Revan Allerix, 14.
District 5 Male.
Revan stepped out of the elevator, looking around the room. Day 3 of training, the last day. Tomorrow was evaluations, and he was nervous. He knew he wouldn't be nervous tomorrow when the time came, but for the time being his stomach was turning. He spotted his ally, Dustin, standing nearby, and he made his way towards him quickly.
"Okay, so, same game plan as yesterday?" Dustin said as Revan stopped next to him.
"Sounds good, I'll see you at lunch," Revan replied, holding his hand out for a fist bump, which Dustin returned, nodding. Revan had approached Dustin on the first day of training, realizing that he needed an ally, and Dustin seemed like a safe bet, being around the same age as Revan. They'd spent the last day training partially separate, partially together. It was a good little system they had set up, and they'd meshed together quite well. Besides, having allies could give him a slight edge over others, and a slight edge was all that he needed. The weak died, and he wasn't planning on being the weak.
Revan made his way towards the one station he'd truly clicked with. Crossbows were very different from the guns he grew up with, but they were similar enough that he'd picked it up pretty quickly. Besides, his good aim transferred, and he'd picked it up easily with the help of the trainer. He walked up to the rack of various bows and crossbows, picking up the smallest one he'd been practicing with the past few days. He walked to the spot where he was supposed to shoot from, planting his feet apart. He nocked an arrow, pulling the lever back, steadying the weighty weapon. He took a deep breath, the world seemingly dropping away except the target set before him. He pulled the trigger, arrow flying, hitting the target right in the center.
"Did you see that?!" Revan called to the trainer, almost dropping the crossbow out of excitement.
"Good job kid, that's the sixth bullseye you've shot in the past day." The trainer said clapping. He exhaled, turning back to look at the silver arrow protruding from the dummies head.
"Do you have any pointers or anything?" Revan asked, gesturing with his open hand, leaning back against the nearby wall.
"Nah kid, you've got it down well enough. Besides, you should go try another station, get around a little. Trust me, it'll help you out down the line." The trainer said, gesturing to the other stations around the room. He figured he'd spent most of yesterday here, practicing and maybe learning some survival skills would be a benefit for him like the trainer said.
"Thank you, I guess," Revan said, replacing the crossbow onto the wall rack. He looked around the room, trying to decide what to do. He spotted an open station across the room, it seemed to be a sort of fire-starting station. It was empty, save for the one trainer standing nearby, looking bored. He flashed the crossbow trainer a thumbs up, before beelining for it. There were a bunch of other stations scattered throughout the large, open floor plan of the training room, most of the stations spread out around the walls with a few of the wide-open fighting ring style stations in the middle of the room. He walked past one of the middle rings, watching out of the corner of his eye as the girl from District 1 went up against a heavily padded trainer. He knew that he was just a kid compared to all those trained Careers, but he at least had some skills, and some skills could be the difference between life and death, to Revan, the weak died and the strong survived, and he was sure as hell not a weakling.
He walked up to the fire making station, the trainer's eyes landing on him, the bored look lifting from her face.
"You here for uh, this?" The trainer asked, gesturing to the station.
"Yes, ma'am I am," Revan replied with a smile, the trainer nodded excitedly.
"Okay, come with me, I'll show you the basics first." The trainer said, gesturing for him to follow her. Revan Allerix was not a weakling, and he would prove that to the entirety of Panem.
Farro Rae Clydesdale, 14.
District 10 Female.
Farro looked up, watching as her ally, Eden, climbed the large rock wall in front of them. It was quite a precarious-looking situation, only being suspended in the air by a harness, that being the only thing between falling to the floor, and being lowered to the floor. She was supposed to go next, but she was a little weary of the whole thing. However, she knew if she didn't go that Aru would tease her for it. Arugula reminded her of home, of her sisters, except she was less annoying, more tolerable than some of her siblings, which was nice.
"You gonna make it Eden?" Aru called up to Eden from her spot on the same bench as Farro. Eden looked over their shoulder, pulling themselves a little higher.
"Yeah Aru, I'll make it. I said I would." Eden replied through gritted teeth. Farro liked Eden, they'd become a bit of a parental figure to both her and Aru, taking care of them and settling any arguments that may come up between herself and Aru.
"You can do it, Eden!" Farro called out, cupping her hands around her mouth. Eden looked over their shoulder, flashing her a grin. She looked to Aru, who shot her a bit of a glare, the sort of look that was harmless but displayed her annoyance. She watched as Eden pulled themself to the top of the wall, smacking the bell which was strung at the top with their hand.
"Okay, so how the hell do I get down from here now?" Eden said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Just let yourself off the wall, keep your hands out in front of you so you don't smack into the wall." The trainer called from the sidelines. Eden nodded, and let themself go from the wall, the rope attached to their harness lowering them to the floor. Their feet hit the mat, they stumbled slightly at the gravity, catching themselves. Eden turned to look at the pair of girls, grinning.
"Yo, you two see that? Wasn't that awesome?" Eden said excitedly.
"It was pretty awesome Eden, but I bet I could do better," Farro said, pulling herself to her feet. Indeed, it did look fun, being able to climb things without consequences if she fell. Being able to do something dangerous without any consequences wasn't something that happened often, so whenever she got the chance she took it. She walked to the mat, passing Eden as she went, Eden patting her on the shoulder. She stepped up to the discarded harness, picking it up from the floor.
"Five credits says you won't make it to the top," Aru called out from behind her.
"Yeah like you have five credits," Farro replied, grinning over her shoulder. She caught a glimpse of Aru making a pouty face, and Eden laughing before she turned back to the task at hand. She pulled the harness on, clipping it around herself as the trainer had shown them earlier when they'd arrived at the station. She secured herself, turning to the trainer who gave her a lazy thumbs up, looking half asleep despite the fact it was well past 9 in the morning. She approached the wall, it was a faux rock sort of thing with cracks and crevices to use as hand and footholds. She gripped a crevice above her head, pulling herself off the ground.
"You can do it, Farro!" Eden called from behind her as she climbed the wall, pulling her small frame-up quickly. She could see the bell she was aiming for situated above her head, every movement bringing her closer to her goal. It was a bit like how the Games worked, every death was another step closer to home, the place where she may not have gotten along with all her siblings, but they were still something. The thought of home made her falter her hand nearly slipping from where it was gripped onto the wall, she could hear Eden gasp loudly behind her, but she caught herself at the last moment. The bell was within reach at this point and Farro reached up, smacking it with the palm of her hand, it dinged out loudly. She could hear Eden clapping, as she turned, looking over her shoulder at her allies. Farro Rae Clydesdale was not going down without a fight.
Ardley Barnett, 18.
District 10 Male.
Ardley tossed the flint and steel he'd been using to try and light the fire in front of him. It was impossibly hard, no matter what he did he couldn't get it to work. He leaned back on his heels, shooting a dirty look at the unlit and half-built fire before him.
"Tributes, please make your way to the cafeteria for lunch." The voice of the head trainer rang out across the loudspeakers. He straightened up, stretching and looking around the room for his ally, Arvid. He couldn't see him from his vantage point, so he figured he'd find him once they arrived at the cafeteria. He made his way towards the cafeteria doors, the flood of his fellow tributes surrounding him, their chatter filling his ears. He beelined to the front of the room, grabbing a lunch tray without much second thought, before making his way towards the table where they'd been sitting all three days of training. Sometimes it was just nice to stick to the smallest of routines, even if it was something small and insignificant like sitting at the same table every day.
"Hey, Ardley," Arvid said, sliding into the seat across from him, and startling him out of his wistful thoughts of lunchtime table routines.
"Shit, hi. You scared me." Ardley said, fumbling with the fork in his hand. Arvid smiled slightly at this, amused at Ardley's clumsiness.
"Shocker. You do anything interesting?" Arvid asked dryly, usually, the pair didn't do much small talking, preferring each other's silent company save for the occasional strategy discussion.
"Not really. You?" Ardley said, taking a bite out of the apple on his tray, stupidly enough the Capitol didn't cater to vegetarians, so his only options were the sides that came with the main food, usually fruit or something of the sort. Today it was an apple, which was plenty enough for him.
"Eh, yeah, I guess. I've learned some stuff from other people's conversations in the past few days." Arvid said, gesturing at the tributes
"Dude, what the hell, that's creepy." Ardley giggled, the entire situation was sheerly ridiculous to him, just the fact he'd managed to end up in the Games.
"If you put it that way it is." Arvid half mumbled, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"I kid, I kid. What did you learn? Anything interesting? Ardley said, shifting forward in his chair.
"Nothing much. Three of the Careers are planning something, but I dunno what." Arvid said, pointing at the Career table with his fork.
"Which ones?" Ardley said, turning to look over his shoulder. They were sitting around a table, all eating their food and talking loudly. It was sort of obnoxious, that they could get away being so loud.
"Those two and that other one off to the side," Arvid replied, pointing at the girl from 4 and the guy from 1 who were sitting next to each other, and then the boy from 12 who had seemingly allied with the Careers.
"Damn. We're avoiding the Careers right?" Ardley said, turning back to Arvid.
"Well yeah, that would probably be the smart move," Arvid said, continuing to wave his fork around. Indeed it was probably a smart idea, avoiding the Careers since they were trained and whatnot, he'd literally just watched the girl from 1 beating the shit out of a trainer not ten minutes ago.
"Yeah, you're right," Ardley said, nodding. "Do we have any other plans?"
"Well for one, try not to die," Arvid said, chuckling wryly, it wasn't exactly something Ardley would typically find amusing, sure death was inevitable, but he was only 18, he should've had many years before him still, however, he could be dead in the next week if he wasn't careful. So, careful he would be. Besides that, having an ally could definitely benefit him, however, he couldn't put 100 percent of his trust into Arvid, what if he was to betray him. Arvid didn't strike him as the sort of person who would do that, but he couldn't risk it.
"That's the obvious part," Ardley replied, laughing along. Even if he couldn't trust Arvid a week from now, they could still laugh at stupid jokes together. For now, they were friends.
Dyan Hopper, 13.
District 11 Male.
Dyan stood across from his new friend, Creed. The trainer had given them permission for her to teach him the basics of fighting since it wasn't technically real fighting it was more Creed just showing him how to properly hold himself, and how to throw a punch.
"Fists up Dyan, remember how I showed you yesterday?" Creed said, holding her open palms out to him.
"Yeah, I remember. I ain't stupid." Dyan said, taking up the stance he'd been shown the day prior, feet spread, arms up in front of his body to protect his midsection. He made sure not to tuck his thumbs into his fists, Creed had scolded him about that yesterday, something about not wanting to break his thumbs. Breaking his thumbs didn't exactly sound fun, he needed those for eating ice cream, so he took her advice.
"I know you're not stupid kid. What's next?" Creed said with a smile, her hands still held open towards him, almost like she was asking for a high five.
"Dunno, punch maybe?" Dyan said, reaching out and gently tapping one of his fists to Creed's open hand.
"Yeah, you got it. Just with more force." Creed said, her smile dropping from her face, it was sort of scary how different she was when training, her awkward nature dropping away into a sort of collected confidence he only saw from her when training, it was like she'd been put into her element, and indeed as a Career, her element was training since she'd been doing it all her life.
"You sure? I don't wanna hurt anybody." Dyan said smiling.
"I doubt you'd hurt me if anything you'd manage to hurt yourself," Creed said, raising an eyebrow in his direction.
"Alright fine!" Dyan said, flustered. He took a swing at Creed's hand, somehow managing to miss her wide open hand completely. He went off-balance, almost smacking Creed, however she easily moved out of the way, catching him by the shoulder before he could completely tumble to the ground.
"Careful, you've gotta keep your balance. Don't want you eating shit every time you wanna throw a punch." Creed said, righting him to his feet. She was surprisingly strong for someone who looked so small, sure she was taller than him by a handful of inches, but she seemed slim, however, apparently appearances weren't everything.
"Don't use so much of your upper body, punch from your shoulder," Creed said as she fully replaced him to his feet, patting him on the shoulder.
"How in the hell do I do that?" Dyan said, confused as to what the difference was. Wasn't shoulder upper body?
"Let me show you. Hold your hands up like mine." Creed said, lowering her hands. He tentatively held his hands up, watching as Creed removed the spiky silver ring from her finger, slipping it into her pocket.
"It won't hurt right?" Dyan said, cringing slightly as Creed took up the stance he'd shown her.
"Nah kiddo, I'll hold back a bit, just watch what I do," Creed said, nodding. She pulled back, punching his hand with a decent amount of force, but not so much that it hurt.
"Woah! That was super cool!" Dyan said, shaking his hand out despite the fact it didn't hurt, it was more the thought that counted.
"Practice makes improvements is what my Dad would say," Creed said, her expression wistful. She hadn't told him much about her family, however, he did know her sister had died a few years prior in the Games, one of the announcers had mentioned it on a re-run of the chariots the other night.
"I thought practice made perfect, but okay," Dyan said, watching as Creed replaced the ring on her finger. He'd asked about what it was yesterday, and she'd gone off on a tangent about something called a triceratops, which was supposedly a kind of dinosaur, however, he didn't know what a dinosaur was, or what it did.
"Yeah, but is anything ever perfect?" Creed said, twisting the ring on her finger, the wistful look remaining.
"I have absolutely no clue," Dyan said dryly, Creed snapped out of her cloudy look, her eyes focusing on him again.
"Good point. Okay, try again. Like I showed you." Creed said, holding her hands up once again. He squared up, planting his feet and throwing the punch. This time, it connected, making a loud smacking noise.
"Dang! Good job Dyan." Creed said, reaching over to ruffle his hair. "Now we just gotta teach you how to do that but twice." Creed continued, grinning. Dyan groaned, he thought landing one punch was hard enough. However, this meant Dyan was at least going into the Games with a little experience, and with Creed by his side, he'd be as unstoppable as ever.
Thank freaking god we're out of Training, I love training but it sucks after awhile. ANYWAYS, I'll see you all next chapter with Score reveals with everyone's favourite Vice President, Archie. See y'all there! Signing off, -Times.