Luca Acero

## Bio

*Luca Acero (he/him). Sponsor. Twenty-nine. Manny Montana.*

(TW: STARVATION)

Born into the poorest district of them all, nobody would have thought that Luca would eventually end up a sponsor for the games. His family was large, squished into a tiny house with very little other than the four walls around them. His parents loved their children more than they loved themselves, and eventually that meant that their meal portions were cut in half, and then halved again, until there was nothing left. It didn’t take long, for their bones to poke through their skin and their movements to slow until they stopped all together. Luca’s mother died when he was four and not long after his father joined her.

Word got out a few weeks later when peacekeepers dropped by and found a group of children trying to fend for themselves. They split them up, right there, each child screaming for the other. They thought that maybe if they told nobody, they could stay together. It was silly, childish, exactly what you would expect from a group of siblings all under the age of twelve. Luca was skin and bone at the time, but the Capitol couple who picked him out of a line up of other orphaned children thought his eyes were pretty. They scrubbed him clean, fed him until he puked and stuffed him into clothes that were worth more than his entire house back in twelve.

For a long time, Luca didn’t speak. They brought him to psychologists, speech therapists, they even tried a psychic, but nothing drew the words from his lips. He drew though, and he was good. One of his teacher’s entered him into a competition when he was eleven and he won, a painting of a simple silver spoon still hung proudly in his parent’s living room. That is when his parents decided to accept him as an artist and leave him be.

Slowly, he began to open up, to his art teacher first, and then to everybody else after. He spoke now, but tried not to waste words like most, as if there was some limit only he knew about. As he grew older his paintings only improved, but Luca was never really interested in the galleries and spectacle of it all. He spent the majority of his time in the tattoo shop he’d first opened with the first bit of money he had made himself. Now, his paintings sell for more than he can even comprehend, and without the drive to spend the money on himself, he got into sponsoring, hoping to do a little good, even if it might not be completely thought through.

Luca doesn’t agree with the premise of the games. He doesn’t enjoy seeing innocent children killed off twice a year. He is focused on his art, and his tattooing, but has been driven towards the rebels and their cause, pumping money into their headquarters in hopes he might be able to put an end to these games, especially as his daughter will soon be eligible herself.

Luca considers his main occupation as a tattoo artist, although most would disagree, calling him one of the most eminent artists of their generation. He also never thinks of himself as a sponsor, mostly because he doesn’t fit the usual brief. He doesn’t come from old money, doesn’t wear suits or engage in small talk about the latest capitol gossip. He is an outlier, always has been, and he usually tends to support tributes of the same character.

Luca is not unfriendly, but he is also not outgoing or very social. He treats most people the same, as passers by who he doesn’t really want to get to know. He has some friends, who he can joke and laugh with, but for the most part Luca is quite solitary. He enjoys the company of a canvas and a brush rather than a person most of the time.

If you don’t know Luca well, he may come across as rude, or hostile. Usually this is actually just shyness, and once he opens up, he is quite smart and creative. He enjoys conversations about art or innovation, but can also fall into sarcasm and humour if he finds the right person.

+ Passionate, creative, intelligent

- Quiet, reticent, restrained.

PENNED BY: ELLE