XV. DANIKA AND LOBO
Not otherwise the cooks their scullions make
Immerse into the middle of the caldron
The meat with hooks, so that it may not float.
Danika Xiong. 17.
District Ten Female.
Danika would always remember the first time she had to slaughter a cow.
"Come here, Danni," Her father Shen woke her up one morning when she was around ten years old so he could take her out back and show her how to kill one of the families many cows (one that Shen claimed was getting old anyways when Danika expressed guilt), since she was of the expectation that she would take over the Xiong Butchery once she was of age.
Perhaps the most jarring part of the whole ordeal was that Danika eventually wasn't jarred by it. She always found everything her father did to be normal, cool even, so if Shen Xiong wanted her to slaughter a cow, Danika would so such, even if she was nervous at the beginning, reluctant to cause pain to anything.
"Will he be okay?" Her eyes were full of joy and optimism as she held her father's axe by Milly the cow who was locked in a pen.
"Well she's going to die–" Shen was always straight forwards
"But will it hurt?" The District Ten girl felt her palms go sweaty as Milly looked her in the eyes with the same desperation Danika herself was used to showing when she wanted something from her parents, but all Milly wanted was to not die.
Her question was never answered, Shen putting his hands over hers and guiding her as she swung the axe right into Milly's throat, the beast screaming from the pain that Danika feared it would feel, yet her father didn't seem to mind, "Atta' girl!"
And in that moment, Danika was paralyzed, the blood from the cow nearly as red as the fire in the sky that came at dawn, colors she was used to seeing peek through clouds but never on the ground due to violence she had caused. She didn't realize how long it would take the poor thing to finally breathe it's last breath, but once it did, the District Ten girl couldn't help but be relieved. She knew it wouldn't be the last time she caused a poor cow to die, but she didn't want to think of the next one.
Yet over time, Danika Xiong was able to cope with it. It became natural to her and she was no longer petrified by the blood and the guts that would soon become food. In fact, it could be said that the District Ten girl enjoyed living in the shadows of her hardworking parents, being told at age twelve that she would one day take over the shop. Her brothers were far too rambunctious to be trusted with it, so as always, Danika was more than willing to take the burden, even if she didn't see it as one. It was all she'd ever known and all that she ever would know after all.
Maybe Danika liked simple, the methodical feeding and brushing and killing of the animals followed by the careful slicing of the meat, weighing it on the somewhat broken scale before packaging it and labeling it, only to attempt to sell it to people, go to bed far too early, and do it again the next morning. It wasn't much, she knew that, yet somehow it kept her from not fully going out of control.
If only she could have always been content with the lucid way of living.
There was a girl, Barb Foster, who would always come around the shop on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and while Danika didn't fully understand why the somewhat sardonic cowgirl was seemingly infatuated by her, she never asked questions about it since it was a pleasant feeling, being appreciated for who I am and not what I do for my parents.
"Alrighty, I'm going to need my usual Lady Xiong," Barb arrived to the shop one Tuesday morning at the typical ten in the morning like it was clockwork, "You can help me with that, right sweet thing?"
"Oh," Danika blushed, typical of her whenever Barb was speaking, "What's that again?"
She knew Barb's order by heart, half a pound of brisket, sixteen ounces of bacon, and some mashed potatoes "to take the edge off," yet Danika always asked for it because it was so stupidly funny to hear the change in her voice when she realized the world did not in fact revolve around her.
"What do you mean you don't know?' Guilty as charged, Barb's voice grew out of it's previously suave pattern and into a slight temper, "How do you not know?"
"I forgot," Danika loosened her straight face, shrugging her shoulders, "I guess I had more important things to think about."
Barb was quite off guard as she rattled off her order, "half a pound of brisket, sixteen ounces of bacon, and some mashed potatoes t–"
"To take the edge off," Danika finished Barb's sentence and laughed, "I knew that."
"Then why did you ask me?" Barb quirked her brow, "I bet you just wanted to hear how hot I sound when I'm angry."
"If by hot you mean red like a tomato because your face puffs up and turns red, then yeah, sure." Danika rolled her eyes and went to the back of the shop to prepare Barb's order.
She thought nothing more of their interaction which gave Danika power since surely all Barb Foster was doing was thinking of her. After all, she was just another customer begging to be served, and Danika would treat her as such even if she was boyishly handsome with her undercut and her big brown eyes, and overall was the most interesting person that Danika had ever seen. But no, Danika did in fact not have feelings for Barb, since she was decidedly a pain in the ass, and Danika knew that she could do better than that, way better than that. So what if Barb had a horse? Danika deserved somebody with a motorcycle.
"I saw you were talking to that Barb girl, yet again," She was caught off guard by her father as she went to package the brisket. She didn't think that he was going to be in the shop that day.
"Well she ordered food so I had to serve her," Danika smirked, unsure why her father was always talking about Barb.
"She's here a lot," Shen Xiong said in deadpan, "Are you sure the two of you aren't an item?"
"I'm positive," Danika threw a slab of meat onto the scale, weighing it to ensure that Barb didn't get more meat that she deserved.
"You can tell me if you are," He offered a slight smile, "You know I say you can love who you love, and if you love Barb, then I'll live with it."
Danika's parents were fine with her being a lesbian, almost too fine in fact. They were always looking for farm girls and other shop owner's daughters who had the slightest hint of homosexual tendencies, in hopes they could set them up with Danika, because that would mean a helping hand in the shop as well. But Danika hadn't liked anybody for quite some time. She'd had little hook ups with some of the girls she met around the town, and while she knew that she was indeed very attracted to them, she had trouble enjoying herself whenever things got sexual. Perhaps it was something that would grow on her as she aged, or at least that's what she hoped, since the only thing that was a worse social curse to the general public than being a lesbian was being a lesbian who didn't want to have sex.
But I'll find somebody good for me with time.
"I don't even like Barb," Danika persisted with more aggression than previously, "It's not my fault that she's more obsessed with me than she is with herself, which is seriously saying a lot."
But Danika did truthfully envy Barb's confidence. She was more than aware of it too, how Barb could just go out and about, recklessly flirting with Danika (and probably millions of other girls), and it was just so… brave of her. So she would right it down, her envy. Not in a romantic way, but rather Danika worked tirelessly on a handwritten book in her room every night, a book where she was as brave as Barb, and she could tell her parents that she really had no business running the shop because all she wanted to do was write stories and go on adventures and not be stupidly afraid of everything that was thrown at her, even if it was just a bloodied cow.
Yet Danika wouldn't get away. She would be out of her mind to even consider doing such a thing to her mother or father. As much as she needed them, they needed her a hell of a lot more.
"I've got your order," Danika came back into the front of the restaurant with the packages of meat and potatoes for Barb, "It'll be twelve dollars."
As stupidly cool as ever, Barb dug into her pockets to reveal a ten dollar bill as well as a five, unfurling the currency onto the table, "You can keep the change, by the way," she smirked.
"Thank you?" Danika wasn't in the state where three dollars would have a profound impact on her life.
"Oh it's nothing," Barb got closer to the counter so that she could grab her food when she reached closer to Danika's face, slobbishly kissing her on the cheek. Danika was used to this somewhat embarrassing farewell, and while she knew it was a gesture of romance that she didn't reciprocate, she enjoyed it anyways, thinking it was quite funny.
"Have a good day," Danika smiled at Barb, hoping she would leave soon since she'd had more than her fix of her for the day, "I know I will."
"And I will too!" Barb laughed before pinching Danika's cheek and heading away.
This bitch drools so much, Danika wiped her face and proceeded to get on with what she was positive would be another mediocre day.
Lobo Kallenbach. 18.
District Ten Male.
Lobo was well aware of the fact that his quality of life would significantly improve if he didn't have to go to school. He lived in a busier part of District Ten, so there wasn't much farmland, and that meant that the kids had to go to school. That meant that Lobo had to go to school, with a bunch of fucking should-be lobotomites. He knew that he was an acquired taste, his mother always telling him so, and that "not everybody wants to be your friend, Lobo," but that did nothing to prevent the District Ten boy from feeling personally attacked whenever somebody expressed the slightest bit of distate in him.
He tried to embrace the fact he was arguably "different," yet that was hard when there were pretty red-haired boys like Weston Baldwin who walked along the halls of school with a look on their face like, "I'm far too cool for Lobo Kallenbach and his stupid board games." But did Lobo even want to be fawned over by these attractive taller men and women who could practically step on him (which he would allow) and spit in his mouth (which he would also allow)? That was the big question for the District Ten boy, whether he should sacrifice his originality to fit in, or to just accept what his mom told him.
And it wasn't even that Lobo had actual concrete evidence that everybody hated it, but he sure as hell felt it whenever Weston spoke to him.
"So how's that game you've made?" He remembers the charming boy stopping him in the hallway one day, Lobo immediately caught off guard by the fact Weston was giving him the time of day.
"It's fine," He blushed, suddenly not having a clue what to say to him. Weston was over a foot taller than him, and he had the most gorgeous blue eyes. Lobo didn't deserve to even be looking at them. "Tell me about your shit–," he quickly noticed his own slip-up, "I mean your stuff. It's not shit. It's brilliant, you're brilliant."
Lobo was unable to concentrate as he heard Weston describe his big plan to create a television show about lions and how he wanted to move to the Capitol and become a huge star, even if he was deeply afraid that he wouldn't be able to make it since he was just a middle class boy from District Ten, but Lobo tried to assure him that he could do anything he put his mind too, "You're seriously one of the smartest people I know, Weston."
And he was telling the truth, Lobo had the tendency to surround himself with super geniuses, and they intimidated him so much that he oddly had began to enjoy it.
"Get out my way punk," As much as he hated to admit it, Lobo was oddly captivated by Mia Itamora, the gorgeous girl genius with a loud-mouth and a lewd sense of humor that he seemed to be the only one who could tolerate. Though she didn't give a fuck about him, instead pushing him out of the way whenever she saw him and spitting on the top of his cleanly shaven head. Yet Lobo was infatuated by her, despite better judgement being offered by literally everybody else.
"I'm sorry," The District Ten boy stuttered as he began to walk away, "You're beautiful, by the way."
"Didn't need to hear it from you, loser," Her vicious words were a symphony in Lobo's head, "Your pants are falling down by the way."
He listened to the advice of the girl who was infamous for inventing a robotic lasso, pulling up his shorts and preparing to leave school for the day. He had much more important things to do than enjoying being bullied, he had to go to Mauricio's house.
Even though Lobo had only had the utmost pleasure of being Mauricio's best friend for less than a year, he was convinced that the two of them were platonic soulmates, or "soul-brothers" as they often referred to one another. In a place where connections meant everything, Lobo was lucky as hell to have had his paths cross with Mauricio, and he didn't want to even imagine a world without him. He really had no clue how he lasted nearly eighteen years without the taller boy who always knew what to do or what to say whenever Lobo needed a pick-me-up, which was embarrassingly often. But besides all the mushy gushy shit, Mauricio was an overall swell person and he happened to get along great with Lobo's two other friends, Alder and Malachi, who he knew longer, yet they both welcomed Mauricio into their little chosen family without hesitation.
And it turned out that four was the perfect amount of people to make their games interesting, as they had been developing their own board game for quite some time now, and Mauricio was immediately in love with the concept, helping the other boys out immediately when he was given the opportunity.
The game was somewhat simple, but when prompted, Lobo could go on and talk about it for hours. Victor's Village was what they called it, and it was basically a combat game where the past Victors of the Hunger Games were turned into action figures which Alder made out of scraps of clay, and then they would all enter a battle where the boys would draw cards and roll dice to decide the attacks that would take out one another.
It was good fun, something sickeningly important for Lobo these days, and what was even more fun was the people that he was lucky enough to play the game with. While he was aware that he was seemingly making light of the history of individuals who could have died for the sake of Panem, and he was essentially torturing them all over again by sending them back into combat, it wasn't like he was going to meet any of these people anyways.
"Let's fucking go, Lobo," That day after school, Mauricio was especially excited when his friend entered his dim-lit basement to play Victor's Village with the rest of the crew. Lobo didn't have to work his job at the animal clinic that day, which meant more time for him to spend with the boys, "I'm so happy you're here, my man."
"I missed you so much, brother," Lobo immediately wrapped his arms around Mauricio, patting him on the back before releasing himself and heading over to the table where Alder and Malachi were waiting.
"I thought y'all were busy making out," Alder snickered, Lobo then realizing that his hug with Malachi probably lasted longer than he thought.
"You wish you could make out with Mauricio," Lobo sat down and flipped off his snapback, scrubbing his head with his hands, "But then again, don't we all."
"Lobo's just my friend though," He chirped in, laughing alongside the rest of the group, "Though I would marry you if I could."
"Wouldn't we all marry Mauricio?" Malachi began opening the box that contained all the equipment to play Victor's Village, "He's quite the catch."
"I'm blushing, stop that," Mauricio grabbed his supplies out of the box before passing it to Lobo.
The District Ten boy stared at all the clay figures, pieces of history in every right that he couldn't help but be enamored by. And he had every right to be, as the mix of Alder's immaculate sculpting was the perfect way to honor all the Victors. He wondered who he would play that round, too. Lobo was typically quite fond of Mags from District Four, as she won at a fairly young age and was just the sort of badass that he found himself rooting for, but he was equally interested in the most recent Victor, Haymitch from District Twelve. He did some extremely hardcore shit with the forcefield to win his Games, and Lobo just thought it was neat.
"Are you going to just sit there and stare into space like a dumbass or are you going to pick a Victor?" Malachi teased him, before Lobo finally settled on Haymitch's figurine, "Ah, there you go."
Mauricio decided that he would play as Victoria Mercedes, the District One Victor of the 23rd Hunger Games, which was his niche at this point, even if the rest of the boys said that he had horrible taste, and they were right. Alder chose Beetee Latier of the 40th, as he was always enchanted by District Three and their technology that they were famous for; and Beetee was also pretty good looking for somebody who blew up six people. Malachi went with Duellona Nebulos, a solid choice considering she won the 32nd Hunger Games after killing thirteen people with her own hands, and just like that they laid out all their figures on the table and began to play their somewhat silly little game.
"You suck at this," Lobo would often scream at his friends whenever they did a bad roll and wound up having to use a weak attack on the others, but it was all in good fun, as there really wasn't a way to be necessarily bad at Victor's Village, but even so there were several instances where he screamed, "I hate this game," and wanted to leave the room, but every time that happened, Mauricio told him to calm the fuck down because it was simply just a game.
And at eighteen, Lobo was glad that all it was was a game. In just a few months, his eligibility period for the Hunger Games would be over, and he wouldn't have to live with the slight worry that he would somehow be thrust into the arena to compete to be one of the people he idolized. Besides, he never actually watched the Games in person too throughly since they were quite gory and he was quite squeamish, but he did enjoy edited copies for the sake of doing research for his game. Lobo had it good, and he knew it too. He knew that he would probably go on to do great things after school, since he was the most caring person he knew, and most importantly, Lobo knew that there was so much more to life than high school.
Danika Xiong. 17.
District Ten Female.
She had never been as petrified as she was when the Escort read her name from the small slip of paper, announcing to all of District Ten, all of Panem, that Danika Xiong was decidedly doomed. And it took her a while to process it too. It took her until everybody was staring at her and her knees buckled to realize what had happened, to realize how her life had been destroyed right in front of her, and she couldn't do anything. Danika just had to clunky her fists and walk up onto the stage like she knew what she was doing, when in reality she didn't have the faintest hint at what would happen to her.
And something told her she didn't want to know.
Her mother Dacia, a usually cheery and optimistic woman was devoid of all color in her face, and all she could do was offer a brief, "I'm so sorry" to her daughter before tucking her crying face into her husbands arms.
Her brothers Rorric and Ony didn't have much to say either. Nobody really had anything that would offer Danika comfort until Barb strolled into the Justice Building, the Xiong family rolling their eyes.
"Why are you all so sad?" She laughed, running over to Danika, "It's not like she's going to die. Have you even seen her? Danika here is a bonafide Victor if I've ever seen one."
"Not now," Danika spoke through gritted teeth. She didn't need her optimism right now, she just needed to go home.
But unfortunately for Danika, home was about to be the furthest place from her.
Lobo Kallenbach. 18.
District Ten Male.
"I should have Volunteered for you, brother." Even in a time where sadness was supposed to be aplenty, Mauricio couldn't help but try to lighten the mood for his friend Lobo. His friend Lobo who was slowly entering a period of misery as he came to terms with the fact that he was knocking on death's doorsteps and for no reason other than that the world apparently hates him.
"I wouldn't have let you done that, even if you were eligible," Lobo referenced the fact that his friend had turned nineteen just a few weeks prior, "You've got a whole life to live."
"And you don't?" Mauricio crossed his hands before crunching down to whisper, "Honestly, fuck those Capitolites for taking away my best brother Lobo."
Yeah. Fuck them.
Lobo's parents had a history in politics, yet it seemingly didn't matter now. Nothing mattered when the Escort spun her hand inside the Reaping bowl and pulled out the name of the disheveled boy who forgot to take a shower that morning and forgot to wear something besides a shirt with Mags' face on it.
"They won't take me away for good," Still he was hopeful, even if he felt the impending doom crashing over on him, "I'm coming home to you."
"Let's fucking go!" Mauricio smiled, hugging Lobo tight, "I know you can do it."
Lobo didn't know if he could though. Just as there was no reason that he was reaped, there was no reason that the mess of a young boy could win the Hunger Games. He'd only been a Victor when it came to his board game, and even if they referred to it as one, Lobo knew that whatever happened in that arena wasn't a game.
It's the poor, unfortunate, truth.
Thank you so much to everybody for reading about Danika and Lobo aka our Tributes of District Ten! Thank you to the homies dirtwolf and Manny SS for her and him respectively, and also… thank you to everybody for 155 reviews? Like what the actual fuck?
Alrighty! I haven't rambled in an a/n in a hot sec so I will do that now. How is everybody? I hope we're all trying our best to pog through the pain because I sure am. It's been hard as hell, especially with school, but the semester is almost over. Kind of fucking crazy how I only have one semester left of high school, and I'm lowkey a bit terrified to tell y'all the truth. College applications suck but whatever happens happens, I suppose.
Additionally, a lot of my homies have submissions open, so I am simply asking you to submit, especially to Laney (mykindleisawesome) and Maggie (Mags2000) since they are writing their first SYOTs soon (though Laney attempted one in 2015 but we will pretend we do not see it). My homie Quincy also has one but it's his third rodeo so he knows what's good which is why I am yelling about Laney and Maggie more aggressively. I love those two girlies so much but you didn't hear it from me.
Also! I did a verse blog like a month ago and never talked about it in an a/n so um thesongbirdspreamble . weebly . com if you care. And I think that is it! I once again hope everybody is happy and healthy, so yeah!
Best,
Linds