Quick note: D9 reapings are now updated and complete if you missed the update last week.
District Ten's Sussex Neuhern's POV:
Many people think that because I don't speak much, that I don't think much either. People of course are animals, like the sheep I slaughter; they aren't much for thinking as individuals so mostly follow the easiest path. With the sheep that path leads to the slaughterhouse, with people well it just means they don't really get the time to know me, just assume that the big dumb brutish Zeus isn't worth their effort.
This would bother me if I wasn't so happy with just being left alone.
Luckily I was born with a large and strong body type so around the age of seven I had a fantastical growth spurt that caused me to become the largest boy at the community home. Of course others would feel that my size posed a threat to them in some way so would try to pick fights. I quickly learnt the best way to deal with this was to silently knock those who tried to hurt me unconscious. The staff didn't like this much so I was often beaten; I still decided to say silent though, just listen to what the boys said about me about how I took the Matrons lashings in silence.
By the time I was nine I was the most feared boy in the home and this suited me fine, though some of the younger ones often stuck by me for a few weeks when they first arrived as soon as they settled in and made friends they would leave me alone.
But then there was Auk, he showed up at the orphanage six years ago as another scared and scarred little boy. His eye patch and bruised body made him a popular target for the boys who liked to pick on the weak kids so he like many before him decided to stick by the large twelve year old Sussex. But unlike the others he never really went away, he always refused to mockingly call me Zeus as the other boys did and decided he and I were a team.
By this point I hadn't really said a word in three years so everyone just assumed I was mute, telling Auk to leave me alone would kinda ruin the good thing I had going so he stayed.
"You know I've always wondered what sheep think as they see the shocker coming towards them" Auk told me as we were walking to the abattoir one morning, for a twelve year old he was always surprisingly morbid. He also likes the sound of his own voice far too much.
"I think they know it's coming you know, they know this is the end. I know that feeling, when mom came for my eye with that red hot poker, I really did think I was going to die, I knew it. She thought my eyes were too blue you know. That they need darkening for some reason. A total lunatic that one." Auk had told me the story of how he'd lost his right eye at least once a day since I'd first met him, I think he must have been telling it for his own benefit to remind himself that any life was better than the one he'd left behind. As usual though I grunted in sympathy and let him continue to talk.
"Wish I knew your story though bro" he said as we scrubbed our hands in the decontamination room, this was a new one to me he'd never asked about me before. I look at him confused.
"Yeah I know you won't tell me a thing big guy" he laughs "But I've been asking some of the other guys at the home"
Also new to me, Auk usually avoided other boys, but I guess now he was getting older and I was getting closer to the point where they'd kick me out of the home after my last reaping, that he was doing what all the others before him did and move on. This bothered me more than it should have; the other boys had only lasted a few months, Auk had been with me for six years now. I'd almost been planning on taking him with me when I left. I still hadn't decided how to tell him this of course as I couldn't read or write the little notes like I'd seen hung around the orphanage.
"So I know you're the oldest boy at the home" Auk says "so I went to the second oldest."
'Yank' I think he was one of the first boys I'd knocked unconscious, he hated me and the feeling was mutual, he still liked to pick on kids smaller than himself. I raise my eyebrows as I look at Auk who laughs.
"Yeah your right" he tells me "He threatened me with a beating if I mentioned your name again so I scarpered, so I went to Trenton"
Trenton was one of the boys who'd stuck by me earlier on; he was sixteen now, one of the really popular boys with the girls and I'd almost forgotten he even knew who I was.
"He told me everything I knew already though" Auk says with a smile, "So I figure I'd go to Matron" I stop dead, no-one ever went to Matron voluntarily, was he insane? He starts to laugh almost maniacally.
"Oh your face Sussex, a picture really does paint a thousand words doesn't it. Yh I went nowhere near Matron, that bitch scares me. I guess the mystery of Sussex the silent will never be solved my friend and you know I kind of like it like that."
We step into our stations at the slaughter house and a bell rings as the first sheep wanders dazed and confused into the bright starkness of the room where they will die. I work quickly before the animal has time to panic and pull down the electric probe we call the shocker and quickly electrocute the sheep removing its consciousness. With a slice of the blade I hold in my right hand I slice the sheep's throat ending its life, after this it's easy work that I do quickly, skinning the animal, removing the head and the internal organs before cutting it into more manageable chunks. We have exactly twenty minutes for each animal and I can usually do one in about eighteen.
I like my extra two minutes I have after throwing the last piece onto the conveyor that takes the meat away to be separated out into the good meat for the capitol and the pieces for the Districts that are obviously much smaller and tougher. I use this free time to watch my colleagues work and take in the way they do their job. There are the older ones like Mr Stiles who works slower than he used to and the ones who seem to relish their job or hate it.
I usually take a peek at Auk too, his face deep in concentration as he struggles to work fast enough with his one good eye. I tried to help him once, about three years ago, but wasn't back in my own pen in time to start the next sheep, it started to panic and broke some machinery and I was thrown out or the slaughterhouse. Going back to matron without pay hadn't been fun especially as I couldn't explain myself, by the time Auk came back I'd already had my beating and had been locked in the basement. I didn't see sunlight for a week. Yet after all that Matron had me return to work. I'll never know how she ensured I wasn't fired, but I guess she must scare plenty of the older men who grew up in the Home and who now work in this factory as managers and stuff as much as she scares the boys there now.
My two minutes are over quickly and a new sheep wanders into its final pen, I catch this one's eyes as I pull the shocker down and I realise that they must know that this is the end, mustn't they?
District Ten's Ethel Delian's POV:
I can hear Corona talking about me through the thin walls of the training centre, as least I think she means me as I haven't heard her mention a name specifically to Lolene but there's only one 'potential victor' the two of them could be discussing. I crouch on the floor and scratch away at the dirt with my knife as I try to focus on the two of them.
"Ethel, we doing this or not?" Tammy waves me over from the other side of the centre and I forget my ease dropping in a moment "I thought you had to be home in half an hour." I look up to the large clock that hangs above the door of the training centre, was it really already half Six. I call the large barn we train in the training centre but really it's just a wooden barn, with a few paper thin wall to separate out weapons storage, an office and some changing rooms, the floor is just dirt and in wet weather the roof always seems to leak. It isn't exactly the giant complexes that the proper career tributes train in, but I know that we have more trainees in Ten than they do in Four now, it's only tradition that keeps the career pack so exclusive.
I toss my knife towards the targeting wall that already contains nine knives that I've been throwing at it; with a thud the knife wedges itself into the wall.
"Show off" says Tammy as she drag a thick woven matt to the centre of the hall, seeing what we're doing Ram and Jose stop weight lifting in the far corner and walk over to watch us.
"You know you'd fight better if you took your tops off girls" Ram guffaws as I slip out of the cardigan I'm wearing and dump it on the floor.
"You want to shut up" I reply "Or would you rather fight the winner"
"Bring it on" he laughs, I roll my eyes and turn to face Tammy.
"Ready?" I ask
"Ready" she says and without waiting a moment I lunge for her stomach with my shoulder, anticipating my move she brings up her knee slowing down my attack and twists me around throwing me to the floor. The impact hurts a little but I pull myself up quickly and pull a strand of hay from my hair.
"Ready?" she asks, as I catch my breath.
"Ready" I reply, I take it slower this time as we circle around each other for a moment, sizing up each other's strengths and weaknesses. I've fought Tammy many times now and I know she has fast reactions but sometimes makes the wrong move in her haste. Just as she knows I can be too forgiving in my moves. She makes the first move this time, grabbing for my right arm and twisting it around my back.
"ouch" I screech, but she doesn't let go, I twist my leg backwards hooking it under her knee pull her towards the floor. She keeps hold of my arm as she falls and takes me down with her.
"Crap" she yells as I land on top of her and feeling that she has released me, spin around so that I'm facing her.
"Now kiss!" cries Jose as Ram laughs beside him.
"Good move Ethel" says Corona from just behind the chortling boys "You turned that to your advantage quickly."
"So you'll send me to the games right" I ask looking up at her expectantly as I continue to sit on Tammy who has begun to kick up at me.
"That'll be your choice when the day comes, I'd never force anyone to fight, but if you want to I won't stop you."
"I'll be your next Victor" Ram announces as I finally decide to climb off Tammy, who punches my arm once I free her from my grasp.
"You wouldn't make it five minutes" Tammy laughs.
"I would, I'd rush into the cornucopia and grab the largest weapon I could."
"and then two careers would descend upon you and pull that weapon from your cold dead hands." Corona says "Ethel what would you do at the cornucopia?"
Everyone looks at me, they know I'm one of the best and they know I've been studying up recently to make sure I'm prepared.
"I'd go for a smaller weapon and a bag of supplies on the edges then run. It's stupid to go straight in especially if I didn't have an alliance"
"You'd get an alliance" says Tammy with a confident tone that borders on the aggressive and I smile.
"Thanks" I say as Corona nods and disappears back off towards the office, she used to stay out with us for hours, practicing techniques and laughing with us. Then her niece Tiffany volunteered for and died in the 150th games and she hasn't been the same since. I'd never say it out loud but I didn't like Tiffany, she was eighteen when she died, the same age I am now but she was immature, snobbish and selfish. Tammy and some of the other girls who used to train but quit after her death idolised her. I was never too sure.
"Ethel" Tammy says "Ethel we've lost track of time it's ten to seven"
"Crap!" I shout and without a word of farewell I leave the centre and begin to run in the direction of home. It's a twenty minute walk and a ten minute run on a good day, but I've been training and fighting since I left the fields at three and before that I was on my feet all day watching the livestock.
I'm used to the run but in my haste I keep managing to stumble and almost trip over a couple of times. I don't stop though I need to be home by seven on the dot.
I arrive home and stumble through the front door, looking up after I tear off my muddy boots, I see my brother Dex stood in the kitchen scrubbing a pot, he has a black eye.
"Crap" I mutter.
"Ethel!" my stomach sinks as my father's voice booms from his chair beside the fireplace in the smart and tidy living room "Come in here girl". I daren't go into the perfect living room as I was all covered in dust and dirt from work and training so I stood by the doorway.
"You're late" he says pointing up at the clock, It's three minutes past.
"I got caught up at training father" I say "Corona wants me to volunteer"
This seems to calm him slightly and he lifts his head shouting through to the kitchen; "you hear that boy, your sister is going to be a famous victor and you'll be what?"
"A stupid waste of food father" he replies calmly, I hold myself still, forcing the rage to remain inside me as I always do. Dax isn't stupid; he's a smart kid, he knows what a cow is going to do before it even decides to do it. He's one of the best wranglers on the ranch; father knows that, he just likes to humiliate us. Usually one at a time to force us to compete with each other I think, but we never would and that angered him so much.
"Go clean up Ethel" he says "then there's some cold stew in the kitchen for you"
I nod as I leave his sight, my stomach rumbling at the thought of food as I pass through the kitchen to the tap outside, silently I stop to squeeze Dax's shoulder, he lifts up a soapy hand and grips onto my hand. He squeezes tightly for a moment before letting go and in that one gesture, I know what he's saying; 'Don't do it. Don't go into the games. Don't leave me with this man.'
But I have to; he knows that, it's our only chance of escape.
Otho White's POV:
Outside my office I hear the sounds of people leaving their homes and starting their daily activities. Year after year of watching the games has caused some people to get bored of the reapings around District Nine. Apart from rare occasions Victors never come from the double digit districts but even before I became a game maker I watched too the end. You can never discount these kids too soon, they are the most desperate to win and desperation leads to unpredictability which makes for excellent viewing.
Mimi Felix stands on the stage looking thrilled to have been promoted from District Twelve, she doesn't seem to even mind the smell which I know from experience visiting Ten in my youth can take your breath away.
"Welcome, Welcome District Ten" she calls "I'm Mimi and I'm thrilled to be your new escort. I will do the boys first I think" she smiles and steps towards the boys bowl where after a quick dig around the middle of the bowl she pulls out a slip. "Sussex Neuhern".
A moment of shuffling and nervousness comes from the male crowd until a large built young man steps up to the stage. His clothes are tattered and his face is full of dread but I see strength there too, once he gets over the initial shock he'll be a good fighter I know it.
After no-one volunteers for his place she moves over to the girls bowl and digging to about the middle of the bowl again pulls out a slip "Dotte Rook" she calls and a tall blonde girl steps from the crowd and moves quickly up to the stage, as she stands on the stage she looks at the floor.
"Any volunteers then?" asks Mimi quickly, she doesn't wait for an answer before continuing "well then District Ten your Tributes..."
"Wait, wait I volunteer, Please let me volunteer" comes a voice from the crowd the camera pans to a dark haired girl in a jet black dress fighting her way through the crowd till she makes it to the bottom of the stairs.
Dotte, Sussex and Mimi look down from the stage, Dotte with her eyes wide open in hope; "You want to replace me?" she whispers "Why?"
"Because I want to win this thing" the girl says.
Mimi can't keep the smile off her face, first year in a new District and she gets a volunteer. Dotte leaves the stage and the girl stands next to Mimi "What's your name dear?" she asks.
"Ethel Delian" the girl replies with a smile.
A/N: Thanks to Naomi Tachi for Sussex (I may have been slightly inspired by Rocket and Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie for him and Auk, could you tell?) and Vaan Levy for Ethel (Made a few little changes to her, hope you don't mind), Hope you liked this chapter, only 2 more reapings to go.
I'm also still looking for some more stories to submit tributes to, if you know of any please send me a message. (I don't have to time to properly search anymore with work and stuff L )
