Tʜᴇ Hᴜɴɢᴇʀ Gᴀᴍᴇs ❧ A Rᴏʟᴇᴘʟᴀʏ discussion

The Training Center is beautifully decorated with fatal weapons, plants, knots, rock climbing, throwing, a running track, weight lifting, a camouflage station, knives, and bows—just to name a few. Peacekeepers are watching you, and other helpers for hand-to-hand combat. Use your imagination and play nice tributes!

Everest Mount. District Four. I will win the Games. I am twelve. Do it for my family. My brother. My mum. My dad. Myself.

"Woah..." Everest walks into the Training Center. The first thing she notices is the running track. That would be fun to do. She knows she's a fast runner.

So far, she's the only one in the room. Ev takes to the rock climbing, gears herself up, sets the timer, and climbs as fast as she can. A few Peacekeepers turned to look at her, some nodded in approval and kept watching, others grunted and walked away. Beep! Pressing the buzzer, she kicked herself off the wall, landed a few feet down, kicked again, then found herself on the floor.

Ev stopped the timer and saw, on the screen: 00m 17s 45ms
She climbed the wall and back down again in less than half a minute! That could do her some favours in the Games.

Mara walked into the Training Center, a sly smile on her face. This was like Heaven for her. All these weapons, they made her giddy. She ignored the girl that was at the rock climbing and made her way straight to the weapons. She scanned a knives rack. There were long daggers, small throwing knives, anything. She picked up three throwing knives and walked over to the targets.

There were dummies and traditional circular targets. Of course Mara went for the dummies. She smirked, gripping her first knife tightly. She lifted her arm and flicked her wrist, the knife whizzed toward the dummy, hitting it in the center of its throat. She took the second knife and threw again, this time hitting the center of its head. Her third knife found its place in the center of the dummy's chest. The knives were in a straight line down its body. It gave Mara a rush to hold a knife, reminding her of her father. She went over to the dummy and plucked each knife from it, and then walked over to the traditional targets, ready to throw her knives again.

As Ev took all the equipment off, a bold-looking girl walked into the Training Center. She walked right over to the knifes and started throwing three at separate dummies. Ev stared in amazement as she hit the dummie square in the chest, head and neck. How old is this girl? Ev wondered. She walked over, trying to look bold, because, inside, she felt scared.

Being from a Career district, she should bolden up a bit! "Hello." Ev picked up a knife. "I'm Ev." She threw it at the furthest target, hitting it in exactly the middle of the ring.

Elvira walked into the training center. She wasn't smiling, and she probably looked exhausted, though she wasn't. Elvira picked up a long knife, and a shorter one. She looked them over, and prodded each with her finger. Sharp. Strong. Perfect. Elvira balanced them in her hand. Again, perfect.

Elvira looked around the room, noticing another girl skilled with knives, and a Career district girl. She rolled her eyes, and wandered over to where you'd practice with holograms or something. She prodded a few buttons, and pulled up a swordman. Elvira hopped into where he was, and began fighting him. Sword versus daggers.

Don walked into the training center, which he really didn't need to be here or cared to be. He took big, scuffing steps and strolled around for a quite huffing and sighing dramatically. What was so special about this training center anyway? It looked like every single one he'd ever been in. With his arms folded over his chest, he leaned up against the sword station, eyeing the others for weaknesses and strengths. One climbed a rather short rock-wall wicked fast, and another starting with daggers. He watched intently, waiting for a mistake to be made.

Ev saw two other people walk into the room, one being a girl, who looked a bit annoyed, and another looking bored. She went over to him, but didn't say anything.

She picked up a sword and sharpened the tip, then pushed it so far into her skin it started to bleed. She swapped hands and did the same on all fingers apart from her thumb and last one. She then put both hands up to her face and smeared them across her cheeks. She now had blood war paint. Ev laughed a bit. This guy looked like he was from a Career District. Being from one herself, she wasn't really shocked to see him looking bored.

Ev spoke. "So. You've been here before huh? All this fancy stuff doesn't entertain you? I just climbed the wall over there. It's pretty boring. They could at least set fire to it, right?"

Don looked over at the small girl with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked, ignoring her questions.

I mean, this girl must be nuts... Why would she smear her own blood on her face?

"What do you mean, what the hell am I doing? I'm a warrior, see?" She pointed to the three blood marks on each cheek. "Never seen war paint?" Ev was shocked.

"No I have, just with paint." He scoffed, enunciating the word paint. "Never seen it done with blood... And, he paused, cocking his head to the left, "never seen a baby warrior before." Don smirked.

"Baby warrior?" Everest scoffed. "Come on, dude." She punched him in the shoulder. "District four. Fishing. Wealthiest out of them all. You're from, and your full name, please? That means first and last." She eyed Don up and down. He was well-built, nice smile. She couldn't calculate the colour of his hair. She was too busy keeping the gaze on his eyes.

Mara had turned to give a snarky reply to the girl who had approached her but as she turned, the knife dancing across her fingers, the girl had moved on to speak to another tribute. She eyed the girl, her eyes blazing with anger. Oh, so she wasn't important. This girl had found someone else to entertain her. She watched as the girl smeared her own blood on her cheeks. It made Mara snicker, watching the girl make a fool of herself. The boy she was talking to sparked a memory in Mara's mind. He was a Career, she'd seen him from the reapings. He was from District 1 and if Mara remembered correctly, the other girl was from District 4. She sneered, gripping her knife tightly. So they were all Careers. Without looking she flicked her wrist and her knife made it's mark in the center of a target. She walked over to the boy and Ev, was it Ev? She stopped to stand beside the boy, "Aw, sweetie, did you hurt yourself?" She asked, her cold eyes were like daggers. "If you want to, you can go over to the plant station, it's much easier." She sneered, looking at the blood on her face, that she purposefully placed there.

Everest didn't flinch when Mara came over. At least she thought it was Mara. Yes, it was. The same person she'd gone over to talk with first, but she got bored and had moved on.

"Yeah. My mummy says not to mess around, but I banged my fingers on the sharp corner of the table here, and I didn't know they were bleeding, until I smeared them across my cheeks and Don told me I was making a fool of myself." Everest knew how tacky the other Careers were. She stood up to her full height, which was only 5'6, and din't compare with Mara's height. She was only making herself look smaller.

"How tall are you, exactly? You're scaring me." Ev's eyes narrowed. "And I've already tried out the plant station. It was too hard, I didn't get any right." That was a lie. She'd got 33 right out of 35, which was good for her. But Mara didn't need to know.

((Whoops sorry I was reading my book! ))

"Donovan Leroy Hamilton." He stated, holding a hand out.

((Haha it's okay!))

"Everest Mount." She took his hand, and shook it. "Don't mistake me for the Mountain you might have heard of, Mount Everest. I don't know where it's located, but I'm not nearly as tall as it." Ev started to get a dagger from nearby and pricked Don's arm. It started to bleed, so she stuck three fingers in from both hands and smeared three lines across both his cheeks.

Ev blushed a little. "Now we're matching."

"Obviously," he commented after she said she wasn't as tall at the humongous mountain. Don't eyes stayed straight and focussed on her eyes as she sliced a small section of his arm and drew blood drawings on his cheek. "What are you doing?" He asked, his brow drawn together.

"Giving you war paint." Ev mumbled. "If you don't like it I can wipe it off. I just thought we could make ourselves look like we already had an alliance, you know? Scare the other tributes off. If you don't want it..." Emily swallowed. "How old are you?" He's from District One... I can't ask him again. I think he's from One...

"You're from One aren't you? Sorry if you've already told me. I was plotting how to kill people." Ev wanted to make herself sound like she had a good grip on the Games. She hadn't even thought about how to kill anyone yet.

Don's eyebrow flicked up. "Oh were you know?" He asked sarcastic. "District 1, and I'm 18 years old." He said, and didn't care who knew. His mom was practically a celebrity, everybody knew about him. "So, what is a little tiger like you good at? Wait, wait, let me take a guess. Fishing, nets, quick swimmer." He said, whipping off his face with the back side of his hand.

"Eight-eighteen..." Ev hadn't had a conversation with someone the much older than her, apart from her family. Don slightly scared her.

"I'm not your typical District Four, Donovan. I'm good at climbing, running, and finding a water or a food source. I mostly stick to the... what do you call it? Boring job, let's say. So, what is a bigger tiger like you good at? Wait, wait, let me take a guess. Swords, running and one-on-one?" Ev sneered, copying what Don had just said, but putting emphasis on the fact he was a bigger tiger, since he's taller than her.

"You guessed it. I supposed I'm more stereo-typical then you are. But my skill range is far more wide than yours I'm sure." He said, waiting to see her response.

Mara had been completely ignored by the two, except Ev, whom had spoken with her briefly. She clenched her jaw, she understood now. They were too busy flirting than to notice her. She stalked off without another word. She'd plan how to kill them later.

Ev laughed. "Shut up." She smacked his face lightly. Mara stalked off, obviously annoyed that both of them had ignored her. "Well, of course they weren't all of my skills. I wouldn't have told you every one, would I? That would be a waste of both of our time." Ev sat down on the floor, thinking hard. She took out her plait and re-plaited it, took it out and re-plaited it. Don seemed nice. If only he'd loosen up on her.

"Mhm, excellent tactic." He said as he lowered to her level, shooting a dashing smile with closed lips. "So, do you want to give me an example of just how good you are?" He asked, curious, but he wanted to treat the situation like an interview or audition for his alliance.

"Sure, why not." Ev shrugged. She took his hand and led him over to the Rock-Climbing wall. She passed him the timer. "When I say go, press the button, and see how long it takes me to climb to the top and back down again." She geared herself up. "Go!" Ev started up the wall, and got to the top within a matter of seconds. She leaped back down, waiting for Don to stop the timer. "How long did that take?" She smiled.
"I still have plenty skills left, if you're bothered to see them?" Ev asked.

"1 minute on the dot. Not bad," he commented. She had, indeed, climbed to the top of a larger wall then before. She could be useful to him, but she was so small. He'd do much of the protecting, and he wasn't big on little kids. "So tell you what. Show me your plant skills. I wanna see that." He said with a smirk. He didn't exactly want an alliance with a 12 year-old.

"Okay." They both walked over to the plant station. A massive keyboard was on a stand, with pictures of plants. Ev pressed 25 out of 40 of them, they all highlighted green, and she had done it. "They were all poisonous." Ev paused, then blinked as she remembered how he said he wanted to see her knowledge of plants. There was something he wasn't telling her. "I've showed you two extra skills. Your go." Ev replied.

With his natural smirky face, he unraveled his arms from his chest and tapped a finger on a red flower that looked like a rose. It lit up green, and a voice sounded:" complete." He blinked. Everything was a competition to him. "You missed one."

Mara had gone back to the weapons and quietly inspected them. She watched Don and Ev from the corner of her eye. She shook her head, Don was making a mistake, even if Ev was a Career, she was 12 and didn't have much experience. She took some knives and lazily threw them, each hit the dummies in the heart. She sighed, this was boring. She did this everyday, it wasn't anything special.

Don noticed a girl throwing knives, she was talented yes, but didn't seem like anything special.

Mara grew even more annoyed as she continued to throw. She picked up another knife and with all the force she could muster, she threw it. The knife went straight through the dummy's throat, the knife's point was sticking out the other end. Mara then took another knife and flicked her wrist, sending the knife to the spot where an eye should have been. She chuckled, twirling the third knife between her fingers before launching it to pierce the dummy's head, lodging it deep. She turned to see Don watching her, she looked him up and down, he was definitely a Career. She gave him a quick glance, briefly locking eyes with him.

Don shot her an approving side-smile. She was good. Obviously dangerous, and a bit more interesting then she was before.

Mara cocked her head to the side, smiling slyly. She took a knife and launched it across the room to fall, hilt up, the blade lodged into the ground, just in front of Don's feet. She raised an eyebrow, almost as if saying: "Wanna try?" She wanted to see if he'd actually come over.

Donny looked down, then back up, biting his lip at her. He mouthed: "I'm not that great the knives. I'll show you spears tho."

He smiled, eyeing her playfully.

Mara smirked, raising an eyebrow. Don bit his lip, smiling at her. He was good, all the girls back home would have probably melted with that look in his eyes but Mara didn't even think twice about it. She broke into a playfully evil smile, walking over to the spears, looking at him from over her shoulder.

"Hey, I'm gonna go talk to her over there.." He said to Ev, a bit too eager. He jogged over to her, walking as he got closer. He leaned on his elbow at the table. "Well hello there." He said, smiling with the corner of his mouth.

Mara looked up at him, her bright, blue eyes starring at him curiously. "Well, hello," She repeated, standing close to Don. "I'm Mara and you are?" She asked, batting her long eyelashes, smiling. His eyes were a mysterious grey and his skin was pale, as was hers.

"Donovan Leroy Hamilton, and it's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance." He said, gray eyes beaming up at her as he took a little bow. "And you district?" He asked, kissing her hand.

Mara smiled down at him as he bowed, kissing her hand. She forced her cheeks to stay their pale white but a bit of pink showed. "Donovan, what a lovely name." She said, her voice quiet. "I come from District 2, and you are-if I remember correctly-from 1?" She said, remembering how she had heard his conversation with Ev, as he had ignored her. She wondered if he was only playing her now, with his charm and good looks.

"You've got it, District one, the Land of Luxury." He announced, rather loud and dramatic. "So, your amazing at knives." He commented.

As soon as the swordsman came at her, Elvira swiped his blade away, hissing. She noticed that the Careers and some other girl were talking, but not watching her. Elvira took all that in in less than half a second, as her opponent fell forward from the strength of his first attack. The simulation turned, facing Elvira more cautiously. It aimed a downward stroke, which she easily stopped, holding her large knife up with the smaller one, with a clang and some sparks.

The simulation pulled away, charging its sword right to Elvira's heart. She dogged out of the way, now only playing with it. It feinted a downward stroke into an upwards one, which Elvira shoved aside with her knife, then used her shorter one and threw it into the simulation's heart, dead on.

Elvira growled softly in triumph, and picked up her knife. She noticed a few Gamemakers nodding at her work, and one even bowed his head, ever so slightly.

Mara chuckled, smiling as Don announced his District. "Why, thank you." She said, slightly smirking when he complimented her. "I bet you're great with spears since you suggested to show me." She said, taking a spear from the table and handing it to Donny. From the corner of her eye, Mara could see a girl fighting with a simulation. Not bad, she thought but not good enough.

Elvira turned just to see some Career girl judging her. She held in a sigh, and simply smiled, knowing what the girl must be thinking. She went back over to the set-up for one, and made it be considerably harder. Instead of one person, two.

Elvira stepped back up onto the simulation, and felt it buzz as it started. She opened her eyes, quick and calculating. One was behind her, the other in front. Elvira quickly threw her dagger at the one behind her, and backed up as it disappeared, leaving behind her knife. The simulation in front of her charged, and Elvira faked stumbled back, her hand landing on her knife. The simulation wasn't fast enough, and it swung and missed.

Elvira hopped up, her shorter knife in one hand, the long one deadly in the other. She grinned as the simulation turned to face her.

Don blushed. "Well swords are my specialty, but spears are a close second." He said winking. He took the spear in his hand, and in one swift movement, the spear was across the room in the shoulder of a dummy. His left left leg raised in the throw, he lowered it and looked back to Mara. "So...?" He asked, looking for approval. "Shall I throw another? Or are you bored yet?" He chuckled.

Mara had a small smile on her face when Don's face turned a light shade of scarlet. She didn't say anything, which was odd for her. She would usually take something like that and make fun of someone for it but she stayed quiet. She watched as the spear made its way to the dummy's shoulder. She looked up at him, "Well done.. But next time, bend you knees just a little bit more, it'll help with the speed of your spear." She said, averting her eyes to look at the spears on the table. She was hesitant to give advice and as much as she hated to admit it, Don could beat her to a pulp. "I am not bored, not yet." She said, this time it was her turn to wink as she handed him another spear to throw again.

Donny tilted his head up, looking down at her. "Oh really?" He asked, taking another spear, taking a step, and bending his knees. The spear went whizzing, intercepting the Dummy's right knee. His aim was the best, as he meant to hit those areas, instead of fatal shots.

Ev looked at Don as he pressed one flower. "You missed one." He started to smirk. Ev cocked her head to one side. It was only one. At least she knew the rest were okay.

"Well, yeah, but at least I got-" She was interrupted when Don said he was going over to talk to Mara. Ev was left standing at the plant station.

A fast movement caught Everest's eye, and she turned to find someone fighting one-on-two with fake enemies. She walked over. She could easily have done that, but she didn't say anything. This girl was good at battle, and would make a great ally in the Games. If Don wasn't going to accept her request, she doubted Mara would either. They were two busy blushing at each other and throwing spears. He didn't even bother to ask me if I were any good at spears. I'll show him.

So as to not distract the girl fighting - she would go back to her once she'd finished her game - Ev walked over to where Mara and Don were stood. They were spinning spears in their hands. Ev picked one up from the table, totally blanking them, as if they weren't there. She took another spear, and threw them both at the same time to the dummy on her left, both spears hitting the knees of the dummy.

"Oh, sorry. Were you going to use those?" Ev asked in an innocent voice. They were all from Career Districts. She still had the Blood War Paint on her cheeks, but it didn't bother her. She wasn't fazed by that sort of thing. "There are four more left on the table. If you're not going to throw them, I will."

He smiled, "Nice shot! And your free to use them, they'll get us more." He said with a grin. He was impressed with Ev, but he wanted a partner in crime, not a babysitting job.

"Nice shot? I barely tried." Ev snorted. The only way Don could make Ev feel like he actually appreciated what she did was for him to throw a compliment, to mean it. And like that was going to happen.

Everest picked up another spear. "I'll aim for the stomach." She threw, and that's where it hit. Ev acted as if she didn't know Don. She held out her hand. "Everest Mount, District Four, Fishing. And you are?" She let a little smile tug at the corners of her mouth, and her eyes softened a bit.

"Don't get to cocky okay? That won't get you any allies." He said, hoping it came off more as a warning then a suggestion. He smiled calmly, to soften to the mood. He laughed, not to loudly or obnoxiously, just lightly at himself. He made eye contact with Mara for a split second. He wondered if she would like Ev, even if she was a little full of herself.

Don picked up a spear, and threw it. The spear interjected the dummy's jaw, stopping in the middle of the skull. Donny winced for a split second. He didn't mean to hit there. The shoulder; he was aiming for. He gave a weak smile, attempting to cover that up.

Ev's mouth dropped open. "Woah, how- how did you do that? You've got to show me! It didn't even cut it off! It just stopped in the middle of the throat! That was great!" Ev's feeble attempt to hit the stomach seemed rubbish against this.

She knew he wasn't aiming for the jaw, but she didn't let on, and with her great acting, he'd never know that she knew he'd gone wrong.