alice chase •• district 3

NAME:
A L I C E
C H A S E

AGE:
F I F T E E N

GENDER:
F E M A L E

DISTRICT:
D I S T R I C T
T H R E E

APPEARENCE:

It was always said by people who knew her mother, Sarah Chase, as a young girl that Alice Chase was the spitting image of her mother. With dark brown eyes that looked like honey on a sunny day and black coals at night, it was said Alice had a kindness inside of her from the day she was born that the world would soon rip away from her if she wasn't careful. Her short stature was gifted to her by her mother--both women only came to five-foot-one. Both women shared the same long, dark brown hair with strands of caramel that were often tied up in a bun or a ponytail for work or school.

As Alice got older, her beautiful pale skin became lined with a fine layer of pollution and grease that she could never seem to scrub off. Her well-kept nails from childhood became little more than bitten-down stubs with grease under what was left of the nail and in the cuticle. Her dark brown eyes soon only stayed near black, forgetting they could melt into sweet honey that would give even the hardest of people a smile on their worst day.

Her cupid-bow lips forgot how to smile and her cheeks forgot how to blush. The thin layer of pollution and grease got heavier as the years went on making her painfully aware of the unkind world around her that took away her sweet eyes, her kind smile, and her blushing cheeks. In return, the world gave her quick hands to work on the electronics she was given from the factory and a lithe body to squeeze into tight places while she waited and watched Peacekeepers kick and drag pleading, innocent people to their death.

PERSONALITY:

As a young child, Alice Chase was nothing short of an obedient girl. Anything and everything her parents asked of her, she did. She obeyed to a fault. Anything anyone in authority asked of her, she did. She believed obedience was a virtue everyone should have and believe in. She didn't understand the dangers of blind obedience as she small and kind girl. She only believed that a good and kind girl listened to those around them.
As she grew, she became smarter with the technology around her thanks to her father and her uncle. Her innate intelligence showcased itself often around her family, but not so often around strangers or in school leading those around her to believe her to be subpar in book or street smarts. But, most adults in her life didn't care as long as she was smart enough to work in the factories.
As she aged, and after her father died, she looked at the world anew. She began to realize that blind devotion to adults and authority figures would get her killed and showing her intelligence, just even the slightest, would make her a target. She learned quickly to shield herself from the eyes of the Peacekeepers and to keep her head down while keeping her ears open to those around her.
When she befriended an older, more rebellious teenage girl named Mauve, her whole world changed. Alice realized that keeping her head down and keeping out of trouble wasn't the answer, either. It kept her alive, sure, but alive and chained was no better fate than death. She learned to be rebellious in a concealed manner as her tongue sharpened and her mind was honed to learn everything about everything. She was still that kind girl, of course. Nothing had yet hardened her beyond repair. She still maintained that air of childhood innocence that made her endearing to so many people.
When Mauve was murdered in front of her by Peacekeepers one night, she had made a promise to keep fighting and never forget. Such a thing was what was needed to lose that childhood innocence and, at only the age of eleven, she became an adult. She grew up too fast. She learned as much as she could as fast as she could, becoming standoffish to those around her with a single-minded purpose of getting into The Hunger Games and showing those at the Capitol exactly what the government was doing to those in the Districts.
Despite being told multiple times that friendliness and ruthlessness were traits favored in the arena, Alice couldn't help but retain some of that kindness she had when she was a child before watching her first friend be murdered in front of her. She knew it was a weakness, but it was something she could never let go of. Especially around her brother, Tig, and new friends that seemed to worm their way into her heart.

HISTORY:

Born crying and screaming to a world unfamiliar with kindness and love, Alice grew up in one of the poorest areas of one of the wealthy Districts despite their close proximity to the Capitol. It was that fact that permeated her early years. The earliest memory of her life she could grasp with both hands was one of her father, Simon Chase, complaining loudly over the kitchen table to her mother, Sarah Chase, on whether or not to have a second child. At the tender age of three-and-a-half-years-old, Alice's first strong memory of her father would be hearing him tell her mother:

"We can barely afford the house we have, the food we eat, and Alice, and you want another child?! Why don't you just find a way to move us to District Two or Four? Huh, Sarah? That'd be more likely. At least we'd have money, then."

In the end, at the age of four, Alice did end up with a baby brother named Tig, who already looked remarkably like their father with big blue eyes and a tuft of blonde hair. It had been impressed upon Alice from Tig's birth that it was her duty to look after her little brother and take responsibility for him. Alice took that responsibility seriously, listening to her parents like the good girl she was, especially after the mysterious, accidental death of her father in his factory when she was just six years old. Despite her mother, Sarah, trying to keep her from the rumors, it was hard to miss the gossip that polluted the neighboring streets about her father.

"Did you hear about Simon Chase?"
"About his accident?"
"About how he was murdered to keep from inciting a riot."
"I heard a Peacekeeper did it."

It didn't take more than three months after her father's death for her mother to marry her father's brother, Bryce, in a marriage of convenience to keep a roof over their heads. Uncle Bryce shouted far less than her father had but held no less love than her father did for herself and Tig. She listened to him as well as she did her own father with the obedience that a child should have to an adult. Although, at times it was difficult to live with her uncle knowing that the only reason he was sharing the space with her was because her father no longer could.
Uncle Bryce, however, took that fact in stride and helped foster her love of electronics, which her father had started at just the age of three, and helped her show Tig when he was four. It had become a daily thing between the three of them. Alice and Tig would come home from school--Bryce and Sarah would come home from work--and Bryce would show Alice and Tig everything he had been working on in the factory while sharing stories that had been passed down to him by his parents and by their parents and so on.

"Without us," he used to say, "the Capitol would be nothing."
Her mother hated when her uncle talked like that.
"Don't go telling them that at this age," her mother would whisper harshly in their house as a Peacekeeper walked by. "You know what happened to Simon!"

Alice, despite her young age at nine, had befriended a rebellious teenager, Mauve. Mauve was unlike anyone Alice had met as the girl with the bright blue eyes and the long red hair was always getting into trouble, but Alice enjoyed her company far better than her peers. Her mother highly disapproved of the relationship, calling Mauve an unsuitable friend and repeatedly warning Alice to stay away from the sixteen-year-old girl.
But Alice never did listen right after listening to the stories of The Dark Days from her uncle.
Even after her mother protested, begged, and nearly chained eleven-year-old Alice down to the dining room chair to keep her in that night to watch after seven-year-old Tig, Alice didn't listen. Alice never seemed to listen anymore. She went, instead, to the square to go find Mauve at their meeting spot. Mauve always had stories to tell and items to trade with a knowing smile that said Alice was somehow just like her in ways the little girl didn't quite understand yet.
But, that night was different. That night, Alice had heard screaming and shouted and pleading and begging. The voice sounded like Mauve imploring someone to spare her her life. Alice ran faster toward the town square and stopped behind a post to watch the most horrific thing she had seen outside of The Hunger Games.
Alice watched as the Mauve pleaded for her life with apathetic Peacekeepers. She watched as those apathetic Peacekeepers broke one of Mauve's ribs and walked away jeering about how they would come back to see if she was still alive in the morning. Mauve made Alice promise that she would never forget what she had just seen and to keep fighting right before she took her last breath.
Alice kept her promise.
Sarah Chase never knew what happened that night. Only that her loving and cheerful daughter came back not quite right. Instead of always being willing to play with Tig when he asked, she worked with the electronic scraps her uncle brought back from the factory to remake them into something useful. Instead of smiling and laughing at the jokes made around the dining table, she gave terse smiles and half-nods that were meant to satisfy her family--they didn't.
Alice's childhood died the moment Mauve did, sending her launching into a life of hatred for the Capitol and everything it stood for.
When she could, at the age of twelve, she began to request as many tesserae as she was allowed each year. Her mother and uncle tried to stop her, but it never worked. Each year, without fail, she wasn't chosen. Each year, without fail, she grew her skills in technology knowing that most of the Arenas were made with the technology her District provided the Capitol.
She made a promise to keep fighting.
She would keep fighting.

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