(no subject)

[ivolunteer]

OUT OF CHARACTER

Name: demi
Personal Journal: demisms
Age: over 18
Contact: inb4circlejerk
Characters Played: n/a

IN CHARACTER

Name: Katniss Everdeen
Canon: The Hunger Games
Age: 17
Timeline: Post-Catching Fire

Background: @ the wikia

Personality:

Katniss is first and foremost a survivalist. An independent child who's had to be independent and competent beyond her years for a long, long time and has adapted accordingly. She's a self-reliant sort of girl who does not want to accept help from others, and when she has no other choice, has a very hard time doing so — her instincts are her chosen confidants and have been for a long time. Katniss was very self-reliant after her father died when she was eleven; she had to take over as the head of the family and sole provider at a young age. And while she did so readily, and successfully managed to feed her mother, herself, and her little sister, she practically bleeds trust issues. While the Everdeen's were very happy earlier in life, once Mr. Everdeen was killed in a mining accident and Mrs. Everdeen went emotionally catatonic, the whole family hasn't really been the same. Still a child, Katniss burdened the responsibility of adulthood way before her time, and while she was not unprepared or inept, she became jaded and cynical several years too early, and grew accustomed to risking her life (putting her name in the drawing for the Hunger Games for additional supplies every year, going over the electric fence to hunt game, selling illegal products in the black market, etc) every so often.

She's not necessarily self-sacrificial. Not all the time, at least. She may be willing to do desperate things for her family, but there are a lot of times when she can act selfishly; she's no saint — she's not above d She is not a hero, even if sometimes she plays the martyr.

She's smart; good at thinking outside the box, especially in relation to survival. Be it making a good meal out of burned, soggy bread, finding water or food, or the occasional witty comeback, she's got it all. (But seriously, just the occasional witty comeback, she ain't exactly a verbal sass master, even if she's hi-fucking-larious inside her own head.) Along with her survival excellent survival instincts, she's very objective in how she views the world and (like a lot of people, come on Panem) doesn't buy into the benefit of the Games, the Peacekeepers, and a lot of other institutionalized governmental regimes. Personable is not a word that one would or should use to describe Katniss Everdeen. She is not Peeta, who has a talent for words and making people like him. In fact, she relies heavily on the fact that he likes her to make their audience sympathetic toward her. She couldn't even make friends in school apart from Gale and maybe Madge Undersee. Peeta spins it as Katniss having appeared "unapproachable" and maybe a little intimidating, but Katniss reflects about never really caring about friends; she didn't have time for them, didn't need them, and didn't see the appeal. That lends to her inability to trust readily and how she isolates herself a lot. On top of not being overtly likable, she's not very good at pretending either. While the people in the Captiol eat up her smiles and twirling, her fellow tributes either see through her thin facades and like the person they see beneath, or sit in the corner quietly snarling about what a "fake catty bitch" she is behind their neatly manicured nails.

Not a lot of people back in District 12 chatter about her behind their hands, though. Some seem to genuinely like her without Katniss being very good at making friends — she comes off as awkward and antisocial, "unapproachable" in the school setting — and others at least acknowledge that she is a good hunter and has adapted to their low income lifestyle in a way that allowed her to provide for people. Katniss often times comes across as cold and blunt; emotionally strained (can anyone blame her?), and is only openly vulnerable in front of familiar company, like Prim, Gale, Peeta, even Haymitch after a time. And sometimes she can't be composed and logical, has to have a mental breakdown while in the Arena (re: jabberjays and after Rue died), but she's quick to jump back to survival instincts. Her gut instincts, those are what have kept her alive all these years.

While Katniss has said a couple times that she doesn't want kids (and outright balks at the idea of marriage because next comes baby in the baby carriage) she does exhibit very maternal instincts — in particular towards young girls. We see this through her relationship with her sister; she arguably does everything she does for Prim, from hunting, to volunteering for the Hunger Games. She has an intense drive to protect her sister, which first reared its head when their mother could no longer fill the caregiver role, and managed to extend towards Rue in the arena.

She's a very bad actress. Everyone on her prep team acknowledges that, and it makes her and Peeta a good team because he is charming and charismatic, and she is silent and stoic. However, they need to be that team, because otherwise Katniss just comes off looking cold, heartless and mean again.

She gets anxious on occasion, and bites her nails or something, but is generally very well disciplined (self imposed training routines before the Quarter Quell, not shoving her face to the point of being sick on the train, not drinking because she knows she needs her head clear, making herself wait to drink water until it was entirely purified) except when rash, impulsiveness takes over and she's suddenly shooting arrows at people who literally hold her life in their hands. She can be stubborn when other people's ideals, objectives and discipline regimes collide with what she wants or feels she needs to do; it is later expanded upon in the third book that Katniss' inability to take orders is one of her greatest weaknesses in the rebellion setting — or at least that that is what people think; that is what makes her scary and unpredictable when she is on someone's side because they don't know if they can control here. One of the few people that has any control over what Katniss does is Haymitch, and even then it is only because they seem to be different sides of the same coin. He can reason with her, get on her level and make her see sense; likewise, when they are not face to face, Katniss can infer his messages (not sending water in the Arena because she was so close to water; "1 kiss, 1 pot of broth") and the two of them can communicate. The two of them think outside the box, and that is what makes them so strangely compatible, despite being at complete odds with each other most of the time.

Guys, I really hate personality sections, here are things I think I've missed at this point. She is lethal, has a pretty high ranking in the games and can hunt animals like no one's business; she's killed people out of necessity and didn't feel much remorse. She's protective; specifically of Prim, Gale, Peeta... Even her prep team, basically those she deems weak. She's protective to the point of being selfless, but predominantly for aforementioned select group of people — to the point of being heroic, for example when she got between Gale and Thread when he was being whipped. Katniss has a capacity to be merciful, for example when she shot Cato and no longer saw him as an enemy, but as a victim of the Games who needed to die, not to suffer. She hates being used, but really, who doesn't? Holds grudges, too, especially with cough cough Haymitch those who use her.

And she's squeamish, unable to handle puss or blood or really bad burns (anything medical), and uncomfortable dealing with nudity. She's pure, by the Capitol's standards, but hates being made fun of for it. Okay, whoo, that's all the stuff I was having a hard time expanding upon at length, aw yeah, back to your previously scheduled personality section.

Katniss is first and foremost an independent survivor.

Subsequently family oriented and a decent actress. She's been described as lethal, and is also very good at thinking outside the box, especially when relating to that first bit - the survivalist bit. But while she does instinctually think of herself first in a whole lot of situations, the second her brain really kicks in, Katniss shows a fierce determination to protect the ones she loves - first offering herself to the Hunger Games for Prim, shields Gale from being whipped (with her face - very smart, girly), going back for Peeta when he's injured in the arena, etc.

With the survival aspect so firmly ground into her personality, she doesn't have a very good concept of social cues and social norms. She's "pure", "innocent" and sheltered by the Capital norms, becoming incredibly flustered when her inexperience with romance surfaces, be it when faced with Finnick Odair's sugar cubes or Johanna Mason's breasts. Even with the televised romantic encounters with Peeta and the density she shows towards Gale's growing affections.

She's a bit of a pessimist, too, not believing in wanting romance or love - not wanting children because she fears they'd be subjected to the games - not expecting to live in the arena both times she was sent in.

It sort of goes hand in hand with the survival bit, don't you think? Expect no good fortune so you won't be disappointed. Katniss is also a loner - almost the textbook definition of a loner, in fact. She had few to no friends though out her younger years (perhaps only Madge Undersee, if she counts - they hardly ever talked, yet sat together often enough) and held herself with such a manner that people were supposedly afraid of her, from the way Peeta tells it. It wasn't until she met Gale that Katniss had what could really be called a friend, and even then it took them a good while to really become comfortable with each other.

After the games, as well, Katniss seems to have somewhat...say, lost a little bit of respect for herself, as embodied by one specific quote: "No wonder I won the games. No decent person ever does."

And while it's true, most Victors turn out to be drunken, drugged up crazies with a side of PTSD, she does inevitably turn out to be better. Perhaps a bit crazy, but who isn't after that sort of thing. So, while crippled with some insecurity about her worth, she is a good person.

Powers:

She doesn't have any supernatural powers, but she is quite skilled with a bow and arrow, as well as throwing knives and setting traps and snares. She's a skilled hunter in general, and quite talented when it comes to climbing trees. She's athletic and determined, if stubborness can be counted as an ability. She was also temporarily deaf in one ear, which has been fixed (maybe even improved) by the Capitol post-74th Hunger Games.

Do you want a power wipe? n/a

Suitcase:

( 1 ) — hospital gown
( 1 ) — pair of hospital pants
( 1 ) — pearl
( 1 ) — spile
( 1 ) — damp, dirty, hastily peeled off arena suit
( 1 ) — locket
( 1 ) — pair of worn pants
( 1 ) — long sleeved shirt
( 1 ) — hunting jacket
( 5 ) — pairs of socks and underwear
( 1 ) — concussion & some owwies

Surprise? Sure!
Other Notables:

SAMPLES

Network Sample:

( Well, hello, weird hotel guests. You've been greeted with deft hands flipping switches and the pale, bleak looking face of a young woman with some dark, sallow circles under her eyes. Her hair is a mess, too, and her skin smeared with a slight layer of dirt and grimy with dried salt water. Could that be a trace of blood on her hands, too?

Well, yes. Yes, it could — yes it is.

But contrary to her somewhat worn, grundgy appearance, her face is as blank as a sheet of paper — at least for a moment before it seems to register that the tablet is working. )

Hello?

( Sorry, hotel. )

Is this one of those things from the Capitol?

( While she is weary and shell shocked and just about to the point of an exhausted collapse - not to mention pained beyond measure by the withdraw from painkillers - there will be no monumental freak out from the young miss Katniss Everdeen. Today. )

That you can order food off of?

( She doesn't seem to expect it to respond to her, and doesn't give it time to, either, before raising the tablet a little higher and says loudly and clearly: )

Lamb. Stew.

( feed terminated. )

Threads: ( x | x | x | x )

( optional ) Third Person Sample:

( ooc | re-used from teleios )

Katniss Everdeen has had an admittedly hard time adjusting to this new life. Shocking as it may be, teenagers not only make terrible wartime figures, but make even worse productive members of society, especially societies they were shoved into suddenly and expected to function in. In the beginning, she blames the wound on her temple, the undiagnosed concussion (courtesy of one of her housemates) for her perpetual funk and gloominess. But as the days go on and she gradually feels better, less woozy, less achey, less nauseated, but no less discontent and useless, she's forced to acknowledge she has no drive in this city. There's no call to action, and no one needs her, and so Katniss wallows for a while under the guise of rest and recovery.

At least the crying is kept to a minimum. And as far as she can tell, she hasn't woken anyone with the sharp screams that systematically wrench her from nightmares.

She can't help but feel she's been shoved into a strange limbo here, with so much to do back in Panem; like she's suspended here for some indefinite, inconvenient vacation that she didn't ask for from her responsibilities. That weight, accompanied by the increasing dismay every time she hears Peeta's muffled voice, hears his footsteps, and goes out of her way to avoid further confrontation (and thus pretty much any interaction) with him drives her from the house. Like clockwork: up at dawn, back long after dusk. She doesn't have a bow, nor arrows; she has nothing to hunt, and no reason to. But she has shoes. And a jacket.

So Katniss wanders.

Stands outside the Temple and stares, as if maybe — if she glared hard enough — the doors would open and spit out her sister (her mother, her friend, her mentor, her Peeta). But as safe and welcoming a place as it is, she'd be hard pressed to set foot over the threshold, remembering it only as being the unkind building that had spat her out into the city. She has a room there. Doesn't live there, by any means, sleeping mostly in the townhouse with all her companions, but takes a small measure of comfort in knowing it's there — at least in that first month — in case things were to get to be too much in the lakehouse, just in case she were to need somewhere to run to. She bites her nails down to the quick before realizing she's anxious and getting a little stir crazy, a little fussed with all the inactivity, and while she doesn't particularly want to, Katniss finds herself all over the Business District, peering in through windows (like the creepy shell of emotions she is) and wondering if she could do any of those jobs. Sometimes her hands shake. She'd drop eggs if she were a baker, though steers pretty clear of the Mellark Bakery on days she doesn't have a clear idea of where her housemates were. Sometimes, when she's especially out of it and homesick, she stares at the outline of the Rocky Mountains. Those at least are familiar, and she stares at them from any high vantage point she can find; roofs, hills...

Sometimes if there's trees, she climbs them. Any trees. Anywhere.