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T'val only shook her head slightly, clearly a little rattled by the quick experience. Her hands were folded in her lap for a while, before she stood and sighed, "I'm headed to my room."


-=-


Phenix had found a grand piano in a nearby room, and quickly sat down before the key, his hands settling on a few while his feet settled on the pedals. After a moment of careful consideration, he Started to play, a quick and light melody. To anybody who knew it, they might think of Beethoven. The sweet notes of Eroica filled the air around Phenix, his lips settling in a smile as his fingers flew across the keys. Beethoven's Third Symphony was no easy thing to play, as seen by Phenix's focus and agility in his hands.

"Hunter Wilde."

"Wonderful." she mutters. "Just wonderful." She enters the training room, with a terribly bored expression on her face. "You may begin." the gamemakers tell her. "Oh can I now? Thanks for the invitation." she says irritably, shocking the gamemakers. Hunter casually sits down against a pillar in the center of the room. The black ink on her skin begins to glow. She closes her eyes. A shimmering figure of a wolf appears in front of her. It lunges towards a training simulation. A gamemaker gasps as it activates it. The wolf lets out a howl and begins weaving its way through the orange figures. The orange simulations lunge at the wolf only to meet a pointed end. The wolf disappears in a puff of green smoke and a large mountain cat appears in it's place. Hunter continues her ploy, weaving through the figures and switching her animal halfway through. The simulation dies down after about four minutes. A low rumble fills the room. The largest of creatures yet appears. It lets out a fearsome snarl before leaping at the barrier separating the gamemakers and the training room. At the last second, it disappears. Hunter stands up. She ignores the horrified looks on the gamemakers faces and leaves, without being dismissed. Before leaving she turns around, smirking. "Hunter's blessing." she says in a singsongy voice. She whips around and leaves the room.

---

there was a moment of hesitation but Sorrento did eventually take a seat, smiling as he lay a hand over hers. "Is everything alright?" He asked, drawing small circles into the back of her hand. It couldn't be pleasant, going into the area a second time.

---

Nodding, Narukami also stood up planning on doing a quick jog around the compound to air out the lingering hot blood. "Rest well then, T'val. You did great today." She gave the other a beaming smile, hesitating for a split second before quickly patting T'val on the shoulder before drawing back. The grin was easy and she waved before setting out at an easy jog, hopping to outrun the itch crawling under her skin

---

Ariel smiled a little and pulled Sorrento by the hand into her room, gently sitting him down on the bed, she sat next to him. "Did you need something?"

Alana was sitting on her bed, dreading the arena. Being unable to handle the pressure of everything, she quickly got up and left her room.

---

Later that night, the scores are finally shown to the tributes. Every room has a conveniently placed TV, which only turns on for these special occasions- seemingly for the torture of the tributes. The Capitol symbol flashes across the screen and the loud Capitol anthem bursts through the speakers, automatically grabbing anybody's attention. After a long speech that drags on and will go unsaid in this paragraph, the scores are finally shown. They range from 0-12, 0 being the worst and 12 being the best. The name and the photo of each tribute is shown first, then the score is shown on the bottom of the screen in a flaming number.
......................................
Lucky ------- 3
Zahara Payne ------- 8
Peppa Pig ------- 4
Maci Lam ------- 5
Echo Darkstar ------- 8
Larry the Cucumber ------- 2
Lifei ------- 11
Narukami Arashi ------- 8
Muscle Man ------- 1
Ariel ------- 9
Salvadore ------- 8
Dwight Schrute ------- 6
Mare Et Tenebris ------- 9
Yurei Sanitatis ------- 11
(Assistant to) the Regional Manager ------- 2
Sorrento Edelstein ------- 10
Phenix Osiris ------- 9
Muscle Man's Mom ------- 3
Faith ------- 9
Shiloh Farely ------- 10
Patrick Star ------- 5
T'val Shen ------- 10
Alana ------- 8
Daffy Duck ------- 2
Hunter Wilde ------- 8
Michael Scarn ------- 4
.......................................
Zahara grins at her score, her eyes had the same wild gleam that was shown during her private session. She was fine with her score, even though it wasn't one of the highest scores. It was better to be underestimated anyway. Pride was a tricky emotion. Both a negative and a positive, depending on the intentions. She could make use out of their pride....
...
Maci's smile fades away when she sees her score. It wasn't the worst, but it wasn't the best. She had worked so hard! She was improving so much! Only for a five? Don't cry, don't cry, it's childish to cry over this, it's not that bad... She clenches her teeth and closes her eyes, blocking the tears from escaping. She takes a shaky deep breath and walks out onto her balcony again. It was muscle memory now, finding the balcony. She spent many nights sitting there, trying to think of home. More importantly, trying to find Jaxon's energy, which seemed faint now. How was she going to get back to him? If her best was a five then she stood no chance against everyone. "Please" she whispers. "Let me wake up from this nightmare." She sits down on the ground and rests her head against the railing. "Please" she whispers again.

"Yurei!" Mare cries out, hugging her friend. "You got the highest score! Only one other person managed to match it!" she says. Yurei stares at the screen in shock. "I mean. I did have help..." she says mischievously. Mare laughs. "Oh shut up." she says. "Come on. We haven't met anyone yet. I think we should divide and conquer, make some friends." she says. Yurei sighs. "Alright fine." she couldn't shake the small bit of happiness flooding through her. And hey, Mare wanted to do it, so it was as good as done.

---

10. That was...a surprisingly high number. Truth be told, Shiloh hadn't been expecting that. Did whatever had come over her make that happen? She barely remembered it herself. Some kind of hidden rage had exploded just looking at the judges, and she supposed that it had caused whatever had impressed the judges. She sat on the edge of her bed. Ian had always teased her about being short, and that thought filled her head as she watched her legs swing back and forth, her heels hitting the edge of the frame like a little kid in a chair too big for them. Shiloh wished she was just a kid again. Back when evreything was simple. When she knew up was up and down was down, and she had two loving parents and they ran a resteraunt. Now, she was mute, she lived with her uncle, it seemed that the only person that understood was Ian, and each thought felt like a stab at her brain. She took a shaky breath. Though it seemed unlikely she would survive, she had to take hope in this. A high number was good.

---

He shrugged, gently bumping shoulders with Ariel as the TV flickered on. "I just wanted to make sure that you're alright." He replied honestly, turning his attention to the screen. The scores where all over the board, with some abysmal numbers and others reaching near the threshold. It certainly was... varied wasn't it? Ariel's name came up first and with the 9 floating beside her portrait, he squeezed her hand excitedly. That was amazing! But even more bewildering was the 10 that was attached to his name, a score that in no way he believed reflected his performance. He had just walked in there, showed that he could tie a knot to end himself whenever he liked and had a laugh over how cowardly the game makers were. Were the game makers really so masochistic that they scored him high for essentially flipping the bird at them?

---

An 8 hn? Well it wasn't like Narukami expected much. That session had essentially been one big stress reliever for her. The stinging aches had long since died down, washed away after a relaxing shower after her run, but the buzz under her skin screaming for her to acquaint her fist with someone's face was still present and annoying as ever. Curling and uncurling her hand in a well practiced motion, she looked up at the screen in time to see T'val's score, the large 10 making her smile. T'val did deserve that score, she agreed as she dried her dripping hair.

---

She had gotten sicker. So much so that now she was forced to become bedridden. Her skin felt clammy, even though there was a chill in the room from the open window. Her head was pounding; she could barely open her eyes. When she did, she would sometime wince from the blinding lights in the room. Her heart raced for some reason when the lights became too bright. Every breath felt like a struggle, as if she were breathing underwater.
Jaxon sat loyally by her side. They had been together for two years and there was already a promise that they'd be together forever. It was both romantic and childish, built on the falsehood that nothing could go wrong. They got along well, but her constant dance with death sometimes but a damper on the relationship- at least, that's how it felt on her end.
She looked at Jaxon through squinted eyes, smiling at how calm he looked in his sleep. As if he could sense her looking at him, he raises up his head and offers her a kind smile. His eyes were tired, but he was pushing through for her. He walks the few steps from his chair to her bed and holds her hand. She winces when he puts a cold hand on her forehead. "Your fever it's getting worse." He murmured.
"I'm fine" she whispers.
"This shouldn't be fine." He removes his hand from her forehead and grabs her other hand. He leans over the bed to look her in the eyes. "I can help you fight this" he offers.
"How?" Maci asks.
"I can give you my energy. It'll give you the strength you so desperately need to fight this."
"I can't accept something like that, what will happen to you?" Maci asks.
"Nothing" Jaxon lies. "It'll be worth it. I can't stand sitting here and watching you suffer knowing I can help. Maci, I won't do this without your permission but-"
"You can" Maci interrupts. She allows her fear to slip into her words. She knows she can't fight this alone. She was getting weaker by the minute. She could feel death sinking it's cold teeth into her flesh. "I'm scared" she admits. "For the both of us."
"We'll be okay" Jaxon promises. "Love always wins in the end, right?"

Maci's eyes snap open. She holds a hand onto her heart, flinching at the ache that filled her chest. She was confused, hurt, and appreciated all at once. She was never sick, she was dying, she knows that now, and it was her fault. She was nothing but a parasite to Jaxon, always was, but she did this to herself. Would he hate her if he found the truth? Maci doubts that. He loved her too much to care, just like how she wouldn't care if she were in his shoes. She loved him just as much. He had given her everything, she wanted to be alive long enough to show him that she was worth the risk. Which meant that she would have to get stronger.
She marches back to the training room and activates the simulations. She vows to practice every day and night. She would not be the push over that the Capitol expected her to be! She would show them that her five was a serious underestimation.

Lucky showed little reaction for her s=score. She wasn't surprised, to be honest with her 3.

Alana nearly fell out of her chair at her 8, she hadn't done much so she was excepting a pretty low score.

Faith and Salvadore shared worried glances at each other, her nine and his 8 would get some unwanted attention.

Ariel looked at Sorrento after seeing their high scores of 9 and 10 respectively. "They didn't seem very varied this year, what did you show them? It must've been really good."

---

"Putting in some extra time in before the main event?" Mare asks, materializing behind Maci. She waves, and flexes her wrist. "I don't blame you. All of this-" she waves around them, "is enough to break even the strongest of wills." she winces, and stumbles for a second before shifting her body weight to lean on a pillar. Staying Specter so long took a lot out of her.

---

Alana passed by Maci not even realizing it, her mind was elsewhere, down the hall she saw what looked like her self but it was a pure silhouette aside from the red eyes. "You know they're all just tolerating you right? You were only given a high score because they felt sorry for you. I mean you're not good at anything. Not at jobs. Not at life. Not even friendships."

---

A 9 had not been Phenix's target score, but he thought it was fine enough. Maci had suggested he put in a request for a piano, and his request had been shortly granted. A large piano had been sitting in the corner of his room when he returned to it. It was a beautiful thing, black glossy paint covering every inch of it. Lifting the lid, Phenix sneered, removing a small device from the inside and tossing it out the balcony, watching it slide off the ledge. Propping the lid of the piano open, he tested each pedal, watching each one effect the hammers differently. Sitting down, he pressed a few keys, letting a C chord echo through the room, out of his open door, and into the hallway. It was a slow, sweet melody, each note blending as only a good song could.

The sweet melody from Pehnix's room lulled the Eevee girl to follow it to his room, she stopped in the doorway rocking back and forth on her feet as her tail flicked in time with the song. Her eyes were closed as she listened, her head nodding this way and that, being lost in the melody.

---

After a few moments of playing, he started to sing the words as well, getting lost in the keys and pedals as much as Alana was lost in the sound. His eyes were closed, his fingers simply moving from memory, his feet doing the same.


"There will come a soldier
Who carries a mighty sword
He will tear your city down, oh lei oh lai oh Lord
Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh Lord
He will tear your city down, oh lei oh lai oh Lord


There will come a poet
Whose weapon is His word
He will slay you with His tongue, oh lei oh lai oh Lord
Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh Lord
He will slay you with His tongue, oh lei oh lai oh Lord


There will come a ruler
Whose brow is laid in thorn
Smeared with oil like David's boy, oh lei oh lai oh Lord
Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh Lord
Smeared with oil like David's boy, oh lei oh lai oh Lord
Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh Lord
He will tear your city down, oh lei oh lai... oh


Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh lai, oh
Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh lai, oh
Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh lai, oh....."

Alana didnt open her eyes she just listen and let herself forget about everything for a few moments.

(oof short)

---

As the song finished with a flourish, Phenix drew his hands back from the keys. Opening and closing his hands a few times, he hesitated. Several songs drifted quietly through his head, wondering if they could be played. None of them seemed right, though. Sighing, Phenix set his hands in his lap and stared at the keys, as if wishing they would tell him what to play.

Echo stared at the board of scores. Ugh, now there would be all that special attention. She didn’t understand— she didn’t do anything except to piss off the judges and defend herself, making the attackers look like jokes. She hadn’t even lost control of her emotions, she kept that stoic face. So why did they give her such a high score? Lifei was running her fingers through Echo’s hair, but immediately jolted up upon receiving the scores. Only Yurei had managed to tie with her for highest score. Not bad, but there will be attention. Makes me a bigger target. As the tv flickered off, Echo grasped Lifei’s hands and the pair danced along to Phenix’s song, unknowingly passing straight through Mare in her spectre form, though both seemed unbothered. “Sorry about that” Echo apologised, looking awkwardly at her, before moving away. “We’re in the training room you dumbass, let’s get out” Lifei rolled her eyes, dragging her soulmate so as to not disturb Maci. The two went to find Zahara, knocking on her door.

---

"I'm not good enough yet" Maci tells Mare simply. She turns away from the simulation room and starts punching and kicking a punching bag. She weaves away from the bag whenever it swings her way and kicks and punches it from multiple angles. After a few minutes she catches the bag and pauses to catch her breath. Her skills were getting better, but her strength and endurance weren't that great. She turns to look at Mare, noticing her learning against the pillar. "Is everything alright? Why were you hiding for so long?"
....
Hearing the knock, Zahara opens the door. She looks irritated until she realizes that it was Echo and Lifei who had knocked on her door. "Oh!" She says. "Come on in!" She opens the door wide enough for them to enter. "Well, well. I'm quite surprised you two bested me. I was certain I would get the highest score." The last part was a lie. She was expecting a low score as a punishment for nearly killing that instructor.

Lifei grinned. “I nearly managed to completely ruin, kill in a sense, a trainer. It was fun, but Echo stopped me. No murder until after dinner, she says” her smile fell a little. The two sat down on the floor, handing Zahara another lollipop. “I didn’t do nothing. They must have pretty Low expectations” Echo stated

---