[app for the games]

[conifer]

OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Hannah
Other characters: Arya Stark | A Song of Ice and Fire | needlebearer

IN CHARACTER
Name: Emily Finch
Alias: N/A
Fandom: The Hunger Games (OC)
Canon point/AU: Present day
Journal: conifer
PB: Daniella Alonso
Age: 23


History:
Emily is the second of four children born to the Finch family, in District 7 of Panem. Her mother is a carpenter and her father a lumberjack. The family live in a 2 room log cabin with only the very basics, but even that is considered fairly well off in contrast to the majority of District 7's citizens. From a young age Em and her brothers learned how to use axes, and joined the workers of their district in the forests, reducing trees to lumber. Em's own task involved sharpening the axes of the lumberjacks, as well as bringing them food and water, and gathering plants growing in the forests for medicinal purposes. In her spare time, she climbed trees with her brothers and learned woodcarving from her mother, a hobby she still practises. She was also very interested in the flora of her area, learning which plants, flowers and bark could be used for sustenance and medicine. The Peacekeeper presence was strong in 7, and it was always instilled in Em and her brothers never to challenge their authority or do anything to disrupt the status quo, as the Peacekeepers were especially nervous about the burlier, axe-wielding citizens of 7 being able to overpower them.

Em was 17 when she was reaped for the 69th Hunger Games. She had multiple entries due to the tesserae she'd claimed in order to support her younger brothers, and she'd long accepted that it was an inevitability that she'd be reaped at some point. The other tribute from her district was a 13 year old boy named Thorn, who was killed in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia. Em knew him vaguely as a classmate of her brother Ash, and his death weighed heavily on her for the rest of the arena. She quickly formed an alliance with another younger tribute, 12 year old Calder from District 10, partly in order to assuage her guilt that she couldn't help Thorn. The Arena was located in a scorching desert, a climate to which Em was entirely unaccustomed, and she became seriously ill from heatstroke after just a couple of days. The tributes of District 10 scraped together what little money they had in order to send Calder a silver parachute containing ice cold water, which he shared with Em, letting her drink it and spraying it on her skin to cool her, probably saving her life. As the number of tributes dwindled, the Gamemakers caused an earthquake, which created a huge canyon in which the tributes could draw strength from the shade, as well as give hiding places to attack from rather than simply the open flats of the desert. Em found that many of the plants she was familiar with were growing in the bottom of the canyon, and she taught Calder which ones were good sustenance, medicine, and which were poisonous. Many of the remaining tributes were killed during the earthquake, and instead of continuing to hunt down what few tributes from lower districts remained, the Career pack now turned on itself. When Em and Calder found the girl from District 2, she was badly injured from a fight with the boy from District 1. She still had enough strength to grab Em and hold a knife to her throat, hoping to pick off the two remaining weaker tributes. Calder persuaded the girl to let Em go, saying that he'll give her the mixture of medicinal herbs that Em made up for him in exchange, giving her the strength to go after the boy from District 1 first and eliminate the toughest competition rather than killing them only to let the boy from District 1 come back and kill her in her weakened state. The girl agreed, but when she ingested the leaves and herbs Calder gave her, it turns out that he'd lied, and they were actually poison rather than medicine, and she dropped dead immediately. Em took the knife that the girl had, telling Calder they can use it to finish off the boy from District 1, but as soon as he turned around, Em stabbed Calder through the back. Calder looked shocked and upset that Em would betray him, but through her tears Em told him that he'd been so naive, and she was sorry, but she had to win, had to get the food for the people of her District, had to make it back home to her family. The cannon boomed out Calder's death, but then immediately boomed a second time - the boy from District 1, climbing up the side of the canyon to get an advantage over them, had fallen to his death. Em was crowned the Victor of the 69th Hunger Games.

The citizens of the Capitol were disappointed that they didn't get a last one on one showdown, but the drama of Em's betrayal of Calder made up for that somewhat in their view. Em returned to District 7, moving into a luxurious log house in Victor's Village with her family. She was lauded as a hero, as a saviour who'd brought favour and sustenance to the District, but Em couldn't agree with these sentiments, feeling that she didn't deserve to be viewed in a positive light at all, having won through deceit. She goes through the motions of her victory tour, becoming more and more serious and withdrawn as the months pass, knowing that she's always going to be under the attention of the Capitol now, and that she needs to keep in line to keep herself and her family safe. She even goes as far as to agree to 'rent' herself to prominent Capitol citizens, knowing that Snow would take it out on her family if she refused. Due to her more withdrawn personality, however, she's not a popular choice and has only done this a handful of times, though it's still something she's pretty ashamed of. Em mentored the tributes from 7 in later Games, feeling very selfishly relieved when only 2 years later Johanna Mason won the 71st Hunger Games, as it took a lot of the pressure and the celebrity status off Em herself to have another winner from their district so soon.


Presentation:
Em presents herself as a calm, focused, quiet young woman. She's very polite to everyone she comes across, and observes the niceties of the Capitol where it's required of her, though she can come across as cold and aloof, and this side of her personality hasn't endeared her to the Capitol as a popular victor. This coldness melts away, however, when talking about her District, its people, its traditions, and especially when reminiscing about her brothers back in 7. She is extremely proud of 7, the tree sap practically running through her veins, and in the Capitol she continues with her hobby of wood carving, as well as escaping to the more natural green spots when she can, although she expresses her distaste at the neatly ordered parks of the Capitol rather than the wildness of the forests. She's uncomfortable in large groups, being more of a wallflower at parties rather than in the thick of things, though she does her best to live up to her role as a Victor and accepts the attention that comes with it with a quiet grace.

Physically she's not all that strong, but her strength as a mentor comes from her knowledge of survival, whether that's through using the environment around her such as her plant knowledge (as well as teaching climbing, another of her hobbies), or the more subversive survival techniques she's had to learn, such as her betrayal of Calder - and she will tell her tributes that they have to be ruthless, that they need to do whatever they can to get through the Games. When asked further about Calder, though, she'll close up and become defensive, with the inference that her Games affected her more than she lets on.


Motivations:
To put it simply, Emily is frightened. The death she saw in the Arena weighs heavily on her, and the death she caused even more so. She's very aware that the lives of her family depend on her actions, and is determined to keep in line and do everything the Capitol require of her in order to keep them safe and in the luxurious lifestyle of the Victor's Village. She's also aware that she has a hand in determining the welfare of the citizens of her district, and is determined that the tributes she has to mentor should win, not for their own sake, but for the food and aid that District 7 will receive as a result of a victory at the Games. However, her quiet, withdrawn demeanour hasn't made her a popular victor, especially in comparison with someone like Finnick, who is very charismatic and good at working the Capitol crowd. She'll comply, but she can't throw herself into it like that, only able to present the shell she's perfected to lock in the fear and pain and shame she feels after her Games.

Her betrayal of Calder doesn't sit well with her at all. For all she argues that tributes have to be ruthless and do whatever it takes to win, she finds herself contemptible for literally stabbing him in the back, especially after he saved her life twice in the Arena, trusting her blindly and naively to do the same. She's aware that District 10 is even worse off than 7, has seen their poverty with her own eyes on her victory tour, and sometimes wonders if she should have sacrificed herself so that 10 could win, as they needed the food they'd win more than 7, and because Calder is the one who'd kept them both alive and was a more deserving winner. She knows that it's far too late for her to be noble, and she wishes that she could just ignore her conscience and be happy to be alive and to have provided for her district, but she knows that deep down it will never sit right with her. Her prostitution for wealthy Capitol citizens adds another layer to her shame, as though she's sold out to them in body as well as in her conscience and spirit. Part of why she keeps people at arm's length is the feeling she has that they would be disgusted if they knew that she'd acquiesced to the Capitol in that way, even though she desperately craves close personal relationships of the type she's shutting out. She also keeps people at a distance because of her betrayal of Calder, the last person she let get close to her, and the pain that anyone trusting in her like that brings to her. She's very aware, though that her tributes need to have that trust in her, that she needs to do everything she can to get one of them through the Games alive to ensure that she can continue to provide for District 7. Her return to the Capitol will force her to break down some of the walls she's created and eventually forgive herself for what she had to do in the Games and the compromises she's made after them, though whether that forgiveness will lead her to join the fight against the Capitol is something that remains to be seen.


Setting:
Em will try her best to keep up the barriers she's made to keep the Capitol from hurting those she cares about, and to keep the pain and fear and shame they've caused her partitioned off. She will find it difficult, however, and may find that she has flashbacks to her Games in being so involved in them again. She will devote herself to getting a District 7 victory, no matter what it takes, and will be very afraid of getting more attached to both the tributes and the teams she's working with, worrying that they'll see the deceitful coward she perceives herself to be on the inside rather than the calm and efficient victor she portrays herself as.


SAMPLES
First Person Thread:
[Em feels the familiar sensations of panic that she's used to whenever she's asked about the Games - her stomach twisting into a knot, her cheeks flushing hot and red, the wave of nausea as she feels herself plunge the knife into Calder's back again and again. Both formats are wrong. No one should have to do that. She bites down on her lip hard to force the words back down, knowing that at best it wouldn't win her any points in the Capitol, and at worst could get the people she was trying to protect killed. She takes a deep breath, looking as though she's simply pondering her answer, always one to think before she speaks and make every word count.]

The new tributes, they can't understand how much it means to us. They're taking the place of our brothers, our sisters, our children, and we'll forever be grateful for their sacrifice. But it's sad, too. They have to go out there and die for people they've never met, who mean nothing to them. So we should do everything we can for them, just like they're doing for us.

[She's aware that she's avoiding the question somewhat, that she's deferring it away from the format of the Games themselves and onto the human cost involved. But if she spoke her mind here, it might be the last words she spoke at all.]


Prose:
Emily feels her hands shaking as she regards the Gamemakers. Her one comfort was that she'd never have to go through the Games again, but that had been snatched away from her now, replaced by the cold stares of the Gamemakers and the cold steel of the array of weapons in front of her. There were so many ways it was possible to kill a person. Em didn't like to think of them, not because of any aversion to blood and gore, but because of the link back to the Games, the brutal eradication of lives just barely begun. She hadn't wanted to think that she was capable of that brutality - luck and compassion had taken her so far in her Arena - but in the end she'd been even more brutal than any of them. It was one thing to smash in the skull of another tribute in order to prove your own strength and skill, and it was quite another to get to know one as a friend, and then turn on them viciously and cravenly. The former was a way of winning the games. The latter was surviving them. And Em's survived, all credit to her, even if she feels as though she's only just hanging in there at times, still surviving and learning how to live again.

She scans the room for anything she can use to her advantage. There are axes, of course, but even though she's proficient enough, she's not physically strong enough to have a chance with them in direct combat. Instead she goes for the herbs and roots laid out by the survival gear, explaining what combinations could save your life in a pinch and which were deadly poison.

The Gamemakers don't look impressed. Em knows they want something flashy and dramatic, the two words she can always count on in the Capitol. She feels sick knowing what she has to do, feels the scorching heat of the desert around her as she closes her fingers around the handle of the knife, sees his face staring up at her - hurt and confused, but so forgiving, which she cannot abide as she'll never be able to forgive herself. Then she lunges at the target dummy, plunging the blade deep into its back, knowing she'd have severed its spinal cord if it had one. Some of the Gamemakers are impressed, and she can hear their oohs and aahs as she turns to leave, feeling as though she's betrayed herself all over again in having to reenact that for them, reminding them of why she'd won, and would again.


What is your character scored:
Emily scored a 5. Her practical knowledge of her surroundings and her limited use of an axe were taken into consideration in her score. She was never expected to win the Games, and it's mostly down to a combination of sheer luck and Calder's kindness toward her that she did.

Token: A wooden brooch in the shape of a leaf, carved by her mother.

Additional information:
Past victor: Please describe your character's Arena, and their relationship with the Capitol since. -- I feel as though I've covered this above, but will be happy to elaborate if necessary.
Hunger Games AU and OC: What is your reasoning for the Capitol to include your canon doppelganger if they app in? What district is your character from? How do they feel about home? -- I feel as though I've covered this above, but will be happy to elaborate if necessary.