District Three

Justice Building

Turing Derringer (17)

i played video games in a drunken haze
i was seventeen years young
hurt my knuckles punching the machines
the taste of scotch rich on my tongue

this year — the mountain goats

Turing knew that he should be crying, that he should be slamming his fists against the wall in sheer anger, that he should go on his knees and beg the Peacekeepers to let him stay and find someone to replace him, but he couldn't bring himself to feel anything at all as his mother hugged him tight against her chest and wept silently.

"Oh, my darling little boy," she whispered, smothering her son's face with kisses, her rouge and lipstick staining Turing's cheeks. The boy would have normally rubbed it off straightaway, but he let his mother's makeup linger on his face as the woman wept against his shoulder. "Oh, my love, how did we ever get to this?"

Xenon Derringer just clicked his tongue behind them, shaking his head quietly.

"What's done is done, Jacqueline," he replied, perhaps a bit too sternly. He was a strict parent, and Turing had never exactly gotten along with him due to their clashing natures; where Xenon was imposing and even a little threatening, Turing preferred to simply blend into the crowd and disappear. They were both assertive and incredibly smart, but they had never really gotten along in a genuine way. "There's no use in crying now. The boy has to train hard and try his best, that's all. There's nothing else we can do, Jacqueline."

Althea, Turing's fourteen-year-old sister — and perhaps the only member of the Derringer household that he genuinely got along with — wiped the tears off her face and nodded in agreement. Unlike Turing, she felt incredibly close to both of her parents, and seemed to understand the pain that their mother was currently going through.

"Turing's got it in him to win," she affirmed, placing a hand on her brother's shoulder once their mother finally let go of him. Althea was nothing like her older brother — where he was awkward and quiet, she was a social butterfly who always knew what to say; however, her extroverted nature didn't prevent her from genuinely understanding her brother's quiet nature and the way he was practically incapable of showing physical affection towards them. She accepted him like no-one else in their small family quite did, and Turing would always love her a little more than anyone else in the world because of that.

"Thanks, Ally," he muttered, shrugging his mother off quietly, which only made Jacqueline Derringer burst into tears yet again as her husband hugged her close. The boy then offered his sister a sad smile and shrugged his shoulders in premonitory defeat. "I'm not gonna make it, though. It's virtually impossible, and you know that better than anyone."

"Why not?" Althea countered. The two of them may have been completely different, but they were both equally stubborn when it came to valuing each other's qualities. "Come on, Tur. You're the smartest person I know, and you're so — I don't know, analytical, and focused, and creative when the situation requires it."

Turing let out a quiet pfft and averted his eyes from Althea's, avoiding the reproachful look in her face. He knew his sister believed in him, and he knew that most of his classmates and peers would have deemed him intelligent enough to at least have a shot in the Hunger Games, but the truth was that underneath the intellectual air that his thin-wire prescription glasses conferred him lied a very insecure young man whose life had been completely turned upside down the moment the Capitol escort for District Three had read his name out loud from a single slip of paper. The idea of being exposed to the entire country, of being fleshed out and dissected by stylists and journalists and general gossip, made him feel more vulnerable and lost than anything else; even the idea of dying paled in comparison with the exposure to the outer world that came along with it.

"Hey, kid," his father finally said, attempting an encouraging tone that caught Turing entirely off-guard. "I know it's going to be rough, but you'll be fine. Like your sister said, you're an extremely smart boy, and you'll figure it out eventually. Trust no one, stick to yourself, and try to learn as much as you can while in training."

Turing gulped, but eventually nodded. "Fine. I'll try my best."

"You'd better," Althea whispered, and it broke Turing's heart to notice that there were tears running down her cheeks yet again. The girl hugged him tightly and whispered against his chest, "Promise me you'll come back, please."

"I can't promise you that," the boy replied, perhaps a little too bluntly; simply because he knew that promising that he would get rid of other twenty-three teenagers — some of them perfectly trained to hunt him down and kill him as soon as they could — in order to come back was simply not realistic. When his father glared at him, however, the boy simply hugged her back and added, "But I can promise you I'll try my best, all right?"

Althea sniffled, visibly disappointed by her brother's lack of enthusiasm, but eventually nodded in agreement to his last statement. "All right, I guess."

The boy offered her a smile as he pressed an awkward kiss to her temple. He would try, obviously — like his father said, he would train as hard as he could for the next few weeks. He was already a little muscled, and he wasn't exactly terrible at sports back in school, so he gathered that a little training would enhance his survival skills just enough for him to get by. He wasn't so sure about what his father had said about not trusting other people, though — Turing knew that he would need to find allies who could even out his lack of practical skills, and he definitely felt as though he could trust his District partner already. The girl seemed shy and perhaps a little awkward, but there was something about her that made Turing feel as though he could trust her.

"May I give you one last hug before we go?" Jacqueline Derringer's expression was an undeniably broken one, and Turing felt as though he owed her a moment of self-consolation before he left; the boy offered his mother a quiet nod and the woman let out a heart-wrenching yelp before hugging him tightly against her chest, not unlike she did when he was a little boy. Turing, now taller and stronger than her, hugged her back with an awkward gesture, feeling only slightly irritated by his mother's visceral nature.

"All right, all right," he finally muttered, not unkindly. He patted his mother's shoulder as the woman sniffled and let go of him, hugging Althea close instead. Her husband, on the other hand, placed a gentle hand on his older son's shoulder and squeezed it ever so gently, offering him a confident, somewhat sad smile.

"Show them what you're worth, all right, kid?" He asked.

Turing felt a little perplexed, because his relationship with his father had never been an easy one, but he eventually nodded and squeezed his shoulder in return.

"I will, Dad," the young man promised, offering him something like a smile for the first time in years. "Thank you."

His father offered him one last acknowledging nod, then wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder and motioned for them to leave the room. Althea was left behind, with the girl holding Turing's hand tightly.

"I don't want to go," she whispered, her cheeks a blotchy red from all the crying. She was already fourteen, and yet she sounded like the little girl who had cried all day when Turing had left for school without her when he turned six. "I don't want you to go, Tur."

Turing, ever the logical creature he naturally was, replied, "But I have to, Ally. The Peacekeepers will be here anytime, and I don't want them to hurt you. Just leave with Mum and Dad, all right? I'll be fine."

Althea squeezed his hand, shaking her head repeatedly; she refused to acknowledge the fact that, as always, her brother was absolutely right. She just hugged him tightly and let the tears stream freely down her face one more time before looking up at him, knowing in the bottom of her heart that it would probably be the last time she saw him.

"Promise me again," she said, almost threateningly.

Turing sighed, but nodded quietly. "I promise, Ally."

Althea nodded, then soberly let go of her brother and led herself to the door, offering him one last sad smile before closing it behind her. It broke Turing's heart to think that his little sister would grow old without him, that she would graduate from school and get a job and start a family that he would never know of, not at all, because he would be long gone by that time.

He ached to know the woman she would eventually become, and the thought of losing her, her only true friend, was what made the first silent tears run down his cheeks as he waited for his mentor to come fetch him.

Violetta Dupin (16)

you've been used, you're confused
write a song, i'll sing along
are you calm? settle down
soon you will know that you are sane

you're on top of the world again

expectations — belle & sebastian

"No, Letty, don't go!" The twins wailed around her, hugging their older sister tightly. Violetta's heart broke at the sight of the two of them clinging to her Reaping dress and dampening its hems with their little, translucid tears. They were only six years old, and they were already learning what loss felt like; children of their age shouldn't be exposed to something like this, she told herself as she kneeled to hug them back.

She repeatedly pressed kisses against their cheeks before meeting their identical hazel eyes. "I'll come back, all right? I'm going to be fine, I promise."

"Will you?" Lumen, the boy, asked. The two of them were equally straightforward and fun-loving, but he had always been a little bit more daring than his twin sister. He clung onto Violetta's arm, a pleading expression on his face. "We want you to stay, though."

"Can't you just stay?" Lux pleaded next to him, hugging Violetta's neck tightly. Lux had always claimed that she liked Violetta just as much as her twin brother, and the little girl idolised her older sister's every action. "Stay, stay, stay, please."

"I can't," Violetta breathed, tears filling her eyes once again. She didn't want to go, and she never intended for this to happen — her name had only been in once for every year she had been eligible for reaping, and her parents had always assured her that they didn't need her to take tesserae in spite of having been through a rough patch or two over the course of the years, because they valued her safety above anything else in the world. "I have to go, all right? But I'll come back."

The twins still sobbed quietly against her chest, and Violetta even sighed in relief when her mother and father took them in their arms, pressing equally loving kisses to their eldest daughter's head. The realisation of the amount of love that she felt for them made her heart ache, and the only reason why she didn't immediately hug them both back was because her eleven-year-old brother, Chip, thrust himself into her arms as soon as the twins let go of her.

"Letty, I'm so sorry," the boy sobbed against her shoulder. He was tall for his age, and Violetta only stood a few inches taller than him, but he crumbled into pieces and became the child he still was as soon as he found himself in his older sister's arms. "I'm so, so sorry. I never thought you'd get reaped, not in a million years."

"I didn't, either," Violetta admitted, biting her lower lip as she hugged Chip tightly. The idea of being reaped had only vaguely crossed her mind before, and she had never actually thought that there was a real possibility of her being chosen as her District's female tribute; after all, most people in District Three went through reaping age without feeling all too bothered by the possibility of being sent to the Hunger Games, simply because there were plenty of children taking tesserae every year who had a much bigger chance of being reaped instead. The chances were slim, and Violetta had always avoided trouble, but apparently it hadn't been enough. She buried her face in Chip's wavy brown hair — which was identical to Violetta's — and told herself she had to be strong; she had to put on a brave face and smile and promise Chip and the twins that she would be fine, and that they she would be back before they could even realise she was gone. But she didn't want to lie to them, because she knew what was coming for her — she wasn't strong, or quick on her feet, and her general clumsiness and social awkwardness would prevent her from becoming one of the Capitol's solid favourites, or perhaps even from finding herself a suitable alliance. She thought of Turing, tall and handsome and apparently confident, and briefly wondered if he would be willing to become her ally. She thought he might, and secretly found herself wishing he would; Chip's quiet sobs were what brought her back to reality, as the boy let go of her and pressed a sloppy kiss on his older sister's cheek.

"I'm gonna miss you," the boy declared, pushing his specs up awkwardly. Chip was usually quiet and thoughtful, and it melted Violetta's heart to see that he had somehow managed to overcome his general awkwardness in order to show his big sister how much he appreciated her.

"You know what?" She touched her index finger to her brother's nose, and offered him a small, sad smile. "I'm gonna miss you, too. But you've got to take care of Mum and Dad and Lux and Lumen, all right?"

Chip nodded as he rubbed his cheek. "I will, I promise."

Violetta pressed a soft kiss to her brother's forehead. "That's my boy."

She cringed at the sound of someone knocking at the door, realising that the time with her family was up already. Her parents huddled around the two of them, hugging their children together for one last time, and only let go of their eldest daughter when a group of Peacekeepers stormed into the room, barking about how they were already running late. Violetta had promised herself not to cry in front of her family again, because she didn't want their last memory of her to be one of fear and anguish, and she tried her hardest to contain her tears until the door was firmly shut behind her, each Peacekeeper grabbing her by one arm and laughing haughtily about the way her face contorted in pain when she realised that she would probably never see her parents and siblings again.

"Brighten up, girl!" One of the Peacekeepers said, with mock confidence. "You'll be in the Capitol all dolled up and eating like a pig in no time."

Violetta had always been a peaceful person, but she could have beaten the crap out of the man right then if she had been a little taller and stronger and perhaps a little braver. She hated the way the system acted as though the Hunger Games meant nothing, forgetting about the dead tributes as soon as the Games were over and treating their families like they owed them nothing even after having taken one of their children away from them. A blind, painstaking hate rushed through her veins as the Peacekeeper dragged her to the station, where a quiet, collected-looking Turing already stood with their mentors and escort. Violetta gulped, trying to tone down her anger, and simply stood next to her District partner as their escort told them what would happen once they got to the Capitol.

"Your cheeks are red," Turing pointed out in a whisper, which caught Violetta entirely off-guard. The boy was a year older than her, and they had never really hung out before, but he had always struck Violetta as the relentlessly quiet type, not unlike herself.

Violetta coughed lightly, shrugging her shoulders. "Goodbyes can be painful. How did yours go?"

Turing shrugged, his lips twitching into the smallest, yet saddest smile Violetta had ever seen. "Well, you know. My mum and sister wept all through it, but it was fine. Promised them I'd try my best at not being shot in the chest by some Career crackhead, and all that jazz."

Violetta did a somewhat amused smile, and nodded. She understood Turing's wretched sense of humour, partly because sarcasm was usually one of the few ways she could convey her feelings while in distress, too.

"I hadn't even thought about the Careers yet," she chuckled, shaking her head quietly. She then offered the young man a feeble smile, squeezing his hand quietly. She sensed that Turing's first instinct was to try and shrug her off, but he surprisingly accepted the gesture and even squeezed her hand a little in return.

Once their escort's rant was over, the woman happily trotted inside, swiftly followed by their two escorts. Turing gently let go of Violetta's hand, and pushed his specs up before muttering something about seeing her inside, his expression a surprisingly kind one. Violetta nodded, looking back at District Three for one last time before following Turing and their mentors inside.

Whatever was to come, at least she now knew that she would not have to face it alone.

I'm getting too attached to these tributes already rip. Anyway! I hope you lot enjoyed this one. The cast is now complete (yeet!) so thanks a ton to everyone who submitted a tribute for this little story of mine! I really can't wait for you guys to see what's in store, hehe.

Up next — District Four + train ride!