Alu Cinatio

district 6 male tribute

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The Afterparty | Ignacius Kauri/Alu Cinatio

So when Ignacius sat down and peered up at Alu in the trees Alu jumped to steer his attitude up.

“Hey, it’s Ignacius right?”

“Yeah, I’m Ignacius. And you’re Alu, right? District 6?”

“District 6, sort of on opposite ends, aren’t we? Same weather in 7 I hear though. But that guy could have been more drunk than I assumed…uh.. so, how are you liking being prepped for a televised death? Not the worst way to go out I suppose..”

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 “Ignacius Kauri, 14, hails from the luscious woods of District 7. He likes rainy nights, long walks in the woods, and spending time with his cat, Emilia.” Ignacius let out a laugh for the first time since he was reaped, and returned his tone to normal. “Also, what is the weather like in District 6? Do you see the elusive sun more, or just as little as all us lumberjacks.” He tried to arch an eyebrow but failed, raising both. 

He stared into Alu’s eyes, waiting for a response. 

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“It’s cold, and overcast, that’s for sure. But we also get these awful heatwaves during the summer that send everyone running for cover. There’s not a lot of trees where I’m at. Never been in a forest before. The majority of the trees left in our district were scorched during the war. Nobody ever really cared that they were gone with everything else though..”

Alu took a second to redirect his thoughts away from the war. No reason to cause conflict, for all he knew Ignacius could support the Capitol.

“You have a cat. One that you keep? Indoors?”

Alu had never had a pet. Nor known anyone who did. His city once found a stray cat and were so frightened that they captured it and threw it back over the border fence. And Sal once brought a rat into class in grade two but he got reprimanded for that.

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The Afterparty | Ignacius Kauri/Alu Cinatio

The Capitol injects caffeine into their vegetables. They must. These people shouldn’t all still be awake. At 4 a.m. he was awoken to be exfoliated. Then masked at 5. Then showered at 5:30, waxed at 6, fed at 8, plucked, prodded and probed till 11, and then somehow took nearly five hours to get dressed for the parade. If the parade hadn’t exhausted him surely the dancing should have. If not that then the whiplash from turning from capitolite to capitolite as he made his way through the crowd should have tuckered him out. But there he was. Sprinting at full speed past the buffet. Past the stragglers. Past the “sneaky” photojournalists. And into the garden which was nothing less than an organized jungle of flowers and shrubbery. But as Alu hurdled over the bushes through the maze he spotted a tree. The perfect tree. No one else would try to follow him up inside its branches which started far after his head.

Once up in the fat branches of the maple tree Alu lay on his stomach across two branches and propped himself on his elbows to stare at the sky. Lost in his own head time passed indefinitely until Alu saw a young boy step into the clearing. Although most of the tributes he met were thin white males the youth in Ignacius’s face stood out like a beacon. Alu felt more hatred than ever towards the games thinking of a 14 year old entering the arena. Four years ago he would have been shattered by the thought. And the boy already seemed to look distraught, he could use more than a smile.

So when Ignacius sat down and peered up at Alu in the trees Alu jumped to steer his attitude up.

“Hey, it’s Ignacius right?”

“Yeah, I’m Ignacius. And you’re Alu, right? District 6?”

“District 6, sort of on opposite ends, aren’t we? Same weather in 7 I hear though. But that guy could have been more drunk than I assumed...uh.. so, how are you liking being prepped for a televised death? Not the worst way to go out I suppose..”

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District Six Outfits

♥ Kendall Carter & Alu Cinatio ♥

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Red Romper

The steel doors sealed shut with a click of air letting us know we were stuck.

Holy fuck.

Look at this place.

I was right, I was totally right. This is just some obscure scheme. Why put chadeliers and velvet in the deathbeds of two insignificant teenagers?

Vilcrom Deecon, their escort, returned to the room. Lu then became conscious of the girl wandering beside him.

Kylie? Kenna? Kendall. Definitely Kendall. I don't want to hurt..

"We have a long night ahead of us you two." Vilcrom boasted.

Woah. What a weird looking guy. Did he always put that much emphasis into all the words he said? Ooh. Food. Oh man I think he was talking again. Are those ribs? He might not notice if I just..

Lu maintained eye contact with Vilcrom as he leaned to one side, extending his arm and

Shit.

Lu clipped the edge of the table on his way to the floor taking a mess of ribs and doily with him. He jumped to try and fake attention towards Vilcrom, cleared his throat and lightly dusted the gooey mess on his pants. He made a sour face for a split second before realizing he was intending to look Vilcrom back in the eye.

"Sorry, could you repeat that last little bit?"

"I was just mentioning how thankful I was that after tomorrow morning the prep team will find a way to make you look.. presentable. Your partners in for a much shorter appointment. "

Lu grabbed at his hair. Are they going to make me cut off my hair? My beard! No, my beard! They can't take it away from me, I've been working on it for years!

The night carried on mostly with small talk. Vilcrom wanted us to survive, I think. Kendall liked to run, but she didn't really have to tell me that, she had the legs of a runner. Vilcrom liked shiny things. I should work on being shiny. I felt sick. Kendall looked like she was going to be. The games were real. And then it was night.

Vilcrom told us we were allowed to be in our bedrooms now, I got the feeling that it wasn't really an option. Nonetheless I needed to get back out there. Dinner conversation had made me not want to eat dinner. And I know that they have some more pastries hidden out there.

As Lu crept down the hallway he heard a door swish open behind him. He swiveled around to see Kendall lightly stepping through her doorway.

"Are you sneaking out?" she whispered.

Oh man am I never going to get some cake? She's going to rat on me.

"Well you're not doing a very good job." she finished.

Kendall began to creep past him, hunched at the waist, urging him along with her.

"How do you know I'm not doing a very good job, are you a professional sneaker-outer?" He grinned.

"You woke me up with your elephant stomping" she paused for a moment and smirked to herself. Lu wondered if there was more. But then Kendall froze, so he did too. Then he saw why. Not more than five feet in front of them their stoic faced escort was crossing in front of them-eyes forward. And gut forward. His gut was accentuated by the broadening stripes on his romper. It hung low on his grey-haired chest and much too high on his thighs. The fabric clung to every cranny of Vilcroms body and paled him with bright stripes of red and yellow. Alu held back the start to a very long line of laughs.

The cake was delicious.

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Vilcrom Deecon || 56 || Escort || FC: Stephen Fry

Now they had him with a co-host. Really? A co-host? Were they under the impression that he gained a nearly cult following by being constantly interrupted by some blabber mouth little girl trying to climb the social ladder with nothing more in her head than sawdust masquerading as glitter? And the commercials, the endless nail-removing commercials. When did hexagonal nails go out of style?

Vilcrom Deecon could barely stand to share air-time with himself, not that anyone in the Capitol really minded. He was witty and clever and knew all the most exclusive information the Capitol had to offer. What else could they ask for?

For ten years Deecon had been the evening host of The Pinnacle. But when his power there fizzled he transferred to a management position. Over the next three decades Deecon, directed 142 radio DJ’s into becoming far better than they could ever dream. Technically 143, but the last one was dragged out of the building before she even got on-air.

It kept him in the loop, kept his name on the airways, but it wasn’t quite enough.

Early on a Tuesday morning a group of shiny individuals gathered in his office and proposed a new position. As an escort, he could return to his position behind the mic, serving as a publicist and reporter of sorts. He would introduce two young people to the Capitol and would be the living power keeping little ones from death.

Vilcrom clawed at the opportunity to control some new bittie carpies. He only hoped that these ones would have a little more fight in them.

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Reaping Day

Alu didn't think they were actually going to do it.

The screens went up- it's a power play.

The stage was set- it's for something else.

They received flyers requiring their attendance- it's to tell them it's cancelled.

He didn't want to believe it, he couldn't. The Capitol had already taken away... everything. What's another life to them I guess. But still, wasn't the Capitol where people roamed around in gold plated dresses without a care in world? What interest would those people have in watching us die? Watching us die. He wouldn't watch. He wouldn't read the papers for a few weeks.

He could block this out.

Then it was Reaping day.

That morning Alu didn't run towards the station. In fact you could describe his gait as something along the lines of a slug attempting to cross breed with an ape. His arms swung dramatically at his sides contradicting the pace of his footsteps along the pavement.

Half way through his walk he crossed paths with Ben and they made their way in silence towards the crowd. Hundreds of people dressed in black were swarmed around them, all headed for the same place, all at a sluggish pace. Ben stopped right at the edge of the last grey building before the plaza and Alu paused with him. The crowd seemed to be running past them now, they were stuck in a still moment. Ben reached over and locked his fingers through Alu's, pulling him closer and out of the way of passer-byers.

Then Ben was gone.

Alu made his way towards the line of curiously frightened boys. He was behind a 4'6 little boy with bouncing red curls. They weren't going to make this kid fight to the death. They wouldn't make little girls like his sister fight 18 year-olds like himself.

He didn't notice that he had already been past the booth and was lined up among his peers when they announced the female tribute. He felt those around him tense up, he bent down to the curly-haired boy beside him and smiled, "It's okay, you're going to be okay, they're not going to go through with this, you'll be home in just a few minutes."

"Alu Cinatio, congratulations."

They called his name- you have got to be fucking kidding me.

He walked with a lump in his throat towards the stage, swallowed it up the stairs, and nearly threw it back up when he saw all the tear-stricken faces. He couldn't see his father, he couldn't see his little sister, and thank god he couldn't see Ben. But he saw all of the rest, they thought it was real, knew it was. The old man beside him must have said a thousand words by the time he realized he was speaking, the girl they had called was putting her hand down. Was she waving? Shit should he wave? Alu pushed all of his fear down to his stomach raised one corner of his mouth into a grin and waved slowly to the crowd.

Of all the things in the world, he couldn't block the crowds' silence out.

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Bio continued--

Alu spun around to continue in his track. He felt a slight brush on his shoulder before ultimately crashing full on into the body in front of him. Leaning away humiliated he started at an apology. "I am so...Benny!" Alu burst out into a laughter that sent him falling backwards into the wall. He shrunk down with his head between his knees at what looked like an attempt to stifle the laughter but the roaring didn't stop. Benny let out a few quiet chuckles before he was startled by a noise behind them and went stone-faced. Eight figures made their way up the stale hallway headed directly towards the two boys.

Benny grabbed Alu's forearm, forcefully pulling it up towards himself. In an excited whisper he tongued "Lu get up. We need to go, now!" through his clenched teeth. Alu's weight stayed firmly on the floor and as the figures drew closer Benny gave a final tug before sprinting into a nearby hallway.

It wasn't until Alu recognized the metallic crashing of peacekeeper footsteps that he stood up. The peacekeepers were flanked on all sides of a woman with eyes that didn't just shoot daggers, they were the daggers themselves. She had cheeks so sharp it looked as if they had startled her hair into flowing submission. Unsure what to think of the guests Alu shot a white-toothed smile and frantically waved his left hand toward them. Before he had a chance to register their reaction he fled towards his friend. When he turned the corner he didn't see Benny so he continued to flee in large leaps down the hallway. Alu's right arm was nearly jerked out of it's socket as he was dragged into a doorway.

"What were you thinking! Do you know who that was? I know you think you're gods greatest gift and all but I doubt that Gamemaker Noel would agree. There's only a week left before they choose which one of you is getting drafted in their sick little war and I can't imagine they're going to start being fair now."

"Ben, I'm going to be fine, she probably won't even remember my face an hour from now. Besides you can't believe all that stuff about the Games, there's no way they're actually going to send a bunch of little kids into war. I mean, shit, what are they going to do, kill thirteen year-olds on national television? It's just some big cgi power trip. Those kids are going to get sent to work as their janitors in the Capitol or something, and hey, I'm already pretty good at my job here ain't I?" Alu responded with a wink.

"Your optimism is unfounded Lu, I don't recall them being particularly appropriate with your mother when they slaughtered her. Now isn't going to be any different."

Their eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room and Benny caught a glimpse of Alu's glare before it caught sight of Benny's gaze and softened. Alu curled his fingers and motioned for Benny to come closer until their faces were inches apart.

Alu and Benny, Benjamin, had been best friends since Alu was nine. The two of them together should have been a cause for disaster but Benny was always there to tear Alu away from trouble. They created tree forts out of scrap metal they found by their father's workplace, and would pretend they were kings of that castle. When that kingdom became too small they dug trenches in the ground and would pretend like they were trains. More often Alu was the train that would surface covered in dirt and Benny was the dispatcher who got to be above ground, and clean. Benny was two years older and consequently when he transferred onto secondary school the two weren't able to spend as much time together. Around the same time Ben joined an unofficial soccer league and every Friday Alu would come and watch his games. Friday at 6 you could always find Alu sitting cross-legged on the sidelines keeping tally of his friends stats. After each game the two would find themselves walking each other home on what they called "the shortcut." The boys were officially reunited when they both accepted jobs at the station two years ago.

Alu leaned in closer to Benny's face, brushed past his cheek and whispered "Do you think we're clear now?" in his ear.

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/Making friends at the capitol

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