#cael3

As he made his way towards the pod, his heart began to beat faster and faster. His mind immediately flashed to his closest ally, TAC. Hoping that he was handing this situation better than he was. Who was he kidding, TAC was surely calm and collected, much like he has been since he arrived. Thinking of his smile sent a relieving feeling through Cael's body as he exhaled softly. He turned around once more to face Laelia, who surprisingly had shed a tear. After all their arguments and fighting, she really did care for him and that made the situation that much harder.

Cael walked back over to her and gave her a comforting hug. "I'll be okay. . ." he said softly, trying to remain his composure. He wished that there was more he could say to ease her tension, but he knew that even he wouldn't believe it himself. Releasing the small woman from his arms, he took a few steps backwards, and put his arms to his side. "I promise to make you all proud of me. ." he spoke, looking at her with a small smile. "You'll be great! Just try not to get so caught up in your head." she laughed, slightly easing the tension.

Cael had spent a majority of his free time in the Lobby after training was over, the mood in the apartment was too tense for him. He had tried to speak with Rhymer earlier but once more, was completely shut down, she was in game mode. His mentor couldn't seem to make it through a meal without bringing up Cael's scores in the Private Session, reiterating how he 'blew it' and how 'he's a failure'. Truthfully, Cael didn't agree with the idea of the Private Sessions, or being ranked before the games even begin. It didn't bother him that he was already low on the board, he knew what he was capable of and didn't feel it necessary to 'prove himself'.

He sat at a small table near one of the Capitol 'windows' gazing into what appeared to be the city. Mostly everyone was up on their floors by now gossiping about their scores or what they would discuss in their interviews the following day. None of that mattered much to Cael, what he cared about was merely surviving for as long as he could, all of the extra Capitol events were merely to please everyone else. Taking a sip of his smoothie that he nabbed from upstairs, he glanced around the lobby. Sure the Capitol was nice, but it just made him miss home, his brothers, wishing he would have another chance to tell them how much they mean to him. He spent too much time suppressing his emotions, that he was never able to be close with anyone.

It was stupidly late in the morning, far more early than he cared to be awake. Amorem, his mentor, put sole responsibility of TAC's well-being inSKILL's, his stylist's, capable hands.  After three days of bumps, bruises, and sprains, Amorem insisted that SKILL bring TAC back up to snuff.

``WOW!  TAC, you're so wicked totally strong, huh?  Not even flinching!  Man, I wish I was like.. half as awesome as you were!  It's totally not fair," SKILL cried as she sat with TAC in the MLTA upon a large sectional.  Clad in an extra large tee shirt with a picture of one stick figure chopping off the head of another stick figure, she sat behind a shirtless TAC with a small artist's palette in her hand and a thin paintbrush in the other.  There were various pale colors on in including pink, green, and a smokey gray.

``It must tingle a little, but don't even sweat!  That's how you know it's working!"  She was drawing foreign characters all over TAC's back.  After a few moments, they would absorb into TAC's skin.  The whole procedure looked very odd, but, TAC just sat with hands focused mindlessly on a channel focusing on indigenous life forms spotted in forests.  He was in his own little planet far removed from the present.