Day one! Let's see what goes down today, eh? We're getting just a li'l closer to the arena launch, so I'm hype as heck to see what you guys think of it!
24 - Baby Steps
Valentina Teagan, 16, C-District 1
"Where should we start?"
Knight hums. "We'll save the swords for tomorrow," he decides. Everyone else around them is already heading to stations, taking up most of the handheld weaponry and snares. "You said you wanted to try out ranged stuff, right?"
Valentina nods. At the very least she hopes she can use a ranged weapon—handling something heavy like a mace would put her at a disadvantage, and she'd like to be useful to Knight without getting in his way by accident.
After the meeting yesterday, Valentina's been a bit nervous. Knowing that Knight could easily pick someone else to win with and that anyone among the C-District tributes could sabotage her or Knight is a tad more difficult to ignore compared to everything else. The fact that Gossamer had stayed afterward, too… Well, she's sure he just wanted to get more details without intending on using the sabotage.
They're the only ones at the station aside from the boy representing Two, who stands by himself while most others are still with their District partners. Val watches him for a moment as he pulls a bow from the stand and tests the string, getting a feel for the weight of it.
"Have you ever used one before?"
Valentina jumps. She turns back to Knight and shakes her head. "No, but I have pretty decent hand-eye coordination," she says. "And if I can't use the bow then the crossbows are there as well."
A snort. Not from Knight, but from the boy representing Two. He's standing all the way on the other side of the lineup, already preparing to fire an arrow at the target. He doesn't look at him, drawing back the string and holding it for a mere second before letting it go.
The arrow hits the second innermost ring.
"A crossbow is more difficult to draw than a bow," he drawls. "Time would be your enemy with one."
Knight clicks his tongue while Val smiles over at him. She can't help wondering why Cetronia isn't with him, why he's talking to them when One and Two don't seem to want to ally. But more than anything, she wants to know how he learned to shoot so well.
Wystan nocks another arrow as Valentina leads Knight closer to his section. He holds it steady as he calculates his aim, releasing the bowstring and aiming just an inch closer to the target's centre.
"You're really good at this," Valentina marvels.
"It wouldn't do for the son of well-known Peacekeepers to be useless in a fight." He nods to her bow, the implication to use in it the gesture. "Watch my movements and copy them."
She follows his stance, the way he holds his shoulders, but the length of time he holds the bowstring back makes her elbows shake and her wrists ache. She'd never realised how much strength would go into just preparing to fire an arrow and taking aim.
As they hold their positions for a moment, Knight moves to Wystan's side and leans against the wall. He looks suspicious of the boy, scrutinising him as the two Capitolites continue to hold their stances.
"Release," Wystan commands. Val's fingers snap off of the string, the bow flying out and just barely landing on the target's lower half. Wystan's, on the other hand, lands towards the outer ring. "Your grip slackened after holding it for so long. The trick is to hold it back as far as you can without snapping the string."
Valentina shakes her arm as the ache slowly subsides. It's interesting learning about all this, especially from someone who's both smaller and younger than her. The rude Wystan from yesterday who'd flipped her off with a sneer has suddenly turned into a helpful source of information overnight, and Valentina's not the only one to notice that.
As Knight grabs a crossbow and hands it to her, he says, "You'll need to work on your upper arm strength, then. Just focus on pulling back the string after pulling the trigger."
"That should suffice if she saves the bow for day three," Wystan jumps in. Knight grunts, though he doesn't argue.
"So why are you lending us a hand, Warwick?" The brunette boy leans back against the wall again. He crosses his arms in front of his chest, his eyes on Val as she sets to work pulling back the string as far as she can. "It's pretty suspicious. Livius didn't send you to suss us out, did she?"
The string stays in place. Valentina heaves out a relieved breath.
"This was my own plan to begin with," Wystan replies smoothly. He nocks another arrow, this one landing where his first had. "After last night, I thought it best to see if there were… better alternatives to Cetronia."
Valentina pulls the trigger. The string shoots out with a loud click, and she almost drops it with a squeak. She smiles over at Knight, and he gives her a lazy thumbs up before looking back to Wystan. Valentina feels a little giddy over the conversation—Wystan's basically admitted that he's considering allying with them, right? It won't just be the two of them in the career group!
"Are you an honourable man, Altan?" Wystan grunts as he pulls back the string again.
"Call me Knight."
"Call him Knight."
She giggles at the unison they spoke in, and at the momentary embarrassment that flashes over Knight's face. She seems to be doing that a lot since meeting him—catching him off guard. At this point Val's tempted to keep a count of how much more she can spring on him.
He clears his throat. "I find cheating and cantrips deplorable, if that's what you mean."
A ghost of a smile appears across Wystan's face.
"This is referring to the meeting last night, I assume?" Knight walks over to Valentina, picking up her discarded bow and observing her next attempt at pulling back the string of the crossbow. It clicks in place with maximum effort, and she begins to wonder if she'll have any feeling left in her arm to use the bow and arrows on the third day. How did Wystan get so good at this so young? "Val told me you're being granted sabotages. She said you were very against it at the meeting."
"I still am," Wystan agrees. "I grew up fighting without resorting to tricks and cheap tactics. I idolise the militants who use their terrain to their advantage rather than by striking someone while they're down. It's not a proper fight if you're pulling all the strings and tricking them into thinking they have a chance."
"That's…" Val stares at him with wide eyes. Compared to the abridged version of his reasoning last night, this sounds like a pretty good reason not to use the sabotage. She can't help but wonder if he'd still want to ally with them after the chat they'd had last night. Knight may be honourable, but he's not on Wystan's level of staunch chivalry. "That's really noble."
Wystan smiles again, this time deigning to side eye her. "Thank you. Cetronia didn't see it the same way, sadly."
And then Knight is smiling. A scheming smile, the look in his eye screaming that he has a plan. Valentina looks back at him, pulling the trigger of the crossbow and wincing at the loud click it lets out.
"If you're willing, Wystan," Knight says, "we'd be happy to ally with you. You're career material, for sure."
Another arrow fired. This one joins his second one in the middle circle. "Sure," he says. "I'll keep an eye open for anyone else, if you want. It's pretty easy to sift through the skill levels here."
"Actually," Knight goes on, "I was hoping you'd keep helping Val with her archery. We were going to practice swordsmanship tomorrow, but if she needs to keep at it with the bows and crossbows then it might be best to keep someone experienced with her. She's a quick study."
"If that's the case…" Wystan turns and puts his bow back on the stand. The arrows in his target are swiftly collected by a trainer waiting along the sidelines. "I'll brush up my own swordsmanship today so she gets all my focus. Sound good?"
He's looking at her when he says this, and Val almost forgets to reply. She'd honestly even forgotten she's involved in this conversation.
"Sounds great!" She grins at him.
When Wystan leaves them, moving on to the swords station and joining the two representing Nine there, Knight leans back against Val's lane and heaves a sigh.
"I'm gathering we won't say anything about what we came up with?" she asks quietly. Knight nods, a soft hum joining the movement.
"The way we're using your pass won't be noticeable. They never label sponsor gifts anyway. While he's helping you out and I scout other allies, I'll keep an eye on who we can hijack. As much as I hate to admit it, Atticus is right about the importance of sponsors."
Pull back. Release. The maddening click fills the pause in their conversation. "Well, it's not like he asked if we used ours," she agrees. "As long as he assumes you're too honourable to rely on it, we should be good."
Florence Fontana, 15, C-District 12
Barn owl. Screech owl. Horned owl. The images flash across the screen, but Florence is only focusing on the owls. Even as Cole tugs at her sleeve and mumbles, "What about the other animals?"
The screen flashes with the same score as before—three correct, twenty unanswered—and Florence smiles proudly.
"I can look for canaries next time, if you want?" she says. Cole smiles and nods.
"Then you get four right," he cheers.
It's a plan, then! Florence begins to investigate canaries in the trivia game, boosting her final score by one and bringing a giant grin to Cole's face. She thinks he's happy—he wouldn't make that face if he wasn't right? They restart the game again and sort through their options, but Cole is quick to stop her with a tug on her sleeve.
Florence looks down at him as the screen flashes red, telling her she's run out of time to match any remaining animal cards. "What?" she says, eyes wide.
Cole points over to one area that dips into the floor, a small gate surrounding the water. "I saw that nice person I told you about," he gasps. "Adrianne."
She beams. After meeting that boy from Six yesterday, Florence has been—what was the feeling called?—excited to see if anyone else is sociable like him. Not everyone here tries to knock her down and take her hat like last time, and she thinks Adrianne might be just as nice as the Six boy if she helped Cole be brave yesterday.
"I wanna see!" Florence squeals. She takes Cole's hand and drags him along (remembering his limp at the last minute) as they approach the pool. Only three people are in the water at the moment, dressed in swimming gear rather than the same training suits everyone else dons. Florence tugs at the sleeve of her shirt and wonders if they're not waterproof or suited for swimming.
There's the really quiet Capitolite representing Four in there, staying by the shallow end and doggie paddling. They look nervous—that's what the uncertain expression on their face is, right?—but they seem to be doing well enough. Deeper in the pool is another Capitol tribute, her pink hair splayed around her head as she steadies her breathing. Florence thinks she remembers her name, but doesn't get the chance to ponder as that pale face dips under the water with a huge intake of breath.
And then there's the girl from Four, the nice career Cole met. She's freestyling up and down the pool, faster than Florence has ever seen anyone swim before, before she stops at the fifty metre mark and pushes her hair out of her face. "You're doing great, Sim!" she calls across the pool to her District partner. Sim smiles, no longer looking nervous, while Adrianne turns her attention to the gate.
"Hey, Cole!" She grins at the duo, pulling her arms up over the edge and leaning against it casually. Adrianne's gaze falls on Florence, and her smile grows wider. "Nice hat. It's cute."
Florence likes this girl.
"So what're you two up to?" Adrianne asks. "Interested in trying the pool?"
"I can't swim," Cole mumbles. Florence pats his shoulder once, attempting to be reassuring. This is what people do when they want to tell someone it's okay, right? It must be, because he smiles up at Florence and seems to perk up. "Is it difficult?"
Adrianne shakes her head. "Nah. As long as you stay in the shallow end and know how to doggie paddle, you won't drown. And if you do," she adds with a thumbs up, "I'm a pro at CPR!"
That's all it takes to convince Cole to give it a try. Florence helps him pick a swimming uniform that looks like it'll fit, and when he asks if she'll swim too she quickly grabs for her hat. She doesn't want to get it wet or lose it—it was hard enough trying to convince Buttercup to let her take it to training today, too. Cole picks up on this quicker than she'd thought he would, and he promises to do his best for the both of them.
"If there's water in the arena," he declares, "I'll handle the swimming for us."
So Florence spends her time looking for something else to do. Someone else already took the memory station after she and Cole said hello to Adrianne, setting it to flowers rather than animals. Florence pouts. She thinks this is the duo representing Nine, where there's probably tons of flowers like what they're marking off. She hopes they'll leave it soon enough.
But at least she's not left with absolutely nothing to do. A quick scan of the large training centre reminds Florence just how many other people there are here—and just who is here.
She beelines for the trap making station, where three people occupy the area and make their own traps. She doesn't really recognise the girl there, wondering if she's a District partner for someone she hasn't talked to yet, but she recognises the boy from Six and Luxor. Florence's heart flutters as she enters the area and stares at them, grinning from ear to ear.
The boy from Six notices her first, and he's all smiles like before. "Hey, it's Twelve!" he greets. Luxor turns to look over his shoulder just as the girl finishes up her trap, setting it off and capturing a dummy of a rabbit.
"I'm a huge fan of yours," Florence wheezes at Luxor. He laughs, too soft to be a hearty laugh, and averts his gaze back to his rope trap. It's half-finished, barely looking as good as the girl's.
"Quite a few people here seem to be," he mutters with a smile. The boy from Six laughs, and this one sounds more amused than Luxor's. She wonders what each laugh means.
"You're the third one today to greet him like that," Six chuckles. "I was number two."
"You like Luxor, too?" Florence gasps up at him. He nods. "They show his stuff in the Districts?"
"Not all the time, but I tune into Capitol channels more often than most." He holds out a hand, smiling that same smile he'd given her yesterday. "I'm Finn. Don't think I said it when you and your partner walked with me."
"Florence," she says with a big smile. She shakes his hand.
"Cham—"
The blonde girl stands up amidst the introductions and begins walking to another station as fast as she can. Luxor watches with an odd expression—pained? Concerned?—as he abandons his trap. The girl—Cham—ignores him and just makes her way over to the edible insects station.
Luxor sighs. It's a heavy sigh—one Florence knows is associated with dismay. Her dad would make those sighs a lot, after all. "Damn it," Luxor mutters.
"She okay?" Finn asks. He leans back onto the heels of his feet, watching Cham with furrowed brows.
"I think she's upset with me. After the meeting last night, she's just been distant."
"But you didn't like the meeting," Florence points out. "You said it wasn't fair to outer District tributes."
"What wasn't fair?" Finn's eyebrows shoot to his hairline.
"The sabotages." She points to Luxor and nods hurriedly. "Luxor didn't like it. Cham shouldn't be upset at him, right?"
Her question goes ignored, the focus of the conversation shifting to the topic of the meeting. Finn stares at the two Capitolites with wide eyes, and she assumes he's shocked at the information. Did his partner not say anything?
Finn gasps, "They're letting you sabotage people? District tributes?"
"Whoever we want," Luxor sighs. "But only once. It's basically a free pass to cheat. District kids can't use them, either."
Finn starts to go pale. Florence watches him, a bad feeling welling up in her chest, as he looks back over to Cham and gulps almost audibly. He casts the Capitolites a glance each, fleeting and avoidant, before he nods and sucks in a deep breath.
"I'll go see if she'd okay. She might need a District ally to confide in for this."
And with that, Finn rushes to the edible insect station.
Florence just stares after him, a new feeling emerging. It's kind of dazing and confusing, like she can't wrap her head entirely around the situation. Was Finn surprised by the sabotage news? Didn't his partner tell him about it last night?
"I'm guessing he didn't find out about it," Luxor sighs. He stands up and abandons his trap, rubbing the back of his neck with a frown.
"Is he…" Florence scrunches up her face. "Is he upset with us?"
"I don't think so." They follow Finn's path and watch him as he stands close to Cham. He smiles at her—almost sadly, Florence notes—and begins chatting with her as they begin sorting through insects. "I'd probably try get details from the other Capitol kids if it was the District tributes being granted this advantage."
It doesn't make a lot of sense to her, but she can piece together parts of it herself. Finn wasn't told about the sabotage by his partner, so he's trusting someone in the same situation as him who knows to tell him, right? All this secrecy and uneasy feelings in her stomach are making Florence nervous. Just watching the Games at home always gave her an off feeling—like something wasn't right—but actually being in them increases it tenfold. She can see everyone interacting, learning about them. She even knows some of them by name and has opinions on them.
But, she reminds herself when she looks back at Luxor, it's not something she needs to dwell on right now. How many other chances will she have to talk to the Luxor Aricunai before the arena launch?
Florence smiles up at him. "Tristram Fennec did an amazing job on your tattoos," she begins.
Cyber Tronovsky, 12, C-District 7
"Is it alright to sit with you?"
The girl who asks him this is at least half a foot taller than him, braces peeking out from behind her lips as she smiles. Cyber runs through the names of each tribute in his mind before finally settling on the most likely result: Daphne Petharaph, District Three. Cyber looks down at the food on her tray and nods once. There's plenty of seats around him that are free—if she wants to sit at the same table because nowhere else is free, why bother asking?
"Cyber, right?" she asks as she settles into her seat. Cyber nods. He scoops up some of the food on his tray and munches on it idly. Daphne just watches him in awe. "You're that cyborg, yeah?"
"I am."
"Wow…" Her faces lights up as she looks him up and down. Cyber remembers being the same when he was first put into the body—remembers the glee he'd felt about being closer to technology and being given a second chance at life. He wonders how it would compare to Daphne's interest.
Given that they're both from the same District, he can assume she feels the same way he had when he was eight.
"So you can eat?"
"Among other things." He wonders where her Capitolite partner is. Most have stuck together (not that he can talk) and eat together even now, though Nikostratos is nowhere to be seen. He knows where Ham is—she's sort of eating in silence with the girl from Ten. They've sort of designated themselves as the loners today, everyone else at least looking as though they're talking to the people at their tables.
If he looks just a little beyond their own table, he can see Nikostratos and Gossamer sitting awfully close to each other. He glances shortly back at Daphne before asking, "Why isn't your partner with you?"
She squeaks ever so softly. Is it her Tourettes, or just a small hiccup of surprise?
"What about yours?" she deflects.
"She dislikes people from Three." Cyber scoops up some more food and takes a bite. "Even if they don't represent or live in Three."
A look passes over Daphne's face. Uncertainty and concern mixed together in one. "Why doesn't she like people from Three?"
"One of their victors—Cynthia Quanta—killed her brother," Cyber says automatically. The information flashes through his mind, spewing out before he can stop himself. "Cynthia Quanta used a tactic similar to one of Seven's own victors and allowed Fern Hamilton to die slowly over the course of fifteen minutes."
Daphne's pale all through the explanation. Is she bothered by the information? Maybe she's one of the more squeamish tributes.
"I should probably also warn you that this means you already have a target on you," he adds. "Ham already made it clear after the Parade to me."
"N—" She cuts herself off with a squeak. "Noted."
What most would call an awkward silence settles over them after that. Daphne avoids Cyber's gaze whenever he looks back up at her after eating, which leaves Cyber to lot them in with the loners for today. That leaves him aware of four people so far without any clear alliances budding.
So he begins to analyse. He begins to observe. His gaze flickers to the group closest to them—the table with Altan Knight, Valentina Teagan, and Wystan Warwick. Cyber watches as they all hide their mouths with their hands, glancing left and right at the other tributes. Altan seems to be nodding and shaking his head at some points while Wystan points out other tributes. If their mouths weren't covered, Cyber might be able to read their lips…
It's a smart move of them. There's likely going to be two career alliances this year, and if someone who can read lips finds out their plans then they'd be sitting ducks in the bloodbath. Cyber thinks they have a good chance of making an impact in the Games.
Closest to their table, almost isolating themselves from everyone else but the two kids from Three, sits Gossamer and Nikostratos. Cyber must not have noticed them with everyone else being on the other side of the lunch area. He'll have to broaden his sights to make sure that doesn't get him killed later on. Gossamer munches on his food with a refined demeanour, listening with the occasional nod as Nikostratos makes observations. Cyber blinks at them.
"Nikostratos is getting along well with Gossamer," he tells Daphne. Daphne's shoulder jerks, though Cyber wonders if it was more the entire left side of her body than just her shoulder. "They'll ally together."
"What makes you say that?" she whispers. Cyber looks back down at his food.
"They arrived together for our meeting, so they were able to get a good feel for the other in their first impressions," he reports. "Neither of them has used the training sections yet. They walked laps around the area and paused every time their paths met. Now they report what they've learned so far and probably agree to work together—they're both keys to winning, after all. Why bother with making each other enemies?"
Daphne glances over her shoulder at them. As she stares, an uncertain expression on her face, Cyber catches Nikostratos and Gossamer waving sweetly in their direction. They're taking amusement in the duo. It's hard to deny when he figures out that Gossamer is telling Nikostratos, "The careers will go for her first. Not our problem," from the movements of his lips.
He looks back over at Daphne. She's still preoccupied by the sight, awkwardly waving back and squeaking softly. Cyber quickly looks back over to Ham and Octavia; both girls are now acknowledging each other, though the guarded expressions and stiff postures show a pair of very, very tall walls of distrust to overcome.
He's beginning to see the point in the distrust. In Ham keeping everyone from Three on her hit list. She's using previous, second-hand experience to fuel her opinions and motivations. Opinions Cyber is unlucky enough to be unable to form.
But Daphne can.
"Ham's not entirely wrong in resenting us," he says. Daphne jumps, whirling back around in her seat to face him.
"She's not?"
"Everyone does what they have to in order to survive. Some consider what they have to do to be what they enjoy to do." Cyber finishes off the last of his food. After this, training will be over for the day. He wonders if he can try convince Ham to target Nikostratos instead of Daphne later. "Your mentor is someone who reinforced how dangerous a bright mind can be. It wasn't just Fern Hamilton she killed—she had to betray her District partner as well."
Daphne's food is halfway eaten, though her portion had been bigger than his. Cyber never ate much anyway—if anything, eating just serves to keep his actual organs from wasting away. She fixes her glasses, looking down at the table as though to hide her expression. Cyber doesn't bother to correct her over it; correcting Maddie in the past had resulted in sulking, which won't be helpful to Daphne now.
So he offers some actual help. Help he still needs to consider the pros and cons of before making a full decision.
"Adrianne from Four is making sure outer District kids have a chance in an alliance," he tells her. Daphne's whole expression lights up. Hope? Cyber needs to look into it later. "She approached me earlier and offered, and she's got the boy from Twelve on her side as well. You'll have better odds with her than Nikostratos," he adds for good measure.
And it's true. Cyber runs through what he knows about each person so far, what last night showed him about the Capitol tributes, and each scenario looks better without Nikostratos—or rather Gossamer, who seems attached to his hip—involved. Adrianne seems like the best choice for Daphne to get out of the bloodbath. As long as she balances the weaker kids with stronger ones, smarter ones, their ragtag alliance might outlast whatever career alliance forms.
Daphne seems to come to this conclusion as well. Hand thoughtfully stroking her chin, she nods and smiles toothily at Cyber. He stares at her braces. Will the Gamemakers allow braces into the Games? He isn't sure he's ever seen any tributes with them before. Then again, he is only twelve.
"I really appreciate it, Cyber," she says softly. Daphne finishes off her meal and collects Cyber's tray alongside her own. She passes his by and pauses at his chair, still smiling at him. "Let me help you find something you're good at. I noticed you were kind of lingering near some stations—maybe your body will come in handy with the more physical stuff."
"It might," Cyber agrees. "We could test the skin and framing. I only know I'm sturdier and heavier than most."
Daphne nods with a grin. It's been a while since he's had someone smile this long at him without it being inherently malicious. Maddie always looks a little sullen when she smiles at him, and the kids back in the Capitol are very sadistic about it. Daphne's expression comes off as familiar—a good familiar, something from his life in Three. A memory he knows he used to hold dear, that was from a good time in his life. When he compares his sister's smile to Daphne's, he can see the expression he's supposed to make in return.
He just doesn't know how to do it on his own.
"I hope you get a good rest tonight—" Daphne cuts herself off, eyes suddenly blown wide. "Can you sleep?"
Cyber brings his index fingers up to the corners of his mouth and pushes lightly against the skin. His cheeks rise, his lips slowly forming a forced smile. With the usual blankness to his tone and eyes, Cyber replies, "Among other things."
And that's the chapter done! Before I deal out a QQ, I'll be reminding those of you interested that submissions are still open for Ad Aeturnum! That's about the only other news I had, so here's the QQ!
QQ #19: Which interactions were your favourites?
I'll see you all next time, where we check in with Tooru, Cetronia and Ham!