Training
Nausicaa's eyes shoot open and she immediately finds the clock on her nightstand. 6am. She's early.
She gets out of her overly manufactured bed and takes the training outfit she's been assigned. Thankfully, it's similar to what she's trained in at home, a comfortable pair of leggings and a tank top. She puts her unruly hair up into the best ponytail she can and heads out to the main room of the apartment.
Because of the floor she's on, she's relatively close to the streets of the Capitol. At this hour, the streets are empty. The lights in all surrounding buildings are off. What a world to live in.
"You ready?" Santiago steps into the living area, drinking a glass of water he picked up from the buffet table in the other corner of the room.
"Of course I'm ready." Nausicaa says factually. No hint of sarcasm, no dismissive edge, just pure fact.
"Good. You'll need to be." Santiago takes a seat at the dining room table and Nausicaa joins him. Sitting face to face, Nausicaa realizes how little she knows her district partner. Realizing how she knows as much about him as she knows about, say, Rhea. Her trainers didn't prepare her for this. For making and keeping up alliances. Maybe they assumed it would be easier for her to pick up on. Or maybe it just doesn't matter in the end.
Whatever their reasoning was, she feels like it does matter. District partners tend to have a stronger bond. They're the first to ally, the last to betray, and one of the biggest sources of support a tribute can have in the arena. Nausicaa cannot let this hinder her.
But she doesn't know the first thing about Santiago. She didn't grow up training with him. How is she supposed to make up years of friendship in a few days?
"What do you think of everyone? The Careers, I mean." Nausicaa figures she might as well start somewhere. Santiago, a little taken aback, ponders this for a moment.
"I think District One is interesting. Carissa clearly wants nothing to do with us. And Verity, he seems chill. I think Rhea is quiet, but deadly. As for Virgil, I don't know. He could be our best ally, or our biggest nightmare. Regardless, we have our work cut out for us." Nausicaa didn't realize how much thought Santiago had put into their allies already. It makes her wonder what perception he's made of her.
"What perceptions have you made, Miss. Halcyone?" Santiago leans forward. Nausicaa shrugs.
"I guess I haven't really made any." Nausicaa tells the truth. Sure, she gauged similar first expressions that Santiago did. But nothing more. Maybe her growing up isolated from other potential Careers is starting to show.
"Alright, well, let's not be late then." Santiago stands up and walks to the elevator, Nausicaa following. When the doors open, Nausicaa stops mid-board. She stares herself in the face, nearly tripping as she backs away. But then something, someone, steps between them, and that's when Nausicaa puts it together. It's the siblings from Eleven.
The brother glares at Nausicaa and she keeps her composure as she stands in the opposite corner of the elevator, trying not to make eye contact. Santiago seems to notice her discomfort, and places himself in between her and the siblings. Nausicaa appreciates him for that.
When the doors finally open, Nausicaa is the first to jump out and join the few Careers that are already there, Carissa and Verity. Verity is polite. Carissa ignores her.
Nausicaa doesn't understand why Clementine's presence is bothering her so much. She's just another competitor, another obstacle standing between Nausicaa and the crown. Neither of them will be a threat.
Soon enough, the gym is filled with all 24 tributes. The head trainer goes over the rules, stations, and hours. Then, she sends us off on our own.
"Alright. I'd like to train besides you all for the first part of today. I want to get to know your strengths and weaknesses." Verity's statement makes Carissa scoff.
"If you have any weaknesses, you shouldn't be here." Carissa makes sure she's looking at Nausicaa when she says that. Nausicaa doesn't engage.
"Shouldn't the leader decide what we're doing today?" Virgil chimes in.
"You're right. Why don't we decide on a leader?" Verity looks around for volunteers.
"Me. I can lead." Virgil's smirk charms no one.
"I'd rather you lead." Nausicaa points at Verity.
"I'd agree. Sorry." Santiago says to Virgil, who hides his dissent. Verity looks to Rhea, who simply nods, and Carissa.
"I'd ought to lead, but you'll do." She says, flipping her blonde ponytail over her shoulder, hitting Verity in the face as she does. His chill demeanor never breaks. Nausicaa respects that about him.
"Great. Well, uh, my statement still stands. I'd like to see us all hit the main weapons today. Let's see what you bring to the table." Verity leads them to the machetes.
The girl from Six notices the pack join her, and she immediately bails. Carissa cackles. Then, she takes her spot in front of the trainer, a machete in her hand. The Careers watch as Carissa and the trainer spar back and forth, Carissa not losing momentum. She swings and blocks effortlessly, and after some time, Carissa's machete lands on the trainer's neck. The group applauses as she bows.
"No shortage of confidence there." Santiago leans down to whisper in Nausicaa's ear. They both smirk.
"Let's see what the child can do, then." Carissa throws the sparring machete at Nausicaa, who catches it. Without a second thought, she takes the stage. She holds herself up high, machete in her dominant hand, and she goes into her zone, where nothing else matters except her and the opponent in front of her. She's won fights like this over and over again. What's one more?
Nausicaa lets the trainer take the first move, and dodges it. She swings at him, which he blocks, but she's able to push him back a bit. After watching his fight with Carissa, she noticed he was aggressive, constantly advancing to try to tire his opponent out. He's doing the same with Nausicaa, playing more to the offense than the defense. So Nausicaa saves her energy, letting the trainer tire himself out. Once she notices his arms start to get wobbly, and his advances weaker, she moves in for the strike. She dodges a swing and ducks under his arm, ending up behind him with the machete poking his back. He claps.
"Very impressive, young lady." Nausicca nods, taking in the applause from the trainer and most of her allies, not surprised on who abstains.
Nausicaa may be young, but she's prepared. Nothing will get in her way.
The next three days go by too quickly for Nausicaa's liking. She loves being in the gym so much she's found herself arriving early and staying late every day. She's excelled in every single weapons station, spending a little extra time sharpening her aim for long ranged weapons. She spent a few hours learning survival basics, but fighting was so much more engaging, she couldn't stay away.
Fortunately, comments from Carissa have been limited since she was shown up on the first day. Now it's just been a snarky comment here and there and some menacing glares when Nausicaa does well. Which is all the time.
Verity has had them train in groups of two or three, and Nausicaa has found herself always paired with Rhea. The first day and a half, Nausicaa doesn't recall Rhea saying a single thing. By the second half of day two, she did.
"How did you know you wanted to volunteer so young?" She asked while they were shooting arrows.
"It was my parents' idea. The academy agreed after they saw what I could do." Nausicaa responded, releasing the arrow directly into the training dummy's heart.
"That's amazing." And after that, Rhea was quiet again until they were done shooting.
"What about you? How did you get chosen?" Nausicaa asks as they put their bows up. Rhea shrugs.
"I was the best this year." Is all Rhea says. Nausicaa doesn't dive deeper for an explanation. She gets it.
Even though Nausicaa spent most of her time practicing with Rhea, she kept an eye on the other Careers. Sometimes Santiago would train with her, but he spent most of his time working with Virgil and Carissa. Multiple times, Nausicaa thought about intervening, trying to get to know him, but she could never bring herself to. It could have been because she was drawn to Rhea, or because she didn't feel like listening to Carissa. Nausicaa concludes it must have been a little bit of both.
Private Sessions
On the last day, all 24 tributes pile into a small room, awaiting just fifteen minutes of the Gamemakers time to show them what their worth.
Verity is called first. He stands up, stretching out his arms like he's done this before. Nausicaa doesn't know if his calm demeanor is a front, or if it's just who he is.
"Good luck team." He tells the Careers before entering the room.
Fifteen minutes later, Carissa is called. Then Virgil. Then Rhea.
"I wonder how they did." Santiago whispers to Nausicaa as the pair from Three are called in. Nausicaa shrugs. They'll know soon enough.
Santiago's name is called and he tells Nausicaa good luck. She returns the sentiment. Then, it's her turn.
She walks into the room and it's a lot bigger than she expected. The Gamemakers sit up high, overlooking the entire room. Every single move she makes from here on out will be monitored closely.
Nothing I'm not used to. Nausicaa reassures herself, not really feeling nervous. She's just here, doing exactly what she was trained to do.
She starts with her strongest skill, hand to hand combat. She picks a decent sized sparring machete and goes straight to the same trainer that she sparred with on the first day of training. Knowing exactly how he spars, she enacts the same strategy as before, letting him tire himself out with his aggressive advances and saving her energy until his starts to drain. Then, without missing a beat, she went in for the finishing blow, a "fatal" jab into the abdomen.
Wanting to make sure she shows her diversity, she heads over to the bow range and takes a few minutes shooting arrows into both stationary and moving targets, with almost perfect aim. Almost.
With only time for one more demonstration, Nausicaa decides to run the obstacle course. However, she doesn't want to just run through it, that would be too easy. When she asks the archery trainer to shoot fake arrows at her while she runs it, the trainer isn't sure. But eventually she complies. Not a single arrow comes close to hitting Nausicaa on that course.
So it's not a surprise when she scores a 9. Compared to the rest of the Career scores, she is just as skilled, if not more skilled, than each and every one of them. Santiago and Carissa scored 9s as well, with Verity and Rhea scoring an 8. Virgil was the only one who scored higher, with a 10.
With only a few days until she's in the arena, she couldn't be happier with how she's done so far. She believes it's only a small taste of what'll come out on the battlefield, when the adrenaline hits, and the stakes are high.
The Academy made the right choice. Nausicaa goes to bed with the biggest smirk on her face.
Interviews
Nausicaa stands behind the boy from Three, waiting for the first tribute to be called onto stage, which just so happens to be Carissa. Carissa, who still refuses to accept Nausicaa, who looks amazing in her white ballroom gown, the top covered in gems and jewels. Her blonde hair is up in a bun. Her stylist wanted to put a tiara on her, but Nausicaa heard from Verity that she threatened to use the tiara to kill the interviewer on the spot. So the stylist took it away from her.
Calyptis Rose takes the stage, warming Carissa up to the crowd, who's tough, rich girl play somehow makes the audience adore her even more. Maybe it's her strong score. Or her beautiful appearance. Or the fact she's from District One. Nausicaa thinks it's probably all three.
After Carissa is done, Verity takes the stage. He wears an elegant white suit. In Nausicaa's opinion, his pleasant, welcoming demeanor is a needed refreshment after Carissa. And the audience eats it up.
Next is Rhea, then Virgil, then the two kids from Three. Quicker than she expected, Nausicaa is taking the stage.
The lights blind her as she walks out, and she suddenly feels the instability in her ankles in the short heels her stylist put her in.
"It'll make you look older." Was her reasoning. Nausicaa wishes she pushed back.
Thankfully, Calyptis either noticed her struggling, or Nausicaa just got lucky, because Calyptis took her hand and walked her to the interview seats, letting Nausicaa sit first. Nausicaa pushes down on the skirt of her dress. Her dress is a halter dress, a little tight, but the emerald green base is covered in an elegant design with jewels and gold fabric. The skirt of her dress poofs out, green and gold fabric scrunched around. Gold colored jewels are decorated and hidden within the skirt. Topped off with a beautiful necklace, Nausicaa looks utterly elegant.
"Welcome to the Capitol, Nausicaa!" Nausicaa smiles as the audience applauds. Nausicaa knew the Capitol would love her, but she didn't know they would love her this much. She might be overthinking, but it seems like the audience applauded more for her than they did for Carissa. That thought alone boosts her ego a little too much.
"Thank you for having me. It's been an absolute dream." Nausicaa speaks to the audience when she says that, triggering another round of applause.
"The pleasure is all ours. Now, I know this has been on everyone's mind, but why did you volunteer now? You're so much younger than the rest of your alliance. Has that caused a rift?" Nausicaa shakes her head.
"I know it's strange, a thirteen year old Career. But I am the best the academy in District Four has ever seen. They wanted to make a statement this year. I'm the statement. But I'm just as skilled as every other Career. I might even be more skilled than some." Nausicaa pretends to whisper that last part, as if it were a secret between her and her best friend.
"And you sure have made your mark! You captured our hearts when you volunteered, and you captured our hearts at the chariot rides. You're going to do great out there." The audience's cheers cement Calyptis' sentiments.
"I'm honored, really. I look forward to getting out there, and showing the world what I'm truly capable of." Nausicaa finds it easy to play into the Capitol's already positive perception of her. She knows how to play the part they want to see. Even if it is a bit of an exaggeration on her part.
"What are some things you are capable of? Give us a little taste of what we should expect from you in the arena." Nausicaa knows she needs to play this next question just right. She needs the Capitol to be more engaged with her than they were before she stepped out on this stage, while also not lowering her chances by revealing all her strengths and weaknesses when every other tribute is also listening in.
"Well, I'm an amazing swimmer. So if the arena is full of water, well, that'll be cakewalk. But I know my way around every weapon that could be offered. I'm pretty fast. And I am small. So I can get around places others can't." Nausicaa choses her words carefully, and is pleased with the results.
"Is there anything you can't do?" Calyptis gawks at Nausicaa,
"Yes. But I can't tell you. My opponents are listening." They all share a laugh as the bell rings. Calyptis takes Nausicaa's hand and Nausicaa does a little courtesy before walking off the stage. By the time she's backstage, she realizes she didn't think about her heels once walking back.