ʀᴀɴsᴏᴍ ᴀᴠᴇʀᴇʟʟ

OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Jo
Other characters: Anna, Porrim, Oceana

IN CHARACTER
Name: Ransom Benet Averell
Alias: n/a
Fandom: OC (Panem)
Canon point/AU: Current game canon.
Journal: ransoms
PB: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen
Age: 33
History: Ransom was born in District 1, the Capitol's center of luxury. Her parents were well-to-do for Districters; her father was a gem cutter for one of the Capitol's premiere jewelers, a skilled labor which meant that they could afford to live a little better than those in other Districts. Her family was large; Ransom being the eldest of four and the only girl, she had to train extra hard to prove herself as a Career and improve her prospects should she ever be reaped. It was expected of her that she would volunteer for the Games once her training reached a sufficient level, and at fifteen she finally had her chance, beating out countless other eager Career volunteers to compete.

Once in the Capitol, Ransom found herself the subject of plenty of attention; she was strong, and pretty, and had a winning smirk on her face that seemed to imply that she wasn't afraid of anything, let alone the other Tributes. It wasn't entirely true; there was plenty of fear in her, but she had enough sense to know never to show it. She and her Mentor agreed not to resort to any showboating or emotional manipulation tactics; she would earn sponsors simply by being a fierce and fearless competitor. After all, sympathy sponsors were one thing--pity sponsors, really--but earning attention with a good, bloody show was another entirely.

After her Games were over, she allowed herself to bask in the glory of her Victory Tour, visiting each of the Districts with a winner's smile and a valiant speech at each stop. However, what she hadn't expected was the nightmares. She was raised to fight, taught to kill with deadly efficiency from a young age, yet now she couldn't close her eyes at night without a blood red wash tinging her every memory of the Arena. For months after her tour ended, after her return to her comfortable new home in One, she didn't sleep; she sat up at night, staring blankly at whatever was on her television set. Occasionally, she was treated to the sight of her own image, attacking ruthlessly, plunging her spear into someone's eye socket, and all she could do was to let it settle over her, numbly riding waves of unease. Not guilt; not quite, at least--or she didn't recognize it as such. She just didn't understand why she felt so wrong about something she was literally raised to do.

Eventually, the nightmares passed; she refused to succumb to using morphling to sleep at night, refused to become one of those victors who wasted away into nothing by their thirties. She was too strong for that, or so she reminded herself in the rare moment of weakness. But she did heal, little by little--talking to a therapist helped, a rare luxury she was afforded only thanks to her status as victor. By her late teens, things returned to normal, and she adapted to the easy life she'd won as well as she could. Ransom spent much of her time in the gym, still--working on her physical fitness took her mind off things, and gave her something to work toward. Made her feel less driftless. Eventually, at twenty-two, she began training potential Career tributes, working with a crop of her own selection, hand-picking her trainees from those she saw as worthy of her expertise. Her favorites were the girls--the ones nobody expected to succeed. She chose unlikely-looking ones, with wide eyes and innocent faces, and sculpted them in her own image, expert trackers with a mean throwing arm and the ability to blend into their surroundings like chameleons.

But after almost ten years of this, watching her trainees volunteer, some of them succeeding (for the success rate among her students was astonishingly high), most of them dying (including her youngest brother), things changed with the beginning of the Neverending Quell, and she found herself rather unnecessary in her current capacity. She turned her gaze upward, toward the Capitol, and realized that her potential as a Mentor, previously untapped in favor of other D1 victors, was overwhelmingly high. She was made for more than this, she knew. She needed to do something different, something more than the same thing day after day. She needed to be useful again. So when a spot was vacated, Ransom seized her chance, and returned to the Capitol in order to mentor Offworlders for District One.

Presentation: Outwardly, Ransom's presentation is pretty typical of a former Victor, especially coming from a Career district. She's tough, her demeanor matching her exterior. She comes off as haughty, cocky even, playing to win in all things. Her competitiveness isn't just for show--it's bred into her, instilled in her from a young age. And winning her Games only confirmed that success is vital to her. She has a habit of turning ordinary things into a game, just for the chance to win, and that can drive people away easily. She also doesn't shy away from confrontation, having both the mind and the body to back up any claims made by her or against her. It doesn't take much at all for her to get up in someone's grill, and she won't back down easily, either. This hotheadedness makes it hard for her to maintain close personal relationships; she can come off as a bully, though much of this is unintentional. With Ransom, what you see is what you get--an ex-Career with a drive to succeed, something of an embodiment of a stereotype.

Still, she's not all rude and crude. She can be friendly in a sporting, jovial sort of way, spurring on those she cares about or sees potential in to do their best. Although she lacks close friends, especially being freshly back in the Capitol, if she sees a chance to create success, she will absolutely go for it. She's a button-pusher by nature, assessing others' faults and using them as motivation, something she was infamous for doing when she trained Careers back in District One. She's unshakeable, determined to a fault, and occasionally blindsided by a lack of thought to peripheral detail. And most importantly, she's a lone wolf. She doesn't need anyone else, she doesn't like to rely on others except where necessary, and she'd like nothing more than for people to believe that that's completely true.

Motivations:

Beneath her hardened exterior, Ransom isn't exactly a teddy bear. She's still much the same way on the inside, but she does have her faults, something she doesn't like others to know. She'd rather others see her as a shining example of what a Victor should be, than know that she's struggled with her own demons in the past. Though the strings of sleepless nights, staying awake just to avoid the nightmares. She's ashamed of any sign of weakness inside herself, pushing herself to triumph over her own moments of being what she perceives as lesser.

Ransom is also deeply bothered by her own lack of close personal connection. Aside from her family--her parents and her three remaining brothers--she doesn't have much in the way of friends. She has to remind herself that colleagues and trainees don't count as friends quite often, lest she begin relying on those more than she ought to. Really, she's not sure how to go about connecting to others--years of growing up being trained into a hardened machine of a girl meant she didn't give herself time to learn how to be a child, how to be carefree and play except where she played at murder. And now, as an adult, she curses herself for this one weakness that's left her mostly alone. She'd like to pretend that she's alone by choice, and that's exactly what she projects, but she finds herself wishing many a time that it wasn't the way it is. Not that she wants to settle down and pop out a few kids, exactly--she doesn't see herself as wife/mother material, but it would be nice to have someone.

Setting: As a Victor, Ransom is more than used to having her agency stripped away. She's lived in Panem for 33 years, knowing exactly where she stands in the world. Returning to the Capitol is a change of pace for her, but she's learned how things work by now, and above all she'll be more content being in the center of things again. In short, she won't be unsettled like an Offworlder would be, just unused to Capitol life at first compared to her quieter existence back in One.

SAMPLES
First Person Thread:

[Ransom doesn't hesitate, doesn't give anyone a chance to interpret a thoughtful silence as hesitation or doubt. After all, for her there are no doubts, no reason to think that the Capitol's reasons aren't the right reasons. Her voice is strong and confident as ever.]

I think it's a marked improvement, personally. President Snow is wise to allow these new changes. Better than the same old thing year after year. After all, why should our own children suffer for a crime they didn't commit? The reminder is still there. The Districts are still shown by example what happens when the Capitol is challenged.

[She pauses, choosing her words carefully, here. Even being on the right side, one has to watch one's tongue when there are so many here who have ulterior motives.]

Besides, look at the sheer entertainment value. Watching children kill off children is one thing, but opening the field to adults gives it a certain higher thrill, doesn't it? Really, it just makes sense. The Games never have to end, the economy is booming, and yours truly isn't ever out of work to do. Win-win-win, in my opinion.

[There. A sensible answer, and a competitive one, to boot. She's almost daring the original sender to argue.]

Prose:

She'd have liked to think she was safe from all this, but someone who's been around as long as Ransom knows that the Capitol is never quite as straightforward as it seems. Still, she ought to have nothing to worry about. She's done nothing wrong, after all--she's on their side. The right side. So when she's brought back into this room--a room she never thought she'd set foot in again, eighteen years later--she's calm. Her brow is clear, and her expression would be entirely unthreatening if not for the catlike curl of her smile and the hard glitter of her eyes, like two flints beneath strong brows.

"I can see that you missed me," she calls out, her voice bold and confident, unafraid of repercussion. "With all due respect, I certainly thought an old lady like myself would be far beyond the interest of the honorable Gamemakers, but who am I to question your choices?"

Calmly, she paces toward a rack of weaponry, the muscles in her back and shoulders tensing and rippling visibly in the black athletic top she's wearing, and plucks a rather iconic piece of steel from the top of it. It's a frog spear, three short prongs with hooked ends extending from the tip of it. The weight of it is overwhelmingly familiar in her hands, and if she lets herself dwell on it she can remember plunging the weight of it into the other girl's throat. What had her name been--Myracle, or something similarly insipid. But now is no time to dwell. She has showing off to do.

She hasn't lost her touch in eighteen years--her condition is still peak, less agile, perhaps, than she had been at fifteen, but still strong and honed. She's refused to let herself go. She plays shadows with the hologram opponent, leading it in circles, an old familar game. Ransom dodges and leaps, showing off, throwing her weight around, the sound of her feet hitting the mats on the floor ringing loudly througout the training center. And finally, when the hologram's AI has slowed, tired, she claims her victory, plunging the spear through its chest and watching the image explode into a thousand showing pixels in its wake.

Chest rising and falling, skin coated in a sheen of sweat, Ransom paces back toward the center of the room, leaving the spear planted in the mat. "Let me know if you'd like another show, Your Honor," she calls, addressing the Head Gamemaker in particular. "I'm happy to oblige you."

What is your character scored: Ransom was scored a 9, due to her extensive training in several different modes of combat (short and long blade, hand-to-hand, and long-rane combat) as well as her skills in tracking and camouflage. She was also scored high due to her winning personality and crowd-pleasing attitude and showmanship.

Additional information:

Past victor: Please describe your character's Arena, and their relationship with the Capitol since.

Ransom's Arena took place in a swampland environment, which meant there wasn't much by way of potable water or dry land to seek shelter on. Several of the Tributes died of hypothermia, and others took ill after drinking fetid swamp water. Ransom, being a Career from District 1, was proactive, and escaped the bloodbath with two kills under her belt and a three-pronged frog spear which she used to defend a large, mossy tree that she took as her base. Sheltering in the high branches by night, she stalked down the other Tributes by day, camouflaging herself in moss and mud to stay out of sight. Her Career status and deadly showmanship meant that she was popular with sponsors and was sent regular supplies of food and water. By the second week of the Arena, it was down to her and two others, the three of them stalking each other in endless circles. Originally, her strategy was to let the others finish each other off; she baited them towards each other in the hopes that a bloody confrontation might ensue. However, her plan failed and one of the other two emerged from the fight wounded, but still alive. On the last day, Ransom finally decided to end it herself and launched an ambush attack in the early morning while the other Tribute slept, spearing her through the throat with her frog spear, and emerged as a Victor.

Since her win, Ransom has mostly taken it easy; she didn't spend much time in the Capitol by choice, preferring to step back into District life in live in comfort in her Victor's Village home with her family. Even as a Career, the Games were hard on her mentally, something she wasn't prepared for, so it was better to stay away from the Capitol while she could. Now, however, D1 needs a Mentor and she's grown restless with her years of idle comfort. She's an ambitious woman who aspires to more than faded glory, and coming back to the Capitol will give her a chance to be more than a has-been. That said, she's not remotely anti-Capitol; she never faced much hardship prior to her Games, considering her home District, and she doesn't have a reason to mistrust the people who have kept her in housing and food and every other little thing she might need, so once returned she will lean pro-Capitol.

Hunger Games AU and OC: What district is your character from? How do they feel about home?

Ransom is from District One, meaning her hardships were significantly less than those in poorer districts. Having lived there her whole life save for a few months before and after her Games, she has attachments to home, but her ambitions mean that she's willing to throw herself back into Capitol life without much of a backward glance. To her, privileged as her existence is and has always been for the most part, Districter or no, she's meant for more, so she's willing to forsake any emotional connection to her birthplace. Being in One means resting on her laurels, and she's not satisfied with that.