Forum Thread

Of the three, Ibaraki was the last to wake up. That perhaps was a blessing as the child shot up, heaving for breath as small lungs worked to carry the needed oxygen through the system. There was a growing pressure behind the child's eyelids that refused to go away as Ibaraki crawled out of the nest of towels. Dashing into the bathroom, small hands hurriedly splashed cool water over the slightly flushed face, going through the motions of getting ready for the day quickly. There was a moment where Ibaraki squeezed golden eyes shut and there was a burning sensation in the child's hands. Biting down on any sound, the hands slowly shifted into more... human-ish appendages, though the nails were slightly sharper than what could be normal. In return, the horn like growths branched out, growing larger as a response to the curse.

When it was all said and done, Ibaraki was left breathing heavily on the bathroom floor, hands twitching ever so slightly. It was a sacrifice that Ibaraki thought necessary. Everyone was going to be training after all and it would only be a hindrance to what the child could do without worry. Besides, the capitol only gave tank tops leaving no room for Ibaraki to hide monstrous hands. Staggering to the door, Ibaraki slowly shuffled down towards the mess hall, not all that hungry. But even in the mess hall Ibaraki couldn't quite catch a break. Tyler's appearance and haunting words certainly did catch the child's eye but there was no sense of fear to be seen within them. After all, Ibaraki knew of scarier things than Tyler

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“Oh no you don’t! Petrificus Totalus!” Faith screams the last few words, watching Tyler cautiously. “We can settle this. You, boy. What did you do to him” Faith asks, her wand at the ready

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Tyler stiffened as Tayle grabbed his arm, only stiffening more mid-stride as the spell his him. The cowering boy shook only more, seeing the predatory gaze only settling on him more permanently. Hearing Faith speak, he turned his head slowly, his arms wrapped around his knees. He only shook his head, indicating he didn't want to say.

Jeremy lowered the shield and looked at the cowering tribute. "We can't help if you don't say." His tone was serious. "What did you do?"

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The man's chin trembled, only watching Tyler again with pure terror. He shook his head again, staring at the slowly mending burn. "I- I can't s-say... He-he'll only make it more p-painful if I do-o.." He shuddered again, tucking his chin to his chest and hiding his face, slowly starting to break into horrified sobs.

Shuffling past the commotion, Ibaraki quickly snatched a piece of toast and skittered away. Keen eyes surveyed the chaos as the child picked a corner to eat at. Mostly, Ibaraki was staring at the tumultuous events even as fangs wolfed away at the bread, devouring it within seconds. Licking the crumbs off newly human fingers, Ibaraki stayed silent. There was still lingering pain in those childish hands, a burning that licked up unblemished skin. Flexing the limbs, the tingling died down slightly but it was still there. It seemed worse than normal though, the constant wildfire that coursed through the child's veins a mere matchstick in comparison to the hungry flames that consumed very human looking hands. Yet another aspect of the curse that Ibaraki would have no choice to but to live with. With a muted sigh, Ibaraki huddled into the corner and returned to watching the chaos unfold

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"This isn't going to go anywhere huh?" Tayla asks. All she wanted to do was ensure that blood wouldn't be spilled in front of the younger tributes. But this coward of a tribute was really making her want to change her mind. "How about we try something different?" Tayla releases Tyler, but sticks close just in case he decides to suddenly lounge towards the boy. "It's clear to me that you deserve a beating. You did hurt him afterall, I'm assuming it was also unprovoked" she glances around the room to see who was here. That's when she notices Ibaraki's appearance, although she doesn't acknowledge it.

"You're lucky that there are people here who I'm trying to protect" she spits out venomously. "So how about this? I'll give you thirty seconds to run, after that, I will no longer interfere in this mess. There is no use trying to save you. If there were a choice, I'm positive that this boy would sooner tear all of us limb from limb to get to you rather than allow you to walk away unscathed. Unfortunately for you, there are lives here that I value and wish to protect by any means necessary." She leans down over the tribute, her gaze quickly darkening as she stared down at the coward. "If there is a next time... I would recommend thinking before you hurt somebody. That's on you for unknowingly hurting a bigger fish."

Akane perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, the female fairy then looked at Tayla, "Here comes the cavalry." A small squad of peacekeepers burst through the door and quickly and subdued the issue before it could get worse. With the "fun" over, one of the tougher-looking Peacekeepers practically demanded that the tributes finished their breakfast without any more issues then head straight down to the training center.

The fairy polished off her omelet with a sigh, then put a piece of toast between her teeth, and went back upstairs to get changed. During the hullabaloo, a simple gray tank top with the number "12" and shorts had been left on the beds. One for Akane, one for Jeremy, and the third for Ibaraki. Akane grabbed her clothes and changed in the bathroom in case either male came up while she dressed. When she reemerged from the bathroom she was still fiddling with the tank top as it was much more revealing on her bust than she would like, in fact, she hated it.

Jeremy came back up a few minutes later with Akane trying to minimize the amount of cleavage showing and cursing up a storm when she realized that she couldn't fix it. Akane looked at Jeremy, "You say anything about the tank top you're getting turned into a chicken nugget that was left in the microwave on full power for five minutes."

Jeremy just sighed and took his outfit to the bathroom to change. He was inwardly dreading what he would end up looking like, gray wasn't really his color. A few minutes later he came out with the number "10" on his back. Like Akane, he found a bit of discomfort with the tank top, it was clinging to him making him feel as if it was another layer of skin rather then clothing.

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Tyler had been spitting venom at the Peacekeepers, thrashing and writhing as he was detained to his room once more. The patches of wall that had been torn out and corrupted were discarded, the holes repaired seamlessly. However, the corner in which Tyler had claimed in the room was beyond repairing: large expanses of the walls and floor around his bed were altered, growing large pillars from the floor and spikes from the ceiling and upper walls, forming a sort of private cove for the still enraged male to sit in. He hardly touched the clothes left for him until around ten minutes after the soldiers exited the room. They didn't look half bad, aside from the fact that most of the chest was gone, showing off the seam between corrupted and healthy flesh without a second thought. The spikes and pillars had moved to block any eyes from viewing the changing Tribute, soon drawing back as he waved his hand. The bed was surprisingly untouched, aside from the odd burn mark on one side of it.

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Ace soon arrived at the cafeteria, his many eyes settling over the nearby Tributes and the food around the area. However, he did realize that there were more than a few rude stares at this odd beast. However, there were ever more stares when he spoke, the jaws slightly exposed by his tank top. "What is this?" He was pointing to a bit of cake, having never seen anything of it's sort before, aside from on the train. He knew exactly how to make it, though. Exactly what went in, the heat required, how much time, everything. Though, he still could not tell precisely what it was.

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Cree was still nowhere to be seen, though his loud calls could still be heard throughout the hallways, never seeming to come from one direction.

Ibaraki had startled when the Peacekeepers announced that the tributes should finish breakfast in a timely manner, having already wolfed down a second piece of toast during the chaos. Narrowed eyes glanced around, not spotting Cree in the crowd despite hearing his haunting cries echoing around the hallways. Mind made up, Ibaraki snatched up as much food as possible, mostly packaged snacks, before scurrying towards the exit. As the child did so, however, Tayla's familiar appearance passed Ibaraki's vision and a very sullen "Good morning ma'am. Let's do our best today, ma'am" passed through reluctant lips directed at her. While Ibaraki couldn't fully trust Tayla just yet, she hadn't proved herself like Cree had, Ibaraki was still a child that had manners and to not greet her would simply be rude. But with such pleasantries out of the way, Ibaraki darted out as quickly and as silently as the child had first entered the mess hall.

The pitter patter of small feet filled the hallways as Ibaraki tried to remember which room was the assigned one, each door and hallway looking identical to the last one. But with a little guesswork and a lot of internal debate, Ibaraki is very proud to announce that the first door that was hesitantly opened did indeed reveal to weird man and the slightly less weird woman that occupied the same room as the child. Taking the utmost care to be as quiet as possible, Ibaraki sneaked into the room even being careful to close the door without any noise before creeping over to the mess of blankets in the corner. Silently hiding the smuggled food under the blankets, the child finally let out a ragged breath. Oh, now that most of the danger was over, Ibaraki realized that breath was quite hard, too empty lungs fighting for more air. Ah but showing weakness was a big no no, at least that's what Dad always said. Armed with the knowledge that Akane and Jeremy were still in the room, Ibaraki glanced around for any distractions. There! On the bed! Clothes! Yes, that would work. Hurriedly scuttling over to the empty bed, Ibaraki snatched up the clothes before all but running into the bathroom.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Ibaraki let tired legs rest as the child sprawled over the cool tiled floor. Gasping breaths and chilled tile felt nice against the slightly flushed face but there was way too much noise and childish hands clamped over the heaving mouth in an attempt to stifle the noise. A thundering heartbeat was the background music and if Ibaraki concentrated enough perhaps a tune could be forged from the warbling beat. It soon passed however, the labored breathing evening out into something more even as Ibaraki's unique condition began to settle into something resembling normal human breathing patterns. With that out of the way at the very least, Ibaraki at least had the strength to stagger over to the sink to splash water onto clammy skin, much too short to actually look into the mirror and see just how bad the acute attack had rendered the child's appearance.

Glancing over at the pile of clothes, Ibaraki hesitantly picked them up. The tank top wasn't terrible on the child, nothing too scandalous revealed. Sure it was tight and restricted precious airflow all while showing that Ibaraki definitely needed to eat more, but all in all it wasn't all that bad. But the one that the child felt most uncomfortable with were the shorts. They fell around mid thigh, short and not all that appealing as Ibaraki constantly tugged the fabric down. Perhaps the real reason why Ibaraki disliked it though was the fact that it put on display scaled legs that bent awkwardly almost like a birds. They were quite ugly with the scales bunched up in odd patterns that seemed to make no sense. It simply wasn't very humanoid and Ibaraki was much too tired from earlier that no energy could be spared to try and hide grotesque legs. Chewing dry lips, Ibaraki shucked the shorts off and replaced them with the track pants from before, Dad's words ringing as the child shyly shuffled out of the bathroom. Have to hide the ugly parts. Have to keep safe.

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It only took one Peacekeeper to subdue Tayla, mostly because she realized that there would be no point in fighting them. She wouldn't mind threatening one or two at once, but a whole patrol of Peacekeepers was a different story.

Tayla mostly ignored the Peacekeeper's orders. She found her current outfit to be far more comfortable than the new required outfits. She would take her chances with refusing this order. Tayla had to show some sort of backbone, the last thing she wanted was to seem like a push-over. She had to be right in the middle- not a threat but also not a pushover. She had to stop making herself stand out and stick to her plans.

Ibaraki's words were surpring to her, but she refused to take this as a sign that he was warming up to her. Still, maybe this was some sort of progress? Since she wasn't planning on changing, she was the first one in the gym. She uses this time to walk around the empty gym and examine the area, specifically, the camera angles. As well as the available training areas. She ignored the bows and throwing knives, there was no use showing her hand so early. No, she would only show her true strength when someone became a threat to her. Maybe she could stick to what she is good at and go to the survival areas? She could just act like she had no idea what she was doing. Otherwise she could strengthen her weaknesses and spar one of the trainers?

She suddenly stops pacing around when she notices a figure standing by the entrance. It was Ashley, who had an armload of dishes. Before Tayla can open her mouth to say something to her, Ashley quickly turns around and leaves.

Akane and Jeremy came down a little bit after Tayla had, Akane had ditched the outfit entirely, rather opting for an outfit more to her taste. Instead of the get-up Jeremy was wearing, Akane had a teal-colored loose-fitting t-shirt and a pair of dark blue shorts. She gave a polite nod to Tayla but offered no words, she simply didn't have enough in her social battery quite yet to start a conversation.

Moona and Charlie appeared a few minutes after the couple, both of them wearing the gray outfits provided, though much to the children's relief it was much more comfortable then what the adults had been given.

The tributes were finally rounded up and stood in front of a tall athletic woman who described the events o the next few days of training, once she was done talking the tributes were dismissed and allowed to train as they desired so long as they avoided fighting with other tributes.

Akane went over to the top tying station and Jeremy decided to learn how to build a shelter. Moona and Charlie looked over at what appeared to be a osbtical course, but decided against it after watching a tribute nearly break his leg trying to cross.

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Cree appeared in the room with a loud series of clicks, much after the trainers had given out their instructions. His large form seemed to shimmer in the light, his Tragedy mask seeming off, though in what way was hard to tell. He quickly scanned the room, then staggered towards an obstacle course, his lurching steps carrying him there quickly.

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Ace found himself in the training room as well, examining a rather sharp blade with a rather keen interest.

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When Tyler stepped inside the area, several Peacekeepers did as well, clearly keeping an eye on him. The first thing the violent Tribute did, however, was request to spar with a trainer.

Molly knew basic survival, that much was a given. Mother had made it her duty to teach her children how to live out in the wild so his survival skills had been gained from that. Knives seemed easy enough to wield, probably not all that different from a scalpel so that left Molly with a range of weapons to test. Though showing off his medical knowledge wouldn't be a bad idea. It would at least give other tributes a sense of safety to know that someone was capable of healing their wounds. Or maybe not, it could get him targeted first, but Molly was willing to take his chances. So on to the plant identification corner he went.

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“Ew. Gray. Itchy. Uncomfortable. Yuck” Faith mumbled and muttered, picking at the fabric she had been forced to change into. Today, she had decided to sport a colorful— and I mean all kinds of colours, hairstyle. She had plaited her hair, into hundreds of small mini plaits, each held together at the end with a crystal bead. Natalia grudgingly wore the grey outfit, immediately covering it with a black jumpsuit. Sure, it was hot, but at least she didn’t look like she had grey cement all over her. Natalia walked over to the sparring area, watching as Tyler requested for a trainer to spar with. Faith smiled at Natalia, before bouncing over to the obstacle course with a spring in her step. She smiles at the tribute who just attempted it and he hurries away, tripping and landing with a crunch. She points her wand at his leg and says “Brackium Emendo”, effectively mending the bones. “Try something else, how about those weights? And don’t be ridiculous. I won’t hex you. If you didn’t run away you wouldn’t have actually broken that bone” She asks, pointing. She then leaps onto the obstacle course and swings, jumps and climbs her way through rather easily

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Charlie already knew how to start fires with her flint and steel, she also knew how to use most weapons. The child bit the inside of her lip before finally heading over to the obstacle course, watching as Faith swings through it like a monkey.

Moona on the other hand wasn't sure what to do, she had done most of the stations last year, buuuuuuuuut she supposed she could learn more about plants. So she headed over to the plant station though she kept her distance form Molly out of respect of his space and for her own sake.

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Blue eyes flickered over to Moona and they widened for a moment. That was the girl who had died last year after being named victor. A myriad of question floated around his head but he tried to narrow everything down into a conversational tone. But Molly had never been good with words or conversation in the least so his attempt was... questionable at best. "A stab to the chest is treatable if one does chest compressions. By acting as a second heart, one can keep the victim alive long enough for help to arrive. A slash to the throat is less treatable and will kill someone within the minute if any of the four arteries located in the area and cut. If what was broadcasted was true, you shouldn't be alive. It is quite the honor to meet a living contradiction of modern medicine." Molly said lightly, hands flying over the screen to match up the herbs used for healing as well as killing. A long spindly plant blinked off the board as Molly matched the pairs up. "That one was Shepherd's Purse. Very useful for clotting blood. Yarrow, Goldenrod Root, and Nettle powder are also effective alternatives." As he spoke, the listed plants disappeared off the board one by one. It was clear he was knowledgeable on the subject but his manner of speech and method of approaching Moona could have definitely done with some improving.

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Moona was instantly lost with Molly's conversation at first, but slowly she broke it down rather and gave him a nod rather than actual words. The last thing she needed was to be reminded that her throat had been cut open and left to bleed to death on the ground while everyone cheered on her assassin. Within every reason, it brought up very, very bad memories and trauma she had yet to heal from and would prefer to leave alone.

Moona of course didn't say this, as she handled a strange-looking plant she didn't recognize in the slightest. Instead, she said, "You seem very knowledgeable with plants and their uses. Did you do something for a living that revolved around plants?"

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Molly paused, hands stilling before they resumed it's tapping. "My Mom loves plants so I learned a lot from her." He admitted. The culmination of both of his parent's passions resulted in Molly being particularly knowledgeable about the healing properties of plants but he knew other things. Like the meanings of said plants. And other healing techniques. And... Well anything that had to do with those two fields, Molly was an expert in. Anything outside of that... well one could tell with his superb conversational skills. "Would... You like me to teach you?" The offer was a bit hesitant almost like an afterthought. Molly hadn't taught anyone before and while he knew his material inside and out, he wasn't quite as confident in teaching it to someone else.

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"And that wouldn't bother you, at all?" Moona asked the idea was exciting to her. She was going to learn something new, well, mabye!

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