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[burnwithus]

Your name: Juli
Your personal LJ: hydrium
Who do you currently play at Tabula Rasa?: Angel | todoright, Annabeth Chase | fatalpride
Please list the dates of your participation requirement threads or posts for each pup for the two previous calendar months:

Angel → June [01] [02] [03] | July [01] [02] [03] | August [01] [02] [03]

Annabeth → June [01] [02] [03] | July [01] [02] [03] | August [01] [02] [03]

Have you dropped any pups since your last application?: Yes. Matt Cruse [bornflying]
What month and year is this application for?: July, 2010

Your character's name: Katniss Everdeen
Your character's canon: The Hunger Games
What type of canon is it: Book series
Your character's LJ: burnwithus
How should your character's tag look?: Katniss Everdeen
Is your character living or dead at their time of entry?: Living
Does your character have any pre-existing disabilities of a medical, physical, or psychiatric nature?:

Katniss suffers from a severe form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, which is defined as a severe anxiety disorder that develops after a traumatic event. Given that she has seen (and done) terrible things and is essentially a teenager in the middle of a war, this is never explicitly stated but displayed in canon. Symptoms of PTSD include reliving the event(s) through flashbacks and nightmares, emotional numbness, depression or paranoia. She displays all of these symptoms, often waking up screaming almost every night from night terrors, or reacting negatively to physical touch in the fear that it might be an attack. She has undergone psychiatric counselling, but it was largely ineffective due to her extreme lack of participation.

Tell us about your character's background:

Our protagonist’s life begins in the future, a future where civil liberties are virtually unheard of and people need to be controlled. The 13 Districts of Panem fought to regain control over the oppressive Capitol, but failed, and the result was that life was worse for almost everyone on the fringes.

Katniss’ father died when she was 11, leaving her as the sole provider to her family that also included her younger sister Prim, and her. She learned to hunt and use a bow, skills that would be invaluable in the arena.

Every year, the Capitol demanded tributes from the district - one male and one female, chosen by lottery - to participate in the Hunger Games, where the tributes would be forced to kill each other on national television, for entertainment. There could only be one victor. When her sister was drawn instead of her, Katniss leapt to volunteer, sacrificing her own life in Prim’s place. The male tribute was a boy named Peeta Mellark, who went on to profess his dying love for her in front of the entire nation.

It was all an act to keep them alive, but Katniss went along with it. Despite the brutality of the Games, the two managed to survive until the end. Hating the idea of being forced to kill Peeta, Katniss made a dangerous bluff. She and Peeta pretended to kill themselves with poisonous berries, hoping that the Capitol would rather have two victors than none.

Both of them survived, and Katniss learned that apparently it hadn’t been an act on Peeta’s part. Despite their estrangement, there was also the dangerous truth that Katniss had undermined the Capitol - and in doing so provided the spark the rebels needed all along.

In a ploy to eliminate her as a threat, the rules of the Hunger Games were revised as they were every twenty five years. Tributes would be reaped from pools of existing victors. Since she was the only female victor from District 12, Katniss went back into the arena, where she formed a large alliance with others who were secretly part of a rebel organization.

Somewhere along the way, Katniss became the face of a revolution that she never even wanted to start. After winning the war, she was supposed to execute the President of Panem for his crimes, but makes a different decision instead.

She’s still not sure if it was the right one, but she was prepared to die for it anyways.

Your character's personality:

Katniss Everdeen is not a hero. It does not matter how many people rally around her or appoint her as a leader. The fact remains that her first instincts are rarely noble, and even if these thoughts are kept to herself or pushed aside, they remain with her and she cannot forget them. Some people see only the good things about her, the superficial things - her ‘bravery’, her skill with a bow and arrow, her loyalty. Others, including Katniss herself, see only the worst. She describes herself as “violent, distrustful, manipulative and deadly.” In the end, these things alone are not enough. In the end, she is just a teenaged girl forced to grow up way too fast.

Survival is of utmost importance to her. Growing up in a district where food was scarce, she quickly learned to mistrust people. Yet perhaps it’s her shining virtue that Katniss doesn’t simply want survival for herself, but for the few people she has actually come to care for over the years. She risked everything to keep Peeta alive in the Games, jumped in front of a raised whip for her best friend Gale, among a whole host of ill-advised actions.

Someone that manages to worm their way into Katniss’ heart can count on having a protector for life. In fact, she’ll make their safety her own personal responsibility, with or without their consent. But it’s a long, tough road, because she dislikes and avoids kind people because they have a way of making her care and she can’t bear to lose anyone else. In order to defend herself, she keeps her emotions locked up tight, wiping all traces of them off her face because she doesn’t want to give people the satisfaction of knowing that they’ve ruffled her. She comes off as aloof, cold and sullen, even though on the inside she’s brimming with emotion and secret thought. Some of it is pride, because Katniss can’t bear being owing people things - an attitude that surely came from her life as a provider for her family.

To some extent, she is manipulative. Katniss tries to keep a level head while making decisions, but it isn’t always easy. She makes the hard moral choices and has done truly despicable things - and doesn’t attempt to forgive herself or make excuses for them, often crossing the line into self-depreciation when she says she hates herself more than most of the people around her. Still, there’s the extent at which she draws the line - and when all is said and done, she is far more compassionate than she would ever give herself credit for.

Reckless, stubborn and just a little bit oblivious to the subtleties of other people’s feelings, Katniss can also hold a grudge longer than anyone she knows. She is not friendly. She very rarely smiles and often has pessimistic thoughts about the chances of things. While not a saint, she's not quite the villain she believes herself to be, either.

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Why do you want to play this character?:

The Hunger Games trilogy portrays the effects of violence on the human psyche with startling realism, and that is precisely why I want to play Katniss. Unlike my other characters, Annabeth Chase and Angel, who are both caught up in the great and glorious end of things, Katniss often has to struggle with the idea of acting noble and selfless, because it’s often against her very first instinct. She isn’t fighting some huge battle between good and evil. She’s just trying to survive. This is what first drew me to her, because I have more than enough idealists as it is. To have a character so immersed within the realm of morally gray is a new one for me, and it’s definitely an avenue I’ve wanted to explore for a very long time.

On the island, Katniss will present a lot of challenges and obstacles to work through, which will ensure that her character will never be static. Someone with her level of mental and physical scarring will realistically take months or even years to recover, and I look forward to writing it. She is also such a contrast to most of the island’s residents, who are friendly and welcoming. With so many positive influences, her character will undoubtedly change for the better. It’s these small character evolutions that I enjoy playing the most, and throwing Katniss into an environment the complete opposite of her canon is the medium I will work with.

Your character's initial personal inventory:

1 bow, a sleek black composite made of advanced polymers
1 leather quiver, empty

1 purple pill capsule, filled with deadly poison
1 solid gold pin, shaped like a bird flying inside a circle
1 round freshwater pearl
1 small silver key

1 suit of full body armor, black with white accents.
1 pair of black boots with springs concealed in the soles

Your character's entrance post:

”It’s supposed to be symbolic. You firing the last shot of the war.”

Taking a life is easy. A simple pull of a bowstring and a moment’s pressure and it’s gone. I learned that the hard way during the Games, because the dead never really leave you. I pace around the perimeter of my room, waiting for my name to be called. Remembering the girl from District Four. Cato and Glimmer and Marvel and Rue. They’ve been with me all this time, and it would be wrong to forget them now. We fought each other during the Games because we had to, but I never hated any of them because we were all the same. They weren’t the enemy. The Capitol was. Snow was my enemy and had been for a very long time.

So why was I having second thoughts now?

Images flash before my eyes. Just one, played over and over again until I’m sure it’s burned into my retinas. The parachutes going off. Prim being engulfed in flames. The angry, red raw scars all over me are a reminder, even though I don’t think I’ll ever forget. President Snow tortured Peeta. He instituted the hateful Hunger Games. He killed Finnick and Boggs and all of the others. He should die. But I can’t help but remember what he said.

I inspect the length of my arrow, routinely checking for sharpness like I have so many times before. It’s a special occasion, but no one’s even suggested that I practice, and I doubt it’s because of their faith in me. I pace the room some more, resisting the urge to scratch at my new, fire-mutt skin.

Two peacekeepers are at my door before I realize what’s happened. I’m marched out onto a narrow stage, still marvelling at my prep team’s ability to make me look somewhat normal despite my patchwork skin and singed hair. There are crowds all around me, and the entire thing is being aired all over Panem, but my gaze is locked completely on the bright red rose on Snow’s lapel as he sits in a chair ten feet away from me. They’ve tied him up for display, because it’s obvious to everyone here that he isn’t going anywhere.

The crowd hushes. They’re waiting for me. I remember the flash of the bombs as they ignited and remember Gale’s hand in making them. I remember President Coin’s insistence that we have another Hunger Games. I don’t trust her. I know she’ll turn out to be worse than Snow ever was.

Drawing my bowstring, I release the arrow upwards in one smooth motion. President Coin falls to the floor from the balcony above, dead. There’s pandemonium as everyone tries to process what it is I’ve done and why I’ve done it. Biting down on the secret compartment of my Mockingjay suit, I release the purple nightlock pill, ready to swallow it before any of the guards can get to me. I bite down on Peeta’s hand instead.

“Let me go!” I scream above the noise. Doesn’t he know what’s going to happen to me? As the assassin of Panem’s future president, none of my prospects look good. The pill- Cinna’s last gift to me - falls to the ground.

I’m staring down at sand and Peeta’s gone. All of the crowds are gone too.

Shaking, I wipe his blood from my mouth.

Other Questions:

1. What isn't considered fictional canon?
Religious texts are not considered fictional canon

2. All new characters must be debuted within how much time?
Two weeks, unless an extension is asked for

3. Why do we ask that you include your birth year on your wiki page?
To determine if adult-themed gameplay is appropriate