Near the beloved {alliance thread - Kaplan/Ems/Marr}

[Sleepy Fluttershy]

Carmen Stirling.

You open your eyes when the sun has just started to rise above the Capitol. The first thing that strikes you by its impossibility is the warmth of your room. Usually it is the morning chill that wakes you up this early at any time of the year. But today… it is just because you’ve gotten used to it back home. And while in eleven you had a bunch of chores waiting for you, there is nothing for you to do here. Only eat. And sleep. And train. And wait for slaughter.

The third option is the most appealing in your opinion. It requires movement. It requires effort. Your body is used to be working hard and you will need to maintain this state of fitness in the arena, so the more training you do - the better, especially in the mornings, when you are not tired yet.

You get up and look around. Walking to the training center in your pyjamas is kind of frivolous, even from the point of the weird Capitol fashion, so you grab your clothes and put them on. There is a mirror in the room but you don’t even care to look into it with your sleepy eyes to see what you have just put on.

Whatever it is, it is clothes.

However, training alone is always boring, so you need to find yourself some company.

Who is it going to be?

Choosing a victim is easy. The only person whom you can for sure find without getting lost is the one closest to you - your district partner. You open the door of his room carefully and look at Faux for a few seconds. He is probably too big for you to drag off the bed like you always do with your sister, and pouring water on his head is out of question - too cruel. So there should be another way to make him open his eyes…

You run quickly to your room and grab two giant pillows from your bed. They sure look luxurious - your house doesn’t have any pillows at all, just old potato sacks filled with straw. Compared to them, these ones are like feathers. For a second, you are even worried that he won’t feel them. But it is at least worth a try. So you rush back to his room and in a matter of seconds, the pillows are being launched at his head, accompanied by a commanding morning scream:

“Rise and shine, Beardy! We’ve got training to do!”

With these words, you shoot a smile at him, before even seeing what his face is like at the moment, turn around like a tornado and race to the elevator and along some corridor...

You are hoping he’ll be right behind you when you open the huge doors and rush inside the training center.


kap d9 kristof parks {ems} *

[d9 kristof parks {ems}]

Faux Rhodes

Life in the Capitol is difficult. The first night of sleeping in a bed other than his own was hard, but right now Faux doesn't care. It's a place to sleep, and sure it's better than anything he'll face in the arena. Yet the idea of having these extremely comfortable beds ironically makes him uncomfortable.

Most of the night he tossed and turned, and now as the sun slowly rises above the horizon, Faux isn't sure what to do. Training is important, but so is being lazy. Saving his energy for the games is more important than trying to waste it. Maybe eating can help him in the long run, but what is swinging a weapon going to do?

Sure it saved Harbinger, but what about Crusader, Weaver and Tamron?

Thinking of them hurts, however, they're on his mind constantly. Thinking of how different his life would be had they survived. Leaving the past where it belongs is important, but it's hard. Nobody will ever understand unless they walk through his shoes.

A heavy sigh leaves his chest as more light enters his room.

His eyes snap shut; surely Harbinger isn't waking him up yet, but it isn't him. But then something soft lands on the bed, and Faux doesn't move. Someone wants him up, and yet he doesn't even care. His brother knows how to wake up, but it isn't him.

Her voice echoes through the room, and it takes every ounce of strength lingering inside to keep harsh words from filling the air.

ugh.

"Carmen, get out of my room."

Curling a pillow around his head, Faux pretends to fall back to sleep. Hopefully his district partner will leave him alone before she presses his buttons and pushes him too far.

[*]

Fiona

---

While the training center was centered more along the lines of learning skills, the only skill that I need at the moment is endurance. I've made it only two laps around the entire training center before I started on my third. It's more than just running. I am assessing all the other tributes who have seemed to take into their own little comfort areas already. I've passed the girl from district six, watching how she is to maneuver around the dummies in place to play with the throwing blades. The boys from two and one seem to want to just take down anyone in their way and the girl from district three? Her last name is theft and she's a thrifty little girl with a wicked sense of humor, I found out. My grandfather always taught me that knowledge was power an I should use it to my advantage.

Learning everyone's strengths were going to show me their weaknesses as well. My chest heaved one giant breath as I passed the area where the doors were opening into the training center and with the doors out popped a girl - rather quickly might I add. I halted quickly, dodging them both and stopped in my footsteps immediately. My breath hitched as I watched her for a moment. "HEY!" I managed out to catch her attention. That's when I recollected who she had been. Only her district had rang a bell with my memory, but it was something more than nothing at all.

"I know you're eager to kill, but at least lets make it to the arena, please?" I quaintly say all the while shaking my head. For the moment, I take in her appearance. She has to be a year or two younger just by her unbridled energy. It then dons on me. "Hey, where is your district partner at, girl. Faux, right?" I question, pushing pass the lengthy barrier between the two of us.

Words 99a6b4
Others 3db4be

[kap]

"I fell to the bottom of the ocean"

The first night in the Capitol was a rough one. All that I could think about was Jory and what was likely our final goodbyes back in the Justice Building of our home, District Eight. I wondered if I'd ever return to that place that I called home, so that I could see the boy that I called my Love, ever again. Some may say that I'm too young to be in love, but I beg to differ. Jory and I, despite our youthful ages, would do anything for one another, including carrying out a difficult request that seems almost impossible, and Jory did just that.

When I asked him not to volunteer, he didn't volunteer, and that shows how loyal he truly is. I hope that I can forever be loyal to him, too. Although, first, I have to make it home alive to do so. I need to show him that I'm in this to win and return home to be in his arms again. I'm not going to give up just because the going gets tough.

~

Waking up for the first morning of training was something that I imagined career tributes and volunteers were likely excited for. Or at least, they were likely to be far more excited than I was, as I wasn't at all. I was much more feeling a sense of dread, rather than excitement.

I'd barely communicated with my District partner, Sable, at this point, seeing her only really when we were on our floor of where we were staying. Then again, I hadn't really communicated with much of anyone since being here, and I knew that had to change, at least a little bit, if I wanted a better chance of survival. Friends, or at least allies, were likely needed in order to survive in the arena. Solo tributes usually didn't make it as far as those who had someone, or perhaps multiple people, fighting by their side.

That's why, today, when I went into the training center, I had the goal in my head of finding at least one person that I felt I could trust enough to claim as an ally in the arena. I wasn't entirely sure who to approach, though, as I entered the room. The careers looked too intimidating to me, as well as some of the non-career tributes. To be entirely honest, the least threatening tributes to me in that moment were the ones closer to my age, but even some of the youngest ones, such as the Theft twins from District Three, scared me a bit more than they probably should have.

As I was looking around the training center, a girl burst in through the doors, a little over-excited, which took me off guard for a moment. She looked to be around my age, if not a year or so younger, and was full of energy. I recognized her as Carmen from District Eleven, and when she'd come rushing into the room, she was approached by the girl from Nine whose name I couldn't recall in that particular moment, for one reason or another.

I took a deep breath. I needed to talk to someone who didn't seem like they were going to give up as soon as they entered the arena if I wanted a decent ally. The careers, however, were far too intimidating for me. That left anyone else who seemed at least slightly enthusiastic, meaning... Carmen Stirling of District Eleven.

The girl had volunteered for another girl with the same surname who I could only assume to be a relative or perhaps even sibling of hers, so I had some respect for her. She didn't volunteer out of selfishness or a want to kill, from what I could tell. Maybe this meant that she was a safe option. Hoping this was the case, I approached she and the girl from Nine, who was now speaking to her.

"I know you're eager to kill, but at least lets make it to the arena, please?" The words that Nine spoke made my heart skip a beat for a moment. Then, she switched to asking where Faux, Carmen's District partner was. That's when I decided that I was okay with interjecting. I needed to say something, after all, if I was going to try to communicate with her and get on good terms. Besides, maybe I'd befriend this other girl in the process, too.

"I don't think she's eager to kill, exactly," I said with a laugh, hoping this was a true statement. "She just seems ready to get started with her training. Maybe we should all be a bit more enthusiastic about it. It might help."

I extended my hand to Carmen in greeting when I spoke again.

"I'm Oliver, by the way. District Eight."

~

791 words

"I dove in after my pride"

table credit to Griffin
Lyrics: "Beneath the Water" by Feed the Biirds

[Sleepy Fluttershy]

Carmen Stirling.

You almost run into a girl and stop right before colliding with her, adrenaline still rushing through your body. There are surprisingly many people in the training center - at least more than you expected to see. You stare at the stranger for a second, a little puzzled by her harsh reaction to your appearance... or maybe it wasn't harsh and you are imagining things?

An unfamiliar dude casually appears by your side. You don't know anything about him because all the districts and tribute names are a giant mess in your head right now, and even if you knew where he is from, it wouldn't matter to you because you still wouldn't know what the place is like. However, there's one thing that's pretty obvious. He's got strong protective instincts if he would try to defend a complete stranger from another stranger. 

You shake your curly mane merrily to get a few black locks off your face and shoot a witty smile at the girl-from-who-knows-where-whose-name-you-don't-know.

Kill? She likes to exaggerate stuff. 

You didn't even see her there and... But who cares? Whoever is unfriendly to you doesn't matter because it will all turn into nothing as soon as you take your first step onto the arena. And she probably likes Faux if she's asking about him. 

"Chill, Goldilocks. Wasn't trying to kill ya. Faux might though when he comes down here in case he doesn't like little girls waking him too early. He should be here soon if my pillow hit him at all."

A cheerful wink at the love-peace-high-spirits boy whom she doesn't mind considering as a friend.

"Nice to meet ya. I'm Carmen."

A thoughtful wrinkle splits your forehead in half for a moment.

"Your name reminds me of something, you know... Right! Those salty things called olives at the dining hall."


d9 kristof parks {ems}