Pedro Trujillo, 16.
District 4 Male.
Pedro stepped into the stark white room, pairs of tributes scattered around the room. They all looked up as they walked in, he scanned the room for the faces he was looking for. He spotted the pairs from 1 and 2 huddled in a corner, and he nudged Charlotte, gesturing to the other Careers, as the Peacekeeper that had escorted them in started a spiel about how they could sit wherever they wanted, and that the show would begin soon. As soon as the Peacekeeper finished talking, he took off for the other Careers. He was eager to meet them, after watching their Reapings with Charlotte and their mentor Lexington. Charlotte followed him once she realized what he was doing. They approached the four others, they all turned to look as they approached.
"Hi there, I'm Amber." The girl on the left said, pushing past her District partner and holding her hand out. Pedro recognized her as being from District 1, meaning the boy she pushed past was Echo. Pedro reached his hand out, shaking hers firmly.
"I'm Pedro, from District 4," Pedro replied, shaking Ambers's hand.
"Hey, I'm Echo." the boy next to Amber said, waving his hand awkwardly.
"I'm Creed." The girl from 2 spoke up, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Hi, I'm Charlotte," Charlotte said, pushing into the circle.
"I'm Ozzie. Fuck gender, I use they-them pronouns." Ozzie said, shoving their hand towards Pedro eagerly. They were quite pretty, even by his standards with a pair of the prettiest green eyes he'd ever seen. Pedro took their hand, shaking it lightly, before guiding their hand upwards, bending slightly to press his lips to their knuckles.
"Why thank you, at least somebody around here appreciates me," Ozzie said, rolling their eyes.
"So what's the plan? Do we even have a plan yet?" Charlotte said, looking unimpressed about Pedro's grand display.
"The plan is that I'm declaring myself your leader since I'm older than you three and smarter than you two," Ozzie said, gesturing first to him, Echo and Charlotte, and then Amber and Creed. Pedro didn't know what this dude's deal was, but he knew if he wanted to stay on top of the pack, Ozzie was the way to go.
"I don't see any problem with that."
"Thank you, Peter, does anybody else have a problem with that?" Ozzie said, looking around the group. Nobody said anything.
"My name is Pedro," Pedro said. As he thought, Ozzie was a self-absorbed fuckhead.
"Oh. Sorry, I don't really care." Ozzie said with a shrug, checking their nails out, out of boredom.
"I don't see any problem with it either," Echo chipped into the conversation. Everyone knew District 1 was strong, and the fact that Echo spoke up in favour of Ozzie helped. Amber shrugged, Creed didn't move from her spot and Charlotte just looked unbothered by the whole situation.
"Okay, cool, I declare me your leader. Yay!" Ozzie said, clapping excitedly. Pedro flashed them a grin. All he had to do now was break out the charm, and charm was something he had plenty of. He was trying to worm his way into the leader of the Career packs pants in the middle of the Capitol, days before he went into the Hunger Games. That made total sense. The door across the room opened, and the last pair of tributes tumbled in, he recognized them as the pair from 3. They walked into the room, the Peacekeeper giving the same speech for the 8th time before they took two of the last open seats. As they did, a door in the nearby wall slid open, revealing a familiar-looking woman in a white dress, flanked by a pair of Peacekeepers.
"Good afternoon tributes, I'm your President, Genevive Tarro-Snow. Mentors, you know what to do. Tributes if you would follow me please." President Snow said. The mentors collected near the door, Lexington waving at them as the mentors filed out the door. All the tributes around the room were on their feet, all with varying degrees of shocked looks on their faces.
Arugula "Aru" Camworth, 14.
District 11 Female.
Aru stood, as the President had instructed. She couldn't believe she was here, standing in front of the President of Panem. As was things in the Hunger Games she figured, as she moved to follow Genevive alongside the rest of the tributes. They followed Genevive down the starkly lit concrete hallway, she was towards the front of the group, standing shoulder to shoulder with the girl from 3, and the boy from 10. She had no clue how she'd survive once they got to the Arena, everyone here was older or stronger or smarter than her. So, all she could do was try her hardest to get home. For Lucas.
"Boys go to the left, girls to the right. Find the door with your number on it, and head right on in." Genevive said, stopping and standing in the middle of the hallway, which split off into two directions. She moved to go right, the doors on either side of the hallway were numbered, even numbers on the left, odd on the right. She walked down the hall, her footsteps echoing alongside the rest of the group, eventually reaching the door with an 11 stamped onto it. There was no door handle, but the door slid open silently, sunshine pouring through the door. She stepped into the room, momentarily blinded by the bright light pouring through the excessive amount of windows set in the walls across from her.
"Hello Arugula!" A voice said it had the characteristically silly Capital accent. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness, coming into focus on a trio of figures standing before her. In the middle was a man with feather-like blue hair, his skin dyed a strange shade of neon yellow as if he was a walking human highlighter. Flanking him on the left and right were a pair of slim, shorter women, identical in every way except for their colour schemes, which were purple and orange respectively, everything they were wearing was the same colour head to toe, from their hair to their eyes all the way down to their shoes.
"Hello Arugula, I'm Simonas, one of your prep team members!" The highlighter man, Simonas, said, extending his hand to her excitedly. She took it, shaking it warily. How could you possibly trust such a neon yellow man? It was freakishly unnatural.
"I'm Kira!" The orange twin said,
"And I'm Kiren!" The purple one continued. They both grinned widely, flashing thumbs up at her.
"I'm Arugula, but you can call me Aru," Aru said, looking between the three wild-looking people in front of her.
"Okay, Aru, if you could please put this robe on so we can begin, that would be sweet," Simonas said, holding out a fluffy white robe to her, and gesturing to a nearby wall of panels.
"Yeah, I can do that I guess," Aru replied, taking the robe from Simonas and stepping behind the nearby panels. She pulled the clothing that had been laid out for her on the train this morning off, almost feeling sad about it. It was like the train was the last connection between her and her home District. She shivered slightly as she pulled the robe on, wrapping it around her tightly, before stepping out from behind the panels, her feet slapping loudly on the cold stone floor.
"Lovely, now let's get you cleaned up," Simonas said, he and the other two prep team members were now sitting on the couch across the room. She nodded, as he crossed the room, taking her by the arm and leading her into another side door that she hadn't seen earlier, into a room filled with all sorts of intricate contraptions which she had no clue as to what they were. She figured this wouldn't be fun.
Cassian Thomas, 18.
District 8 Male.
Cassian sat in the armchair as his stylist, Sebastian, had instructed him to. He wasn't exactly sure what to think of the Capitolites that had surrounded him for the past few hours, some of them were most definitely more tolerable than others. He couldn't stand most of his prep team, they were far too inconsiderate of him for his liking, however, Sebastian he quite liked, he seemed like he knew how to talk to someone that wasn't from the Capitol with some level of respect.
"So how have you liked your experience so far?" Sebastian asked, plopping down in the chair opposite him.
"It's been pretty shit in all honesty, the only interesting thing is that the buildings here are pretty," Cassian said curtly.
"Oh, that's funny. Usually, people complain about the prep team seeing them butt naked." Sebastian said, sipping from a glass of what appeared to be wine. Great, his stylist was getting drunk and it wasn't even past 5 in the evening.
"No, that's sort of a common occurrence in my profession," Cassian replied with a wry grin. He knew that would get a rise out of Sebastian, and he was proven right when Sebastian choked on his wine, swallowing it before coughing a few times trying to play it off as if nothing had just happened.
"Oh. Okay, well anyways would you like to see your outfit?" Sebastian said, recovering enough to choke out the words.
"Sure, why not show me what you're gonna stick me in front of the entire Capitol in. It better be something good." Cassian said, raising an eyebrow as Sebastian pulled a suit bag out of seemingly nowhere (Was he keeping it behind the couch? Cassian didn't have a clue.) and unzipped the bag, pulling the patchwork mess out of the bag. It didn't look too horrible, however, it was neither skimpy nor completely ugly. He wouldn't have minded skimpy thought.
"That looks scratchy as hell," Cassian said, reaching out to take the outfit from Sebastian. Surprisingly the fabric was soft, supple underhand, but that's just how the Capitol did things.
"Go on, try it on," Sebastian said, gesturing to the panel wall nearby where he'd gotten undressed the first time which seemed like hours ago at this point. He nodded and stood from his seat, turning to walk behind the panels. He dropped the thick robe, and fumbled with the outfit, pulling it on carefully. The slim-fitting long-sleeved shirt went on first, then the fitted black pants. He then pulled on what seemed to be a patchwork raincoat over the long-sleeved shirt. It fit well and was easy enough to move in as he bent down to pull on the stupidly large rainboots provided. He stepped out from behind the flimsy panel wall.
"How do I look?" Cassian said, spreading his arms, his boots squeaking on the floor.
"Looks good kid, I've just got a few more things to add and then we'll be ready to go," Sebastian said, holding up the other items he'd mentioned. He walked over to Cassian, placing a matching patchwork rain hat on his head, adjusting it slightly.
"There, all finished, take a look," Sebastian said gesturing to the nearby floor-length mirror. He stepped in front of it, looking himself up and down. He's been put into a sort of raincoat, made of a patchwork of a bunch of different squares of fabric, his hat matching the patchwork of his coat. The rainboots, which did the outfit no favours were bright neon yellow.
"I look stupid as hell," Cassian said, turning around partially to look at his back. Sebastian shrugged, an annoyed look on his face. It was certainly better than what 8 had gotten in the past.
"Well, let's get you to your chariot then, your mentor is waiting for you just through that door," Sebastian said, gesturing to a nearby door. He took a deep breath, before making his way to the door.
Breccan Holland, 18.
District 7 Female.
Breccan stepped through the door, as instructed by her stylist. Her sheer amber-toned dress swished around her feet. It was quite the getup, long and fitted, flaring out around her feet and fastened around her waist with a woven wooden belt. The straps of the dress which sat loosely around her upper arms, and around her neck was a large necklace made from drops of amber. It was an interesting getup, certainly nothing she would wear by choice, but she didn't have much of a choice. It certainly was better than some of the past costumes she'd seen. She looked around the room as the door slid closed behind her. Contained in it was her mentor, Hera, and her District partner, Arvid. He had quite the getup on himself, some sort of metal chest plate covering his top half, his long hair spiked back and dyed bright blue and white, and some sort of runes painted onto his skin, and blue and white eyeliner surrounding his eyes. He surprisingly didn't look too bothered about the whole situation, waving at her as she walked in.
"Hey, Breccan, glad you could join us, let's get going I don't want to be the last ones to get there," Hera said, standing and gesturing to the door. Breccan nodded and followed Hera from the room, out into another confusingly bland hallway. Hera walked quickly, and Breccan and Arvid followed.
"So what the hell does your outfit even have to do with our District?" Breccan asked Arvid quietly as they walked.
"I have no fucking clue. All I caught was something about Vikings, whatever they are." Arvid replied. She shrugged, not having any clue as to what it had to do with District 7. They lapsed back into silence, the only sound the clicking of Hera's heels on the floor. Eventually, they turned off into another hallway, which contained a door.
"Just through here. I think. This place is a fucking maze." Hera grumbled, stopping in front of the door. It slid open, revealing that it was, in fact, the right door. Behind it was a large, open hanger type space, the sound of voices echoing. Hera gestured for them to follow her, which they did, walking past the other Districts chariots. The District 12 pair hadn't arrived yet, neither had the 11's, but the 10 pair had, both leaning against opposite sides of the chariot, neither looking very interested in each other nor the situation. Their mentor was seated on the floor between them, looking nervous. They continued walking, past the District 9 chariot which was also unoccupied, but the 8's wasn't, the boy appeared to be checking his reflection of the chariot. The girl was standing off to one side, tapping her foot impatiently. They continued past them, arriving finally at their chariot. It was a large, solid silver coloured thing, and it looked positively terrifying to ride.
"So how long will we have to wait?" Breccan asked, hopping up to sit on the ledge of the chariot.
"I have no clue," Hera replied with a shrug.
"Five minutes until Chariots roll out!" A voice rang out over the loudspeakers. Hera sighed, an annoyed look on her face.
"Five minutes it is," Hera grumbled. Breccan laughed, and the trio lapsed into silence once more. She watched as the pair from 4 walked by, their mentor looking like he needed another cup of coffee.
"Tributes, please get in your chariots. And do watch your step, they're quite high up." The same voice rang out again. Breccan pulled herself onto the chariot fully, followed soon by Arvid.
"Good luck you two, make sure to smile," Hera called to them from the sidelines. All she had to do was smile, how hard could that be?
Hadley Mizuki, 25.
Master of Ceremonies.
Hadley slid into her seat in the booth, looking over the street where the chariots would go by. Lining the street were crowds upon crowds of Capitol citizens. It was always quite the spectacle, and the Capitol always turned out in droves to see, anything from the Districts was interesting to the Capitolites. Her co-announcer, Quill slid into his seat, turning and giving her a thumbs up with a grin.
"Ready to go?" Hadley asked as she readied her microphone.
"Yes ma'am, are you?" Quill replied, carefully placing his headphones over his slicked-back blue hair. She followed suit, carefully placing her headphones over her styled-blonde hair.
"Chariots will be rolling out in 5. Good luck you two." The voice of one of the technicians passed through her ears as she secured the headphones. The pre-recorded opening audio of Quill's voice played out over the speakers, and the bay doors opened, the first chariot rolling out.
"Starting off strong with District 1! Look at those beautiful feathers!" Quill exclaimed. The District 1 pair were dressed as some sort of exotic birds, Amber on the left covered in blue and purple feathers. She balanced the large, wing-like cape on her back as she waved excitedly to the crowd. Her partner, Echo beside her dressed in a matching outfit, but in bright greens and yellows. He was also waving to the crowd, a large smile on his face.
"They're sure looking bright this year, eh?" Hadley said, nudging Quill with her elbow.
"Yes, they sure are. Oh, but look at District 2!" Quill said, gesturing excitedly to the District 2 pair. They were clad in all silver and black armour, silver spikes protruding from the armour in several places. Creed's armour had a special touch, it flared up in a high collar around her neck, like a triceratops. Ozzie stood with a large, smug grin on their face, waving to the crowd with more than enough enthusiasm. Next to them, Creed stood proud and stoic, occasionally nodding her gratitude towards the Capitolites surrounding her.
"District 2, strong as ever aren't they?" Hadley said, District 2 usually had solid outfits and this year was no different.
"Yes ma'am, strong as ever. Now, what is that girl from 3 doing?" Quill said, gesturing confusedly to the District 3 pair. They were both dressed in white bodysuits, with bits of silver wiring covering them, however, the most interesting thing was the fact that the girl, Selene, was perched on the front of the chariot, standing tall and waving excitedly, a large grin on her face. Her partner, Lynus was standing behind her, looking anxious about the whole situation.
"How has she not fallen off of there?" Hadley asked, watching as Selene backflipped off the ledge, landing on her feet with her arms spread wide.
"That was quite spectacular wasn't it?" Quill said.
"It was indeed!" Hadley replied, she'd never seen anybody do anything like that before, and she knew it would get the girl sponsors.
"Oh look at the 4's! Isn't her dress just gorgeous?" Quill said, pointing to the 4's. The girl, Charlotte was clad in a dress that looked like shifting sand as she moved, waving at the crowd daintily. Her District partner, Pedro was dressed as what looked like a foam starfish. Or he was, before he tore it off, leaving himself pretty much naked in front of the crowd.
"W-what did he just do?" Quill said, looking shocked.
"Dunno Quill, it was never in the rules that he had to keep the costume on the entire time," Hadley replied with a shrug, watching as Charlotte realized what was happening next to her, before cuffing Pedro over the head, gluing her eyes back to the crowd.
"Anyways, District 5 now! Look at that glow!" Quill said, gesturing to the next chariot. Revan, the boy was dressed in a large black leather jacket, spiked with glowing lightbulbs. He looked pretty bored of the whole situation, and he went to pull himself onto the ledge of the chariot, promptly falling on his face. His partner, Zen was standing next to him, looking unbothered about what he was getting up to, in a matching black dress with small lights sprinkled around, getting denser the further down the dress they went. She was making a strange face as if she wasn't sure what to do with her hands. She eventually settled on flipping off the entire crowd.
"Well, they sure seem interesting," Quill said, cringing slightly as Revan dragged himself to his feet, looking slightly dazed, Zen still flipping the crowd off.
"Yes, interesting is certainly a good way to describe them," Hadley said, nodding in agreement.
"Moving on, look at those District 6's!" Quill said. They were both dressed in jumpsuits, toolbelts fastened around their waists. Amethyst, on the right, was waving to the crowd, an annoyed look on her face. Impala on the left looked calm, collected like she was in control of the situation, smiling confidently despite the less than flattering outfits.
"District 6, looking grungy this year aren't they?" Hadley said, gesturing to the purposeful grease smudges on the faces of the tributes. Amethyst kept wiping away at the makeup, but Impala didn't seem to care.
"Yes ma'am, they are. Not a bad look for them though eh?" Quill said with a wry smile.
"No, not at all," Hadley said, it was indeed quite an improvement to some of the past District 6 outfits.
"What is going on with District 7 this year?" Quill said, gesturing to the District 7 pair. The girl, Breccan, was dressed in an amber coloured dress, it was long and sleek, and she was adorned with amber droplet jewelry. She was throwing kisses to the crowd, her face lit up with a giant smile. Her District partner, Arvid was dressed as what seemed to be a Viking, dressed in similar armour to the District 2's but this time it was completely silver, with blue accents, his hair dyed electric blue as well. He was calmly waiving to the crowd, a certain air of confidence and stoicism surrounding him.
"Well, that's cool. I have no clue what his outfit has to do with District 7, but it certainly looks cool." Hadley said. Sometimes, costumes were more meant to look cool rather than directly linked to the District, and in this case, it certainly worked, his outfit was quite eyecatching.
"I don't know either, but I like it. What is District 8 up to this year?" Quill said, pointing to the District 8 pair. They were dressed in what seemed to be patchwork raincoats, complete with patchwork rain-hats to match. Cassian, on the left, looked quite angry about the whole situation, his gaze glued to the ground. Cerdiwen, standing next to him was waiving unenthusiastically at the crowd, her face neutral.
"Those jackets look quite comfy, eh?" Hadley said they did indeed look very comfortable.
"Yes they do, I'll have to find out who designed those later. Oh, look how gorgeous District 9 is this year!" Quill said, excitedly. The pair were dressed in a woven tunic and dress alike, the outfits appeared to be made from stalks of wheat and grass. On one side of the chariot, Dustin was standing looking around like he didn't have a care in the world. Either that or he just didn't care. The girl, Amara was standing stonily, as if she was trying to contain whatever she was feeling.
"Quite beautiful outfits. They look quite flammable though, wouldn't want to be anywhere near an open flame with an outfit like that on." Hadley said it was true they looked quite flammable.
"Yes, I'd have to agree with you. District 10 has arrived, what do we think of them?" Quill replied as the District 10 pair rolled into view. They were dressed up as what appeared to be skeleton cowboys, their faces and arms painted to look like a human skeleton, tattered cowboy outfits layered over. The boy, Ardley, stood stoically, a haughty look on his face as if he was looking down on the entirety of the Capitol. His District partner, Farro, waving and smiling to the crowd, however still looking nervous.
"Skeletons? That's genius!" Hadley exclaimed, usually the District 10 kids got stuck as cows or just regular cowboys, but skeleton cowboys? Now that was new.
"I know? Who would've thought of such a rad costume! What in Panem is District 11 doing?" Quill said, pointing at the bright monstrosity that was the District 11 pair. They were clad in matching rainbow flower gradient outfits, Dyan with a suit covered in flowers, a rainbow gradient starting at his shoulders and ending at the ankles of his pants. Dyan was looking around with a great deal of wonder, waving with a great deal of excitement. His District partner, Arugula was standing next to him in a matching rainbow flower gradient dress, also waving and cheering.
"What beautiful flowers! And such a cute pair of tributes!" Hadley exclaimed the combo of their outfits and their excitement would probably land them some decent sponsors, despite their young age.
"Yes, such a gorgeous change from the usual farmer outfits! And shall we end the night with District 12?" Quill said, gesturing to the final chariot of the night. The pair were dressed in a matching black suit and one-piece jumpsuit, with specks of glowing orange and yellow embers scattered around the outfits. Eden, on the right, was smiling widely, waving to the crowd gently. Beside them was Terce, who was standing exactly still like a statue, keeping his eyes straight ahead.
"A great pair of outfits to round out the night! Look at the glow!" Hadley said, her voice very nearly going hoarse, she was excited to get the night over with so she could go home and sleep.
"Yes, quite a fine pair to round the night off on," Quill said, with a smile.
"We'll be handing it over to President Snow, for her speech," Hadley said, the TV screen in front of them switching over to Genevive on a balcony, facing the semi-circle of tributes.
"Hello, there tributes, and welcome to the Capitol. Enjoy your stay here, and as always. May the odds be ever in your favour." Genevive said with a smile, blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders. She looked like the epitome of grace, completely at ease being in front of the entire nation. The chariots rolled off to wherever the chariots went to, and the cameras cut.
Parades! Woo! And our first few tribute interactions, the Career and whatnot. Y'all know I love me some Careers. Anyways, we'll be moving onto Training now, next chapter with Arvid, Ozzie, Amara and Farro! See y'all with that soon! Signing off, -Times.