::debts of the soul:: (Dee)

[charade]

KATELYN PERSIMMON

It had been difficult to find Arianna, though perhaps that was a good thing. If she could keep up her inability to be found in the arena, she might just survive the clusterfuck days and make it to the one on one fights. At the moment however, it was starting to bother Katelyn something fierce. The girl hadn’t been all that talkative on the train, and Katelyn hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to her at all. Finte said that he thought he’d seen her in the dining hall, but that had turned out to be a bust. Bloomis told her to try the training center, although to be honest, from what she’d seen of her, Katelyn wasn’t all that confident that she’d be there either.

Upon entering the center, Katelyn could see that several tributes were there, though she couldn’t put names to the faces. She could see the boy from eight trying to set a snare over by the trapping station, for one. Possibly the careers conversing over to her right? There were a couple of trainers about as well, and the room echoed with the sound of practice weapons clacking off of each other. Arianna was off by herself, looking lost at sea; she almost reminded Katelyn of a frightened rabbit, surrounded by foxes on all sides and unsure of which way to run. The blonde girl was crouched in the corner of all things.

Katelyn had been afraid of the arena as well, afraid that her district partner might be like his relative. Afraid of dying. But she’d forced that fear deep within, focusing on survival at any cost, even if it meant killing. If it meant leaving her legless allies behind in the snow. The world had kept coming for her, even after the games; how many members of her new family had been lost to the games? How many years had she spent in prison, or a prisoner of her own mind?

It was exhausting, being Katelyn Persimmon.

Did she believe that one of her tributes could come home this year? She hoped so. Rex had a good heart, he deserved better than a coffin at such a young age. And Arianna deserved better than her sister had gotten. Eighteen children from district eleven had been buried since her victory, and she prayed that the number would only increase to nineteen this year. It wasn’t too much to hope for, was it? Too much to ask? She approached Arianna’s corner and crouched down to eye level.

“So this is where you’ve gotten off to,” she said kindly. “Checking out the competition? Good idea.” Katelyn sighed and fixed a loose stand of hair. “I know this whole thing is terrifying, but I want you to know that the boys and I are here for you. We’re a family. You don’t have to be afraid to talk to us.”



table coding (c) ghosty

[ᕙʕ•ᴥ•ʔᕗ]

It was already halfway through the week and Arianna felt less prepared than she had when she first walked into the training center. All the stations did was tell her how little she already knew. While she had sampled each of the stations, none of them stood out to her and more importantly, all of them already had a tribute occupying the station. There was no rule about two or more tributes at a station, but fear and anxiety kept Arianna pushed into a corner as she tried her best to blend in.

Every now and then she would look up to see the other tributes training, but she would immediately avert her eyes back to the cold floor that kept her company. Perhaps that was why she had managed to not see her mentor approach her until Arianna could no longer avoid the coming coming coming footsteps. Katelyn was nice enough to crouch down to her, but it took Arianna another minute before she lifted her head up to look at her mentor. How had she done it? How did she, a District Eleven girl like herself, make her way back home? These were only a few of the questions that Arianna wanted to unload on her mentor, but—

Arianna gave her mentor a shaky smile because she knew that Katelyn knew that she was not even assessing the other tributes. Her hands shook in her lap as she listened to her mentor’s reassuring words. Where was her voice when she needed it the most? Where was her voice so she could communicate with the people trying to keep her alive? She tapped her heart twice and pressed her hand to her mouth. Thank you, Katelyn. Yet her tremors had not quite subsided and Arianna wasn’t even sure her mentor had understood her message.

She made a pulling gesture from her head and repeated it twice. Ideas on what to do? If only she had a writing stylus and something to write on.

[charade]

KATELYN PERSIMMON

There were a million things that Arianna could have replied with, dozens of questions about the arena, other tributes, food, water, the list went on and on. She’d also braced herself for a potential rebuff, a frightened refusal of her help or a demand to be left alone to wallow in her misery. The young tribute looked at her, tapping her chest twice and then her mouth. Katelyn stared in confusion as the girl continued to tremble like a leaf. Then she motioned like she was pulling something out of her head.

And again. Katelyn was at a loss.

Oh no, is Arianna mute?

She stared at the girl for a moment, trying to figure out the meaning of her motions from the context of what she’d said to her. Heartbeat? Closed mouth? Something coming out of her head? She thought she had a general idea and hoped she wasn’t wrong. Katelyn nodded sagely and eased herself into a sitting position next to Arianna Taylor. It was alright. She could figure this out. Arianna was worth the effort. They all were.

She was quiet at first, watching the other people in the room, wondering which of them would show themselves to be victims, and which would be killers. One of them would be the sole survivor. She put a reassuring hand on Arianna’s shoulder, hoping to calm the trembling at the very least.

“I’m not going to pretend I know for sure what all that hand waving meant. But I can guess,” she said after a moment.“If I was you right now, and once upon a time, I was. I’d be scared. I’d be wondering what the hell I could do, should do to stay alive. Sound about right?” She could still picture Velocity aimlessly wandering about the training center, Lexi messing the first aid station, and Marc being, well, Marc. A younger Katelyn was having this conversation with Kirito.

With Harbinger and Annora. Iain. Once more she prayed that over the last decade her home had paid enough for her arrogance. For thinking she could beat the system by herself. Katelyn turned to look at the fifteen-year-old tribute and sighed. “Well, the way I see it, you’ve got two choices. You can play to your strengths, or play or role and pretend to be something you aren’t with the hope that if you pretend long enough, it might become true.”

That warranted further explanation, and she thought about her conversation with Rex and what he planned to do to survive. Most of his questions had been about mutts and supplies; she knew he was going to try to avoid fighting tributes for as long as he could. If he was lucky, he could probably make it to day six like that; barring a game-maker induced feast of course.

She’d been keeping an eye on and reading up on the other tributes as well. As she had suspected earlier, the tributes from one were looking to be the biggest threat in the arena this year, although the careers from two were no slouches either. Betting odds were already pointing towards the two career girls leading a strong alliance, as well as the boys from two and four. Though she had to admit, just being a career didn’t always mean that you had the upper hand. In her games, one of them had died in the bloodbath, one to a mutt and Ellexias had killed two of them. Not bad for a nurse in training from district six.

“You were pretty hard for me to find. Think about visiting the camouflage station, learning how to use your environment to hide yourself.” Katelyn shook her head.“It works best if you go it alone though, some psychological thing about people always looking where they shouldn’t when in danger. Gives people a tendency to give away their allies positions.” What else could potentially help this girl? She didn’t seem like much of a fighter. Would it worth it to check out the weapon stations? Or just stick to survival?

“You can learn how to hunt, how to make a fire, avoid traps; that sort of thing. Talk with the endurance trainer about covering ground quickly and just run like hell. There’s plenty of weapons to learn how to fight with if you’re up to the challenge.” That was likely it for Arianna’s strengths. But she still had hope for her. More often than not, surviving the arena came down to who kept themselves fed and hydrated while avoiding any major injuries. Then of course, there were flaming weapons to worry about. Marc setting the boy from ten on fire remained one of the chilling deaths she’s ever witnessed in person.

“Alternatively, you can play a role. Find tributes that you trust will have your back for the first few days and try to make the best of a bad situation. That’s what I did. I was the cook; we had a leader and a medic too. We…also had a fourth. But she didn’t make it out of the bloodbath.” She smiled wanly. “The part I was pretending was being brave. I wasn’t. I felt like a lamb being led to the slaughter, one that was trying to be a lioness. But during the finale, I like to think that I finally was.”

Katelyn chuckled in spite of herself. “I recommend watching the discs of previous games in our rooms upstairs. It might give you some insight. I doubt you’ve ever seen much of mine except in the occasional replay montage. You would have been what, three when I was seventeen?” How twelve years had flown by. It was quite the information dump that she’d dropped on the girl, and she hoped it wasn’t too overwhelming. Katelyn clapped her hands to her knees.

“Well, let me ask you something. I love to bake all sorts of things. Rex has already put in a request for a pineapple upside down cake. Is there anything that you have a hankering for? Cookies? Pie?” She grinned, hoping to coax the girl out of her shell.


table coding (c) ghosty