Innocence O'Reily [Avox]

Name: Innocence (Formerly Blare) O'Reily
Age: 17
Gender: Female
District/Area: Avox
Appearance:

Face Claim: Sarah Hyland



Innocence is very small, standing at about five-foot-two and weighing around ninety pounds. She has long medium brown hair with natural, subtle highlights. She has large, expressive brown eyes and an olive complexion. She was always generally considered a quite beautiful girl; truthfully, she thinks that she is the best-looking girl in a five mile radius, since as a Districter, she thinks that most Capitol women look absolutely ridiculous. Back home in District 2, she was generally considered to be one of the better looking girls in town, which may have been a factor in her brothers' protectiveness.

However, she has always been fairly flat-chested and scrawny, and is secretly somewhat envious of the "enhancements" that many Capitol women get. Even now that she is living comfortably, she still feels as if she looks like somewhat of an underfed orphan. She has some unfortunate marks around her wrists - while she was not tortured directly in the detention center, she was restrained, and her restraints left some permanent reddish scars around her wrists that unfortunately have the appearance of being self-inflicted. This has led Innocence to frequently pull her shirt sleeves down to her fingertips to cover them, especially when she is in the presence of someone new.

Personality:

Blare O'Reily was unquestionably spoiled by her brothers and fathers; hence, in her old life, she was a tad full of herself, although unquestionably kind and bubbly. However, due to the fact that she was very removed from society, she had a tendency to be almost oblivious to the fact that they were living in dark times. Hence, she truly did have an "innocence" to her, which made her future name fitting.

Today, Innocence has slowly progressed back to her old self, after undergoing the most horrific experiences that any young woman could possibly endure. She certainly doesn't sing, laugh, or talk a mile-a-minute any more, but she will smile brightly if the situation warrants it, and has become extremely talented at expressing herself solely using facial expressions.

History:

Before Innocence O'Reily was even born, the odds were stacked against her. Her mother, Becca, was a gravely ill seventeen-year-old wanderer, who not only was on the brink of death after leaving her home in District 1, but also seven months pregnant when she decided to make a run for it. After dancing with death for a whole two months on her own in the wilderness, Becca finally stumbled upon a home on the outskirts of District 2. After hovering around the property for a few days, she was finally noticed by the homeowner and his three sons.

Mr. O'Reily was one of the luckier residents of District 2. He had a brilliant analytical mind, and made a living repairing fire arms, televisions, and other technological items for private customers. Best of all, he was able to do this from his home, where he was raising three sons - Spark, Soren, and Parsenna. When Mr. O'Reily spotted the starving, pregnant Becca wandering around the perimeter of his property, he didn't hesitate to bring her in and offer her food and care. He knew that taking in a runaway could carry with it risks, but he felt he had no choice - he was a man of morals, and couldn't allow the young woman to starve and die.

Becca stayed with the O'Reily family for the rest of her pregnancy. She gave them very little information: She told them that she was from District 1 and fled because she was afraid of her child's father. She told them that she didn't know much about her illness, only that it was a respiratory issue that got worse when she went off into the wild. She said that she didn't have any plans on how she was going to raise her child, but that she wanted to name her Glare, which was a trendy District 1 girls' name at the time.

Becca gained some weight while living with the O'Reily family, but her illness didn't improve. As her delivery date neared, she became more and more ill. On the day she gave birth, she was barely able to stay conscious as she delivered her daughter in the kitchen of the O'Reily's small home. As Mr. O'Reily wrapped the small baby girl in towels and blankets, Becca made him promise that he would take care of her, and he did. That evening, as the baby slept inside, he and his sons buried Becca in their backyard.

Mr. O'Reily contemplated whether or not to give the baby the name her mother had wished for her. 'Glare' was a very obvious District 1 name, and would have seemed quite out of place in District 2. Thus, he decided to combine it with her mother's name, which resulted in the child's official name being "Blare O'Reily." However, there was another problem that presented itself: Mrs. O'Reily had been deceased for nearly two years, and he would certainly have a difficult time of it trying to explain how his wife had given birth to a baby girl two years after her death. He was on tensely pleasant grounds with their area's Peacekeeper, who made an unannounced visit four weeks later. The Peacekeeper had been looking for Becca, but instead found no sign of the seventeen-year-old traitor, and rather a tiny baby girl of mysterious origin. Though usually a stern officer of the law, the Peacekeeper, in a rare moment of compassion, decided to look the other way. And because Mr. O'Reily was so well-liked, others did the same. Even though the numbers didn't add up, no one doubted that Blare was Mr. O'Reily's biological daughter, and the biological younger sister of her three older brothers.

Blare grew up absolutely spoiled, and insanely adored by Spark, Soren, and her father. She was always the center of attention, and had grown into a bright, happy, and popular girl. The O'Reily children were generally viewed with admiration by their peers; Spark and Soren were incredibly handsome, charismatic, and athletic, and were lusted after by each and every girl they encountered. Blare was beautiful, witty, and outgoing, and having two of the best looking boys in District 2 as her older brothers certainly didn't hurt her popularity-wise. The three of them were also thick as thieves; Spark and Soren were incredibly protective of their little sister, and insisted on escorting her anytime she left their home.

Parsenna, however, did not fit in as well as his siblings did. He was, for whatever reason, not as happy or well-adjusted as his older brothers. He wasn't nearly as good-looking as they were, and lacked their athleticism and charm. He resented Blare immensely; before she'd come along, he had been the youngest. Now, however, she was the center of attention in the family, and Parsenna truly believed that his father loved Blare more than him. Not only was she beautiful and sweet, but she was the self-appointed caretaker of the family, doing all of the cooking and cleaning happily. Parsenna was convinced that it was all an act; after all, he had overheard a conversation one night that wasn't meant for his ears, between his father and Spark. Blare's birth was never formally recorded, which meant she wasn't entered in the reaping. Knowingly failing to enter a child in the reapings was considered a heinous offense, and severely punishable. Not only did this conversation give Parsenna ammunition, but it triggered a memory from when he was two years old... a memory of a seventeen-year-old runaway giving birth in their home and promptly dying.

In an act of pure spite the next evening, as their father slept, Parsenna told Blare that she was adopted, recounting the tale of her birth. Blare burst into tears. Just as she was tearfully running up to her small loft bedroom, Spark and Soren returned home from a late-night outing with some girls from town. When they realized what Parsenna had done, they attacked him right there in the family's kitchen, with Spark blackening his eye. The commotion woke their father, who stopped the fight and comforted Blare. After that evening, Parsenna went from being on the outskirts to being practically shunned. Blare didn't care that she was adopted when she realized that Spark, Soren, and her father all loved her like blood. Parsenna, however, stopped being her brother that day.

Not long after, when Blare was fifteen, she experienced the absolute worst day of her life - the day that would change everything forever. It was one of those rare days when Blare had gone off by herself, in this instance to gather fresh growing berries in some bushes not far from their home. She was alone and singing to herself (she had a terrible voice, but absolutely loved to belt out whatever song was in circulation on television that week, usually screeching off-key until Spark or Soren playfully clamped their hand over her mouth). Spark suddenly ran up to her, and before she could happily greet him, he shoved her down onto the ground, covering her mouth tightly with his hand. Hidden behind the bushes, he whispered to her that Soren had been arrested, accused of being a traitor to the capitol. He instructed Blare to hide, and under no circumstances to tell anyone her name - and, above anything else, maintain her innocence were she questioned by a Peacekeeper. He told her to stay put, and then quickly released her and began running back to the house.

Blare didn't obey him. She crept on all fours slowly until she reached a hidden brush that allowed her to watch her home. Hidden by the greenery, Blare watched as two unfamiliar Peacekeepers entered her home. She could hear the screaming as they pulled her father and Soren out of the house, screaming questions at them outside of the front door about Spark. As one of the Peacekeepers began to handcuff Soren, their father made a fatal mistake - in a fit of rage, he lunged at the Peacekeeper who was handcuffing his son. The other Peacekeeper shot him in the forehead, and he was dead instantly. They hauled Soren into the van and drove off.

Blare was petrified. As instructed, she stayed in the bushes alone for an entire day and night, barely sleeping as she stared at her father's corpse. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She shakily headed towards the house, carefully listening for the sounds of the Peacekeepers' vans. Sobbing, she pulled her father's body inside and locked the door. She covered him with sheets, and then paced back and forth, trying to figure out what to do, until she was exhausted. With no other options, she climbed up to her loft and lay down to go to sleep.

When she woke up, she was in the detention center, woozy from sedatives. The interrogation began immediately. A shadowy figure screamed questions that Blare didn't understand - questions about Spark, questions about her father's loyalty to Panem, and questions about a woman named Becca Ranot. Blare screamed that she didn't know what he was talking about until she was hoarse. They demanded to know her name, and she refused, repeating, "I'm innocent!" whenever they asked her to tell them who she was. For lack of a better identifier, the officials recorded "Innocence O'Reily" on her forms, perhaps as some sort of sick and twisted way of rubbing salt in the proverbial wound.

Blare - now Innocence - remained at the detention center for nearly two months. The officials did not inflict any direct torture on her. Rather, they forced her to watch, via one-way glass, as they slowly tortured her brothers to death day after day. Spark succumbed first, with Soren passing away a week later. Those two months left Blare dead inside. The once happy girl was now completely devoid of life, and personally wished death for herself.

On the day she was Avoxed, Blare didn't know why she was being strapped to a surgical table. She assumed that she was getting lethal injection; truthfully, she didn't even know what an Avox was, having been so sheltered by her father and brothers. As a formality, one of the officials read the official charge against her - failure to register with the state for the reaping. They asked her for any last words, but she had nothing to say. When she passed out during the procedure, it was as if "Blare" had died along with her brothers.

She was surprised when she woke up, as she had believed that she was being put down like a dog. She was alone in an unfamiliar, sterile room. After a few moments of silence, Blare opened her mouth to yell "Hello?"

The sound that came out, however, sounded nothing like "hello." It sounded like an animalistic, haunting, unfamiliar shriek. As Innocence realized what had happened to her, she screamed and screamed for help, each time more horrified by the sound of her voice.

That evening, she was transported to the capitol. Her destination was a sort of Avox training center, where she was given a uniform along with the other disfigured, voiceless slaves. They were "trained" by a cruel, horrible official who basically told them that they were property, and would only be addressed in the form of commands. She spent a month there, until she was completely dehumanized and ready to be placed in a home.

When she was told one morning that she had been purchased, Innocence was absolutely petrified. Although message writing was strictly forbidden between Avoxes, she had received one message from a fellow female Avox during her time in training. After another woman, Cassandra, had been sold, another Avox had written Innocence a quick message in the fog of a mirror in their dirty, shared bathroom - "Cassie is dead." Innocence could only gather that being sold off was a death sentence.

Innocence had never been in the presence of a man who wasn't a relative without being accompanied by one of her overprotective, fiercely loyal brothers. Hence, when she realized that she had been sold to a single man, she could only assume he was treacherous. Innocence had been told to expect a dark basement room and a cot when she arrived in her new home, but instead found a second story bedroom with a television and windows. When she first met McKinley, she was on edge, distrusting his kindness. Initially, she was icy cold to him, shooting him death glares whenever he wasn't looking. If the owners of Avoxes were supposed to give their servants commands and treat them like property, then the absence of such behavior could only mean something horrible.

After a week or so, it was clear that Innocence needed clothing, as she only had the uniform she'd brought from the training center. McKinley wrote her a pass and gave her some cash so that she could walk to a nearby clothing store and pick up some apparel. When she was at the store, she picked out a few standard Avox uniform items. However, as she was approaching the register, she noticed a pink blouse - certainly not meant for servants - that looked like a fancier version of the blouse that a girl from back home had worn when she'd had a date with Spark. The girl had been one of Innocence's brothers' many girlfriends, but she had always been Innocence's least favorite - mostly because she was painfully envious of the girl's blouse. In a moment of reckless abandon, Innocence discreetly shoved the blouse under her oversized uniform shirt, quickly tucking her shirt back in. Innocence got away with the theft. When she returned to her new home, she shoved the blouse between her mattress and boxspring.

A few days later, curiosity got the best of her, and she had to try it on. Forgetting to close her door, she quickly stripped off her uniform top and put the blouse on. For the first time since she'd arrived at the training center, she pulled her hair out of its ponytail and shook it loose. As she was admiring herself in the mirror, she didn't hear McKinley enter her room. When she saw him, she fearfully backed into a corner. When he asked her if she'd stolen it, she nodded and covered her face with her hands, expecting to be beaten. Instead, he laughed - amused and impressed at the crime his servant had just committed.

That began their strange, non-traditional relationship. He began confessing years of thievery to her, admitting his humble beginnings as a servant. Although it took some time, Innocence grew to like him. He would tell her every one of her secrets, but never asked much about her, which was how Innocence wanted things. Despite the fact that he never gave her orders, Innocence cooked and cleaned by her own free will - after all, it was a nice reminder of her former life. She wasn't forced to wear her uniform, and could move freely throughout the house, not afraid to turn on the television or help herself to anything she wanted.

But as the two of them grew closer, something happened that Innocence had never anticipated - over the course of three years, as she grew up, she began to fall passionately and madly in love with him. And even though she knows that he doesn't acknowledge her as a servant, she also knows that she is an Avox, an inherently lesser person, and that she doesn't even have the ability to tell him how she feels, and that it is probably impossible that he will ever feel the same way about her. She knows she is one of the lucky few of her kind; however, living with this secret feels like its own sort of torture.

Codeword: Odair
Comments/Other:

This character was plotted with Morgana to go alone with two of her characters, and she came up with several of the ideas in the history. THUS, must give credit where credit is due. :-)