Shit Was Legendary // [78th D10 Train]

d10f ekta ram // [earthling]
Administrator

9,457 POSTS
Pronouns: She/Her
last seen May 3, 2024 11:27:50 GMT -5

cameron stood in line for an hour for a stupid ride for me <3 best <3

Shit Was Legendary // [78th D10 Train] Jan 28, 2018 21:32:32 GMT -5

Post by d10f ekta ram // [earthling] on Jan 28, 2018 21:32:32 GMT -5

It doesn't hurt me.
Do you want to feel how it feels?
Do you want to know that it doesn't hurt me?
Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?
You, it's you and me.

The rattle of the train, once so strange, nearly lulls him to slumber. He'd learned to keep his distance while the tributes said their goodbyes. These days, he didn't have much of a choice; he had to wrap things up with the Mayoral office, sign off on his temporary replacement, make sure his staff could reach him in the Capitol. It was all very procedural but it seemed to boost the confidence of the District citizens. According to the latest polls, people were unhappy that he'd be leaving to mentor the 78th Games.

He couldn't blame them.

On board, he settled into the dining car, a stack of sweets at his elbow, and a stack of papers in front of him. Mason sat across from him, working quietly on a crossword puzzle. He looks up after reading over a culvert repair proposal, and smiles at his quiet son. Then, the cabin doors open. He opens his palm to Saffron, then bobs his head at the tributes. "Caine, Bella. Why don't you take a seat?"

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building.
If I only could, oh

[dars]

credit hesper hart 🐺 d9f

credit [ retro gm ] angel lí ✨

- chars -

ryan
Advertiser

2,908 POSTS

Pronouns: he/him
last seen May 4, 2024 3:12:31 GMT -5

over the moon, where all the wild things are

Shit Was Legendary // [78th D10 Train] Jan 29, 2018 0:59:58 GMT -5

Post by ryan on Jan 29, 2018 0:59:58 GMT -5

I had never seen a train before. This was the first time I had known someone that had been reaped, so I never bothered to come around to the train station. Usually it was heavily guarded anyway, so I didn’t have much to do or say.

Saying goodbye was probably the hardest thing that I could have done, but I needed to compartmentalize that right now. I couldn’t be sad, I had to be strong. This was going to be my first time meeting the past victors of 10 as well as meeting Caine for the first time. I had to make a good impression on them, if they were going to help me like I needed them to.

I had to be a strong, I had to put up a façade that would show these people that I wasn’t scared of death. I wasn’t. I had almost died once. I had died many times in my dreams. I died the moment I was reaped. This was now just another chapter in the arc of my death. The final act. The big finale. The last hoorah.

If it was going to be the last thing I did, then so be it. That was something I could live with.

I just didn’t know if Marley could live with it.

I made my way onto the train and saw the lavish set up. I was taken a back, thinking about all of the things that passed through my mind. I hated the set-up of this train mainly because I thought about all of the children back home and how miserably they had to live because the situation they were born or put in. I took a deep breath, moving around as the escort told us more about the train and how lucky we were to be a part of it. It was a lot to take in, so I just stood there in silence as they ushered us around like we were pigs to the slaughter.

And then my eyes fell on Caine for a moment, and I couldn’t help but think he was cute. However, that wasn’t why Bella was here right now. She was here because now she had to fight for her life, which to be fair, Caine was as well. It was something they shared, until one or both died in the arena.

That was the part that Bella wasn’t looking forward too. She hoped that the person that did kill her would make it painless. She didn’t want to think that way, but she had to remember that only one of them made it out. It was something that she accepted as a matter of fact. Not a matter of hope or longing. She wanted to be able to come home, but she knew that she would have to change the person that she is if she wanted to come back home. She wasn’t sure if she was willing to do that. Well, not right now. Not when Marley was watching. Not when all eyes were on her.

I moved into the dining car, sure that Caine wasn’t too far behind me. I saw the Mayor of the district sitting there, and I was a little perplexed. I had honestly forgot that he had won a hunger games himself, which just added to the fact that Mace Emberstatt was an amazing man.

I did exactly as he said. I took a seat while scanning the room. The food looked delicious, but I honestly didn’t have too much of an appetite right now. Maybe in an hour or two. Seeing as we did have a couple hours here in the train. As much as I didn’t want to indulge, maybe this was the time to do it.

“Uh, hi.” I said quietly, still trying to rack my brains around all of this. It was all so… surreal.

I just looked out the window, waiting for something. Anything to take my mind off of what was to come.

Benson Sharpe D3M [Tom]
Moderator

5,150 POSTS
Pronouns: He/Him
Member is Online

OowoO

Shit Was Legendary // [78th D10 Train] Jan 31, 2018 12:53:51 GMT -5

Post by Benson Sharpe D3M [Tom] on Jan 31, 2018 12:53:51 GMT -5

Five minutes is too short of a time to see Jed in the justice building. Hands grasped around the hat that is tan from wear and tear of being in District Ten's cattle business. The peacekeepers lead him away from the place that he knew as home and towards the mechanical machine that would take him to a place where only the future dead would see. A breath of air as he climbs up the metal steps with a clanking of boots and a hard glare. Hand placing his tan hat upon his head as he climbs aboard the train. Silence is his friend in this world that he was learning of. Home would wait for him, but he didn't know if he could hold onto that thought for long.

Eyes catch Bella Rose, his district partner who's eyes look as kind and caring as many others before, but how long would that last when death came knocking at her door. Different types of people have been in their shoes with better odds than them. The Lowe's. The Benstaloe's. And many others who just couldn't survive through it all. What odds would he have compared to them. He couldn't think about it all right then, instead he avoids eye contact with Bella. Ma's words ringing in his head about doing what he needed to, in order to come back to her. The words seemed faintly more of a wish than a demand. He'd try, but trying only got a person so far.

The ringing sound of hooves in his ears continue like a stampede of disaster was still happening inside his own head. Fist gently squeezing tight with white knuckles and releasing them again at his sides. Anger was not what he was feeling in that moment, but anxious, nervous, and anything in between. He's scared to be moving in a train where they send children to die, just like they were sending him to. A deep breath and a steady hand, he maneuvers himself into the room that Bella had just walked into. The dining car where food of all sorts sit, looking delicious. Comfort food meant to ease the chest of the tributes before they were sent to a bloody war where no one was winner.

He can see the haunting of the victors just from a glance on the screens with color. Teddy Ursa, Jacinta Salazar, Shelby Leviane, all of them had a look in their eyes after they won. Relief, joy to be alive, but also a pain that doesn't fade. Mace Emberstatt and Saffron Lowe wait for them in the dining cart looking like the dream couple that he could never have been anymore. Mayor Mace Emberstatt speaks with a kind question to them.

"Caine, Bella. Why don't you take a seat?"

No response as his body moves into a seat where food lays before him. He doesn't move until he feels like he's allowed to give himself a pastry of sorts that he nibbles on lightly. Nervousness in his skin as he waits for Bella to speak first. There was no way in hell that he was going to speak first. Not until his nerves calmed down a bit as everything was changing. Jed's tears. Ma's words. Pa's hand on his shoulder. His younger siblings looking at him like he was already ten feet underground. Bella's voice comes soon after in a quiet way that makes him tighten his jaw.

“Uh, hi.”

Eyes glancing around for a moment, the train moves with a gentle ease that makes him sick to his stomach as foliage passes by the train's window. All he can do is silently sit there watching Saffron, Mace, and Bella. The feeling in his chest rising as he wishes to have been able to ride Abel there instead of the mechanical train that makes him uneasy about everything. The longest he's been away from Abel was the moment he stepped on the train. They didn't leave each other's side and when he did leave Abel it was in the stables where Abel was safe. A sigh comes from his throat as he speaks finally.

"Alright."

Eyes glancing to Bella as he shrugs to himself. Pastry still being picked at by his own fingers as he tears a piece off and eats it hesitantly. Worry is still in his veins, but he will ignore the brief silence that surrounds them, except for the little boy doing crossword puzzles across the way. Innocence in the boy like he had once had as a child, but innocence never lasts. A moment of opportunity comes along where he decides to speak again.

"Hello y'all."

Hand grasping the table tightly as though he may fall into a pit below that will swallow him up. All he can do is wait for a response and avoid eye contact until he's spoken to. Eyes glance to the other side of the car as he tries to focus on anything else other than the sinking feeling that he could die.

Home would wait, but would he be able to live through it in order to make it back.

Caine wouldn't know, until he tried.

Last Edit: Jan 31, 2018 12:54:15 GMT -5 by Benson Sharpe D3M [Tom]

Made by hesper hart 🐺 d9f

[ retro gm ] angel lí ✨
Advertiser

8,174 POSTS

Pronouns: she/her
last seen May 4, 2024 4:44:01 GMT -5

bloomtodeath

Shit Was Legendary // [78th D10 Train] Feb 4, 2018 1:08:21 GMT -5

Post by [ retro gm ] angel lí ✨ on Feb 4, 2018 1:08:21 GMT -5

She's twenty-seven, fourteen feeling like a lifetime ago. Her daughter is two, she's buried three bodies and there's only one of them left.

Her sister's name screams through her dreams and she wakes up gasping, running across the trail between their homes, opening her sister's bedroom door to find her chest still moving, her heart still beating, stirring against Kieran's chest.

She falls to the floor in a home that's hers but not hers and sobs quietly on the stairs she once flung her sister down.

There's only one left.

Kiara is too young and it's Paige's last year and Saffron doesn't think she can scatter dirt across any more caskets before she starts digging her own grave. Buried alive in her grief and her panic, she crawls back to her home in ruins and watches Quinn sleep until she falls asleep on her daughter's bedroom floor, counting minutes in 10 years.

Snow visits her in her dreams and points a pistol at her, tied up in a cabin in the woods of District Eight. He pulls the trigger and Paige drops dead, Klaus Goravich stands in the doorway - bones snap in the snow and her eyes fly open to daylight and her daughter babbling "Mama, Mama, Mama-"

"'Menta?" she asks later over baby food. Reaping mornings are always awful, and it's like Quinn knows. "'Menta?"

"She's in the sky, sweetheart" Saffron murmurs, pointing at the roof of their home. "With Emberly and Myara."

Quinn doesn't recognise those names. Saffron doesn't know whether that's a good thing or a bad one.

"Pay!" she squeaks, flinging her spoon on the kitchen floor. "Pay!"

And there, in the words of her daughter, stands Paige. There's no bullet wound, no broken ribs, no viscous words spilling from her mouth. She's full, whole, alive - all Saffron could ask for.

But how much longer she would stay this way still haunts Saffron, and she pulls her sister into embrace before she has time to say hello.

It's an unspoken hello, a breath held, fear wraps itself around them both and Paige hugs her back. Saffron smiles into her sister's shoulder and holds her close - "Hi" she whispers, relief on her lips.

We'll be okay, she wants to say, but she told a dead girl that, once. Emberly didn't deserve broken promises and neither does Paige.

"Ladies first!"

Quinn sits in her grandmother's arms and Saffron clings to Mace's hand - tight - and doesn't take her eyes off of Paige.

("I never stopped, you know" Paige had smiled over her shoulder moments before they'd left for the Town Square.

"Stopped what?" she'd replied, confused at her sister's words.

"Loving you.")

But time had taught her well that loving Saffron was like loving the dead.

It was lethal.

"Bella Rose!"

"Oh, thank god-"

Bella Rose sits in front of her, the world whirring past them both, and as she watches the two tributes settle she almost regrets the tears of joy she had privately wept over her sister. 4 years and 3 graves, the clock resets to 6 years for Kiara, 9 for Quinn - she doesn't want to think about that right now. She doesn't want to be selfish anymore.

"Let's get straight to it, shall we?" she asks the group, hand clasped around Mace's as always.

"I - we - want you to know that we'll do whatever we can to help you when you're in there. But we can't win these Games for you. Only you can do that."

This was always the worst part, but year by year she's getting better with her words and she's trying, damn it, she's trying to be a better person too.

"So if you've got any skills, talents, anything at all that can help you in there - let us know."

She sits forward, trying to smile.

"Even if it's hope, or a name, or a person-"

She squeezes Mace's hand lightly, an exchange for just the two of them.

"You hold on to it. You use it. Okay?"

She exhales, waiting for the aftermath of her words.

"Now, Mace's favourite part - the food. Help yourselves, and let's try and get to know each other a bit better, huh?"

we hold on to an idea
and we’ll fight what we can't see
we just hold on to an idea
we’ll keep going till we can heal