Verity Sangster(D1 Mentor)
I don't think my dad has stopped berating Audrie since he got up this morning. I understand part of his point but I don't think he's even trying to look at this from her point of view. To him, she's a tribute from a career district who's bucking tradition for an alliance with Topaz and the kids from Eight that he views as inherently inferior. The thing he can't or might even refuse to see is that this isn't a normal year and none of these tributes are either, at least not by District One standards.
"I just don't understand how you could make such a stupid decision, after everything we talked about over the last two days you went threw all our hard work right out the window like an idiot. What were you thinking?!"
"Dad that's enough."
"No it's not Verity, and I think I deserve an answer to such a fundamentally important question."
"It doesn't matter why she did it the fact is she did it. Now we have to find a way to garner support for the two of them and their allies from Eight."
"That's not what we're going to do, she's going to apologise for being so irrational and beg the careers to accept her into the traditional alliance. Topaz can stick with the losers from Eight but I refuse to let Audrie throw away an alliance tailor-made for victory for his sake."
"First off dad they're sitting right here. Second they've both made their decision and this is what they've decided to do, our JOB is to help them win within the framework of their decisions, we don't get to make them for them."
"That's the most defeatist thing I've ever heard out of your mouth, no wonder you haven't been able to bring a tribute home. Has Velvet been this soft too, because that would explain why we've had such shitty results the last two years."
Well, that was just uncalled for, does he think I'm going to sit here and let him insult me and my tributes like this? Maybe it's been too long since he had to mentor someone who didn't hang on his every word or piece of advice as gospel or maybe his personality is just that commanding that he's not used to not getting his way every time but if we're going to mentor together he's going to have to start getting used to it. He may be my dad but that only goes so far and it doesn't count for a thing in the Capitol.
"That's enough Hank….Audrie, you and Topaz need to head down to the training center right now, the two of us need to have a talk. It might be good for you to take the stylists downstairs for a drink as well Savera."
"That's an excellent idea. Come along children we can all ride down together, and maybe Audrie can tell us a little more about this girl from Eight. Is her name really Connor? What an interesting little deviation from traditional gender usage in naming."
"I….I guess it's a little different. I didn't really think about it, to be honest."
"To think the two of you just happened to luck into an alliance with such an interestingly named tribute. Trust me when I say she's going to be all the rage by the time the games start. It was a good move for the two of you to lock her up as an ally early on before everyone else is trying to get her too."
I watch with barely contained fury as the five of them spill into the life and wait for the door to slide closed. Once it does and the sound of the lift fades from the immediate area I turn towards my dad and unload on him with a vigor and anger I didn't know I possessed. Normally I'm a much more reserved and calculating person but his attitude has brought out the bitch in me I thought I'd buried after my victory in the quell.
"I don't know what your problem is with Topaz or what it is you're not understanding about how this is supposed to work but you need to fix it fast. If I hear one more derogatory comment leveled at either of them from you I promise those will be the last word you say to or about either of them, not to mention this will be the last time you mentor tributes in the games. Have I made myself clear?"
"You don't get to talk to me like that young lady. I'm your father and you will show me the respect I des…."
"Right now you're not my father, you're my partner. We're coworkers right now and you need to remember that. I'm not going to sit here and let you tear our tributes down like this. The only thing that's going to accomplish is to destroy what little self-esteem they have at a time when they won't be able to rebuild it before it's too late."
"I'm trying to mentor a winner Verity, maybe you've forgotten but I pushed you and your brothers this hard and look how it turned out, all three of you are alive, all three of you are victors. My methods may seem a little harsh but the results speak for themselves."
"This isn't even close to the same situation dad; Justice, Concord and I, we were raised to be in the games. Some of my earliest memories involve going over weapons handling and major injury treatment in an arena setting, Topaz and Audrie don't have any of that. Neither of them would have ever ended up here if the rules hadn't been changed, they wouldn't be here if they hadn't banned volunteering, neither of them asked for or want any part of this."
"It doesn't matter what they want Verity because this is what they get. Whether they want to be here or not they are and they need to start thinking about how to get home. I'm sorry but Topaz has no shot and we both know that and while the pair from Eight might be better than he is how much better than the careers can any of them really be?"
"In a normal year I agree this would be a suicidal decision, but this isn't a normal year and none of them are normal tributes. We have to trust that our tributes are making the right decisions and sell the sponsors on what they decide to do."
"I see you feel very strongly about this."
"I do, and you need to get on board with it and help our tributes instead of second guessing them every step of the way."
"Ok we'll try it your way kiddo, but when this goes sideways and it will go sideways you're the one who's going to have to explain what happened to the sponsors and the people back home. I hope you're ready for that burden Verity, it's not easy to live with."
"I know that dad….I've had to live with it for the last two years."
Alden Devaire-13(D9F)
I don't think I'm very good at this whole 'making friends by being yourself' thing that Kimma is trying to get me to do. I mean it's a refreshing change not to have to act like someone whose only goal in life is to make it through the day so she can party the night away like I was expected to be back home but I'm not sure I make all that convincing a 'normal girl' either.
To make matters worse the only person I've been able to even remotely connect with has been my district partner Jamie and while he seems like a very nice boy I just can't get over the fact that whenever we're talking he's carrying on a separate conversation with his 'sister' that always seems to spill over into ours. That's why I had to turn down his offer to join the alliance he's forming with the girl from Seven who I think he referred to as Sequoia and the super sweet little girl from Ten Fern. I mean sure being in an alliance would be an extremely helpful thing especially considering the fact that I'm even more clueless and unprepared then tributes from Nine normally are but none of them really seem like they'd give me a real boost over where I would be if I didn't join the alliance. I might even be better off not in that particular alliance given Jamie's extravagant nature and the less than impressive image the girls project, even by this year's skewed standard all three of them practically scream bloodbath.
I push the thoughts and my worries from my mind as the life comes to a smooth stop and Jamie and I slip out with maybe half a dozen other tributes and quickly make our way down the hall under the ever watchful gaze of a hundred and three previous victors that line the wall. Part of me in unnerved by having to do this twice a day, it's not like we're all not intimidated as it is do they really need to march us past the pictures every day?
Rather than dwell under their oppressive gazes, I lower my eyes to the ground and quicken my pace and slip into the training center maybe ten or so steps ahead of the others in my group. Once the last straggler who to my complete lack of surprise is Jamie finally makes his way past the doors and into the center proper I loud clicking noise emanates throughout the room as the magnetic door locks snap into place as Tal'shia strides into the center of the room and lets out an ear-splitting whistle to draw our attention towards him.
"Ok, now that we have everyone here we can get started. Now today's compulsory exercise is fairly simple and straightforward but you'll need to pay attention to my instructions so we don't have a repeat of yesterdays accident. Now yesterday we worked on endurance and stamina so today we'll be focusing more on speed. Now we're going to do this with a little bit of a competition. In a few seconds, I'll have you split off into two groups boys on the left and girls on the right. We'll start with the girls, now I'm sure all of you can see Antonius down at the far end of the training center, when I say go the girls will take off in a race down to him, whoever gets to him first is done and may begin individual training while the eleven losers will wait for the boys to join them at the far end before racing back to me, again the winner is done while the losers will keep competing until we have the slowest girl and the slowest boy remaining. After that the last two will race against each other in a final chance to save a little face and not be titled slowest tribute. Do I have any questions?"
Everyone just stands there as his eyes pass over each of us in turn before he decides we either all understand or we don't but none of us are going to ask for clarification so he simply holds out his hands and after a few seconds of uncertainty all of us start to move to the respective side of the room our gender indicates we should go towards though that doesn't stop a few tributes from ending up on the wrong side only to be laughed at until they manage to make their way over to the correct one.
"Ok ladies as you can see each of your lanes is numbered one through twelve and you have a fairly decent amount of room to run. Under no circumstances are you allowed to cross the line into someone else's lane, cheating will not be tolerated and will result in you being required to run in all the races regardless of where you finish. Now on the far end, the line will record who crossed over first by lighting the number on the board in green, this is to eliminate any possibility of conflict over the winner. Now on three, your first heat will begin. One….Two….THREE!"
I take off at a sprint before he finishes the word but even so I'm still at best in the middle of the pack as the girls from One and Two sprint out to what appears to be an insurmountable lead. I do my best to catch up but by the halfway point it's apparent that I have no chance of doing so, knowing this and the fact that where I place here isn't as big a concern as winning a race in the early stages I slow down and attempt to catch my breath as the runners towards the back of the pack start to catch up while the frontrunners quickly pull away.
I reach the finish line ahead of at least five other tributes as the girl from One is quietly led away from the area and in the general direction of the combat stations. I try to keep her in my sight but she slips around a corner and I'm prevented from reacquiring her by a pair of trainers who gently heard me back towards the other girls.
We're given a chance to get water and stretch out a bit as the boys start their first race and just like you'd expect it's another career tribute who wins their race as the boy from Four finishes almost thirty seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. After all of them finally finish it's our turn to go again and they have us quickly line back up while the boys take our place on the sidelines. This time I manage to get off to a much better start but I still wind up finishing a very distant third behind the girl from Four and the girl from Two who wins with relative easy this time around. Again we're given a chance to recover while the boys run their next race, which to my amazement is won quite handily by the boy from Ten who simply shrugs off his impressive performance before quietly slipping away into the eerie silence of the training floor.
It takes me another three races to finally come out on top as the girl from Four easily wins the third one while the girl from Seven surprises everyone and surges to an easy win in the fourth but coming out as the fifth-fastest girl overall is good enough for me. After taking a few minutes to recover and watching the boys catch up with us and the girl from Three eek out a win over the girl from Twelve I finally head out to the training floor and quickly make my way towards the weapon training area as it's the one area I avoided yesterday and I figure if I want to avoid embarrassing myself trying to learn how to fight this is the time to do it.
By the time I find my way through the maze-like layout of stations to the combat ones I find the girl from Two off in a corner throwing darts and moving holo targets while the girls from One and Four are working on sword techniques with trainers though it looks like they're trying to keep as much distance between themselves as possible given the limited space. I decide to mentally file this little morsel for discussion with Kimma later and move towards the weapon rack in the far corner where a mountain of a man with biceps bigger than my head stands polishing the blade of a massive great sword.
"You know which weapon you want or are you just browsing girl?"
"Are you talking to me?"
"You see any other girls looking at the weapons?"
"Well, not really….No, I'm the only one."
"Then I'm talking to you. So do you know what you want to use or do you need a little help?"
"I….I guess I need a little help. I've never really thought about using a weapon so I'm not sure where to even start with picking one."
"Well that's what I'm here for, so what kind of tools and the like do you have experience with?"
"I've used a kama to harvest crops back home in Nine, but I'm not sure if that's really helpful or not."
"Actually, it's incredibly helpful, we have kama's and a boat load of other oriental inspired weapons. Some tributes, especially those from outer districts adapt to them easier than they do to traditional weapons like swords because they don't have years of exposure to the weapon and its general uses from previous games."
He disappears around the back side of the weapon rack and returns with four perfectly polished and gleaming kama's. He hands two of them to me before motioning for me to follow him out onto the floor and setting one of the weapons on the floor before dropping down into a crouch and signaling for me to do the same.
"First off I guess we should start with names, I'm Achilles and I'm going to need you to listen very closely while we go over this."
"I'm Alden and I'm not sure this is really all that hard to use. I mean I've been using it to harvest crops back home for almost five years."
"It's fairly straight forward when you're using it as a tool, but as a weapon, it's a whole different animal. I've seen experiences fighters drive the tips into their own thighs because they didn't take the weapon seriously enough and I'd hate to see the same thing happen to you in the arena. Now I only teach the use of this weapon one way and that's my way, I'd love to teach you but if you'd rather go it alone….."
"No that's um….That's not necessary. We'll go at your speed and on your schedule."
"Perfect, now the first thing to remember with this or any other weapon is that your grip determines everything from your strike power to your style…."
Aldrin Derino-13(D6M)
I can't believe I let that little pipsqueak from Ten beat me in the second race. I was a good ten feet ahead of him entering the home stretch and I didn't think for a second my win was ever in doubt, until he streaked past me and embarrassed me in front of all the trainers and game makers that is. I guess this means I'll just have to work harder to impress everyone between now and the start of the games not that I didn't plan on doing that anyway but now it's much more impactful that I do and I think I know just where to start.
I make my way towards the combat stations where the girls from Two and Four are currently returning their respective weapons to the trainers while the girl from One spars with a trainer and the girl from Nine listen intently to the instructions of another. Normally I'd be curious as to what exactly that weakling from Nine could hope to learn about combat but my interest today lie elsewhere and my targets are currently trying to lose me in a mass of people as the slowest tributes look like they've finished running and everyone finally starts to migrate out onto the training room floor. Luckily I manage to catch site of the Two girls reddish hued hair through the mess of heads and limbs and follow it off into a corner where the boys from their districts listen with varying degrees of interest as the shelter building trainer attempts to explain how to build a lean-to without the advantage of a wall, or at least that's what it looks like from here.
"Remind me again why we need to worry about shelter? I mean it's not like we won't end up setting up camp in the cornucopia anyway."
"You're doing it Lachlan because I'm your district partner and I decided this is what we're learning first today. Also, what if the cornucopia isn't a stable shelter? It was only two years ago that it was a theme park ride for crying out loud."
"Come on Iona what are the odds it'll be like that again so soon? They go out of their way to not recycle arena climates that often I'm sure they'll do the same with the cornucopia."
"She has a point, and it never hurts to be well rounded before we go in."
"Ok are you sure you're a guy Alex? Because every guy I've ever met back in Four drilled one thing into my brain with respect to the games, train to kill. Do it first, do it last, do it right. How does learning how to make a lean-to help any of us eliminate the competition and win the games?"
Well it looks like the boy from Four is the leader of this little alliance, and what's more, it sounds like he's a man of action too. This is perfect for me, I mean this alliance was all but set up to have me in it, first they kick the weakling from One to the curb and his partner follows him out of some sort of misguided honor, second the leader of the alliance wants his allies to be more action oriented as opposed to sitting around and learning useless survival skills. It's almost like he's trying to tailor the alliance to my strengths in hopes that I'll offer them my services, it's perfect. All I have to do now is show them just how useful and ally I can be, I just hope I don't embarrass myself in the process.
"If the four of you don't mind an outside opinion I think I might be able to help."
The four of them turn towards me as I carefully make my way towards them while the trainer throws his arms up and stops off in defeat. The boy from Four has a coy smile on his face as his eyes dart between his allies before he finally steps forward and inclines his head in a show of what I'm pretty sure is mock appreciation.
"Well why don't you enlighten us my friend? I'm sure we're all dying to hear what powerful insight you must have on the subject. After all District Six is known for its sturdy buildings and it's master carpenter tributes."
I can feel the surge of color rushing to my cheeks as I attempt to back away but the girl from Two steps around the side of the boy from Four and holds up her hand for me to stop before turning towards him and laying into him with a rather antagonized tone.
"If you don't want to listen to him just say so and let that be the end of it, there's absolutely no reason to be an ass about it, though."
"You never let me have any fun Antonia."
"Because your idea of fun is only fun for you. Now do you want to hear what he has to say or not?"
"Fine I guess it wouldn't hurt to hear him out. So go ahead and wow us with your observation….What ever your name is."
"My name is Aldrin and I just wanted to give you….."
"We don't care what you were hoping to do for us Alan, all we care about is what you can help us with."
"It's still Aldrin."
"Whatever….."
Man, this guy is a bigger ass than I am, I'm not sure then two of us are going to be able to work together without annoying the hell out of everyone else or tearing each others throats out in anger. Then again I still have to wow my way into the alliance for that to be a problem so I don't have to worry about that, not yet at least.
"Well back in Six I learned how to construct field coverings for vehicles that broke down away from the garages. We used a modified version of the lean-to that didn't rely on the presence of tall walls or the like to cover ourselves while we worked. If you'd like I can show you the basic setup in just a few minutes."
"I'm going to stop you right there Albert. I don't think we really need help with this kind of stuff, especially not from someone like you."
"What do you mean someone like me?"
"Man you outer district kids really are dumb aren't you? I mean you're not likely to survive very long in the arena and I highly doubt anything you have to teach us would be useful."
"I could beat your smug face in, would that be 'useful' enough for you."
"Watch yourself, you're dangerously close to backing yourself into a rather nasty corner kid."
"I'm not backing down."
He leans back and has a quiet conversation with his district partner and the boy from Two while the girl alternates her gaze between him and me with a look of pure amusement on her face. Obviously, he's going out of his way to avoid speaking loud enough for me to hear but by the look of disgust on his district partners face I can tell she's not exactly keen on doing whatever it is he's so sure is a worth doing.
"Ok then how about a little wager? Since we're not allowed to fight until we get to the arena we'll have to settle for letting the holos' take the beating. You pick the weapon and difficulty and whoever scores the highest in two minutes wins. If it's you we'll consider letting you into our alliance which is what I'm guessing your whole offer to help and this tough guy act is aimed at."
"What if I lose?"
"When you lose I'm not going to do anything to you. I'm pretty sure forcing you to live with the shame of not being able to back up your big mouth for the rest of your life will be compensation enough. So do we have a deal?"
"Deal…."
Lachlan Melbourne-13(D4M)
I can't believe that little twerp beat me, after how high I ran up the score on him he still managed to eek out a three point win with a ridiculously lucky throw right at the end. Maybe it's my fault for letting him pick the weapon instead of making him use one that I'm good with. Yet even with the disadvantage of having to use a knife instead of a spear or sword he still only beat me with a miracle at the end, I guess I should take that as a small moral victory.
"So now that Lachlan has been thoroughly shown his place where does everyone come down on the whole Aldrin joining the careers thing?"
I should have known Antonia wouldn't let that slide, not that I didn't fully intend to keep my word and give him joining us due consideration. I was just hoping to have more time to work on convincing Alex and Iona to vote no with me. I mean we don't need a smart mouth punk like Aldrin in our alliance, the fact that he managed to best me in one silly little competition doesn't mean he's qualified to join such a prestigious alliance anyway.
"I think we should do it and get it out of the way before lunch. Antonia and I didn't get a chance to eat yesterday because we of how long it took us to decide what to do with District One."
"That's your fault Iona, Alex and I had plenty of time to eat and I spent at least half the time trying to explain our decision to and recruit Audrie."
"Regardless I think this is something we should settle quickly, it's not like this should be all that hard a call to make anyway."
"I agree so unless you boys have any objections I say we take care of this now. So Alex what do you think?"
"Well he was pretty impressive with the knives, and he seems to know a lot more about shelter building and survival skills than any of us seem to."
"Good point, Iona?"
"Well he's certainly confident and not afraid to back up what he says. I know those were two of the sticking points when it came to including Topaz in the alliance so we wouldn't have to worry about him embarrassing the alliance or anything like that."
"Appearance can be just as important as talent, and seeing as how he has both it's definitely a good combination. Ok Lachlan what do you think."
Ok, I just have to make a strong case without making it look personal, how hard can it be to convince these guys that I'm right? Odds are I won't have much trouble with Alex as I'm pretty sure he'll vote my way if I make it clear that I think we have to keep the alliance at a controllable number like four, being the weakest among us he's like to understand that's a direct threat to his place in the alliance. I know for a fact I'm not going to sell Antonia on my side but I think I might be able to play Iona with the potential threat of dissolving the alliance altogether. For whatever reason she seems to be intent on keeping me relatively happy so I should be able to sell her on the no vote.
"Lachlan do you have something to contribute or not?"
Magic time…..
"I don't think he's worth the trouble to be honest."
"Of course you don't, care to explain why?"
"Well for starters all we know about him is he talks a big game and knows how to handle a knife with some confidence, but what else does he bring to the table? Realistically it seems like he needs us more than we need him and while he might have more talent than some people currently in the alliance I'm still not sold on expansion as being a good bet. Last year the alliance let the boy from Six in and he drove a massive wedge between everyone, do we really want to risk that kind of confrontation happened to us too? I think overall we're better at keeping the alliance at four, and those four should be people we know we can work with and trust and that's the four of us. We don't need Aldrin mucking up the good thing we have going here."
"Ok that's Lachlan's opinion, anyone else have anything to add before we vote?"
Antonia looks around the circle and when no one steps forward or speaks up she shrugs her shoulders and makes her way over to a nearby table where Aldrin sits patiently waiting to hear the results of our discussion.
"Ok just Aldrin is clear on the rules this vote is a yes or no vote. Each of us will cast a vote and if the decision has a majority it stands either way. If we tie can we agree to let him train with us for the rest of the day and revisit the issue tomorrow?"
Alex and Iona nod in agreement and I'm forced to do the same least I look like I'm making this personal, I mean it is but i don't want it to look obvious that it is. I have to keep up the image of fairness for this little twerp so after we kick him to the curb he can't try and use this to kick me out of my alliance or steal away my allies, I've worked too hard to let that happen.
"Ok I'll vote first and I vote yes….Lachlan?"
"No."
"That's one yes and one no, Alex?"
"I guess….I vote no too."
Got him, one down one to go. I just hope Iona really is as easy to play as she seems to be so far.
"Ok that's two no and one yes, Iona you're the deciding vote. Yes or no?"
Come on Iona make me proud, prove you're just as easy to manipulate as Alex is and drive home the point that this is Lachlan's career alliance. Send this wannabe career home with his tail between his legs and a bruise on his ego to match the one he laid on me in the simulator.
"Everyone made excellent points about why he'd be a good addition, and Lachlan made some good ones about why we should be cautious. In the end the games are dangerous enough with enough unknowns that we'd be foolish to add more ourselves. I'm sorry Aldrin but I have vote with Lachlan and Alex, I vote no."
YES! HE IS OUTTA HERE! So long Aldrin, I'd like to say I'll miss you but I'd hate to be made a liar over something like that. Man it's a wonderful feeling to know just how impactful and powerful I am when it comes to my allies, I can't wait to see just how far I can push this in the arena.
"Ok, that's three no and one yes. I'm sorry Aldrin but the votes just weren't there, good luck finding other allies and may the odds be ever in your favor."
"Well thanks for giving me a shot and for not letting me twist in the wind on the decision."
He shakes everyone hand in turn but when he delivers mine I can almost feel the cold rage in his eyes as he glares through me and up at the scoreboard from our competition that still flashes with our scores. As he spins around and leaves I can almost feel the seething rage seeping out of him and saturating the air around us, add in the disgusted look on Antonia's face and you could almost cut the tension with a knife, but in the end it doesn't really matter. Aldrin didn't get in and Antonia can be as mad at me as she wants because we both know she's not going anywhere, the only alliance close to as good as ours is a non-starter for her because of Topaz so regardless of how she feels she's stuck with us. At least until her usefulness runs out, and if I have anything to say about it her's will be the first to run out. After all what's the point of keeping the biggest threat to my inevitable victory this close if I don't take her out of the game before she ever has a fighting chance to become said threat?
A/N: Well here we have the first part of Training Day 2 and I decided to take a little peek at how the career mentors are dealing with the change to their tributes before diving into the nitty gritty of training. I hope everyone is ok with that :)
So like before I'm not going to ask questions until we cover the second part but I am curious as to which mentors you'd like to see get a POV at the end of the next chapter so I'll be putting a poll up n my profile so you guys can vote on it :)
Other than that please review and let me know what you think and I'll be looking forward to seeing all of you around Wednesday or Thursday for the next update :D
