Forum Thread

Walking through the mostly empty streets, Chakti realized how early it was, and how little he had slept. Still, he easily kept his eyes open, as there was enough adrenaline in his body to fuel an army. His hands shook while he tried to eat his snack foods, and his head was swiveling in every direction. He did his best to control his breathing, although he couldn't no matter what he did. 'Why am I so nervous? The chances of me getting picked of all the people here are low. Right..?'

(I'm good with it)

(Arlight, time skip it is)

Leaf and Harlow were walking to District Seven's square, Leaf froze in her spot when she saw the very man who had gotten her pregnant against her will. She grip Harlow's hand a bit tighter, he hadn't seen them yet, but he would soon.

Rita slipped on a pair of blue overall shorts and a gold T-shirt adn headed to the square with her mother, who would drop her off.

Kyu and Luna both had signed in with their blood and were now standing among other 13 year-old girls as they waited for the Reaping to start.

---

Herding his family down, Gateguard saw to it that his younger siblings were safe beyond the area of the reaping. Putting Shion in charge of watching over the younger kids, Gateguard signed with his own blood, walking to his designated location. A loud yell of his name startled the boy as a weight crashed into his back, melodious laughter filling his ear. A pair of hands shot out before him as his energetic boyfriend began to rapidly sign. "Good morning to you too, Myu." Gateguard grunted staggering under the weight of his boyfriend as he walked the two of them to the waiting area. Spotting his older brother in the section ahead of him, Gateguard smiled thinly and watched as his boyfriend excitedly chattered about his day, citing how the silk worms would soon enter the cocoon stage and new silk could finally be made for the capital.

Molly fumbled with signing the sheet, not really knowing where to sign it. His eyesight was getting so poor that he could only recognize that he was holding a white sheet with smears. One of the teenagers got so fed up with him that they grabbed Molly's wrist and smeared blood somewhere before pushing the boy away. Falling to the ground with a silent grunt, Molly sighed and shakily got back up with the help of her whining companion. "I'm okay, Squall." He laughed, ruffling his dog's head before walking to his assigned area

---

Chakti finished a final bit of food, the walked up and signed in with his blood, nervous. He knew the procedure like the back of his hand, but he was still terrified of what was to come. 'Keep a straight face, don't panic. You're fine.' He trotted slowly over to his designated area, and realized his hands were quivering. He shoved them into his pockets and took a deep breath, then put on a mask of calm. 'This is fine. You're fine. It's going to be alright.'

Tazuli walked up to the sheets, she was still considered quite early but she didn’t really care if she was early or not, she signed the sheets with her blood, she knew what will happen now but even though she was a bit nervous she didn’t really try to think much of it, she have nothing to lose, even if she dies, she looked at the nervous Chakti and simply said “are you alright there?”

---

Chakti gasped, then looked at who had spoken. "Y-yes! Uh, perfectly fine! Wh-why do you ask?" His voice was clipped and quick, his eyes flicked back and forth, rarely settling on Tazuli, and his right foot was scraping the ground. He was clearly close to a panic attack, but he tried his best to breathe and not show it.

“You looked at you had a panic attack or something” Tazuli said in a calm voice as she stared at Chakti, she was still a bit nervous about the reaping but even then it was barely and she didn’t show it “besides you don’t look fine, at all” she continued

---

Chakti flushed a little, one quivering hand going to the back of his neck, the other staying in his pocket. He cast his view down to Taxuli's shoes, then said, "You know what, you're right. I'm not fine, I'm terrified, and I have a really bad feeling about this Reaping." He forced his gaze back up to Tazuli's face, then said, "And you're right again. I might have a panic attack." His voice was quivering and breaking, his breathing somewhat raggedy. He almost looked like he was about to burst into tears.

“If that’s the case why did you signed up to the reaping in the first place if you know what will happened?” Tazuli asked as she slowly puts her hand at Chakti’s shoulder “calm down and think about it again, you already signed up for it, you can’t change your decision, so stop panicking about the reaping and think what you can do in it instead” she said as she puts down her hand from his shoulder and walked away

---

Harlow glances around, trying to find the person that was obviously stressing Leaf out. Her eyes land on a boy. She clenches her teeth, the hand that wasn't holding Leaf's slowly turned into a knife. She has to force herself to stop her powers and keep her hand-well, a hand. She keeps her eyes trained on the guy. This guy is a walking dead man.

Tempest makes her way over to the Reaping. She keeps her head down. For once, nobody pays attention to her. They all seem too worried about their own fate to even notice that she is there. Just in case, she hangs out in the back. Her eyes fall onto the stage. She smiles to herself. "Home sweet home" she whispers to herself.

Kayda glances around excitedly. Why was everyone so nervous? There was a very low chance that they would be chosen. Especially since the lady always grabs the one card that is on the very top. Even if she is chosen, she can fight. She is confident, maybe too confident, in her ability to survive.

Leaf looked away from the guy, but she looked away too late, he caught her breif eye contact and smirked as he headed their way.

"So Leaf~ How's my baby?" He purred staring not so plolitely at her belly before leaning close to her. "I can't wait for you to birth my child, that way I can raise it."

Leaf stared him down, her girp tightened a bit more on Harlow's hand. "You're never going to see them, I've made sure of that. If anything happens to me and my girlfriend you're not getting custody of my child. After all you did to me, why should you get custody of my child? Harlow's grandmother is."

He took a step back from them in shock. "What? You can't do that!"

Leaf glared at him trying to stand her ground. "I can and I did. You're never getting them. Never."

He raised a hand up to smack her. "You b*tich!"

(ImsosorryI'vegotCriminalMindvibesgoingonrightnow.)

---

Harlow quickly releases her hand from Leaf's. She catches his arm and leans in close to his face. "You will leave her and our future children alone!" She growls. Using her free hand, she creates a sword, she holds it threateningly against his stomach. "If I see you again... I will kill you...like I should've done months ago" she promises. She steps away from him, flipping her hair in his direction. While doing so, she flips him off low-key. She grabs Leaf's hand and gently steers her away from him. "Sorry about my outburst" she whispers to Leaf.

Leaf gave a small smile. "It's okay." The two girls took their places and waited fo rthe Reaping to start, it shouldn't be long now. The Reaping started and a capital repersentative for each district came and spoke about how an honor it was then a video played about the Dark Days and the wars that followed. Then the part that had everyone dreading their name to be pulled. . .

(Reaping Rule(s) Reminder: "This year on the 125th anual Hunger Gagmes, as a reminder that soliders were often picked then willing to go, not only will all tributes be doubled, they will also be a vounteer to the chosen tribute." (Meaning every tribute that's reaped will automaticly get to choose who gets to go in their place.)

District 3:

Kyu and Luna looked at eachother as several people took a breath as the the lady plunged her hand in and pulled out three slips of folded paper with names on it. She opened the first and read it with no hesitation. The name wasn't firmiliar with Kyu or her ssiter, yet the tall girl mounted the stage fearlessly knowing well she could have someone take her place of her choosing. Her eyes swept the crowd before landing on Kyu. "I voulenteer Kyu Heart to take my place." Kyu's blood drained from her face as the girl walked off the stage and pulled Kyu out of the crowd. Kyu had no choice but to go up, no one could voulnteer for her either. She was so screwed.

District 5:

"Now, let's see who the female tribute will be!" Cassius, District 5's escourt announces grandly as he walks over to the Reaping Ball marked "girls". He reaches his hand in and all the girls hold their breath. Rita has no time to wish for the safety for her firends Lizz or Ann because he's just announced the name on the slip of paper. "Rita Stoneheart!"

Rita felt the color drain out of her face as she stood there frozen.

District 7:

Leaf and Harlow gripped eachother's hand as they listened to for their names to be called, the first name was someone they didn't reconize, but as this tall skinny girl walked up, she glanced down on the crowd until she found Leaf. "I voulenteer Leaf Gartha to take my place."

Leaf's eyes widened as the weight of the world suddenly dropped on her shoulders sickenly quickly. When Leaf didn't budge the girl walked down and litteraly had to pry Leaf's hand from Harlow's and gave her a rough shove towards the stage.

---

Shock moves through Harlow, which seals her lips for a moment. After a second, she can finally choke out the words that she so desperately wants to say. "I volunteer as tribute!" Harlow shouts. She walks towards the stage without waiting for an answer. She shoots the girl a glare as she passes by. "I volunteer to take her place!" Harlow shouts out again, just in case they didn't hear her.

“Well atleast I didn’t get picked” Tazuli muttered as she looks at Rita, she felt some sort of sympathy for the girl as she stares at her, there’s probably not even enough time for her to actually react to the situation, atleast that’s what she thinks

---

Letting out a breath as the reaping began, Gateguard squeezed Myu's hand and closed his eyes. The girls were first so he wasn't in hot water just yet. While he wasn't worried about getting chosen, he worried for his boyfriend, his selective mutism and inhuman features garnering him quite a lot of contempt. There were others, however, who were hated more than his boyfriend so Gateguard hoped that the heartstoppinh three lettered name would never be called out.

Beside him, Squall sat silently, puffs of hot air brushing against Chrysomallys' calf occasionally. He hated waiting, and knew that he'd be called upon. Despite being the son of the only doctor in town, this being the only one interested in the healing arts, he had been an outcast from birth. It was obvious who everyone would pick.

---

"I'm sorry miss Harlow, you can't voulenteer for Leaf as she's replacing *incert random female name here*, therefore canceling out the voulenteer prodicall for her. You may, however, voulenteer for the other girl if you wish." The escourt stated, sounding slightly annoyed.

Rita started to make her way stiffly up when something grabbed her leg, looking down, she saw that it's her 6 year old sister Fiona. "No!" Fiona cries as loud as she can.

"Fiona, get off." Rita tells her firmly.

"No! No!"

"Go back to mother and father."

"No! NO! SOMEONE PLEASE! PLEASE SOMEONE VOLUNTEER FOR MY SISTER! PLEASE!!" No one does. No one moves, no one speaks. No one's going to fulfill Fiona's request and take Rita's place.

"Fiona. Go." Rita says even more firmly than usual due to being on the bridge of tears. She can't cry in front of all Panem, it'll make her look weaker than what she really is. When Fiona screams, Rita looked behind her to see that Lizz and Ann have removed Fiona from her leg and are now walking back to their spots. They glance over their shoulder and look at Rita. Remorse and sympathy, it's in their eyes. They don't want Rita to go, but they're powerless against the Reaping. Matt gives Rita a small push on her back, it's in his own way of kindly urging her to go up so that Cassius doesn't blow a fuse.

"Up you go." He says quietly.

When Rita reaches the stage Cassius Draper smiles and shakes her hand. "Congratulations." He says with a devious grin. After a moment he reaches into the ball again and pulls out another slip of paper. "Tazuli!"

---

Harlow's eyes darken. She has never felt such rage before. For her own sake and Leaf's, she'll have to control herself. She takes a deep breath. "Fine!" She says coldly. "I'll take her spot... I hope you all die in your sleep for this" she stands over by Leaf and holds her hand. She leans in close, "it'll be okay. We survived last time, we'll survive again"

Leaf blinked back tears and girpped Harlow's hand. "But what if we dont? What if something happens?" Leaf whispered back as the escourt called up the two male tributes.

---

"We'll figure out a way. No harm is going to come to either of us. I will ensure that" Harlow promises. She straightens up, but she still stands close to Leaf for support. She is already trying to plan a survival tactic. She remembers how Blaze (right? Or was it Flare?) was a target last year, Leaf will most likely be a target this year. Harlow would have to show herself to be strong and relentless. Something she would have no problem doing.