Lina Sparks

Ignorance Is Bliss
Karl and Kleia Sparks had always wanted a child. Karl was a head of research develepment in District Five, and having invented a new video chip implant that could project images as well as merely flashing it across the owner's eyes, he and his wife were established enough to welcome a child into their lives. The couple tried for many years, and were finally able to give birth to Karolina Sparks when Kleia was thirty-seven.

Finally having what they wanted, Karl worked extra hard to provide for the increase in their family, and Kleia spent as much time as she could with her little girl. As a child, Lina seldom went without. She discovered early on that she loved to sketch. Not draw, for that indicated that the art form was found in the completed product being pleasing to the eye. This was not Lina's chief concern, and her sketches were quickly noted to be a child's rendering of blueprints. She loved to mentally take things apart, and draw out how they worked, and make notes of how things could be changed and modified.

It was a talent that her parents steadily encouraged. Lina was a dreamer of sorts, and it was wired directly in her nature to improve upon things. In school, she was drawn to another child who seemed to be lost in his own mind. While Zephyrinus Hund was building, Lina was sitting right beside him drawing. To call them friends would have been a strong word. Lina was clever, and sweet, and cheerful - she was too timid to follow Zephyrinus on his explorations, and so their association remained strictly that of sitting together in classes, both enjoying the quiet and the creative atmosphere.

In many ways, however, Zephyrinus was the closest thing that Lina had to a friend in those years. She didn't enjoy playing with the other little girls. They looked at a thing and saw only what it was; they teased Lina for seeing a thing and noting what it could become. The other children were too afraid of the occasional offhand comment that Lina would make about the improvement of Panem. It wasn't the voice of a dissenter, merely the thoughts of an inventor, of a girl who felt born to improve upon the established order of things - all things, physical as well as political and idealogical.

In Lina's mind, there was only the realm of possibility. However, there was one possibility, probability really, that she never considered.

Innocence Lost
One crisp afternoon, Lina stood with the other children waiting for the names to be drawn from the Reaping. Dreamy, foolish, detached Lina never really felt nervous about the event, though it was possibile that her name could be drawn. The odds were in her favour, for she'd never taken tessarae. Still, this day would change her forever. The Escort, silly and strange as always, called a name that Lina knew well.

Zephyrinus Hund

The odds, it seemed, were not in his family's favour. His sister before him had gone to the arena, and Lina recalled sitting as close to him and his family as she could for some sort of comfort to offer. She vaguely remembered once holding his hand for a few minutes while his sister narrowly escaped death, only to fall victim to the foul creature a day or two later.

But today, it was Zeph's turn to walk up to the stage. Terror ripped through Lina, for the first time grounding her firmly in reality for the speech. She wasn't allowed in to say goodbyes. Her parents thought it would be better for her, and besides, she and Zephyrinus hadn't exactly been friends, just close to it. The District seemed to shut down, and everyone spoke as though Zeph were already dead. During the events of the Games, Lina pressed herself tight between her parents, face drawn and pale. Food didn't stay down as she watched her friend run and fight for his life.

It was almost like the first time she was seeing the atrocities, and her fondness for Zephyrinus kept her from mentally retreating into the world she lived in where everything had potential and opportunities. For those days, she felt as though nothing did. Everyone wrote Zephyrinus off as gone, even in our interviews. Nobody thought he'd actually managed to pick off the Careers. She clung to a slender thread of hope, which reflected in all that she said and did during the dark days.

Interview With An Innocent
The camera crews focus in on the slender girl with the dreamy, unfocused brown eyes. Her face is pale, but she manages a shy smile. It's obvious that her father's arm around her shoulder roots her to the spot, that she wishes she could press herself against his side and hide her face.

"So, Karolina, tell us about your friend Zephyrinus."

For a moment, it seems as though she won't say anything. It seems as though trepidation and sorrow have crossed her face, but she recovers and her eyes focus in on the camera.

"He calls me Lina." She offers a shy smile, something to invite the reporter in to a closer confidence, to give the Capitol a nickname. Familiarity. It's a sweet effect, especially with the shy smile. It's a clever tactic, to use her time on camera to buy some Capitol affection, to perhaps provide more sponsors for her friend.

"Alright, Lina, so Zephyrinus has been your friend for how long?"

There's a birdlike shrug of her shoulders, a brief shifting of her weight. She's thinking, either puzzling out what answer will win the Tribute the most sympathy, or genuinely struggling to do the math. In a moment, it is apparent that neither is the case.

"I suppose it depends on what you mean by friend. I've known him my whole life, and mostly we just sit together. I-I like to draw, and he likes to build things, so I draw what he builds. We've only really started talking recently."

She's hoping he'll come home. The words bring to mind hope that Zephyrinus will return, that there will be more prolonged conversations, more contraptions to draw, perhaps when they're older, something more intimate and sweet. The hint of hope in her words is like the faint taste of cinnamon. Warm, and spicy, barely there and difficult to trace. Impossible to remove.

"If he comes home, what do you think will happen between the two of you?"

The girl blushes slightly, more shy smiles. It's quite becoming, and for a girl who's never had a reason to do so before, it is clear she knows how to cater to the cameras and the audience.

"We'll sit together still, when he comes home. We're too young to think about more than that. Maybe someday we'll talk about it."

The subtle when, the careful deflection of the comment - freeing either one from future obligation, and further endearing the Capitol, making use of her own youthful innocence. She has deliberately and cautiously done her best to keep Zephyrinus Hund alive.

Purpose Found
The conclusion of the Hunger Games left Lina weak and giddy with relief. Zephyrinus would return different than he had gone away. Ending five lives, suffering the injuries and the trauma....Lina was confident that he would return a bit battered, very scarred, and even possibly broken. She made herself available to him whenever she could, keeping Zeph company after classes, bringing him sketches. Lina never mentioned the Games, she'd wait for him to do so.

As she promised in her interview, she never bothered Zephyrinus with any further intentions beyond the tentative friendship they'd maintained over the years. Whether or not she even felt the desire for anything beyond that is questionable, and she's never given any indication one way or another. After leaving school, Lina took on a job in a Research and Development department in the District, and now her days are spent sketching and designing and modifying. It's her dream job, but not the passion she always thought it would be. Rather, she's begun to find herself thinking more about Panem.

Although she learned after the Hunger Games featuring Zephyrinus to speak carefully, thoughts of the flaws in the government have never truly left her mind. Rather, her mind is often flooded with revisions and modifications. She has come to loathe the Capitol for the things they have done, for the things they have made others do.

What she does with that loathing remains to be seen.