Remus Ring

**Name**: Remus Ring

**Age**: Seventeen

**District**: The Capitol

**Gender**: Male

**Personality**:

**Backstory**:

* Born to quite the affluent family, Remus was the youngest child to Basilius and Lucina Ring. Both his mother and father were held in great regard within the most prestigious circles of the Capitol. His father, a proud man with a warped and proportionally unwavering sense of righteousness had never as much as grasped what it meant to struggle in order to make ends meet. He had inherited quite the fortune from his own father, a prominent member of the Capitol elite that had been responsible for donating a large amount of money to the construction of a complex of textile factories in Eight, an investment that rebounded better than he could have expected. Lucina hailed from a family of comparable prestige. Set for life due to the wealth that had been passed on to her, she had nonetheless graduated with honors from the university of her choice, where she had grown especially close to the wife of the president before the couple had even been introduced to one another (Feel free to disregard this bit if it goes against canon.)
* His closest friend was his brother, who had taken to looking after him from the moment he was brought into the world. Julius was just eight when Remus came around, but he cared for his younger brother with surprising maturity. Their parents were very demanding, possessing a huge concern for keeping up appearances. In line with this, Remus was to follow the footsteps of his brother and be tutored by the most erudite of professors the Capitol had to offer, thanks to his father spending countless of bills in order for the children to achieve a polymath education. Whenever he came home from school, he would have no more than half an hour to finish his lunch before being plunged into an entire afternoon filled with more lessons.
* For the most part, Remus and Julius were left to the attention of caretakers and the Avoxes that catered to the needs of the family. They were paid little attention to by their parents, but whenever the two of them did regard the existence of their children, more often did they contribute with nothing other than nonchalant comments on how they should strive to be doing better from an academic standpoint, which they usually followed with a lecture on the importance of upholding the legacy of the family and the part the boys were to play in such endeavor.
* Even though he tried his best, Remus could never quite match the results his older brother had achieved when he was his own age. This led to a great deal of vitriol from his tutors and parents alike, which caused Julius a great deal of guilt and embarrassment. He seemed to live up to the standards set by his parents with astounding ease, although this did not make him exempt from their demands, which grew harsher and more unattainable the better he performed. For this reason, Remus was never one to resent him. Truth to be told, he was no less than amazed by his brother and his inconceivable range of skills.
* Julius was a well-mannered, courteous young man that never had trouble sparing some of his own time in order to help out a person in need. Remus made it his goal to become half the man he viewed his brother to be, and for this reason alone he endured his lessons diligently. The two would often play together whenever the opportunity to do so presented itself, making up games on the spot and staging brawls. It was through the latter that Remus discovered an innate talent for combat, although he was excusably inexperienced and never seemed to beat Julius, who seemed to have found nothing he did not excel at. This wasn't to say he was completely perfect, however. Julius was a consistent smoker and his hands fiddled whenever he had went an extended period of time without smoking, an habit he maintained in secret. Furthermore, he was one to sneak out whenever the opportunity presented itself, which he urged his younger brother to keep quiet about. Remus complied, of course. If anything, he just thought this made his brother even cooler.
* The appreciation Remus nurtured for his older brother still lingered when the latter's eighteenth birthday came around, bringing with it an excuse for Lucina to throw one of the extravagant parties she had been known for. It was precisely due to how much he admired his brother that Remus felt beyond gutted that night. He had fallen behind on an essay on business management due the following morning, and as such was made to remain shut in his room while the house was bustling with guests there for the birthday bash. Focused on the assignment at hand, Remus could not fathom what the night had in store for the family, but nonetheless things would soon take a left turn.
* It turned out that a secret Julius had been keeping even from his own brother was that he had fallen in love with an Avox that was brought into the Ring manor the previous year, a girl the same age as him with whom he communicated with through sign language and secret notes passed to and from right under the nose of his parents. That night, she had been tasked with the catering of the guests and was stationed primarily in the kitchen, which was where she was caught in the act by one of Lucina's guests, embracing her lover inside the dimly lit pantry. The sight of the Ring heir holding in his arms an Avox, of all people, was enough to warrant quite the reaction out of the woman, and the commotion drew the attention of the entire household, which spelled tragedy.
* Remus was fortunate enough not to witness the whole thing, oblivious to the mess at first. However, the screams that followed the initial scene were difficult to ignore. He was woken up from where he had fallen asleep, head over the essay he was almost done with, and without even mulling over the subject he left his bedroom in order to investigate. Dazed and confused, he descended the stairs and was greeted by the sight of his father Basilius being pinned down by four different guests, thrashing and cursing all the while. Blood coated his knuckles. Frozen in fear, Remus was rooted to the spot until he caught sight of Lucina talking on the telephone by the corner of the room, one of her friends resting a hand on her shoulder for support. Her tone was tinged with desperation and her voice powered through the sound of the crowd that had assembled by the kitchen door, which ten-year-old Remus made his way towards out of pure impulse. The sight that awaited him was one that would remain burned into his memory for the remainder of his days.
* The Avox that had served him breakfast that same morning sat on the porcelain tiled kitchen floor, huddled against the counter. Blood trickled down the side of her face, pooling out of a wound in her temple and coating her hair and uniform. No more than five feet away laid his brother, his face battered and bruised. He did not move. Starting to run towards his brother, Remus attempted to make his way through the crowd. He was attempting to push his way through when he was yanked back by the collar of his shirt by an Avox that had served the family for as long as he could remember. Kicking and screaming all the while, he was dragged up the stairs and hauled into his bedroom quite unceremoniously, the door lock clicking behind him. The situation outside seemed to escalate for another three hours, but he could not be sure. Remus did not get any sleep that night, but to his credit he did not cry, not even once. Surely Julius was fine. There was nothing he could not conquer.
* Remus would remain confined in his bedroom until the following morning, when the door burst open and in came Balbina, a caretaker that had been with the family since the birth of baby Julius. The brothers considered her family, and she could usually be counted on to cheer them up during their long tutoring sessions. She was quite shaken that morning, however. Without as much as a nod of acknowledgement, she deposited a tray containing Remus' breakfast by the foot of his bed and hurried out of the room, locking the door behind her and ignoring the desperate banging that ensued.
* Remus would not receive any answers until that afternoon, when Balbina returned with a tray containing his lunch. Before he could open his mouth, she shut the door behind her and recounted the events of the previous nights in a hurried voice. She did not sugarcoat any part of the tale, for she did not know how much time she had: Julius was gone. He had brought great shame upon the Ring family name and was made to enlist the very same night he turned old enough to join the Peacekeeping force. He was being shipped to District Six at that very moment. The reason for this was a romance between him and the Avox, an insurgent named Thicket that hailed from District Seven and had been made a slave to the Capitol due to an accusation of disorderly conduct. She was dead, hauled away from the manor by the Peacekeepers that had been called by Lucina and promptly executed on the count of seducing her employer. Her father had beaten the couple quite mercilessly as soon as he was made aware of what had transpired, and had to be restrained so as not to kill his own son.
* The situation made for a tremendous scandal. The thought of the heir to the Ring fortune throwing away his life for the sake of an Avox was plain inconceivable, and the blame was put on bad parenting. The ordeal was talked about within all circles of high society, and the fact that it had been witnessed by so many prominent members of the elite of the Capitol did little to quiet the rumors that were being spread. It was clear that the weight carried by the family name was at stake. Lucina was inconsolable, unable to do as much as leave the house. His father, on the other hand, took the situation in a very different manner, placing all of his eggs in a single basket: Remus. He was to drop out of school and be lectured strictly by the finest and most prestigious of tutors for fourteen hours a day, six days a week. The honor of the family rested on his shoulders, and Basilius would not allow he failed to live up to expectations.
* Nonetheless, the departure of Julius hit Remus the hardest. His academic performance took a nosedive as he reached the age of fourteen, and he was berated for his lack of intelligence lesson after lesson. It was on one of such instances that he started to space out, thinking back on the happy times he had spent with his brother while they were young. He thought back on the games they would play, and it was then that he came to develop an interest in brawling as a way to bring him closer to his brother. The times in which they had playfully fought each other had been some of Remus' most precious memories, after all. Diving deeper than that, the prospect of releasing all the rage he had grown accustomed to living out his days with through fights just sounded unbelievably appealing to him, and having had enough of living from lecture to lecture, he was quick to seek out an underground fighting club that had been alluded to by a friend from school he had long since fallen out of touch with.
* Day after day, he would waste away in lessons he did not understand while the sun was out, sneaking out as soon as night fell. He would often hitch a ride from a friend of his parents, a married man from a family held in high regard that had made advances on him on more than one of the parties hosted by Lucina, despite him being underage. Putting his disgust aside, Remus started playing along to such advances at one point, all in the name of personal gain, and the man would then pick him up through the back door of the manor, driving him to an uneasy district of the Capitol where crime was commonplace, where Remus would be then dropped off.
* It was in those streets that Remus was to come into his own, joining the underground fight club he had previously sought out and turning out to be beaten senseless time and time again during his first few matches. Nonetheless, the sensation that came over him as he stepped out into the ring was like nothing he had ever felt before, and he never stopped coming back for more. He became renowned for knowing how to take a punch, but it wasn't long until he got the hang of how things went down at the club, becoming a regular there and growing into a force to be reckoned with.
* The fighting was something Remus was passionate about, but it was enough to fill the void left by the departure of his brother for no more than a year. It was then that Remus decided to try and keep himself occupied as often as possible, picking up a multitude of hobbies meant to fill the time between his lectures and nighttime, all in order to keep his mind off the state his life was in, for he knew if he was to dwell too much on it he would surely break down. One of such hobbies was training with a staff made of oak he had made himself after picking up the hobby of carving. Such idle habit was his only real experience with weaponry, but it had been more valuable than he could have imagined, for as it turned out, the name drawn on the sixth Reaping ceremony he had attended was his own.

**Mannerisms**: He has the habit of flicking his token, an engraved lighter his older brother gifted to him as a child, open and closed whenever he is deep in thought. Furthermore, he has been known to grow quite agitated when he is being kept in the dark about any given matter. He is not fond of not knowing things and expects his friends to always consult with him before setting a plan into motion, although their occasional failure to do so does no more than leave him a little peeved.

**Height**: 5'10

**Dominant Hand**: Right-handed

**Other Information**: His birthday falls on the 21st of October. His family consists of his parents as well as Julius, who is twenty-five years old and residing in District Six at the time of Remus' employment in the Hunger Games.

**Weaponry**: Remus is a traditional scrapper, which means that he would prefer to wail away at an opponent with his fists before cutting them loose. He has fought against the most diverse of combatants throughout his life, and being as attentive as he is one should not be surprised to find out that he has learned more from them than he could have consciously striven to. Even on instances in which he had walked out of the ring defeated, Remus was not one to wallow in despair or complain about lost time, for from every blow that had come to land on him he had grown more knowledgeable of the art of combat. His attention to detail allowed him to leave the ring with something worth his while even after receiving the public beat down of a lifetime.

Furthermore, he has mastered many different techniques with a staff, having taught himself the basic strikes and being capable of swinging diagonally towards southwest and southeast with astounding speed. He is also able to execute a stabbing motion with precision, although most of the fight is in his legs when it comes to maneuvering a staff. His practice is constant, and he never forgets to work on his footing in order to add force to his blows, moving forward as he strikes and sideways as he parries very naturally as a result of repetition. He refrains from moving backwards in combat, however, and always stays away from rotations. Turning your back on your opponent, even for the fraction of a second, is not a good idea, something that is not lost on Remus.

**Strengths**:

**Weaknesses**: Remus has always been extremely rich, and while that has not stopped him from running into a fair share of trouble throughout his life, he has been sheltered to a fault and does not have the faintest idea of what it is like to go without food and shelter for extended periods of time, something that is certain to trouble him during the Games. Furthermore, he is lacking when it comes to survival skills, being unable to hunt or forage for food in most environments. Finally, he is far from being silent. With his carved build and complete lack of stealth, moving through the woods undetected in his company would be quite troublesome as he is prone to making a significant amount of noise.

**Fears**:

**Alliance**:

**Token**: Remus rose into the arena with an engraved lighter that was given to him by his older brother in his possession, a faded thing that works no more. The heating element has long burned out, but he has held onto the object as a keepsake throughout the years. Even though the flint no longer sparks, the device serves as reminder of the admiration and respect he always nurtured towards his brother.

**Notes**: His backstory contains some little Easter eggs that tie him into my other submissions for the Games, albeit in indirect ways: his grandfather funded the construction of the textile factory that Notcher was employed at before being let go following the accident, and one of the guards employed at the facility Teal was locked away at following the overnight downfall of her uncle's drug dealing empire was Julius, although Teal does not know him by name.