🦋 The 20th Hunger Games ➵ Victor: Penny

[honeybee.]

Caspia Searobin | District 4 | Location: East Camp | Tags: Eden, Killick, Moses, Sienna --> Chaska, Gloria, Eden
Caspia watched as finally Reyna's head was taken clean off of her shoulders and the boom of a cannon was heard. A few moments later Rieka was also gone and the cannon fired once again. At least the little girl's pain and fear had ended, though the anguished response of Moses made her eyes blur just a little. Chaska took off at speed and she realised that he must have spotted where Reyna's ally, Sharnaz, had headed. Caspia fidgeted, wanting to follow but not wanting to abandon the post she'd taken up. The Careers were made to hunt in a pack, a Career alone was at a far higher risk of being picked off with dirty tricks. Plus, she'd left Reyna to the others and Caspia was still aching for a genuine fight. She didn't have to fidget for long though as Eden tasked her and Gloria with heading after their ally. "I'm on it," She told him, "If we see the coward we'll make sure she realises the error she's made."
She looked to Gloria now. Caspia was not one to forgive quickly, and she wasn't going to forget Gloria's earlier words but now the Careers had a task to complete and grudges could be saved for later. She nodded respectfully at the girl and her knives. "Let's go." With that she began to run across the plains after the figure of Chaska, which had been getting steadily smaller. At least this had all taken place in the East, where they could see for a further distance. It would be far more difficult to follow their ally in the pine forest of the North, although that seemed to be where Sharnaz was heading. She heard Chaska's battle cry, suggesting that he'd caught up to their enemy. Caspia just kept running. She would not slow down until she reached them.

———

Felix Prestman | District 12 | Location: Heading West | Tags: Penny
Penny had seemed to like Felix's idea but as he looked at her face he saw tears begin to form in her eyes. His own smile fell and a flustered expression instead appeared on his face. "Oh no, Penny. I didn't - I didn't mean to upset you." It had been stupid of him. They were tributes in the Hunger Games and tributes didn't get to have dreams, especially not dreams like this. There was nothing he could say. Even if one of them managed to win, surviving to see their own future fulfilled meant the other would be gone. That sudden realisation being brought back to mind made his hands shake once again. What was the point in continuing? Surely it would be better to die now, not have to continue with such fear or dread. But no. Maverick had told him that the key to getting through the games was hope, and he had at least one reason to be hopeful. Gently he took Penny's hands and squeezed them. "I can't spout some optimism about the future but I can say at least that it's nice to be here, stuck in this valley, with you."

[rose petals.]

GᒪOᖇIᗩ ᒪᗩᑕE
|female|2|career|tags: careers|

Gloria did not like being told what to do, especially by that district one boy who somehow called himself a career. However she wasn't going pass up a chance to go chase down a fleeing tribute. Unfortunately of all people she had to go with Caspia, and Gloria knew their relationship was less than stable. Caspia made some speech about cowards and killing sharnaz or something but gloria didn't even pretend to listen to a word that came out of the district four girl's mouth. "Yeah whatever." Gloria huffed and hared after Caspia and Chaska.

ᑭEᑎᑎY ᔕYᒪᐯEᔕTEᖇ
|female|8|tribute|tags: felix|

Penny felt terrible for bringing down the mood- she hadn't meant to! The girl quickly shook her head. "No, no, no. It's okay- sorry!" But Felix took her hands and Penny blushed, she squeezed his hands back in return, trying to wear a brave smile, but fear still clouded her mind. "Thank you Felix." Penny murmured, unable to shake the blush in her cheeks. "That really means a lot to me... I can't think of a single person I'd rather be trapped in a valley with than you." The last part was at least a small attempt at humor, but she really meant it all the same.

[a b c d e]

➵Zoe Marius of District 11
➵Tags: Demitra
➵Location: East

Zoe nodded in agreement with her ally's words. She's smart, she thought admiringly. Or observant, at least. They started moving through the grass. Demitra's footsteps were a little harsher with her compact body, but she moved stealthily enough. And when Demitra held up the knife, Zoe's heart stuttered a beat. Images flashed through her head: a shining bolt shooting through the air, Colby's limp body as he took the blow for her, the Capitol hovercraft whirring overhead, the cannon shooting. Wait. That wasn't a memory. The ring of the cannon hung in the air and Zoe instinctively backed away from the sound. "I-I think we should go," she said nervously. She didn't know who had died, but she knew that there could be more. She started to move more urgently forward. "C'mon. We don't want to get on the bad side of the Careers."

[MrNewYorkChef]

☭ 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚜𝚔𝚊 𝚂𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚡 ☭
District 2 || Career || Male || Eighteen || The Mad Dog

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☭ Location: Eastern Quadrant
☭ Tags: Sharnaz, Caspia, Gloria
☭ Mood: Focused
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.
Chaska caught up to Sharnaz fairly quickly as soon as he let out his battle cry, she seemed to come to her senses and turned to face him. Swinging forwards and he swung towards the slightly taller tribute with his scythe, however it seemed that Sharnaz was faster and she was quickly out of his reach. It was then that he realized that his movements were slower than usual, maybe it was due to him not getting any sleep that night. Or maybe it was something else. Regardless of the reason instead of discouraging the career it instead encouraged him and he found himself throwing his everything into this mini dance. It was like a cat and mouse game were the mouse was fast but not nearly fast enough to land any solid blows and the cat wasn't fast enough to land many blows. It was a battle that would have gone on until one of them collapsed from exhaustion. Chaska realized that he would probably fall before the dishonorable tribute from five. With a well calculated move he slowed down just enough to allow her one blow, a strike to his abdomen. Her initial strike would have caused him to end up with a similar wound to Rieka. However at the last moment he moved slightly so that the dagger sank into his side.

With her so close he swung upwards with the scythe and nearly took of her arm. Had she stayed still he could have but the moment his scythe came into contact with her arm she jerked to the side, the scythe gouged her arm deep enough for her to release the dagger. It wasn't deep enough to stop her from trying to slash open his thighs with her other dagger. Chaska wasn't fast enough to step back and her daggers sliced cleanly through his upper thighs, without his biding his knees gave way at the shock. However instead of allowing her to get away with that he dropped his scythe and swung upwards with the long sword. Managing to catch Sharnaz ever so slightly he hit her shoulder as she jerked away. As he caught himself before he fully hit the ground he watched as she spun around clutching her arm and dashed away. As injured as he was he wasn't about to go racing after the tribute. Instead he straightened up and watched her disappear into the distance. Slowly he turned to face whomever was behind him. Thankfully it was Caspia and Gloria. Once he had established that they were allies he glanced down at his side and only then seemed to register that the dagger was stuck in his side all the way to the hilt. Regarding it with a mild expression he found himself pondering the fact that his side made a very good sheath, to bad it hurt to much to actually use as a real sheath.

☣ 𝒮𝒽𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒶𝓏 𝒜𝒹𝓋𝒶𝓃𝒾 ☣
District 5 || Tribute || Female || Seventeen || The False Prophet

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☣ Location: Eastern Quadrant
☣ Tags: Chaska, Caspia, Gloria
☣ Mood: Focused
◣xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx◢

.
At the battle cry Sharnaz realized there was no getting away from this crazy career. So instead of going down like a coward she spun around and stood her ground. At the first swing she realized something, she was faster than this smaller career. Oh she was also a little taller than him. Striking forward she found that despite being faster he was also just fast enough to evade the worst of her strikes. Spinning and vaulting around each other, it was like a morbid kind of dance. Despite having no official training even she could spot the deadly beauty in their battle. Each going for a strike while the other danced out of the way. Unlike Chaska though she didn't even realize that this deadly battle would come to an end eventually. The idea of collapsing from being to tired to move didn't even cross her mind. That is until she managed to land a strike, she had been aiming for his abdomen, she wanted to take him out the same way Reyna had killed Rieka. A morbid kind of salute to her one and only former ally.

However it was all a trap, something she realized as soon as that scythe arched towards her and hit her arm. Releasing the dagger with her left hand she jerked away with a grunt of pain. Not to be outdone however she slashed across his thighs. Too bad for Chaska that she actually managed to land her blow at the speed she wanted. However the power behind was lacking due to it being her non-dominate hand. She would have gone for another blow but as she looked over Chaska's shoulder she spotted something that chilled her to the bone. Two more careers were hauling butt towards them. As she froze Chaska swung upwards with Reyna's long sword and managed to catch her shoulder as she jerked away. Spinning on her heel she grasped her left arm with her right hand and bolted. She ran like her life depended on it, and it did. She was no longer searching for north, she was just running blindly away from the careers.

[MothAndMoss]

Madeline Gomez//District 1//Female//A brat//Tagged; Careers

Madeline had made her way back to camp when the others had left, sitting down on the ground. She didn’t know what to do. What was going to happen when they came back? She wasn’t going to apologize, even if she could talk at the moment.

Her throat still hurt, she really shouldn’t have screamed for so long. Now she had lost her stupid voice. At least the other Careers wouldn’t have to deal with her stupid insults for a while!

It seemed like they were heading back to the camp, with more people. EW! MORE PEOPLE! If only she had to voice so she could yell at Eden for bringing other people to their camp.

Jay Fernandez//District 11//Male//Tagged; Sienna and Moses, Careers

Jay continued to sob, there was nothing else he could do. There was nothing left to do. There was no way to save Reika anymore. She was going to leave them.

He sniffled and nodded at Eden’s request. He turned away from the scene, picking the pink flowers that had bloomed behind him. He picked all of them and handed them to Eden. He wished he had learned how to weave flower crowns. He could’ve made Reika the prettiest flower crown, just for her. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to.

He sat down near Eden and Reika, listening to Eden’s story. It was a beautiful story, he would’ve complimented Eden’s story if he were able to talk through his cries. He listened to Reika as she spoke, unable to say anything back. He felt as if his heart had shattered into a million pieces when Reika said goodnight.

He covered his ears as Moses shrieked, it had scared him. It scared him even more when Moses shouted at Sienna. It was scary, he knew Moses was grieving too but the aggressiveness behind his words and actions terrified Jay. Moses wouldn’t hurt them intentionally, he knew that, but he was worried that Moses would hurt them accidentally.

He didn’t hesitate when Sienna called him over, immediately walking over to her after he had quickly taken down their tent and grabbing onto her shirt as he walked with her to their new camp.

He still couldn’t believe Reika was gone. Who was going to go next? Would it be him? Would it be a painful death? It worried him. Who would be next? Who?

((I had to write this pretty fast cause I got dragged to the beach with relatives

[Pistol Annie #1 NPC]

➵ Demitra Sparks
The moment Demitra pulled out the knife, she noticed her ally's horrified reaction. So you do remember...
Demitra didn't speak a word, just regarded Zoe with an impassive expression for now. She'd have to come clean sooner than expected. As two cannons fired, her younger teammate seemed even more on edge, picking up the pace with a stutter in her voice.
"Agreed," Demitra muttered as she fell in line beside Zoe. "I hate all Careers. They pretend they have honor, but I've watched enough Hunger Games to see what they're really like. Willing to kill their injured allies as soon as they outlive their usefulness."
She still felt disgusting and uncomfortable about the whole trying-to-kill Zoe incident, and this rant was her way of taking out those negative emotions. "They can cry about it - 'It would be cruel to leave them to suffer!' - but it's all lies and excuses. I hate them all."
She fell silent, stewing with rage as they approached the lake. At this point she wasn't sure if she was angry at the Careers or at herself. It's easy to hate the Careers, but... the truth is... my hands are far from clean.
Demitra let out a sigh and turned to her ally, a hint of emotion in her once-cold eyes. "Zoe, I have to tell you something."



➵ Eden Beauregard of District One
➵ Location: Heading back to camp --> Careers' camp
➵ Tagged: Gloria, Caspia, Killick, Sienna, Moses, Jay, Madeline
"Thank you," Eden called after his allies as they ran off. He was terrible at staying mad, so the earlier behavior from Gloria and Madeline now gathered dust in a distant corner of his mind. They were still loyal Careers, even if they didn't always act like it. Hopefully his district partner would return soon. It'd been a bad idea for her to wander off; Eden was on the same wavelength as Caspia and remembered the fates that befell isolated Careers. Gabriel, Sam, Valentia, Altaira... they were all alone when cowards struck them down.
Sienna thanked Eden as she dragged her grieving allies along. Moses didn't seem to want to leave, and Jay had an all too familiar look of shell-shocked horror. He'd seen the same look in his veteran mother's eyes as flashes of the Dark Days tormented her awake. Both boys were devastated by the loss, and Eden was starting to wonder if they'd ever be able to recover. It made his heart ache.

But he had to stay strong. These poor tributes just lost their ally, Eden had to do everything in his power to help them.
"I'm happy to help." He reached out and took Sienna's hand, giving it a soft squeeze of reassurance. "The three of you can stay the night, you look exhausted." Eden meant it on his Career's honor, something so important to him. No proper Career would attack them when they were hurting like this, it wouldn't be fair or honorable. That kind of disgraceful behavior counted as a dirty trick. Only cowards would pick on emotionally vulnerable tributes on purpose; true warriors showed them mercy and preferred to target more ruthless opponents.

As Eden returned to camp, he breathed a sigh of relief to see Madeline sitting in the grass unharmed. She seemed disgruntled by the appearance of several non-Careers, but oddly enough, no threats nor insults flew from her mouth. Madeline would never be this "polite" of her own accord though. Eden frowned, immediately assuming she'd hurt her throat with all that screaming.
"I'm glad you're back. Are you okay?" Eden asked, nothing but concern in his gentle eyes. "Also, these are our guests - Sienna, Moses and Jay. They helped us take down that dreadful Reyna. Please treat them gently, they just lost a dear friend."

He smiled apologetically as his gaze flicked to the gutted fish. Caspia and Chaska had done an amazing job, much better than squeamish Eden could have managed. "Ah, sorry it smells like fish. Does anyone want to help cook dinner? My swords are clean, the plan was to spear fish on them to roast over the fire. And, right... the first aid kit is over here."
He picked up the kit from where it lay on the floor. Handing it to Sienna, he smiled at her and the boys. Right now it was Eden's responsibility to keep a positive, peaceful attitude so they could all heal. "If there's anything you need, please let me know."

[honeybee.]

Caspia Searobin | District 4 | Location: East Camp | Tags: Chaska, Gloria, Sharnaz
Far ahead Caspia could see Chaska and Sharnaz in a beautiful, deadly dance. As she ran she could see them with their blades darting in and out. Caspia could do nothing but keep running. As they got closer she saw Sharnaz’s expression turn horrified over Chaska’s shoulder. Then Chaska had fallen to his knees and she had bolted. Reaching the site of the fight, Caspia was more than ready to continue on after her, though she’d probably never catch up, but she skidded to a shocked half upon realising that there was an entire dagger embedded in her allies side. Sounding stressed, she cursed before speaking. “Oh, great depths Chaska, I’m sorry, we should have come after you sooner.”
It seemed their feeble first aid skills would be needed again but Chaska was still standing at least.
“You’ll be alright to get back to camp won’t you?” There was a slight tone of pleading in her voice as she asked the question. She was hoping his injury wasn’t as bad as it looked, but the thought of being stabbed with the full blade of a dagger was an unpleasant one.

———

Felix Prestman | District 12 | Location: Heading West | Tags: Penny
Felix couldn’t tell whether his words had done much to cheer Penny up, but she at least seemed to earnestly agree with the sentiment. It took him a little too long to realise he was still holding her hands, and quickly let go, feeling heat rise to his cheeks. “We should probably start walking again soon, before any more of the rocks decide to move” He suggested, clambering down off the rock and beginning to pick the rest of the ripe strawberries growing out of the crack in the cliff face and put them in their cooking pot for whilst they were walking.

[Runnersback]

➵Sienna Mach-North| D7 |17|Tags:Moses,Jay,Eden & careers| loc:career camp
Sienna felt Jay run up and cling to her shirt, she took her free hand and gently rubbed his shoulder before kissing his head in a sisterly motion. She had to make sure Jay stayed away from Moses for a while she could sense how fear and the way he had covered his ears in Moses’s wails.But she managed to balance dragging Moses, cuddling Jay, and squeezing Eden’s hand back. Sienna had to stay strong for them even though she knew it was going to be hard.“Thank you...I’m more worried about the boys then anything. But I’ll be all right.”She said softly with soft numbness setting into her heart.

When they finally made it Sienna settled Moses by a Oak tree nook to get some air and hopefully calmed down before taking Jay with her and following Eden over to his district partner.“Hello, it’s nice to meet you. Thank you for for sharing your camp with us. We’ll be gone by dawn so we don’t intrude.” She said gently just hoping she wouldn’t be treated like a injured jabberjay. But she knew her allies needed that extra sense of empathy and love. Sienna softly rubbed Jay’s back and rubbed his cheek,“Jay I just want to say I’m sorry for Moses’s behavior and that he means well but he’s just.... He just needs a little time. Maybe set the tent up away from him. I’ll keep watch on both you and Moses.” She said gently as she sent the boy away to distract himself.

Sienna had moved away to check on Moses briefly and noticed the green forming on the scratches on face. She sighed softly hearing Eden continuing talking and softly took the first aid kit from him.“If you need more fish I have three in my pack you can have and thank you once again...I’m really sorry for all of this though.” Sienna said opening up the kit.“Eden... This is your first aid kit at least let me use it to bandage your back before I use it on my allies.You’ve been kind to us especially me since day one.At least let me do this to repay you. Plus I worry.” She said sheepishly pulling out a few alcohol cleaning wipes and bandages. Sienna softly lifted up his shirt and started gently cleaning it up with wipes. She worked fast and started wrapping bandages around him before she took a small flat metal clip and clipped it so they wouldn’t release if he ever shifted. Sienna tugged his shirt down softly and gently lifted up on her feet to kiss his forehead like everyone always did in seven. She didn’t mind if he took it the wrong way but she did care about him. Soon she moved on to tend to Moses cautiously.

➵Moses Grandy| D7 |18|Tags:Sienna,Jay,careers| loc: career camp
Moses was just being dragged and frankly he had no means of talking anymore. He had noticed Jay run up and he had just adverted his eyes to the sky, numbly listening to Eden and Sienna talk before Sienna spoke to Jay. They had stopped moving more like he had stopped moving. He just glared as he came into view of the girl from district one but luckily he was yards apart. Moses gritted his teeth before he started aggressively grinding them. He was angry, and sweaty, and absolutely gross he felt like he was being burned alive but at the same time he was oh so cold. Moses just sat there writhing under the tree before he rubbed his hand over his stubble coated jaw. Stubble? He was all ready growing a scratchy beard. Disgusting. The redhead just glared angrily at everyone and everything, this was his fault. He had failed Rieka and he was going to take it out on himself. Internally his mind was shrieking insults and death threats to himself as he started to shake.

[Pistol Annie #1 NPC]

➵ Eden Beauregard of District One
➵ Location: Careers' camp
➵ Tagged: Killick, Sienna, Moses, Jay, Madeline
Poor Sienna, she kept a level head but Eden could almost sense the emotional pain she must be burying. Rieka's death had torn a hole in everyone's hearts, a void that could never be filled. Only time would soothe the terrible emptiness if it healed at all.
There was only one tree near the Careers' wide-open camp, an old oak grown tall and gnarled. That's where Sienna set down her mourning district partner. Eden looked at Moses in sympathy; the poor fellow seemed to be losing himself to the tides of grief, made even worse by infected scratches on his face. As for little Jay, Sienna sent him to set up a sleeping place for the three. If only it was four.

"Awww, thank you for the offer," Eden murmured as Sienna mentioned sharing her own fish. "But please keep those for your allies. Our camp is by the river, so we can easily catch more. Plus we have District Four." He turned, directing a smile at Killick.
Eden returned his gaze to Sienna as she opened up the first aid kit. Her kindness brought tears to his eyes, and this time he couldn't hold them back. "Oh..." He murmured, wiping his face with a sleeve. "Thank you, Sienna. I was right to trust you. As for my back, I don't think it's as bad as it must look... it's just a surface cut really. Please don't worry too much. But, still, thank you for helping."
He felt a little self-conscious as she lifted his shirt to dress the wound, but the embarrassment wouldn't kill him. Sienna worked with swift, gentle hands that cleaned and bandaged him up in no time. Before he knew it, she was already done. Impressive!

"I'm impressed. Caspia and I were the unofficial medics of our alliance and we're nowhere near as quick-" Eden's compliments were cut short by warm lips pressed against his forehead. Words failed him at that point as his cheeks turned a shade of freshly-picked apple red.
By the time he regained his senses, Sienna was already off to treat her district partner. What was this odd, fluttering feeling in his chest? Totally flustered, he rubbed the back of his neck and turned to little Jay. Eden's heart went out to the poor baby. He must be so afraid... He'd just lost his best friend, survived an encounter with several killers, and now he was surrounded by Careers.
"If you need any help, let me know okay?" Eden told the child in a gentle voice. He kind of wanted to offer a hug, but he was aware of the stereotype that Careers' hugs were somehow bad. Still, Jay looked like he really needed comfort... "Do you need a hug?"

[rose petals.]

GᒪOᖇIᗩ ᒪᗩᑕE
|female|2|career|tags: chaska, caspia, knife|

Gloria ran over and took in the situation. Pitiful bastard. She thought, watching as Sharnaz disappeared into the trees. The second thing after Sharnaz that Gloria noticed was the knife protruding from Chaska's side. "Nice jewelry Chaska." The girl scoffed. "I didn't realize we were wearing knives now." Although her comment was meant passive aggressively, Gloria couldn't help but think that a dress made out of knives would look quite spectacular. Folding her arms, Gloria thought Caspia was overreacting. Maybe the training schedule in 4 wasn't as strict but it wasn't like Gloria hadn't been stabbed before. Of course she couldn't speak for her district mate of course.

ᑭEᑎᑎY ᔕYᒪᐯEᔕTEᖇ
|female|8|tribute|tags: felix|

Penny giggled quietly, maybe just to alleviate the awkwardness. "Sounds like a good plan." She said, wrapping her fabric square around some berries and shoving it into her pocket, whatever would get them the most amount of food. Suddenly Penny realized that the pair of them might only eat these berries for the rest of the games. Filling up the rest of the canteen with stream water, Penny began to climb out of the valley. "Oh wow! This is a lot harder than I thought actually."