User blog comment:Asylum of Oswins/The 598th Hunger Games/@comment-24222500-20140901023816

Name: Aeralene "Aera" Genesis Ekiert

Pronunciation: Air-a-leen "Air-a" Jen-a-sis Ek-ee-ert

District: 13

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Weapons: Aeralene has used a machete before, so that would be her first choice, and she also likes thrown weapons, so she would choose throwing stars as her second. Lastly, she would choose a curved sword.

Appearance: Aeralene has long, strawberry blondish-brown hair that falls in curly waves down her back, and it's very thin. She has light, porcelain skin, and big, forest green eyes. She has less of a figure as most girls her age, and is very tall. Her lips are usually in a straight line or a frown, and she rarely smiles, and when she does, it can be for horrid reasons.

Height: 5'10

Personality: Aeralene, on the outside, seems shy, helpful, and caring, which is how she acts usually towards other people. She doesn't talk very much, which can make you wonder just what is going on inside her head. She is also quick to judge or get envious or angry of other people. When you get to know her, you still don't really know her. She keeps so much inside of her.

But, when you do think you know her, you will see that she can be cruel and unforgiving, letting all of her anger and envy out. She is very quick to blame, and has a bit of an anger issue thing, hurting people when they don't do what she wants them to and screaming at them, not caring how much she hurts them, as long as she can rid of her anger. She is very serious and doesn't like to joke around or have fun, and would rather stay serious and on the pessimistic side of things. She cares about almost no one but herself, putting herself before everyone else, sneaking food when no one is looking... she's the kind of person who, if the alliance came to an old bridge over a giant cavern, she would make everyone else go first to see if it's safe.

She's selfish and cruel, but, every once in a while, she does love someone. For some odd reason, she feels differently about them, and she has no idea why. Neither will anyone else. All they should know is that they should treasure that fact.

Skills: Aera is very physically strong, and has almost no compassion, which can be a strength because she will feel nothing if she kills. She is also good with medicine and healing.

Weaknesses: Aera isn't very good with survival skills, nor social skills, and isn't good with stealth since she is so tall.

Fears: Aera is scared that if she does find a person she loves in some way, that she will hurt them, or they'll leave her, since they know how cruel she is. All she really wants is to be loved, but she doesn't know anything about love, so she can't love, and she doesn't really know what love is.

Alliance: Aera will ally with a small, manipulatable and trustworthy alliance. She will try and be nice to them, even though it isn't in her nature. She will basically want them to help her survive, and she'll try her best to return the favor.

Token: A torn-off piece of mint-green fabric from her old dress (see RL pic).

Interview Angle: Aera will act myserious and strange, showing almost no feeling, sounding a bit sweet and innocent, but her tone of voice will also sound sort of flat and sarcastic. If they ask her any questions about the games, she will try to sound morbid and bloodthirsty.

Group Training Strategy: Aera will focus on finding an alliance, and getting to know them, but not letting them find out too much about her. She will try and learn more survival skills and weapon skills, and other skills she isn't very good with. She will only show her skills if her alliance needs help with those areas, but otherwise, she will save all of that for her private training.

Private Training Strategy: Aera will walk in, determined and angry, and use her machete to chop and destroy dummies, then use her throwing stars to throw at targets, and run past them, slashing them with her throwing stars and mangling them with her curved sword, then, tearing up the dummies furiously with her brute strength. Before she leaves, she will give the most sarcastic smile ever to the Gamemakers, then stomp away, dropping her weapons on the floor, making a clatter on purpose.

Reasons for Winning: Aera wants to return to Mabel, the only person she is sure that she loves, and knows loves her back.

Backstory: Aera was born to a single mother who worked at an orphanage. Aera grew up there with the other children, and for years, everything was normal. She had a few friends, and was helpful around the orphanage, helping her mother clean, cook, and do other things to take care of the place.

Aera thought she was a normal child there, since her mother never had the guts to tell Aera that Aera was her child. Aera just thought she had a special job to help out at the place, and didn't question why. But, at the age of fourteen, she knew she was different. She had been there her whole life, while other children came and went, getting adopted. But Aera had never once had a hopeful family come and visit her. One day, she asked her mother -- whom she knew as Mrs. Ekiert -- why she was never to be adopted.

Mrs. Ekiert started bawling, and sat down at her desk in her room. Area sat in the window, watching the people pass by in the district, with no worries. "Tell me why I'm different." Aera pressed. "All the other children know I'm different, too, and if feels horrible. Because I'm the only person who doesn't know."

Mrs. Ekiert finally said, that Aera was hers. When the father had learned that Aera was coming, he had promised to be a good father, but they didn't have enough money, so he had to steal. He was executed for commiting crimes, and Mrs. Ekiert had to take the job at the orphanage to take care of herself and Aera. Aera was heartbroken. But then she was angry, ''furious. ''"You never told me. Did you not trust me?"

Mrs. Ekiert shook her head frantically. "No!"

"Then why did you never tell me!" Aera screamed. "Was it some sort of secret?!"

"No, I just didn't want to break your--"

Aera stomped over to her mom and slapped her across the face, as a tear slipped out from her eye. "It's too late for that."

Aera ran to her room and started to cry. How could she never have known her past? For a month, Aera locked herself in her room, with only her emotions and a little rat that always hovered in the corner of her room to keep her company. She named the rat Nibble, as she would sometimes sneak upstairs for food, and give him scraps of it. He would chew on them, until he needed more. Aera would break up the food into crumbs and toss them to him, until one day he bit her, and she stabbed him with a small pocketknife she kept by her bed. She started to cry. She was truly alone. She went outside that night to bury him, giving him a small grave in the garden, which the other children destroyed, digging up the dead rat and teasing Aera about it.

That was what began the transformation Aera went through, inside and out. Her personality shifted. She starved herself sometimes, and other times stole all of the cake and bread from the orphanage. Without her, her mother had to work alone, and the orphanage got dusty and unkept. Aera just shook her head in disgust every time she had to venture upstairs from the basement. She always did at night when no one would see her.

Except, one night, someone did see her. Aera was almost fifteen at the time, and in the halls she met a nice girl named Mabel. Mabel was holding a candle in one hand, and a knife in the other, which scared Aera, though she realized that she was holding a machete which couldn't have been very comforting to Mabel, either.

"What are you doing here?" Aera hissed.

Mabel looked Aera up and down, and Aera realized she had never met the girl before. Mabel spat back, "I could ask you the same thing."

The two both went to their desitination, the kitchen. A child was having their birthday party the next day, so the two shared the cake that had been shoved away in the kitchen. Aera told Mabel about herself, and Mabel told Aera her story, of parents that had gotten sick and couldn't keep her. "The rats in the district are spreading a disease."

Aera knew Nibbles had been dead for a long time, but she was still scared. "Most of the rats live up here."

"Don't worry, I don't think we have any here. I help clean now that you're..." Mabel stopped, scared that she would insult Aera in some way.

Aera shook her head, saying nothing as she finished her half of the cake.

"Want some of mine?" Mabel offered, with a warm smile. "I'm afraid I can't eat it all."

Aera shook her head. "I don't need a friend, or more cake. Thanks." She got up to leave.

But before she could leave, Mabel told her that the next night, if Aera changed her mind about friendship, that she was welcome back to the kitchen to talk for a while. Aera said nothing, but did turn back before she ran down to the basement. Aera had no interest in other human beings, but something about Mabel's kindness made her return. Soon, the two were friends.

It turned out, that rats did live in the orphanage. Aera woke up to a scream one day, and figured that her mother would take care of the sick child. But soon, running footsteps were all headed in the direction of one particular room. Aera's heart pounded. Sure enough, her mother was dead. Aera rushed towards her, and started crying. ''I never got to say goodbye... ''She started talking out loud. She had never known how much her mother meant to her, now that she was gone. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry for everything. I'm so sorry... I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry please wake up please!"

Aera heard a baby wailing, crying out. She looked around before realizing that the baby had been cradled in her mother's arms. The baby showed no sign of sickness, and seemed to be a healthy baby boy. She took it in her arms, and when she saw his forest green eyes, she saw herself. Not only because of the reflection in his eyes, but because they were her eyes. She knew she couldn't let the baby die. She would be a good mother, like her mother had been to her. Without a word, she stood up and ran downstairs, locking herself in the basement with the baby.

A few days later, after the orphanage had suffered chaos, she claimed that she would run the place. Being Mrs. Ekiert's daughter, she had worked before. She gave the children chores, but she had no skills with children at all, so she was strict and harsh. She still had no idea how to show love. The one person she showed mercy on was Mabel, and the two seemed to try and avoid each other.

Aera still spent most of her time in the basement with the baby, though. She was 15, and ran the orphanage all on her own. What Aera didn't know, was that Peacekeepers had to come and check up on orphanages in the district every once in a while. Apparently it was a new policy. And apparently one of the other policies was that minors couldn't run orphanages.

Aera had told the rest of the children to go to their rooms, because she didn't want them to know Peacekeepers were coming for them breaking the law. She locked herself in the basement with the baby, and tried to hide, with her machete at her side. "Shh, it's going to be okay... it'll be just fine...!" She tried to quiet him down, but he was crying and screaming so much he would give away their location soon. She covered his mouth with her hand, and his breathing slowed down. She breathed a sigh of relief, but then noticed something horrible. His breathing had stopped. She had suffocated him. She screamed, and a few tears fell from eyes right as Peacekeepers broke into the basement.

They thought she had killed on purpose, and knew that there was no house keeper there above 17. She picked up her machete, and swung at the closest Peacekeeper. They were startled, while she killed the second one, the third and final one punched her across the face and was going to knock her out, but she was fast and swung the machete at his neck. With blood pouring from her mouth, she ran up the stairs and to the door which had been knocked down. There was someone standing there, so she swung again out of fear, only to see that she had killed one of the children.

The crowd had gathered by the basement door, and seeing her with a blood-soaked weapon and blood pouring from her mouth, they were horrified. "Listen here." She said, "it's not what you think..."

She still ran the orphanage, but that experience had changed her. Now, she wondered what else she could do... she ran the orphanage strictly, and had a whip to use on children who misbehaved. Yet, she never used it on Mabel. By the time Aera was 18 and Mabel was 17, the two seemed more distant, but Aera knew she still felt something for Mabel. Strong friendship? Love like a family would have? Or was it something else...?

When Aera was Reaped, she only walked to the stage slowly, looking only forward and up a bit towards the sky, until she reached the stage, saying nothing. Not a word. She looked out towards the kids of the orphanage, and wondered what they would do without her? But she didn't care. This was about her. Mabel was the only one to come and say goodbye before she left for her future at the Capitol, yet, it was the future Aera wanted... she wanted to be in the Games.