Katniss Everdeen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stillplaying) wrote2014-04-22 08:05 pm
stillplaying) wrote2014-04-22 08:05 pm
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Name: Jenny
DW username: hominidae
E-Mail: pilot.jaina @ gmail.com
IM: enelyasol
Plurk: enelyasol
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Katniss Everdeen
Series: The Hunger Games
Timeline: After returning to District 12 in "Mockingjay," a couple of weeks after Peeta's return.
Canon Resource Link: Katniss on the Hunger Games Wiki
Character History: Born on May 8th, Katniss Everdeen is the eldest of the two girls born to a coal miner and the daughter of an apothecary in the twelfth district of Panem. She grew up in the Seam, the poorest area of an already poor district. Blackouts and brownouts were a normal occurrence in her childhood, as was hunger and Hollow Days – a day in which no amount of food could ever appease your appetite. When she was four, her sister, Primrose, was born.
Despite an impoverished lifestyle in a dictatorship, Katniss’ childhood was a relatively good one. She was loved by her parents and formed an especially close bond with her father. In addition to working in the mines, Mr. Everdeen was a skilled outdoorsman. He taught his daughter how to wield a bow and arrow, how to swim, and how to hunt and fish even though it was illegal to leave the District. But Twelve, so far away from the reach of the Capitol, was a lax District in comparison to others. He also taught her what plants were edible or medicinal – that if she were ever starving, she’d just need to find her namesake to cook. Mr. Everdeen was said to have a voice that could silence even the birds, a voice that Katniss inherited. Music became an instrumental part of life in the Everdeen household, even if Mr. Everdeen did occasionally pass on songs that were frowned upon by Mrs. Everdeen for being illegal.
When Katniss was eleven, her father died in a mining accident. She briefly met Gale Hawthorne, her future best friend, at a ceremony honoring the miners killed in the explosion. District 12 assigned the Everdeen household a stipend for a month to allow grieving and give Mrs. Everdeen a chance to find employment. But Mrs. Everdeen had shut down in a deep depression at the loss of her husband, leaving Katniss in charge of providing for and keeping her family together.
As soon as she turned twelve, Katniss would be capable of signing up for tesserae, small amounts of grain and oil, by entering her name in the Hunger Games reaping in equal proportion to tesserae received. Though it would increase her chances in being selected as tribute to the fight-to-the-death games, it would also assist in a small way to preventing her family from starving. Unfortunately, starvation had already begun to set in and a few weeks prior to her twelfth birthday, Katniss had taken to scouring trash cans in a desperate attempt to feed her family.
One day, the baker’s wife caught Katniss searching through the trash cans behind the bakery. Her son, Peeta watched as his mother yelled at Katniss in the rain. Peeta purposely burnt two loafs of bread despite the berating he would receive from his mother, having been in love with Katniss since hearing her sing in assembly their first day of school. Although told to feed the bread to the pigs, he tossed them Katniss’ way instead. The next day, at school, Katniss caught him watching her and, when ducking her head to look away, noticed the first dandelion of the spring. Remembering its edible qualities, she realizes that she could feed her family through the skills her father taught her in addition to signing up for the tesserae. Peeta Mellark had saved her life.
At one point shortly after this event, Katniss ran into Gale again while hunting in the woods outside of the District. She had noticed his snares and had been inspecting the craftsmanship when he accused her of attempting to steal a caught rabbit. The misunderstanding was straightened out and, although their friendship started rocky, it grew into a strong bond. The two became hunting partners, with Gale teaching Katniss his snare work and Katniss, in exchange, teaching him how to identify plants and shoot an arrow. Whatever food they did not need for their families was sold at the Hob, an illegal marketplace in the Seam, for extra money.
Life continued in relative routine for the next four years. Katniss went to school, took care of her sister and mother, and hunted in the woods with Gale. She and Gale grew closer and closer as time went on, the woods becoming the only place Katniss ever truly felt happy and free. But at age sixteen, Katniss’ life once again irrevocably changed. Although she had made certain that Prim would only have to put her name in the reaping once upon turning twelve, Primrose Everdeen was still chosen for the District Twelve female tribute in the 74th annual Hunger Games. Without hesitation, Katniss volunteered to take her place.
As luck would have it, Peeta – the boy she attributed with saving her life - was chosen as her fellow tribute. How could she kill someone she owed so much to? Although normally each tribute was assigned an individual mentor, District Twelve only had one living victor from past games – a drunk named Haymitch Abernathy. They agreed to train together and, for one of the first times in Game history, the two tributes from a District were presented as a united front. And, under the direction of the talented stylist Cinna, also become perhaps the most fashionable and noticeable tributes as well, much to the envy of the others.
Training proceeded smoothly. Both received strong final scores from the Gamemakers, even after Katniss lost her temper when it was her own turn to display her strongest abilities to the Gamemakers in the private session. And then came the night of the interviews. While Katniss had difficulty talking to Caesar Flickerman in front of the crowd, Peeta possessed no such difficulty – even coming out and admitting to all of Panem that he was in love with Katniss Everdeen. Katniss was taken aback and even furious by the admittance, thinking it made her look weak. The Capitol, however, quickly fell in love with the idea of the star-crossed lovers from District Twelve.
Despite Haymitch’s advice to run and find water upon entering the arena, Katniss ignored him upon spying a bow and quiver full of arrows, nearly died in the initial bloodbath attempting to get to the weapon. She didn’t succeed but also did not come away empty handed. She kept to herself for the beginning of the Games. This tactic changed when she was cornered in a tree by a pack of the Career tributes – and Peeta. Escape seemed nearly impossible until, late at night, the little twelve year old girl from District Eleven, risked helping Katniss by pointing out a trackerjacker wasp hive hanging from a branch in the same tree as Katniss. Using the knife she had retrieved from Clove’s attack, Katniss cut it down and it fell upon the unsuspecting Careers.
Katniss did not leave this attack unscathed. Rue, the little girl from District Eleven, found her and nursed her stings until Katniss regained consciousness. The two formed a treaty of their own and destroyed the Careers’ stockpile of food. The small victory came with a large cost: Rue’s death. Katniss killed the boy responsible and sang to the girl as she died, and then buried her in flowers. Shortly after, the Gamemakers announced a rule change: that two tributes would be declared victor if they were from the same district. Katniss sought out Peeta. This time, it was her turn to nurse someone back to health and to realize the benefits of presenting the star-crossed lovers card to the audience.
Ultimately, Katniss and Peeta won the 74th Hunger Games despite the odds. After fighting off human eyed mutts and Cato, the only other remaining tribute, the Gamemakers changed the rules once more – that only one tribute could win. Rather than kill one another, they threatened joint suicide by poison berries instead – Katniss’ idea – and are declared victors.
At Haymitch’s urging, Katniss claimed that it was her love for Peeta that drove her to pull out the berries rather than any threat of rebellion. But Snow, the president of Panem, refused to believe it. The charade was continued past the games: back home in District Twelve whenever the cameras were around and on the Victory Tour around the country. During this tour, Peeta proposed marriage and Katniss accepted, seeing no other choice. They also observed the first stirrings of another rebellion among the districts of Panem. In response, even in District Twelve, security measures became harsher.
Katniss spent time between their return and the next Games torn between inciting a rebellion in Twelve and running away, fleeing in the woods with those she loves before matters became worse. During this period, Gale also told her that he loved her, making Katniss confused as to her feelings for him and Peeta.
In honor of the upcoming Hunger Games being a Quarter Quell, Snow announced that the tributes of the 75th Hunger Games would be selected from a pool of previous winners. A year after being sent to the Capitol for the 74th Games, Katniss and Peeta returned to participate in the Games again. But while her plan had been to survive in the 74th Games, Katniss’ only plan this time around was to make certain Peeta would be crowned victor again.
Even in the Capitol, the fire of rebellion was spreading. Tributes held hands during the interviews and were friendly to each other rather than cold and mean. Cinna’s gown for Katniss’ interview took on the form of a mockingjay, the symbol of the rebellion, when Katniss twirled. Peeta still managed to outdo Cinna’s statement by announcing that he and Katniss had secretly eloped and that she was now pregnant. Katniss did not argue with him this time.
Right before Katniss was sent into the arena, she watched Peacekeepers beat and capture Cinna. It was the last time she had ever saw him alive. In the arena, she and Peeta formed an initially uneasy alliance with the tributes from District Four that solidified when Finnick saved Peeta’s life and Mags sacrificed herself for the others. Other tributes eventually joined their group, people it later turned out were a part of the rebellion and working to get Katniss and Peeta out of the arena alive. Though Katniss did decide that she wanted to break the alliance, Peeta convinced her otherwise due to a plan that Beetee had been developing. However, the plan fell apart and upon being separated from Peeta, Katniss thought that Finnick and Johanna had betrayed them. At the very last minute, Katniss realized that the plan was not to electrocute their opponents on the beach, but to blow open a hole in the force field. Even though she believed that success would result in their deaths, Katniss helped to reconnect the broken wire that would cause the force field to blow. The explosion knocked her unconscious.
When she woke up, she believed that she had been captured by the Capitol. Instead, Katniss discovered that she was in the hands of the rebellion, who had been working alongside District Thirteen to end Snow’s rule and reform the country. Peeta, however, had been captured by the Capitol and District Twelve destroyed. Gale, however, had managed to get her family to safety along with his own and some other citizens of Twelve. They all become refugees in District Thirteen and, for most, participants of the rebellion.
After being released from the hospital, Katniss spent a lot of her time hiding and mourning Peeta’s capture. A talk with Gale did soon convince her to become the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion. But only under certain conditions that had to be met – including Peeta’s and the other captured victor’s amnesty if rescued from the Capitol and hunting rights for herself and Gale. While not so successful at acting from a script, powerful propaganda films are put together as soon as they got Katniss out in the field. This led to a propaganda war, in addition to the actual physical war.
Peeta and the other victors were eventually rescued from Snow, but not before Peeta warned of an impending attack on District Thirteen. However, the joyous reunion Katniss hoped for was ruined upon learning that Peeta had been hijacked – brainwashed by the Capitol into hating her. Rather than hugging her, he attempted to strangle her. To distract her, Katniss was sent to District Two for further propaganda filmings and to help out in any other way that she could. It was the last of the districts to fall to the rebellion and efforts paid off shortly after her arrival, leaving only the Capitol to be conquered.
Though initially sent to the Capitol for further propaganda films, plans once again fell apart. Peeta unexpectedly joined them, having started on the road towards recovery. A game formed among Katniss’ team to help him with his memories: real or not real. One day during filming within the Capitol, a trap was unknowingly triggered. The team leader, Boggs, died but not before putting Katniss in charge. Under Katniss’ hands, the mission became one of assassination and one of horrible death – as most of Katniss’ team was killed before they make it to Snow’s mansion.
At the mansion, it was discovered that Snow had been using children as a shield – scattering them along the lawn so that the rebels would not attack. However, parachutes like those that would bring gifts from sponsors in the Games fell – and exploded. Medics from Thirteen rushed out to help the injured children, medics that include her sister, Prim. She watched, helpless, as the rest of the bombs exploded, injuring her and killing Prim.
She fell into a horrible, horrible depression after watching this. Though the rebellion won the war, it came at a terrible cost. She discovered that it had been Coin, the president of Thirteen, who had given the order to drop the parachutes. Worse, the bombs might have been based on a trap originally designed by Gale. The few remaining Hunger Games victors were assembled sometime thereafter to vote on whether the most powerful and influential people of the Capitol ought to be punished by watching their children participate in a final Hunger Games. Katniss’ vote made it a yes.
Finally, the last day of the war arrived. Katniss was to send the final shot – an arrow that would kill President Snow. Given the knowledge of Coin’s attack, she opted instead to kill Coin and then tried to kill herself. Peeta, there watching, stopped her before she could bite down on the poison pill and once again saved her life. During the trial, a trial in which Katniss herself never directly participated in, Katniss attempted instead to starve herself to death. None of her attempts at suicide were successful, her trial acquitted on basis of insanity, and was sent home to District Twelve with Haymitch to look out for her.
There, she continued to dwell in her depression until one day, Peeta was deemed well enough to return to Twelve as well. With his influence, she began to build herself back up – finally calling her therapist, slowly starting to hunt again as a distraction. Though she still suffered from lost days – days in which she could do nothing more than to give in to the sorrow and pain – she slowly made progress towards becoming human again.
Abilities/Special Powers: Katniss is an amazing hunter, especially with a bow and arrow, capable of killing squirrels and rats by shooting an arrow in their eye and not tarnishing the rest of the carcass. She can also sing beautifully, much like her father. It’s stated that when Katniss sings, even the birds fall silent to listen.
Third-Person Sample: She wakes up, looks around, and instantly tenses. Wherever she is, she isn’t in her bedroom anymore. The stark, sparsely decorated room that, on the worst of days, becomes her entire world. Today isn’t one of those days. It can’t be. Because she doesn’t know where she is. Doesn’t recognize any of the surroundings. Even as light flickers down from a skylight overhead, there’s no familiarity in the marble walls or pillars. The smell of incense gives no reassurance.
Her heart skips a beat as she scrambles on to her knees. This isn’t her bedroom, isn’t her house, isn’t any place in what remains of District 12. It holds the opulence and grandeur she’s come to expect of the Capitol. Or, at least, a Capitol prior to the war waged by the Districts. For a moment, she wonders if she’s back in Snow’s mansion, in some yet undiscovered part. Let out of her room for… for what? They wouldn’t have done that. She had been held captive there for a reason.
Maybe it’s a dream. It’s all that makes sense. And she considers it all for a moment before a breeze blows against the sleeve of her shirt. It feels too real. And her dreams, her nightmares, are never this peaceful.
A sound catches her attention. The scuff of footsteps against tile. She twitches, her head turning in the direction of the sound. The ragged ends of her braid moves with her, hitting her shoulder. There’s someone approaching.
She doesn’t wait to see who it is. Because she’s done attempting to figure out where she is. How she got here. If the entrance hall is even real, if any of this is real. Because someone is coming and she’s defenseless. Her bow and quiver weren’t here. She lacked anything even as simple as a knife in which she could hurl at an opponent as she attempts an escape. She survived the Hunger Games not once, but twice. Survived a war. Survived attempts even to take her own life.
She doesn’t know where she is. She doesn’t care who’s approaching. This could be a dream. This could be some other sort of game all together. She won’t die. Not now, not now that she’s decided once again that she wants to live. And it most certainly won’t be at the hands of some strange person in a strange hallway, in a building she’s never been in before. She doesn’t waste a second more. She runs towards the nearest pillar and hides. It’s not a tree, but until she knows for certain who – what – she’s facing, it’s the safest place she can think of.
First-Person Sample:
[She’s been staring at the device for minutes now, even if it’s felt like a lot longer. Hours, even days. For a girl who had spent so much time in the spotlight, she’s feeling a bad case of stage fright. But she’s not good at this. She’s never been good at this. Talking to people, befriending them. Proving that she’s someone worth allying with. Especially when she doesn’t want to ally with any of them. She doesn’t care. Doesn’t care about these people or where they’ve come from or how they even got here. She’s not the Mockingjay anymore. She doesn’t have to convince anyone to believe anything she has to say.
But she’s in a game. And as much as she’s loathe to admit it, having allies in the Quarter Quell helped.
Haymitch would want this. But more than that, it would make Finnick happy, wouldn’t it? And she owes him. She owes him more than she can ever, ever admit. He died because of her. Died and never even had the chance to know about Annie.
He hasn’t lived through that yet. And she couldn’t ever break his heart. Not like that.
Finally, she clears her throat. The left corner of her lip twitches but there’s no smile on her face. Smiles haven’t come easy in a long, long time.]
My name is Katniss Everdeen. I’ve been told that I’ve been here before but I don’t remember. I don’t… [She doesn’t want to remember. Doesn’t ever want to have to play that game that Peeta does every single day. Real or not real. How can she tell? Is this real or is it something else entirely? She still doesn’t know.] I don’t want to be here.
[But who does? With the exception of the Careers, did any of the tributes ever really want to enter the arena? She knows the answer to that, knows it as well as she knows her own name. She’s messing this up.
But that comes as no surprise to her. She doubts it comes to a surprise to anyone.]
I just want to hunt and- Be left alone. You don’t want to get to know me. Trust me on that.
DW username: hominidae
E-Mail: pilot.jaina @ gmail.com
IM: enelyasol
Plurk: enelyasol
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Katniss Everdeen
Series: The Hunger Games
Timeline: After returning to District 12 in "Mockingjay," a couple of weeks after Peeta's return.
Canon Resource Link: Katniss on the Hunger Games Wiki
Character History: Born on May 8th, Katniss Everdeen is the eldest of the two girls born to a coal miner and the daughter of an apothecary in the twelfth district of Panem. She grew up in the Seam, the poorest area of an already poor district. Blackouts and brownouts were a normal occurrence in her childhood, as was hunger and Hollow Days – a day in which no amount of food could ever appease your appetite. When she was four, her sister, Primrose, was born.
Despite an impoverished lifestyle in a dictatorship, Katniss’ childhood was a relatively good one. She was loved by her parents and formed an especially close bond with her father. In addition to working in the mines, Mr. Everdeen was a skilled outdoorsman. He taught his daughter how to wield a bow and arrow, how to swim, and how to hunt and fish even though it was illegal to leave the District. But Twelve, so far away from the reach of the Capitol, was a lax District in comparison to others. He also taught her what plants were edible or medicinal – that if she were ever starving, she’d just need to find her namesake to cook. Mr. Everdeen was said to have a voice that could silence even the birds, a voice that Katniss inherited. Music became an instrumental part of life in the Everdeen household, even if Mr. Everdeen did occasionally pass on songs that were frowned upon by Mrs. Everdeen for being illegal.
When Katniss was eleven, her father died in a mining accident. She briefly met Gale Hawthorne, her future best friend, at a ceremony honoring the miners killed in the explosion. District 12 assigned the Everdeen household a stipend for a month to allow grieving and give Mrs. Everdeen a chance to find employment. But Mrs. Everdeen had shut down in a deep depression at the loss of her husband, leaving Katniss in charge of providing for and keeping her family together.
As soon as she turned twelve, Katniss would be capable of signing up for tesserae, small amounts of grain and oil, by entering her name in the Hunger Games reaping in equal proportion to tesserae received. Though it would increase her chances in being selected as tribute to the fight-to-the-death games, it would also assist in a small way to preventing her family from starving. Unfortunately, starvation had already begun to set in and a few weeks prior to her twelfth birthday, Katniss had taken to scouring trash cans in a desperate attempt to feed her family.
One day, the baker’s wife caught Katniss searching through the trash cans behind the bakery. Her son, Peeta watched as his mother yelled at Katniss in the rain. Peeta purposely burnt two loafs of bread despite the berating he would receive from his mother, having been in love with Katniss since hearing her sing in assembly their first day of school. Although told to feed the bread to the pigs, he tossed them Katniss’ way instead. The next day, at school, Katniss caught him watching her and, when ducking her head to look away, noticed the first dandelion of the spring. Remembering its edible qualities, she realizes that she could feed her family through the skills her father taught her in addition to signing up for the tesserae. Peeta Mellark had saved her life.
At one point shortly after this event, Katniss ran into Gale again while hunting in the woods outside of the District. She had noticed his snares and had been inspecting the craftsmanship when he accused her of attempting to steal a caught rabbit. The misunderstanding was straightened out and, although their friendship started rocky, it grew into a strong bond. The two became hunting partners, with Gale teaching Katniss his snare work and Katniss, in exchange, teaching him how to identify plants and shoot an arrow. Whatever food they did not need for their families was sold at the Hob, an illegal marketplace in the Seam, for extra money.
Life continued in relative routine for the next four years. Katniss went to school, took care of her sister and mother, and hunted in the woods with Gale. She and Gale grew closer and closer as time went on, the woods becoming the only place Katniss ever truly felt happy and free. But at age sixteen, Katniss’ life once again irrevocably changed. Although she had made certain that Prim would only have to put her name in the reaping once upon turning twelve, Primrose Everdeen was still chosen for the District Twelve female tribute in the 74th annual Hunger Games. Without hesitation, Katniss volunteered to take her place.
As luck would have it, Peeta – the boy she attributed with saving her life - was chosen as her fellow tribute. How could she kill someone she owed so much to? Although normally each tribute was assigned an individual mentor, District Twelve only had one living victor from past games – a drunk named Haymitch Abernathy. They agreed to train together and, for one of the first times in Game history, the two tributes from a District were presented as a united front. And, under the direction of the talented stylist Cinna, also become perhaps the most fashionable and noticeable tributes as well, much to the envy of the others.
Training proceeded smoothly. Both received strong final scores from the Gamemakers, even after Katniss lost her temper when it was her own turn to display her strongest abilities to the Gamemakers in the private session. And then came the night of the interviews. While Katniss had difficulty talking to Caesar Flickerman in front of the crowd, Peeta possessed no such difficulty – even coming out and admitting to all of Panem that he was in love with Katniss Everdeen. Katniss was taken aback and even furious by the admittance, thinking it made her look weak. The Capitol, however, quickly fell in love with the idea of the star-crossed lovers from District Twelve.
Despite Haymitch’s advice to run and find water upon entering the arena, Katniss ignored him upon spying a bow and quiver full of arrows, nearly died in the initial bloodbath attempting to get to the weapon. She didn’t succeed but also did not come away empty handed. She kept to herself for the beginning of the Games. This tactic changed when she was cornered in a tree by a pack of the Career tributes – and Peeta. Escape seemed nearly impossible until, late at night, the little twelve year old girl from District Eleven, risked helping Katniss by pointing out a trackerjacker wasp hive hanging from a branch in the same tree as Katniss. Using the knife she had retrieved from Clove’s attack, Katniss cut it down and it fell upon the unsuspecting Careers.
Katniss did not leave this attack unscathed. Rue, the little girl from District Eleven, found her and nursed her stings until Katniss regained consciousness. The two formed a treaty of their own and destroyed the Careers’ stockpile of food. The small victory came with a large cost: Rue’s death. Katniss killed the boy responsible and sang to the girl as she died, and then buried her in flowers. Shortly after, the Gamemakers announced a rule change: that two tributes would be declared victor if they were from the same district. Katniss sought out Peeta. This time, it was her turn to nurse someone back to health and to realize the benefits of presenting the star-crossed lovers card to the audience.
Ultimately, Katniss and Peeta won the 74th Hunger Games despite the odds. After fighting off human eyed mutts and Cato, the only other remaining tribute, the Gamemakers changed the rules once more – that only one tribute could win. Rather than kill one another, they threatened joint suicide by poison berries instead – Katniss’ idea – and are declared victors.
At Haymitch’s urging, Katniss claimed that it was her love for Peeta that drove her to pull out the berries rather than any threat of rebellion. But Snow, the president of Panem, refused to believe it. The charade was continued past the games: back home in District Twelve whenever the cameras were around and on the Victory Tour around the country. During this tour, Peeta proposed marriage and Katniss accepted, seeing no other choice. They also observed the first stirrings of another rebellion among the districts of Panem. In response, even in District Twelve, security measures became harsher.
Katniss spent time between their return and the next Games torn between inciting a rebellion in Twelve and running away, fleeing in the woods with those she loves before matters became worse. During this period, Gale also told her that he loved her, making Katniss confused as to her feelings for him and Peeta.
In honor of the upcoming Hunger Games being a Quarter Quell, Snow announced that the tributes of the 75th Hunger Games would be selected from a pool of previous winners. A year after being sent to the Capitol for the 74th Games, Katniss and Peeta returned to participate in the Games again. But while her plan had been to survive in the 74th Games, Katniss’ only plan this time around was to make certain Peeta would be crowned victor again.
Even in the Capitol, the fire of rebellion was spreading. Tributes held hands during the interviews and were friendly to each other rather than cold and mean. Cinna’s gown for Katniss’ interview took on the form of a mockingjay, the symbol of the rebellion, when Katniss twirled. Peeta still managed to outdo Cinna’s statement by announcing that he and Katniss had secretly eloped and that she was now pregnant. Katniss did not argue with him this time.
Right before Katniss was sent into the arena, she watched Peacekeepers beat and capture Cinna. It was the last time she had ever saw him alive. In the arena, she and Peeta formed an initially uneasy alliance with the tributes from District Four that solidified when Finnick saved Peeta’s life and Mags sacrificed herself for the others. Other tributes eventually joined their group, people it later turned out were a part of the rebellion and working to get Katniss and Peeta out of the arena alive. Though Katniss did decide that she wanted to break the alliance, Peeta convinced her otherwise due to a plan that Beetee had been developing. However, the plan fell apart and upon being separated from Peeta, Katniss thought that Finnick and Johanna had betrayed them. At the very last minute, Katniss realized that the plan was not to electrocute their opponents on the beach, but to blow open a hole in the force field. Even though she believed that success would result in their deaths, Katniss helped to reconnect the broken wire that would cause the force field to blow. The explosion knocked her unconscious.
When she woke up, she believed that she had been captured by the Capitol. Instead, Katniss discovered that she was in the hands of the rebellion, who had been working alongside District Thirteen to end Snow’s rule and reform the country. Peeta, however, had been captured by the Capitol and District Twelve destroyed. Gale, however, had managed to get her family to safety along with his own and some other citizens of Twelve. They all become refugees in District Thirteen and, for most, participants of the rebellion.
After being released from the hospital, Katniss spent a lot of her time hiding and mourning Peeta’s capture. A talk with Gale did soon convince her to become the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion. But only under certain conditions that had to be met – including Peeta’s and the other captured victor’s amnesty if rescued from the Capitol and hunting rights for herself and Gale. While not so successful at acting from a script, powerful propaganda films are put together as soon as they got Katniss out in the field. This led to a propaganda war, in addition to the actual physical war.
Peeta and the other victors were eventually rescued from Snow, but not before Peeta warned of an impending attack on District Thirteen. However, the joyous reunion Katniss hoped for was ruined upon learning that Peeta had been hijacked – brainwashed by the Capitol into hating her. Rather than hugging her, he attempted to strangle her. To distract her, Katniss was sent to District Two for further propaganda filmings and to help out in any other way that she could. It was the last of the districts to fall to the rebellion and efforts paid off shortly after her arrival, leaving only the Capitol to be conquered.
Though initially sent to the Capitol for further propaganda films, plans once again fell apart. Peeta unexpectedly joined them, having started on the road towards recovery. A game formed among Katniss’ team to help him with his memories: real or not real. One day during filming within the Capitol, a trap was unknowingly triggered. The team leader, Boggs, died but not before putting Katniss in charge. Under Katniss’ hands, the mission became one of assassination and one of horrible death – as most of Katniss’ team was killed before they make it to Snow’s mansion.
At the mansion, it was discovered that Snow had been using children as a shield – scattering them along the lawn so that the rebels would not attack. However, parachutes like those that would bring gifts from sponsors in the Games fell – and exploded. Medics from Thirteen rushed out to help the injured children, medics that include her sister, Prim. She watched, helpless, as the rest of the bombs exploded, injuring her and killing Prim.
She fell into a horrible, horrible depression after watching this. Though the rebellion won the war, it came at a terrible cost. She discovered that it had been Coin, the president of Thirteen, who had given the order to drop the parachutes. Worse, the bombs might have been based on a trap originally designed by Gale. The few remaining Hunger Games victors were assembled sometime thereafter to vote on whether the most powerful and influential people of the Capitol ought to be punished by watching their children participate in a final Hunger Games. Katniss’ vote made it a yes.
Finally, the last day of the war arrived. Katniss was to send the final shot – an arrow that would kill President Snow. Given the knowledge of Coin’s attack, she opted instead to kill Coin and then tried to kill herself. Peeta, there watching, stopped her before she could bite down on the poison pill and once again saved her life. During the trial, a trial in which Katniss herself never directly participated in, Katniss attempted instead to starve herself to death. None of her attempts at suicide were successful, her trial acquitted on basis of insanity, and was sent home to District Twelve with Haymitch to look out for her.
There, she continued to dwell in her depression until one day, Peeta was deemed well enough to return to Twelve as well. With his influence, she began to build herself back up – finally calling her therapist, slowly starting to hunt again as a distraction. Though she still suffered from lost days – days in which she could do nothing more than to give in to the sorrow and pain – she slowly made progress towards becoming human again.
Abilities/Special Powers: Katniss is an amazing hunter, especially with a bow and arrow, capable of killing squirrels and rats by shooting an arrow in their eye and not tarnishing the rest of the carcass. She can also sing beautifully, much like her father. It’s stated that when Katniss sings, even the birds fall silent to listen.
Third-Person Sample: She wakes up, looks around, and instantly tenses. Wherever she is, she isn’t in her bedroom anymore. The stark, sparsely decorated room that, on the worst of days, becomes her entire world. Today isn’t one of those days. It can’t be. Because she doesn’t know where she is. Doesn’t recognize any of the surroundings. Even as light flickers down from a skylight overhead, there’s no familiarity in the marble walls or pillars. The smell of incense gives no reassurance.
Her heart skips a beat as she scrambles on to her knees. This isn’t her bedroom, isn’t her house, isn’t any place in what remains of District 12. It holds the opulence and grandeur she’s come to expect of the Capitol. Or, at least, a Capitol prior to the war waged by the Districts. For a moment, she wonders if she’s back in Snow’s mansion, in some yet undiscovered part. Let out of her room for… for what? They wouldn’t have done that. She had been held captive there for a reason.
Maybe it’s a dream. It’s all that makes sense. And she considers it all for a moment before a breeze blows against the sleeve of her shirt. It feels too real. And her dreams, her nightmares, are never this peaceful.
A sound catches her attention. The scuff of footsteps against tile. She twitches, her head turning in the direction of the sound. The ragged ends of her braid moves with her, hitting her shoulder. There’s someone approaching.
She doesn’t wait to see who it is. Because she’s done attempting to figure out where she is. How she got here. If the entrance hall is even real, if any of this is real. Because someone is coming and she’s defenseless. Her bow and quiver weren’t here. She lacked anything even as simple as a knife in which she could hurl at an opponent as she attempts an escape. She survived the Hunger Games not once, but twice. Survived a war. Survived attempts even to take her own life.
She doesn’t know where she is. She doesn’t care who’s approaching. This could be a dream. This could be some other sort of game all together. She won’t die. Not now, not now that she’s decided once again that she wants to live. And it most certainly won’t be at the hands of some strange person in a strange hallway, in a building she’s never been in before. She doesn’t waste a second more. She runs towards the nearest pillar and hides. It’s not a tree, but until she knows for certain who – what – she’s facing, it’s the safest place she can think of.
First-Person Sample:
[She’s been staring at the device for minutes now, even if it’s felt like a lot longer. Hours, even days. For a girl who had spent so much time in the spotlight, she’s feeling a bad case of stage fright. But she’s not good at this. She’s never been good at this. Talking to people, befriending them. Proving that she’s someone worth allying with. Especially when she doesn’t want to ally with any of them. She doesn’t care. Doesn’t care about these people or where they’ve come from or how they even got here. She’s not the Mockingjay anymore. She doesn’t have to convince anyone to believe anything she has to say.
But she’s in a game. And as much as she’s loathe to admit it, having allies in the Quarter Quell helped.
Haymitch would want this. But more than that, it would make Finnick happy, wouldn’t it? And she owes him. She owes him more than she can ever, ever admit. He died because of her. Died and never even had the chance to know about Annie.
He hasn’t lived through that yet. And she couldn’t ever break his heart. Not like that.
Finally, she clears her throat. The left corner of her lip twitches but there’s no smile on her face. Smiles haven’t come easy in a long, long time.]
My name is Katniss Everdeen. I’ve been told that I’ve been here before but I don’t remember. I don’t… [She doesn’t want to remember. Doesn’t ever want to have to play that game that Peeta does every single day. Real or not real. How can she tell? Is this real or is it something else entirely? She still doesn’t know.] I don’t want to be here.
[But who does? With the exception of the Careers, did any of the tributes ever really want to enter the arena? She knows the answer to that, knows it as well as she knows her own name. She’s messing this up.
But that comes as no surprise to her. She doubts it comes to a surprise to anyone.]
I just want to hunt and- Be left alone. You don’t want to get to know me. Trust me on that.