Cassia Galloway

I fought because it liberated me.
I didn't come to *play* the game.
I came to **win**.

General (formerly)

Mayor of District 2 (formerly)

Academy Trainor (formerly)

Hunger Games Mentor (formerly)

**Cassia Eliana Alexandra "Cas" Galloway** is the Vice President of the Capitol and an esteemed victor of the 63rd Annual Hunger Games. She is widely respected and feared due to her victory in the Games and her ruthless determination and leadership. She has also served as Mayor of District 2 and, more recently, a general of the Capitol. Cassia is completely loyal to the Capitol and she fights diligently in the second rebellion alongside her allegiance.

## Backstory

### **Early Life**

*"And who might the girl be? With the unmistakable fire in her eyes?"*
*"Cassia Galloway, Sir, of the wealthy Galloways—Antonius and Calista. Filthy rich citizens, respected peacekeepers, and expert fighters. Their daughter will no doubt have the same promise."*
—Two District 2 Academy Professors about Cassia
Cassia Eliana Alexandra Galloway was born on the evening of May 27th in 46 ADD to Antonius and Calista Galloway. Both Antonius and Calista were raised while training in the District 2 Academy in order to become Peacekeepers. They grew up together, for they were in the same year, and they eventually established a very deep connection to one another. They kept their relationship a secret for a long time because Peacekeepers were meant to serve the state for twenty years before getting married or having children. Despite their attempts at secrecy, there were always countless rumours circling of a relationship going on between them.

When Calista became pregnant at the age of twenty-four, she was terrified. Peacekeepers were not supposed to have loyalties to anything or anyone other than Panem and the Capitol. Bearing a child meant compromising those loyalties. Despite Antonius loving his career as a high-ranking Peacekeeper, his love for Calista and for their unborn child was greater than that of his work. Antonius had also wished for a long time that he and Calista could eventually be married. He explained to her that he felt it was best for them to tell the Capitol of their relationship and to request to be granted an exception to the state law. He figured that because of their wealthy, well known families and the respect the Capitol had for them, they would surely be opted out of the rule. Soon enough, Antonius' prediction turned out to be well-founded.

The Capitol granted Antonius and Calista the ability to marry, but only because it would greatly please Panem, for many of its citizens were rooting for their relationship. The Capitol also allowed them to have one child. This was also not just given out of the goodness of their hearts. They figured that a child of two expert fighters, such as Antonius and Calista, would be a very promising tribute candidate for the revered Hunger Games. The Capitol made Antonius promise that he would work a lot more and a lot harder to make up for Calista's eventual leave. Without hesitation, he immediately agreed. Cassia Galloway was born six months later.

Being a District 2 native and the daughter of respected peacekeepers, most things in life came quite easy to the young girl. As well as that, Cassia also grew up without any siblings, so her parents spoiled her rotten. She was not told "no" a single day in her life. Because her parents were so thankful for their daughter, they simply couldn't help it. Antonius and Calista wanted their child to have absolutely everything that she wanted. It did not seem to be a bad thing at first, for it made their daughter happy, but it eventually only fed the young Galloway's ego, making her extremely vain.

Cassia was a ruthless child, demanding things from anyone who would tell her that she could not do or have something that she desired. She would lash out on anyone until she got exactly what she wanted. Luckily, as Cassia matured, this extreme conceitedness fed into her eventual unbreakable determination and ambition. She still had a narcissistic air to her, but many citizens of District 2 bore the same quality simply because of their vast wealth. Cassia grew up to be a confident, proud, and driven young woman, though at times, she often came off as quite harsh and intimidating.

### **The Academy**

*"You have shown us promise. Now show us that you can **win**."*
—District 2 Academy Mentor to Cassia
Cassia was put into the Academy as soon as her parents were able to do so as it was important to Antonius and Calista that their daughter got as much training as they could possibly give her. Being Peacekeepers themselves, they hoped that their daughter would follow in their footsteps. Of course, there was also the possibility of Cassia getting the opportunity to be a tribute in the Hunger Games. It was the greatest honour any teenager could have, especially for those in District 2. Like most parents in the second district, Antonius and Calista would have been overjoyed if their daughter was chosen for the Games. It really spoke wonders about how truly corrupt the career districts were. Even though Cassia's parents loved and adored her, they would be honoured to have their daughter fight in the Games—even with the possibility of her death.

Watching the Games every year was something Cassia grew very fond of. Each year, the Hunger Games was a celebration across District 2, so of course, being such a respected and well-known family, the Galloways followed suit. Cassia dreamed of being a tribute and her parents encouraged it. Even though they were generally nice people, they were still obsessed with being well-liked. They fantasized what it would be like to be the parents of the glorified winner of the Hunger Games and, similarly, Cassia wanted to be respected and admired as an esteemed victor. She was willing to do whatever it took to get what she wanted.

Cassia began her training in the Academy fairly slowly. Her parents had hoped that she would be at the top of her class, but she was nowhere near above average. Cassia was trained by her parents outside of the Academy, but as a child, she was just too small and she did not have the endurance for successful sparring matches. The professors and trainers did not even care to learn her name for her first few years. That was what happened when children were not memorable in the sparring ring. However, Cassia was determined. As she grew physically and matured mentally, she became stronger in every sense. Each training session, she improved in stamina, strategy, and skill. Year after year, every Hunger Games in which she was of age to fight in passed, and Cassia was not reaped for any of them—the 58th, the 59th, the 60th... but she was not ready to quit. Cassia was going to fight in the Games one way or another. Even if she was not picked, she had a plan to volunteer on the year of her eighteenth birthday—the last year in which she would be eligible.

When Cassia was sixteen, the District 2 tributes for the 62nd Annual Hunger Games were chosen and, once again, she was not picked. Her plan to volunteer the year of the 64th Hunger Games seemed grand at the time, but she was beginning to get restless. Because of that, Cassia entered a phase where she began training relentlessly. She wanted to be as ready as possible before volunteering, for *winning* was the only option. Cassia began training all hours of the night, not caring about a regular sleep schedule. She could not afford to lose training time for sleep. Both Antonius and Calista were glad that Cassia was starting to take training more seriously, but they had to explain to her that she would make herself sick if she kept neglecting sleep. They warned her that if she fell ill, then she would be set back and wouldn't be able to master her skills as she so desired to. This warranted quite the heated argument between Cassia and her parents. The young Galloway was stubborn and would not admit that her parents were right. She insisted that, in order for her to win the Hunger Games, she had to work her ass off; that things were not going to go her way if she sat back and relaxed. It was not until she met a Peacekeeper by the name of Timotheus Stauber, when Cassia finally realized she needed to take care of herself. As much as she hated to admit it, her parents were right. Her lack of sleep was already getting to her and she needed to be at the absolute height of her game if she was going to feel ready to volunteer.

Cassia's hard work certainly paid off. Within a few mere months, every mentor and trainer was talking about the daughter of the respected Galloways. She made an exponential climb to the top of her class and, by the time District 2 had to pick their tributes, Cassia was one of the best students in the District. She had an unshakable confidence that she was ready to fight in the Games and that she was going to win. Thinking anything other than that would have been an absolute detriment. All Cassia had to do was announce that she volunteered to fight and she was set to compete... at least, that was how she had envisioned it.

After the tributes were chosen, Cassia immediately volunteered, but what she did not expect was for Dionysus Pyrrhic, the boy she had been going out with at the time, to announce that he would like to volunteer as well. District 2 and the Capitol liked to shake things up every year and, this year, they wanted at least one tribute to be reluctant to fight in the games—that made for good television. Because of this, they were only going to allow one of the volunteers to fight. Cassia and Dionysus would have to fight for their spot in the Hunger Games

Cassia felt betrayed by her boyfriend, but it was never his intention to hurt her. She did not know it, but Dionysus only volunteered because he did not wish to watch the girl he loved die. Before the fight, Cassia believed that she was in love with Dionysus, but she realized very quickly that her need to put herself before others and the lust to feel the glory of the Games was stronger than her love for anyone... or so she thought.

As their match began, Cassia felt a pang in her heart that she did not quite understand. It was true that she felt deceived, but she also had this strange sinking feeling at the thought of Dionysus fighting and risking his life in the Hunger Games. The fight between the couple went on until he was able to get Cassia down. All he had to do was end the fight and he would be a tribute in the Games, replacing Darius Markham, who was the reaped male tribute. However, Cassia was not going to give up without using every strategy in her repertoire. She began manipulating Dionysus, crying and begging as she told him that they did not have to finish the fight—that the tributes were already chosen and they could just stay the way they were. Dionysus helped Cassia up and pulled her into an embrace. Their relationship was strong at that time, so there was no reason for him not to trust Cassia. Though, perhaps it was foolish, because Cassia ended up stabbing her boyfriend in the back both literally and figuratively, replacing the originally chosen female tribute.

Cassia had won. She was officially a District 2 tribute in the 63rd Annual Hunger Games.

### **The 63rd Annual Hunger Games**

#### **The Parade**

When Cassia arrived in the Capitol, she was immediately whisked away by her prep team in order to get ready for the Tribute Parade. She was met by her stylist, Gaius, who was inspired by Cassia's beauty and strength. Typically, the tributes from District 2 would be clad in tacky gladiator costumes with winged helmets, but with Cassia in mind, Gaius designed badass, warrior-like armour for her and her district partner, Darius Markham.

The costumes featured a fingerless black glove on one arm and a metal-plated sleeve with a spiked shoulder on the other. They had a chest plate that sat below the face like a shield and a fur collar to compliment it. The boots were tiered, sharp, and intimidating and on the waist of the costume flowed a tattered and nearly-floor-length train. The costumes were asymmetrical alone, but together, they looked like two halves of a whole. They were statement pieces, surely made to make a memorable impression—and that they did.

Gaius came up with another idea that would make Cassia and Darius stand out amongst the twenty-four tributes. Before the parade began, Cassia and Darius dipped their exposed index fingers in a thick, dark red liquid, and as they rode down the street in their chariot, they wiped a horizontal line over the bridge of their nose as if to symbolize blood. It was a very powerful message to the other tributes, and a winning gesture to the Capitol.

Cassia and Darius were told right away that they should feign a brewing relationship with one another in order to draw fans and sponsors to them. Cassia was ready to do anything to win over the crowd. In the parade, the district 2 tributes clasped hands immediately after they drew on their red streaks immediately becoming favourites amongst the citizens of Panem.

**Training**

Cassia woke up the next morning ecstatic to begin training sessions for the games. Her mentor told both her and Darius to stand out as best they could while still holding back slightly in order to look even better during their private sessions. (tba)

## Significant Relationships

### **Aella Rogue**

Old lover/ best girl friend. Only person she's really that loyal to

## Victims

### **The Hunger Games**

**Claudia Arlott**

Cas thew knife at her head
**Add some more tributes**

Cas is a bad bitch, she killed. a few ya know ya know
**Darius Markham**

This one is big sad :(