Training Day 1:

Corbyn Reid, 16
District 5 Male

Training was going to be very interesting, according to Corbyn. After all, there were so many new things to try out. Nothing was very clear-cut, unfortunately; he couldn't just problem solve himself out of this. The other tributes were way too unpredictable.

So was Amelia. She and Corbyn instantly went off their separate ways. The silent agreement between them as that no way in hell would they ever consider allying. Corbyn needed someone...err...street-smart was the best way to describe it. To take care of the social and physical game for him and attract the sponsors his mentor went on about. Amelia was a like a light switch. Light switches were not very good social butterflies.

He headed towards throwing knives first, which seemed easy enough to attract a couple of tributes. At the station, Corbyn studied the knives. There were so many, some of the different sizes, length, thickness, sharpness.

After a quick briefing from the trainer, Corbyn picked up the smallest knife available. He threw it at one of the targets as hard as he could. It missed completely, scattering to the floor behind the target. Okay, that was not going to work.

He tried a second time, and missed again. These small knives weren't going to work for him. He selected a slightly bigger one, almost a medium size. That was a lot easier to control and throw. Corbyn actually landed a hit on the target. Granted, it was on the very edge, but overall, an improvement.

One of the other boys glanced over at him, lowering his arm. "Oh, hey! Corbyn, right?"
"That's me."
"Hey Corbyn. I'm Charles."

Corbyn didn't respond. This was rather puzzling. Did tributes just waltz up to each other like that all the time? Weren't they supposed to be enemies? There had to be some sort of catch. Charles must've wanted something from him. Or else, they wouldn't be talking like old friends.

"You seem to be getting the hang of these knives really fast."
"Thank you."
"Do you want to be allies?"

Allies. The word sat loosely on his tongue. Corbyn had hoped to find the right person to ally with. And he hoped it would be easy. He was pretty shit at striking up conversations with strangers. And here he was, an offer extended towards him. Nothing wrong with saying yes, right?

But did he really want an ally in Charles?

"Well, what kind of skills do you have?"
"I know everything there is to know about toxicology." Charles grinned. "And I know how to use it as a weapon."
"Is that all?"
"Well...I'm a really good student."

"Any weaknesses?" Corbyn asked bluntly.
Charles raised an eyebrow; was he offended? "What kind of a question is that?"
"No offense, but I don't want to ally with someone who's more of a liability than an asset."
"That's fair. And I suppose I'm not very good swimmer."

One last question. "Do you consider yourself more book-smart, or street-smart?"
"Oh. Book-smart for sure."
"Well, thank you for your time."

Charles's eyes dropped slightly. "Oh...well...alright then. I guess I'm not exactly what you're looking for."
"I'm afraid not."
Charles opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head and stomped off, clenching his fists. Corbyn hoped he didn't offend the other boy too much.

He decided to try out axes next. Somehow, they were a lot easier to control than knives. Corbyn clutched the sturdy wooden handle, which felt warm and smooth in his hands. Then he threw it. Hard. The entire axe blade slammed into the top of the target, nearly knocking it over.

The girl from 7 also seemed to be pretty proficient in axes as well. She practically jumped on top of the dummies, tearing their heads off with her axe. Very strong, but the whole scene was rather off-putting to Corbyn. No way of knowing whether or not she'd do the same thing to him.

He wandered over to the archery station next. Shooting arrows was fairly easy, but Corbyn thought it also took way too much work. Throwing axes were way better. the girl next to him seemed to be picking up on the weapon very well, going through her entire quiver until it was empty. She lowered her bow and jumped a little, as if she hadn't noticed Corbyn at all.

"Um...hello?"
"Hello. I'm Corbyn, from District 5. You must be..."
"Zilla."
"From which district."

Zilla shrugged. "District 6. But I don't think that's important."
"Alright then. You seem to be very talented with archery."

"I'm not," Zilla said in a flat tone. "I just started practicing today."
Well, this was not entirely the ally Corbyn was looking for. He put his bow down and turned to leave, but Zilla spoke up again. "My mentor thinks I should ask people to ally with me."
"Have you asked anyone yet?"
"I'm asking you."

Corbyn frowned. "Sorry, but you're just not the kind of ally I am looking for. No offense."
"Erm...I wasn't offended. But I am serious. I would like to ally with you."
"Why?"

Zilla squinted, probably the most emotion Corbyn had seen from her so far. "I don't think a lot of people are going to want anything to do with me," she said bluntly. "And I guess...since you did ask that or apparently showed some interest in me...I hope you don't think I'm weird."
"No, of course not. But, if we're going to be allies, I hope you can convince as many people as possible to sponsor us."

Zilla nodded. "I'll try my best. What will you do?"
"Same thing as you. Training with weapons."

Corbyn glanced over at the giant dummy massacre at the axe station, feeling a small pit in his stomach. He would never be as powerful as something of the other tributes, and that worried him a little. At least he still had two more days to train, and a single ally. That was better than what he started the day with.

True, he couldn't think of any easy solution to win the Games, given that there was just too many variables, people, and what-ifs to work with. And like his mentor had told him, eventually he'd have to fight if he wanted to survive. And he want to survive. So he could go back home and carry on with life as if nothing had happened.

He flung another axe at an empty target. The axe landed dead in the centre, splitting the target in half.

Stryker Ember, 15
District 12 "Male"

Too bad Clair wanted nothing to do with em. Stryker was trying to be as respectful as ey could though, giving Clair their space. They weren't eir preferred type of ally anyways. So it worked out for everyone in the end.

Ey sat alone at lunch, watching the rest of the tributes mill around. Districts 1 and 2 talked in hushed voices. District 4 was sitting together as well as District 8. The girl from 8 seemed like a promising ally, though she wasn't in the age group ey were looking for; Stryker found it a bit hard to believe ey were the same age as her.

That's when her district partner caught Stryker staring and gave em a little glare. Whoops. Stryker sharply turned eir head away. Ey heard the girl ask her district partner something as ey went back to their food. Ey had never tasted anything like it before. Too bad ey couldn't share it with eir sisters.

There were a lot of younger tributes. Stryker worried for them; how many of those poor kids really stood a chance? There were just so many older and stronger tributes who could easily pick them off. Ey had seen it happen in past Games. It always hurt to watch.

Maybe ey could do something to help?

There was just so much to do that Stryker couldn't just pick one station to work with; ey had to try everything. The weapons all looked so sharp and dangerous to use. Really, the only thing Stryker felt familiar with were pickaxes. Those were way too common in 12.

Ey wandered over to the ever popular knives station first. There was the little boy from 3, trying his best to heave the heavier knives. The trainer just watched, disapprovingly, then turned to go help another tribute instead.

Stryker stepped forward. "Hey, it's okay to start with the smaller knives first."
"It's fine! I can do it!"
"Um, okay...if you say so."

The boy tired to throw the knife, missing completely. He sighed and reached for the smaller one instead.

"Hey, I never caught your name. I'm Stryker."
"I'm Gear." Gear gave him a funny look. Probably because he easily towered over Stryker, who was three years older than him.

"Do you have any allies, Gear?"
"No, not yet."
"While, would you like to ally with me?"

Gear shrugged. "Ah, what the heck. Sure."
"Right. I'm gonna look for more allies. You can join me, if you want."
"I think I'm gonna stay here for now."

Stryker wandered aimlessly over to the climbing station, where the young girl from 5 was busy scrambling up on the rock wall. It looked easy enough and if she could do it, ey could do it. Ey grabbed onto the rocks attached to the wall, pulling emself up. The girl was already sitting at the top, watching em.

"Hi!"
"Hi. I'm Stryker."
"I'm Amelia. What are you doing?"

"Practicing my climbing skills." Stryker realize just how high up the wall could go. "Also, looking for allies."
"Why would I wanna ally with you? You're shorter than me."

"I can help you," Stryker insisted. "I already have a few allies. We can work together to keep each other safe in the arena. And I know that as one of the younger tributes, others might write you off as an easy kill. They'll have no problem slaughtering you."
"I bet they'll do the same to you too."

"I know." Stryker puffed out eir chest. "That's why I'm going to help protect you."

Amelia giggled hysterically. "That's funny. But since I have nothing better, I guess I'll join your little alliance."

Stryker lowered emself back down the wall. When eir feet touched the ground, Gear rand up to em. "Hey, Cleve says he wants to join our alliance. I told him he could."
"That sounds good! Um...who is Cleve?"

"He's over there," Gear pointed towards the boy from...11? Yeah, it had to be 11. Anyways, he was hanging out at the darts station with an older boy, painting something onto the darts.
"I think this will make a sturdy alliance, "Stryker declared. "Four is a good number."
"Four is a lot of people though."

"I don't think it is too bad."
Amelia scoffed, having finally climbed down the wall. "Yeah, aren't you gonna protect us?"
"I will. I promise."

Gear gave em a little smile. "Cool. That's really kind of you."

Stryker just grinned back. For a second, ey felt a little doubtful. But ey forced emself to push those feelings away.

Current Alliances:

The Careers...kind of: Stravos, Elise, Toren, Bellona

Babysitter Stryker: Gear, Amelia, Cleveland, Stryker

D4 Loyalty: Haruhi, Adella

D8 Loyalty: Twill, Claodis

The Odd Pair: Corbyn, Zilla

Loners: Astrid, Charles, Veles, Darra, Lily, Red, Argen, Acacia, Clair

The tribute get to know each other and some alliances are starting to come together! Do you think Corbyn and Zilla can work together? Did Corbyn make a mistake by rejecting Charles? Will Stryker's plan to protect the younger tributes work out?

We still have two more training chapters to go! In the next one, we'll be hearing from Astrid and Weller as they continue training with the other tributes.

-Vr