Panem

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Ange
Contact Information: thedarkfields
Personal Journal: toasterchild
Age: 26
Characters Played: Ringer

IN-CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Peeta Mellark
Fandom: Hunger Games (books)
Age: 17
Canon Point: During Mockingjay, when the propos the 451 team is filming goes awry and Peeta is locked in a closet after being triggered.
Original Universe or Alternate Universe? OU

Personality:
Originally, Peeta was one of the nicest and most loyal people you could ever meet. He had a very established sense of who he was and always strove to remain true to that. He was giving, to the point of selflessness with those he cared most about. Without question, he was convinced that he was in love with Katniss from the beginning and those feelings never wavered; when Peeta decided something, he knew it and it became enormously difficult to sway him from that belief. It was also enormously difficult to sway him in his loyalties for that reason.

He was content with simple things, never feeling the need for more and never wishing for grandeur. Though he was (and remains) extremely charismatic and good at charming people, it was something he only learned when forced to try during the Hunger Games. These traits were primarily a result of his sense of self-confidence in knowing who he was. Soft-spoken and gentle despite his strength, he never considered himself a fighter. Still, he was fiercely protective (going so far as to make a deal with Haymitch, his mentor, to keep Katniss alive in both games); he was willing to sacrifice himself and was intelligent enough to know how to go about it – keeping it secret –, which also shows that he was capable of some level of deceit when necessary. Manipulation was not his primary form of accomplishing the things he wanted to, but his working the crowd for favor suggests that he had a natural instinct in knowing when it was necessary and was fairly good at using it.

That was Peeta before. When the Capitol kidnapped him, they “hijacked” him, meaning they injected him with an extremely terrifying hallucinogenic and associated those horrid nightmares with lies about Katniss, District 13, and the rebellion in general. He became a cruel and sarcastic version of himself, bringing that manipulation out into plain view and without the softness and kindness that he had known before. During that time, Peeta was essentially a mouthpiece of President Snow. He became jaded in too many ways too quickly and the result was a boy too eager to show others just how wrong and terrible they were. Then District 13, after rescuing him, did their best to reverse the effects of his initial hijacking, essentially reverse-hijacking him. This is who Peeta is now.

Confusion colors nearly everything Peeta thinks and his behaviors are a reflection of that. He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress, often enduring flashbacks and nightmares of the two Hunger Games he participated in, the torture he endured, and the horrific hallucinations that he was exposed to during his Capitol hijacking. Though Peeta began to understand, roughly, the difference between his real memories and those that were tainted (due to his real memories not being “shiny”), he still has difficulty sorting them out at times and, when acting upon instinct, will often fall back on the violence instilled in him by the Capitol.

Having lost himself, the exact thing he was most afraid of in the beginning (even more than death), Peeta's self-confidence has significantly declined. In general, he tends towards the behaviors of his former self, being kind and thinking of others above himself, but certain situations will push him quickly into that darker side of sarcasm, anger, and cruelty. He is more quiet and thoughtful than he used to be, mostly as a result of being at war with himself in every given situation, and when he does speak, it tends to be more deliberate and decisive, good or bad. He is less certain of the things he once knew and second-guesses anything and everything now, which makes him both harder to convince of lies and harder to convince of the truth.

He has been used and abused so profusely by so many (Katniss, Panem, President Snow, Haymitch, etc.) that he has a harder time trusting new people now, but holds a deeper loyalty to those he decides that he can trust. Peeta held a great respect for and closeness to Gale, Finnick, and Johanna all three didn't treat him as crazy and apprehensively as most of the others did; Gale was straight forward with him and called him on his bullshit, Finnick gave him a piece of rope as a way to calm his moods (because that constant internal struggle brings with it a lot of anxiety), and Johanna encouraged him to speak his mind. Everyone else seemed to tiptoe around him or just distrust anything and everything from/about him, both of which made him more anxious and angrier. Peeta does hold a great deal of respect now for those who know themselves well (because he misses that trait in himself) and is more inclined to trust them.

Immediately after his specific pull/canon point, Peeta insists that the others in the house (unit 451) kill him. This is a good descriptor of his general attitude. While not suicidal, he knows that he has become crazed and a burden, which he hates. He fears harming others, as he sometimes does on instinct, and realizes that he has, at times, completely flipped his shit and wanted to murder his friends. Peeta, when feeling more like himself, hates conflict and murder. He used to try to lighten peoples' moods with jokes and still clings to that coping mechanism at times, though it's a conscious effort now.

When lying or playing a character, Peeta is just as effective as he used to be in charming and manipulating others. Perhaps more so, given that he no longer feels guilt about it most of the time. When his conscience strikes, it hits hard, but he much prefers to try to keep that feeling at bay and sort out what's real before worrying about what's “right.”

Peeta is almost entirely uncertain of his future. Ideally, he wants to end up back in District 12 with Katniss and Haymitch, living a normal life selling his iced cakes and raising a family, but part of him realizes that that's not entirely realistic. In the war-torn Panem, he was a burden and a risk and would have gladly sacrificed himself to the greater good.

Now that he's arriving elsewhere, he'll be grateful for the freedom and to be relatively unknown again with no Capitol looking over his shoulder, but will struggle a great deal with being uncertain of what’s real. He has also come to rely on others more than he realized and will need to quickly develop more bonds/relationships to avoid snapping too often.

Is this character immune? lol no.

Background: Hunger Games Wikia

Condensed tl;dr of setting:
The nation of Panem was founded some ambiguous time in the future, after the destruction of civilization as we know it. It is situated primarily on the western side of North America, and the Capitol is located in an area formerly known as the Rocky Mountains. The country is a dictatorship run by President Snow; nothing is known to exist outside of it.

Panem is divided into twelve districts (the thirteenth of which was allegedly destroyed during The Dark Days) and the Capitol.

The Dark Days were a war in which the 13 districts grew tired of the Capitol's oppressive and harsh rule and rebelled. After a gruesome battle with losses on both sides, but primarily in the districts, District 13 was completely annihilated (as it existed at the time; it now exists underground, though no one knew that until the present rebellion). President Snow later states that District 13 began the rebellion and gained freedom by threatening the use of nuclear weapons. The Capitol proposed a cease-fire wherein District 13 would pretend to be destroyed and leave the Capitol to continue ruling the other 12 districts; District 13 agreed.

The Capitol is the center of the nation, populated with wealthy and ignorant people who take great joy in fashion and otherwise altering their appearances (colored hair, tattoos, and various plastic surgeries are common). The people in the Capitol, outside of the government, are generally oblivious to the conditions of the Districts and live their life wasting and being petty and frivolous without much care.

The Districts are divided, with the closest being beside the Capitol and progressing in number outward (District 12 is believed to be the outermost district). They are separated with enormous concrete walls and tall, electric fences with barbed wire create the districts' boundaries within even those walled divisions (meaning there is a great deal of excess space that is not used at all). Trains run between the Districts to haul cargo mainly from the Districts into the Capitol, but no passengers are allowed except tributes for the Hunger Games (see below). The people of the districts are generally much harder working than those of the Capitol and, depending on the district and the people, will likely be considerably more educated about the issues of inequality that Panem faces. Even District 12 itself (where Peeta is from) is divided into “the Hob” and “the Seam,” or the main village of the wealthier and the houses of the poor and those who work in the coal mines.

Each district specializes in producing something unique to that district, which generally is passed on to the Capitol. Districts 1 and 2 are especially in Capitol favor; they tend to be wealthier than the other districts and take pride in their tributes, often training them from a very young age to be champions (most victors are from these districts). District 1 produces precious gems (like diamonds); District 2 produces stone. District 2 is also where most Peacekeepers (police) are trained. District 4 is also one of the wealthier due to their vastly popular fishing exports.

District 3, one of the main rebellion districts, produces electronics. District 7 provides lumber. District 8, one of the other main rebellion districts (and one of the less wealthy) produces clothing and textiles. Districts 11 and 12 are the poorest and the most disdained by the other districts and the Capitol. District 11 produces agriculture; District 12 mines coal. All of the districts are extremely catered to their individual exports, as are, in some ways, the personalities of those people from them.

Districts 5, 6, 9, and 10 are never mentioned with any detail in the canon. According to the Hunger Games promotional website, they produce (respectively): power/electricity, transportation, grain, and livestock. District 6 is said to be large and unstable, one of the first attacked in the present war.

The Hunger Games are an annual “game” created by the Capitol, where each district must send one boy and one girl ("tributes"), between the ages of 12 and 18, into an arena. Only one participant may survive (whether they kill each other or the arena kills them), at which point they will be returned home with fame and riches and expected to counsel future “tributes” as mentors. The events are televised for the entire nation of Panem to witness and are stated to be a reminder to the districts that they are powerless against the rule of the Capitol. Essentially, the Hunger Games are used to keep the districts in line and to both give them hope if their district produces a winner and to strip that same hope away if they continually lose; either way, the districts are left blaming or congratulating themselves rather than ever turning an eye to the corruption of the Capitol. To the few who bother to ask why, they are shunned, silenced (turned into an 'Avox' by having their tongues cut out), or killed. In this way, the Capitol has absolute control.

Tributes are paraded around in ritualistic fashion before the Games. They are cleaned and given stylists and people to clean them and shave them and help them look flawless before they are presented to the Capitol for entertainment. Tributes also have televised interviews with Caesar Flickerman. The point of doing well in these shows is to raise sponsorship money for later benefits, as well as the favor of the crowd (which, aside from increasing sponsorships, also makes a tribute less likely to be tormented by the Gamemakers (those that run the Games)).

The actual Games begin on platforms, with the tributes raised from below into a constructed arena with no idea as to what the terrain might be like. In the center of the circle of platforms is a golden cornucopia where various supplies and food are meant to tempt the tributes into risking their lives; this is when the most tributes die in the shortest amount of time. After that, tributes often disperse. The first day, the canon fires according to the number of tributes killed after the cornucopia has been cleared and the deceased's pictures are projected overheard at night; on later days, a canon sounds as soon as the tribute is dead (and the picture is projected at night in the same fashion). Hidden cameras follow the tributes pretty much everywhere to display the Games to the nation as a gruesome sort of reality show. There are also things hidden in the arena meant to threaten or kill the tributes (for example, in the first arena, Katniss is almost burned by a “random” fire that spreads through the forest) and those running the Games may also turn on effects manually to keep things interesting.

Each district's tributes are also provided a mentor, meant to advise them in their various stages of preparation and then to support them. Although these people (former victors themselves) cannot communicate directly with the tributes, they are able to send in packages if they can raise enough money from aforementioned sponsors to afford it (the prices of optional presents, such as a cracker or some medicine, raises exponentially as the games go on); if a package is sent to the tribute, it appears in the arena carried by a small, silver parachute.

Katniss and Peeta were tributes in the 74th Hunger Games, from District 12. They were the first to beat the Hunger Games together (normally only one can win, but they threatened mutual suicide to force the Capitol to allow them both to win), but their symbol of rebellion was the catalyst to the larger rebellion of the districts against the capitol. Since then, the Capitol has destroyed district 12, but 13 has taken all the districts on their side against the Capitol.

The 75th Hunger Games, as a quarter quell (a “special edition” of sorts, every 25 years), featuring all previous Hunger Games participants that Peeta was forced to participate in as well, but he was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Capitol when Katniss and others escaped. Although eventually rescued, he still remains the symbol of the Captiol; Katniss is the symbol of the rebellion, and Peeta, her “star-crossed lover” (an earlier publicity stunt) is the symbol of the Capitol and all the good it stands for, meaning he is ridiculously well-known where he's from.

The entire country of Panem is presently in chaos. Peeta’s unit, 451, which includes other former victors, such as Katniss, Finnick O’Dair, etc. was in the Capitol filming a propos (propaganda ad) when things went bad and they became part of the actual assault on the Capitol instead, nearing the end of the war.

Other Notables: Peeta's left leg was amputated at the thigh due to injuries received in his first Games. He now uses a prosthetic leg, one advanced by modern standards but which makes him slightly slower and more clumsy.

Inventory:

- Aforementioned prosthetic leg (if it has to be listed separate from him)
- Military District 13 uniform (includes thin layer of stab-resistant armor and sturdy boots)
- A gas mask
- Small piece of rope
- A white rose (for the lulz)
- Mockingjay locket (from 75th Games), featuring pictures of Katniss' family and Gale
- A syringe full of trackerjacker venom

SAMPLES
NETWORK SAMPLE: @ exitvoid & @ beastlyroses
LOG SAMPLE: @ singularity & @ beastlyroses