Yuri Yoshikawa | District 4 - Finished(?)

For a citizen of one of Panem's most successful and productive districts, Yuri may fit the bill for beauty, but her circumstances reap whatever benefits they might have earned her.

Yuri stands at a modest 5'5" with a slim build, thin arms, legs, neck, and torso, but with straight posture and a natural elegance befitting her ethic heritage -- such as the tanned yellow skin that separates her from most of the crowd. A perfect curtain of raven hair rolls off her boney shoulders and over her bosom on most days, usually cascading over her rather unique choice of clothing. Unlike most of the Careers working the docks and seas in and around District 4, Yuri is often seen sporting a long, flowing ice blue gown made mostly of cotton with a thin navy sash -- she wasn't as rich as most, especially when her father had hoarded a hefty majority of the family's money ever since the passing of her mother -- and plain, almost tattered black shoes that matched the darkness of her hair. Her eyes, however, matched her dress -- crystalline sapphire beads that glisten with beauty, experience, and pain.

However, as she is a fisherwoman by trade, and the Capitol must be fed (a harrowing fact she tries every day to forget), she will often abandon her preferred gown for a simple white shirt made of cotton and tied with lace at the base of her neck, a frayed pair of black pants made from thick animal hide from District 10, and a grayed kitchen apron dotted with colours and spills across the spectrum.

No matter what the attire, however, Yuri is never seen without a snow white lily tucked away into the midnight locks that drape her head and shoulders.

If you asked any citizen of District 4 that knew or had seen her, they would tell you that Yuri Yoshikawa was a quiet, polite, somewhat oddly dressed (for a fisherwoman), somewhat strangely coloured, but otherwise pleasant and obedient girl. They would also tell you how fantastic she is with her younger siblings, how well she looks after them day after day while their father was out at sea, and how she had the sweetest heart in the world to raise the two younger children practically on her own. They would call her a beautiful young woman, a damn good catch (to some), and a poised makeshift mother. She would make a good wife, they'd say. A good, quiet, obedient wife, when the day came. That's what her father tells them.

And Yuri hates him with every fibre of her being for it.

Yuri takes pride in her composure, the way she presents herself to the world as the pretty, eye-catching, and quiet young woman her district thinks her to be. She likes that image, she thinks, and that's why she hasn't given up wearing her favourite dress and maintaining the face of order in their otherwise chaotic household. The eldest of three siblings to a dead mother and a selfish father out to reap any rewards he can from his three children, Yuri became the subject of most (but, to her dismay, not all) of her father's abuse. As a result, hate boils deep within her rigid public composure for the man responsible for most of the pain and suffering she endures almost every single day -- because if it isn't her father after her, it's the Capitol with their ever-growing demands for more and more fish. On the days when her father feels "too busy" sitting around the house downing mead, whiskey, and other drinks to go out on their little boat to work, it is Yuri, afraid that if she were to decline he might hurt her or her siblings, that has to do the job.

As a result, Yuri has become very protective of her siblings over the years. Ever since their mother died just after giving birth to her younger sister, and realizing that her father had no intent on raising or even caring for the little one, Yuri took it on herself to raise and care for her siblings. She protects them from their father, feeds them, clothes them, bathes them, and teaches them how to fish and how to swim and how to sniff for the best seaweed and how to properly roast their meals over the fire she makes every night. She has become, in every sense of the word, their mother -- and with that mindset, she is often seen as the motherly figure whenever they are seen in town, with or without their father... a reputation that brings her pride like no other.

When not worried about her father or her siblings or any of the ludicrous amount of work she performs on a daily basis, Yuri enjoys sitting by the rivers and the ocean that litter her homeland of District 4. She loves the smell of the sea -- it's always felt like home to her -- and how the wind plays with her hair and sprinkles her face and features with flecks of salt, grime, and warmth. She enjoys the company of those that can understand her situation -- she wants friends to whom she can talk about her feelings and the stress she feels at home and just to have someone to let it all out with -- and those who can make her laugh and forget about her worries.

Her favourite flower is the lily, after which she is named, and for the flower that peaks out from her hair whenever she goes out in public. It is also the nickname by which her closest friends are allowed call her.

The Yoshikawa parents were born and raised by their respective families on the banks of the ocean of their home district, District 4. Baalythe, Yuri's father, was the son of a more wealthy family at the time he met Haruko (春子 - spring child), Yuri's mother. Haruko Yoshikawa and Baalythe Terra married one year after they met, and neither one could have been happier.

However, things were what they appeared. Baalythe, a selfish man by nature, entered a deal with his best friend that would allow them to keep some extra provisions for themselves during the Capitol's collections. The scheme worked for almost two years, allowing Baalythe to bring home heaps more compared to his neighbours --- much to their annoyance and Haruko's suspicion. Haruko was trained not to question her husband's success by her mother, who had raised her with a strict sense of honour and loyalty... yet while Haruko's brain told her it was a blessing, her heart told her he was a fraud.

At the end of their fourth year in marriage, with Haruko coming up to the age of 27 and Baalythe at almost 30, Haruko brought up the issue. Enraged at her disobedience and lack of faith, Baalythe threatened to do her harm should she ever whisper a word of the dealings he held with the mayor to anyone. A few years later, the operation between Baalythe and his friend were unearthed by a number of inquisitive Capitol sleuths, and the family was forced to pay for their crimes. After extensive pleading and a number of harsh punishments, the family was left alone under the sole condition that they would produce children able to help them reproduce all the excess earnings Baalythe had accumulated over the years -- the debt was to be repaid in full.

Haruko and Baalythe reluctantly agreed to the terms in exchange for freedom from their harassment. Haruko gave birth the following year to their eldest, Yuri. Born on the banks of a river at the edge of the district dotted with lilies, Yuri was graced with the name of her birthplace and honoured as the first child born in the District that spring. Yuri grew and grew until, a few years later, their second child and the only son to the Yoshikawa line, Taiju (大樹 - big tree), was born. Around this time, Haruko grew sick -- she was bedridden for weeks at a time, unable to go out on the water and help her husband with the fishing, and instead remained at home to raise her daughter and son. Unbeknownst to Baalythe, Haruko raised their children the way she had been raised -- with her mother's rigidity, hidden strength, and stubborn pride -- qualities that remain in Yuri most prominently to this day. However, tragically, just after the first of the third child, Hikari (光 - light), Haruko passed away, leaving Yuri, only 13 years old, the eldest woman in the house and to the mercy of their once again enraged and bitter father.

Yuri, Taiju, and Hikari still live with their abusive father to this day. Taiju and Hikari live a mostly untroubled life -- Taiju approaching the age of 9 and Hikari still only 5 years old -- while Yuri takes on the dual responsibility of playing mother to her siblings and housewife-or-servant to her father. As a result, bitter feelings for her father and nostalgic pride for her mother continue to banter for her command over her troubled conscious. In the mean time, Yuri fights a daily battle to keep her siblings in line, her father away from all three of them, to catch enough fish to give to the Peacekeepers for collection, and at the ripe age of 18 ... to not be picked for the Hunger Games.

If you would like to start/involve an RP with Yuri, just let me know! ^_^ I am open to a plethora of plots, so just bring it up with me and I'm sure we can sort something out. XD

If anyone is interested in playing the younger siblings Taiju and/or Hikari (preferably one per player) to further build on their family ties, BE MY GUEST!! I would like nothing better than to have someone snatch them up and add some spice to them.