Heisen Gregory Flauss
Nickname: Helmet
Age: 13
Gender: Male
District: District Twelve, Coal Mining
Advantage: Given light body and athletic build, Helmet is very fast on his feet, and very nimble and flexible. He can dip, dodge, duck, lean, and dive with ease, making it very hard for his opponent to hit a squirming target. He also has a fair bit higher reflex than average, allowing him to react faster to situations gone sour. Combined with his natural skill with a sword, it makes him an extremely hard target to fight without him mitigating your attacks.
Appearance: With a very rough and tumble look, even when dressed up, it's easy to spot Helmet out of a crowd.
Due to his age, and genetics, Helmet is rather short. He stands at a meek 5'0, a candle to even those his age, whom could easily stand as tall as 5'7. His skin is rich and colorful, from his dark skinned father, and light skinned mother. However, his rich skin is commonly covered in dirt, soot, charcoal or other filth - it's not uncommon to see his whole body dusted with it. It makes the freckles on his face almost impossible to distinguish. Given almost a caramel coloring his hair is a 'lighter' black, if that were to make any sense, a blue-blackish looking hair. Or perhaps it's brown, with a lot of ash and soot dusted in. It's hard to tell. The shaggy, ill-maintained hair easily reaches his shoulders, and creeps slightly unevenly down his back. Perhaps he cuts it himself? His ears are crudely pierced with blue hoops, and he has bright, vibrant green eyes, that stick out from his dank, dingy appearance... And especially glimmer in the night.
Helmet is surprisingly heavy for his age, but not built or stocky. He is lean; a slight athletic build. You could tell that if he had a few more years to grow, he'd definitely develop an athletic, semi-muscular build. His slender body however, currently doesn't display his strength very well. At 115 lbs, he has a small bit of pronounced muscle, most of it lingering around his shoulders and biceps. His torso is still small, although it has lightly defined pectorals. He continues to slender down, his ribs a very, VERY minute shadow on his deceivingly frail looking body. His stomach is flat. Meanwhile, his arms branch out to be lightly defined - a sign of a lot of climbing, crawling, and pulling. His hips are mild, and his legs are slender, but lean. He obviously has a runner's build. His hands and feet are a tad large for his age, but not abnormally so.
Clothing wise, Helmet is always seen with two items on: A faded, navy bandana, tied in a knot to keep that messy, rugged head of hair out of his face. And the other is sort of a family treasure. Or more like, a family hunk-o-junk; the visor off of a plate-mail helmet. Most people recognize it as the "Slidey face-guard thing" on the helmets of the knights in Medieval times. It even has part of the red plume still tucked between it and his hair. The piece of worn, tarnished iron is kept on a leather strap, sitting on top of the knotted bandana; almost like a pair of goggles. Helmet is even said to wear these to bed, and whilst bathing... when he gets a bath....
The rest of the time, Helmet wears worn, tattered clothing. Some garments look closer to rags than clothing. Clothing stretched, warped, ripped and torn. These too, like his skin are fairly dirty most of the time. He has a pair of beat up leather boots, coming up to his ankles, which almost look awkward; most of his clothing consists of shorts, and high socks. He's definitely easy to pick out of a crowd of decent looking folk.
Pin/Idol from District: Helmet's Idol is easy - his helmet. Helmet's helmet!
Personality:
Clinging to the pangs of childhood, Helmet is still very lawful natured. It's hard for him to justify 'bad', especially if he can't see benefit from it. He is highly empathetic, and isn't likely to be violent or aggressive towards anyone unprovoked. He's quick to set off... if you can find out how to irk him. He's hard to irritate... he's been made fun of constantly in his district... and mostly ignores petty comments and insults, pretending as if he didn't hear them. Even if you say it to his face. But his good hearted, naive nature tends to betray him, and get him in more trouble. He doesn't realize how easy it is for a person to put on a metaphorical mask, and lie to his face, before stabbing him in the back.
That being said, he's not stupid (nor is he the sharpest knife in the crayon box...), and is hard to be lied to. The person that is doing the lying better be pretty convincing.
He naturally seems to 'dislike' people with a large ego, or superiority complexes. Saying that they're superior for no reason, and bragging constantly, even about little things make him roll his eyes skeptically. He usually stays away from these people.
In combat, Helmet is determined, but not foolish. He's not going to back down from a fight, unless he knows victory won't find him. And honestly, he considers this a fifty-fifty chance. Being able to escape most combatants is a large advantage, and sometimes he will lead them into a trap; using his natural stamina to his advantage, tiring the enemy before moving in for the takedown.
Weapon of choice: Arming Sword & Buckler - The combination of a one-handed sword with a smaller, wrist-and-hand shield makes for a primal, yet effective combination. Rather than relying on the sword solely for offense, and the buckler for defense, he likes to mix it up. Few people can withstand being bashed with a platter sized shield... or at least not without knocking a few teeth loose. And the arming sword is known for a rigid, and sturdy blade, making it perfect for blocking heavy, more brutish weapons like bats or clubs.
History:
It's not easy for one to look past the scruffy looking boy, and think that there was once more to his poor poor family. But if one thought... "Gee, he has an aweful lot of experience with swords, and what's up with that visor-thing?" A long, long time ago, when the age of steel and kings still ruled, perhaps his family were more prosperous. More fortunate than the one that digs coal mines today.
Helmet was an all around fortunate boy. He still had has mother and father, whom deeply cared for him, and his two younger siblings. He and his brothers always grew up looking out for each other;. However, Heisen, being the oldest knew that it took a toll on his family. They could barely afford to eat half of the days a week; other days their stomach grumbled loudly enough for someone next door to hear. To help cure this, he sought out a job. However, he was too young to work in the mines... and instead, found work elsewhere; sweeping chimneys. And not always being able to wash up, lead to him commonly being a very dirty boy. For this, and other reasons, he was commonly picked on. There weren't many he felt he could trust, and even fewer he considered 'friends'.
This left Heisen with plenty of free time... and he didn't get to be a child much... and so in his spare time, he was. He played games, mostly with his little brothers. His favorite game was where they all found sticks... sometimes carved branches into swords, and fought with them. It turned out he was a natural. And one day, this natural skill payed off. He was taking food to his family, eager to get home after a long day's work, with one of the larger miners' son, an sixteen year old, demanded that he hand over the bread. Helmet refused, of course, but when the older boy took a swing, Helmet decided it was time to flee. But he found himself quickly cornered, Helmet improvised, and fought back the only way he knew how. He picked up a trash-can lid, and took his chimney sweeping broom in hand - and like a knight, he fought off his viscous attacker, sending him away in tears. From that day out, Helmet always carried one of his hand carved wood swords with him.... always dangling; hanging from a belt-loop.
Oddly enough, this caught on with the children of District 12. Children ages 10-16 started carrying sticks, or wooden swords with them, dueling for fun, game, sport, or even food! Again, Helmet's skill only increased and flourished as he proved himself to be one of the most prevalent 'swordsman', or "Knight" as he called himself. In fact, many inside district 12 considered him the best!
Unbeknownst to his family, however, even his chimney sweeping job wasn't helping the family as much as he liked. They still ate only half of the time, just.... ate better. And with only his family on his mind, he took food and supplies from the guards, which added his name to the bowl more and more. He'd bring the food home, and trade the supplies he bargained for, for even more food. He made sure his family ate well... knowing that his chances of being picked rose. For a few years, luck had favored him... but this year, it seemed not the case. Passing on his wooden sword to his youngest brother, Helmet accepted his fate as maturely as he could (granted, it wasn't a pretty sight).
He has had time to think it over... and he's not afraid any more. If anything, this is a chance to prove to himself... and to everyone, that knights still exist.