Hadlee Winnows ~ D8

At a great 5’9”, Hadlee is the tallest girl in her family. Proportionality becomes an issue with a torso that would fit a 5’5” girl. Her fingers still work expertly, though, with many years of training. The work is shown in her hands where one can notice the metacarpals slightly raised. Years of accidents also left many scars on her hand, changing the baby soft texture to one of a callous and stretched feeling, dotted with the pink of fresh scars.

Ever since Hadlee started living on her own, her stature greatly thinned. Her already prominent cheekbones began to show even more as her cheeks started to sink in, her arms and legs showing less muscle than when she was a teen. She has a soft belly, one that slightly protrudes when she wears a form fitting shirt. If anything, she looks a bit frail compared to those who live near her. Because she is so thin, many assume that she is from the poorer section of the district which isn’t necessarily true, but with her meager income, is slowly becoming true.

Small lines are permanently etched into Hadlee’s neck due to the hours she has logged into weaving. If standing, she is generally too tall to look ahead while working. If sitting, she would still manage a way to keep her head low. Also, as much as she doesn’t like to admit it, some of the lines could be owed to her keeping her head down in the first place. Eye contact is one of the few things she likes, resulting in her always keeping her head down and eyes trained on the ground in front of her.

Her long brown hair is often kept up in a tight ponytail. She likes to argue that keeping her hair up would keep it out of her face while she was working. When let down, her hair is wavy until it hits her shoulders. The rest of her hair is finished off with light curls, something she’s finds extremely frustrating (and one of the reasons she prefers to keep her hair up). Short hairs still find a way to fall in her face in times of extreme concentration, not doing much for her mood.

Hazel eyes find a way to complement the light brown hair. Unsure of whether her eyes are more green or brown, Hadlee ignores seeing her eyes as much as possible, only using them. She still prefers her mother’s description of them, a “mixture of the two where neither of them seem to fight for dominance but rather coexist.” Although a bit poetic for her taste, Hadlee prefers it to “uh…some form of brown and green.”

At first glance, Hadlee is a very twitchy woman. A finger might fidget around, a foot might start tapping, and the random shake of the head is always plausible. Because of her fidgety nature, most like to believe her to be rather clumsy and very bad with her surroundings. Not entirely true. She can be jumpy in the case that anyone who approaches her tends to surprise her, but she’s not the type of person to leave her head in the clouds. With her body naturally wanting to move around, Hadlee finds comfort in weaving. She believes it keeps her fingers moving and her mind focused. Because most people know not to disturb her while she is working, she is not as likely to jump at a random sound.

She is also very isolated, doing nothing to help her “condition.” Large crowds tend to repel her due to a childhood memory where she was once lost from her older sister during a ceremony she only vaguely remembers. Still, it was enough for her to express distaste in large crowds, often resulting in her panicking as she waited the reaping to end. Parties were never much of a fun deal for Hadlee either. School was easier for the girl as it was much more organized with everyone in their groups, placed together in a strategic manner.

Friends are considered a laughing matter for her, one she wished she could talk about but never really had the chance to. She is close to her older sister but that doesn’t do much when it comes to accumulating friends. As a child, she was described as a loner, teased mostly for her constant need to move. It irked the other, more patient girls. Boys found her too weak and not funny to hang around with. Whenever asked the question who her best friend is, she would simply reply with a low glance before walking off.

In terms of intelligence, Hadlee just doesn’t have it. Her smarts have more to do with the skills she knows and how quickly she can apply them. But ask her to find the volume of an eggplant and a blank stare is all that will be received. The only way she survives is through whatever skills she had picked up from her mother and the little business skills that she learned from school. Otherwise, she simply drifts from one day to the next, not quite sure what she is doing herself. That is not to say she looks completely spaced out with drool slowly coming out of her mouth; she has a bit more dignity than to do that. Hadlee just knows that she was never the brightest bulb in the district.

Hadlee Winnows was born the middle child of three to Megan Greenway and Samuel Winnows. As much as Hadlee wished that she was a little princess who lived in a castle, it simply was not happening for her. Needless to say, family life was incredibly boring for Hadlee. With an older sister who gained most of the spotlight and a baby brother to steal the rest of the attention, the young girl had much time to do her own things if she wished. Unfortunately, the one thing she really wanted was companionship when she was younger but for some reason could never seem to find it. As a result, Hadlee spent most of her life friendless.

As a young child, she was often tormented by her older sister of two years. Most were harmless pranks that her parents would often dismiss, but whenever they were not home, Shanna Winnows would take her harmless teases to the next level. One incident left Hadlee with a deep gash on her lip and cheek, something her two year old self could not comprehend. Her parents were beyond furious at Shanna, but later forgave the young four year old and excused the whole thing as an accident. Hadlee went through most of her childhood with random bumps and bruises and cuts, leaving her with a bit of resentment for her older sister. The grudge holding ended when Hadlee turned 10 years old and her older sister made more of an effort to not knock around Hadlee. Fighting still erupted between the two but the intensity of their fights was much lower.

She made the wonderful discovery of the loom when she was 7 years old. She had been doing very little to begin with, simply walking around the district, when she stumbled upon an old weaver, one who did the manual weaving. With a quick glance and horrible vision, the old weaver determined that Hadlee was worth mentoring. The first several visits consisted of Hadlee watching the old man, trying to pick up on certain movements or patterns. After given the opportunity to actually handle the loom, under the watchful eye of the old mentor, Hadlee found herself enjoying the movements, a rare smile on her face. Ever since that day, the young girl was resolved to pick up the craft, paying more attention to her schooling.

At the age of 11, the Winnows family had a lovely surprise of a baby boy, something they were not expecting at all. The baby became the center of attention, meaning Hadlee was further cast into the shadows. Any lasting resentment the girl might have had for her sister soon was directed towards the devilish younger brother. She disliked how he was waited on his hands and feet, and how whatever millimeter of spotlight she might have received before was long gone. Even her parents failed to notice any of her creative works as they were preoccupied with their baby boy.

A distaste for power looms was developed at the age of 13 when Hadlee experienced a class trip gone wrong. Her attention was lost as soon as she noticed the power loom lingering in the corner. With a few careful steps and some curious fingers went in, the machine was turned on and Hadlee could never look at a power loom the same way again. Only faint scars remained from that accident, but they were enough to drive the teen away from the “danger of manmade machines”.

Seventeen was a horrible age for the girl as she experienced more things than needed for a solitary year. It was her last year of schooling, meaning that she would somehow have to find a way to survive in the world. Her parents had specifically told her that if she were to pursue using only manual looms, she would never go anywhere in life. For that, she no longer had support from her parents financially and emotionally. In terms of her training, Hadlee no longer received it as she did not have a teacher to mentor her through the different skills, causing her to pay more attention in school. Her inability to truly concentrate made the schooling more difficult and even though she poured more efforts into her courses, she could never seem to pull out of the slump.

As an adult, Hadlee found herself more alone than ever, barely surviving off her wages. Her social life did not worsen, but it was not any better as she spent her days alone. She still found weaving for herself to be the most calming, but since no one really cared, she had to find work at a small factory and overcome her fear of the mechanical loom. She still worked on small projects but only in her free time.

-Her play-by is Sarah Wayne Callies (<--still needs to be approved first ).
-text color = beige
-dialogue color = brown