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Aug. 2nd, 2013 11:07 pmOUT of CHARACTER
Name: Al
Other characters: Sandy Marko, Harleen Quinzel, Charles "Orc" Merrieman
IN CHARACTER
Name: Azula
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Canon point/AU: Hunger Games based AU
Journal:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
burnedbrighter
PB: N/A
History:
History:
Azula is a citizen of Panem born in District five to her mother who was a resident of District Five, and her father who moved there from District one to open a new shop and fell in love with her mother. Though he spent much of his time in District Five he never could abandon his love for his birth district and as such raised his two daughters (Azula being the younger one) to be proud citizens of Panem. His wealth allowed them sheltering from the general public including private education and a sense of status among the locals.They trained in preparation each year hoping to be honored with the opportunity to fight in the Hunger Games and bring glory to the family.
Growing up she believed herself popular, well liked and even loved by the district. She even had a pair of best friends (including the mayor's daughter) who always got along well with her as they found time between studies and training to get into mischief and take advantage of their social standing to avoid getting into trouble.
Her father saw Azula's potential early on in her development and nurtured it with a firm hand and strict training; unfortunately this meant that he also shunned Azula's elder sister. This caused her to believe herself more important and in turn she began to torture and torment her with wicked games of manipulation and trickery. Still this was all a preliminary.
Azula knew her destiny was to be at hand someday soon, so each year when the reaping of tributes began she would awaken early to make sure she looked her best. But each year she became more and more frustrated. Until her 14th year when her sister was chosen as tribute. Enraged that he was going to take away the glory she had waited all her life for, Azula volunteered as tribute and though her sister felt compelled to refuse her offer, she could not find her voice to object. Between the disappointed glare of her father, the horrified look of her mother, and her sister's deadly icy stare her will was broken and she stood in silence. She could not, would not step forward and take her rightful place as tribute... because it would mean leaving behind the mayor's daughter whom she had fallen in love with.
And so it was decided, for the first time in however long that people could recall, two female tributes from district five were sent in place of the usual mixed genders. This was a curious situation, but not unprecedented. She was practically glowing with pride and from her very first appearance, the betting pools in the Capitol all knew she would be one to watch out for.
The other tribute from her district was a slightly older boy named Jin. Jin was sweet and kind, well liked among the district, and so as training and preparations began, Azula saw fit to test him and push him to train harder each day. They seemed to become fast friends and the night before, Jin promised he would look out for his district-mate as best he could.
The arena itself was a simple arena at first. A set of forested mountains, a lake with rivers leading to it, even some curious ruins set high in the mountains to be explored and taken advantage of. Azula was off to a strong start as she and Jin both made it into the Cornucopia and out again. Azula fought and killed her first tibute by running them through on a sword while Jin escaped with the bags. Once they reconnected and split up the supplies the hunt was on.
The arena's primary gimmick, or so it seemed, was every twenty four hours would give way to a new season. Spring was first giving the arena a rush of flowers that could poison you, or come to life and squeeze you into pulp before absorbing you, as well as animals which were all bred with the express purpose of murdering tributes.
Then the next day, a horrible sweltering heat that dried the plants and water supplies. Sunburns were wide spread and Azula and Jin spent most of this day moving from shaded area to shaded area, moving as little as possible to preserve their energy until the blessed coolness of night.
Then came the autumn. A chill settled in and the plants died making it harder to hide from one another in the trees and bushes. However Jin discovered that with enough colorful fallen leaves they could disguise themselves in the piles of leaves that had fallen from trees, and at least one tribute wandered too close where Azula would slice her foot off at the calf. The rest of that death was...not pretty to say the least.
Winter next. A horrible blizzard blanketed the arena overnight and those tributes who hadn't frozen to death set out to build fires and shelter. Between the two of them Jin and Azula found a cave and Azula bravely fought and killed a muttation that had made it a home. It was that night that Azula knew her next move. If the arena continued as it did all she had to do was wait.
Luck however...was not on her side as the spring rains came next, and a mud slide nearly took her life. Jin saved her by lassoing a rope around Azula's mid section and using his superior weight to haul Azula into a taller tree. The pouring rain felt oppressive and gloomy, providing the perfect atmosphere for Azula to reflect upon the implications of having her life saved by a commoner.
Finally, the day had come! The next summer day dried out the plantlife once more leaving everything brittle and flammable. Using a fire starting kit from both their bags, Azula set into the forest around the mountains base and set fires in several different places. This technique proved horrifically useful as eight tributes died that day either by burning to death, suffocating on the smoke or blundering into a trap on their own.
That night, Jin had harsh words for Azula. He couldn't understand how Azula could find such glee in the screams of others. At first he had thought Azula was only doing what it took to survive. But the more time spent the more he began to wonder if Azula wasn't taking some kind of sick pleasure in it all.
That night Azula murdered Jin, unfortunately Jin woke up in the process and lived long enough for Azula to let him know that she was doing Jin "a favor." Things would only be getting worse from there on and a delicate spirit like Jin would never survive.
The fall came but this time powerful winds buffeted the area whipping the fallen leaves, burnt dirt and grass into dangerous cyclones. Azula took this day to rest in the cave she had shared with Jin.
Winter once more and a pair of surviving tributes from district one came to Azula's cave pretending to ally with her so they could share the cave and wait for spring. In the night however Azula woke as the girl tribute tried to kill her. She dispatched the female tribute just as the rains began turning the snow outside to slush. The boy tribute tackled her knocking the sword out of her hand.
The two tumbled through the slush and rain as lightning crashed up above. As Azula struggled to free herself she saw Jin's weapon that had been left in the cave sliding by and grabbed for it. A solid steel spear.
It was then that the more powerful boy tribute broke her wrist forcing her to drop the spear and shoved her head under the mud and cold water sloshing down the hillside. He had her now. She felt her face buffeted by the force of ice cold water that was like a river pouring down from up high. It forced it's way into her nose and ears and the rotting corpse of the creature that she had killed the first winter crashed into them startling the boy and giving her just enough shock to pull free.
Fighting her way through the river, clawing at stones with her good hand she pulled herself onto a boulder and watched the boy coming after her with murder in his eyes and the force of a train plowing through a river. The trident glinted nearby. The feeling of static tingled along the back of her neck, a familiar tingle that those who had visited some of the electrical plants in District five would know.
When the boy tribute lunged for the spear Azula sprang as hard as she could into the air away from him and hoping to be clear of the water. The lightning struck the spear killing the boy instantly, but the force of it conducting through all the water blasted Azula from her perch and back into the river.
Her last memory was desperately clinging to her sword, stuck in a tree, head just above water as the last cannon sounded.
**********************************
In the end for all her ruthlessness, her skill, training, and dedication, luck was the deciding factor in Azula's victory. There were protests, cries of foul as there always were. People insisted that the game had been rigged in her favor but those people were quickly silenced.
And Azula returned home a hero...or so she had intended.
But the citizens of District 5 were not pleased with their new hero. No, rather they were horrified by watching what she had gleefully done. They would whisper about her only to freeze when she came too close. But by the end of her first week home she knew all the whispers.
"A worse monster then the Muttations."
"Probably'd kill her own sister if she had the chance."
"No wonder her mother left."
Yes, in fact after the death of Jin, Azula's mother had fled the District. Rumors flew fast and furious about her location. All Azula's father would say about it was that the games were stressful for everyone. Then in private he told Azula about how her mother had organized donations for Jin's family. And how the citizens of District five had pooled their resources to provide Jin with supplies...but not Azula. Sure they could lie and claim that it was for them to share but by this point Azula suspected the truth.
Her proud stride and swagger were in time replaced with bitterness and fury. She became known for violent outbursts, threatening the servants, even lashing out at her sister giving her a disfiguring scar. As public opinion turned against her and her family, at her father's suggestion Azula left the District for therapy and treatment in the capitol.
But Azula knew the truth. It wasn't about healing her, it was about getting her away. Even her father had turned on her, had given up on the monster that HE had created. Her "friends" no longer spoke to her, her district had abandoned her.
With no one left she could trust, Azula allowed herself to be hidden away in some dark hole of a therapy center for unstable citizens where she brooded and drew deeper and deeper inside herself.
...until now.
Presentation:
A pale, once beautiful girl, she has not been well kept since her time locked away.
Her beautiful black silken hair is unkempt and messy, dull and dry. Her once toned and athletic body is slender and weak from lack of movement and malnutrition. Where her eyes once burned with fire and were as cold and sharp as ice, now they are dull and glassy most of the time as she drifts between hallucinations and paranoid fears. When she does focus them it's not usually for long.
She tries her best to maintain her composure in front of others. She knows how a mentor should present herself, and strives to put that face forward and hide the weakness she knows she has. This sometimes gives her a very closed-off feel, one of coldness and superiority. Since her breakthough she has found it much more difficult to hold her tongue and restrain her thoughts and true feelings. She struggles to hide her growing addiction to Morphling or at least to play off how much she actually needs it. It's a weakness and she knows it but it's a weakness she embraces as a necessary evil. She knows that without it she'll become erratic, too paranoid to function.
She embraces the capitol lifestyle as much as she has to, the fine clothes, the parties...but it may become noticed that she tends to vanish unannounced from larger parties once she's spoken to whoever she needed to.
Motivations: When she's in her right mind, Azula is a cold calculating perfectionist. She is almost entirely incapable of normal emotions and connecting with people because of how her father raised her to be a perfect deadly force of nature. He wanted the perfect children but he did too well. To the point that even he was scared of how dangerous and cruel she was.
But with the mounting pressure of realizing she would never have his approval she has become unstable, paranoid, violent and exceedingly emotional at times.
Emotional and unstable Azula has drawn further into herself finding herself unable to trust even those she was closest to. She constantly fears assassination and struggles to get even a full nights sleep. She's prone to hallucinations of people from her past, her mother, father and so on.
She only came out of her seclusion because even in the nuthouse she could not escape hearing about The Games and current events. She came to realize that she was hiding from the very thing that had ruined her so-called-life and began to believe that she would have to face her demons. She intends on using all of her skills and training to try and help her tributes win and perhaps that might finally lift some of the weight off her shoulders that she has felt since her district turned it's back on her. What she won't admit is she hopes that perhaps when her district sees how hard she's working to help the tributes they might forgive her and welcome her back and give her the respect and affection she's been craving all these years.
Deep down she has a need for vindication; a need for some kind of justification for everything she's done up to this point. She feels like she was cheated out of the rewards she was promised. Her father sold her on the Capitol's dream of a victorious tribute and the reality of it was obviously nothing like she expected.
Her father raised her to have a strong sense of pride in herself and her upbringing. She was rich because she deserved to be rich. Her family was well off because some people were just better then others. And those who were poor deserved it. Bad luck came to those who weren't strong enough to make to control of their own destiny. And to fraternize with the poor and the common, the ugly and the stupid is beneath her and her family. She believes that surrounding yourself with people of culture, grace and intelligence not only looks better and makes you feel better, but keeps you sharp. And the only reason to surround yourself with lesser people is if they know their place and show you the proper amount of respect.
After her breakdown she became suspicious of so many though she could find no comfort or respite in the company of the upper class or the commoners.
Her mother had always been a people person, willing to organize group projects to help those in the community who needed it. While Zuko understood the importance of helping those who needed it, Azula never saw the point in it. When her mother left it struck her as particularly cruel that her mother would go out of her way to support and care for so many others that she barely knew, but couldn't be bothered to stick around and offer her daughter the praise and respect that she deserved. She was a victor now! The very definition of success! But that wasn't good enough? And upon hearing how her mother had organized funding pools to support Jin, and later Jin's family after his death, Azula began to suspect the missing woman was behind many other conspiracies in her life. The people whispering that her time in the arena was rigged? Her mother must have started that rumor! The tributes finding her hiding place on the mountainside? She must have gotten a message to them. And the sounds at night of people creeping in the halls just outside her room? Surely her mother was plotting to drive her mad from exhaustion! Some part of her knows these ideas are baseless and insane...but she can't help herself.
The therapy center was not as helpful to her mental state as some had hoped. While it did provide her with a calm atmosphere to collect herself, the constant supply of medication made her even more suspicious of the people in charge. And many of the Orderlies did not treat her with any of the respect or honor that a former victor deserved. The more of a violent threat she was to herself and others in the therapy center the more restrictions were placed on her till for a time she had to wear a straight jacket and be wheeled around in a chair. She hated every minute of it, but was well aware that she couldn't leave till she proved herself capable of controlling herself. And she saw no need to do so save to leave the therapy center.
So she allowed herself to wallow in self loathing and gave up her restraint for years at a time. She lapsed in and out of coherency as the mix of drugs and too much time separated from society played with her grip on reality. Even now she prefers rooms with high ceilings, wide enough walls to move around and multiple exits. She also prefers to wear clothes that allow her a full range of movement, the more restricting an outfit is the more subdued but irritated she is. The straight jacket conditioned her as such so while she may not be happy, her anger burns out faster if she cannot move enough to strike back.
She is still hydrophobic, and can barely stand baths and showers. But she has one particular trick to help keep her calm and find her "center". Fire, fire soothes her. Fire warms her and gives her something to focus on. Watching the flame of a candle, or multiple candles can help keep her from panicking. And as such when she takes her baths she always makes sure the room is full of candles, soothing scents and music. Because cleanliness is a must in this day and age so she can't simply shun bathing. She does not allow water in her ears or nose however and will make use of ear plugs and nose plugs if she must.
She is also convinced now that the staff at the therapy center were also in cahoots with her mother and plotting to keep her there forever. Giving her the wrong kinds of medication to alter her brain, trying to convince her of radical new treatments that would ultimately leave her as addled and obedient as an Avox. While these thoughts may not be entirely true she can't help but believe in them, some days completely, some days only a little.
Because of her experiences in the therapy center, Azula has a strong and healthy fear and respect for what the capitol is capable of. After all at the therapy center they still required her consent. The Capitol is not so willing to ask for her permission if they want to change something about her.
And deep down, under it all there's a part of her that would welcome that. To have the choices taken away from her, to have the feelings and pain and madness taken away from her. Suicide seems too easy and yet it is a tantalizing forbidden fruit to consider in the late hours of the night when your stomach is knotted and cramped from not eating because you were afraid your food had been tampered with, and you're on your third day of barely any sleep because you worry about how helpless you are when you're not awake.
SAMPLES
Thread:
Good Evening.
I suppose introductions are in order to our guests from other worlds. I am Azula, victor of District 5 and I apologize for my absence until now, but it seems I am hardly the only mentor to have abandoned her post.
As it stands I am more capable now than I would have been then anyway.
To my tributes, I am here for you. My doors are almost always open...but if you come to me after curfew you may have things thrown at you. I am incredibly skilled as videos of my past victory will confirm. During my time in the arena I killed more than half the tributes both directly and indirectly. If there is a weapon you wish to learn, a skill you need to sharpen or simply some questions you hope to have answered then don't be shy...and don't approach me from behind. I prefer face to face interaction.
To the rest of you, I can't wait to meet you all. Life in the capitol is a never ending dream, one you cannot waken from no matter how many times you pinch at your flesh. You may in fact feel tempted to hurl yourself from the tallest buildings just to experience flight as only a dream can allow...of course I would suggest you avoid such risky behavior. After all even if you could fly you know what happens to people who fly too close to the sun?
Let's dream together shall we? Of a better tomorrow.
Prose:
She was so proud as she strode into the testing area. Her head was held high, posture perfect. The feeling of eyes on her was warming deep in her chest.
She gave a bow introducing herself in clear, well projected words, "I am Azula of District 5."
And without further discussion she approached the table of weapons. Each one looked familiar to her in one way or another. Either she had practiced with them or studied about them. Flexibility in weapons was a crucial skill and one she had worked a great deal on.
Drawing a set of throwing knives first she allowed her mind to drift back to long hours of playing darts with Mai and Ty-Lee. The mayors daughter was somewhat of an expert at throwing darts and knifes if only for the sake of sport and tricks at parties.
Following her memories carefully Azula mimicked Mai's technique perfectly throwing one knife after the other and hitting the target. Each one sunk into the bulls eye and remained buried firmly.
Next up was the pair of swords. She spun them about to get a feel for their weight and began slashing and dancing with them displaying both agility and skill. Her life had been leading up to this! She would score high, but not so high that the other tributes could not have room to underestimate her. Those who scored too high often were set upon by groups so large they had no hope of surviving even if they took several with them on the way.
She felt ALIVE in this moment. The blood pumping in her veins, the way her beautiful jet black hair shimmered when she spun. It was perfection. Each slash sang through the air like the emptiness itself was afraid of being cut by her. Good bye life of toil and longing. Hello glory and honor! The whole district would be chanting her name when this was through and she stood proudly before them.
She ended her elaborate performance by throwing the swords at the target and slicing it in half letting it fall to the ground scattering knives everywhere.
She bowed once more and added, "I do not wish to take up too much of your time, so please accept this abbreviated performance of my abilities. I assure you that the rest of my skills will become evident in the arena."
What is your character scored: 8
Additional information: Question specifically for certain character types. Feel free to ignore if it does not apply to your character type. Please answer all that do (For example, a past victor AU would answer both their question, and the past victory question)
Past victor: Please describe your character's arena, and their relationship with the Capitol since.
The arena was based heavily around the four seasons, providing a mountainous area with a large forest, a lake in the middle with a few rivers coming off it, and lots of weather. Each day the weather changed from one extreme to the next following the order, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. The first Spring day was full of plant and animal life coming to life and threatening the tributes. The first Summer was oppressively hot and forced the tributes to remain under cover or die of sunstroke, sun burns and the like. The first fall was possibly the most mild day in the arena while the winter was sudden, frigid and just as quick to leave.
Heavy flooding plagued the next spring day, and what would have been another oppressively hot day became a huge fire thanks to Azula. The second fall was a wind filled nightmare of tornadoes and dust storms. The second winter was even heavier then the first with more snow and less ice. That snow turned into an even more dangerous flood which killed off the remaining tributes. The entire arena only lasted nine days.
Since the victory Azula has felt bitter as many tributes do, but has a respect for the capitol. While they never warned her about how the games would negatively effect her life, they did at least put her in a "nice" nut house when she needed to go away for awhile.
Still being swept under the rug like a bad memory all because of some unfortunate PR didn't sit well with Azula, nor did being subservient. While she resents the idea of being a puppet for the government, she knows better then to pick a fight she cannot win. Best to enjoy what luxuries she has left in her life and try to smother the sickening anger she feels towards her own district with drugs.
Past victor AU: What district is your character from? How do they feel about home?
District 5, Azula loathes district 5 for the way they turned on her after her victory. She expected love, praise and affection. She expected to be hailed as a hero among her people, but instead they shunned her like a monster and acted as though she was an embarrassment. And so she has no love for her district and though she has finally decided to do her duty towards them, she does it out of respect for the capitol. Not for the ones who betrayed her. Secretly, on a level even she won't admit to herself, she wants them to forgive her and take her back giving her the respect and admiration and vindication she feels that she deserves.
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?
In the case of a face doppelganger, it could be said that the capitol has brought it in at the behest of private donations from people who want to see if they can push Azula over the edge once and for all. People from her district, rivals who compete with her father, or maybe even the capitol itself curious to see how far they can push her and have her still be functional. After all it would be child's play for them to break her completely, but to find the sweet spot between madness and sanity and keep her balanced there would make for an interesting show if nothing else.
******************************
Name: Al
Other characters: Sandy Marko, Harleen Quinzel, Charles "Orc" Merrieman
IN CHARACTER
Name: Azula
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Canon point/AU: Hunger Games based AU
Journal:
burnedbrighter PB: N/A
History:
History:
Azula is a citizen of Panem born in District five to her mother who was a resident of District Five, and her father who moved there from District one to open a new shop and fell in love with her mother. Though he spent much of his time in District Five he never could abandon his love for his birth district and as such raised his two daughters (Azula being the younger one) to be proud citizens of Panem. His wealth allowed them sheltering from the general public including private education and a sense of status among the locals.They trained in preparation each year hoping to be honored with the opportunity to fight in the Hunger Games and bring glory to the family.
Growing up she believed herself popular, well liked and even loved by the district. She even had a pair of best friends (including the mayor's daughter) who always got along well with her as they found time between studies and training to get into mischief and take advantage of their social standing to avoid getting into trouble.
Her father saw Azula's potential early on in her development and nurtured it with a firm hand and strict training; unfortunately this meant that he also shunned Azula's elder sister. This caused her to believe herself more important and in turn she began to torture and torment her with wicked games of manipulation and trickery. Still this was all a preliminary.
Azula knew her destiny was to be at hand someday soon, so each year when the reaping of tributes began she would awaken early to make sure she looked her best. But each year she became more and more frustrated. Until her 14th year when her sister was chosen as tribute. Enraged that he was going to take away the glory she had waited all her life for, Azula volunteered as tribute and though her sister felt compelled to refuse her offer, she could not find her voice to object. Between the disappointed glare of her father, the horrified look of her mother, and her sister's deadly icy stare her will was broken and she stood in silence. She could not, would not step forward and take her rightful place as tribute... because it would mean leaving behind the mayor's daughter whom she had fallen in love with.
And so it was decided, for the first time in however long that people could recall, two female tributes from district five were sent in place of the usual mixed genders. This was a curious situation, but not unprecedented. She was practically glowing with pride and from her very first appearance, the betting pools in the Capitol all knew she would be one to watch out for.
The other tribute from her district was a slightly older boy named Jin. Jin was sweet and kind, well liked among the district, and so as training and preparations began, Azula saw fit to test him and push him to train harder each day. They seemed to become fast friends and the night before, Jin promised he would look out for his district-mate as best he could.
The arena itself was a simple arena at first. A set of forested mountains, a lake with rivers leading to it, even some curious ruins set high in the mountains to be explored and taken advantage of. Azula was off to a strong start as she and Jin both made it into the Cornucopia and out again. Azula fought and killed her first tibute by running them through on a sword while Jin escaped with the bags. Once they reconnected and split up the supplies the hunt was on.
The arena's primary gimmick, or so it seemed, was every twenty four hours would give way to a new season. Spring was first giving the arena a rush of flowers that could poison you, or come to life and squeeze you into pulp before absorbing you, as well as animals which were all bred with the express purpose of murdering tributes.
Then the next day, a horrible sweltering heat that dried the plants and water supplies. Sunburns were wide spread and Azula and Jin spent most of this day moving from shaded area to shaded area, moving as little as possible to preserve their energy until the blessed coolness of night.
Then came the autumn. A chill settled in and the plants died making it harder to hide from one another in the trees and bushes. However Jin discovered that with enough colorful fallen leaves they could disguise themselves in the piles of leaves that had fallen from trees, and at least one tribute wandered too close where Azula would slice her foot off at the calf. The rest of that death was...not pretty to say the least.
Winter next. A horrible blizzard blanketed the arena overnight and those tributes who hadn't frozen to death set out to build fires and shelter. Between the two of them Jin and Azula found a cave and Azula bravely fought and killed a muttation that had made it a home. It was that night that Azula knew her next move. If the arena continued as it did all she had to do was wait.
Luck however...was not on her side as the spring rains came next, and a mud slide nearly took her life. Jin saved her by lassoing a rope around Azula's mid section and using his superior weight to haul Azula into a taller tree. The pouring rain felt oppressive and gloomy, providing the perfect atmosphere for Azula to reflect upon the implications of having her life saved by a commoner.
Finally, the day had come! The next summer day dried out the plantlife once more leaving everything brittle and flammable. Using a fire starting kit from both their bags, Azula set into the forest around the mountains base and set fires in several different places. This technique proved horrifically useful as eight tributes died that day either by burning to death, suffocating on the smoke or blundering into a trap on their own.
That night, Jin had harsh words for Azula. He couldn't understand how Azula could find such glee in the screams of others. At first he had thought Azula was only doing what it took to survive. But the more time spent the more he began to wonder if Azula wasn't taking some kind of sick pleasure in it all.
That night Azula murdered Jin, unfortunately Jin woke up in the process and lived long enough for Azula to let him know that she was doing Jin "a favor." Things would only be getting worse from there on and a delicate spirit like Jin would never survive.
The fall came but this time powerful winds buffeted the area whipping the fallen leaves, burnt dirt and grass into dangerous cyclones. Azula took this day to rest in the cave she had shared with Jin.
Winter once more and a pair of surviving tributes from district one came to Azula's cave pretending to ally with her so they could share the cave and wait for spring. In the night however Azula woke as the girl tribute tried to kill her. She dispatched the female tribute just as the rains began turning the snow outside to slush. The boy tribute tackled her knocking the sword out of her hand.
The two tumbled through the slush and rain as lightning crashed up above. As Azula struggled to free herself she saw Jin's weapon that had been left in the cave sliding by and grabbed for it. A solid steel spear.
It was then that the more powerful boy tribute broke her wrist forcing her to drop the spear and shoved her head under the mud and cold water sloshing down the hillside. He had her now. She felt her face buffeted by the force of ice cold water that was like a river pouring down from up high. It forced it's way into her nose and ears and the rotting corpse of the creature that she had killed the first winter crashed into them startling the boy and giving her just enough shock to pull free.
Fighting her way through the river, clawing at stones with her good hand she pulled herself onto a boulder and watched the boy coming after her with murder in his eyes and the force of a train plowing through a river. The trident glinted nearby. The feeling of static tingled along the back of her neck, a familiar tingle that those who had visited some of the electrical plants in District five would know.
When the boy tribute lunged for the spear Azula sprang as hard as she could into the air away from him and hoping to be clear of the water. The lightning struck the spear killing the boy instantly, but the force of it conducting through all the water blasted Azula from her perch and back into the river.
Her last memory was desperately clinging to her sword, stuck in a tree, head just above water as the last cannon sounded.
**********************************
In the end for all her ruthlessness, her skill, training, and dedication, luck was the deciding factor in Azula's victory. There were protests, cries of foul as there always were. People insisted that the game had been rigged in her favor but those people were quickly silenced.
And Azula returned home a hero...or so she had intended.
But the citizens of District 5 were not pleased with their new hero. No, rather they were horrified by watching what she had gleefully done. They would whisper about her only to freeze when she came too close. But by the end of her first week home she knew all the whispers.
"A worse monster then the Muttations."
"Probably'd kill her own sister if she had the chance."
"No wonder her mother left."
Yes, in fact after the death of Jin, Azula's mother had fled the District. Rumors flew fast and furious about her location. All Azula's father would say about it was that the games were stressful for everyone. Then in private he told Azula about how her mother had organized donations for Jin's family. And how the citizens of District five had pooled their resources to provide Jin with supplies...but not Azula. Sure they could lie and claim that it was for them to share but by this point Azula suspected the truth.
Her proud stride and swagger were in time replaced with bitterness and fury. She became known for violent outbursts, threatening the servants, even lashing out at her sister giving her a disfiguring scar. As public opinion turned against her and her family, at her father's suggestion Azula left the District for therapy and treatment in the capitol.
But Azula knew the truth. It wasn't about healing her, it was about getting her away. Even her father had turned on her, had given up on the monster that HE had created. Her "friends" no longer spoke to her, her district had abandoned her.
With no one left she could trust, Azula allowed herself to be hidden away in some dark hole of a therapy center for unstable citizens where she brooded and drew deeper and deeper inside herself.
...until now.
Presentation:
A pale, once beautiful girl, she has not been well kept since her time locked away.
Her beautiful black silken hair is unkempt and messy, dull and dry. Her once toned and athletic body is slender and weak from lack of movement and malnutrition. Where her eyes once burned with fire and were as cold and sharp as ice, now they are dull and glassy most of the time as she drifts between hallucinations and paranoid fears. When she does focus them it's not usually for long.
She tries her best to maintain her composure in front of others. She knows how a mentor should present herself, and strives to put that face forward and hide the weakness she knows she has. This sometimes gives her a very closed-off feel, one of coldness and superiority. Since her breakthough she has found it much more difficult to hold her tongue and restrain her thoughts and true feelings. She struggles to hide her growing addiction to Morphling or at least to play off how much she actually needs it. It's a weakness and she knows it but it's a weakness she embraces as a necessary evil. She knows that without it she'll become erratic, too paranoid to function.
She embraces the capitol lifestyle as much as she has to, the fine clothes, the parties...but it may become noticed that she tends to vanish unannounced from larger parties once she's spoken to whoever she needed to.
Motivations: When she's in her right mind, Azula is a cold calculating perfectionist. She is almost entirely incapable of normal emotions and connecting with people because of how her father raised her to be a perfect deadly force of nature. He wanted the perfect children but he did too well. To the point that even he was scared of how dangerous and cruel she was.
But with the mounting pressure of realizing she would never have his approval she has become unstable, paranoid, violent and exceedingly emotional at times.
Emotional and unstable Azula has drawn further into herself finding herself unable to trust even those she was closest to. She constantly fears assassination and struggles to get even a full nights sleep. She's prone to hallucinations of people from her past, her mother, father and so on.
She only came out of her seclusion because even in the nuthouse she could not escape hearing about The Games and current events. She came to realize that she was hiding from the very thing that had ruined her so-called-life and began to believe that she would have to face her demons. She intends on using all of her skills and training to try and help her tributes win and perhaps that might finally lift some of the weight off her shoulders that she has felt since her district turned it's back on her. What she won't admit is she hopes that perhaps when her district sees how hard she's working to help the tributes they might forgive her and welcome her back and give her the respect and affection she's been craving all these years.
Deep down she has a need for vindication; a need for some kind of justification for everything she's done up to this point. She feels like she was cheated out of the rewards she was promised. Her father sold her on the Capitol's dream of a victorious tribute and the reality of it was obviously nothing like she expected.
Her father raised her to have a strong sense of pride in herself and her upbringing. She was rich because she deserved to be rich. Her family was well off because some people were just better then others. And those who were poor deserved it. Bad luck came to those who weren't strong enough to make to control of their own destiny. And to fraternize with the poor and the common, the ugly and the stupid is beneath her and her family. She believes that surrounding yourself with people of culture, grace and intelligence not only looks better and makes you feel better, but keeps you sharp. And the only reason to surround yourself with lesser people is if they know their place and show you the proper amount of respect.
After her breakdown she became suspicious of so many though she could find no comfort or respite in the company of the upper class or the commoners.
Her mother had always been a people person, willing to organize group projects to help those in the community who needed it. While Zuko understood the importance of helping those who needed it, Azula never saw the point in it. When her mother left it struck her as particularly cruel that her mother would go out of her way to support and care for so many others that she barely knew, but couldn't be bothered to stick around and offer her daughter the praise and respect that she deserved. She was a victor now! The very definition of success! But that wasn't good enough? And upon hearing how her mother had organized funding pools to support Jin, and later Jin's family after his death, Azula began to suspect the missing woman was behind many other conspiracies in her life. The people whispering that her time in the arena was rigged? Her mother must have started that rumor! The tributes finding her hiding place on the mountainside? She must have gotten a message to them. And the sounds at night of people creeping in the halls just outside her room? Surely her mother was plotting to drive her mad from exhaustion! Some part of her knows these ideas are baseless and insane...but she can't help herself.
The therapy center was not as helpful to her mental state as some had hoped. While it did provide her with a calm atmosphere to collect herself, the constant supply of medication made her even more suspicious of the people in charge. And many of the Orderlies did not treat her with any of the respect or honor that a former victor deserved. The more of a violent threat she was to herself and others in the therapy center the more restrictions were placed on her till for a time she had to wear a straight jacket and be wheeled around in a chair. She hated every minute of it, but was well aware that she couldn't leave till she proved herself capable of controlling herself. And she saw no need to do so save to leave the therapy center.
So she allowed herself to wallow in self loathing and gave up her restraint for years at a time. She lapsed in and out of coherency as the mix of drugs and too much time separated from society played with her grip on reality. Even now she prefers rooms with high ceilings, wide enough walls to move around and multiple exits. She also prefers to wear clothes that allow her a full range of movement, the more restricting an outfit is the more subdued but irritated she is. The straight jacket conditioned her as such so while she may not be happy, her anger burns out faster if she cannot move enough to strike back.
She is still hydrophobic, and can barely stand baths and showers. But she has one particular trick to help keep her calm and find her "center". Fire, fire soothes her. Fire warms her and gives her something to focus on. Watching the flame of a candle, or multiple candles can help keep her from panicking. And as such when she takes her baths she always makes sure the room is full of candles, soothing scents and music. Because cleanliness is a must in this day and age so she can't simply shun bathing. She does not allow water in her ears or nose however and will make use of ear plugs and nose plugs if she must.
She is also convinced now that the staff at the therapy center were also in cahoots with her mother and plotting to keep her there forever. Giving her the wrong kinds of medication to alter her brain, trying to convince her of radical new treatments that would ultimately leave her as addled and obedient as an Avox. While these thoughts may not be entirely true she can't help but believe in them, some days completely, some days only a little.
Because of her experiences in the therapy center, Azula has a strong and healthy fear and respect for what the capitol is capable of. After all at the therapy center they still required her consent. The Capitol is not so willing to ask for her permission if they want to change something about her.
And deep down, under it all there's a part of her that would welcome that. To have the choices taken away from her, to have the feelings and pain and madness taken away from her. Suicide seems too easy and yet it is a tantalizing forbidden fruit to consider in the late hours of the night when your stomach is knotted and cramped from not eating because you were afraid your food had been tampered with, and you're on your third day of barely any sleep because you worry about how helpless you are when you're not awake.
SAMPLES
Thread:
Good Evening.
I suppose introductions are in order to our guests from other worlds. I am Azula, victor of District 5 and I apologize for my absence until now, but it seems I am hardly the only mentor to have abandoned her post.
As it stands I am more capable now than I would have been then anyway.
To my tributes, I am here for you. My doors are almost always open...but if you come to me after curfew you may have things thrown at you. I am incredibly skilled as videos of my past victory will confirm. During my time in the arena I killed more than half the tributes both directly and indirectly. If there is a weapon you wish to learn, a skill you need to sharpen or simply some questions you hope to have answered then don't be shy...and don't approach me from behind. I prefer face to face interaction.
To the rest of you, I can't wait to meet you all. Life in the capitol is a never ending dream, one you cannot waken from no matter how many times you pinch at your flesh. You may in fact feel tempted to hurl yourself from the tallest buildings just to experience flight as only a dream can allow...of course I would suggest you avoid such risky behavior. After all even if you could fly you know what happens to people who fly too close to the sun?
Let's dream together shall we? Of a better tomorrow.
Prose:
She was so proud as she strode into the testing area. Her head was held high, posture perfect. The feeling of eyes on her was warming deep in her chest.
She gave a bow introducing herself in clear, well projected words, "I am Azula of District 5."
And without further discussion she approached the table of weapons. Each one looked familiar to her in one way or another. Either she had practiced with them or studied about them. Flexibility in weapons was a crucial skill and one she had worked a great deal on.
Drawing a set of throwing knives first she allowed her mind to drift back to long hours of playing darts with Mai and Ty-Lee. The mayors daughter was somewhat of an expert at throwing darts and knifes if only for the sake of sport and tricks at parties.
Following her memories carefully Azula mimicked Mai's technique perfectly throwing one knife after the other and hitting the target. Each one sunk into the bulls eye and remained buried firmly.
Next up was the pair of swords. She spun them about to get a feel for their weight and began slashing and dancing with them displaying both agility and skill. Her life had been leading up to this! She would score high, but not so high that the other tributes could not have room to underestimate her. Those who scored too high often were set upon by groups so large they had no hope of surviving even if they took several with them on the way.
She felt ALIVE in this moment. The blood pumping in her veins, the way her beautiful jet black hair shimmered when she spun. It was perfection. Each slash sang through the air like the emptiness itself was afraid of being cut by her. Good bye life of toil and longing. Hello glory and honor! The whole district would be chanting her name when this was through and she stood proudly before them.
She ended her elaborate performance by throwing the swords at the target and slicing it in half letting it fall to the ground scattering knives everywhere.
She bowed once more and added, "I do not wish to take up too much of your time, so please accept this abbreviated performance of my abilities. I assure you that the rest of my skills will become evident in the arena."
What is your character scored: 8
Additional information: Question specifically for certain character types. Feel free to ignore if it does not apply to your character type. Please answer all that do (For example, a past victor AU would answer both their question, and the past victory question)
Past victor: Please describe your character's arena, and their relationship with the Capitol since.
The arena was based heavily around the four seasons, providing a mountainous area with a large forest, a lake in the middle with a few rivers coming off it, and lots of weather. Each day the weather changed from one extreme to the next following the order, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. The first Spring day was full of plant and animal life coming to life and threatening the tributes. The first Summer was oppressively hot and forced the tributes to remain under cover or die of sunstroke, sun burns and the like. The first fall was possibly the most mild day in the arena while the winter was sudden, frigid and just as quick to leave.
Heavy flooding plagued the next spring day, and what would have been another oppressively hot day became a huge fire thanks to Azula. The second fall was a wind filled nightmare of tornadoes and dust storms. The second winter was even heavier then the first with more snow and less ice. That snow turned into an even more dangerous flood which killed off the remaining tributes. The entire arena only lasted nine days.
Since the victory Azula has felt bitter as many tributes do, but has a respect for the capitol. While they never warned her about how the games would negatively effect her life, they did at least put her in a "nice" nut house when she needed to go away for awhile.
Still being swept under the rug like a bad memory all because of some unfortunate PR didn't sit well with Azula, nor did being subservient. While she resents the idea of being a puppet for the government, she knows better then to pick a fight she cannot win. Best to enjoy what luxuries she has left in her life and try to smother the sickening anger she feels towards her own district with drugs.
Past victor AU: What district is your character from? How do they feel about home?
District 5, Azula loathes district 5 for the way they turned on her after her victory. She expected love, praise and affection. She expected to be hailed as a hero among her people, but instead they shunned her like a monster and acted as though she was an embarrassment. And so she has no love for her district and though she has finally decided to do her duty towards them, she does it out of respect for the capitol. Not for the ones who betrayed her. Secretly, on a level even she won't admit to herself, she wants them to forgive her and take her back giving her the respect and admiration and vindication she feels that she deserves.
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?
In the case of a face doppelganger, it could be said that the capitol has brought it in at the behest of private donations from people who want to see if they can push Azula over the edge once and for all. People from her district, rivals who compete with her father, or maybe even the capitol itself curious to see how far they can push her and have her still be functional. After all it would be child's play for them to break her completely, but to find the sweet spot between madness and sanity and keep her balanced there would make for an interesting show if nothing else.
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