rockwall races [open]

[arctic]

j i m garner

The climbing wall looks fun.

I’m coming into this thing knowing I’ll die by the end of all of this. I want to do cool shit while I’m here - like, I’m in the capitol for fucks sake! Am I expected to swing around a weapon and think I made the most of the training center? Lame, dude! I want to race a bitch on this tower, I want to do the wilderness simulations, I want to fight a fake mutt. I want to experience things and is that so hard to ask for? Life in District 6 is so gray and boring. Let me live my life in the Capitol if they’re gonna take it from me, right?

It’s weird not having Jillian here to do stupid stuff with. She’d buy into the antics, right? Unlike Michael, she doesn’t take herself so serious that it’s like… impossible to do fun things. All M likes to do is play tennis, give me test answers, eat cheescakes, and lay in bed. Like, dude. Come on. I tell him to come get burgers with Jill and I but he refuses and says that we’re not like that.

We aren’t. But he’s like my emotional support nerd. I need him to make my delusions sound smart if Jillian refutes them!

”Hey, you!” I point out the first person to cross my line of vision. ”Get over here. I want to race somebody.” It isn't long before I harnessed up, and now I'm waiting as the other person stares at me still. "Uh, I'm waiting?" Where's the hustle? Where's the passion? I wouldn't want to leave a sour taste in other tributes' mouths.

-

Come race Jimmy on the rockwall! It'll essentially be the first to meet the mark of 100! They'd start with rolling 1-100, and subtracting that for the next roll, and the next, until they make it. If I roll a 19 on the first roll, my next post I roll 1-81.

[josh]

B E N T L E Y.

The pit in Bentley's stomach had been steadily growing as he watched the other tributes slicing the heads clean off dummies, his wide eyes darting from one violent display to another. He couldn't even hold onto a sword without his hands trembling so violently that it fell out of his hands. Bentley finally resigned himself to less physically demanding tasks, opting to work on knot-tying, a skill more in line with his abilities.. or lack thereof.

However, as he made his way through the bustling training arena, his gaze met someone else's, and a finger pointed directly at him. His face flushed with embarrassment, and he instinctively glanced over his shoulder, wondering if perhaps the other boy had been pointing at someone behind him. But, there was only a stark gray wall behind him to meet his gaze.

"Get over here. I want to race somebody," the demand came from someone he hadn't seen before. Bentley hesitated for a moment, his feet shifting awkwardly beneath him as he watched Jimmy confidently secure himself in a harness. "Uh, I'm waiting?" Jimmy's snarky comment pushed Bentley out of his daze, and he reluctantly shuffled toward the shorter boy, picking up the harness like an foreign object before clumsily attempting to fasten it.

"Just don't go all spider monkey on me, alright? I'm used to racing on the ground, not this whole bouldering shit." Bentley responded with a nervous chuckle, stealing a brief glance at Jimmy before focusing on the daunting rock wall. He blew a heavy breath upward, pushing some stray strands of hair away from his eyes.

"Alright... Ready?" Bentley's voice was low as he reached out, gripping the rocks in front of him and flexing his fingers in an attempt to secure a solid hold. After a few seconds of anticipation, he felt an odd calmness wash over him. A rare moment of feeling like a carefree kid, goofing around with friends to determine who would be the 'king of the playground' for the day.

"Go!" Bentley shouted, finally breaking the silence, and he pulled himself up, beginning his ascent of the wall.

ma0IZh9X_k1-100

1-100

[arctic]

”Go easy on me.” He claimed, and I felt a sense of confidence wash over me. It’s not like I know what I’m doing, but it’s much more comforting to know that the other racers knew what they were doing. We reviewed the reapings and observed the competition. Bentley hadn’t done much to impress me. Not many people impress me, though. If I saw him on the street at home I’d probably spend little to no thought on him. ”Not this whole bouldering shit,” he commented, emphasizing the fact he had little idea what he was doing. He scrambled on the harness - fuck the guy that knows how to put it on - and got ready.

The other guy seemed ready, and I wasn’t as enthusiastic to actually start, the idea of a race was just more exciting. But now that we were about to start, fuck, dude. Why can’t this be Michael? I know he’d go easy on me. This dude… he could be playing his skills down. He’s tall. Part of me hoped that he looked as seriously useless as he presented. All he could gobble out of his slender-neck was that ”this sucks” in response to being reaped.

Yeah, we know it does, dude. Show some emotion.

”Go!” And before he even finished the word he was, like, halfway up the wall. ”What the fuck is this!?” Do they have some sort of climbing club in five? When did District 5 have an ability to climb? I guess the long limbs can be helpful, after all. ”You cheated!” I shout up, and start to climb up myself, amongst an inability to find a proper foothold to carry me up. Are spidermonkeys some sort of gene in Five? Take some of that genetic modification shit and throw some spider genes in there - you have this motherfucker climbing at the speed of light. As if he was running away from the damn devil. ”You got a head start!” I continue to shout up, trying to make up the lost distance.

Someone’s gotta do a steroid check on this dude. He has to be drugged up, right? Druggies come from Five. They must have snuck him some sort of anabolic steroid into his cereal this morning. Crush it up or some shit and sprinkle it on top. He had nearly scaled three fourths the height of the wall by the time I even considered speeding up.

2Vf6fymppQ”1-100”

”1-100”

[josh]

B E N T L E Y.

The first moments of the race felt like a whirlwind, a surge of giddy excitement coursing through my veins that washed away any lingering hesitation. My hands moved with an almost instinctive precision, finding one grip after another, propelling me up the wall with a quickness that surprised even me. The calluses on my palms, battle-hardened from countless skateboarding accidents, seemed to be an unexpected advantage as they clung to the rocks like a makeshift glue. My focus narrows on the few rocks directly within my line of sight, the world beyond them blurring into insignificance.

But as I ascended further, I take a pause to try and orientate myself on the wall. My head twists upwards to see where Jimmy is above me, though I only see the last set of much more difficult rocks between myself and the bell hanging at the top of the wall. My neck snaps to the side, then finally back down towards the start where I see the other kid less than halfway down the wall. My own shock is visible on my face, though it is met with a look of confusion from Jimmy and another emotion -- a mixture of jealousy and what I can only assume is a tinge of anger. Maybe embarrassment.

"Maybe you put on the harness too tight, gotta loosen up a bit!" I called down to him, a lighthearted chuckle accompanying my words as my fingers flexed on the rock I clung to. A fleeting sense of regret washed over me for going full out for the race so quickly, but then again, neither of us had anticipated my rock climbing prowess to leap out when the race had started.

I let the distraction keep me from the wall for only a few seconds longer, trying to compensate for the alleged head start I had secured by starting the race so quickly. While leaving Jimmy in the dust was an absolutely tempting idea, I couldn't escape the image of Jimmy standing beside his cousin during the Reaping. Being chosen as a tribute was terrifying enough when you were on your own, but I at least only carried the burden of my own survival. No moral obligation to save another person rested on my shoulders, and I shake my head before the haunting thought of being in here with one of my siblings can live there for too long.

"Alright, save your breath and stop distracting me! You're gonna make everyone else want to watch me kick your ass too." I quip, a sly smirk curving onto my lips, hoping Jimmy would interpret it as a joke. However, after the words slipped out, I couldn't help but imagine that they wouldn't sit well with the other considering everything else he'd been screaming from the bottom of the wall. Another chuckle escaped my throat, only to fade into a strained groan as I stretched my hand to secure a hold just above my head, inching closer to the golden bell.

jmntfqkzgR1-15

1-15