Clemensia Dovecote

Clemensia Dovecote
Age	17-18
Also known as	Clemmie (by Coriolanus Snow) Clem (by Festus Creed)
Occupation	Academy student Mentor (10th Hunger Games)
Home	The Capitol
Gender	Female
Fate	Alive (book) Presumed deceased (movie)
Book Appearances	The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Movie Appearances	The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Portrayed by	Ashley Liao

"He did not want to be her enemy. If the Snow fortress was about to fall, he would need friends. Until the snake incident, he’d counted Clemensia among his best."

—Coriolanus Snow on his friendship with Clemensia

Clemensia Dovecote was a female resident of the Capitol and a student of the Academy. She was one of 24 top-performing seniors at the Academy selected to be a mentor for the 10th Hunger Games. She was assigned the male tribute from District 11, Reaper Ash.

She was the daughter of the energies secretary and one of 24 top-performing seniors of the Academy selected as a mentor.

Biography

Clemensia was present at the Reaping for the 10th Hunger Games, and like many other Academy students, was awaiting the announcement of her assignment and tribute to mentor for the games. When it was announced by Casca Highbottom that she was to mentor the district 11 boy, Reaper Ash, she received the news with tact and made a note of her tribute in her binder. Alike many of her peers, Clemensia continued on with the reaping day festivities and ate, as Coriolanus Snow had placed his plate down next to Clemensia's.

On the morning of the arrival of the tributes, the twenty-four mentors were called in a seminar in the morning led by Professor Crispus Demigloss. Festus Creed proposed the idea of making it compulsory to view the Games. In response, Clemensia questioned his proposal, asking what would occur if people did not abide by that. However, she concluded that citizens avoided watching the games due to their sickening nature. As the class continued and Festus had deduced that the Games could increase viewership by betting, Clemensia remarked that betting on tributes was gruesome, and thoughtfully twisting her hair, disputed in disbelief at the idea whether betting should be put in place. When Coriolanus responded that gambling should continue if was successful for the 10th Hunger Games, Clemensia shook her head in exasperation.

Clemensia meeting Reaper

The next day, Clemensia met Reaper, as the mentors were to be introduced to their assignments. However, as the mentors were walking back to the biology lab afterwards, Clemensia revealed that Reaper refused to speak to her. She also stated that she believed it was ironic to name a child Reaper then have them reaped.

After the class with Dr. Volumnia Gaul, Clemensia, Arachne and Coriolanus were chosen to write up an essay. The three agreed to meet one another at the Capitol Zoo to meet their tributes at 8 o'clock and then go to the library to write up the proposal. However, after Arachne had her throat slit by her tribute, Brandy, Clemensia met up with Snow and Festus in the zoo, trembling in distress. The three walked back to Festus' apartment, but when he broke into tears, Clemensia and Snow bid him good night on the elevator. As Snow walked Clemensia home, she mentioned that Dr. Gaul would surely not expect the proposal to be finished after the ordeal.

However, Coriolanus wrote the proposal on sponsors and betting odds by himself. The next day, Clemensia and Coriolanus were called out of class by Dr. Gaul, and Snow revealed to Clemensia that he wrote the proposal at night. Clemensia yelled at Coriolanus in disbelief that he would do such a thing, as she was crying the entire night. However, she apologized to him afterwards, commenting that different people handled grief differently. They made their way to Dr. Gaul and came into contact with her snake mutts. Dr. Gaul questioned the pair on who wrote on the proposal, and they both lied that they had written the essay together, when in reality, Coriolanus had written the essay by himself. Aware of the lie, Dr. Gaul taunted Clemensia by asking her to dip her hands in the snakes' tank to retrieve the only available copy of the essay. Since the snakes did not recognize her scent, they bit her and she screamed, shaking her hand profusely. She was then pinned down by lab assistants and injected with a needle before quickly losing consciousness.

She was then transported to the Capitol Hospital, where she regained consciousness and screamed so loudly that Coriolanus heard her near the emergency room. Her parents were then informed of the incident and rushed to the hospital to visit her although visitors were strictly prohibited, as the staff at the hospital lied to Clemensia's parents and the public, stating that Clemensia had caught an infectious flu.

Clemensia visited Coriolanus in the early morning of Tuesday after the bombing. She had a ravaged face, golden peeling brown skin and yellow coloured eyes. She received neurological damage due to the snake venom, her entire body twitching, her face grimacing and her tongue jerking periodically. Clemensia was frantic, hissing quietly at Snow on why no one had visited her, unaware of the lies the hospital staff had told her parents and others and whether people believed she died. In desperation, she told Coriolanus that she believed Dr. Gaul was out to kill her. She then revealed to him that her skin was turning to scales and it was spreading, but she was quickly taken away by hospital staff.

10th Hunger Games

Clemensia was released from hospital care on the first day of the games, and angrily walked straight toward Snow and Lysistrata sitting in the back of Heavensbee Hall. Her condition had grown better, but she still looked considerably ill. She wore a long sleeve high collared white blouse to conceal her scales and the yellow of her eyes had reduced to a pale pollen shade. She picked on her skin and flicked bits of it off randomly. She made her way to the seats directly in front of Coriolanus and sarcastically thanked him for his lack of effort with helping her. She argued to Festus, Coriolanus and Lysistrata before stomping off and taking a seat on the front row. Festus remarked that her behaviour was abnormal.

Domitia requested Clemensia to give Reaper something as Dill died, but Clemensia retaliated. Coriolanus concluded that Clemensia wasn't herself, believing the snake venom had altered her brain and changed her behaviour. Snow also noticed that Clemensia spent a lot of time glaring at him. Clemensia abstained from feeding Reaper throughout much of the Games, exclaiming that she would only feed him when he did something that merited feeding. Her refusal to feed her tribute irritated Festus, who demanded that she feed Reaper at once, though to no avail. As Reaper picked up Wovey's body, Clemensia criticized him, calling him mentally unbalanced.

When snakes mutts were released into the arena, Clemensia panicked. She screamed and jumped from her chair, nearly causing Festus to fall. Afraid that she would reveal the story of the snakes to the others, Coriolanus wrapped his arms around her from behind to comfort or confine her. She went rigid but silent as Coriolanus comforted her, stating that she was entirely safe from the snake mutts. As Lucy Gray Baird walked out into the arena in view of the cameras, Coriolanus let her go and gently pushed her toward Festus.

Afterward, the remaining mentors slept at the Heavensbee Hall. At dawn, Coriolanus observing Clemensia still awake and fingering her collarbone. Intending on making amends once more, he asked if her scales were fading, to which she replied that they had, but commented it may take a full year to disappear completely. Clemensia then apologised to Snow, revealing that the source of her recent erratic and abnormal behaviour was a result of her fear. The pair then shared Coriolanus's last cheese tart whilst the others were sleeping and conversed. As they washed their faces to prepare for the day, she loaned Coriolanus her soap, a gesture that he considered to symbolise her forgiveness toward him. Almost back to normal, Clemensia began sending her tribute more gifts, although Reaper ignored them all.

As the tributes reduced to the final two, both Coriolanus and Clemensia refused to eat Festus' sandwich he gave to them out of nervousness. Eventually, Reaper died from poison, and Coriolanus was celebrated for his tribute's victory. Clemensia most likely participated in the celebrations before Coriolanus was taken away.

Film adaptation

In the film adaptation, Clemensia volunteered to create the proposal with Coriolanus instead of Dr. Gaul assigning it to her, Arachne, and Coriolanus. The next morning, she attempted to take full credit for the writing and fell off the tall platform housing the snake mutts after being bitten. Unlike in the book, she is not seen again afterwards, her fate left uncertain.

Physical description

She was considered by Coriolanus to be the prettiest girl in her year at the Academy before the snake attack occurred, with raven hair that reached over her shoulders and golden brown skin. In the film, she is portrayed as East Asian.

However, after she was bitten by the snake mutts, Clemensia's skin was peeling and her eyes were the color of egg yolks. She was also affected by twitching across her entire body, and part of her skin was mottled with the bright blue, pink and yellow scales that the snakes had.

Personality

"What's her problem? Other than she looks like she's molting."

—Festus Creed on Clemensia Dovecote’s snarky behaviour

Compared with Livia Cardew, she showed tact and studiously made a note in her binder upon learning of her tribute.

She was extremely popular with both the students and faculty of the Academy, due to her kindness. This served to excuse an occasional rudeness, such as not raising her hand before asking a question of an instructor.

Clemensia was shown to be kind and rather humble, as when she showed her hysteric behaviour after the snake incident, Lysistrata, Festus and Coriolanus all observed that the behaviour was abnormal coming from her, with Coriolanus deducing that her behaviour was a result of the snake venom. Clemensia was kind and forgiving, apologising to Snow multiple times for her comments and her behaviour, and was shown to be considerate, as she always apologized to others and considered what she would do better. As an example, she apologized for yelling at Coriolanus for writing the essay overnight after Arachne's death, commenting that others handled grief differently.

Etymology

The name Clemensia closely resembles the name Clementia; the Roman goddess of clemency or mercy. Clemensia is also a genus of moths in the family Erebidae. Dovecote is the word for a birdhouse made for doves.