Dash of starlight and sparkle

“I’ve had nothing but arrogant pricks come strolling through here the last couple years,” he said in a chill tone, grabbing the water bottle and squirting another mouthful into his mouth and swallowing. “He’s no different. I know exactly what he did it for and it’s a suicide mission. Getting in to save his girl, but it’s only making her look worse.”

He glanced at Cashmere before nodding quietly. An alliance is better than nothing, considering how shitty his team seemed to be that year. However, he wasn’t going to voice that Cashmere’s tributes weren’t much better off from observation. 

“Not likely,” Ares replied. “It’ll depend how he handles himself here.”

“Something tells me she can take care of herself,” Cashmere pointed out. The girl had been standing there sinking arrow after arrow into the dummy after all. “Besides, it could be worse. You could have a couple of twelve year olds with no training trying to win the title.” Cashmere didn’t envy the Districts that had to deal with that. District One had only had one twelve year old since she won, back in 75, and that was enough. Though, that little girl had made it farther than any of them had expected her to.

“If they got rid of the station for novices then they’d lose the aura of objectivity they try and have by not showing favoritism to the career districts,” Glitter reminded her.  If they did that then there would be nothing left to keep the playing field level and despite knowing it never was, there would be upset sponsors and districts if the truth really came out.  “But are you alright?”

Cashmere did her best to keep from rolling her eyes. Then again, it did seem like the field was more fair than it had been in the past considering how long it had been since a Career had won the games. Lincoln Conway aside that was. District One was far overdue for a Victor and Cashmere was hoping this year would be the year to change it. She was far fed up with being the latest Victor for their District.

“I’m fine,” she assured her. She had worse injuries in her kitchen but that wasn’t the point. “Have you seen our tributes? I would have expected them to be here showing off their skills. They need to make sure people know who they are.”

He smiled back at Cashmere, recognizing her right away from all of his studies and some of the quizzes that he gave Briella when she was studying for the tests at the Academy. Mentor from One, one of a pair of siblings that won back-to-back and a pretty popular Victor overall. One had won a Games in years and years, and if Two was getting antsy over not having a Victor since Nolie, he wondered what the other Career powerhouse was thinking after all that time without a Victor. 

“Not from scratch. But, if I’m being honest, I didn’t focus on stealth as much as I could have.” Max wanted to be careful with his words, particularly around the other Career mentors and tributes. He could maybe get away with being honest with some of the outlying Districts, but he was stupid to think he could be truthful to anyone but Briella. 

“It’s different from back home,” he replied, another half-truth. “But, I didn’t know quite what to expect, even hearing about it from others.” 

“Now why don’t I believe you?” Cashmere asked because if she was being honest, it sounded like a Career would say if they wanted to seem modest. “You did go to the Academy, right?” If they were thinking of aligning with her tributes, Cashmere wanted to make sure they were a good fit and not a risk. One had enough challenges the past few years. They hadn’t had a solid showing in a games since Vega came in fourth. Oh, how that girl would have made a perfect Victor. Goldie would have done just brilliantly as well.

Cashmere looked at him a moment. “Well, if you’re prepared then the games are just another challenge. It’s not that much different than the academy.” Other than the fact one mistake could and would get you killed. “You just have to stay focused on yourself and what you want. You can do that right?”

“I don’t think this particular circumstance,” Serenity gestured to the whole room around here, “allows for me to be too picky about what I teach these tributes. Having held a dagger once is better than none. But, I know you’re used to tributes having the privilege of learning weapons from a young age. You don’t really understand the work I have to put in for these kids.”

Serenity rolled her eyes. “You really seem to think I don’t know how to teach these kids these skills? My specialty may be hand-to-hand but I am not so hopeless that I didn’t already tell him that.” Serenity hadn’t quite gotten to that part of the lesson, but Cashmere didn’t have to know that. She felt slightly irritated that the mentor thought she was so bad at her job. “Sometimes fear is a great motivator. Most of the time, even better than the legacy of One.”

Cashmere shrugged. It wasn’t her fault that she typically had tributes that were trained and experienced when it came to the Games. She was going to point out that other Districts could also have an academy, but she doubted the outer districts would be able to afford such a thing. Perhaps if they hadn’t rebelled and kept on fighting the rule of the Capitol, they could have had a better outcome. The Capitol always rewarded it’s most loyal citizens.

“Well, I don’t see many other tributes nearly injuring themselves or the other Victors.” As far as she could remember, there hadn’t been such an instance since she had won. “They could have seriously hurt me or someone else?” An injured tribute would stand no chance in the arena. “It clearly hasn’t motivated them to hit the target considering it’s in the opposite direction.”

When it finally registered that it was Cashmere, Ares threw his walls up even more than he normally did. He didn’t want to open himself up to even more bad thoughts about her and the way things ended with him. One date and it came crashing down around him because he had one momentary lapse of judgement. He wanted to blame her for that, but at the same time, he knew it wasn’t her fault. She knew what she wanted and he wasn’t it. Maybe that was for the best.

“Briella is the only one of my two that would be of more use,” Ares said, his voice tight and distant. “Max volunteered in place of another boy that was supposed to volunteer this year and stole his chance. He’s just a lover boy who thought he could break the system so don’t put too much stock into that one.”

Cashmere had to admit, Ares had a point, but at the same time... “Well, guess you never know. You have to admit, academy kids and legacies haven’t done much good for either of our Districts the last few years.” Between the two Districts they had only had a couple victories and they hadn’t come from District One. “He has to have some skills, right?”

Glitter’s brow rose when Cash turned on her.  “Wasn’t me,” she told her.  Glitter wasn’t dumb enough to do that.  “Maybe we should teach that kid how they are supposed to do stuff like this?”  Even Emmy knew better than that.  The thirteen year old had more common sense with weapons than most of the non-careers here combined.

“Someone sure does,” she muttered as she reached for the cloth one of the Avoxes had hurried over to provide her. The last thing she needed was for blood to get on her clothing. What would the sponsors or whoever else think? It certainly hadn’t been her own doing or even own tributes, which had caused her injury. “Though if I go over there right now I might be tempted to use them for an example of why you shouldn’t blindly throw weapons. What are they trying to prove? They should get rid of this station for novices.”

Usually, Harlow steered away from the weapons stations, but she had decided to give the throwing axes a try, since it had been a couple of years since she held one. She was approaching the station when she heard an exclamation. A few other people had slowed in what they were doing, some either trying to hold back chuckles or just staring in surprise. Harlow seemed to be the only one who cared enough to walk over and make sure Cashmere was okay.

“You okay?” she asked, glancing toward her arm where the dagger had seemed to graze her skin. “Good think they had shit aim..”

Cashmere sighed as she looked down at her arm. “Yeah, I’ll live.” Surely she had worse in her training days, but she hadn’t actually been injured by a weapon since the arena. It stung, but it wasn’t something that would require stitches thankfully. If that had been the case, there would have been a much bigger commotion going on.

“Thankfully,” she had to admit Harlow had a point. “Not sure what they’re trying to accomplish.” Perhaps the Gamemakers were hoping one of the tributes would get injured before the games. Wouldn’t that be a nice plot twist in their little game? “You should probably move though unless you want to be the next one injured...”

Okay. Leta didn’t know if she had an appropriate baseline on that. She was functional. She got up every morning, worked out, and reported to duty. Her friendships with other peacekeepers were based mostly on lies, and her grief was reserved for moments when isolation was assured. 

“Just my sister,” she said, trying to wave off any interest or concern. “Born to create drama.”

“The good kind of drama or that bad?” Cashmere wondered because everyone knew that drama didn’t necessarily have to be bad. Without a little bit of drama life was boring. “Judging by your reaction though you’re not talking about the good kind of drama. Anything you care to share?”

His fingers itched for a bow, the only weapon that he could use competently. Well, more than competently - top of his class before he dropped out. And whenever he had visited Briella at the Academy after that point, he would practice a little bit, not wanting to lose the skill that he had cultivated so well. 

But, when he walked into the Training Centre he opted to steer clear of the archery station and the medicine station - the two things he excelled at. Max figured he should try and look like a Career and train at some of the other weapon stations, but he also didn’t want to be around people who were going to get cut. He could handle bruises and broken bones and bodily fluids except blood. 

He hated blood. Funny coming from a guy who wanted to be a doctor. But, Max would freeze up and have to really push himself to clean up those wounds. 

So, Max approached the stealth station, something he thought was a happy medium between Career skill and no risk of blood. There was someone already there and he walked up behind them and tapped them on the shoulder. “Are you planning on using this station? I wanted to brush up on my skills,” he said. // @ttwstarters

Cashmere turned to see who had walked over to the station she had been assisting her male tribute with. The boy from Two. Cashmere gave him a smile because she didn’t want to scare or intimidate him, yet. If their Districts were going to work together she wanted to get a good feel with what Iunia had to work with and what she would probably have to be against at some point. It was a nice thought to think that this year they might actually have a proper Career Pack.

“No, we’re done here.” She told Max easily. “Brush up on your skills? Well, least you don’t have to learn them, right?” Her questions were careful and select. You couldn’t feel people out if you didn’t get honest answers from them.

“Are you enjoying training so far?”

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Ares put Briella and Max to work almost immediately. As soon as he set them to do the obstacle courses for an hour, he took a seat to get hydrated. His hands were shaking, but he did his best to cover it up by chugging down half of the bottle of water in one go before capping it off and putting it beside him. He’d like to think that training and working out helped him sleep, helped him stop the thoughts and the nightmares, but it didn’t. There was only two sure ways he knew that helped and alcohol was slowly becoming one that he needed to overcompensate for to get the best results. He could feel his body reacting to it but yet he couldn’t admit it to himself that it was beginning to become a problem.

Ares sat and watched his two tributes on the obstacles, analyzing their movements but kept most of his eyes on Max. He wasn’t meant to be a tribute this year. He stole it from one of the top contenders in the Academy. Ares was pissed about it, so he was going to make sure that every little move he made was analyzed and criticized. He wasn’t going to get away with disobeying the natural order out of love. 

Stupid ideology.

He went to take another drink when he felt and heard someone sit beside him. He glanced at them, bottle poised to his lips, wondering why the hell they had to sit on the same bench as him. 

“Yes?” Ares asked.

Cashmere raised an eyebrow at the tone of his voice, but she didn’t point that out. Training had just begun and she had a lot to do. Valor could take care of the training aspect of their tributes, whereas Cashmere wanted to observe and draw her own conclusions. From what she could gather the Career Pack was going to happen in some capacity, so she had to check out the competition and potential allies.

“Our kids are thinking about an alliance...” Cashmere pointed out because it meant they did have to talk, and if she was being honest, it was nice to have someone to talk to outside Glitter and Opal. Either way, if their kids wanted an alliance it meant they were going to be working together.

Serenity watched as the tribute she had been training with daggers had moved a little too close to the edge of the mat for her liking. They were practicing a few slashing moves, but were completely oblivious to their surroundings. She had started to walk over to correct them when they caught the edge of one Cashmere Lepointe.

She rolled her eyes. Of course it was Cashmere that had come close to the tribute from Eleven that she was trying to train. The tribute mumbled something under their breath and Serenity walked the last few steps to where Cashmere was facing off with the tribute. “C’mon Cashmere, they barely touched you,” Serenity rebutted. 

Her head jerked towards the other trainer that was in the station and Serenity gave the tribute a look. “Practice with him for a moment.” The tribute scampered off and Serenity crossed her arms at Cashmere. “Try not to scare every tribute that’s trying.”

Cashmere turned her attention from the tribute to Serenity. “Luckily. A few more inches to the left and it could have buried itself into my chest. If you can’t be careful with them you shouldn’t be touching them.” She pointed out. Honestly, she figured they were actually pretty lucky that there weren’t major training injuries before the games started every year. Yes, they needed to learn but there was a right way and a wrong way to do it. They needed a location further away from the general flow of traffic.

“If they’re so easily scared, they stand no chance in the arena. Do you think the kids from Two or Four or even my own District are going to take it easy on him? Just because he is scared?” In the arena things got real. “Tell him not to take his eye off the target. Your weapon will go where your eye is looking.” Generally speaking anyhow.

“Well?” She asked the person beside her. If they were a tribute she had a lecture prepared. Mentors and other team members needed to be reminded how to look after their tributes and bystanders, well they would wake her side naturally. “Accidentally killing people is supposed to wait until the games start.”

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With training begun her days were spent mostly guarding the entrances to the training center and checking the tributes when they left for stashed weapons. Dull work, but also work that was being meticulously looked over by her superiors. Any toe out of line, any slip up and she knew that she would be facing a write-up and then another day of questioning. 

She was out of uniform now though and dealing with another not-so-little annoyance. “No Persephone, I won’t talk to her. I don’t care what she told you. Stop asking me. You weren’t there. You didn’t hear what I did.”

When she hung up she took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her long hair, noticing the person sitting just a few feet. “Sorry,” she said, realizing her voice had been pitched a little high. “Just family business.”

Cashmere stopped and looked at the woman a moment as she spoke to her. It wasn’t like she necessarily cared about her family drama. Thankfully, the LePointe family did not tend to have very much drama in their family unit. No, their drama usually was centered around the happenings around them, their busy schedules, and whatever the Capitol tossed in their direction.

“Is everything okay?” She found herself asking more out of politeness than anything.

// * @ttwstarters

─────    ‘ I HATE TO SOUND LIKE A DISTRICT ONE CLICHE,   BUT I DO APPRECIATE THE FINER THINGS IN LIFE. ’     her voice raised an octave as she mimicked what she’d heard glee sound like in others.    iunia lips did that rare thing that very few had seen happened.  they formed a smile.    she batted her eyelashes & walked with a suave confidence that made her blend in next to the capitol sponsor she’d seen lurking.    she was doing well.   iunia could tell by the way they were looking at her,    feeding off her every word.   mother would be proud.

her fingers ran across an gold plated statue that tied the room together,    before she found a way to excuse herself from the conversation.   ‘  unfortunately now,   i promised my time to my mentors.  i sincerely hope we can continue this later.   you  MUST  tell me more about the diamond  crockery. ’     she excused herself with the subtle tilt of a head,  waiting until she was completely out of sight of sponsors  & capitolites until she let the facade drop.  

her face snapped from the social butterfly that had just been talking to the sponsor,  into the emotionless girl she’d been raised to be.    her voice lowered into a dulcet tone once again as she approached the person she’d gestured to as an escape strategy.   ‘ i hope i’m not inconveniencing you.  my conversation with the sponsor was dragging on a little too long.  it’s important that they don’t lose interest.  ’ 

Cashmere looked at her tribute for a moment, smiling. The sponsors needed to see that she was happy with the tribute selection this year and from what she saw, she was content with the selection. Iunia seemed like a good solid candidate going forward. Cashmere knew not to get her hopes up, but she could at least have some expectations, right?

“If you excuse us,” she told the sponsors with an easy smile. “We have to attend to certain things before the parade starts.” Cashmere needed to talk to her newest tribute and she certainly wasn’t going to do it in front of the cameras. This was time for them and time to plot their strategy.

She couldn’t help but smile.  While parenthood was terrifying, especially now that Emmy was reaping age and there were going to be more frequent quells, Glitter couldn’t change that happiness she had for anything in the world.  She loved Emmy and Sterling with her whole heart.  Nothing could change that, and it made the fear of something bad happening so worth it.  Sure, she was still nervous and would still hold her breath every reaping until her kids were both safely old enough to avoid the arena, but it was worth it.  The love she had for those children made it worth it.

“I mean…if you’re thinking of adopting they’re children that already exist and are already going to be facing the reality of the reaping.  You aren’t bringing new kids into the world.”  Not that Glitter would ever judge people for doing that.  After all, she had.  It just felt like less of a worry to consider when it came to adopting.  “What you would be doing is giving some kids a better chance at a good life.”

Cashmere nodded, but thought about it a moment. What Glitter said was true, but what kind of life would she have to offer kids? The constant back and forth to the Capitol and the spotlight. It had been a great life for her, sure, but she had been sixteen when she chose that life for her. Yet, it was probably better than whatever it was they had right now.

“Something to think about anyhow,” it wasn’t like she was getting any older and she was almost thirty now. “I am getting old you know, I have to think of these things.” It was a joke but it was true. “There’s time. I mean there sure are plenty of children, even in One, that could use a better life.”

“Oh I agree,” she chuckled.  If Glitter was single she would never in a million years sign up for something like what Birch had done.  Though knowing Snow, she wondered exactly how voluntary it was.  He did love pushing victor’s under his thumb.  “I couldn’t imagine doing something like that if I didn’t have Wiress.”

But the idea of Cashmere just adopting a few kids brought a bright smile to her features.  “That would be adorable!” she gushed.  “I know Em and Sterling would love the chance to have some cousins to play with,” she teased her lightly.  “You’d be a really good mom, Cash.”

She had to smile at the thought. “That would be a fearsome trio,” she joked with a laugh. Then again, it brought a smile to her face to think of Glitter’s kids playing with her own. Cashmere hadn’t even realized she wanted kids until recently. “Thanks! It’s only because I got to experiment on your kids first,” again Cashmere was joking.

“I think it would be nice, you know?” Her life had needed direction for a while and perhaps that was what it needed. Cashmere needed a reason to do something that wasn’t related to the games or the Academy. “I mean but is it fair of me? With these Quells being a thing?” Who knew what they would be and every ten years meant almost all kids would be eligible for one unless you came of age right after a Quell happened. Then again, if the kids were hers or not, they’d be eligible for the the reaping.

“Oh of course they would.  Weren’t all those girls trying to win over Pembrooke a bunch of Capitolites?”  She hadn’t really paid much attention, but she knew it looked incredibly uncomfortable.  She felt very glad, not for the first time, that she had Wiress in her life.  The Capitol had interfered with a great many things, but she wouldn’t let them interfere with that.

But hearing Cashmere talk about her dream man caused a chuckle to pass Glitter’s lips.  “You might as well be asking for a miracle,” she told her.  “Do they even make men who check all of those boxes?”  Honestly, Glitter wasn’t sure.  “But you deserve to have all those things in your partner.  It would be incredible and I know I’d be happy for you.”

“I don’t know, I didn’t watch.” Cashmere told Glitter with a laugh. She had meant to but one thing lead to another and she found her books a little more interesting. “I think I would go forever without someone before I agreed to do something like that.” She pointed out. Not that Victors always had a choice, but Cashmere had more than most. A perk of being from one of the beloved Districts.

She shook her head. “Nope.” She had to laugh at that one because it was true. After many years she had given up that a man like that even existed. “If I could have a few of those things I’d be happy. I am starting to think I’ll be better off just adopting a couple of kids and calling it a day. I always figured I would have a pair of little girls.”