Josiah Rayner District One {FIN}

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Josiah Rayner
Seventeen
Male
The First District of Panem
odair
FC is Craig Lamar Traylor
Theme: I'm Just A Kid by Simple Plan

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The average male career from the luxurious first district is tall, strong and handsome, able to kill people without blinking, well-versed in multiple arts of combat. Partnered with an equally combat ready and by societies standards, strikingly beautiful female, The first district is full of people with model status looks to the point where the air is thick with an overwhelming sense of superiority. Things are sugary, luxurious and fancy. It is not so much about being the strongest as in their sister career district, but more about having a sense of class, about being cultured and most of all, simply being the best. If you aren't someone worth being talked about, then you might as well not bother going outside at all. Everyone has something to do and they do it well. It is not enough for a career to be reaped. It's not even enough if they win. It is only enough when they do it with style. Yes, everyone in this district is on the rise to the top as they push and shove each other off the rungs of the societal ladder.

And then there's Josiah.

Awkward. Quiet. Overlooked. Weird. In order to survive, he has learned to blend in the background and study the societal workings of his district like a chameleon. In fact, most people wouldn't give him a second glance as he often appears to be apart of the scenery. The lack of having a build has given him the unwanted nickname of "Ninety-eight", A reference to his weight; while he has unsuccessfully tried to tell people that its really closer to one hundred and fifteen several times, no one has yet to accept that as fact. Josiah is five foot seven, putting him a few inches shorter than most of his fellow careers. Nor can he match any of them for strength. Stick thin and gangly, he is unable to hold his own in the smallest of confrontations. This has worked to his benefit, as the majority of people he interacts with see him as a non-threat. As for his facial features, Josiah has dark skin, dark hair, and elongated features. A pair of reading glasses is precariously perched on his nose; though his parents have promised him corrective surgery if he would spend more time in the training centers and less time working on being a tailor.

***

When you find yourself constantly bullied, with no physical way of defending yourself, you have to develop other survival skills, or suffer pain and humiliation. What Josiah lacks in strength and speed, he makes up for with intelligence and anonymity. While he may not be able to stand after taking a punch to his decidedly glass jaw, he is well versed in persuading his attacker to hold off by promising them pointers on how to injure a person without leaving a mark, or for inflicting the maximum damage possible. To learn these things, Josiah has spent a lot of time reading about the human body, how it works, and the various ways in which it can be made to cease working. Some might call this a morbid past time, but he knows that studying medical journals is his only chance of appearing as halfway decent career to his parents. They believe that it will help him whenever he finally does pick up a blade and starts to use it. This is not going to happen, as the sight of blood makes his knees weak and the smell of it makes him sick to his stomach.

To compensate for this, he has developed his speech by becoming well versed in the art of public speaking, increasing his skills by taking the time to record, watch and mimic the style of flamboyant charisma that gushes forth from his beloved hero and Icon, Caesar Flickerman. To say that Josiah is obsessed with the yearly game is not entirely true, but nor is it false. The interviews are watched with rapt attention, as he studies how the tributes react when faced with letting their hopes, dreams and feelings be picked apart by a charismatic individual such as the host. It is enthralling to view, each of the tributes is a story in of themselves and he likes to think about and re-watch and re-watch again. The After that, he does not watch, only tuning in again during the time in the arena itself is far less appealing, as he is forced to watch the big screens from the bleachers in the district square. The next best part for him is the coronation ceremony; he enjoys watching the victor's interview before the crowning, in order to see just how much the tribute has changed on their week long journey.

Something that he fervently hopes he never has to experience first hand. Josiah is very withdrawn concerning other as he knows full well that he is considered an oddity and a laughable career by any standard. He wouldn't dare to call himself one if his parents didn't insist that he was to their friends to seem less disappointed. But he would never speak up about it. Over time, he has learned that the best policy for him to live by is one of acceptance. If someone says something, he had better take it by face value, even if it is a blatant lie. This has lead to some of his peers taking what they think is an advantage over his naivety. In reality, he has chosen to let them in an effort to seem like more of a person. If it was his parent's intent to raise a social butterfly, they should have figured out by now that all they managed to get was a wingless moth.

***

Josiah was born to the Rayners, one of the many families in the districts elite. Initially proud to have a son, they became quite disillusioned when it became clear that he was not like the other children. From an early age, Josiah suffered from a few maladies that made him the focus of the other kids ire. He had asthma, a respiratory condition which made it difficult for him to run away when threatened with physical violence. But he also has thin skin that bruised easily and in general made him useless for any of the things that a majority of adults pushed their children towards. His parents were also unhappy with what he chose to spend his time doing, working for his wanted choice of profession. Ever since he was small, he wanted to work in the Capitol and be a stylist or an announcer. While there were far less desirable jobs for him to look for than these, they wanted a victor. was only further cemented by Josiah's talent with a pens, paper, needles and thread. Spending his days sketching clothing to be worn by the elite or outfits for imaginary speeches was simply not how his parents wanted him to live. They wanted him to learn to fight, something he had no real desire to do.

When he was twelve, the first year eligible for reaping, his parents took him to a training center for the first time. There, the other trainees seemed to able to smell his weakness, and he was submitted to a solid and thorough thrashing by all of the much stronger, older tributes, winding up in the infirmary with three broken bones and multiple deep bruises. It was at this tender age that he decided if he couldn't be the strongest, he'd have to settle for being the smartest, and started putting a majority of his time and energy into finding out how he could be a career without dealing with the physical to please his parents. The rest of his time was spent on learning how to tailor. Josiah would much rather create a dashing outfit than dash someones head open on the ground, or sew a patch onto his pants rather than patch himself up. While some might find his work acceptable as his district is responsible for luxury items, he is hard pressed to find someone who approves of his unwillingness to train as a career.

They tell him that there is plenty of time for him to look for a trade after he is nineteen and too old to become a celebrity. They say that is it folly to wield a needle instead of a sword, but all he hears is "why waste his time on something he loves when he could be forcing himself to live up to the expectations of other?" His only answer for them is silence. They'd never understand and he gave up trying to explain a long time ago. Instead, he fritters away the hours with a group of friends that don't have his best interests at heart. It's obvious that they only want the clothes, not him, but he is content to take what he can get for the time being. At the very least, he has people to practice on. One day, he knows that a talent scout will see his work and offer to relocate him to the Capitol. It is something he yearns for, what drives him to sketch and cut and sew every month. Josiah Rayner bleeds for no one but himself.
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