andromache stewart / district 1 / fin!

APPEARANCE  /   Andromache is as tall as her four brothers, who all capped out around 5'5"/165cm. She considers her face to be deeply flawed in all ways when it's bare. In truth, Andromache is a pretty girl, taking after her mother. Her mother sees Andromache as an imperfect copy of herself, despite the likeness being near one-to-one. As her mother likes to point out, one side of her face is slightly higher than the other, as everyone's is, but to Andromache, her slight asymmetry is nothing short of a catastrophe. Therefore, she never even leaves her bedroom without at least a "no makeup" makeup look on. This is her look on the majority of days. After all, practicality is key.

Andromache's pride is her red hair. In its natural state, it tends to poof up and frizz, but Andromache takes meticulous care of it, the way her mother taught her to. She typically styles it in a high ponytail during the day, with face framing tendrils, and finally lets it down after dinner, signifying that it's finally time to relax. Her wardrobe can come across a little bit outdated due to her mother's influence, but most of the time she gets away with saying her style is classic. Her resting bitch face combined with her carefully applied makeup and painstakingly constructed outfits make Andromache look older than her 17 years.  

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PERSONALITY  /   Although she's the middle child of the Stewart family, Andromache has regularly found herself leading the pack at home. It's a role she assumes naturally, and with pride. Outside of the home, Andromache doesn't take up that mantle quite as readily. Her brothers and her father are predictable. She can even read her mother, to an extent. But this, she realizes, is only because of close and lengthy study of their behaviours. As such, with friends (who might more accurately be described as acquaintances, or even colleagues) Andromache prefers to play second fiddle. That way, when necessary, whoever she's propping up can always take the blame for anything that might go wrong. She's been taught that it's always a when, not an if, and everything she does is coloured by this rule of cynicism. 

Andromache always has her sights set on perfection. As a citizen of District 1, she thoroughly believes herself to be superior to those in the outer Districts. Wealthy as her family is, she even sees herself as above some of her fellow District 1 citizens; Andromache unconvincingly insists otherwise. Still, perfection remains out of reach. She's hyper aware of her own duplicitousness, and deems it to be an unfortunate, faulty necessary tool to assist her on her rise to the top.  

Despite her mother's disparagement and her brothers' and father's uselessness, Andromache is fiercely loyal to the Stewart name. She has greater allegiance to her name than to her family itself, but she could never say that out loud. It wouldn't be right, and everything Andromache does has to be right.

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HISTORY  /   Her mother always, always wanted a daughter. Or so she says. Andromache isn't so sure she believes her. If that was true, then why has she treated her so harshly for the last 17 years? For her own good? Maybe. Andromache can't exactly disagree there. She's been educated and trained beyond anything her brothers have received. Her father is in charge of their societal education, and he sees fit to raise happy go lucky socialites who relish in their Capitol adjacency. Her mother, who to this day pours all of her attention into Andromache, married into the Stewart family, who have long lived lavishly on old money from deals done all the way back in the Dark Days. Despite their wealth, their reputation is somewhat... lacklustre. Money brings relative status alongside it, but nobody can say the Stewarts have particularly made any grand splashes in the last handful of decades. Stability is something to be celebrated to be sure, but comfort is the death of progress. Push past comfort, she's told. Only then can you achieve something great.

That's what her mother had done, and she'd broken through from humble lower middle class District 1 beginnings into the upper echelon. No marriage match could take Andromache any farther. She, according to her mother as all things are, has to take the opportunity to make something of herself. To become a Victor. The boys, two older and two younger, all get to play. They get to train as dancers and gymnasts, poets and musicians, all the other things District 1 is beloved for. But Andromache has to train for what really matters: the Games. What higher honour could there be? 

Is she jealous of others' freedom? Of course. But winning isn't just her dream to discard. This is her mother's dream too, passed down to her like a torch. It's a dream she's been nurturing, keeping aflame, for all these years, even after her own opportunity passed her by. She doesn't particularly enjoy any aspects of her training beyond strategy sessions and general conditioning, but for her whole life Andromache has gone along with it. This is just one of those things she has to go through to be happy. To be a happy, well rounded, successful person you have to be disciplined; you have to be as cool and unblemished as porcelain while simultaneously being indestructible. Everything she's done so far has been a step towards the ultimate goal: perfection. Whatever it takes, and all with a smile.