Poppy Lansing, District Five

Name: Poppy Lansing
Age: 17
Gender: Female
District/Area: District 5
Appearance:

Poppy is one of those girls who would be plainly pretty if she wore her hair long, but becomes something other, something subtly noticable, something intriguing because all of her features are right there, right in front of you, vividly pronounced by the crop of subdued red hair chopped into fine, clean layers around her ears.

Shining brown eyes set too low on her face, a chin too delicate, too small to fit easily between her rounded apple cheeks, it could be easy to say Poppy looks awkward and be done with it. But you factor in the tiniest dimples, the stubbly lashes, the mystery hidden somewhere in that penetrating look she's forever giving you, and there is definite beauty there; it just isn't what you'd look for at the start.

Personality:

Poppy could be considered a study in contradictions, and it wouldn't necessarily be inaccurate. While she is good-natured at heart, sweet even, there is a brittle edge to her that sharpens, just a little, with each passing betrayal, with every small sin acted against her family, with every disappointment and every regret. This is not to say she's sullen or morose, not by a long shot-- she's just a bit quicker to step toward a grudge, a bit more inclined to cut someone out of her life for wronging her than her easy-smile demeanor seems to dictate.

On the surface, Poppy is no-nonsese. Relaxed and easygoing, doesn't really shuffle her feet and stall when something's bothering her--she'll tell you what it is and what you need to do to fix it, and then that's that. She may help you reach that goal if you ask her for it, but otherwise, she's just going to step back and wait to see if you can manage it. Inside, she does not deal with these ultimatums nearly so smoothly--she is constantly second-guessing herself, her decisions, even the words she chooses when having a seemingly normal conversation. She is not as self-assured as she makes herself out to be.

She is efficient and self-reliant to the extreme--Poppy has never once asked for help, from anyone. While she is not necessarily introverted, she is decidedly quiet and happily prefers to blend in versus standing out. She is a good girl at heart, but she is fiercely secretive, about the oddest of things, and while it is not meant to be malicious, it can certainly seem that way at times. She doesn't keep things close to her chest out of spite or anger--she is just a reserved kind of person and honestly believes one's stories shouldn't be cast out to every willing ear. That those stories are what makes a person who they truly are, and few people should ever earn the right to know that person both inside and out.

History:

Poppy Lansing came into District Five, quiet and wide eyed and more than a little inquisitive shortly after the start of the annual Games began for that particular year, and not much has changed about her personality since. A surprise pregnancy for her parents, Anise and Rye, married less than a year earlier, the young couple seemed wholly unprepared and overwhelmed by the emotions that would stem from parenthood, obvious from the moment Poppy was born. While all first-time parents tend to be just a little anxious, Poppy's mother and father took it to a whole new level, seemingly convinced either they, or those around them, were going to wind up breaking her somehow, It was, perhaps, a projection of things to come, guilt over bringing her into a world where the Games raged on, but it seemed, as time moved forward, that maybe their concerns weren't entirely unwarranted.

It was the woman at the Apothecary that kindly offered to take a listen to Anise and Rye's infant daughter's breathing. And it was the woman at the Apothecary who smiled, sadly, and handed her back, told them she knew exactly why Poppy had such a difficult time sleeping on her back. Why she spit up so often. Why she couldn't seem to keep ninety percent of her feeds down.

She also told them, however, how to make it easier on her. How to fix some of it. With the right combination of herbs, of remedies, taken at just the right times, Poppy could very well live a good, long life, and she might very well be just fine.

This did not placate the young couple, not at all; the two were wholly convinced Poppy was in for a short lifetime of misery, and the guilt was immeasurable.

They were proven wrong, of course, or the story would end here. Poppy was a pleasant, carefree child who listened well, actively helped around the home, and gave an all new meaning to the term 'happy-go-lucky'. It was always a struggle to get her to eat, and there were a handful of scares over the years, but in the end, her childhood was as uneventful as any other District Five child's life was, and it left her mother and father completely bewildered.

Anise and Rye kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for things to fall apart, for something awful to happen, but their paranoia was unfounded as Poppy continued to develop into a happy, well-adjusted teenager. When she was thirteen years old, they slowly began let go of some of theirs fears and, much to everyone's surprise, went ahead and finally, much belatedly, began having more children. They conceived with very little trouble, and her first siblings, fraternal twins Laurel and Basil, a girl and a boy, were born shortly after their oldest sister's fourteenth birthday, where Sage, the youngest of the Lansing crew, arrived earlier this past year.

Despite her seemingly magnetic attraction to animals, that uncanny ability to befriend even the most feral of cats, she's never really believed she'll get the chance to work with them in the future; that, it seems, is a thing of the past, and she can't imagine it's an opportunity that will be presented to her in the future, not with the turn her district has taken over the past handful of decades. Still, the dream is there, and the yard she has transformed into a makeshift mini ranch with a hodge podge of animals she cares for makes that pretty clear.

It's ridiculous for Poppy to stand by and apply, among all of the other children in the district who choose to do so, for the tessera; it's been a known fact for years that she would never survive the Games without access to the herbs she takes multiple times a day, and there is no guarantee the arena would have exactly what she needed to make it through. But the boys are not old enough to work with Rye in the oil rigs, and the income he brings in is only barely enough for their growing family, and while her parents may not like it, this is exactly what she's done, and will continue to do: it's only fair, in her opinion, after everything they've done for her.

Codeword: <img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/16h2ibt.png">
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