Fallaces sunt rerum species et hominum spes fallunt

Marina smiled genuinely. “Thank you.”  It was always nice when people were happy for her.  She adored her daughter.  Motherhood was a challenge but she loved every second of it so far.  “Oh not too much.  She just gets very upset when we have to leave her.  I don’t think she’s quite grasped object permanence yet.  It’s definitely an adventure but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.”

Motherhood was a whole other journey in life, one Vesper herself wasn’t too sure she would take. She didn’t have the best parents growing up, and she trained kids every year to prepare for The Games, a reminder of the chance that her family could be ripped apart once again courtesy of The Games. “Well, good. Hopefully it’ll stay that way even when she gets older.” She even crossed her fingers for emphasis, the corner of her lips turning up in a smirk.

While Serenity worked on Vesper’s shoulder, she found it very easy to talk to Vesper. The more experienced trainer had a lot of similarities to Serenity she thought and it was nice to talk to a kindred spirit. She continued to move and massage her shoulder, “How’s this? Any better?”

Smiling, Serenity stopped for a moment and gave Vesper a tiny shake of her head. “I think it’s us. I’ve seen too many kids from the Academy essentially roll over and die when they didn’t get the coveted volunteer spot. They give up because they think they’ve peaked at eighteen.” Serenity didn’t like it. Not that she liked the Academy all that much, but they were setting up 99% of their students for failure and existential crises. 

“We’re the fighters.” At least Serenity had to fight to try and be let back into the Peacekeepers and then fight to still be able to get to the Capitol. She wouldn’t give up. 

“Much better,” she replied with a smile. Her shoulder didn’t ache as terribly as it had, and she felt like she could relax without feeling her muscles knot up. “Thanks.” Once she had stopped rubbing her shoulder, Vesper gave a small shake of her arm to help loosen her muscles. 

Going into The Games had been the whole point for the majority of the kids in Two. Being in The Games was a high honor and the Victors were well respected and regarded. Even the memorable Tributes that had died in the Arena were respected for some time before being forgotten by the newest Victor. But if a kid didn’t make it into The Games, didn’t have their shot to volunteer, then what had their whole lives led up to?

“I almost was one of those kids,” Vesper admitted, “I was pissed at Enobaria for years before I finally figured it out and let it go. When I realized what The Games really does to the Victors. To those kids.” Their deaths hadn’t been lost on her, but the gravity of losing them, the grief in it all, almost had been. She blamed her Academy training, the honor in death and forgetting the fact that families and friends were left behind, forced to pick up the pieces in the wake of such a tragedy. She felt it the most last year with Finley. “The Academy training almost makes you forget the gravity of all this.”

Serenity nodded, knowing that there was a price to moving to quick sometimes. The faster that she moved, the more it would hurt if she messed up. “But, you got back onto you feet, despite it. A pretty good move yourself,” she replied. 

Smirking a little bit, she moved in front of Vesper and started to massage and move her shoulder slightly to try and relive a little bit of the pain. She wasn’t much of a healer or a first-aid master, but she had enough injuries to know what worked for her - and hopefully for Vesper too. “Might not be a bad thing. Teach them the whole, ‘when you get knocked down, get back up’ lesson. I know I’d much rather die fighting than roll over and accept death.”

Vesper dropped her hand from her shoulder and relaxed as much as she could, letting Serenity work the muscles in her shoulder. An advantage of having a fellow Trainer looking out for her was, they understood the usual pains and aches of muscles when some of the Capitol medics didn’t. Usually they gave some painkillers and called it a day, but there were other remedies to those sorts of things. 

“True.” She could have stayed down on the mat, let the trainer take the win. But Vesper was all sorts of stubborn, she didn’t like losing that easily. And perhaps it was a good lesson to get back on your feet and fight back. Meant that getting knocked down didn’t mean losing. “I’d rather die fighting, too. You think it might be the District Two in us?” she teased with a small smirk.

Marina nodded in understanding.  While she wasn’t the best at hand to hand combat, she’d had her fair share of injuries like that over the years.  “I’m sure you have, but still I hope it feels better soon,” Marina told her.

She shrugged a little.  “Yeah, I was running a bit late.  My daughter was fussing about being left with the avox while Mommy and Daddy came to work with the tributes.”  That and she had to nurse her.  “Such is life with an infant.”

“That’s right, you had your baby. Congratulations.” Vesper offered a genuine smile. Usually the Capitol news and gossip went ignored by her, but when it came to weddings and births, Vesper tried to keep that in her mind. It was nice to see the Victors finding their pockets of happiness even in Panem. It was sweet in all the grim and injustice. 

“Hopefully she’s not giving you too much trouble,” she added, giving another roll of her shoulder. 

“You took a hard tumble there. Must have hurt.” Sable had been watching the two trainers from the sidelines with moderate interest. There was a fair amount of talent and precision that went into something like this but it all felt brutal. She’d had her fill of violence of first hand violence by fifteen. She handed Vesper one of the pre-heated towels kept on hand for the trainers and leaned up against the table next to her. 

“You know sometimes I wonder if it’s some kind of job requirement for you trainers to all be slightly masochistic.”

“Kind of,” she admitted, fingers pushing into the muscles in her shoulder. She let out a soft, pained groan, the corner of her lip twitching downward. “Landed weird on my shoulder when I tried to rebound.” When the towel had been offered to her, she smiled at Sable and took it, resting it against her shoulder. “Thanks.”

A chuckle escaped her, turning toward the mats to watch the next pair start their sparring match. “Pretty sure it was third on the list of requirements when I applied,” she teased. “The fact that I was raised and trained in District Two might have been part of it.”

TTWTASK: Paint Me Like One of Your Capitol Girls

There was a fight going on the mats and Serenity eagerly made her way over to see who the combatants were. She recognized Vesper and settled in to watch the woman take out the other trainer. Serenity had always admired Vesper and was always looking to learn and chat with her. 

The fight didn’t last too much longer as she leaned on the ropes to watch. Serenity would think of a move and Vesper would sometimes do it and sometimes would think of something much more creative or much more paralyzing. It was like dancing and Serenity was caught up in the whole thing. When Vesper put the guy on his ass, Serenity let out a little whoop before making her way over to see her. 

“Got hit a little harder than you thought?” Serenity questioned, watching Vesper rub her shoulder. She grimaced, knowing the pain of hitting a shoulder too hard. “Don’t think this’ll happen all the time, but if you want me to work out your shoulder for you I can. I know the pain all too well.”

Serenity was a welcome sight to Vesper, offering the other trainer a small smile, “He pulled a take-down move to try and knock me on my back. I was moving to jump back on my feet, but landed on my shoulder too hard.” Vesper wouldn’t admit to underestimating the trainer, but he caught her off guard with that move.

“Maybe, yeah. I was going to meet up with the kids from Ten after this.” Vesper didn’t want to stall Serenity from helping her own kids, but she had offered. “Last thing they need to see is their trainer bruised and battered.” She let out a small scoff, dropping her hand from her sore shoulder.

Training was not something she looked forward to the way some of the other mentors did, but Marina was still eager to see what the other tributes had to offer.  She needed to see what they could do, how could be helpful, and who was a threat to her tributes.  She’d been watching a few of them work on skills before she heard the voice.

Turning towards her, Marina offered a small smile.  “You alright?” she asked.  Injuries in the training center weren’t uncommon, but she’d also hate to see someone get hurt so early on.  It would certainly put her tributes at a disadvantage.

“Yeah,” she replied with a small nod, “just landed on my shoulder when he did a take-down move on me.” Vesper had been warming up before she was going to meet with her kids for some basic lessons. She hoped the kids from Ten would get far this year, further than just the first couple of days, anyway. Ten needed to bring home a Victor soon.

Vesper rolled her shoulder again and then shook out her arm, “I’ll live, I’ve dealt with worse.” She offered an assuring smile to Marina. “Did you just get here?”

She reached for her bottle of water to have a drink, feeling an ache in her shoulder. With a small grunt, she set the bottle down and rolled her shoulder, giving a small grimace. The trainer had tried to kick her legs from under her and she attempted to rebound, but her reaction time was off and she put too much weight on that shoulder going down. “Damn,” she hissed, rubbing out the ache in her shoulder.

@ttwstarters

─────   PERHAPS SHE HAD BEEN DOING THIS TOO LONG.     sometimes she couldn’t even remember how many years it had been.   her brain just lingered on one thought.   too many.     yes,   nothing surprised her.   everything the capitol did was the exert their control.  the only way they’d catch her for a loop would be if they declared that the citizens of panem were free to make their own decisions.   she lowered her voice,  ‘ we all know they’re about a lot more than that.’  

seeder had seen worse.   she’d settled in domestic bliss,   believing that she had won the games.  her pain was over.   then kane had left her,  then ari was reaped, then ari died, then quinton.   things had gotten worse  & worse until seeder had decided to put a stop to it.  the rebellion was her way of doing that.    ‘ i’ve come to the conclusion that my life can’t get any worse.   i refuse to let it be so. ’   she looked at vesper with knowing eyes,   ‘ i’ve experienced too much of this worse.’ 

Had she been more naive, Vesper would have denied it or brushed Seeder’s words off as foolish ramblings. But she had seen what things were like, how much the deaths of the Tributes affected the Victors from Ten. Sometimes a glimpse of the other Victors as well. She had recognized a few names going into the Arena both from Ten and Two, but it was expected. As grim as it was... she hated that the death of kids was something to be expected.

She knew she was in a much better position than the Victors had been. They had seen numerous horrors come from The Games, and even had to experience it themselves. Vesper would always be on the outside looking in, never really understanding that trauma and horror. On top of it all, there were Victors like Harlow and Seeder herself that had family members go into the Arena. Of course they had witnessed worse. “I don’t doubt that for a second,” she murmured softly, “and I’m sorry you ever had to.”

She shrugged because time would tell. “It’ll be someone’s year.” Whose it would be remained to be seen. Adriana tried not to focus on it too much, because if she learned anything last year, it was that attachment was a hard bond to break. Misty had been a nice girl, but she hadn’t felt attached to her in a way that would absolutely shatter her. “Hard to tell anything for a Reaping so we’ll see here in a few days.”

The arena, Adriana had thought about that a lot. Last year District Four had seemed to have the advantage, but they had only been on the water to start and end the games. “I mean least my swimming lessons helped a few tributes last year.” She paused for a moment. “I think they’re going to surprise us this year. Like it’s going to be something totally out of the blue and unpredictable. Not sure what else they could do indoors? Then again, I’m not a gamemaker so who knows. What do you think?”

She nodded in agreement. Some of the Mentors or Trainers got to know their Tributes on the train and talked to them a little. Vesper didn’t have that chance, and it didn’t seem Adriana had, either. But she was right, they would have time to learn more during Training. 

“They could kind of do something in the middle,” she replied, “Maybe a cave, or something underground. They already did a haunted mansion and a mall-- not sure where else they could go. Maybe a well known, large place in The Capitol?” A smirk curled at the corner of her lips before she added, “Maybe a replica of the Tribute Tower?”

“But who knows. They might spice it up; seems like that’s what they’re going for with that new thing with the Quells.” Vesper wasn't sure what to make of the new regulations with the Quells every ten years. What was The Capitol planning to do? They had to have some trick up their sleeves for next year in particular.

─────  ‘ NEITHER WOULD I. ’   she scoffed,   lowering her voice just in case anyone was listening.   they usually weren’t.   seeder had set herself up as a rambling woman,   over the age of fifty so naturally everyone’s interest in her had plummeted.     ‘ i don’t think there’s anything they could do that would surprise me anymore.’    though she’d bet they’d like to try.

seeder nodded in response to vesper,      ‘ indeed.   noise is a small penance compared to what has happened to those avoxes.’   she hated even calling them that.  they had names,  she just didn’t know them.    ‘ in a strange way,   i guess we should be grateful ’  

“Really? But The Capitol’s all about excitement and surprise.” Vesper’s distaste for The Capitol had been evident since she had started working as a Trainer for The Games years prior. But Seeder had many more years on her yet, she definitely knew the Capitol’s strategies and how they handled things. 

The corner of her lip twitched downward and she nodded. She couldn’t imagine what they had gone through, to not be able to speak. “In a strange way, yeah,” she agreed. “we can say it could be worse all we want, but... not sure I want to settle. But that’s what lands us in worse, I guess.”

Adriana had to nod because it was the truth. Then again, having witnessed the games on a more personal level and having a new baby cousin had a way of changing your mind too. This wasn’t something she would want for Waverly. Adriana had learned a lot of things at the Academy, but it didn’t mean they had to use those skills for killing. Yet, she was still here and she wasn’t required to keep her job like the mentors so what did that say about her?

“What does it say though that I am still here?” She asked not really expecting an answer. “I hope they do better than they did last year! I hope mine do as well.” Misty had finished third after all, which was respectable. District Four had a lot of luck lately though, so Adriana didn’t count on anything. You never knew what was going to happen. “I mean really if you think about it, a lot of other Districts have been doing well. Could be District Ten’s turn to bring home a Victor.”

“I’m sure your kids will do fine,” she assured her. Four was one of the Districts with The Academy, one of the Career Districts. And while they may not have always allied with the Careers, they still had the training on their side. Misty had gotten far the previous year and Lincoln was still their newest Victor. Four seemed to be doing pretty well all around.

She let out a small hum and nodded, “They have been. Hopefully it’s our year and if not, maybe it’ll be yours.” Vesper had seen how well the other Districts had been doing, that there were less Career Victors in recent years. And she couldn’t help but have a small amount of satisfaction at that, despite the many deaths over the years. “We’ll have to see what this year brings. Rumor has it, there’s kind of a trend in the Arenas they’ve been picking. Between natural Arenas and then indoor Arenas.”

“The roof is usually pretty good too,” Echo told her with a shrug.  Granted, Echo usually didn’t escape to the roof until night.  She liked all the city lights and it was the best place to see them all.  Not that it was something she could really explain to people.

She was right though.  Nothing about this was right.  “I don’t think you’re meant to get used to it,” Echo replied.  “I mean…the fact that you have a problem with all the excitement over the impending death of twenty three kids means you’re a normal human with emotions and not one of these weird brainwashed robots the Capitolites feel like half the time.”

“Almost think all the other Mentors or Tributes would be up there for the escape.” Of course she knew about the roof, and she was sure everyone else did. But it was most likely the only place anyone could go, other than their suites, to unwind and avoid the crowds below. 

“Sometimes I wonder if I’m the oddball out in that regard,” she replied, “too used to seeing everyone else so excited or accepting it. I grew up in Two, grew up thinking the only way you’d get noticed was to be Reaped for The Games.” Vesper shook her head, “Leaving Two and training for Ten really put things in perspective.”

Echo wasn’t thrilled to be back in the Capitol.  She wasn’t sure how her tributes were going to do, but she hoped it would be fine.  So far she hadn’t really had a chance with them.  They’d been rushed off to be cleaned up and Echo understood.  She’d talk to them and start figuring out their strengths and weaknesses when she had a chance.

The lobby was pure chaos, like always was at the beginning of a games season.  She wanted to just disappear, slink off back upstairs and not worry about things quiet yet, but she heard a voice and Echo laughed.  “Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can hear themselves when it gets like this,” she agreed.

Vesper didn’t have much of a chance to get to know the kids from Ten, either. As soon as they hit The Capitol, all the citizens wanted to know everything about them and ogle the newest Tributes that year. The first day of Games season was always loud, but she knew the first day of The Games themselves would be close in how obnoxious the citizens would be.

“Can’t even find some place quiet unless you want to lock yourself in your suite, either.” And she would rather not give herself cabin fever and lock herself up in Ten’s suite for most of the evening. But she figured she could have it worse if she had been a Victor, or one of those kids. “Even after all these years I’m still not used to it. All this excitement never sits right with me.”

Adriana made a face. “I can’t wait,” she said with false enthusiasm, because when you were in the Capitol you were supposed to look forward to such thing. “You know, I would have been thrilled to hear such thing when I was in the academy.” The Quarter Quell had happened in her prime volunteer period and she would have volunteered then had she not been injured. “I would like to think I’m older and wiser now.”

“My tributes are down getting prepped for the parade.” It was one of the perks of being in District Four, it didn’t take that long to get to the Capitol. “Not much else for me to do other than mingle. I haven’t had the pleasure of running into sponsors, but I think I can wait to talk to them? I have to see what they can do in training.”

“Glad you’re just as excited as I am,” she replied with an equally less than enthusiastic tone. As soon as the news went around about the more frequent quells, Vesper felt a weight sink in her chest. It was bad enough that it was every twenty-five years, but knowing that The Capitol was that thirsty for blood also wasn’t that surprising. “I might have been, too,” she admitted, “but once you’ve been on the other side and see how things are run... yeah, you learn.”

“Mine are, too. Had about five minutes to see them before they were swept up in all the excitement. Hoping they’ll do well this year, though.” Vesper needed to move on from last year and how quickly Finley and Dairyann had gone. This year was a new year, as wrong as that sounded. “About where I’m at right now, too. And trying to avoid the hype around The Birchelor. Because being a Trainer for Ten means I have to know all the juicy details about Birch and Lael’s love life.”