Valeria Rushlit


 * "Ah, ah. Mustn't pry, my boy. Trade secrets and all that. Although I will admit to living by the 'Go Big' motto, myself,"


 * ---Upon being asked about her process.

Valeria Rushlit is a Stylist for District 3.

Before the Quell
Valeria was born to a family fairly high up in the Capitol society, with ties to both the Games and the Capitol government, so she’s never hard to work very hard to get what she wants. She’s an only child and has always viewed her parents as buddies rather than authority figures, especially since they seemed equally uninterested in treating her like a child. She was more like another accessory and none of the three at this point understand that there’s anything wrong with this. She feels that she was treasured and they felt fashionable, to the point where they sometimes brought her to parties extremely unsuitable for her age.

All of this has resulted in adult Valeria who doesn’t completely comprehend ‘age-appropriate’, loves parties more than most things, and considers being the center of attention the highest goal in life. She’s never had much interest in the actual Arena part of the Games, much more into the pomp and ceremony before and after. She turned to studying special effects engineering since as an only child she was expected to have some semblance of a career for her family name, and ended up loving (and excelling at) it, especially fireworks and electrical tricks. She will always prefer fireworks, but her work with electrical wiring is what led to her current status as District 3 stylist, along with the previously mentioned familial ties.

The Quell
The Quell has thrown her for quite a loop, causing a drain on both her energy and rather lacking creativity. She's becoming increasingly stressed and exhausted, often found sleeping in her workshop, her pride taking blow after blow. She's had a few designs she's really proud of, including an electric suit of armor (from which Eliot talked her down to the equally electric chainmail, since it's hard to give an interview in a full suit of armor) and a set of matching gunslinger outfits, although those were inspired by a suggestion of Eliot's.

Eliot is in fact the Tribute she gets along the most with, as he seems willing to go along with her wishes for the most part, acquiescing to fittings and the like. And it doesn't hurt that he was her first introduction to these Tributes that weren't mostly terrified children but, in certain cases, very attractive adults.

The only other Tribute that's made something of an impact on her so far is Eponine, mostly because the girl keeps running away and ruining her hair and make-up, to Valeria's eternal frustration.

The Style
Big and flashy. That’s basically her life motto and she does her best to live by it. She avoids utilizing her technical abilities for her own style, so as to hype up her tribute style reveals all the more. She focuses on the engineering and technical side of things mostly, her creativity not especially up to actual designing clothes. Mostly she copies ready-made styles and addes lights, fireworks, or guns to them, to match the District theme.

One of her biggest flaws in her work and personal style is her bait of subconsciously mimicking what is popular or well-known (such as her current tendency to default to pink wigs thanks to Effie’s current prominence in the public eye). These last couple of Games she’s not done her best work partially because of the rush, but even more because halfway through she’s realized that she was in some way copying Cinna’s fire gimmick and disgustedly threw it out and started over with even less time to finish.

The Life
When not in her workshop, an increasingly rare event, Valeria is usually found at parties where she gets along with nearly everyone. She can be petty and hold a grudge, and in fact is still annoyed at (and intensely jealous of) Cinna for stealing her thunder with his Girl on Fire gimmick.

She bonds with people easily, unless they’ve inspired some sort of grudge as mentioned above, but shallowly and this includes her tributes. She feels genuinely fond of them, so long as they don’t somehow irritate her, but quickly forgets about them once they’re out of sight. She doesn’t watch the Games very closely, but since she knows that’s frowned upon she mostly gets away with it by attending as many parties during the Games as possible and focusing on the partying aspect instead of the screens.