District Two

Reapings

Marius Agari (15)

i don't know what i want, if i'm completely honest
i guess i could start a war, i guess i could sleep on it

the kids don't wanna come home — declan mckenna

Marius Agari never considered himself a shy person. He was introverted, and perhaps even a little aloof for his age, always thinking of distant lands and half-churned concepts that made him question the very reality that he lived in. But he also happened to be a perfectly polite fifteen-year-old whose life had been aimed towards a single goal until then — volunteering and winning the Hunger Games as soon as his mentors allowed him to. His parents had tried to talk him out of it in spite of having chosen to raise him in a District where training for the Hunger Games was very essentially a one-way ticket to comfort and a niche that not everyone could afford. District Two wasn't as wealthy as One, but its citizens took pride not only in their District's strong work ethic, but also in the way they had become the District with most Victors over the course of the years. Marius's family was by no means rich, and he had been brought up in an austere but nevertheless loving environment, and the boy wanted to pay his parents back by winning the Hunger Games and providing for them for the rest of their lives.

"Are you sure about this?" Blake whispered next to him. Marius was an only child, and Blake was the closest thing he had ever had to a sibling — they had known each other since they were toddlers, and the boy was the only person who knew that he had been picked as that year's volunteer.

"I am," Marius muttered in return, wondering what would happen if one of the eighteen-year-olds from the Academy found out that he was the mysterious boy who had been selected for volunteering. He didn't feel scared, not really; he knew that his teachers had chosen him for a reason and that he would do fairly well in a hand-to-hand combat if one of the eighteen-year-olds insisted on fighting him over the right to volunteer, in spite of being a little skinnier than the average eighteen-year-old Career. He was quick on his feet and exceptionally smart, and he would become a fast and efficient killer when the right time came. He would not feel intimidated by the looks of disdain and the complaints from those who would be too old to volunteer the following year — and yet there was something about it that made him incapable of telling anyone about it, either; perhaps because he didn't fully believe his luck and thought that some jock would end up taking his place anyway in spite of what his mentors had decided. Marius was confident in himself and his skills, but at the end of the day he was also a fifteen-year-old who still quavered at the thought of being bullied by one of the older kids at the Academy.

He looked up when their Capitol escort tapped on the microphone, flashing a smile towards the crowd before her.

"Dude, I'm so tired of this shit — Hell, I think I'm already bored." Blake murmured, leaning back on his chair. Most Reapings were held in small town squares with no seating areas, but the mayor of District Two had filled the square with small scissor chairs for the teenagers who were in Reaping age, and more comfortable stalls and sitting areas for those who weren't directly involved in the Reaping but still held a position of privilege amongst their fellow citizens, such as previous Victors or the Academy mentors.

Marius shushed him by elbowing his side and doing a light frown before tilting his chin towards their escort, who kept rambling on about the Capitol and the Districts and how the Dark Days were nothing but an ancient memory in their young hearts, addressing all the children between twelve and eighteen years old who were sitting in front of her, but that they were still supposed to honour those who had died for the Capitol by participating in the Hunger Games. Marius didn't really care for the Capitol — he wasn't one of those freaks who revered the President's every action and condoned the way they discriminated the poorer Districts — but he had largely benefitted from living in a District that had been favoured by the Capitol over the past few decades; his education had been excellent, and while his parents had never been rich he had never wanted for anything and was able to spend most of his childhood playing around with Blake, simply enjoying life as it was. His instance on the Capitol was therefore a rather ambiguous one; like most fifteen-year-olds, Marius didn't really know what he wanted or how to tell right and wrong apart, but also like most fifteen-year-old he did think he knew what his mission in life was — and, in spite of his indifference towards the Capitol, there was something gorily enthralling about the Hunger Games that made Marius want to volunteer and win no matter what.

"Ingrid Bell told me that Jonah Davenport will be this year's volunteer," some seventeen-year-old whispered behind him. "He's acting all quiet about it because his friend Bertram has been training for the Games since they were kids and is about to turn nineteen, so this year's technically his last."

"Bummer," some girl sighed behind Marius, clicking her tongue. "I can't believe whoever was picked isn't boasting about it like they always do. The girl — she's a bit weird, isn't she?"

"Yeah," another girl agreed. "She's, like, super nice but also pretty savage. We used to train together back in the Academy and she was all peppy and bubbly most of the time, but then she would just sort of turn into a psycho and stab a million dummies all of a sudden?"

"We're so not winning this year," the original boy groaned, which made Marius chuckle quietly. The boy frowned and gave him a little too hard a pat on the shoulder. "You laughing 'bout something, dude?"

"No, I'm all right," Marius countered quickly, a bemused smile on his face. "I'm just as intrigued about the male volunteer as you guys are."

The boy frowned, but then looked up when their escort read the name of the boy who had been reaped. It was some thirteen-year-old called Oliver Lashe, who happily trotted onstage and flashed a smile at the crowd in front of him. Being reaped might have meant nothing in a District like Two, where the reaped children were never actually sent to the Games, but the children took great pride in walking onstage and allowing the volunteers to take their spot, almost as though they were doing them a favour by letting them step into their shoes. It was all a goddamn circus, Marius told himself, but he smiled nevertheless when the boy behind him did a loud gasp after Marius exclaimed the words that would change his life forever.

"I, Marius Agari, am this year's legitimate volunteer for District Two, and I claim Oliver Lashe's spot as my own!"

Alina Marza (18)

entre la nuit, la nuit et l'aurore
entre le royaume des vivants et des morts

reflektor — arcade fire

Alina even rolled her eyes a little when she heard the general gasp around her once Marius announced himself as the mysterious male volunteer. Alina knew about him already, obviously; their mentors had held coordinated meetings beforehand and the two of them had even discussed tactics together because they did get along fairly well. The only thing that bothered her wasn't Marius's age, or even his aloofness — she just disliked the way he tried not to bring attention to himself, which only made everyone feel even more interested in whatever he had to say. Alina didn't know him that well just yet, but she couldn't help but regard him as a little vain in that sense — did he really mean to pass unnoticed, or was it just a way to make himself more appealing? He wasn't exactly the broody, silent type, but Alina figured that his privileged position as one of the top students at the Academy had done nothing but reaffirm his already pointed masculinity and the way most boys from Two tended to think the entire world owed them something.

She also let out a loud sigh when she realized that her classmates were giggling behind her. They were all between fifteen and eighteen years old like herself, and even though she did hang out with them sometimes she still happened to know perfectly well that most of them made fun of her behind her back and wished she wasn't a part of the small female clique that they had formed over the course of the years. Alina didn't exactly like them, either, but District Two girls were taught from a very early age that going solo would get them nowhere — they needed a boyfriend, a solid group of friends, and an extensive acquaintance network if they wanted to be relevant in their society. And Alina had always dutifully obliged to whatever her parents thought was best for her, including the intensive training that had made her the chosen volunteer for the 90th Hunger Games.

"Here we go again," she muttered, observing the way their Capitol escort beamed at the audience before taking a slip of paper from the crystal orb that a Peacekeeper had brought onstage only a few minutes earlier. She rolled her eyes when she called the name of a sixteen-year-old called Calpurnia Hendricks — the name sounded vaguely familiar to Alina, and she just observed how the girl went onstage and whined about wanting to go to the Hunger Games anyway because she was a trainee at the Academy. Alina snorted quietly, knowing that things simply did not work that way in their District, and raised a daring hand that made her stand out in the middle of an otherwise amused crowd.

"I, Alina Marza, am this year's legitimate volunteer for District Two, and I claim Calpurnia Hendricks's spot as my own!"

That was it. That was the very sentence that she had heard other volunteers yell over the course of the years; a simple, straightforward phrase that meant the world to an eighteen-year-old who still had not figured herself out in any sense. She chuckled when Calpurnia burst into tears onstage, and she happily let the Peacekeepers escort her to the stairs that would take her to the beginning of her new life. A life that would either be breathtakingly brief or extended and lavishly luxurious, but a life away from those who had made fun of her until then nevertheless.

"I'm very pleased to meet you!" Wendy Wentz, their Capitol escort, greeted her with an annoyingly chirpy voice and beamed at Alina before shaking her hand. "I've heard brilliant things about you, Alina. I can't wait to see what you're capable of."

"Yeah, neither am I," retorted the girl, which seemed to make Wendy feel a little taken aback. Sensing that she might have overstepped and knowing that it would be useless to cause a poor first impression on the woman who was supposed to help her for the next few weeks, Alina just offered her a charming smile and added, in a much higher tone, "I'm kidding! I really can't wait to see what the Capitol is like with my own two eyes, either!"

"Oh, you'll love it," Wendy assured her, a much brighter expression on her face now. She then stepped back and motioned for Alina to take the microphone that she had wielded until then. "Feel free to say a few words to your fellow citizens, Alina!"

Alina looked down at the crowd beneath her and did a self-conscious smile. She knew that everyone was looking at her right now, from her parents to her elementary school teachers to the girls who had bullied her when she was but a skinny thirteen-year-old straight out of school, the feeblest and newest addition to the Academy's impeccable student body. She licked her lips, approaching the microphone with a somewhat haughty expression on her face, and side-eyed the girls who had been her friends for the past few years before addressing the entirety of her District, her heart pumping violently inside her chest.

"I shall do my best at honouring the District that has raised me and made me the warrior that I am today. Thank you."

The entire square erupted in cheers, and Alina did one last smile before shaking Marius's hand. The two of them knew each other from the Academy, and had briefly discussed tactics for the Games, but Alina knew that had been nothing compared to what was to come. Marius was yet to become her brother, the closest thing she would have to an ally inside the Arena. A brother that she would eventually have to kill if she wanted to make it back, but a brother nevertheless; that was far more than most tributes could hope for in their circumstances. She would be there for him as long as he didn't become an obstacle towards her victory, and she expected him to act the same way in return. There would be more people in their pack, obviously, but Alina knew that she wanted her District partner to become her number one ally, simply because she would never bring herself to trusting someone new as much as she would trust someone from home. She knew Marius's work ethic, and his views regarding the Games and the way he should handle them — they had been taught the very same tactics at the Academy, after all, and Alina knew that it would be fairly easy to trick him into submission if he didn't reciprocate her sisterly feelings towards him.

She was a Career now, she reasoned with an amused smile, and a smart one after all.

Whyyyy do I keep writing such descriptive POV's instead of actually getting on with the story I am the WORST. I hope you all liked it anyway — this story is largely going to rely on its characters' psychological complexity, and I thought a little bit of introspection would help me (and hopefully you lot!) understand these two characters a little more before they interact with the rest of the tributes. Also, this chapter took me a lot longer than I thought it would — partially because I've plenty of stuff due in the next few weeks, so. :'D Please bear with me! I promise I'm not giving up on this story, it's just... well, life getting in the way of my writing. I'll still try and update at least once a week, though!

I still need a District 7 Male in case someone wants to submit another tribute! It'd be lovely to have him asap, but since we're a few Districts away from that just shoot me a PM if you're interested and I'd be happy to reserve the spot for you.

So! Yeah, that's it for now. Hope you're all healthy and safe — please wash your hands regularly and take care!

Up next — District 3 + Justice Builiding!