#panda.

- pandora grew up in in the fields and crops of district 11, having been known in the tight-knit community as such a pretty little flower, so soft and sweet - until she was reaped for the bouquet of bloodshed that was the 75th hunger games.

- her mother had owned a small blackmarket herb business behind the peacekeeper’s backs, selling natural painkillers and medicines on the low in order to help the community, and as much food as they could salvage for a few pennies on their already meager plates. she took good care of her daughter, and as the girl grew she picked up on the knowledge of the earth like her mother before her. 

- pandora had always known the severity of the oppression that dictated her life, her district, her country. it was evident in everything around her - from the beatings and executions of her neighbors at city hall by the peacekeepers, to the trembling fear in the eyes of her old classmate as she watched him bleed out in the arena, his mother sobbing just yards away as the town was forced to watch his death broadcast in town square. she was just 12 when that had happened though. she managed to make it through her teenage years free from the clutches of the hunger games, despite having to put her name in a few more times for the rations.

- plants and herbs had always been her solace, helping her mother help others behind the capitol’s back being her small way of fighting the system as a child, something she felt obligate to do. but it wasn’t until she was 7 years old that she realized just how dangerous her beloved plants and flowers could be, innocently handing her mother a handful of nightlock berries as she traded it to a tall, shady man one night. pandora had simply smiled at him, standing politely to the side as the adults whispered frantically to each other. she didn’t think much of it at first, since that handful of nightlock ( the same batch she had specifically been sent out to pick that morning ) had been traded for a loaf of freshly baked bread as payment. the next afternoon she stood looking on in shock as she watched the dead body of the head peacekeeper lay still in the middle of town square, his mouth still stained a dark purple from the berries, and she remembers closing her eyes tightly as the other soldiers fired their rounds at the local baker’s execution.

- she knows a lot about poison ( “a woman’s weapon” she had once heard the old man down the street sneer, not that she thought murder had a gender preference ) and medicines, and has learned just how beneficial and deadly the flora and fauna around her can be when used correctly. but she liked that duality, the same concept that could be found throughout all of nature - it could be lethal, yes, and oh so dangerous. but deep down it was beautiful and raw and real, and so inherently good.

- jack was like that. pandora met jack flores after he had returned from the games. she had watched as he battled on throughout the games, her heart breaking as she realized he wouldn’t be able to save the little girl at the end of it all, and she longed to reach out to him, this older boy she had never met, and tell him it would be okay. she couldn’t have been more than 9 or 10 when they had stumbled upon each other in one of the secluded fields near victor’s village while she was out hunting for herbs, her scabbed knees and blonde braids seeming out of place compared to his new scar-free facade courtesy of the captiol. pandora simply smiled at him, and offered him a honeysuckle she had just picked from a bush nearby. since then, they formed a friendship unlike anything she could explain, a deeper connection that she couldn’t put into words yet made her feel warm and safe when he was around. she treasured jack and the beautifully raw, real, good person he was. of course, she loved jack. he was her best friend.

- when she heard her friend’s name called over the speakers at the reaping of the 75th hunger games, the same friend who had just rejoiced about her pregnancy to her in the orchards the day before, pandora volunteered before she could stop herself. she swallowed her fear and tried her best to quell the tremors in her hands as she approached the stage. she looked away as her mother fainted in the crowd, and thanked the stars that at least her final days would be spent close to jack flores. pandora thought it for the best, knowing and finding comfort in the fact that if she was sent into the arena, it meant that everyone else was safe for another year.