Across the Tightrope [Jericho/Azure]
Jan 31, 2024 9:39:00 GMT -5
Post by Izzabel Bennet D8A (Jorg) on Jan 31, 2024 9:39:00 GMT -5
J E R I C H O
I’m relieved to be off the train. As much as those conversations needed to happen, it’s nice to have space to breathe. Just to be. I never realized how much I took the open air for granted until I got stuck in a tube with no fresh air. It didn’t help that the first thing we came across at the station was a mob of Capitolites wanting to get a first glance at us. Is this what it meant to be a celebrity, people wanting to encroach on your personal life with no space to be?
I could sense the confusion come off of Mace and Saffron when the van we rode in turned away from the old training center. Looking through the tinted back window as it grew smaller and smaller in the rear view. Trying to guess the grief that they’re going though, watching the last place their grandchild was killed. Did they want to retrace his steps? Did they want to go to the mechanical room where Nessa had killed him? I admit I looked at them longer than I probably should have, trying to figure out the emotions that stormed through them.
The new Training Center was nice though, and admittedly I’m glad to not have to look at the places where the tributes from last year died. I don’t think I would have been able to focus on my own training when I kept thinking about how beams of light might come down and try to disintegrate us in our sleep. After the first night of watching the other readings, and trying to formulate game plans of what our strengths are, it hit me just how real this this. There’s no running away, no going back. So here I stand in the new training area, seeing all of the different stations and feeling overwhelmed.
I gulp down though, remembering what my dad told me, choose the right place and time to show my emotions. Well if I can’t let everyone else see how I’m just a gentle giant, time for me to use my charm instead. And learn, learn as much as I can. The mentors said that my height and build will be good for being able to move around quickly, so I’m at a station called light step, where the trainers have me working on balancing tightropes and surprisingly enough dancing. Apparently certain dances when applied to fighting, should help me be evasive in fights.
I feel silly, though I’m trying to remember the game plan. Use my reach, use my strength, use my build to my advantage. So here I am, doing chaine turns on a thin wire, trying to keep the ball of my foot on it so I don’t drop the few inches I’m elevated. Who knew a simple turn would require so much core and balance? As I finish, flushed from the exertion that I’ve been doing, I notice that a girl has joined us, I go through my mental roladex, hoping I didn’t lose too much in the panic I felt before bed, and found her in 5, the girl who volunteered.
I decide to show off a little bit, try to intimidate the one who volunteered, by continuing to walk on the wire. I’m already in of the tallest here, and she clearly had a wish, try to figure out what that wish is my goal now.
“Hey I’m Jericho, Azure was it? How are you feeling after volunteering?”