Tesla Anning D3 {fin}

Name: Tesla Anning

Age: 17

Gender: M

District: 3

Zap!

The bolt of lightning hits the rod, causing the metal structure to temporarily explode and transform into a beacon of light.

Tesla Anning’s face explodes too, into a smile.

For a moment, the dark sky is awash with light, and Tesla’s entire figure is illuminated in full. The 17-year old stands tall and lanky at 6’4,” yet he weighs a measly 150 pounds. An academic genius, similar to the rest of his family members, Tesla has never had time to focus on anything besides his great passion, electricity, and as such, he has never put much effort into becoming overly fit, often even skipping meals so that he could devote himself more to his studies.

Similarly, he’s never really focused on going out in pursuit of romantic interests, though he doubts he would have much success anyway. His face is quite angular, but in all of the wrong ways, emphasizing his hawkish nose instead of hiding it and concealing his pale blue, almost gray, eyes beneath protruding bushy brows. Even his smile fails to help him appear likable, as he has never learned to smile naturally about anything he isn’t truly passionate about, causing his attempts to look as if they’ve been plastered to his face. Fake, like the look of interest he tries to feign when conversation turns away from his love.

The only saving aspect he has is the hair on his head, which luckily has never been burned off. The same can’t be said for the hair on his arms, but more on that later. Always eager to appear professional, Tesla wears his hair combed to the side, paying careful attention to it. Not that it ever stays that way for long, however, as even five minutes alone in the room he and his twin share is enough to blow out the power yet again and leave himself looking like a typical mad scientist, which in fact he might be.

Those who do not know him well often give him curious glances when he refuses to shake hands, or make any physical contact for that matter. They think he is a germaphobe, but the reality is that he’s actually looking out for them. The boy’s body is often loaded with residual electric charge, especially in the immediate aftermath of his experiments. After sufficient time passes, it is safe to assume he goes back to a neutral state, but Tesla knows one can never be too cautious.

He made the mistake of not being wary enough just once in his life, at the tender age of 8, and that incident has stayed with him since. He had been getting ready to conduct research on lightning, when he noticed the rod he’d set up was askew. He could see from the area just by the front door that lightning would strike any minute, as the rain was coming down fast and had been going on for quite some time. But he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to witness lightning strike mere feet away, so he dropped his notebook and darted out into the midst of danger. Although he felt his hair start to rise, a sign of a strike’s impending approach, Tesla carried on and tried to adjust the lightning rod. With tremendous effort, he was able to right the thin, albeit relatively long, piece of metal, and was satisfied with his success.

Just as he was about to take his hands off of the structure, however, the bolt of lightning came down hard, leaving Tesla with a perpetual reminder that in the battle of man vs. nature, nature always wins. When he came to, Tesla groaned in pain as he looked at his arms and saw twin lightning scars burns across their entire lengths. Although he was able to get them taken care of, and soon healed, Tesla was indeed left with something to remind him of that fateful night. When he grew older, and started to develop hair on his body, his arms remained bare, and he knew that they would stay that way forever.

Aside from causing his increased level of caution, this also caused Tesla to become more self-conscious, about his body at least. He started to wear clothing that covered his arms, never going out in anything besides a button-down, with a sweater or jacket perhaps. He has no such worries about his legs though, so when it gets hot, he does opt for shorts instead of slacks, creating an amusing picture.

Although mindful of his appearance, Tesla is not mindful of his tongue, and often seeks to speak to others about his work. He tends to have no issues when in the company of his family, especially his twin, but the moment he ventures into “the real world,” it all falls apart. Others simply can’t seem to understand him when he speaks, the concepts apparently too complex for them to handle. Tesla, however, so used to being in the company of geniuses, simply can’t adapt to the idea that not everyone can keep up with his family’s thinking, and so he gets frustrated. Not at first, of course. He does try to explain his findings, quite enthusiastically in fact, but of course, he just ends up confusing others even more.

That, combined with his single-minded focus on discovering the focus, is likely the reason that Tesla does not have many friends, even to this day. He prefers to stay in the comfort of his family, where he knows that even if they don’t all have the same specific interests, they all seek to improve the world in some way. Although the other Annings might not always understand him either, at least they make the attempt to do so. Compared to those who simply tell him to “speak normally,” his fellow geniuses occupy a whole other level of respect, one Tesla hopes to hold in their minds as well. Because most of them have concrete results, whereas Tesla has nothing but theories, he worries that they see him as a failure, destined to bring nothing but continuous confusion to the world, instead of the light he yearns to introduce to it.

No worries though. Patience breeds success, and though Tesla has no patience for stupidity or ignorance, he has plenty when it comes to his experiments.

As the moment passes and the lightning fades from view, Tesla is plunged back into the darkness of the stormy night.

Unseen, he retreats into his laboratory room, eager to get back to work.