bring life right back || {pearl/gavin}

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

Gavin Barker

"it's so quiet here and i feel so cold"

He was the only one.

Of all the children in his house, of all the souls desperate to escape, even if only for a second, Gavin was the only child that had chosen to come and help. He'd been gone for almost a week, and even though every morning was met with ruined fields and starving plants, he'd never felt happier. He was safe in District Eleven. He wouldn't get yelled at, or thrown around, or treated like he was nothing there. As far as everyone knew, he was just another boy, eager to help the entire nation in any way he could.

Most of the people replanting were from Seven, but there were a few from One that were helping as well. They stuck out like roses in the desert they all stood in, so pretty and strong and perfect. Each of them looked like something he would expect to see on one of the Capitol television programs, with toned, capable bodies and proud smiles. Hell, if he was being honest, even the girls looked tougher than about half the boys from Seven. He couldn't help finding himself oddly intrigued by them all. Not just their beauty, or their capabilities, but he yearned to know what their eyes were used to seeing.

His own had grown accustomed to something similar to what was around him: green and brown, day in and day out, all day, seven days a week. Shovels and soil, leaves and vines, the only thing different was that where he came from, the forests were still rich with life unlike this place, which seemed completely devoid of it, even with the occupied souls that littered the land, hard at work to solve the issues at hand. But what were they used to seeing?

Every year after Seven's reaping, after the tributes were taken away, he raced home to watch the other reapings on the television in his family's den, and from what he could see from the screen, District One was pretty nice. Their Square was a hell of a lot bigger and cleaner than Seven's, and he couldn't help wondering how it got that way. People were always cleaning the square in seven, yet there was always a dusty film over anything that laid dormant for more than a couple of hours. It's District One, he reminded himself. Better resources.

At last, he'd had enough wondering and looked over to a girl that stood just a few feet away, her straight blonde hair pulled out of her face and pretty blue eyes concentrated on the work in front of her. He didn't recall ever seeing her in the halls of school, or at the dusty square, or the forests, or any of the mills, but he would have guessed she were a citizen from One, anyhow, just by looking at her.

"What does One look like? Like does everyone live in castles? And do you guys actually train for the games? How does that work? Like is it a class at school? It's always been a class in school in my head." He rambled on a bit more then stopped. "Oh, sorry, I'm Gavin, from District Seven. We don't train for the games, which is probably why we don't ever win." Then he offered her a small smile and raised his eyebrows while waiting for a response. He almost apologized for his boldness, and warned her that he would probably continue to be oddly forward, but decided that she could have already guessed that by then, anyway. It didn't even matter, really.

After today, he would probably never see her pretty face again.

template by anzie

[Python]

P E A R L M I L L I S O N When the news of District Ten and Eleven’s water crisis hit the headlines of every paper and television channel known to Panem, the announcement for needed volunteers echoed in the streets and drew a rather unexpected pair of ears out of their home. Nobody had ever anticipated the victor’s daughter sacrificing her comfort to dwell and serve in a poverty-stricken district with water shortages, food scarcity and high death tolls, but when Pearl Millison stepped up to the plate she knew exactly what she was doing. Her mother, however, didn’t grasp the concept at all. ”Why would you want to go there? You do know those are two of the poorest districts, right? They’ve run out of food! And the water shortages, you might dehydrate! There’s no reason for you to go, the Capitol can fix everything.” she had said, completely insensitive to the severity of the situation. If the Capitol could handle the disaster themselves, then they wouldn’t be pleading for volunteers. No, this was a distress call – and not just that, it was an opportunity. She needed it. ”Why shouldn’t I go? They need help, and I’ve never been outside of the district like you have. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I want to see what’s out there.” Her desperation was met with a sigh, and it was then that her mother turned around for a second opinion. ”Diamond, what do you think?” Her sister? Why ask her sister? The brunette merely shrugged, falsely examining her manicured nails to avoid eye contact. ”I say go for it. It’s not like we’re doing anything important right now.” And for a moment, Pearl’s hopes skyrocketed to the stars. ”Will you come with me?” she asked, her eyes lighting at the idea of it. They could ride the train together, watch the world pass by in a flash together, explore the other districts together and nurse the sick back to health together— ”Nah, I have a party to go to this weekend. People have been talking about it for weeks, and I’m not missing it for anything.” Or not. It took an hour for the disappointed daughter to coax her mother into agreeing to the arrangement, and within a day she was packed and ready to be shipped off to an unknown world. Her heart had fallen at her sister’s rejection, but there was no concealing her excitement when she boarded the train and sat by a window seat to gaze through the glass every minute of every hour until her eyelids grew heavy. Even then, she couldn’t nap. There was too much to see – so much green in the forests, like a sea of emeralds perched on branches large and small, some longer than any she had ever seen before. It was too much to sketch into one page of her notebook, and too much for one caged bird to drink. She would save the green memories for later. And save them she did, for when she arrived in District Eleven there was not a spot of green remaining. It had all been scorched away by a malevolent sun, hanging hot and yellow in the sky like a blinding pendant with no clouds to shield its deadly shine. The news reports hadn’t lied – the district was desolate and decaying, but not hopeless. Never hopeless. For the first few days she had been stationed in the medical centers, healing the sick and comforting the dying. Today was the very first change in schedule, and it was something much simpler, something less damaging to her emotional state. She was to restore the green of the district, to replant flowers and crops and bushes and trees. Today she would be Mother Nature’s helping hand, an ally to the forest she wished she could explore with her sketchbook and pencil in hand. If her mother were to see her now, she would be horrified; scalp sunburned, nails worn from labor, hands caked in foreign soil and clothes dampened with sweat. She didn’t mind the discomfort at all – it was an easy price to pay for a fresh experience, and something all of the volunteers were slowly adjusting to. She palmed the dirt with her tiny hands and patted the shallow mound until the next seed was ready to be buried. She stood up and wiped sweat from her brow with the inside of her arm until a voice distracted her from the sweltering heat. ”What does One look like? Like does everyone live in castles?” It was a boy with pretty eyes and dark curly hair, launching into a chain of abrupt questions about her home. It was easy to notice that there were very few district one volunteers, and easy to realize from cold shoulders and glares that they weren’t exactly welcome here. It was a similar situation with volunteers from district two. She couldn’t blame them – her district was so privileged and luxurious compared to this desert of a place, and to the other districts as well. Why shouldn’t they hate her company out of envy and contempt? Her district was rich with spoiled, haughty careers and carried a sinful reputation. This boy didn’t seem to radiate that familiar, hostile aura. He only seemed curious, and why shouldn’t he be? He was from District Seven, the producers of lumber, yet with such little information she could not actually picture his home (the trees she could imagine, but how many? Surely there would be miles of them). She was just as curious as he was. ”I’m Pearl,” she started, lips curling into a timid smile. ”and um, we don’t live in any castles. Just really big houses.” A mansion, actually, but he didn’t need to know the specifics of her spoiled life. ”And career training is its own school. We just call it the training academy, but some families privately train their own children, if that makes sense.” She was tempted to ask a question of her own, such as “So why did you decide to volunteer?” or “Anything else you want to know?” but as usual it was merely a wish caught in her windpipe. A fear of judgment always kept her glossed lips sealed shut. template by chelsey

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

gavin barker.

[presto]

it's so loud
inside my head
from words that i
should have said

[/presto]

Gavin and Basil used to climb trees together. Everyday until the sun began to disappear behind the endless forests of District Seven, they pulled themselves as far up as they could go on the branches and stare at the sky. It was their way of escaping reality, giving each other as much a chance of being children as possible, which meant everything to them, considering they were both so broken. Both of them were forced to grow up long before they should have, and for Gavin, spending time with his cousin- No. Basil was more than just his cousin. He was his very best friend. And spending time with him was as close to freedom from the prison he lived in as it got.

Now he was so far away, and even though he knew that for the time being, he was out of his parents' reach, he knew he sill had to go back. Eventually, he would return to the room that felt more like a cell and watch the world from his window, watch trees dance in the breeze and pretend he was a child again, climbing them with Basil. His fate was inevitable, but for now, he was going to do well with his freedom.

"We just call it the training academy, but some families privately train their own children, if that makes sense."

Images of toddlers playing with knives instead of rattlers popped into his head and he blinked them away. "Wait, so like, you guys have like... weapons and stuff just lying around to use whenever? How does someone live their life like that?" The words seemed more curious than insulting, and he hoped she realized that he hadn't meant to be rude, but to learn more about the world. "What would their daily routine be? Wake up, eat breakfast, mow the lawn, demolish a couple dozen training dummies, eat lunch?" He couldn't help feeling so appalled at her words. It seemed so.. foreign! So non-human, but maybe there were things about District Seven that everyone else saw as bizarre, too. Maybe every place was separate for more than just one reason. Maybe the differences were better kept apart.

"Uh, sorry about all the questions, Pearl. I guess I'm just really curious." He doubted she minded. He bet she had just as many questions as he did. "Is there anything- Uh..." He scratched his head. "Did you want to know anything about Seven?" He pretended to focus on shoving plants into the dry earth and then drenching them in water, but he was only half paying attention to it.

He had always been someone that loved to learn about people, hear their stories, see them completely as they were. The trick was getting them to actually talk, though. Pearl seemed nice enough to open up to him. She had already been friendly enough to answer his questions about her own home, why would learning about his be any different. Really, all she would find out from him was that there were a lot of tree and a lot of the area smelled because of the paper mills. Actually, hearing about District One had reminded him why he hated District Seven so much.

That place was just a trap, and maybe all of the districts were that way, but from what he was hearing, they didn't seem as aware of it as he did. Or maybe it wasn't District Seven at all, but just his house. Maybe it was his own family that made him feel like a victim that was doomed to spend all of his days in solitude, but he could almost swear it was the whole of the district. He had way too much time to think about it every night when he laid down to sleep. He had come so close to volunteering at the games so many times, just because it meant an adventure, and just because winning meant he could finally be free. He had packed his bags so many times in the middle of the night, completely determined to run away, but then he would think of his little brothers and sister, and how hard life without him forever would be.

It wasn't fair.

The only thing he cared about was the only thing holding him back.

- - -

table: tristen

ooc: lol complete word vomit x2