Mine are the Words
By Vifetoile
Disclaimer: Probably everyone has put their own spin on Foxface, but here is mine. What can we say, she's one of the biggest enigmas of the series. This story will involve shameless quoting of books that I love. I don't own any of them, nor do I own the Hunger Games. Also, a large part may have simply been inspired by the fact that Foxface's name in the French translation is "La Reynarde" – literally, the female counterpart of Reynard, the dashing fox hero who always outwits his rivals.
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Stage One: Her Interview (with footnotes)
Caesar Flickerman, all big smile and coordinated colors, watched the girl from District 5 approach. She wore black and white, to let the bright red color of her hair shine. Her smile was quirked to the right, and her amber eyes studied him calmly.
"So," he said, "District Five, Renata Scrivener." (1)
"That's me," (2) she answered, making a tiny bow.
"You've been looking wide-eyed all around you ever since you got here, taking in everything. A little living camera!" he points to her, looks at the audience, as if to say The darnedest thing! "What impresses you the most about the Capitol since you got here?"
She takes a minute to consider,(3) curling her left fist under her chin like a little fox's paw. "The tattoos," she answers. "My stylist has got these amazing tattoos all over her arms and her face. If I win, I'll get tattoos like that." (4)
"Fabulous! I'd love to get some tats myself, but, y'know, the audience relies on this face year after year," Caesar shrugged.
"Hey, some things are too good to change," Renata answers.
The audience gives a big laugh at that. Caesar does, too.
"You saucy thing! So what do you like to do back home?"
"Oh…" she answers languidly. "Studying… (5) playing games… (6) helping out my auntie." (7) She waves to the camera. "Hi, Auntie!" (8)
"Almost out of time, now. Before we go, why don't you tell me about that hand there?"
Renata holds up her left hand. Her index finger and middle finger are missing the first two joints. "I cut off the tops of these fingers by accident with a paper slicer when I was seven. I bled so much… but I didn't scream once." (9)
"Wow! There you have it! I think this redhead has more than a few surprises in store for us. Go on, have a seat. Next up…"
ooo
(1) District Five names tend to be old, passed down in families. Renata is named for her mother, her great-grandmother, a great-great aunt, and so on.
(2) Renata likes her name. She knows all the tales of Reynard the Fox, and likes to think he was her real namesake. She never learns her nickname is "Foxface," but she would approve heartily. She also has the same name as a character in the novel Reaper Man, which she has read but doesn't really understand yet.
(3) She's torn between the profusion of food, the libraries everyone seems to carry around on their cellular phones, or the absolute idiocy run rampant.
(4) The tattoos will be calligraphy.
(5) Renata gets very good grades, which rather unnerves her teachers. It's one thing for a girl to be insolent, sly, and talk back, but being smart too? It's just too much.
(6) She loves chess. Is bad at Rock-Paper-Scissors.
(7) Renata's mother died giving birth to her. Her father raised her with his sister, before his death. She and Auntie Gwen are all they've got.
(8) Auntie Gwen has raised Renata to be her successor in the black-market vocation she has. Auntie Gwen copies out books.
And Renata loves books. She loves being surrounded by them, reading them, sending them out all over Panem to where someone will see them and learn, and she especially loves getting new books. She can stay up all night, lose a weekend, to sitting at an antique typewriter and copying out the words of another, line after line, page after page. To be reading and writing at once… so what if she has carpal tunnel at age 14… It's worth it to know she's spreading books like candles, like fire, keeping up a never-ending flame.
(9) This is true.