors-- tends to look like he just crawled out of bed. It spikes, it ruffles, it's matted in places, but it somehow manages to frame his animated features fairly pleasantly. Much to his frustration, his skin is prone to the occasional break-out, particularly during more stressful periods of his life. During the Hunger Games especially, which he tends to watch with both of his parents on their ratty, grease-stained couch, you can often see signs of inflamed acne, unless he's had the foresight to cover the areas with a band-aid. However, before you notice the faded scars from years of picking at and squeezing zits, you'll notice the huge, lively, light blue eyes moving this way and that under a pair of arched, expressive eyebrows.

Roger isn't especially tall, standing at roughly five foot nine, and he has a slim frame, not particularly muscled due to hours of sitting in front of a computer screen. Still, he looks healthy enough, as his parents make a decent enough living to keep him well-fed; and that's not even considering the calorie intake from his constant boozing. However, he maintains a wiry figure, which suits his energetic, somewhat twitchy, nature. His posture, thanks to the aforementioned time spent at the computer, is slightly slumped, but he still manages to carry himself with a certain dignity. It might be his long, slender neck, his high cheekbones, or simply the personality bursting through every movement, but there's something about Roger Macey which makes him entertaining to watch.

Quick to make a joke-- typically at his own expense, if there are no other suitable targets around-- Roger is a pleasure to be around. His sharp wit, tempered by his easygoing nature, makes his a natural when it comes to casual socializing. He is open, talkative, and immensely honest (which often gets him into trouble), but despite this 'what you see is what you get' exterior, Roger actually tends to keep his cards close to his chest. Underneath the playful demeanor lays a sensitive, vulnerable side, which he struggles to hide from the world. He much prefers to be seen as the spontaneous, nonchalant prankster who isn't at all afraid of the world around him.

To maintain this image, even when the cracks begin to show, Roger takes to the bottle. In his bedroom, he stockpiles bottles of grain liquor, which he acquires from an older schoolmate in exchange for plagiarized essays or hacking jobs. This allows him to keep one foot firmly outside of the reality which surrounds him. Still, although this habit results in rough hangovers and the occasional blackout, Roger is fairly high-functioning unless faced with particularly difficult circumstances.

Roger is popular in his district, due to his friendly attitude and optimistic outlook. He's seemingly quite casual when it comes to romantic relationships, having had a string of girlfriends since he was thirteen (though nothing remotely serious). This, however, masks a fierce romantic streak, which he plays off with sarcastic comments and cynical remarks. He can also be seen as being somewhat shallow-- not because of superficiality, but rather, because he finds it difficult to trust others enough to reveal his true nature. As such, he has many acquaintances, but considers few to be real friends.

Roger was born to Harris and Aimi Macey, an IT specialist and customer support employee respectively. Although his family is considered middle class at best, they have, in comparison to much of Panem, had it quite easy. Their apartment, although nothing special, has a lived-in, almost quirky feel to it, thanks to the numerous bizarre gadgets his mother likes to collect and the geometric patterns and abstract imagery Roger designs on his computer, which decorate the various rooms of the household. He's always had an easy relationship with both of his parents, able to speak to them almost as peers, and as the only child, he has never dealt with having to compete with another sibling for their time or attention.

Although he struggled at school due to what was later discovered to be an attention deficit disorder, when he was old enough to begin taking computer science courses, he displayed an intuitive talent for the subject, edging him into the advanced courses at a rather early age (while he lagged behind in almost every other class). When he was nine, he was assigned a personal tutor to teach him programming methodology after school. He and his tutor, a teenager by the name of Leroy, quickly became close, and over time, Roger began to view him almost as an older brother. Noticing Roger's aptitude for quick thinking, coding and a certain non-conformity when it came to the rules, Leroy began to spend his spare time instructing Roger in the fine art of computer hacking.

One evening, however, when Roger was only twelve, he was running an errand for his parents when he became a witness to the brutal and public beating of his mentor and brother figure. He watched with wide eyes as Leroy was dragged away, bloodied and bruised, by a pair of Peacekeepers. Roger never saw him again, and while vague whispers and rumors spread about Leroy's highly illegal attempts to gather and trade sensitive information from other districts and the Capitol, nobody in District Three was ever entirely sure what had happened to him. Still-- Roger had lost the closest friend he'd ever made, somebody who had almost become family to him.

Since this incident, Roger has become somewhat bitter and rebellious, although he covers it with his easy sense of humor and his natural sociability. It still comes out, however, when he arranges small, yet somewhat subversive late night gatherings amongst his peers, where alcohol and a distilled form of sleep syrup run rampant. He continues to improve his computer hacking techniques in his free moments, racing through lines of code while gripping the neck of a liquor bottle in his hand.

FACE CLAIM: Joseph (Joe) Dempsie