Post by Francis "Shadow" Maines on Aug 31, 2010 16:03:53 GMT -5
Name: Francis Maines aka Shadow.
Age: 18
Gender: Male
District/Area: 8
Appearance:
Personality:
History:
Age: 18
Gender: Male
District/Area: 8
Appearance:
Shadow is six foot two inches tall and weighs 177 lbs, he has very little if any body fat. Most of his weight is from the lean muscles he has developed from manual labor working on his fathers old sheep farm. His abdomen houses a six-pack and he eats enough to keep himself healthy, at least healthier than some of the other people in the District. His light brown hair hangs down to his ears and is usually filled with dirt and sweat from the days work. His skin is a dark tan during the summer months, during the winter it is the exact opposite. He is as pale as a ghost and would easily blend in with the snow if it weren’t for his hair. His eyes change between Hazel and almost an Emerald color depending on how stressed or sleep deprived he is. There are dark bags under his eyes from countless nights he stayed up harvesting the wool from the sheep.
His usual attire is comprised of a tee shirt that was once white but is now a maroon and brown color from both blood and mud. Blood from the sheep he has to put down every now and then due to sickness or severe injuries. His pants were once blue but are now the same color as his shirt due to the same reasons, plus the sheep dung as well. His brown leather boots are weathered, beaten, battered, and worn down. They are the same color as the rest of his attire, though once he can afford to he will trade for another pair. His hands have a thick deposit of callus’ from the years of work. Every now and then he will wear a weathered pair of leather gloves to protect his hands from rusty nails while he does certain repairs.
Personality:
Shadow is a person that is not used to being in the spotlight. He distances himself from anybody and everybody preferring the solitude and loneliness over the loud commotion of groups. To most he seems withdrawn and seclusive, this is due to losing his mother and father. Before he lost them, he was a happy go-lucky type of guy that didn’t have a problem with helping others. But now that he has seen the dark side of people, he hates them with a passion. The only company he likes is the grey wolf that he raised from a pup. The only time he feels at ease and open is with that wolf, which he named Timber after it’s ancestors. The Timber Wolf.
To those that trespass on his property, he comes off as hostile and aggressive, so does Timber. He only does this to keep away potential wool and food thieves. During his work, he has a no nonsense demeanor since he has seen too many accidents caused by fools thinking they’re funny. During the time at night when he isn’t either sleeping, practicing making spears or other weaponry, or cleaning his house; he is relaxed. That of course is on very few occasions since the fatigue usually sets in shortly after dark settles in.
History:
Francis was raised in a life that was dictated by hard work and very little play. His father owned a sheep farm on which he taught everything Francis needed to know about harvesting the wool, maintaining the property, and keeping the sheep healthy. He even taught his son things that weren’t necessarily legal as well. But those lessons were always after dusk. Francis didn’t make friends very easily, even back then, so he didn’t have anyone to tell about his private lessons on how to live off the land and make weapons from natural resources. At the age of five, Francis started to help his father on the farm. He learned exactly what his father wanted him to learn with the hand’s on experience. It was hard at first for Francis, even with his fathers limited guidance at times. He was a quick learner and innovative. He came up with things to make the work more manageable for him.
Then at age five, he started school. He didn’t necessarily like it, matter of fact he loathed school. He stuck to the shadows and maintained a low profile. This was where his nickname was assigned to him by other members of his year. Shadow. The nickname stuck like gorilla glue. Francis maintained the shadow stature not only in school, but out in the streets as well. His family was always considered one of the poorest of the families in the District, but that didn’t stop them from getting by. They ate 3 small meals a day, really small meals. It kept their stomachs small so they didn’t have to eat much. It was a way to save on the little food and drink they had. This was the way things were until he was old enough to apply for the Tesserae, which he did every month so he and his parents would have more food than they already had.
His parents weren’t exactly happy with his decision, but they were thankful nonetheless about it. Shadow kept applying for the Tesserae even when his family had more than enough to survive for several more years. Of course having an overabundance of food brought trouble for Shadow and his family. Most of the time it was simple break-ins and thefts of food. But one night it was more than just a theft. His father went down to the cellar that housed their reserves and was attacked by a group of people. They killed him as soon as they had grabbed a hold of the man. With what, Shadow never knew nor discovered. What was worse, the group of people didn’t just stop with his father. They kicked in the door and went after his mother, who pleaded with the men to leave to avail. They raped her before they slashed her throat with a piece of glass. Shadow survived the attack due to his ability to stick to the shadows and be undetectable. That was three years ago.
It took Shadow a few days to go back to school after the Peacekeepers came. They wanted to take him to a Community House, but Shadow convinced them that staying at his father’s old farm would be more beneficial for the District. It meant that another farm would be producing wool, which meant the other farms wouldn’t have to work as hard and the quota for wool would be more easily achieved. When asked to demonstrate if he could handle the work, Shadow did everything he and his father did for the last ten years perfectly, minus spilling a little of the sheep’s food but that was something that happened on occasion. Luckily though, the sheep keep reproducing, meaning a bigger yield every year. Which also meant more could be kept for the District to be traded or sold. He dropped out of school to keep up with the maintenance the farm and animals needed.
Whenever he had a chance or spare time, he would sneak out to the wild and practice the things his father had taught him. Making the spears was rather easy but time consuming. All he needed were a good sized branch and a rock with an edge on it. He was also taught to dig what his father called a fox hole. They were basically a hole in the ground that people used to make to stay warm or concealed, as long as you made a hatch type of a thing for the top of the hole. They were made from branches tied together securely and covered with grass and leaves in the right ratio for the ground around the entrance. It was there that he met his only friend and companion. Timber. The wolf was just a pup when it ventured from it’s den and found Shadow. Shadow took the pup and concealed it as he ran back to his house, narrowly avoiding capture by the Peacekeepers. If he was caught on the outside of the District fence, he would have been executed no matter what.
Timber was all the companionship Shadow needed. Plus he made a great sheep herder, though he never harmed the sheep. Timber was a good pet, even if he was an extra mouth he needed to feed. Shadow still collected on his Tesserae whenever he could and he traded what he could for whatever he needed on the farm, including food for when he couldn’t catch any for Timber. He usually had more than enough left over. He took what he would need to survive for several months and split the rest among the poorest families so they would have something to eat and so nothing like what happened to his parents happened again. Whenever he gets a kill from hunting in the wild, he makes what the ancients called sinew from the lining on the intestines of the animals. Deer and Bear proved to be the most durable and yielded the most of the sinew. It is much like a thread, but better in almost every way.