Zephyr Glasgow, 18, District 1 Female
Zephyr pinched the sides of her cerulean dress as she stepped over a collection of shattered glass and a puddle of red wine. Her nose wrinkled at the intense odor coming from the ground and she quickly scooted away from the Training Academy's foyer, past a group of drunk and hardy men behaving like swine.
"Oh, Zephyr! You're finally here!" Trilled the president of District One's Training Academy, Amordazar Llovizna. Zephyr winced slightly when the man grinned, revealing a set of foul teeth. She tried not to show too much emotion when he continued his conversation.
"I almost thought you weren't going to arrive! Ooo, you are in for a dandy treat! Come, darling!" Amordazar ushered Zephyr toward him, when they walked through the set of double doors, Zephyr noticed that the gymnasium held almost no one within view. She glanced at the janitor at the far end of the huge room, who was too busy pushing a pile of plastic cups together with a broom. It was now evident that the prime of the celebration was done and over with. Zephyr looked around with a face full of worry and confusion, to which Amordazar chuckled a little as he started walking backwards towards the table arrangements and banquet. Zephyr thoughtlessly edged towards him a little, before she was taken back by a sudden roller coaster of people popping up from the depths of the tables and screaming at the top of their lungs.
"SURPRISE!" Zephyr gasped and shrieked in excitement as she covered her mouth with her hands. The scream had been followed by a thick wave of laughter and congratulatory remarks to the 18-year-old.
"Oh my gosh, you guys didn't have to do this!" She squealed with joy as she slowly walked through the crowd of people happily laughing among themselves.
"Come on now, Zephyr, how else would we have celebrated the special day our chosen volunteer finally got the chance to shine?" Amordazar said, looking content with Zephyr's reaction to the surprise party thrown for her.
"Aww, you guys are the best," she gawked at the hundreds of people throwing positive comments her way.
She popped open a bottle of champagne and poured a portion of it into a shiny new glass, being extra careful not to spill some of it on her dress. She held the stem carefully and whirled around to face everyone in the crowd, where she raised the glass over her head.
"To a Happy Hunger Games!" She exclaimed, the crowd raised the glasses they were holding and chanted the statement. Zephyr grinned and took a small sip of the sparkling wine, for she didn't want to get too tipsy. She glanced at the clock, it read 3:16, the reaping was planned to begin a couple hours later, so while the celebrating was going on, she decided to have a look around the place while she still had time to enjoy her life before becoming victor in District One.
A girl, who looked to be sixteen, confronted Zephyr as she was engaging in slight small talk with a few mentors.
"Zephyr Glasgow?" She asked, keeping her hands behind her back with an alluring look in her eyes. Zephyr turned her head to the sound of her name and instantly recognized the sleek blonde hair and pointy chin to be that of the mayor's daughter.
"Yeah, what do you want?" She retorted, taking a sip of her drink. The girl looked a little surprised by that, but kept her face sealed with the dainty demeanor she wanted to be presented as.
She extended her arm, curling the corners of her lips upwards in a beautiful smile, "Diamond Cortex, future Hunger Games contender, and before you ask; yes, I'm the daughter of Mayor Cortex."
Zephyr lowered her drink and glowered at the priss that had the boldness to even stand before her. She darted her eyes down at her hand, which had an unnatural gloss to it.
"Um, quick question; do you wash your hands with Dieu Complexe hand soap?" She retorted, studying the girl's narrowed eyes and took a mental note of her then blushed cheeks.
"Why yes, yes I do," she stammered/answered with the same amount of bitterness she was hit with.
"That's what I figured, now go do me a favor and don't ever come near me again, distasteful plebeian."
The second before Diamond could open her mouth in response, Zephyr's gaze was flew up to a tall figure standing right beside her. Her heart might as well just jumped to her throat.
"Ah, good afternoon ladies! Diamond, Zephyr, I'd have guess you two have already met." A soft smile met Zephyr eyes. She widened her eyes in shock and began stammering as she tried to come up with a clever reply to that. Diamond glowered, her arms crossed while Alistair wrapped an arm around his fiancé, who was about ready to claw Zephyr's eyelids off.
"Yes we have babe, but I figured she had forgotten who I was, considering her incompetence. So I decided that a second introduction was necessary." Alistair raised his eyebrows in surprise, but he quickly shook his head and allowed Diamond to caress his soft hand.
"Anyways, now that I finally got a chance to know what kind of girl she really is like, I think we should take a break from all these fake people and have some real fun."
Diamond directed to Alistair, while still staring harshly at Zephyr. She tugged his sleeve to guide him towards the restroom, to which Alistair warily looked from Diamond to Zephyr, and back to Diamond again, before finally giving Zephyr an apologetic look while he turned around with Diamond secured in his arms, who looked pleased she won over his compliance as she looked up at Alistair.
Zephyr's face turned bright red, she wanted to scream and throw the biggest tantrum in the world. Oh, how she hated that wretched tramp who stole her man. Of course, she knew about their relationship for quite a while, but that didn't stop her from still hooking up with Alistair behind her back, but that bitch was just too much too deal with sometimes. She wanted to yell out to them as they were walking about her hook ups, but it would surely damaged her close ties with Alistair for sure, and she did not want anything coming between her and him. That bitch Diamond might as well been a ghost, absolutely nothing could break the bond between Zephyr and the hunk of a trainer, Alistair.
At times, Diamond felt like a small hurdle Zephyr had to jump over in order to get to Alistair, and other times, she was like a fucking brick wall. She was so young, too, it didn't make any sense.
"Alistair, wait up!" She shouted, pulling up her dress as she ran over to where the two were just about to exit through the backdoor.
"Alistair, tell me," she started seductively tracing the buttons on his suit, hoping that would stir something in him. The only reaction given to her was a annoyed look, Zephyr read it as a plea, and she kept going. "Why aren't you with me instead of her? Remember all the nice times we used to have together, picking up roses from the meadow and watching the sunset? You could still have that, if you just broke up with her and marry me instead," she desperately hoped that would convince him enough to change his mind about Diamond, there was nobody more in the world that which she wanted all to herself.
"Get over yourself hoe! He doesn't love you, now get out of here and go die in the games or something…"
A chord was struck in Zephyr, and her lip began wobbling with the mysterious feeling of defeat. Steam practically fumed from her ears as her face turned a brighter shade of red and her fists were raised up at her, but she was quick to let it go, remembering her promise to herself.
A shiny katana was mounted up neatly in the interior of the training academy, along with other a plethora of other weapons as well. Zephyr wondered if it were worth it to use it to cut off the wretch's fingers with, she struggled to resist her motive before finally deciding against it, taking another look at Alistair and Diamond, who both shared the same shadowy look, before pushing past them outside, running away to her house as tears flooded her chartreuse eyes, she swallowed back a retch as her heels clicked against the cobblestone track. If her shoes gave out anytime soon, her hope for humanity likely would've been destroyed.
"Wait, you didn't even give your congratulatory speech yet!" She heard Amordazar yell after her while she scurried in the afternoon sun. That only made more tears fall from her face as she kept her center vision fixated on the cluster of houses in the distance.
She finally made it to her home after what felt like an eternity and locked herself in her room, sobbing loudly as her legs were sprawled out in different directions and her hands pulling her auburn hair in a fit of rage. She made out the indefinite shape her dresser through her hazy vision and crawled over to it, reaching her arm out to grab her plush orange teddy bear.
"FUCK YOU DIAMOND! YOU FUCKING ANNOYING TWAT!" She picked up a sharp blade from a broken wine glass that was previously on her carpeted floor, and plunged it deep into the teddy bear's buttoned eye. She made a sickening screech/wail as the blade touched the back of the bear's head, poking the carpet beneath in the process.
With each laceration into the fluffy surface of the toy she made, she imagined the deafening screams of Diamond playing out in her head. She grinned as she pictured her childhood toy as the face of the young blonde headed girl, being impaled over and over again as flashes of their engagement caused a wave of lightheaded-ness to overcome her.
She collapsed on her back, breathing heavily as she gripped her hair. When she looked up, her eyes shot wide open as she saw a tall, ghostly figure climbing up her walls, it left behind a trail of small lingering footprints that slowly vanished with each step. Zephyr was about to open her mouth to scream, but her jaw was just left dangling open in shock at the extremely odd shaped thing. The more she looked at it, the more she realized how unbelievably long its fingernails/claws were. They could have been paper thin swords for all she knew.
Zephyr lifted her hand from the carpet, to which it snapped its head back at the noise, peering into Zephyr's eyes. She stared back at it intensely, studying its features; all while trying to figure out when it was going to lash at her. The creepiest part about the thing was that its face resembled that of an infant; smooth, round cheeks underlining dainty slanted eyes didn't seem to reflect its otherwise sinister anatomy.
It uttered a croaky, high-pitched thing to her before slithering towards the open window. Zephyr watched as its back legs vanished behind the decorative walls.
Zephyr felt her whole body grow fatigue in a hot flash, before passing out.
Achilles Jacinthus, 18, District 1 Male
A prolonged groan escaped Achilles's lips as he laid in bed, his hands covering his face. He shifted his body over to the left, facing the black digital alarm clock on his nightstand. It read 3:46 pm in annoying, bright red numbers. From what he remembered he hadn't had anything to eat in at least a day, not that food wasn't available to him, he just didn't feel like eating.
His drooped eyes couldn't see the door opening when he sat up, but he could hear an urgent voice yelling at him to get ready; get ready for what? He vigorously thought. He rubbed his hazy eyes, but they still reminded foggy and unable to open properly. Tears started to form in his dark brown irises, which helped much and made it easier to see who was at the door.
"How long have you been in bed? It's almost four o'clock!" Shouted a trainer. Achilles sighed and started counting down the hours he had spent been laying in his bed staring at the ceiling. It actually wasn't that bad to him, lying down comfortably on a fine cotton mattress with a fluffy pillow to support his brain gave him time to revision his interview for when he arrived at the Capitol tomorrow. He could almost imagine the theme Caeser Flickerman would be pulling off this year, the year before was nearly frightening. His irises had been dyed an odd crimson, his mane was a tattered, victorian style white wig that slid out of place, and he sported a midnight black blazer upon a lighter colored kurta with a matching ascot. He stuck out like a ruby in a minecart full of coal, which Achilles truly wanted to reflect someday.
"I'm really sorry, I just lost track of time, okay?" He muttered under his breath, he watched the trainer's face for any sign of madness or disappointment, and sure enough, he was pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
"I completely forgot the reason for why I chose you as the volunteer, you're just going to be another pathetic bloodbath." He mumbled, but Achilles heard it clearly. The trainer turned back around and slammed the door shut behind him, Achilles looked down solemnly with his hands folded on his lap.
If you just gave me a chance to prove myself, I'll show you how I really shine.
He felt tears eroding his vision, and quickly wiped them away before lifting himself up
He suddenly freed himself of his half-awakened state and slowly put the pieces together, bloodbath, volunteer… well, I'll be damned, it's reaping day!
He stood up from his sitting position and stretched his weary arms out before walking up to his mantle and faced a vast selection of broadswords, nunchucks, knives, polearms, spears, and hatchets. He slowly traced his fingers along the shiny fronts of each and every weapon, wondering which one he'd be using to train today.
He eventually decided that it didn't matter, as he was planning on volunteering just a couple hours later, besides, he expected their to be more weapons he would work with in just a few days. He paused on the elegant design of his rapier that stole his attention away from all the other weapons. It would be an easy carry over to where he planned on training, and it just so happened to fit nicely in the depths of his scabbard.
He turned around, holding the sword. His eyes darted over to where his pillow was, and with one swift motion, he threw it up in the air and briskly brought the blade of the sword down faster than momentum of the pillow. His blade cut right through the cotton layers and a storm of snowy white stuffing soon filled up the room. Achilles stood there still in the position of his right foot in front of the other and his sword pointing to the ground. He slowly put the tip of the blade close to his mouth and blew off a light collection of stuffing that gathered on the tip, he grinned as he sheathed it back into his scabbard and walked out of his dorm room.
I won't be needing that old thing anymore… he smugly thought. As he walked he heard chit-chatters coming from the gymnasium below him, where the party for the female volunteer was taking place. Achilles suddenly realized that no celebration had ever been thrown for him, he tried not be too distraught, but he couldn't help but feel like nobody cared for him enough to throw a big bachelor party celebrating his volunteering for the games on the day of the reaping.
He pressed his lips together, of course nobody cared, I'm basically invisible, he could feel the gazes of people as he walked past them down the hallway, and felt them even harder from behind his back, he just wished no one would toss a paper airplane to the back of his head like they did last time. As he turned a corner and began stomping down the metal stairway to the gymnasium, the sounds of drinks spilling, plates shattering, and cries of laughter and/or pain became more evident.
He sighed as he pushed open the double doors with one hand, to which his nose wrinkled at the foul stench of vomit somewhere in the room. He started to feel dizzy at the amount of action going on. As he walked, he was met with a startling encounter of a girl with light brown hair nearly crashing into him.
"Hey there, cutie, why don't we ditch these fake bitches behind us and go meet up somewhere private," she mumbled, sounding like a dying goat as she slurred the last part of her sentence, clearly she was drunk. Achilles cringed as she opened her mouth to mumble some more nonsense, her breath was like an oxidized slap to the face. He resisted the urge to retch and ignored her as he walked off, leaving the girl in a state of confusion before she shrugged and stumbled away.
He met gazes with plenty of his tormentors, he mostly just saw looks of disgust and malice in their eyes as he edged away into a different part of the training academy. He was extremely relieved that he finally got to get away from that chaos, for a moment he thought he was never going to leave.
He closed the wooden folding door behind him as he stepped in, the dark room felt ominous from where he was standing. He walked over to the center of the room, and felt his bare feet touch the soft mat made for sparring, as soon as he set foot on the mat, light filled the room, taking away any traces of darkness it left behind. The light was so sudden and bright, Achilles squinted intensely in the newfound heaven, but that didn't stop him from doing what he came there for.
He unsheathed his rapier, holding onto the black taped handle tightly. He eyed his legs from the wall mirror, watching his footing. He then slowly edged to the right before twirling around, swishing the blade of the rapier to match the lining of his smile before landing softly on his feet.
He heard a thud, but didn't look down, he knocked the head clean off of the dummy. Pleased at his skill, he retracted the blade from the glossy casing of the dummy he managed to penetrate, and wiped some sweat from his forehead before he held the sword back into place. With another swift move, he sidestepped and extended his arm out, if someone had been standing there at the wrong time, they could've easily ended up with a sword in their esophagus.
No, they wouldn't. My footing was all wrong, I could've tripped and fallen flat on my face if I hadn't turned in time.
Achilles performed a few more sparring techniques, each time he landed on the mat he ridiculed himself over the simplest faults performed. He looked at his reflection through the glinting front of the sword, his eyes creepily staring back at him with disappointment.
If I can't do the one thing that makes me a person right, then what's the point of even living?
Achilles sighed, he decided to abandon the sword and picked up a rusty pair of metal nunchucks. He swung the metal rod over his shoulder and caught it just in time with his other hand, he repeated that a few times until he got comfortable once again with the swinging. He swung it horizontally thru the air, swung it back behind his neck and back under his shoulder.
"Kiai!" He shouted through the deafening silence.
A mass crowd formed inside the square of Panem's wealthiest district. Shops were currently selling district pride souvenir, bracelets and necklaces made of gold and silver alike stocked shelves throughout the bustling city center. Parents carrying their children on their shoulders to get a better glimpse of the amazingly setup stage holding the ever so exquisite Mayor Corvex gave the day of the reaping a 'family friendly' sense. A variety of other district officials aligned the back of the stage along with the tens of past victors looking very pleased at the elegant way the day had been planned.
As more and more people signed in their children and themselves to be appointed in the inner ring of the audience who got a much better view of the action about to occur, the cameras hanging by the corners of the stage disguised as stage lights were ready to begin filming the whole district filling in the city center. The majority of the district was somewhere in the center of it all, and they were all feeling a variety of emotions, ranging from excited, to nervous, to overall ready to break from the crowd and sprint to the stage when the time came, it was a beautiful commotion of sentiment. From what the chosen volunteers could see, it was only a way to finally be able to travel, to see things, to become famous, to carry on their family legend, to avenge, or to purposefully fail; whatever of the mix.
As Zephyr signed in, she couldn't help but scowl as she caught a glance of the wretched Diamond. It wasn't like she had a problem with her initially, but the girl was such a huge cunt. She was fine with her being engaged to Alistair, she could still manage to squeeze between them and get some, but she had to know which buttons to push first.
She tried not to think of her as Quicentra Amaryllis glided on stage. A lovely velvet colored hat with an emerald feather resting on the pinnacle sat on her platinum blonde wig, a skintight jumpsuit made her physique look quite desirable. If anything, she was attractive.
"Welcome, citizens of District One! I am glad to be back here again to commemorate our glorious tributes here today," a plethora of clapping eroded from the field of white that was the crowd. Quicentra smiled as she lifted the microphone close to her face.
"Now, I know all of you want to go ahead and start with the reapings, is that right?" Thousands of yes's were hollered as Quicentra tried to take a moment to compose herself. She couldn't remember the last time District One showed that much excessive enthusiasm, she'd expect that kind of response for a quell, but since she was already presented with so much positivity, she continued doing whatever she was doing.
"Brilliant! Just what I wanted to hear!" She skidded over to the glass bowl full of pinkish slips, eyeing the pool of potential victors from above, and like an eagle swooping in for the kill, she snatched a slip right away.
She pursed her lips as she walked back to the microphone. As she held the small piece of paper she ran her eyes up and down the endless line of girls just waiting to volunteer.
Dramatically, she teared open the envelope and pulled out a thin slice of paper with a female's name on it. She glanced up to the cameras, giving the lens a devilish smile before returning to the most important prospect she travelled 500 miles for.
"And the name I've selected is no other than… Pen-"
"I VOLUNTEER!"
Everyone turned their heads in the direction of where the voice had entered their ear, it didn't take long before a sprout of auburn hair appeared in the camera's field of sight, followed by a glistening pair of chartreuse eyes gliding so elegantly toward the stage. Zephyr looked at the 18-year-old girls as she passed them and gave them a mirthful look, she ignored their death glares as she whipped her hair back facing the stage and climbed up the stone steps to the stage eight feet off the ground.
"What a huge surprise, we have a volunteer!" Quicentra joked, earning a few laughs from the audience. Zephyr tried not to roll her eyes before a microphone was shoved in front of her face.
"Tell us your name, young lady!"
Zephyr cleared her throat, "Zephyr Glasgow," she waved at the crowd and smiled at the thousands of faces, but really, she was only searching for where Alistair might have been, so she kept her gaze mainly focused in the onlookers section.
"What a beautiful woman you are! Tell me, have you used any Dieu Complexe products?" She asked before pointing the microphone to the girl's face..
With a smile, she answered back, "I can only!" The escort along with the majority of the crowd laughed joyfully.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, Zephyr! You can just stand right there while I go ahead and 'select' your district partner!" That earned her another wave of laughs.
Once again, her hand entered the opposing glass bowl, but that time it sunk in much deeper than last time, she moved her hands over hundreds of hundreds of blueish purple slips representing the males of the luxury district. Her hand then quickly retracted, carrying a slip. She then walked over to the microphone again.
"Joaquin Delwin," she shouted through the inflammable air.
Not a moment later after the name was called, a boy emerged from the front of the crowd, a look of confusion and shock was clearly visible on his tawny face. Thankfully, as he edged closer to the stage a strong, hoarse voice rang out.
"I volunteer as tribute!" Achilles yelled after going over what his exact words would be multiple times during the reaping, he nonchalantly walked out in the open and began his trek over to the stage area. He gulped as he passed the boy he volunteered for, who gave him a mischievous glower.
He glanced at the crowd as he climbed the stage, noticing a few faces who showed disgust toward him. He just looked straight ahead to the smiling Quicentra who had her hand extended for him, Achilles gladly took her helpful gesture.
"What's your name, lad?" Achilles looked at the black device, he exhaled quietly through his nose, finally being able to breath since he yelled those four words, and repeated his name.
"Achilles Jacinthus," Quicentra smiled and asked if he would like to answer a few questions, but he shook his head quickly.
"Oh… alright then," she walked back to the microphone and stared straight ahead, putting on a much formal demeanor than before..
"I suppose that concludes our annual reaping! Join us in a couple of days on live television for the ceremonial parade! I hope you tune in to our surprises! Up until then, Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds," she gestured to the two tributes standing behind her, "Be ever in their favours."
The crowd once again went insane, throwing their hands up and chanting sorts of things along the lines of, "DISTRICT ONE, DISTRICT ONE."
Zephyr and Achilles shook hands, her snake like eyes stared right into his bruised soul, which made his knees goes weak. They didn't say anything else for the duration of the reaping. Quicentra chatted a bit with the officials before they gave an all go hand gesture to the peacekeepers, allowing them to herd the people away from the center as more peacekeepers swooped in to chaperone the tributes towards the Justice Building.
"Good luck," Achilles whispered, Zephyr looked at him.
"What did you just say?" She began, Achilles looked straight ahead and tried to ignore the scolding look from his partner, who wanted to spit on the fool's shoes. Just how dare he undermine her abilities? She kept an eye on him the whole way through the hallway to the goodbye rooms, where she fingered her rhodium promise ring given to her by Alistair. Her heart melted into oblivion as she once again thought of him, his enchanting sapphire eyes encased in her mind forever. It would be a challenge to not think of him every step of the way through her journey.
She looked back at Achilles, his messy brown blocked her from seeing what his eyes looked like, which was annoying. She needed to know now if he was up for the tedious task it came with being a career, and at the moment, she didn't know how he'd fare in the deadly games awaiting them.
"I bid you adieu."
Our second career district is up! It was such a relief to finally post another reaping chapter, I'm finally getting on track here! Hopefully updates will be as frequent as this, I'm still deciding whether to do a one week schedule or two week, since I desperately want to catch up with the time I had spent not writing.
I hope this chapter was to your liking, I don't want to sound like a drag and keep repeating the same thing every chapter. So I'll just add some more questions for you readers to answer.
1. What did you think of Zephyr and Achilles?
2. Who do you like more?
3. Predictions for the two of them?
4. Criticisms?
Here's the riddle!
The sun is harsh and scorching, but the amber waves are soaring.
Until next district!
