Petunia Hines, District 11, 16:
Broson stormed out of the room as soon as I sat down at the breakfast table, and I immediately had the awful feeling that he wasn't prepared to talk to me because of the pandemonium that was the chariot ride - it was his fault for trying to threaten me whilst I was dressed up as an orange.
"What's up with him?" I asked Edoire, our mentor. Edoire looked at me solemnly before shrugging; the poor guy was the only live Hunger Games victor except Jynx, so he was bound to be depressed.
"Might as well go to training," he sighed, glancing at me with his dark, droopy eyes. "I'd learn a weapon or some kind of combat if I were you... Just so that you could stand a little chance over the Careers."
I finished my bacon and toast, trying to analyse just what Edoire meant - a 'little' chance over the Careers still wasn't very convincing, but since I knew about plants and stuff I thought that learning something simple, such as knives, would have been a good idea.
I moved into the elevator. The girl from District Twelve was in it with me, and my hand pressed against the smooth golden button as the doors moved closed and moved down. Along the way the doors opened with a hum so that the Eight boy strolled into the elevator.
"Still frowning, I see," he smirked at the Twelve girl, who's frown seemed to deepen.
"I don't want to talk to you," she said, flicking her hair back and narrowing her cold eyes at him. "You're extremely irritating-"
"And handsome," Micah laughed.
I felt somewhat relieved when the elevator doors slid open to reveal the well lit training centre, so I made sure to rush out and avoid the bickering couple. After scanning the room for a couple of seconds my eyes finally met Violet, who was standing by a knife station.
"You have the same idea as me," I told Violet as I approached her. "I need to learn a weapon."
Violet jumped at the sound of my voice, and the blade she had been holding in her palm clattered to the ground along with some strange powdered stuff. She turned around, trying to conceal her strong blush.
"I was using it as a mirror," she admitted.
"You're so practical," I laughed. Violet giggled too, although her hysterical screams were a little bit melodramatic. I was always the jokester who had to make every situation comic, and although most people found my humorous attitude and my relentless optimism annoying, Violet appreciated it; that's why we were great allies.
"If you were in the Games what knife would you pick?" I asked Violet randomly as we looked through the arsenal of blades right in front of us.
"This one," Violet's perfectly manicured fingernails enclosed around a handle that was rich in rubies and sapphires. "I mean girls just love jewelry!"
"I love diamonds but that is something else!" My laugh bounced around the whole room, causing some tributes to stop training and peer at me. I liked to laugh a lot, but sometimes I didn't know when to stop - although I didn't care if I 'distracted' a group of solemn bores.
After looking at them all shamelessly I turned back to Violet and grinned. "Can you use that as a weapon or are you planning to bedazzle those Career hunks?"
"I totally wish, " Violet snorted. "Can you use knives?"
I grabbed the knife and threw it at the target. The attempt was humiliating, as the sharp knife hit the target handle first and bounced off. Violet grabbed a blade to mimic my action, but her attempt was even worse - as soon as she raised her knife to throw it the knife seemed to jump like a live wire, causing Violet to scream and fall back.
Some Career girl from One giggled close to us, and the handsome Four boy chuckled arrogantly too.
"Yeah, yeah," I told them. "Pick on somebody your own size, you cowards."
The two seemed to reply with an endless stream of insults, but I was more focused on getting Violet to her feet. I never really understood people like the Career lot; how could somebody get a kick out of causing pain? Violet looked at the Careers once before frowning.
"They're so horrible," she whispered. "Yesterday the Four boy was being really horrible to me and... Well, I was totally close to tears. I know it's embarrassing - but-"
"Ignore them," I advised Violet. "They're just glamourised bullies, really. People like that don't deserve anybody showing them fear... Just think Violet, you're a strong girl."
"I'm not."
"I'm not either," I laughed. "Feathers tire me eventually."
Violet giggled, but then her face was overcast by shadow. I turned on my heel to see a woman who wore a jacket stuffed with blades and numerous scars were carved into her face. Her thin lips puckered as she observed the two of us.
"I witnessed your mishap earlier," she informed Violet and I. "If you want I could teach you how to fight with a knife or blade before lunch."
"Yes, totally!" Violet said enthusiastically.
For the next few hours the woman taught us how to hold a knife correctly. I was alright, but Violet took ages to learn it. Eventually we were taught the basic fighting techniques - how to swing the blade and block attacks. I was much more graceful than Violet, but she had a bigger fire to her; once she successfully learnt how to fight close combat she was instantly better than me when we learnt the basic knife throwing techniques.
"Good Violet," the instructor said when her knife hit the target. It was quite far off the bullseye, but it had still hit the target nonetheless.
I already knew the stance for knife throwing (I had mastered it before Violet did) but when I actually threw the knife the weapon had a mind of its own; it soared past the target before hitting the metallic training centre walls. I laughed in time with Violet, who found the whole thing amusing.
"Don't lose your focus girls," the training instructor said crisply. I decided it was best to lose focus at that moment - these were my last moments, so why not have some fun with them? I hated people like the knife instructor; to them etiquette was compulsory and formality was equally important - boring!
My family were like that. I was raised by a rich family who were always focused on their reputation, though I didn't see them enough to adopt their lifestyle. My Aunt Cleo was the wild one in my family who looked after me, and I naturally adopted her fun, good natured lifestyle instead of the boring, polite one my parents had a preference for. Unfortunately my Aunt's wild ways had earned her a bullet to the head from the Peacekeepers who saw her as a criminal.
Even my disapproving family were devastated - they had just lost the light of the family. My innocence was lost that day; I awoke to the cruel world that wasn't all fun and games. Regardless, I vowed to brighten up District Eleven in the same way as my aunt did, and if I was going down her route (which I was, realistically) I wanted to go down it with style.
"En guard!" I jokingly grabbed a knife as Violet picked up another one. We giggled as we 'sparred,' though we made sure that we didn't actually score a hit on each other. The trainer's eyes almost popped out of their sockets in shock as she watched Violet and I swing the blades at each other, wincing every time the metal blades crashed and unleashed an iron screech.
"That is against the rules," she snapped as Violet jokingly thrust her blade forwards. I held onto my heart mockingly, slumping to the ground whilst making fictitious choking noises. Violet giggled, though the training instructor really wasn't amused.
"Leave immediately," she scolded. "Or I will inform the Gamemakers of your rule breaking!"
Violet and I laughed, though I knew when the shots were called so I leapt up, grabbed Violet's hand and lead her away as we giggled. We rushed past the District Nine boy as he eyed the two of us inquisitively.
"It is totally her time of the month," Violet smirked as we walked through the training centre, looking for a suitable station. Now that we knew the knife basics I was sure there'd be something interesting to find...
"Leave immediately!" I mocked our training instructor and Violet found that comment highly amusing. She giggled again whilst I looked at the swimming station. The Four girl was currently splashing around in the water, and I had to admit that she was ridiculously good.
"I can't swim at all," I told Violet. "So not there."
"It's cool, I went there yesterday," Violet said.
"I doubt you were as good as the Four girl."
"She's a strong swimmer," Violet told me as we watched the Four girl's arms push through the water so that her body sailed through like a torpedo. "She's not that good with weapons though, considering she's from District Four."
I never knew Violet was so observant, so I eyed her curiously. "I'm good at climbing, are you?"
"I'm alright," Violet said, but her eyes stopped when they looked at a woman in an apron nagging people who were flipping something around in a pot. "Oh my god - cookery!"
Violet lead me to the cookery station with a smirk on her rose tinted lips. I supposed I needed to know about cookery and other survival things anyway, so I sat down by a boiling pot which had a gutted fish in it.
"Now, now Vigil," the woman looked into the Twelve boy's pot with a tut. She was a plump woman who was very provincial in speech and attitude, though not in a Capitolian way - she was definitely foreign. "Ya' don't do that... No, m'love, the fish cannot be undercook'd"
"Loving the accent," Violet remarked as the Ten girl poured some herbs into her pot close to us. Whilst the instructor nagged Vigil she had nothing but praise for Helen, and as we joined in with the cookery session she praised my wide plant knowledge too; my great aunt owned a whole orchard and agricultural field, so I naturally knew a lot about plants.
The day went a lot more disastrously when the Twelve girl came over to the station, with the Eight boy following her like an obedient puppy.
"Go away," she hissed as she threw some rice and water into her pot. I was so distracted by their interraction I almost let the rabbit in my pan burn, though Violet warned me before anything went wrong.
"Will you go on a date with me if I do?" The Eight boy winked. He seemed like quite the joker, and I admired that he was up for a laugh at this grim moment. "Or just be my allies? Come on Reed!"
"No," Reed said bitterly whilst angrily hacking away at some carrots. "I can win all by myself and I don't need you-"
Just as she said that she almost cut through the carrot and into her finger, though she stopped herself. She stared at the knife which rested on her finger with a shocked expression before the Eight grabbed some random spice and threw it into the pot.
"Micah!" She frowned as the pot hissed. "That's cinnamon - you don't put it in with meat - oh god... It's ruined."
"No harm done if we put more in then," Micah said, grabbing some oil and squirting it into the pot. Reed cried out in frustration, trying to hold her composure.
"Are you potion making?" I asked Micah with a giggle, making sure that the instructor wasn't aware of the whole cooking fiasco - she was too busy helping Vigil to notice.
"I'm hoping for an explosion," Micah's brown eyes twinkled charmingly as he grabbed a vial of something and threw it into the brewing pot of horrors. "Bam!"
Ironically the pot exploded with Micah's words, making Violet (who was trying to read a food hygiene manual next to me) jump and Reed look very annoyed. As tufts of smoke drifted over Micah and Reed the instructor turned around to see what the maker of noise was, and once she saw their cooking pot (which was alight) she charged at the two with a red face.
"What have ye done?" She screamed. Sensing trouble I grabbed Violet's hand and we walked away as she continued screaming furiously. "Having fun? Your burnin' down me cookin' pot!"
"How about we act seriously this time?" I asked a shocked looking Violet, though I was still laughing hysterically at the woman's accent and outburst.
"Shelter making?" She asked, to which I nodded my head; I didn't have any idea on how to create any shelter, so I followed her to a kind faced man who taught us the basic principles of shelter making. Violet was pretty bored by his lecture, so she didn't learn too much, but I was good enough at it. I carefully wove strands of hay around each other as Violet looked at me.
"What's your District partner like?" She asked.
"An imbecile," I replied as I finished off the roof of the shelter. Sticks and twigs would have made the shelter more weather proof, but I had yet to learn how to string them together. "Why? What's yours like?"
"He's usually drunk at night and a bit... Sour," Violet said as I remembered the boy with the scar in her District. Thinking about the whole thing logically that scar had probably made the boy bitter. "But he can be nice sometimes." Violet paused as I finished the shelter, looking into it to make sure that it could hold two people in it. "Oh, and I asked because your District partner was coming this way."
"So this is your ally?" I peered up at a tall and burly Broson, who shoved Violet into the hay and forced the whole shelter to collapse on us. I spluttered as the hay invaded my mouth and nostrils, though Broson laughed nastily. "She's quite fragile."
"She's not an imbecile like you," I snapped.
"Yeah! Totally!" Violet agreed, though she kind of shot down my whole argument with her words. Broson looked at the two of us before shrugging and going off to a mace station.
"He is totally a jerk," Violet said as she fussily picked bits of hay out of her hair. I watched as Broson sat alone, reading a manual.
"He's lonely," I told her. "He's been like that his entire life. He doesn't deserve this Violet, none of us do."
The lunchbell rang and Violet and I moved over to the canteen; Violet wasn't exactly bright, but she was much more observant than she looked - her eyes were focused on the solo tributes, the group of Careers who were generally being hooligans, and the Twelve boy and Ten girl happily chatting away as they ate, at the Twelve girl caving in and laughing at a joke the Eight boy made and the Nine pair.
They were sitting together, whispering rather intimately and smirking as they devoured steak. It unnerved me that the Nine boy's steak was rare. I was further creeped out when the small Nine girl turned around and averted her eyes at me, so that they were instantly evil and demonic.
Chills crept up my spine and I realised that though the Careers were intimidating they weren't the only opponents.
Archimedes Plutus, District 2, 17:
"And I told him I had to lay down-" Astrid spoke, though I immediately interrupted her.
"You mean lie Astrid, you had to lie down," I corrected her as I held a goblet, filled to the brim with pomegranate juice. I looked over to the Careers, one by one, before smiling. "So did you do anything productive over our time?"
"I learnt... Erm, something about plants," Astrid said dismissively, grabbing a gravy boat and pouring it all over her roast potatoes with a grin. "And I scared tributes."
Astrid wasn't stupid, but she wasn't bright either. Her biggest downfall was her arrogance, yet I also sensed some kind of insecurity too. She was also undeniably good with knives, even better than the average District One girl.
"I learnt... Stuff, I dunno," Luster mumbled as I looked to him. Luster was above average intelligence, but I still hadn't figured him out yet - she seemed shy but strong, clever but silly, his personality seemed like a long list of contradictions that I could never quite solve.
"Naomi and I learnt some new weapon skills, swimming, climbing and we're doing survival afterwards," Melanthe said before I looked to her. Melanthe wasn't as bright as Naomi (although she was rather intelligent) - I could sense that Naomi was cleverer, but Melanthe stood a bigger chance because she was a fighter with a lot of common sense.
I didn't even ask Blaine what he did, he probably basked in his own arrogance throughout the afternoon. I trained to be fit and strong like any other Career had to, but I also made sure that my mental strength was intact too. Most Career tributes were bloodthirsty brutes who could only handle a sword, and I was tiring of the 'oaf' stereotype.
The Careers last year were idiots. Maximotus was intelligent but uneducated, Liane was the exact opposites, Tristan was a total imbecile, Katie was naïve and the pair from Four were of average intelligence. No-one bright in that group, but this year the Careers had a true genius.
I'd grown tired of unintelligent giants and psychopaths claiming the 'victor' title, and if a clever tribute did win the Games they were small, weak things who had a lot of luck on their side. I knew that I was the perfect median, and I would be renowned for my brains if I were victor.
I was also the best strategist one could meet. My strategy for the Games weren't definite, because if somebody went into the Games with one strategy they'd have nothing to fall upon; I had to look at every situation with a degree of neutrality. I glanced at my fellow Careers and knew that as their leader I could easily manipulate them now, so that made the controller of most of the Games' tributes.
My plan was already flowing more smoothly than I imagined, but what I needed to do was gain their trust. I had already befriended Melanthe and spoken to Luster (as much as you possibly could speak to the quiet thing). I could never befriend Astrid after clearly defeating her, but I knew I could devise something to get rid of her. Naomi seemed vulnerable and easy, as long as I spoke to her on a personal level.
And I had plans for Blaine.
Blaine was talking to Naomi about some novel she'd probably never read in her life, pretentious about his cultural knowledge as per usual. I moved over to him indifferently before smiling at him.
"You're an avid reader?" I asked Blaine, who nodded. "If you're into the more... Classic literature I suggest The Art of War by Sun Tzu - it's a good book for Careers to read, too, seeing as it's the perfect book for a tactician."
Blaine opened his mouth to talk, but I could tell he was taken by shock. "Well... Thanks."
Astrid glared at me as I grabbed Blaine's hand and shook it warmly. "I suppose I've been cold and cruel, but I truly do respect your tastes in art and literature - I suppose you like theatre and music too?"
"Of course," Blaine looked proud. What an arrogant fool - if he wasn't ridiculously skilled and strong I'd of made sure he died in the Bloodbath.
"My favourite Shakespeare is King Lear - ever seen it?" Blaine nodded excitedly. "Schubert is also my favourite composer; his art reflects love so vividly."
"I agree completely," Blaine smirked.
"Now I suppose you're going to train?" I looked over to the certain survival stations I'd need to go to, deciding against climbing and swimming as I was useless in those areas. I eventually decided to go to a water filtering station, deciding that it could be useful. Astrid followed behind me with a glare.
"I know what you're doing," she hissed. "I'm more intelligent than I seem."
I watched as Blaine effortlessly plummeted a spear into a dummy's chest. Naomi and Melanthe were still at the dinner table, eating and sympathising with each other. I smirked slyly before looking at Astrid, who truly was cleverer than she seemed.
"Don't pretend you're not planning to betray them too," I said.
"Of course I am," Astrid said stiffly. As bright as she could be she was ultimately very stupid. "But you just admitted you were betraying the Careers - you're manipulating them, aren't you? Lets see how long democracy votes you in as the leader when I tell them!"
Astrid stormed off, though she stopped in her tracks when I spoke calmly to her. "If you do that I'll tell them of your intentions too, seeing as you just admitted them to me."
"You wouldn't dare."
"No, I wouldn't dare," I smirked as I picked up a manual explaining the deadly bacterium found in water. "But you wouldn't either, would you?"
Astrid stood still with her jaw unhinged slightly. Checkmate. I always won a battle of wits, no matter the subject. I scanned through the page with a confident smirk before I turned to the District One girl, deciding that for the best I could only make a compromise.
"If you don't tell, I won't tell," I told her. "Now go and learn something useful, because unlike you I want to survive instead of messing around and doing nothing. Okay?"
Astrid gave me one last untrusting look before striding away. Despite the fact she had a lot of similar traits to a District One girl (snobbery, arrogance and a tad of vanity) her walk was strong and masculine. That made her more intimidating - Astrid wasn't afraid of breaking a nail to get what she wanted, that much was certain.
"I know all about water filtering, it helps a lot in District Four," a sweet voice said behind me. I peered around to see that standing there was Naomi, the District Four girl. Naomi seemed smart but I wasn't worried about her. I smiled stiffly before grabbing numerous chemicals and smelling them.
"It's basically a mixture of chemistry and common sense," I replied, grabbing a bottle of chlorine and observing it whilst holding a bottle of iodine. "Chlorine doesn't taste very pleasant though..."
"And it's poisonous," Naomi said
knowingly. "Are you worried?"
"About?"
"Dying," Naomi looked at me meekly as she observed a District Nine boy at the knife station; he was actually very good with knives, though he handled them wonkily he had a lot of power and aggression in his stabs. Interesting.
"I'm not," I replied indifferently whilst pouring some chemical in the water and shaking it slightly and sniffing the bottle to ensure that the chemical was properly diluted.
"You aren't definitely going to win though, are you?"
"It was wrong of you to assume I was unafraid of death out of sheer arrogance," I told Naomi whilst I poured a drop of water onto my tongue as a small test. "This is a game... If you lose, you die. If I die it's only a part of this fun game, but I'm playing to win." I walked off towards the sword station, sighing when Naomi was at my heels. "And death is inevitable anyway. Whether I win or not I'll die eventually, why should I worry?"
"Don't you think this is wrong?"
"I volunteered," I said bluntly. "Doesn't that say it all about my beliefs?"
"Not everybody volunteered though," Naomi told me. "Nineteen players were forced into this game Archimedes."
"Why are you talking to me?" I said as I brushed past the instructor ignorantly, grabbing a sword in one fluid movement. "This conscientious talk isn't enlightening me in any way, and it seems completely unrelated."
"Archimedes-"
"Call me Archie, Archimedes is too formal," I told Naomi as I swung my sword through a dummy's head, decapitating it instantly and swinging it through into another dummy's gut. Naomi backed away wearily, but she still spoke to me firmly as if I were her only hope.
"You're the Career leader Archie," she pleaded. "You could try and make us all win - you could save us all..."
Naomi looked affronted as my laugh stilled the whole room, and the following silence was only broke my the sound of sharp weapons slicing through the air and Naomi's small, cute sneezes as she looked at me hopelessly.
"Naomi, I'm the Career leader," I informed the girl whilst twirling my sworld around and dividing a small dummy into two pieces. "I'll get my Careers as far as possible, obviously, but I'm in this game to win it. I don't want to share victory." As I tore my sword into more plastic Naomi tried to talk, but I interrupted her. "Even if I was going to act like such a hippie I wouldn't even succeed in saving you all Naomi - this is the Hunger Games. There is only one winner. Good day."
Naomi's blue eyes began to swell up with tears, but she brushed them away with her little finger before she spoke to me once again, trying to halt the shakiness that rattled her voice.
"Thanks for clarifying."
As she turned to walk away I told her. "You could win, you know. Every tribute in this room is a contender until the moment they die."
Naomi didn't answer, she only rushed off quicker, probably because death was mentioned or something ridiculous like that. I watched as the Four girl moved over to the fishing station before I practiced on the sword station throughout the rest of the day, but it didn't do anything to improve my abilities - I was an excellent swordsman anyway.
I continued to observe the rest of the tributes whilst I trained; I knew my Careers' strength and weaknesses, but I knew that the other tributes had to of had strengths and weaknesses too. I made sure to eye them all keenly as they trained, just to observe them.
Karble had spent all day reading and talking to tributes. Physically he didn't stand a chance in the Games, but I had learnt long ago that words had a lot of power in them - I could only hope that that power wasn't used against me.
The girl, Danni, seemed to be an interesting technological genius. She was at the electricity station and wiring station throughout the day, controlling wires and such as if she were an electrical goddess. I wasn't worried, as I expected nothing more from a District Three tribute, but her uncanny ability to dissapear sometimes unnerved me quite a bit.
The Five boy spent most of his time at survival stations, trying to learn. I wasn't worried about him at first but soon I learnt that he was quite strong when he went to the weightlifting station - I should've known he was strong because of his build.
The Five girl was quiet and almost ignorable, but soon I managed to see just what she could create - traps. Some traps were complex and useful, and even I couldn't tell how she made them, whereas other traps were simple but very deadly. I made a note to kill her during the bloodbath so that she didn't scupper my chances of winning during the Games with those traps.
The Six boy seemed to mess around a lot during the day. He was skinny and weak, so I felt that he could die fairly easily. Unfortunatey he seemed like a bright young man.
The Six girl was an expert boxer who was quite tough. Her close combat skills were so good she could outmatch most, if not all, of the Careers. I decided that because of that she was a threat when I was weaponless, but otherwise she was ignorable.
The rest of the tributes were so dull I could barely note anything about them apart from a fair few - the Seven boy was naturally good with an axe, the Nine boy seemed like a savage, the Eleven girl was a speedy climber, the Twelve girl had some skill and the boy from District Ten could work magic with rope.
When training finished I rushed upstairs to my bedroom, happy that the training day had finished. All I needed to do was learn some survival things and then I was as prepared for the Games as somebody could possibly be. The best bit would be the Bloodbath, when I could kill the tributes who had caught my eye (so that they didn't cause any trouble later). So far the Five tributes, the Six girl, the Seven boy, the Nine boy and the Eleven boy were the ones on my hit-list.
I sketched out a map of what the Cornucorpia would most probably look like and sketched out some possible tactics before my pondering was interrupted by an angry scream - I had to restrain my eyes from rolling, because I knew that it was Jynx.
Probably Melanthe related, I thought as I walked out of the corridor with an angry expression. I saw that outside Melanthe's room Jynx was kicking at the metallic door furiously as she nursed a cut finger - when I saw the metal shake in its hinges I had to admit that Jynx had a remarkable amount of strength.
"She closed the door on me!" Jynx screeched at me. I looked at her calmly before eyeing the door and sighing.
"Do you have common sense?" I asked her as I knocked on the door. "Open the door Melanthe."
"What do you-"
"Jynx, you don't try to talk to a girl after you killed their mother," I told the purple haired mentor as I slammed my fist onto the door. "Melanthe it's Archie - I suggest you open the-"
"No!"
I rolled my eyes angrily. If tributes were going to be this dramatic and persistent in the arena heads were definitely going to roll. But then again, tributes were going to inevitably die, weren't they? And I had a feeling that it was going to be quite fun.
I was only half joking about the review thing but... Woah, keep that up ;)
Training itself is almost over. If your tribute isn't in an alliance they will find themselves in one eventually; I usually build alliances up over time (hell, in the 202nd alliances were still building around the final twelve).
~Toxic
Capitol Commentator Question: What tributes can you see forming an alliance?
Interview Question: What is your strength? (Come on, don't be modest - I'm good at eating, that's my biggest strength).