Taryn Benson||District 4|| Complete

The spitting image when it comes to facial features comes from her mother’s family, dainty and frail bodies that seemed not meant for the District, while inheriting her father’s sandy brown locks which fall mid-back and his color of bold blue eyes. Her father usually states that she’s looking more like her mother every year despite her athletic build. Due to being in the sun she’s gained freckles that range across her shoulders and are dusted across her chest. The usual attire that she’s recognized in when she isn’t in the water are a pair of brown jeans or shorts that and a blue tank that’s been stained from the salty air and being out in the sun. A hand-made belt of stained rope ranging from dyed reds to the base of trees sits below her waist.

Keeping her hair usually in a pony when in the water, she thus allows it to roam free when she’s not fishing. When on the docks, she carries at her hip a skinning knife where she guts the fish before taking them to market so her hands are usually if not always stained and in her back pocket is one of her brother’s torn shirts that she uses to wipe her hands. Taryn stands at five feet and nine inches and approximately weighs around 130 pounds.

She lives by the code of honor, obeying the laws that the society have placed but believing that it’ll all come to an end like the lives that are broadcasted on the large screens every year. With her competitive nature, she’s always having interesting and even repeated ideas with her elder sibling by seeing who can run faster in the heated sand across the embankment or who could catch the largest and the higher quality of fish, oysters or crab. An example would be at the age of thirteen; it was after the Benson family, excluding their mother, were coming back from sea and had time before their dinner and the curfew that the Benson children went searching the sands finding shells. There was a set of boulders that formed into a tidal pond and her curiosity had her searching and thus finding a crab in the shallow waters. Her brother had then peaked over her shoulder and thus the two went searching to see who could find the most of the exotic creatures.

When she isn’t in classes that are mandatory, Taryn loves to be out on the beach and usually can be found floating in the waters. Her love for the ocean could perhaps be from the family creating mystical creatures that live in the waters back when she was young and had trouble falling asleep. Her mother would paint intricate scenarios of men and women with fins as feet and who held tridents to not kill but to protect and gave the analogy that District was the human version of the fairytale. It made her picture a reality where there wasn’t dispute towards citizens and their government but peace, yet the dream was always crushed each year with the institutionalized games that were shone on the large screens.

Trust isn’t something that Taryn gives out easily, always having others to prove themselves to her before she allows herself the vulnerability of getting hurt and also the feeling of having to owe someone never sits right with her. She’s sly, loving to create snares and while she hasn’t perfected the art of creating a stable net, her friends do help her, though with a short attention span not many know if she’s actually paying attention or off thinking of some childish memory or wishes. When people are trying to explain things to her, Taryn has this uncanny ability to pop in questions that can be relevant towards the topic or veer left field which upsets many but she seems unfazed by the actions despite being chastised by her mother for being “rude and disrespectful”. When frustrated by people’s actions or by the person themselves, she can come off as being impolite with her sharp sarcastic charm and is also used when people attempt to get close to her, a protective defense in fear of getting hurt or taken advantage of.

As her family is mainly known for their deep-fishing catches, what excess they bring on shore is usually distributed towards the black market despite the mandatory amount that goes towards District. The people who sell their goods illegally depend on some of their notable catches like grouper, sea bass or tuna. When she’s selling them however she can be a bit overbearing, hinting towards being cocky about what’s being sold; the prices are fair though Taryn and her family use the Market to trade. Examples would be Grouper for ingredients for making their infamous bread or for some salt-water crabs. In short Taryn does the things that are required of her rather she wishes to do so or not.

It once started off as a battle of the fittest, where only the strongest of genes were pooled together to pass on the more efficient genetics for a better society and it seems that even in today’s day and age, nothing from the past has ever changed. Evan Benson was the eldest of 6 children, 2 brothers including himself and 4 girls all within a year apart. Even in Evan’s timeline the games were still on, the transparent bowl with parchment that beckoned fear into ones core still carried on today. It was the time where the mightiest would survive and be able to attempt to live a normal human life, not one of a monster who had to form relationships and pretend that such never existed when taking their life from their bodies. It was when Evan was 17 that his sister was called to the games, terror chilled their veins and the family remained motionless, frozen and utterly confused. It didn’t matter that their sister was to be sent to slaughter but nothing could be done and Evan watched alongside his family as their child, their loved one was killed instantly, not having made it passed the starting stage. It was then that Evan would vow that his future children wouldn’t suffer and be unprepared for what was to come.

At the age of 22, Evan courted a shrimper’s daughter, Hanna Rollins. The two clicked instantly, their eyes sparking a sense of overwhelming familiarity, bringing forth the two to easily fall into a routine when her father allowed for their marriage to be official. And as any newly wedded couple, where there was no contraception, the two had their first child 10 months later; a marking of a new age where work would be rough and a child brought forth the sense of pride yet fear for his upcoming future. Masen followed Evan’s footsteps, trotting after his father when he was young on stubby legs that couldn’t catch up to his father’s long strides. While Masen continued to grow, he was taught the ends and edges of net-making, trapping shrimp as well as craps besides the local fish.

It was when Masen was 4 that Hanna realized she was pregnant. Her husband and younger son had gone to the black market to trade in the extra fish they had caught for some spices for their own fish when the garlic and oil had her rushing to the toilet. At first it seemed a glorious thing, to have a baby but it all died down when the realization that the child’s name too would be in the future bowl of names to be drawn. Hanna had a rough 10 months and their local witchdoctor of sorts, Cassandra tried to create herbs that would not only ease the pain she was having but to calm the baby within from the constant kicking. Birthing the child was easy, and when the sex of the child was found to be a girl, Taryn was the name given, for the child within was a fighter from that start.

Taryn was a quiet baby, always watching but never making large wails, she was the complete opposite from when she was in the womb and as she grew older it seemed that peace was to be their daughter who loved to be on the beach, letting the sand wiggle its way between her toes as she watched her father and brother on the boat heading to port. The relationship between Masen and Taryn is extremely close, to the point of Masen being over-protective when it comes to the chores she’s to do as she gets older. Yet at the exact moment he brings a cruelty of hurdles she has to get through while her father watches as his own techniques are passed down; A specific amount of time that she has to make a series of intricate knots that could be multi-purposed for catching food as well as trapping to how far she can push her body through the heavy sand across the sandy beach. Her father taught to her what plants were edible while their mother taught her the normal feministic characters of cooking as well as cleaning. Taryn’s love for the water is probably her greatest assets because she forces herself to endure the pain of her lungs being stressed by the pressured water the further she sinks down, a sphere in her hand to catch something interesting for herself rather than the usual fish that is mandated by her father. She enjoys also floating in the waters, listening to the waves and trying to picture shapes and miscellaneous items in the blue sky.

When Taryn name was placed into the future list of possible tributes, she wanted to be strong enough but it wasn’t due to pride but the unparalleled fear that the Capital had placed inside her as she was forced to watch the games year in and year out; watching as the blood from the young tributes was splashed or how the flames would lick before consuming a person or even to the brutality of one’s fist making contact to another’s skull, despite age.
Because of the fear she rarely speaks to others, besides her close friends that she is in school with and her elder brother who was lucky to not be sucked into the chaos that was the games. The two spar, attempting to recreate what they’ve seen in the games to prepare Taryn because in the end there is the chance that she could be picked with her being just 16 years of age. Relationships are hard for her to form with other people, most importantly men as she finds them intimidating however it doesn’t surpass the fact that when she is in the black-market a newfound person seems to take over. She becomes confident and knowledgeable for haggles, but once she sets foot away from the booth she returns to watching and listening rather than taking action. She dreams about being chosen and dying because she’s too naïve to harm another human being.