Forum Thread

Masie gave an annoyed sound that sounded like a combination of a tsk and a snap. It was an odd sound indeed, and it sounded even more comical coming from her. She obviously wasn't used to being ordered around, as she said in a prim and sniffly voice, "I'll see what I can do," attempting to turn on her heel and stumbling, before gathering herself up and tottering away into the next car. About a minute after Masie had left the car, King spoke. "I know you must think little of me. And I do not care. I will tell you only this, that my name was given to me as a curse. A curse to remember my victory in the Hunger Games. If you like you can call me Orin. That is my birth name." His eyes flicked to Teri. "You would do good to listen."

June laughed, a bitter sound that grated harshly. "I know what I look like. I know that I've never been able to accept the ravenous gifts given to the victors of the Hunger Games. I could not accept anything at all. But here I am, despite my denial. But now, I suppose, it is time for me to share my story and my knowledge. Maybe, just maybe, I can keep at least one of you alive."

The Capitol man gave Faith an incredulous look. "I can speak English quite fine, thank you very much." He sighed through his nostrils. "Your mentor is arriving...now." The door slid open, and a black woman with braided hair pinned up in complicated swirls stepped through, regarding Faith coldly with yellowish eyes.

---

Jeremy had of course been very heartbroken at the goodbyes, the hardest part was with Leaf hugging and begging Jeremy not to leave. If Jeremy could've given anything he had to stay he would've. It had been ten times worse when Leaf had to literally be drug out because she refused to leave him to his fate.

Then there was Akane, strangely hollow to the goodbyes, but she wasn't exactly emotionless either. It had been when her family had come in that Akane's heart had hardened most. Because of her mother and the trauma and the emotional guilt trips and everything else that conflicted in Akane's brain. . .then Akane's mother wondered why Akane was so distant with a rocky relationship at best and sworn enemies at worst.

Akane had tried one last time to make an attempt to mend the relationship, but it had been thrown back in her face as her mother practically screamed hateful things at her. After that Akane had started screaming back, frustrated and angry, then the slap across the teen's cheek felt like fire as her mother started screaming things Akane wouldn't dare repeat, even as the Peacekeepers drug her mother out.

After that mess, Akane really wanted to punch something, preferably a wall.

Akane and Jeremy were reunited with Akane doing her best to hide the welt on her cheek as the cameras ate up their images before being finally swept onto the train and on the way to the Capital at 250 miles per hour. Akane's jaw opens slightly in awe as they take it all in the sight.

"Woah, this is amazing." Jeremy breaths from behind Akane, and he's right. Inside is more luscious than the Justice building back home. Chandeliers made of crystal, doorknobs of platinum, velvet rugs, and the food...it's laid out for them. Never in either of their lives have they seen anything like it. Never. Akane barely catches Effie telling them that they'll have their own cars with everything needed and has them sit, to which they do.

"I think it's one of the wonderful things about this opportunity, that even though you're here and even though it's just for a little while, you get to enjoy all of this." There's a long pause as Effie lets what she said sink in as she smiles at the two tributes, Akane wasn't really sure if it's called for since they both understood the circumstances. "I'm going to find Haymitch. He's probably in the bar car." She leaves the two of them alone.

Yeah, but for how long will you enjoy everything? Akane asks herself as she glanced around the car, still taking it all in. If she had to guess, one of their mentors, Haymitch, is gonna be as drunk as a skunk...if he isn't already.

Much to her surprise, the short man who was their other mentor, Aaron. The short man covered in tattoos made him look ridiculous though not as much as some of the other Capital people, however, the almost intimidating energy coming from him made Akane bite her tongue. He was one of the few lifelines once in the arena they would have after all. Akane wasn't surprised at Aaron's claim either, everyone would know their names now, even a nobody like herself. They were going to a death fight where the crowd cheered on their killer.

Short. Knowledgeable. Dangerous on the wrong team. A force to be reckoned with.

Akane silently cursed out her very short social battery for being empty due to the conflict with her mother, only solitude would fill it up, and she was sure she wouldn't be getting that anytime soon. Thankfully Jeremy spoke for the both of them. "It's nice to meet you."

---

The distant sound of heels on floor is what lets Bree know that Masie had taken her order seriously. She opens her mouth, a mischievous smile crossing her face as she prepares to comment on the irony of giving a blind person a pen and paper. But she is quickly silenced by King. She listens to him quietly, her features softening as she takes pity on him.

"I'm sorry Orin, I won't mention your other name from here on out." Her hands clench together on her lap, giving away her unease. "I don't think little of you, afterall, you were simply doing whatever you could to survive right?" She asks. "Please" she says, much more kindly now that there was no sarcasm laced within her words. "Help us do the same."

Upon hearing June say these things, he just felt bad. Terribly bad, for the things he said to her. He hung his head and muttered, "I'm sorry- it's just, I never wanted to come here- I'm not a fighter, I've never killed a thing! How could I possibly kill people?" He shook his head and felt tears form under his eyes.

---

"I wish that I could say that was so," Orin said grimly. "But I am a changed man now because I grew from the horrors I caused there. Hopefully, you will be able to do more than that. Hopefully, you will get out of there with at least a little less of the nightmares I see every night when I fall asleep." He cleared his throat. "But enough about me. It's time I ask about you. What are your strengths?"

Aaron stared at them for a minute, before saying in a gruff voice, "Under other circumstances, I would agree. I know you must think me foolish for what I look like, no?"

June shook her head sadly. "You will have to change, my friend. Out there, it's killed, or be killed. Do you want to be killed?"

---

Well, Aaron wasn't wrong, but he was at least semi-normal compared to the other capital people they'd seen on the staticy TVs. Gems embedded in their bodies, hair dyed obnoxious colors, pounds of make-up on their faces to the point of clownish appearances, many piercings, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Well. . ." Akane visibly hesitated, not wanting to unintentionally make in angry.

"So what do we do now?" Jeremy asked.

---

"My only strength is my ability to form connections with others... I do have some physical strength but it's rendered useless in a fight" Bree admits. "I suppose I could talk my way out of a fight-" Bree grimaces "although I have a feeling that it wouldn't work. My only other strength is having my canine friend with me, but we'd stand no chance fighting a group or someone with a long ranged weapon." She sighs and leans back into her chair, resting her head on the back of the chair to raise her head towards the ceiling. "So-... You obviously have quite a bit of potential to work with here" she says sarcastically.

King sighed, smirking a little. "It does appear that I have a lot to think about. And a lot to work on. I have yet to know about your friend's talents, but I'll have to work with whatever I can get. It's my job to keep you alive, so whatever strings I have already, I will bring others and create the rope. Or, depending on whether or not you want to live or die, the noose. However, this will all depend on how you cooperate and work in the next two days."

"Now, we will discuss your strengths," Aaron said, sitting down, gesturing for them to join him at the table. "I need to know what I have to work with."

---

Suvansh nodded, then shook his head. Of course he wanted to survive. He wanted to go back home, see his parents again. But that meant sacrificing everyone else to the arena. Would his parents even want to see him after that? They would, but he won't wanna look at himself ever again. "How did you do it? Survive, I mean."

---

June looked down at her hands and spoke in a soft, shaking voice. "I see it so clearly every day. It haunts my waking hours. I..I climbed. The arena was thick with trees, close together. This was my native terrain, I had the advantage. The other tribute from 7 died fast. I leaped through the trees. I watched everything from above. But I did nasty things, my friend. I finished them off by setting fire to the trees and burrowing into the ground."

---

The two nodded and followed Aaron to the table filled with food, sitting on across from him.

Strenghs, well I can make people mad. . .or maybe that's just my mom I can make angry. Akane thought somberly, but instead, she used her fingers as she recalled her strengths from farming since she could tot. "Well, I can lift up to maybe 70 pounds at most give or take a few. I can use a pitchfork and a pocket knife decently. I know a few knots but mostly for tying things together temporarily. . ."

"At least you have more strengths than me, and most of those are from farming your whole life." Jeremy pointed out. "Compared to my strengths in art, speed, and climbing, if I get jumped I'm dead."

"You can easily outrun most of our class in a twenty-foot dash, save for Leaf." Akane reminded. "If we got chased by. . .I don't know, a wolf. . .I'd get mauled before I reach safety in the trees."

"Okay, fair, but-" Jeremy flinched when from under the table Akane managed to kick his shin just enough to get him to keep him from saying something that would probably get her killed. The last thing any citizen in the Capital needed to know was that she could hunt, use a bow, which was illegal! To be fair, she only knew because when her father was laid up from a farm-related injury she and her family were starving, what little she had gained from her father had been honed during those long months and had been richly rewarded with meat. After he recovered, she never went hunting. . .okay, maybe on occasion. But sill.

---

He gulped. "A forest fire- I- I could never-" but he stopped. Of course she hated doing so too. It was just a survival instinct- an instinct that haunts her to the very day. "I can't do it I couldn't do it- killing to survive- its inhumane, even if we're being forced into it. Yes, others won't think so, but I can't make myself-" thats when he remembered about Amber. There was another tribute sitting right next to him, and he was going on blabbering away all his weaknesses. If anything, he knew who her first target in the arena would be now. He had screwed himself for sure.

---

Two days... 48 hours, 2,880 minutes, 172,800 seconds, ≈200,000 heartbeats. All that time, only for it to possibly be the end. "I'll do whatever it takes to survive" she replies. She envisions a clock. She could practically hear her mother's voice in her head, describing what a clock was and how it worked. She could envision the thin line of the second hand moving. Hear the ticking of every second passing by. Every second that passed seemed to be a second towards her ultimate demise. No matter how hard she tried to tell herself that she could survive, it felt unwise to believe it.

What chance did she have? She could only hope that Orin could figure out a way, because right now, she was hesitant to believe that the answer to her all her problems were allies. Allies would boost her survival, but the moment their backs were against the wall would be when they'd turn on her. She wasn't stupid, she'd be the first to go, she would be the weak link afterall. No amount of manipulation or convincing could change that. It was survival of the fittest and all odds were against her.

Don't give up yet. You already hold an advantage over everyone. You know your own weaknesses and you know what the outcome for those weaknesses will be. You have time to think of a counterattack... Bree smiles at this thought. Maybe Terri was right, maybe she, they, weren't completely defensless afterall. They came from a district of geniuses, the technology district. What they lacked in muscle, they made up for in intelligence. They were unknowingly conditioned to plan for these types of outcomes. Yes, this was the key. She would have to convince her opponents that she could easily outsmart them... Even better, she could actually outsmart them.

The only response Misa made to their newly arrived escort and mentor was a blank stare. It was obvious that she or the other tribute cared, and it made the moment quite awkward. She didn't say a word as they introduced themselves, a bit glad that one of them stopped the other from carrying on any further. She had already forgotten their names, which she had no need remembering anyways. She took a small glance over to the tribute she would be competing with, unsure if she knew them or not. It didn't matter, he was her rival, none of it mattered really.

---

Teri smiles, retapping the Morse code, changing King’s name to Orin. He keeps right on tapping, and something that looks like Masie pops up, rotating on the hologram projector. y=32a wherein x=37b+59c and the angle of depression is 64 degrees facing northeast with a interval of 6 and 2 miles per square kilometre in a field of 500cm square, with a=26784 - 21735. Ah, so therefore the prime root of the square of the hypothetical palindrome…32.745. He quickly recalculated his equation, then hands Bree a piece of plastic, Braille on it. “My talents, as you would assume, are matters of technology and persuasion, or to put it bluntly, manipulation. Apart from that, I do well with short range battles.”

Faith jabbers more in French, before writing on a piece of paper, asking about a translator, or someone who understood French. She writes down that she reads and writes English, but can’t speak it

---

Bree has gone silent. She quietly listens to Teri, her heart going out for him when he describes strengths very similar to hers. Teri seemed to be in the same boat as her. His actual physical talents were unknown to her, but it was likely that he would also be considered a 'weak link.' Fortunately, he did fare off better than her, so maybe that was the only advantage he needed to survive.

She wonders if Orin had expected this. Was he like them when he first entered the Games? Or did he have more physical strength than mental strength, already making him completely different from them? What did he do to put himself ahead of all the others tributes?

She sits up, ready to ask him until a strip of plastic is pushed into her hand. She turns her a head towards Teri, raising an eyebrow at him. Obviously wondering what it was and how he managed to make it without access to some sort of large machine. She feels small bumps against her palm and drags a finger over the bumps, jumping in surprise when she realizes that it was braille. What was he trying to tell her in such secrecy? Did he not trust them?

"So...I received a blind girl with no real talents to speak of, and a boy whose talents do not extend to the things that really matter in the arena." He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and resting his knuckles against the sides of his head. "You have given me quite a challenge. But if I could overcome the greatest challenge of all, then I suppose I can do this. Besides, there is no one without hope. What do we have if we do not have hope? Actually, don't answer that. We should discuss what will go down during your training. But first, eat. This is a rare thing indeed, such good food from the Capitol," he said, leaning back and gesturing to the table with one hand.

The other tribute from District One moved his eyes to stare back at her cooly, but other than that, made no other effort to get up. Print sighed. "I know your names, tributes. And I have no doubt you've trained above all else, being Careers. So why don't you sit down and eat?" The boy spoke, his voice deep, with an accent. "I am not hungry."

Aaron grinned, his teeth oddly white against his tattoos. "Good. I have no doubt that-" He paused. "It seems that Haymitch has finally decided to join us." Haymitch stumbled into the room, looking somewhere between drunk and sober. "So," he said bitterly, making his way over to the table. "More lambs to the slaughter." "Haymitch..." "HaYmItcH..." Haymitch mocked Aaron. He leaned over the side of the table, still clutching the neck of an empty liquor bottle, to stare at the two tributes. "You want to know why he's here? Because the Capitol thinks I'm crazy." "Haymitch." He ignored Aaron. "But the funny thing is, he is too. Didn't he tell you why he got those tattoos? To remember the lives of everyone affected by the deaths on his hands." "Haymitch!" Aaron stood up, grabbing the bottle out of Haymitch's hands, and despite the obvious height difference, grabbed his shoulder and pulled him up. "Go. Drink water and go to bed. You're drunk." An Avox appeared at Aaron's beckoning and took Haymitch away. Aaron sat back down, sighing. "He is right. But that's not important. What is important is that we discuss what will happen over the next few days."

June laughed bitterly. "I used to think like that too." Amber seemed nonplussed by the boy's words. She said cooly, "So what will you do next?" "My next job is to your know your strengths." "I can run," Amber volunteered. "With heavy loads on my back." "Durability. Good."

"Ohhhhhh," the man said, getting up. "That's what you meant. Well, I suppose-" "I speak French," the woman spoke up, uncrossing her arms and placing her hands on her hips. She continued staring at Faith, then said, in French, "I have not met another who speaks the old tounges in a while."

---

Teri taps Bree’s hand. On the Braille stamped plastic was written. “I’ll tell you all my true strengths if you prove I can trust you, and neither do I mind you giving me a challenge to prove my trust. I can’t trust Orin all that well, he’s really hard to read. Think about it, and reply in Morse code. “Apples” for yes, and “Hippos” for no. Try not to reply in simple yes or no, or Orin may be able to decipher it.” Teri speaks calmly to Orin. “I should need to ask. What art thou skills required in the Arena?”


Faith jabbered back rapidly in French. “I can’t master English, and except for a few basic words. So I learnt French, which was surprisingly easier for me. I speak an array of languages, but French is like my native tongue. Will you need to know what my strengths are?” She pauses for a while, then takes a piece of fruit and begins eating gingerly, having not sensed any poison in it.

---

"I can chop. Swing an axe. But I have never used one on anything but wood." He omitted the woodworking skill. It won't be useful in the arena anyways. No one needed him to make a chair from scratch out there. He finally decided he should actually eat something. He might as well enjoy as much as possible before he was slaughtered finally, in the arena.

---

Even though everything he said was true, Bree couldn't help but take offense to his words. She clenches her jaw and holds back the urge to insult him. He's just trying to help Bree reminds herself. Her cheeks redden at the mention of getting food. She couldn't really get food without some sort of assistance. But she would rather not ask for help, especially after everything Orin just told them. What would he think of her? She couldn't even do one of the most basic human instincts without help.

Fortunately, Teri unknowingly saved her from this embarrassment. It takes everything she has to not glance over at him again and give him a questioning look. It made sense not to trust the lady from earlier, but Orin was trying to help them! Why would he be hesitant to trust him? Orin had one thing that you couldn't learn from a book or screen- experience.

Even more confusing, was why Teri wanted to go into an alliance with her. He was smart, so he must not be crunching these numbers correctly. Sure, they are from the same district and she was much more likely to be the most loyal person out of the rest, but still, she had lots of- undesirable disadvantages. Whatever the reason is, it doesn't matter. I'll figure it out later. I'd be stupid to pass this opportunity up. "Do you have any apples?" Bree asks. "It may just be the stress, but I can't stomach a large meal right now. Something small and filling like an apple would be perfect." Now she would have to fight for his trust. That shouldn't be difficult, he did trust her enough to reveal his feelings towards the Capitol.