Hemlock Various, District 6

Hemlock is a short girl, with fine bones and large eyes. If she was ever to be Reaped, she knows her angle would be “adorable”. (Which she absolutely hates.) She isn’t very, um, well-endowed, because you need weight for that. She has little scars on her face, because she gets zits and can’t help but pick them. Hemlock’s fingers are short-nailed and nimble.
Her eyes are very dark brown because of her Islander father, and she has a flat forehead and a patrician nose. Her hair is a dark color that looks black most of the time, but if it catches the light it goes reddish brown. Her bottom lip is much fuller than her upper lip, and her teeth are slightly crooked. Hemlock isn’t very strong, and she hasn’t got any stamina.

Hemlock is very quiet and capable. She keeps her head in difficult situations, and does what she knows needs to be done. She’s also very good with medical things, being from District 6 and all. Hemlock also likes herbs quite a lot, and intends to specialize in herbal medicine when she’s old enough. She has a good memory, but only for—wait for it, wait for it—herb-related things. For example, she can remember how you tell x poisonous species from x harmless and edible species, but she can’t remember the formula for the volume of a cone.

However, Hemlock hardly ever thinks about others’ feelings and is not a good team player. If she thinks x person could use a little nightshade in their dinner, well, guess who dies of poisoning? (Unless they catch it first, of course, but there are things that take the taste of herbs.) She has problems communicating—she expects people to say straight out what they mean, because she sure does. Hemlock is blunt, although occasionally she tries to soften it. But she won’t dance around bad news. If someone is hemming and hawing about how to tell x that z is dead, she’ll just come right and say it. If someone is hinting at something, she won’t catch it, not even if the hint happens to be the size of an anvil. Tact is not her strong suit.

Hemlock enjoys reading by herself or working on new concoctions, but she isn’t that chuffed with aerodynamics and such. Her big brother can do that kind of thing, thank you very much, her field is medicine. Although she does like to watch the miniature hovercraft competitions—especially if a certain Zanna Orion is going to be there. She smiles rarely and it’s hard to make her laugh—I guess “reserved” is the word I’m looking for here, but if you’re her friend, you’re her friend for life. She's always loyal to those people who are her friends or have done nice things for her, and she'll protect her friends.

Hemlock was born in District 6. There were, of course, no complications, it being the medical and science district. Her older brother Fox—short for Foxglove, yes—was always interested in aerodynamics, but Hemlock always liked plants better. At an early age, she’d pick leaves off the bushes and mix them up together as “medicine”. Hemlock got better and better as she learned the names and uses of herbs, which were all part of the medicine thing. She knew which ones worked, which ones were just old wives’ tales, and which ones would kill you outright. She grew up along her mom’s chemistry set and her father’s biology Petri dishes. (Which were right at the top of the Do Not Touch Under Any Circumstances list, given that her father grew some very strange things in those Petri dishes.)

She didn’t have friends when she was growing up because she was so quiet and obsessed with plants, but Zanna was always especially nice to her. Which is why it was such a shock when Zanna’s big brother Zander got Reaped when Hemlock and Zanna were ten. Even worse was Zander died the first night; he made a fire and got his head smashed in. All Zanna’s popular friends were ignoring her because her brother had made such a stupid mistake, but Hemlock didn’t. It didn’t bug Zanna that Hemlock didn’t talk a lot and had no concept of the word “tact”, and even when her old friends started being nice to her again she stayed friends with Hemlock.

Hemlock started working under her mom as an informal assistant when she was around twelve years old because her mom needed extra support. She tinkers around with her own medicines and concoctions, and occasionally gives them to Zanna and Fox, but she's terrified she might mess up so she doesn't do that until she's sure something will work. She keeps failing aerodynamics and such in school, or at least passing on the low end, but she's bending the curve in the herbal classes. Both Hemlock and Fox have submitted their names extra times in order to get the rations, although Fox insists on putting his name in more than hers.

Bisexual. Also, if Hemlock is too weird a name, I'll change it to Alice.