Selene Taevas, 18.
District 3 Female.
Selene pushed the button for the elevator, leaning against the wall next to it as she waited. Lynus leaned against the wall across from her, looking at her.
"So, are we gonna take Impala on?" Lynus asked, crossing his arms in front of his body.
"I don't see why we shouldn't. She's smart, I like her." Selene replied with a shrug.
"I like her too," Lynus said, nodding in agreement.
"Okay, let's take her then," Selene said with a smile. She didn't mind adding more people to the alliance, as long as they were competent, and Impala had proven herself to be competent. The elevator door slid open, and Lynus and Selene stepped in, the elevator empty except for them.
"So what's the training plan for today?" Selene asked as the elevator descended.
"Dunno, we should probably talk with Impala about it too," Lynus replied with a shrug.
"Good point dude," Selene said with a smile. The elevator soon slowed to a stop, the door gliding open. They stepped out into the large training room, looking around. The head trainer, Marcella, waved at them as they entered.
"It's the same routine as yesterday you can get started whenever you want," Marcella said, gesturing to the stations scattered around. Selene scanned the room, spotting Impala across the room at the rock climbing station. Selene beelined for her, Lynus in tow.
"Hey, Impala, come talk to us when you're finished," Selene called to the girl who was currently high above them on the rock wall. Impala looked over her shoulder, flashing them a thumbs up. She then let go of the wall, drifting to the floor due to the fact she was harnessed in. Selene watched as she struggled to unbuckle the harness, eventually unclipping it, and stepping off the large cloud-like mat, used to catch tributes if they did fall.
"So, what's up you two?" Impala asked, dusting her hands off on her pants as she made her way over to them.
"We'd like to officially welcome you to our alliance," Selene replied with a grin. Impala smiled, nodding happily.
"Oh, we also wanted to like. Make a training day plan. As in what are we going to be doing today." Lynus chimed in.
"Well, I'd like to brush up on survival skills maybe?" Impala said, Lynus nodding in agreement.
"I think I'll test my luck here for a little bit," Selene said, gesturing to the rock wall. It sure wasn't a trapeze, they didn't have those here, but it was something to get her up in the air again.
"Okay, sounds good. We'll meet up again at lunch and then talk?" Impala said. Selene nodded, and her pair of allies turned, walking off towards one of the survival stations. She turned back to the rock wall, looking to the trainer who was standing nearby, trying to seem as if she was minding her own business.
"Could you help me with this?" Selene asked, gesturing to the wall. The trainer turned to look at her, nodding.
"Yeah, of course I can. Lemme just grab a harness that would fit you." The trainer said, moving to grab a harness off the nearby rack of harnesses.
"I don't need a harness," Selene said with a grin. She knew she wouldn't fall, and even if she did, there was a mat to catch her. Besides that, she'd fallen from further heights with no mats and she was perfectly fine. It was one of those things that just came with the line of work, the risk factor and everything. But that was something she loved about her job, the adrenaline. That caused the risks to not seem so bad.
"Well, I guess if you want to, you can. Just if you fall and eat shit it's not my fault." The trainer said, waving her hands. Selene nodded and stepped onto the cushioned mat. She placed a hand on the wall and began to climb.
Echo Fellman, 16.
District 1 Male.
Echo leaned back against the wall, watching as a few of his allies sparred with trainers. Creed on the left was battling two trainers off with a sort of staff, it had two blades on either end. She easily held the two trainers at bay with seemingly no effort. Charlotte, at the next station over, was fending off a single trainer with a pair of knives, the way she fought was incredibly vicious. Echo noted not to get in the way of either of them. Creed disarmed both trainers, knocking them to the ground, and Charlotte managed to trip up her trainer, sweeping his feet out from beneath him gracefully.
"Good job ladies," Ozzie called from the sidelines, clapping lazily. One of their arms was wrapped around the shoulders of Pedro, who was grinning.
"So what's the plan for the rest of the day Ozzie?" Charlotte asked as she made her way back over to the group. Creed did too, however staying quiet. Echo had noticed that she was a very strong opposite from her District partner, being very quiet almost meek compared to Ozzie.
"Well, do I look like I'm in charge? Oh wait, I am. Go train more I guess, we'll meet back up and talk strategy at lunch." Ozzie said, chuckling slightly. Echo nodded, as did the rest of the Careers surrounding him. The group split off into smaller pairs. Ozzie and Pedro headed off towards the agility course, Creed returned to the training station she'd been at before. Amber had disappeared, he hadn't seen where she'd gone. And that left Charlotte, who was still standing nearby. He didn't exactly like how Ozzie was shaping up, keeping the Careers under their thumb, so he figured it couldn't hurt to make some friends within the Careers.
"Hey, Charlotte." Echo said, walking up to her. She was probably his best bet, since Amber didn't want anything to do with him, and Creed was Ozzie's District partner.
"What do you want?" Charlotte asked, giving a suspicious look.
"I'd just like to ask if you'd like to make a little inner Career alliance." Echo replied.
"Huh. That's not a bad idea, to be honest. I don't like how Ozzie is running the place, but Creed, Amber and Pedro go with what they say, so we're outnumbered." Charlotte said. That was, in fact, true, they were outnumbered no matter what, however, if they could play the game smart that would put them at an advantage.
"What if we brought someone else into the Careers, and get them on our side." Echo replied. Charlotte looked at him, a look of shock crossing her face momentarily.
"Are you sure? That's practically unheard of." Charlotte whispered, pulling him to the side, behind the rack of weapons nearby where nobody could see them.
"Well yeah. Obviously, nobody else would join us. So, if we bring someone in, we can get them to join us." Echo said.
"Okay, that makes sense, but who?" Charlotte said, gesturing around. There were a few tributes who seemed competent enough that weren't already in an alliance. His first choices based on what he'd seen so far would've been the girl from 3, or the boy from 7, however from what he'd seen they'd already struck up alliances with other tributes.
"How about we do some scouting, and then approach whoever we think is the best tomorrow," Charlotte said.
"That sounds like a plan. Let's do this." Echo said, smiling. Charlotte nodded, and they set out on their mission.
Creed Odinshoot, 18.
District 2 Female.
Creed shifted in her seat, eating her lunch quietly. The other Careers were talking strategy around her, or more like Ozzie was talking strategy, and Pedro was agreeing with them. She didn't like Ozzie, how could she after they back talked their mentor and her yesterday morning. She placed her fork down with a sigh, twisting her spike triceratops ring. She found herself fidgeting with it more and more, over the past few days, after Justice had gifted it to her before she'd gotten on the train.
"Yo Creed, we're heading out. Come find us when you're finished." Pedro called, while she was thinking she hadn't noticed that the rest of the Careers had cleared the table. She looked up at Pedro and nodded once before he turned and walked out, arm in arm with Ozzie. She picked her fork up, continuing to eat for a while longer, before someone approached her, standing in front of her across the table. She looked up, spotting the boy from District 11, she thought his name was Dyan.
"Are you gonna eat that?" The boy, Dyan, said gesturing to her ice cream.
"Excuse me, what?" Creed replied, genuinely confused as to why he was asking for her ice cream. It wasn't like she liked ice cream, in fact, she didn't like any type of sweets.
"Can I have your ice cream? The ice cream here is really good, and if you aren't planning on eating yours I'd like to have it." Dyan repeated with a warm smile.
"Oh. Sure I guess?" Creed said, lifting the bowl from her tray and sliding it across to Dyan. He pulled a spoon out of one of his pockets and sat across from her.
"So, what's your name?" Dyan said, shoving a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He was very enthusiastic, she'd give him that.
"I'm Creed. District 2." Creed said.
"Oh shit, you're a Career," Dyan said, his face falling and the spoon in his hand falling to the table.
"Don't worry, I don't bite," Creed said with a slight smile. Dyan looked relieved, picking up his spoon and continuing to eat.
"I'm Dyan by the way, from District 11," Dyan said as he shoved another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He felt bad for the kid, he was so young and completely untrained, and he was someone's son, someone's sibling, someone's friend. And she may have to kill him.
"Well, Dyan, I'm glad I could provide you with some ice cream," Creed said, smiling at him. He was a pretty cute kid, but he looked pretty much defenceless, he was slightly chubby and short. He didn't look like the kind of tribute who would possibly stand a chance.
"Thank you, ice cream is pretty cool. Get it? It's cold." Dyan said, giggling at his own joke. She joined in laughing at his shitty pun. The whole situation was just sort of ridiculous, being asked for ice cream by a boy from 11, and then laughing at his pun about ice cream. She hadn't felt this comfortable around someone since Justice.
"Hey, kid. How about I show you a thing or two about fighting?" Creed said. She didn't exactly know why she offered, she already had an alliance, but she liked the kid. Dyan better than the rest of the Careers. He removed his face from the bowl which he was licking clean, there was ice cream on his face but he didn't seem to notice or care.
"Yeah, sure!" Dyan said, wiping the ice cream off his face.
"Okay then, let's go," Creed said, pushing her chair back and standing. Dyan dragged himself to his feet, tossing the bowl onto the tray and picking it up, taking it over and dumping it onto the tray return station. She watched as he returned, thinking about the strange little friendship she'd just made.
Terce Highwall, 16.
District 12 Male.
Terce hefted the sword, replacing it on to the rack. He'd already gone two rounds with the trainer, and he needed a break. Not just a break, he had also spotted his chance to join the Careers. The District 1 boy, Echo had been watching him train for the past little while, and he wanted to talk to him. He walked over to Echo, who was now trying to appear like he hadn't been watching him.
"So, you've been watching me train," Terce said, planting himself in front of Echo.
"Yeah, I have." Echo replied, nodding.
"Why?" Terce asked, raising an eyebrow. He wanted to know why a Career was watching him train.
"Well, we were thinking about bringing in another person into the Careers." Echo said, tapping his fingers against his arm. Echo didn't seem like much, he was on the scrawny side compared to Terce, but he was still trained. And he may be his ticket to the Careers.
"I'm interested. Tell me more." Terce said. Echo grinned, nodding happily.
"Hold on, let me go round up the rest of them, wait here." Echo said, holding up a finger before walking away quickly. Terce leaned against the wall, watching as Echo walked over to a small group of the other Careers, he could see them talking, and eventually, Echo returned, the entire Career pack in tow, but Terce quickly realized one was missing.
"So, Echo here told me you're interested in joining the Careers." The guy from 2 said, stepping forward.
"Yeah, I guess so. I'm Terce, District 12." Terce said, extending a hand.
"Ozzie, they-them pronouns," Ozzie replied, wrinkling their nose at his extended hand, he retracted it sheepishly.
"So what do I have to do to get in?" Terce asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Well, since it was Echo's idea to bring you in, you'll spend the rest of the day and tomorrow training with him, and if he still thinks we should take you, we will."
"Wait, I thought we didn't want any outer District kids." Amber piped up.
"Maybe you don't, but I do, and what I say goes," Ozzie said, sounding annoyed. Terce wasn't sure who put this clown in charge, but they were seemingly very self-centred.
"I don't think bringing in an outer District kid is a bad idea," Pedro said, voicing his agreement with Ozzie. Terce wasn't quite sure what the deal was between the two, but Pedro seemed like a bit of a second in command to Ozzie.
"Thank you, Peter," Ozzie said, patting Pedro on the head.
"It's Pedro," Pedro grumbled.
"Pedro, yeah. Anyways, you're in Echo's hands now. Don't fuck him up please." Ozzie said, turning and leaving with a flourish, everyone but Echo and Charlotte leaving with them.
"Are they always like that?" Terce asked as soon as Ozzie was out of range, turning to Echo, and shooting him an incredulous look.
"Sadly yes, they are. We were hoping to bring you on into a little side alliance with us." Echo replied, gesturing to Charlotte.
"They're an idiot, but we're outnumbered with Pedro and Creed just going along with everything they say, and Amber's unwilling to work with Echo," Charlotte spoke up, looking annoyed about the whole thing. She reminded him a bit of his girlfriend, Yew, except braver.
"Oh, I get it now. Yeah, I'm in." Terce said, nodding. Echo and Charlotte smiled at each other.
"Alright, let's get you into the Careers officially now. Wanna do some trainer sparring?" Echo asked, gesturing to the station nearby. Terce nodded. He'd gotten just what he wanted, proving Eden and Seraphina wrong. And boy was that a good feeling.
Training Day 2! Woo! I love training it's so much fun, especially when it involves Career drama. ANYWAYS now that we have a few alliances formed, I'm gonna start including the various alliances in the a/n's so y'alls can keep track of them easier. Here's the alliance rundown:
The Careers: Amber, Echo, Creed, Ozzie, Charlotte, Pedro, Terce.
The Careers within the Careers: Echo, Charlotte, Terce.
Creed made a weird friend, and now they're Allies?: Creed, Dyan.
I Keep Mixing their Names Up: Arvid, Ardley.
Two Mechanics and a Circus Performer: Selene, Lynus, Impala.
Let's go Lesbians: Cerdiwen, Amara.
I think that's all the main alliances, I'll continue to update the list as more alliances form, and others crumble. I'll see y'all next chapter, Training Day 3, with Dyan, Farro, Revan and Ardley.
Signing off, -Times.