Felicity Worthington



Felicity Worthington is a District 2 Tribute who made her debut in Arena 09. Originating from 1896 London, she initially found it difficult to transition to life in the Capitol.

Before The Games
Felicity Mildrade Worthington was born in March 1878 to Sir George Worthington, an admiral in the British Royal Navy, and his young wife, Lady Worthington. A daughter of the social elite, her childhood was a markedly unhappy one. The naval hero Admiral Worthington was a pedophile who preyed upon his young daughter and sexually violated her over the course of several years which only ceased when she matured enough to be sent away to finishing school. Felicity’s mother would later abandon the family, leaving for Paris to become the mistress of a struggling artist. Felicity was left with feelings of anger and resentment toward both of her parents, especially toward her father. This resentment only increased after she was sent off to the Spence Academy for Young Ladies, though Felicity quickly established herself as the queen of the school’s social circle.

Beautiful and charming, she dominated her classmates through a combination of her wits and her ability to intimidate others. While at Spence, she befriended classmate Pippa Cross, a beautiful, though somewhat haughty merchant’s daughter. Pippa was also epileptic. As the girls matured together, their friendship turned romantic. As this was not even remotely acceptable during Victorian times, Felicity tried her best to repress her sexual attractions and overcompensated in the opposite direction, often behaving in an aggressive manner toward men. Indeed, she was deemed overly spirited and in need of taming by the society matrons who wished to keep her in line.

Felicity’s life would change forever when a new student arrived at Spence in September 1895. The new girl, Gemma Doyle, arrived from India and Felicity welcomed her with some hazing and initiation tricks. The tables quickly turned though when Gemma chanced upon Felicity in a compromising position with Ithal, a local gypsy boy. This event forged a fast alliance between the two girls and they began to spend more time together. Felicity was unaware that Gemma had been experiencing nightmarish, prophetic visions following the death of her mother several months prior. Basically she just thought Gemma was unsociable and weird, but she still spent time with her. Felicity, Pippa, Gemma, and Gemma’s roommate, the poor, unattractive scholarship student, Ann, would sneak out of the school and into ancient caves on the school property. The quartet would drink stolen whiskey and read aloud from an old diary (belonging to former Spence student Mary Dowd) found in the school and pretend they were witches with magical powers. Their art teacher, Miss Moore, had told them tales of an ancient tribe of sorceresses called The Order which had formerly populated the area, but to Felicity, Pippa, and Ann, it was all fun and games.

To Gemma, though, the magic was real. Reading Mary’s spooky diary put the idea in the girls’ minds to envision a door, and thanks to Gemma's ability to summon the magic, a door of light appeared on the wall of the cave and the girls were able to enter The Realms, a world of pure fantasy where anything can happen. The girls were elated, frolicking in the mythical land and spending their time playing games and making themselves beautiful and strong. Felicity in particular spent her time in the Realms living out the fantasy of being Artemis, learning to fight and hunt and asserting her independence. The girls snuck out of the school every night to play in the Realms, and Gemma learned she was chosen to be the holder of the magic, meaning only she could bring the magic out of the Realms and gift it to other people. This meant the other girls could use the magic in their real lives in the form of illusions.



The girls continued to read from Mary Dowd’s diary, learning about the dangers of the Realms, in particular, the Winterlands, an area populated by the souls of the dead. They also learned that Mary Dowd and her classmate, Sarah Rees-Toome were killed in a fire which destroyed the east wing of the school and killed the school’s founder, Eugenia Spence back in the early 1870’s.

Life in the real world threatened to come crashing down on the girls though. Pippa’s family, facing financial ruin, conspired to have her married to a much older man, Mr. Bumble. Pippa was made miserable by this prospect, as was Felicity, and the girls sought a way to prevent Pippa being married off. The pending nuptials caused a lot of strife between Felicity and Pippa, culminating in Pippa calling Felicity’s mother a neglectful “courtesan” and insinuating that Felicity’s parents didn’t care for her. In the mean time, there was trouble with the magic, most of which hardly concerned Felicity at all. Gemma had to deal with the majority of it, while Felicity was mainly involved in begging Gemma for the chance to use magic or go into the Realms to play. This was only interrupted when Gemma confronted an evil spirit disguised as her mother in the Realms and broke apart sacred runes and letting the magic free in the land and defeat it.

While all this went down, Pippa, fearing her future as the trapped wife of a horrible old man, decided she never wanted to leave the Realms. As the girls fled, Pippa fell into a river and refused to let Gemma rescue her. Pippa surrendered to the water, which caused her to become trapped in the Realms forever. In the real world, she was suffering a massive seizure from which she would never recover. Felicity was distraught and angry over Pippa’s death, blaming Gemma, Ann, herself, everyone. But there was little time to mourn as it was nearly Christmas time.

Felicity returned to her father’s home in December to find that he had taken in a little girl as his ward. And, to no one’s surprise, the Admiral was molesting the young Polly. And joy of joys, Lady Worthington decided to return to London for the holidays as well, making Felicity’s life a living hell from both parents. Between the unreasonable time she was forced to spend with her family and the social obligations she was forced to fulfill with old society friends, Felicity was morose and depressed. After all, her true love had just died and with the runes destroyed and the girls separated for Christmas, it was all but impossible to return to the Realms to see Pippa again. Thankfully, the girls found ways to meet up and enter the Realms. Less thankfully, Pippa slowly began degenerating into a zombie-like creature, too afraid to crossover into the land where dead spirits dwell.

All around, it was a bad time for everyone. Gemma had most of the magical plot to deal with, though Felicity was crucial during Gemma’s encounter with the fearsome Poppy Warriors, a band of skeletal knights who plot to specifically separate Felicity from the other girls. Ultimately it was learned that Miss Moore was actually Sarah Rees-Toome, who in turn was the evil sorceress Circe. Gemma had to bind the magic of the Realms to the Temple within the Realms and imprison Circe in the bottom of a well. With that task completed, it seemed like all would be well, aside from Pippa becoming a hideous, hungry monster.



Time marched on in the real world, and soon it was March 1896, which meant Felicity turned eighteen. This marked the start of her season, meaning her official society debut would come in the spring. This also meant she would be able to inherit the money her father had set aside for her. Unfortunately, her father set up some stipulations to prevent her from taking her money and leaving so easily. He insisted that in order to inherit her money she would need to have a successful debut and be welcomed into polite society. This was not an easy feat for a few reasons, namely her reputation as possibly promiscuous and mercurial, and also her mother’s reputation as being an unfaithful wife. Knowing how much was at stake (both financially and in terms of her own freedom) Felicity managed to keep herself somewhat in line, having a successful debutante ball hosted by old family friend, Lady Markham. Her debut went a little too well, though, and Lady Markham was able to convince Admiral Worthington that it was in Felicity’s best interests to be taken under Lady Markham’s wing, with the implication that Felicity would be broken and tamed and made to marry Lady Markham’s pitiful son, Horace.

The Realms continued to be plagued by troubles. The magical creatures that lived there grew restless and made demands that Gemma should share her magic with them. And Pippa, still slowly decaying into a zombie-like monster, continued to linger in the Realms, refusing to cross over with the other spirits. She prevented a group of poor factory workers who’d been killed in a fire to cross into the Winterlands, forcing them stay with her while she taught them manners, setting herself up as a queen with a court. This made Felicity a bit jealous, but she and Pippa continued their romance, laughing and dancing and playing together whenever Gemma took Felicity and Ann into the Realms. But the evil that lurked in the Realms had yet to be vanquished entirely and Circe was able to break free of her prison at the bottom of the well. She would attempt to build an army of souls from the Winterlands which could take over the Realms and break through into the real world. All that was needed to succeed was a living sacrifice to the Tree of All Souls, a malevolent tree which devoured spirits and produced dark magic. The tree could also seduce people with dark and powerful visions of their possible futures. In order to unravel the mystery, Gemma led Felicity, Ann, Pippa, and Pippa’s troupe into the Winterlands to explore. There Felicity and Pippa had visions of a future together, using the magic to resurrect Pippa and bring her back into the real world. This was of course an impossibility, as one cannot be brought back to life once food from the Realms has been consumed, but Felicity refused to give up hope that Pippa would be resurrected and that she and Pippa could run away to Paris together to live openly amongst Bohemians and artists.

With visions of freedom in her head, Pippa sacrificed a bunny to the Tree of All Souls and was given a small amount of magic in return. This pushed her over the edge of sanity entirely and she became convinced that she had been chosen to rule over the Realms. She made a last ditch effort to convince Felicity to join her forever in the Realms, kissing her publicly and passionately before their friends, demanding that she eat the berries and essentially kill herself. Felicity refused and fled the Realms with Gemma and Ann in tow, humiliated by being forcibly outed. Pippa was left in the Realms with her followers, bitter and angry and wanting revenge. Felicity barricaded herself in her room and spent the next day in tears.

After a bunch of back and forth which mostly centered on Gemma’s family drama, the girls were able to reunite again and travel back into the Realms one last time, bringing along one of their teachers and a few other characters that didn’t particularly matter to Felicity because she’d only met them like once ever and they were poor. There they encountered Pippa again. Craving more magic, she attempted to kill Gemma, but the teacher, Ms. McCleethy, took her place and was beheaded by Pippa instead. This was a definite turning point for Felicity, seeing her lover as a power-hungry murderer. In an attempt to spare the lives of Gemma and Ann, she offered her life to Pippa but was rejected. It was the ultimate slap in Felicity's face. Then, the weakened castle where Pippa had been staying began to collapse, crushing Pippa and burying her in the process. It was very dramatic and heart-wrenching for everyone.

The band then travelled to the Winterlands to confront Circe and the Tree of All Souls, discovering in the process that the Tree had fused with Eugenia Spence, a great sorceress in her own right. There was an epic battle of swords and sorcery which culminated in Gemma’s paramour sacrificing himself to save her and the magic being returned to the land to be shared by everyone forever. And, happily, the barrier between the real world and the Realms was restored, meaning magical creatures could not invade any longer. Those who survived returned to the real world with a great sense of loss and fear, but there was no time to grieve or even really process what had happened in the Realms.

The end of May brought the true start of the London social season, and as such Felicity made her formal debut before Queen Victoria. This meant she was considered an adult and could control her own finances. But this left the problem of Horace Markham. Boldly, Felicity confronted him and refused to marry him, only to find that he really had no interest in her either. So instead of becoming some rich man’s unhappy wife, plans were made for her to travel with Polly to Paris to live with her mother amongst the artists and writers there. She declared to Gemma that she would take to wearing trousers and pursue her own career as an artist, relishing the freedom to at last be herself and live a life of her own choosing. She is scheduled to leave at the end of the season, which is traditionally the second week of August.

In the Games
Felicity arrived just after the start of Arena 9 and was forced into the mayhem immediately upon her arrival.

Abilities

 * Felicity is a skilled markswoman and swordswoman, having received training from a mythological goddess of the hunt (Artemis.)
 * She is knowledgeable about classical mythology and art history.

Miscellaneous

 * Felicity struggles with her sexual orientation, at times describing herself as a "degenerate" or as sinful.
 * She was abused by her father as a child and as a result she can be mistrustful of men.