serena rasoio || district eight || fin

The Ripred debate was one you had often held with various members of your extended family, ranging from civilized discussions to heated debates and everything in between. You were notorious for your lack of faith, yet another stain on your figure in the notoriously religious Rasoio clan.

There were times where you wondered why you even bothered sticking around, if you were perfectly honest.

After all, it wasn't like you had just woken up one day and decided that you were going to suddenly denounce your former beliefs as a follower of Ripred for no reason. For, rather surprisingly in retrospect, there had once been a time when your faith was every bit as strong as the next Rasoio.

It was a faith that had steadily eroded over years of poor luck and even poorer circumstances, a faith in an invisible deity that only seemed to reward your devotion with a new batch of suffering with each passing year, until finally, after years of living in virtual poverty with your mother, after years of being ridiculed for the white splotches on your skin, after years being looked down upon for your status as a bastard child, it had become a faith that had been lost entirely.

It was the day of your mother's death, the day when you decided to put your fate into your own hands for once instead of those of the so-called mighty Ripred.

After all, you had declared, even if Ripred existed, there was no point in following a god as apathetic as Them. No god worth following, false or otherwise, lacked the compassion and empathy that had been so utterly absent in your early years.

They were thoughts that you held aloft like a blazing torch, and they were thoughts that survived the gale that was your more zealous family members steadily for six years. No matter how hard the wind blew, your fire would refuse to be extinguished.

Then, your younger half-brother, Jenoah, the heir to the Rasoio clan, was reaped for the Seventy Fourth Annual Hunger Games. You watched as your half-sibling wrestled with the same dilemma that had plagued you so many years ago, watched as one, two, three of his rivals fell before him. First a girl with Victor's blood, then a Career who had as much blood on his hands as your relative, and finally a boy blinded but resolute in his determination to survive.

You watched as he questioned his faith with great interest, wondering which path he would ultimately decide on. You watched, elation growing, as he denounced the presence of Ripred on live television, for all of the family to see.

You watched, a heavy disappointment blanketing you, as he was struck down, killed while on the verge of enlightenment, by one who's faith was truer than all but the most zealous of the Rasoio clan.

You had never liked Jenoah much, but he was far from the most disliked of your kin.

As the Games wound to a close and your half-brother's killer managed to grab his crown, you would find your attention drawn elsewhere. The death of the prodigal heir had left the question of who would inherit wide open, but more importantly, the religious divide within the family was reaching a fever pitch.

Your sibling had whipped the gale into a maelstrom in his attempts to survive, and you wouldn't have it any other way.

For the first time, you had allies - friends, even - in the age-old war of religion that you had fought ever since your mother's death. Though they claimed that Ripred had abandoned Jenoah in his darkest hour as opposed to themselves, your causes were similar, and your disdain for the invisible deity in the sky was strong.

Battle lines are being drawn. The old guard stands against the radical beliefs of the new, and even if war never outright breaks out, the ramifications from the actions of your half-brother will no doubt be felt for many years to come.

Whatever the future may bring, you are confident in your skill to overcome and survive.

After all, you've only been doing it since you were born.