Penelope Hyde

Willow’d woken to her mother’s voice calling out to her, nearly causing her to fall from the tree she’d situated herself in for the night. She had tried, followed, calling after her mother to wait, to stop. Her mother didn’t stop though, not until she was seemingly sinking into the water, arms and legs flailing as she gasped for breath. That wasn’t right, her mom could swim, but maybe something was pulling her from underneath. She was ready to dive into the water when she heard another voice. Her gaze snapped around the area, seeking the voice out. “My mom is drowning!” Her eyes returned to the figure of her mother, moving further into the water and towards the visage. “I gotta help her.” 

It wasn’t long before she found herself approaching the lake again, though she couldn’t quite see it, she recognized the area as the fog seemed to let up a little. The telltale sound of someone splashing into water though gave away just how close she was. “Hey!” She called into the fog, unable to see who or what was in the water. “That water’s not safe!” She warned, edging through the fog in an attempt to see who was in the water.

@wherethewillcwsgrcw​

Sapphire paused at the girl’s questioned call. Her eyes followed Penny’s to the lake and then back to Penny herself. “No one’s there, Red” She spoke as she moved closer. “Just a lake.” 

-

Penny shook her head at the nonsense that was coming from Sapphire. “No, I heard her.” She murmured and darted towards the water, forgetting her little makeshift napsack. She closed the distance quickly, splashing into the water despite the note she’d gotten earlier in the day seeming to allude to the fact that perhaps this water wasn’t safe. 

“Bitch!” Sapphire gasped as she dodged left of the thrown quiver. It took a second to regain her balance and aim, watching the girl for a moment. “Because of that you don’t get a ten count.” She called and sent the arrow flying, cursing under her breath when Penny shifted to the right. What had been a perfect aim was going to meet off center if it hit at all.

-

She didn’t hear Sapphire, nor did she look back and perhaps that was another mistake, but no she had to keep running and that meant looking forward. The wind and cold air burned her lungs, but she kept running. At least until a piercing pain ripped through her shoulder. She gasped, feet stuttering in their run. Her eyes fell to her shoulder to see an arrow sticking out the front. She looked over her shoulder to see the other end of the arrow. She gasped, but her fingers shakily found the tip of the arrow and she pulled hard, lip between her teeth to keep from crying out at the pain. The arrow was thrown down, another glance thrown at Sapphire before she took off again. Fucking Sapphire Giada. 

Sapphire stumbled as she quiver was yanked, loosing her grip and sending the arrows scattering as the quiver swung out. Her eyes flicked between Penny and then the arrows on the ground as she stabilized herself. A blonde brow cocked as she quickly moved to grab one, staying out of Penny’s reach and rolling away further as she secured an arrow in hand. The bow came off her shoulder next, stringing the arrow and raising it to take aim. “I’ll count to ten…” She decided. Penny wasn’t ten feet away, that was no fun.

-

The quiver was empty and she was left staring down the point of an arrow. Her eyes widened. A split second decision had her throwing the quiver straight at Sapphire before turning and running away from the other blonde, deciding after perhaps too long that perhaps running in a straight line wasn’t the best option and dodging right.

All Raven could think when she looked down at herself once safely away from the still ensuing Bloodbath was at least the blood that covered her head to toe matched her stupid ass uniform. As she continued walking through the noisy but empty city she eventually came to the beginning of white on the ground. God damn fucking Valeria Thorne had put in poison fog. Only as Raven watched, she realized the substance wasn’t moving like fog and looked denser. Stepping closer to investigate further, Raven realized it looked almost like clouds. Hesitantly she stepped forward. It held. She continued further. It wasn’t long before Raven noticed blood droplets trailing through the clouds. She wasn’t alone. Raven raised her dagger into a defensive position and continued forward while looking around. 

Raven heard the voice before seeing the girl from Ten. She froze at the warning. “Fucking great.” She laughed “We should back track. I’m not fucking risking it in these clouds.”

-

Penny situated herself on what seemed to be solid ground and watched the girl. She was glad Raven didn’t seem keen on killing her. She wasn’t sure where she’d run if she did. “There’s flying babies. They’ve ignored me, but keep going that way.” She pointed. She was trying to figure out where they were going, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to keep going if the ground was just going to give out on her. “I don’t know where or what they’re going to. Wanna find out?”

One down, ten more to go, she told herself… well probably less because she could see at least one more motionless body. But more than the extra motionless body, she saw a bow and quiver of arrows and that set her back in motion. Unfortunately, as she grabbed the quiver, bow already pulled from the quiver and slung over her shoulder, she realized another had the quiver’s handle in her grasp. “It’s the Hunger Games, how did you think it was going to bed?” She questioned, grip still firm, but looking at the other as one would a petulant child. “You might’ve seen it first, but can you use it?” She questioned with a cocked eyebrow. “Now… I like you, but I’d prefer not to kill you.” Yet. “So why don’t you let go?” She smiled charmingly now, condescending look wiped clean of her face.  

-

Penny stared the other down as she spoke, rolling her eyes at the girl’s demands. Sapphire had the bow, which would make the arrows pretty useless and Sapphire had a point that she couldn’t use the bow very well, but the condescending way in which she spoke only pissed Penny off so she yanked it back towards herself once more. “Fuck you, no.” She planted her feet and gave one more hard yank, hoping to cause Sapphire to loose her grip. 

Her entire chest throbbed, radiating pain from the bleeding wound at her shoulder. She’d managed to yank the arrow from the join, but that just seemed to make the wound bleed more. She stumbled her way through the clouds - who the fuck thoughts clouds were a good idea - leaving a trail of blood behind her just in an attempt to get as far as she could from that damn traitor. Her eyes were on the sky when she felt the ground shift below her and she stumbled, barely catching herself before falling through the clouds possibly to her death... was there anything under the clouds? She didn’t want to find out. As she grunted, trying to push herself back onto what felt solid and then sit, she spotted someone else - another girl, thankfully still far enough out that Penny might be able to run from her. “Careful!” She called, “the ground has a penchant for fucking moving.” She was pissed and irritated and hurt and it all came out in a cranky tone of voice. 

“Welcome, welcome!” Caesar invited as he motioned to the chair across from the one he’d been sitting in before she’d started out towards the stage, “Penelope, or do you prefer Penny? Tell us, how’ve you liked being in the Tower for these last several days?”

Penny sat across from the man, straightening her dress as she got comfortable. “Either’s fine, Caesar, but my friends call me Penny.” She offered a wink and grinned. “As for the Tower, it’s impressive. I’ve enjoyed my time here - made a few friends, enjoyed the food, ya know… all that stuff.”

“Ohh friends? Does that mean you’ve made any alliances?” Caesar asked, eyebrow raised.

“Now Caesar, I didn’t say friends with other tributes.” She shook her head and laughed softly. “No no, I’ve made other friends, but no alliances.” She gave a shrug as if it didn’t matter.

“Oh? Not other tributes? Would one of those friends happen to be your mentor, Mr. Walker Holstein? Word in the Capitol is that the two of you were spotted at the Eight Seconds Saloon? Something about mechanical bull riding?”

Penny didn’t hesitate a moment before replying though the question threw her. “Well Caesar, I can’t just tell you all the secrecies of who I have and have not befriended. You’ll just have to wait and see when I win. Maybe then I can tell you all about it in my Victory interview.” So it hadn’t just been Walker that had caught her. Well what was the worst they could do to her now? She was going to the Arena in the morning. “But I’ll have you know, Caesar… That mechanic bull is nothing like the bulls we got back home.” She laughed softly at the comment.

“When you win?” Caesar picked up on that she noticed, good, “does that mean you think you have what it takes to win? That you’re ready to go into the Arena?”

No, she wasn’t, but she wasn’t going to say that and she gave a nod with a bright smile to negate the negative feelings. “Of course I am Caesar. I might not be trained like the Career kids, but I’m as ready as I ever will be. Plus I’ve got real life skills that aren’t always pertinent to the kids from the Career districts. I bet those Careers don’t know how to kill and butcher an animal.” She shrugged.

“Oh absolutely!” She knew Caesar was playing to make her happy, doubting he actually believed she had better skills than those from the career districts. “So then who do you think is your biggest competition? Do you think it’s the tributes from the Career districts?”

Penny shrugged and then gave a single nod. “Probably. I mean that girl from One, she got like a ten right? She’s gotta have some skills in there somewhere that are pretty impressive.”

“Makes sense. We’ve only got time for one more question, Penny. So, if you could say anything to someone back home, what would it be?”

Penny seemed to think for just a moment before answering, “just that they should just hold on. I’ll be back before they know it.” And with that, she stood, reaching to shake Caesar’s hand as it was offered to her.

She stepped into the training center when her name was called, pausing only a minute as her eyes scanned everything she could do. So much of life on a farm was survival related - knot tying (gotta keep the cows in the pasture when a link of the fence breaks down), trap making (gotta keep the vermin from making snacks of your animals), making a fire (for keeping warm in the winter months or when outside far after dark when making camp just seems preferable), knowing what plants one could and couldn’t eat….

She blew her cheeks out, her usual bravado gone, and moved across the training center to an array of ropes. Penny gathered a few different ropes and set about setting her trap. One rope was thrown over, knots were tied. She worked diligently and with the precision years of practice ensured. It took longer than she would have liked, but she got it done and when she did, she stepped back to admire her work before turning to retrieve one of the dummies from across the room. The figure was hefted over her shoulder and carried back to the trap where she sat it back down, feet within the circle that snapped up and had the dummy hanging upside down from the trap.

“You know,” she called loud enough to be heard from where the game makers sat perched high above, “human anatomy and pig anatomy is very similar.” She’d made her way over to the knives display as she spoke and plucked one that looked fairly close to what she’d use at home before returning to the strung up dummy.

In one smooth, swift move she cut an incision downwards from groin to where the ribs met. A sticky red substance began to spill out and Penny recognized it as a substitute for blood. Human blood. She tried to ignore that notion. “One difference though is that pigs’ ribs are made of cartridge. Ours aren’t.” She shrugged as if it meant nothing, cutting through the simulated skin and pulling skin back to reveal the ribs. “Regardless, the heart should be,” she tried to ignore the feeling that pulling the ribs apart caused in her, “right about, here.” She reached her hand into the space she’d created and pulled out a bloodied hand with what was made to mimic an actual muscle. “Sorry buttercup,” she commented as she dropped the heart back into the abdominal cavity.

She dropped the knife to the ground haphazardly and wiped her hands on the pants of her training uniform. She didn’t have much time left, her butchery having taken another handful of minutes. She made her way over to the axes and grabbed one up, giving it a quick throw just before her time was up. “Seven’s not the only one who knows how to use axes.” She called over her shoulder as she made towards the exit.

“ There’s some value in that, but every arena is different”“ She said taking a deep breath before sitting down on the couch. ” Usually there’s some fresh water somewhere, dehydration is a slow death so not very fun. In mine, I think there was some in the cornucopia and there were a few locations on the other islands.“

-

Penny glanced at the woman after a moment, raising a brow. “Well if there were islands then there was other water right? Can’t you like... evaporate the salt outta the water?” It made sense, right? 

Adriano chuckled and shook his head, running his fingers through his hair His eyes watched her for a moment before shrugging, “’Suppose not.” He spoke and then jumped into the pool close enough to her to have splashed her in the aftermath. 

-

Penny squealed and then gasped, dragging a hand over her face to rid it of the excess water. “How rude.” She huffed, amusement evident in her voice, as if she had not just been splashing him moments before. 

Walker’s eyes widened for a split second. Penelope was something else. “Please don’t I’m already on thin ice.” He admitted, maybe a little too honestly given how many beers he had already drank that night. He followed her eyes to see that, unsurprisingly, the Capitolite had already fallen off the bull. “No, it doesn’t but you get used to it with practice. Or I mean I assume so.” He knew where this was going and he wasn’t about to get on that bull in front of Penny. 

Penny smirked at the quick flip of Walker’s tune. Sure he just assumed. Sure. She waited only a beat before climbing over the railing after the last person had fallen. “Since you only assume,” she called, throwing long blonde hair over her shoulder as she looked back at him, “then I suppose I’ll try it out.”