oh ;;

[Gemino-]

keep it safe

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Sort of an impulse decision after seeing so many other talented writers here. I guess I'll try to update this when i can. No promises on frequency, no promises on editing/grammar/w-e

Might be a dump for emotional writing because I only kinda dont have an outlet for that.
feel free to post and comment here if you see something you like or you got feedback for me.

-link to character dump

[Gemino-]

Image Credit

thirteenth (or fourth, but probably thirteenth) hunger games,
gamemakers are adding a little twist
You see, year thirteen for the games.
District thirteen was destroyed after the failed rebellion,
the gamemakers want to prevent any sort of 'anniversary uprising' by crushing hope, and crushing hope real good
and while all the Games so far have been fantastic by capitol standards, the GMs still want to make this one a little special
before quarter quells, before career tributes and even before the notion of 'volunteering' was introduced, (although all three concepts are believed to have spawned from the outcome of this Games)



Comes an iteration of the games that will shake the districts down to the slums.
The Game Makers' twist is never formally announced. there's no warning, not to the citizens of Panem nor the poor districts themselves
but it's obvious the moment the Reapings start and no Tribute drawn is over the age of thirteen.

Unlucky number thirteen, a Hunger Games that would forever go down in Panem history as 'The Bad Luck Games'.

-spiel for a rp, or a fanfiction maybe, i don't know
if you'd like to give me feedback of any sort, go right ahead, i could definitely do with some idea development help for this~

[Gemino-]

the young woman stares blankly at her phone screen, clicking 'resend' and 'try again' on the text three or four times before the 'could not be sent' message really hits her, and hits her hard.
Their friend had gone for a mission to a country they'd never been in before. Alone.

This response, or lack thereof, feels like a balloon full of stuffing inflates inside of her chest, pressing on her lungs and organs and flattening her stomach into a nauseated mess. She grinds her teeth as her breathing threatens to quicken with this new information, but she cannot falter.

After all, they'd only be gone for a week.
Surely she'd hear back.
If only there werent that voice, that niggling doubt at the back of her head that simply seemed to say
"but what if they're dead?"

[Gemino-]

Hyunho shook out his hands as shivers seemed to run through them, cracking his neck and rolling his tongue into his cheek in an attempt to keep his calm. He'd just been called in, before Sehun and after Sangdo, to show the Gamemakers all his tricks like a good little pony. As much as the thought turned his stomach, he stepped through the sliding doors from the waiting room and into the training centre he knew anyway. Performing pony or not, Hyunho wouldn't get anywhere with a One for refusing to go in.

"You may begin." Says a voice, loud and a little slurred from up on the balcony, elevated only up ten or so feet from the ground. The white-haired tribute grimaces, licking his lips to try to moisten his dry mouth. The gamemakers had their buffet buffed up for the last day. What with all the private sessions, and each tribute getting fifteen minutesto show their stuff. All in all, it added up to six hours of sitting up there watching tributes. That needs a lot of alcohol, and a lot of food. So by this time, Hyunho wouldn't be surprised to look up and see a few of the gamemakers asleep on the floor. He /doesn't/ look up, though. Doesn't need the pressure of knowing how many people are watching him. He can /feel/ their eyes on his skin, and that's enough.

Instead, Hyunho grabs hold of a hunting knife and charges towards the gauntlet. He's light on his feet and manages to vault over the first, navy-blue padded obstacle in his way. Ducks under the second, like he's done a hundred times before. But then, as he's about to side his body to the side and dodge the third, he swipes at the hanging padding too. Head-high, with his knife, a somewhat clean, arcing cut that scratches the padding but doesn't open it. Hyunho doesn't want to know what they'd think if he right up destroyed it. It's gotta take time to make, and clean, and-

He misses the second ducking obstacle by a hair. His head all but scrapes the top of it, and his mouth tightens into a thin line. Sloppy. If he's going to get a halfway decent score, he has to work now and think later. Kind of like he did back in the district, now that he thinks about it, and with just as much riding on it. His alliance isn't going to get [censored] for sponsors if he and Sehun don't put in some real work, here. As great as Jiho and Sangwon are to have around, there's no way Jiho's condition and Sangwon's youth is going to charm the gamemakers.
Hyunho zones in to whatever instincts get him through work every day back in Eleven, and finishes the Gauntlet. He treats the obstacles like he wants to treat peacemakers back home, slashing and bringing his knee up sharp into the padding. The thuds satisfy him, and he swears he hears one of the Gamemakers whoop when stuffing finally does pour from one of the padded obstacles, due to two slashes forming an 'x' made in quick succession.

The tribute lands on both feet without a single tremor in his legs, ending like he'd began with a clean vault over the ending obstacle. Only difference is in ending he has the hunting knife clenched in his teeth. Hyunho's smiling wide so it doesn't dare touch his lips. With his body turned to the gamemakers but eyes closed, he removes it, hoping it looks cocky or confident, takes a deep breath, and turns around again.

The hand to hand Instructor sees him coming. Hyunho pants and wipes the sweat from his forehead, the other brings a hand to up block Hyunho's obvious frontal jab... Only to take a kick hard to the shin, elbow to the joint in his shoulders after Hyunho's jumped. Coming right off the gauntlet, he doesn't KNOW if he can take on the instructor in this sort of half-exhausted state, but he has to try.

Eventually, the huffs and grunts of him and the Instructor trying to kick the [censored] out of eachother catches more of the Gamemaker's attention. Drawing it away from champagne and a magnificent roast to where Hyunho and the other are fighting. Hyunho's huffing, panting, and still managing to smash his fist into the stomach of a man at least ten years his senior and much taller. He's just glad, from the way they're paying attention, that no other tribute thought of this first. Wouldn't that be a piss off, all this effort and someone else had done it-

There's blackness pressing at the edge of his vision all the sudden, after a hit to the face he didn't see coming. thinking again, not /working/. Hyunho falters, stumbles back as pain blossoms in his nose and ricochets all around his face. trying to avoid another one, Hyunho raises up his arms again to block with wide eyes and bared teeth, and again, and again...

Until he takes a kick right to the stomach. It doubles him over, and it's only with a rush of thought he remembers to swerve out of the way before the Instructor can bring his weight down on his crumpling form. Not down, not out, and Hyunho switches up the style when he throws his whole body at the Instructor. He continues by kicking at the other's heels and bringing them down to the ground with him on top. They're a hand to hand Instructor, not wrestling, but this isn't regular training, either. Hyunho doubts he's about to be chastised.

He doesn't have to play py the rules, and eventually as the other struggles beneath him but doesn't know how to get out of the lock Hyunho throws him into, the voice from above calls out again.

"You are dismissed." And Hyunho blinks, snapping out of whatever had a hold onto him enough for the Instructor to throw him off and pull him to his feet.

The Instructor smiles, with torn up lips and bloody teeth, and Hyunho's nose throbs. He blinks, not exactly giving a smile or a thank you. Still the Instructor acts like he understands, patting the boy on the back and nodding to the door. Hyunho's still trying to figure out what's happened and when he forgot there was a huge panel of /gamemakers/ there. He doesn't know if he's supposed to find that frightening or exhilarating.

Eventually, the shock wears off, the feeling of a splash of cold water fading as the heat of pain from his nose overwhelms it.
It's safe to think.

That was the easy part, the white-haired tribute acknowledges. He rolls his shoulders and exits with even more of a weight on his shoulders then when he'd walked in. He'd have two days while the gamemakers put together final scores to agonize over his performance. Two days of the stylists poking and prodding at him while he prepared for interviews in three days' time.

At least there was food.

[Gemino-]

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The small, compact form of Seo Sangwon didn't walk as much as slink through the industrial silver sliding door leading to the training centre. The voices were sloppy and jovial, echoing over the mainly empty, grey space with the high ceiling. Almond-shaped dark eyes glanced over at the Gamemakers, more enthralled by their feast than him. They dressed loud in clashing and contrasting colours, and talked louder. Most of them looked as if they just wanted to go home at this point, waiting for the last tribute to leave so that they could too.

Sangwon was happy to oblige them, not bothering to wait for a signal to begin or even for the Gamemakers to look at him at all. The black-haired young man walked with light steps to the weights station. Several grey-black metal mesh racks with several types of grey-black weights of differing sizes and shapes. Sangwon makes no noise when he reaches his slender little hands between parts of the fencing/mesh material that makes up the back of the weight rack. He pulls out one thicker, dark grey arrow-like contraption without feathers, and many more sharp points. A crossbow bolt. A few more moments, another twist of his finger, and another sips out into his hands. And another, and another to make four.

Sangwon walks back after counting them and making another blind wiggle with his fingers in the mesh hold to make sure he'd gotten them all. Satisfied but blank-faced, Yano puts the four bolts down on the dark blue mats meant for wrestling in front of the still preoccupied Gamemakers, and dawdles away to the ropes course. It's a mess of black snarls and tangles of fabric meant for the tributes to find their own way up.

One of the Gamemakers looks over for a moment to see the tribute from twelve struggling with clenched teeth to make it halfway up. The ropes swing violently under Sangwon's careless hand placement, and the Gamemaker looks away again.
Sangwon comes to a stop about three-quarters up the course, relaxes his muscles as he leans against the ropes completely. The tribute eaches through to what has long been deemed as the Spot That Could Not Be Un-Knotted, but had always made a good foothold. Deft, knowing fingers tug and pull at pieces of curled and scrunched up black rope until some of the knots seem to untangle. He works at it for a good few moments and catches the lazy eye of a few Gamemakers who can't tell what he's doing. At last, the quiet tribute dressed in black pulls out a long, black sheath that only he seemed to know had been hiding there. He flings it out to the ground without looking or caring so he can get back down without consequence. Once down, Sangwon picked up the sheath, carried it over to the mat with the four crossbow bolts, and unsheathed the now visible sword. A sabre. Scimitar, to be exact. He laid down the shining, silver blade carefully beside the sheath, stood up again, and without even looking at the three or four Gamemakes who'd attention he'd caught, went back over to the supplies for another trip.

He gathered a fencing faceguard from under the wire supply area of snares. A pair of brass knuckles hidden under the throwing knife station. A pair of fingerless gloves from the hand-to-hand station stuffed between and obstacle and the metal guardrail of the Gauntlet. The missing tablet from edible plants, a small pair of dumbells, weapon polish. A regular arrow and two high-quality throwing axe. They were hard to miss from the collection, but impossible to suspect they'd be in with the spikiest of weights no one used because no one knew how to grip them. A hunting knife, a throwing knife, a dagger with a wicked curve. A round metal weight used in a slingshot, a special rabbit snare, a piece of twine littered with messy knots from early on in Three's knot-making expeditions.

That's when it starts to hit the Gamemakers up above, staring at the child who doesn't pay attention to how quiet the once loud echoing room has gotten.
All these things seem familiar.

"That Fencing mask... didn't Two-"
"Yes, and that sword too."

"Didn't that deep-voiced one from three use slingshots?"
"He was pretty terrible- just like they two of them on their first few days making knots..."

"Hongbin used those little weights balanced on top of bigger ones, I think."
"The other one from Four liked to keep his trident clean, and I saw him looking around for something yesterday, must have been that missing polish."

"That's- that's the stable of Taeyang-"
"And the throwing knife that the little punk Junhong scratched up!"

Talking, whispering, hushed voices and ones making no effort were all /heard/ by the boy walking back to his considerable pile of things. Things he'd not only found, as the Gamemakers were coming to understand- but stolen and hidden in the first place.

"One more thing" The boy piped up at last, to a chorus of "What did he say?" from distracted, drunken people, filled in by their coworkers. They too were soon watching Sangwon with furrowed brows and curious eyes.

A plain grey, high quality vest with stuffing and kevlar-esque material.

This Sangwon had not only stolen from all twenty-three tributes including his partner without facing any confrontation or being caught...

But from the Capitol, too.

The black-haired boy gave a long, low bow as a few of the garishly dressed Gamemakers gawped at him...

Before the exiting doors opened for him, and he walked out to leave his onlookers in shock. A giddy feeling spiraled up in his stomach and the start of a wide, inescapable grin started on his face.

[Gemino-]

"I don't want to get a job im scared and reluctant I dont want to go to college i just want to stay home and inside but without being a financial burden and sometimes lay on the ground in the wind."

"Hey, it's okay." She says, and it's calming and soothing and it brings tears to my eyes. "We'll figure something out."

I don't know how. She seems adamant.

"Okay, man, I'll play your game."

[Gemino-]

"I. I'm not sure, I've never thought about working past it. I'm not some sort of..."

"Some sort of what?"

"Dreamer. I'm not a dreamer. Being optimistic is one thing, but dreaming does nothing to improve your situation. It can make things worse. It keeps you stationary, blind."

"With things that happen in the world, sometimes I can't help but..."

"Dream?"

--

"As long as you need me here, I'll be around."

"And when I don't?"

"I try not to think about that."

--

"He seems nice. They all seem nice, Yixing. But he's just another human and it doesn't matter how many orphaned rabbits he raises or strays he feeds. When he finds out the truth about you, animal lover or not, he will leave. I don't want to have to pick up the pieces of you. None of us want to see you go through that."

"Have you no faith?"

"I have faith in you, and the pack, but extending that faith to another, even a 'well-meaning' snow-white human of a boy? Isn't that asking a little much of us?"

--

"You're mine."

"Gotta catch me first~"

[Gemino-]

"Come and get me!"

"Stand still for two seconds!"

"Eat me!"

"I would but you're not giving me a chance, pikachu-lady!"

--

"Leave me alone, please."

"What, you want me to leave you to sink into darkness?"

"Yes."

"Fat chance."

--

"Ah, so you really do hate yourself."

"!!"

"No, don't look so surprised, It's not obvious. It's just that with much experience on the topic myself, I've gotten pretty good at... telling."