therese tucker - d4 - fin

She's lovely for a lady who knows twenty different ways to kill a man.

It's the way freckles are spilled over her face, her skin sunkissed and cheeks rosy. It makes her look small, childish, a little girl playing with knives. But a smile never passes over her plump limps, and her nose is too long and narrow to be labeled as cute. Her jawline is strong, and all she has are the angles that shape out her oval face. Her eyes a watery, the sky after it rains. They are, in the loosest sense of words, blue, but they're a flat blue, the type that almost looks gray in the right light. Hiding underneath dark lashes, they bore into everything she sets them upon, giving her an impression of sharp prowess. Dirty blonde hair waves from her scalp, framing her face and falling at her shoulders. Her appearance is neat and calculated, everything about her precise.

She has a swimmer's body, slender and long. Tall and a bit lanky, she stands at 5'9", and she's proud of it. Perpetual goosebumps dot over her skin, as she's usually cold, no matter the weather. But most of the time, thick sweaters hide them anyway. Her build betrays her, making her seem fragile, too skinny to harbor anything but tendons and bones. However, wiry muscles are hidden underneath, given to her by years of laps in the ocean and career training. Her knuckles are knobby, and the palms of her hands calloused by the daily wielding of swords. Her body is a well oiled machine, covered by wool and by freckles, but always running until exhaustion lulls it to sleep.

It's not that Therese is shy. She simply adores the quiet places. She is a woman of few words, not feeling as if they'll mean much if she says them or if she doesn't. A curt person, she focuses on the task on hand, and says only what she needs to to be polite. She finds it difficult to trust people, or to open up at all. If she isn't irritated, she can actually be quite a sweet person. All you have to do is coax the words out of her, something easier said than done. Oh, she may swing swords and throw knives, but she's nice. Bloodthirst doesn't run through her veins, but she's never seen a problem with being a career. Death is part of a life, and the Hunger Games just encourages the districts to accept that reality.

Therese pursues her goals with a dogged determination. Once she locks eyes on something, she will chase it until the very end, no matter the fall out. She's stubborn, holding onto her beliefs with a grip like iron.  She knows what she wants, and when she wants it. Perhaps the decisiveness comes from her spoiled childhood; as long as she said what she wanted, she would get it. Her quietness can't define her, because she often doesn't let things go. Grudges are one of her specialties, and forgiveness doesn't come quick or easy to her. While she's never particularly mean to anyone if they're on her bad side, she presents them with the silent treatment and nothing else. Trust is a delicate thing to her, and usually, it cannot be fixed.

Patience is something that never comes easy to Therese. She gets easily frustrated with people, especially those who don't match her in skill level and intensity. And, with parents like hers, it's almost understandable. Partially, she gets it from them, but they also set her on edge constantly. She doesn't have too many friends to blow off steam with, and so keeping everything inside is really one of her only options. A temper is something she wishes she didn't have. It's ruined friendships and hurt people, but there's not much she can do about it except try to keep it in.

It was raining the day Therese Melissa Tucker was born. Her cries filled up the small, wooden house, she'd spend a little less than half of her life in. For the most part, the Tuckers were a happy, if not a little malnourished, family. Therese was a happy and curious toddler, growing up in the poorer parts of District Four. But everything changed when her grandmother died. A surprisingly large sum of money was given to her father, and it was put into almost immediate action. Her parents no longer had to work at the fisheries, and they spent a lot of what they had to build a sprawling mansion overlooking the waves crashing below. Therese learned at age eight that greed was a terrible thing.

Her mother and father, once a young, bright couple, now bought alcohol whenever possible. They got mad at Therese for every little thing she did wrong, watching her closely, poking and prodding her into the daughter they wanted her to be. They would buy her things just to shut up, as if bribery was a form of love. She was pushed from her seat as their little treasure to the bane of their existence. So, at age twelve, they enrolled her in a career academy. She was fine with learning the skills, fine with the violence, but she saw through their motives. They wanted the glory, and they wanted to get Therese off their hands. Simple, really.

Therese started to hate her parents after the short eight or so years of loving them. She got angry at them constantly, and started becoming a shut-in. But she did find her place at the career academy, finding her specialties in blades. Swords and knives were her favorite, and close combat became one of her best areas. Despite tridents and spears being District Four's staple, she found comfort in her skills, thinking of the academy as a safe haven away from her parents. She spends a lot of her time currently hiding away down by the ocean, or mindlessly training away.