[ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ∴𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤∵]

[Euthymios]

♛───𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚
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『 𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗗 𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗦 ; 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗢 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 』

The sitting room for the train was lavish and homely, with expensive mahogany tables that reflected the ceiling chandelier’s light with a passion, and plush cushions artfully arranged on the equally plush sofas. A glass bowl of chilled fruit resting on ice cubes sat centerpiece on the table; perfectly ripe apples, oranges, peaches and plums tantalizingly beckoning her fingers toward them. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was a masterpiece, a radiant beacon of light and beauty. Boudica had never seen anything like it, so it was understandable if she was a bit wide-eyed. Even the carpet beneath her feet was soft and clean, lazily adorned with graceful, vibrant strokes with a masterful hand. It was elegance on a whole different level, but what Boudica appreciated the most was the abundance of open space. Nothing confining, with plenty of space to stretch out and relax. She hadn’t gotten to see her district partner, Lucius Eld, anywhere upon boarding the train, and she had no doubt that he’d likely start to hunt her down in an attempt to get closer. Hence the locked door. The fact that she hadn’t seen him sat well with Boudica. She was in no mood for conversation or company, and he would do well to remember that. The door did well to block out sound, which was something that Boudica was grateful for. There was the faintest inkling that she should probably get to know the other tributes, scout out their weaknesses and strengths and figure out if any of them wanted her head, but the very thought of sitting in a large group was not exactly appealing. Besides, she’d seen what she’d wanted to see on television already. What she was in the mood for was a snack and a good book. Several emotions were warring for her attention in the back of her head, although a creeping numbness pervaded every thought in her head, filling her being like a balloon. But there was still thought present.

Settling down on the couch with a freshly peeled apple in her left hand, Boudica tried to get a general grip on the situation, as well as recall any facts she could possibly call to mind. Which wasn’t exactly easy. Contrary to being organized and filled with tasks, Boudica found that her time was open and that her mind was utterly cold, devoid of feeling. It was probably shock, if she was being honest with herself. Fully aware that making a game plan for the three days of training, her final assessment and the hellish three weeks that was the Hunger Games would save her life, Boudica’s veins were buzzing. Calculating, like worker bees in a hive. Silent, yet their presence was undeniable; demanding with their silence. And that was always how Boudica had been. In wait, like a hungry lion wearing the cloak of a leopardess. Unfortunately, her thought train was interrupted by a knock at the door; hadn’t the locked door been enough to indicate that she wanted to be left alone? A very unladylike groan escaped her as she rather grudgingly got her lazy butt off of the couch that she had been sitting on for the past twenty minutes. Had it seriously been that long? Talk about being unproductive. Reflexively, she made sure that none of her irritation was showing on her face, since she didn’t really want Lucius poking, and unlocked the door. “It’s fine.” Boudica said evenly, keeping her voice neutral, but not overly friendly, “Do you need something Lucius? I’m surprised you aren’t in the common car, socializing.”

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— { Location; The Train; Feeling; Irritated; Courteous; District Two; Words; here Tags; Lucius; } —

[d0gteeth]

███░░░x( ➴ ) ━ 𝐉𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐑x░░░███

SHE HAS BEEN THROUGH HELL.
SO BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY,
FEAR HER WHEN SHE LOOKS INTO THE FIRE AND SMILES.

Huddled on the bed, the District 12 tribute let everything sink in. It was a big fat dose of reality.
She wasn't making it out this time.
Maybe there was a small chance she might, with her talents with a bow and innate survival skills, but she lucked out the last time with a forest for an arena. If only that were the case this time around. The gamemakers and president would ensure the arena was like no other and in doing so, make their deaths absolutely brutal. It was an endless list of possibilities and each one was worse then the last.
She tooled around with the remote on the beside table of her room. It was basically the same arrangement as far as appearance and placement of things as the room from her first games. She slide the screen on the remote upwards a couple of times before settling on the forest screen. It offered some comfort - some sense of home. She heard footsteps from outside her door in the hallway and assumed this was her male counterpart. Then again, this year one train picked up every district's tributes. This just meant more people she had to dodge, even if that wasn't the Capitol's intentions in setting it up like this. She'd be smart to make allies but making friends wasn't exactly.. her thing. She worked better alone anyway but these people had connections, they'd be working together. She wasn't sure she was enough against a bunch of previous victors who had years of training under their belt if they came from the higher districts. The situation was increasingly stressful.
She wished now, more then ever, she had her Father's book. Instead she had nothing. Jennifer drew her fingers over the satin sheets then turned to the bathroom. It was akin to what she now had at home - after moving to the Victor's Village - but far more technologically advanced. You pressed buttons instead of pulling a handle to activate the shower and it came with different settings. The bathtub had jets and automatic bubbles if you requested that. Lining the shelves were stacks of plush, white towels and bathroom utilities.
She drew herself a warm shower after figuring out how everything worked exactly. Scrubbing herself down and tending to her hair. Then, she stepped out and wrapped herself up to dry off. The Capitol provided them with clothes, filed into the dresser across the room from her bed. She shuffled through her options until she found something that didn't make her want to vomit. Their attire had always been so strange, it was basically their trademark. They may as well be human Barbie dolls. Except this time, the dolls were the ones doing the playing.
She sat back on the bed then and discovered the remote to the TV. She turned it on and sure enough, live runnings of the tributes being picked for the Quell were being played.

[sheepish]

˓〈 Ｌｕｃｉｕｓ　Ｅｌｄ 〉˒
━━━━━━━━━━location; district 2 cart━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━tags; boudica━━━━━━━━━━

　　lucius let out a small chuckle, from what he had experienced with her previously, albeit briefly, she hadn't changed in the slightest. it was comforting at least. he knew that she wasn't exactly friendly towards individuals like himself, so he didn't expect a warm reception. however, he believed that it was important that they got in a short conversation before reaching the tribute center. at her slight surprise that he wasn't socializing, he gave a half-hearted shrug. ❝oh. everyone was either contemplating their chances of survival or already chatting. i didn't want to interrupt either of those.❞ he explained, subconsciously playing the little gold loop that they have forced into his earlobe earlier. time to cut to the chase. he was probably already testing her patience. ❝i was just curious about your thoughts. i know you're a capable fighter, but i also know you are apprehensive about other careers. so is allying off the table?❞ it was very unlike lucius to talk business right off the bat. if nothing else, it revealed his anxiety and lack of focus.
　　realizing how forthright he was, he silently cursed himself as that was not the best way to ask someone if they wanted to trust their life with him in the arena. he couldn't expect an answer now. ❝oh, uh, just think about it. i don't need an answer now. i just thought you were a good choice and if you at least considered it, i'd be grateful.❞ there were many other tributes to consider as allies in the arena, but the woman from his district was his first choice. he felt he wouldn't be too upset if it just came down to just the two of them. clearly that would mean her victory, a victory for their district. that was the ideal situation.

˓〈 Ｚｅｒｅｎ 　Ｋｏｓ 〉˒
━━━━━━━━━━location; district 3 cart━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━tags; none, open━━━━━━━━━━

　　zeren was still locked into his district's cart. just like a child in timeout. this was aggravating for zeren but a part of him decided it was best this way. after testing the door after an hour to see if they would give him some freedom, he found he was still trapped in this room. that was truly unfortunate. sitting down on his bed that was far too plush, he let his body fall back so he could stare up at the ceiling. he hated coming back to the capitol, too many memories. too many things he thought were supposed to be happiness were snatched from him here. so he had to experience the reminders of these emotions once more. he would rather be numb and forget those feelings but ultimately his brain couldn't stop whirring. the odd smells brought scenes from years prior to play once more in his head, moments he wished he could forget. combing his fingers through his white hair, he knew sleep would only make things worse so he decided he needed to distract himself. there was food and drink, but he knew those distractions were painfully short-lived. so, he poked around until he found the remote for the television. scoffing, zeren knew they would only play the current tributes' games or the drawing of said tributes. tossing the thing aside, a little more digging found himself a book. he wasn't familiar with the title but didn't particularly care. for now, he decided to curl up and start flipping through the pages.

[natrillie]

𝒸𝓁𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝑒𝓏𝒾𝓁𝓁𝒾
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[ district four ] [ 26 ] [ mentioned: n/a ] [ tagged: atticus ] [ location: train common room ]

friendliness wafted out of atticus like the early stages of low tide. so, her hunch was correct, the man's warm smile and bouncy walk was a silent way of welcoming those who were comfortable enough to talk to him. this was rather rare in the games, especially this early on, as most tributes were still processing the idea that death was almost guaranteed to take them by the hand in the next few days. not to mention the fact that this wasn't this lot's first time fighting for their lives while the rest of the world kicks up their feet to watch.
a smile quickly pulled at clementine's rather bulbous cheeks as atticus guessed that she was from four, and while mentioning his own homedistrict of five. "yeah! pretty obvious from the seafood i guess." she chuckled a bit before pulling back the offered crab cake. atticus explained that he didn't eat meat, which was considerably respectable, as that made scavenging around for food a lot less difficult. "ah. that's neat. must make getting food on the table much easier." clem didn't think much before speaking, assuming that feeding oneself in the districts wasn't the easiest thing in the world. she was lucky though, as she lived directly on the coast, meaning if she wanted a quick meal all she had to do was pick up a pole, pull a fish from the ocean, and cook it. after a lifetime of this, clem wondered what it was like for the those who had to hunt, considering she had never killed a mammal in her life (if you don't count the two tributes from her games of course).
clementine's thoughts were brought back to the man in front of her as he asked her for her name, "clementine, clementine ezilli." she beamed at atticus as she spoke. "but crab cake girl works just fine." another muffled laugh escaped her lips as she felt herself relaxing from the tension of approaching a stranger. atticus had to have been the most welcoming tribute she'd met throughout the games, as majority of those she associated herself with from ten years ago were young and unnecessarily rude. "well atticus, cool name by the way, sounds powerful. very fitting for someone from five." clementine often found herself swerving off topic. "what's it like down there anyways. can't be much different from four considering we're right next to each other right?"