[Ready] Christopher Marshall, District Two

"I'm just a good neighbour, a family man and I don't want any trouble. But you don't get what you want. Not here, not anywhere."

Name: Christopher Marshall
District: Two
Age: 37
Codeword: odair

Appearance

Christopher dresses like your typical family man; work clothes most of the time. He's the breadwinner, but so is his wife Judy. They both have to work to earn money, that's how rough they have it. His usual garments include some suit trousers and a nicely ironed white shirt. Maybe sometimes he's feeling rough, and he'd want a black one instead. What's the difference; either way he's still the same old family man. Casually though, he just wears anything from t-shirts to jeans.

His face is a soft one, but with a clear sign of his age; thirty-seven. He is a mentally strong man, anyone could see that just by looking at him. There's a slight wrinkle to his eyes and forehead, and his facial hair is well maintained but makes its appearance as often as any mature man. His hair is a smooth dark brown and is rarely styled in any which-way, but naturally it seems to rest in quite a nominal position to which he doesn't have to work with.

The way in which Christopher conducts himself resembles his work ethic; do the job for your family. He is a very selfless man, and everything from the way he walks to the way he talks, and what words he uses, shows this. He is used to his children's attention, though. This has made him quite soft to the rest of the world, so his voice is more enthusiastic than it would be normally, and he is smiling a good eighty percent of the day.

Personality

A humourless man, mostly. He is quite dull and bland, in truth. But he's selfless, and destined for good things. His intentions never overreach what people morally think of as purely good. He is a hero, but he never knows that. He is just doing his duty. Helping an old lady across the road kind of thing, he'll do whatever good deed is in the neighbourhood. He's the kind of man you would ask to fix your window or your car, but then he's also the kind of man that keeps extra bug spray in the hot summers. He's a family man, and a family man is always prepared.

His children and his wife are everything to him; literally, everything. He has nothing else to live for. It is their love that he comes home to from work, and it is their faces he sees every single day. He has friends, but none of them are close, and none of them he can truly count on. They maybe use him more than he knows, but he would never admit that to himself; he's too kind to the world, whilst the world is far too harsh for a man like him.

Aside from all the good, deep down there is a man desperate for a break. He works hard, and he works a lot. His head can only manage so much, and this man is at a thin tether. He can manage a lot though, considering what he has already undertaken. A family in the poorer town is not an easy challenge; but the reward makes up for it. Christopher is a dedicated, hardworking man who cannot let somebody get hurt on his watch.

History

Elysium, the little town that he was born in. 31st Hunger Games - his actual birthday. Christopher's parents cared a great deal for him. They blanketed him and kept him warm during the winters like any good pair of parents would. Despite all efforts, Christopher was diagnosed with pneumonia at the mere age of two years old. It was a miracle he hadn't got it beforehand. His parents were on the verge of asking for outside help, which means not the peacekeepers. They didn't care as far as they knew. Christopher's father did it. He went down into the poorest part of the poor town called Elsyium and he asked for the treatment; which was in abundance because of the sheer amount of people who suffered from this gripping infection. All efforts went to work as Christopher got better gradually.

Suspicion was aroused in his mother's eyes though. Christopher's father started coming home with extra money. 'Raises' that he was given for good work. This was good news, surely.

It wasn't.

His mother confronted his father, and Christopher seen first hand how marriage really looks like in all its evil glory. Lies being kept, and just like that they ate at each other verbally; Christopher was only seven at this point. Money was always going to be an issue here. His mother didn't work, so his father would have to work overtime just to get the family by. "Liar!" He heard. "You stole that money!" She cried. So did Christopher. The arguing continued for a long time; that night and for weeks on a recurring basis.

Finally, their tether broke. One final outburst a year later. All of the build up exploded into something Christopher couldn't understand at eight years old; divorce. It's not the same in Panem; it's not easy here. Nobody would manage Christopher all by themselves. Money tied them into the same home. This one child bound their wills.

They had to get rid of him.

Donation isn't simple. You can't just dump a child at somebody's doorstep, can you?
Of course you can, this is Panem.

They said their goodbyes. They said he was going to stay there for a little while. The person's house, whom the family didn't know personally; but mutually, remained unaware to the nine year old child outside, looking innocently at the tall door that stood ahead of him. They left. And the door opened.

Thankfully, the man who lived there was nice. Christopher was lucky, it could have been far worse. It could have been hell.

He grew up in the same household. His parents never came, and no god would ever answer his prayers. He decided to himself after a while that he would have to just pick himself up. He would have to fend for himself in this wilderness. He was safe though in this little house, with what would become his new father figure. He would treat Christopher like a son, like his own.

Eventually, reaping after reaping (sometimes even hoping to be reaped), Christopher reached the age of eighteen. This wasn't after many phases, many altercations that slowly bent him into the person who he is destined to become. Somebody who his own parents weren't; good, loyal and committed. He met his current wife at work. They both enrolled into the mining program at their early ages of eighteen, now that they were able. They weren't miners, but rather they were the officers that collected data and wrote all the lists. They were the supervisors together. It was inevitable that they would see each other in that way.

Now, he and that same girl are no longer the young pair they once were. Christopher and her now have two children. They aren't his own, and they aren't hers; they are adopted. Two of them, an older boy and a younger girl, five and three.

But can he even afford that?