District 5 Pre-Reapings

TW: Alea's POV contains mentions of abuse, while Persey's contains an excess of horrible puns

PERSEY FAYRE (16)

DISTRICT FIVE MALE

Persey knew that when you put root beer into a square glass, you would simply get beer.

That had seemed like such a hilarious pun in his head, yet when he had attempted to share it with his fellow classmates, they had merely given him a blank, bemused stare, an awkward silence ringing through the tense air Persey had hoped would be infiltrated with roars of laughter.

In a room full of bright people with huge brains, he hadn't expected that this pun would be able to go over their heads.

But alas, that pun hadn't warranted his expected response either.

And his shy, ridiculously weird laughter, coupled with that haughty puff of his chest at the thought of sharing what he had thought was the greatest pun in the world, oh it had simply nailed his coffin in the grave of unpopularity.

Persey sighed as he slung his backpack over his shoulders, pulling the dark red hood of his jacket over his face. The streets of Las Vegas were unusually busy that day, with numerous men and women dressed in dusty grey lab coats and uniforms meandering across the ashen streets, the dark chemical stains on their clothing glinting in the glowing sunlight that had, for the first time in two weeks, broken through the thick layers of cloud and pollution that loomed over the city, encasing them in a dark prison. Their hands gripped firmly onto thick folders and files, and many of them kept on tilting their heads, their eyes bright, anxious, fearful as they scuttled along, biting their lips and sticking close to dark alleyways in futile attempts to remain unnoticed.

Because if the Peacekeepers had an inkling of suspicion, they were doomed.

That was the curse of District Five's intelligence, they could never be trusted on their own, they were too knowledgeable, too wise, too cunning for their own good.

But Persey liked being that cunning, sly figure in the corner, even if it could potentially arouse unsolicited suspicions.

This was their identity, wasn't it, being the smartest of the Districts? Persey had always embraced this, even when many others felt like they couldn't. His intellect was something he deeply cherished, a part of him he would gladly display to the world.

Shame they could never appreciate it.

Persey sighed, jamming his left hand in his pocket as his right hand creased the ends of his Physics paper, the number 100 flashed proudly across the top of the first page. He should've been proud of himself, this impressive streak of perfect scores in his last ten Physics tests should've been a cause for celebration.

And initially, he had treated it that way, excitedly going around to share the incredible news.

A bit of news that unfortunately came out way too haughty on his part.

He hadn't been able to help it. An overwhelmingly bubbly sort of glee had possessed him, and all of a sudden, the shy, awkward boy had sprung to life, bewildering the classmates who had long gotten used to him being a mere shadow in the class, fading in an ebbing silence, never quite having the ability to interact much with anyone else. This explosion of joy had caused him to come off as arrogant, boastful, and he may or may not have accidentally rubbed his score in the faces of those who he hadn't realised were poor at Physics.

Their response had been to shove him aside, yelling for him to go away, reminding him that it was his mother's arrogance that had led to her death.

That last bit had been more than enough to shatter Persey's heart beyond repair, crushing any sort of happiness out of him, decimating that excited look in his eyes into a grieving, dark stare as images of his beloved mother refusing to seek medical attention out of arrogance tumbled into his mind, pulverising the boy who had never quite recovered from that event.

By the time she had consulted the local medic, it was too late, her breast cancer had become terminal.

A tear slid down Persey's cheek as those final moments he shared with his mother in her bedroom came crashing down upon him, drenching him with an untold sorrow of past trauma.

"Remember when you came home crying because Ante bullied you, and I baked you those cupcakes to calm you down?" she had whispered softly in his ear. "When things get rough, when you're walking through a storm, hold your head up high, Persey, don't let them change who you are, because there's a golden sky waiting for you."

Death had befallen upon her just moments later.

And Persey still hadn't gotten over it.

His mind snapped back to the present, and he realised that he was leaning against a brick wall, a steady stream of tears flowing down his cheeks as he faced the old ruins of the Fountains of Bellagio, the ancient pool having dried up, its base cracked and slowly crumbling to mere dust, the holes that had once sprouted mighty jets of water now only capable of gurgling tiny puddles of murky liquid.

What a pitiful sight, he thought to himself. Then again, I'm probably an even more pitiful sight right now.

Aware that people were beginning to notice him, he straightened his back, whipping out his mother's hand-knitted handkerchief to dry the tears that had swelled up in his eyes. He didn't want to be seen in such a messy state, unbefitting of someone regarded as having such high potential by the professors of the Las Vegas Engineering School. Jamming the handkerchief and his hand back into his pocket, he continued down the street, wary of the sullen figures that crisscrossed the roads, moving swiftly yet silently like ghouls of the night, occasionally swerving to avoid one of the hundreds of black cats that prowled around Las Vegas, their sole purpose in this gloomy, cheerless city to hunt down the growing rodent population that infested many households.

One day, Persey told himself, I'm going to invent something that'll cheer everyone up. Then maybe people will like me.

A man in a brown outfit typical of those worn by geologists bumped into him, and Persey instantly backed away speedily. A stack of envelopes and papers fluttered to the ground, most of which were about tectonic plates.

"Sorry," the geologist muttered.

"Well, it was the fault of those plates, they were distracting you, am I right?" Persey tried to flash an awkward smile at the geologist, hoping that he would understand his pun.

Instead, the geologist merely gazed up at him, his big, green eyes glowing with ire and annoyance as he scooped up a small envelope with the name 'Dawn' written in the corner of it. Persey's smile withered, and he decided against sticking around.

Retreating away from that awkward scene, he rounded a corner, heading into the quieter, tidier streets of the Shocker Quarter, a place that had, thankfully, evaded the hustle and bustle that lay beyond. As he walked down the streets, drawing further and further from the melancholic shuffle of people, he could hear the soft chirping of a rare songbird that inhabited a tree in one of the few communal gardens in Las Vegas, the Porter Tripp Gardens, built by their Victor girl a few years ago. He relished in the relative serenity as he sauntered across the dirt path of the Gardens. He was all alone at that moment, and despite his constant, failed attempts at social interactions, he really did enjoy being alone if he were to be completely honest, and being in this garden filled him with a refreshing feeling of solitude.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted the water mill, standing not too far away, and he could feel his heart swell with pride.

He had designed that water mill.

He had been the recipient of Porter's praise.

He had once again proven his intelligence to the city.

It was a nice little water mill, a cool feature of the garden, and a growing ecstasy bloomed in Persey's heart as he indulged in the knowledge that he had been the mastermind behind it. Some would call it a stupid thing to be so proud of, but Persey couldn't care less about their opinions. This was his creation, not theirs, and nothing could take that fact away from him.

Pushing the fence of the garden's exit open, he spotted his house, the two-storey building built with wheat coloured bricks and adorned with burgundy brick decorations. There was a front yard with a patch of grass sliced in half by a dusty cobblestone path with cryptic etchings and carvings engraved in it that supposedly dated back long before the Dark Days. The roof was low and covered in black tiles, with a small chimney poking out, a small puff of steam billowing out as it embarked on its quest to further pollute the grey skies above.

Perhaps the twins had come home from school early and were cooking a meal.

He walked across the yard and unlocked the door to the house with an orange key that his mother had designed especially for him to use, and was instantly greeted by a colossal, hairy spider being catapulted straight into his face.

Persey let out an ear-splitting cry of alarm, the shrillness of his subsequent screech amplified by a megaphone that had been cleverly placed in the corner of the threshold. His face contorted into a panicked grimace as he stumbled backwards, tripping on a thin piece of wire before falling and landing flat on his butt with a painful thud. Pandemonium danced across his eyes as he gaped at the scene before him, utterly frozen in bewilderment as his twin brothers Gus and Phil emerged from inside the house, grinning madly like those two Gamemakers Aurora and Tempus who he'd seen countless times on television pulling pranks on Ruby Ashgrove.

Of course, it was those two.

The pair, oozing with bundles of ardent mischief, cackled with glee as they held up the fake spider, before giving each other a high-five for their success. Persey gritted his teeth as he staggered to his feet. Clenching his fists, he marched forward, ready to chase down those troublesome little brats, but then a third figure came into view and he stopped himself short.

"Stacy?" he gasped in disbelief, his eyes widening at the sight of his best friend, giving him a sly grin as she stood behind the twins, one hand on her hip, the other flipping around a pen in a casually annoying pose.

"So it's true then? You fall for the spider pranks all the time? Pfft, for someone with such a big brain, you can't seem to grapple with a teeny tiny spider." She clicked her tongue, shaking her head in feigned disappointment. Her dark hair tied in her trademark ponytail fell off her shoulders, shining a little as she brushed a strand of hair away from her inquisitive grey eyes. Persey supposed she was rather pretty, but he had never felt any sort of attraction towards her, or to anyone really. Love was off-limits to Persey, romance a feeling he would never be able to experience due to his asexuality. He had never quite felt accepted for his identity, but as long as he had Stacy by his side he didn't mind too much. No matter how annoying she could be at times with her mischief, he could never quite stay mad at her, after all, she was his pillar of hope as he faced the future that lay in a clouded road filled with misty unknowns.

Sighing, he trudged past the twins, who were running into the yard to gather their tripwire, and he and Stacy headed up into his room, with Stacy chattering nonstop about how she and the twins had prepared the prank. The fact that she had been able to commandeer the respect and loyalty of that goofy duo in a span of two hours was nothing short of incredible, and he felt rather comforted by the fact that she had insisted against the addition of several traps that would've most likely crippled Persey had they gone wrong.

As they reached the top of the landing, his foot stepped on something squishy, and Persey let out a yelp as he slipped, waving his hands frantically in the air. His heart raced wildly, he knew what would happen next, the fall, the bone crush, the excruciating pain…

None of that happened. Because Stacy had caught him just in the nick of time, holding her hands out to stop him from tumbling down the stairs and breaking his back in the process. Both of them let out deep sighs of relief as Persey got to his feet, dusting himself off with narrowed eyes. On the floor was a crushed mess of rotten tomatoes, no doubt put in place by those devilish twins.

"They've gone too far, those two," he murmured, inching away from the stinking muck of gooey red and orange and green, their smashed rhapsody of colours ripping his guts to shreds.

He had always hated tomatoes, but no one knew why, not even Stacy.

It was a secret he had yet to divulge.

"Yeah," Stacy murmured in agreement, her face crinkled in a deep scowl.

Persey shook his head. "Anyway, let's go, Professor Bertrand's logic puzzles won't solve themselves!"

At the mere mention of logic puzzles, Stacy's face lit up in delight, and the pair bolted into the room, eager to put their big brains to work doing something they loved.

And it was a hobby he would not dessert even for all the cake in the world.

ALEA KORAH (18)

DISTRICT FIVE FEMALE

Alea knew that her fight was far from over.

Reclining against a slab of rock atop the hill, her hair fluttering gently in the light breeze as her large eyes gazed out ahead, indulging in the wondrous natural scene that was laid out like a masterpiece before her eyes, a rare display of Mother Nature's true glory in what was normally such a dismal District. The sun was falling asleep, shielded behind three sloping, blue mountains, each smaller but tougher than the one before. The trees were strong, black soldiers, standing in an unmoving row, ready to receive their final orders of the day from the bright, burning general up above. The warm glow of the sun was reflected upon the shimmering surface of Lake Mead, its deep blue surface patrolled by a phalanx of flies, called into service by the heaven-filtering light. The scene was uniquely idyllic, void of the noise and clamour that rang about in the cities of Five. The only sounds were the bumbling of bees and the heavy echo of a raven cawing.

After a long day at work, she didn't mind a bit of peace and quiet to clear her mind.

Sweeping aside a strand of hair from her eyes, her gaze shifted to a spot to her left, marked with several drawings that had been carved out into the rocky ground.

A little window to the past, when times were much simpler.

A small, wistful sigh escaped her lips as her hands traced the faded etchings, from a small spider to a crew of people sailing a boat, reminiscing in the fading memories of a time when her parents would take her out to this spot to watch the sunsets.

A time that had slipped through the crack of an hourglass, dissipated and cast aside as a mere stain in the fabric of history.

The large scar on the ground not too far away from the childishly innocent carvings seemed to ebb with unforgettable trauma, and Alea had to inhale deeply to fight the sudden influx of memories that were streaming into her mind.

This was where her father, years after losing his wife, had slashed her arm.

The scar on the ground bore the haunting memories of his first blow, which had missed her completely, sparking a bit more of a fight within the young, terrified little girl. Alea had tried desperately to fight her way out of there, to escape the ropes that were bound around her wrists, to flee the place where he had brought her to be away from the prying eyes of others.

Hard as she had fought, she was simply no match for the big, burly man.

Gazing down at the long, violet sleeve of her shirt, an odd choice of fashion in the midst of a sweltering District Five summer, her mind swashed about like waves as she imagined the numerous, sanguine red scars across her arm, and in particular, the large scar that wrapped around the length of her bicep.

The one he had given her that fateful night.

Alea shuddered, her expression contorting as she hugged her knees closer to her chest. The night's events began to vividly flash into view, and despite a hard fight to combat the traumatic memories, she could still see herself, a poor, petrified girl screaming and kicking in a panicked struggle against the monster who called himself her father, as he dangled her over the edge of a cliff, as the jagged rocks on the edge of Lake Mead loomed beneath, dark phantoms under the night sky, illuminated with a ghostly light by the ghoulish moonlight.

No, don't think about that, no, no, he's gone, he can never hurt you again, and you've moved on, you can't afford to think about that, she barked in her head, pursing her lips and steeling her gaze, trying her very best to dispel the voices that were echoing through the chambers of her head.

"You alright, Alea?" a voice asked, bursting through the prison of her mind.

Tilting her head upwards, she managed to force a small smile as Jera, her best friend, the girl who would walk through fire with her, crouched down beside her, a concerned look etched across her pale, delicate features.

Alea blinked for a second, reluctant to reassure Jera that she was fine.

Lying to Jera simply wasn't in her DNA.

Don't get her wrong, she was more than fine with lying to others, in fact she had lied to her colleagues that she was out on a meeting with some Peacekeepers to avoid a confrontation with a particular employee with a serious grudge against her.

But to Jera, she couldn't bear to even contemplate lying.

"It's just the place, you know, with all that's happened here…" Her voice trailed off, and her gaze drifted to a lone boat on the lake chugging along, a group of Peacekeepers dressed in their disgustingly whitewashed attire perched on the deck, drinking and laughing like unruly pigs at a feeding frenzy.

They're horrid beasts, those Capitolites and all those who support Snow's cause.

Alea balled her left fist, whilst keeping it hidden from Jera's view. She didn't want her best friend to worry about her, she didn't want her to worry at all.

After all, worrying only derailed people from more important things.

Jera removed her brown sling bag, the one overstuffed with files on the rate of power usage across Panem, and set it down upon the ground, the multicoloured pins clipped onto the bag depicting beautiful landscapes and scenery amidst the urban sprawl of Five jingling and clamouring against one another. She placed a reassuring, comforting arm around Alea's neck, giving her a soothing smile. "Don't let those memories get the better of you," she said imploringly. "You're a queen, don't forget that."

Alea could feel the corners of her mouth tugging upwards, and she sighed, allowing her shoulders to relax. "Yeah, I won't. Anyway, how are the funds for that trip to Twelve?"

Jera thrust her hand into her bag and fished out a document, her eyebrows furrowing with concern as she did so. Alea craned her neck, trying to get a good look at the small print and numbers crammed into long tables and charts. As head members of the committee tasked with overseeing District Five's export of power to other Districts, they had been made aware of the numerous severely damaged power lines that were strewn across the Seam, proving to be a notoriously dangerous hazard for the people living in the impoverished place. Repairing them would be costly, yes, and she wasn't a hundred percent sure she would be given the authorisation to carry out the trip, but considering the sheer implications it would have on the suffering of those in the Seam, she was willing to fork out a good chunk of money for the greater good.

The problem was, they didn't have enough money.

Jera shook her head, sighing deeply as her fingers ran down the tables, creases of frustration beginning to form on her forehead. "Not even close," she murmured, her voice devoid of its usual life and energy, reduced to a resigned whimper of what Alea was accustomed to.

Alea bit her lip. A real downer, really. They had hoped to be able to secure the funds before Reaping Day, as the possibility of either of them getting Reaped loomed before them, the fear of getting Reaped seeping into their plans for the future.

But Alea knew she had to fight that fear and stay on task.

She gripped Jera's wrist, a cool smile draped across her face. "It's alright, we just have to keep working harder."

"What if we can't get enough funds?" Jera murmured, a lingering hopelessness drenched in her tone.

Alea shook her head firmly. Failure was simply not an option for her, no. She would keep on fighting and struggling to get those funds if it was the last thing she would ever do. "No, we will succeed, you hear me?"

Jera sighed, nodding along, but Alea could spot that doubtful look in her eye. Jera probably knew by now that arguing with Alea was a stupid move, they couldn't possibly win, not with Alea's supposed ability to craft words and put forth statistics and data like a queen. She stuffed the papers back into her bag and turned to face Alea. "I guess you're right. But I'm not too sure."

Alea scoffed. "Not sure? Bitch I'll stay up late at night just to work out those funds, the people of the Seam will get their power back soon enough, I'll make sure of that."

Jera's eyes widened, shifting towards Alea's eyes, where dark circles formed a stronghold of their own around their weary eyes. "You're stressing yourself out too much, Alea," she warned, her eyebrows knitting, her lips twisting into a concerned frown. She got up, folding her arms as she gazed down bemusedly at Alea. "You need a break, come on, let's go cycling around the lake, and then we can go stargazing once the sun sets, how does that sound?"

Cycling around the lake.

Stargazing.

Dreamy thoughts began to infiltrate Alea's head, and all she could think about for a brief moment was just how much she badly wanted to do all of these things with Jera. Oh, the sheer bliss it would bring to her exhausted soul, the pure relaxation after working from five in the morning with only a tiny ten-minute long brunch break in between her long working hours. She didn't need to be up so early, nor did she need to exert herself so much.

But as one of the head members, Alea thought it would be a lousy form of slack laziness if she didn't work her arse off.

Besides, she didn't mind spending much of the time crunching numbers and evaluating digits. Numbers had always been her forte, a special niche area for her that she simply excelled in. Give her an equation or a set of data and she would relish over it, analysing it with exhaustive detail and solving whatever problems lay within.

And right now, as much as she would love to spend time with Jera, there were a number of important tasks to complete and numbers to analyse, so she had to go home and work on them.

"Maybe tomorrow," Alea told Jera after a fair long bit of thinking, only interrupted by a sudden cry of a raven. Alea's initially hopeful expression dimmed into a crestfallen shadow. "Then we can celebrate making it through the Reapings with a bit of relaxation."

Jera sighed, but once more, Alea could tell that she was not about to protest. "Fine, I guess." Then her eyes clouded over with anxiety, and her pale features seemed to pale even further. "But what if one of us gets Reaped? What if-"

Alea put a hand on Jera's shoulder, forcing herself to flash a grin, regardless of the brewing fear that stirred within herself, knowing that Jera's worries were more than valid. "Look, that's a problem for tomorrow, alright? Right now, we need to get home and calculate how much power District Four is expected to lose in the next few weeks. Their power lines are becoming faulty, after all, and we need to figure out if it's a problem on our side or one on theirs."

Jera sighed, her eyes red from a lack of sleep over the past few days. "Ugh, yeah, I wonder, what on earth is going on over there? Seems odd that their power supply's just quickly deteriorating."

Alea shrugged. "That's for us to figure out then. Come on, let's-"

Just then, in the distance, a loud, ear-splitting scream spiked with terror, erupting from the mouth of an undoubtedly young girl, rang out through the tranquil scenery, shattering her train of thought. Instantly, Alea straightened her poise, her fists clenched tightly in preparation for a fight.

Where had the scream come from, and why did it seem so strangely familiar?

Glancing around wildly, nothing seemed to be out of order, in fact, it was eerily quiet. The silence was deafening, the noise was nonexistent yet ever-present in her head at the same time.

Something didn't feel right.

Turning to her right, she caught sight of Jera staring serenely at the surface of the lake, fiddling with one of the pins on her bag, seemingly oblivious to the loud scream.

What's happening? Alea wondered, clenching her jaw nervously.

Then, it hit her.

The voice had been hers.

Suddenly, caught off guard, Alea felt herself being plunged into a vortex of memories, slipping into an inescapable prison of violent echoes.

No, no, no!

Her legs felt like jelly, her arms seemed to wither like dead plants.

No…

A hard pinch to her thigh, that was what it took to snap her out of it, only a second before Jera turned around, an eye fixated on their bicycles, parked not too far away.

Phew.

"So, race you back home?"

Alea fought the final belligerents in the head, struggling to keep her smile intact. "Sure," she replied, and the pair dashed to the bicycles, laughing as the voices in Alea's head ebbed away.

Alea was a fighter, and she didn't want anyone to forget that.

SPONSOR QUESTION:

-What do you think is going to happen with District Four?

A/N: What did you think of Persey and Alea? How far can they go? And lastly, can you see any alliances forming between the 20 tributes that have been introduced so far? Let me know your thoughts in the reviews! Thank you to tracelynn and Marie464 for Persey and Alea respectively, they were both great and I do hope that I did some justice with them, although ngl I'm still a bit iffy about the quality in general, but I tried, I really did. I'm so sorry about the lack of productivity during these March hols, I'm really really sorry that I couldn't be faster or more productive, but I guess some things went in the way and I simply failed to control my own emotions, and for that, I truly do apologise. But I hope you liked this chapter nonetheless, and yeah, that's a wrap for now! I'll see you next time with the D2 Reapings (I think). Stay tuned, stay cool, stay safe, and cheers :)