Anabel Jay

Appearance
At 21 years old, Anabel looks more like a well-aged 10-year-old due to her size. At first glance, no one would ever guess she'd won the 139th Hunger Games. She has extremely pale skin, almost white, and bright orangey-red hair. It falls just past her shoulders in perfect curls -- not waves, and not insanely curly, but soft, loose ringlets. She wears lots of black eyeliner around each liquidy-brown eye; an attempt to make herself look older. Even as a redhead -- where freckles are nearly law -- Anabel's skin bears no blemishes. No birthmarks, freckles or zits. She looks, in many ways (especially in the eyes of men), perfect.

Background
Born to a previous victor (of the 108th Hunger Games) and his wife, Anabel knew from an early age exactly how horrifying the Games are. She learned to fear the loss that a tribute felt when tehir allies betrayed them, or were killed. She learned to admire the strength it required to remain somewhat untainted after murdering someone you only knew as "the male tribute from District 6." And, most importantly, she learned to defend herself.

Her father's greatest fear in having the one child he did was that his child would be selected in the reaping. No matter how many times his wife told him that the odds were slim and it was near pointless to teach their daughter to defend herself, he continued to live with this fear. The day his precious Anabel turned five, he began to train her. Each year brought a new weapon. Three-hundred sixty-five days, minus Sundays, gave Anabel a lot of time to master each weapon. Saturdays were review days, and each Monday brought a new lesson on how to adjust her hold on the hilt of a blade, how to pull back the string of a bow just so, how to feel comfortable with a dagger in her right hand.

By the time Anabel turned twelve, a week and a half before the reaping of the 137th Hunger Games, she'd mastered everything from a steak knife to a bow and arrow to a two-handed sword. She would be able to defend herself with an acorn hat if she needed to. But she wasn't reaped. Her father breathed a sigh of relief, mentored the two tributes of that year, and continued to teach her, with every other day as review for one of the many weapons she could handle.

The next year, the same thing happened. But the year after that brought Anabel's name on three slips of paper in thousands, brought tears and goodbyes and a long train ride to the Capitol. And the one person Anabel didn't have to say goodbye to? Her father.

How horrible would it be to mentor your own child in the bloodbath of the Hunger Games? Not many people know, but Asiago Jay did his best.

And after exactly 221 hours in the arena, at exactly 7:00 AM on a moderately-weathered day in April, with everyone in all of Panem watching their TV screens with baited breath, Anabel was facing off against District 2's Jebidah Evans-Shade. Jebidah was a Career, and a good match for Anabel. The fight in that tiny, perfectly circular clearing in the far south-east corner of the arena was even, and only luck determined the winner.

Jebidah swung his long, straight blade towards Anabel. She jumped back and aimed her last arrow -- she'd lost the rest taking down other tributes from afar -- and shot. The arrow, aimed for his heart, stuck in his shoulder as he twisted to escape it. Anabel was weaponless. She turned to flee, picking up small stones as she went. Then she scrambled halfway up a tree to wait. When Jebidah was close enough, she pelted his head with rocks until he fell unconscious. Then she leaped from the tree, plucked her arrow from his shoulder, and fought dirty, stabbing him with his own sword.

Sometimes Jebidah still appears in her dreams.

Personality
Growing up in Victor's Village with no need to work in the coal mines of District 12, no children around to play with, and nothing to do but learn how to handle dangerous weapons, Anabel should have grown up a spoiled, rich brat. But she's not.

She may not have a single close friend in all of District 12, but she is looked up to by many. Not for murdering the six people she did in the 139th annual Hunger Games, but for the "charity work" she's done in her district.

Every morning, she packs her bags with any food from her pantry that doesn't spoil -- living alone in her house in Victor's Village in between her parents and Haymitch Abernathy with enough food to feed a bear, she has lots of food to spare. Then she heads out to each family to drop off care packages. One day she'll hit the shops, the next day the Seam. The people of the Seam receive more than the merchants, because the merchants are more well-off to begin with. She also knows quite a bit about medicines and healing, so every time someone is hurt and doesn't have the money to pay the doctor's bill, they show up at Anabel's front door.

For her, the only two perks to being a victor are the ability to travel, and the way she can help the people of District 12.

Likes

 * long walks
 * helping the people of her district
 * drawing and painting
 * her father
 * the ocean

Dislikes

 * killing
 * mentoring tributes
 * watching each year's Games
 * the Capitol parties
 * her nightmares