Beast of a Burden // [Olessa]

Beast of a Burden // [Olessa] Jan 21, 2012 14:44:56 GMT -5

Post by Gamemaker Lauren Kinkade on Jan 21, 2012 14:44:56 GMT -5

Add to the memory you keep, remember when you fall asleep
hold to the love that you know

Another Reaping had come and gone, carrying his brother away with it. Cygnus felt the bitterness take hold in his heart, take away some of the space from his family, from Marcelline. There was no help for it though, and soon it would fester and turn to hatred. He'd spent the year since the 59th planning and planning, and he was almost ready to leave Ten behind. There were just a few more things he needed to gather, and a few more goodbyes to be said.

He'd never spent so much time in the city center as he had in the last twelve months. Mace lived fairly close to the market, and as he no longer made the long trek from the northern community home to the butcher, someone had to sell the meat. Mostly that job fell to Elon, like most things. Cygnus had heard from his sisters that he had taken up as something of a maid for Mace, cleaning and cooking and generally making sure that the Victor hadn't hung himself. Mace had always been fairly useless, except for the ranching and the market runs. It seemed he had sunk even further on that scale, and though Cygnus hated the Capitol for taking Mace away, he was finding less and less things to like about the eldest Emberstatt.

But he was gone now, so Cygnus didn't even have to formulate an excuse not to go by the mansion that sat precariously close to the Cotterills. He thought Marcelline was ready, perhaps more ready than him, to give up on the Districts, even if the risk was high. But Cygnus still needed to be there, unless until Mace came home one more time.

He dropped off the meat at the butcher's, felt the coins' weight in his pockets. He distributed them all over his body, just in case a thief happened by. The community home couldn't afford for a whole cow's worth of money to just go missing. No one had ever dared to pickpocket Mace, but Cygnus? He was not so intimidating.

He mentally reviewed the list of items he needed - more rope, some sort of sturdy cloth (he was really hoping for a tent), and dried meat. He'd held off on the latter, hoping to have some success curing his own meats, but had utterly failed in that pursuit. Cygnus roamed the market looking for these things, and idling over the short list of names he still needed to track down. And then, there she was, one of those names to whom he needed to say goodbye

His adam's apple bobbed as Cygnus slipped one hand into the pocket of his khakis, the other free to shake hers, or embrace her. He didn't know which would be more appropriate, less insulting, as he approached. "Olessa," he greeted her by name, bending forward a little into the space over her shoulder. "It's been awhile." Cygnus turned so he could meet her eyes, search her face. Because he had seen her so much. At Mace's Reaping, in the market, after Mace had been declared winner. He seemed to see her everywhere, and he wasn't sure what that meant.

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Beast of a Burden // [Olessa] Feb 19, 2012 7:11:12 GMT -5

Post by Tattletale on Feb 19, 2012 7:11:12 GMT -5

.// olesa eilowyn victore

The leather soles of her shoes made another step on the rough pavement of Ten's District square. Every unsure step that she made sent waves of uncertainty into her mind, stuffing her every pore with the feeling that she should'nt be here. She had no valid reason to be parading around in the square, with no intentions whatsoever. You may be thinking, what is wrong with just walking around? It's terribly uncanny, but Olesa prefers to roam around the fields or anywhere secluded in times like these, where she's supposed to do whatever she wants. She would rather ride with Luna in circles than to window-shop around town. That was Aedara's job, not hers.

The thought of her horse comes to her, and suddenly her vacant palms feel naked and unsecured, not without the leather reins wound tightly around it. There she was, surprisingly without her riding boots on and unsurprisingly with a simple dress and a sweater, one of the many citizens swarming around the area. Luna was her companion, her friend. Although she could ferry well without her, (although I would prefer to be with her, thank you very much) just ask anyone: Olesa is never without Luna. They were a pair, and perhaps more close than Olesa and Aedara will ever be in public. If Luna was with her right now, the crowd will part like the Red Sea ― or something named like that from one of their religion lessons.

Well, they obviously would, unless they want to be trampled under horse hooves.

But now, she felt insignificant and alone.

Olesa continued to walk around aimlessly, and as she dodged being splashed by muddy waters from a large burly man with humongous feet who carelessly stepped (more like jumped)

[/color] on a rainwater puddle, was actually kind of glad that she didn't bring Luna in the end. She spent precious time scrubbing her coat to the pristine white condition that it is, and would gladly prefer to not repeat the same tedious process for another week.

She came across the City Hall, and stopped right in front of it. It was grand. Well, as grand as it could be in District Ten, but it was still the one of the most ― and possibly the only ―visually-pleasing structures ever built on Ten's soil. But hey, whoever said Ten was comparable to the ritz and glitz of the Capitol.

The platform prepared for the Victor's Presentation has been removed, but in her mind's eye, the events replayed vividly and with every detail presented in such accuracy that it might as well have been never removed at all. The noise of the crowd has been droned out, and the rest were all just a blur of insignificant images, muddled in a variety of a thousand colors and such contrasts between shadows and highlights were all wiped out. And she only had two things in her mind right now.

The look in Mace's eyes were haunting her. Perhaps they were the same shade of black ― who could tell? ―[/color] and perhaps they never changed at all. "Stop it, Olesa," Aedara had once snapped at her. "Just stop it, okay?" She had no idea what her elder sister had meant by that, but she assumed it was a wake-up call, for her to stop seeing things beyond from what they really are. So maybe she's only reading things too far in, especially with someone who was far too away.

But his eyes...

Olesa shuddered lightly, and turned away to walk towards the opposite direction. This was no time to be thinking of petrifying things. She repeated that mantra over and over again inside her head, drilling it into her brain. She didn't stop, and had no plans of ever stopping until she reached the farm once again.

But then she saw a familiar figure of a boy, and it took only one look for her brain to send panicked messages to her legs to swerve and ~~walk~~ run the opposite direction, until the mantra was completely washed away by currents of profanities that she mentally muttered.

But what if he had seen me? Her nervous, quickened pace immediately lowered down to a leisurely one, and she had to discreetly dig her knuckles into her thigh to keep it from shaking. It would be mortifying for him to see her running away like a rabbit from a hunter. She would have to walk away, hold her head high up, and pretend like ~~she hadn't seen him holding another girl's waist~~ she hadn't seen―

"Olesa," she heard his voice, at a frighteningly close distance behind her, and froze when she saw his face above her shoulder from the corner of her eye. She could feel his breath on the fabric of her clothing, and that was enough to send goosebumps on her arm.

"It's been a while."

The sound of his voice chased away whatever was living inside her body, and replaced it with warmth that only ever came whenever he was near ~~but he claimed back the warmth long ago.~~ It was a blessing, yet a curse all the while. It was like a million thunderstorms all at once during drought, only to bring in the worst flood to wash away whatever was left in the earth. His voice found their way inside her pores, ran wild and free in her bloodstream, and went ahead to ravage her heart. The warm feeling was inevitable ― it came whenever she simply locked eyes with him, even just for the slightest second ― but she knew the warmth belonged to someone else now.

She could only hear her heart beating in a deafening volume, and she thanked whoever was above that only she can hear it. Her feet were stuck, torn between burrowing themselves under the pavement or to run away. Olesa never thought it would be like this. She thought that she would be calm, would just pleasantly greet him, and get it over with. Too bad, it just isn't that easy.

Cygnus turned to face her, something that she was glad because unfortunately, her lower limbs are incapable of doing even the simplest movement such as to take a simple step forward. He was looking straight at her, while she hurried to quickly reorganize her thoughts together.

It was too much. She didn't know what to do, whether to hug him or simply give off a polite greeting, and go on with the rest of her life. But times like these were too precious, and she went on to leap after it.

"Cygnus," she smiled. "It has."

Her hands almost instinctively reached to hold to Luna's reins, only to stop before holding unto nothing in midair. Instead, she eyed what Cygnus was carrying. "That's quite a lot."

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OOC -- [ It's late and horrible, I know :c I was gonna write more, but I suppose they wouldn't want to talk that much in a public place? xD ][/blockquote][/size]