Psuedopod Lillison [D1]

Psuedopod's a tiny girl. She has a gaunt face, and her hands are small and bony, with agile fingers meant for the hands of an artist, not a laborer. She has thin arms and legs; just two pairs of limbs jutting out of a young tree, practically incapable of sports and manual labor. Her abdomen is willowy and meek, fit for a maid and certainly not a career.

Though Psuedopod may look weak, the fourteen-year-old does have one advantage when sparring with her peers: speed. With movements as swift and graceful as a gazelle, Psuedopod can leap and roll away from a strike better than some of the heavier careers. Her attacks, though often times feeble and minor, can be so quick that her sparring partner doesn't know what's going on until a wooden sword smacks them in the face.

Despite being tiny, she is a fair girl. Her face is fairly symmetrical, but her flaring nostrils and her thin face constantly being attacked by zits keeps her away from the title of "mortal Venus". She has curly brown hair that flows down to her shoulders, and cold green eyes. She has pale flesh, but not because she rejects the outdoors – her whiteness is a mere product of genetics.

Being the ladylike young woman that she is, Psuedopod prefers dresses over wool shirts and trousers. Only thrumps and degenerates wear trousers, after all. "A girl who wears pants is like a boy who wears a skirt - it just doesn't feel right," is her philosophy.

Psuedopod is a very prim, formal young lady. When meeting a person, she doesn't give a warm smile; she grabs the sides of her skirt and curtsies. She refuses to degrade herself and her vocabulary to words like, "wassup", "dude", and "bro" - instead, she prefers long words of proper lettering, such as: "salutations", "gentleman", and "dearest friend". After all, only degenerates would be so foolish to use such informal language - and Psuedopod is no degenerate.

Though adults may find her radical formality charming, Psuedopod's peers often find her boring and cold. She refuses to play sports, often giving the simple excuse of: "I'll get my dress dirty. But if you wish to make your mothers regret bearing you some more as they examine your disgusting rags during wash day, that's perfectly fine by me." She cocks an eyebrow, her eyes dull and cold, and then walks away.

Because of her coldness, she's considered a cruel, vain person by most people; but, in truth, her actions aren't spurred by pettiness and vanity, but by reason. Psuedopod forces herself to think things through, to realize what is more efficient and what isn't, and try to act solely upon this rationalization. She is not a career to be the best, nor because her district urges her too, but to survive the Hunger Games, and to survive alone. She has accepted herself a small child, and understands perfectly well that a kid of her size and stature wouldn't last long in the Games. After all, if she forced herself to believe that she was a strong, bulky teenager of six feet in length, Psuedopod doubts she would last very long.

But action solely upon reason is an unattainable concept (and if it is, a tricky one), and every now and again Psuedopod's emotions get the best of her, and it often times gets her into very negative situations. When anger overcomes her, she will screech, punch and kick anything in sight, and knock things over until her anger finally subsides. When (and this is a rarity) sadness plagues her, Psuedopod bars herself in her room, skulking out for only meals, her once light and graceful stride reduced to a heavy shuffle, her gaunt face solemn and cast down.

Whether reasoning or emoting, Psuedopod isn't necessarily a cold, hard, over-powering girl. Though her demeanor is icy in either state, Psuedopod will make a worthy ally if a person extends a friendly hand towards her. Psuedopod says: “It’s best to have an olive branch pointed at you then a sword.”

Psuedopod was born to strict parents. They reprimanded her constantly, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her away the moment she asked for a toy or a treat from a store. While her father worked as a jewel-cutter, her mother would stay at home, home-schooling Psuedopod instead of sending her to an actual elementary school, as she didn't want some air-headed school-marm turning her precious little girl into a "thrump and a degenerate".

The same treatment was used on Psuedopod's older sister, Horizon. Horizon was a timid girl that was three years older than Psuedopod. Horizon had been born a quiet girl, but in the hands of her harsh parents Horizon became as timid as a mouse, flinching at any noise, always cringing and blaming herself when an accident arose. But Psuedopod was quite different from little Horizon; from the moment of her conception, Psuedopod was loud, enforcing her emotions and thoughts on anybody who crossed her path. She acted on impulse, not reason. Psuedopod always wanted to be heard - it didn't matter who, as long as they listened to her.

Her parents - and her mother especially - butted heads with Psuedopod and her loud personality. Psuedopod was certain that her parents sent her to her room on a daily basis, and her parents were certain that they had gotten so used to Psuedopod's rude behavior that they grounded her the moment she opened her mouth.

When Psuedopod was ten, she would have no more of this. After accidentally breaking a vase, her parents swooped down on her, snarling at her in their usual way. Psuedopod stomped her foot in retaliation. "Why do you always have to treat me like a baby?!" she screamed.

"'Cause you won't stop acting like one!" her mother snapped.

At that moment, Psuedopod snapped out of it. Instead of a loud baby who did nothing but kick her feet, Psuedopod forced herself to become a reserved person, reading the dictionary any time she got the chance, listening to her parents talk to others in their own formal fashion. Psuedopod was set on making people respect her, so that she would never have to be called a baby again.

On Psuedopod’s thirteenth year, Horizon made a grave mistake. Sixteen at the time, and her parents having permitted her to go to high school, Horizon had fallen in love with a dashing jock that swore eternal love to Horizon if she would do one thing: steal for him. It didn't matter what, but it had to be expensive: something that would prove to him that Horizon loved him as much as she said she did. Too scared to steal from a stranger, Horizon slipped into her father's work-place while he was gone and snatched an uncut gem from his table. Mr. Lillison caught her as she snuck out the door.

Horizon was interrogated in the living room, right in front of Psuedopod. As she watched tears streak down her older sister's cheek, it was then that Psuedopod came to the conclusion that rationalization was the key to living free. It didn't matter what government one was living under, or even the conditions, but the very matter of understanding the world around them, understanding themselves, and thinking things through that was the key to the liberation of emotions. And so, Psuedopod enclosed herself in a shell of formalities and of strict rationalization.

A year later, an earthquake forced District 1 to its knees. Fortunately for the Lillisons, they had been taking a stroll before the devastating quake hit, destroying their home and everything inside it. They all came out of the scrap unscathed, and are currently living in a refugee camp, but the camp won't be there forever; sooner or later, they must find a new house, and new possessions - but even in a comfortable district like One, reassembling a shattered life will neither be easy nor cheap.

Ugh, I need to stop dying...I'm so sorry for being such a dork. >_>

And I know that the appearance is terrible. I'm...I'm just...Sorry.