POSI RIO
DISTRICT 5
M / 15 / WOC: Traps / Reaped
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Posi’s father was a janitor at the Panem Dam. He never brought home much money so when Posi was in middle school, his mother asked for a divorce. Before middle school, Posi was the boy who was always bullied. He was timid and easy to make fun of for various reasons. However, after his parents divorced, he was more outspoken. Posi changed himself so that he could fight back (albeit verbally) against his long-term bullies. He became dedicated to giving himself a better life, so that he would not end up like his parents. He became a skilled pickpocket of his peers at school, so that he could help his family at home, and also just to be the boy who wasn’t having his lunch money stolen. Instead, he stole theirs. After school, Posi collected worms and scorpions at night to sell to earn a bit of money.
He actually became known to a lot of adults in the more poor community for teaching about various uses of bugs after he dedicated time to learning about them. To kids at school, this was a bit weird, so fighting back with words wasn’t going to be enough. He needed more to not end up like his dad.
He studied hard and earned better grades so that he could further his education. One of Posi’s favorite classes was electrical engineering, despite that being the job the step father that he hated took on. He learned how to build circuit boards and set up electricity in buildings. He wasn’t bothered much in high school and stood up to his bullies. One time, he stole some supplies from his classroom and built a makeshift taser. Though Posi did get in trouble for this, his reputation was solid.
Besides the bullies and his family situation, Posi had some pretty good friends at school. Posi Rio likes to win everything. To him, everything's a competition. He views life as if it’s some giant chessboard, he’s always trying to think of his next move. Posi likes to prove himself to be the best at everything, even if it’s something he’s never done. That’s what he wants, and he’s willing to go far lengths to get it. He’s definitely inherited one thing from his father- he’s hard working. Anytime Posi wants to get something done, he’s determined to do it.
Sadly, Posi spends so much time trying to be amazing that he’s not quite good at interacting with people. Because of this, he had one best friend and that was it. His name was Wyatt and they were neighbors. They hung out while Posi was looking for scorpions and bugs. He can come off as rude when approached, though he doesn’t mean to be. He’s private and withdrawn and genuinely believes himself to be better at things than other people. No one can get the job done as well as he can, or at least he thinks.
THE REAPING
Posi never expected to be reaped. He didn’t volunteer, why would he ever? He had a future ahead of him, graduating high school as valedictorian, going to trade school, working at the Panem Dam. Even that morning, his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in such a long time due to him only visiting in the summer, had given him a custom tie for him to show her love. He’d gotten dressed for the reaping. He hid one of his pet beetles in his shirt pockets to bring him outside for the day. His mother promised his father that she’d bring him back at the end of the day. Though he was scared of being reaped, he’d pushed her away because he’d never thought it would be… him.
When his name was called, his legs moved themselves. His steps felt heavy as he came up to the podium, entirely average, and didn’t have a hint of confidence on his face. No tears fell either, he didn’t cry, he was too shocked to. The usually confident, stuck up Posi didn’t have a single smirk to show. Even the most snobby children of District 5 would feel the same as Posi did then. Pure terror. How else would you feel when you knew that you were being escorted to your doom?
Unless Posi could manage to evade death and be a victor for his home district, he didn’t think he’d see home again after that. He knew he wouldn’t be able to find both his mom and dad in the crowds, they were probably separated quite far away from each other. Instead, he looked down at his shirt, where his beetle began to crawl out of his shirt.
The escort screamed when he saw the bug, but didn’t hit Posi. The boy smiled, in a sad way, but he smiled when he’d gotten such a silly reaction from others while on camera.
Posi's Reaping Outfit
THE TRIBUTE PARADE
Posi Rio had never dressed up in such ridiculous clothing before. The makeup before the parade was scary, he’d never been to a professional barber and had his eyebrows plucked, but there’s a first time for everything. He’d brought his bess beetle along with him again for comfort, hidden up his sleeve. Posi was scared the first time the holographic lightning appeared on his chariot ride outfit, but quickly became used to it. His beetle stayed on his collar and he waved with his other hand. He didn’t want to stick out by being rebellious or different.
Posi's Parade Outfit
TRAINING
Posi received a training score of 9
TRAINING DAYS
Posi Rio planned his training down to the last minute. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to do everything he’d like due to his disorder (Crohn's disease) hurting him at the most inconvenient time. Fortunately for him, he’d be getting another dose of medicine before the games, so he wouldn’t have to worry about hurting too much then. He still had to suffer through training, but that might’ve been better, he thought. He would be used to using the materials he learned in awful conditions. He had a long list of things he wanted to learn, but he could only attend the stations on how to get safe water, what to do in hand-to-hand combat if something happened, how to climb trees and rocks, and lastly, building traps by hand before he succumbed to the pain. He’d join Tesla at where she was training and lean on her shoulder, his hands around his stomach. He’d stay with her through a few of her lessons before spending the rest of the time laying down in pain on a bench in the training room. He noticed she was hanging around the District 11 kids often during training. The two district partners talked to each other.
“You look like you’re gonna vomit, Posi,” Tesla said to him.
“Yeah, because of your face,” he managed to spit out after a chuckle.
“Oh please. My hair straightener is a lot hotter than you.”
“Maybe if you stopped staring at me and focused on this module, you’d learn a skill or two. You’re as sharp as a sphere right now.”
Fortunately for Posi, he was due for a shot for his Crohn’s Disease soon. For the second half of training, he was missing, in his room due to severe cramps. The doctor would come to give him his usual medicine, but he knew he wouldn’t get any in the arena except through a sponsor. He couldn’t learn more but he knew not being in pain would help his survival in the arena. His escort was with him when he was getting medicine for the night. The drugs wouldn’t last more than a week with an extreme diet change. He hoped the arena wouldn’t be too rough on him.
PRIVATE SESSION
District 5’s male came up soon. He took a deep breath, nervous to perform in front of gamemakers. He worried that by showing one of the talents he had, he could either get a high score, low score, or even neutral. In all honesty, the score was unpredictable. Fortunately, Posi was not as sick as before when he first showed up to training. He had two options of what he wanted to show. If he found the correct materials in the room, he’d perform a skill reminiscent of District 5. If he didn’t, he would show off his near perfect bug identification ability. Posi didn’t even know if there’d be bugs in the arena, but he knew there’d be mines and a countdown for sure.
As a result, when he first came into the room, he looked for a TV or even a CCFL Inverter. Camera Flash Circuits also would work, but Posi doubted he’d be able to reach up to retrieve one of the security cameras. He knew there’d be cameras in the game, but messing with them was something he’d have to ask his mentor about. Mosquitto squatters and stun guns also had high voltage generator circuits, but again, he doubted he’d be able to find it in the room. He knew if they were at the cornucopia, there’d be enough materials inside the timer to make anything he wanted… He’d just have to be able to get to it. He made one during school, he was making one to show off here, he could be able to make one again to save his life.
Well, the gamemakers certainly couldn’t stop Posi from taking down one of the monitors as soon as he came into the room if it was to show his talents. He could have shown off his insect identification skills with it by testing, but decided not to. Instead, he ripped off the back of the monitor screen and grabbed everything he needed. Some wires, some high voltage circuits, he removed their output capacitors so there’d be no limit to what he was doing. By connecting the different ones with the wires, he could create an EMP large enough to cause interference with the other electronic devices in the room, but he could also create a stun gun efficient enough to stop a person in their steps, and possibly kill them if the battery allowed. With the materials he gathered, he figured it’d produce 3.8 milliamps, which was only enough to paralyze in pain, not lethal. In order to be lethal, he’d have to aim it directly at someone’s heart… Maybe he could tell them that, but he doubted they’d know the difference if he didn’t explain it.
He busted open one of the controllers that were meant for the quizzes on screen to show off knowledge. He’d put the stuff he’d engineered inside and tape it with plastic duct tape, which he thought would be something in the arena. He’d connected the wires to the buttons to make it activatable by hand. By building this device, Posi wanted to show that he had the ability to improvise and create something with the materials he had at hand. He pressed the button he connected the electricity to and it let out a loud flash and a POPOPOPOP.
The sound continued. The electricity could be heard by all of the gamemakers, 3000 volts minimum from a basic high voltage circuit connected to some wires and screws. Fortunately for Posi he knew to use plastic based duct tape. He stopped the device by pressing the button once, turning it off, then back on, proving that it was reusable.
He stood up. “This can kill you if it’s directed at your heart. It’ll stun you if you make contact.”
POPOPOP. He stopped it again.
“You can use a similar method to make an electromagnetic pulse, you know, just in case you have any electric mutts or a certain someone makes a bomb that’s electrical based…” He was talking about the District 3 girl he saw before. “Ummm….” And of course, he was just fifteen, so he was pretty awkward even with things he spent his whole life learning. “Um… Yeah…. That’s about it… Thank you…”
The kid left his toy on the table and scuttled out of the room like a scared rat. He was already nervous about his scores.
INTERVIEW
Caesar: Hello Posi, you look amazing tonight! Tell us about your outfit.
Posi: My outfit… It’s sage, a natural color. My suit is old fashioned but I think it fits me. I’ve got a moth bowtie, because I’ve worked with bugs, and also this straw boater, but there’s no antennae on my head… Because I work digitally… [Posi covers his mouth and laughs to himself at his bad joke. After, he stands up and shows off his cape, which seems to be an ugly pattern at first, but once he T-poses™️, the cape looks like a pair of moth wings.] [He sits down. There is a spider crawling up his arm as his beetle rests in his pocket. It is the same species that was crawling across Tesla.]
How are you liking the Capitol so far? What’s been your favorite part?
I can’t complain too much about being away from home. You’ve been accommodating to me. Even though the other tributes get served complex meals, the Capitol has no problems with preparing stuff that doesn’t bother my stomach. My favorite part is how tall the buildings are. Tesla and I went downstairs sliding from the top floor to the bottom floor in a laundry basket. There were a couple of failures but we managed to get it done.
What do you think about the other tributes this year?
I’ve had some run-ins with a few tributes. Chivonne wanted to eat with us, she was pretty nice but we didn’t click right. I didn’t think she was the right fit for an alliance.The Career tributes are pretty threatening, but I don’t have too many worries about them. I have my eyes on the girl from District 3, she seems intelligent, and a lot older. As well as the girl from District 4… She’s being mentored by last year's victor. Aisly and Rhys are close to us, I guess in a way. I don’t say much around them but they don’t seem to act aggressively towards me. I’m not very good at figuring out what other people think, I struggle to make eye contact and can't really pay attention to facial cues. I think we are friends, in an alliance. Oh - I almost forgot Tesla - what can I say about her? Tesla’s a stupid nerd. [Posi’s bess beetle crawls out of his pocket as he mentions Tesla.]
Do you think you have what it takes to become a Victor? Who or what are you fighting for?
[Posi’s tone becomes less comical and more serious for his next answer. Though he usually refrains from making eye contact, this time he looks at Caesar in the eyes]
I’d hate to not be a victor. There’s a reason I pulled that homemade taser on those kids from school, I didn’t want to be a loser. I didn’t want to end up the same as my dad, working in our dams as a janitor for the rest of my life, with no chance of retirement. I worked hard in school to become an engineer, but still was considered unworthy by my peers, so I proved that I was better than they thought. I want to prove that I’m better than what anyone thinks of me here. I’m fighting to be a Victor, of course. [At this point, the beetle and spider are fighting each other on Posi’s shoulder. He separates them and puts them on his lap.]
What kind of arena are you hoping for?
I'm hoping for an arena that's a bit chilly, if I'm honest. District 5 can become as low as 15 degrees in the winter without a storm and never goes over 80 in the summer. I would love to see a lot of water too, since my home has endless lakes. Good soil... Pine trees. For the bugs, of course! Bess prefers hickory trees. Also because Tesla and I have spent a lot of winters skating on icy lakes, if that happens, there's no doubt some of the tributes will slip on the ice, which I think will be pretty funny to see, so I'd like that.
What do you miss most from your home district? Any shoutouts for anyone back home?
It’s hard for me to say I miss something because when I came here, there was this very long complicated situation in which both of my parents developed many problems and lost trust, motivation, and passion for each other and needed to conceive a plan in which both would be satisfied, leaving the house a bit too small, so, my parents got divorced and there were many changes that I didn’t have time to get used to before coming to the Capitol.
[Posi says the first part very quickly, as if it isn’t something he wanted to waste time on.]
However. If I miss something, it’s collecting bugs. My little bug hotel from home is being taken care of by my dad, my bug friends, where they’d stay until someone came to buy them for a pet, food, or poison. I’m sure I’ll be able to see more bugs in the arena, since they’re in every type of environment conceivable, but I can’t put them in my bug hotel, and that’s what matters.
Any last thoughts before we let you go?
If you’re going to support me in these games, I won’t let you down! I’m not the kind of guy who’ll accept defeat. If you haven’t g’wasped my true potential, I’m worth your money and time, and I’ll bee Panem’s next victor!” [Posi takes off his moth bow and pulls something at the bottom. He throws it to the roaring crowd, who are eager to catch it, before the moth toy begins to fly as his stylist engineered it. He leaves the stage as soon as he is allowed.]
Posi's Interview Outfit