If I just follow you, I will never see the light.

[justoutrunyou]

Who: Sandy Marko and you
What: Training montage
When: After the Maze arena
Where: The Training Center Training hall
warnings: Probably violence and cussing.

It had been over a year.

Sandy had gotten curious and gone back to the tapes to watch herself in the first arena and was shocked to see that she barely recognized herself.

On the screen had been a terrified, tiny girl running in a mad panic across the ice and snow. She trembled from fear not cold. She needed to rely on older tributes to keep her alive.

Was she really that different now? She still clung to Pruna whenever she could...but looking at the last arena she realized just how long she'd survived on her own before and after Pruna had come and gone.

She'd started to worry about a time when Pruna wouldn't need her...but had she really come so far that she could keep up with her?

And how much was left of her moral fiber?

*****************

In the last year she had made many contacts, allies, even friends. People with knowledge and skill. People that could help her survive.

The time had come to call upon them, as many as she could. She would hunt them down, do whatever she could to learn what she could.

Even if she hadn't physically aged in the last year, she had grown alot and needed to figure out who she was now.

And they were going to help her.

Comments

[bringinghopewithme]

Bunny has mixed feelings about the training center. The idea that he's supposed to use it to practice murdering mortals for no other reason than that this culture finds it amusing is so outrageous he has to laugh.

If he's going to keep himself in practice it's going to be so that he can pick whoever thought up these bloody Games out of a crowd with a boomerang not enhanced with his usual magic and give them some blunt-force trauma they won't live long enough to forget.

He lopes into the training room, all business, but stops short when he sees the kid already there.

Oh no. Oooh no. Please let this be some training center peacemaker's kid who tags along after Mum or Dad to work and hangs around playing Tribute. A Capitol kid inured to violence is so much better than the alternative.

He hasn't yet learned that kids used to be the only participants in these death matches.

For a second he stares, unsure and on the edge of horrified. It doesn't occur to him, right away, to even speak to the kid. Sure, he's visible to everyone now, child or adult, believer or not, but his habits are centuries old. And one of his habits is not to approach the children he protects, when they haven't stumbled into his realm and aren't in an emergency. At least - not one aside from the emergency that this whole society presents.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy had been sizing up the table of practice weapons warily. So far she hadn't found any particular one that felt right to her. That was when she noticed the giant rabbit and her eyes went wide for a moment.

Another moment of silence passed as she processed this.

For a moment she considered making a comment about the giant turtle that was also a tribute, but that wasn't really her style. Instead with a tired and sad sigh she turned back to the table. She was sad because it used to be a giant rabbit would have amazed and fascinated her.

Now she was just wondering how it might try to kill her in a few weeks.

She kept glancing over her shoulder at him though like she was afraid if she lingered at the weapon table too long he might get mad and push her out of the way to get whatever he had come here for.

[bringinghopewithme]

The sad little sigh broke his heart a little bit. Tribute. She had to be.

"Oi. Kid." He paused. Asking if she was all right was stupid. Of course she wasn't all right - how many times had she been murdered since she got here? "I'm new. Think you could show me around this place?"

He could keep an eye on her, figure out how to keep an eye on her in the arena. Maybe even teach her a thing or two to keep her alive in it.

"I can show you how to use a couple'a those," he said, gesturing to the weapons table, "If you don't know how already."

[justoutrunyou]

The accent threw her. It was one she'd only ever heard on TV. It had been so long she couldn't even remember where it was supposed to be from. She just remembered the cartoon kangaroo wanted her to buy these little cookies you could dip in a cream frosting.

Back in the non-cookie related moment she blinked up at him and looked back to the weapons.

"I um...yeah thanks. I don't really know how to do anything fancy...or even that good." A pause and she confessed "I just learned how to throw a real punch last week."

And considering she'd been fighting for her life for the last year, that was pretty lame.

"I'll take whatever I can get."

[bringinghopewithme]

Well, she'd just gotten a Guardian. Even if he wasn't announcing it where she - and possibly whatever sociopaths were running this show - could hear, Bunny's already long agenda had another entry: protect this kid in the Arena.

And outside it, if he had to. There might not be a limit this society placed on exploiting their kids, particularly since nobody had been able to stop them.

He loped over on all fours, rising only slightly on his haunches to get a good look at the weapons. He didn't want to loom over the kid. "Decent spread they've got here -" he snorted suddenly. "Look, they were thinking of me."

He picked up a silver boomerang, throwing the kid a smirk, one that was supposed to say "who do these nongs think they're impressing?"

"Ever thrown one of these?" he asked, spinning it between his short fingers to test the weapon's balance.

[justoutrunyou]

She watched his expert spinning with wonder and couldn't help but feel a tickle of delight at it. She shook her head no. There was still a tickle of delight at his dexterity, was she really about to get combat training from a giant rabbit? That was just so...whimsical!

"What are they?" She wondered.

[carnagecarnival]

He'd seen Pruna's tapes of the arena. He'd seen what was said not just to Pruna, but of the Sand sister. The arena still didn't sit well with him, but neither did comment on their ages. Age was a stupid notion. Age was nothing. He should know.

And further, Pruna and Sandy were his allies. This would not stand. And it is for this reason, that he finds her in the Training Center before she finds him.

He meets her eyes with a stern look, and a sharp but simple command, "COME WITH HE, NOW." And then he's already turning, grabbing clubs up off the display and finding open space, before turning back to her.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy addresses him with a silent curious stare when he approaches and gives a startled little flinch when he makes his command as if she'd forgotten how loud he could be.

She was nothing if not obedient these days to those she trusted though and after their last interaction in the museum Sandy felt like this one could be trusted.

So she took her place across from him watching with those dark eyes that constantly shifted with anxiety and curiosity.

[carnagecarnival]

He may be an Initiate in title, but he was not an Initiate in fact (no, that had been a joke by the council what all had granted this title to him). He had trained motherfuckers before--only those what all weren't useless-- and he knew well what all to do.

If she were a troll, he might just start swinging now, get straight to the point.

"Your enemy has at for weapons and intent to kill. WHAT THE MOTHERFUCK DO YOU UP AND DO SISTER?" He asks her, as his mind replays cull after cull of his own, standing up with blood on his hands.

There are several responses she might have. He'll go through them as they come.

[justoutrunyou]

Given that she was at the moment unarmed she went with the first answer, her usual answer. "Run away." And she was good at that. Her speed had been her only saving grace in more then a few close calls.

Then again it had proved useless when her time came each arena.

[carnagecarnival]

She says it assured, and to give her credit, it was better than some ideas. He doesn't discount it.

"A fair tactic," He says. "BUT NOT ENOUGH. A motherfucker cannot always run. THERE AIN'T ALWAYS LIKE TO BE PLACE TO RUN TO. You need more than that."

Without warning, he tosses up a club for her to catch. He grips the other one and gets into a fighting stance.

"STRIFE ME," He commands.

[justoutrunyou]

She fumbles the catch and the club falls to her feet. Cautiously she snags it up keeping her eyes on him as if she expects him to strike her while she's bent over.

Once there would have been a part of her that would have refused to lash out at him for fear. Now it was fear that drove her. Clutching the handle with both hands she inches forward and slightly to the side before she lunges forward with a shout and swings the club clumsily.

[iflipmyhair]

Somehow, Homura and Sandy were in the same place, at the same time. Surely, it was just coincidence.

Noticing this, Homura simply looked over at her, flipping her hair.

"Sandy."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looked up and felt her stomach give a flip seeing Homura again.

"Oh...hey. coming to work out or...learn or whatever?"

Great introduction Sandy. very smooth. She shuffled her feet awkwardly.

[designatedfreak]

She's not surprised to see Sandy here. In fact, she's rather glad. Max doesn't hesitate to walk up to the girl, the horrible event of the Arena behind her, and grab a blade from the table. "This one has a good balance, light and small enough. In the Arena if you can obtain one like this keep it. You're small and fast; I'll show you where to strike."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looks startled and then puzzled as Max jumps right into advising her on the subject of weapons. Following the girls instructions picked up another of the training blades that matched the one she was holding. Still curiosity could not keep her from asking.

"Thanks. Um...you're not mad about what happened in the arena are you?"

Because it was always hard to tell with newbies how they would react.

[designatedfreak]

Max quietly looks at Sandy for a long moment before she speaks. "It was a lesson. I will adapt and not make the same mistake twice." She hesitated for a moment, looking back at the table of knives. "Are you angry I crushed your arm?"

Perhaps Sandy didn't want Max's help any longer. It was possible that in ruining the girls' chance to survive, Max had lost their strained alliance.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy shook her head.

"No, Pruna and I didn't know that guy was important to you. And I don't like betraying people so we wouldn't have attacked him if we knew."

She was still upset with Mindy, but not Max.

"If you're giving me another chance I'm alright giving you the same. In the end the only people here worth really hating are the people throwing us into the arenas."

[designatedfreak]

Max didn't actually hate anyone, even those that controlled the Arenas. Life and death, death at her own hands, was simply part of Max's world and the fact that the games from home so easily translated to this world simply made it easier for her to get through the Arenas.

But just to make things clear Max level's Sandy with a look. "Courfeyrac is my brother. I will kill for him no matter if they are an ally or not." In the vastness of the Capitol he was all she really had.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy wilted at the revelation "Ah...brother. Right. Well I'm not gonna take a swing at him unless he comes after me first." She concluded. Siblings were sacred even if she'd never had one.

"So...with that out of the way. I'm trying to learn how to be less of a loser. Can you help with that?"

[celebrityskinned]

If Venus were a better person, she would have sought Sandy out ages ago. She's not. She wasn't. So instead she turned a blind eye to a little kid dying over and over, because it was easier than thinking about it, and Venus had made such a life out of acting instead of thinking.

She hates that it took Shepard cussing her out to get her to take action.

She's somber when she runs into Sandy in the Training Center, dressed in a sports bra and some workout pants, hair in long microbraids and pulled into a ponytail. She doesn't go straight to the punching bags or sparring mat, instead sitting on a bench and calling Sandy over.

"Hey, kid. Need pointers?"

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looks surprised at first till she remembers Shepard had mentioned connecting with Venus for training. So she trots over to greet the woman cautiously. She hasn't had much interaction with Venus worth mentioning, but she knows enough to know Venus knows what she's doing.

"I'll take whatever I can get."

[celebrityskinned]

"I'm Venus. And how about you tell me what you know, first?" She's not about to say 'Shepard put me up to this', although Shep very well might have told Sandy, and Venus just isn't going to think about that for now. She gets up and cracks her neck.

[justoutrunyou]

"Um...right." It wasn't a long list but she ran down it all the same.

"I can throw a punch, I can run really fast, I can shoot a bow and bandage wounds. I even put a splint on my broken leg once." For all the good it had done her.

"Oh! And I know how to make fire." She'd forced herself to learn that skill after nearly freezing to death in her first arena.

[celebrityskinned]

"That's a good start. Better than half the adults here, honestly." She isn't just saying that to perk Sandy up (well, maybe a little bit). She rubs her palms together. "I don't know much about medicine. I'm more of an action girl."

She heads over to the pads. "Wanna throw a punch at me? So I can see how you do?"