Ryubami Yoruha

It's a big room, impossibly big compared to the twelve people standing in the center. Some of the other tributes are antsy, nervously shifting from foot to foot or swinging their arms around. She notices that the only people completely still are herself, a sweet-looking girl with blank eyes, and a short boy who keeps his eyes trained on the clock on the opposite wall.

Interesting. Yoruha doesn't think they're the other careers -- well, she knows they're not, because the tributes from 1 and 2 are chatting with each other, clearly already allying -- but she can't see the numbers pinned to their backs. Maybe she'll talk with them after training starts.

The clock hits 8:00, and a hush falls over the room. There is no one else in the room except for them, the training equipment, and a few staff members by the doors. No one knows what to expect, and certainly no one knows who the trainer is supposed to be.

Suffocating silence. The boy on Yoruha's right leans towards her. "Some training, huh?" he jokes with a smile. He looks young, probably eighteen like her, and seems to be taking everything as it comes. She smiles back, but before she can reply, the doors slam open, admitting a stony-faced man who walks like a military leader.

"All right, class," he yells, striding into the group, which parts like the Red Sea to give him way. "My name is Lee Hongki, and I will be your trainer for the next six or seven days." His steely eyes sweep over the tributes, and something like a smile appears on his lips. "Not a bad group, I see. Better than last year."

The comment hurt. Last year, most of the tributes were only half-decent. It was obvious that they'd given up before the Games even started.

"You may go from station to station as you wish," Hongki says, pointing around the room. "If you want to practice combat, ask me or one of the staffs on set. You will not," he emphasizes with a glance at the tributes from 1 and 2, "engage in combat with other tributes. Have I made this clear?"

"Yes, sir"s echo around, and then the group dissipates, scattering around the large gym. Yoruha, however, doesn't even know where to start. She glances around - there seems to be no one at the knot-tying station. Even though she doesn't really need it, she heads over anyway.

Kim Namjoon

Yesung's advice had been to learn the smallest, least popular skills possible because those are usually the most useful ones. That's why he ends up at the simple snares booth. He has had zero experience in the wild -- to be honest, he's barely even seen a tree -- and learning how to hunt food doesn't seem like a bad idea.

"Loop this end through." The instructor is a short, militaristic woman who takes a very hands-off approach to learning. Namjoon is struggling to find the correct ends to loop and tie, but it's probably better that he struggles here than in the Arena. "Yes, very good. There you have it, sir, a noose."

"What?" He didn't even notice because of how bad the loop is. The instructor smiles curtly.

"It's not just for suicide by hanging, you know, though that is a viable option if it really comes to it." She flips through some premade traps. "The noose is a versatile trap that you can tighten or loosen by will, unlike these, which trigger with movement." One of the ropes snaps tight on her finger, and she takes the knot apart. "You will be well-off knowing how to tie this."

Namjoon doesn't know what to say. He nods and smiles, and then asks how make 'the snappy trappy'. The instructor does not look amused, but she walks him through the steps and leaves him to struggle on his own.

"Hey, that looks pretty cool." A voice breaks into his comfortable silence, and Namjoon nearly jumps out of his skin. "Haha, sorry, did I surprise you?"

The boy picks up a length of rope and asks the instructor how to make the same snare. Namjoon takes the chance to glance at his number. 11. One of the poorer districts. Glancing back at the boy, he finds that he can see the effects of poverty on his face. He must be around Namjoon's age, but the wrinkles next to his eyes makes him seem much older.

The boy looks back at him, a smile on his face. "Look, I did it!" The completed snare hangs from his fingers, and Namjoon's mouth falls open in shock.

"How did you do that?" he demands. "Teach me, I've been trying to do this for hours!"

"Ten minutes," the instructor quips, making the boy laugh. "You two go have fun, that's a useful one."

So Namjoon spends another ten minutes learning how to tie the snare, and then learns more traps with the boy - Seokjin - who turns out to be a genius at this stuff.

"Even I didn't know," he admits, deftly completing yet another one. "I've only ever worked strength. Imagine what--"

He stops suddenly, and Namjoon nods. Imagine what my family would say.

Zhou Linghua

She already knows how to decently do a lot of the things here. Sort of. Well, okay, fine, maybe she can work on hand-to-hand combat. She heads to the station and asks the trainer standing there if he can help her practice. He's a middle-aged man with an easy smile, and she soon finds out that either he is too good at his job, or she just way too much.

"Hey, no problem." He extends a hand. His nametag says Yunho, and Linghua takes the hand, pulling herself up. "Not everyone who comes through here is going to be an expert. It's my job to teach you."

He's a harsh teacher, but thankfully, Linghua is a fast learner. By the time they end the session, she's covered in sweat but satisfied with her progress. Even Yunho, for all his skill, seems to be impressed.

"You learn fast," he comments, patting her shoulder. "Good job. If you want to practice more, you know where to find me."

She turns away, surveying the training room. A few people seem to be at the wilderness survival booths, though most of them are practicing with weapons. A small girl with a cute bob - District 10, she notices - trembles so much she can barely hold her bow steady. Linghua only hesitates a moment before approaching her; the girl's face reminds her of Xuerao, and she knows her sister-in-law would be disappointed if she doesn't help.

"Hey," she says with a smile, trying to not appear frightening. The girl seems scared anyway. "You look like you were having trouble with this. Do you mind if I walk you through it?"

The Ten girl's name is Liu Renyu. It's clear that she's never touched a weapon in her entire life, aside from the occasional knife for cooking. Linghua takes the longbow from her hands, notches an arrow and draws the string, taking care to go through the movements slowly and explain each one. Beside her, Renyu's big eyes watch her, and she nods at every step. When she takes the bow from Linghua again, her hands have steadied a bit, and Linghua can tell that she's beginning to get the gist.

The arrow doesn't hit the target. Linghua adjusts Renyu's aim a bit. "You have to calculate the trajectory of the arrow," she explains, though it seems like Renyu had already corrected for that. "And remember that there are drafts here. The air conditioner is right above the target."

The next arrow hits a 7. Renyu cheers and throws her arms around Linghua. "Thank you!" she chirps, and Linghua smiles. The girl reminds her of her younger sister, even though the two tributes are probably the same age. "Do you want to eat lunch together?"

Lee Hwanhee

Lunch comes at an opportune time; he was just beginning to despair over his uselessness in training. Hwanhee bounds over to the buffet and gets in line behind a blonde girl. The food smells so good, his stomach growls right then and there. The girl turns around a little and he blushes, but she only says, "I never imagined food could taste so good."

"Yeah, same!" The line moves forward. "Nine's food was all bland and boring. Where are you from?"

The girl sends him an odd look. He remembers belatedly that their district numbers are all pinned on their backs. "Oh, right. You're Eight, I guess. What's your name? I'm Hwanhee."

"Chunhua." The food smells are making Hwanhee's stomach hurt. He clutches his plate, grabbing a spoon and serving himself whatever. "Our food was the actual worst. It was like gray goop every day and tasted about as you'd expect."

That doesn't sound appetizing. At least Nine's food was edible. They stop talking and for a moment, all that happens is the grabbing of food. When he's done piles his plate high with all sorts of delicious-looking food, Hwanhee realizes that Chunhua has disappeared. He sort of panicks - he needs to talk to someone, he can hardly go a second without speaking to someone - before he spots her sitting at one of the round tables near the door.

"You left me," he says with a pout, sitting down across from her. Chunhua sort of smiles. "What have you been working on today?"

She stops eating her stew. It looks good, all spicy and meaty and it's all Hwanhee can do to not look too much like a slob when he digs into his own food. "I've been at the edible plants station. Obviously, we can't live without food. What about you?"

He swallows with difficulty. "Wow, that steak was good," he can't help saying, and Chunhua laughs. "Uh, I've been at the knot station. My mentor said I should learn the obscure skills first." Jaejoong also told him to keep his mouth shut. He snaps his mouth shut, suddenly wondering if Chunhua might be out to kill him. Well, everyone is, he supposes. What's one more?

Liu Renyu

After lunch, she decides to visit the knife-throwing station. There's already a boy there, District 1, and he's good, hitting the bullseye every time. It almost makes her shy away, but Amber had told her to be bold and not care about anyone else. One's a career district anyway, so he was bound to be good. She marches up to the knife rack, resolutely ignoring the boy, and asks the trainer if he can help her.

She's terrible at it. If the District 1 boy hadn't already left, she's sure he would have been judging her. The trainer's patient, though - he must have had a lot of experience with incompetent people like her - and continues to help her through. It reminds her of the kindness of the Twelve girl, Linghua, how she'd helped even though it was probably detrimental to her.

People really are complex, Renyu thinks. She throws the knife; the handle hits the target. How can some people be so kind and yet others so cruel? How can these people, sometimes, be the same person? Her second knife barely manages to lodge in the wall, but it's way off target. The people who made the Hunger Games must have known the cruelty of their actions, and yet they still did it. Why?

Her third knife also misses, but her fourth knife manages to hit the 2-ring. Her trainer cheers, and Renyu instinctively goes to hug her, catching herself just in time and awkwardly passing it off as a weird high five. The trainer goes off to help other tributes, and Renyu throws more knives until she gets the hang of it. She still can't make it past the 5-ring, but it's good enough for her. They have another day to train anyway, and she can always come back.

The next station she goes to is the climbing one. The Four girl is there too. Despite being a career district, this girl doesn't seem very career-y. Renyu thinks back to when she rewatched the Reaping and realizes that this must be Ryubami Yoruha, the priestess. Her district hadn't wanted her to come because it was so unfair to her, but Yoruha turned down the offer of a volunteer and decided to come anyway. Renyu admires her courage and responsibility; if she'd had the option to not come, she definitely would have taken it. 

Yoruha smiles at her, and Renyu smiles back. Never mind rivals, they're training together right now. Some tributes would say that the battle begins at the start, but Renyu says that it begins when the timer counts down to zero. Yoruha goes first on the ropes, so Renyu goes to the rock wall. The trainer hitches her up in simple gear and reminds her that she won't have such equipment in the arena. As such, he does not put a rope on her and instead will be teaching her how to climb barehandedly.

Oh no. This is going to be even worse than she imagined.

Kim Jinhwan

There's a boy who keeps looking at him. District 11, Kim Seokjin. He doesn't remember anything about him other than a name, can't tell if he's already out to kill him, so Jinhwan ignores him for the most part. Until, that is, they end up at the hand-to-hand combat station together.

"You are not allowed to spar with other tributes," Yunho, the trainer, warns. Seokjin flashes a grin and asks, "But can we spot each other?"

"No. You may, however, stand back and watch."

Guess that means he's going first. Jinhwan steps up to the podium, trying not to think about how badly he's going to fail and embarrass himself. Fortunately, having learned that Jinhwan is an ultra-beginner, Yunho only walks him through a few simple moves. He's still tired by the end of it, though, and is almost tempted to just leave Seokjin hanging. But the boy stayed to watch him, and by god, is Jinhwan going to stay as well, if only to try to make him uncomfortable.

Seokjin is also an ultra-beginner, but he's much stockier than Jinhwan is, the muscles in his arms and legs likely from working in the fields all day. He also picks up the moves much faster than Jinhwan did, and it makes him feel bad. Jealous, yes, but also worried. Seokjin really was sizing him up, then, planning to kill him from the beginning. He doesn't let the worry show on his face and instead applauds Seokjin when he ends his session.

"Hey, Seven," he hears when he turns to leave. "Nice spotting you. What's your name?"

Jinhwan hesitates. He turns back around. Seokjin is drying his hair with a towel. The look in his eyes seems to suggest innocence and genuine curiosity, not malice like he'd expected. "Jinhwan. You're Seokjin."

Seokjin looks mildly surprised. "Yeah, you, uh, I guess you remembered me from the Reaping?"

"I remember things." Jinhwan shrugs. "It comes in handy sometimes."

"Sure does." Hongki, the head trainer, steps in to announce that training will be ending for the day and will all tributes cease their actions immediately. "Nice meeting you. Maybe we can form an alliance. Plant districts, am I right?"

Despite himself, Jinhwan lets out a huff of amusement. "Sure, I'll consider it."

this is long overdue i'm so sorry. online classes starts tomorrow today at 9:30 am and i'm not ready, which is why i stayed up til nearly 2 writing this. it's gonna be a short night bois. i haven't been sleeping well. also please yell at me for the pun in the title idek what i was on when i wrote it. i also absolutely had to put yunho and hongki in there... expect changmin soon too, i guess???