:| For Argument's Sake |: {Ani}

[ᕙʕ•ᴥ•ʔᕗ]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 000E0F; border: 021924 solid 0px; width: 475px; padding: 0 0 0 0px] My eyes fluttered open only to be swarmed by numbers that had been waiting for me to see them. Leave me alone. After what was the umpteenth time trying to take a nap on the couch, I gave up. It was a miracle Ma hadn’t found me yet, but she still had a lot of children to take care of and she too had to deal with Jabber’s death. He’s really dead. I didn’t even need the numbers to tell me that he was off to a bad start when a lot of the tributes started ganging up on him. 6 94 12 7 18 53. Even if I wanted to forget that string of numbers, I couldn’t wipe them away from my mind. It was so much worse than the usual numbers; at least they eventually floated off to another place. That string…it was like it was permanently embedded into my brain. I should have been in my room. I should have been at my desk and doing the buttload of work Ma had given me in the morning like nothing was different. And yeah, even if I wasn’t so busy thinking about Jabber’s death, I probably would have been avoiding it anyway. The only difference was I wouldn’t be joined by my family members who would have been watching the Games attentively. I really hated watching the Games, but that year, I had a moral obligation as a family member to silently root for my cousin who was trapped in that arena. Never had I ever viewed Jabber as a brother, but yeah, I did want him to come home to my family. I knew how much the younger siblings viewed him as a brother even though it was only three years that he’s been in the house and how much Fawn wanted him back. I didn’t change my opinion about their relationship, but seeing her broken was one of the worst things I had to go through as an older brother. “Let me have a moment’s rest, will ya?” If I ever tried to explain what was happening to me, most people would have thought I was crazy, but not my family. Of course, the younger ones just accepted it as fact since that was what they grew up knowing, but my parents and older brother were actually quite receptive about it. It was nice when I was younger, but as I grew older, it made me realize that they thought too well of it or at least Ma did. Wess never bothered me much about it and he often helped me hide from Ma, but he did have his ways to pressure me into helping with the accounting—which was really far too simple but it was work nonetheless. Pa was supportive of me, no matter what, but he did find it rather amusing that I could see numbers and he never did shut me up when I rambled as a child. But Ma…Ma thought it was the most wonderful thing that could happen to the family. I would never say that I hated Ma, but she did have a way of irritating me to the point that I didn’t want to see her. Always nagging me to complete my work, to use my gift to “its fullest potential”, Ma had this thing of getting her way done. She was a neat freak, always concerned about where everything was placed, that sometimes I felt like I was an object too and my special place was at the desk in the bedroom I shared with Wess and Mocking. It had gotten to the point that I tried to avoid the desk as much as possible; the rest of the room was safe territory but the desk was armed with pens and papers that would chain me to the desk for the rest of the day. I rarely saw my younger siblings because of my constant hiding, and it pretty much sucked. A constant rhythm of footsteps alerted me of Ma’s soon-to-be presence, and I looked around quickly to see if there was a place I could duck behind. I was hardly successful in avoiding her presence for the house was rather small, but it never stopped me from trying. I guess I could say it was the only time I picked up my lazy ass and actually tried. I had been too lost in my thoughts, though, and could not find a decent hiding place before I saw her coming into the room. Well, this is awkward. “Ha…hey, Ma,” I greeted her cautiously, a hand scratching the back of my head and a half-hearted smile on my face.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 312C17; border: 021924 solid 0px; width: 475px; padding: 0 0 12 0px] STELLAR JAY | JAY FAMILY PLOT | PLAY BY: TOM HUGHES

[Sage]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,20,true][atrb=width,590,true][bg=D9D9D9] Gray Jay [insert lyrics here] Does | Thinks | Says | Hears I lie in bed next to Blue, the gentle rise and fall of his chest comforting as I try to go back to sleep. Images of the last twenty four hours play through my mind and I feel pain in my heart as I remember Jabber Jay. Even though he isn't my actual son, I still treated him like one and I loved him as if he truly were my son. He died yesterday and I'm still mourning. Thank ripred I have Blue by my side, I don't think either of us would be able to cope on our own. I turn onto my side, trying to find a comfortable position and finally manage to fall back asleep. I awaken to the sound of my children getting up. Time to get up I think sleepily, pushing my legs over the edge of the bed. I slide my feet into my slippers, the one luxury I have in this tiny house and look down at my sleeping husband. He doesn't have to worry about the kids the way I do. I wonder if Stellar is awake My genius child with the gift of seeing numbers. I know that, if he really tries, he can leave district nine, get himself a life in the Capitol as a business man and make good money. I see a much better future for him than I do for my other children and I expect a lot from him. I don't think it's too much to ask. I pad down the stairs only to be greeted by little Violet, my youngest daughter. She smiles and hugs me. "Good morning mom" she says. I smile. "Good morning Violet" I say, smiling down at her. She's done better than I would have thought she would the last few days. I let her go and continue my trec to the kitchen. On my way, I find Stellar lounging around lazily on the couch and I fold my arms over my chest. "Ha, Hey Ma" he says, scratching the back of his head and giving me a half smile. I give him a pointed look. "What are you doing, lazing about, you have studying to be doing" I say, giving him an unimpressed look. I can't believe he's wasting his talents by being lazy. Come on Stel, I know you can do better. We look at each other for a few moments in silence before I give him the evil eye. ooc: lol, the evil eye^^

[ᕙʕ•ᴥ•ʔᕗ]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 000E0F; border: 021924 solid 0px; width: 475px; padding: 0 0 0 0px] The greeting was not pleasant, and I braced myself for what came next. Words, at that point of my life, meant very little to me, so when Ma started berating me for “lazing about”, I could take that easily. I had been told much worse by other people that comments merely bounced off my skin. I didn’t even have to hear her voice to know she was thinking I was being stupid for taking a break and being lazy. Yes, she had a lot of expectations from me, and no, she would never let me live it down. I never quite knew how to break it to her that I would eventually be stuck in a business in District 9, working with numbers, and making no more money than the poor guy sitting next to me. Even hoping for a better life was useless. Silence filled the room as we mostly just stared at each other, but as soon as she started moving her face muscles again, a chill ran down my spine. It was that damn evil eye. Nothing about it was particularly evil except the context behind it. Ma never thought violence as a form of punishment, so instead, she managed to bring to life this certain look that was not particularly fearsome—unless you knew she was upset with you. Then it was just like the passageway to hell and you just prayed it wasn’t directed at you. “Listen, Ma, I think that maybe we should take a rest from studying, you know, with Jabber gone and all that. It’s a pretty emotional time for all of us.” Okay, I was making things ups on the spot. It was true that I had been affected by Jabber’s death, but I felt a little guilty for using him as an excuse; something about bringing up a dead person to get out of homework just didn’t sound morally correct. “Ma, I really don’t want to focus on the numbers right now, okay? They’re terrible and I just want a break from them.” I would have preferred much more than a break—the day they disappeared would be the best day of my life—but surely she understood the essential word of “break”. I really hated that damn evil eye. A part of me wanted to raise my hands to protect myself, but from what? Her wrath? While I could see the numbers being launched at me, her wrath was still intangible and it would have done me no good to use my hands to stop it. Seriously, though, it was like some superpower and I could feel its strength. “I’ll get the work done, just not right now.”

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 312C17; border: 021924 solid 0px; width: 475px; padding: 0 0 12 0px] STELLAR JAY | JAY FAMILY PLOT | PLAY BY: TOM HUGHES

[Sage]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,20,true][atrb=width,590,true][bg=D9D9D9] Gray Jay [insert lyrics here] Does | Thinks | Says | Hears I look at my second eldest son, feeling my gaze soften. “Listen, Ma, I think that maybe we should take a rest from studying, you know, with Jabber gone and all that. It’s a pretty emotional time for all of us.” He was upset about Jabber. I should have known. It hurt a lot to have Jabber leave us and to watch him die, I'd cried myself to sleep the night he'd died, although I would never admit that to my children. I know, Stel, it's hard on all of us I said. “Ma, I really don’t want to focus on the numbers right now, okay? They’re terrible and I just want a break from them.” I could understand this. One day wouldn't make a difference in his future so I supposed he could have today off. As much as I wanted him to study, I also understood that he needed to grieve. Perhaps, I'd been a little too harsh on him. “I’ll get the work done, just not right now.” I knew he would, even if I had to harp at him and watch him like a hawk he would get the work done. Alright, because the family is grieving, I'll let you off the hook for today, tomorrow though, it's right back to studying. I want you to go outside today, get some air and do something to get your mind off of Jabber. I see you moping about and I'll give you more work. Do I make myself clear? I said, looking at him pointedly with my gray-blue eyes. I knew he was probably just going to laze about the house if I didn't force him to go outside so this was one of the few ways to get him out of the house for the day. Tomorrow, he'd be back to work, studying and doing research for the project I'd given him to do. It was a project on tracing our family tree, tracing it back as far as he could go, this included making the family tree, finding all the cousins, asking Blue for the names of his many, many siblings, putting them all into a neat presentation, then finding the total number of family members. I knew he'd been working on it a bit but I wasn't satisfied with his progress. What if I put a deadline on it, maybe that will motivate him I thought before shaking my head, pushing the thought away. This wasn't school, this was home and he was doing something for me that I'd been meaning to do for a long time now. I just hadn't gotten around to doing it yet. I left the living room to start making breakfast and searched the fridge. We would need some more milk and eggs. Stellar, since you're not doing work today, do you think you could run to the store and get some things for me for breakfast? I called, feeling satisfied at having found an excuse for him to get out of the house. OOC: I was hoping the thread could span into the next day, when Mama starts harping him again about doing his work

[ᕙʕ•ᴥ•ʔᕗ]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 000E0F; border: 021924 solid 0px; width: 475px; padding: 0 0 0 0px] Something was not right. First, Ma’s gaze actually softened, something that never happened especially when it came to homework and studying. Then, she expressed sympathy? My world was spinning around and I couldn’t figure out if Ma actually believed my dumb excuse or she was just going along with it. Surely, she wasn’t so broken up to realize that I had just thrown that out there to get out of homework. Yet the understanding that was flooding her face made me realize that maybe Jabber’s death had impacted her more than she had let on—and she thought I was feeling the same way. It didn’t really matter to me either way, but it was just so weird. And then she was actually letting me off the hook and letting me go outside? Damn, chatterbox, I never knew you had such a huge influence on her. She didn’t hold off on the typical Ma stares, but her words were just so contradictory to her normal self, that I swore that this wasn’t Ma. I nodded slowly after she had finished what she had to say, confusion no doubt plastered on my face as I tried to look forlorn again. But it was just so damn difficult when Ma wasn’t acting like Ma. I knew what work she was going to put me on, and I was even more thankful of the break. She had lately assigned me the project of writing up our family tree, a project more fit for Wess the ever-organized man. He already had charts about us anyway, but no, Ma decided I was the one who would take care of it. It didn’t even make any sense. So few numbers were involved that it became less about working with numbers and more about… just plain old work. At least it gave me the opportunity to go through Pa’s boxes and boxes of stuff that he had been collecting over the years. Then Ma called out to me, asking me to go out to the store. Hanging my head, I responded, “Sure, Ma.” She might have made it seem like she was giving me the day off, but going to the store was also a chore and I didn’t see how she was helping one bit. So maybe Ma wasn’t really gone, but it was still damn confusing the way she acted when I told her I didn’t want to work that day. Grabbing the list Ma handed me, I went to the store and bought the milk and eggs that we needed. Why did we even need them again? My eyes fluttered open as the new day started and I heard Wess and Mocking leave the room. “Close the—" but my words didn’t reach them as they no doubt went downstairs for breakfast. I wanted them to close the door behind them, so if Ma peered in, then she wouldn’t have seen me still in bed. Now, I actually had to pretend I was asleep if I heard footsteps in the hallway. Letting out a long sigh, I looked at the stacks of paper sitting on the desk technically we three boys shared, but I had probably logged the most hours at it. I could already see the numbers swarming my vision, no doubt trying to find some algorithm to form or an equation to solve. Frustrated, I threw myself back down and closed my eyes, praying that Ma wouldn’t find me.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 312C17; border: 021924 solid 0px; width: 475px; padding: 0 0 12 0px] STELLAR JAY | JAY FAMILY PLOT | PLAY BY: TOM HUGHES