Andrej Mattias Ehrenström [District 7]

Just looking at his parents, it's easy to see where Andrej gets his distinctive looks from. Though his siblings look more like their mother, Andrej is the spitting image of his father; tall, burly, brown hair and dark eyes. Though, at 6'5" and weighing in at 225 pounds, Andrej 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 Andrej.

With his profession as a carpenter, Andrej 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, Andrej has been in enough brawls that he's forgotten about the origin of some of his scars.

It might be redundant to note that Andrej's most noticeable trait is his size; this on top of the fact that Andrej 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, Andrej 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.

Andrej's personality tends to vary according to who he's interacting with. At a glance, he seems stern and intimidating; Andrej 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, Andrej has a gentle disposition; to his friends and family, Andrej 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; Andrej 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 Andrej 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 Andrej 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, Andrej 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 Andrej'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 Andrej 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, Andrej 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 and now can largely 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 Andrej was 6 years old, his first sibling would join the family; a little brother named Leif. Initially, he was neither charmed nor 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, Andrej did eventually warm up to the role... though he did more than his share of tormenting Leif as siblings do.

Meanwhile, Andrej would frequently spend time with his father watching him work in the carpentry shop. Konstantin's family had been in carpentry --in its various forms-- for several generations, though he wouldn't start learning himself until he was old enough to apprentice at 14. Somewhere around the house, the toys Andrej made for his siblings track his progress; his first attempts were crude at best, growing more ornate and sophisticated as he honed his skills; the various scars on his hands are a more permanent catalog of the learning process.

By that time, the family had gotten even bigger; twins didn't just run in the Ehrenström family, they rampaged. It was considered nothing short of a miracle that Deanna was pregnant again, but came as little surprise to Konstantin that their little miracle wasn't just one, but two baby girls. Freja and Aniike would, in no time at all, come to have the entire family wrapped around their little fingers; Andrej especially. With Konstantin and Deanna ever the busier with work to support the growing family, Andrej had a very heavy hand in raising his brother and sisters from that point forward. He credits many years of babysitting and generally looking after them with the reason for why he is the only one able to flawlessly tell Freja and Aniike apart.

Andrej was, thankfully, fortunate enough to have avoided the Reapings (not that it stopped Konstantin from grappling and roughhousing with his oldest son to try and teach him to defend himself). His siblings are all still eligible, and unable to stand by helpless, Andrej has been teaching his brother and sisters everything he knows about combat... Which, unfortunately, is wildly informal and largely improvised, backed only by his experience getting into spats over the years. Though he is a grown man, Andrej still lives with his parents, working his hands to the bone as a carpenter to ensure that Leif, Freja and Aniike never have to take tessarae. Though the family doesn't have much, they have enough to try and swing the odds in their favor.