broadsidewaltz: (➨ firm posture)
Hubert Oswell ([personal profile] broadsidewaltz) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2014-07-31 10:15 am

➵ testing your mettle

WHO| Hubert and you?!
WHAT| Getting in some practice. Or more like, coping with newly arriving here.
WHEN| 7/31
WHERE| The Training Center
WARNINGS| none

The words were still fresh in his mind as he stared at the weapons. A battle to the death... honored to compete... other tributes. Being brought to a new land that was presumably off the charts was decidedly new- although he had been to stranger places. He was still neck-deep in thought as he absently went for the sword, first. It was only suitable he get some training in with every weapon, after all. And since his trademark dual-blade was nowhere to be found, well... it seemed they had brought him without it.

Honestly, it was probably the part where they had taken him unconsciously that actually bothered him the most. After all- he was used to testing his strength at the stadiums in Warrior's Roost back home. Hubert always aspired to new heights, especially in combat training, so this kind of thing wasn't a shock.

Perhaps it was the wording, he mused as he tested the weapon's weight, moving away with it as he peered around the gymnasium. There were some empty targets he immediately made for, brandishing the sword firmly in his hand as he got some swings in first. Tributes. It sounded... strange, especially in this context. Sacrifices? Price to be paid?

Best believe he'd be slashing at that dummy soon enough, careful at first before he started getting more serious. Even if it wouldn't fight back, he would side-step and guard accordingly, trying to keep his instincts sharp and fresh in his mind. After all, these dummies wouldn't compare to the real targets- moving, breathing living people.

He had to make sure he'd survive. After all, the others were waiting for him back home.
vissernone: (Default)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-08-02 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
Eva's hungover when she appears at the Training Center to observe her new Tribute. It's a good three days after Hubert's arrival, and she saw no need to hurry her way over to evaluate the new recruit; he already has two other Mentors, after all, and she's far from particularly invested in yet another stranger from a foreign land.

She doesn't announce her presence. She shows up in dark glasses, nursing a cup of coffee along with her headache. She sits in the Gamemakers' box, legs politely folded over each other, taking notes with a pen on a notepad.

military-trained?

good defense

not particularly flashy, ideas for angle?

When Hubert takes a break, Eva looks over her notes with her cheek tucked between her teeth. She knows how to market some Tributes to Sponsors from first sight, and it would be nice to take the day off and go sleep off her malaise, but she can't abandon her post entirely and she hasn't had any such epiphanies for Hubert.

"How are you with a knife?" she calls from the box.
vissernone: (Basic - Hair Back)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-08-02 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm afraid I can't consider you being certain you'd be 'adequate' a ringing endorsement." Eva stands up, cracking her neck audibly and pushing her sunglasses up to clear her face of stray locks. She sets her drink and her notepad on the flat rail at the front of the box.

"And it's because a knife, or its equivalent, tends to be the most affordable weapon a Sponsor can send a Tribute, and I'd like to be able to tell our donors that you can do something with their gifts."

She abandons her belongings and starts down the stairs to the training floor, taking slow and careful steps in her high heels.

"I'm Eva Salazar, your Mentor."
vissernone: (Basic - Hands to Mouth)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-08-07 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
She isn't sure what to do when he bows to her. Even though she wields some meager power over the Tributes in her District, her station has always been below that of most of the people around her, even other Mentors, and as such she's used to being disrespected in any social setting at best. She raises an eyebrow and straightens up self-consciously.

"They can save your life in the Arena, although I'm sure you know that. It's fairly- it's a game of resources as much as it is of combat skill. Endurance wins the Arena as often as brawn. More often, I'd say, they just happen to be combined most of the time."

She gestures with a hand at other stations in the Training Center, made for matching plants or practicing fishing wire.

"Those practices over there are more likely to save your life than anything else, because the odds of getting and holding on to a good weapon aren't terribly high for any individual, unless you risk the Cornucopia."
vissernone: (Default)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-08-09 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"People's odds have improved lately for surviving it, but that doesn't mean anything when plenty of them are scrambling away with festering gut wounds and broken bones."

Still, there's an air of resentment to how Eva says that. Her Cornucopia was far deadlier than the one these Tributes face - nine Tributes died before the first half-hour was up. Eva had escaped with a crossbow and bloody knees for her trouble, and had considered herself the champion of the pre-show for it.

Maybe these Tributes are just more interesting than her crop was.

"But if you're a fast runner or skilled in hand-to-hand, I'd recommend you do it. At the worst you'll be too dead to regret it, right?" Eva's grin is lopsided and not unlike that of a crocodile.
vissernone: (Default)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-08-20 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
"Confidence is only useful in so far as it keeps you from being paralyzed in fear." The grin disappears, and she sounds deeply unimpressed. "The Games are as much luck as anything else, and forgetting that is insulting as well as naive."

There have been plenty of good Tributes - her Tributes - cut down in the first thirty seconds of the Games. It didn't matter that they were strong or clever or sweet. She doesn't appreciate the implication that there was something wrong with them, something lacking.

She carries their memories like a wedding dress train.
vissernone: (Angry - Glower)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-08-23 08:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"Then we agree on that, at least. We just might not agree on what level of confidence is appropriate."

She starts to wander the stations, hands resting easily on her hips. It's more pacing than it is observation. She's seen the setups for throwing knives, firestarting, bait-making a hundred times before over her many years as a Mentor. They were slightly different when she was a Tribute, but the ideas remain the same. Cavemen discovered flint and tinder in the eons past and no one has really proved their methods wrong.

"What sort of background do you have?"
vissernone: (Basic - Hands to Mouth)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-08-28 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Military training." Eva purses her lips and runs her hand through some stray locks of her hair. "The locations don't mean anything to me. Geography isn't something we residents of Panem are well-educated on."

Even auto-didacts like her tend to eschew it when there are so few reliable resources. She might as well glurge on propaganda for all the good it will do her.

"How are you socially? Good in groups?"