The Motive to Fight {Marina Oneshot}

Although it wasn’t strange for Marina to hear Lori making puns, it was a bit odd for her to hear Lori making puns during a death match. At the same time, however, it kind of made the girl glad that her friend could make light of just about any situation. Had it been Marina in the Games, it’s likely that it would have changed her. She would have become violent with no way to change her back. If she were to get just the slightest dose of the fighting adrenaline, it wouldn’t go away. Perhaps that meant it was good for her to have not volunteered when Lori did. After all, the main thing that held her back from doing so, was the fact that she didn’t want to end up pitted against her friend.

Watching Lori fight was interesting. Sure, the girl wasn’t the best fighter she’d ever seen, as she had missed a few punches, and even failed at pushing a skinny boy down the stairs, but Marina had to give her credit for not giving up, or caving in to the pressure of it all. In all honesty, Marina felt that had she not been doing well, she would have been close to giving up at this point, but no, instead, her friend kept pursuing her goal of victory. That was something that Marina could really respect Lori for. With how determined Lori was, it actually motivated Marina. She felt that if she ever got up the courage to volunteer for the Games, she would feel obligated to put in just as much effort as her friend had.

Marina began to wonder if Lori would make it home, as she watched the punches that the blonde girl delivered. She wasn’t sure, as Lori was taking damage herself, but Marina wouldn’t give up on her friend that easily. Knowing that Lori had a strong will was what made Marina think that it was possible she’d come home. It would be extremely difficult for her if she didn’t come home, though, as Lori was one of Marina’s best friends, even if they didn’t know each other for very long. It was the quality of the friendship, rather than how long it had been around, in Marina’s opinion.

When she was done watching Lori’s fight for a while, Marina decided that she needed to go to the Career Gym that was located in the District. She’d never felt so motivated to train herself for the Games before as she did right then. Therefore, she knew she needed to take that motivation and apply it to her training. Despite the cold of the outdoors, the girl didn’t put on a coat of any sort. Instead, she made her way down the street with the wind blowing and the frigid air nipping at her face. Luckily, she wasn’t feeling all too sensitive to the cold today. This was likely because she had plenty of things on her mind aside from the weather.

Arriving at the Career Gym, Marina immediately wrapped her fists with protective bandages and made her way over to the punching bags. She didn’t want to bloody up her knuckles, so she had taken the time to wrap them up. Although, she knew she wouldn’t have that chance in the arena. Regardless, precautions were good to take when they were available to be taken. Delivering punches to the hanging sandbag, she was doing rather well. Her stance was good, and her hits were precise. Marina’s determination and motivation that had arose from her friend’s accomplishments in the Games were certainly helping her.

After a couple of hours of training, Marina finally tired out. She had practiced anything from physical combat on the punching bag to throwing knives at targets, and she did quite well with all of it, likely due to the adrenaline of watching Lori fight. As her training session concluded, she made her way home, this time barely even feeling the cold of the winter, since she was so heated up and sweaty from her training. When she made it home, she sat back down to watch the Games again, and just hoped that Lori would keep going strong. After all, no one wanted to lose a friend. Especially not to murder.

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