Elektra Spark / D3

Name: Elektra Spark
Age: 16
Gender: Female
District/Area: 3
Appearance:

Elektra is tall, tanned from spending so much time outdoors, and has green eyes. She has blonde hair that she prefers to keep shorter so it doesn't get in her way. When she has time for it, she'll do some light make up. She would love to paint her nails and keep them trimmed, but she's usually doing things that would ruin them, so she doesn't do her nails all that often.  She has a scar on her ankle she'd gotten from dumpster diving. Another, bigger scar on her back. Another, but small one, on her middle knuckle of the right hand. 

While Elektra would love clothing that stands out, she tends to push that urge aside and sticks with more modest clothing for her sister's sake. Therefore, she tends to wear lots of long sleeved shirts, pants and almost never skirts or shorts (though she loves them). Due to her lifestyle, she rarely wears anything like heels or sandals, preferring sneakers. It's hard to go dumpster diving with heels, after all! She absolutely loves sun dresses, though hardly gets to wear them.

Personality:

Perfection. That's what has been drilled into her brain ever since Bolts had died. She had to do things perfectly, or there would be trouble. She had to run faster than anyone else, she had to fight harder than anyone else, she had to recite everything she read perfectly, or there was trouble. She had to be the perfect role model for the little sister who looked up to her, and she couldn't falter. Everything she did has been based on this: perfection. Of course, Elektra wasn't really perfect, but she had to hide all of her flaws and she never knows just how well she does. If she ever steps out of line, she has learn to cover it up.

Elektra doesn't want to let those close to her down. She wants and perhaps even needs to be the perfect person everyone sees her as. Her life, as she sees it, is not her own. Everyone's responsibilities, hopes, and dreams lie on her shoulders, because she's the eldest. For her father: she can't get reaped in the Games and if she does, she must survive. For her little sister: she must do everything right, she can't be violent, she can't be mean, she can't experiment with anything, she can't go to parties, she can't do anything that maybe she wants to do. She can't smoke, she can't drink, she has to do everything just right, because she absolutely loves her sister. She spoils her, but her sister's expectations are high and they don't change.

What she doesn't realize is that she's teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown. The stress of perfection is getting to her, and deep down, so far buried that she won't even admit it to herself she wants to run away and never look back. She loves her sister, and the very thought of leaving her makes her sad, but the thought of being perfect forever is even worse than the thought of leaving is. She'll never admit to it, however, and keeps it down hidden for as long as she possibly can. She wants to do things, she's adventurous and curious by nature. She's hands-on, active, and she loves to make people happy. She loves to be in crowds, she loves people, and she wants them all to like her too.

Elektra is experimental and loves to try new things, but she won't ever do it. She's curious about alcohol, but if her eyes even stray to a glass her sister is right there telling her about how horrible it is for her health, and she listens. She obeys, and she pretends that she's not really interested in them at all. She's adventurous, and she loves to explore, do new things, create new things, but she restricts herself as much as possible. She has this drive to explore abandoned places, but she rarely gives in to the idea. Only a couple of times, and she's hidden her tracks so no one finds out about them at all. If her sister found out, well she'd get an earful and she knows how disappointed her sister would be and she knows her sister holds her in the highest regard. Elektra can not make a mistake, she must be perfection. Even if she isn't.

Freedom is what she desires, but she won't let anyone know it. She wants more than anything in the world to be selfish, but she can't yet stop being selfless. She won't give in to the temptation she so wants to give in to. She will be the perfect role model, even though it hurts. Elektra loves her sister. She will always come to her protection, her aide. Growing up, Zapphrina was never good at the things their father wanted them to be good at. Elektra did her best to make her father focus on her instead. If he was angry, she'd try to get his attention off of Zapphrina and do something to anger him instead. She's always taken the brunt of the hurt away from her little sister.

History:

Family:

Electrode Spark (father)
Nellie Spark nee Gears (mother)

Electrode lived a pretty good life. He grew up happy, and he had many siblings. The Hunger Games was only a minor fear - he knew a Spark had been reaped, an uncle, but he had not known him. It was not close to home, and he never really considered that he or anyone he knew would ever be Reaped. He was close to his aunt Catherine, and would frequently visit her. He was nine years old when she had her first son, Bolts. Even though they technically cousins, he was a kid and felt superior in age. He'd call himself uncle, which stuck with him even as he aged. He was 'uncle' to Catherine's kids, and he loved them. When he was old enough, he'd visit and bring them gifts and tell them stories. Sometimes he'd even tell them about his latest inventions.

He was well liked in the neighborhood he lived in, and he loved working with his hands. It was no surprise he'd gotten a good engineering job once he was old enough. In his spare time, he'd loved to create things, mess with parts, and see what he could come up with. That's how he'd meet Nellie.

He was working on one of his latest creations when things went wrong. It had a small explosion, and he'd burned his hands. It was nothing too serious, but he didn't want many people knowing about it. Come across the wrong Peacekeeper, and well, they may not approve of such experiments. He didn't go to a local doctor, but he had heard about a local family run herbal store. That's where he went, and that's where he met Nellie. They talked while she prescribed the cream that would help him. This led to many, frequent talks, which led to dates, which led to their engagement and then marriage. It didn't matter that the world was burning around them - children being sent to die every year - because it was so far away from their picture perfect life.

Electrode and Nellie had two kids, and ten perfect years as a family before things went wrong. It was the 74th Hunger Games, and he could care less. He'd watched the Reaping many, many times in his life and it would never interrupt his life. He knew this year would be the same as any other. Except he was wrong, and it wasn't like any other year at all. Bolts - Catherine's kid - his little cousin - his nephew was reaped. At first, he'd been shell shocked. He wouldn't - couldn't believe it happened. Not in the Spark family. Then, as he accepted it, he had to hope. Bolts would make it out alive, maybe not whole, but alive. They could work on any problems after. Each day brought him closer to that hoped. Bolts had survived for a good while, it was five days in! Surely, he would make it alive!

All that hope died in the flames that took his cousin Bolt's life. He was killed, and he was never coming back home again. Electrode pushed everyone, save for his daughters and wife - away after that. Even his daughters and wife he kept at arms length, and things within the Spark household was about to change.

That's where Electrode's story ends, and Elektra's really begins. For ten years, Elektra had lived a good life. She was a good older sister, and taught her sister what she could. She'd take her out to explore the neighborhood, even though her little sister was a little clumsy. She just had to keep an eye out on her and everything would be fine. She took after her dad - she loved working with her hands. Tinkering, dumpster diving, putting things together. Fixing things, she loved it all. Adventures, playing, games, competition. Those were all important things in her childhood. Her sister was more curious and soaked up knowledge. Zapphrina was clumsy, and she preferred safety. Sometimes when they were out playing, Zapphrina would bring home an animal to hopefully be fixed up by her mother, or she'd chastise the neighborhood kids who play fought.

The kids in the neighborhood didn't like it when Elektra brought Zapphrina with her, but she had always loved her little sister. Things would make them even closer, because after the 74th Hunger Games happened and Bolts died, all they had to lean on was each other. At first, their lives changed in little ways. Her father moved to the other side of town. He put the family on lock down - they weren't allowed outside except for school. Then he began making them exercise every day. Eventually, he'd get angry if they didn't exercise enough, or if they screwed up.

Then he taught them to fight. He made makeshift training dummies and had them use that. He'd drill into their heads that they could tell no one less the Keepers take them all away, so they obeyed. He got angry when they got hurt, or messed up. He'd hurt them, eventually too. Zapphrina, the clumsy one, really struggled under this. She leaned on her sister more, begged for support, relied on her so heavily to shield her from their father. She messed up often. She didn't like fighting, she didn't like training. She just wanted to learn to mix herbs and stuff and be a herbalist like their mother. Their father wouldn't hear of it. He was terrified of them going into the Games. He felt, in his twisted world, that he had to toughen them up. He felt they would be Reaped, that they were doomed if they didn't know how to survive. After all, they would be pit against Careers!

When Florence, and eventually Industria were Reaped and killed in the Games, this just served to add fuel to the fire and he only grew worse. Elektra, being the older sister, had to act like a leader. She had to be tough, and she had to be perfect. It was all too much for a young girl to take on, but she had little choices in the matter. She protected her sister who withdrew more as time went on. She encouraged her to go outside and took her out with her friends.

Other: Linked to the Spark family line. Talked with Kaplan who approved.