Ruben Ashven, District Ten
"Can you be quiet for five seconds?" Ruben's mentor Kaenas growled. He was always a little bit short tempered, but this morning he was being particularly cross. Ruben suspected that the man was hungover. Which was unfortunate, but he could roll with that. At least his mentor had shown up at all. Today was the first day of training, but he had asked Kaenas if perhaps they could get up in the morning and get a head start. Ruben had always been an early riser. When you worked with cattle like he did, there wasn't really an option. So he decided it would be best to use this to his advantage.
"I'm trying." he said, "But I'm not very good at it."
Kaenas wrote that down in a notebook he had brought, before putting it down and taking a drink out of a comically large water bottle. "Stealth isn't your strong point. Good to know. You're that herding prodigy everyone in ten talks about though, right?"
Ruben nodded. "I don't mean to brag, but I'm probably the best cattle herder my age."
"I saw you used a lasso during the chariots. How good are you?"
Ruben was confused. His mentor had asked him to be quiet, but now was asking him questions. And he had asked for training, not an interview. Not having something to do was already eating at him. He had thought he would train for combat or something, not have a question and answer session.
"How about I just show you?" He said, He grabbed the lasso that his stylist had let him keep from last night and got it swinging. He didn't try to do any fancy tricks this time. That was mostly for show, after all. Ruben wanted to prove to Kaenas that he was a contender, that he wasn't a waste of time like Carlotta seemed to think he was.
Kaenas put down the water bottle in order to write down more notes and Ruben took that as a moment of opportunity. He launched his lasso, which landed neatly around the object. With a tug, the water bottle came flying towards him and Ruben caught it with one hand. Feeling a little triumphant, he opened it and took a sip.
That caused Kaenas to put down the notebook. Ruben smiled a bit as his mentor stood up and walked towards him. The older man took his water bottle back, then reached out with a large hand and pushed Ruben. He went down instantly.
"Not great in close quarters though." Kaenas said, drinking some more water and returning to his seat.
"Well sure, but I'm fast and I can dodge well." Ruben protested, "I'm not a waste of time. You'll see. Don't give up on me."
Kaenas raised his eyebrow, "What makes you think I would?"
Ruben cursed for a moment. That was something he should have kept to himself, "I saw your games. You're strong. Which makes sense, you're a blacksmith. And Carlotta works at a butchery."
"So you're concerned that I am going to play favorites because she's strong and you're not."
"Also she's psychotic, which I imagine is an advantage when trying to kill people." He said, then regretted it. His already low filter was particularly bad today.
"Carlotta's not my tribute. You are." Kaenas said, "And If I thought you were a waste I wouldn't be writing anything down. But I can't help you if I don't know what your strengths and weaknesses are."
Ruben could feel some tension leaving his body as his mentor said that. "So you don't find me annoying?"
"Oh I find you annoying." He said, "And exhausting. But I'm annoyed and exhausted by most people. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. It doesn't even mean I don't like you."
Ruben couldn't help it. He rushed forward and hugged Kaenas. "Thank you. But I mean it, I won't let you down."
"I'm glad. But please let go of me."
Seaward Waters, District Four
The victors in District Four had told Seaward that the training center was a very popular site for investors, and therefore was constantly being updated. However, even knowing this he was shocked at just how advanced the place was. When they had arrived, the tributes were all fitted with skin tight white suits with multiple tiny sensors embedded into them. They were informed that the sensors would be able to pick up their physical capabilities as they trained, giving information to the gamemakers. It also was programmed to emit a forcefield if anyone attempted to initiate a fight with another tribute.
The survival stations all had digital guides complete with video demonstrations and a link with the tribute suits to help give feedback, and there were three holohalls for immersive combat training: melee, ranged, and hand to hand. All three had an obstacle course function.
Seaward had spent most of his life in and out of training centers, but had never seen something as thorough and advanced as this building. It was a shame that he was only going to be here for a week. He could imagine himself easily staying here for months.
He was currently in the ranged holohall, waiting for the girl from Eleven to be done with her routine. She had chosen a basic program and was doing rather average at it, but he noticed the way she casually brought the bowstring back and held it without a second thought. Her act may have fooled most people, but Seaward knew his ranged weapons. He was willing to bet this girl did too, and was saving just how much she knew for the gamemakers.
He looked over to his right, where the boy from six was waiting for his turn as well. He held on to a large recurve bow that was almost as big as he was.
"Are you going to use yourself as an arrow?" He joked. The boy didn't speak, merely looked away and gazed intently on the floor.
"You know you don't have to be a dick, Four." The girl from Eleven said, coming up to the two of them as her training routine finished.
"Take it easy, Katniss Everdeen, I was only joking."
"We're about to go into the games in a week." She snapped at him, her gaze cold and humorless, "This is hardly the time for jokes."
Seaward held his hands up in surrender, though he imagined even that was too goofy for her. He resented that she thought he didn't take the games seriously. Of course he did, he had been preparing for them for years. But he didn't know how to do something seriously. Whenever he was even a little nervous the jokes just came out.
"Have you considered using a crossbow?" The girl from eleven had decided to ignore Seaward and instead focused on the young boy next to him, "Most of them have winches, so you can focus less on the strength aspect and more on actually aiming."
"My district partner's mentor won the games with a crossbow." He answered.
"You should ask her for pointers. I'm sure she wouldn't mind."
The boy nodded, then scampered off to find a crossbow to practice with. The girl gave Seaward one last scowl, but he paid her no mind. It was time for him to use the holohall.
He was proficient with both bows and crossbows, but had chosen to use a shortbow for this particular exercise. He chose a particularly difficult routine, with maximum enemies, then waited as the holograms began to hum to life.
Suddenly, he was in the middle of a forest with a cornucopia in front of him. Twenty four tributes were all around him, and unlike what would happen in an actual games, they were all armed.
Seaward had done this so many times it felt as familiar to him as brushing his teeth. He reached into his quiver and launched arrow after arrow. Three enemies down. Nine. Fifteen. Finally, all twenty four were incapacitated. Seaward turned to see both the girl from eleven and the boy from six looking at him with shock in their eyes.
"So who's joking now?" he said with a smirk, then bowed dramatically.
The girl from eleven shot an arrow at him but the force field activated in time.
Arachne Weber, District Eight
"You've almost got it." The smiling woman on the instructional video said. Arachne was pretty sure that she did not in fact almost have it, but found the words reassuring nonetheless. She was not much of a fighter, and had the feeling that the combat training simulations wouldn't actually help her with that. So she had decided that the survival stations were her best bet. She was small and moderately fast. It was possible she could just wait people out. Unlikely, but possible.
This was what led her to the water purifying station, where an almost too friendly woman was showing her how to create a water completely out of natural materials. Arachne wasn't counting on having a lot of sponsors. Her mentor and entire prep team had tried to encourage her to be more assertive so that people would take more interest in her, but it felt entirely too uncomfortable for her. Particularly up against Lucien, who seemed to attract the attention of everyone around him with little effort. So she would be alone most likely, though that was how she liked things.
Unfortunately, making a filter was harder than it sounded. She had to poke holes in places and layer sand and charcoal in the correct order. Not to mention she had to get charcoal in the first place. It took longer than Arachne liked to admit to realize that she could get charcoal from burning a fire. But she hadn't actually done that station yet. It was rather depressing how hard just staying alive was.
"You're smart, doing this station first." She turned to see the girl from ten looking over at her. Carlotta, Arachne seemed to remember her name was, "There was a drought in ten a few years back. Dehydration hits everyone the same. And believe me it's not pretty."
The girl sat down next to her, and Arachne hid her face in her scarf. This didn't seem to deter Carlotta at all.
"Who made that?" She asked.
"Uh. I did." Arachne responded, "I learned a few years ago. Sometimes I sell them, though Mrs. Owl takes most of the profits."
"Mrs. Owl?"
"She owns the community home I live in."
Some sort of change came over Carlotta. When she had first sat next to Arachne she had been too kind, too sweet, too charming. Arachne had known too many people like that, knew that there was always poison in whatever honeyed words they said. But once Arachne mentioned a community home, her smile fell and her tone became far less sweet.
"I grew up in a community home too." She said, "They always have a habit of wringing everything you have, don't they?"
Arachne was shocked by the hate in the girl's voice, as well as how genuine she was being. She would be far too scared to say such a thing about her caretaker, but it was true. Mrs. Owl had put her to work the very second she could, working at factories or selling her scarves. Though where that money went, Arachne didn't know. She mostly ate tesserae grain and slept in a cold room with five other girls.
"Well. They are raising us. I guess they should get something." Arachne said.
Carlotta shook her head, her eyes narrowing, "They keep you barely alive and suffering, leeching off your talents. That's not worth any credit. What's your name?"
"Arachne."
"Let me tell you something, Arachne. There are good people in the world, presumably. Nice hopes, loving people, relationships that last. But those kinds of people don't give people like us the time of day. Don't give people the benefit of the doubt. They'll just end up hurting you."
Arachne felt ridiculous for being moved by Carlotta's words. They were harsh and they were cynical. But they were also the closest thing to kindness that anyone had shown her in a long time.
Her parents had died in a factory fire when Arachne was but an infant. In many ways she was lucky that someone had found her and bothered to send her to a community home at all. Mrs. Owl and the other children were the closest thing she had to a family. And she couldn't say that any of them particularly acted like it. Mrs. Owl was strict and cruel. Arachne suspected she was jealous of the children for something, but she didn't know exactly what. Often, the other boys and girls would learn from her and be cruel to each other in turn. To survive, Arachne had kept to herself. She lived like a stranger in her own home, barely talking. Barely getting any advice from anyone, harsh or otherwise. Carlotta had bothered to care, if only a small bit. Even if she died in the games, she would remember that.
"Thank you." she said.
"What did I just say?" Carlotta snapped, then got up with alarming swiftness and stormed off.
AN: And we are into the second PoVs! Everyone is going to get two sections devoted to them before we kick things off, just so that everyone gets some time. I am not going to linger too much on training, but I am going to try and touch on the alliances that form and any other drama that may arise. The games are getting closer, are you excited? I'm excited.