monochrome {dee; blitz}

There he was, once more in front of her. However, this time it wasn't because she had sought him out. Her drink bottle paused at her lips, as she took him in, he looked as pale and tired as he had last time, but this time, as she gazed at him she could see it more clearly. Brining the drink bottle up to her lips she glanced away from him, the water was soothing on her dry throat, a refreshing minute of her own time before she knew what would most likely follow. It wasn't that she dreaded it, it was simply that speaking with Benson Tiero, from past experience left her feeling raw and open, and wondering what she was doing. Regardless of that, though, she truly needed to thank him for allowing her to finally see the truth.

With a devious smirk she placed her water bottle down once more before turning to face him, "No, not this time, however, I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to help me again?" She laced the question with as much innocence as she could as she stepped closer, before offering him an open hand. "Care to spare a moment, perhaps show me that you look like a little more then a bag of bones." She laughed softly, "I don't hit that hard."

She never made it a habit of hers to socialise with Gamemakers, in fact, after the amount of loss she'd been through she really wanted nothing to do with them -with any Capitolite, really. but somehow she had ended up here, staring at a Gamemaker -the Gamemaker that had been in charge of Mace's games, no less- asking him to spar with her. She had meant it, though, for someone in his position and with as much power as he surely must have he was in a terrible state physically. Her grin only widened as he looked down at her hand, before replying to her questions and innocent insults. "Mr Tiero, you underestimate how easily I can be entertained." She laughed softly, turning away from him before striding over to the centre of the practice area.

She could remember, vividly, the last time she'd stood her, preparing herself to face off against another person. It had been Mason Hamerfell, a tribute from district Two, she'd given him more advice then she'd given her own tributes, something easy enough to do when you said nothing to them. That match had been interesting, the hulking mass of muscle a difficult challenge for her. Benson was a different challenge altogether, one that she had accepted the moment she'd decided to invite him into that ring with her. 

Raising an eyebrow she placed a hand on her hip, "of course. That's what makes it fun."

Her eyes flashed triumphantly as benson finally made his way into the ring, to stand before her. She had to choke back a giggle as he rolled up his sleeves. It was a comical scene, but not one she had the courage to laugh at, because in the end he had stood up beside her, she was sure she would have run out of reasons to get him to play this game with her very fast. So for that she was grateful, that someone who should be so dignified and conceited was willing to stoop down to this level. For a brief moment she saw him in a new light, respect flickering across her mind like a hazy picture as he spoke once more, positioning his hands into a blurry notion of what a fighting stance looked like. It wasn't awful, it reminded her of the third year careers who stood up towards the older, tougher ones, their groomed movements shaking as they came to realise who they had challenged.

Frowning slightly she stepped forwards, until she was directly in front of him. "You're hands are pretty good-" She grabbed his wrist, adjusting his arms slightly, "they need to be higher, if someone's going to come at you with a swing, you need to protect your face. How do you think I stay this pretty?" She grinned, before moving to his side, her foot sliding forwards to gently nudge his own back. "Likewise, with your legs, have a good stance, otherwise you'll be unbalanced and on your butt after the first attack."

Snow had made sure she was competent in some sort of fighting technique. You didn't get to be a victor in District One and just live a normal life. You had to work for it, train future children to become what you were. She'd never been good at it, her entire childhood had been avoiding the Training Centre, and now, at least five times a week she was there, getting hot-headed eighteen year olds, all the way down to stumbling eight year olds lessons on how to kill someone with their fists. 

Every night she left with a new layer of disgust coating her skin. but she put up with it, not because Snow would have her head if she did otherwise, but because she knew that the day one of those kids got reaped she could at least think that they weren't as hopeless as she had been. Knowing how to hold a weapon had been all she had known, and coming up against careers who had known how to kill had been terrifying, as much as she sympathised with the lower districts she still couldn't resist the urge to prevent another kid from feeling as helpless as she had,

Benson was like those kids she had trained, except there was something about him that seemed to lack the desire to want to exist. It seemed as though there was a fire in him that needed to be restarted, to give his dying eyes a spark of life once more. "Alright, now try and hit me."

He seemed shocked that she would dare ask him to do something like that and she couldn't prevent her grin from widening as she stepped back, opening her arms out wide, telling him to go for it. He seemed so out of place here, uncomfortable and it made her wonder how many of the Gamemakers didn't know how to fight, what it was like to have the skills to actually kill someone. It seemed it was easy enough for them to come up with pathetic ways to kill children, but none of them actually knew what it took to do it.

She shouldn't have expected much, seeing as their best line of defence was a computer screen. 

After what seemed like hours Benson finally threw his arm forwards, the bunch was sloppy, slow and messy. Opal stepped easily to the side, whacking his fist away with a gentle glance. "Sloppy." She said, standing to the side, with a hand on her hip. "If that's how you punch, I'm going to be alarmed. Harder." She demanded.