Carameuse Heloise, 48
Capitol Citizen

She doesn't like the look of her suspects.

The six men and women, one of whom must be Fiammetta's stalker, hang around the train car where they've been sequestered. A woman with long green hair looks over at Carameuse, a glint in her eyes, then turns back to the bar where the bartender is whipping up yet another drink for the guests. Carameuse decided herself to put them in this car - maybe the threat of being discovered and the promise of fine liquor will loosen their tongues. There are other reasons, of course, but for now it's best to keep them in here. She hopes it is.

She'll find out soon enough, at least.

Snow cakes the windows of the car in clumps of white, some starting to slide off as they melt in the warm sun. They leave wet, blurry streaks on the side of the windows, smearing the glass and preventing its inhabitants from getting a good look outside. They're all caged inside of this car, with only Carameuse to watch them - barring the dozen-odd peacekeepers waiting outside the car just in case.

"Well, well, well," one of the men sneers. He's got golden eyes and golden hair that seems to shimmer, his nails manicured in shades of blue and with a suit that hides how thin his matchstick neck reveals him to be. "Looks like one of us is wanted for murder. That's what we're here for, correct?"

Carameuse nods, her eyes revealing nothing to the suspects. She takes out a photograph and displays it to the six, still watching them with a guarded gaze. "None of you have a proper alibi for the death of this young man - all of you have a motive for murder. But why an avox? What would have an avox done to deserve such a death?" She gestures to the chalk outline where the body of the avox had been found, a ruddy streak of blood splashed against the wallpaper.

The woman with green hair pales.

"A motive for what?" a man clad in an expertly tailored black suit and with oddly pointed ears barks, his eyes narrowing. Everything about him looks like some strange mix between a rottweiler and an elf to Carameuse - bulky yet lithe, pointed yet gruff, sturdy and nimble. "My dear, I am a gamemaker - I have no reason to murder. I don't know about these others, but I suspect one of them is the one you're looking for."

The others start shouting in protest at the man, one older man looking ready to punch him as he steps closer. Carameuse coughs, and the group falls into ashamed silence.

At least they didn't fully resort to physical violence.

Yet.

It's going to be a long day.

Arisa Fetch, 14
District Twelve Female

"Welcome one, welcome all! I'm glad to introduce you to the training centre, where you'll be spending your time over the next three days. I'm a bit off-topic, but I hope you enjoy your time here. You'll need it." The instructor that's in charge of them all pauses for dramatic effect, and Arisa stifles a yawn. She isn't very worried about the training - no, it takes a lot to panic her. She'll bide her time, learning a few skills and figuring out what to do here.

No, she'll take her time here.

"Now, you'd all do well to pay attention to what the instructors have to say to you - it might very well save your life. None of you will know what the arena will look like until you enter it, but you will know one thing - it's likely to kill you if you don't know how to properly use the survival skills that we teach here. That's why we have a training centre. Even if you think it's unnecessary to do so, it would be a smart choice to learn a few new skills. Who knows, it might just save your life!" The instructor chuckles at his own joke, then pretends to cough twice to cover the uncomfortable silence that follows. "Well, remember to not fight with one another, follow the rules, and to learn what you can. You're free to go."

He steps aside, and the tributes slowly walk towards the different stations around the centre. Some make a beeline for the fire making station, eager to keep themselves warm on the colder nights in the arena, but Arisa heads to the trapping station. She'd like to get to a spot that not many will go to - she'd rather stay away from the bigger tributes.

It wouldn't do to be noticed by them today.

The careers all head towards the weapons stations, eager to show themselves off to the rest of the tributes, and Arisa settles in for the talk from the instructor that she's chosen for the morning. The woman seems to like her job well enough, demonstrating how to tie quick and sturdy knots to catch prey inside of the arena. After a few attempts, Arisa's able to do the same - testing the noose by poking a finger inside and pulling at her handiwork. To her delight, the snare tightens around her finger.

She might be able to do this in the arena - all she needs is some rope.

As she heads to a small rope-making session, right next to a knot-tying station that the boy from Three is sitting at while tying fancy loops that he strings around the amused instructor, the girl from Six bumps into her. Arisa stumbles, yet manages to regain her balance quickly. "Ah, careful!"

"Oh - I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean it," the girl hastily apologizes. "I should have been more careful, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Arisa replies. It's a bit amusing to listen to the girl from Six apologize profusely for such a small thing - it's kind of nice, actually. It's nice to know that someone's sorry for what they do. "I'm Arisa, by the way. You are?"

"Armani DeCormick is my name!" the girl replies, giving her a smile. Arisa notes her plainness - her hair's muddy brown and straight, with grey-blue eyes peering out from her bangs. There's nothing about the girl that jumps out at her - she likes that. "I talk a lot, just so you know. My sibling says that I talk too much, but I don't think that's really the issue - it's that there's too much to discuss! How am I supposed to express everything if I don't have the time?"

Arisa laughs, settling down at the rope-making station with her legs crossed. "I suppose you're right - would you like to help me with this? I'd like to have… well, I'd like company."

"Sure!" And the girls sit down to listen to the instructor, Armani piping in with insights of her own every few sentences. It's loud, and rowdy, and they barely get anything done until the instructor teaches Armani a skill that takes too much concentration to properly converse with Arisa, but Arisa likes it.

Maybe, just maybe, it's the start of a friendship here.

She'd like that.

Duchess Coruscate, 16
District One Male

He adjusts his uniform, feeling uncomfortable in the tight fabric. He doesn't like being in this - he'd rather have something bright and exciting and new on, but it's what all of the tributes are supposed to wear in the training centre if they want to meet the other tributes - well, learn skills, but he's here to meet the careers.

He already has all of the skills he needs, after all.

"Hey, all! Here, let's head to a station so we don't seem too awkward. We have to stick together, right?" Tourmaline is in her element now as she gathers the careers together, flashing warm smiles to the pack and welcoming in the boy from Four. The girl from Four isn't here - interesting, he thinks. After all, she's volunteered. What could have happened to her?

Perhaps Four doesn't quite have the quality that they're supposed to have this year. Then again, do they ever?

"Hey! I'm Aeson - this is Enyo, my district partner although you knew that, didn't you?" The boy from Two laughs, and Duchess hides a smile. Perhaps he'll enjoy those who decided to show up.

"Good to meet you, Aeson! This is Duchess - my district partner - and I suppose you are… Fraser?" Tourmaline gestures to the boy from Four, and he looks up with a grin. "Good to meet you all! I suppose Shelby didn't show, did she now?"

"Shelby's not the type to enter the pack," Fraser apologizes. "It's a long story. But it's good to meet everyone!" Duchess notes that he'll be the dumb muscle of the alliance - Aeson seems too wary to take that position. It's always good to have one, though, so he waves to Fraser and gives him a pat on the back.

Oh, he'll be glad for the formalities to be over with so they can actually discuss what they'll be doing.

"I'm Enyo - good to meet all. Are we going to train or?" The girl from Two looks curiously at the rest of the pack, and Duchess sees how much she's straining to keep herself looking as normal as possible. She's trying hard to fit in - what's she hiding?

"I mean, we could - or we could discuss a few things," Tourmaline replies. "We should start making plans for what we're doing in the Games, if we want to recruit any outliers, who we'll target. We need to plan."

"Might as well head to a survival station if we're going to do that!" Duchess laughs, slipping through the pack to walk to the camouflage station. The trainer looks surprised to see a career willing to practice skills like this, but doesn't question it as Duchess sits down and takes a tray of paints. "Anyone ready to join me?"

In a few minutes, the careers are all clustered in a circle and dabbing on paints to their faces and arms. Duchess practices the skill on his arm, taking care to make smooth, delicate patterns form across his skin. He likes the design - it's relaxing to create. "Well, any first impressions on the others?"

"Shelby shouldn't be a threat," Fraser blurts out. Duchess raises an eyebrow. He's replied quickly to the question - too quickly, perhaps. "She's not very good with weapons, from what I can tell - I don't know her well, but she won't attack us. She wouldn't even know to."

"Didn't you train together? How does the Four Academy even work?" Aeson asks, slapping on green paint to his cheeks as he smears what might have been a perfectly good leaf if it wasn't for his fingers being the size of sausages. "Do y'all even have an Academy?"

"It's more - well, it's impromptu, I guess. But we train - and we're good at it," Fraser replies defensively. Tourmaline takes a moment to stretch, disrupting the conversation - and deescalating whatever tensions were beginning to form between the two. She really is quite the leader, Duchess thinks with a smile. She'll be able to calm down any fragile male egos that threaten to shatter all over the alliance - she'll probably tie them all together through sheer force to keep anyone from leaving if she has to. She's taking the Games seriously.

He's glad to have her on his side.

Emma von Hapsburg, 17
District Nine Female

It's getting close to the end of the day, and Emma takes care to hurry up the rock wall that she's climbing before the instructors can tell her to get down. She doesn't want to stop now, not when she's so close to the top.

She just wants the chance to finish.

She finds her way up easily, taking care to choose the easiest route so she doesn't get caught in a path that she can't climb her way out of, and rings a silver bell at the top of the wall before signalling to one of the trainers below to belay her down. A few thrusts against the wall later so that she doesn't mush her face into the surface, and she's climbing out of her harness so that she can leave. Ah, it's good to know that she can do this. Hopefully, it'll come in handy in the arena if she finds herself in a tight spot.

She'll just have to figure out if she can without the harness.

"Hey! Hey, you - Nine! Can I talk to you for a second?" A tall, muscular teen with green eyes and tousled brown hair - he must not brush it for it to be so knotted - rushes up to her, armed with a hesitant smile, rushes up to her. "Alright, this is going to sound stupid because we haven't met and we haven't talked and we haven't really had a chance to learn about each other or properly trust one another, let alone the fact that we're going to kill each other in the next week or something -"

"You want an alliance?" Emma asks, cutting to the actual question before he has a chance to continue speaking.

"Not any alliance - I've gotten the boys from Five and Eight, and maybe the one from Seven. We're going to form something to rival the careers - maybe even stop them in their tracks. Are you in?" The boy gives her a grin, hopeful that Emma will agree.

Truth be told, she doesn't know what she's going to answer herself.

"So… an alliance with three dudes? Have you considered inviting any of the ladies to the party?" Emma replies, cracking a grin. The boy smiles back, amused. "I honestly don't know what to think - I guess I'll have to meet you all before I make a decision. Nothing personal, I just don't want to fence myself into something so soon."

"Sure, of course! Would you like to come now? We're all by the fire making station - I'm sure we'll have time to talk," the boy says. "I'm Jackson. Emma, right?"

"Yeah, Emma. Good to meet you!"

"Good to meet you too." Emma smiles as she walks back to the small group, the three boys looking up from the pile of kindling that they're trying to coax into flame to wave to her. "Hey… so, you're the alliance?"

"Jackson's strong," the boy from Seven pipes up. "And Sasha lived on the streets for a while - didn't you, Sasha?" The small boy looks over at the wiry one from Five, who gives a curt nod before going back to flicking rocks together.

"You know, friction fires are the ones you should learn for the arena," Emma finds herself saying to the boys. "It's the one that you'll most likely have materials for - good rope, a stick, a smooth stone, and dry conditions will get you the ember that you need."

"I know how to make a friction fire!" the boy from Seven says, grinning. "I think a lot of people from Seven do - maybe Lee does, although I'm not sure. But she's cool, even though she's not in the alliance."

"I'm sure she is!" replies Emma, amused by the rag-tag group. She might be talking too much to them - she shouldn't share the knowledge that she's accumulated on the train from watching the Games and survival manuals, the small tricks to watch people that she's found while walking through Nine and pretending like she wants to live there, everything. But they're nice - and she can't help it, she'd like to be in an alliance.

She wants to have company. No one wants to be alone, right?

And if they get a bit bigger, just a bit, they might be able to keep themselves from being slaughtered by the careers.

They just might.

Next chapter! We're getting through the Capitol quickly :D

Thoughts on the alliances? Thoughts on our tributes? Thoughts on deaths? Feel free to share them in a review! I hope you're all enjoying the ride, because we only have six more chapters before the arena! I'm excited!

Enjoy. Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ