Xerxes Enderbite

‘‘We might call you the Ender’s bite instead and pretend it’s foreshadowing for the arena,’‘ Tay countered, leaning her head on Bruno’s shoulder as she looked up and down this man, seemingly unimpressed. ‘‘It sounds to me like you’re taking the merit for Lana Nolan’s efforts bringing Kelvin home, but whatever.’‘ she commented, grumpy by default. He seemed almost eager to get into the arena, so she had to wonder. ‘‘Why are you competing, then, Xerxes? Glory, money, the thrill of killing? What’s that one thing that drives you most?’‘

Xerxes smile faded a bit at the comment about Lana, and he shook his head. “No, of course I wouldn’t take credit from her,” he argued. “Lana did most of the shit that actually got him home, but I’m not gonna lie and say I didn’t help. We were sparring buddies, and weirdly enough, now he’s my trainer. Weird how life works that way, huh?”

At her question, he paused for a second. His original plan for the interview was to be his usual, cocky self, but something hit him when Taylor asked it. “Well... maybe glory isn’t the word I’d use,” he admitted. “I had an older brother and sister who got picked for the games when they were eighteen, you know, back when the games capped the age at that. And, obviously, they didn’t win, since no one remembers their names. But, um...” He ran his left hand through his hair, chuckling once to try and keep from seeming too emotionally compromised. “Yeah, I wanna win for... them. A-and my parents, duh, but... mostly my brother and sister.”

Marina offered him an amused smile when he showed her the basic loop.  Knot tying was sort of a required skill if you grew up anywhere near the fishing boats in District Four.  “That’s not a bad start,” she told him.  “But it wouldn’t be secure enough for anything heavy or with any force.”  She picked up a piece of rope then and started tying a more sturdy knot.  “You’ll want something like this.”

She could see the way so many tributes were desperate clinging onto any attention the Gamemakers were showing them, and it was making Selina sick. Those were already the first signs of desperation as they were, and she was almost curious to see what would go down once the games actually began. And while she could’ve easily done the same, worked hard to gain attention, instead, she focused on tying up a rope and throwing it up over one of the higher support beams up on the ceiling so she could practice climbing. It felt almost like home, almost like the station where she’d have to climb up to reach some of the switches at least a couple times per day.

However, her plan was stopped short when she felt someone’s eyes on her, and, turning around, spotted a man nearby. “What do you want?” She snapped, good manners long gone. There was no point in wasting time with the pleasantries.

Xerxes raised his hands in surrender, her snapping confusing him. He hadn’t even flirted with her before she seemed to be pissed at him. “Shit, nothing,” he defended. “A glance towards you was enough to piss you off? You alright?”

“Wow, you can swing a sword, how fascinating.” She didn’t try to keep the sarcasm out of her voice as she regarded the tribute. “Word of advice, if you want to catch those idiots attention your going to have to do something more than what everyone in this room can do. Competitions a little stiff if you haven’t noticed.”

Xerxes rolled his eyes, recognizing the voice. Olive had always rubbed him the wrong way, mostly from her attitude. She was a victor, for fuck’s sake, and yet she seemed to suck the joy out of every room she walked into. “Can’t a guy do a simple warm up without being judged?” he asked, not looking up from his rope.

She was put in there to examine the behaviors of most tributes, with a notepad and a pen in her hands for notes. Based on their fighting styles and their skills, a lot could be told. The District Two male tribute was no exception, she concluded as she wrote energetically, trying not to be noticed and stay in the shadow, like she preferred it. When he’s finished his performance, she simply looked away, in the least subtle manner ever if one wanted not to look like they’ve been watching a person.

Xerxes smirked as he noticed the woman try and avoid him noticing her. She was painfully obvious, but it was so obvious that it was endearing. He started towards her, his eyes going from her attractive face to the notebook, back to her face. “No need to be shy,” he said, a slight chuckle in his words. “I like to think I’m pretty fun to watch sometimes.”

Satisfied that her face was suitably painted, Missy finally allowed herself to go play with a pair of nunchucks. She stepped into the simulator and waited for the computer-generated program to kick into play, twirling the weapon with a casual grace at her side. 

A figure ran towards her with a holographic sword and she ducked, rolling to one side and swiping her legs beneath it. She missed, but was able to quickly scramble to her feet, using her weapon to hit the hologram in the face several times, both sides, before managing to wrap the chain around its neck and squeeze. She fell to her knees with it, leaning forward to press a kiss against its cheek seconds before it dissolved into pieces.

Looking up, she made eye-contact with her district partner and smiled, wiggling her fingers in a little wave as she caught her breath.

Xerxes noticed the fellow district two tribute and smirked at her, giving his own wave. He altered his route, headed towards the woman. He had seen her in the PResident’s testing, and he admired how good she was at hand-to-hand, since he considered that his specialty. 

He nodded as he approached. “Impressive,” he said, which was rare for him. He would usually say “not bad” or “decent,” since when it was his tributes, he didn’t want them getting too big of a head. Here, however, he needed to make friends, and what better friend to make than the pretty woman who could fight like he could? He was certain she would be a fan favorite, and he would happily ride those coattails if it would help him win.

“Feel like sparring?”

Marina was past her prime when it came to the physical tasks of training.  She left the fighting to younger mentors and focused instead on the basics and the survival skills.  Of course, this was no ordinary Games.  It was hard to tell exactly what anyone’s skill level was since they all had some experience with fighting.

“Do you want some help with that?” she asked when he approached the station.  She had been working with the girl from her own district, but she left a few moments before.

Xerxes picked up the rope before he smiled at the woman. “Actually, yeah, that’d be great,” he said, tying a basic loop. He held it up to her and chuckled at his own ineptitude. “This is about as good as I can do.”

A small part of him was embarrassed to admit that he knew practically nothing about knot tying, but he had to put his pride away in order to win, and he knew it. He had combat down, but he wasn’t worried about the other tributes; he was worried about the arena killing him.

Nova never liked watching the tributes train from up above. The catering was always good which almost made the day of watching children show off worth it. But today, it was different. Today, the majority of the people in the training room were adults, and very few were actively showing off. Except for one man in the corner, who was going to town on a mannequin. Nova wanted to learn everything she could about Cricket’s opponents, wanted to get a better scope of the competition, so while the man was finishing off the dummy, she excused herself from the table, and walked down to the training room. 

“You put on quite an impressive show,” she said, walking up behind him with her arms crossed against her chest.

Xerxes was pleasantly surprised when one of the gamemakers approached him. He knew he would’ve impressed a few of them if not all, but he would never consider them approaching him directly. Especially one so attractive.

“Thanks,” he smirked, deciding to put on one last show and slowly grabbing three throwing knives. He then quickly threw them at three separate mannequins, hitting each of them in the center of the head.

He then turned around and held out his hand to the woman. “Xerxes Enderbite.”

Xerxes felt good about a lot of things right now. He felt good about being back in the tower where he’d spent so many years. He felt great about finally being a tribute, something he felt he had earned years ago. He felt good about his years of training tributes in the tower have prepared him for this.

The thing he did not feel good about? Needing help from others. Especially past tributes.

Xerxes sighed and ran his hand through his hair before entering the second floor lobby. He saw Kelvin and he smirked, a mix of emotions hitting him. But he did miss him between games.

“Hey Bud,” he greeted, walking towards the younger man. “Miss me?”

“I really hope there’s a tree. I’m really good at climbing.”

Xerxes smirked at the small tribute and nodded. “What else are you good at?” he asked, trying his best to be civil towards the girl. She only had a few weeks to live, after all.

“Makes sense to me. I was going to guess the same thing. Unless they are trying to throw us off because they know we think it will be a natural world.”

“Yeah, probably, shit,” Xerxes sighed, smirking. He took another sip of his beer before asking “So what do you think it’ll be this time? You;d think they’d run out of ideas by now.”

Olive was strapping her leg brace on when she heard the man talking. She never really got into wondering what kind of arena would come up, she just tended to try and prepare her tributes for everything. “Wow, so insightful. I’m sure your tributes benefit from your amazing detective skills.”

Xerxes looked up to see the victor and smirked. “Wow, you talk,” he observed. “I thought you only smoked and looked sullen. Fuck, you learn something new every day.”

“It would make sense, but don’t underestimate the gamemakers. They could spin it completely into another direction again. That’s the exciting part.”

“I agree,” he responded. “But how many places can you think of thats incredibly interesting without a single tree? Eh, maybe that’s why I’m not a gamemaker.” He took a swig of his beer before squinting at the woman. “Have we met before?”

Grinning. “There’s my brave little man.” Chuckling a little. “I’m going to enjoy popping that cherry, but on the unlikely chance you are right what do you want? I already give up my ass every night so that’d just be boring.” Sitting up, he moved onto Xerc’s lap. “What does the muscle head from Two want? I can only imagine.” 

Xerc rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Yeah, ‘little man’ perfectly describes me,” he responded sarcastically. He then thought for a second before shaking his head. “Fuck, I don’t know, gimme time to think about it. I don’t have to cash it in the second I see a tree, right?”

“I don’t know, I mean a money bet would be boring. Uhh lets say if there isn’t a single tree, I top that night and your ass is mine.” Grinning. “And if there is a single tree, then you get to pick whatever you want. Something sexual, something not. You pick though, and I have to go threw with it. Or are you a chicken? Huh you a chicken?” Kissing at his neck. “You a chicken?” 

Xerc’s eyes widened a bit at the suggestion, but he would never let Satin or anyone know he was even nervous, let alone afraid. “You know what?” he asked. “I’m so confident there’ll be at least one tree that I’ll literally put my ass on the line. You’re on.”