a flaw in my code

Lael perked up when she realized who it was.

“Echo!” she exclaimed with a grin. “It’s so nice to see you!”

There was something inexplicably relief-inducing about seeing one of the members of District Three walking through her door. Sure, she hated the snake and she did enjoy being on the Two team, but there was something about Three that no other District could really match up with. A special quirkiness.

“You said it,” Lael said with a sigh as she turned back to her work. “To say it’s been crazy would be an overstatement. How are you doing?”

Echo smiled.  Since Lael started working for District Two, she’d seen a lot less of the other woman.  That was disappointing if she was honest with herself.  Echo really liked Lael.  She was a genuinely good person she enjoyed spending time with.

“I’m good.  Been busy with the tributes and whatnot,” she told her before moving to sit down.  “You know how things are before launch.  I bet working with District Two is a bit of a culture shock.”

“Probably not,” Adriana admitted. Capitolites didn’t have to worry about most things the rest of them had to. They had time to do nothing but party and have fun. Adriana wasn’t sure if she would like that kind of life style or not.

She raised an eyebrow. “I get that, but don’t you want to try new things? Not necessarily a party or whatever…” Adriana was sure there were plenty of other cool things to see in the Capitol. Things they could only dream about in the Districts. “I mean don’t they have like museums and parks and stuff here? Though I admit if they have an indoor rock climbing thing, I totally want to try it.”

Echo could see the optimism that Adriana had.  She wanted to see the good things in the Capitol and enjoy her time there.  It was something Echo could respect, but it wasn’t something she did.  Adriana could go home whenever she wanted.  She didn’t have the same pressure and expectations on her than the victors did.

“I’m willing to try new things but it’s hard when so much of my time gets wrapped up in Games shit,” Echo told her.  That and it didn’t mater where she went there were always sponsors or reminders of all the Capitol had cost her.  “The parks are nice.  Not sure about rock climbing though.”

“Takes practice.” Just as anything did. Dorian smiled back at Echo, letting her settle into her stance. Her quips had him scoff, tilting his head toward her, “I’ll give you that.” It was never easy holding one of those things, even after The Games were said and done. But were they ever really done, even for the Victors? Dorian knew better than to assume yes.

“Might be easier to think of the knife as an extension of your arm rather than a murder weapon. And all you’re murdering is that plastic target right there,” he pointed toward the target ahead off her. “Best accuracy comes from over the shoulder, not sideways. Keep your shoulders loose, and avoid too much flick in the wrist. Spinning knives look badass, but that’s how you’ll lose control pretty fast.” 

Echo looked over at Dorian when he spoke.  Everything he was saying seemed logical, but she wasn’t quite sure if it was something she could actually do.  Still, she picked up a knife and nodded.  “Alright, that’s a good point.  It’s not really a murder weapon.”  At least not for her.  It could kill any one of those poor tributes though.

“So I don’t want it to spin?  Huh, and here I thought that was the whole point.”  She half laughed and tried to loosen the tension out of her body.  “Okay....let me try this.”  She stepped into position and gripped the knife.  “Is this the right way?”

Solar wasn’t the type of person to get into technical stuff, but he can handle wiring enough. Most of the stuff that his area dealt with had to do with water power. Nothing too fancy about something like that, but he decided not to voice it to Echo. 

“Yeah, sure,” Solar said. “Like… sticks and strings kind of basic?”

He spoke and Echo smiled.  “Yeah, like those sorts things will be good since you can probably use them in any sort of setting,” Echo told him.  “But exactly what you want to do will depend.  Do you want to kill people with the trap?  Incapacitate them?”

Being the escort for District Two was an entirely different experience from Three, Lael was quickly learning. It turned out that when your tributes had prepared for this kind of thing their whole lives, there wasn’t much corralling and herding them places- all they needed were some simple directions and they’d be off to the training centers. No getting lost and finding themselves halfway out a window in the faculty restroom (though maybe Pixel had just been a little too direction-averse for Lael’s sanity).

There were a lot more sponsors to handle, though, and Lael had camped herself out in a viewing room to handle the paperwork while a television personality ran through the statistics and probabilities of each tribute. The curtain of the room was drawn to avoid any unwanted attention (it turned out being on a popular reality show invited more cameras into her life than expected), and Lael felt her heart drop into her stomach when she heard the door open behind her. 

“Oh hi,” she said, painting a smile onto her face as she turned around. As soon as she saw it wasn’t some paparazzi or Capitol influencer, though, she felt herself relax. “Don’t mind me. Just getting some work done.” // @ttwstarters

The hustle and bustle of the pre-launch time was getting to Echo.  She was tired of it.  Her tributes were doing fine, she supposed.  That was what mattered, but Echo couldn’t take all the demands that came from sponsors wanting to know of Ripley and her partner would be stronger contenders than Ember and Demelza were last year, or as strong as Pixel the year before.  It was....a lot for Echo to handle and she just didn’t want to anymore.

After excusing herself away from a sponsor that had cornered her, she found herself slipping into a viewing room.  At least those would be empty until the tributes launched, or so she thought.  When she heard someone speak, she tensed only to relax upon realizing it was Lael.

“Guess I’m not the only one who thought this was a good place to hide?”

Solar followed the older woman to the stations, unsure of what to expect from all of this. He didn’t know what to do, didn’t know where to start, mostly because he was trying to act the part. If he was as himself, showing everyone in this place that a kid from District Five could easily rival a Career, then that would put a bunch of targets on him. His father knew that and Solar could have pieced together the idea eventually. For now, it was best to play dumb.

“What if it’s nothing but like… grass?” he asked her. “Then what?”

Echo looked over her shoulder at him and smirked when the question was posed.  “That’s when you get creative,” she told him.  “Just because there is a box of what is expected doesn’t mean you have to use those things.  A low tech trap is just as effective as a high tech one,” she assured him when they reached the station.  “It might even be more effective as it won’t be subject to gamemaker interference with the electricity.”  She paused.  “Do you want to start with something basic first?”

What was she thinking? Adriana had a few ideas but she wasn’t sure how much trouble they should risk getting into. Not that she wanted to do something scandalous, but she wanted to have some fun. “I am sure we can sneak out and find something to do. It’s not like I want to burn the entire place around. What do you think people our age do around here anyhow?”

Adriana thought about her own question a moment. “You know other than eat and party.” Though that probably took up most of their time. “Back home it’s all beaches and bonfires and just hanging out. Doubt that’s much their style here.”

“Do they do anything other than eat and party?” Echo questioned her with a shake of her head.  “Bonfires sound really fun.  I don’t think they do much of that here, but honestly I’m not up on the whole Capitol scene more than I need to be.”  It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing Echo liked being involved with.  She’d much rather be home tinkering on her next invention or even playing some video games.  What was wrong with that?

Sighing, she ran her fingers through her hair.  “Honestly, Adriana, I tend to mind my own business here.  I don’t like being here more than I have to be and I’ve usually got some sort of work related thing to do.  That’s why I end up at most of the parties I go to.”

“Still a little rusty with it, but Valor gave me a couple pointers last year.” Despite not being too keen on teaching kids how to kill each other, it was part of his job as Mentor to teach Three’s Tributes to fight, or at least to have some sort of fighting chance in the Arena. So he had tried to keep up with the throwing knives over the years, though he only recently had started making more of a continuous habit. 

Dorian stepped at the station next to Echo, taking up a couple of the throwing knives. “For starters,” he began, glancing toward her to see if she was paying attention, “you’ll want to be relaxed. Tense muscles will screw up your throw. Keep your dominant foot forward, like this.” Dorian rolled his shoulders and relaxed his own posture, keeping his right foot in front with the knife in his right hand pointed down.

Echo nodded.  Made sense that Valor would have shown Dorian a few things.  Sometimes she honestly forgot about their connection she was too wrapped up in her own things.  “Well you’re probably better at it than I am even if you are a little rusty,” she assured him with a teasing smile.  There was a small part of her that was nervous about people seeing how bad she was at this, but she knew it was also important if she wanted to make her tributes do well.

Still, she watched while Dorian took a stance and mirrored it.  “I don’t know how throwing knives and relaxation go together in the same sentence, Dorian,” she teased.  “I mean how can I be relaxed with a potential murder weapon in my hand?”

Solar swallowed. It was better than nothing. He looked to the woman and nodded his head. “Yeah, sure, that would be awesome actually,” he said, then realizing that she had two different options and immediately stuttered out, “I-I mean the traps part. Not the bomb building. I don’t think I can ever do that right.”

Echo chuckled lightly and shrugged.  “You know, I bet a lot of people think that but when it comes down to it....if it’s the only way.  But traps...we can do traps.  The first thing you’ve got to think about is how to pay attention to your surroundings and how you can use that to your advantage,” Echo told him as she began guiding him to the traps station.

Solar recognized her. A girl from District Three. One that won more recent. He swallowed and crossed his arms defensively, attempting to look even more unimposing than he did at the chariots. It was the hardest thing in the world to look like he couldn’t throw a knife from twenty meters away and nail a target. It was hard not showing people that he was fast. It was hard not to walk up to a trainer and beat their ass right in front of everyone. District Five was his home and he wanted to finally show Panem that there were worthy people there. He just didn’t know if it was him.

“I mean…” Solar said quietly with a small shrug. “Whatever helps.”

“I mean...I can show you how to make some traps?  Or build a bomb, but that’s really hit or miss depending on the resources in the arena.”  Echo knew she had gotten lucky.  Just like Pixel did.  Had their arenas not suited their skills there was no way they could have gotten as far as they did, much less win the whole thing.

Dorian couldn’t stand being up in the Sponsor Lounge for too long. Even though speaking with sponsors was essential to earning their sponsorship for their Tributes, there was only so much of the self centered, one sided conversations he could take. Sometimes he wished he had brought Rosie with him just to have an excuse to break away from the conversation, but she was with a babysitter, who had been frantically texting him for ways to try and coax Rosie to calm down. After a phone call and many reassurances that he and daddy would be back for lunch, the texts had calmed down a bit.

He had started to make his way over to the knives station. He watched the person practice a throw, brow slightly knit in observation. “Not bad,” he commented, “might have a pointer or two to help your aim.”

@ttwstarters

Echo didn’t want to be useless.  She didn’t want to leave the physical training to the trainers.  Fell had taught her to throw a punch so now she’d been teaching herself how to throw the knives.  Maybe she should have done it when the tributes weren’t in the midst of training, but she wanted to figure it out.

She wasn’t sure which station her tributes were at, but she didn’t expect Dorian’s voice to fill her ears.  Looking over at him, Echo smiled.  “You’ve got pointers?  I’d love the help.  I’ve been trying to figure it out on my own.  I thought it was physics and geometry but I’m still not getting it.”

“Unlikely but thanks.” She brushed pieces of her hair away from her face as she spoke, recognizing the victor instantly. Some wounds were too deep or too cruel to mend. She didn’t consider it selfish or naive to be withholding from her family. Really all she was thinking about was preservation. Her own and Ares’s. “How’s the training going? I’m stuck at the elevators staring at the rope tying station. Not too much action there.”

Echo shrugged slightly.  “It’s going fine.  I mean, do any tributes actually like this except the careers?”  She knew the answer to that was no and she couldn’t blame them for that.  “I’d trade if I could.  Something tells me you’d have more fun training tributes and I could rewire the elevator buttons to light up rainbow colored.”

Adriana had to laugh at Echo’s remark. “Well, I have always been a go with the flow kind of girl.” Planning wasn’t part of her usual style because her plans never went right anyhow. This was the Capitol, there had to be something for them to do other than training and games related things.

“I mean I am sure you don’t want to go to training to train right?” Though if Echo wanted to learn something, Adriana would teach her. “I was thinking we need to do something more fun…” She chewed her lip a moment while she thought about it. “What do you say we go on a little adventure of our own tonight after everyone is sleeping?”

Echo’s brow rose when Adriana spoke.  What sort of trouble was she thinking of getting into?  While she was curious, Echo also didn’t want to make things worse for District Three.  There had been enough shit for them since Pixel’s win and she didn’t want to add to that.

“What sort of adventure are you thinking about?” she asked curiously.  It was plain as day that Echo’s interest was piqued, but she also wasn’t ready to blindly agree without knowing a little bit of the details.

@ttwstarters

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.”

Echo hadn’t meant to overhear the conversation.  She’d never understand why people had private conversations in public anyway.  It seemed reckless, but that wasn’t the point.  She shrugged.  “It’s alright. Hopefully you can get it all sorted out.”

That was the least Echo could wish for.  After all, she no longer had a family to have business with.  They were gone and she’d do anything for the chance to argue with her parents one more time, or tell her brothers they were idiots.  But those chances were gone.

@ttwstarters

This was the part he had been dreading. 

Every bit of him wanted to go over to the knives and start chucking them at the targets. Every ounce of his willpower wanted to go over to a trainer and lay him out. His father’s words played in his head like a skipped record, repeating over and over to eternity. Conceal your strengths. Reveal them later. Then kill them all.

Solar felt sick. 

He walked into the room when there were already several tributes training. He noticed and knew a few of them from before the chariots, but he didn’t feel like approaching them. He had to pretend to be meek and not understanding what was going on. Solar searched the room for the easiest one to goof up on purpose. As he stood there, he realized that his awkward standing around was probably making him seem even more inept, so he opted to stand there, looking as lost as possible, until someone finally approached him.

Solar looked up, confusion and apprehension etched on his face on purpose. 

“I… don’t know where to start,” Solar said quietly.

Echo hadn’t really been paying much attention.  Training had begun and she was keeping an eye on things from a distance.  Eventually she’d go work one on one with her tributes, but for now she was going to make sure she got a feel for everyone else’s strengths.

Upon seeing the lost looking District Five boy, Echo approached.  He spoke and she shrugged.  “Depends on what you want to know and what you think you need to know,” she told him.  A lot of people assumed weapons were the most important, but at the end of the day resourcefulness and fight or flight took care of a lot of that.

“You look like you could use some fun in your life,” Adriana told Echo as she sat down beside her and looked at her from over the top of her water bottle. She hadn’t seen Echo in a while, but she was glad they had this time to see each other.

Adriana chewed her lip a moment. “I don’t claim to know what the fun is, but we can find something. I need a new adventure.” Sure the games and a new batch of tributes were an adventure, but that wasn’t the kind of adventure she wanted to have. “You know before things get real around here. What do you think?”

@echohuxley​

“You’re telling me I need fun when you don’t know what the fun is?” Echo asked with a laugh.  “Oh c’mon, Adriana, I think you can do better than that.”  Though she was right.  If they didn’t enjoy themselves now they wouldn’t have any free time until their tributes launched, or in Echo’s case, until her tributes were dead.  She didn’t want to think like that, but she also didn’t want to get her hopes up.

“I’m sure we can find something fun to do.”

“Oh..” she dropped her gaze toward the chips, feeling like she made an idiot of herself. But how the hell was she supposed to know– they threw all this new food at her when she was used to moldy bread and scraps at home. Ashten grabbed a handful of chips and decided to try some of the dip that the younger girl had pointed out. 

She glanced over at her, catching the last remark she made before glancing around the room. There was no one within earshot of them and Ashten was glad for that. Talk like that got people into deep trouble now days. Not that she didn’t agree. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect coming here, but… at least the food’s good.”

Echo offered her a reassuring smile.  She could so easily remember being overwhelmed when she first came to the Capitol.  That was a period in Echo’s life she didn’t like to reflect on.  Thankfully Dorian and Wiress had been there to help her get through things she otherwise would have struggled to face.

Reaching for a chocolate chip cooking on a tray, Echo broke a piece off and chewed it.  After swallowing, she spoke.  “Honestly, everyone who shows up in the Capitol for the first time doesn’t know what expect.  Except maybe the kids from One and Two.”  Even Four was drastically different from the Capitol despite being a career district.  “The food’s super good.  I always stalk up and take a bunch home with me when the Games end.  I can’t cook worth anything.”  She paused.  “I’m Echo, by the way.”