A/N: Today we're returning to the District Nine pair, Sage Alumius and Luke Saturn! Enjoy reading!
Trigger warnings: one instance of profanity xD snap, I was so close to getting nothing! xD
Don't let it slip through your fingertips.
When there's a ghost,
Don't try to reason with it
'Cause now I'm tired, I'm wired,
So I won't miss a thing.
I wrote my words out to dry
And I've forgotten what to sing
And you can't change the world with a song
And you can't make it right when it's wrong
Sage Alumius, 15
District Nine Female
"You'll be fine, Rini!" I whisper in my sister's ear as we wait in line together. "You'll be just fine!"
It's not unusual for sibling pairs to be brought to the main Reaping. In Nine when they do the Preliminary Reapings in the big cities, they just choose a random neighborhood and all the kids there have to go to the main Reaping along with lots of underfed orphans that are apparently "expendable". Those orphans are usually the ones that get Reaped since there's just so many of them. But yeah, all my friends are here. Aluma, Wheata, Iliana, and Trish are all here, they're just with their parents or siblings or are already in the fifteen year old pen. I feel bad for Iliana; she's the oldest of us, and she just turned 16 a couple of weeks ago. She doesn't know anyone in that pen. Aluma, Wheata, Trish, and myself have a spot in the pen picked out to meet; the far left hand corner.
"I-I know, I'm just scared," my cute twelve year old sister sobs. Even when crying, she looks adorable. No wonder she got that modeling job. I bet she'll be famous when she grows up. I squeeze her hands and keep comforting her as we walk up the line.
When we reach the table, I go first and let my finger be pricked. The lady that does it does it carelessly; the Reaping is in five minutes, and she still has a line of fifty kids to get signed in. When she sees Rini, however, she pauses, and comforts her as she pricks her finger. A scared twelve year old plus being Rini Alumius equals everyone being super nice to you on your first Reaping day. This is technically my first real Reaping day. I've never left my home city of Sorghum in my life. I've been the four other Preliminary Reapings, but then they just choose a couple of orphanages and a neighborhood out of two separate glass balls, and there's no ceremony. Hell, they do the picking before we even get there, I believe, and they just make it seem like it's a "Reaping."
Since both Rini and I came, both of our parents came. Mom's Rini's chaperone, while Dad's my chaperone. I can't see them as I walk Rini to her pen but I feel like they can see me somehow. I give Rini a parting kiss on the forehead before sending her off to her pen. She runs into the arms of one of her closest friends, Mauby Kentens, and the two cling to each other as they wait for the Reaping to begin. I jog over to my pen and step inside. I fight my way over to our predetermined destination. Aluma and Trish are standing near the corner, talking animatedly. I stand next to them and listen in. The Reaping's going to start in a minute anyway, no point in butting in. At the last second, Wheata appears out of the crowd, red faced and wheezing.
"Barely made it!" she gasps, bending over to catch her breath as Mayor Listange and Escort Patrisa Ngostic prance onto the stage. I don't want to pay attention, but I do, letting their words fill up my head until it wants to explode. Why are they so annoying? Why do I have to stand here and listen to them babble?! Aluma sees my hands balling into fists and she puts her hand on my shoulder and strokes my hair with the other, calming me down.
"Shh, Sage, calm down," she murmurs in my ear.
"SAFFRONELLE ALUMIUS!" Patrisa sings.
"SAGE!" Aluma howls, and Trish and Wheata stand behind her, faces gaping in shock. I ball my hands into fists, and the anger makes me see red. Stars dance in front of my eyes and I can feel tears pooling in my eyes. A couple of them streak down my face.
"Be strong for Rini," I murmur to myself, and then I try to put on a brilliant smile. Aluma's sobbing behind me, and I quickly look back at her and I smile sadly. The smile makes me scrunch up my eyes, and contained tears pour forth. I wipe them away as I push out of the fifteen year old girl's pen. I am okay. Be like Rini. Smile for the cameras, keep your back straight, put your anger and pain behind you, walk like you mean it and try not to let all of the tears come down your face. I mount the stage and stand next to Patrisa. I don't listen as she calls the boy's name, only momentarily looking over to see the boy with brilliant white blonde hair emerge from the seventeen year old section. He seems like he has lots of muscle, as if he lives out in the villages. Then I ignore him until I have to shake his hand, trying to keep the tears at bay, and surprisingly I succeed. I hope I look brave. I hope I look less like the frightened fifteen year old girl that I am.
We walk back stage after that. I don't say a word to my District Partner or Patrisa or the Peacekeepers who stand on either side of me, gloved hands tensed and ready to grab my arms and restrain me if I freak out and try to escape or if anything else emotional happens. They must be expecting me to break down right now. They're used to dealing with younger orphan kids of twelve to fifteen usually who kick and scream until their pasty skinned faces become so drenched in tears that you can't even see their faces. I hope I looked different from the awkward weaklings Nine usually produces. I hope I'll fair different from the usual type of tributes Nine produces, or I won't even last ten minutes past the Bloodbath before someone does me in.
I walk into the goodbye room on my own after the Peacekeepers open the door. I sit down on the little bench nestled up against one of the walls of the Justice Building goodbye room. I clasp my hands together and let them rest in my lap, and I put on a confident smile when a sobbing Rini and my parents, both smiling sadly, come into the room. Rini runs into my arms, sobbing into my shoulder. She punches me weakly in the shoulder as she sobs, and I just stroke her hair, trying to calm her down. My parents stand on either side of us, and they squeeze my shoulders comfortingly.
"It's going to be okay," I whisper in Rini's ear. I don't want to be mean, but shouldn't I be the one crying and being comforted? But Rini's had a lot on her plate lately. Still, watching her weeping in my arms brings the tears back and I let a few of them spill.
I hug my parents once I've set Rini down, and then after some parting words of encouragement and devotion they're gone. Aluma, Iliana, Wheata, and Trish pour into the room, in varying states of despair. Trish is pouting and trying not to cry, and Wheata's just looks like she's stuck in a state of shock. Iliana is sobbing quietly into her hands, and Aluma is weeping, full blown hysterics, and Trish has to support her so she doesn't fall on her face and so she can actually walk forward. I fold myself in between all of them, and we stand there for what feels like forever. I'm sobbing now, because these are my friends and I'm realizing I might not ever see them again, that I might be that black spot in their history. I can just imagine Aluma having a daughter, and the little girl meeting Iliana and Wheata and Trish and loving her mother's friends, but then finding out that there's the missing one, the dead one, Sage Alumius.
"Remember me," I murmur, and they all nod and promise and spew words that I can't understand. And then they're being torn away from me, and I look up to see the Peacekeepers pulling them away. Wheata and Iliana are already gone, and Trish shakes out of the Peacekeeper's grip and marches out angrily. Aluma struggles, though, crying and spasming in the man's straining arms. She cries out as they pull her out of the door after the second Peacekeeper helps out.
"I love you, Sage!" Aluma screeches before they tug her fully out of the room and slam the door. There's sounds of a scuffle outside, and a couple of minutes later the Peacekeepers open the door, and I can tell by their body language that they are miffed. They escort me out of the goodbye room and we walk through the dimly lit halls of the Justice Building. Everything's sullen in the Justice Building, and I'm happy when we reach the back door and walk out to the train platform, nestled right behind the place I just left. The air is smoggy and chock full of pollutants, but it's better than the dank Justice Building. Luke's already standing on the train platform, looking impatient; the train is already here. Aluma's outburst must've put us behind a couple of minutes, so everyone's waiting on me. I leave behind the Peacekeepers and jog up to the platform. The Peacekeepers must think I'm trying to bolt because they take out their guns, but I just run up to the platform and wait for a moment as Luke opens the train door and gestures me inside. Time for these Games to begin in earnest.
A 101 vultures
Dirty up the water
I am not your altar boy
You are not my father
I don't mean to be so crass about the situation
But it's easier than breaking down
The reason in your loose interpretation
In a sea of motherfuckers, man, you were no salvation
Why'd you have to go, leave me to the vultures?
Now it weighs so heavy on my soul
Why'd you have to go, leave me to the vultures?
It got so heavy
Luke Saturn, 17
District Nine Male
I tap my foot impatiently against the rusted metal of the train platform, waiting for that Saffronelle girl to get here. My teeth are gritted but my mouth is closed. I know my face looks strange but I don't care. I didn't shed a tear when I sat alone in the goodbye room for the allotted amount of goodbye time. I didn't take a chaperone; the closest thing I have to family is Surter's family, and they all stayed back in Ropin to work. If they left even for two days, their income would fall enough that they wouldn't be able to feed every mouth in the pile of jogs they call a home. So yeah, I was as alone as ever. Not that I minded. I didn't cry. There's no need to. I don't even feel shocked, really. I just feels like it's a normal day, like nothing's changed from the way it has been for the past several years. I feel like I'm going to step on the train and get shuttled back to Ropin, and my sickle and my floppy straw sun hat will be waiting for me when I step off along with an eager Surter, and I'll head back out into the fields to work, and life will be as it always has. I think I'll expect to go home if I die. This just...it's not even surreal. It just feels like, "Oh look, I have the Hunger Games on my schedule! Fun! When will I get back?" I don't know. I expected to break down or something. It's registered. I realize that I'm going into a death match where I'll most likely die, yet I don't feel anything. Even I didn't think I was this emotionless, but it seems that I am.
Finally, the Saffronelle girl runs onto the platform. Her Peacekeeper escorts look wary of her sudden burst of speed, and they pull out their guns. She's just running to the train platform, however. Good. Blood doesn't particularly bother me, but I'd rather not keep the gruesome events of today going by seeing a fifteen year old girl torn to bits by bullets a couple of yards from me. The girl comes to a stop beside me, panting just a little bit, and I grab the handle to the train door and hold it open for her. She smiles graciously. She's sort of pretty, at least for a port city girl, and fit, too. Most port city kids would be wheezing up a storm after that run. Maybe she won't be a lost cause, and maybe both Nines will survive the Bloodbath. Eh, that's a long shot. Let's hope she's smart, too.
Inside the dining car of the train we find a sweetly smiling Unity Carden along with a sleepy looking Patrisa Ngostic. Our only Victor and Mentor, Unity from the 1st, looks like a real sweetheart. She's had to deal with some tough shit over the years, like never getting another Victor and killing quite a few other tributes, and also losing family and friends in the rebellion and after the Games. She must be a good Mentor, I hope. She must've just not had the proper type of tributes to have her doing well with getting tributes far or being Victors. I'd happily take over for her; wouldn't you, if you were in my position?
"Welcome Luke, Saffronelle!" Unity cheers. "Please, come sit!"
"I'd prefer Sage, if that's alright," my District Partner, apparently Sage, mutters as we sit down. Her eyes are still a little red from crying, I notice. She probably has family and friends that came to Durum just in case she was Reaped; heck, she probably lives here, and everyone she's ever spoken to before probably crowded into her goodbye room to bid her farewell. I feel just a twinge of jealousy, but it's just a twinge. Family and love are just simple weaknesses that most people have, chains that obstruct you from doing what you want or need. I'm free. None of these women are. Unity has her sisters and their families, Patrisa probably has a whole obese herd back in the Capitol, and Sage seems to have the goddarn entirety of the port cities on her side or something since it took her so long to get out here. I have no one. Surter's a good friend and a good kid and I help his family out, but I don't love him. I don't love anyone. I probably wouldn't even cry if Surter starved to death or his whole family's shabby cottage caught on flame and they all were roasted alive. I don't feel much any more, and it drives me nuts sometimes. I wish I had chains right now, I wish I had a mother and a father weeping now as I ride away from Nine forever, a group of friends sniveling and telling stories about our best times together to comfort one another, a brother and a sister telling each other that it will be alright and that I'll make it home, because they believe in me. But that's just now, because I feel so damn alone and so damn lost. In an hour, I'd probably laugh if you asked me if I wish I had a family. I think this might be the shock wearing off and the reality of what's ahead truly sinking in. I steady myself. That was emotion, wasn't it? I'm not a lost cause then. I suddenly realize I'm still standing while Sage has been sitting down for a good minute. They're all looking at me, and I clear my throat and sit down.
"Sorry, just thinking," I murmur, and jam a random appetizer from the table into my mouth. There's an explosion of sweet and sour in my mouth and I stuff a couple more of the bread pieces in my mouth, enjoying the delectable sauce smothering the bread crisps. Unity smiles warmly.
"Enjoy your food, the both of you," Unity chuckles. "However, this cannot all be fun enjoyment. I like to get down to business right away. Let's leave Ms. Ngostic to her nap and we can move to my favorite car on the entire train." Unity stands, and Sage chuckles; Patrisa has fallen asleep, and a thin trail of drool rolls out of the corner of her mouth, cutting through the layers of lilac and white makeup caked on her face and exposing her pale, creamy white skin underneath, a similar tone to mine. The three of us walk out of the car and walk a ways back until we reach the back car. Sage gasps, and the sights around us coax a small smile to my lips. The walls of the car are mostly glass, and you can see the swaying, uniform fields of golden wheat on all sides of us. Durum is just a tiny, smoggy, dark gray blotch on the horizon, and we speed past a couple of small villages. The little children run to the edge of the fields and watch with awe as the train scissors by, a bullet of silvery metal moving so fast that the kids must think that it's magic. I see the little faces, and I swear one of the kids is Surter, another his little sister Anny. Then I'm just seeing Surter's family everywhere and I smile sadly, and a tear drips out of my eye. When I feel that, everything stops. I'm...crying? I haven't cried since soon after my parents died in the stampede. I draw in a shuddering breath. The village children are long gone, and so are my tears. Unity is sitting, relaxed, on a long cream colored sofa, grinning widely. Sage is still gaping, turning around slowly so much that she must be dizzy by now, looking at the beautiful golden brown blur of a world around her. The sky seems to melt into the fields and it's almost like a living painting where the paint is wet and intermingling. Finally, Sage and I sit down after we've looked around in awe for quite some time. Sage sits on the same long couch as Unity, while I pull up a chair of the same color and fabric, though it is more rigid than the couch. I feel more perceptive now that I've had the taste of the world around me. I feel bright eyed, inspired, alive.
"Do you like what you see?" Unity inquires, smirking.
"Yes," Sage and I say at the same time, and she blushes and I smile a little again.
"Then you're going to need to win," Unity informs us, her face darkening, and I know it's time for the strategy talks to begin.
A/N: So there you have it! I liked exploring Sage and Luke more, and it was also nice to revisit Unity! :D
Sorry if I sounded harsh about my character development thing, I totally didn't mean to! :)
I noticed some people have not been reviewing as much as they used to, or at all. That's totally fine, I get it's the holiday season and I'm moving really fast, but if you don't have the time to leave in depth reviews, you can just leave a sentence or two saying, "Oh, I liked what you did with (Tribute)." Also, just stating the trivia questions does not count as a review. To get the review points for sponsorship, you have to actually critique and/or praise the work. Thanks! :)
Oh yeah, speaking of sponsorship, I jacked up the weaponry prices a hella lot, sorry those of you who wanted to send in lots of grenades, but they are now 110 points I think, not 65! XD You guys can pool your points if you want I guess to buy grenades, but I wouldn't suggest it because at this point whoever gets a grenade will probably either have no clue what it is and leave it and it will never be found, or they'll accidentally pull the pin and blow themselves up! XD I also added a medical section to the sponsorship list.
Who did you like better here, Sage or Luke? Have your thoughts on them changed?
HAPPY 2017! This story will definitely be finished by the time I say HAPPY 2018! ;)
EDIT: I FORGOT TRIVIA AGAIN GODDARNIT!
Sage (1 pt.): What does Sage ask her friends to do?
Luke (1 pt.): What is Surter's little sister's name?
Until Next Time,
Tracee