Varity Crane

Varity Crane is a tribute made by PoisonedPoetry. Please do not use her without permission.

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Name: Varity Crane

District: 9

Gender: Female

Age: 14

Personality: As a person, Varity is the most determined person you’ll ever meet: She refuses to back down from any situation if she has a goal to meet. Resilient and courageous, she would fight lions if it meant she could reach her targets. Of course this means that she is prepared to take risks; however it would be a bit of a stretch to say that she was reckless. Unfortunately, this does make her a confrontational person in situations where it may not be so wise. Despite her rough-and-tough attitude to taking on problems, Varity is a supportive and selfless individual. She spends a lot of her spare time helping her family out and that will no doubt translate into the arena. Grouped with her generous kindness, she becomes a badass mother-hen who isn’t afraid to dirty her hands. She is also a social person who loves to have a nice chat every now and then, often to check up on other people and lift their spirits.

There are, of course, a few setbacks to Varity’s personality: She has a tendency to bottle up her emotions to an unhealthy extent. As of now, she is hiding any aspects of her personality that show her innermost turmoils: Sorrow and self-conscience. Her family issues have taken a toll on Varity’s joy and as a result, she often doubts herself and whether or not she deserves anything to her efforts. On a different note, Varity can be easily distracted by notable changes in the environment and her own thoughts. She has a tendency to stop on the spot if she is too deep in thought with an irrelevant topic. Varity also has issues with her intelligence: She takes a while to learn new things as she never had the best educational background. Finally, contrary to her kind nature, Varity can be unempathetic when it comes to other people’s matters: She has a difficult time understanding what other people are going through and adjusting her words to suit the occasion. She is also confused if other people don’t have the same thought process that she does. Overall, she is a determined and caring individual who doesn’t realise that she also needs support.

Height: 5’4

Weight:85 Ibs (Underweight)

Appearance: Varity is an average-looking girl who looks like the ‘neighbour-next-door’ trope. She has wavy sunset blonde locks that go down to her chest. There are several layers trimmed into her hair, although these are cut unevenly. Her warm eyes are sterling blue and exhibit a reassuring warmth. Also warm is her fair skin, devoid of acne save for a few spots across her jawline and neck. Along her skin, you can spot a few faint scratches, cuts and bruises resulting from a few scraps she has gotten into. Overall, she may appear plain on the eyes, but a few people could consider her pretty.

Dominant hand: Right-handed

Weapon(s): Sickle, scythe

Strengths: Varity’s greatest asset is her determination: Even if things seem hopeless, she won’t stop resisting until she gets out of the situation or dies trying. Surprisingly for a girl from district 9, Varity also knows some basic combat skills. This comes from the number of times she had to fight others for food. The combat also means she has a great level of pain resistance, as she has grown used to receiving injuries.

Weaknesses: Varity has a lower intelligence than most teenagers her age. Due to being poor and busy caring for her dad, she was unable to get a proper education and is therefore slow to learn things. As well as this, she has a tendency to bottle up her emotions. If the pressure gets too much, she will break down into tears and be completely vulnerable. Varity also has poor eyesight, only able to see 3 metres in front of her before her vision gets blurry.

Fear(s): Anger, going blind, developing a mental illness

Reaction to Fears: Anger: Relates more to the anger of other people. If one of her allies grows infuriated, she will flinch and freeze on the spot. Her words will get stuck in her throat and she will start to shiver. If the anger is directed to her, her heart will race faster and she will go pale. She’ll get light-headed until she faints on the spot. This fear stems from the many arguments Varity overheard between her parents.

Going Blind: Applies to all forms of blindness. If she were to go blind, Varity would at first be in denial. However, once she accepts it she will have a panic attack and weep uncontrollably on the spot. She would also be afraid to move until someone makes contact with her or until she gets some sort of stick, after which she’d amble along to her own pace. This fear stems from Varity’s poor eyesight leaving her in awkward and dangerous situations.

Developing a mental illness: Even the thought of mental illness leaves Varity in shivers, although she is more saddened by the idea rather than in fear. However, she is scared of how the consequences of it would affect her if she developed one. If she ended up developing a mental illness, she would grow more silent and freeze on the spot, albeit temporarily. After that, it’s a case of how the illness will warp her. This fear stems from the suicide of Varity’s sister and the alcoholism of her father.

Allergies: Hayfever, insect stings

Training Strategy: During training, Varity will focus on most stations except for weaponry, since she already has some knowledge of sickles and scythes. Her first focus will be to find a large alliance she can rely on. It doesn’t matter whether she requests or is requested, as long as she has someone to team with. If another tribute tries to cause trouble for her or her allies, she is likely to confront the provoker head on.

Private Training Strategy: In private training, Varity will aim for a reasonably low score (5-6). To achieve this, she will demonstrate a mediocre ability with a scythe, purposefully missing some targets, barely scraping others and getting a handful of good hits. Once done, she will smile at the gamemakers and leave early.

Interview Angle: In the interviews, Varity will continue to play up the wildcard weakling card. She will be friendly and constantly throw compliments towards the Capitol and its people, although internally she will feel bad about lying about her true opinions. She’ll also play up her family’s issues for sympathy points, although she won’t go into details to protect their privacy. It’s likely that, if pushed far enough, she’ll have a major breakdown on stage and lose control of herself. It may take her well after the interview finishes to finally calm down. However, this is dependent on how nosy the interviewer is. If Varity manages to reach the end of the interview without any hiccups, she will blow a kiss to the crowd and wave to everyone.

Bloodbath Strategy: This strategy depends on what her allies are planning. If the majority want to avoid all deaths, she will only go for the closest supplies to her and then reunite with her allies. If her alliance wants to play a riskier strategy, Varity is willing to go as deep into the action as possible, provided she has at least two other allies with her. She’ll go for as many supplies as she could carry. If a career is nearby, she will make sure she isn’t carrying too much. She won’t try to fight the other tributes, but if someone picks a fight with her you can bet she is going to fight for her life. Once she has all the supplies the team needs, she’ll flee to the outskirts or towards her allies if they are gathered together.

Games Strategy: Throughout the games, Varity will remain a good teamplayer for her allies.

Alliance: Large alliance/Anti-careers

Token: Father’s wristwatch. He passed it down to her only a month before the Reaping. It’s a small white clock face on a cheap leather strap, but it still means a lot to her as it gives her motivation to return home and help her family more.

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Showmance: Maybe. Could be mutual or one-sided

Other quirks: N/A

Family/Associates: Olis Crane: Father, Rylee Gluto: Mother, Charity Crane: Elder sister, Harmony Crane: Elder sister (Deceased)

Backstory
TBA

Backstory Summary

 * When she was born, Varity found herself in a poor working class family. As well as her parents, Olis and Rylee, she had two elder sisters: Charity (12 years older) and Harmony (7 years older)
 * Olis was a harvester whilst Rylee was a carpenter who made carts to carry the harvest in. Charity would help teach kids that were younger than her. Harmony made garlands that she would try to sell at a market.
 * When Varity was 8, Harmony committed suicide for reasons that were unknown to her at the time.
 * Rylee and Charity took this news hard and went into mourning. Varity was sad, but she didn’t fully understand death or the idea that Harmony took her life. However, Olis took this news the hardest.
 * 1 ½ years later, Olis discovered the joys of booze and used it to cope. Though it started out in small doses, he quickly grew accustomed to being drunk and not giving a damn. Whenever he was drunk, he was an emotional, sobbing mess.
 * Alcohol was expensive. As soon as he realised he couldn’t afford it, Olis decided to steal some of the wheat to brew his own, much to the chagrin of his family. He had explosive arguments with Rylee, with the latter being much more furious than he was. Whilst Charity often took her mum’s side, Varity just hid away and cried until the arguing ended.
 * Disgusted with his behaviour, Rylee and Charity kicked him out of the house. Varity was confused as to why he couldn’t stay with them. A couple of days later, she wandered off on her own and discovered Olis close to an illegal tavern, completely blacked out. She was afraid of what had happened and called for help, but no one came. She eventually got too scared of being by herself, so she fled back home.
 * Over time, she would sneak out of the house to find her dad and give him some of her leftovers. On the few occasions he hadn’t drunk himself into a glazen stupor, he was surprised to see his daughter and begged her to return home.
 * When Rylee found out about Varity’s visits, she angrily forbade her from talking to or helping her dad again. However, she would just make up lies about where she was headed to (A friend’s house, a playground, etc.)
 * Varity realised that both parties were struggling: Olis had been sacked and was forced to work in a job with low pay. Rylee’s carts were still selling, although she couldn’t make them at a quick enough pace to keep up with the costs of timber and food. Charity suffered a pay cut as the school was unable to keep up with maintenance costs. With no other choice, Varity was made to ploug, sow and harvest the fields and take out multiple tesserae.
 * It also became evident that both parties were telling horrible lies or assumptions about the other. Varity chose to ignore these and only trust her heart and gut.
 * In order to gather food for both parties, Varity would get into scraps with other desperate children in order to grab leftover food or dropped change. As a result, she became competent in combat from learning about tactics her opponents tended to use.
 * One day, when Varity was 13, Otis got into a really rough state. So rough, that he became a furious drunk instead of a sad one. He kept shouting at Varity and throwing stuff at her, leaving her terrified for her life.
 * Varity rushed home and told Rylee about the outburst. Rylee snapped and said she already warned Varity away from Otis multiple times. Instead of supporting her, she grounded Varity except for days where she needed to work.
 * Varity started to believe that it was her fault both families were in terrible shape. She thought both sides were disappointed in her, hence why they kept pushing her away.
 * Eventually, her grounding was lifted and she was allowed outside again. When she searched for her dad in his usual spot, she was surprised to see he wasn’t there for once. Though she kept searching the nearby neighbourhood, she couldn’t find him.
 * Varity broke down and sobbed on the spot, when a young man, early 20’s, approached her. He started making lewd comments and referred to Varity as Harmony. The two had appeared virtually identical when Harmony was alive, down to their hair. In disbelief, she turned to face the boy.
 * He kept whispering to himself about how she had returned after “all this time” and how young she had become. Catching on to his lewd comments, Varity became infuriated and let out an almighty roar as she lunged for the stranger and started trying to attack him. However he was able to defeat her in battle and began to drag her away. That was when a person intervened, knocking the man to the floor and severely beating him up.
 * After her saviour was finished, Varity looked up to see her dad. She gave him a massive hug which he returned, and the two fled the scene before the man could be discovered.
 * When Varity told Otis about what the boy had said, something struck a nerve in Otis: He realised what Harmony had gone through, although he refused to tell Varity. He kept saying he wished he “killed that bastard" and reached for a bottle, which Varity snatched before he could get to it. She insisted that he stop drinking and instead open up to her.
 * Otis agreed and told Varity he kept trying to give up alcohol, although he kept returning to it after suffering from withdrawal symptoms. No employers would take him on, so he had to sell his alcohol for money. This made him tempted to drink, although he could sometimes suppress it. Varity had just prevented him from breaking a 2 day streak, the longest he had gone in a while.
 * She pledged to support him wherever she could, often by selling alcohol to the taverns for a quick income. Days and even weeks passed where it seemed like Olis was recovering, only for him to fall back into booze by sneaking a swig where possible. Varity was stumped on how to get him to stop for good.
 * As both parents were low on money, Varity was constantly trying to balance out the supplies between them, although there were days in which she couldn’t provide much and had to offer it all to one party.
 * When she was reaped, Varity expected it since she had taken out so many tessarae. However, she was still trying to fix her family so being reaped was a crushing blow to her.
 * Before she got on the train, Varity was visited by her family together. There was still tension between Rylee and Olis, but they were trying to push it back for Varity’s sake. The three of them kept assuring Varity that she could win and that she had to win. Varity nodded, although she was afraid that her death would push Olis over the edge and ensure Rylee and Charity wouldn’t be able to afford necessities without her.

Inspiration
'Elastic Heart' - Sia


 * The plot points are mainly inspired by the music video, but the lyrics also played a small part in developing Varity's character.

Trivia

 * Varity's name came from the file name of the lunaii, which I won from auction.
 * In the original version of the backstory, Varity was going to be completely split from Rylee and Charity, therefore never seeing them again until reaping day. This was changed as I thoguht it would be difficult to describe how an 8 year old could survive on the streets with an alcoholic father.