Training Day 3:

Elise Starbright, 16
District 1 Female

At lunch, Elise, Stravos, Toren, and Bellona sat together, again. Elise twirled her fork in her noodles. "So, you've trained before with weapons? That's actually pretty neat."
Bellona shrugged. "Eh. I had nothing better to do with my time. And training is free, so..."

Toren winced as he slurped up some steaming noodles, which flew upward and smacked his face. "Hey, why not? If it worked for Honouria, it could work for us, right?"
"I still can't believe you volunteered, Toren."
"Why? You were there when it happened! You saw me do it!"

Stravos just cackled, trying to hide his annoying smirk behind a slice of bread. "What a dumb move."
Toren's cheeks turned red, just for a moment. "Hey! Well, it's too late to do anything about now! We're all in this together."

"Right, right." Stravos slowly pulled off the crust of the bread. "I'm gonna get some more gravy before the kid from 11 steals it all." He pushed his tray aside, then walked off.
Bellona rolled her eyes. "Elise, what's his problem? He's just been so condescending from day one!"

"I have no idea." Elise slammed her fork against her tray. "God, all I need is to put a slice of bread on either side of his face and I could make myself a bastard sandwich!"

That got a few laughs out of her allies. Elise liked them. Sure, she wasn't going to trust them one hundred percent, but Toren and Bellona were much easier to put up with than that asshat she called her district partner. They were capable, competent, and from what she had seen so far, both were pretty strong.

And perhaps deadly?

"So, what's the plan now?"
Toren finished off the last of his noodles. "I'm going back to training."
"Me too." Bellona stood up. "I've gotta make up for the deadweight...err...no offense..."

"None taken," Elise said politely. Deep down, she felt a pit in her stomach. Was that what her allies thought of her? Deadweight?
"Bellona, that's kinda harsh." Toren made a face. "Just because they didn't train like us doesn't make them deadweight."

"Sorry if it came out like that." Bellona awkwardly glanced down at her feet. "I just meant that I want our alliance to be strong. It seems like a lot of other tributes are banding together."
That gave Elise an idea. "Do you think we have too many people? A big alliance gets chaotic very easily."

"Four people isn't a lot, though." Toren mused. "Plus, Claymore was really insistent on it. I don't really wanna go against him, since he knows what he's doing."
"I can't blame you then. But it's something to consider, perhaps?"

Bellona began to pace back and forth in a small circle. Elise quickly glanced over her shoulder at Stravos, who was still taking his sweet time loading up his lunch tray. Good. He could take as long as he wanted. She didn't mind the slightest.

"You said you're an actress, right?" Toren asked her.
"Well, not a professional one. Mainly in school plays. But I think I can convince the sponsors to go after us."
"I still don't get how that whole sponsor thing works." Bellona stopped pacing. "But hey, if you're gonna take care of it, that's fine by me. Do the sponsors like Stravos as well?"

"Um...I'm not sure. Depends on how they feel about illegal gambling rings..." Elise trailed off, pressing a hand to her mouth as if she had accidentally revealed a nasty secret. Sure enough, both of the District 2 partners gave her surprised looks. Toren's eyebrows went up. "Wait...is that even legal?"
"I have no idea! Don't ask me!"
Bellona looked disgusted. "Wow. How the hell do you trust someone who cheats in card games for a living?"

"That's what I've been thinking since I first met him," Elise said, in as innocent a tone as possible. "And I couldn't agree with you more."
"Hey guys!" Stravos was back. "I hope nobody minds that I took the last of the roast beef. And I'm not sharing!"

Bellona took a step back from Stravos, grabbing Toren's arm and pulling him from his seat. The two of them then began to whisper with each other. The whole scene was getting a few looks from some other tributes, which made Elise a little nervous. Finally, Toren and Bellona pulled apart, facing Stravos. Elise's heart began to pound. Was her acting finally going to pay off?

Toren awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey Stravos...uh...no offense, dude..."
"That usually means you're gonna say something that offends me. What gives?"
Toren looked over at Bellona, who quickly took charge. "We think that it's best for us if we drop you from the alliance."

Slowly but surely, the grin of Stravos's face was replaced with a frown, then a scowl. "Hold on...you're kicking me out?"
"That's one way to put it," Bellona muttered.

"Why!? Am I not good enough for you?"
Toren looked like he wanted to hide behind Bellona. "Nobody said that..."
"This was Elise's idea, wasn't it?"

Elise kept a straight face as Stravos glared at her. Now was not the time to let him see just how smug she was feeling right now.
"It was a group decision," Bellona declared. "And majority rules. So see you around."

Stravos's face went blank; huh, he was taking this remarkably well. He gripped his tray tightly, then walked off, shooting Elise one last cold stare. She still kept a neutral expression, but the second his back was turned, she couldn't stop the smirk growing onto her face.

Beat ya to the punch, bastard sandwich, See you in the arena.

Cleveland "Cleve" Garfield, 13
District 9 Male

Cleve just watched as the District 1 boy stormed off. Now what was that all about?

"Ignore them," Stryker told him. "If they want to argue, then it's none of our business."
"Yeah, but why?"
"I don't know! And to be fair, I don't really want to know."

That was fair. Cleve turned to the last of his food, which tasted a little drier without any more gravy. Shucks.

Training had actually been pretty exciting, and he liked it. For once, there was nobody telling Cleve that he needed to be at one station at a certain time, or someone else needed his help, or that he was too childish and needed to be mature for his age.

And his allies were all pretty cool. It was funny how he and Gear were the same age but lead such different lifestyles. Amelia was nice, but she could be a bit snappy at times. Stryker felt like the big sibling Cleve never had; it was really nice of em to try and protect the younger tributes.

After lunch, Cleve went back to throwing knives with Gear. It had been tempting to go try out the edible plants station, but he already knew a lot about plants; why waste his time? He had never thrown a knife before and it was kind of exciting. One minute, he was holding a weapon. The next...

Gear sighed. "Ugh. This is starting to get really annoying."
"What is?"
"I was so good at this yesterday. It's like I forgot everything I knew about knife-throwing overnight!"

Cleve giggled. "Sorry. You just remind me of one of my younger brothers."
"How many brothers do you have again?"
"Only 5. But I also have 4 sisters."

Gear's eyes widened. "Wow! I don't have any brothers or sisters."
"And how is it?"
"Eh. Not too bad but you kinda get lonely sometimes."

Cleve could hardly imagine sharing a house with only his parents. "Well, that sucks. Don't you have any friends?"
"Yeah. A few." Gear put the knife back on the rack. "Alright, I'm done here."

"Why?" Cleve's next knife landed on the very edge of the target. "This is actually pretty fun! And useful."
"I'd rather focus on some survival stuff instead. Like the plants. Wanna come with me?"

"Nah." Cleve eyed a larger, sleeker knife instead. "I already know all there is to know about plants."
"Alright then. I'll see you later."

Cleve gave his ally a small wave goodbye. After a few more minutes, the novelty of throwing knives was starting to wear off. There were other weapons to practice with as well. Amelia was busy making a splint, and Stryker was running along the agility course. Cleve had never seen em stay at any station for longer than half an hour.

The darts station was empty, so Cleve wandered over there next. As the trainer explained it, he could try throwing the darts, or shooting them from a tube. There edible plants station was also nearby, in case he wanted to try making a poison to coat the darts in.

As it turned out, darts were pretty tricky.

They were so small, it was amazing Cleve hadn't accidentally pricked his finger yet. And he couldn't throw them like a knife. Most of his darts slid across the floor, much to the trainer's amusement. briefly, the boy from 6 walked over carrying a bowl of a poisonous plant mix that he had made, watched Cleve for a few seconds, then left.

Eventually, Stryker wandered over as well. "How's it going?"
"Watch for yourself." Cleve threw another dart. It missed.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure you'll get the hang of things eventually."

Cleve just nodded. Stryker was right. And he could take all day to practice if he really wanted. Who was going to tell him otherwise?

He stayed for as long as he could, practicing with darts and switching back to knives, before a Peacekeeper tapped him on the shoulder and reminded him that training was now over. Cleve hopped in the elevator, riding it all the way up to his floor. Paisley, his mentor wasn't back yet.

That's when he noticed Lily cross the room holding a mug and an apple, wearing nothing but a towel. She chuckled to herself as Cleve tactfully averted his eyes. But his district partner had a good idea. A shower sounded pretty awesome right now, to relieve him off all his sweat.

Who knew training would cause him to work so hard?

Current Alliances:

Careers: Elise, Toren, Bellona

Babysitter Stryker: Gear, Amelia, Cleveland, Stryker

D4 Loyalty: Haruhi, Adella

D8 Loyalty: Twill, Claodis

D10 Loyalty: Red, Argen

Odd Pair Out: Corbyn, Zilla

Three Bs (Round Two): Charles, Darra, Weller

Acacia and The Daredevil Duo: Astrid, Lily, Acacia

Out For Vengeance: Veles

Doesn't need allies, thank you very much: Clair

Well...shit: Stravos

Finally, training is over! Was it a smart idea for the Careers to kick Stravos out? Will this backfire against Elise? Also, any last opinions on our many, many alliances?

Time for another check-in! As usual, you can send your check-in to me either via PM or DM on Discord. This chapter's question is:

What is your tribute's favourite and least favourite food? You only have to put one for each.

Next up will be a quick glimpse at the scores with our Gamemakers, which are handled a little differently here (the numbers being assigned based off the skills the tributes have showcased over three days of training). We're getting through this pre-Games stuff pretty quickly!

See you all next chapter!

-Vr