Please tell me anything you can about Laine…I’ve been wondering about her since I saw that TikTok (I was the one who asked if she lost an eye)
does she make it past the 75th games?
Aw wait this makes me so happy!! I'm glad to know you're curious about her. Here's a bit of information about her story:
Laine's a 16 year old girl when she's reaped for the 53rd Games. She was born tiny and frail to a sick textile mill worker in District 8. Because her mother was barely ever home, she was mostly brought up by her older brother, Bell. When it became clear she was struggling in school, Bell was the one to realize that Laine’s eyesight was impaired and gradually worsening. Her RP went undiagnosed, obviously. She did work briefly making Peacekeeper uniforms—however, she was eventually relieved of her job when it became clear her eyesight was deteriorating due to cataracts she’d developed on top of her initial condition. It would only slow down production and lead to some disaster.
So Laine grew up sheltered, despite her protests. She tried to assist Bell where she could, because she hated sitting still and feeling helpless. She pushes herself to keep stitching and moving on her off time, trying to train her hands via muscle memory. She spends time talking to her neighbors. She knows she's intelligent, and she doesn't want to lose that edge.
When she's reaped, no one thinks she’ll survive. Bell is 19, so he can't volunteer to protect her, even though he wants to. Fortunately, her district partner, an eighteen-year-old boy named Tais Webber, is a neighbor who knows Bell from working in the same factory. He promises to protect Laine in the Games, and the two make a pact. When they get to the Capitol, Laine's odds don't improve; the audience finds her pretty and somewhat charismatic, but her training score is a whopping 3 after tying some decent knots, and her interview keeps circling back around to her blindness, despite her efforts to distract from it. It's enough to get her one or two pity sponsors during her Games, but she isn't even that attractive as a risky underdog until after they begin.
Her Games are hosted during an experimental year, utilizing a completely dark arena, rife with cavernous passageways and mutts that resemble nocturnal creatures. So it evens the playing ground a bit; tributes are given flashlights in the backpacks they retrieve at the Bloodbath, but a single light could give you away in the darkness. A funny detail is I imagine the 53rd Games were thought to be lame as hell in post because the Capitol audience hated to see half of the action in infrared or whatever funky editing they had to resort to. Regardless, it's a good year in terms of ‘characters’, and Laine comes out of it as a fan favorite due to her unlikely victory.
She and Tais had relied on each other for the first half, but after his lungs were crushed during a Gamemaker-induced shift of the arena’s underground cave system, she was left on her own. The shift spooked many tributes away from the caves, but Laine knew she’d have to face them as soon as she popped out, and she did NOT love her chances. Using a spear as a walking stick, she memorized paths and patterns in the design of the cave (marking some of them with thread and laces she tugged out of her jackets), listened for mutts, and discovered a source of water. Once she was confident that she knew her way around, she used Tais’ leftover supplies to create makeshift traps. Her Games ended when she provoked bat mutts into attacking her and the final boy from District 10.
When she won, she was lauded as one of the most unexpected wins ever. The Capitol audience had eaten her up in the final moments of the game, and she was suddenly a fan favorite, with the common opinion being that they’d been rooting for her all along (they were not)! Many wished for the Capitol to reward her by ‘healing’ her, but others thought her blindness was her ‘signature’ attribute, a quirk. Their opinion was that she should ‘keep it’ because it made her more memorable and even attractive, which let me just break character to say is absolutely sick in a BAD way, they're insane psychos guys. Eventually, the Capitol compromises by removing her cataracts via surgery without her consent while she's in recovery for her injuries.
She was a novelty for a few painful years during which they played up her disability for Capitolites’ enjoyment. For example, the veil they make her wear during her crowning. Instead of being recognized for her intelligence in the arena, they still see her as this defenseless, helpless girl, which only reinforces her survivor's guilt and her belief that she's a burden to those around her, like Tais and Bell. which in turn affects her future relationships. anyway, the capitol interest eventually faded, and she was grateful for it.
In terms of getting through the 75th Games...i unfortunately think she wouldn't survive the Victors' purge. :( I haven't thought about that part of her story so much though, so... it's open to reconsideration?? idk i want my girl to get a happy ending.
