(no subject)

[juststayalive]

Player Info

Name: Katie
Age: 33
Contact: siriuslydementd
Characters Already in Teleios: Neal Cassidy
Reserve: here

Character Basics:

Character Name: Haymitch Abernathy
Journal: juststayalive
Age: 41/42
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Canon Point: after the war/death of the presidents
Debt:

Class A: 7
Class B: 34
Class C: 8828

Inciting a rebellion

GRAND TOTAL: 759 years, 8 months

Canon Character Section:

History: here

Personality:

He survived.

He survived because 47 others died, some of them by his hand, when he was just a teenager. And it's eating him up inside.

He hates everyone. He hates them because they're part of the system that sends children off to slaughter each other for entertainment. He hates them because they sit idly by and allow it to happen. He hates them because it's easier than coming to like someone and then watching them die, either because another teenager slaughtered them for entertainment or because their family couldn't afford food or medicine.

He hates them because none of them understand what it's like to know that you're only alive because 47 other children died. Or what it's like to watch for 23 years as children you're supposed to be helping stay alive don't have the resources or the skills to defeat those who are bigger and stronger, and one by one they die. Forty-six of them.

No one can understand that, and he hates them all for it.

Even when he finally ends up with a tribute who has a chance at winning, it's still easier to keep hating. After twenty-three years it's a hard habit to break, and Katniss Everdeen is a hard person to like most of the time. She doesn't let people get close either. He actually puts some effort into his role of mentor, because he sees in her the kind of fighting spirit that might actually get her through this alive, but he's still surly, sarcastic, arrogant, and even (outwardly, at least) indifferent. As he gets to know her better, his opinion of her increases and they grow closer. By the end of her Games, when she wins and manages to save Peeta's life too, they have so much more in common than they do with anyone else. Not only because they won, but because they embarrassed the Capitol in doing so. He finds himself having to coach them through their Victory Tour as well, because he has experience that no one else does. They're the closest thing he has to family now. He's going to do whatever he can to keep them alive. Katniss, specifically, because he does have more in common with her and knows that if it weren't for her Peeta probably wouldn't have made it as long as he did, but for Katniss' sake, he'll devote as much time and energy to keeping Peeta alive as he does to keeping her alive. He even makes an agreement with Katniss to keep Peeta alive in their second Games, not her, even though the basis for the rebellion is already laid out, and their intention is to keep Katniss alive. He understands Katniss better than he understands anyone else he knows, and probably better than anyone else she knows, too.

His opinion of Effie starts to change after the announcement of the Third Quarter Quell. After witnessing how far the Capitol is willing to go, and seeing the reactions of three people she knows well when they realize that two of them will have to go through the worst time in their lives all over again, her support of the Capitol begins to fade. These people are Victors; they're supposed to be safe from the Capitol's scheming, and even they aren't. Once she starts to show her more human side, less brainwashed by the Capitol, he starts to see her as less of a tool of the Capitol and more of a victim in her own way. It's different from what happened to him and Katniss and Peeta, but she is still a victim of the Capitol's policies.

He wasn't always incapable of caring about someone. It's not that he doesn't care now; it's that he won't let himself. He had a family once, and a girlfriend, until the Capitol killed them as retribution. After that, his only friend is alcohol, which helps him get through having to mentor all of the tributes he knows will never make it home again. During the Games, he formed an alliance with one of his fellow tributes from District 12, a tribute who as it turns out had been a friend of Katniss' mother. He is upset by her death, even though it happened after she had ended their alliance. Whoever he is now is who the Capitol made him, by forcing him to kill and then taking away everyone he cared about.

He's canny and calculating. He won his Games by outsmarting his opponents. He discovered the force field around the arena, which he was later able to use to his advantage (although that was what caused President Snow to kill his family). Once he realizes he's got tributes who might actually stand a chance, he starts building a strategy to get Katniss out alive (though he doesn't bother sharing this fact with Katniss). It wouldn't have taken much to convince him to join the rebellion against the Capitol; he hates them and their Games. A strategic mind like his would have been sought after by the rebels (even if it comes in a difficult-to-get-along-with package).

He was able to obtain some necessary items for Katniss in the arena, so he is capable of being polite and negotiating with others when necessary. He just doesn't often find it necessary. He can also cut down on his alcohol consumption, when he has a reason. He just doesn't often have a reason.

He has terrible nightmares after his time in the arena, and doesn't sleep when it's dark. When he does sleep, it's with a knife clutched in his hand. It's best not to be within arm's reach when waking him up.

As for Teleios itself, the fact that it's not Panem with its ritualized murder of children or oppressive government, and that so many of his fellow citizens are there and living better lives than they had in Panem, will be a big point in Teleios' favor. He may even find the nightmares subsiding somewhat, after enough time. It will be a bit of an adjustment that he'll have to have a job though! It will probably take the intervention of those he considers friends before he'll start regularly showing up for work. Being there to pay for crimes he committed is a complex issue. He killed, yes, but he was forced to do it, in a 'kill or die' scenario. He hasn't been able to get the images out of his head ever since, or get over the guilt of having done it, even if he had no choice. He knows that if these kills had happened anywhere other than inside the arena, the punishment would have been severe. As for anything related to his involvement in the rebellion, he won't view these as crimes at all, despite what the government of Panem would have to say about that.

Powers/Abilities: None

Appearance: 1 2 3 4

Samples:

Actionspam Sample:

TDM

Prose Sample:
He's been here in this strange city for almost a month now, and despite his initial unease at finding himself in a new place without his permission, with someone else's idea of what he's supposed to accomplish here, he found it easier to settle in than he expected. Once he had realized that Katniss and Peeta and the rest of them seemed not only happier here but healthier as well, it seemed like less of an imposition to be brought here and more of an opportunity. For....he's not quite sure for what, yet, but at least they're all allowed to live their lives with minimal interference from anyone in a position of power. Maybe that's the opportunity this place provides. It might not be much to some people, but to him and those he cares about, it's everything.

It hadn't been without an adjustment period, of course. Back in Panem, all he'd had to do was make it out of the Arena alive and the Capitol gave him a house to live in and money for the rest of his life. Small compensation, really, especially since he'd had no one to share it with. Not after the Capitol made an example of him. Here he's expected to actually do some work in exchange for wages, which, truth be told, has been the biggest adjustment. He's used to doing whatever he wants to do, when he wants to do it, without interruption from anyone. He's still getting used to having to show up at a specific time and do a specific thing. He's never been very good at doing what was expected of him. But at least he gets something in return for his work, which is more than can be said for most citizens of Panem. For the chance for Katniss and Peeta to be safe here, he can find a way to live here.

Some things haven't changed though. Most of his income still goes to alcohol, which at least is better than what he could get his hands on in Panem. He didn't deny the habit there, he's not going to deny it here either. At least here he doesn't have to drink alone. There are others who enjoy it just as much as he does, and he doesn't ask them their reasons for doing it if they don't ask him his. The people who really matter know why he does it, and if they judge him for it, that's their problem, not his. They don't have to come with him to one of the bars in the city, and for their sake he'll refrain from drinking so much that he'll end up as an embarrassment to them or himself. That's easier here, because the images don't affect him as much now. The war is over; no one will have to endure the arena again. The Capitol's influence has faded, and can't reach them here, at any rate. Those who died for the cause in Panem are here safe and sound. There's no need to shut himself off from the world here. He doesn't have to worry about losing anyone he cares about. He's even found himself starting to make friends.

So when he can manage to get himself out of bed at what others might consider a reasonable time, and make his way to his job, he rewards himself with a trip to the bar to see these new friends of his. It's much better to have company when drinking, anyway. Which is why he keeps coming back to this place, and making an effort. He can have a life here, same as the rest of them do, and he's not going to waste it. He'll start with the friends he makes in this bar and go from there.